BLDGBLOG has an extended post on the the reality TV cinema of LA highways (not, admittedly, a new topic, but still worth reading).
[W]hat interests me here is not police pursuit technology in and of itself, but the fact that it has slowly become a regular feature of American urban life. Even more, the car chase, though illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous, is also one of the most logical responses to the American landscape: if you build "nine hundred miles of sinuous highway and twenty-one thousand miles of tangled surface streets" (Tad Friend) in one city alone, you're going to find at least a few people who want to put it to use.
Add that to uncountable thousands of cameras installed there on lightposts, or carried by helicopters throughout the sky – the endless cinema of the everyday, an anthropologist's dream – and anyone driving in LA right now is literally only moments away from celebrity. Go a little further, a little faster – and fifteen minutes after you read this post, I might be watching you on TV. Be sure to wave.
[via BLDGBLOG]
Posted by johndanseven at March 10, 2006 08:23 PM