Monday, January 28, 2008

New Zealand businessman, 50, charged with murdering graffiti writer, 15

Tragic and heartbreaking news. More as it develops.

A 50-year-old New Zealand businessman has appeared in court charged with murdering a teenager who was reportedly painting graffiti on fences in a suburban street near his home.

Pihema Cameron, 15, was stabbed to death late Saturday in Manurewa, near Auckland, police said.

Bruce William Emery did not enter a plea when he appeared in the Manukau District Court and was remanded in custody until Thursday.

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Story of Stuff

A quick and engaging overview about the state of the world, who profits from our destruction, and what we can do about it.

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Anonymous vs Scientology

Vigilante hacking crew goes after dangerous cult: awesome manifestos on YouTube. Plotting continues at Project Chanology.

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SprayMasters to premiere in NYC Feb 13

SprayMasters, the new film by Manfred Kirchheimer, produced by Manny and his son Gabe, will be opening MoMA's Documentary Fortnight series on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. in New York City.

The film features interviews with seminal graffiti artists Futura 2000, Lee, Lady Pink, and Zephyr, plus rare footage of painted trains from the late 1970s and its original soundtrack from Studio Chill includes Mark Shine, J-Illa, The Cultures of Rhythm, Ezekiel, Al Street, and Matt Ray.

This film is a follow-up to Kirchheimer's underground classic "Stations of the Elevated" (1980)

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Online art sales - busiest sites

Monthly traffic in the online art market.

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Os Gemeos paintings in Lithuania

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Sydney graffiti writers drown in storm drain

Gone are Flaps and Banish from Sydney Australia. May they rest in peace. Their friend survived and was rescued from the ocean by surfers. We wish him strength to get through this terrible tragedy.

They were inside an underground storm drain structure that was a frequent playground for urban explorers, when it rained, killing the couple.

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Urban pioneering, cheap houses, cool mayor - Braddock Pennsylvania

One of my coolest friends just bought a livable house there for less than $10,000. Really. His even came furnished.

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Cool Tools

The brilliant Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site has some great things on it. Recently I saw

Book on HDR photography
Motion Mountain Physics / Art book - free PDF download

He also has some interesting realtek on his Street Use site. Check out the painted trucks from Pakistan.

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Alex Grey exhibition in NYC

See psychedelic artwork like no other, until February 8 at the Microcosm.

See more stuff online and in NYC at Cosm

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Hire An Illustrator

This site hosts and promotes your illustration portfolio for $7 per week.

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Secretwars

This looks like fun.

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Grappa

Draw on the blank screen. Pretty!

Easy ways to save what's on your screen:

Windows: Hold down Alt and press printscreen. Open a Word or Paint window (or any word processor or image program). Press ctrl-V to paste the picture into the new window. Save!

Mac: Command-shift-3 (captures screen) (or Cmd-shift-4 to marquee your capture area). Picture file appears on your desktop.

More Mac screen capture tips:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1191445&tstart=0
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X

Tip: you might have to reload the site after the capture.

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Slick painting a low rider in LA


"Slick and Danny D combine the world of graff with custom low-rider culture on this paint scheme for Ford's pre-production prototype of their latest model 'Flex' due to drop summer '08 (paint scheme not included!!)"

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New Mear limited edition

They go really fast, so don't hesitate if you want one.

"Dare to Defy? by MEAR ONE
3 color screen print
Size: 18? x 24?
Edition size of 80, each being signed/dated by MEAR ONE 08
Published by the Baurmann Gallery
Master Printer Karen Fiorito/ Hard Pressed Studios

Oddly, it seems difficult to get to the purchase place from the print page and vice versa. Here is the link to buy them:
Purchase Dare to Defy

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Banksy wall sells for more than $400,000

[Australia] "... as one of Melbourne's few remaining pieces of stencil art by the elusive British graffiti artist Banksy, the little diver gained further cachet yesterday when another Banksy work on a London wall fetched £208,000 ($A453,700) on an eBay auction."

Sweet. The auction winner has to remove and replace the wall on top of that. I see portability problems continuing ;^)

Witness really smart idiots grousing about it being vandalism anyway: Banksy e-bay auction . Anyone care to bet these folks would paint it out instead of cashing in, if it were on their house? I bet they'll all be leaving spraypaint in the milkbox overnight and praying the stencil angel comes calling now.

Of course, Banksy probably makes no money on his works' newfound life as wall(s) at large, but buzz like this is what you want as an artist, clearly. Can't hurt the gallery price to have people excising masonry for it. Maybe this will eventually be the downfall of the Palestine wall? We can only watch and hope.

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Female Sneaker Fiend

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

New legal wall in CT (USA)

"Naugatuck looks to build 75-foot-long graffiti wall

"Mayor Mike Bronko is teaming up with police officers and local youth to design a graffiti wall that would allow spray paint artists to show their skills without fear of being arrested.

"The borough is looking to build an 8-foot-tall, 75-foot-long graffiti wall near the skateboard park at Linden Park in the Union City section. Bronko said the project could cost from $5,000 to $10,000, and local businesses have said they will donate to the project. The borough also would seek funding from the state Office of Policy and Management's police and youth program to offset the cost."

Way to go, Connecticut!

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Why borrowing money for college makes sense

Especially if you will have to pay for it yourself, getting a college education is the smart thing to do. (See the link for a helpful illustration of why that's so.) Sure, some philosophy majors work in restaurants, but for most people, the difference in income and opportunity is almost immediate after they get a degree.

Education is your best chance to get out of poverty, both for you and your children. It was the best decision I ever made. Make a list of questions and an appointment to speak to someone at a university Admissions office to discuss your options and where to start.

In the USA and likely in other places too, if you're poor or smart or talented enough, the government or school will pay for some of your tuition. Every worthwhile school wants you to attend, so they are often helpful in making it possible.

If you are in the US and you think you might want to go to college this fall, you need to fill out the financial aid forms now, because they process the applications in the order they are received, starting January 1 each year. Don't wait.

USA: You can find out what your Pell Grant eligibility is at www.fafsa.ed.gov . They also have some other grant info there, but your school will have even more information about financial aid.

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Prague graffiti project, penalties

"If caught, artists who spray graffiti in illegal areas face up to eight years in prison, Blažek says, but a majority receives lesser sentences to perform cleanups and other types of community service.

To help curb illegal street art, in 2001 the city designated several legal graffiti zones near Prague 5’s Barrandov bridge, Prague 1’s Těšnov tram stop and the Orionka zone in Prague 4–Modřany."

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How to run a hacker space (PDF)

This is a funny-but-practical slide presentation (in PDF) on how to organize creative groups and spaces in order to make cool things together, by some hackers who have done it successfully. Almost every suggestion is applicable to anyone trying to set up and share studio or workspace.

[Thanks, Andy]

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

TJ and Baja Mexico: tourists are getting jacked

It seems masked and heavily armed banditos are running rampant in beach country these days, on the Mexican baja coast. Robbery, carjacking, rape ... everything you don't want on your vacation.

I hear good things about Lima and Peruvian beaches though. And airfare is really cheap right now. ... check out farecompare.com

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Saturday, January 05, 2008

the Junky projects

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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Jazi paints Jesse Al Malik promo wall



Jazi is one of the most famous writers from Switzerland and he's got some new stuff here.

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Graffiti art classes in NYC - with James TOP

Students at the University of New York's Hostos Community College in the Bronx now can enroll in a 19-week class on the street art of graffiti. The class, "Graffiti: The Art of Hip Hop," is offered as a non-credit continuation course in the school's art program.

James Cade, known as Jee2 or James TOP, teaches the "hands-on" class. Cade will teach students graffiti art using local art galleries and field trips to view commissioned murals around the area.

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

How to recognize and counter a bad argument

Learning to identify faulty reasoning will help you over and over in life as media and authority and politicians come at you with bogus arguments. This material was the most valuable stuff I learned in college. It looks boring on the surface but it's actually fascinating because it helps sort out the truth from the BS.

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NYC graffiti artists make creative space on high school roof

New Design High School, 350 Grand Street, 212.475.4148
Jesse Pais, dean at the design school organized this project

rooftoplegends2007.blogspot.com

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