As an urban model railroading fan I am always on the lookout for interesting details. These are from Boston's Chinatown neighborhood. I thought I'd share them.
Interesting, but have you ever noticed that grafitti always seems to have stupid slogans. like "Bark" or "Juice" or another one word slogan. What the heck is that supposed to make someone think who reads it? How low of an IQ the author has? I don't get it. Prior to 1970, I never seen colorful grafitti. It was simple stuff written in chalk or carved with a knife like "fingers and a nose peeking over a fence", "somebody+heart emoji+somebody", or "Kilroy Was Here". That said, it sure looks good on modern model railroads.
I don't get the whole graffiti thing either. I don't have any of them. I particularly like the sign about entering thru the 5th, 6th, 7th floor windows and the ghost building. The street with the ghost building (Beach St.) was once an elevated line (Atlantic Ave. Branch) of the MTA. It was leveled in 1940 for scrap. It had the distinction of being the only abandoned line on the system. Which is no longer true since a couple of other lines have been abandoned. Jim
It amazes me how they get up there to begin with! Some crazy places that have graffiti on them that is death defying. An interesting twist to this, our old Aramark Clothing supplier guy that delivered to my work actually was the owner and editor of a graffiti magazine back about 15 ago, I have a couple of the magazines, kinda interesting that it's almost an art form to some of these more "professional" taggers and how they are well known worldwide. Weird to see some of the ads in the magazine for wholesale Krylon paint cans, different types of equipment, right down to 20 various sizes of tips that go on the rattle cans!! Odd to see the flip side of this, especially when I see graffiti on rolling stock, locos, and even buildings, makes me mad.
Graffiti, like tattoos have exploded worldwide as a form of "personal" expression. Blick's art supplies has an extensive line of tagging paint. It is worthless for modelling since it is not fine-pigmented. But they come in a rainbow of colors. The trend is even worse in Europe. I was appalled at seeing it all over Italy. Yes, some of the taggers are fearless in their pursuit of expressing themselves. The MBTA (our transit system) has been relatively free of NYC-style graffiti on subway cars. I have never seen a defaced subway car in service. I take the subway almost every day. I hope it remains that way. Jim
