McDonalds and KFC stand alongside a pizza joint called Godfather's. This seems not so much a droll allusion to a Hollywood stereotype, but rather a mark of respect for its principle silent partner. This is a place where people fight a little harder, with a little more desperation, with a lot less to lose. The venue is an old people's community hall on a piece of poisoned land no one wanted, a cemetery for factories. The old and powerless have little time left to complain.
Seagulls wheel around like carrion birds patiently anticipating the spoils of the day.
If the city is a corpse, then we've arrived where the sun don't shine. This is the under-12 chess competition. We enter the room to find our opponents combat-ready in camouflage pants and gym shoes. There are fat kids, Asian kids and a sprinkling of girls. I am revulsed by the brutality.