I’m a huge fan of maps. When I was driving between NY and KY at least four times a year, my atlas had four pages completely marked up, folded over, and half-falling out of the book (NY, KY, PA, OH).  I get anxious when I realize I’m lost, but then I LOVE finding my way back with the help of a good map.  I like to highlight the roads I’ve taken and time the trip along a new route against the original. 

Online, I’m the same…Google Maps, Live Maps, MapQuest, whatever…if I see an address, I’ll usually map it.  Then I end up playing around on the map for half an hour until I’m half a state away and switching between aerial, hybrid, road, 2D, 3D…whichever options they have. 

Anyway, the point is, I found this today (from the pretty great site These Today which gives you 5 sites daily, ranging from high to low brow) and it’s pretty wonderful and fun.  Strange Maps is a blog-type site of random maps (from star maps, to historical maps, music-related maps, food maps, it goes on and on).  This is surely going to be a complete distraction this weekend while I am supposed to be writing a paper. 

I think this site really explores what is so awesome about maps…you can use them to find your way, to locate where you are, the typical ideas of what goes along with reading a map…but you can also use them to organize some random facts, info, abstract ideas, etc. into a form that is more appealing and understandable by people (esp. students) who are visual learners.  This idea is pretty common, and you see it with nearly every teacher who presents graphs, typical statistical maps, and other visual tools along with their lessons.  However, I think that taking things you wouldn’t necessarily consider ‘facts’ or useful info in other senses (for example, the area codes where Luda claims to have ‘ladies’ waiting for him) and reshaping them involves a certain amount of interaction with the ‘facts’ that makes you think about things in a different way, raise questions that wouldn’t have been brought up otherwise, and maybe even find some new understanding of whatever info you are dealing with and the context in which that info exists.  Luda’s lady-friends’ area codes may seem irrelevant, unbelievably ridiculous and not worthy of a song (let alone a map), and looking at the ’stats’ on the map and the conclusions Stefanie Gray makes about them doesn’t reveal any giant life-altering insight, but it does show how organizing, considering and sharing this irrelevant info in a new shape can bring out questions of authorship, cultural belonging, popular reception of music based on personal connection to something within a song, the limited scope of celebrity connection to the worlds of their audience, and levels on which music can be appreciated beyond the initial response ("I’m a female and a feminist. I dislike the word ‘ho’. However, as a geography major, I find this song hilarious, and had to map it.")

Anyway, beyond Ludacris and the various area codes he enjoys visiting, maps are awesome, this blog is spectacular, and if you need me in the next few days, I will be exploring Strange Maps.