In Akron you’ll find a bowling alley called Station300, formerly known as Stonehedge. In addition to countless bowling lanes they have an equal number of modern and classic pinball machines available to play.
My brother Kenny and I have been visiting the place for years to play pinball. Not only do they always have a wide selection of machines but they have deals where you’ll get three games for two dollars. Not many other places do that in an era where the average price of a pinball game is one dollar per player.
While grippin’ the flippers at Station300 (I still want to call it Stonehedge) you never know who you’ll meet or what they’ll say. We once met some guy with his wife, I think his name was Adam. He was really good at pinball, I couldn’t believe how easy he made it seem to get a ridiculous score. He told us we needed to check out this place called Vaporosity in Sharon, Pennsylvania near the Ohio border.
Vaporosity sells nicotine vape juice and accessories along with a wide array of used Blu-Ray disks, DVDs and video games. They also house a massive gallery of pinball machines. When we finally found the time to do so, my brother Kenny and I made the trek out to Vaporosity to see what it was all about.
We decided that on the way there we would stop at a record store near Youngstown called Fat Hippy Records.
The shop is owned by music enthusiast Zac Younkins from Brookfield, Ohio. At Fat Hippy you’ll find a huge selection of vinyl records, cassettes, CDs and novelties, the likes of which are rarely seen these days. Available genres include rock, pop, punk, ska, metal, doom, desert, sludge, jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop, rap, R&B, comedy, spoken, reggae, dancehall, world, traditional, folk, country and others.
Walking into Fat Hippy Records and talking to Zac was like linking back up with an old friend. I had never met the guy before, but we seemed to connect on a number of levels. We talked about movies, our music collecting hobbies, Pyle cassette decks and the upcoming Kool Keith concert at the Westside Bowl.
Zac told me about his Bandcamp fundraising project called the Fat Hippy Records Anniversary Compilation. It’s a yearly release featuring all-new tracks from artists like Kool Keith, Illogic, MC Homeless, Jazzy Lion Man and many others. All proceeds generated from the compilation’s sales are donated to the National Endowment for the Arts to keep art education in schools.
I thumbed through records for nearly an hour. I felt like I had made several scratches upon the surface, but there were hours left of digging to do in order to get through it all. I zipped on over to my favorite section, the stoner/doom metal records.
I have seen several great shows at Youngstown’s Westside Bowl, including Daikaiju, Miesha and the Spanks, Conan and most recently Bongzilla. On the vinyl rack sat Bongzilla’s newest album, Dab City. I hadn’t heard it yet, so I grabbed it and took it to the register.
On the way to the checkout counter I stopped at the hair metal cassette section. It had been too long since I’d taken a chance on a band that I’ve never heard before. Would the gamble pay off? Standing near the front of the display was the 1990 debut release from Nelson.
The three dollar risk ended up paying off tremendously. The cassette was excellent! Unearthing unique gems like this is the reason why I love the genre of rare hair. I even contacted my buddy Hair Metal Matt to ask if he’d ever heard the album. He was more than familiar with it and expressed his appreciation for the fact I owned the release on cassette!
During the checkout process, Zac was enthusiastic about the fact he uses hand-stamped paper bags when selling vinyl records. He told a story of visiting trendy shops in SoHo neighborhoods and witnessing them hand-stamping their takeout bags. He then told me he’d give out free Bill’s Bud Blog and “Hashlips” Harry Hughes stickers to customers!
My brother and I enjoyed our stay at Fat Hippy Records but it was time to drive a few minutes across the PA border to play some pinball.
We walked into Vaporosity to a laid-back, calm atmosphere. The two employees were off in the corner watching a DVD movie, intensely discussing current plot points and their various storyline implications. I got the vibe that the guys who work here smoke vapes and watch movies all day, pulling from the thousands of used discs sitting on the shelves.
The pinball tables were located in a large room to the left of the vape shop. Most of the machines were turned off until you asked an employee to flip it on for you. All of the tables were operated on coin drop, there were no silly scan cards or loyalty programs to deal with.
One nice aspect of Vaporosity’s gallery is that they house some hard-to-find releases. We played a few of the lesser-seen tables such as Earthshaker, Houdini and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth featuring David Bowie.
Another thing I found unique about Vaporosity is the fact that vaping is allowed while playing pinball. At most arcades you have to sneak outdoors or into some sort of a broom closet to rip your portable vaporizer, but not at Vaporosity. They also have a bunch of rare vinyl and music memorabilia on display, including a unique collection of every physical release Lana Del Ray has ever produced.
On the way out we expressed our gratitude to the staff for their hospitality. We bought a used copy of Mortal Kombat 11 for Nintendo Switch, hopped in the car and headed home. Later on I ended up buying a Pyle cassette deck like Zac had recommended. I used it to listen to the Nelson tape! All had come full circle.
Vaporocity Facebook
Vaporosity Pinball Map
Fat Hippy Records Facebook
Fat Hippy Records Bandcamp
Fat Hippy Records Instagram
Check out this pinball song I wrote called “Pinball Windfall”. I recorded pinball flipper sounds to use as snare samples in the song.