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February 25, 2008
Does No One Care Anymore?
What's the solution for outside Solutions? | Reader submitted photo by Robert T.
Last year on August 28, we reported that the Elliott Smith wall had been tagged once again, this time with a rather large "Mouse" tag. Today, almost six months later, the tag still sits there, now with new balloon font tag over it.
A Little Background
Immediately after the reports of his death began to spread, fans in LA began writing little messages on the wall at Solutions electronics and repair on Sunset near Fountain where he once posed for an album cover. Those messages were later replaced by others and for nearly four years now it's always nice to see an ever-changing and solemn tribute to a talented musician.
Why Is Nothing Being Done?
We are not sure why nothing has been done, why no one has "adopted" this wall. Maybe the building owner doesn't care. Maybe the community or the Neighborhood Council doesn't care (could it be that hipsters don't care? Ohh! We said it, we kid, we kid). Does Councilman Eric Garcetti and his assigned field representative to the area not care?
A tag lasting six months is unacceptable, especially on a neighborhood cultural icon.
Previously on LAist
-- This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
-- Neighborhood Project: Silver Lake
-- Viper Room, 1994: The River Phoenix Wall
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Really, I think it's all about the fame - the more people that see a tag, the better. This post probably makes that tagger ecstatic. I'd replace that photo with a big, black square over his tag - or a photo of your butt.
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it's not just that wall that gets tagged. it's the whole friggin city. Mayor Villaretardo (thanks Carolla) and the city officials don't give a shit.
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maybe these two taggers are taking a stand against tragic hero worship. sort of like those shirts people used to wear that made light of kurt cobain's suicide.
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It's true Elise, graffiti has the three R's for a tagger: Respect, Reward and Recognition.
- The tagger has gained respect by pulling off a tag on a famous wall on a busy street
- The tagger has gained reward by having it up so long for everyone to see and from the aforementioned respect.
- The tagger has gained increased recognition the longer it stays up, the more people take pictures of it, post them on the internet, etc.
But we are not praising it here, merely telling what is happening. It's up to the community to take care of their own. It's a post I rather not have to do and I rather not get reader submitted photos like this, but it is what it is.Jamsey, actually, many do care. I can't vouch for the Mayor since the latest proposal on the budget called for cutting graffiti abatement for the rest of the fiscal year, but in Council District 2, Wendy Greuel has been fighting this blight vigilantly with programs up the ying-yang and in Council District 13, where this wall is, Eric Garcetti has instituted programs in the past.
The solution to this, as it goes for many solutions in local government, is the community voice. Call 3-1-1 and report it or report it online.
If it's not being taken care of, call the Office of Beautification and let your concern be known.
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actually..it should all be painted over...and revert back to its pre Elliot Smith memorial days.
it looked much better then.
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And of course it's not just this mural. Wonderful and/or iconic street art all over town get tagged, and it sucks. More than once I've come across muralists repairing the work of some miscreant. This disrespect for others work is, I believe, one of the main things which sets apart a street artist from a scumbag tagger.
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... or LAist could adopt it.
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I almost agree with 90039 - the memorial was nice, but 5 years on, a better memorial might be to revert back to the unadorned spiral associated with Figure 8.
It is fairly amazing what people are getting away with. Osmany Rodrigiez's photo post ("There Will Be Graffiti") showed one of the most brazen (and frankly, beutiful) examples of the issue. At least that was incredible to look at. This is just retarded.
Maybe I wouldn't be so annoyed by this if it was at least pretty. If this guy gets respect for what is essentially the graffiti equivalent of chickenscratch, the terrorists have won.
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Also, I know it's Rodriguez. Apparently, my fingers don't, but I do.
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people from the sweet adeline message board used to get together to take care of this wall, along with stephon who owns(?) solutions. last i heard there was talk of re-painting the wall soon, maybe this new tag will help to motivate them.
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I tried hard not to comment on this, but...
1)This is what happens when you don't spank your kids. They grow up with no moral compass and no fear of punishment.
2)On the other hand, painting a memorial on the side of a building isn't too bright either. It begs to be defaced. See #1.
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Q: why do "taggers" deface murals?
A: they know it will stay up for quite some time
WHY: because the city can't paint over the murals to clean it up unlike bare or solid color walls. the city would have to get the original person(s) who painted the mural or the designer to have it repaired.
in this instance..its up to whoever painted the original figure 8 to take care of this...
...this is not all bad...this is how the city really is. if you have lived here long enough, you would not be bitching about it and have just accepted it.
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I agree it's horrendous that the tags have been allowed to stand for so long, but I think taking city officials or agencies to task for being uncaring or unresponsive is a little off the mark.
The city's all about graffiti removal not restoration, and as such are probably in a bit of a bind given the wall's consideration by the community as something of a cultural landmark. Do they leave it and incur scorn for that, or do they paint the whole thing out and deal with the backlash to that action?
Personally, since returning the memorial to its original state seems highly unlikely, I'm all for
painting it out and starting over, then perhaps applying a protective coating that will make stripping the work of the inevitable bastards who'll come muck it up again.
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Yes, I agree this mural needs a protective coating and maybe it already does, I am not sure.
To 90039,
When I moved onto my current block, I did not accept it and I still do not accept it. I fought it by reporting it the moment I noticed a new tag. These days, I rarely, if ever get tags on my block. I keep tabs with my Senior Lead Officer and my community police station's tagger taskforce officers. Information sharing is one tactic in fighting graffiti.The other is sometimes just pure luck and timing. Taggers are fast and catching them in the act is not as easy.
In the Van Nuys Division, officers tell the community that a tagger in action is a 911 call. I've done so a few times, they respond, but it only really works if they are around the corner, so you never know.
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why is it ok for elliot smith fans to write on the wall but not for the taggers? what's the differentiator? text size? or motivation?
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anthonyt - it's different because elliot smith fans don't write all over our homes, schools, fences, garages, industrial buildings, freeway overpasses, billboards, brick walls, restaurants, buses, trains, elevators (see the elevators in the criminal courts - it's real cute), parks, etc. the elliot smith wall is directly related to elliot smith. so, i guess if a tagger wanted to tag a wall dedicated to the leader of ms-13, then that would be cool.
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Hey everyone,
As the owner's son, I really dont think the person who posted this should be making assumptions about what we feel as the owners of this property. After elliott's tragic death we were unaware/uninformed that people would write on our logo, however, we realized how important he was to the community and to his fans, which is why we continue to support and love to see your expressions/writings on the wall. We've done all we can to try and stop these taggers from ruining both our building and a true memorial but not much is helping. I even created a myspace page trying to spread the word to as many people so that they could help us restore the wall (myspace.com/repaintthewall). Someone from the council came in today and asked what was going on but it didnt seem like he was going to do much about it either. The wall was restored to its original state today, however, I have yet to see the finished product. Hope everything looks great. If anyone has any suggestions or comments at all, please message me over the myspace website. Anything will help.
Please be aware that photos taken of this logo should not be reproduced and/or sold for profit.
Sincerely,
Eon
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Well, Zach, I see your point. It's the reporter's job - we can't not report on a murder just because some people do it just to see their name in the paper.
It is nice to see it being repainted a few posts up (even with the total burn on me)
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From last evening's talk with Stephon Lew, owner-musician of Solutions.. --who designed and produced the art logo of the original Solutions Wall (that Elliott's fans have adopted as The Elliott Smith Memorial Wall) --here are his basic edited comments on the repainting and restoration now being conducted by Elliott's fans: (Solutions located at 4334 Sunset Los Angeles, Ca. 90029)
"I wished and accepted a continuous flow of good spirit--as much as Elliott's fans' could place of their expressions on the Wall over the many years--- but the layerings of the fans' art invited other larger, overbearing, and then --even more irrelevant, and random "Other Art"----.
Art-upon-art is possible --up to a point---just as politics upon politics----but then, nothing much can soon be seen or felt or offer happiness as it becomes complex. ....nothing is fixed or gained by one frame of words or a picture. It is no longer art when it is hurtful and others leave hoping they can erase or better express other people's feelings. The "Solutions Wall" --"Elliott's Wall" --The Memorial Wall"---became a blackboard inviting even censors and seemed never to have fixed anyone's personal hurt,.......It is a super good memory, though--and to bring back the Wall's original art in the way that Elliott saw it ---is a real treasure---now we all can again imagine Elliott wobbling up to the wall and stomping upon the art on the concrete in front of the Wall. The words and expressions of all of Elliott's fans will still exist, ---still in place, under the newest layer of artwork-- alike the way Elliott and other musicians had embraced its original energy.
The original art of the Solutions wall represents the Figure S, not an 8 .. Essentially, I intended the "S"olutions logo as a energetic splay of the five music lines typical of music song paper, so the S encompasses the whole building. It expands and flops downward into a colorful swirl to splatter onto the concrete sidewalk-to embrace all musicians and to invite them to let me solve some of their problems with their broken instruments, drums, guitar, amplifiers, stereos, and speakers----- even some of Elliot's equipment. In the original form, the Wall somehow allowed anyone to take in its energy-givingness and become inspired----and only someone as artistic as Elliott could think of it being related to an 8, I guess....the other Chinese- lucky number is 6.---that's in Solutions' phone number of almost 70 years! In any case, I am happy that Elliott , who had lived in the neighborhood, embraced the design and its energy. I intended the art on the wall for all musicians and all their fans, ....for everyone.
I.... ..... is the picture of the Wall on the morning of Feb 25 somewhere?...yes, at :.
http://laist.com/attachments/la_zach/elliotsmithwall-graffiti.jpg
The picture of Elliott fans restoring the music lines and swirl:
http://laist.com/attachments/OsMutante/smithwall.jpg
This is so good of them ...Wow. thank you!
AND, .... there is more intended, related art to be formed on the Wall...to be placed at the upper west top area that I will probably make later this year...---an Elliott fan is currently working on this new wonderful addition at the top right corner of the Wall where the Solutions sihlouette of musical instruments begins. ....so I cannot allow any protective plastic coating except at the lower half of the Wall.
If the fans really want to take a picture with their expression and thoughts..., maybe someone can make a plastic film with a see-through frame so everyone can temporarily place in phot position to marker-up and even take with them after a photo shoot? Actually, Elliott's artists used a computer program to add on the words "Figure 8" on the album cover. The wall never had the word title "Figure 8" on it.
The original art of the Wall that I designed and completed decades ago required the talents and ideas of Cheri Ramey and Frank Duarte, my commerical artists, then. It was a personal celebration of the music that was around me and this building's repair and recording/rehearsal businesses that are known together as "Solutions"--My continuing objective for the Wall is to let it act and evolve as a beacon or reminder....to call upon all concerned...to help find and make the good music that is not yet around us-- that had not even been around Elliott, ----even then, perhaps...
Let me clarify some rumours....
These are my dreams: I plan to place an electronic object of importance....a 5 foot 7 inch tall monument (of Elliott's size--with two loudspeakers at the base of the monument to represent his two big shoes) formed from crushed electronics parts ---to play and to identify Elliott's musical influences (Elliott's hobby, I hear, was to experiment with electronics to make music tone)---to have the monument --emanate new energy and the many solutions that music can provide.
I will present the statue-monument as "Art in-front-of Art"---at where Elliot stood for the Figure 8 album cover photo--- Many fans have promised to help me complete this in due time...after next winter, perhaps.....I plan, with the help of Elliott's fans..., to also place along the two foot ground area in front of the Wall.... a removable display (video or otherwise) of all his lyrics---not placed on the vertical Wall--- but at the ground base...somehow.....and those of the Beatles or other music groups that influenced Elliott ----I hope that when one visits the Wall Area, we all will just smile.. ..and walk away with the happiest of an ice-cream-type closure---- to be able to take with you more of Elliott's true vibrations and the beauty of other bands' music ---. This is just a dream. --Thank you! Stephon
[ report this ]
From last evening's talk with Stephon Lew, owner-musician of Solutions.. --who designed and produced the art logo of the original Solutions Wall (that Elliott's fans have adopted as The Elliott Smith Memorial Wall) --here are his basic edited comments on the repainting and restoration now being conducted by Elliott's fans: (Solutions located at 4334 Sunset Los Angeles, Ca. 90029)
"I wished and accepted a continuous flow of good spirit--as much as Elliott's fans' could place of their expressions on the Wall over the many years--- but the layerings of the fans' art invited other larger, overbearing, and then --even more irrelevant, and random "Other Art"----.
