Re: Boston meet-up!

1

I'll be out of town as of the 12th. But everybody else should hella go for it.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:19 AM
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Josh, check your email.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:21 AM
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Boo, 1.first, but 1.last gets it exactly right.

Sifu, would the amazing new cocktail place you and Blume mentioned be meetup-friendly?


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:28 AM
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Arg. I'm going to be somewhere in the midwest.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:28 AM
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Week from tomorrow? I can likely do that. Backbar isn't totally red-line-friendly, though there are plenty of buses that will get you there. I can't speak to the meet-up-appropriateness, though.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:30 AM
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4: If it's Iowa, I can provide a link to an article explaining their strange folkways.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:32 AM
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3.last: well, they take reservations, so in theory yes. It is pretty small, though.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:39 AM
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I think Backbar is probably too out of the way. Has anyone been to Brick and Mortar, in the old Enormous Room space? Can't get much more convenient to the red line than that.

What's the occasion for the Boston trip? Is there a conference?


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:48 AM
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Also I assume this won't work, but if for some reason you could have the meetup on the 11th I'd totally be there.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:55 AM
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8 is to say: I can almost certainly make it.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 11:55 AM
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If Brick and Mortar is indeed run by the people who used to run the B-Side, that seems likely to be good. Or else Lord Hobo?

If I say that everyone at the event we're going to will be able to parse Upetgi(9)'s pseud, does that tell you enough?


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 12:16 PM
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Oh, it is that weekend, isn't it. Got it.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 12:34 PM
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does that tell you enough

I wouldn't have gotten it, but Tweety filled me in.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 12:48 PM
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Oho!

That always seemed... really difficult.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 12:49 PM
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It is! I am not very good at it, but it's still lots of fun.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:03 PM
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Is this the thing that's kind of like Scavhunt but not really?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:13 PM
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I'm interested, but will probably be a little late.

16: Yes, it's the thing that you might describe that way.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:15 PM
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These hints are intriguing, but I won't be anywhere near the place (Boston) soon, so you won't lure me in with your game of intrigue.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:29 PM
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I guess the fact that I can't figure it out means its not for me.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:31 PM
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You guys are all having a big orgy, aren't you.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:33 PM
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Stupid iPhone, ruining my "it's" habits.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:35 PM
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I really should have extended my travel plans by one night and called for a Pittsburgh meetup on Sunday.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:40 PM
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20: AWB always makes those sound like too much work.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:41 PM
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Unfogged is more fun erotic terrifying beyond belief if you imagine that the pseudonyms are Venetian Carnivale masks and everyone is about to have sex Eyes-Wide-Shut style.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:45 PM
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Isn't that why Unfogged goes quiescent around 5 (EST)?


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 1:57 PM
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When does a big orgy become so small it becomes not an orgy?


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 2:23 PM
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26: > or = 3-some


Posted by: Rance | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 2:35 PM
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27: In that case I declare that the phrase "big orgy" is redundant.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 2:44 PM
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22: I was feeling cranky anyway.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 2:55 PM
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Does anyone end up actually having sex in Eyes Wide Shut? I can hardly remember it but it my impressionistic recollection is lots of meaningful stares and bad weather and Shatnerian prosody and 20th century piano music. Is there also sex?


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 3:13 PM
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Is Backbar the new bar? I'd like to try it some time.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 3:28 PM
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31: that's the one Blume and I went to NYE. There are several new bars, though, including Brick & Mortar mentioned above and Saloon in Davis (which I've been to a couple of times and found sort of meh, although other people seem to love it).


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 3:39 PM
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30: I'm pretty sure other people at the orgy party that Tom Cruise crashes are getting it on as he's walking through the rooms. Maybe you only saw the version with CGIed people standing in front of those people?


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 3:53 PM
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I believe the American theatrical release had CGI people covering sex-people.

I can probably make a Jan 12 meetup.


