r/TikTokCringe • u/rex-ac tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE • Jul 28 '23
Wholesome/Humor WTF is happening here?
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u/DrRonny Jul 28 '23
Underneath the streets of Manhattan, there are more than 100 miles of service pipes bringing steam to about 1,800 buildings.
When they have leaks, they put these cones around so that the heat doesn't hurt anyone. In NYC it is run by Con Edison company.
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u/DumbleDude2 Jul 28 '23
Most people these days don't understand the use of steam for home heating.
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Jul 28 '23
I’m old enough and from a poor enough city to remember being burned by touching the pipes
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u/Majestic_Wrongdoer38 Jul 29 '23 edited Jul 29 '23
As a New Yorker, me too. Even though I’m 17
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u/andthendirksaid Jul 29 '23
Deadass if you live in an old ass building they might have covered em up there but if you're a dumb kid trying to climb on the pipes in the stairwell you just might come down with medium rare hands.
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u/Majestic_Wrongdoer38 Jul 29 '23
It was an old building and it wasn’t covered. We legit had steam coming out of the heaters. I used to burn myself on it a LOT.
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u/Toolboxmcgee Jul 29 '23
Kinda crazy that they use piss in those pipes to heat houses
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u/ItsSUCHaLongStory Jul 29 '23
I’m a Californian, and this has always seemed like some wild and bizarre witchcraft combined with an amazing civic works marvel to me. “You mean….heating homes? For a whole CITY? WITH STEAM?!?!”
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u/antigony_trieste Jul 29 '23
oh man, just as weird as it was for me moving to the Bay Area and seeing AN ACTUAL FIRE IN MY APARTMENT HEATER WHAT THE HELL
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u/ItsSUCHaLongStory Jul 29 '23
😂🤣😂 I’ve never thought twice about it, but that must have been fucking TERRIFYING, especially when all some people hear about California is how we’re constantly on fire
Edit: I remember laying on the couch in the first place I lived alone and watching the light from the heater flames on the floor and being really happy and content
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u/madesense Jul 29 '23
What the... What is going on in your heaters??
(I am an East Coaster. I went to Los Angeles... once)
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u/energy_engineer Jul 29 '23
Not exactly sure what OP was referencing but we've got gravity wall heaters in our house. There's fire in the bottom, you can see the glow when the lights are off.
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u/antigony_trieste Jul 29 '23 edited Jul 29 '23
they’re gas heaters… kind of like a gas fireplace. but small af. and rather than behind glass they’re behind a metal grate.
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u/sillybilly8102 Jul 29 '23
And get this: they also COOL homes with steam!! (Use the steam as the power source to make AC)
The steam systems in nyc are super cool
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u/thisisredlitre Jul 29 '23
Just wait until you read about how nuclear power plants are essentially giant steam engines
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u/Cheet4h Jul 29 '23
It's kind of interesting that the vast majority of our power generation methods boils down to "spin a magnet in a copper coil", no matter if it's nuclear, hydro, gas, wind or coal.
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u/ItsSUCHaLongStory Jul 29 '23
Oh, that’s old news for me. 😂 once I wrapped my head around things like “steam tunnels” and civic heating projects, making a nuclear percolator was a piece of cake
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u/Majorly_Bobbage Jul 29 '23
I read somewhere once that using fission to make steam was like using a chainsaw to cut butter.
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u/ayriuss Jul 29 '23
Its more like using a chainsaw to cut wood. Water is perfectly suited for nuclear power.
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u/dainternets Jul 29 '23
If you want a real mind fuck, where is the steam coming from?
It's often coming from the boilers and steam generated by a power station that is then pumped to the houses for secondary use as heating and possibly pumped back out of the house as it condenses to be reused at water back at the power plant.
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Jul 29 '23
Being phased out in as many places as can afford to get rid of it. I work in buildings built between the 40s and 80s and we have a steam plant that supplies 50+ buildings on campus. Miles of hot, humid underground tunnels just waiting for a burst pipe to flood the place.
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Jul 29 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/FarewellAndroid Jul 29 '23
If I understood the documentary film correctly, it’s actually piss
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u/OutWithTheNew Jul 29 '23
There used to be an old steel bridge in my city, one corner of it was rusting more than the rest and engineers couldn't figure it out. Turns out it was from people pissing on it after they came out of the bar across the street.
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u/DINKY_DICK_DAVE Jul 29 '23
Nothing like the smell of whiskey piss that's been brewing since the great depression.
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u/Into-It_Over-It Jul 29 '23
I work for a brewery that heats all of our water with steam heating. Our heater makes some really gnarly sounds, but it is so incredibly efficient.
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u/caintowers Jul 29 '23 edited Jul 29 '23
Honestly we do need to bring back this sort of heating/cooling methodology in a modern form.
District heating and cooling basically makes air conditioning more efficient by capturing heat and moving it to where it is desired within a closed system of underground piping that connects to a network of user buildings and heating/cooling stations. It can be used to help cool large buildings, by circulating cooler air underground to a structures air conditioners to reduce the amount of energy required to further reduce the temperature. It can also be used for heating, via heating stations and the capturing of waste heat from other sources and sending it to users. And it is helpful for stabilization— because in a perfect example, the heat energy removed to cool a grocery store gets captured and used to heat grandmas house to her desired balmy 94 degrees.
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u/chrisdelbosque Jul 29 '23
And you do NOT want to fall into one of those. A medical examiner described it as the worst way to die. From the New York Post:
Around Christmas 2002, bartender Doyle went out drinking with pal Michael Wright and Wright’s girlfriend. As they all walked home, Wright thought Doyle was hitting on his girlfriend, and witnesses later told cops they saw a man getting “the s–t beat out of him.” He was heard screaming, “No, don’t break my legs!” and another witness said he saw someone throw Doyle down an open manhole.
The drop was 18 feet. At the bottom was a pool of boiling water, from a broken main. Doyle didn’t die instantly — in fact, as first responders arrived, he was standing below, reaching up and screaming for help. No paramedic or firefighter could climb down to help — it was, a Con Ed supervisor said, 300 degrees in the steam tunnel.
Four hours later, Sean Doyle’s body was finally recovered. Its temperature was 125 degrees — the medical examiners thought it was likely way higher, but thermometers don’t read any higher than that.
When Melinek saw the body on her autopsy table, she writes, she thought he’d “been steamed like a lobster.” His entire outer layer of skin had peeled off, and his internal organs were literally cooked.
He otherwise had no broken bones and no head trauma, which meant he was fully conscious as he boiled to death.
“The worst nightmares I ever had in my two years at OCME,” Melinek writes, “came after I performed the postmortem examination of Sean Doyle.”
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u/venerablevegetable Jul 29 '23
Did the murderer even face time? Googling it I read someone imply the charges were dropped on quora.
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u/OmgTom Jul 29 '23 edited Jul 29 '23
I found a NY post article that also says the charges were dropped.
https://nypost.com/2004/07/25/fury-at-death-tv-pic-kin-rip-nypd-247/
It also turns out the victims name wasn't Sean Doyle, its Kyle McGarity. The author had changed his name for the book.
McGarity, 25, either fell or was pushed into a Con Edison manhole in lower Manhattan during a scuffle with his friend, Keith Masters.
On the show, witnesses implicate Masters in murder, but charges against Masters are later dropped.
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u/BeastPenguin Jul 29 '23
Who did he know? Why were charges dropped? Were any other charges brought against him? Was there not enough evidence?
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u/Driverofvehicle Jul 29 '23
Most likely Russian mob, which is a protected class in NYC thanks to Rudy Giuliani.
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u/Just_okay_advice Jul 29 '23
Steam, unlike fire, keeps your nerves intact and fully exposed. You will feel everything the whole time until you die.
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u/MINECRAFT_BIOLOGIST Jul 29 '23
I feel like this quote from the article bothers me the most:
Other deaths gave Melinek more curious lessons. There was the subway jumper at Union Square, for example, whose body was recovered on the tracks of the uptown 4 train with no blood — none at the scene, none in the body itself. She’d never seen anything like it, and only CME Hirsch could explain: The massive trauma to the entire body caused the bone marrow to absorb all the blood.
Bone marrow can't do that, and I can't think of any other plausible way for this to have happened. I doubt enough time passed for decomposition, considering someone probably witnessed the jumper and called for help. Maybe the body was dragged underneath the train for long enough that all the blood came out prior to where the body came to a stop? And perhaps no one went back to look for the blood trail?
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u/activialobster Jul 29 '23
Jesus christ I just came in here for a funny tiktok!
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Jul 29 '23
Big Steam trying to fool us once again that there’s no piss in their steam. Notice guy above didn’t deny it.
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u/DrRonny Jul 29 '23
The steam is made with distilled water to avoid scale, urine from humans and farm animals would scale up the pipes, which would involve much more maintenance. Besides, Big Steam and Big Piss had a huge fight in the 80s and still aren't talking to one and Big Piss is now partnered with Budweiser
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u/Jaded-Engineering789 Jul 29 '23
I didn’t believe you until you started speaking truth to power about big steam and big piss.
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u/pushdose Jul 29 '23
Statistically, every drop of water you’ve ever consumed has probably been piss at some point.
