I Like Graffiti

So does Marc Ecko. Big time fashion designer Ecko is coming out with a new video game centering on graffiti. Interesting. I remember the big fuss over his cancelled block party last year in NYC:

NEW YORK Last summer, the celebrated urban-wear designer Marc Ecko wanted to throw a block party to promote his new video game. The problem? "Getting Up," in stores this week, is all about graffiti.

Local pols were upset.

Peter Vallone Jr., a Queens councilman, led the outcry, asking the city to revoke the permit for a bash that would allow graffiti artists -- or "graffiti vandals," as Vallone calls them -- to strut their stuff on 48-foot-long replicas of subway cars that ran in New York in the '80s. The event, Vallone argued, would encourage vandalism. Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed, noting that "graffiti is just one of those things that destroys our quality of life." Things got ugly. The city revoked the soiree's permit; Ecko sued the city; lofty talk about censorship and freedom of expression was tossed around.

Then Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of Ecko. In his decision, Rakoff wrote: "By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder. . . . As for a street performance of 'Oedipus Rex,' don't even think about it."

And now, the game is finally coming out. I doubt I'll pick it up, but I'm happy it's going to be out there.

The full WaPo story.

Photo: Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post

And the EXIF data was left in this photo:
Nikon D2X; ISO-400; f/4; 1/50 sec; @14mm