Ah, yes. Now, this is the kinda of graffiti we like: bold with a dash of guilt and a hint of self-awareness. Friend of SFist Pete Cat came across this gem while lollygagging in the city's Mission District Friday night. Some rapscallion wrote on a brick wall (a canvas notoriously difficult for building owners to erase), but left such a cheeky (and French, if we may say) spray of graffiti that one can't get that mad at it. Adorable, really. Adorable.
Friday Night Graffiti: Who's Sorry Now?
Facebook IPO: Graffiti Artist David Choe Stands To Score $200 Million
When Facebook stock publicly trades later this year, scads of people will turn into billionaires and millionaires seemingly overnight. One person who stands to gain an estimated $200 million is graffiti artist David Choe, who, in lieu of payment, was given shares of Facebook after his work adorned the walls at the first Facebook headquarters back in 2005. According to Fast Company, "In 2005 Sean Parker commissioned Choe to paint more provocative art, in the form of graphic sexually-themed murals on the walls of Facebook's early Silicon Valley HQ, and in 2008 Mark Zuckerberg asked him to paint more restrained ones on the new HQ's walls."
[Updated] Breaking: The Return of the Laser Kitties!
Generik11 / Erik Wilson spotted everyone's favorite Laser Cats in a new mural this morning.
Girafa, AKA Steven Free, Pleads Guilty to $38,000 Worth of Street Art
Prolific Bay Area tagger and muralist Girafa (née Steven Free) pled guilty to two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts of vandalism in a Santa Clara Superior Court earlier this week. The 32-year-old Free, a San Francisco resident, was arrested back in October of 2009 on 10 felony vandalism cases in San Jose where the cops didn't seem to be so appreciative of Girafa's playful wall cartoons and personal branding efforts. According to Bay City News, eight of those felony charges were dropped, but the remaining counts have landed Free three years of probation and 38 grand worth of fines to the City of San Jose and various property owners.
Put a Pot Leaf On It: Oaksterdam University's New Oaklandish Mural
Over at Oakland's groundbreaking weed university, Brooklyn based artists R.B. Morris III & Munir Munir have replaced the building's faux-collegiate logo with a (ahem) dope new 725-foot mural overlooking Broadway and 17th. Smart move, ditching the pretentious air of academia and going straight for an urban vibe. Just look - it's got all the landmarks: a BART train, the Tribune building, a piano, some old guy reading a book. Oakland Living covered the installation progress and the East Bay Express says it's nominated for an Oakland Indie Award.
Latest Anti-Graffiti Vigilante Possibly Just a Tagger With Extra Paint
This morning the repeatedly painted frontage of the Harding Theater on Divisadero near SFist's Western Branch office saw some much-needed white washing. You might remember the space, which has been tagged over three or four times since we last mentioned it, as the former home of such well-loved murals as "Kittenzilla", "Unfinished Gaia Piece with the Two Calves" or a slew of unintelligible scribblings legible only to the connoisseurs.
"San Francisco\Amsterdam" Tips Hat To Long Distance Relationships
Ivan and Elizabeth, two long-distance lovers living in Amsterdam and San Francisco, respectively, came up with a public way of showing their love for each other. "San Francisco\Amsterdam," billed as "a collaborative poster project between lovers separated by circumstance," is like one of those broken heart necklace pairs but done with two posters.
And Here We Are: Divisadero Street Art Incident Explained
After our Laser Kitten Vandalized! post went up yesterday, we received a landslide of comments, many of them rightly questioning what makes one piece of artwork more valid than another. A few others tucked in there also described a "misunderstanding" with what we now know was a legal, approved mural space for both the original three artists (named in the post) and the newest artist. After following up on a few of the comments and Internet leads, we got in contact with Gaia, who had been in the process of creating the second-layer painting. In a phone call earlier this afternoon, we discussed the bulls (calves, actually - more on that in a second), the kittens and the mural space in general.
BREAKING: Laser Cat Mural Vandalized! Outrage!
Well, now this is just disappointing. Barely a month since the Laser Kitten Mural, a.k.a. "Kittenzilla" on Divisadero first delighted us by livening up a long-shuttered movie theater with some playful artwork, local miscreants have already defaced the work.
Mobile Mural Program to Be Launched at This Weekend's Sunday Streets
Get your Sharpie's and spray cans ready, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) have joined forces to launch a Mobile Free Wall Activity pilot program, which debuts this Sunday at Sunday Streets in the Western Addition at the intersection of Fillmore and Turk streets.
Updated: More Banksy
Are we bored with Banksy yet? You tell us.
- Last week, the Chinatown building owners were documented tending to Banksy's doctor.
- Earlier this week,
Blek leBanksy's rat showed up on an historic wall in Alactraz, which was promptly removed by the National Park Service.
Chinatown Building Owners Lovingly Clean Banksy's Doctor
The Banksy pieces scattered throughout the city have been continually altered by other graffiti artists and taggers during the past week.
Floating Head About Town, Enjoying a Smoke
UPDATE: The artist is Hugh Leeman, and he'll be showing his work at White Walls on August 8th.
A Frightening Prospect [Poster Project] Menaces San Francisco
Oh, crap.
Kind've like a demonic mirror of Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama HOPE / PROGRESS / CHANGE images, Frightening Prospect's eeevil Sarah Palin poster is popping up around the city!
SFist Tonight
-- The 2007 'Stache Bash: The regular world now knows what bears have known for a long time: mustaches are kinda cool. This even will show you just how cool they, in fact, are. Burlesque troupe Kitty Kitty Bang Bang and DJ Ross Hogg's hip hop, dancehall, roots reggae, and dub sounds intertwine with a night of 'stache championing. Tonight's bash will feature a mustache pageant, a beer foam retention test, a mustache haiku competition, and much more. Also, some of the proceeds go to charity. The hairy festivities start tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; $10 (sliding scale).
Week Around The Ists
What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week.
Today In As The Gav Turns: Friends With (Sick Leave) Benefits
You think Gavin Newsom'll shave off all his hair next, just like rehabbing Britney Spears?
Week in -Ists
As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Superbowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning.
Happy Friday
We were playing around in our contribute section when we stumbled upon somebody who sent in a link to this video. It's so good we thought we'd give it the full SFist treatment. The YouTube clip is a great video montage featuring all the cool street art and graffiti one can find in the city, set to music.
Check it out.
Week in -Ists
As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year!
Bay Area Blog Pulse
Eric Rice posts the transcript of Lawrence Lessig's recent chat in Second Life, which could just be the most meta-geek thing ever. Niall Kennedy, Caterina Fake and Josh Kinberg build an ego-bot for bloggers, Whuffie Tracker, in just a few hours. Sex.com sells for $14 million -- after the legal fees, there might just be enough to take the family to In-N-Out. And wondered why that new Apple ad looked like an old Postal Service video? Same directors.
The Warriors: The Turning Point
We all acknowledge that as the Warriors' feel their way toward the playoffs this year, there will be some stumbles. Well, there are stumbles and then there are the kind of STUMBLES that make you realize this may have been the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
Last Wednesday against the defending NBA champeen San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors were stripped buck naked and exposed as pretenders. The Spurs absolutely had their way with the shell-shocked tribe. Can you say "low bridge"? It's pronounced Spurs 113 Warriors 89.
Three... Is The Magic Number
Even after a couple of small technical glitches delayed the Saturday night start a little bit, The San Francisco 3-Minute Film Festival still managed to go off without a hitch (which is good, because that Will Smith/Kevin James movie was terrible, and way over 3 minutes).
Interview: Bigfoot
SFist interviews San Francisco Artis Bigfoot
SFist First Thursday
Roundup of openings on the first Thursday of every month.

