Sunday, February 1, 2009

Oh, Street View

So I clicked on an article on nytimes.com called Rock Bottom for Decades, But Showing Signs of Life and learned all about a "distressed municipality" (read: hellish shithole) in Pennsylvania called Braddock (actually more of a borough than a town). It's about 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh and.. not doing so hot. The mayor, though he looks like a massive shaved gorilla and is mad tatted-up, seems very level-headed and best-intentioned, and has a Masters from HARVARD (killer school).

To give an idea of how dismal Braddock has gotten since the death of industry and crack wiped it out a couple decades previous, the magicmakers behind the upcoming The Road movie filmed partially in Braddock. That's from the book (read by everyone I've ever seen or known apparently - and they also LOVE to mention it) about post-Armageddon, cannibalistic desolation. Those images all you Road-readers conjured in your reading heads?? -- Braddock.

Anyway, it's a good article and so's the accompanying video. For kicks, after reading I Google Map'd Braddock, and was delighted to find they'd sent some hapless soul to photograph its every inch for Street View. While moseying down 6th Street, I encountered this gentleman (I think) flicking off the camera and either showing a gun or his dick, and I just thought it was perfect enough to share.


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Then there's this dude:

View Larger Map

LIQUID METAL wishes Braddock and the thousands of other American towns like it all the best.

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