MetaChat - Graffiti response #1:

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

06 August 2008

Graffiti response #1: The question mark.→[More:]

So in NYC there's a lot of graffiti. Most of it's on advertising, so it's a good thing, since alll the posters and billboards and shit are just legal graffiti, big fucking eyesores. There's quite a bit along the lines of cutting eyes out of movie posters and drawing moustaches and crude cocks on every mouth. Then there's thought and speech balloons; most of them aren't funny, many reflect the duncey homophobia endemic to the community. Then there's the normal shit, JOANIE + CHACHI, you know, FAST LIFE, or KILROY WAS HERE.

I would like to sabotage all graffiti by painting or drawing a question mark at the end of each tag. I bet I could spark a few nasty turf wars between taggers and gangs (MS13 FOREVER ?), and maybe end a few love affairs (JACK + DIANE ?), or just confuse people (FIGHT THE POWER ?).

I have many other harebrained schemes. I bet you do, too.

post by: Hugh Janus at: 08:44 | 16 comments

I thought Harebrained was spelt Hairbrained... the power of a question mark, eh!?

posted by hadjiboy 06 August | 08:48

Meatbomb did some cool graffiti in my neighborhood. There was a block-long white wall, and he wrote big block letters of the alphabet all down it (Z is for zen) and it became a magnet for reams of alphabetized graffiti.

I talked two preteen girls clutching a handful of crayons, they had taken the subway from Queens on Sunday, just to add something.

posted by StickyCarpet 06 August | 08:56

(JACK + DIANE ?)

Ehh, they never did much but hang out at the Tasty Freeze anyway.

Great idea about the Big Q. It kinda makes mundane graffiti a bit profound and mysterious, actually. Like, Wow--a question mark makes a statement into a short story.

I thought Harebrained was spelt Hairbrained...

Brain like a hare, hadjiboy... but they shouldn't insult bunnies, eh?

posted by shane 06 August | 08:58

This is in my neighborhood and some of the crews who tag there come out to do local garage doors by request from business owners. If you get a big mural done by one of the famous crews, the local punks won't tag up your wall for fear of stepping on the lion's tail.

It's like hiring mercenaries.

posted by Hugh Janus 06 August | 09:03

This is an awesome idea that should be implemented immediately.

posted by drezdn 06 August | 09:36

Many hands make light work.

posted by Hugh Janus 06 August | 09:38

Go see what I did here. Actually what I did was not as interesting as the results I set in motion - I wish I had been there to see it, but glad my brother StickyCarpet got it on film. Some more conventional stuff here.

posted by Meatbomb 06 August | 10:10

I wanna see but they're tryna make me log in.

posted by Hugh Janus 06 August | 10:21

even after I logged in, it said "content not currently available" to me.

posted by lonefrontranger 06 August | 10:44

Boozin', Bruisin', Die Kruzen?

posted by Divine_Wino 06 August | 11:46

I always want to put question marks on stop signs.

posted by Divine_Wino 06 August | 11:46

Stations of the Elevated:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

posted by Hugh Janus 06 August | 12:06

80 Blocks From Tiffany's (NSFW language):
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII

posted by Hugh Janus 06 August | 12:41

Your scheme reminds me of the small, round stickers of a screw that could be purchased from the back of some Mad magazine I once saw. You could, it was suggested, augment those bumper stickers that said "I *heart* my Shit-Zu" by placing one of these stickers over top of the heart.

posted by richat 06 August | 15:39

I always want to correct their spelling ... but then I'm British. We're allowed to be anal ...

posted by Susurration 06 August | 21:11

With gang graffitti, that could be risky.

I just picture some Blood with a Tec-9 looking at 'Trey-Seven Crips?' on a wall and getting really confused...

posted by jonmc 06 August | 21:33

← Some lovely music I've just now discovered. || Solomon Burke →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN