Rhombus feat McMana (& Lefties!) - Losing It

TRU Dat!

Lefties Words of Wisdom...

Last week I was talking to a writer who gets up everywhere but Lefties. When I hit him up about it he said he only does illegals. I told him that Lefties wasn't legal and that there's usually at least one bust a week.
So - it was a pleasant surprise to see him up the alley today laxing out and watching one of his potatee's throw up.
I've noticed that no writer worth his can control can watch someone else spraying without getting itchy palms themselves so when I walked back past a little bit later I wasn't surprised to see him with face to wall.
Not long after I split, I got a text to say the Boys in Blue were down there enquiring into everyones general well-being via 376 questions. Fortunately no arrests were made and even more importantly, no cans confiscated.

All this to say that a) Lefties is definitely not legal, and getting less lenient everyday b) The old "I Know The Guy Who Works Next Door" tactic is wearing thin and c) The many tenants who live behind the windows are getting less patient and more confident in their ability to push the same number on their phone three times in a row, in the dark if they need to, if you get what I'm sayin...

Doors open, come on in...

Good to see REVAMP up and about with these throwies and a few sticks...






I heard the other day that ERASE isn't in CFG anymore. It was his choice but the crews still tender about it.

Him and Happy aren't in the hoods good books at the mo either. They've been getting up full on - that's not so bad - it's just that even though they've been told, they haven't quite got the concept of 'don't shit in your own nest!'
In other words, they may as well be painting an image of a front door and tagging ERASE and HAPPY hang out here on it.Apparently they've been relieved of a stash of their cans but the damage is done and I suspect it's only a matter of (not very much) time before they get some visitors who are hot for them in all the wrong ways.

Call me any kind of genius but I'm guessing we'll be seeing some new names going up pritttttty soon...

THE BOOM'S BACK IN THE BOX

When I saw this ghetto blaster sten up the alley, I guessed it was Elie's way of saying that BOOMBOX had finished it's relocation mission across the park and they were back in business. I wandered over and sure enough, door open, game on ;-)

There is no way these images do the new pad justice so you'll have to go look-see the red velvet, chandelier and brick classiness for yourself on Labour Day.

One piece of advice though - if you and money find it easy to part ways, leave your wallet at home because we're talking 100% pure street candy that no one can resist...

Plastered in BMD

So - what I want to know is, what came first? The critter that happened to fit around the pipes or the pipes that inspired the critter? And is that a posca he's holding in his hand?!
So it was him doing all the tags round town all this time...






Here's Banksy's latest mission...

CFG Whitewash

I swear CFG have gonads the size of Auckland for some of the shit they get away with...





None of it's classy but it's a fkn bold move!

The friend I was with wasn't sure he liked it but I pointed out that CFG just effectively buffed the whole alley for everyone else ;-)

Keeping An Eye On the Prize...

Erase's old man told me he was taking him and Happy to some graf comp out of town so when I caught up with them down Lefties yesterday, I wasn't surprised to find out they won.
Erase has always had the Can Gods in his back pocket. He inherited a shitload of them when Mephisto Jones split over to Oz and now him and Happy are flush with booty from the comp...



SIN rocked down as I was taking these images and watching the boys finishing off. He looked at the one above and said to Happy - At least it's got eyeballs!
Later on, when I had split from SIN, I saw this fresh one and chuckled to myself...
Man - I'm so stoked I got these images when I did cos CFG went on a mental block buster rampage and capped them all.
You can see them here tomorrow...

ID | NEWS

One of the highlights of the Decked Out opening was meeting ID.
Now I can put a face to the throwies.
I especially get a kick out of seeing experimentation and variations on the usual, which is what ID's been doing lately.

Maybe this is an offensive and naive generalisation, and I'm sure you'll tell me if it is, but maybe there's two kinds of artists/writers?
Those who get a good thing going or something that works for them and rarely stray far from that style/formula - getting slicker and sharper every time.
And those who can never stay anywhere for too long before getting either bored, therefore adventurous, or being stimulated or inspired by something or someone else. It's like they cruise down a street for a while then see a side alley they can't help but go down, which leads them down another one.

From what I've seen of ID - I'd put him in the latter, rapping out the same theme for a while then going total 360 on us.

__________________________________

Side note: Here and here are some of the latest tactics being trialled by anti-taggers around the country FYI...

Bewarefest

What can't BEWARE do?
He's done slaps, stens, pasteys, free photos, a deck and the odd throwie, not to mention both his sites of images and goss. If there were jobs in Grafland, he'd be getting a promotion and payrise before he even started.

What I'm getting at is that people like BEWARE who live/breath/do/share graf are such good advocates for the scene. He's always helping out writers, supporting and encouraging them, putting their stuff up on his sites, visiting them, going to their openings, texting them when he sees something new of theirs, putting people in contact with each other (not just in New Zealand by the way) - the list goes on.

If you've read the book The Tipping Point - you would know that BEWARE is a Connector - and in graf speak, he could be classed as Paste. He quietly contributes to binding all the chaotic haphazard multi faceted aspects of the Wellington graf scene together. Of course, some would say who the fck is he again? But I could almost guarantee the 1 Degree Of Separation rule would apply to anyone with a can or posca in their back pocket and there wouldn't be a tag or cap of hate to be found...

Black and White

While I was hanging out with my whanau in Narrowtaki this weekend gone, BEWARE texted me to say he was in a black book sesh at Manky's with Star Mugs who's from Aux. He also cleared up a mystery for me...
Last week I was doing my usual rounds of the alley when I saw what looked liked the beginning of a throwie.
Now - you know I'll put up anything I find in the alley - almost to the point of being merciless on the toys but I couldn't even bring myself to take an image of this one, let alone put it up here. Turns out that was a rare good call cos it wasn't a piece at all, it was only the start of Mugs - just before he got busted ;-(




This, and morphy variations of it, has gone up all over the city. No idea who it is but quite like them for a change. Another one to add to the GFC list...

Erasing Silenc | Silencing Erase

I've been waiting for an excuse to put up Silenc's last rap text and tenuous as it is, Erase has given me one. Here he's capped Silenc huge piece over in the carpark near the new Boombox. Also - Silenc tells me he'll probably be down in the New Year to get some shit up...

All the bestist!
Jah rythym of rain hit d roof
ova realheads i bn blessed with,
cash distracts from higher values
n incentives to progres d next ish,
do yo thing as strong young Kings n Queens!
who aint on that chicken neck shit,
seek proof n speak the truth
like soulrebels Krs n mc M1,
go to war with these devils n dnt cm bak till afta death -
mum aint gna miss this,
plus i aint gne wait til christmas
to rip shit apart like presents
im out for the poor n opressed workin people peasants
and easily influenced adolesants
who are stressed with' modernday life'
Soul Power!
Lets take it back to the essence!
Text from Silenc
8 Sept 08

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Happy is charging man!
You might remember me rabbling on a while ago about Erase's progress.
I've noticed the same with Happy over the past few months.
It might be obvious that he has DRYPNZ's shoulder to look over in the studio but he's definitely got his own groove...

Pidgeshit

Apparently FKBs CERS isn't thrilled about Erase's ERS (try saying that after you've been up to take part in the joy and happiness of DRIPs birthday imbibeathon!!)





I know!! Scraping the Tragic Barrel when I have to feature the (fornicating 30 seconds ago) pidgeons.

The Family That Paints Together Stays Together ;-)

DRIP is ERASE's old man - I was so stoked to see this! It's not about a father and son doing supposed criminal activity together - it's about a father doing the 13 year old son's favourite thing in the world with him - whatever that is -without judgement...

Luckily DRIP and DRYPNZ are friends so there will be no biting hate bullshit here either ;-)

The Idealist in me is seeing Grafland inching closer to that dream I had that time...

Words

The Decked Out opening at Manky Chops and Alc HQ was way too epic and I'm blaming that for not getting anything up this weekend ;-) I can't wait to put up the images I got of the decks earlier in the day but I promised I'd wait for WWS to go first so you'll have to wait...

Today Sin and I went on a hound mish and got a ton of new and old burners and throwies. Had to make something of the weekend after spending most of it in the recovery position ;-)

Chromeomeo's

Do these two say Magic? Update: Manic apparently ;-)




Eye of the Fish asked the other day for someone to translate 'Squiggle'. I know what he means! As I've said before, it's usually doh! obvious when someone enlightens you...

Hey - props for all the contributions to the Crew Comp! There's still a few question marks but Sherlock Homie's on that case ;-)

BTW - saw Street(un)Wise taking down names up the Alley again today. What do they hope to discover? Do they think the writer names are anagrams for their real identities? Do they collect them to decipher in the smoko room at morning tea when the crosswords get too hard?
Hmmm - I can see it now...
ID - well that's clearly Di! She says that's silver nail polish from the $2 shop but we all know she's as guilty as chromey sin.
And IKON? Does he seriously think that we haven't worked out he's that Niko from Dick Smiths slipping out in his lunch time for a quick throw up?

