After you’ve spent a couple hours fighting for a crowded glimpse of 11 Spring Street, you might wander up to Houston and Bowery to see this Jace mural. Since Jace went over the nice illegal pieces they had running, TABOO and HOST18 took the spot back with a couple tags. A bunch of the artists putting up work in the building have been putting up work on the street too.

Artwork by Grayson Revoir.

Artwork by Willis Elkins and Claire Hansen.

Stranger Drawings went up last night, and came down as strangers were introduced to artists and took the works home.

Continue reading: Photos from Stranger Drawings

Street artist, Brad Downey hit the streets yesterday with a couple brand new sculptures. Thanks to Tod Seelie for sharing the photos and a harrowing moment while riding along for the installation.

Things got off to a rocky start when the first piece (a three-headed phone sign) bounced out of the back of the truck in the middle of the Pulaski Bridge. Luckily the car behind us was able to swerve out of the way in time (some true knucklehead business).

The pieces are up, so check them out yourself. Tod provides the exact locations in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens.

Stranger Drawings, in which strangers submit portraits to be rendered by strangers, is opening tomorrow, for one night only, at Cooper Union’s Great Hall Gallery. If you sent in a self-portrait to be drawn, come and meet the stranger who drew you. If you didn’t send in a self-portrait to be drawn, come and get out of your cave.

December 12, 2006 6-8PM
The Great Hall Gallery, Basement Level
Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street

Leave it to Uncle Murda to make Papoose’s 50 Shots look tame. Even with Hot 97’s Kay Slay telling people to license their guns, and the Charles Barron mention, Papoose’s track still didn’t advocate violent retaliation for the NYPD’s 50 shot killing of Sean Bell. In response to Papoose’s song, a commenter wrote:

To the Rapper, sing all the song you want to sing, but make sure your song are about moving to a better place, a place where you can make your life and community a stable, positive place to live and grow.

With insane lyrics on “I Shot the Sheriff” like “I hate the police that’s why I say it so much. I want to throw a bomb in the precinct and blaze them up,” it’s apparent Uncle Murda didn’t get that memo.

Related: The NY Times summarizes the NYPD’s report on the Sean Bell shooting.

Greasy, trashy rockers rejoice! Finally, a magazine without an ounce of class: Friday night is the premiere party for the new Brooklyn-based mag TRASHED!, a quarterly for “folks that like rock n’ roll, alternative comics and fringe culture.” The Cake Shop at 152 Ludlow St. plays host to the premiere festivities, with bands all night and DJ Nick Gazin (aka editor-in-chief) spinning (you guessed it) trashy RNR. Produced by Lo-Fi Entertainment and catering to a demographic of young NYC weirdos, punks and derelicts. Show up Friday and get issue #1, which includes a 19-song sampler, for free.

With the cold weather only getting colder, this is as close as you’ll get to riding your bike through a field of wildflowers. Just remember to slow down before you hit the strip of ice at the bottom of the bridge.

Whether by crash, arson or design, cars catch fire and there’s not a single clean burning one among them. Last year, nearly 9,000 cars were burned during seventeen days of civil unrest in France. How were so many cars burned? Slate offers a tip:

The easiest way to torch a car would be to crack open a window, douse the interior with lighter fluid, and toss in a match. If the windows aren’t open or smashed, a car fire will burn itself out for lack of oxygen. (The heat, soot, and smoke from one of these contained fires will often total a car all the same.)

These photos were taken over the last few months in Brooklyn and Queens (many around the time of the B train fire on the Manhattan Bridge)

Continue reading: Burned Out Cars of New York