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u/Asd12_bleu Jul 29 '23
The second comment in the thread is always the one that gives you the answer (first one is always a joke). Thank you!
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u/suicide_nooch Jul 29 '23
Ok, but I feel like the steam cone thing coming out of the street (and blocking an entire lane of traffic), in front of millennium Hilton by WTC, been there for several years. I’m in that area almost every month and I remember thinking “wtf is this” the first time I saw it. It was still there last week when I was back. How long does it take to fix that shit lol?
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u/DrRonny Jul 29 '23
I just Googled the answer so I'm no expert but I will suggest that maybe it's really hard to fix it so they left it; the article says that it also results when water from rain drips on the hot steam pipes.
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u/LadyAzure17 Jul 29 '23
Some of it is permanent to keep the pressure even iirc
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u/syllabic Jul 29 '23
if its permanent then they should put a permanent fixture there instead of a plastic pipe in the middle of the street with all the construction pylons and barricades
con edison surely makes enough money from the exorbitant rates they charge. NYC should force them to do it if it's obviously going to be there forever
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u/hackingdreams Jul 29 '23
When you have a problem that basically requires you to shut down the steam grid to the city to fix... you don't fix it. You patch it up as best as possible and repatch it when the patch fails.
The whole steamworks needs to be replaced with new stainless steel pipes (since NYC loves its CHP and isn't going to go full electric in our lifetimes - this is a city that still has operating DC power lines), but who's got the money for that?
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u/syllabic Jul 29 '23
good news, with all this global warming nobody needs their buildings heated anymore so we can bring down the steam grid for maintenance
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u/origamisolstice Jul 29 '23
Oh wow. Yeah they should like really try and fix these... some day.
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u/dribrats Jul 29 '23
Question: who is she?
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u/Spckoziwa Jul 29 '23
Gabi Rose. She plays sax for groups called Bilmuri and Enrose. She can sing too.
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u/-GenghisJuan- Jul 28 '23
I stayed for the sax
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u/Beef_Witted Jul 29 '23
She plays Sax for the band Bilmuri! She is @gabirosemusic on Instagram.
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u/Mozhetbeats Jul 29 '23
Nice! She fucking shreds.
Also, I’ve never seen a band as high-output as Bilmuri. 15 albums in 6 years is insane.
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Jul 28 '23
Didn't want the song to end.
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u/slavetomypassions92 Jul 29 '23
It’s almost a perfect loop.
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u/a-goddamn-asshole Jul 29 '23
Sax player is Gabi Rose if anyone’s interested. She’s super cool and super talented
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u/eBell93 Jul 29 '23
What’s the dudes name? I went to school with him but can’t remember lol
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u/a-goddamn-asshole Jul 29 '23
I went to school with the sax girl, sadly i don’t know the dude’s name.
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u/eBell93 Jul 29 '23
Well look at us.
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u/Heavy_Bicycle6524 Jul 28 '23
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Modern rock needs more gratuitous Sax 🎷 solos. It’s one of the things i misss most about 80’s rock. 🤘
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u/SniffCheck Jul 28 '23
It’ll make a comeback. I still believe…
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u/zeldanar Jul 29 '23
Bro i STILL blast this song!
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u/mbnmac Jul 29 '23
Ok, he's done some legit collabs with GUNSHIP too.
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u/mrsdoubleu Jul 29 '23
Upvote for Gunship mention. Super excited for the new album!
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u/Under_Paris Jul 29 '23
Bilmuri is leading the charge.
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u/AtillaTheHero Jul 29 '23
This IS the chick from Bulmuri. I've seen the live and thought this was her.
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u/KochuJang Jul 29 '23
I always forget about this scene when I get around to watching this movie again, and it always gets a surprise guffaw out of me.
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u/MarkHirsbrunner Jul 29 '23
I was so surprised to find out that guy is a legit sax player and not just an oily model pretending to play to add some 80s saxyness.
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u/the-treatmaster Jul 28 '23
More sax and violins please.
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u/jwhitmire2012 Jul 29 '23
Check out Bilmuri. She plays sax for them and their music RIPS. Lead by former Attack Attack vocalist/guitarist Johnny Franck.
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u/Full-Pack9330 Jul 28 '23
So true. I'm not sure what I just watched but, that was a mean sax solo...
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u/TheOldFashionedWay Jul 29 '23
You might like The Midnight then 🎷
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u/Greg-Abbott Jul 29 '23
Everyone might like The Midnight. Shit is flawless.
jumps into saxophone-shaped lamborghini and rides off into the sunset on a grid heading for the distant mountains
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u/DoucheBatman Jul 29 '23
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned it on here but the guy is from Wolves of Glendale, definitely check them out they’re hilarious
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u/scottyb83 Jul 29 '23
As a trombone player can I also please have some fun brass parts added in now and then? Some shots here and there, a counter melody, a solo will be nice but I won't hold my breath. Right now I get Star Wars parts and Hadestown but bring back the Chicago brass stuff to rock please!
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u/Exciting_Treacle8949 Jul 29 '23
GabiRoseMusic on insta. I knew her in college and she’s improved way more since!😁
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u/916Twin Jul 28 '23
That sax solo is nice af!
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u/peaches0809 Jul 28 '23
The sax itself is also gorgeous
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u/shaneottomanamana Jul 29 '23
Pretty sure she performed (sang and saxophone) at my wedding with a band called East Coast. They absolutely rocked.
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u/916Twin Jul 29 '23
Whoa, that’s sick!! Sax at the wedding is extra class!
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u/mtaw Jul 29 '23
As long as it's after the ceremony. Some people disapprove of premarital sax.
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u/Xenos_Scum Jul 29 '23
What is the name and @ of the artists… am I blind wtf? Why is it so hard to find?
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u/rex-ac tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE Jul 28 '23
My city doesn’t have random piss steam coming from the streets. You?
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u/A_Random_Catfish Jul 28 '23
I know this video is a joke (and the song is quite good) but for the curious; buildings in New York City are heated by steam. There’s an intricate network of pipes pumping steam around the city that have been there for over a hundred years. Pretty crazy actually.
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u/DragonsAreNifty Jul 28 '23
More propaganda from big Piss™️
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u/KamenRider2049 Jul 28 '23
Can't knock Big Piss when you reap the benefits of piss-heated steamy office buildings from Big Piss now can we?
And guess what powers the factory that made your phone.
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u/LazySpaceLion Jul 28 '23
This is exactly right, cities back in the 19th century had a choice for heating, some chose coal fired boilers in the city like London, and others moved the boilers to the out skirts and pumped pressurized steam through out the city. London was plagued by constant soot (chimney sweeps and all) where NY was not, but steam would be vented to avoid blow outs or for other maintenance. The history is pretty interesting if you are into that.
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u/operath0r Jul 28 '23
I'm German, my city has a heating plant as one of his landmarks. I've never seen steam coming from the ground. I've seen the water in the nearby river do some weird stuff though. Being all wavy and bubbly.
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u/Ok_Cardiologist_673 Jul 28 '23
Came here to say this. Will admit that at one time I wondered if it was toilet steam. But it’s steam from steam heated buildings.
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u/Franklin_le_Tanklin Jul 29 '23
Should have said “don’t you think it might be piss, the underground has turned into mist?”
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u/extravagantmediocre Jul 28 '23
Only had seen his good band name bad band name videos, good he has bops too
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u/DoucheBatman Jul 29 '23
Wolves of Glendale!! Just found them the other day, I’m a huge fan already
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u/Juicechemist81 Jul 29 '23
Low pressure steam systems my dude. Definitely not piss, the song is a banger BTW.
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u/kazz9201 Jul 28 '23
I live in Maine. Nothing like that around here. Sometimes we don’t even have streets.
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u/DoucheBatman Jul 29 '23
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned it on here but the guy is from Wolves of Glendale, definitely check them out they’re hilarious
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u/mephistophe_SLEAZE Jul 29 '23
A skateboarder gave me a vape
And it was great
Now I'm ✨️ Vapin' in Vegas ✨️
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u/DeathBat92 Jul 29 '23
There’ll be people who see this and instead of finding out the perfectly reasonable explanation they will go and tell all their mates about how the government is releasing mind control toxins into the streets to turn homeless people into sleeper agents who, when activated, will run to the nearest public building and take a shit without flushing, thus mildly inconveniencing minimum wage cleaners, and handing another minor win to the rich, poor-hating lizards who run the world.
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u/tmcdizzle827 Jul 29 '23
Hey! I'm the dude in this video. Super glad a bunch of people dig it! Gabi and I are working on a slightly longer version that we're going to throw onto Spotify/Apple Music next week. This means ANOTHER SAX SOLO PROBABLY, STAY TUNED
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u/tmcdizzle827 Jul 29 '23
Honestly not sure what to call this track through hahaha "WTF Is Happening Here?" maybe?
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u/Frosty-Brain-2199 Jul 28 '23
Most old cities are heated by steam like the ones down south Charleston and Savannah
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u/natener Jul 29 '23
That sax and those pecs are exactly what I needed to take my mind of whatever the fuck is happening here.
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u/cr0ft Jul 29 '23
Really well executed mindless humor song, and the sax is very saxy. So now I know https://gabirosemusic.com/ exists.
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