Best Bristol Street Art of 2007

I'm foresaking all traditions of posting "best of everything" lists at the end of the year, for one list and one list only. Here are the 10 pieces of Bristol graffiti you should have seen this year. If you didn't... well, that's what the list is for. In no particular order:

1. Copyright's Roses
2. Banksy's Sniper
3. 45rpm's Owls
4. Cheo's Tits
5. Zesk's Feathers
6. Voyder, Deltr0n, 3dom and Magic painted the Golden Lion
7. Peter Kidd's stunning contribution to the PRSC
8. With many thanks to knautia who did actually find this first, my most popular photo ever: Go to Work, Send Your Kids to School on Philip St.
9. Sepr on Melville Terrace
10. And then right at the end of the year, Seza pulled out this MONSTER of a wall and kicked 2007 in the ass.

We need more legal walls, more commissions and another Old Bridewell Police show, because it was a bloody brilliant year for Bristol artists.

Monterey Obeys

Monterey Obeys, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Monterey, California - spotted this on the way back to the parking garage after visiting the Aquarium (which I don't recommend) and that group of people gave me serious WTF IS THIS CRAZY PERSON DOING vibes. But all in good faith. The best part of street art photography is that passing people end up seeing something they wouldn't have ordinarily noticed.

Milly in Chinatown

Milly in Chinatown, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Three

Three, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

San Francisco, CA

Perch

Perch, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

The Scream

The Scream, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

San Francisco, CA

Post-Christmas Meal Fodder

aka: ways to impress your boyfriend's family.

Crash Against the Pier

Crash Against the Pier, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Child O'Mine

Child O'Mine, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

King Pin

King Pin, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

South Bristol Santa

South Bristol Santa, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Drips from the Tank

Drips from the Tank, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Shopping Again?

Shopping Again?, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Link Dump 18/12/07

• Flickr: Skeleton Coast Shipwrecks (circa 2000)

• An interview with Courtney Love by Nigel Farndale: "She has a big mouth in every sense. A 'big dirty rock mouth', as it was once memorably described. I have to say, I like her instantly. I like her goofy grin. I like the crack in her husky voice. I like the fact that she is funny, chatty, animated, boastful, open, vulnerable, name-dropping and unselfconscious. "

• Rudi Giuliani's daughter is supporting Obama. Oddly enough, if this is true, this reflects well on his parenting skills - he hasn't brainwashed her into adopting his POV for everything.

• Reuter's pictures of the year for 2007
  

We Love FDNY!!

we love fdny!!, originally uploaded by destroy & rebuild.

12 Days of Xmas

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Seeing as I've uploaded 90% of what I took at the show, it's your turn to have a gander. 12 days of Xmas is a Bristol art/graffiti/street art exhibition in the old Bridewell police station in the centre of the city, featuring artists like Acer, Richt and Cyclops/Sweet Toof. It is open until the 22nd of December (this coming Saturday) and is truly immense.

ill Doctrine Round up

Caught up on *cough*3 months worth*cough* of videos from ill Doctrine. If you haven't already seen them, here's three worth watching for their veritable pearls of wisdom:

• Machine Guns and Stupid Choices (an explanation of why smart people do stupid things)
  
• Fox News vs CNN vs WWE (shitty shitty manipulative editing on CNN's behalf)
• RZA and the Legend of the Replicator (RZA is awesome)
  

Blood Red Seak

Blood Red Seak, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Two Palms

Two Palms, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Fire to the Prisons

Fire to the Prisons, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Fishy Fish

Fishy Fish, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Quickie

• Dooce goes opensource about mental health issues. She's always been honest, but this strays into the realm of inspirational.
  

Wait

Wait, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Lowbrow is Highbrow

I've been a member of Oh No They Didn't since Mary Kate Olsen got anorexic (2003) and recently some people got together in Los Angeles to be interviewed by Fox News. If it had been a few weeks later, I would have been there. Here's the video, I'm so proud of how what used to be a little community has grown up into an epic beest:



I know it's only Fox News, but it's still insane.

Work This Out

Work This Out, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Renewal

I've just renewed my subscription to Nude Magazine, just because it's brilliant. Kind of like wading knee deep through the sewers of a major unnamed city: artists and punk musicians and street art and weird films and musings on the nature of society and book reviews. All the adverts are for things like alt. clothing stores and tattoo shops and the internet. The quality of print is stunning (see left, issue 12's cover is enough to rip straight off and put on your wall). And a 5 issue subscription, including post&packaging is only £16. Can't get better than that.

There's a Monster in my Pocket

There's a Monster in my Pocket, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Gasp

Gasp, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Deciduous vs Evergreen Standoff!

Deciduous vs Evergreen Standoff!, originally uploaded by Trapac.

Things I have learned about Trapac over the last year and a bit: she really likes trees.

I'm going to stop pointing out that I'm posting from my favorites - there will be more than enough new pictures coming this way in 12 days time when the Great Christmas Road Trip kicks off.

Link Dump 08/12/07

• Jeremy Mayer is a sculpter, but not as you know it. He recycles typewriters into fullscale human figures: " I do not solder, weld, or glue; the process is entirely cold, mechanical assembly."

• Video: Internet Commenter Business Meeting.

• An Abandoned San Francisco Tuna Canning Factory, some urban exploration by loupiote. [My favorite]
  

• I recently met pugofwar on Twitter, and this week clicked through and discovered their fabulously written Livejournal. I have short patience for long portions of text on the internet, and Livejournal is usually the place for throwaway thoughts, but pugofwar just breaks all the rules here.
  

God Loves His Children

God Loves His Children, originally uploaded by _saturnine.

Tiding Me Through

Dirty Handz 2, originally uploaded by Lil' Pete.

Still no new pictures from me, the weather for the last two weekends has been rotten to the core. Yet another Flickr favorite, this time from the stealthphotoninja Lil' Pete.

12 Days of Xmas

cell ceiling, originally uploaded by knautia.

The ultimate Bristol graffiti/street art exhibition opens tomorrow evening: 60 artists, an abandoned police station (complete with jail cells and courts), knautia is the official photographer and there are copious amounts of decently-priced prints to pick up. It's going to be brilliant. So if you're in Bristol, in town and between things, and you're near the old police station, what excuse do you have? 12 Days of Xmas awaits...

Link Dump 06/12/07

• USAToday (beware of the new window it opens) has a first look at the Wachowski Brothers new movie Speed Racer, and the visuals look crazygood, much more cool than I expected.

• SFGate have an engrossing article about Asian Americans and political power. California has a beyond fucked up history that still seems to be in the midst of repairing itself.
  

Smithfield Graffiti Obey

smithfield graffiti obey, originally uploaded by slimmer_jimmer.

Another recent Flickr favorite, this time some Shepard Fairey.

In Russia, Six Apart Sells You!

Livejournal has just been sold to a Russian company. What the fuck? This has to be a joke. I guess all the naysayers were right - they never cared about the community, they used the platform to make their own version and then passed it on without a second thought.

Quickie

• Locate TV - "Find TV shows, movies and actors available where you live, on broadcast TV, online, and on DVD" - basically an online search engine-cum-TV guide-cum imdb for everything you might want to watch on television in the UK or the US. I have been searching for this kind of thing for years. TV.com was almost cutting it but the tiny fonts/corporate TV feel/poor navigation/ugly advertising just puts me off. LocateTV has white space and pinpoint perfect quotas of information, as well as being able to search by provider (for me, Freeview in the UK and Time Warner in the US). Instant love.
  

God is in the Wire

..., originally uploaded by littlehonda..

This week's weather has been dismal, so I'm short of my own discoveries. However, the rest of Flickr is still buzzing along, so here's one (fyi: this blog entry's title is my own) by littlehonda, who hails from Hitchen in the UK. His photoblog is all shades of lovely.

Levy Fines on Fatties

"Celtic tribes certainly took physical appearance and prowess very seriously. Despite a love, and surplus, of fine food and drink they did not tolerate obesity. Rather than banish the overweight members however they would levy fines upon the fatties till they slimmed down again. It was a sign that the person was taking too much food and not working hard enough in return. It could also prohibit a man from getting married or be grounds for separation from his woman, Celtic woman being as fierce and fit as the men and doubtless disinclined to share a bed with a beer-bellied husband she can beat up herself."

From Ask Metafilter, brautigan on Celts and obesity.

Link Dump 1/12/07

• On Security: Schools should teach data security by Charles Arthur / Do you know what they know about you? by Mark Ward

• College Saga by Mark Leung. A live action Final Fantasy fan story, based on a college campus. 41 minutes long, so if you have the time, go go go. If not, it's also broken up into digestible chunks on his video page.

• BBC2 is going to examine white culture next year: "The "White" season, coming at a time of intense political and media debate on immigration, intends to explore the complex mix of feelings that has led many white working class people to feel marginalised." I need to remember to download everything I can, it sounds brilliant.

• Graffiti art by Mau Mau

• The Geek ABCs by Jared Von Hindman.
  

Sickboy Vinyl

If you've got £100 lying around, you should go and buy one of Sickboy's unspeakably cool vinyl temples that are out today.

Due out 1st dec 07 from www.thesickboy.com, originally uploaded by savetheyouth.

Shiny, yellow, red - a 3D version of his street temples, they're in a limited edition of 250. It makes me sick to my stomach that I can't buy one (I'm travelling back to California soon), and they are guaranteed to sell out sooner rather than later. Hopefully there will be more on the way in the future, this is the first vinyl "toy" that I've ever really really wanted.