I started a thread on this theme a while back. But the urban artists have never been ones to rest on their laurels, and I’m pissed off all over again.
This week the assholes unveiled three new “pieces” in the 'hood: on the sign in front of my apartment complex, on 5 large trees in front of the apartments just around the corner, and their freshest work…all over the the ticket kiosk at the light rail station down the street. (Conveniently labeled “Thug Life 9/20!”)
Yeah, now it’s at the point where I can barely walk out of the door without seeing these cretinous spray-painted additions to the local landscape. It’s a depressing reminder that gangs and delinquents are laying claim to our neighborhoods.
So, here’s another hearty flip of the finger to all you stupid fucking taggers out there. (Including my cow-orker’s daughter, who was busted a month ago with her friends.)
Hear, hear! But I betcha that now you’ll be flamed by posters who will say things like “poor little taggers, why are you being so mean to them?” Or worse, “I’m a tagger and proud of it!” Blech!:smack:
No, but we do have some cretins who defend this shit as “Art.” Personally, I think all vandals ought to have their hands broken. Second offense costs fingers.
Taggers caused me to rethink my position on capital punishment.
When I lived in LA, we had a relatively graffiti-free neighborhood, until some cockenheimers scrawled a bunch of garbage on a block wall bordering a vacant lot across from our house. The city cleaned it up, but it left a discolored splotch on the wall that you can literally see on Google Earth.
Eh, most taggings in public places are worthless because they don’t spend enough time on them. (For obvious reasons.) I’ve seen some masterful pieces in the legal zones here in Oslo (for any residents - skateparken i Gamlebyen, med Gandalv, for eksempel) where they’ve had time and resources to do it properly, and I’m always exited to see what ALL/FOS throw up because their projects are fucknut insane, but run-of-the-mill, dumpster-taggers are obnoxious cretins right enough.
I enjoy reading the ones on the railroad cars while I’m stuck waiting for the trains here, thinking about where they were tagged and how. I don’t see a lot of it other places in my town though. I was thinking it’s better the kids do that than beat up drunks, but I suppose if it were all over the buildings in my neighborhood I’d be getting a bit upset too.
Well, some of them really are fascinating and artistic*. Legal walls, where they can work without a time crunch, are really amazing.
*They should still be illegal, don’t get me wrong. You’re defacing someone else’s property; of course it’s illegal and rightly so. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the art.
Meh, I know I’m in the minority, but to me they add depth to the urban landscape and make a neighborhood feel lived in and alive. I know breaking the law and defacing property is bad, but I can’t help it if tags give me the warm fuzzies.
Some kids tagged my friends car not to long ago with a big 2300 (some kind of gang block thing.) He drove around with that for a while and people kept pulling him aside and asking if he was selling his car. He was like “Uh, if i really wanted to sell my car, I probably wouldn’t start by spray painting the price in huge letters on the side.”
At the train station in New Brunswick, NJ, there are some bike lockers in a row. Boring wall of beige. Then someone tagged it in full color and spelled out the word “flowers” (I think) each letter on a different locker, and each a different color scheme. It was nice.
Then the authorities painted over it (and covered up the panel which told you how to reserve a locker!).
That said, run-of-the-mill tagging is pretty worthless.
Note to taggers:
The 80’s called. They want their spraycans back.
Seriously this stuff is so so ugly these days. When I see a tag I think “Oh wow, didn’t I see something similar in that great movie Breakin 2: Electric Bugaloo. Gigantic bubble letters, shaded along one edge, with white star sparkles. How original.”:rolleyes:
Can’t these punks come up with their own style to get with the times? Or are they all destined to make bad copies of something they saw in an old “Totally 80s!” video compilation.
I don’t particularly care one way or another about taggers, but I find threads like this incredibly disturbing with this bullshit posturing about killing taggers or breaking their fingers or whatever. That’s way more fucked up than petty vandalism.
I wouldn’t mind the graffiti in our neighborhood so much, if it was artfully done or at least witty. It’s all confined to one wall, though, which happens to be at the base of the hill behind our apartment, so we get to look at it whenever we’re out on the patio.
There’s one bit up right now that says, “FUCK THESE CHAPS”, and that’s actually kind of thought provoking. A lot better than “SKURVY PIRETS” anyway, which is what adorned the same expanse of wall a few months ago, before it was painted over.
Send them to art classes and let 'em rip. Around the corner from my house someone wrote “Cocksuckers” in big letters. Someone else had the bright idea of lightly cementing over each letter to get rid of the graffito. It didn’t work. Now we have “Cocksuckers” in cement lettering that won’t disappear for years.
I wouldn’t mind quite as much if I ever saw any around here that was actually artistic. These motherfuckers just scribble though. It’s embarassing to drive someone to your house and have to pass walls and signs that look like they got left alone with a 2 year old.
There was one guy here that had a very simple “turtle” tag (a little pic of a turtle with a stylized TURTL next to it). The tag itself was nothing to brag about, but he was absolutely infamous because of a nearly supernatural ability to put it anywhere. You’d walk down the street and look up and see one on the ledge of the top story of an abandoned building that seemed to have no access point. Pretty sure he’s retired now, but it was entertaining for awhile to see what unlikely place he’d manage to tag next.
I just went to the restroom - public, in a public library. In my stall there were two things in pen, which will surely be gone by this time tomorrow. Same handwriting.
“Blood Life” - I assume this is some kind of gang thing
I agree that those extreme measures (hyperbole?) are, well, extreme.
However, there is something incredibly irksome about the blatant disrespect for fellow (wo)man and property that vandalization shows. If you live in my neighborhood and you’re a regular vandal, you bet I’m going to be pretty pissed at you.