the fight crosses oceans

Banksy visits New Orleans for the third Katrina anniversary. See more here

This grey shit is boring...

Money ain't grey

From Sunday's T-P comes the article Vandalism or Art? on, well, the recently hot topic of graffiti throughout the city. At the end it referenced a new bill going into effect on August 15, 2008: House Bill No. 163 (Act No. 8), authored primarily by Rep. Tony Ligi, Jr. of Metairie and by my state rep. Walt Leger, III.

It shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally deface with graffiti immovable or movable property, whether publicly or privately owned, without the consent of the owner.

Sounds fair enough, though this is pretty much stating the obvious. The big deal about this bill is the maximum penalty is booted up from $500 to $10,000. So, what does this mean for our grey friend who has no qualms about doing his community "service" in broad daylight? What does this bill define graffiti as?

"Graffiti" includes but is not limited to any sign, inscription, design, drawing, diagram, eatching, symbol, lettering, name, or marking placed upon immovable or movable property in such a manner and in such a location as to deface the property and be visibile to the general public.

That being said...

"Deface" or "defacing" is the damaging of immovable or movable property by means of painting, marking, scratching, drawing, or etching with graffiti.

Painting...immoveable or moveable property. Sounds like this includes the Grey Ghost to me. Hopefully the NOPD won't continue to look the other way and will actually enforce the law. On Radtke more than anyone else, largely because he is a menace and dangerous. After the stunt he pulled on Dingler he's got to have something coming to him.

On a completely separate note, I'm curious as to why Sen. Cheryl Gray was one of five nay votes.

A Little To the Left to grayc show details 4:20 PM (0 minutes ago)


Senator Gray,

Could you please explain why you were one of five nay votes in the above matter (RE: higher penalties for graffiti)?

Are you in cahoots with the Gray Ghost?

Thank you.

Grey Ghost Rising?

Mr. Dingler had his day in court today. According to 50smod in the comments of this article the Grey Ghost prevailed. I can't wait to hear the details on this one.

UPDATE: I'm a little confused. Humid City and Leo (of the Antigravity variety) on livejournal state that NOLA Rising prevailed. I interpretted the NOLA Rising blog as a predictor of how his day would go in court. What is going on? 50smod also created a post in the nola.com forums.

UPDATE 2: 50smod says: I apologize if my info was wrong concerning the lawsuit. I was told by, by the owner of the gallery where the painting parties are held, that Radtke had won the lawsuit, and Michael Dingler had gotten away with oly a 200.00 fine, and that is why Radtke had stormed out. If I was wrong, I apologize, and it is a great day in the art world of New Orleans. I do hope i was wrong.

UPDATE 3: Man escapes $50,000 in fines for posting signs in N.O. - but he still has to pay $200 and is on probation for 60 days. So I'd say that is greater than a loss. Fuck you Radtke! Congrats, Dingler!

learn by example, buddy

There was a nice little article/post on nola.com talking about a little old lady on Sixth Street cleaning up graffiti on the Sixth Street wall of Lafayette Cemetery. I drive up this street every day and constantly see this lady cleaning up trash near the cemetery or simply sweeping out the gutters. I think it is fantastic that she and her neighbors take it upon themselves to make sure the area is kept up and appears nice.

Neill often walks her dog around the neighborhood and said she'll come out to cover graffiti when she sees it. She knows about Fred Radtke, a graffiti artist of sorts who lives in New Orleans and makes his trade mark gray paint squares to cover graffiti in the city.

"Oh yeah, I have his number," Neill said, "But we don't want big gray squares," which is why she and some of her neighbhors opt to cover graffiti on their own.

And we all know the Grey Ghost knows no boundaries when it comes to leaving his own trademark...

From Dirty Coast:

Grey

I am FINALLY the owner of the following two t-shirts.





I kind of knew the broad story involving the grey, but not until recently did I fully understand the details of the Grey Ghost and apparently the d-bag this guy is as pointed out by several bloggers. Radtke is like that overzealous fan who thinks his team can do no wrong. How can the NOPD stand by this guy? The New Orleans Police Department, however, condones Radtke’s actions. NOPD often calls him directly to cover graffiti and spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse said they have no intention of charging Radtke with any crimes. However, after this recent Mojo incident New Orleans Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse did not respond to calls for comment.

As Craig at New Orleans MetBlogging put it: "I don’t get it. Far as I can tell, all these gray blocks do is create a new and clearer canvas to be tagged again. Good." (The comments alone in that one are worth reading even 7 months later.)

I have been noticing a new barrage of colors showing up, as displayed in the building at the corner of Washington and Annunciation:

At first I thought maybe they were going to paint that part of the building Mardi Gras colors, but then I saw the same thing popping up in other areas. Who do we chaulk this one up to?

On that note, this has always been a fav of mine, via Humid City:


RIP Crabcakes, what a good kitty.


Other interesting links on the topic that I've stumbled upon in my internet travels:
NOLA Rising Helps Rebuild on YouTube
Grey Ghost Busters on MySpace
momoshowpalace
Fred Radtke - Enemy of New Orleans
whosginnastopfredradtke and so much more to be found on flickr