Camped out Blackberry in hand to the first commenter on iPhone thread.
I have never camped out for anything. Am I missing something? I mean, I've camped. Camped out, even. But not for anything.
I camped out for The Phantom Menace. The movie sucked, but the experience was awesome. And actually I didn't realize that the movie sucked until a few days later so maybe that didn't actually matter.
I once camped out for a free computer. I ended up scoring not only a computer, but a TV as well. And I camped out at Woodstock, for the music - does that count?
Camping out to be the first to get some exciting new device that there will not, in anycase, be a shortage of: stupid. Camping out to get the minor rev. 2 of that device that there will not, in any case, be a shortage of: really stupid. Camping out in line for things: stupid in general. Certainly George Lucas's fault; is there anything he doesn't ruin?
Of course I just woke up from a series of totally fucked up nightmares that could have really done with some cheesy kid-friendliness and odious comic relief, so maybe the joke's on me.
Camped out for a week once in college for a basketball game. Some of my fondest memories from school.
You can't really camp out for concert tickets these days... You just kind of go on the website on the right day and start refreshing a lot around noon.
But if you could camp out, I probably would have done it for the MBV reunion tour. Alas.
I guess I've sort of camped out (waited an hour or so after arriving early) for front row at a few pretty difficult-to-get-into shows, but that's about it.
I hate the television news coverage on Thanksgiving of the people camping out to be the first to get the flatscreen televisions or whatever's on sale that year. What a terrible American tradition.
And actually I didn't realize that the movie sucked until a few days later
This is what comes of being disoriented from lack of sleep.
DE, I don't think camping at music festivals counts these days. It's become totally mainstream. I camped out for tickets to Cream's break-up gig. Never since.
Not only have I never camped out for anything, I won't even wait in a line if there are more than 10 or so people in front.
I once made an exception - for The Phantom Menace as it happens. Say no more.
Living in the UK, camping out for consumer goods isn't really an option unless you're willing to get rained on overnight. Not that I'd have done it anyway.
In college, I camped out for R.E.M. and Iron Maiden tickets, and ended up right down front for both shows. Seemed worth it at the time, but I was young and had little else better to do.
9: It might not count these days, but that was those days. 39 years ago. Now I really feel old.
12: I didn't know they toured together.
I guess I can see camping out for concert tickets if you have more time than money (e.g. are in college) and are really committed to the band. It's this new thing, this camping out in front of a store or movie theater for no reason -- just so you can feel like part of a herd, even if the item in question is going to be available just by walking into the store two hours later -- that I find ridiculous and a bit abhorrent.
In high school, I "camped out" for a single day in Central Park with some friends while we waited for the Paul Simon free concert to start. We spread out a blanket and had a picnic while we waited.
Our cunning plan was foiled when, an hour or so before the concert started, five million people flooded into the meadow until it was packed with people pressed up against each other, making the very idea of our reserving a particular spot (let alone one as big as a blanket) ludicrous.
12: I camped out for REM tickets, too! It was the summer after 8th grade, and I and 2 pals slept in front of Radio City Music Hall to be the first to get tickets to what would have been the Fables of the Reconstruction tour, I guess. We ended up front row center. The Three O'Clock opened. It was a hoot.
Does camping for tickets to classical music count? Every year, at the Kennedy Center here in DC there is a free sing-along Messiah. We (5-6 of us) used to camp out overnight to be first in line and by 4 AM the line is already around the building. Nothing like sleeping on marble when it's 30 degrees!
BTW, we were all Jewish and eventually made up a sign saying "a bunch of Jews waiting for the Messiah" to put on the encampment.
Camped out? I'm not sure I've ever attended a concert that even sold out. I did see a midnight showing of The Phantom Menace that sold out, but the fellow who bought our tickets just stopped by the theater a couple of days in advance and didn't even have to wait in line. Other than the Star Wars films, none of the things I've seen people camped out for have even appealed to me enough for me to pay any money for them at all. I'm not sure I would even go to see most of that stuff if it was free. I really don't understand popular tastes or the glorification of large crowds, I guess.
