Banksy is the tits!

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006 @ 9:42 a.m.

Oh my gawd, oh my gawd, BANKSY IS IN TOWN!!!!

Yep, the same Banksy that pulled the Paris Hilton prank from my previous entry. He has a show in Los Angeles this weekend, and I went yesterday... it was simply awesome. I love his style and most of his messages. The LA show had an actual real live painted Indian elephant walking around in his (or her) enclosure as one of the exhibits!! How does one even rent an elephant??

Anyway, the elephant was in a region of the warehouse (where the show was held) that was a mocked up Victorian living room. The elephant was painted with the same motif that was on the wallpaper in that region, effectively camouflaging it. The message is supposed to be about poverty - how it's such a huge problem but we ignore it with ease. I thought it was quite a strong message. Many people, however, focused on animal cruelty issues rather than the message, which really sucks. Painting an elephant isn't cruel in my opinion - it's really not painful at all. It's not cruel as long as the paint is removed after the show, of course.

I took so many pictures, some of which I'll post later. I'm just so stoked that I was able to attend his first show in the US - he's very big in the UK (in street culture circles). Apparently he's becoming big here too. The show opened to VIP guests on Thursday evening (invite-only, of course), and among the patrons were Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Rose McGowan, and Jude Law. Apparently, Brad Pitt was on a spending spree, buying about half a million dollars' worth of paintings. By the time the show opened to the public yesterday, all but 2 of the canvases have been sold for prices around $100,000 each. Considering that Banksy is first and foremost an underground graffiti artist (read: vandal), he's making a damn good living. Nobody in the public knows who he is, but that doesn't matter - he's definitely raking in the big bucks.

I only wish I could have one of his pieces on my wall. Damn. But here's something that's sad, but funny at the same time: While I was at the show yesterday, I saw Macaulay Culkin (the boy from the Home Alone movies) in line with us 'commoners'. Apparently, he wasn't invited to the VIP pre-opening the night before, and is now officially in the ranks of us 'peasants'.

Now, that's a poignant statement about fame in Hollywood right there!

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Banksy is the tits!