Guest Blogging and Graffiti

Greetings from Kristen's blog! My name's Brandon and I've had a chance to join Kristen in some of her adventures here in New York City. Whether you're looking for tasty new snacks, good music, fun things to do, or nice spaces to relax in, it seems the city has it all and that Kristen has a terrific knack for finding them. We joked about having me guest blog about some of the things we've seen and done in NYC...it turns out she wasn't joking and now here I am!

We saw a documentary about street art called "Exit Through the Gift Shop" a little while ago, which gave an interesting backstory to graffiti here in the U.S. and other parts of the world. We later found out a "graffiti Mecca" named 5 Pointz was located right in Long Island City, and thanks to the interest sparked by the documentary, we decided to take a look around. Street art seems to have an underground culture of its own, and part of what makes 5 Pointz neat to visit is feeling like you've stepped into someplace very different. The buildings in the area are nearly covered from bottom to top (roofs included) with bold colors, designs, insignias, sayings, and cartoons that range from the cute to the quirky. And the walls are full of signatures by artists with nicknames like "Shiro," "PGC," and "Dixone" that have come from around the world to leave their marks here. The entire complex feels like a sprawling art gallery that hasn't been organized much, but it's the randomness of everything that definitely makes 5 Pointz a fun place to check out.

The view when first stepping into 5 Pointz:

Hot pink photo-op:

And a little baby blue for good measure:

one of my favorites...