The train from NJ to Washington DC is about 3 hours and the best way to do the trip is with a window seat. It’s a 200-mile mobile art show. Do you like graffiti? I do. I don’t like the act of graffiti, I like the art. Let me be clear – I think graffiti is vandalism and the people who do it are criminals who should be prosecuted. I hate that people are so disrespectful of property that is not theirs. But I can’t help but admire the creativity and colors in graffiti. I’d like to take photos of it, but I don’t tend to spend a lot of time hanging out in places with graffiti because they are a little scary. Graffiti was ‘born’ in NYC, in the subways in the 60’s. When politicians and police increased surveillance in the subways, graffiti merely moved out into the streets, albeit not in the great parts of town. Today there isn’t much that graffiti artists will not tag and the more remote or riskier the better it seems.
So, anything along the railroad tracks is fair game for tagging with colorful bubble letters. I can’t always make out the letters. I’ve studied handwriting analysis a little bit and there is a thing called the ‘Felon’s Claw.” It’s a backhanded hook on the down stroke of “G/g” letters and other letters with a lower loop. Something like 2/3 of felons in prisons have this marker in their handwriting, hence its name. And it also shows up a lot in graffiti.
I study the passing landscape on the train also looking for bodies. Somehow I’m just sure that the wooded, marshy areas along railroad tracks are the perfect place to dump a body and that I, a passenger on a train staring out a window, will be the person who sees it. When I tired of trying to find the body, I started taking photos out the window with my iPhone. I got some pretty cool ones; the trick being to aim the focus of the camera away at some distance. With all of these amusements, I was in DC in no time – some good art viewed, no bodies in the woods and a few good photos. Never did a lick of work.
So, anything along the railroad tracks is fair game for tagging with colorful bubble letters. I can’t always make out the letters. I’ve studied handwriting analysis a little bit and there is a thing called the ‘Felon’s Claw.” It’s a backhanded hook on the down stroke of “G/g” letters and other letters with a lower loop. Something like 2/3 of felons in prisons have this marker in their handwriting, hence its name. And it also shows up a lot in graffiti.
I study the passing landscape on the train also looking for bodies. Somehow I’m just sure that the wooded, marshy areas along railroad tracks are the perfect place to dump a body and that I, a passenger on a train staring out a window, will be the person who sees it. When I tired of trying to find the body, I started taking photos out the window with my iPhone. I got some pretty cool ones; the trick being to aim the focus of the camera away at some distance. With all of these amusements, I was in DC in no time – some good art viewed, no bodies in the woods and a few good photos. Never did a lick of work.