- About
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NEW Hours
Tuesday thru Sunday 2pm to 9pm, closed Mondays
Friday and Saturday open til midnight
Admission now includes the Pacific Pinball Museum wing with over 40 more machines in one large room
$15/Adult $7.50/Kids under 12
Contact
Phone (510) 769-1349 or Email
New Address
1510 Webster St. Alameda, CA 94501
Directions
Plenty of cheap parking in the public lot behind Santa Clara and Webster. Parking is free after 6pm, Sundays.
What is Lucky Ju Ju?
Juju (joo'joo) noun:
- An object used as a fetish, charm or amulet
- The supernatural power ascribed to such an object
Lucky Ju Ju is a place where Magic, Karma, Zeitgeist and Skill are infused into a collection of Vintage Pinball Machines for all to enjoy. If you are interested in Pinball, this is the place.
Lucky Ju Ju is also a 501 c 3 non profit pinball museum/art gallery under the umbrella of the Pacific Pinball Museum.
4th Annual Pacific Pinball Expostion Oct 1,2,3 2010
Rent the Ju Ju for Parties
- News
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Melissa Harmon's Pinball Style opens July 2nd
June 25, 2010
PINBALL STYLE: DRAMA AND DESIGN
BY MELISSA HARMON
Pinball Style is an exhibition with commentary on pinball art from the 1940’s through the 2000’s. Melissa Harmon’s work looks at dramatic and historical context with a touch of fashion police humor.
Art Opening: Friday, July 2, 2010, from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight
ADMISSION TO THE ART EXHIBIT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Stay and play pinball for suggested donation.
Show runs from July 2 to August 1, 2010
Pacific Pinball Museum
1510 Webster St., Alameda, CA 94501
Museum Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 2pm to 9pm
Friday and Saturday to 12 midnite. Closed Monday.
Adult $15, Child $7.50
We are a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization 20-2467607
Visit www.pacificpinball.org or call Melissa Harmon 510.205.6959.
Shane Pickerill's Pinball Fantasies at the Ju Ju Gallery
April 28, 2010
Pinball Fantasies
The Art of Shane Pickerill
Lucky Juju Art Gallery
May 7th to June 30th, 2010
Opening Friday May 7th from 7-11 p.m.
The Pacific Pinball Museum
1510 Webster Street
Alameda, CA 94501
www.pacificpinball.org
510-769-1349
Admission: $15 / $7.50 for 12 and under
Includes Museum admission to over 90 machines on freeplay,
finger food, no host bar.
Tuesday thru Sunday from 2 to 9 pm
Friday and Saturday open til 12am.
Pinball Fantasy is a concept for a pinball game and is designed to function as a working game. I spent nearly one year designing this piece and I looked at lane clearances, ramp heights, shot paths, etc. in an attempt to create a design that will actually work when manufactured. I put a lot of thought into game play and into the "goals" of the game. I then used the CAD drawings as blueprints for creating 3-dimensional parts in the computer with 3D software. The 3D parts are dimensionally accurate, representing life-size parts. I used texture maps and materials to color these 3D parts in order to give them realism and character. I added lights to the 3D "scene" in the computer to further enhance the realism of the game. The final image was created by 40 individual computers, each rendering a 1" x 60" strip of the entire image. These strips were then assembled into one very large final image. The final image was printed on Duratrans film. This image is printed at a reduced scale (5/8), making it smaller than the size of the actual game.
In the end, I created over 200 different playfield layouts in the CAD program. I often find ideas from my earlier designs that I had discarded, and use them in new ways in my current design.
My long-term goal is to manufacture a working, physical game based on this design. I'm also interested in creating more light boxes with my imagery.
-Shane Pickerill
Curator’s Notes:
When I first started talking with Shane about Pinball, he had an idea for a wall mounted machine and was looking for help in trying to design it. At first I thought it was an impossible task but a year later, when I saw his design, I was truly in awe. Weather it worked or not, it was stunning! It reminds me of dreams I had playing pinball on an enormous playfield where I could barely see the area where the ball was scoring. This is a breakthrough in its design and concept but also as an art form. Functional Art is not new, but in this form it is. I hope to play on Mr. Pickerill’s beautiful design before draining down the outhole of life
The Gallery
The Lucky Ju Ju Art Gallery is a unique venue that lives within the Pacific Pinball Museum. Although primarily rooted in graphic and pinball art we do make the occasional foray into all sorts of unusual art forms and creations. The Pacific Pinball Museum is a 501 c 3 non profit.