Posted by: Bave | Link to this comment | 01- 4-12 9:47 PM
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hi bave!
you know, "gabardine bathyscape" is a really superior pseud. just needed to be said.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 4:13 AM
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Brick and Mortar looks like it would be great. Chowhound reports that one of the barkeepers s going to be someone named Msty Kalkofen who worked at Drink.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 4:22 AM
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34: this reminds me of Wlfsn's shock that I was able to watch Black Swan on a British Airways jet.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 4:49 AM
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Yes, Misty is running the bar. Evan Harrison, formerly of the Independent and later of Deep Ellum, is also working there.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 4:56 AM
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34: wait, what? Is that normal in the US?


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 5:33 AM
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It's a matter of ratings. Most theaters won't show something rated NC-17, and visible sex would make it impossible to get an R rating.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 5:37 AM
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Brick and Mortar sounds good. 11th or 12th works for me.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:21 AM
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40: War on Sex. Winning!


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:28 AM
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I seriously took the CGI thing to be joke when I first read that comment. Fucking America.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:33 AM
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No, the CGI thing was real. I've only seen the un-CGIed version on German television. In the middle of the day, mind you, on regular TV.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:40 AM
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I second 35.2.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:43 AM
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No, the CGI thing was real.

Heh.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:48 AM
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It's actually looking like I won't be able to make it sadly. Not 100% sure yet though.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:49 AM
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Could you make it happily?


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:53 AM
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The CGI thing was an insult to CGI work everywhere. They had black silhouettes of people put in front of the naughty bits, and it looked like a flat paper cutout obstructing much of the view of every frame.

It really sucked.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 6:58 AM
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Most theaters won't show something rated NC-17, and visible sex would make it impossible to get an R rating.

The second part makes sense (after a quick google on the US ratings system). The first part completely does not. No cinema in the UK would outright refuse to show 18-certificate films!


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:00 AM
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I wonder if the difference isn't partially due to the design of the theaters. Most U.S. theaters are huge multiplexes where the only ticket control is at the main entrance. After you've gone inside, there is nothing to stop you from going to see whatever movie you want to see. To keep kids out of an NC-17 movie, you'd need to pay a guy to sit there. I know that most "art house" theaters will show NC-17 movies, but they often have one screen.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:08 AM
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I think things just developed very differently in the US, too; the Hayes Code (which eventually developed into the MPAA rating system) was insanely restrictive, as it was basically developed by the Catholic League (and enforced by Jack Webb-style humorless cop-types throughout most of its history), which meant that the X rating was a really belated development and susceptible (since it didn't actually restrict any content) to hijacking by honest-to-god pornography. That NC-17 failed to fix that problem (studios not releasing X rated films) is perhaps not very surprising (also, Blockbuster refused to carry either, which carried a lot of weight until the freedom fighters of the internet liberated us from its iron yoke).


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:17 AM
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The design thing could be part of it - we have multiplexes here but there's always at least one usher per screen to show you to your seat and check you're in the right one.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:25 AM
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52: Were British movies were less restrictive at the time of the Hayes Code? Maybe I should google "full frontal Alec Guinness" to find out?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:30 AM
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Anyhow, the guy was named Hays and was a Presbyterian who copied what the Catholics had written. Just like what happened to me in Chemistry.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:38 AM
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55: Hays it was. The guy who actually got the studios to enforce the code was Catholic, though.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:48 AM
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True. But Boston blames the Irish for too much.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:50 AM
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Apparently R-18 movies can only be shown in special theaters that are licensed private clubs? That doesn't seem so terribly different from the situation here.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:52 AM
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Er, that should have had a link.

57: heh. I don't think the Irish get the blame for Puritanism in general. But my understanding of the push for the Hays code was that it was led by the Catholic League (if I remember right Boston actually did have its own special censorship regime but I'm not sure they had much influence?).

I think I got rid of the book I had about this stuff, unfortunately. Otherwise I could fail to go look things up in that.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:57 AM
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I think it was not until the early 60s that any British films started to appear that were not Hays Code-friendly. And then it was not because of explicit content, it was because of sympathetic portrayal of acknowledged homosexual characters ("Victim", "A Taste of Honey).


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:01 AM
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Ah, here:

Hollywood's compliance in 1934 came not under threat of government intervention (always held over the heads of studio bosses) but from well-organized boycotts, led primarily by the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency. A pledge-signing campaign, Doherty explains, keeping patrons from movies which "offend decency and Christian morality," dramatically affected the box-office take.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:02 AM
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Were British movies were less restrictive at the time of the Hayes Code? Maybe I should google "full frontal Alec Guinness" to find out?

There were three ratings, U=universal, A=adult, which meant 12+ could attend if accompanied by one, but otherwise you had to be 18, and X, which was 18+ only. (I think there was also a special rating for what they fondly believed in those days to be skinflicks, but it was effectively never used: pr0n was rated X.)

The main difference was that all theatres showed A rated films as a matter of course, and many also showed X rated ones. People went to see them and they made money.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:05 AM
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To be R-18, though, you basically have to be honest-to-goodness pornography and also disclaim any artistic pretensions whatsoever. The Wikipedia article on the 18 certificate is explanatory:

This precedent appears to have been set when the BBFC granted 18 certificates for films containing short scenes of unsimulated sex, such as Catherine Breillat's Romance (in 1999) and Patrice Chereau's Intimacy (in 2001). In October 2004, a new precedent appeared to be set when the BBFC granted an 18 certificate for Michael Winterbottom's film 9 Songs, which featured a number of lengthy explicit scenes of unsimulated sex. This was followed by certificates for Shortbus and Destricted. In the statement justifying the latter decision, it was stated that there is no limit of the quantity of images that can be considered to be justified...In 2004 the board was also challenged by pornographic video distributors to award 18 certificates to material otherwise falling under the R18 guidelines. This could have greatly diminished the role of the R18 certificate, but failed. This means there continues to be a form of artistic merit test requiring the work to be judged non-pornographic and the scenes in question "exceptionally justified by context" for a mainstream release.

In a further twist, you don't need to be justified by context in fucking if you're just doing porn for porn's sake:

The main difference between this new policy and previous years' policies is that contextual justification for images of real sex is no longer irrelevant if the primary purpose of the work is sexual arousal or stimulation, instead it merely reduces the amount of justification that context can provide.

Although, as pointed out above, you can have any amount of smut without going R-18 if you're A SERIOUS. But some things tip you into the porno bucket:

In a sex work, any explicit and non-obscured sight of vaginal or anal penetration by any object whatsoever; any contact between the lips or tongue and genital/anal area; and ejaculation usually requires an R18. Any sight of a liquid resembling semen is also usually restricted to R18, even if the ejaculation is not visible: women licking sticky white liquid off a model of the World Cup and similar liquid splashing onto faces, breasts or being swallowed have all been censored from 18 certificate films. The R18 versions contained these images unaltered. Further reasons for R18 as opposed to 18 include vigorous and/or extensive genital touching (brief genital touching may be passed "18"), implied triple penetration, extreme close ups of spread female genitals or anuses (erections are now permissible at 18 however), and certain fetish material- especially urination and potentially dangerous sado-masochistic activities. However under the new 2010 guidelines explicit images of real sex can be passed 18 in a sex work provided there is exceptional justifying context.

All clear so far?


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:13 AM
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63. But the current classifications are mostly if not entirely post Hayes Office. I suspect that in those day unsimulated fucking would simply have been denied a certificate, as also, of course, anything gay at all, beyond smoldering glances.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:23 AM
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There should be some named law such that "No matter how permissive or sensible a censorship regime may be, seeing its provisions written out makes it sound ridiculous."


