= SOLDFiled under: Back In The Days, Inspiration, Music, YouTube | Tags: Blues, Funk, Gil Scott-Heron, Inspiration, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Music, New York City, NYC, R&B, Soul, Winter, Winter Doldrums
Slow blogging season. More soon. For now, a few classic tunes..
Filed under: Art, Back In The Days, Books, Graffiti, Inspiration, Photography, Vintage Spraypaint | Tags: "History Of American Graffiti", 2011, 5AV, Albuquerque, Alert, Alone, Alone 1, Alone One, Alone1, AloneOne, American Graffiti, Atlanta, Baltimore, Bay Area, Blackbooks, Books, Boston, Caleb Neelon, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, East Chicago, Freight Train, Freight Trains, Future textbooks, Graffiti, Hawaii, History, History of Graffiti, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York City, NY, NYC, OD, Oregon, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Providence, Reviews, Roger Gastman, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Spraypaint, Tagbanging, Texas, Virginia, Washington D.C., Washington DC, Wisconsin
This book came out about a month ago. I meant to do a comprehensive review on it, but with about 400 PAGES a proper review would take months for me to write. And I don’t want to reveal too much of the book. Here’s a small preview…
First, the cover. Take off that paper one that it came with and reveal the (MUCH doper, in my opinion) vintage spraycans cover hiding under there.
Then get ready for a Graffiti History 101 on the history of over 25 cities. Just check out the Contents pages!..
Instead of starting with the expectected Cornbread and Taki 183 stories, it starts earlier with other forms of graffiti.
Of course any history book is bound to overemphasize certain people and events and omits others (REZENT! LOST!). However the Boston and New York sections are pretty accurate and no way as biased as it could have been. I’m not so knowledgeable on the other cities, but hopefully they are just as accurate.
In addition to the individual city chapters, there’s profiles on some very influential writers such as Cost, Revs, Twist, and others.
Then to top things off, they’ve even included info on spraypaint, blackbooks, tagbanging, freights, the list goes on..
I was very pleased to see the Boston chapter giving just credit to the X-men, Jayrock, Remote, and of course the much justified write up and photos of Alert (OD. KBN. 5AV) and Ryze (5AV KBN.) in the Boston chapter.
The OD crew gets their mention. I get a mention and some quote. And a photo (not one I would have chosen.. guess I should have submitted some of my own.) of an “AN” I did on the Porter MBTA tracks in 1993. Yup, the “Star Market wall”.
They also go on in the Denver section about Alert and Hel (OD KBN) relocating out there and hooking up with SWS.
Overall, this is a great book that will undoubtedly (like it or not) be used as THE first and foremost account of 20th century graffiti and will be studied for centuries to come. Grab a copy while you can still get an original first pressing.
*** Oh yeah, BIG THANKS to Caleb and Roger for hooking up me up with a copy of the book!!
Filed under: Back In The Days, Inspiration, Photography | Tags: 1980's, Back In The Day, Boston, Forest Hills, Jamaica Plain, MBTA, Old-School
Before Boston’s MBTA Orange Line went into the trench in 1987 it was (arguably) a beautiful elevated trainline. Forest Hills station would become my “ground zero”. Here are some pics from the late 70′s/ early 80′s, but looking very similar to the Forest Hills I knew going to school in 1986-1987…
West elevation Forest Hills station – looking East across site of former New Haven Railroad station.
View underneath Forest Hill station along the surface platform looking North.
View of upper level platform at Forest Hills station – looking North.
Interior view Forest Hills station showing the intermediate level stair platform which is suspended from the main structure.
View of concrete covered portion of elevated Mainline Structure (Section F-6) – looking Northeast along Washington Street at intersection of Arborway. Arborway overpass crosses overhead at left. In the background is the start of Section F-5. Arborway yard is at the center in the background.
View of elevated Mainline structure – looking North – along Washington Street at juncture of Section F-5 and Section F-6 (the concrete enclosed portion of structure). Remaining stub of the former incline that led down to the Arborway storage yards is at the right.
*All pics and descriptions taken from here.
