This guy Banksy totally cracks me up.
Here is a link to some BBC News articles about his various pranks.
But today I read that he’s tampered with many copies of Paris Hilton’s latest CD … which made me go – WTF? How on earth can this woman be parodied? How can you parody someone who is already a total parody of herself and all she pathetically represents? And then by turning herself into a singing joke of her own free will it seems she had already beaten Banksy to it …
casa azahar 
Turning Rebellion Into Funny Money
LikeLike
😯 spooky!
LikeLike
Plagiarising me again, az? 😉 http://bonoboworld.blogspot.com/2006/08/stuff-ting.html (see end of post).
LikeLike
The other stuff of his I like is the blue and white tape he strings up in London, saying “Polite Line: Do Not Get Cross”
LikeLike
I reckon that Darren guy is plagiarising both of us, Edward 😉
Seriously though, that was quite spooky how Darren (whom I’ve never met) and I ended up writing almost the exact same post and even using the same links.
LikeLike
His blog looks damned good, though – especially on the current self-destruction of the SSP.
LikeLike
Has anyone clicked on the wee film in Darren’s latest post?
My son and I have just been rolling around the floor howling with laughter.
Warning – it’s extremely rude, extremely funny – and sub-titles may be required for anyone who doesn’t come from the Weeg (Glasgow)
LikeLike
Quick word.
No plagiarising on my part. If you check Technorati, you’ll see that about 500 bloggers had the same idea to blog about Banksy versus Paris, and part of the reason I found your blog was because my sitemeter indicated that someone had visited my blog via technorati, and being a shameless self-promoter, I thought I would take the time to plug the blog onto other like-minded souls, whilst also bitching once again on the lost opportunity we – the political party I’m a member of – had in getting Banksy to do a mural for the outside of our Party Offices. (I moan about it at length here.
all the best,
Darren
LikeLike
Excellent! 😀
LikeLike
Hi Darren,
For some reason your comment (number 8 ) got stuck in SPAM – just found it there now and de-spammed it. So should maybe explain that my comment 9 is a reply to Teuchter’s comment 7, though it also works as a reply to yours. 🙂
It’s always nice meeting new like-minded souls and it seems everyone posting (or lurking?) here has enjoyed having a look at your blog. So thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again.
LikeLike
ps
I don’t know what Technorati is …
LikeLike
You’ll be interested to know that Paris was arrested for ‘suspected’ drunk driving Wednesday night, here in La-La land — in typical LA fashion, it was on one of those lighted message boards on a major throughfare (Sunset Blvd, I think..) 😕
LikeLike
Gaaaa, that woman is such an asshole.
Darren’s subsequent posts about this showed that she was just totally loving the extra free publicity … 🙄
LikeLike
More Banksy 🙂 🙂 🙂
LikeLike
Wonderful! 🙂
I wonder how he gets away with it? Both physically and legally.
LikeLike
From that link, “Banksy is due to hold what is billed as a “three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza” in Los Angeles this weekend. ”
He’s already getting warmed up. A shopkeeper on tres trenoid Melrose Ave. found a stenciled rat this morning on the side of his store. I *think* the warehouse mentioned above is in Santa Monica, don’t know for sure.
LikeLike
I can not think how he got that figure into Disneyland!! He had to have had help form inside — their security is notorious, as I had reason to find out, back in my younger days.
LikeLike
According to his site, he’s been known to climb in after hours.
LikeLike
Disneyland never sleeps when it comes to security, Edward. They’ve had people sneak in and do pranks before — about 15 years ago, it was moving some of the figures around in the “Pirate of the Caribbean” ride. Of course, they look pretty chaotic to begin with, so how they knew, I have no idea.
LikeLike
Hmmm…don’t like the painted elephant.
Banksy Hits LA
LikeLike
Reminds me of the time Dad wrote on the cat. We thought he was just being drunk and silly, but obviously it was Art and we didn’t realise. *sigh*
LikeLike
Now Hollywood Loves Him
Sad, innit? But I guess all good things come to an end sooner or later…
LikeLike
y’know, considering the brazeness of the taggers in this town, I wonder how Banksy will take to having his art tagged over? Tell him to watch out if it’s crossed out… 😕
LikeLike
Hmmm… this guy is getting less and less interesting all the time.
LikeLike
And not even original…
How cheezy of him.
LikeLike
I dunno though. Is it really that wrong for him to try to make some money for himself – particularly when what he is selling is so obviously cheezy? We don’t normally begrudge talented people from earning a good bit of money, and we don’t usually complain about ourselves getting adequately compensated for our efforts, so why do we make an exception here?
(Ok – when totally *untalented* people make enormous amounts of money, there’s a distinction to be made, I’ll grant that).
LikeLike
I think it’s the cheezy ‘sell-out’ quality that disappoints, rather than the fact that he’s trying to make some money for himself. The ‘rebel’ going mainstream.
Meanwhile, untalented people make enormous amounts of money because there are a lot of people out there with questionable taste who will pay for/buy that crap.
Anyhow, I’ve always thought the Art World was just as silly as the Fashion Industry. Though again, if people weren’t such sheep they wouldn’t be able to get away with a lot of their nonsense. So in the end, it’s the consumer’s ‘fault’ that there is so much garbage out there.
LikeLike
I’m not specifically trying to anticipate Banksy’s motivation, but if he thought he might make a few bob from rich people who thought that anything he produces is a work of genius, even if it only took him a couple of minutes of his time to do it, is that really a sell-out? I can see some irony in that.
Or is it a sell-out for someone to say “fuck it, lots of people here making cash from my work, why not get in on the action”? I’m not sure if I accept a purist view of art or artists. We don’t accept it in other walks of life.
LikeLike
I can see the possible irony as well, hence my comment 27. But as you say, we cannot anticipate Banksky’s motivation. It might be ironic, it might be that he’s changed tactics and is no longer being as original as he used to be.
I also thought I was clear in that I also don’t accept a purist view of art or artists (quite the opposite in fact).
My comment 24 simply stated that, as a result of these new ‘Andy rip off’ paintings, his stuff is becoming less interesting to me. I also didn’t like the painted elephant.
LikeLike
You know what I think about elephants – especially the ones who think they can make their home in the living room..
I was listening to an interesting conversation on graffiti artists on the radio last night. What’s intrigued me is the seeming absence of copycat Banksy wannabees – or maybe I haven’t been looking around enough.
LikeLike
No, I haven’t seen Banksy copycats either.
For me the most amazing graffiti artist of all time is Keith Haring. During a ‘visit’ to Toronto a few years ago I saw a wonderful exhibit of his stuff at the AGI. Including a video of him painting one of the massive murals on display – which he painted with it being on the floor. It was flawless, and the speed and never-erring precision of his execution was quite breath-taking to behold.
I remember thinking at the time that it was almost like he knew he didn’t have much time left, so he painted like a demon, with some special ‘force’ backing him up.
I also like some of Basquiat’s graffiti stuff.
But up until now, Bansky has mostly been known for his ‘pranks’. I really have no idea if he’s a decent artist or not.
LikeLike
My comment about the “cheezy” aspect was relating to the fact that he did that copycat Warhol portrait. NOT an original, which disappoints me…
After all, Warhol did the famous Marilyn portrait as a tongue in cheek comment on the art world. Spoofing a spoof? Not priceless…
LikeLike