Oh damn! Have you made it through the new Santigold album yet? Musically it sounds just like her– nothing crazy new– and she also brings her classic, cutting commentary. “Crashing Your Party” is a stunner of a pop-reggae pro-immigration anthem. Some choice lines:

“Go call the cops, call the paper / You know you better run, no tellin’ our behavior”

“So give me that bow, give me that stone, give me that rake / I’m gonna take, I’m gonna take my place”

“I’m sorry / I’m crashing your party”

(Listen.)

So people are flocking to cities, right? And real estate values there are rising, right? And they’re crashing in the far out places that people are leaving. And when populations in more remote areas hit zero, towns unincorporate by default, leaving them up for private sale. These are ghost towns. Hubris-filled companies usually discover they’re a bad investment; that’s why you’ll find Bikinis, Texas up for resale, with its off-brand Hooters intact, as well as places like Nipton California– a better-named place for a breastoraunt, but this one was bought and abandoned by a weed company. Churches have done a better job of populating ghost towns– kinda comes with the territory– and cults are doing the same (watch out for the Scientologist Valley VC who bought an old Nazi town). And then there are just cool people with money who buy space. Like the guy who bought a largely intact gold rush town, saloon and all (museum anyone?). Or the family who made a town of like ten houses because they were tired of striving with the rest of society. And if like $3mm were nothing to you, maybe you’d do the same?

Raise your hand if you also waste hours on Zillow, investigating houses that you definitely can’t buy because you live in one of those expensive cities. If you thought that was an individual quirk, may I suggest something that will blow your mind: Listen to Chris Hayes’ podcast episode about how the US government manufactured a housing boom post-WWII to stimulate the middle class. Conclusion: we have our country to thank for HGTV and all those lost hours on the internet. (But understanding changes nothing; with clarity, still want house.)

Whether just bought a town or you’re living the apartment life, blank walls are a thing you probably have. To populate that space, CanvasPeople invites you to print your favorite photo on an 11×14 canvas for free if you’re down to pay shipping. Do that here.