Time Will Tell if the Philly Portal is a Disaster or Not

They tried putting that “portal” in NYC, the real-time visual window connecting two cities, and it didn’t last too long. So what did they decide to do? Give it to Philly. Bold. I absolutely love that this came to Philly, I remember seeing hundreds of clips of it in New York and it’s such a funny concept. You’re connected with another country 24/7 and you get the chance to wave and whatnot. Sure, in NYC, some people were flashing it or showing offensive memes, but it’s mostly people just looking and waving. Yeah, this is pretty simple, but it’s intriguing. Having a viral art installation like that in Philly is yet another thing putting this city on the global stage. First the World Cup, now the portal. I like this momentum. All that being said, it’s hard to deny that some tomfoolery is probably destined for this Philly portal. It’s more of a matter of how much and how bad. I have faith:

@noshortsusa

The Philly portal is open! Thanks to @Kyle Pagan and @Seany Sean Sean for helping me film. #philly

♬ original sound – No Shorts

Kyle and I went to the opening, and it was pretty tame, as expected. It was only 10 a.m.. We were asking people how long they thought the portal would last and nobody said longer than a month. There were a few people who said they had faith in Philadelphians, and I’m one of those people too. I understand we have a certain reputation here in Philly, but c’mon, let’s not act like New Yorkers aren’t crazy too. And unlike New York, we’re not riddled with OnlyFans models here, so I don’t think we have to worry about the flashing. The two people who flashed the portal in NYC were just trying to promote their OnlyFans. It wasn’t like ordinary citizens were constantly whipping out their junk.

Another few things that most of the media’s been overlooking:

This was a privately funded project, the brainchild Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys. This wasn’t city taxpayer dollars dumped into one expensive-ass project. They’re also trying to keep the portal in Philly permanently, although whether or not it stays is probably dependent on how well behaved we are as a city. If the portal stays in Philly forever, it will definitely become an international tourist attraction. It was also announced that portals in Brazil and Ethiopia would hopefully be coming soon. 

Back to the portal opening – In Poland they were holding a bunch of “hello Philadelphia” signs, and that really warmed my heart. How cool is it that 4,000 miles away people care about Philly? I also played a game of international rock, paper, scissors with some guy from Lithuania and lost. The lag wasn’t too bad either, pretty comparable to a good Facetime call.

I’m pretty shocked how quiet they kept this whole project; this all happened so suddenly. Nobody was expecting this. Some very inside sources I talked to at the event told me this was in the works since August. 

Obviously things were going to be pretty tame during the day, so we have to wait for the night to see how wild it gets. We already have Philly Elmo serenading other countries with his music. (Although there’s no audio through the portal, thankfully, can you imagine?) While the portal is supposed to be a 24/7 livestream, there is a possibility it turns off late at night, again, it all depends on our behavior as a city. We’re one super-drunk Eagles fan away from losing portal privileges. 

Kinkead: maybe we will look into the Lithuanian portal and see the 17-year-old breakdancer from the Olympics

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