Lost Pictures-China Summer 06

Overnight train south from Hangzhou. Buying the tickets late we had to buy "standing tickets," meaning we had no seat. We slept on the aisle, intrupted by passengers walking up and down. People slept where they could. These pictures are from a very long shitty night.

Walking on an isolated beach on the outskirts of Zhuhai, I came across this nasty little find. Had someone used it there or had it washed ashore from somewhere else? No clue, made a dope flic though.


When I went to this city in China translated into "Land of a Thousand Islands," you could rent a boat and hop from island to island. For a small fee you could jump off onto cheesy "animal islands" that would have their own distinct animal. This is ostrich island, and for an additional fee you could sit on one. The picture was free.


A giant praying mantis I played with in Zhuhai


When my external hard drive crashed in October I lost all my pictures I had taken since the getting a digital camera 2004. So I lost a bunch of Boston, San Francisco, China, and New York pictures. When my buddy came back to visit me from China he reminded me that I had downloaded a bunch of my pictures onto his laptop. Long story short, I was able to retrieve a bunch of them. These are some from China.

HARDCORE!! Nigerian Guerillas!!!!!

These guys are no joke. They live on islands and handle their buisness on speed boats armed with AK-47's.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta ("MEND") is a militant indigenous people's movement dedicated to armed struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the people of Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations involved in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government of Nigeria. MEND has been linked to attacks on foreign owned petroleum companies in Nigeria.
MEND's stated goals are to localize control of Nigeria's oil and to secure reparations from the national government for pollution caused by the oil industry. In an interview with one of the group's leaders, who used the alias Major-General Godswill Tamuno, the BBC reported that MEND was fighting for "total control" of the Niger Delta's oil wealth, saying local people had not gained from the riches under the ground and the region's creeks and swamps."
Additionally MEND has called for President Olusegun Obasanjo to free two jailed ethnic Ijaw leaders — Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is jailed and charged with treason, and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa State charged with corruption.
In a January 2006 email MEND warned the oil industry, "It must be clear that the Nigerian government cannot protect your workers or assets. Leave our land while you can or die in it.... Our aim is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil." The militants have bombed two pipelines, triggering an international increase in the cost of oil. Recently MEND kidnapped four foreign oil workers, who are from Bulgaria, Britain, Honduras, and Patrick Landry of Texas, United States. Violence and destruction by MEND in 2007 caused Chevron to shut down some oil production after one Nigerian sailor was killed and six other foreign oil workers were kidnapped by members of MEND. MEND reportedly attacked the company's Oloibiri floating production, storage, and offloading vessel off southern Bayelsa state on May 1, 2007.

Argentina Gets Dizzzzzownz

Most of these flics are from my train ride to the delta region of Tigre, an hour and a half train ride from Bueno Aires. The tracks were littered with pieces and tags all the way up. Though most of them don't compare to what you see in NY, they are still all rather, how do we say, "unique," some looking European. I just think its dope that that stuff exists out there.

Forced Evictions in China

"Others have been forced from their homes by new developments, as portrayed in graffiti on a hutong home in Beijing - a pun turning "people's money" into "people's execution"."-BBC

Interesting. Beijing pushing out people out of their hoods for developements, just like here. Except nobody throws it up.

Austin Road Kill

Rob, not having a car in Austin made my me walk all over the place, this time in east austin to go see his house he's remodelling to call home. On the walk there we came across this dead possum. Ain't that a bitch? It really does look like a big dead rat. Better possums than bushwick rats though.

More Stencils!!!! Yeah!

"Bitch Rulz"

As always,.......more to come soon!!!

Stencils from Buenos Aires

"Palestine"

Aight, aight!

"Saint Pablo" aka Pablo Escobar

"I am gay and happy"

"Stop-Smoke yourself one"

More to come

Crazy Spot!

Spotted this shit on my way to work on Friday on 34th and 8th. You can't see it but its a tag on that huge Motorola wall. I couldn't make out what it was, but one things for sure-that shit must have been done by one of the painters. Either spider man gets up, or someones loosing their job.

Stencils in Argentina

"Run Children!"
Refering to, yep you guessed it, Catholic priests.

"Never Again-Assasin State"

Refering to Argentina's "dirty war" in which 30,000 leftists were murdered by the military government from 1976-1983. If you don't know, now you know.

"Public and Popular Education"

"The debt belongs to the state, but the people
pay"

"Yuppies Out!"

Though Argentina does have a fairly new graff scene, a walk around Buenos Aires turns up more stencils than anything. The train lines are covered in graff, and tags are all over, but the thing that pops out most are these stencils. The cool thing is, that these aren't just graff kids or crews trying to get their name out, but political stencils from everything to abortion rights, to calling out corruption in the government. And we got more to complain about in Argentina than here, so stencil away homies.

Austin in October 2007. While painting in an alley shared by numerous drunk homeless, we stumbled onto this sign. The question is, who the hell was holding it before me? And what did it all mean.

First Time for Everything

Oh boy, oh boy. There is a first time for everything, so here it goes. From now on the most random shit I run into will be on the "blog." So keep yer eyes peeled.