I moved to Dallas four years ago, though I'm sure this situation can be found nearly anywhere. My neighborhood is full of nice, tree-lined streets and mid-century ranch houses. White Rock Lake is a 15-minute walk away. But if you go anywhere besides the lake or the burger place on the corner, you need a car. And once you get on the road, you enter the Blandscape. Unlike your house or the lake, nobody seems to be responsible for the Blandscape. It's full of bad roads, empty buildings, and shitty, liminal spaces. I don't understand our collective aversion to taking care of people and places. Everyone seems to be out for themselves. When I first moved here, I wondered why nobody swims in White Rock Lake. It turns out that the city of Plano regularly "accidentally" dumps its sewage in the lake.
Separately, I've been enjoying immersive films on the Apple Vision Pro. I love how everyone tries to give you an experience that's rare in real life. Let's swim with sharks, ride in a race car, go behind the scenes at a Metallica concert. I don't have anything like that to show you. But I thought, I can show you the opposite of that. So sit back and soak up a few minutes of the blandscape around here.
Blandscape in 2D
Don't have a headset and want to see Blandscape? You can watch this YouTube version right here. If you're on a desktop or laptop, you can drag the video around and see the things outside of the frame. If you're on a phone or tablet, open it in the YouTube app and you can move the device around or drag the screen to look around. It's not the same as standing in these places, but I'm sure you have at some point and will get the idea.