MetaChat - The Wilderness Downtown

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30 August 2010

The Wilderness Downtown is an interactive "music video" using Google Earth to create a personalized music vid for the Arcade Fire song "We Used To Wait." It's amazing. →[More:] Caveats: It was built for the Google Chrome browser, and works best if the address you enter at the beginning is in a city, since it needs Google Street View to get the full effect.

post by: BoringPostcards at: 18:05 | 12 comments

Bummer, I tried several different addresses, and even when I was given the choice to "continue anyway", since there was insufficient streetview data, it wouldn't let me it anyway. In finally remembered an old college address that should work, then I waited fifteen minutes for the damn thing to load, then it froze. That sucks, because I like the idea.

posted by msali 30 August | 19:25

A couple people sent me this today so when I saw this post I downloaded Chrome just to try it out and it doesn't work for me also :(

posted by arse_hat 30 August | 19:47

Aw, damn, that sucks. It runs like a dream on my old machine, and it really is beautiful.

posted by BoringPostcards 30 August | 19:49

I consciously put my address in and I was still surprised to see my house. The music is so-so but I really like the concept.

posted by desjardins 30 August | 19:56

Fun use of technology. My hometown isn't on street view but I put in the house I had as a young adult and did a neat job of incorporating the neighborhood photos into the video.

I have the album already haven't really decided if I like it or not (sometimes it takes me years to figure that out).

posted by octothorpe 30 August | 21:02

Kinda juddery, but sorta worked, but nearly locked up my system at the end. Task manager said Chrome was using 99% of CPU...

posted by dhartung 30 August | 21:30

I had to kill off Chrome afterward to get it to die.

posted by octothorpe 30 August | 21:38

Hmmm, after 15 minutes, I have 'please wait, loading 44%' and that's after having to settle for a nearby suburb.

I'm not convinced, but I'll try it again from home tonight, because it sounds intriguing.

posted by dg 30 August | 21:43

Yeah, it's a neat idea. I especially liked the postcard bit. I like where it's headed and the whole thing will get smoother as more people do stuff like this, of course. It is always a powerful, sweet jolt seeing my childhood home.

posted by Miko 30 August | 21:44

My childhood home is practically unrecognizable. The neighborhood has changed so much.

posted by Obscure Reference 30 August | 22:11

The street that I grew up in hasn't really changed a bit since the sixties or really since around 1910 or so when most of the houses were built. The people have changed though, it's no longer Irish and Italian Catholic working class folks but more professional types who commute into NYC every day.

posted by octothorpe 31 August | 07:14

The people have changed though, it's no longer Irish and Italian Catholic working class folks but more professional types who commute into NYC every day.

Same's true for my neighborhood. My old house looks much nicer now - nice lawn, hanging flower baskets, plantings.

posted by Miko 31 August | 07:55

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