And is that one of those mermaids Jason Mewes Jay (of Jay and Silent Bob fame) was talking about in Mallrats?
By the erase marks, it looks like someone tried to alter the chalk art.
Graffiti is obviously not discouraged in the alleys that branch northward from West 18th Street between Baltimore Avenue and Wyandotte Street. These walls have been splashed and coated again and again by spray-can artists (with varying degrees of talent) for a decade, at least.
Advertising agencies commonly co-opt street art for the commercial interests of their clients. Now, an ad has shown up on a wall typically reserved for street artists. The question is: What the hell is it for?
(OPP = Other People's Property)
Kansas City graffiti artist Scribe demonstrated his work outside of Creative Coldsnow last weekend with the camera rolling. Here's the time-lapse movie by Phil Koenig. Cool stuff.
Hopefully this isn't a million years old -- I just noticed it last week at the southwest corner of 19th and Broadway.
You can't really see it in this picture, but at the feet of the anarchist (protester, whatever) there's a molotov cocktail and a gas can.
It's probably no surprise to hear gang members are getting younger, but anti-gang education in elementary schools? Yes, it's like that now.
"We used to think if we produce information and work in partnership with the district that we could get our message out there in the high school and it would be all right," said Major Jan Zimmerman, commander of KCPD's Narcotics and Vice Division. "But obviously we need to be in the middle schools. We need to be in the elementary schools."
Last night, the AdHoc Group Against Crime hosted a public forum on gangs, which drew about 50 people, including police, business leaders, pastors and educators and felt like a Gangs 101 class for the community.
It went something like this. Your kid might be in a gang if you see:
1. hand signs
2. gang symbols or graffiti, especially on school books
3. tatts
4. roll calls, which are hand-written lists of gang members
Police are trying to get a handle on the problem, but seven detectives are responsible for the 322 square miles of Kansas City that includes about 3,300 gang members spread out in 42 known gangs, said KCPD Master Detective Eric Benson. Gangs these days are built around neighborhoods but have no discernible hierarchy. They control the drugs and weapons, and use drive-bys to settle turf disputes. Speaking of which, if you see gang graffiti x'd out and another tag along side it, run.
Police continue to solicit information from community members so they can identify gang members and put a stop to drugs and weapons trafficking, but cops-community relations aren't perfect, and as far as talking to cops, well, we know how that goes.
Love,
Your friend at the bus stop, 20th and Main.
By NADIA PFLAUM
More after the jump!
By NADIA PFLAUM
"It's been a tool shed, a spare room, a crack house..."
Art collector Tom Deatherage ticks off the different uses for the graffiti-coated bus parked behind his gallery, the Late Show, at 1600 Cherry. Deatherage is fluttering around the bus, cleaning up debris, and waves me on when I ask to take a picture. I'm hardly the first -- people stop and snap it all the time.
"Hell, one of these days, I might hafta start livin' in it if I lose the building," Deatherage proclaims, before going back to his tinkering.
By NADIA PFLAUM
No offense, but it just isn't as good as the stuff next door.
WWE's Monday Night Raw returns to Kansas City October 14
Voltaire - the saloon, not the philosopher - opens tonight
Soundgarden's sludgy sound, last night at the Midland (review)
Big Rip Brewing Co. expands the Northland's beer universe
Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper are headed to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
Yo La Tengo is at Grinders tonight
KCPD will breathalyze patrons at Tanner's tonight
Rob Zombie is coming to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater