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This year, while I rarely leave my apartment, I can still travel the globe with the help of the internet. But not by means so pedestrian as Google Earth. No, my preferred method of armchair tourism is the Nonstandard McDonald’s Twitter account. On a balmy summer day, I flash a Vulcan salute at the England UFO McDonald’s. During a brisk evening in Sweden, I take off my McSki gloves to unwrap a McDouble, no pickles. And on a wild and windy night, I am the ghost who haunts the McBarge.
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The Nonstandard McDonald’s account’s mission is, admirably, “preserving the only architectural heritage of the western world.” The tweets span decades and continents, providing an archive of offbeat McDonald’s many now lost to time. The photos read as kitschy, surreal, and occasionally haunting. The interiors are an Escher-esque intersection of nostalgia culture, capitalism, design, and fast food.