It really doesn’t matter where this photo was shot*. Looking down on the tracks from an overpass, it struck me that this view is so quintessentially American. It’s a stretch of wild running alongside industry and can-do. It also just makes me want to go, to see what’s out there. While I’ve looked down from overpasses onto train tracks in other countries, they never, to my eye, look quite like this. It’s something you can see from coast to coast here in the U.S. When I catch this view, it always feels like a personal little indie flick. (Though I didn’t love the movie, Wendy and Lucy is a perfect example of train tracks moodiness.) And, aside from the moments the trains blow through or when you can hear teens carousing under the overpass (as they should), looking down on the train tracks always feels so incredibly quiet–no matter how many cars are speeding by behind my back.
*Just in case you must know: it’s in Teaneck, NJ. It’s something sort of special to walk through a town you usually drive around. A car doesn’t allow you to consider the view from the overpass.
Views like this are always accompanied by the song “Gentle on My Mind” in my mind. To me, this is like a photo of wanderlust.
I love that you have a soundtrack for certain kinds of images. This kind of sight brings on extreme quiet for me — everything gets blocked out — but I definitely go all musical in my head in other kinds of places.
Oh gosh, yes, I have a soundtrack for lots of images. And, by the way, Gentle on My Mind is quite possibly my all-time favorite song.
Not really on topic but why didn’t you like (love) Wendy and Lucy? There were things I liked about it (pace, mood, doggy) and things I’m not sure I’ve formed opinions about one way or the other just yet. But, overall I think I liked it! One thing I do know for sure is that I would have been on the verge of craziness not knowing where my dog was!!
I enjoyed the look and the mood of the movie but…it was a character study. It didn’t really develop into anything more than that. I felt like I was watching a film school project rather than a finished flick. And if I had to listen to her whistling-in-place-of-a-soundtrack even one more time…
So, basically, I just didn’t feel they took it where they should have taken it.
Love the photo, hated Wendy and Lucy. Full of despair, yet no plot.
Thanks Ruth. And, yeah — nail on head with your “full of despair, yet no plot.” I require plot with my angst/desolation/despair/yadda yadda yadda.