Thursday, October 18, 2012

Beer on a wall

Hidden mural
London, ON
October 2012
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Take a detour off of one of London's busiest arteries and you might find yourself face-to-face with this delightful piece of urban commercialism. I'm not sure how many people get to see it, as the wall is largely hidden from a nearby parking lot and not near any remotely busy areas of vehicular or pedestrian traffic. Yet here it sits, cheek by jowl with a similarly cheeky painting of a dog and a fire hydrant (that one's coming soon.)

I like this. I like how it's deliberately tucked away, waiting to delight the few who venture here. I like how it's free of graffiti in a city that otherwise seems covered with it. I like that someone thought just enough outside the usual advertising box, and came up with something that makes you stop for a bit.

I didn't really have time to stop on this day as I walked the last couple of blocks to my car. Deadlines. Ticking clocks. Life. But I couldn't not stop, either. So while the unshaven guy wearing ripped jeans sat in his rusting, idling Escalade, door open and bad music blaring, eating what looked like a burrito, I grabbed the best angle I could because his iron beast was otherwise taking up two parking spots.

I'll have to come back to this wall soon. Who knows what I'll find when I do. Either way, I expect to be delighted, Corona Extra, Escalade, burrito and all.

Your turn: Ever find something neat in an out-of-the-way place?

2 comments:

Bernie said...

Oddly, or rightly, advertising like this (and cigarettes) is totally banned in Australia... Is this a good thing, or is this just over governance? Personally, I find it both, discriminatory for the company that can not advertise its products like many others, yet I am also grateful its not, as it can easily sway a young mind to become addicted... It is a quandary indeed...

BUT, nevertheless, it is a great hidden gem you've found!

Robert Huber said...

It's a great mural even if the content strays. The irony is that it was done using spraypaint. This is what happens when teenage vandals take their own path and become entrepreneurs.