5 ms·
>The city is temperate and brightly colored, with plenty of pleasant trees, but on every corner it speaks to you in an aggressively alien nonsense. Here the wor
by FatherOfCurses 8mo ago
>The city is temperate and brightly colored, with plenty of pleasant trees, but on every corner it speaks to you in an aggressively alien nonsense. Here the world automatically assumes that instead of wanting food or drinks or a new phone or car, what you want is some kind of arcane B2B service for your startup. You are not a passive consumer. You are making something.
I recently traveled to San Francisco and as an outsider this was pretty much the reaction I had.
- easton 8mo agoI've been to SF three times, and each time the oddest thing was going down 101 from the airport and seeing cURL commands and "you sped past that just like we sped past Snowflake" and such on billboards. It's like being on another planet where everyone is at work. (on the other hand, in DC there's ads on the metro for new engine upgrades for fighter jets, and i've gotten used to that.)
- esafak 8mo agoAnd in LA, every billboard is about Hollywood. It's something you just have to take in your stride. I do get that it is not nice to be constantly reminded of work. Trees would make a nicer view.
- snozolli 8mo agoI visited L.A. in 2023 and the thing that shocked me was how many billboards were for products that I only ever heard advertised on podcasts. MeUndies, for example.
- RupertSalt 8mo agoWho can forget the billboards that launched a "career"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelyne
- secabeen 7mo agoI have the pleasure of living in Santa Barbara, CA, where we've banned billboards for decades. It's quite refreshing.
- jcgrillo 8mo agoI don't miss billboards. Cows, trees, mountains, and lumberyards make better scenery.
- Abstract_Typist 8mo agoThe trees are canonical though. I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree Indeed, unless the billboards fall I’ll never see a tree at all. Song of the Open Road - Ogden Nash
- 01100011 8mo ago[flagged]