Customer Reviews

Free Agents: A History of Washington, D.C. Graffiti

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Gastman has compiled a truly unique collection here. Any reader will be pulled in bythe graff artists' stories, but writers themselves will cheer that they finally have some 'permanent' documentation of their own in "Free Agents." It shows that it was a labor of love.

...there was Go Go.

A preface: as "A Reader" so bluntly pointed out, street art and graffiti in particular are not well received by the general public. It's simply ignorant to equate graffiti taggers with "muggers" because in no way shape or form is an inanimate object like a wall the equivalent of a human being. "By all means buy this book if you want to glorify the meaningless of talent wasted by tag". It's all subjective. If you're the type of person who is interested in geographical currents in street art then buy this book.

The unsung heroes of DC's graffiti scene of old get a little less ephemeral treatment. Essentially - if you're on this page reading these words, then you probably have already made up your mind.

Having suffered at the visual diarrhea that these low-level criminals and thugs threw up throughout my city, I checked it out at a bookstore. Yes, you see advertisements that were merely written on (web surfers should check out the excerpt page on "Seven" who defaced an add- how bland and unoriginal and flat out borrrring!), you see beautiful buildings, offices and homes turned ugly and you see pictures of a bunch of... who could have been artists but instead were the pettiest of petty criminals.

By all means buy this book if you want to glorify the meaningless of talent wasted by tag...-- me? I'm waiting on a study of muggers as "class warriors." Only the most hardened city-hating suburban fool could enjoy this. Buy a book on architecture instead and see real beauty before the dummies drew all over it.