I don't even want to tell you how many days I spent in Waiting for George Lucas but the experience was awesome.
Oh, hey, Apo went first! Cool!
I camped out once for Black Sabbath tickets. Camping out meant arriving around 4 AM and hanging out in the truck trying not to freeze. Yeah, not such good tickets, even though we were like 10th in line since they were selling to the scalpers first. A learning experience that made me agree with you (Becks) and I never did that again.
(Which makes me wonder a bit about how I kept hearing that people in DC would wait two hours in line to get into a restaurant. Given the low low lowest quality of food in this here state, I really can't figure that one out.)
max
['Furby!']
I camped out for last year's Sufjan Stevens concert at the Kennedy Center. It was a free show, but you needed tickets in advance, and you had to stand in line to get them. I felt a little bad for the people who got their around 4 a.m. and later, because they still had to deal with hours in the February cold but didn't get any tickets since the line at that point had several thousand people in it. The marble is indeed rather chilly. Good show, though, totally worth it.
I've waited in line, I guess, but never overnight. Camping out for a consumer good is a pretty funny choice to make: do you think all even a single one of the people you are going to tell about how you were the first person in your zip code to have device X care in the very least?
When you came early for a Dead concert at Winterland, they had volleyball games, between regions (eg East Bay v. Peninsula). Pretty funny trying to play such a thing in such a state.
Pretty funny trying to play such a thing in such a state.
Some sports are best played this way, really.
Some sports are best played this way, really.
Badminton?
15: It's this new thing, this camping out in front of a store or movie theater for no reason -- just so you can feel like part of a herd, even if the item in question is going to be available just by walking into the store two hours later -- that I find ridiculous and a bit abhorrent.
Agreed. I don't know anyone who does this, but what's the idea? Is it to feel like part of the herd? Bragging rights? It seems childish. I feel poised on the edge of a condemnation of consumer culture: stop me! Is it that technology and consumer trends change so rapidly that not being oh-so-six-months-ago is valued in and of itself, to the extent that the thing valued is of less importance than its utter timeliness? [blah blah, insert some Baudrillard or something here]
I should stop.
No camping, but I once waited for several long hours to get into the after-party for a Prince show. My roomie and stood there forever and ever, and just as we got to the front, the bouncers started yelling, "Fifty dollars! Admission is fifty dollars cash, have it ready when you get to to door." Not having that kind of dash, we decided to bail. But then a seriously Long Island dude and his underage girlfriend standing on the sidewalk next to the line said, "Hey, I'll give you $50 for your spot in line." So we took his cash and give him our spot, bought a bottle of black label and a cab back home. Seemed like we'd scored big until we heard that inside the after-party, Prince had played until dawn with the Roots, D'Angelo, and Maceo Parker.
In 1974, feeling that his teammates had lost their aggressiveness and were too easily intimidated, Ellis decided to put on a show against the Cincinnati Reds (who had come from behind to defeat the Pirates for the 1972 National League pennant on a run-scoring wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning of the final playoff game). In a May 1 start against the Reds -- having announced before the game that "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit these motherfuckers." -- Ellis opened the contest by drilling leadoff hitter Pete Rose in the ribs; hitting the next batter, Joe Morgan, in the side; and then plunking Dan Driessen in the back to load the bases. Although clean-up hitter Tony Perez managed to dodge Ellis' pitches long enough to draw a walk before being hit, Dock aimed his next two offerings at Cincinnati catcher Johnny Bench's head, whereupon he was unceremoniously yanked from the game by Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh.
As it happened, Who tix (for the 1989 Tommy Reunion tour) went on sale the day after my HS Prom, and our school let prom-goers out early, so a bunch of us went over to the record store. IIRC, there was some wristband deal, and so no one actually had to sleep out for the tix. As it happened, I went to summer college and gave my ticket to my sister, who raved and raved about the show.
