Live data from Hacker News

An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

runpee.com

121–127 of 127 posts

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A live sports version of this app, predicated on the likelihood of a big play coming up, would be fun.

It would be fun to think about predictive upcoming down/ad time. For example, one of the worst offenders in live sports is the ad break-kickoff-ad break sequence in an NFL game. If you could predict based on how many ad breaks have already happened whether such a thing was about to take place, you could get buzzed right after a touchdown: "hey, you're about to get 6 minutes where nothing happens but a touchback, you…

I think you're right - easier job to predict lulls in the action.

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#122
post #94

I see a lot of people in these comments wondering why they should favor the theater experience today. While it's true that the gap between video and audio quality at home is shrinking I think the single biggest factor for me to go to the theater is the feeling of focus and immersion that I experience. I love forgetting about everything else for 2-3 hours and becoming absorbed in the experience. One of my favorite fee…

I was you for a period of about 30 years. As soon as I could afford to go to movies I went to about 100 every year. I adored the experience and dragged all my girlfriends and, later, my wife and family to the movies. They knew me at all the Edwards theaters in southern Orange County, California. The shared audience experience could be electric. We even liked waiting in line for a select movies, such as new movies in…

Some streaming services added a feature called "watch it together" during covid. Essentially you stream a movie with someone simultaneously. I think plex, Netflix, and Amazon prime have this feature. For many years there have also been online "watch parties" similar to book clubs but done online. It's usually slightly older movies but these groups do exist.

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#123
post #94

I see a lot of people in these comments wondering why they should favor the theater experience today. While it's true that the gap between video and audio quality at home is shrinking I think the single biggest factor for me to go to the theater is the feeling of focus and immersion that I experience. I love forgetting about everything else for 2-3 hours and becoming absorbed in the experience. One of my favorite fee…

I was you for a period of about 30 years. As soon as I could afford to go to movies I went to about 100 every year. I adored the experience and dragged all my girlfriends and, later, my wife and family to the movies. They knew me at all the Edwards theaters in southern Orange County, California. The shared audience experience could be electric. We even liked waiting in line for a select movies, such as new movies in…

I can very much relate to your experience of theaters becoming corrupted by crummy programming and non-film advertisements as well as the audience being poorly "moderated" by the ushers. I have a very strong aversion to all of these things.

If the option is available to you, I'd like to recommend a medium-sized chain of theaters in the US called The Alamo Drafthouse. They're slowly expanding across the US and I find their approach refreshing:

Firstly, their business and programming exudes a real love for film and cinema that you only see in a superficial way at Regal Theaters or an equivalent. It's a good mix of big-studio releases, indie films (which they often make efforts to highlight and platform) and old films that are beloved or noteworthy. It's a very well-mixed bag. Quite often they host specially-themed showings or events that expand the traditional experience.

I'd say their big blind-spot is in not programming what I'd call "film school" films: Films that are extremely niche or academically interesting or avant-garde. I imagine it's hard to consistently pack a theater for a Pasolini retrospective or something from the Lumiére Brothers. That said my local branch (Los Angeles) features a replica video rental shop in the lobby that is EXTREMELY well-curated with DVDs that you can rent for free.

A quality that I find endearing from this franchise is that they play unique pre-roll footage while you wait for the lights to go down that is specifically curated for the movie that you're there to view. For thirty minutes prior to showtime they play everything and anything that is thematically related to the movie you're about to watch: Does the movie star Bryan Cranston? They'll play an old aspirin commercial that he acted in in the 90s. Are you seeing a Spiderman Movie? They'll play footage from the 1980s Turkish Spiderman movie where Spiderman wields a pistol and stabs people. It's all very good-natured and fun and infinitely more enjoyable than watching trashy word-scramble puzzles, or advertisements for a local dealership.

Finally, their biggest innovation is that the theaters have integrated the serving of food and drink (entire meals and alcohol) into the experience. Every audience member's reclining seat has a desk in front of it and a staff-member will quietly come in and take orders that you can write on a card. Now this may be a good thing or a bad thing to you, but what it also means is that each theater is moderated by a crew of 2-3 servers who regulate any disturbances or unwanted behavior. I've definitely pulled out my phone to text at one point and been told I need to do so out in the hall.

Anywho, whether you're able to attend The Drafthouse or not I hope you find a way to reconnect with the experience of seeing movies. It's something I greatly value and love to share with everyone.

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#124
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was you for a period of about 30 years. As soon as I could afford to go to movies I went to about 100 every year. I adored the experience and dragged all my girlfriends and, later, my wife and family to the movies. They knew me at all the Edwards theaters in southern Orange County, California. The shared audience experience could be electric. We even liked waiting in line for a select movies, such as new movies in…

I can very much relate to your experience of theaters becoming corrupted by crummy programming and non-film advertisements as well as the audience being poorly "moderated" by the ushers. I have a very strong aversion to all of these things. If the option is available to you, I'd like to recommend a medium-sized chain of theaters in the US called The Alamo Drafthouse. They're slowly expanding across the US and I find…

Thanks for the kind message and the enticing description of Alamo Drafthouse. Man, I cannot wait until they get to the Seattle area. That sounds like just the experience I was hoping for.

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#125
post #115
post #98

I’ll never understand people who don’t like going to the theater. I absolutely love going to the theater, but for the most part, I go to locally owned, independent theaters. Prices are good, including for the snacks. Yes, yes, your home theater setup is awesome or whatever, but that doesn’t replicate the theater experience. All of my most enjoyable movie experiences have been at the theater. Even something as dumb as…

> I’ll never understand people who don’t like going to the theater. Maybe you're just talking hyperbolically, but that sentence really screams not having grasped that, with so many millions of humans around us, in any topic there will be many who have completely different preferences/views than you. That said, I'm a hypocrite because I'll never understand people who don't like ice cream!

> there will be many who have completely different preferences/views than you.

I don't understand your point, "I'll never understand people who X" contains an acknowledgement that those people exist. He just wanted to lay out his perspective...

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#126
post #114

I was surprised that intermissions were not a thing in the US movie theaters. It is pervasive in India and movies are designed to end on a high/cliffhanger before the break.

US theaters had intermissions up into the late 60's but not since.

Re: An app that tells you the best time to run and pee during a movie

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never, ever heard of a rental home or apartment or even hotel room that forbids guests. I'm not saying your assertion is false, but can you provide any evidence that it's true? I think at one time there were women-only boarding houses that forbade male guests, at least there were in old movies, but that's about it.

It's common for rental suites . If you rent a whole home, you can usually invite whoever you want. But if you live in a rented room, a sharehouse, a rented basement suite, etc, then no-guest provisions are very common. These rental suites are common in expensive cities. For example, Surrey BC: https://vancouver.craigslist.org/rds/roo/d/surrey-upper-leve... (I just picked this randomly, it didn't take more than a minu…

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN