Welcome to St. Paul’s

Guardian: Were YOU injured by G20 police?

The Guardian want to interview people who were actually assaulted (not just threatened) by the police. You’ll need to use your real name.

Via What I Saw (blog devoted to eyewitness accounts from G20 protests) [Edit: It seems they have had a large response to this, and so don't need any more! See comments for more on this.]

PS The pic comes from a demonstration outside Bristol Magistrates’ Court this morning in support of Paul Saville, the ‘Bristol Chalkist‘ who was arrested and charged with criminal damage for writing on the pavement in chalk. The Crown Prosecution Service finally saw sense and dropped the charges.

Banksy stormed!

In the early hours of this morning, Banksy’s ‘Mild Mild West’ on Stokes Croft in Bristol (UK) was repainted by a member of Appropriate Media, presenting an alternative version of this ‘alternative Bristol landmark’.

Through this action, Appropriate Media asks ?What is the value of street art??. How much time and money will be spent to restore this urban ‘masterpiss’ by urban masterpisser, Banksy.

Come on, you only care about it cos its a Banksy and he sells his lazy polemics to Hollywood movie stars for big bucks.

Come on, you only care about it cos makes you feel edgy and urban to tour round the inner city in your 4×4, taking in the tired coffee table subversion that graffiti has become.

Graffiti artists are the copywriters for the capitalist created phenomenon of urban art.
Graffiti artists are the performing spray-can monkeys for gentrification.
We call for the appropriate and legitimate use of public and private property.

We are taking matters into our own hands

We will not seek permission

We will retaliate

From Appropriate Media

ETA (1):

Just to clarify, I am not Appropriate Media, I just saw a post about it on Bristol IndyMedia – so anyone itching to dole out some death threats, hate mail, notes of congratulations or whatever, please bear this in mind

ETA (2):

Some media coverage:

• BBC picture gallery: Banksy vandalised (12:17pm)
• BBC video report: Banksy art vandalism is ’stupid’ (12:36pm)
• Evening Post: Vandals target Banksy mural in Bristol (12:55pm)
• BBC news story: Paint daubed across Banksy mural (2:24pm)

Bristol blogs on this:

• Bristol Blogger: Banksy Balls
• Bristol Graffiti: Mild Mild West Defaced

Return of the Mekon

Spotted this whilst we were on Kingsdown Parade.

KRS: Ooh look! It’s the Mekon!
LLF: The what?
KRS: The Mekon!
LLF: It looks like an alien.
KRS: He is! He’s from Venus!
LLF: Right…
KRS: The Treens!
LLF: Okay…
KRS: You know, Eagle! Dan Dare!
LLF: Mmmhmm…
KRS: Both the 1950 and the 1982 one!
LLF: Can you tell that I don’t really care?

Greek graff

Lest we forget: Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

Via GiaNt

Shit graffiti rolleyes UK!

As being done on the side of CEED in St. Paul’s tonight.

The full text was eventually:

FUCK WAR

IRAQ BURNS
RAYTHEON EARNS

MAKE
LOVE
NOT WAR

ACID
NOT
BOMBS

Postcode Wars

Gusset has started a Flickr group to document postcode tagging across Bristol.

It’s inspired by a post on BLDNGBLOG which in turn was inspired by a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report [PDF] on young people’s perceptions of ‘microterritoriality’.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow, sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, have spent the past two years asking young residents of Bradford, Peterborough, London, Glasgow, Sunderland, and Bristol to draw maps of their own individual urban experience in order to explore micro-territoriality as both a cause and a symptom of social exclusion.

…Their research uncovered Bristol’s “postcode wars,” where gangs spray-paint their postcode in rival areas as a form of aggression.

If you spot any examples, add them to the pool!

Anonymous scribbler vs national media combine

“Never pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrelful…”

(Judge Phelan in The Wire)

• Bristol Graffiti on the Mail’s Banksy story
• Ian Bone on the same
• And ditto TBB

Keeping it real on Wilder Street

Law of the Wring: anti-graffiti attrition continues along the Avon

The Battle of Cumberland & Wapping Roads continues…

I’m not sure how long these anti-graffiti signs have been up – I’ve been past every day since Tuesday, and only noticed them today, as there were some workmen doing what looked like grouting – but already all of them that I could see have been artistically deconstructed

Dangling the carrot of reconciliation

Stencil down the side of the Full Moon, opposite the Blue Mountain on Moon Street.

Bristle’s back

People who talk about themselves in the third person are, to a man, woman or child, utter cocks, and Bristle is no exception. However, I’ve had a great week, so what do I care? Been chillin’ in Wilts at the crib of my lovely lady friend’s rents, helping her get ready for Glarstow, squeezing in a night down the Thali and a mini-Easton pub crawl, and generally enjoying the first full fruits of the summer, because we are young and vibrant and all that. Even the whole threatening to slap that uncle’s arse thing couldn’t dampen things. Alles ist gut!

So anyway, she’s packed of to Pilton, the flatmate too, and I’ve got a few days housework to catch up on as well as a week of moggysitting, which takes me down south of the river – and so it is that I managed to grab a snap of that graffiti on the footbridge over the New Cut leading to Dean Lane. Poetry emotion.

Shirley not!

This past weekend saw the Jamaica Street Studios open up their doors for an open day, celebrating the living art and culture of Stokes Croft and its people. Chris Chalkley of PRSC very kindly has sent round a round robin email complete with pictures from the weekend, and lumme if in one of them it looks like not just one but both Ashley ward councillors! See what you think…

Can it be true? Has the wanderer not only returned, but actually spent time in sunny Saint Paul’s? Or are these actually agency doppelgangers, hired in for the day? Answers on the back of a council expenses claim as soon as possible, please…

(Picture courtesy of People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, which is in no way responsible for this blog!)

The world of modern policing

From a recent eBay auction (tip o’ the titfer: Bristol Graffiti)

The BBC – first and fastest with all the big news stories; or perhaps not

The local corporate media’s recent fascination with all things graffiti-related (thanks to B*n*s*) is stretched still further today, with a brief BBC News report on some conspiracy nutter daubings around Britain’s largest village:

Whilst it’s a 46 week improvement on the Evening Post’s own blog gap, the Beeb is still trailing seven days behind Bristol Graffiti, and 24 hours behind Bristol Streetart.

‘This is what we do’ indeed. Just rather slow on the doing it front.