Vancouver is cooler: someone is tagging "John Cusack" on its dumpsters. Why not attempt to one-up the city up north with "Crispin Glover" or "Aubrey Plaza" instead of this garbage?
http://shitbarf.blogspot.com/ ...not that that explains anything. but then tagging itself seems to be only a vestigial bit of scent marking (if i don't spray, do i exist?)
shitbarf has been going on for a while now. it's nothing new. i remember seeing my first one maybe a couple of years ago or longer. i thought it was a little funny at first. but then i saw a huge one on an apartment building on boylston this morning, and the only thing i could think is "that joke isn't funny anymore."
I love Shitbarf, but I have no small children to explain it to, so I can understand the hatred. Does anyone else remember the woodchuck chuck construction???
I like "sissies rule" as well -- and i still like the small little shitbarfs. It's the giant ones that are starting to crop up that have me bothered (like the one in the photo in the post). Ain't no need for all that.
Every so often I'm at the bus stop on the east side of 520 and see the big "FARTZ" on the back of the construction sign on the other side of the highway. It sorta makes me smile. FARTZ!!!
OP and then @13 I just had the same sequence of thoughts yesterday in the men's bathroom in Jai Thai. Then this post happens. How could that possibly be a coincidence? Answer: Because it is!
Anyway. The tagger clearly is aware of how juvenile shitbarf is. I think they enjoy the absurdity of someone spending so much time and risking so much on something so preposterous. I see it as a young artist's commentary on the effort and time people sacrifice in activities that have no value or benefit. It's a parody of religion, fashion, and other memes that humans blindly pursue, and a statement of their value.
@7 - Yeah, some chap appeared to take credit for it, but when I replied and told him it was the single worst piece of graffiti in town, he denied being the responsible party. I tend to think he is responsible, but I can't prove anything.
Anyway, yeah, I like street art a lot, but this "tag" --if you can even call it that-- is diminishing the form.
I mean seriously, total lack of artistry. It's getting any more interesting over time. It's like a 10 year old austistic tagging a new "naughty" word he learned how to spell, with some sort of OCD repetition mania. I mean, who can't spray paint words on a wall? The fact that there's no artistic improvement or variety at all I think is the worst, right after the visual blight.
Yes, this is absurdist street art, reminiscent of dadaist work such as Duchamp's "Fountain". You don't have to approve of this sloppy tag to appreciate the angsty anti-establismentarian spirit it brings to the City. In other words - Fuck you fucks for being a bunch of fucking simple minded ShitBarfs.
@7: Yeah, that's who I was talking about. You could find the link to his blog in those comments.
@39: Lol, and the pretentiously angry crusty appears. Apparently every idiot who scratches their nickname into a school desk is a great, scholarly artist.
"Shit barf is a mirror of what they see around them. Shit barf is the condo, the luxury restaurant, the mindless gentrification, development, and shitty architecture. Shit barf is the world you live in, Seattle. Sorry."
16, I dig Sissies Rule too. At some point he (?) made the leap to slap tagging with printed stickers, but what I really admire him for is his athleticism and love of nature: I found a Sissies Rule tag at the top of Mt. Si, a 6 mile trail with about 2k of elevation gain!
@2 you made that same damn joke last time shitbarf was mentioned, only you made it about fart-butt: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives…
(don't worry, I appreciated it both times)
Why do we have to solve the mystery of shitbarf? Why can't shitbarf just be shitbarf and we could be normal people and the world can just keep on turning?
When I moved away from Seattle in 2011, shitbarf was already everywhere I went. I hate shitbarf. Seeing it would put me in a bad mood until I could distract myself with something else, which would take between 5 and 30 minutes. I suppose you could argue that shitbarf jarred me out of my complacency, but it did it in a bad way. Couldn't shitbarf just break some Chase Bank windows instead? In conclusion, fuck you, shitbarf.
Feed the trolls; feed the vandals.
An asshole.
Maybe the graffiti is a statement on the loss of dignity inherent in mortality.
Anyway. The tagger clearly is aware of how juvenile shitbarf is. I think they enjoy the absurdity of someone spending so much time and risking so much on something so preposterous. I see it as a young artist's commentary on the effort and time people sacrifice in activities that have no value or benefit. It's a parody of religion, fashion, and other memes that humans blindly pursue, and a statement of their value.
Or it's some dipshit promoting a band.
Anyway, yeah, I like street art a lot, but this "tag" --if you can even call it that-- is diminishing the form.
I mean seriously, total lack of artistry. It's getting any more interesting over time. It's like a 10 year old austistic tagging a new "naughty" word he learned how to spell, with some sort of OCD repetition mania. I mean, who can't spray paint words on a wall? The fact that there's no artistic improvement or variety at all I think is the worst, right after the visual blight.
Most pansy tag ever.
Its easy to read. And I get it.
Way better than Spring Break (w/ the crude drawing of the titties)
@39: Lol, and the pretentiously angry crusty appears. Apparently every idiot who scratches their nickname into a school desk is a great, scholarly artist.
-Shitbarf
screw that, SPRING BREAK is possibly the greatest bit of ensemble art from this century.
@46
most people on this blog would continue to complain, yes.
(don't worry, I appreciated it both times)
@everyone: we did this one before
@4 Vancouver has some great taggers. John Cusack forever. Also MOHINDER and the erstwhile "i love you" tagger.
I read the headline and thought someone had come up with a new nickname for Breitbart
Peace
When you eat something, your stomach turns it into barf. Then the barf from your stomach turns into shit.
Then you shitbarf