Thursday, May 23, 2019

SNES Omnibus Writer Spotlight #49 - Kelsey Lewin

When I went to my first Portland Retro Gaming Expo more than two years ago, one of my primary objectives was to meet the Seattle area YouTubers, specifically the “Metal Jesus Crew”: John Riggs, Reggie Williams, John Hancock, Kinsey Burke, and Kelsey Lewin (I had already met Metal himself and interviewed him for a Retropalooza article). They were as cool and as nice as I expected—what you see on their channels is what you get—and it was great talking to them in person, as opposed to mere online correspondence.

I discovered that Kelsey grew up near me in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, so the next time she was in town, we went to The National Video Game Museum in Frisco, and then had some dinner later that day at a video game-themed restaurant called Nerdvana. Her brother went with us as well, which was cool. What struck me about Kelsey is that she’s mature, intelligent, and composed beyond her years. She’s also a lot of fun. We had a blast playing the world’s largest Pong machine, checking out the rare games, investigating the back room (thanks to John Hardie for the grand tour), and talking about all kinds of geeky stuff.

At the Portland Retro Gaming Expo the following year, Kelsey’s boyfriend proposed to her at the Saturday night auction in a highly unusual way, which you can check out HERE. It was awesome watching it live, and we were all super happy for the couple.

If you enjoy watching Norm “The Gaming Historian” Caruso’s videos, you should subscribe to Kelsey’s channel. She recently hit 100,000 subscribers—she really knows her stuff! I’m honored that she has a story in The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N–Z). Want to know why Kelsey is obsessed with strange and unusual gaming items? It’s in the book.

Here’s her bio as it appears in The SNES Omnibus Vol. 2:

Kelsey Lewin is a YouTube content creator covering weird and obscure games, consoles, and accessories. She co-owns Pink Gorilla Games, a retro and import video game store in Seattle, Washington, and she donates her spare time to the Video GameHistory Foundation.



No comments: