Mission Mission

Last week I wrote a mean-spirited post about wearing your keys on the outside of your pants.

The silver lining was that it made local artist Anna recall a book she made a while back. The next day, she posted some scans.

P.S. Anna, you should turn this into a blog. It’ll be huge!

This is the first panel in a new comic strip by David Enos. It’s sort of about L.A. and it’s great. Read on.

Previously:

Map of San Francisco by David Enos

Los Angeles

Jen Oaks just published this loving tribute to her old Buick, as part of her series My Three Cars. What have you done for your beloved old beaters lately?

I first heard of the controversial David Choe through his totally addictive Thumbs Up series on vbs.tv. In addition to being the type of guy who will inject testosterone into his biceps before running across the Mexican border, he also happens to be an amazing artist who, yes, at times, dabbles in graffiti (not that we’re into that sort of thing).

The documentary of his fucked-up life, Dirty Hands, sold out pretty quickly at the Asian Film Festival some time ago, but lucky for us the Roxie is screening it all week starting yesterday until Friday. Check out the trailer and details below.

Street artist, petty thief, porn illustrator, born-again Christian, corporate shill—these are a few of the complex sides of artist David Choe as portrayed in DIRTY HANDS. DIRTY HANDS is 93 minutes and is not MPAA rated.

Director Harry Kim first began filming Choe’s exploits eight years ago, turning footage of freeway and bus-stop graffiti bombings into the short film WHALES AND ORGIES. DIRTY HANDS follows Choe’s remarkable fortunes since then—from ghost writing lesbian fiction to displaying his art in ice cream parlors to selling out multi-million dollar gallery shows. DIRTY HANDS benefits from a staggering amount of video that seemingly details every major and minor moment of his life. Besides chronicling Choe’s ever-changing coifs, this obsessive Kim shapes a mesmerizing “warts and all” sketch of the artist’s endless contradictions, failures and triumphs, ranging from this darkest moments in a Japanese jail to his lucrative cachet in hipsterati circles, to his troubled relationship with a long-term girlfriend. Choe has painted with aerosol, blood, urine and soy sauce. DIRTY HANDS captures Choe as one of contemporary art’s most darkly enigmatic figures.

For more info: www.dirtyhandsmovie.com Directed by Harry Kim. Running Time: 93 mins. Showtimes: Nighty at 6:10, 8:00 & 9:50. Additional Saturday & Sunday matinees at (2:00) & 4:00,

The angry young lady that defaced that Chris Lux mural and a wall near 20th and Valencia was caught in the act during Bay To Breakers this weekend after she allegedly bit a police officer and tried to spray paint a dude.

Katherine “KKKatie” Dunbar now faces a double-whammy of vandalism and hate crime charges. Bummer for all her apparent fans on MM. Count me out of those, though. I only support Brangelina-approved street art.

Full scoop on SFAppeal.

Previously:

Spurned Scenester Sullies Sightly Street Art

Fuck Quiet! B Loud! Know ur Enemy!

Somebody got a nice big tax return!

Also, this.

Or so it says.

Plus, you think you spend a lot of time looking for parking, this guy spends all his time looking at parking.

“And like that, poof, he’s gone.”  I am inclined to think that Otter was not in fact behind it this time.  It’s a good thing that everybody and their brother already photographed this to death, because now it’s really dead.  Alas, no one had the foresight to put up a sign in Cantonese warning that this art is “very hard to get it.”

Anyone know the story behind this Banksy whitewashing?  Any of the other Bansky pieces throughout the city suffer a similar fate?

UPDATE!!!  An anonymous commenter seems to have the scoop:

The building owner lives in Texas and received a notice from the city. Not knowing the significance of the piece, or what it was, he had it painted over. The owners of The Curiosity Shoppe live in the building and were obviously unable to convince him to keep it.

Yikes!  However, this is the kind of thing that happens when you have an out of state absentee property owner who doesn’t seem to know or care about the culture of the area in which his property resides.

Also, I was able to get a free Chinese language lesson out of this too.  Apparently, Cantonese and Mandarin refer only to spoken language, whereas written language is always known vaguely as Chinese.  So, even though most of the residents of Chinatown happen to be Cantonese speakers, that sign was nonetheless written in Chinese.  Case closed! 

Previously:

San Francisco Has Banksy Fever!

Banksy Fever Continues!

Enough Banksy for Chu?

Remember the debate surrounding whether or not this scrawled tag was promising work or not a few weeks back? I just realized Oddfellow is this dude:

Promising indeed!

Top by Sexy P.; middle by kapshure; bottom by jen maiser.

Good thing I was trounced in pinball last night. Had I not been moping down Shotwell in defeat, I wouldn’t have noticed this stencil, which offers an important update on the state of fake mustaches.

I threw a mustache party back in 2008,  still have a supply of pretend pencil thins, and have wondered “are they passé? Or still good for a few chuckles?”

Although, not being a native, maybe I’m misinterpreting  sarcasm here? Best to be cautious next time I encounter someone sportin’ a faux meat sweeper and look for social cues before laughing too loud.