Graffiti 116

I don't know what this is suppose to be. At first I thought Wonder Woman telephone. I think I like it. I think its funny. Maybe its just creepy.

"I've had years of bizarre hallucinogenic magical experiences in which I believed I had communicated with entities that may well have been disassociated parts of my own personality or conceivably some independent entity of a metaphysical nature. Both would seem equally interesting." -Alan Moore

Graffiti 115

I started smoking three years ago when I first tried to get sober. The old substitution method. I kept on and now in my recovery I cling to it in a way, the only vice I have left. I want and hope to quit at some point. But not now. I'm not willing to give it up. Not yet.

"Coffee and smoking are the last great addictions." -Lara Flynn Boyle

"So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple." -Damian Hirst

"Every citizen who stops smoking, or loses a few pounds, or starts managing his chronic disease with real diligence, is caulking a crack for the benefit of us all." -Mitch Daniels

Graffiti 114

With the feverish popularity of The Wolf of Wall Street its a good time to reexamine, expose, and reflect on that most noble of pursuits: American Greed.

"Look around. Oil companies guzzle down the billions in profits. Billionaires pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries, and Wall Street CEOs, the same ones the direct our economy and destroyed millions of jobs still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them. Does anyone here have a problem with that?" -Elizabeth Warren

"It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." -John Steinbeck

"Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people." -Garrison Keillor

Graffiti 113

I've been thinking more and more about going back to school. Getting in an MFA program for acting. Maybe this is a sign.

"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change." -Katherine Hepburn

"Because in the school of the Spirit man learns wisdom through humility, knowledge by forgetting, how to speak by silence, how to live by dying." -Johannes Tauler

"The ultimate goal of the educational system is to shift to the individual the burden of pursing his own education. This will not be a widely shared pursuit until we get over our odd conviction that education is what goes on in school buildings and nowhere else." -John W. Gardner

Graffiti 112

“Having a dissenting opinion on movies, music, or clothes, or owning clever or obscure possessions, is the way middle-class people fight one another for status...Hipsters, then, are the direct result of this cycle of indie, authentic, obscure, ironic, clever consummerism...It is ironic in the sense the very act of trying to run counter to the culture is what creates the next wave of culture people will in turn attempt to counter.” -David McRaney

"I'm just another stupid human." -Markus Zusak

Graffiti 111

I've always been drawn to eyes. The first painting I ever did, which was terrible, in 8th grade art class was a disembodied red and black eye floating in a maroon storm. Because of Lord of The Rings and folklore there's a ton of evil eye imagery in a lot of fantasy books. There's something deep and unknowable about the eye.

"The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing." -Bill Cosby

Graffiti 110

"Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep, well nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life, but you know, there's no escape, there's no excuse, so just suck up and be nice." -Ani DiFranco

"At home I am a nice guy: but I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far." -Muhammad Ali

"Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness." -Khalil Gibran

Graffiti 109

Jimmy and I were suppose to go to a movie tonight but he opted out because there was a Blackhawks game on. We went to dinner instead. Afterwards, walking to my bike I saw this. Signs from the universe.

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." -Wayne Gretzky

"Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play." -Mike Singletary

Graffiti 108

Happiness is not a constant. It's a process. A system of ups and downs, of balance. There is no light without dark. No happiness without sadness. No joy without regret.

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." -Carl Jung

"We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person." -W. Somerset Maugham

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." -Marcus Aurelius

Graffiti 107

A coaxing message from Death.

"Too weird to live, too rare to die!" -Hunter S. Thompson

"It's a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love." -Graham Greene

Graffiti 106

"It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state." -Bruce Scheier

"To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well." -Albert Camus

 "I believe that the human race has developed a form of collective schizophrenia in which we are not only the slaves to this imposed thought behavior, but we are also the police force of it." -David Icke

Graffiti 105

Technology Sucks.

Put down your god damn phone.

"It's become appallingly obvious our technology has exceeded our humanity." -Albert Einstein

"Men have become the tools of their tools." -Henry David Thoreau

Graffiti 104

"Always knew I would clock G's but welcome to McDonald's may I take your order please? Gotta Serve you food that might give you cancer, cause my son doesn't take no for an answer..."

I found a series of these in Logan Square. It feels like some kind of comment on baby boomers and the ungrateful GenX crowd. Although I don't know what the comment could be. But I think we can all agree that fast food is shitty and bad for you.

"Meat consumption is just as dangerous to public health as tobacco use... It's time we looked into holding the meat producers and fast-food outlets legally accountable." -Neal Barnard

"The boomers' biggest impact will be on eliminating the term 'retirement' and inventing a new stage of life... the new career arc." -Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Graffiti 103

Saw this in Logan Square which seemed appropriate. Seemingly a riff on internet catch phrase and meme "cool story bro". I like vests, I went through a period in high school where I was wearing a fleece vest all the time. If memory serves I'd use it to cover my incrementally increasing pit stains. Now I have one blue dressy type vest that I'll wear if I want to give a show outfit a little extra pop.

Scorn for those people who attempt, and sometimes succeed, to pull of a vest is misplaced. In all of fashion scorn seems inappropriate. Except maybe for sweat pants worn in public.

"He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest." -Walter Benjamin

Graffiti 102

Found this in Richmond. Matt thought it might be part of a project by local anarchist group The Wingnut, he and I hypothesized it could be some statement about American poverty and hunger and wars overseas. It could also be some grass roots campaign for the home cooking movement but no chef or foodie organization has taken credit for the graffiti. Either way it's a good message. I eat at home all the time. Brussels sprouts and sweet potato fries are my current dishes de préféré.

"Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water." -W.C. Fields

"Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial." -Erma Bombeck

Graffiti 101

I flew out to Richmond today to visit Matt. After four years of doing shows at different venues the Richmond Comedy Coalition is opening a theater of their very own. This is a mural in a lot behind their space. It reminds me of Stephen Gammell's illustrations for the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series. Disturbing and fascinating.

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself." -Kafka

Graffiti 100

Over the past couple years Mars has been heating up in the summer time. The southern polar dry ice cap has been shrinking. Some scientist have used this as proof that climate change on Earth is not man made. I wonder how long it'll be till we start sending our excess population to colonies on Mars.

"If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long." -Noam Chomsky

"I think space exploration is very important. I think there is very intelligent life on Mars. I believe that Martians are spying on us from the bottom of the ocean." -Annabella Sciorra

"When we see the shadow on our images, are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are we seeing the time on Mars as observed from Earth now? It's like time travel problems in science fiction. When is now; when was then?" -Bill Nye

Graffiti 99

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it." -Ivan Panin

"This is the female form, vapor,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heavaen or fear'd of hell, are now consumed, Mad filament, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable..."
-Walt Whitman

"In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves." -Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Graffiti 98

Every once in a while we all put on the bear suit.

Graffiti 97

El Nieto(which means grandson) seems to be the tag of a guy either in Norway, Puerto Rico, or Venezuela from my searches. I'm presuming its a self portrait. I don't really know what to make of it although I find it interesting. Self destructive, challenging, inquisitive.

"There's something dreadfully decisive about a beheading." -Anne Smedley

"The lightening flashes through my skull; mine eyes ache and ache; my whole beaten brain seems as beheaded, and rolling on some stunning ground." -Herman Melville