In this week’s I Heart Street Art, we talk to street artist Caleb Neelon, who’s in town for a gallery opening on Saturday. He shares some thoughts that are somewhere between zen and totally incendiary. Link.
11 Responses to “Count Your Blessings That You Can Afford to Own Property in San Francisco”
Allan Hough (7858)
Brittany Janis & Katie Cruz (104)
Authors
“Count your blessings that you can afford to own property in San Francisco,” he says, “There are a lot of other places in America where you can own property and it won’t be in the line of fire.”
Weird– that’s EXACTLY what I tell people when I piss all over them.
Dude, the next time you piss on someone, get some pics. I’ll do a post.
it must be nice to go through life thinking of nothing but your own needs & wants, looking no further than the tip of your own nose for perspective and world view….and justifying it by calling it “art”.
this guy makes me puke.
I’ve been working on getting my technique photo-ready, but all of my pee tags have been too drippy.
You know what I consider real folk art? When locals kick the shit out of university educated carpetbaggers with “streetnames”.
I don’t mind some dweeb tagging up Frisco, it’s already lost. But do I need to see that crap in SE Asia? Absolutely not.
Up until a few years ago everyone hated the “Where’s Dave” tagger. But now, we’ve come to accept and even appreciate these vapid activities.
Seriously, the 00s have got to be the worst decade in modern pop cultural history. From reality TV to what passes for music on the Billboard Top 100, to those geek pillow fights, to “deejays” displacing real musicians, and ultimately to these low rent dorks flying around the world to tag buildings and take the pictures home to show off with.
This putz deserves to be caned in Singapore, not lauded by bloggers.
Who’s lauding? Also, Kelly Clarkson’s new album is my favorite of the year so far.
Jesus, it’s douche city around here.
We’re sorry the 00s aren’t good enough for you. God forbid people don’t respect your 19th century ideas of property, art and beauty.
I also love the identity politics- So you’re saying you’d judge less harshly if you didn’t think the taggers were middle class?
Idiot.
Excuse me jimbeam, it’s 20th Century notions that I stand for, not 19th, although I do love me some 19th Century architecture and streetscapes a la foundsf.
And believe me, like I said to my dorm mates in 1985, one day people will come to agree with me that the Phil Collins and Huey Lewis music they thought would be cool forever would be seen as the nadir of popular rock. And so it was, until the 00s.
The 00s truly are awful for pop culture, and there are probably redeeming reasons for that having to do with the democratization of mass media. Either way, unless 2009 takes a turn for the unexpected, the 00s this will be arguably the worst decade of pop culture since the 1900s.
As for tagging and socioeconomic status, the point is that some attention whore tagging around the world has little to no redeeming artistic value and is basically an excuse to get some attention back home. A cheap publicity stunt. He should be caned a la Michael Faye. Google the name if you’re unfamiliar.
JB: Do you have anything intelligent to say or do think that claiming someone has a “19th Century View” of property is so insightful and obviously correct that nothing more needs to be said.
If taggers think their art is so wonderful then they should find their own to place to do it. Most property owners like their property not be vandalized. Keeping their property well-maintained is a statement in and of itself. And most in in the community don’t want to see buildings vandalized. Of course, taggers are so self-centered that they don’t even stop to think about these things. They only care about themselves — the only statement tagging makes is “I am a self-centered douche”.
There is no justification for tagging (and certainly you seem to be unable to even attempt to make one).
Actually, JB didn’t say anything in support of tagging. JB took issue with 1.) the idea that this decade sucks and 2.) the “university educated” comment.
If you’re gonna call someone out, try to read what they wrote first.
This decade rules.
Mm-hmm. I can see some people are still in denial about this decade. That’s understandable. No one wants to believe they’ve got the short end of the stick. Anyway, the exciting thing about the 00′s is the technology revolution. It’s a rare treat to be able to live in an era when the technological envelope is being pushed so fast you can actually see the changes happen in real time. In 2000 the big new thing was napster. Today, even a schlub like me can walk around with an iphone. That’s the story of the 00s, not Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton, Kelly Clarkson, or the rest of it.
Also, I would think that it should be self evident to any university educated person why tagging and bragging around the world is a lame pursuit for anyone, particularly someone with a college education. Even the fratboys give up those sorts of infantile cries for attention once they graduate. Too often an “artist” is just a scheming attention whore well passed his sell-by date.