SKELETONS

the SKELETONS played last night at eyedrum, sharing the bill strangely with APG poetry readings. everything was late, late, late, but they gave an inspirational show to about 20 people (a classic eyedrum small crowd). . .the bass player looked great in a sparkling blue dress. we partied later with naz at amy's house, nearby. . .ate sweet potato pie, talked and laughed. . .and sooner or later, the spray cans came out.

you see we live in a neighborhood being oppressed by a yuppie's version of paradise. . .we don't even have to live in a loft, to experience the stiff corporate monoculture that patrols this place, an old bohemian stomping ground. . .the professionals have become serious about graffiti. . . they removed a major landmark of public expression: the cabbagetown wall is now all one cheerful green color. this green paint has even migrated imperialistically out of the neighborhood onto walls, garbage canisters and empty buildings in adjacent areas. "a safe neighborhood is a clean neighborhood" is announced in the neghborhood newsletter. and now we live next to a 1/4-mile, green reminder of who is in control of our neighborhood. we all have to look like martha stewart's living room, or some dumbed down corpo version of it. . .ho hum.

so we went out all 6 of us, and decorated the wall in question for a while. . .diamonds & money signs. . .corpo-norm, llamas, metallica, some cool drawings. . .and then the cops came and made a big to-do of lights, arrested 3 of the skeletons randomly. . .cuffed amy and I but then let us go (?). took them to jail & fined them $753 each. it was all very sobering. we followed our friends in the paddy wagon to a gas station parking lot where they parked for a long time, laughed, bought snacks. amy got out of the cozy travel van and filmed them with her digital camera. a very fashionable, crazed black woman (brown fur coat, white plaid hoody) sent us dagger looks through the front windshield, gesticulated and argued profusely with the freezing air. her battle was perfectly juxtaposed.

they will intimidate all unofficial, unauthorized artistic expression out of this city, might as well live in a gated subdivision. (and what kind of art can be made in that environment? ) officer wolf had no humor; this is his beat. "it's his baby," another arresting officer put it. . .they also mentioned no less than 3 times that they've been furloughed (10% pay cuts). another officer, who was much more cynical and talkative at the precinct said mayor shirley franklin will do whatever it takes to be "in the black" when she leaves office. 3 x $753 ain't bad. I walked over to see the wall just an hour ago, and all the artwork was gonzo. I watched two chubby women in sweats walk away with buckets of green paint. . . .they are in control, no doubt about it. and, I am back in high school again.

what does this mean? it means we have to be a lot more stealth if we want to publish in that spot. . . .ho hum.

it also means atlanta is gonzo, before it ever fully bloomed.

-kt