Livin in LA - Vacation in Huntington Beach

As part of M&F's ongoing series 'Livin in LA - Vacation in LA'.

Huntington Beach is one of M&F's favorite cities in Southern California, and if we didn't love Hollywood, this might be where we would want to live.

According to Mapquest, the drive from Hollywood to Huntington Beach should take about an hour, but due to freeway traffic in LA, it took closer to 2 hours to drive there, and even longer to come back.  The inland section of Huntington Beach is like a giant suburb, and Beach Blvd. is filled with auto dealers and chain restaurants.  This is not the appealing part.  But the closer one drives towards the beach, the more that the city seems to take on a personality of its own.

The Huntington Beach that is next to the beach is just about perfect.  There are no costal homes or hotels along Huntington Beach because the PCH highway separates the community from the beach itself.  This seems to give the area a more public feeling than other beaches.  For visitors, you can pay for metered parking next to the beach or park a few blocks inland and hoof it like the locals, with an easy 5 minute walk to the sand.

Nearly everyone appeared young and good looking in HB.  Guess this is in large part because the pretty people of Huntington Beach are living right and taking care of their bodies.   There almost seems to be a dress code among the dudes living in Huntington Beach--and a dark t-shirt, skate shorts, and street wear hat constitues the required apparel.  As for the girls . . . well, there are more pretty girls here than any other area M&F has visited in Los Angeles.  The hottest girls look like models, and the 'average' girls are still pretty stunning.  There must be an ordinance against ugly girls in HB because there were none.

The best part about Huntington Beach is the dog beach.  Sponsered by DogBeach.org (Support!--it runs on donations), the HB dog beach stretches out for more than 2 miles north of the city.  Because there is enough space to walk and stretch out, it truly feels like a day at the beach, not at the dog park.   The dogs love the beach, and seem to respond to the off-leash freedom.  We have never seen an over-agressive dog here.  The dogs and their owners intermix peacefully with picnicking families and surfers all through the area.  Seriously, if you have a dog the HB dog park is a must visit and one of the best perks about living in LA~

The worst part about Huntington Beach is the constant presence of oil rigs.  Oil drilling was happening everywhere--next to people's houses in the neighborhoods, next to the beach, and even at huge stations planted in the middle of the ocean a few hundred yards off the coast.  It makes one wonder how healthy the environment is, even if the people who live here appear to be taking such good care of their bodies.

The street scene in Huntington Beach seems to draw a double line between stickers and graffiti.  The graffiti gets buffed right away.  Only scars of tags are left riding.  Stickers, on the other hand, do not get buffed and there are many huge combos that can be found throughout the city.  Perhaps this distinction is rooted in the fact that HB is a beach community, and therefore surf and skate stickers are inherent, which apparently makes it cool to tolerate street stickers, as well.  Thanks to a tip from CR M&F did swing by the sticker heaven that is TK Burger.  More pics of the street art from HB coming up.

The strangest thing about Huntington Beach on the day that we visited was a deep marine fog layer.  It was a gorgeous and sunny day 2 miles inland, but situated along the coast was a thick foggy marine layer that would thin out and then re-intensify as it rolled in waves.  It made for a strange day at the beach, but also led to some really great photos.   Click the jump for a super pic-heavy pictorial of M&F's vacation in Huntington Beach!

Livin' in LA-Vacation in Chatsworth

As part of M&F's ongoing feature series 'Livin' in LA - Vacation in LA'.

For being a suburb, Chatsworth is pretty fucking amazing.  Even though this is M&F's first day vacationing in LA, there was already a Happy Ending~

Chatsworth is only an hours drive North of Hollywood, but it feels like a world away.  Chatsworth is best known as the unofficial capitol of 'Porn Valley'.  It is a place that is home to mega-churches, a place where the sidewalks are designed for horses instead of pedestrians, and a place where towering natural rock formations surround the city.

The day of vacation in Chatsworth began with a beautiful hike off of Topanga Canyon Road that reminded us that nothing--not street art, and not even rocks, are forever. Followed that with a quick jaunt over to Stoney Point to get stoney amongst the rock climbers.  Then some street walking to check out the street scene.  Munched dinner at Burrito Factory (home of 52 burrito combinations).  Got happy after a Happy Ending at a local massage clinic~  And finished by shopping at the Topanga Mall--where the parking lot was used for filming for a Terminator movie (not sure which one).

As far as the street scene, there weren't a lot of big pieces so at first glance it seemed that street art and graffiti did not have a dominant presence in Chatsworth and the surrounding area.  But a closer heels-to-the-pavement inspection revealed that tags and stickers were abounding in literally every nook and corner and on the backside of every pole.  For the most part, the South Valley artists appear to fight an aggressive buff, and only the highest and difficult spots to reach keep riding.  More pics of the artists and art coming up . . .

Vacationing in Chatsworth is kind of like vacationing in the suburbs, so life wasn't geared towards tourists or getting wild like in Hollywood, but during the day spent in Chatsworth we did see some really cool stuff like a hawk on the hike, some impressive bike gymnastics, and a parrot walking with its owner that told us to 'shut up!'.

But the highlight of the day, and the ultimate tribute to Porn Valley was getting a 'full body' massage with a happy ending in Chatsworth.  This was our first time ever doing it--and goddamn!  It was everything we imagined it might be--and more. . .   All we can say is we should have done it sooner!

Dig what you are doing, Chatsworth.  The world is rubbing it out to your porn and thanks for returning the favor--Stay Up!~

(click the link below for a full pictorial look at M&F's Vacation in Chatsworth)

M&F's New Ongoing Series - Livin' in LA - Vacation in LA!

M&F loves the City of Los Angeles so much that we don't want to go anywhere else--even for vacation.

If the internet is like the streets, no one gets up more than MELROSEandFAIRFAX.  With 10+ fresh posts each day every day, M&F is the most active out of any street art blog and publishes more content than any other street art blog in the world.  (shoot, don't mean to tug our horn but this little blog publishes more articles than half the fully staffed major news networks online!).

Being so busy makes it hard to take a vacation.  But really, who needs to leave the city for a vacation when people of Los Angeles live in a general vicinity that is home to some of the hottest tourist destinations in the world?  We've got the sun.  We've got the beach.  We've got the perfect temperature year round.  LA is pretty amazing, and it seems like it would be a squandered opportunity not to experience more of it.

M&F plans to accomplish two goals at the same time and explore the beautiful little communities of Los Angeles for day-long vacations, at the same time that gather spanking new content from the streets for the blog.  We are Livin' in LA, and we are Vacationing in LA!~

The features are not meant to be taken as an official vacation guide, rather the intention is to give a real view of what it is like experiencing a day in that particular city or area from an outsider's perspective.  The aim includes not only the main streets and the generic tourist spots, but also the side routes and alley ways where the real life and real action is happening.

Of course M&F will keep bringing its viewers the hottest new street art from the busiest spots around the heart of Hollywood and Los Angeles.  This isn't meant to change anything about the way that things are run around here, and M&F will keep churning out the most, best and BIGGEST street art.  This new series will just be a sporadic feature meant to delve even deeper into this beautiful city of Los Angeles.

Stay Up, Los Angeles!~

***

Below is a list of the cities and general communities that we were thinking of exploring.  If anyone has anything to recommend to check out at any of these spots, or any new places to 'Vacation in LA' please leave a comment--we love hearing about the local secrets!

M&F'n Places to Vacation in LA
-CHATSWORTH!--(Beginning with a Happy Ending!)
-Summerland (Part 1)   (Part 2)   (Sunset in Summerland)
-Carlsbad (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)
-Huntington Beach (Part 1) & (Part 2)
-Malibu
-Long Beach (Graffiti in LBC)
-Santa Monica
-San Clemente
-Thousand Oaks
-Ventura
-Palm Springs
-Venice Beach (Part 1) (Part 2)
-Gambling Near Los Angeles (Part 1) & (Part 2)


Pretty California
-The Playboy Mansion
-California Coast 
-California Sunset's (Part 1) (Part 2*Great Shots!*)
-Kenneth Hahn Park
-Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park
-Living Like Fortune Magazine


Outside California-
Florida (Part 1)
Miami  (Part 1)

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is OG~

MELROSEandFAIRFAX is OG, and here is a sticker to prove it.  One of the original MELROSEandFAIRFAX stickers was spotted still riding on Hollywood Blvd.  This sticker dates back nearly 3 years ago.

In that time, M&F has grown to be one of the top street art blogs in the world, built a community in Los Angeles, shared LA's art with the rest of the world.

M&F is OG and the most 'street' out of any street art blogs in the the world.  Stay up!~

Everybody Wants On MELROSEandFAIRFAX

Based on hits and web traffic, MELROSEandFAIRFAX is one of the top street art blogs in the world.

And it is the only place that captures the true action of the streets with relentless postings from the biggest names in the game down to the tiny pieces in the corner from a first time artist.

Like this piece shows, everybody wants to get up on M&F!

Negative Comments on MELROSEandFAIRFAX

A new piece from Bandit, calling out M&F as the 'shit talking' celebration of street art in Los Angeles. A friend asked us if the piece bothered us, and we told them no, it doesn't bother us because it calls attention to a valid point, that there is a lot of anonymous shit talking left in the comments on the blog.  Hell, we don't like it either.

M&F's official stance is that M&F is, was, and always has been a celebration of street art in Los Angeles.  If we really like something, we say we dig it.  We can't say 'dig it!' on every post, so even if we like something, sometimes we don't say anything at all.  Likewise, if we don't like something, we don't say anything at all.  And if we really don't like something, it just won't get posted on the blog.   M&F does not post in the comment section, and our only interaction with what is said is a loose moderation of the comments that are posted.

In the old days of graffiti, shit talking was handled on the streets, and could often turn violent.  Now, in the internet age, the jousting has moved online.  A lot of graffiti websites are full of nothing but shit talking comments, and most street art sites don't present the story behind the art in a way that captures the dramatic action behind the pieces to make people want to comment.   M&F likes to try and walk the line between the two.  It is the nature of the beast, that if you are going to tell a dramatic story, you are going to have drama, but we try and not fall over the deep end with ridiculous and negative comments.

If people think that the comments that get posted can be negative, you have no idea the kind of vitriol and nasty comments that we have to wade through.  We try to keep off comments that attack the person not the art, all comments that snitch on identities, comments that needlessly talk shit on an unrelated artist on another artist's feature, and comments that amount to nothing more than pure dickishness.

At its worst, negative comments can make it feel like somethings is being unfairly criticized.  Much of the time when someone leaves a negative comment, someone else will stand up for the insulted person and leave a positive comment in return, helping balance things out.  If the comment offers a rational for the criticism, we usually will post that comments, even if they are negative.  Graffiti artists often use the term 'toy' to talk down to others in a way that makes them want to step up their art game.  At best, the negative comments serve as feedback on what you are doing, and possibly, how to improve and do something better.  M&F has tried to listen to the comments on the blog, and grow from the feedback--even the negative feedback, that we get.  Like this.

We have had suggestions to do things like make people log into a social network account to leave a comment.  That is a good suggestion, but we feel that Facebook already has its own comment section.     There are a couple of artists who have requested that we don't publish any negative comments, and we try to respect that.  If you are an artist and feel this way, just send us an email and let us know.  Most artists just appreciate the good comments and shrug off the bad.

Bandit's piece takes aim at the Hipsters, sitting on their 'Hipster Thrones' writing anonymous comments online.  But street art is a jealous genre, and from our experience, the most negative comments happen between artists shit talking to each other. . .

Anonymous online shit talking is not just on street art blogs, it is the nature of the internet.  Its the 'crowds' that bring the negativity and shit talking. There are a lot of people who consistently leave positive comments, and we really appreciate those folks for supporting the scene.  If you don't like the negativity, try leaving a positive comment once in awhile.

Stay up~

Street Art is a Love Affair with the City

As a preamble, M&F has begun writing some 'big picture' essays--not capturing what is happening at a certain moment like we do with the blog posts, but keying in on the larger themes that contribute to and form the Street Art genre. Not pic heavy, word heavy, but loaded with themes that followers of street art will appreciate.  Originally written for and published on the Huffington Post~

Street Art is a Love Affair with the City

Based on the amount of attention it gets, there are a lot of people in love with the city of Los Angeles~

Street art, when done correctly, is a love affair with the city.  Most people who live in any city utilize the city for what it offers.  That is, they go to sleep in their home, they drive the roads to work, they visit friends and engage in all the activities of their life within the physical boundaries of a city, and one might expect a certain environmental climate or what have you, but in general, with most people, there is no interaction with the city itself. 

The process of getting up is a hands on endeavor.   For a true street artist, getting up requires a relationship with the city, something akin to a relationship with a person you love.  The more you love your city, the better you know it.  Knowing the intimate details of the city enables the artist to find the cuts and spots to place art where both the art, and the urban environment, will shine.  

Much of the time, street art is applied during stealth missions during the dead of night.  At these times, the artist is alone with the city.  The artist is not on his way somewhere, or doing something else. There is no extraneous agenda.  Just the artist and the city, in its raw essence.

Being alone with the city is a truly different experience.  At night, the city is changed.  You begin to see the city itself on a primal level.  You hear its pulse in the buzz of street lights.  You feel its heartbeat radiate from the open pavement.  You see a coyote on Beverly Boulevard and become aware that the city has a life of its own.

It might sound romanticized, but anyone who has walked alone in the wee hours of the night can understand what a powerfully different experience the exposed environment really is.  Night time feels dangerous.  It is dangerous.  Yet street artists are venturing out into the night, visiting the dark corners of the city and scaling high walls.  They are risking physical harm, violence, and getting arrested.  Most seasoned street artists have experienced some or all of the problems above jeopardizing their own life, limbs and liberty.  Still they do it  Just to share their art with the city. True love happens when you desire to share your passions with the object of your attention.  Like Romeo scaling a wall to be with his Juliet, getting up is nothing short of an act of love.

Look at the streets.  They are full with love letters.  Based on the amount of attention it receives, apparently there are a lot of people in love with LA.

Stay Up, Los Angeles~

M&F - 10,000 Posts . . . and Counting!

M&F just passed a huge milestone, and the blog just published our 10,000 post.

We are extremely proud of what the blog has accomplished through these 10,000 posts.  M&F has thrust the local street art in Los Angeles onto the international scene, and introduced the names of LA's own artists which now ring out all over the globe.  Based on hits and web traffic, M&F has grown to be one of the top street art blogs in the world, which is particularly impressive considering our hyper-local focus.

M&F takes a lot of pride on being the streetest of any street blogs anywhere.  There are plenty of other street art blogs that just focus on one city, and there are many more LA based street art sites.  None have achieved anything near the level of success as M&F.  The reason for our success is that we set out to do something different when the blog started.  We have stayed true to the streets.  Instead of just presenting the prettiest murals by the biggest artists, we aimed to capture the conversation that is happening on the streets everyday.  We follow the action, update the changes, and frame the discussion.  M&F has succeeded in bringing the story behind the art along with the pictures, and that narrative has been the true catalyst for the blog's success.

Why do people keep coming back?  M&F captures the streets and our posting is relentless.  Over 2+ years of 10+ posts per day without missing a single day.  That is dedication. M&F is the place where people go to find out about what is happening on LA's streets, and some have even dubbed M&F the Bible of LA Street Art.

We have still not gotten paid a cent for our efforts on the blog.  Opportunities have arisen but we have not chosen to go down that path.  We take a lot of pride running this blog like a work of art, and independent might mean poor, but it also means that the voice is not compromised.   When the situation is right we do plan to make money, but our goal is not to be Complex or Juxtapoz.  Our goal is to be mother fucking MELROSEandFAIRFAX.  We plan to keep curating LA's streets and documenting one of the most active cities during the growth of the largest art movement in the world.

Thank You to all the supporters on the blog.  Thank You to all the friends we have met.  And most of all, Thank You to all the artists getting up in Los Angeles.

Stay up!~

Hooked Up - Teacher

One of our most cherished hook ups ever!

The 3 Generations of Street Art - Pioneers, Soldiers and Fame Bangers

As a preamble, M&F has begun writing some 'big picture' essays--not capturing what is happening at a certain moment like we do with the blog posts, but keying in on the larger themes that contribute to and form the Street Art genre. Not pic heavy, word heavy, but loaded with themes that followers of street art will appreciate.  Originally written for and published on the Huffington Post~

The 3 Generations of Street Art - The Pioneers, the Soldiers, and the Fame Bangers

Some people say that graffiti dates back to cave men writing on walls in prehistoric times.  Indeed, man's desire to create art with the surroundings seems inherent.  And while this desire has never diminished, the ability to express one's self has grown far beyond simple scrawling on walls, so much so that currently, the Street Art genre is the largest art movement in the history of the world.   It is an active genre that it is still developing, and at this stage in time the modern Street Art movement has witnessed 3 distinct generations of artists - the Pioneers, the Soldiers and the Fame Bangers.  

The Pioneers weren't the first ones on the streets, they were the first to utilize the streets for art in a way that has formed the modern movement.  Forefathers of street art, artists like Blek le Rat, Banksy, and Shepard Fairey differentiated from the letter based, aerosol tenements of graffiti.  Instead of relying solely on spray paint, the early street artists utilized many different mediums like stencils, wheat paste, and installations.  The Pioneer's methods can be accredited with intensifying the interaction between street art and the public by engaging people in entirely new ways with site specific pieces.  The message was different than graffiti, where instead of just writing a name, which is noble vandalism in its own right and rooted in human's primal desire to mark one's habitat, street art served to, at its best, interact with the environment, and the public, through the art, on a whole new level.  The mediums employed by the street art Pioneers have become the foundation of modern street art.  

