Remember a post a few days ago, when I was talking about my hometown and my current town? Turns out you can take the girl out of NYC, but NYC will never be far behind.
Backstory: In the 80's, I was in high school, my brother John was a graffiti artist. My dad's apartment was where all my brother's friends would come and get high and hang out before they all went out "bombing". John's closet door was covered with spray paint and tags (Graffiti names), as was his loft bed.
One of the names in John's room was by a guy who was famous in the graffiti world. His name was Jon, and his tag was JonOne. He ran with the 156 All Stars crew, of West 156th St. in Manhattan. I met him a couple of times. He didn't hang out too much; he was older than the rest of us, and seemed like he had a lot going on.
Fast forward to last week. I was at an apartment in Brookline, coincidentally across the street from my workplace. I was there to meet a cat who I would be cat sitting while his family went to Europe for a week.
The "dad" and I went through an alleyway so he could show me where to dispose of trash. The alleyway was covered with graffiti. It was remarkable, first because it was graffiti in Brookline, but also because it was good graffiti in Brookline. Being one who is interested in graffiti because of my brother, I stopped to look at it closely. What I saw made me stop in my tracks. After chuckling at the images of cartoon characters Ren and Stimpy, I saw 156 All Stars at the bottom of the mural. "No way!" I exclaimed. I looked to the right, and there it was, JonOne, the one and only.
What in the world was JonOne doing in Brookline, Mass., population 57,000? When had he been there? Where did he go? I may never find out, but I am somehow comforted by a piece of my past, here in my present.
1 comment:
The first thing I saw when the photo, before I READ anything, was BJ!
How cool. Very cool post. Small world!
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