Art-upon-art is possible --up to a point---just as politics upon politics----but then, nothing much can soon be seen or felt or offer happiness as it becomes complex. ....nothing is fixed or gained by one frame of words or a picture. It is no longer art when it is hurtful and others leave hoping they can erase or better express other people's feelings. The "Solutions Wall" --"Elliott's Wall" --The Memorial Wall"---became a blackboard inviting even censors and seemed never to have fixed anyone's personal hurt,.......It is a super good memory, though--and to bring back the Wall's original art in the way that Elliott saw it ---is a real treasure---now we all can again imagine Elliott wobbling up to the wall and stomping upon the art on the concrete in front of the Wall. The words and expressions of all of Elliott's fans will still exist, ---still in place, under the newest layer of artwork-- alike the way Elliott and other musicians had embraced its original energy.
The original art of the Solutions wall represents the Figure S, not an 8 .. Essentially, I intended the "S"olutions logo as a energetic splay of the five music lines typical of music song paper, so the S encompasses the whole building. It expands and flops downward into a colorful swirl to splatter onto the concrete sidewalk-to embrace all musicians and to invite them to let me solve some of their problems with their broken instruments, drums, guitar, amplifiers, stereos, and speakers----- even some of Elliot's equipment. In the original form, the Wall somehow allowed anyone to take in its energy-givingness and become inspired----and only someone as artistic as Elliott could think of it being related to an 8, I guess....the other Chinese- lucky number is 6.---that's in Solutions' phone number of almost 70 years! In any case, I am happy that Elliott , who had lived in the neighborhood, embraced the design and its energy. I intended the art on the wall for all musicians and all their fans, ....for everyone.
I.... ..... is the picture of the Wall on the morning of Feb 25 somewhere?...yes, at :.
http://laist.com/attachments/la_zach/elliotsmithwall-graffiti.jpg
The picture of Elliott fans restoring the music lines and swirl:
http://laist.com/attachments/OsMutante/smithwall.jpg
This is so good of them ...Wow. thank you!
AND, .... there is more intended, related art to be formed on the Wall...to be placed at the upper west top area that I will probably make later this year...---an Elliott fan is currently working on this new wonderful addition at the top right corner of the Wall where the Solutions sihlouette of musical instruments begins. ....so I cannot allow any protective plastic coating except at the lower half of the Wall.
If the fans really want to take a picture with their expression and thoughts..., maybe someone can make a plastic film with a see-through frame so everyone can temporarily place in phot position to marker-up and even take with them after a photo shoot? Actually, Elliott's artists used a computer program to add on the words "Figure 8" on the album cover. The wall never had the word title "Figure 8" on it.
The original art of the Wall that I designed and completed decades ago required the talents and ideas of Cheri Ramey and Frank Duarte, my commerical artists, then. It was a personal celebration of the music that was around me and this building's repair and recording/rehearsal businesses that are known together as "Solutions"--My continuing objective for the Wall is to let it act and evolve as a beacon or reminder....to call upon all concerned...to help find and make the good music that is not yet around us-- that had not even been around Elliott, ----even then, perhaps...
Let me clarify some rumours....
These are my dreams: I plan to place an electronic object of importance....a 5 foot 7 inch tall monument (of Elliott's size--with two loudspeakers at the base of the monument to represent his two big shoes) formed from crushed electronics parts ---to play and to identify Elliott's musical influences (Elliott's hobby, I hear, was to experiment with electronics to make music tone)---to have the monument --emanate new energy and the many solutions that music can provide.
I will present the statue-monument as "Art in-front-of Art"---at where Elliot stood for the Figure 8 album cover photo--- Many fans have promised to help me complete this in due time...after next winter, perhaps.....I plan, with the help of Elliott's fans..., to also place along the two foot ground area in front of the Wall.... a removable display (video or otherwise) of all his lyrics---not placed on the vertical Wall--- but at the ground base...somehow.....and those of the Beatles or other music groups that influenced Elliott ----I hope that when one visits the Wall Area, we all will just smile.. ..and walk away with the happiest of an ice-cream-type closure---- to be able to take with you more of Elliott's true vibrations and the beauty of other bands' music ---. This is just a dream. --Thank you! Stephon