Satan's Laundromat: December 2004

Reading Viaduct

12/30/04

Philadelphia

The Reading Viaduct is Philly's answer to the High Line: an abandoned elevated rail line running above the city. It was built by the Reading Railroad, which used to exist outside of the game Monopoly, and abandoned in 1984, when the commuter lines of the Reading Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad were combined. As in New York, an organization is trying to convert it to a park. I kind of like it the way it is.

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Far from home

12/28/04

please don't make me admit to it

A brief mention at the end of this New Yorker piece.

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Noel Laundromat

12/24/04

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Imitation chicken: presidents

12/22/04

This one needs some explanation. Everyone is, of course, familiar with Kentucky Fried Chicken (now usually called KFC):

Jamaica, Queens

Let's say you wanted to open a low-budget fried-chicken place in a somewhat rough neighborhood and wanted instant name recognition. You might, say, decide to name it after a state other than Kentucky. Or you might pick a name that sounds a little bit like "Kentucky" and has some instant cachet as well:

East Orange, NJ

Flatbush, Brooklyn

East Harlem

From what little I've been able to piece together, the various Kennedy Fried Chicken establishments in New York City (59 such restaurants in NYC are listed in one directory) are not technically part of a single company, or even franchises, but rather loosely affiliated derivatives of one another, run exclusively by Afghans. (I suspect they're about as affiliated as the ubiquitous Tex-Mex fast food places, with names like New Fresco Tortilla II, that are all run by Chinese.)

It appears that Kentucky Fried Chicken took legal action against Kennedy in the UK, but probably not in the US, or at least not effectively. There are dozens more in the New York suburbs, and I've spotted Kennedy Fried Chickens as far afield as Springfield, Massachusetts. Others have investigated the mysteries of Kennedy, including the Times.

As I mentioned, Kennedy establishments tend to be in rather sketchy neighborhoods. What happens when you run one and your neighborhood starts to gentrify? If you it's the one in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, you turn the left half into an abysmal Indian restaurant, and leave the right half as a Kennedy Fried, of course!

And what happens when you want to imitate a fried-chicken chain that is itself an imitation? This:

East Harlem

East New York, Brooklyn

Park Slope, Brooklyn

There are maybe five or ten of these. Paul Lukas on JFK Fried Chicken.

Now I know you're thinking, "Surely JFK Fried Chicken, itself an imitation of an imitation, can't possibly have a knock-off." And yet:

Orange, NJ

What about other presidents? Sure, why not?

Manhattanville

And acronym-based imitators? But of course:

The Bronx

London

But my personal favorite is this one:

The story behind that one, as far as I've been able to piece together: apparently someone decided it would be a good idea to open a place called New Kentucky Fried Chicken diagonally across the street from a real KFC. (Said entrepreneur is the same person who owns the Eleven-Seven deli on a third corner; why mess with a winning formula?) Unfortunately, the real KFC was not amused, hence the change to New Kantacky Fried Chicken. More here.

And I just found this site with lots of photos of badly-named UK fried-chicken restaurants. Don't miss it.

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Imitation chicken: states

12/21/04

Those who have been visiting this site for a while know that one of my favorite things is almost-copyright-infringement. With that in mind:

London

Ilford, England

London

Colindale, England

Chicago

Newark, NJ

Philadelphia

Poole, England. Photo by Nigel Humphries.

Bethlehem, PA. Photo by Jason Stonehouse.

The Bronx

Utica Avenue, Brooklyn

Willoughby Street, Downtown Brooklyn

University Heights, The Bronx

Coney Island

Trenton, NJ

Newark, NJ

Thanks also to Stephen Payne, Julia Lunetta and Grayson Shepard. I've been working on this project for over a year; come back tomorrow for a different kind of imitation chicken.

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Back home

12/18/04

London

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Regent's Canal

12/17/04

Regent's Canal, Limehouse to Angel, East London

Remember to protest the proposed ban on subway photography this Saturday the 18th. Meet at 1 p.m. by the clock in Grand Central Terminal.

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Millwall

12/16/04

Millwall, London

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Tate Modern & Greenwich people

12/15/04

Tate Modern & vicinity, London

Greenwich Observatory & vicinity

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London street scenes 2

12/14/04

London

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London street scenes 1

12/13/04

Street scene in Ilford

London

Protest (again) the MTA's subway photo ban. Meet Saturday, December 18th, 1pm, in the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal. (The train station, not the subway station.)

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London street art 2: Banksy

12/11/04

London. Banksy is probably the world's most famous stencil artist; as far as I know, he's never been to New York, so I was looking forward to catching some of his work in London. I believe everything above is a Banksy piece; in addition, one commenter suggested that one or two of yesterday's pieces were Banksy's as well; I don't know which ones. And the bouncers in the second-to-last photo here are apparently by Banksy.