INSIDE THE KINGDOM November 9, 2016 the Chronicle Section B – 20 Pages Ben Matchstick takes pinball low-tech by Joseph Gresser Cardboard is a perishable material when left outside, and Mr. The low-tech version of the Matchstick said the big machines classic pinball machine that has generally didn’t last more than a been exciting interest in maker week. spaces around the country has its The Pinbox 3000, on the other roots planted firmly in Glover. hand, is a much sturdier device, Pinbox 3000 is the name given built for inside use, and shipped, to the game, which, although made according to its makers, with ample entirely of cardboard, plays like the spare parts. familiar arcade machines. Designed Mr. Matchstick, created the by the two self-styled professors who Cardboard Teck Instantute in head the Cardboard Teck Instantute collaboration with his business in Burlington, the pinbox demands partner, Peter Talbot. Mr. Talbot, creativity from its user. he said, is a detail oriented careful “I call it self-motivated, worker, who agonizes over each interactive puppetry,” said decision to make every cardboard professor Ben T. Matchstick, one of creation perfect. the two founders of the Instantute. He praised his partner’s He is an alumnus of Bread and technical prowess. Puppet Theater in Glover, where he “He’s meticulous,” Mr. discovered his love for cardboard. Matchstick said. “I’m more messy, While a member of the slapdash, get it done, wiggle it company, Mr. Matchstick, whose around.” working name is an easier-to- Mr. Matchstick described his pronounce version of Majchrzac, his approach when Mr. Talbot gets birth name, was the go to guy for bogged down in details. workshops on using cardboard. “I ask what the simplest “After a while, the other solution that can be done in five puppeteers would say, ‘It’s time for minutes is,” he said. cardboard teck,’” and the name The two partners got together stuck, he recalled. and formed the Instantute in 2006. The current version of the One of their early collaborations was pinbox, which is about the size of at the Northeast Kingdom Music Peter Talbot and Ben Matchstick rock in suits of cardboard armor at the Northeast an attaché case, is actually a Festival in Albany, where they ran Kingdom Music Festival in 2008. Photo by Joseph Gresser scaled-down version of earlier the children’s tent, performed in pinball machines that Mr. cardboard samurai outfits crafted by can be folded together in an hour or “We encourage people to create Matchstick and collaborators made Mr. Talbot, and worked to create so to produce a bare bones game, a narrative, and set goals in the as part of the rough hewn carnival large scale models of imperial battle with working flippers and a game,” he explained. that ran for a time in walkers from Star Wars. launcher, all powered by rubber That is not to say the game Brementown. The two continue to do bands. Each game comes with a lacks competition. The pinboxes Brementown was located in an workshops at schools and maker pair of game boards that can be are designed to lock together back out-of-the-way part of Glover. It’s spaces for children and adults. decorated and swapped out as the to back in what the professors call owner desires, Mr. Matchstick said. “battle mode.” This allows one A pinbox, when first put gamer to shoot marbles onto the together, lacks the flamboyant other’s table as the opposing player décor of an arcade machine. The tries to swat them away. user gets to design the look and Mr. Matchstick said he likes to play of the game, he said. see players use their voices to That can mean doing something make the “bleeps and bloops” that as simple as positioning cardboard most game designers build into shapes that come with the game and their machines to encourage and painting the game board or, at the confuse players. other extreme, installing servo- That reflects his continuing motors and logic boards to more interest in theatrical performance. exactly replicate commercial In the time unfilled by cardboard, machines, Mr. Matchstick explained. Mr. Matchstick has been involved The partners are working on in enterprises such as the stage lesson plans for teachers to help version of Anais Mitchell’s show, them use the boxes in classes, and Hadestown. He directed the initial are posting design suggestions on performances of the musical their website, pinbox3000.com. version of the myth of Persephone. For those who don’t want to do He and Mr. Talbot think of their own designs, several their invention as a stage for small prominent Vermont artists have performances. They refer to a come up with themes. They gathering of the pinboxes as an This assortment of pinboxes shows a variety of games designed by users. include James “Superstar” “artcade.” Photo courtesy of Ben Majchrzac Kochalka, GHOSTSHRIMP, and The partners launched their carnival featured rides made out of With the advent of the pinboxes, Lisa “Fenix” Barber. business with two successful junk, and, on occasion, a giant many of the workshops center One thing the pinbox Kickstarter campaigns. The first cardboard pinball machine around ways to customize the intentionally lacks, Mr. Matchstick raised $15,000 in June of 2015, operated by puppeteers who devices in accord with a user’s explained, is a scoreboard. The enough to produce 2,000 of the worked the machinery from inside taste. game is not intended to be a matter games, Mr. Matchstick said. its frame. The pinbox arrives as a kit that of just reaching high scores. (Continued on page 6B.) IN THIS WEEKLY SECTION, YOU’LL FIND: BIRTHS l WEDDINGS/ENGAGEMENTS l OBITUARIES l KINGDOM CALENDAR l CLASSIFIED ADS l RESTAURANTS & ENTERTAINMENT l REAL ESTATE & AUCTIONS l YOURS FROM THE PERIMETER l RUMINATIONS l AND MORE! Page 2B the Chronicle, November 9, 2016 Ruminations On yet another birthday season by Elizabeth Trail We’re just finishing the birthday season in our family. This year was pretty special in that department. My mother turned 80, my sister turned 60, and my oldest son Winfield turned 30 —all formidable landmarks. And my daughter Claire turned 25, an interesting number in and of itself. This juxtaposition must have been going on for a while. I just never noticed. Maybe because the last time my mother and sister turned over their big decade markers, Winfield and Claire were turning 20 and 15 — odd birthdays because both numbers are overshadowed by 21 and 16 in the popular reckoning. Our birthday season actually starts with my youngest son Sterling’s birthday in mid-August. The other three now grown children have birthdays within a three-week span in September and early October. Which had to do with holiday trips to California, where our family home had a romantic little guest house, and that’s all I’m saying about that. But there’s no explaining how it happened that my brother and sister and I, all four grandparents, my mother, and her sister Kate This year we celebrated big birthdays — my mother’s eightieth and my sister’s sixtieth — with chocolate mousse were all born in that quarter of the year. in a friend’s tiny house. We had to eat standing up because there was barely any place for five people to stand, Once we get underway, we have a birthday to let alone sit. But it’s not about the china or the cake. From left to right are my partner, Larry Frankel; brother-in- celebrate, or remember, at least every week or law Craig Olzenak; and the honorees at our tiny house party — my sister Amanda Amend; and my mother, Gaylee Amend. Photo by Elizabeth Trail two, and sometimes two a week, throughout the fall. When my children were growing up, their And yes, he got a second birthday party with Growing up, we had three formidable cake- treat was to go to the store and pick out a cake a number six on his cake. bakers in the family — my mother and my two mix and a frosting to go with it. Last year for my sixtieth birthday, my mother grandmothers — so as daunting as our birthday I feel guilty about that now. I suppose I threw me a party and made a Lady Baltimore calendar was, we could all count on an thought I was busy with four young children. cake again. extravagant family birthday party crowned by a And I’ve never been a cake baker. But this time the challenges went way beyond fabulous cake. But they loved the process of walking down a little bit of sugaring in the icing. My cake was a Lady Baltimore, also a the aisle, studying the pictures on the cake boxes, Most of the family has something or other favorite of our editor, Tena Starr. The Lady and deciding what they wanted. going on health-wise these days. Some of us are Baltimore is a three-layer cake, with boiled white They came up with some pretty wild gluten-free, and some of us are grain-free. One icing. Between the layers, the icing is mixed with combinations — orange cake with blue frosting, son is allergic to coconut. And nobody wanted all dried fruit and nuts that have been soaked in chocolate cake with lemon frosting and the like. that sugar. (Well, okay, I would have sacrificed sherry for days. I let them pick out their own sprinkles, and all to taste a real Lady Baltimore again, but it Throughout my teens and twenties, wherever they got to decorate their cakes however they wouldn’t have been any fun to eat it alone.) I was in life, my mother baked me a Lady liked.