Taipei Graffiti

BBrother got written up in the Taiwan Journal way back in May. And here it is November and I'm just getting around to seeing it and stuff. Still, this remains Taichung's best English-language graffiti blog written by someone born in New Jersey. photo by Chuang Kung-ju

Bad Blogger

There are a couple walls that I've seen in Taichung in the past two or three months that have been marvelously painted, and I do see new stuff popping up from time to time here and there. I'm running ragged 6 days a week, though, and in getting from point A to B I have no time budgeted to stop and capture what I see to share here. I have a week's holiday or two coming to me in January, I think. I'll see what I can scrape together then.

In the meantime, check out this green graffitti in Brooklyn. It's not going to grow on me anytime soon, but I'll bet it would do well here.

Hippity Hop Music

I have no idea what made me do it, but I channel surfed over to Taiwan's MTV this evening. Saw some guy with a green mohawk break dancing and felt like watching for a bit. My students like to try their moves at break time. I looked a bit closer and the studio graffiti in the background was done by Bobo and Same. There's video on the MTVchinese.com website where you can sorta see it in the background if you know what you're looking for. Hip Hop, Break Dancing, and Graffiti all represented in one neat little package. Don't make me wanna go hippity hop, but there you have it.

Noodle Noodle

The same fine folks that bring you Oldies Franks, have a noodle shop within spitting distance called Noodle Noodle. And between the two is this parking lot. Saven/Same hooked up with the guys from The Seventh Letter when they were in Taipei a while back and is now spreading their name and notoriety too.

GREAT GRAFFITI! | Signs & Posters | Funny Videos, Pictures and Jokes at JibJab

GREAT GRAFFITI! | Signs & Posters | Funny Videos, Pictures and Jokes at JibJab

Paper Factory Outside

Near that B&Q on Beitun Rd there's an abandoned newspaper factory. Apparently, there's a lot of graff inside as well. I hope to get back if it ever stops raining.

Ghost Town IV

Ghost Town III

Ghost Town II

Military Ghost Town

Saw Fast at breakfast one morning and he drew me a map to this great old public housing project which was built to house military families. The whole place is tucked into an area the size of a football field and consists of 12-15 buildings, I think. They were abandoned a little over a year ago and left quite a mess behind. Thank god for the graffiti guys to come in and spruce the place up a bit.

These are all from a neighborhood near Beitun, almost as far as Chungde, I think. I'll try to map out the site. Might not be much use, as I was crawling over the fence which surrounds this place, a neighborhood busybody informed me that they were going to be tearing the buildings down within a few weeks.

Taichung Top Center Graffiti

Ok, I finally got down to it and selected some of the best shots of what 4 Crew were up to between Christmas and Chinese New Year.
This place is an abandoned shopping center that was probably open for about a year, three or four years ago. Since I took these shots, the place has been surrounded by one of those lovely fences that seem to be everywhere.






To get inside I had to wake up a bum who was sleeping just inside of where the window had been smashed. He nodded at me and went back to sleep.

Top Center

At the corner of Wenshin Road and Taichungkang Road, next to the Mercedes/Smart dealership stands a large, vacant building that was a mini-mall as recently as, I don't know, two years ago? (Geez, there I go again, posting without checking my facts first. Sorry about that.)

And We're Back

Thanks to Fast for the heads up on three new locations around Taichung. I went for a ride yesterday afternoon to catch up on the latest from Four Crew. More photos coming up.

Graffiti Animation

Here's a cool bit of graff from Belgium. It took a long time, but the painter animated an animal running alongside a train track. Very cool.