Haha - would pay money to find out what the Wise Ones are up to.

So - question has to be asked - what's Streetwise an anagram for?

Wire Testes?

Now that's one badass crew name right there!!

Editor Does Over Boombox...

BMD Breeding Ground

ANON put the face up first then BMD got freaky with it. Love the Adams Apple lol

CFG | SHIV | ERASE | CREW COMPILATION

Right - I'm on a mish and I need your help...
I want to get the crews straight in my head.
Below is the list that I know of and if you've got any corrections or additions, I'll keep updating it...
BTW: They're not in any particular order and I apologise in advance if I've got anything seriously messed up - do me a favour and correct me ;-)
CFG - Cool Fools GraffingShiv
Kwiva
DR
Asert
Cose
Ape
Over
Rad
FKB - Fat Kap BanditsHate
Pork (Oz)
Rust (Oz)
Cers
Wasp
Spurt
Associate: Neonate
BH - Bad HabitsCovet
Tank
Quest
Revamp
RTR - Ready to Roll (Aux & Wellie)Ikon
Vents
Repo
Stray
TS - Triple S
Juse 1 (Top Shelf Creative)
Jestah
Drex
Kerb 1 (Top Shelf Creative)
SpexOne
Reakt
Truce
Avid
Ceaper
Associate: ESP?

BML - Bombing Mad LinesScream (also UPC, TA, CIA)
Tens?
Reface?
PAS - ? (ChCh & Well?)Heist
Morks
Chaos
Stix
Interactive?

OMF - Original Mother Fuckers?

OTP - On The Piss (or On The Prowl?)Covet
Revamp
Remis
Helper
Phuse
Boom?
BDC - Bombers Delight Crew
Jer
Erase
Pane
Soap
ID



What was I thinking?! LOL!

Then there's the question whether FTP is a crew or just the statement Fck The Police? Someone thought they'd heard it was a world wide thing?
I can see that connection ;-)
What about Editor & Cast? Editor often has WK on his pieces but role calls some RTR...
And what about F is for Fun? I heard he was in FKB but got sidelined because he wasn't repping them enough. True/False?

As you'll see by the comments - getting some good info.
Want to be sure it's shizworthy though so confirms of the ? would be g

The 30 second Exhibition

So - Green shirt dude is a graphic design student and this was supposed to be an exhibition of some sort. He and his crew were sticking up huge sheets of paper - ie: NOT actually intending to paint on the walls - when the Blues turned up and shut it down. Green dude got some plastic cuffs put on and was charged with drinking a bottle of beer in public.

Moral of the story seems to be that the law doesn't like surprises - the dudes should have got permission, signed in triplicate, distributed to everyone in the neighbourhood, notices in the paper, had at least one sponsor and invited the Mayoress.


Thanks to BEWARE for the images and, green dude, if you read this and I've got anything wrong or you have anything to add, leave a comment.

________________________________

OK - may as well get everything else off my not so substantial chest while I'm here...

Two things about this article in the paper got me going a few weeks ago.
First - that they're assuming it was a/the tagger that beat the guy.
Second - that they've been encouraging people for a while now to ring 111 to report graffiti.
Using our national emergency line to report graffiti?!
What's that about?

No-one that I know of has tried to communicate with the graf community to find out what they want. If they have any suggestions on what would make them stop tagging. What rules they could make for themselves that they might agree on.
Yeah - I know - I'm sickeningly idealistic and we'd probably have more luck finding out Banksy's real name or who The Splasher is but is the whole crack down, arrests, pink vests strategy working?

Now there's an Inner City Business and Residents group being set up in the hood by ex-mayor, Mark Blumsky, and one of the bullet points on their agenda is graffiti. Naturally I had to join it, and I look forward to the next meeting - will keep you posted. Item #1: Distinction between tagging and graffiti ;-)

I don't see myself as an authority on what writers want or even get out of what they do but the very nature of the graffiti game is that the writers and artists stay low therefore don't know, or have any control over, the decisions being made that affect them.
I have absolutely no influence within the graf community and they couldn't give a fat cap about me or these sites but, regardless, I believe in them and their art form and, in the absence of anyone else, I can't not be a stoolie...

30 Sec Exhibition Take 2 + Vid

These from SIN's camera - which is actually BEWAREs old camera ;-) And blame me if the vid at the end has you knawing you hand off - it's my first attempt (with SIN's text help) at editing lol!

Thanks so much to SIN and BEWARE for being the Stoolies on the Spot and for sharing their captures ;-)

Lefties Playpen

Last night I played a bit of (suck) pool with BEWARE then came home to get the nights posting done. I was just walking up my hill when I got a text from SIN telling me there was some action happening down Lefties and to get down ASAP. I texted BW and he said he was on his way too.
I got changed out of my work clothes then walked quickly to the bus stop but as I was waiting, BW let me know that the polis had been down and broken the event up before it could even start so, disappointed, I headed back home.
I'm just on my way into town now to pick up the images and vids SIN and BW got so I can show and tell you the full haps tomorrow...

HAPPY | STIX

Happy used to write HAPPY because he so wasn't. Recently one of his best friends' (graf supportive) fathers offered to have him live with them and lets just say his new digs suit him. Could his graf have worked as a philosophical 'fake it till you make it' manifestation of happiness?

What I like about Happy's style is that he doesn't have one yet. Every week he experiments with new ideas.
The first Happy stick I got an image of (over there) could only be described as naive, but within days the eyeball one went up and I was so impressed with the progress I had to nab it for the wall of fame at home.

And dare I risk the Big Boys hate and wrath when I say I think it's bitchin to see Happy experimenting with characters, which not many toys do. Yelz, DRYPNZ, BMD, Cracked Ink and a few others have got it going on but it's keeping it fresh to have a new player dip his toes in the Mutey Character pool.

It's hardly Berlin, China or Pink Floyd but here's some of the aforealludedto wall...

The elections haven't happened yet so, until they pass a law against it, feel free to send us your stix or pasteys to:

Leftbank
P O Box 7363
Wellington 6242

And I'll find some more wall...


PS: The majority of the above were donated and the rest were only removed in accordance with the strict guidelines listed on page 13, Section E of the Graf Pilferers Manual.

Whose Graf is it Anyway

CFG seem to be collecting some not-too-foul writers. Saw a burner at the skate park today by ASERT and it was nehsty! It had CFG, Kwiva and Shiv on the role call but maybe the dude was just shouting out. Stoking if the boys did have the pulling power to lure ASERT onto their crew though ;-)

Speaking of the ASERT curiosity - I might as well list the rest of the mysteries the GFC (Graf Forensix Crew lol) are working on:

• Who is LINE? And are they male or female?
• What does BMD stand for?
• Is ANON actually DUSK, or one of her crew?
• What does OMF stand for? Shiv told me but I forget - something Mother Farkas I'm guessing.

Looking forward to someone shining a torch over that lot...

SLOPE

Months ago I went to Manky Chops first mammoth and very rocking colab opening of mainly graf artists. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the bods so decided to do a quick drive by of all the pieces before accelerating the feck out of there. But when I got to the red and black painting of a woman with a bob, in the corner, I was as stalled as an XY Falcon stuck between 1st and 2nd.
Her transfixing eyes and knowing demeanor made her look so She Bond.
Time and sound stood back politely until I was able to drag myself away and before I could regret spending the bonus I'd got that day, that was earmarked for something else. I did, however, regret not getting an image of her.

___________________________

A few weeks ago I was talking to Dave and he invited me to their latest opening. Imagine my ecstasy when I found out it was the same artist and it turns out that Slope (aka Brad ;-) was one of the people who nominated Leftbank for the award so, yeah, you'd be safe assuming in we had a bit to chat about when we were introduced.

The reason I put Slope up here is that first - Manky's falls into the One Block Rule and is a staunch supporter of Graf and second - because, among other things, Slope used to be a tagger (which happens to have given him the most exquisite signature of any artist I've ever seen btw).
There's only one thing that baffled me the whole night, and still does every time I look at his pieces...
How could the dealer galleries have all rejected his work?
I don't get it.
He's prolific, his pieces are finished immaculately, his prices are fair, he's motivated and the nicest guy to communicate with. How can the Dealers not hear the soundtrack 'Ching Ching' to that story?

___________________________

'Astute' is how I would describe the woman who bought Jessica Alba for double digits before the doors had even opened - and 'No Regrets' is what I'm suspecting she'd say if you asked her in a year how she felt about that particular investment...