A few months ago, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a popular theater/concert hall/cinema here in New York, hosted this evening of fun that was directed at my demographic: There were cool indie bands playing in one of the theaters, a “Lindsay Lohan mid-career retrospective” going on upstairs, and free arcade games by the concession stand.

One of those games was Donkey Kong, which Andrew and I pounced on like wild-eyed second graders just let out to recess. Totally arrogant, we started a two-player game, assuming the Kong would fall beneath our mighty fingers (or at least beneath Mario’s mighty heel.) I mean, we had been great at this as kids, right, so how could we not rule as adults?

But as it turns out, Donkey Kong is insanely hard. I didn’t even get past level one. One! And Andrew barely got to level three. Red-faced, we had to slink away from the game and drown our sorrows in a midnight screening of Mean Girls.

However, my defeat primed me for tonight’s DVD viewing of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary about folks trying to get the highest Donkey Kong score of all time. I missed this movie when it came to theaters, but if I hadn’t waited, I wouldn’t have gained the proper respect for its stars. Between this and Pride, I’m anticipating a wild weekend.