June 12, 2007
Gmzeeo Strikes Again
The Haight/Ashbury intersection was once marred by a Gap, but no longer -- the monster closed down a couple months ago, and it's just been a vacant storefront ever since, which isn't totally awesome but is at least an improvement.
And then, this weekend some enterprising muralists took it upon themselves to amaze us with some public art on top of the plywood, leaving behind the message you see above: "GMZEEO," it seems to say, with a picture of a chicken. Neat. We salute your amazing work, mysterious spray painting crew, as well as your cute little nickname "Gmzeeo" and your chickeny mascot! Now that your adorable name is on a former Gap in big bright letters, you are now TOTES FAMOUS!
A footnote: At some point, someone did some sloppy post-graffiti; that is, vandalism on top of the vandalism, in a messy "bob was here" sort of form. It was covered up within a day, which makes Gmzeeo at least a better steward of the property than the actual owners, who always let scribblings stay up for weeks.
|
Its an ad for the new tenats of the building, as the park police was called as it was going up, and responding that it was an owner approved paint job.
The artist is Amaze. He's a legend.
People, puhleeeeease! It reads "AMAZE".
That's the guy's name.
One rumor has it that the building owner actually commissioned the piece to take the blight of the empty store off the street before the fair. Others claim it's o.g. illegal bombing. Believe what you want.
There's a cluster of his work on flickr: tags/amaze/clusters/graffiti-sanfrancisco-twist/
Love this one with the car in the frame: loupiote/537856992/
(sfist, can't you do a little better with your citizen journalism??)
Srsly. You even have the link to the sfmetblogs story in your Day Around the Bay. All the correct info. is there.
Don't really care what it says...looks like crap. Makes the neighborhood look like a slum.
I absolutely refuse to believe that this graffiti says anything other than Gmzeeo, because it is completely plausible that someone would spray-paint that on a building along with a disembodied chicken head.
I believe this even though I linked to two separate sources claiming that the graffiti says "amaze," and myself used the word "amaze" twice in the post.
Also, I am incapable of employing any subtext in my writing.
It's OK MattyMatt, some of us appreciate your brand of subtle humor and irony.
Perhaps Mr. "Amaze" would like to write his next graffito legibly so he is not confused with Gmzeeo by aspiring "citizen journalists"?
It is much better then the talentless taggers who go around the city spraying unreadable b.S. They give real "urban muralists" a bad name. I used urban muralist because i forgot how to spell graffiti
I love the "chickeny mascot."
Almost as much as I dig Ribbity.
I don't know. Considering that the Gap was founded at the corner of Haight and Ashbury -- it might very well have been one of the only businesses with historic ties to the neighborhood.
Back then they sold records and jeans (hence a discarded name idea was PAD -- pants and discs). I'm surprised, with the Gap trying to find their authentic self, that they'd let the location go.
Still, after enduring the anti-graf gentrifiers in DC, it's been nice to be reminded how a neighborhood can actual embrace its counter-cultural expression.
i like funny, i appreciate subtle humor and irony, but that post just wasn't there.
the guy was hired to do it, as most people know, and he didn't pick the former gap building to make some big look-at-me statement that ended up making him look silly as your post tries to imply. it was for money. it was the wrong angle to go at it. you should have focused on the ridiculousness of hiring someone to do that to your building. oh, and of course, added something funny.
First Gap store was on Ocean Ave
And dance while you're at it. Dance, monkey, dance!
i thought it was funny. :)
"Most people" have never heard of Mr. Amaze or whatever his name is, jessica. That plus the fact that nobody can read it makes the title of this piece right on.
No such thing as bad publicity, right?
This is not "graffiti." I walked by when it was going up. They guys had scaffolding, matching white suits, a work permit, and the sidewalk had been taped off.
I saw this morning that someone has written "BEN KINGSLEY HATES YOU" on the plywood at Market and Kearny. I'm actually going out to add "SIR" to it this afternoon. And in other corrections, the first Gap wasn't at the corner of Haight and Ashbury you silly billy, nor was the first Ben and Jerry's, or whacky T-shirt and novelty eporium, or used hipster clothes/costume shop. Even if it was, since when has retail corporate history been anything worth celebrating? What next? A movement to preserve the site of the very first Circuit City? History is supposed to be about poets, warriors, imfamous criminals, and super-hot, yet fiendishly cunning prostitutes who rise from their lowly beginings to the top of society only to be felled by a mysterious a lung disease for which a cure was not available at the time, but later turned out to be remedied by a combination of common household materials that were abundantly available but were used for an entirely different purpose, like wig softener and candle whicks, or something.
i don't think it's a chicken head. i think it's like a little pouf of air - like a spray paint can would make after a quick press in the button. know what i mean? we should still call him gmzeeo anyway - it's more fun!
not a chicken head?
WHO THE WHAT
Anyone remember the store name before the Gap came in and akwardly set itself on the corner of Haight and Ashbury? I believe they used to sell records there..
Love the post, love amaze's work. How appropriate for the Haight: surprising, cool, and ultimately corporate-sponsored.
i had never heard of amaze either, nor could tell that it said amaze, but when sfmetblogs (and jeez, i can't believe that i'm using them to defend myself) posted about this yesterday and sfist linked to their post last night, it was all explained what it said and why it was there.
The best mural by far in the city (in my humble opinion) is the one on the back of safeway,by church, visible as you come out of the underground on the n, and j. It is fantastic, would love to see something like it on that corner. Who painted it??
@Dave
That is the Duboce Bikeway Mural done by Mona Caron
This post is a great example of why we still need traditional media. A full-time professional journalist would have done some fact-checking, called the building owner, figured out what was going on, interviewed AMAZE or some other graf writers, and written a Proper News Story.
Now someone will respond with something like: "I saw some story in the Chronicle that was totally incorrect! They're wrong all the time!" Sure, there are incompetent people in every profession. But at least, newspaper reporters are supposed to maintain journalistic standards and be held accountable if they don't.
And what's so monstrous about The Gap anyways? They'll probably be replaced by a store that sells similar products for 4x as much.
-slosh415