I can't believe the game in 30 doesn't get talked up more around here (Pittsburgh here, not Unfogged here). That's just wonderful.
Camped out for food stamps once, tho really just went into the woods because it would be easier to fast there. Or so I thought.
Spent 12 hours at a Fry's Computer store one sale Friday. It was probably worth it, one-year outdated components going for 1/4 retail.
I hate the television news coverage on Thanksgiving of the people camping out to be the first to get the flatscreen televisions or whatever's on sale that year. What a terrible American tradition.
Preach it. It makes me want to vote for the terrorists.
I've never camped out for anything. Camping out for a consumer good for which there is no shortage (pretty sure last time one could just walk into the Apple Stores later in the day and buy them) is just bizarre.
While I cringe at the camping out post-Thanksgiving at 4 a.m. for flatscreen TVs, isn't it a bit different from camping out for something that will still be available at the same price later?
Or is this a distinction without a difference?
Getting something first is fun, and staying up all night somewhere you're not supposed to is also fun. This isn't all that complicated.
37: If by "fun" you mean "preferable to hanging out with some friends at a bar, having a few drinks, and going to sleep in the comfort of your own bed" then no, not really.
36: There is a difference, but not much of one; it's not the only sale of the Christmas season, and perhaps not even the best.
While I cringe at the camping out post-Thanksgiving at 4 a.m. for flatscreen TVs
The horror. If you haven't had a meal so cripplingly magnificent that you couldn't possibly entertain the idea of waking up that early to buy crap, then you've wasted your Thanksgiving. Of course, I don't even have a TV.
Certainly George Lucas's fault; is there anything he doesn't ruin?
Or, perhaps, Enix's fault?
41: I can't read the subtext here, but even when I've been treated to a Thanksgiving meal out of cans, I'm not going to do that thing.
Okay, 41 was hasty and inept. The idea is that a person should celebrate Thanksgiving with food and drink (good, and lots) and naturally prefer sleeping in to getting up at some absurd hour to go to some awful big-box store to buy some consumer good. I generally support Buy Nothing Day, but invariably I discover that I've forgotten some essential ingredient at the grocery store.
I camped out for an appointment slot at the US consulate when I was trying to get an F1 visa, back in 1996. The lines got long enough that they started web-based appointments, and eventually had to hire more staff. Those were the days.
Nowadays, I don't think anywhere near as many bright-eyed, bushy-tailed students want F1 visas. I guess they reduced the lines by addressing the demand side instead of the supply side.
I don't see what's so bad about consumerism having its ceremonies, too. A good number of us here, myself included, refreshed that iPhone liveblog; similar enough in intent, just less celebratory and more private and sad.
37: See camping out for Star Wars was kind of like that except without sleeping in one's own bed. And besides I was a senior in high school and it was awesome. It does seem as if there is a difference between camping out for Star Wars and camping out for a flat screen tv, though both obviously reach to the core of a consumerist society. I guess I would like to think that since it was the only time I did it and it was STAR WARS, that that makes it ok.
I don't see what's so bad about consumerism having its ceremonies, too.
We will observe you. We will comment among ourselves, quietly.
I kinda regret not having camped out to hear a Supreme Court case when I was in law school.
We will observe you. We will comment among ourselves, quietly.
The subtext (which was much too sub) in the second half of my comment was that there are no outsiders to consumerism who can observe and freely judge any longer; there are those who accept it and throw ceremonies, and there are those who continue to pretend that reiterating shame on their peers (even if quietly, even if among themselves) can somehow counteract or redeem their involvement.
I don't mean to just be muttering that We're All Consumerists Now, although I admit to be doing that a bit—just that I don't understand why we should condemn one of the few routines of consumerism that looks fun, communal, ceremonial. Now unboxing videos, those are fucking weird.
