Don't say it... spray it

'painting/writing/scratching a tag into or on something.'

However skillful you may consider it, it is vandalism pure and simple.

Even though I can appreciate some of the skill, I certainly do not appreciate all the subways being daubed in shit paint that I indirectly pay to have removed again.

If you want to draw then do it on a piece of paper. If you want people to see then put it on the internet. Fuck off wrecking public places for everyone else. I hope these videos can be used in prosecutions.

You'll be the same upperclass smug bastard that would pay £15 to get into a Banksy show.

still scum though really

no different from the scum that plaster bilboards all over town... whats the difference between an advert and graffiti?

You're forced to look at both whether you like them or not.

scum is a bit of a harsh word like. paedophiles, rapists, kids who batter old people, theyre all scum, just because you paint a picture (in joes case) in your back yard, hardly justifies being called scum tbf.

maybe wanker is a better word for the people who do it on trains etc then

hows it any different from an advert ona train?

its not. it just takes a hell of a lot more effort than putting an advert up.

a) it's legal
b) it's done with the property owners permission
c) it helps fund lower fares and improvements to the service
d) it's regulated, so you don't have children exposed to, for example, racist slogans

If the train from that video above turned up, I would think it looked shit.

oh, and I've never been to a banksy show in my life.

edit: oh yeah, and it doesn't cost taxpayers money to remove.

i pay me taxes. id much rather it goes on buffing panels than paying for prince andrew to fly to fucking somewhere far off to attend a meeting on climate change, or payin for prisoners laptops and lcd tellys.

What an obvious answer andy....

The rail networks are owned by multi-million/billion dollar corporations and their adverts are in turn sold to those affluent enough to afford their extortionate prices... A working class hero living in poorsville has no choice in whether this rail company cuts through his neighbourhood, nor does he have any say in what adverts the company plasters all over the side of their railcars... But regardless of all this he is forced to look at their brainwashing shit everyday.

Nike may be able to afford a $500,000 advertising campaign, thats there perogative... The graffiti artist can't afford such stupid prices so he advertises in the only way he can.

Both are as intrusive as the other, they just use different paths to reach the same goal... an intrusion on our lives.

Ask a stupid question....

As for the rest of it, I stopped reading at 'working class hero' and the sudden recollection of your quayside apartment and numerous claims of riches. I suppose people who smash phone boxes are expressing themselves just the same? Why shouldnt they? It's anti-establishment and they obviously can't afford their own phone box!

They could host their 'art' for free on any number of websites, and if people like you want to see it they can, and people like me, who don't, don't have to.

I've never been a bomber andy, I painted deralict locations mainly... And even then I generated a charge sheet the size of fred west.

You completely missed the point of my post, but then that isn't really suprising.

graf has never been and never will be 'an art', and isnt to a lot of people. mebbies to joe it is, but to me its not.

so easy to make make such sweeping generalisation rob but you clearly don't a clue

of course there are proportions of charvas who go out tagging and making a mess, but the majority of the decent stuff round here is put up by people from all walks off life

off all the best writers of the north east, one is a quite well known funk/northern soul dj, there's a d&b producer/dj signed to good lookin, a few other dnb types and the rest are generally into hip hop from the old days, as far away from charvas as youd like

It's time some people round here pulled heads out of arses and learnt the difference between mindless vandalism and "street art"

fuck off you daft cunt its very different

In the case of grafitti there is no difference because every type, whether it be a big colourful piece of skillfully sprayed text, or a 'tag' that some bum has sprayed on the shutters of someone's shop, has drawn influence from previous versions that other people have done. If everyone who did grafitti only chose to do it in 'suitable' locations with a degree of artistic flare then I'm sure people wouldn't be complaining as much. The fact remains that a lot of people realise that tags are being sprayed everwhere and they want in on the action so they arm themselves with a tin of black paint or a marker pen so that they can do some of the quickest, shittyest most talentless piece of graffitti possible. And often repeating it over and over on the same area. Nobody wants to see this kind of shit especially when it's all over public transport.

It's not the same as adverts either because these serve a purpose to everyone at the end of the day and can often have a positive effect on what would otherwise be a dull surrounding in many public places. All I can say for the majority of grafitti that we all see on an everyday basis is that it creates a feeling of living in a scummy environment.

how? they are both a forced intrusion on our lives.

why should a religous christian be forced to look at a 20ft poster of eva herzigovas breasts? The billboards, posters, bus adverts, plasmas, etc. Are far more intrusive than graffiti will ever be.

Yet we're forced to look at them everytime we walk down the street - why should rich multinational corporations have the right to force their branding down our throat when we the public couldn't even afford an A4 poster at the side of a roundabout?

I'd say always having an advert in view is far more scummy than graffiti... even the most basic of tag is an artistic expression (despite what bombers tell you); I place more value in art than some cunts advert.