Sampling Montreal's Graffiti

I want to talk about the graffiti in Montreal and in general… I gave you a little taste at the end of last sesh (session) so you could pick up the beginnings of the tune and begin to follow.

So like every other remotely big city, Montreal is covered in tagged spaces (areas covered in graffiti). A lot of the tags, even if you can read them or take a bit of time a decipher them, are eyesores, dried vomit spewed from spray paint cans on to walls….they are some kind of expression, maybe only : "I'm angry", or maybe just.."look at me", but definitely not anything interesting….just ugly pointless shouts at the ever-growing fear of being surrounded by an ever-expanding landscape of grey buildings, vinyl siding and strip-malls. But writing "fuck" on a wall doesn't make you a graffiti artist and it makes you sound like a moron who has nothing better to say; understand here I am not preaching against cursing….I've been know to thrown down harsh expletives with the best of them, but if it lacks poetry and  adds nothing but clutter and vacuous neon urine stains of ugliness, why even say it? If you don't have anything interesting to say, don't say nuthin' at all.

So for me and for those who began it, graffitti is street art. It is freestyle jazz of the art world, often performed or laid down wild under the cover of night. Often, taggers are chased by police for purported vandalism on private property. I remember before the word handle was in common usage guys with cans of spray paint (those dirty criminals) were signing their Work with a handle. Today it is used to describe an online personality. Graffiti art is a movement, by the people for the people, that broke with the art mainstream. The message and style of graffiti can contain graphic art/design, political statement, social commentary, philosophical discourse, collage, tribal tattoos, symbols, or ambience. Although there is local specificity to graffiti,there is a universalism and humanism which is, at the very least, global. Graffiti alters urban spaces, by beautifying  the boring, offsetting the mechanical with organic (human painted) form and expanding the surfaces where it was acceptable to create..........

and some not great work which managed to create some interesting ambience anyway......

And still beautiful achievements, but designed by a person and constructed for several for an industry, although...they are quite striking: mosaics and stained glass in the Métros (subways):

And a small sample of graffiti from other parts of the world, with the aid of a list of links:


simply an amazing concept and a huge amount of work, Brazil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4


Belgian Born, Now UK, Julian Beaver:
http://blog.eatflylove.com/2011/10/anamorphic-chalk-drawings-by-julian.html


Japan
http://www.fatcap.com/country/japan.html


Israel, stop-motion.....warning: the music is loud...you might want to turn it down:
http://vimeo.com/groups/25222/videos/10555187

Melbourne, Australia, Oh Yeah Wow, Producer - All India Radio, Music:
http://senseslost.com/2011/05/02/rippled-all-india-radio-stop-motion-animation/

And to sample an old Master:

Rejoice you have no choice.

The Computer Fiasco

So I sent my computer and my screen from Victoria to Montreal. It is an expensive machine designed for editing video. It has all my work on it. So this was just after my surgery, which I am now nearly healed from, so I couldn't carry more than 10lbs. My brother had to carry the 60lbs monster into Canada Post. I paid $200 for the send and the insurance. It was given to the Canada Post on Sept 6. When I gave over my baby to them, they said 1 week for delivery, but it isn't guaranteed. That should have been my first clue.

I left Victoria myself and I arrived in Montreal on 12:10am Sep 8. I had expected to wait a bit for the computer, but I hadn't expected to grow a beard and my teeth to rot out of my head in the time it took CP worker to make multiple clerical errors. The story of the screen is relatively un eventful...here is the path of the screen as recorded by Canada Post.

I'm now quite happy I have my screen but also quite unhappy that no computer came with it. I figured that the packages would be linked together, to simplify, as they came from the same sender/location at the same time and were going to the same sender/location. But no, that would make thinks too easy...2 completely different tracking no.s. I figured the computer would follow the screen within a couple of days. Yeah....no. 

On Tuesday the 19th....I checked tracking on my package and my brain skipped a cycle:

The idiots had shipped it back. I was on the phone quickly, thinking did I get the address wrong on one package but not the other, because it seems only the address on the package is checked, not the data entered in the system...As I was waiting on the phone for customer service I read the disclaimer on the site again. "Our telephone agents have access to the the same information presented here".......I should have read this as: "the person you will speak to on the phone has been trained to make you believe that they have less information than you. In addition, they cannot connect you with anyone else that has any relevant information. However, they will attempt to sooth you by telling you that now they have opened a service ticket relating to your package, everything possible is being done to resolve your problem. Any further calls will result in reiterated unessential information. And no attempt whatsoever will be made by customer service to put you in touch with a relevant person at the plant where your package is."

Here is an example of one of the conversation I endured: 

M I'm not interested in opening a service ticket. I've already done that.

CP Could I have the service ticket # ?

M Can't you trace the service ticket # with tracking # of the package. 

CPOh, I see it here. SO you haven't receive your package yet?

M No. I haven't received my package.

CP Well, It says here it was shipped to Montreal and then it was ........shipped back to Richmond.....and then back to Montreal. 

CP So we are tracking the package and someone will call you about your inquiry

M Excellent. So can you give me a ballpark date of when someone will call me.

CP Someone will call within 10 business days.

M So could I have the number of that person.

CP I'm sorry sir but I don't have any more information. You will have to wait for someone to call you regarding your service ticket. 

(Later)

M Can you tell me, what kind of protocols you have in place to safeguard against this?! I can understand the mistake being made once, but my computer will have traveled 6x across the country to arrive here. What shape are we thinking it will be in?

CP II'm not at the plant, sir so I can't tell you, although I see here Oct 13th is the date set for resolution.

M So what you're telling me is that I may not receive my computer until Oct 13th! 

CP That is not what I am saying, sir. I am saying, we will most likely be able to provide a resolution for you by that date.

M So basically you've lost my package, and you're telling me things are fine and not to get worked up when you are giving me no info past what I can already find on the tracking data on the website, no person to contact who can help more?! 

CP Actually sir it's not lost!

M WTF! Of course it's lost. Oh excuse me, It was lost in the plant in Montreal and now you've found it. Unfortunately, you've found it in Richmond. You just don't know where you found it because a machine checked it in.

CP All I can say is that you should have used guaranteed mail.

M I paid to have it insured. I didn't even need it to come in a week. I could have waited longer. But what i didn't expect was my package to pick up a lifetime of frequent flier miles!

To the credit of Canada Post, I met a postie on the street who spent time looking for me and called 2 days in a row with no helpful news, but at least he was calling. Again though, he was the only helpful person I encountered.  .In case you're wondering why I kept calling, it is because the person or person who was handling my ticket called once, offered little and hung up before I could get a number. Every call I made, regardless of the number, was routed to the customer service queue.  

 I'm going to use a story to illustrate the logic loop I became trapped in whenever I called Canada Post customer service.....

What if I was sitting in a restaurant and someone told me the price of the meal I was ordering and the meal never came? Then I asked the waitress where the food was and she said:

 "I don't know. My best guess is it's somewhere in the restaurant. Delivery of your food is not guaranteed. Next time you should use the guaranteed service to ensure your food gets to you."

So for some reason, you decide to order food at the same restaurant a second time, maybe it's the only place serving food  in a 500 mile radius, and you pay more for guaranteed service.

And then, when you haven't received your food the second time and you ask about it the waitress says:

"Sir, have we told you about our platinum members service? You pay twice the amount for your food and not only is there the promise of it arriving, it actually arrives!"

So that is a small example of the Monty-Python-esque bureaucracy I navigated through. Thankfully, my computer seems fine, the apple box itself was dirty but unscathed when I received it.

The second to last screenshot of tracking data, I was happy....but not until it actually came 2hrs later:

The moral of the story is, if you are going to use CP to ship something important...I highly recommend all services other than Canada Post.....I would even recommend Greyhound, who I have found quite reliable, but unfortunately they don't ensure electronics.

And as there were almost none in the rest of the post

Here are few random pics avec graffiti........

montreal.......sometime after sept 10th

As always....lots of pictures.....so if you tire of the words

....follow the map of my head in pictures

The day starts quietly, but my I'm cursing in my head

.... as I realize there is no cream for my coffee. 

It's not at all something I always need, but this morning

...I want it, bad!...I look out the front window.....

So I step out of the building......

 and look at the wall as I walk by:

Across the street I pass by the gas station, I think they forgot the, t, at the end when they were branding it.

Then the Persian Bread store,

  I have yet to try the bread.  I think it's a mob front...I'm almost to the creme!

Snuggling roughly with a massage parlour is the Chinese-owned dep, ( a french-canadian word, short for deppaneur, a corner store that sells wine and beer). I go in to buy cream and they're out, so I'm outta there.

Across the street is Café 92°. Mexican run and owned. Nice place, poor coffee. Beside that is the arab pizza shop, I haven't tried yet, that has pizza that you take home and cook yourself. Love it! Lastly, at the bottom of the building is the Coreen (love the french spelling) and Japanese restaurant. I stop here, knowing if I go further, I have to head to the Provigo (a supermarket chain), It's a busy corner and I'm not in the mood so I head back home.

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 

is the soundtrack to this foray - a little abstraction i stumbled through:

(right click on the link below & choose open in new tab to have this tune as the soundtrack for the rest of this entry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXcRFAJDF0c

Scratches on a Bus Window

i drink my coffee black and feel almost normal, but never really, 

so I decide to head down the other way to the bakery 

that Maria, a friend of Jessica's from Mexico 

told us about....

later i find out it is named...... 

but this graffiti-mind is exquisite, in-finite

does it matter what it is, or is the real question do we like it?

what's to figure? we figure how it fits into us.

the nerves in our brains interpret light

and symbols chase their own importance?

memories of life passing quickly, even quicker than that. 

looking through the eye of the universe, 

a candle that was my ancestors is blown out just as it begins to learn to burn. 

a park to coffee that i had found on a map generated by 

the great god google (product placement), 

but it turns out, coffee is a guy, an underwhelming guy if we gauge him by the park,

i wonder if his family were importers?

so I walk by all this work expressing fun, freedom, community, diversity, passion, youth

listening as closely as i can, to a tune i'm beginning to remember......

an impression, an understanding, a taste....

a melody........

 

.....and I walk into the bakery.......... record scratch.... 

the Maestro enters on his segway........

and the beautiful black man in a suit with the look of awed confusion.....

maybe he's the Maestro......

i leave......the tune begins again......

2 loaves of bread, 

200 grams of turkey and a pastry

$9.

plants choking poles, upright structure a facade of the immovable. 

this pole bends, slowly by our standards, but no longer a tree, it's roots lack flexibility.

but we are communicating with whoever will listen....

hell, even if no-one is listening, we've got forums where we can pretend people are listening...

we at least listening to our own want to be listened to

french, arabic, farsi, korean, spanish, english - systems, ways

explanations of an ever-changing infinity of possibilities

and then we come back down.

to dig into the dirty; the clothing of montreal. 

the smell and the soul of this city.

power pencil sharpener

flowering motor

bowl of plant life

tubes no bells

brick and metal form their own biologies, 

training your eyes and your mind 

as you settle into their rhythms 

without noticing. 

here, graffiti grows on walls 

oftenthymes like stains or lichen, 

other thymes more like tattoos, hieroglyphs, strainings,

 sculptings of the body of a new Tribe. 

what is this global tribe playing? 

petatonic dissonances attempting universal fabric bending not breaking.

trees grow up through the sidewalk, and plants engulf signs... 

the workers are waxing philosophers

attempting to build temples at the altar of life. 

a little bit a meditation,  a little bit of focusing by and on unfocusing

attempts to convey feelings and ambiences

through strings of symbols

a little song of structure

a little bit of unjazzness

undo me totally

grass in a box

painted cement

blue sculpture detail

blue sculpture

alien substance

surveillance

contemporary art

morning

noir alley

The day winds down. I'm slowing. I'm watching the light and trapping it inside the lens for  brief moments.


The kitchen window.....

 The pattern on the screen blurring the focus on the buildings is beautiful...and very simple

It's sunset.....so we'll go that way......