On graffiti, Street art and bathroom walls.

Now, there is no way that I could be considered by any means imaginable an expert or even overly knowledgeable on the topic of street art. But that being said it is something I have an opinion on, and something I have thought about. Art if done well is something that should be for everyone to see. Also art should invoke some variety of emotional response in those who see it. And though street art accomplishes the first part quite successfully, a common response to the second part is anger, and it is considered “defacing public property” or vandalism. This also sometimes results in the removal of the art, now by removal I also mean destruction. And I could easily relate destroying art to burning books, but therein also lies the problem: “What is street art, what is graffiti and what makes them different from vandalism?”

Now we could get into a discussion on the question of “what is art?” but how I see it “Art is a form of personal expression that is manifested in a displayable manner.” So that would make street art “a form of personal expression manifested in a publicly displayed manner” and yes in some ways this could also include tagging, when done artistically anyway. Now graffiti is nearly as difficult to describe properly, and this is because graffiti resembles vandalism more so that street art. This is because graffiti is almost literally “Writings on the wall,” and distinguishing between what is actual graffiti and what is vandalistic scribbling is the difficult part. Well actually not that difficult. You can distinguish it by asking one question: “Can it be part of an intelligible conversation?” And this works both ways, if it is intelligible it is graffiti, and if not, then it falls in with destroying public property under the category of vandalism.

You might be asking yourselves what exactly does this have to do with bathroom walls. Well that’s simple; we need a place for this graffiti to happen. Where better to start this new wave of intellectual graffiti than where the worst of graffiti lives. Excuse me while I set the scene, there you are sitting on the toilet and your stomach it telling you that you’re going to be there for a while. You have no book, no newspaper, or anything else to distract you while waiting there, so you look up at the walls and what do you see: advice on sexual partners, unprovoked profanity, and speculation on peoples’ sexual preferences, or any other number of crude things. (So needless to say, things that only remind you of your current situation.) But what if when you looked up, and what you saw written on the wall was the beginnings of a philosophical discussion, an interesting quote by some famous so and so, or even a well written dirty limerick or a bad pun. Something that gets your mind working, and that makes a good distraction, so you don’t think on the waste that is being purged from your body, and being distracted in that situation makes the whole thing just an however slightly so more bearable experience.

Post Script: I’ve written two versions of this. Not going to say what my plans are for the second. But I do like how I ended it more simply because I ended it with a quote from somewhere in the universe of Joss Whedon. Now I have this post scheduled and hopefully the other version will be out around the same time.

The Traveler Letters

So this is something that I have thought about doing for a while. Sharing with you not advice, or rules, or opinions or anything like that. But today I am choosing to share with you a morsel of one of my friendships. And today I will tell you of the Traveler Letters.

Okay, so to start I will explain a little more. I will not be using the real names of my friends, but instead I will be using nicknames, or titles that I have given them. And most of them don't even know that I have done this. And even then I do nit do this for all my friends, but only for those whom I believe have had a good impact on my life.

So, since around mid 2012 I have been writing letters to The Traveler. (He is not named as such because he is constantly traveling, but because I have been around, noticed and still noticing his travels and growth in life. I'm not even sure is he knows that is one of the reasons I gave him that title.) Now in these letters we discuss all matters of both little things and much larger things. We've talked about books, and girls, of our future plans and present activities, and so much more. Needless to say, the Traveler Letters are very important to me, and reading and writing them are some of my favourite things to do.

Some more explanation. As mentioned in my old post entitled "Community" I've moved around a bit, and so building and maintaining friendships have not been the easiest of things in the world for me. But now living in the digital age as we do this has become easier to do. With Facebook, instant messaging, texting, and the like you don't have to live in the same place to do that anymore. But in opposition to this short little burst messages and internet abbreviations are not the best for growing friendships. But then there are e-mails, which is actually what the Traveler Letters actually are. (Now I think of them as letters because I first actually write them out pencil and paper before typing them out and sending them to him.)

Now a bit about me and the Traveler. I have known him since I was in the midst of puberty and he was prepubescent, I can't remember our exact ages, but he had a significantly smaller amount of both hair and height than he does now, and I could not yet grow a full beard or even a proper goatee yet. But before 2010 we had never actually lived in the same town, or even next town over. His parents looked after my summer camp during the off season. But none the less, I've seen him grow up and I'd like to think that he has seen me grow up. I count him as one of my closer friends and greater confidants (one of the reasons I do the Traveler Letters).

So, Traveler when you read this, and I hope you have been reading these lately, I thank you. Our letters help keep me myself, they help me stay grounded, and where I like to be emotionally and mentally.

Post Script: I hope posting on Mondays works for people. Next week I will be telling you about another one of my friends, but after that I will probably be interchanging them with other posts.

Sensitive Subject Matter.

Not gonna talk about Christmas this time or next time because I just gotta get this off my chest. Might be a little strange but I am gonna do what I do on Twitter sometimes and talk about using the bathroom. Not so much talk about more rant about. And not all bathrooms but multi-stalled public bathrooms.

Now when people complain about public restrooms it's about their cleanliness. But with me, I'm one of those people who always has that alcohol based hand sanitizer with them, and so I grab toilet paper and wipe down the seat with sanitizer. It's not the cramped space, the cheap toilet paper, or even the possibility of getting creeped on through the gaps in the doors and walls. No, it's none of those.

My problem is the noises. But I'm not talking about the involuntary release of gas, or the plop of poop, or the splashing of pee. It is the voluntary noises, the ones that can be avoided, and the unnecessary noises. And even then I am breaking that up into two categories. "In stall" and "out of stall".

Let's start with the "in stall" noises since they are more common and sometimes harder to get rid of. These are the sighs of relief, the deep groans, and the sounds of forced pushing. I think we can all agree that these are all not overly pleasant sounds, not to mention that they are very personal sounds, and the bathroom in its entirety is a personal experience. So why would you do that in a known public washroom. Now I am not trying to tell you not to use public washrooms entirely, what I am saying is that use them as necessary but not leisurely. (I see them as like a quick stop until you can get to your own washroom.) So in conclusion of this, don't make noises while using public toilets.

Okay, now on to the out of stall noises. These are noises that are completely, absolutely controllable and AVOIDABLE. So I am talking about is the talking that happens in bathrooms! Like ARG! I can't really express how this makes me feel. Oh wait, yes I can. I AM A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER. Up to now I could mostly articulate what I am thinking about in reference to this. But WHY, just why do guys insist on having conversations in once again public washrooms. Now I'm not necessarily talking about when people talk to me but as well when guys have conversations at the sinks. But still. There I am half naked and unable to fully clothe myself and there they are in the same room as me, and probably no less than five feet away having a conversation. There's a reason that toilets have their own rooms. And it's NOT so you can have conversations. If there's only one place that's inappropriate for conversations to occur it is a washroom! Think about it, the purpose of any washroom public or not is to clean oneself and to expel waste, NOT to converse with your friends or random person in the stall beside you. Like seriously guys have your conversations elsewhere, and a bathroom isn't the place to meet new people. I mean come on I am pooping here!

Post script: Does this make me a hypocrite because I Tweet and Text while on the toilet sometimes?