We take all reports seriously

Our friends over at the Otto Mannix Report have experienced a catastrophic computer failure that has had the Standard scrambling for its Business Continutity Plan. We take all reports seriously. In fact we staff a 24/7 help line shown here to field all of your calls. 

In the event that we have a disruption of service, our Computer analysis datalab is fully equiped to initiate backup sequence Delta-5.

Downsizing

Memorandum

To: Shareholders

From: American National Standard, Warehouse Division, Sub-facility Management Team

Subject: Downsizing

To Avert an impending Government forced restructuring of our business operations we are shutting down our Berwyn Heights storage facility effective immediately. Please inform all staff that surplus office furniture, holiday decorations, vital business records, supplies, and obsolete equipment will be discarded at the close of business tomorrow. The facility pictured here will be shut down and locked up until further notice. Trespassing, vandalism, and strange photographers will not be tolerated.

Back from Vacation

Well now we are back from our much deserved vacation visiting the back roads of this great country. Here are some snapshots of the fine establishments we stayed at while on the road.

Before we go underground for awhile

We are going underground for awhile here at the standard so we want to leave you with a little collection of oddities. We have an acquaintance who has a bizarre collection of different items.

Infiltration

We have reasonable information that the Standard and several affiliated blogs have been infiltrated. Advanced monitoring facilities such as the one depicted here are in the process of monitoring and datamining our activities. We wish all those government agencies luck wasting their time monitoring this and others blogs. Who knows, perhaps readership will increase.

EasyRider

Our Friends over at the Otto Mannix Report have opened up a significant discussion concerning the placement of the movie "Easy Rider" in the pantheon of Biker vs Road Movies. Here at the Standard we don't like to pick winners and losers in the cultural wars, however we could not sit idly by and not make some contributions from our personal archives. We do suggest that "Easy" spawned many spin off wanna be movies such as the "Cycle Savages". We note that several collateral actors such as Harry Dean Stanton and Bruce Dern were staple character actors in this genre. We leave it to our friend Mr. Ivanlandia, to set the record straight where movies such as "The Trip" and "Planet of the Apes" fit into the cultural landscape of late '60's alternative films.

Pseudopolis

A found city in complete decay. I find myself wandering in a city and it seems unreal to me. It is unreal. It is so real that it disappears in the mind's eye. I go back to the same location and it is never the same again. Sometimes things have been completely changed or destroyed. Other times the obvious stays hidden in plain sight. You can't step in the same river twice.

The American city is in decline. Has been for awhile. White flight and riots have made their mark. There is a quality of craftsmanship and care in old structures that is missing in today's temporary environment. As the vacant lots multiply nature is slowly biding her time to reclaim the urban environment that man is gradually abandoning.

There are no tags, or identification of these images beyond the title because they are not pictures of places. They are places that are pictured. Unique and universal at the same time. Not a spectacle of urban disfunction but a paean to a culture in its waning years. 

Pseudopolis is every city, an imagined city, imaginary parts of real cities, discovered and rediscovered, and the city of myth.