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:23 AM
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Actually I heartily recommend the BBFC's capsule reviews and judgments: "ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS - CHIPWRECKED is the third feature following the adventures of six chipmunks. In this instalment, the chipmunks go on a holiday cruise only to fall overboard and get stranded on a seemingly deserted island. The film was classified 'U' and contains some scenes of mild comic threat. When the chipmunks reach the desert island, they find a woman who has been stranded there for ten years. When they agree to help the woman, they discover that she is actually looking for treasure and is planning to use the chipmunks to help her find it. The BBFC's Guidelines at 'U' state 'Scary sequences should be mild, brief and unlikely to cause undue anxiety to young children. The outcome should be reassuring'. There is some threat to the safety of the chipmunks, particularly when they have to cross a very wobbly bridge over a ravine, but the danger is always averted very quickly and even the villain soon sees the error of her ways."

(Wikipedia informs me that "Plan 9 from Outer Space" was awarded an X-certificate on its first release.)


Posted by: tierce de lollardie | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:29 AM
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65. Ain't that the truth?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:34 AM
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66: The major threat of "Chipwrecked" is that your child will find it amusing and keep asking your wife to sing like Alvin over and over again on a car trip.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:36 AM
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Thursday the 12th works better for me than Wednesday the 11th.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:40 AM
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64: of course, anything gay at all, beyond smoldering glances.

Apparently what got Midnight Cowboy it's mind-boggling initial X rating in 1969. Re-rated to R in 1971.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 9:12 AM
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||

Christ.

|>


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 9:35 AM
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The 12th is the only day I (and the lurker from the OP) can make it. Everyone else should arrange their schedules to suit our whim, obvs, so: January 12, 8:00, Brick and Mortar.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 9:42 AM
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OT: Has anyone noticed the link to Kevin Drum in the left navigation panel is very outdated. It points to his previous column in Washington Monthly, and not his recent column in Mother Jones.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 10:23 AM
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72: Okay, then.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 10:32 AM
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You can narrow release an NC17 movie in the US no problem. EWS,somewhat amazingly, was widely distributed as a tentpole. And bombed abysmally, IIRC. Of course widespread porn has killed any independent commercial value from bare tits in theatrical release.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 10:41 AM
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59 et al. -- in the olden days, there were state (sometimes city) specific censorship regimes, and Boston with its ever-awesome combination of puritan-puritans and Irish Catholic puritans was one of the most restrictive. The push for the Hayes Code did indeed largely come from the Catholic League, though. Like most of these things the Code was a preemptive industry effort to avoid perceived worse consequences from populist yahoos (important to recall the majority ethnicity of the studio heads and the years in which the Hayes Code was adopted).


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 11:15 AM
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Thus, for example, the pre-code Mae West films that showed a little raunchiness were banned from screening in Boston, even though they were mass distributed elsewhere.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 11:18 AM
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"Banned in Boston" was a cliche mentioned in M.A.S.H. once.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 11:20 AM
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And in Pogo.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:17 PM
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And all over the place.

The Combat Zone is now a memory as well.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:21 PM
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The Combat Zone was a bit of a joke in the late Eighties. I'd been warned to stay away from it, but accidentally wandered past going to Chinatown. A half-block of porn stores and strip clubs?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:35 PM
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Worth pointing out that until the early 1950s in the US the First Amendment wasn't deemed to apply to movies whatsoever. Absolutely no federal free speech protection for film.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:38 PM
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Yeah the joke for a while was that it was the Combat Block. Now it's just gone. There's one adult bookstore and, a few blocks away, one strip club. The area's full of theaters and new restaurants now.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:38 PM
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Two strip clubs, actually, but they're right next to each other, so it's easy to think that there's just one. Still pretty pathetic, and I think the adult bookstore is gone.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:56 PM
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72: Yay for decisiveness!

74: Yay that mcmc can come this time!


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:59 PM
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Now I'm trying to think if there's still a bona fide genuine 1970s style red light district left in any major American city. Is that area in Baltimore still there? Times Square, Combat Zone, decadent era Hollywood Boulevard are all long gone. Maybe that area just at the start of North Beach in San Francisco?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 12:59 PM
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Eighth Avenue north of 42d Street isn't what Times Square was, but it's got a higher concentration of naughtiness than the Combat Zone did in the eighties.

