Hot child in the city, running wild and looking pretty
I have this thing for cities. A crush....only, at this point, I'd consider it a full-blown love affair.
I love buildings. New monoliths going to toe-to-toe with classic architecture. Concrete meeting cobblestone. I love looking up and seeing birds reflected in windows. I love buses and taxes hurtling by at a breakneck pace, pausing just long enough to let out a stream of obscenities punctuated by a blaring horn.I love-love-love the smell and taste of street food. A $2 slice tastes better to me than a gourmet meal anywhere. I love the people -- multi-colored people with multi-colored lives. It's a good reminder that while we're different, we're actually more the same. Hell, I even love the way tube stations smell (although, this applies solely to the London Underground seeing as I hate the way SEPTA stations smell. Sorry, but that heady scent of urine really doesn't do it for me).
And I love street art. Everything ranging from elaborate graffiti to messages scrawled in Magic Marker to stencils and stickers.
There's something so honest and egalitarian about it. I also love the idea of opening up the entire city as your canvas. My city. My canvas. My message.
I discovered this website -- Written on the City.
Photographs of street art from all over the world -- London, Austin, Tehran, New York, Madrid. Some examples are funny, some are pithy and some are just plain stupid but I love the fact that people all over the world have something to say, something to contribute...and they do.
Check it out. Hopefully, you'll like it as much as I do. You can also check out more amazing street art on Flickr (this is one of my favorites).
Oh and things like this make me fall more and more in love with Philadelphia every day:
