BrooklynQ sent in this photo of the newest art installment at the Gravesend Neck Road train station. Seeing this brings on one of those heartwarming moments where you’re oh-so-happy that they’re raising fares again so they can keep putting in new benches, and providing fresh canvases for Sheepshead Bay’s prolific artists.
All righty, people… caption contest? Yes, I think so. What’ve you got for this photo?
Graffiti underneath the train overpasses is nothing new, but I saw this piece of street art up today in a few locations. Could it be a new artist is plastering the area? Or is our favorite Red Fish Smoking back with some new installments? It certainly looks to be in his style, and is the same sort of sticker he’s been using for some time. Is it wrong that I actually kind of like this one?
A reader spotted this mysterious message scrawled on a public utility closet on Bedford Avenue, just south of Avenue X. The scribbling says, “Starting with Weiner, Ending with Schumer.”
We’re not entirely sure what this means, but we’ve got to wonder if it has anything to do with the anthrax scare at Congressman Anthony Weiner’s office following his “yes” vote on healthcare reform. That incident left his Kew Gardens staff in decontamination for days (it turned out to be antacid), and the envelope it came in was sent from the 11235 zip code. That puts this graffiti at ground zero. Could it mean that Schumer is next?
Surely, the healthcare vote did stir up some heated sentiments around the neighborhood. If the discussion turns to national politics, many (not all, but many) neighbors that I speak to at meetings and events invariably turn to venomous rhetoric against Weiner and Schumer for their roles in reform. But no matter your political leanings, the threats, hate speech and fanaticism growing on the right, especially in the Tea Party, have no place in a community like Sheepshead Bay (or anywhere, for that matter). Political ideas are to be formed, implemented and reformed through debate – not through a most chilling fear wrought by malice and threats.
Shopping cart hiding. (Photo courtesy of nolastname)
Here I am trembling in the corner. But, I swear to you. I’m not involved in the graffiti that’s been plaguing Sheepshead Bay.
When something bad happens, they always come looking for the brightest colored cart around. I know — because it’s happened, before. The last time there was some vandalism, they rounded up a bunch of us carts and wheeled us over to the police lineup. The witness fingered me and I was taken into custody, read my Miranda rights, and put on trial. I couldn’t afford an attorney, so they assigned me one from legal aid. Although I was innocent, law enforcement told me I was going to the slammer for a long time.
It was my lawyer’s first case and he was hungry for that first victory. He got the witness to admit that she was actually COLOR-BLIND! There was no way she could have known I was red, unless someone had told her. The witness broke down in tears, confessing that the real culprits threatened to run her down if she didn’t testify falsely against me!
It felt great to be free, again, but being falsely accused and put on trial traumatized me for the rest of my life.
This new twist on the Red Fish Smoking graffiti made us smirk. Found by reader BrooklynQ near Bedford Avenue and Avenue U, the new name has a bit of history. First, PayPaul, the apparent arch-nemesis to suspected man-behind-the-mayhem Uzef, created a similar spin on the tag in which he photoshopped a cigarette in the mouth of a dead stingray along with the words Dead Fish Smoking (which he first linked to in our comments section). Then, way back in January, a reader sent in this photo of a, um, dead fish… smoking. And we, of course, mused about the connection to Red Fish Smoking (there was none). Now, after some comments left on our earliest post about the graffiti “artist,” and the fact that he showed up to Grillin’ On The Bay to snag a sticker and write his name all over it, we’re pretty sure RFS is a reader. Maybe he was inspired by our twist and ripped us off?
Red Fish Smoking, if you’re reading this, drop us a line. Let’s do an interview – we can keep your real name out of it if you want. But people are curious about what you’re doing… why not share?
It looks like our favorite graffiti artist, Red Fish Smoking, attended Grillin’ On The Bay at St. Marks. He got one of our stickers and stuck it to a wall in the school’s hallway and left his pointless signature all over it.
I was amused when a reader sent that in. But I was more amused when another reader submitted this:
I don’t know who did this, and since Sheepshead Bites doesn’t condone defacing public property, I’m not going to say how awesome I think it is. But in a very general sense – maybe pertaining to this situation, maybe not – revenge is sweet.
(Thanks to BrooklynQ and PayPaul.)
Hey, dude in the hood, what the hell are you doing? Are you spraying graffiti? Don’t you know we just got this block – East 19th Street between Avenue W and Avenue X – cleaned up?
Oh, my bad. You’re with the Graffiti Free NYC crew. So you’re here to clean up the last bit of graffiti on the apartment building, eh? Great! And to think, it was just at last week’s 61st Precinct Community Council meeting that Captain Mastrokostas said he would remind you guys to do it.
Glad to see a street we had long considered a problem area fixed up. At least one resident I spoke to – who was previously very sour about the whole situation – has chippered up. Kudos to the precinct for the extra work, but even more so to the residents who badgered their community leaders into acknowledging their needs. Let’s hope this ends the saga of East 19th Street.
(Photos courtesy of Arthur Borko.)
Left: New graffiti found on Midwood lamp posts (photo: Ray Johnson); Right: Harper's Bazaar cover
Who is this mysterious blue lady and why does the graffiti artist think it’s his right to paint her on lamp posts all over Midwood?”
Our guess is that this stencil is supposed to represent Nicole Richie, since the painted image bears a remarkable resemblance to the celebrity. Here’s the link to the image of her on a Harper’s Bazaar magazine cover seen above.
When Ms. Richie’s lawyers and the photographer figure out who DEMA is and what C3 means, they’ll be that much closer to suing the taggers for copyright infringement.
Anti-graffiti vehicles cleaned up East 19th street, previously a haven for vandalism
Remember a few weeks ago, when we told you how a resident of East 19th Street chided 61st Precinct’s Captain Georgios Mastrokostas? At the time, the resident complained that her concerns about graffiti and drugs had been blown off.
The resident sings a different tune these days.
“They’re totally spoiling the heck out of me,” she said. “I told [Mastrokostas], ‘Lord, I want to hug you.’”
We’ve written about that block – East 19th Street between Avenue W and Avenue X – before, calling it a haven for graffiti and drug dealing due to poor lighting and relatively minimal traffic.
But according to the resident, things are different now. Just a day after the 61st Precinct Community Council meeting on March 10, Mastrokostas and two officers paid her a visit and walked around the area. She pointed out the graffiti and relayed her tales of finding drugs in the street.
This week, anti-graffiti vehicles were on the block scrubbing away the eyesores – some of which has been there for years. Mastrokostas also called the resident this week to tell her personally that they made a pair of narcotic arrests in the area, including one for crack possession in which the perp also had a gun.
“It’s nice that [Mastrokostas is] getting personally involved in all these things,” she said.
Here are a couple of shots of the recently cleaned up block, taken by reader nolastname:
