20.2.06

A: Yes of course it's art, what kind of a question is that?



Observations from my way home:

  1. It's really cold
  2. I must've set new record in number of times I had to stop to tie my laces - this may mean I need new shoes, I'm not sure
  3. With the light evenings, it has become apparent that Finsbury Park seems to have a castle (not here).
  4. There's some great graffiti here.

Number 4 is the most interesting to me, fascinating though shoelaces really are. London does a good line in high quality street art, as you can see at one of my favourite websites, Derelict London, among other places. Tonight there was a new one up near the derelict pub on Seven Sisters Road, opposite Fonthill Road.

Make Celebrities History

It's a sentiment I can but agree with, combining as it does a poetic and concise finesse with a very reasonable, evern rational opinion. Given the success of the recent Celebrity Big Brother, which seems to exist solely to create new celebrities where there were no celebrities before, you have to wonder why it hasn't been put so succintly before. I still find publications such as Heat and it's ilk utterly unfathomable, but I'm told I'm not supposed to understand, being a bloke.

Anyway, well put that man. The capital nods in approval. Not all graffiti types (graffitimen? grafittos? graffitistas?) are the sort you would celebrate: the sooner Tox is banged up the better, tagging is just blatant vandalism with no real cause or purpose. (Maybe he'd like to think he's a Dean-esque, Rebel Without A Cause character. The boy's a fool, as a wise man once said.) But there are plenty of them out there that put real thought and talent into what they're doing, and as much as they might deride me for saying so, adding some culture and interest to the streets of London, beyond kicked up papers and old men.

One of my favourites is near my workplace on Holloway Road: It's Global Warming, Stupid. In response to another, long-forgotten bridge-borne treatise? Who's to say? Whatever, it still attracts my attention and makes me think that not everyone is apathetic. Another favourite is outside London on the M3, but still counts because I say so: Vivisection Is Scientific Fraud. I love these primarily because of the lack of motive, the total incongruity of such a sweeping, brash statement emblazoned again on a railway bridge - somewhere in the countryside near Farnborough.

The legendary Holloway Road and its surroundings provide fertile ground: last time I looked there was still a Hamas logo on Cally Road (there long before the group sought to acquire an air of respectability by contesting elections). And of course, who can forget the transition of a fairly unremarkable 'End The Occupation' by removing some of the hoardings it called home, leaving a salutory and wise 'End The OC'.

Many more can be found on Paul Talling's beautiful and poignant Derelict London, and there even appears to be a Flickr group for it - Google's a wonderful thing. Look out for Banksy, whom many of you will know already; guerilla artist, whatever you want to call him, some of those are just beautiful. Plus, you know you recognise the man with the pipe.

Soundtrack today was provided by, on the way in: Weilheim's own Ms. John Soda, specifically A Million Times

The way home means a real treat, namely the Cocteau Twin's 2000 Miles-ish Fotzepolitic, from Heaven Or Las Vegas.

You'd be surprised just how easy it was to not post Warp's inexplicably dull Maximo Park.

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