Day 80
Location 16: London
Jan. 19, 2023
The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road has sold over 31 million copies and the crosswalk depicted on the famed album cover has been named historical and cultural landmark. For a place with so many tourists in the street, it's surprising how much actual traffic there is (don't believe me? You can see a live feed of the crossing here). It's one of the only places in the world you can tell someone "go walk into traffic" and it's not an insult. It's like telling someone "get lost" at the start of a game of hide-and-seek or "go fuck yourself" at a sperm donation center.
On one side of the famous crosswalk is the famous Abbey Studious which dons some information about the Fab Four:
1964: Imagine being so famous that your band can be referred to as "Four lads from Liverpool" and everyone knows who you're talking about.
1996: Even more absurd, imagine being so famous that you relegate the extremely successful band, Oasis, with over 70 million records sold to being referred to as "Beatles fans". Oof.
See my process for recreating the album cover (subbing in me for Paul) below:
I edited this on a train out of London and I can't think of anything more embarrassingly touristy than a guy (me) staring at the Abbey Road album cover for two hours straight.
Another important street is the one I grew up on: Smith Street in Glen Head, NY. My name is Dylan Smith and I grew up on Smith Street. But ever since my family moved out of my childhood home, I've been longing to return to a Smith Street (and to my childhood bedroom, but that's a tougher request to get approved). Anyway, here I am on Smith Street in London:
