GraffMuseum

Back in the day, Cope2, a Bronx graffiti legend as big as a linebacker, usually found himself in proximity to police officers only when they were tracking him in the metallic darkness of a subway yard or when they finally caught up to him and hauled him in.

But on Thursday night he sat willingly within reach of three officers — or at least three retired ones — on a comfortable couch at the powerHouse Arena, an art gallery and bookstore in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn. The officers, one of whom had arrested Cope2 several years earlier when he was leaving his house to walk his pit bulls, sat on another couch across from him and two fellow graffiti artists.

For the next hour and a half, in front of a packed room, all six were guests on a kind of bizarre hip-hop “Dick Cavett Show,” featuring profanity, accusations of police brutality and lots of memories from the days when both the artists and officers were younger and more agile, fully enlisted in the cat-and-mouse game of New York City graffiti in its heyday.

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There’s a new chapter in the never-ending war between graffiti writers and the police — a book penned by a retired cop has sparked outrage in the scribbling community.

And luckily for Brooklyn bystanders, the two sides are poised to butt heads at a forum at the powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

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A top Japanese pop artist in town for a big gallery opening was busted the night before his show when cops spotted him drawing a smiley face on the wall of an East Side subway station after a boozy night out, officials said yesterday.

Yoshitomo Nara, 49, was waiting with an assistant for a train to Brooklyn at the First Avenue L-train stop at 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 27 when officers saw him using a marker on the wall, officials said.

Cops say that when they went to slap on the cuffs, he struggled with them briefly.

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Sheapard Fairey is now looking at more charges after appearing in  Brighton District Court, Boston. He is being accused of ‘hitting’ 29 locations in the Boston area, with posters, stickers, and other ish. From ‘Obey’ to ‘Change’, the man is getting some serious publicity, and how long will it be before the price tag on his work will go through the ceiling?! Probably not too long, being that it looks like the BPD is going to give him serious ‘head’… Headaches!

Shepard Fairey has been doing his thing for quite sometime, and has been very successful in business, and it isn’t unusual to have this sort of mishap in the ‘Graff’ game. Going public, and getting attention from the media can be the kiss of death, but let’s just say, that when ‘your cherry is popped’, the outcome is usually a good one. For instance; he can now move sales on his clothing line, he is now going to have to pay for advertising, and this is going to help all with gallery sales as well.

It’s my belief that from his actions, he has been successful, and there are going to be many that are going follow this mans actions. And if this is the attention that one gets from the media for putting up ones art…. then it’s the equivenlent being an American Idol!

As we usher in week two of Watchmen fortnight here at Boxwish, the Net is abuzz with talk of Rorschach, The Comedian and all the costumed heroes from Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore/ Dave Gibbons graphic novel. After all the hype and expectation the Watchmen finally got to take their cinematic bow this past weekend, totalling up box office numbers to the tune of $55 million in the US. This makes it the biggest opener of the year stateside and yet there’s still talk that it’s underperformed. However despite whether $55 million is big business or not, the world of these masked crime-fighters is seeping into our own by the looks of this Watchmen-inspired graffiti.

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Streets Are Saying Things is looking for ‘riters that can write!
If you have interests in music, graff, fashion, know what’s going on in the Streets, and know how to write? …shout, no doubt!
Drop us the email here:
media@saster.net

Knowth and its Hinterland , the fourth in a series of volumes on Knowth and the wider Brú na Bóinne site, traces the history of settlement and society in the area from the emergence of political power in the 10th century up to the modern era.

Excavations that began at Knowth in 1962 under the direction of Professor George Eogan have uncovered 18 satellite tombs around the great mound. Over 200 stones bearing megalithic inscriptions were found.

The latest research details the discovery of a mixture of ogham scratchings and doodles in early Christian script on stones that line some of the underground passages and chambers.

One of the book’s authors, Francis John Byrne, professor emeritus of early Irish history at University College Dublin, said the marks were obviously “vandalism or graffiti”.

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A mindless fight over graffiti led to the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Bronx boy, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday.
Ruben Redman was shot in the head and two friends were wounded Monday night after a gunman opened fire, angry they had scrawled over another group’s tag.
“Just think about how sick that is,” said Mayor Bloomberg while announcing the results of a weekend gun buyback program. “Somebody dead and two seriously injured over something that is nothing.”
The shooting started shortly after 9 p.m. when some 30 kids converged onto Gerard Ave. in Concourse, a witness said. The gunman and his pals were looking for revenge for a tag being marked over, Kelly said.
“They took this as an insult,” said Kelly at the news conference at the 101st Precinct stationhouse in Far Rockaway, Queens. “The group that was upset over the mark being written over approached one individual, took out a handgun … [and] fired several shots.”
Ruben was pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital. The other victims, two unidentified 17-year-old boys, were in stable condition at that hospital, police said.
No arrests have been made.
Ruben’s family declined comment outside of his East Tremont home yesterday. Friends said the teenager was a homebody who avoided trouble.
“It’s so wrong what happened; he should be here with us right now,” said longtime buddy Johnny Secendo. “That bullet wasn’t for him.”
At the Coalition School for Social Change in Manhattan, where Ruben was a sophomore, parent coordinator Digna Carrasco said the teen stayed under the radar.
“I never had any problems with him,” she said.
Police said they had no record of Ruben getting in trouble with the law.
Christopher Morel, 16, said he and Ruben grew up together.
“It’s a big loss,” said Christopher. “I’m hurt by this; I’m really hurt.”

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A 28-year-old man fell to his death from a traffic sign catwalk onto the Palmetto Expressway Friday morning.

Enrique Vicente Olivera fell onto the southbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway near Bird Road before a truck hit him after midnight, police said.

“The driver of a Ford Ranger pickup truck struck what he thought was debris in the road,’’said Lt. Pat Santangelo, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. “He stopped and realized it was a body.”

Authorities found a spray can with silver paint near Olivera.

Traffic signs above where police found the body were vandalized. The signs indicate the direction to Kendall, the neighborhood in which Olivera lived.

Santangelo said on Tuesday vandals are known to climb onto the traffic sign structure by making their way on catwalks that connect the signs to more accessible parts of the roadway.

Earlier this week, authorities removed large graffiti on damaged traffic signs on Interstate 95 in downtown Miami and North Miami.

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