Fix That Jawn: A Philly developer put the I-95 rebuild livestream on Twitch and added LoFi music
Fans of the I-95 construction livestream can visit twitch.tv/fixthatjawn, where they’ll be greeted by vibes and memes. The governor’s office had nothing to do with it.
Why watch the I-95 rebuild livestream through the state’s website when you can stream it on Twitch, accompanied by LoFi beats and a chatroom?
At least, that’s what Brent Schooley decided.
The Philadelphia-based software developer took it upon himself to bring Pennsylvania’s construction live feed over to Twitch — a popular streaming service used especially by gamers and content creators.
Schooley said he launched the Twitch channel — which he has appropriately titled “Fix That Jawn” — for people who “like the idea” of watching I-95 getting rebuilt but wondered “why there’s no chatroom for memes.”
He’s part of a Philly-based Twitch streaming community and production company called PH16 and said his group inspired the idea.
A member suggested recasting the feed “so we can all make jokes about it in real time,” Schooley said. “So I guess it was really all for the memes.”
At any given moment, fans of the I-95 construction livestream — and there are thousands — can visit twitch.tv/fixthatjawn where they’ll be greeted by the chill, vibey sounds of dream pop and jazz. It’s sort of like YouTube’s LoFi Girl, but instead of watching an animated character study at her desk, you’re watching excavators, backhoes, and workers in neon vests do their thing.
In the chat bar next to the feed, a small group of people discuss what they’re seeing. Tuesday afternoon, there was a short back-and-forth about Aero Aggregates, the Delco company contracted to provide its gravel-like material made from recycled glass to rebuild the damaged portion of I-95. There are also recurring memes, like a cat wearing a hard hat and, at times, appearances from Gritty superimposed by the group.
“Recycled glass? Oh damn,” said one user.
“Yeah, it’s really cool!” replied Schooley, who moderates.
As of Tuesday, the Twitch stream had 113 followers and about a dozen views at a time. Schooley said on the cast’s first day, there were nearly 50 concurrent viewers. It’s only a small portion compared to the thousands tuning into PennDot’s website. But Schooley isn’t fazed.
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“Reception has been wonderful,” he said. “One person commented in chat that this has been a perfect thing to put on in the background. It’s really fun to see people checking back in every so often and getting excited about how much work has been done.”
But this isn’t a government-official streaming platform.
When Alex Pearlman — a viral local TikToker known as @Pearlmania500 who is best known for rants about the news — discovered the Twitch stream, he was convinced Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office was behind it as another way to fold in non-traditional media. After all, the digital team had enlisted Pearlman to attend Shapiro’s recent press conferences as a guest.
“I thought it was the governor’s office who started the Twitch since they’d been strategizing with social media,” Pearlman said. “I told them I loved it! But they didn’t know what I was talking about. It was some random guy.”
It’s true, Shapiro’s office confirmed, the Twitch cast has nothing to do with them.
“It’s another example of how this has truly taken a life of its own,” said Shapiro’s press secretary Manuel Bonder.
Indeed, the livestream has been displayed at bars and even ballgames.
“We’re seeing this happen all over Philly,” Bonder said. “There’s a ton of organic attention and civic pride coming from the rebuilding of 95.”
Schooley says the stream is such a hit because of the community aspect.
“We’re all gathered around watching this road get rebuilt and we’re forming connections, making jokes, and getting to know new people,” he said. “I love it when someone wants something funny added to the stream. One day we had Gritty pointing at the chimney of Four Seasons Total Landscaping because someone thought it would be hilarious. They were right.”