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Playa Phone

playaphone.com

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Re: Playa Phone

#71

Post by brettermeier »

stickfigure wrote: post #51
throwayay4929 wrote: post #7

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

I've been a dozen or so times, dating back to 1994. It's changed over the years - price has gone up, scale has gone up, and rules have become more strict. Not surprising when there are 70k people instead of 3k. Some people (fairly) don't like these changes. And some people like to badmouth things they've never experienced. It's still the best party going on anywhere in the world that week. Most people you meet are no…

> It's still the best party going on anywhere in the world that week.

That's a bold claim, but maybe it's true :D

Re: Playa Phone

#72

Post by echelon »

aaron42net wrote: post #48

This phone is my project. I'm happy to answer questions.

This is amazing and has me wishing we had pay phones again.

Maybe they could come back and offer "free" service in high-density areas and fund via pre-roll ads or something. But perhaps the culture of remembering phone numbers is too far gone and it's easy enough to find charging.

Thank you for making and posting about this!

Re: Playa Phone

#73

Post by rlt »

throwayay4929 wrote: post #7

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

It’s what you make of it and who you surround yourself with.

Some people treat it like a music festival and chase DJs the whole week. Some people immerse themselves in the rest of the culture.

The demographics have definitely been skewing wealthier over time, but it’s still around 50% under $100k income and 10% over $300,000 according to the (admittedly unscientific) census.

https://blackrockcitycensus.org/sociodemo

Re: Playa Phone

#74

Post by FuriouslyAdrift »

solfox wrote: post #24

Our first time out on the playa together, my girlfriend and I stopped by this phone booth and made a couple of calls. And because we stopped, we saw the FSM camp next door, and a giant sign saying "Weddings Here", so we inquired. They offered us free rings and then announced our wedding over a loudspeaker. In 2 minutes we had an entire wedding party, complete with best man, an elder to give away the bride, 25+ guests…

Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Re: Playa Phone

#75

Post by reaperducer »

rlt wrote: post #53
reaperducer wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. You're not far off. Burning Man is like Coachella, SxSW, and San Francisco, itself. It used to be cool, and interesting, and counter-culture. But then it got overrun by tech people and grifters and assorted wannabes who think they can buy their way to coolness, when that's s…

It’s inevitable cool and interesting things will evolve, and the people there early will bemoan how it used to be cooler. https://journal.burningman.org/2016/10/philosophical-center/...

It’s inevitable cool and interesting things will evolve, and the people there early will bemoan how it used to be cooler.

No, it's not inevitable. Burning Man is just making excuses for selling out.

Look at how high school kids dress these days. The cool kids today style themselves much the same way as the cool kids did back in the 2000's, the 1980's, the 1950's, and to some extent even back to the 1930's.

Blue jeans and white t-shirts. Concert shirts. Doc Martins. The infamous "little black dress." Dorm room posters and pin-ups. Even hair styles. Some things are "classic" and always cool. Burning Man isn't one of them.

Re: Playa Phone

#76

Post by phoghed »

TFNA wrote: post #62
phoghed wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth one of my coworkers has been going for over 20 years and he still loves it. Most people giving you an opinion formed it by reading comments on social media. I’d encourage you to talk to people that have actually been if you want to have an informed opinion. I don’t know shit about it since my n=1 sample size, but he’s someone who’s opinion I trust so I’d personally probably check it out if I was i…

Talking to people with experience might not contradict the internet opinion. I am active in a subculture with a number of people who have been, some multiple times. People who have seen it in the 1990s or early millennium and then later feel that it has declined. People who only went later feel rather let down and assume it was better in the now-distant past.

It’s no doubt different, I’m just saying that we should always be suspicious of hearsay from individuals who are relaying this info through a game of social media telephone.

People hate it, people enjoy it, you probably just have to experience it for yourself if you really want to know what it’s like. And second best is looking for accounts of people that have been.

Things are quite literally better than they have ever been in almost every facet of life, yet the golden age is perpetually behind us

Re: Playa Phone

#77

Post by maximilianthe1 »

solfox wrote: post #24

Our first time out on the playa together, my girlfriend and I stopped by this phone booth and made a couple of calls. And because we stopped, we saw the FSM camp next door, and a giant sign saying "Weddings Here", so we inquired. They offered us free rings and then announced our wedding over a loudspeaker. In 2 minutes we had an entire wedding party, complete with best man, an elder to give away the bride, 25+ guests…

Did you make it official later?

Re: Playa Phone

#78

Post by prettyblocks »

throwayay4929 wrote: post #7

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

I haven't been in about 10 years, but yes it's incredibly fun. What you see on social medial is not a representation of the majority of attendees, but it is expensive to attend, especially if you need to travel for it.

Re: Playa Phone

#79

Post by pgoggijr »

echelon wrote: post #72
aaron42net wrote: post #48

This phone is my project. I'm happy to answer questions.

This is amazing and has me wishing we had pay phones again. Maybe they could come back and offer "free" service in high-density areas and fund via pre-roll ads or something. But perhaps the culture of remembering phone numbers is too far gone and it's easy enough to find charging. Thank you for making and posting about this!

NYC has something just like this - https://www.link.nyc/home.html

Re: Playa Phone

#80

Post by mlmonkey »

throwayay4929 wrote: post #7

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

Burning Man is ...... what you make of it.

The last time I went, there was this dude in a camp next to where I was camped. The entire week I was there, I only saw him sitting and drinking; he was totally hammered the entire 7 days and didn't go anwhere (AFAICT). That really saddened me: he could have done the same back home wherever he had come from; what's the point of coming to BM if you're going to just sit in one place and get drunk?

I really wanted to take it all in, so I stayed away from drinking or smoking, and had a great time! There is so much to see, so many creative people to interact with. You can end up having a deep conversation on just about any topic under the sky with random people. I ended up chatting with this Physics graduate student about, of all things, quarks (an area of specialty for him). He ended up patiently explaining various things to me, as if we were long-lost friends.

My recommendation: jump in with both feet in the spirit of contribution and cooperation. Have fun, respect boundaries, contribute however you can.

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