COUNTERTOURISM

I randomly checked in on Jupiter today and found, much to my EXCITEMENT, that South Philly Athenaeum University professor/post-situationist provocateur/full-time experimental liver BRANDON JOYCE has returned from his travels in Germany and Italy.  He has an excellent, long-form meditation-post on the nature of travel, travelogues, tourism, and countertourism, and I urge you to spend some time to read it:

That said, the conditions in these tourist traps are ripe for that newborn arena of freeplay--- countertourism--- that rides and recognizes the hyperreality of Tourism for what it is. A wonderland of suspended disbelief, that has rabbitholes in nearly every major city in the world. Niagara Falls, the Liberty Bell, Times Square, La Tour Eiffel, I Fori Romani, Manakin Pis, Trafalgar Sqaure, Stonehenge--- they are gateways to the vivid weirdness of People on Vacation.

Photography-- along with souvenirs, the most highly prized artform of the tourist-- offers countless handles for overturn, whether the camera is your hands or the hands of a stranger...

You want to read the whole thing, fellow travelers.  I think maybe the dude was in the NYC recently, Tod Seelie took some pictures at this past weekend's Black Label spandex party, and I have only met Brandon in person once but I feel like this picture is of him, isn't it?  It seems like it should be, right??: