Do I have that Dr. Seuss title correct? Maybe if the book was written by Norman Bates. Here are some of the pages you might see in such a book. The cigar store Indian is at 63rd, the nameless hotel at 54th, then you switch buses at 31st. There's a bar called Tit's around 25th, the elevated tracks are at 23rd (one of my all time favorite photos, I took it in 1987). And then there's a building right off of Pulaski and Madison Street, which is Zero Street. After this you are officially northside. Look close, there's a man's body on the sidewalk there (this photo is circa 1990). I went and got my anti-inflammatory shots there today, its what you do when you don't have health insurance in this city.
6 comments:
Perfect locales for an upcoming movie.
"It's "Shelley Meets Chandler" In I, FRANKENSTEIN!"
"What if Frankenstein's monster developed to the point where he was able to function as a hard-boiled private investigator? And what if his noir-ified universe included The Invisible Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Dracula (as a crime kingpin, naturally)? This is a movie you'd pay to see, right?"
how about "oh, the places you'll die."
Wayne, you have a terrific eye for capturing the essence of a neighborhood. I'm going to search some of my old photos. You have inspired me. If you want to see what I looked like in the olden days, go to www.otrcat.com. I have an old photo of me in front of an upright radio along with a short essay on listening to the radio back then.
I used to go by that nameless hotel all the time. It had a name once but it's been painted out. Something tells me the name was something ironic like "Grand" or "Greatview" Hotel. The lot in front of the place was filled with trucks and rigs. There may once have been a sort of restaurant/diner kind of thing attached to the place that never looked very welcoming unless you had a tattoo on at least one arm and the last foreign country you visited was North Africa with George Patton. Is it really still there or is it just a mirage?
Your photos are astounding. Especially when I know that they were done with disposable film cameras. Brilliant stuff. Just like your poems and short stories.
That's...a funny name for a bar. *snicker*
I ditto the comments on your great photos! :-)
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