Electronic Graffiti

[The Weekenders]

A lot less here in our gritty urban areas. It was the worst in the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s. It used to be part of the pattern. Get some malt liquor and other substances, go tag a soundwall, shoot off a weapon (optional) and peel away in their cars. That was the pattern in my old neighborhood.

I figure that it just got too mainstream, like punk rock... . We still have the gangbangers, though, maybe they got tired of breathing the fumes.

I don't watch rap videos, but I wonder if they show people tagging anymore?

I also question if those guys even have the attention span to learn to type and use basic computer skills. True, they could hyper-focus on their designs, but so do six-years olds on cat drawings.

[Will O'B]

It's interesting (to me at least) to see how quickly this thread morphed into a discussion of street gangs. I admit, after some reflection, that it doesn't suprise me because gangs use graffiti as their calling card. And I've seen plenty of it when traveling into the city. However, I grew up in a very small town in the midwest (or south if you read my son's almanac) and the type of work that gangs produce just was not seen. Sure, we had our bad boys who scrawled obscenities on public restroom walls (and even on the bathroom walls of my catholic grammar school), but there was never anything done with spray cans and it certainly wasn't out in the open and in large letters for the world to see. Our vandalism was more along the lines of shooting up rural mailboxes with a shotgun or a .22, or just blowing the things to smithereens with an m-80. So when I started this thread I hadn't really considered the strong gang connotations that most people give to graffiti.

Perhaps if we could just get past the gang activity and look more at the wittier sayings that have been found on our public walls . . .

Let's see some limericks and other verse. I know that we have the talent out there.

Will O'Ban

[Joseph E. Smith]

One of my favorites:

...I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.

[susnfx]

Not technically graffiti, but terrifically funny note on a bathroom wall. One of the toilets in our office was malfunctioning and the administrator had a plumber fix it. She then wrote a note and put it on the wall next to the toilet: "If this toilet acts up again, let me know."

A day later this was written underneath:

"It's acting up again. It just called me a fat ass."

Susan

(Apologies to your son, Will)

[izzarina]

"It's acting up again. It just called me a fat ass."

[Will O'B]

"It's acting up again. It just called me a fat ass."

Susan

(Apologies to your son, Will)

Quite alright. That term is actually pretty mild in my book, although we generally use "rear end" around here. What I was referring to were words of the four letter variety.

Oh, that was a good one, Susan. And I've always liked that one too, Joseph.

Will O'Ban

[Wanderer]

So when I started this thread I hadn't really considered the strong gang connotations that most people give to graffiti.

Perhaps if we could just get past the gang activity and look more at the wittier sayings that have been found on our public walls . . .

I admit that when I voted, I hadn't yet read the thread, and assumed we were talking about gang-related graffiti. That's really the only kind of stuff I see 'tagged' on walls anywhere.

As for the kinds of things written in bathrooms, I'm afraid I don't see much of it either. I really only see public restrooms very often when making the trip from Dallas to Houston, and mostly what I've seen in there are (assumedly) gay males leaving descriptions and phone numbers for hopeful hookups. I say "assumedly" because you can't discount the possiblity that in at least some cases, someone's may have left a friend's or enemy's phone # for harrassment or prank purposes.

I haven't really seen any humorous or political discourse in public restrooms...really ever. Maybe I've just been unlucky

[burnsbyrne]

A few years ago, on the inside door of an elevator in the research building where I work someone had scrawled:

"Jesus Saves."

A day or two later someone else had written below it:

"Moses Invests."

A subtle religious/economic comentary, I thought.
Mike

[Flyingcursor]

Um. Is this supposed to be funny?

[Will O'B]

Um. Is this supposed to be funny?

Seems to be an echo with some of these posts . . .

Are we perhaps trying to increase our thread count? I generally just buy more upscale sheets.

Will O'Ban

[Will O'B]

I haven't really seen any humorous or political discourse in public restrooms...really ever. Maybe I've just been unlucky

While I enjoy the wit and humor in the type of graffiti that we're talking about, I still find the marked up walls to be gross and disgusting. So in that respect I don't think you're missing anything.

Curiously enough, our campus radio station was housed in what was once the student union many years before. (Ok, that isn't the curious part . . . read on . . .) The building was actually a large two story house and sort of a campus icon because of its history. A new student union was built and the radio station was in the basement of this older building. Other smaller offices (like stenographic, etc.) were located upstairs. The university had plans to raze the building after the school year and pave over the land to create a parking lot. (What else do you do with a campus icon, right? ) With just several weeks left in the term the university's administration let us open up the campus radio station's walls to students with magic markers. There was a lot of very creative art work, epigrams and verse. Strangely enough the disgusting feeling that pervades a washroom with graffiti didn't exist in the radio station. This truly had a feel of folk art like you hear some people speak of when referring to graffiti. Perhaps the walls in the radio station didn't project a dirty atmosphere because this was a sanctioned activity rather than some act of vandalism? I don't really know.

This was years before the internet and quite a group of students turned out to "post" their views of the world on these walls. I just wonder if the same situation happened today whether there would still be that kind of a turn out to mark on some walls that are scheduled to be torn down in three months time.

Will O'Ban

[TyroneShoelaces]

I think thats an interesting sociological question - about the internet and all. But I can't give you any kind of definitive answer. Sorry.

[GaryKelly]

Two that still make I giggle:

God Is Dead - Fred

Fred is Dead - God



and then (which probably dates me!)



Henry Kissinger should be bloody well hung! - Joe
and scrawled underneath
He is, my dear, he is - Mrs Kissinger

[emmline]

Henry Kissinger should be bloody well hung! - Joe
and scrawled underneath
He is, my dear, he is - Mrs Kissinger

Joe should have known better and used "hanged." But then there'd be no joke.