Espied in SF

Wedding Bells

2006-07-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

As I announced over at the Painted Ground, I'm getting married this weekend.

The bad thing for you loyal readers is that Espied will not be updated for a couple weeks. The good thing is... well... I'm getting married.

A couple of weeks ago I had my bachelor party. As I was walking to the best man's house, I saw this at the corner:

As it was my custom I took a picture of it, thinking it was another rant from David Bradbury HǺning. As I walked away I thought to myself, "Why is my fiancee's name on there?" I walked back and noticed the references to myself and my dog.

By contrast, this is the template that my friends used:
Apparently they know me all too well. I have an unhealthy obsession with graffiti and they chose to express their tribute to me and my fiancee by copying David Bradbury HǺning.

They also know how obsessed I am with We Are Ravens, as evident in this stencil:

Although someone was a bit dyslexic, I chose to overlook it. I thought it was a nice gesture.

Was it a good evening? Well, all I can that as the limo drove down Market Street at 2:30 am I was shouting, "Embrace the vagina!" out the window. I'd say it was a good night.

See you in a couple of weeks!

Mildred

2006-07-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

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[espied somewhere in the lower haight]

Know Your Neighbours: Carlos Romero

2006-07-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

BST
Originally uploaded by BigSloppyTags.

Well!

A little pricey, no?

Does Gav have a wild hair up his you-know-what?

Will it curb the graffiti or will this turn into a Chicago Turk-182-type war?

Don't Let the Door Hit Ya Where the Good Lord Split Ya

2006-07-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

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[espied at the site once known as kfc - valencia @ hill]

Know Your Neighbours Special Report: BNE

2006-07-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

We had no intentions of really concentrating on this grafitiosta for quite some time. Honestly, we were waiting for him to come up with something new. Then this appeared in the newspaper this morning.

Looks like Gavin is hellbent on catching BNE. Can't say that I don't blame him. The stickers are on every other parking meter downtown. A little over the top, we think.

Know Your Neighbours: We Can Save Each Other (pt. 4)

2006-07-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

As the war of the hopeful hipsters vs. the hopeful hipster haters heated up, a new stencil popped up:

But, unbeknownst to the hate-filled hipsters, our friends at We Can Save Each Other were plotting a revenge.

Ouch! Burn! That'll teach you, hopeful hipster haters!

2006-07-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

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[espied on o'farrell street]

Know Your Neighbours: We Can Save Each Other (pt. 3)

2006-07-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Not only did people fight back with new stencils, they fought back with Sharpies. The first of these to appear showed up on the Wall & actually preceded the "Honky" stencils. This is most likely done by the same author:

Next up, the people started fighting back on the sidewalks around Dolores Park:

The vegans also started fighting back. This one was spotted in front of Herbivore on Valencia Street:

Wow.

And we thought that the vegans were all nice and stuff.

Know Your Neighbours: We Can Save Each Other (pt. 2)

2006-06-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

The backlash started within two weeks of the appearance of the We Can Save Each Other stencils.

Little did we know that this wasn't the end of the story.

Know Your Neighbours: We Can Save Each Other (pt. 1)

2006-06-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

A few months ago the city of San Francisco was innundated with a series of stencils that started appearing on the sidewalks. Valencia Street was covered with them. Each side of the street one could find stencils such as this:

And this:
And this:

Other sayings included:

They also ventured out into the realm of stickerdom:

Other stickers included:

We slowly started to realize that not only did this group of stencil grafitiostas hit up the Mission, they hit Hayes Valley, the Castro, Dolores Park, and practically every inch of sidewalk in San Francisco.

While the Staff of the Painted Ground gushed over the beauty of their statements, the rest of San Francisco started to get annoyed.

The backlash tomorrow.

Hey! Where'd Bob Go?

2006-06-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

We giggle every time we see this picture.

Know Your Neighbours: Zefrey

2006-06-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

In Late 2005, the staff of the Painted Ground (namely, me and DDT) started noticing that a new stencil graffitiosta had moved to the neighbourhood. He called himself Zefrey. Little did we know that he was going to be prolific and hold the honor of the second NRG we've ever talked about.

At first we did not know what to make of Zefrey's statement of longing and self-importance. Was Zefrey a band? Was a new blockbuster movie we were not aware of? What kind of product was Zefrey selling?

Relief came when we started seeing the hand written Zefrey stickers around town. We came to the conclusion that either the hype machine ran out of money or that Zefrey is a one-man graffiti-ing machine. We prefered to think of it as the latter.

We're still a bit uncertain as to why Zefrey loves us so damn much. We've personally never met the guy, but we think we know someone who knows someone who had a class with Zefrey's great aunt's daughter once removed. So, we kinda know him. We've never had a drink with him or anything. Although, I suppose it's possible that he was in line in front of us at Papalote once.

It's good to know that he believes in something, though.

God knows we need another person with another agenda in San Francisco.

Recently he started branching out into another medium, that of posters on the Wall. It came to a surprise when we saw the above poster. It's quite nice. Although, we are beginning to worry about him.

Does he need to get laid? Did someone break his heart so much that he has irrepairable damage? Y'know, there comes a point where you have to let go. Find someone else. There are so many fish in the sea and all tha crap. Craigslist is a great place to meet women. We know someone who met their future spouse on MySpace, too. Granted, he lives a continent away, but they seem to make things work.

Zefrey tends to make San Franciscans know that he is responsible for his own work.

There is one exception that we've come across, though.

If this wasn't written on the neon green sticker, then we would have overlooked it.

Is this a sign of confidence or sloppiness? What is he trying to accomplish? Why do we keep asking rhetorical questions?

Know Your Neighbours: Loverboy

2006-06-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be many posts about Non-Repeat Graffitiostas.

Non-Repeat Graffitiostas (NRGs) are those graffiti artists that tend to be varied in their numerous postings all over a certain city. Usually there is one thing that acts as the glue to connect the postings. Whether it be a symbol or the same signature or name. NRGs are quite often original with their statements.

Take Loverboy for, example.

Loverboy, unlike his (?) Canadian rock group counterpart, posts stickers all over the city with different comments. I've never come across a repeat, although I suppose it is possible.

The little heart after each of his statements caused me to dub him Loverboy. I guess I wasn't in an original mood then

Like many of the other NRGs, Loverboy's statements can be found in the nooks and crannies of San Francisco. Look close enough. I'm sure you can find something in your neighborhood. Check out the newspaper boxes and street signs. I found the following on a sticker in the middle of a median.

He tends to get around as well. I've seen his stickers in the Mission, the Lower Haight and the SOMA. Although I've yet to look in other neighborhoods, I'm sure he has hit several others.

Apples & Oranges, My Friend. Apples & Oranges!

2006-06-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. They're comparing two different things. I don't get it either.

It reminds me of the conversation I had with my mom. When Blockbuster started to convert to solely DVD's my parents took advantage of the VHS closeouts. They would buy three movies on VHS at a time for something like ten dollars.

Being the snooty movie snob son that I am, I chastised her for doing this. The VHS tape had gone the way of the dinosaur and here she was trying to preserve these fossils. I let her know that DVD's were so much better than tape. They look better, too.

She insisted that VHS looks a lot better than DVD. I couldn't convince her otherwise. Still, my dad knows that she's full of "balloon juice." After decades of being married you have to just ignore your spouse's idiosyncrasies. Otherwise it'll just drive you nuts.

At least my dad knows the power of the DVD.

All hail the DVD.

If anything better comes to replace the DVD I won't accept it, though. Damn kids and their new recording formats.

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[espied right next to lost weekend]

We Are Espied: The Year We Make Contact

2006-06-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I made a comment about how much I love the grafitiostas named "We Are Ravens!"

A lot has happened since then. DDT has moved out of town to establish the second chapter for the Painted Ground and the following Saturday I got drunk lamenting the fact that he has left the neighborhood. What does an self-respecting drunk man do on a Saturday night? Why, surf the web of course!

An idea had been mulling around my brain for a few days. Alcohol was the culprit who let that beast out. With reckless abandon I decided to head on over to the best place in the net to communicate with complete strangers. You know it as Craigslist.

I posted the following:

"We Are Ravens!!

Where have you been?

We miss you.

Love,
Espied and the Painted Ground."

