Mark Zuckerberg Loves Shepard Fairey

A street sticker showing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg wrapped up in an embrace with an Andy Warholified Shepard Fairey.

Guess this is like a street art valentine.

Facebook Kills Your Brain

This shooting target wheat paste has been riding on Melrose for some time.  Then, while it was on the streets someone came and wrote along the bottom 'Facebook Kills Your Brain'.

Mark Zuckerberg is a Slimeball

Well, even though there have been some shady things said about FB, Mark Zuckerberg does not have a reputation as a slimeball . . . yet.

But here is a street art piece from Thrashbird picturing Zuckerberg.  The original said 'I Own You', but at this spot the graffiti tag has been covered by a giant slime ball from Nat.  The slime is in full color and oozing all over.  Nat's slime ball was then tagged over by Gone MOCA on the streets.

On Sunset.

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is NOT on Instagram

Yesterday M&F received an email from a street artist friend who said we had just 'Insta-raped' on Instagram.  We were puzzled by what he meant, and he said "Didn't you just join Instagram?"

Nope.  MELROSEandFAIRFAX has NOT joined Instagram.

This is just another case of somebody pretending to be M&F.  Its happened before.  M&F has had numerous bogus profiles started on many social network sites, and even for a short time had an 'impostor' website trying to copy the blog itself.  The guise is generally short lived.  M&F produces such a tremendous amount of content, that even the fakers and want-to-be-players can't keep up with the real thing.

Followers of M&F will remember our post on #InstagramsSuicideNote, where we pointed out that the new terms of service on Instagram seem incredibly unfair to photographer's since Instagram now owns the rights to any photo that is published, and insidious to users in a bad way since the site plans to use your personal information, and potentially your photos, to market products to your friends and acquaintances.  Even though M&F posts a massive amount of content, and does so without watermarking photos, in our opinion there is a big difference between uploading content onto the internet that anyone can use, and a corporate business owning our photos.  That is something we are not down with, and it is unlikely that M&F will ever sign up for Instagram.   

If there is a silver lining to this story, it seems that the people who are on Instagram have been quite welcoming and happy to hear that M&F is on Instagram (Sorry guys! But thanks for the kind words! Still 'Stay Up!').  The fake 'melroseandfairfax' on Instagram seems to be paying nice with folks--at least so far.  But the motives of anyone who pretends to be someone else need to be questioned, and it is puzzling to us why anyone would want to do this?

Who knows why people pretend to be someone else?  Maybe the intent is not malicious, and maybe someone is so enamored that they just want to try and pretend to be M&F for a bit.  The profile description reads like a backhanded compliment saying that it is the 'Los Angeles premiere street art source' and encouraging folks to follow for the 'best' pics of street art in Los Angeles.  That said, however, the 7 photos they uploaded are from years ago and not a good sampling of what M&F does on the streets.   Also, we would never put an 'e' at the end of premier.  But perhaps the funniest thing to us is the location of the squiggly mark.  The fake user put it before ~Get up stay up.  This feels so strange to M&F, almost like an upside down cross is sacrilege.  The reason that we put it at the end of a statement is that it seems to carry the energy of what was said forward.  So when we write, 'Get Up, Stay Up!~', the squiggly mark implies that the thought keeps on going.  To put it before the words defeats the purpose entirely.  Don't settle for an impostor  they don't understand the nuances of the dance.  The only place to get the real deal is here, on MELROSEandFAIRFAX.~

As far as social media goes, M&F does have a passive Facebook page, and a Twitter account.  But both of those are just token accounts, and the only place to catch MELROSEandFAIRFAX is right here online.

Stay up!~

#InstagramsSuicideNote

Instagram issued brand new 'Terms of Service', and with good reason people aren't happy about what they are hearing.  The social media uproar has got so big that the move has been termed 'Instagram's Suicide Note'.

The new terms of service are indeed frightening.  The new terms state that
1.) Your Data Will Be Used for Ads
2.) Ads may not be marked clearly, which means you might not even know they are ads.
3.) Instagram can use your photos for whatever they want.
4.) If you upload any questionable content, it is your problem, not Instagrams.  In other words, if anything you upload is against the law, you can be held legally responsible.
5.) Instagram does not guarantee back-up of your photos

Perhaps these new guidelines will not dissuade a casual user.  However, there are major ramifications for the street art and graffiti community.  Photographers are having a hard time embracing a site that plans to use their content, use their name, and use their personal information without permission or compensation.  And perhaps the most frightening part in relation to graffiti and street artists is the mining GPS and meta-data of the photos you upload.  Unless you have manually turned this feature off on your phone, which most of us haven't, your phone is collecting and sending this information, and Instagram plans to use it however they see fit.

This reaches a new low for the data mining of personal information.  Just imagine a photo of your ex being used to market a new album of break-up songs.  And it gets sent to her at the same spot you broke up with her.  Or imagine Federal Agents using pictures of marijuana to press charges against people.  Have you been photographing anything illegal, lately?  Craziness.


So basically, while you still technically own your content, once you upload it onto Instagram, they can do whatever they want with it.

There is no option to opt out, so if you continue to use Instagrams, these will be the new rules to play by.

And if something goes wrong, well that is still your fault.


The masses are already clamoring for 'the next big thing', whatever that might be.   Do followers of M&F plan to continue using Instagram?

Electric Facebook

2wenty puts up an electric light version sticker of his Facebook Social Cigarettes piece.

Thrashbird Owns You

Thrashbird gets up with a Zuckerberg paster and graffiti saying 'I Own You' in Hollywood.


***Thanks to Muzzle Flash for sending in the pic!***

2wenty Back Up!

After a long absence, 2wenty is back on the streets of a Los Angeles.

A full color hand painted Facebook Social Cigarettes gets pasted at the corner of Melrose and Fairfax.

Stay up~

Get Off Facebook & Twitter, You Twit

A Day Without Facebook

The World's Richest Graffiti Artist

Zuck One (Mark Zuckerberg) Gets Up!

2wenty & Gregory Siff - Facebook: Anti-Social Cigarettes

Fuck Facebook

Hooked Up - 2wenty

Facebook - Social Cigarettes

Facebook Camouflage

20 Gets Rolled Up On

MELROSEandFAIRFAX on Forbes

Street art is really blowing up, and MELROSEandFAIRFAX just got interviewed by Forbes magazine. The Forbes magazine.

"Hey, Man! Got A Cigarette?"