What Happened to Wooster Collective?

During all the October Banksy madness, M&F has achieved a personal goal.  For the 1st time ever, M&F has passed Wooster Collective in online statistics. This means a lot to the folks running M&F because Wooster Collective was the original street art blog, the first one that M&F started following, and, up til recently, the biggest street art blog in the world.  The folks at M&F followed Wooster Collective for years before starting this blog.  And at the time M&F was founded, our goal was to one day 'hang' with Wooster Collective in terms of statistics.  To us, it meant that we made it.  And, M&F just passed that goal.  Boom.~

M&F is still the #1 street art blog in the USA, and now, #2 in the world. StreetArtNews now claims the top worldwide spot, and Wooster is now #3.  (click below to see the stats)

But really, this is a pyrrhic victory.  Sure, M&F caught up to Wooster, but the real question is 'What happened to Wooster Collective?'.  Like we say, Wooster used to be the biggest and definitive street art blog on the internet.  But as the street art movement has grown, Wooster has fallen off. Wooster does not post regularly anymore, and the stuff they do post is much more focused on legal public art projects and gallery bull crap, while essentially ignoring the streets.

M&F almost called Wooster out months ago when Marc Schiller, co-editor of Wooster Collective (along with his wife, Sara), posted a feature on their website entitled 'Its Been an Interesting 72 Hours. And That's Putting It Mildly'. That was in response to an earlier article on Gawker titled 'Wooster Collective Dad Currently Enjoying Cocaine and Tranvestites'.  Haha.  Yup.  As interesting as the articles might sound, M&F had a different spin on this than everyone else.  We don't care that Marc is partying with Transvestites or snorting lines of cocaine. Sounds like fun. What we do find out of line is that fact that Marc was tweeting about all of this. Dude, where's your discretion?  You run a street art blog where the many of the artists and much of the content (used to) focus on illegal activity.  C'mon, Marc.  This isn't about drugs or tranny's or questionable parenting calls in defending this behavior to your young and sick daughter. This is about discretion and knowing when to say what, bro.

How far was and is Wooster slippin'? At the time, Marc tweeted 'Tranvestites won't let me take photos of them because the drugs and I'm tweeting where we are'.  Dude. If the crazy wild drug-doing fringe characters you are hanging out with are more wary than you about posting incriminating details about what you are doing than you are, then you probably need to check yourself. If that's not bad enough, Marc goes on in his article to defend his tweeting that day, and his coke snorting by bringing up his sick young daughter. Dude. You did this for her? What!? Lay off the coke. Get a reality check.  And hopefully, remember that you run a street art blog and what that is about.  The excitement is not in the tweeting, the excitement is in the journey.  And if you are going to write about something, try to do it in a way that won't get you arrested or have your daughter asking you what cocaine is. Or what that extra part is between the legs of Daddy's new 'partners'? (oh, snap!)

Bottom line, not only were Marc's initial tweets out line, but his defense is pretty indefensible. Marc blames everyone but himself for getting in trouble. M&F lost a lot of respect for Wooster when this all went down. At the time, M&F almost wrote a feature about how this is a perfect example of how street art has grown too comfortable with social media, and eventually, someone is going to get busted for it big time. But we didn't post anything at that time, mostly because it hurt too much to write the article talkin' shit to our hero's.  M&F still wanted to believe in Wooster.~

So then Banksy announced his Better Out Than In monthlong art exhibition in New York City. The home city for Wooster. Their own backyard. With the biggest street artist in the world using the city as a canvas for a month straight. And it has been rumored for a long time that Wooster shares a special intimate relationship with Banksy. Well, alright. Sounded promising. M&F was excited to see how Wooster was going to handle the Banksy exhibit.  Right? So, what the hell happened to Wooster? Wooster has only made a handful of posts this entire month, and every single one of them is a public mural, public art project, or gallery show. Posting non-original content ranging everywhere from Madagascar to New Orleans. But no New York? and no Banksy? Not even any true street art? Out of touch, much? If the greatest street artist doing the largest ever street art event in your hometown does not motivate you to cover the scene, what could or will? What's up, Wooster? What happened?

Its sad.  M&F has now passed Wooster but we wished we hadn't.  We would gladly trade internet stats for another good street art blog to follow. Sure wish Wooster were still rockin'. As it stands, with Marc's "Because I Can" mentality towards tweeting, if you combine that with his other attitude of "Fuck It. What do we have to lose?".  Well, I'll tell you Marc. Your tweets will cost you clients and business but no one cares about that around here.  As far as the streets are concerned, if there is such a thing as street cred, whatever 'cred' Wooster had, you've now lost that.

Hope you get back on track, Wooster.  Stay up~