I just read 425 e-mails. not really - i just deleted bulk news I get in this one web e-mail account. Here is a good one I found... since I stopped to read some of them :

A 90-year-old lady has been employed as a pub bouncer in Norway. Marta Aurnes only started going to pubs in home town Stavanger when she was 85. Police have asked all pubs and clubs in the town to employ doormen and locals at the Skjenkestuen pub thought regular tippler Marta would be ideal for the job. Marta, the oldest bouncer in Norway, has ordered a new pair of boxing gloves. Marta told Rogalands avis newspaper: "I am good at talking to people...better at talking than using my fist. "The clientele here should not really be a problem, but if I think someone is too drunk I will just ask them to go home to bed. "If they misbehave at the door I might use the boxing gloves I have just ordered. Remember, I am the boss." Other bouncers at the same pub are a psychologist and an former sea captain.

See this story on the web at
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_318694.html
posted by [d] at 23:27

re: amnesia
We want to leave traces of communication because although we have fine gadgets for communication the city by nature forgets. We save emails and we even save text messages, but nonetheless the city forgets. We want to leave a trace to prevent amnesia.
I want to prevent everyday-city-amnesia.

Chalk this / Messaged Helsinki
I have this nagging feeling that our current project requires some further development. Is it just that we need more messengers chalking and communicating the messages in other ways or is development in more direct connection with what we're doing. Chalk needs more, that's for sure.

Sidetracking: other ways of communicating
I'm still interested in building constructs on pavements (inside perhaps?) which would give passers-by an opportunity to leave their thoughts - to leave something. Like I hope more passers-by would leave a note on this website. I know we talked about the constructs being too obstructive, but what if we did it in cooperation with some instance... Thus the end-product after some time would be a construct that has developed into something different, which could then be shown as concrete memory of a time and place.
But this idea is incomplete - it would need something more as well.

In addition to chalk messages do we want to plaster messages as A4/A3-posters around town?
These ideas are incomplete also because they lack the instant effect of what we now have as the SMS connection.
Guess if we had constructs as described above, we'd also be obligated to take what we are messaging randomly now to the specific site.
posted by [jm.] at 07:04

REMEMBER:
PREVENT
AMNESIA.
21. 11. 01
(sms from jm)
posted by [j] at 06:30

helsinki graffiti
There's actually a book called Helsinki Graffiti. Excellent photos of graffitis and the people who make them, also essays on graffiti and a look at the history.

Here too, they've had a few places called galleries, where the walls have been dedicated to extravagant graffiti. Unfortunately I think Pasila's Gallery was sandblown a while ago. I was shocked walking through my old neighbourhood where for as long as I remember there had been a really cool graffiti in a small tunnel because that had been sandblown as well. I don't get it.

There have been cases where graffiti artists have been invited to do a piece on the wall of a school or other official building. Also Kiasma, the museum of contemporary art, has organised twice now a graffiti painting session where people do their thing on plywood-pieces. Some graffiti artists said that such an organised event is against the idea of graffiti, and some of the artists found some spots to paint which had not been designated.

You'll find Finnish stuff here: Helsinki Connection.
posted by [jm.] at 04:02

graffiti toronto
a google search and look what I found, some
images from Queen st. I spoke of in the post below.

check out the urban writer: featuring Toronto's best exterior decoration.

around bloor / queen area:
1
2
3
4
5

tags at queen:
1
2
3

but this is what the toronto police has to say...
posted by [j] at 07:35

thoughts: problems
Toronto has a few areas that are true grafitti galleries, if we can get any images from the alleyways on Queen st. - west of Spadina - you'll see what I mean. The respected artists work is left untouched, it could be by their tag symbol that other artists know them or just from the respect gained from good work; don't know. Of course there are a lot of pretenders having a good time at defacing property, I don't think anyone's too impressed by their work and they usually get quickly painted over.

When I visited Studio Innova in July, Richard was talking about creative ways of dealing with the graffiti problem since the studio is situated right near one of these graffiti alleyway areas and gets hit many times over. He had two solutions, either plant a huge vine to cover the back wall which would be too much work for people to spray around; or to put up a large piece of plywood and "invite" a well known local graffiti artist to do his thing. Others probably wouldn't touch the wall since its well done, and for the public its a visual relief. I thought this was a really interesting way of bringing a positive light to a negative problem.
posted by [j] at 07:19