Damn, didn’t mean to submit just yet…
In the Green Mill, Chicago, Illinois.
"We need to get over this, and by “we”, I mean “you” "
“I wish I could remember all the sweet shit I said to you last night”
“Nothing never happens”
In Milwaukee’s east side there was a big billboard featuring Joe Camel shooting pool.
Someone turned the cue ball into a skull, and wrote next to it “You’re playing with death!”
But the best graffiti I’ve seen was by someone who had obviously gotten ahold of one of the machines they use to paint road markings. We were walking down a street, and the first set of crosswalks arced partially into the intersection. The next set were wavy lines. The next one started out toward the middle of the intersection, paused (big globs of paint), turned back to where they should be going, then got really narrow and thin (like they were hurrying with the painter) and went for the curb. The next one was a big spiral that went around the whole intersection and ended at a manhole cover. If we’d been walking the other direction it would’ve been kind of a letdown, but as it was we were running to see what the next one would be.
Somebody had written “Look what Labor has done for Australia” on a wall in a gay precinct of Sydney - it didn’t last long before somebody altered the L in “Labor” to a G.
My favourite though, is the unintentionally funny one some green activist did on a Sydney railway cutting wall: RIDE MORE BICYCLES.
I lived across the street from the 34th Street Wall for the three years I was in law school. I used to love reading the new graffiti.
On the Frankford “El” in Philly there is an intriguing graffitto sprayed on a natural gas tank leading up to one of the stations:
ROSSI YOUR DAD IS ALIVE!
In the little angels’ room at Mamma Zu’: “Legalize Vandalism!!!”
Written below it, in a different hand and ink: “Vandalize Legalism”
In a men’s room stall at Motheaten U, Boston, MA, (1958) “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz-Oh what a relief it is.”
On a wall poster on Comm. Ave., Boston (c. 1970)- “Climax is coming.” (when there was a band with that name).
On a Jersey barrier on Storrow Drive, Boston, (1960’s) “Vas deferens” (a band name).
Over a men’s room commode in Raleigh, NC.(c. 1995) “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and lift the seat.”
On an alley wall in Marseille, France, (anytime) “Defense de pisser ici, s.v.p.”
(No pissing here, if you please). & “Defense de déposer des ordures” (such alliterates, those French) (No Dumping).
All of these local references and you left out the (in)famous one. On the corner of Franklin and Hennepin Ave is a realtor’s billboard. His name is as twee as you can ever get, Cotty Lowry. He has the face of a rabbit and his ad is constantly tagged, graffitied, or marred. Click on his website, Cotty.com, go to “enter site” and at the bottom click “billboard”.
My personal favorite, in a dorm at choir camp with very very thin walls:
Once I slept here soft and sound, but now my head is spinning 'round. Now I sit ears in a cup–the people upstairs won’t shut up!
Others at the same camp:
Q: If it takes half a chicken half a day to lay half an egg, how long would it take a monkey with a wooden leg to kick the seeds out of a watermelon?
A: Half an hour, because ice cream floats in root beer.
I once was here but now I’m gone. I left my name and spelled it wrong. Those who know me know me well, and those who don’t know how to spell.
[strikeout]Erika[/strikeout] Erica*
It was midnight on the ocean, not a streetcar was in sight. The sun was shining brightly for it had rained all day that night. It was a summer’s day in winter, and snow was raining fast, as a barefoot boy with shoes on stood sitting in the grass.
*Bleh, that tag would have to not be in here.
I read this one in Totally Tasteless Jokes:
On a sign that read: Save Soviet Jews
Someone had added: Win Valuable Prizes
Above a urinal… Don’t look up here. The joke’s in your hand.
Many years ago, while still living in Dallas, I used to see “Frodo Lives” from time to time. I couldn’t figure out the meaning…
I finally got it after I read LOTR. :smack:
Around the inner city of Sydney:
Someone had written God hates homos, underneath someone else had written Yeah, but he loves tabouleh.
Near an feminist bookshop on a large black wall, which happened to be opposite a Catholic church, someone had written The sisterhood is here. Someone else wrote underneath Not here, across the road
Now 100% aardvarks
Save the wallet
I used to see that in a few of the stairwells at Boston University.
Which also reminds me of something that made elevator rides at the end of the main class building fun:
It was an Otis elevator, clearly labeled as such at the top of the button panel thing. Somebody altered the panel with a Sharpie so that it read “Otis, my man!”
I can’t believe I forgot my favorite one!
Written on the wall of a public building here in Memphis:
**Hey boy–
Marie from Memphis called.
- Your uncle**
For those who don’t get it:[spoiler]It’s a reference to the Johnny Rivers song “Memphis, Tennessee,” in which the speaker is talking to the operator, trying to get the number of this person who called; we later find out she’s his long-lost daughter:
Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee
Trying to find a party trying to get in touch with me
She would not leave a number, but I know who made the call
'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall.[/spoiler]
In a stall in Yosemite: Support Your Right to Arm Bears
In a restroom at UC Berkeley, early 70s : Piss on American Standard
(look down, note that brand name on urinal is “American Standard”)
Back in 1998 I was in New York, and I saw many of these, and was fascinated. I mean, it’s just so surreal!
Excerpt from an article today in the Toronto Star:
VAL KILMER
Romanes eunt domum…
Now, write it out a hundred times! If it’s not done by sunrise, I’ll cut your balls off!