...her name is 'Jennifer.'

Well, I'm back in the U.S., at least for the weekend. The Newark-Boston connection was canceled, so I'm in New Jersey overnight... On the way to the hotel, I scoped out several quality graffiti spots along the roadways; I saw them all within a span of five minutes, which (in my mind) speaks volumes about the amount of quality work (being) done in America.

However, the scope of the 'scene' here (even within, say, a single metropolitan area) is so expansive that it could never fully be chronicled. Once could only hope to extract a fragments in the the hope that they would faithfully summarize the essence of the greater whole. Conversely, Dublin's 'scene' (as we have expounded upon before) is such that you could realistically capture the whole and all of its parts (and that is what J I are trying to do).

In short, I'm glad Dublin is our target, but not only because of its size. There is something inherently Irish about the work we've photographed that sets it apart from anything found anything elsewhere, and when you really find a diamond in the rough, it's made all the more fulfilling. Such is graffiti in Dublin.

J & G should be back out on the hunt next week. We've got some wall-scalings planned and several spots we want to go back to, so I'm personally looking forward to getting back to D-Land. In the meantime, I'll try to post up photos of my most recent exploits in Tallaght as well as the City Centre, and J might even throw up some material from his neck of the woods. Blessings.

- G

Two (Three?) Weeks' Worth

We've been away from the keyboard, but still grindin'. I found some amazing work in the process. I didn't have an appreciation for graffiti as an art form prior to my time in Ireland, so I can't comment much on the medium as it exists in the outside world. However, I know enough to say that action here is sparse.

While the prospect sounds bleak, it creates some interesting dynamics for the scene that does exist here. As J and I offered before, the stagnation of graffiti culture here in Ireland has produced a society that has almost no appreciation for the medium as an art form. Accordingly, the Irish government has cracked down immensely; I was doing research several weeks back and came upon a letter (presented in support of legislation authorities were pushing at the time) proposing some notable strategies to combat the issue, two of which particularly stood out to me:

1) The proposal for an exclusive task force to be established within the Garda devoted solely to cracking down on graffiti.
2) The proposal for jail time to be within the reasonable range of punishment for offenders.

No love from the S(C)BA. Hahahaha.

Whether any such legislation was ever passed is unbeknownst to me, though I do intend to do more research on the situation as it stands today, in 2008.


As a Christian, I may not agree with every decision that is passed down by an authority, but G-d has allowed them to be put in power, for a reason, and I will honor that. In a sense, then, I regard myself as something of an 'international journalist/photographer'; I may chronicle events taking place in the world, but that does not mean that I agree with them completely. The means may be devious, but the medium can still retain its beauty.

Even with all the adversity facing artists around the country, the underground still bustles about in various levels of mediocrity and excellence. Dublin in particular is plagued with goodness-gracious-awful tags (think 'Damo' and 'Jonesy & Belinda Forever 2007'), but it also has some pleasant surprises. Such overbearing emptiness only serves to make the true gems (unearthed by roaming the streets of the city) all the more brilliant once discovered.

Gotta love the Frenchies.

Going back on the hunt this weekend. The City Centre doesn't stand a chance. Hahahaha. Got Boston to look forward to next weekend (and we'll be on the lookout for art while there), but I'm still a Dub until then. Grace and peace.

- G

Trippiness on Premiere Night

Counting my ticket stubs up (yes, I keep them), I saw 80+ films in 2007 in Arizona, Alaska, and Ireland. That's an exorbitant amount, by any standard. However, since the new year, I've been severely limiting what I intake, be it music or film or otherwise. After all, the old adage, 'you are what you eat,' is truly accurate. Prior to tonight, I hadn't seen a film in almost a month.

Well, I had the opportunity to break my streak tonight; one of my business partners (and classmates) was kind enough to hook me up with two tickets to see Cloverfield on opening night. While it's been out for almost two weeks back in the U.S., we're only now getting it in Ireland (and the U.K.; this is pretty standard practice for most releases), but you'll never hear me complaining about catching a new one on premiere night (after all, 'new' is completely relative with respect to where you are).

On to the film. I'm not really sure how to categorize it. I'm not much for spoilers, and since I can't stand reading others' impressions on a film, I won't subject anyone to my own. However, the experience was truly note-worthy. I don't know if it is because I'm getting in the Japanese mindset myself now, or because Japan was mentioned numerous times at the start, but I was picking up some serious overtones with respect to that country. I have a feeling this will clean up well over there.


Trippiness, y'all. Stomachaches, nausea, confusion, hunger. It was a madhouse. Hahaha.

- G

Berlin Zoo

So I was in Berlin last week. I saw a lot of great things; for instance the section of the city that houses the embassies was outstanding. However I couldn't wait to see the Zoo, I've only ever been to Dublin Zoo, so really any other city is going to have a leg up on Dubs.

I took about 120 pictures; trying to show you the experience I had in a handful of pictures was difficult, but here we go.

First up are the battle birds, I'm not really sure if they're fighting but they stood in the same position for like 5 minutes.



Then we have the yawning Polar bear, taking a second look at this he could be shocked?!?! The polar bears where without a doubt my favourite mammal to see at the Zoo.



Lastly we have the Wolves. Now it looks as if they're cuddling and what not. In fact the wolves where actually fighting. They seemed to be afraid of big pappa wolf and shortly after I took the picture a game of chasing broke out.



Berlin is a wonderful city, but the Zoo was what made the trip worthwhile for me.

- J