Exploding The Phone

“I thought it would be fun to get a lot of mathematicians to try and re-enact” That’s Mathematics by Tom Lehrer #TomLehrer
youtu.be/U9norkmRXDY

That’s *amazing*.

Ok I’ve not been making as much progress as I would have liked on the tarot project. But here’s the next card I’ve been working on.

The Phreak.

Three cylindrical Bell pay phone kiosks near a large window. Each is a slightly different height. A very long room is behind them, as is a claw machine.

This decorative phone kiosk arrangement can be found in Quebec City's bus terminal. Note now it is conveniently near an always disappointing claw machine. (Leica M5, 35mm f1.4 Summilux ASPH, Kodak TriX)

A Bell payphone kiosk near the corner of a store. Instead of a right angle, the corner is a 45 degree wall. There is also two trash bins and a Canada Post mail box. A sign in the shop window gives the estimated prizes for two lotteries: $20 millon and $12 million. A sign on the shop reads: Market with another word that is cut off except for a C.

London, Ontario. One of those wide, suburban streets lined by car dealerships. The phone had a dial tone.
(Hasselblad SWC, Zeiss 38mm f4.5 Biogon, Kodak TriX)

Chopped up shrubs and bushes are piled up. Looming above is a sign that reads: Cold Beer, Jimmy's Liquor Store, Open 7 days a week, Yellowhead Cannabis, Open 7 days a week.

Kamloops, British Columbia. No payphone in the vicinity.
(Mamiya 7ii, 50mm f4.5, Kodak TriX)

Very cool.

A phone kiosk which is just barely off the ground. Two bent pipes flank it as protection. A tree is immediately behind and an extra tall kiosk for truckers is in the distance.

One of the last low phone kiosks on Quebec Autoroute 20 between Quebec City & Montreal. They allow drivers to chat from the comfort of their cars. Something changed. It is now so low that only a child in a pedal car or an F1 driver could use it. (Shen Hao FCL810AC, 180mmf8 Super Angulon, TXP320)

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So excited to get my copy of Other Networks today -- fascinating and beautiful! @loriemerson.net, great work!

If you're into this stuff, you may be interested in "Exploding the Phone: The Untold History of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell": explodingthephone.com

A payphone kiosk with an extraordinary amount of graffiti and stickers covering it in front of a stucco wall covered with graffiti. The trunk of tree is in front.

René Lévesque and St. Laurent, Montreal. The phone has a dial tone. (Crown Graphic, Schneider 135mm f4.5 Xenar, Kodak TXP 320)

@cara.city Hey Cara! I'm in Oakland and my company has a 2008 Mac server (Intel Xeon) in good condition — it’s been gathering dust for years. It’s not as interesting as a PowerPC-based machine, but hey. :-) Please DM me if you'd like it (for free, obvs). Thanks! --Phil

Ooooffff.

A phone booth in bright sun. Its signs are handset pictographs. Behind is an intersection of two wide roads with a large sign looming and a shopping mall in the distance.

A rare, for southwestern Ontario, non-Bell Canada pay phone in Windsor at Tecumseh and Lauzon Roads. There was no dial tone and someone long ago obliterated any sign of who owns it. (Shen Hao FCL810-AC, Kodak 190mm f6.3 Wide Field Ektar, Kodak TXP320)

Although, to be fair, some people really enjoy banking!

A wall mounted Bell payphone. beneath it are two black binders containing telephone directories that are resting on bags of Kingsford charcoal and Windsor water softener salt. To the left is a bulletin board with small cards for community notices topped by an ad for an auto garage and used car dealer.

The payphone at Foodland in Osgoode, Ontario offers very outdated editions of the Ottawa-area white and yellow pages telephone directories for its shoppers' reference needs. (Leica IIIg, 35mm f2.5 W Nikkor, @ilfordphoto.com HP5)

Ugh. That’s terrible.

Two payphones mounted on a painted concrete block wall next to a entranceway. In between them is a pictograph sign of depicting a telephone handset. An insulated drinks mug is sitting atop the phone on the right. A tall, three sided pylon warning of a wet floor is in front of the phones.

A pay phone pair at noisy entrance to the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Centre in the Orleans area of Ottawa. I sometimes wonder why those signs identifying the phones as, well, phones were ever installed. And who knows if the mug was ever retrieved. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak TriX)

“Full of” might be an exaggeration, but there were definitely several! (See my book, “Exploding the Phone”, for a general history of phone phreaking, although it is not the detailed intersection you describe above.)

happy mother's day !

A Bell payphone mounted on a brick wall which has carved stone elements. It is at night and a lamp is illuminating an empty part of a parking lot.

And now the exterior phone at the Via Rail's triplet payphone station in Cobourg, Ontario. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak TriX)

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❤️

A Bell Canada payphone kiosk mounted on a brick wall under a Canada Post post office sign. Three tall bollards are in front of it and there some melting snow on the ground. To the left are shop windows with some sort of mirrored coating.

Quickie store, previously a 7 Eleven and, before that, a service station, Bank Street, Old Ottawa South. I first shot this phone two or three years ago during the 7 Eleven era. But it wasn't guarded by bollards then. (Hasselblad SWC, Zeiss 38mm f4.5 Biogon, Kodak TriX)

He wrote the foreword to Exploding the Phone…

Liking this is probably not the right verbing but I think you get the idea.

The side of a gas station with a peaked roof and vertical siding. a Bell Canada pay phone kiosk is dead center. In front are parking spots covered with snow, ice and salt stains. Partly melted snow covers most of a small lawn with a tree and perhaps a flagpole. Behind is a large, brightly lit canopy over gas pumps.

Even at at the most idyllic of times, this phone at a gas station in Port Hope, Ontario is probably not inviting. On a cold and windy night, it's completely inhospitable. (Mamiya 7ii, 43mm f4.5, Kodak TriX)

I've just been told that John Young of Cryptome.org passed away last week.

#Cryptome was foundational, and a predecessor to organizations like @ddosecrets.com and #Wikileaks.

RIP, John.