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Rumble on Pine Rockabilly Music Festival at MADhaus

July 20, 2013 from 11am to 7pm
Party on Pine presents Rumble on Pine! A FREE, all ages, all day show featuring classic cars, great BBQ and vegetarian options too. Craft beer garden, full bar, Pin-Up girl contest, art show and children's activities. FREE Fun for the whole family! Please visit our Facebook event page for the most up to date information: https://www.facebook.com/events/514013381979632/Please visit: …See More
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Three-time Grammy Award winner Kris Kristofferson is an American original, with hits like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the legendary singer/ songwriter’s newest album explores love, gratitude, aging, war, and his ever-present theme of freedom. “If you took freedom out of the songs, you’d have very few Kristofferson songs.”See More
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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Long Beach Playhouse

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May 2

Open Your Eyes to the Art as You Walk Down The Street

 

 Vandalism. Destruction of property. Graffiti. Eye-sore. These are just  few of things you might hear to describe what you see going on in the pic to the left.

 The truth is that this is called Street Art. The street art culture is about as hard to get into as any. You might live next door to a street artist or shake hands with one every day at work and not have a clue.

 A common misconception is that these guys do graffiti. A graffiti artist, or tagger as some might call them, uses spray paint to show who they are or what crew is around. The tagger might do their work to let others know where their territory might be or to show how "active" he might be.

Street art is about expressing who you are or what you believe in, shedding light on injustices you might want to voice, or even as a way of joining a group of people who own the streets and roam around in the shadows. Long Beach has but a hand ful of street artists in comparison to our neighboring Los Angeles. I spoke to a local street artist that some of you might recognize, he goes by Help Desk.

 "Its a fucken addiction," says Help Desk. He goes out constantly in the middle of the night and puts up anything from pocket-sized hand made stickers to some good sized canvases. His most recognisable work has been up for just shy of a week which more than surpassed the 8-10 hour "life expectancy," as he put it. If you find yourself driving down Atlantic Ave. in Bixby Knolls, take a look above the entrance to the Art Expo building.

 "I do it for myself; its not for any financial gain or anything," explained Help Desk, "I like the aspect of remaining annonymous." He, like many other artists, makes everything that he puts up. "If you have a Help Desk sticker, or if you see one up, I made that; I didnt get a bunch of 'em printed or anything." He explains how he uses a silkscreening process to make his stickers on blank labels and how he's made stencils out of stuff from cereal boxes to begining work on a huge wooden one. "Being a street artist is kind of hard to keep secret because there are people I want to tell sometimes. No one that I hang out with knows what I do, not even my dad knows and i think he would be super proud of me," he confessed. He's sent out or traded stickers with other street artists around the world; Istanbul, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico are all countries that have a help desk sticker proudly on display.

 

What are your thoughts on street art? Why do you think there isnt as much of it in Long Beach as there is in other cities like Hollywood or Los Angeles? Have you seen any street art?

 

"If you go to an art gallery, you chose to go see art. But if you walk down the street and see some street art staring back at you, it just changed your day. I would like to think that whether you love my art or hate it, I change how someone views the world." - Help Desk Street Art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   




562CityLife is in part funded by a Long Beach Community Foundation Connected Corridor grant supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Transformation Initiative.

 


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Comment by HELP DESK on April 13, 2011 at 3:05pm
Yeah, there are guys that will post huge numbers of corporate adverts, and some even deliberately go over legit street art.  makes for drama of all sorts.  some companies use street tactics to advertize whatever they are pushing down our throats,  it doesnt last long though hahahaha.
Comment by lbcsrw on April 13, 2011 at 2:43pm
Oh!  I see.  So, it isn't the message that's "pushing it,' but rather than the person is suggesting that others put it up.  Gotcha!  Thanks for the clarification.
Comment by Jesus Hernandez on April 13, 2011 at 11:03am

well i think street art is about your own creation, or taking something iconic and tweaking it just like they did on the site with Uncle Sam... but i think its "pushing it" because theyre almost suggesting you take it and wear it. i guess its a bit imposing because it gets peope who might not know politics to promote an idea some random political street artist had instead of having him go out and do the leg work himself. The content of the poster is personal preference and i guess you can say its effective in getting attention, i have no problem with it though.

Comment by lbcsrw on April 12, 2011 at 6:35pm

Hey there, Jesus?  Why is that poster 'pushing it'?  I'm just curious to better understand how you frame the limits.

 

Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on April 12, 2011 at 5:49pm
That website is dope! I'm gonna get the 9-11 logo one. It is after all now a campaign/branding tool for politicians...
Comment by Jesus Hernandez on April 12, 2011 at 4:56pm
I'm all for freedom of expression but that's pushing it. That's just about as political as you can get with street art.
Comment by lbcsrw on April 12, 2011 at 4:56pm

Dodger fans Are bad... Nah.  Just kidding.

 

Seriously, though, I can promise you that a gang tagger does not think of himself as an artist, or his tags as art.  Street artists think of themselves as artists, and their work as art.  Perhaps the only difference, really, is intent. 

 

Lots of people talk about respect, but what does that mean.  In our society, part of what we accept is the idea of ownership.  I own this keyboard, and the computer monitor.  I own the property I'm standing on, and the structure that sits on it.  If someone were to come and slap a sticker on my house without first asking for and then receiving my permission, I'd be pissed. 

 

When I see stickers and paper on buildings that are not owned by the public, I sympathize with the owners of that property who have to struggle with either accepting it, or having it removed.  Human beings live with limited personal resources (time, money, life) and forcing someone to spend those resources in a way they prefer not to is, in my estimation, a bad idea.

 

Now, if that same sticker or paper is on a public structure of some sort, I feel less bothered by it, unless it is obscuring some useful tidbit of information that I happen to need at that moment.  Still, even so, that application will be removed eventually, and we will all pay for it through taxes and fees.  If we as a community agree that's how we want to spend our money, so be it.  We can agree not to, also.  That's why these kinds of discussions are meaningful.  They help us to understand that we're talking about choices, their costs, and benefits.

Comment by lbcsrw on April 12, 2011 at 4:45pm
Comment by JulsnMatt1028 on April 11, 2011 at 4:56pm
Saw that the other day too. Timely indeed, sadly, this will always give a bad mark on the broader "street art" genre. Kind of like the single "dodger fan" that assaults a Giants fan in the parking lot after the game. Makes dodger fans look bad on the surface...
Comment by Jesus Hernandez on April 11, 2011 at 4:54pm
See now that is exactly what I'm talking about @lbcsrw. Tagging is about marking your territory or getting your gang known. That is what lots of people mistake street art for. Do u personally think its too close to call?

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