Tommy for the Twenty-first Century
Ever since I was a young boy,
I’ve played the silver ball.
From Soho down to Brighton
I must have played them all.
But I ain’t seen nothing like him
In any amusement hall.
That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball!He stands like a statue,
Becomes part of the machine.
Feeling all the bumpers
Always playing clean.
He plays by intuition,
The digit counters fall.
That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball!The Who — Pinball Wizard from the 1969 album Tommy
Meet Brice Mellen.
Headline AP: Blind Teen Amazes With Video-Game Skills
LINCOLN, Neb. - Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as “Mortal Kombat.” In that regard, the 17-year-old isn’t much different from so many others his age. Except for one thing: He’s blind.
And as he easily dispatched foes who took him on recently at a Lincoln gaming center, the affable and smiling Mellen remained humble.
“I can’t say that I’m a superpro,” he said, working the controller like an extension of his body. “I can be beat.”
Those bold enough to challenge him weren’t so lucky. One by one, while playing “Soul Caliber 2,” their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen’s on-screen alter ego.
“I’m getting bored,” Mellen said in jest as he won game after game.
How do you think he does it?
I don’t know.


August 1st, 2005 at 12:14 pm
This concerns not “Tommy” but instead John Lennon’s “I Am The Walrus”. In today’s Guardian newspaper is a story about “Semolina pilchard” which you wrote of in your 2004 archives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5252332-110427,00.html
August 1st, 2005 at 7:58 pm
Thanks for the link, Ed. That’s an interesting article! I missed the fact that the police officer who made a name for himself by arresting popular music stars for drug posession was named Pilchard.
Best regards,
Knilram