Having just been back to my suburban hometown for the holidays, I have to say that I can imagine little, other than an acutal gun to my head, which would induce me to move back to the suburbs.Just sayin'.
The activity taking place here...is a symptom of the growing barbarism in American life. Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity among civilized people, the calling card of cannibals, sailors, and whores. The appropriate place for it is on the margins, in the back alleys, the skid rows. The mainstreaming of tattoos (on main street) is a harbinger of social dysfunction.This seems less LOLSUBURB than H8TEVERYTHING.
My fellow townspeople often confuse the architecture and urban design with the activity taking place in it. It's an important distinction. The building itself, shown here, is a sturdy but unspectacular business building on the main street (Broadway) of Saratoga Springs, NY. Think of it as a "background building." It's not trying to be special or monumental, but it does what we want it to do: it makes provision for retail near the street and it allows other activities upstairs (offices, apartments). It accomplishes all this complexity gracefully. The activity taking place here, however, is a symptom of the growing barbarism in American life. Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity among civilized people, the calling card of cannibals, sailors, and whores. The appropriate place for it is on the margins, in the back alleys, the skid rows. The mainstreaming of tattoos (on main street) is a harbinger of social dysfunction.This is satire, surely.
Suburbiaposted by ericb at 3:16 PM on December 29, 2008 [2 favorites]
where the suburbs met utopia
where the suburbs met utopia
Lost in the high street, where the dogs run
roaming suburban boys
Mother's got her hairdo to be done
She says they're too old for toys
Stood by the bus stop with a felt pen
in this suburban hell
and in the distance a police car
to break the suburban spell
Let's take a ride
and run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
You can't hide
Run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
Break the window by the town hall
Listen! A siren screams
there in the distance like a roll call
of all the suburban dreams
Let's take a ride
and run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
You can't hide
run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
I only wanted something else to do but hang around
I only wanted something else to do but hang around
It's on the front page of the papers
This is their hour of need
Where's a policeman when you need one
to blame the colour TV?
Let's take a ride
and run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
You can't hide
run with the dogs tonight
in suburbia
Suburbia
where the suburbs met utopia
What kind of dream was this
so easy to destroy?
And who are we to blame
for the sins of the past?
These slums of the future?
suburbia
where the suburbs met utopia
suburbia
where the suburbs met utopia
I suppose in the truly literal sense, they aren't, because there are SOME things you can do without a car out here, but I don't have a car and find it a daily frustration, since many of the things I need to accomplish on a regular basis are farther than walking distance from my house.I think that would be true of a lot of city neighborhoods, too, though. As someone pointed out above, you can't equate "city" with those neighborhoods in New York, Chicago and San Francisco to which hip young people move after college. Lots of American cities are pretty difficult to live in if you don't have a car.
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posted by exogenous at 11:05 AM on December 29, 2008 [1 favorite]