Dude makes graffiti, gets arrested

I’ve resisted writing about Shepard Fairey because, well, everyone else already is. But you deserve a little Fairey, so click through some of the links below…

From one of the Globe’s gazillion articles on Fairey:

Artist Frank Shepard Fairey criticized Boston police today after he pleaded not guilty to graffiti-related charges, questioning the “motivation and the timing” of his arrest on Friday hours before an opening of his work at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Fairey is famous for work like this

From the Phoenix: For the past 20 years, Fairey has stickered, wheatpasted, and postered the streets of cities all over the world — and that includes his recent “bombings” in and around Cambridge and Boston. (For years, his Andre the Giant “Obey” stickers were ubiquitous.) In recent years, he’s enjoyed solo shows in international galleries, and next month, on February 6, his first museum survey, “Supply and Demand,” will open at the Institute of Contemporary Art. I chatted with him last Thursday afternoon while he and his crew were creating a large mural for an outside wall of the Boston Phoenix offices.

This

Of course, he’s most famous for this:

Give me a bike lane!

Boston Bikes Annual Summary’ brings more Mass. Ave. debate
by St. John Barned-Smith
Thursday Feb 5, 2009

Nicole Freedman, the Director of Bicycle Programs for the City of Boston, also known as Boston’s “Bike Czar,” spoke Thursday, Jan. 29 at the first “Boston Bikes Annual Summary,” held at the Copley Library.
Nicole Freedman, the Director of Bicycle Programs for the City of Boston, also known as Boston’s “Bike Czar,” spoke Thursday, Jan. 29 at the first “Boston Bikes Annual Summary,” held at the Copley Library.

When Mayor Menino started Boston Bikes a year ago, an organization created to improve the city’s cycling standing, Boston had 180 meters of bike path, and the odd bike rack. One year later, Boston has started to look – and feel – quite different for the city’s cyclists, due to the efforts of the City of Boston’s Director of Bicycle Programs Nicole Freedman, and a host of bike-friendly policies and construction.

Freedman outlined the progress the city has made in the first “Boston Bikes Annual Summary,” at a meeting at the Copley Library on Thursday, Jan. 29, hosted by Livable Streets Alliance.

According to Freedman, Boston started at the bottom – the very bottom of the bike friendly ladder – ranked as the worst city, nationally and internationally, for cycling. Freedman and Boston Bikes decided to take action.

Read the rest of the article here

Juan Tennyson

Late Hub campaigner celebrated at service

Longtime political operative Juan Tennyson, seen here in a November 2007 file photo, died Jan. 17 of cancer at age 65. (Banner file photo)

St. John Barned-Smith

Throughout his life, Juan Tennyson was famous among his friends for the artistic zeal he brought to passions like bending metal into sculpture and shooting amateur films. But it was his enthusiasm and skill for the art of politics that many members of the local political establishment mourned last Saturday, when about 300 people gathered at St. Mary of the Angels Church in Roxbury for a memorial service in Tennyson’s honor.

A native of El Progreso, Honduras, Tennyson died of cancer Jan. 17 at the age of 65.

Above all, “he always felt the underprivileged should have a voice — that’s what drove him,” said his brother, Thoney Tennyson Johnson. “He was very engaging and very high-energy, and he did the things that other people were scared to do.”

Read the rest here.

Can I not have cinnastix with that?

From the JP Gazette, apparently Domino’s is trying to make inroads into Jamaica Plain. This can only end poorly, but my fair haunt has a long and happy history of running chain stores out with a vengeance.

Is it coming to JP?

According to the Gazette, ” In 1993, the Papa Gino’s pizza chain attempted to move in to the 730 Centre St. building where JP Seafood Café and the Real Deal deli are now. The chain was driven away by threats of community boycotts and picket lines.

In 2006, the D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches chain—owned by the same company as Papa Gino’s—announced inter-est in 682 Centre St. before community outcry scared it away. The JP-based store City Feed and Supply opened there instead. ”

Good on ya’, JP.

Let it begin! Let it BEGIN!

Sam Yoon’s running for mayor of Boston. This’ll stir things up.

Great photo yanked from wicked local allston

Yoon, as you may know, has hired Joe Trippi to work on his campaign, and plans to wage an electronic insurgency much along the lines of Howard Dean and Barack Obama, come November.

Yoon’s announcement follows Kevin McCrea, who entered the race first, back on January 22nd.

Kevin McCrea has been a thorn in Mayor Menino’s side (as well as others involved in the city), and he’s sued over open meeting violations.

McCrea, Courtesy of Dorchester Reporter

Off-hand, he’s a long shot candidate, but he’s the real deal when he talks about transparency and open government.

And of course, Michael Flaherty is also running. Flaherty is one of Boston’s city councilors who’s going to jump on the transparency bandwagon, but has the millstone of interestingly enough, of one of McCrea’s lawsuits hanging around his head for holding City Council meetings in violation of open meeting laws.

Flaherty and fam

Now all we have to do is see if Menino’s going for five…

Back from the dead

Hey all, I’m back. Sorry for the long silence.