Kim Piazza Conceptual Recycling Art at the Ju Ju!
March 18, 2010
KIMBERLY PIAZZA
TIRE RECYCLING CONCEPTS
IMAGES FOR EARTHDAY
Tires are omnipresent yet invisible in our lives until one goes flat.
Opening: Friday, April 2, 2010, from 2p.m. to 12 midnight
Admission: Adult $15, Child $7.50
Show runs from April 2 to May 1, 2010
Pacific Pinball Museum
1510 Webster St., Alameda, CA 94501
Museum Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 2pm to 9pm, with extended hours to 12 midnite Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday.
Kimberly Piazza’s paintings propose fantastic methods for recycling tires.
She writes: “What are we going to do with all the old tires? One of the luxuries I enjoy as a painter is that my proposed solutions don’t have to be proven scientifically or be mechanically viable.”
Kimberly Piazza’s work is a meditative look at humankind’s impact on the natural environment.
New Art Gallery Opens in February : Pinball Fine Art
January 07, 2010
PINBALL ART: FINE ART
A CELEBRATION AND ART OPENING
At the Pacific Pinball Museum
1510 Webster St., Alameda, CA 94501
February 5, 2010 from 2pm to 12 midnight
$15 Adults, $7.50 Children
No Host Bar
Pinball Art: Fine Art is a study of pinball imagery and original artwork as shown in selected galleries from the 70’s through 2010.
Melissa Harmon, Curator, Pacific Pinball Museum, 2010
Pinball Art: Fine Art is an overview of exhibitions and artworks about pinball from 1972-2010. Pinball Art: Fine Art opens Friday, February 5, 2010, from 2 pm to 12 midnight. The cost is $15 adults, $7.50 children. Admission to the art gallery includes the museum, the art opening, machine play, flipper finger food and punch. There is a no host bar selling drinks.
Guests are invited to play our historic collection of 30’s, 40’s and 50’s woodrails, plus machines from the 60’s to the present day, a total of 80 pinball machines. All machines are on free play.
Pinball Art: Fine Art is a collection of exhibition posters and artists’ creations, with commentary about historic shows in which pinball art and fine art intersect. The show features original works by Dirty Donnie, Brian Holderman, Wade Krause, Mike Schiess, and William Wiley who have re-themed pinball machines, removing the old artwork, and replacing it with their own. There are pages from Melissa Harmon’s book in progress Fashion in Pinball.
Pinball Art: Fine Art’s earliest exhibit is Pin Ball Game Scoreboards held in 1972 at the Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. The latest show represented is the 2009-2010 exhibition Pinball: From Bagatelle to Twilight Zone held at the San Francisco International Airport Terminal, and presented by the San Francisco Airport Museum, the Pacific Pinball Museum, and the Silver Ball Ranch.
The art is available for viewing at the Pacific Pinball Museum until March 2, 2010. Hours are 2pm to 9pm on Tues., Wed., Thurs., Sun., and 2pm-12 midnight Friday and Saturday, closed Mondays.
A Short History of Pinball, Fine Art and Good Taste
Pinball, for the enthusiast, means the spirit of freedom and possibility, erotic fun without responsibility. Most pinball games in America were found in bars and arcades, which contributed to pinball’s image as lowbrow art, kitsch, and in bad taste. Because of this, pinball art has had little critical analysis. It’s ironic that the origin of pinball came in the midst of a cultural struggle to define “good taste”.
The western idea of “taste” began in France in the 1600 - 1700’s, coincidentally when the first bagatelles appeared. The French invented bagatelles which were the earliest pinball machines, made of score holes in a board. Players with cue sticks vied to push balls into the highest scoring holes. Later, pins or small nails were hammered in to the board as guides for the ball, hence the name pinball.
The French aristocrats tried to turn every aspect of their lives into art, and were in severe competition with each other as to what made good art and design. In 1777 as part of this competitive mania, the Comte d’Artois, grandson of King Louis XV, built a mansion called Chateau d’ Bagatelle dedicated to the play of bagatelle.
In Europe and America, the outcome of the struggle to define taste, and by extension what constitutes good art was temporarily settled in the 1800’s with the sweeping term “fine art”, which generally meant refined and tasteful art made by accepted artists. Forms such as advertising art, cartoons, posters and decorative art were not included.
Marcel Duchamp, the French /American surrealist shattered those fine art definitions by exhibiting a commercially produced urinal and calling it Fountain (1917).
In the sixties, led by Andy Warhol, fine art came to include many things that were once excluded. Consumer goods could become art, and a pinball machine could be seen as a cultural icon.
Recently, artists such as Budai, Dirty Donnie, Brian Holderman, Mike Schiess and William Wiley have re-themed pinball machines, making old machines into something completely new.
The Pacific Pinball Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of pinball, and encouraging cultural analysis and art about pinball.
Pinball Art: Fine Art is a study of pinball imagery and original artwork as shown in selected galleries from the 70’s through 2010.
___Melissa Harmon, Curator, Pacific Pinball Museum, 2010
Play Pinball at the Airport!
January 07, 2010
For 2 weeks only, you can play FREE pinball at the San Francisco Airport! The Pacific Pinball Museum in cooperation with the San Francisco Airport Museum have put out 8 pinball machines on freeplay in the International Terminal. Accompanying the SFAM Exhibition " Pinball:From Bagatelle to Twilight Zone" http://www.sfoarts.org/exhibits/a1/a1-current.html the pins are playable from 10am to 3:30pm daily and til 9:30 pm on Friday the 8th. The machines are Gottlieb's Flying High, Universe, Mini Pool, Hurdy Gurdy, High Hand. William's Apollo and Gulfstream. And Bally's Captain Fantastic. Pinballs will be on location Jan 4th thru 14th. Come on out, check out the amazing exhibition and Play Pinball!!!
New Year's Eve Party at the Pacific Pinball Museum!
December 17, 2009
"Chime" in the New Year at the Pacific Pinball Museum and celebrate the Lucky Ju Ju's 7th anniversary! Celebrate the opening of our new wing with over 40 more games and a new art gallery with its first installation; "Pinball Art as Fine Art" curated by Melissa Harmon.
Details....
What:
* Over 80 Pinball Machines on free play (no quarters needed)
* No Host Bar
* Flipper Finger Food~ Hors d'oeuvres and snacks
* Party Favors! (Poppers, razzers and things that go snap in the night!)
Where: 1510 Webster Street, Alameda, California
When: December 31st, 2pm to Jan 1st, 1am.
Cost: $25/person All money benefits our non profit museum, a 501 c 3.
This will be a rip snorter!
Dan Caven At the Transview.
November 28, 2009
Found Object Romance
The Paintings of Dan Caven
Lucky Juju Pinball Art Gallery
December 4th to 30th , 2009
Opening Friday December 4th from 7-10 p.m.
Found Object Paintings by Dan Caven
Violet Face By Dan Caven
In sleeping bags at the cabin,
mattresses on top of two by four and plywood frames
customized with bright household paints,
flashlights and comic books
transporting us out of the woods to worlds of action and romance
We were encouraged to express ourselves with whatever materials we had on hand,
scrap lumber man,
GI Joe with life like hair shaved into the style of a mohawk,
original cartoons on the back of paper place mats
These are the roots from which this series of paintings are born.
Renditions of faces pulled from old comic book frames
painted with testors enamel paint
over objects found while out walking
Dan Caven is an artist living in the Bay Area.
Most recently involved with the neon department at the Crucible in West Oakland,
a non profit collaboration of Arts, Industry, and Community
Curator’s Notes:
It's no secret, I love comic books and recycling/reuse of materials into art so Dan's work is a pleasant foray into an area of extreme comfort for me. And pretty cool work it is! The whole genre of Romance comics was not on my top 10 list so I am interested to see some of what I missed. This is a great, fun show! Thank you Mr. Caven!
Furthermore;
It is with a heavy hand that I type this, officially ending an era. Sadly, with this final show, we are closing the Trans-View gallery that over 4 years has produced 60 monthly shows and introduced many new artists that never had a public forum. Because of our expansion and the realization of our dream, we will be moving the gallery into the front part of the Museum.
With every ending, there is a beginning, so I would like to also announce the opening of the Pacific Pinball Museum at 1510 Webster St. and the new Art Gallery that will continue the tradition of our monthly featured artist. With this change comes more days open along with special exhibitions and a chance to see and play the early games. We look forward to moving ahead and sharing our success.
