nothing worse to see in a neighboorhood is the blight that sprawl leaves behind. i’m anticipating something exceptional having to happen here in Orlando before our current sprawl catches up.

even more insidious, when a large number of empty storefronts are converted into check cashing locations. the sheer amount of these stores is probably a better indicator of the local populace and their economic situation than most surveys and statistics.

Good day,

I’m the photographer responsible for this, as well as another image, which you’ve featured on your site. While your posts are well within the bounds of my creative commons license, I was a little curious about one matter:

I notice that your site tends to primarily deal with matters of consumerism, and maintains an especially anti-corporate perspective on society (which, I should clarify, I completely agree with).

However, when looking through your sidebar links, I noticed 99% of them are pages or groups that target the specific malfeseance of different corporate entities (Wal-mart, Starbucks, Ikea, etc); However, you somewhat mysteriously link to other sites which are celebratory of computers made by Apple, which itself is a large corporate entity, solely interested in bottom-line profits.

How do you rectify this disparity? What makes Apple a ‘good’ company, and the others ‘evil’?

Thank you,

Brett R. Schutzman,
Director of Operations
Maproom Systems

Well, I sent you an email to avoid another one of these comments conversations, but I don’t ‘know if you got it. And we’re big on reader service here, so:

1. It’s not true that 99% of the links at right are sites that are anti any particular company, or companies in general. There is one batch of links to entities that question marketing/etc. in various ways; there is a batch of links to artists, some of whom also do this; and there is a batch of links to brand-specific sites. In the last of those three categories, some of the sites are pro, some are con, some are neutral. There’s an Ikea fan site, and an anti Ikea site. The Starbucks site is basically neutral. The “Cult of Mac” link isn’t an Apple site, it’s a journalist for Wired Magazine who covers Apple, or who in some ways could be said to cover Apple fandom. There’s also the iPodLounge site, which is basically ipod news — but I also link to a very similiar site devoted to the Treo cell phone.

2. While I’m certainly interested in sites that are interesting in the questions they raise about a particular brand, or about branding in general, I’m also quite interested in brand fans. I’m not endorsing brand fandom, or any specific brand. I’m just interested. While there are two anti-Wal Mart sites, if I could find a Wal Mart fan site (that wasn’t run by the company itself), I’d definitely link to it!

3. Having said all that, I need to revisit the way my links are organized, and labeled. (They’re basically not labeled right now, which is probably part of the problem.) I intend to do that in mid- to late March.

4. The pictures I choose to feature on the site are basically pictures I like, aesthetically, t hat deal in some way or other with some aspect of consumption or material objects — from an abandoned mall to an interesting old sign to a creepy picture of a barbie doll. If the posting of your pix makes you even mildly uncomfortable, I’ll stop and/or take them down this second, that’s perfectly legit. Those links are meant as purely complimentary, with the simple goal of driving people to look at cool stuff I’ve come across on Flickr…

Thanks for writing,
rw

Hello Mr. Walker,

Thanks for responding to my questions, and sorry for the delay in my own reply. I was sightseeing in Detroit over the weekend, and blissfully separated from my computer, and am just now getting caught up on correspondence.

As I said in my initial comment, your use of photos from flickr is well within the the bounds of the creative commons licensing, and I’m not requesting that you remove any of my images. There have been a number of dubious situations over the past few months, in which sites such as consumerist.com have been pulling images from flickr without proper attribution, and thus I think a lot of users are slightly on edge about their intellectual property. Here’s a link to a thread concerning that business:
http://www.flickr.com/forums/help/33525/

My concerns about the apple links I mentioned would certainly be put to rest by the re-organization and categorization of the sidebar which you discussed. While perhaps only anecdotal, I’ve personally encountered many “Mac Geeks” who would openly eschew all corporations and brands, but still cling to Apple with a borderline religious fervor, a peculiarity which no doubt fits right in line with what you’re already discussing on your site.

My own work, if only a portion of it is viewed, can at times be similarly confusing to an outsider, and has elicited comments similar to the ones I made to you, thus I hope you’ll accept my apology for not fully grasping your plan in the short time I had to examine the site.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions, and thanks again for your quick and thorough response.