Grafitti tour of London

Well today I decided to see how many pieces of work by Banksy I could find. Along the way I came across some other similar stuff, some of which I've posted here. Plenty of pics, enjoy!
(I can't be arsed putting them in order so apologies for the disjointed sequence)

Here's the first behind Waterloo station and its faded quite badly, hope they're not all like this.

This is more like it, on a road that runs under Waterloo station.

The first of the rat army found along the river behind St. Thomas hospital.

Another south bank rat army.

Around Waterloo station on a storage bin outside a newsagents.

On the south bank opposite the London Aquarium.

Under Waterloo bridge

Found at Waterloo bridge, I'm assuming the B indicates "Banksy"

Near Gabriel's Wharf

Near Blackfriars bridge, not sure its a Banksy though.

Along the South Bank

Along the river near the London Eye.

Couldn't find the one at Embankment station, did find this however.

This is perhaps too faint to see but its a series of gravestones with a war message next to Blackfriars Bridge.

Near Borough Market, stenciled but perhaps not a Banksy piece.

Somewhere in Aldgate. The bit in the bottom right is very similar to the B seen earlier.

More faded pieces near Blackfriars.

and another.

Definitely not a Banksy but amusing none the less. Near Brick Lane.

Banksy's ghost car, near Brick Lane.

I think the kid holding the rabbit is an Eine piece.

This is a Faile piece.

another Faile, most of these are in the Brick Lane area.

No idea who this belongs to.

Or this.

Headless business man on Brick Lane.

This used to say "call Banksy" but Eine has gotten to it. On Brick Lane.

Near the Brick Lane area.

This has the B symbol so assuming its Banksy again. This is on a street off Brick Lane that is covered in grafitti.

Like this one.

and this.

Even Peter Andre gets a look in.

Pretty decent Ghandi stencil, it had been used several times along this road.

Is that de Niro?

As well as the stencilled stuff there is also some more colourful pieces.

Filling up most of this bit of the wall.

This has to Banksy but I'll probably be wrong there.

Another Brick Lane piece.


Faile stencil.

Grafitti can be topical too! I like this piece.

More colourful stuff.

No idea what this is supposed to be.

Sclater street in Shoreditch is covered in this really cool stuff.




Nice comic book style to some of it.



I haven't a clue who did this.

More stencilling in shoreditch, this one in Japanese, it would appear.

I didn't get this either.

Close to Sclater street, even the road signs are open to elaboration.

More Faile comic book stuff.

This one looks like me aged 12.

Faile again?

I thought this was a Banksy piece but its MTV trying to get their ads to fit in with the area.


Bolt cutters on Commerical Road Shoreditch.

Bender! But not a Banksy!

More around Shoreditch

There were several of these around around Shoreditch and Brick Lane but this was the only one where other artists hadn't tried to paint a head on.

Around Liverpool Street station.

Quite a nice piece opposite the Foxton's in Shoreditch.

Behind Liverpool street but I suspect not a Banksy. Looks like the girl from Twin Peaks.

Faile again.

Woohoo! Classic Banksy behind Liverpool Street. It's quite faded though, but a nice find.

Nope, haven't a clue.

Someone decides to get political. I remember seeing something similar in Venice.

More around Liverpool Street station. I think this area had been chosen as part of some sort of grafitti bombing campaign as there were quite a lot of pieces dated 2006.

Now that's not very nice is it?

This is probably the same guy who did the + - piece earlier, this looks incomplete though.

If parking your bike in Hackney, do it properly or this might happen.

Faile.

I thought this was a Banksy but apparently its not. Still it is rather nice. Its close to Old Street Station.

Faile again.

The biggest Banksy piece I could find, close to Old Street station. I almost missed this one as it was hidden behind a fence. I took this pic reaching the camera over the top.

More Faile.

This is around the corner from Oscar, its celebrating some local gig that happened in 2004.

Not grafitti, just a campaign from a jealous ex. I certainly wouldn't want to cross her. This wasn't the only one of these I saw, they were in Hackney too. This one is in Hoxton Square.

Local pub finds the best way to advertise in a grafitti hit area.

Also near Oscar.

This is by El Chivo and differs from Banksy in that he uses 2 colours on his stencils. I really like this stuff. This is around Liverpool Street.

Hoxton Square, no idea who this is by though.

Another El Chivo piece in an alleyway in Shoreditch.

This is close by.

As is this, and this is a Banksy.

Not sure who did this one.

Or this, they're all in the same area though.

Can anyone tell me who this is?

Banksy is being very generous with his picnic areas, unfortunately if you followed the arrow you'd be lead to a dead end alleyway with an abandoned car in it.

Roses similar to the Foxton's piece.

A random enough quote to be Banksy but not sure it is.

This definitely isn't him, and I hope its not true!

Overly pretentious twats clearly thought up the name of this place.

Rubbish stenciling.

This is just along from the Comedy Cafe under a railway bridge.

In Shoreditch, the eyes and smile are a giveaway for Mr Scruff.

This is in the pub garden bit of the pub just along from the Comedy Cafe. I think this has been comissioned rather than done illegally. All of the walls here are covered with some really decent grafitti.


This is one piece in the garden.

And another, I'm pretty certain the HMV centrepiece is Banksy.

Another nice piece.

and this is Faile.
This is out in Hackney.

I saw a couple of these but I don't know who's responsible for them.

Hackney airs there views on The Turner Prize. Note the Mr Scruff houses below.

Another kid cuddling a rabbit, but no idea who its by.

This is in Hackney.

No idea what this is about but its in Hackney, is it someone famous?

A really nice piece in Hackney.

There were at one time loads of the parachuting rats in London but I think this was the only one I found today.

Hackney monkey.

I think there used to be a Banksy piece on this wall in Hackney but it got painted over and this guy got to it first, nice use of colour.

Definitely lock your bikes up properly in Hackney.

The third and final El Chivo piece I found today.

The piece on the left was a Banksy but has faded away to almost nothing. I like how someone has outlined it and put the RIP beside.

This is on the same wall.

On the edge of a housing estate in Hackney.

This one is close by at a newsagents down the road.

Found this one on the way up to Angel. Its opposite Shoreditch park.

Arguably Banksy's most famous piece in Hackney.

Round the back of the Greenpeace offices near Angel.

The same piece is replicated close by.

Not grafitti but made me laugh none the less.

This was in Angel and I found it whilst looking for one of Banksy's Guantanmo prisoners, which I couldn't find (I think it's been removed as its life sized)

This is near Pentonville Road and is by D-Base.

Random grafitti close by.

This is in Islington.

Another Faile.

Near Moorfields.

This is at Moorfields Eye Hospital. I guess most visitors would miss it haha!

This is outside Jamie Oliver's 15 restaurant.

This isn't grafitti but its the most colourful piece of the day.

This one and a few others are in Clerkenwell, its cool that the owners of the building have clearly repainted the building but left the rats in place.

This one is near the Barbican, not much left of this one.

Another of the Clerkenwell crew.

and another.

On the Barbican.

After these I failed to find the ones in Marylebone and Marble Arch, as had happened around the Houses of Parliament earlier in the day. I didn't find them all and might go out again, but I won't be spending all day doing it as I did today. 10 hours and 25 miles later I barely made it home and my legs are now completely shot. Hopefully they'll be OK tomorrow.

Was fun though, and I did get to see a lot of London.

This is just wrong

...yet I couldn't stop laughing when I was shown it earlier todayHeadroom advert

Banksy Map

This is my mission for this weekend, to visit as many locations in London that feature pieces of graffiti by Banksy. Well, its something to do isn't it?Banksy Map

Dirty Sanchez

I really wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to see this or not, whilst I can happily sit through Jackass, that has a charm that this does not. These guys really do push the envelope in terms of stupid stunts but there is no chemistry between the particpants or the group dynamic that the Jackass bunch have.

They've basically built a series of stunts on a world tour into a pretty ropey story around having to display the seven deadly sins following a failed stunt involving a car crashing into a caravan that leads the protagonists to hell and a meeting with the devil. But you soon forget about that.

What we have is 90 minutes of pain, vomiting, crazy stunts, one of the guys (Pancho) being picked on and tons of other boyish stuff. Whilst I could stomach most of the scenes, one involving liposuction without the anaesthetic followed by a dare game where the loser has to drink the removed fat, was a bit too much and I was close to throwing up.

Had I done so there would have been no way I could have gotten out of it as I was the only person in the cinema watching the show, an indication of how popular this film is or isn't going to be.

Fortunately we have Jackass 2 in a couple of weeks which I know I can watch and enjoy without losing the contents of my stomach........I hope.

Clerks 2

Kevin Smith finishes his series of films set in his ViewAskew universe by cashing in and producing a sequel to the film that made him famous in the first place. Clerks 2 follows Dante Hicks and Randal Graves the two shop keepers from the first film. With the first shop burnt to the ground the two find themselves working in the local burger bar in the McJob lifestyles. Dante is due to leave for a married life in Florida but is torn with his feelings as he also has something for the restaurant manager. Randal on the other hand is continuing his slacker existence winding up customers and coming up with unique theories on movies.

Whether or not Kevin did the right thing in producing this film is open to debate but at least this time he realised that the thing that made the first film funny was the behaviour and rantings of Randal, and in this film its him who takes centre stage.

We have scenes that break the record for use of the phrase "ass to mouth", and a scene involving a donkey that is very funny. But amongst all the comedy there is a story too that isn't too schmaltzy, at least not as bad as Jersey Girl or Chasing Amy.