Lucky Ju Ju
713 Santa Clara Ave Alameda, CA [Map]
Friday and Saturday: 6 p.m. to Midnight
Sunday: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Gallery
The Lucky Ju Ju Pinball Gallery is a unique underground arena for vintage pinball machines and a showcase for artists. We are in our seventh year and this is the 60th art show presented since the opening of the “Trans –View” gallery. This art show is free but we request you pay admission to the pinball arcadium where you can enjoy our amazing assortment of games all on freeplay. Since it is well hidden and many are not adept with map quest, here are directions: Come to Alameda via the Alameda Tube (Webster St/Oakland) and continue on Webster. After 4 signal lights, turn left onto Santa Clara. Take the first Left into the parking lot; we are in the door that opens into the lot. Although the Pinball Arcadium is open on Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights, the Gallery, in the foyer, is always viewable from 9am to 9pm daily. The Pacific Pinball Museum is a 501 c 3 non profit.
PPM Open
November 14, 2009
The new Pacific Pinball Museum will be opening soon at 1510 Webster St., Site of the Record Store which moved kitty corner to us up the street.
Here are a few of the people that made it happen.
Update: Added more pictures of Larry, Melissa and me along with some prewar pins.
We are almost ready to open tomorrow at 2pm. Still more to do...
We are open and today(Friday) is our first company party. Steve Ritchie will be on hand to sign and chat with fans tonight.
A great article on the new PPM is online at the Alameda Sun courtesy of our good buddy Eric Kos.
http://www.alamedasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6064&Itemid=13
UPDATE
Without a lot of noise, the PPM opened to a throng of enthusiastic regulars and newbies alike! The new room adds an array of pinball never before offered to the general public. As Pinball Champ Neil Shatz put it, "A world Class Destination." Come see for yourself, our hours are 2 to 9 pm Tuesday thru Sunday, closed Mondays. We have extended hours on Friday and Saturday with a $10 Ju Ju only option for you hardliners. This does change our party policy so be sure to check that page for updates.Steve Ritchie at the Ju Ju!!!
October 20, 2009
Yes, that's right. Premiere Pinball Engineer/Artist; California's Steve Ritchie Productions will be at the Ju Ju for the month of November!
The Art Of Pinball Design
The Engineering Art of Steve Ritchie
Lucky Juju Pinball Art Gallery
November 6th to Nov. 29th , 2009
Opening Friday November 6th from 7-10 p.m.
Steve Ritchie has been called “The King of Pinball” and “The Master of Flow”. His pinball designs impart great speed to the ball utilizing shot-based flow patterns mixed with target-based geometry. He always adds unique devices and gadgetry that provide excitement and fun.
Steve has sold more pinball machines than any other pinball designer. His machines are often complex systems and have always broken new ground in terms of innovation, with spectacular execution. People all over the world play and collect Steve’s pinball machines.
Lucky Ju Ju
713 Santa Clara Ave Alameda, CA [Map]
Friday and Saturday: 6 p.m. to Midnight
Sunday: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Gallery
The Lucky Ju Ju Pinball Gallery is a unique underground arena for vintage pinball machines and a showcase for artists. We are in our seventh year and this is the 59th art show presented since the opening of the “Trans –View” gallery. This art show is free but we request you pay admission to the pinball arcadium where you can enjoy our amazing assortment of games all on freeplay. Since it is well hidden and many are not adept with map quest, here are directions: Come to Alameda via the Alameda Tube (Webster St/Oakland) and continue on Webster. After 4 signal lights, turn left onto Santa Clara. Take the first Left into the parking lot; we are in the door that opens into the lot. Although the Pinball Arcadium is open on Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights, the Gallery, in the foyer, is always viewable from 9am to 9pm daily. The Pacific Pinball Museum is a 501 c 3 non profit.
Mosterama: 3 Artists revisit the classic monsters
September 29, 2009
MONSTERAMA
PAINTINGS, BLOCK PRINTS, AND BRASS ETCHING THAT CAN HANG – ALL MONSTER THEM.
Kirk! Jones, Ryan Robot Flowers, Shannon D. Jones
THREE ARTIST COMING TOGETHER TO SHARE THEIR LOVE FOR VINTAGE HORROR, HOLLYWOOD MONSTERS, AND THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT.
Lucky Juju Pinball Art Gallery
October 9th thru November 3rd, 2009
Opening Friday October 9th from 7-10 p.m.