[HN Gopher] People in 1920s Berlin Nightclubs Flirted via Pneuma...
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People in 1920s Berlin Nightclubs Flirted via Pneumatic Tubes
Author : jakobdabo
Score : 65 points
Date : 2023-07-24 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.atlasobscura.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.atlasobscura.com)
| foobiekr wrote:
| For RPGers, this is one of the many elements from that time that
| show up in "Berlin: The Wicked City" for Call of Cthulhu. It
| doesn't get the attention that it deserves as a module and
| setting. Weimar Berlin is practically mythos-tastic in and of
| itself.
| zokier wrote:
| > It doesn't get the attention that it deserves as a module and
| setting. Weimar Berlin is practically mythos-tastic in and of
| itself.
|
| I suspect weimar berlin is just pretty difficult setting to
| utilize; in particular you would be trying to draw inspiration
| from and evoke art/media of the time, which in this case would
| be stuff like German expressionist cinema and modernist
| literature which do not have exactly mass-market appral,
| compared to e.g. victorian era works.
| dmonitor wrote:
| i can imagine why people aren't so enthusiastic about role
| playing early 20th century germans
| rodgerd wrote:
| Germany, up until the rise of the Nazis, was a popular
| destination for Eastern Jews fleeing pogroms, a centre of
| sexuality research, cutting-edge culture for music and film.
|
| We should do a better job of remembering that, because the
| reason none of that survives is "the Nazis murdered
| everyone". Particularly given the direct adoption of Nazi-era
| phraseology in modern political movements.
| jojobas wrote:
| The other side of the coin is that it was so corrupt and
| depraved that the Nazis almost seemed like an adequate
| reaction.
| INGSOCIALITE wrote:
| I can't reply to the post below yours for some reason so
| I'll hijack here...
|
| In 1923 at the height of hyperinflation the price of a
| loaf of bread was 100 billion marks, compared to 1 mark
| just 4 years prior.
| femiagbabiaka wrote:
| Luxembergism was the adequate reaction, the Nazi Party,
| even at that time, was just as corrupt and depraved.
| Gabriel_Martin wrote:
| What point are you making here exactly?
| rodgerd wrote:
| "The Holocaust was good because gays, homosexuals, and
| jazz shouldn't exist" is a very Nazi take.
| Gabriel_Martin wrote:
| Every other day I hear a reactionary takes on behaviors
| that would have been called "sexual bolshevism" at the
| time. Scary times.
| jojobas wrote:
| Are you using the term Bolshevism in a positive sense,
| seriously?
| TillE wrote:
| RPG setting books can be a ton of fun even if you're not into
| roleplaying per se. I picked up one of the AD&D Lankhmar books
| as a kid, and while I love Fritz Leiber, reading those books
| can immerse you in a richly detailed world in a way that
| Leiber's original work doesn't quite do.
|
| That probably applies even more to Lovecraft, who's one of my
| favorite writers, but I know plenty of people who don't like
| his writing but are really into Call of Cthulhu and other
| Mythos stuff.
| notahacker wrote:
| This sounds like just the Hyperloop crossover to relaunch er... X
| with.
| ethbr0 wrote:
| The early Blue Man Group [0] shows off-Broadway (before they were
| the Intel guys) were billed as "Blue Man/Tubes"
|
| They'd run corrugated pipe from each seat in the theater to the
| waiting hall.
|
| Which meant that while you were waiting for the next show, you
| could talk to someone who was watching the current show.
|
| Was pretty neat.
|
| PS: Also walked out of the show with a nice black eye, after my
| pre-teen self went down in the final toilet paper wave and caught
| the heel of the guy in front of me. Still worth it!
|
| [0] E.g. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1N_r2J5hek
| xwdv wrote:
| Oh yea this is a lot of fun imagine a club where there's color
| coded phones on the wall based on what you're looking for and
| when you pick one up you are connected to someone else on the
| other end and you can talk and maybe meet up with them if you
| like what you hear.
| Mizoguchi wrote:
| Du wunschst shakin' das bootie, ja?
| hh3k0 wrote:
| Das muss das Bootie abkonnen!
| CPLX wrote:
| Oh yeah? In NYC in the early 2000's we used crude little close
| circuit TV things.
|
| Anyone remember the Remote Lounge?
| doctorhandshake wrote:
| Came here to ask if anybody remembered the name of this place.
| butterisgood wrote:
| I love getting pneumail!
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Amazon is announcing the new Pneumail Prime Cannon, it fires
| your orders directly from the van mounted turret, across your
| fence and into your living room through your window.
| Jun8 wrote:
| This is a titillating combination of remote (don't know the
| person) and in-person (you can see them _right there_ across the
| room. Something that's impossible to recreate with Tender, etc.
|
| There are two fatal flaws to the system that's described in the
| article and the more recent examples mentioned the comments,
| though: (1) first call takes all, you wouldn't know how many
| people would be interested in you; and (2) denial of date, where
| your first caller can keep you on the call indefinitely, ruining
| your chances with others.
|
| And what if you receive no calls in a reasonable amount of time,
| e.g., 10 minutes? In a modern implementation one of these call-
| less people can be chosen at random and displayed on a big
| screen, to increase their chances.
|
| I would totally go to a club like this, both the 20s Charleston
| version or a 80s version.
| billyoh wrote:
| Reminds me, there was a nightclub in Newcastle-upon-Tyne way back
| in the 1980s which had a telephone on each table. If you fancied
| someone on another table you'd dial their table phone and strike
| up a chat. Can't remember the name of the club but it was on
| Market Street somewhere. Good times!
| Luc wrote:
| Tuxedo Junction
| gonzo wrote:
| The club in Newcastle was Tuxedo Junction.
|
| there was a short-lived clone of same in Las Vegas in the
| early/mid 1980s as well.
| mikrl wrote:
| Now you have Digital, in the same complex that houses a biotech
| research lab (the Life Sciences Centre, formerly the Centre for
| Life)
| comprev wrote:
| Basically an exchange trading pit but with music :-)
| daggersandscars wrote:
| The US Max & Erma's restaurant chain had this in the '80s as
| well.
| A6gYPfxNas wrote:
| Sounds way better tbh
| nicbou wrote:
| Berlin had one of the largest pneumatic mail systems in the
| world. A (highly recommended) Berlin Unterwelten tour covers it.
| There is still a big, beautiful Rohrpost building in Mitte close
| to the big Synagogue.
|
| The Real store at Leopoldplatz has a pneumatic tube system that
| reaches every cash register. You can see the tubes go up and
| along the ceiling. I believe that it's one of the failed Walmart
| stores from their disastrous attempts to conquer the German
| market.
| notyourwork wrote:
| Shucks, I was in Berlin last week, I wish I'd known this. Next
| time I'll try to take this tour!
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(page generated 2023-07-24 23:00 UTC)