This book is simply a compilation of graffiti which
I have found witty,
humorous, inspiring, serious, or just plain ridiculous.
This collection
has been developed from a notebook of graffiti I have
been keeping
for some time. I first started collecting graffiti for
a book I was
writing on creativity. With all the barriers to
creativity in our
society, many people find that the only place they get
to be creative
is in writing graffiti anonymously on some wall in an
alley or in
the washroom. To show how a lot of graffiti is very
creative, I first
included four pages of it in my book
The Joy of Thinking
Big.
Graffiti is Italian for scratchings. Evidence of
graffiti or scratchings
goes as far back as the early Roman and Greek times.
Modern graffiti
can take many forms and offers some interesting social
insights. In
April 1997 as the trial began in Denver for Timothy J.
McVeigh's alleged
role in the Oklahoma bombing, written on the side of a
truck in Denver
were the words: @#*% THE TRIAL FOR McVEIGH. LET US HAVE
HIM! The graffiti
about McVeigh I can easily comprehend.
I can't figure out a lot of the graffiti, however.
For example,
on the side of a building on the trendiest street in my
home town
of Edmonton "DE-ELECT THE JUG-EARED BAFFOON" is written
in bold letters
(I suspect this is directed at the mayor of our city or
the premier
of our province). Then there is the famous slogan found
at Nantence
in Paris in 1968: "Je suis Marxiste - tendance Grocho."
I had seen
this graffito in several books and had a pretty good
idea of what
it means. It wasn't until I was working on this book
that I learned
from a new source that it actually means "I am
Marxist of the Groucho
tendency."
One of the interesting aspects of any graffito is
who wrote it and
why. Who are these unknown wise people who have written
the graffiti?
It goes without saying that some of the graffiti is not
original.
It has appeared as graffiti somewhere else and the
graffiti writer
has rewritten it in a new place. It may be an original
or modified
quotation from an obscure or famous author from whom
the graffiti
writer has borrowed. For example, "It's alright
MA I'm only bleedin'"
is written on the side of a building on Spadina Avenue
in Toronto.
I believe that this is a passage from a song either by
Bob Dylan or
John Lennon. Many of the graffiti scribblers seem to be
in tune with
the French proverb which says: "If they haven't heard
of it before,
it's original."
No attempt has been made to cite the places where
the graffiti in
this book was first spotted. Some graffiti I have
personally seen
on buildings and in washroom walls. Other graffiti I
have seen on
walls as well as in one book or even several. It would
be too difficult
or impossible to determine the first place where many
of the items
first appeared.
A number of people have contributed graffiti which
they had at some
time spotted and found humorous or interesting. A few
of the items
people have remembered and reconstructed from over
twenty years ago.
Many items come from the recent past. My contributors
have been both
men and women. To differentiate the contents somewhat,
I have put
it into six categories: general graffiti, graffiti
found in women's
washrooms, graffiti found in men's washrooms, graffiti
related to
the workplace, graffiti related to universities and
colleges, and
the gems. The gems are my favorites.
Do I write graffiti? Yes, as a matter of fact about
100 of the over
800 items in this book are my originals which I have
written here
and there over the years. For example, in 1997, I wrote
"I Just Want
To Be Me - Signed Anonymous" in the men's washroom of
the Bistro Praha
Restaurant in my home town. A month later, I checked to
see if it
was still there. It was - someone had added "Sammy
Davis Jr.?" After
revealing this here, I hope the owner of one of my
favorite restaurants
allows me back.
What is the purpose of this book? I have subtitled
this book Graffiti
for the Soul because I believe that
humor is important for the soul.
The majority of the graffiti in this book is chosen
because of its
wit or humor. Some items may also have an inspiring or
serious message.
I hope that in some special way this book entertains
you. In fact,
I hope it motivates you to respond by sending me the
most humorous,
ridiculous, or inspiring piece of graffito you have
ever read. My
address is at the back of the book.
