The Nightmare's Real

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some days it's hard to shake the feeling that we're living out a slow motion suicide, a sort of harakiri on a planetary scale. Probably doesn't help that I've been listening to Harakiri by Serj Tankian.

"The future will view all history as a crime." Was searching for some music to set the mood for a brainstorming session, and definitely found some to set a mood. Just wasn't quite right for what I was going for, so I had to edit some photos to go with it.

It is a Mad World, full of worn-out places and faces. All the places pictured here are from St. Louis and along Route 66 in Amarillo.

Don't have to go too far from the glittering glass, steel, and concrete of the city downtowns to find that worn out feeling. Hell, you don't even have to leave the downtown.

The buildings we condemn, but is it the buildings that deserve condemnation for their state?

Fortunately, there's a silver lining to just about everything. In this case it's bonus space for advertising. Now that's something we can all wynk at!

What's this world coming to when you can't even buy baby rattlesnakes in Texas? Sorry @dandays, looks like you missed your chance.

Don't worry, you can still get your kicks on Route 66, they just might hurt a little more than they used to.

All these photos were taken during our search for the American Dream last year. Despite our best efforts we never found it, although we did come across relics, remnants, and memories of its various iterations. Everywhere we visited the story was the same, that ship had sailed.