06-01-11 – Urban Art

well, the topic says “urban”. To me that means “city”. My question really pertains to the location of said art. if there is fantastic outdoor art on a farm in kansas, is that OK? or a small town somewhere or the suburbs…

urban is the code word for ghetto. you will have to travel into the most ghetto area you can reach in a 4 hour drive. anything else doesn’t count. and please be safe.

🙂

I guess the Gucci Ghetto up the street counts!

The most ghetto area within 4 hours from here are a toss-up between downtown Oakland or the Tenderloin in SF, and I seem to have misplaced my body armor…

How do you think I feel? I live in Toronto, ghetto is where they forget to clean the streets one day 😉

urban is the code word for ghetto. you will have to travel into the most ghetto area you can reach in a 4 hour drive. anything else doesn’t count. and please be safe.

🙂

Please, PLEASE don’t make me go back to Compton. I’ve driven through there before after taking a wrong turn.

/A very, very wrong turn…

urban is the code word for ghetto. you will have to travel into the most ghetto area you can reach in a 4 hour drive. anything else doesn’t count. and please be safe.

🙂

Please, PLEASE don’t make me go back to Compton. I’ve driven through there before after taking a wrong turn.

/A very, very wrong turn…

i used to run parts in the LA area. compton was never a problem. of course that was ’64. and before the watts riots of ’65.

csb time
in early ’66 i met a guy who lived in compton. arranged to come see him one night. he lived above a neighborhood bar and when i walked in there and ask for him there was a long awkward silence before someone offered to check and see if he were home. he was of course and happy to see me. he, my girlfriend and i went to a nearby nightclub to see his wife. she worked there. white people present = three. me, my girlfriend and the club owner, who had every stereotypical characteristic of the Jew owner. until that night i had never been disliked for nothing more than my skin color. nor had i heard disparaging comments based on nothing more than that. it was an interesting evening.
/csb

Yeah…a lot of underlying hate there. I got lots of stares, and a beer can thrown at my car just for driving through. And this was just off the highway exit – I didn’t even go a full block down the street 😯

I had a navy instructor from Watts. He said that before bootcamp, the only white people he had ever seen were on TV or wrong turns.

You know, I’ve lived in Harlem for six years and never once felt as though I wasn’t welcome or unwanted. Now, there are places in the South Bronx that I could only be caught dead in.

You know, I’ve lived in Harlem for six years and never once felt as though I wasn’t welcome or unwanted. Now, there are places in the South Bronx that I could only be caught dead in.

in ’68-’69 i lived in a residential neighborhood that was 95% black. two houses away on the north south street were the mexicans comprising another 4.998% and then there were the 4 white folks in my house (it was cut into apts) and the 3 across the street. never had a problem but shopping at the mom and pop corner grocery meant hate stares and shopping the liquor store on the edge of the neighborhood elicited comments about whitety. and i was told most emphatically not to go into “ida’s” a local bar.

orionid in early ’66 had occasion to mingle with a bunch of folks from compton/watts. these folks were black and brown and had lived in the area for years. once some initial tension went away and they started talking it turned out many lived with a block of each other but had never interacted. there were stores and activities for each group and never the twain was met. i was, and still am, amazed.

then again i lived with a woman in east LA for a few weeks in ’67 and that was a whole different experience. i’d seen more signs in english in mexico than there.

race relations fascinate me. at work we have hispanic, vietnamese, black, white, one japanese and one east indian. he’s my boss and very gregarious so his involvement in peoples lives is non typical. while we all get along well and everyone seems to care about each other (we’ve worked together for many years) at lunch each group tends to clump together.

/of topic reminiscences and musings

Farktographer, as a fellow liter, I’d be glad to do either or both for you.

I’m having trouble narrowing down my selections for this contest. I’m looking for a second opinion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21883298@N08/sets/72157624748996078/

so far I’m leaning towards the banksy, the cards and the last one (called running for mayor), although I like the dog walking one, the ‘punk rock’ tape and the chess pieces also.