Trying To Catch Up...
Goodness, it's been awfully hard to keep up lately -- lots I want to talk about across my nascent publishing empire (and hopefully will in the next few days) but no energy to do it. I'm inspired to pop in now, however, by a lovely article from today's Washington Post about the urban murals of Philadelphia. Hard to miss these as one wanders around the city -- in a very positive way -- we were just floored by the number and skill in our all-too-brief weekend in Philly over the summer. For a couple fuzzy cameraphone (Treo 650) pix of the unbelieveable mosaics on South Street, and the always stunning City Hall at night), take a peek at my Philly photo album in the sidebar.
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If I knew how to modify which picture showed up as the thumbnail, I'd change it away from the Carman's Country Kitchen picnic truck, only because it's hard to see what that tiny shot has to do with Philadelphia. Then again, maybe Carman's is a good example of what Philly is all about... including the blazingly mixed reviews... there's only one city I know where the sports fans would rip the local NFL team for winning a late season game so that they missed out on the #1 draft pick -- a pick that turned out to be the Ricky Williams Experience.
i think there's a big difference between the perceived and actual success of the mural arts program. lots the best murals are located in the affluent downtown section but not so much in the neighborhoods where the focus is supposed to be. and their relationship with the philadelphia anti-graffiti network is a weird one [personally, i think its creepy], where PAGN often forces graff writers to work with MAP or face jailtime. yeah, its an alternative, but frankly id rather go to jail than have to paint another fifth grade style mural on unity. you'd think for all the money g0ld3n received to study ireland's political murals, she would parlay those ideas into MAP and make work thats a bit more interesting.
ah, philadelphia! can't do a damn thing without a little complaining on the side. it just wouldnt be home.