This street art mural referencing Norman Mailer and his essay “The Faith of Graffiti” from Esquire (May 1974) can be seen from a low angle on Third Avenue, but it is probably even nicer at eye-level (albeit for only a moment at speed) from a car cruising down the raised I-278. Randy Kennedy writes in The New York Times (Oct. 26, 2010) with more info about the artists responsible for it who are known collectively as Slavery.
I wasn’t around when someone recently tore up a section of road in front of my apartment for subterranean work. They then filled it back in, repaved it, and repainted the top portion of letters warning of the road’s speed hump just out of frame. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately by design), “BUMP” was transformed into “BOMP.”
One night while visiting my folks, we picked up dinner at the Pizza Inn in Jesup, GA. This mural was painted on the side of the building with the words: “Jesup: The Town that Trains Built.”
I found this battlefield art mural near the corner of 9th Street and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn. The Google Maps’s street view shows it in better days in 2013.
The mural is on the side of the Michael A Rawley Jr. American Legion Post 1636’s building, which also features a blue historic marker on the front of the building stating: “MARYLAND HEROES: Here lie buried 256 Maryland soldiers who feel in the Battle of Brooklyn, August 27, 1776.”
This August 25, 2012 story in The New York Times gives some details about the battle and the uncertainty surrounding the location of the soldiers’ mass gave.
James Schmitt notes in this blog post that an archaeological survey of the (formerly) vacant lot next to the American Legion Post in 2017 didn’t turn up any human remains.
While time has obscured where these soldiers rest, they are remembered for bravely covering the American retreat.
This illustrated cat standing over a kitchen knife with the word “Kitsune” written on it made me pause while walking in Park Slope, Brooklyn the other day. Kitsune generally relates to the Japanese myth of trickster foxes, but I have been unable to discover what it might mean in this specific context–a band, a brand, an artist? Regardless, I admired the work. And, it reminded me of one of the patches that I wear in my backpack seen below.
