Arianna Huffington, commentator, one-time Republican and candidate for governor of California, has recruited a bevy of close friends to create an über-blog that will offer a round-the-clock commentary on our life and times. Norman Mailer, David Mamet, Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Walter Cronkite, Gwyneth Paltrow, Harold Evans and Tina Brown are just a few of the 250-plus names recruited.
While blogs were born to give a voice to the disenfranchised, www.huffingtonpost.com is somewhat different.
The writer Nora Ephron said, "The idea that one might occasionally be able to have a small thought and a place to send it, without having to write a whole essay, seems like a very good idea,"
Jakartass agrees with that sentiment, but I think the best place for fluff is in the sky. If you agree, then you could do no worse that join the Cloud Appreciation Society.
(Thanks again to J-Walk Blog.)
My friend Derek Bacon is a visual artist par excellence. I am indebted to him for the link to Pictures of Walls, although, as the author of Culture Shock - Jakarta, he should know that we had enough graffiti in Jakarta before the A-A Conference. Much of it has been scrubbed off, along with the flyers and posters advertising printers of the flyers and posters and Baby Sisters (sic).
What has intrigued me recently has been the proliferation of graffiti art in various underpasses. Given the attention to detail and that no lines are misplaced these have obviously been sponsored, presumably by the City Council whose permission had to be sought.
Jakartass is a fan of street murals.
Readers may have been a little perplexed by my one word New Year post. In the late sixties, BUTTERCUP was painted in metre-high letters on the wall which ran beside the garden of a corner house in Tufnel Park, London. I passed here on my way to work and always thought that it was a pleasant word to greet the day.
I also wonder if any of the Brian Barnes portrayals of life in Brixton and Stockwell are still in good nick? These were painted in the early eighties and I do know that the gable-sized one opposite the dole office in Coldharbour Lane survived the riots. I can't find any reference to him or them online, but I did find this fascinating photoblog by street artists.
