Of the six pinball machines in the dark upstairs rooms of the pizza joint Hi-Life in downtown Oakland, Nina G. prefers Batman Dark Knight. The local comedian can rack up 17 million points by dodging the Scarecrow’s Crane or fighting the Joker as easily as the Batman himself, while the average player, at best, can only pick up a couple of million. It’s her game.
In the minutes before a Sunday night meeting of Belles and Chimes, Oakland’s women-only pinball league, you can find Nina whapping away at the machine’s flippers, and stomping her boots whenever the ball doesn’t go her way.
Nina is one of about thirty women who’ve attended one of Belles and Chimes’ meetings since the league was established a few months ago. The group’s founder is a woman Nina refers to as the “Gloria Steinem of pinball”: Echa Schneider (who also used to run the local news blog A Better Oakland).