If you were wearing tall furry hats and agonizing over the investiture of the next Grand Poo bah, I'd laugh too. Just because it's a ceremony, doesn't mean it isn't silly.
I like my toys as much as the next boy, but there's no value in being first, or only one to have them. And competition over who has which toy, and which is better? You're really supposed to leave that behind in middle school. (I'm willing to accept that much of nerd culture represents a clinging to middle school folkways.)
but 'We're all Middle Schoolers now' is a step too far for this old fart.
And get off my lawn.
51: I understand, of course.
there are those who accept it and throw ceremonies, and there are those who continue to pretend that reiterating shame on their peers (even if quietly, even if among themselves) can somehow counteract or redeem their involvement.
No sir, no one redeeming their involvement here, I don't think. There is the value of occasional critical distance, though. The distinction you draw is too stark.
Getting something first is fun
True if it's, say, two months before it becomes available to everybody on earth. Not twelve hours before.
Now unboxing videos, those are fucking weird.
Is "unboxing" like "bumfights" or "backyard wrestling"? If so I agree.
Have never camped out, but we did go out at about 4am for The Royal Wedding (i.e. Charles & Diana), We had a French exchange girl staying with us, and my dad said she could watch it on telly at home, so we should go up to St Pauls. Was fun.
Call me cynical, but when I see people camping out for a product launch I can't help wondering how many of them are being paid to build buzz. For something like an iPhone, running at $200 base price and probably double that in the first six months in downloads and accessories, dropping $10K for shills might well pay off quite handsomely.
OT: This is adorable.
Yes, it is!
I waited in line a couple of hours for a much worse Apple-related reason than an iPhone - to buy OSX 10.2 (or was it 10.3?) when it was launched. It was kind of fun nerd bonding, the wait wasn't terribly long, and there were some freebies.
I also did some pseudo-camping to get a Wii; I had to show up at a certain store before 7am to get issued a numbered ticket, which I could use later that morning to actually buy the thing (and not spend all the time in the middle standing in line). It wasn't at a particular launch date, but for months and months after the launch it was hard to find and any given store was only getting a dozen or so in each weekly shipment.
In college I joined the long, party-like like for the annual midnight bad-taste show of the major a cappella group, but I was not ever part of the group that was there 24 hours in advance. And all the waiting was indoors.
My dad went to the store at midnight to buy Windows 95. Sucka.
I've never camped out for anything. I've waited in line for a couple of hours for a movie a couple of times, but I think that's it.
I waited for five hours for my student ID when I was a freshman in college. That sucked. I met a few people, but made no friends.
I've never camped out for anything. When we were about 15 years old we bought a VIP membership between six of us for our local major concert venue.
So, we had access to a special 'hotline' which got us tickets booked before they went on public sale, and also gave us access to the member's bar. It cost us ten pounds each, iirc, and was some of the best money ever spent. Even if we didn't have much money we could often book a couple of extra seats and sell them outside to pay for our own gig going [they were always first choice seats, too, so could be sold at a premium].
For about 2 - 3 years we saw every remotely decent rock or metal band that toured Scotland [and some crappy ones too].
Camping out for luxury consumer items is fun and transgressive, making you totally understand what refugees are going through!
We went to a late-night party to buy the last HP book at midnight. Wore costumes and everything. It was fun.
Waiting in line for something is fun but only if one takes friends, which makes it a party in a new and unusual place or if one meets interesting people. The night before the PS2 came out I read that there were lines already and went by one with a roommate to marvel at the stupidity; the next day I walked into a store, past the line and bought a Dreamcast.
I've never camped out for tickets to a show and in fact bought Rah's and my unbelievably incredible seats for the REM concert last month about five hours before it started from the normal sales website. Just got lucky and hit them right as they released some holds, I'm guessing, but we were in the center, under the roof, tenth row.
I like the above thought it is good from my side.
Tia smith