The 2nd generation of street artists was made up of Soldiers.  For these artists, being on the streets was a battle.   Soldiers learned from the Pioneers and combined the new street art mediums with ideals rooted in graffiti.  The plan of attack was to build power through repetition of images.  It was about one artist going out alone, getting up as much as possible, and it was serious business.  Most Soldiers developed their own unique aesthetic, and even if there was a new piece by a particular artist, it would be clear whose work it was due to the distinct and individual style.  Like graffiti, the Soldiers' art thrived in back alley ways and derelict spots.  The goal was to interact with the city, and it did not matter how many people saw it.  Very anti-advertising, the second generation was characterized by billboard takeovers and advertisement interruptions.   Soldiers expected to put in years of work on the streets before ever being invited into a gallery.  The second generation is when street art was punk, and some of the punk Soldiers who got up during this time in Los Angeles include Skullphone, Smog City, Euthanasia, Shark Toof, Cat Cult, and Seizer.

Street art continued to rise in popularity, so much so that the third generation of street artists seemed to be drawn more to the popularity and marketing potential street art had to offer, rather than the streets themselves.   Many were inspired by the street art documentary film, 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' and took to the streets after witnessing how the protagonist, Mr. Brainwash, a camera man first and a horrible editor at that, how he then transformed into a street artist, and subsequently became one of the most vaunted artists in the world.  The road to glory seemed so easy.  It seemed like the streets and a few iconic pop art images were the only ingredients it took in the recipe to become famous.  A groundswell of fresh artists became motivated by the this appeal.  The third generation of street artists is the Fame Bangers.  Simply put, Fame Bangers want the fame.

Fame Bangers get up in high profile spots, and want pictures of themselves doing it.  Pieces are always on the electrical boxes on the main streets, and never in the alley ways.  Fame Bangers don't have the same appreciation for the urban landscape, and don't understand the rules of the streets as the previous generations of street artists.  That is, they don't understand how and why things go where they do, when they get up.  These are the artists who place pieces the middle of a mural or on the front window of a business.  And then they email a pic to the blogs to post.  Anonymity is a game for the third generation of street artists, but it is not paramount and some even use their actual name for their street art.  Quantity trumped quality, and during the 3rd generation of street art, the streets were thick with more people getting up than ever before.  Unlike the Pioneers and Soldiers, Fame Bangers travel in groups, mobbing with amped up energy, thus earning the 'Bangers' part of their title.   Like MBW, Fame Bangers rely heavily on iconic Pop Art concepts much more often than creating their own imagery.  They also don't fight aggressively against advertising.  Fame Bangers don't even hate it.  This was a generation raised with branding, and some even like advertising and identify with it, viewing their art as an extension of that mind set.   The goal for most Fame Bangers is to make it into a gallery, and the artists that could scamper into galleries left the streets behind.  The third generation of street artists seems to be slowing to a sputtering end after the wave of Fame Bangers came through, and yet no Fame Bangers have became famous.  

Critics might now bemoan that the art is not as pure as it once was, but the third generation of street art did succeed in bringing the genre mainstream success.  There has been a swing in the pendulum, and for the first time, the general public has embraced street art as something beyond mere vandalism.   More pieces get protected, mainstream newspapers have begun to campaign against harsh punishments for street artists who have been arrested, and in a move to encourage more public art, the city of Los Angeles became motivated to revamp its mural regulations.  It seems like society as a whole has begun to appreciate street art as the art that it is, and realize that a city looks better because of it.  Humans will always have the urge to put art in their environment, and these early generations of artists are still composing the formative stages of the biggest art movement in the history of the world.  The streets feel more open than ever.  Perhaps the current climate and the 'welcoming' nature of the streets have set the stage for the upcoming fourth generation of street artists . . .

Stay up~

Hooked Up - D9 Reserve

MELROSEandFAIRFAX Passes 1.5 Million Hits!!!

M&F - the streetest of any street blog in the world~

Teach Comboes

MELROSEandFAIRFAX for Global Graffiti Magazine

Street Art vs. Graffiti in Los Angeles~

MELROSEandFAIRFAX - 1,291,559 Hits in 2011

. . . and counting!

Stop SOPA!

MF'n Street Artist of 2011

MelroseandFairfax's Top Street Artist for 2011~

MF'n Sticker Artist of 2011

MelroseandFairfax's Top Sticker Artist for 2011~

Top 10 Street Art Stories of 2011

MELROSEandFAIRFAX Gets Burned!

The Hollywood arsonist hits close to home!