There's a nice pop at Lord of the Rings (3 films about walking) and plenty of cameos from the people from the other movies but overall the film is forgettable and not up to the same league of the first film, at least he's closed the story now in a nice way. It will just be interesting to see whether he stays true to his promise and goes on to make films outside territory he's familiar with.

Every episode of the Simpsons

Just don't tell anyone about it!

D.O.A.

Executive 1: "I want to see chicks in bikinis fighting"
Executive 2: "and when they're not fighting they should be playing volleyball, in their bikinis"
Executive 3: "They could do everything in their bikinis, climb mountains, parachute, escape from a timed detonator"
Executive 4: "I think Eric Roberts deserves to appear on the big screen rather than on the bottom shelf of the DVD discount store, but not in a bikini"

Executive 1: "That chick from My Name is Earl is hot"
Executive 2: "But not as hot as that pop starlet that used to be in neighbours"
Executive 3: "I'm partial to that flat faced Jap chick from Sin City, we can dub her voice if need be"
Executive 4: "Can Eric fight.......please!"

and so D.O.A. was created, all very silly but entertaining none the less.

Severance

I guess it says a lot for Simon Pegg and co when any film that comes along that features British actors, comedy and horror is described as being like "Sean of the Dead". I liked that film a great deal and so am instantly sceptical when I see films described in such a way, like this one.

Set in Hungary, the film tells the story of a team from work who get lost whilst doing business and team building for the arms company that employs them. They find themselves in the woods being attacked by victims of nerve gas, made coincidentally by the company they work for. It makes a change from the monsters that we usually get in these films, no zombies this time around!

Whilst I went to the film in a sceptical mind I was pleasantly surprised, the film does have a good balance of horror and comedy; a little gorier on the former and less of the latter however. Bar a couple of scenes I didn't laugh out loud as much as I recall doing with Sean of the Dead.

There was one scene however that I thought was really well done and brilliantly balanced comedy and horror together. One of the group, the little fat geeky chap, comes across a springboard at the side of a swimming pool that you can't see for the leaves covering the area. That's the scene set, now imaging having to watch him jump up and down on the board not knowing what lies under the leaves. I found myself laughing at the stupidity of the guy but was really worried about what would happen if he fell off the board. I'm not going to spoil it here! There is also another scene with a rocket launcher which introduces a nice dose of humour following a lengthy bout of the tension and horror.

Whilst I'm not a fan of wide-boy Danny Dyer, he's really good in this. I did spend quite a bit of time trying to convince myself that the American girl was the one from Scary Movie, but it wasn't.

Definitely worth seeing and you should make the effort if it is still being shown in your area.

Crank

When I first heard of this film I thought what a great idea for a film pitch - Its the Keanu Reeve classic "Speed" but without the bus, a deadly poison instead of the bomb, and Jason Statham instead of Keanu.....and that's exactly what the film is.

With the amusing Greek name Chev Chelios, Statham plays a hitman who wakes up to find he's been poisoned in his sleep. The poison will slow down his heart until it stops and the only way he can stay alive and get his revenge is to keep his heart rate up.

So cue fights, drug taking, sex in public, more fights, crazy stunts and some more fighting and you have the film pretty much summed up in a single sentence, which makes you wonder how short the pitch lasted for it to be agreed. There is a nice bit where he overdoses on a possible remedy only to find he then has to find a way to slow his heart rate down.

If you leave the brain at home you'll enjoy this film, and it should do well with the FHM crowd. To be honest, the director does try to employ some amusing, if over the top visual tricks, the best being subtitles telling you what a chinese guy is saying but shown from the point of the view of the speaker, not the recipient. It was also interesting to see Google Earth used as an indication of Chev's travels around L.A.

I did enjoy the film and did laugh a lot and it is actually one of the better films of the many I've seen this year.

Nacho Libre

Jack Black's back in a very sweet but entertaining film from the director of Napoleon Dynamite. In fact there are parallels between the two films. Both feature anti-heroes, people who are more geek than heartthrob. In this film we have a pairing of an overweight monk and a skinny street urchin. This modern day Laurel and Hardy pair up to become a Mexican wrestling tag team in pursuit of money to feed kids at the local monastery who look forward to having a salad for lunch.

It sounds like a pretty absurd tale and it is, but the director has done a good job making it an enjoyable experience. As someone who grew up watching wrestling and accepting it for its theatrics, its good to see it on the big screen. The fights are ridiculous but not too dissimilar to the lucha libre form that comes from Mexico. There are also scenes that aren't important to the story, odd cuts of the skinny guy eating corn for example. There is also a very strange scene where he is chased by an overweight woman with a penchant for crawling through secret tunnels in her house. It makes no sense at all.

I also discovered something with the cinema I went to. The film was stopped half way through due to a fire alarm being set off and after the evac and subsequent restart we were all given a ticket for a free screening. For those with more criminal intents you could use this to your advantage and never have to pay for a cinema ticket again, until the cinema realises that is.

Cassette Generator

Cassette Generator

Just try it, it is fun!