09 February 2009

Can you define 'eyesore' ?

A few weeks ago the LA Times ran the article 7 alleged members of LA tagging crew arrested which included the following quote:

"The tag has been an eyesore visible from downtown high-rises and freeways for months."

This is no ordinary tag. It's a 1/2 mile long. Seriously. I see it whenever I take the 1st or 4th street bridge into town.

Also in the story was this fantastic photo (well, a photo of a photo):


Say what you want about graffiti or tagging, but I bet you can find other eye sores in this photo. I'd start with concrete banks lining every foot of the Los Angeles "river" (the tag is actually on the river banks, if you look close you can see the running water on the bottom of the letters). How about extremely poor use of space? Or the freeways. Those are quite an eyesore. How about the 4,000+ illegal billboards in our city?

I say that if one group of people think it's okay to lay concrete anywhere and everywhere then they shouldn't be surprised when (or have legal cases against) another group wants to paint it. What do you think?

4 comments:

Rev. Joe H. Borfo said...

Would you happen to know where I could find that poster?

Matthew Ruscigno said...

I have no idea. The photo (of the photo) is just one of the seven linked to the article on the Times site.

eeio said...

i so love that piece. marvelous over the top gesture on top of horrible over the top river control.
the article is pretty sad too. the way they put quotes around grafitti artist and and refer to the "macho, braggart, narcissistic world of Los Angeles tagging". f***ing "journalist". f***ing "authorities".

Anonymous said...

you can buy them at venice beach now!...