But really, I think the internet and the VCR killed the porn theater/store. The only sex-related stuff you need to leave the house for is live interaction with performers. Sex toys and other paraphernalia, I suppose, if you don't like buying them online.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:11 PM
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Scratch that -- I just checked on Google street view, and there's just one place left on that stretch of street. But there were a bunch there even after Times Square cleaned up.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:15 PM
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The tenderloin is still fairly sordid in parts, right? Parts of Market St. remained unreconstructed the last time I was in SF, although that was somewhat shocking given the fast pace of gentrification elsewhere in the city.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:18 PM
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The adult bookstore by my in-laws, the only one I knew that was still around, burned down last year. A clerk stole a few hundred from the register and tried to cover his crime with a much bigger crime. Nobody rebuilt it.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:18 PM
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86: Times Square

Looking up Midnight Cowboy for the other thread, I caught a comment where some critic had remarked on how that movie now serves pretty well as a cinematic testament (tribute? a cinematic something) to the 60s-80s Times Square Sleaze Era.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:18 PM
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There was a porn store that held on in old town pasadena well into the 2000s. It was quite charming, by the end, that it had survived so long.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:19 PM
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Mae West films

You can find clips of her on YouTube. I had always thought of her as such a vamp and a gorgeous siren. Watching her is different, though. Seeing her on YouTube, I'm mostly struck by how contemporary and casual she looks. Maybe back then she seemed strikingly chill and accessible relative to mannered norms? I dunno.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:31 PM
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the X rating was a really belated development and susceptible (since it didn't actually restrict any content) to hijacking by honest-to-god pornography.

Possibly pwned, because I haven't read the whole thread, but there's an interesting footnote to this discussion. The reason that pornographers were able to hijack the X rating is that the Motion Picture Association of America inexplicably failed to copyright it. Imagine! Hollywood declining to protect its IP!


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:32 PM
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Sam Delany's Times Square Red, Times Square Blue is a moving and fascinating portrait of what vanished socially when the pornos were shut down and the area was cleaned up.


Posted by: tierce de lollardie | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:36 PM
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FWIW, I can probably make a meetup on the 12th. Not sure what Fleur has planned.


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:36 PM
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I would recommend that anyone interested in thinking of Mae West as a gorgeous siren give Sextette a pass forever. (West was pushing 40 by the time she broke into film; she looks great as Diamond Lil, but not in any way ice princess-y. Her Broadway career had started fifteen years earlier, including a play called Sex which IIRC the Catholic League shut down.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 1:46 PM
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Nobody should be thinking too hard about Mae West given the rules about such things.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:13 PM
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I was more than a little surprised when I actually saw a Mae West movie. (Klondike Annie, I think?) Not what I was expecting.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:20 PM
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My sense (and I can't think of what of hers I've seen) was that she was more like Bette Midler than anything else. Sexual humor, and sexy herself, but not a star by force of sexual magnetism; more about the funny and the subject matter than that you were supposed to leave the theater dreaming about her.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:24 PM
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100: I think that's right, but she also had a reputation as impossibly sexual, and the actors in her movies (up to and including Sextette) generally behaved as if she was.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:29 PM
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94: The reason that pornographers were able to hijack the X rating is that the Motion Picture Association of America inexplicably failed to copyright it.

The theory was that people who made non-porn adult films would just go ahead and voluntarily use X instead of routing through the rating system. This would result in lots of adult films at less expense for everybody. The porn guys then jacked it and made it synonymous with porn, so no one wanted to use unless they were porn guys. So 20 years later they decided on (copyrighted) NC-17, which turns out to be a hard R that can't get airplay, so nobody much uses it unless they have to.

The people who really hate the sexxor, really hate the sexxor. Enough that theater chains don't want the harassment. Violent dismemberment is A-OK though!

max
['Joshua did it, so that's OK.']


Posted by: max | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:30 PM
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Impossibly sexually aggressive, maybe? The lines of hers I can think of are all about wanting sex (and presumably being able to get it, not vainly wanting it). That's an area where she didn't have much competition at the time.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 2:31 PM
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(de-lurks) Hello, I'm the lurker mentioned in the OP. Looking forward to meeting peeps in Boston. (re-lurks)


Posted by: Scomber mix | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:45 PM
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So bummed I'm missing the meetup. Serves me right, I guess.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 7:50 PM
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103: Impossibly sexually aggressive, maybe

Yes, and she pushed the limits of sexuality in "mainstream" entertainment in a lot of different ways including co-writing a series of plays in the 1920s. Her bawdy 1926 play Sex, the story of a Montreal prostitute, fills the house for a year before New York's deputy police commissioner raids West and her company, charging them with lewdness and the corrupting of youth. The city's real aim is to derail the Broadway arrival of West's gay-themed play, The Drag, which is trying out in New Jersey.

My favorite movie is her playing against WC Fields in My Little Chickadee. At some point for reasons I forget she is in a classroom: [reading off the blackboard] "'I am a good boy. I am a good man. I am a good girl." What is this, propaganda?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 8:31 PM
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Her bawdy 1926 play Sex, the story of a Montreal prostitute....

Montreal? That's sick.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 9:20 PM
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Montreal? That's sick.

Oh, John: why so close-minded?


Posted by: Mary Catherine | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 9:32 PM
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73: the "links" list has always been preserved in its original form as a tribute to ogged (PBUH). changes to the hovertext have been deemed acceptable. (re-tweeting standpipe.)


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01- 5-12 10:16 PM
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109: There has been at least one more recent change to the links.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 9:26 AM
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Heh heh, "preserved in its original form as a tribute." I like that. I shoulda said that when my Mom told me to clean my room.

Shameless plug for a good cause, Polar Plunge. If nothing else, follow that link to see a photo of my superhero alter ego, Major Rick Talon.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 9:37 AM
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Durrr...


Posted by: Pauly Shore | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 9:49 AM
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113

||

iphone 4S questions

(1.) Does anyone have a 4S? How do you like it? Is SIRI helpful?

(2.) I am currently on Verizon, and my contract has expired, so I'm month to month. Should I sign up with Verizon or switch to AT&T? Sprint isn't really an option, much as I'd like to have unlimited data, because they don't have a plan that includes Canada.

(3.) How much data do you guys with smartphones typically use. The companies talk about the number of web pages you can look at in a month. How much data does refreshing Unfogged use up?

|>


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:34 AM
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Unfogged doesn't use much bandwidth. Standpipe's other blog does.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:40 AM
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112: A simple test with Gomez site analysis says unfogged.com loads 1.185 M of data. I see the plan analyzers talk about number of pages seen. I don't know how much data they consider to be in a 'normal' page, but the cnn.com home page was at 0.785 M.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:48 AM
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115: I think it might be lower than that when videos aren't up. I have a plan that allows only 200MB. I mostly use wifi to keep under that limit, but it does let me do email and unfogged when I'm not at home or work.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 11:01 AM
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Can that be right even with the three videos? CNN has a bunch of images.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 11:07 AM
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(re-tweeting standpipe.)

??????


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 11:20 AM
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117: You know, the Gomez site analysis numbers don't add up for me. When I do the online analysis for unfogged, the total page size lists as 1.185M, but the pie chart showing the size distribution adds up to about 0.250M, or 250K.

Their measurements for CNN.com are the same for the total size and the pie-chart size breakdown. I think that the unfogged load today is about 250 K in size.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:03 PM
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I spend a lot of time on the bus and want to be able to check my e-mail as well as monitor the bus using the MBTA's GPS system.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:22 PM
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119: I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I just loaded Unfogged on my iPhone and my KB received went up 244, so that fits.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:28 PM
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But then I load CNN and it goes up by 191, so.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:30 PM
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Oh yeah, mobile optimized sites.
Someone should write an Unfogged app.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:34 PM
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124