What did I have to lose? An anonymous post like this had an extremely large change of being ingnored. I knew that. I just wanted to see what would happen. I did not expect a damn thing.

A week passed. I nursed my hangover and life went on.

Then, last Friday night (6/9/06) I came across the following, posted at 24th and Guerrero, right across the street from the hallowed garbage can:

If I were a teenage girl I would have squealed with delight. Instead, I immediately ran home and grabbed my camera. I couldn't I was filled with glee the whole night long. In fact, I had trouble falling asleep. It's as if I just made contact with an alien race. I'm not positive that they were talking to me or not, but I'd like to think that they were.

It seemed that We Are Ravens! was busy that weekend. PG staffer Vigilant_Josh also found this a few steps away from his apartment:

I would love to take this one home with me, but I'm afraid of this cushion. I'm almost positive it smells of dog pee-pee by now. If I wash it I'd be afraid that the ink would be washed away.

*sigh*

We Are Ravens! Thanks for making our weekend a little happier over here in the Mission and up in the Pac NW. It's true. We did miss you! Now that you're back, won't you visit more often?

The Wall

2006-06-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

I realized in my last post I mentioned a wall. I then realized that I have not given you fair readers a proper introduction to The Wall.

The Wall is part of a building that was once the Mission Police Station before the new, state-of-the-art station was built on Valencia and 17th. It's situated on Valencia Street between 23rd and 24th Streets. Once the boys in blue evacuated the premises someone converted it into condos. Or so I'm told. I never see anyone entering or exiting this little building. For all I know it could be still vacant.

The Wall is one of the many places on Valencia Street where street artists can express themselves through the many posters, stickers, and stencils. The ever-changing wall is a sight to see. Come by and visit when you get a chance.

I'd Vote for Him

2006-06-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

In cased you missed it...

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[espied on the wall on valencia btwn. 24th and 23rd]

Well... Off to Vote!

2006-06-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

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[espied in clarion alley]

DBH Returns... ?

2006-06-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought all that was left of David Bradbury HÅning was a shadow...

I recieved an e-mail.

More DBH can be found here:
DBH Flickr set.
Someone else blogged about DBH. I'm starting to think my ideas aren't so original.

Thanks Tellumo.

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[espied on Mission between 3rd & 4th]

Psst! Lookee Here!

2006-06-02T10:29:00.001-07:00

Fridays are nice, aren't they? You have the whole weekend to look forward to. A weekend full of sunny days and warm evenings where sitting on the back patio and drinking beer is almost required.

Try as you might, you know that Monday is coming. Just like this sinister looking character, Monday hides behind the corner, ready to pounce when you least expect it.

I'm just saying, is all.

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[espied on Guerrero @ 22nd Street]

Strange, Sad Air

2006-06-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

A quiet day over here at Espied.

The Painted Ground is taking a small respite, too.

See you tomorrow.

Overheardables Goes to the Movies

2006-05-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

Woman: So, I saw X3...

Man: "Wait! Don't say anything if you didn't like it! In fact, don't say anything if you did like it!"

[espied @ Celias Mexican Restaurant in Palo Alto]

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Man working in ticket booth at Fifth and Mission Garage is reading The DaVinci Code. A customer walks up to booth to pay ticket.

Customer: I can wait until you're done.

Booth Guy: It's okay.

Customer: I've never seen anyone so close to the end of the book. Did you see the movie yet?

Booth Guy: No. I'm gonna wait until it's on TV.

Customer: Hey! That's pretty smart.

Booth Guy: No, I'm just cheap.

[espied @ Fifth and Mission Garage]

Advice for the Wicked

2006-05-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

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[espied on clarion alley]

P.S.A. Tuesday

2006-05-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well!

I have to admit that I haven't been taking care of myself lately, but I didn't know that the grafitiostas were taking notice as well.

I suppose this tag has a ring of truth to it. I have to look good in my swimming suit this summer. Plus, I can't let that big jerk kick sand in my eye again. I'll never retain a best girl if that keeps happening.

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[espied on valencia st.]

Day Late, Dollar Short

2006-05-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

Anybody know what happened there yesterday? I couldn't make it. I had a final.

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[espied on valencia st. near new ccsf campus construction site]