by Kate Durbin

The door to the Game room displays an administration building sign circa 1970, industry brown with white sans serif font. It reads: Animals. Inside the room there is a bookcase built into the right-hand wall. The books, published in the 1970s, are hard covers. “You Are What You Make Yourself, ” “Equal to the Task,” and “Mirror Man” are three of the titles.  On the walls are old movie posters such as King Kong, as well as a framed collection of whorehouse tokens. In the center of the room are a poker table, foosball table, and pool table. Against the left-hand wall is a row of arcade machines. Games include Data East, Police 911 2, and Space Invaders, as well as several Playboy pinball games from various eras. The 1970s pinball machine game depicts Hugh Hefner with a blond woman in a lime green bikini, and blond female partygoers in his rock grotto. Partygoers hold bouquets of pastel pink, yellow, and blue balloons. Adjacent to the pinball area, there is a ‘Cab’ room that resembles the backseat of a car. The room is mirrored, with a TV for adult entertainment or Dance Wars. The floor is extra padded and springy. There is a half-bath and a 6-way lighting system with wood-inset brass taper dials. They read: shower, makeup, fan, ceiling, corners, niches. In the far corner of the ‘Cab’ room is a plastic trashcan with a pastel yellow playboy bunny head spray painted near the bottom. The trashcan has a fresh black garbage bag in it. The bag is empty.

*Photo courtesy Riccardo Cuppini.