Does this mean that when I finally replace my decrepit old iPhone, I won't have unlimited data anymore?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:43 PM
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124: Yep. I'm kind of eyeing a 4S, but I don't need to be spending money, particularly the higher rate every month, and I particularly don't need to be worrying about my data usage.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 1:53 PM
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Speaking of new phones, I still haven't gotten mine because FedEx works the same hours I do and won't leave it without a signature. I'm going to go over there after work today to see if I can get them to hand it over.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 2:02 PM
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124, 125: If you're currently on the now-no-longer-available Verizon unlimited plan, you can get a new phone at the upgrade price and still keep the old data plan. Pretty sure that's true for AT&T as well.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 2:06 PM
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127: Yes, I'm mad that I missed the unlimited data plan from Verizon. Sprint's unlimited plan is cheaper than Verizon's 10GB. Sucks. My work phone died, and I want to use my personal cell to replace this. Being able to tell the thing to remind me to do something seems like it would really improve my life.

Verizon does not yet have 4G (LTE) for the iphone--unfortunately.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 2:13 PM
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Dammit, now they've returned it to sender. I guess I'll have to talk to Verizon about it.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 4:08 PM
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Well, the flight for my next business trip doesn't leave until 6:30am Friday so I can stay at this one a little longer than last time.
(I don't really take that many trips, the correlation with meetups is quite odd.)


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 5:38 PM
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Verizon does not yet have 4G (LTE) for the iphone--unfortunately.

Nobody has 4G for the iPhone; the hardware doesn't support it. (There were rumors that the 4S would be a 4G phone, but they turned out to not be true.)


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 6:28 PM
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127.last is correct.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 6:45 PM
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130: Yay!


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 8:27 PM
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130: dammit.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 8:28 PM
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131: Josh I get that. Apple didn't make the iphone ready for 4G. But the elusive iphone 5 is supposed to have it. So the questio becomes, "should I wait?"


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:14 PM
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I was trying to Google that recently; the dominant rumor seems to be iPhone 5 in September or October, but I don't have any real knowledge.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:18 PM
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135, 136: Given that Apple's got a pretty strong track record of releasing new phones a year after their previous release, September or October seems like a complete no-brainer to me. And I would be shocked if the next one didn't have 4G.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 01- 6-12 10:36 PM
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I retract 130, now leaving in the afternoon. Sifu and I plan to have a personal meetup where we sing karaoke duets.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 9-12 7:21 PM
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138 would be awesome.

Is the meetup confirmed for 8 at Bricks and Mortar?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01-10-12 1:59 PM
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138 gets it right.

Islands In The Stream, here we come!


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-10-12 1:59 PM
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My phone contract is up, and I was looking to upgrade but I was gobsmacked at the prices at the moment. I'm thinking of staying with my 3GS another year.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-10-12 2:17 PM
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Thanks for bumping up the post.

139: Yes, 8 at Brick and Mortar, SP's defection notwithstanding. Scomber mix and I will be traveling all day tomorrow, but we'll check back in in early evening to confirm.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01-11-12 7:13 PM
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I'll be there by 8.

Brick and Mortar is in the old Enormous Room space, above Central Kitchen.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01-11-12 8:40 PM
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Me too!


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 01-11-12 8:46 PM
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How will you find one another? Oh, right. Upon arriving, you each tell the host, "I'm here to sex Mutombo," and you're in.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-11-12 8:52 PM
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Someone needs to write an Unfogged iPhone app. It should fetch only the latest comments of recently updated threads (for less data usage), and display them at a rational size. I think someone could do this and get a couple hundred dollars at $1/pop.

I will try to make it to the meetup, but I'm in this crazy course for three weeks and I have a shitload of work to do.


Posted by: Bave | Link to this comment | 01-11-12 10:29 PM
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Sorry, as suggested above I won't be able to make it, due to some complicated travel plans. Have fun!!


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 10:38 AM
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Okay SP, I'm in the bar in the airport. Let me know when you get here.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 3:24 PM
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Have fun. I will be flying to DC in order to get from somewhere in OH to somewhere in PA. In the rain.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 3:42 PM
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I've decided that, whatever his speciality, essear does atmospheric physics.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 3:57 PM
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Or maybe I'm not going anywhere. Too much rain and wind to fly, I'm told. Wait in this semiinfinite line, I'm told.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 4:14 PM
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I'm at the bar, still. It is rainy here but I am thus far undelayed.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 4:17 PM
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We've arrived in Boston and are heading out to dinner. Sadly we have dumbphones, so someone else will have to provide the drunken liveblogging.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 4:24 PM
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If I had known this a few hours ago I could have taken Megabus.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 4:32 PM
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Okay, the on-the-plane meetup begins. Who's with me?!


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:01 PM
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Don't put the seat back.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:02 PM
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Since I appear to have backed my way into weirdly extraneous legroom seats, it doesn't seem like I will need to.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:05 PM
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Backing into your seat is fine, but making the "Beep! Beep! Beep!" truck noise every time you do it? Kind of annoying.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:07 PM
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Does anyone happen to know? If I have a multi-destination plane trip (A -> B, B -> C, C -> A) and I take a bus from B -> C instead of the flight, will they cancel the final, C -> A leg?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:18 PM
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The robot on the airline's website was useless.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:19 PM
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I'm happy with my now-scheduled early morning flight, except that there will be snow and I assume they will cancel it too.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:20 PM
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Normally airlines aren't happy with that (they assume you were trying to get a the open-jar A->B and C->A more cheaply than they would otherwise sell it to you). I think you need a non-robot to be able to get away with it.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:26 PM
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I'm down at the hotel bar but I don't see the karaoke machine.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:27 PM
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I'm exhausted enough that I think I'll just stay here tonight and wait until tomorrow to deal with the cancellation of the morning flight.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:29 PM
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Someone should liveblog something more amusing than my travel snafus.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:33 PM
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Come to my DC hotel bar meetip.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:36 PM
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159 -- almost always, the airline will cancel. Definitely check before trying this strategy.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:36 PM
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I could have taken my scheduled flight and then been stranded in DC. That might have been the smarter option.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 5:44 PM
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Meetup in progress. Interesting drinks are being consumed.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 6:40 PM
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GB, BG, KR, mcmc, Blume, myself, and a couple of friends.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 6:41 PM
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Lesson: Take menu extremely literally. Raclette cheese does not imply, say, bread.

Yoga damage article being criticized for lack if comparative analysis.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 7:21 PM
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Now there's grinding going on. The chaperones are powerless to stop it.


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 7:22 PM
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Mcmc has just finished eating a duck sausage, IYKWIMAITYD.


Posted by: knecht ruprecht | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 7:44 PM
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She says it was delicious. IYKWIMAITTYD.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 7:46 PM
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Interesting drinks are being consumed.

Both Nathan and I had drinks where interesting = takes a long time to drink because the drink is heavy and/or complex. His was ordered off the menu, mine was a bartender's choice dealie, which they called "Honky on a Donkey".


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 8:36 PM
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Thanks to everyone who braved the interesting drinks. If you were all hired for the occasion by the basement-dwelling forty-year-old who's really behind Unfogged, you're to be commended on your fine impressions of blog personae.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 9:08 PM
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I'm on a plane, still. Woo plane meetup.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 01-12-12 11:05 PM
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I just saw the most recent episode of Portlandia. It included both a complicated mixed drink and someone saying "totes my bad."


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 01-13-12 2:24 AM
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92: Still there Sifu.


Posted by: Turgid Jacobian | Link to this comment | 07-21-12 12:39 PM
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Complete with jackhammering!


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 07-21-12 2:40 PM
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Had the potential demise of the porn store been bothering you for six months?


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 07-21-12 2:40 PM
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Actually I just stumbled upon this thread accidentally. Autocomplete resurrected it. I remembered that store, too, amidst the conspicuous consumption.


Posted by: Turgid Jacobian | Link to this comment | 07-22-12 6:13 AM
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Posted by: asegadap | Link to this comment | 09- 2-12 4:04 AM
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