Two random unreleated thoughts on Anchor Blue and Exit Through the Gift Shop

[Adam Chant]

For those (of us) children of the '70's we remember our favorite casual clothing store on 20th street west and Ave J as the place to go for a pair of Levi's and an Ocean Pacific T-shirt. No not K-Mart.

Millers Outpost was a Southern California clothing chain that had a store at the intersection of 20th St West and Ave J. in Lancaster next to Vons until finally it closed in favor of the Mall Location.

In the '90's the company changed its name to Anchor Blue and in my opinion set it's date with destiny. Soon they began offering all imported (Anchor Blue) house brand clothing of casual styles and turned away the brands that had made them the mainstay of California casual fashion for the 20 previous years of business.  In June of 2009 Anchor blue filed for chapter 11, closed a number of stores and sold it's Outlet brand Levi's by Most to Levi's Inc. After a less then stellar year due to [as they put it] the continued recession and unseasonably bad weather for southern California Anchor Blue ceased corporate operations.

So what went wrong? Everything and nothing. The shopping styles of people changed, the available product options changed, the industry changed, but one thing stays the same; in California anyone can look good in a pair of Levi's and a printed T-shirt. Anchor blue became a corporation that thought they were in the business of making profits and forgot that they were in the business of making stylish fashions for casual living. Yes, yes they have stylish fashions, but they lost sight of the real product that Millers Outpost sold and that's Levi's. [Fact of the matter is I personally feel that Levi's today has lost sight of what Levi's is.] So with that the company had nothing but a false image of American style and began to follow trends instead of lead them. They provided an inferior product and inferior purchasing experience and  inferior sales numbers. It's no wonder they went out of business and it would have happened 2 years ago except someone had too much money and not enough smarts to put it out of it's misery.

 

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Friday January 14 Antelope Valley Press Showcase: Exit Through the Gift Shop

This movie premiered at Sundance January 2010 and has since gone on to be the Blair Witch Project of this decade. Some say it's the real deal and some say it's a total ruse by Banksy.

I just have to say this about it:

If you are a fan of  art, pop culture, graffiti, tagging, Andy Warhol, or like a good 'off the beaten path' comedy then this move is worth spending the 87 minutes of your life to watch.  I really enjoyed it at face value as the people in it are intriguing and very interesting to watch.

BUT wait there is more...

There is a very complex world exposed in this movie and then mixed in with serious questions about art and commercialism. What is art? Who decides what is and isn't art? Does monetary compensation for effort or just effort alone justify the title of art?

 

The bottom line is that this is culture. If you are an adult and looking at this as total crap then you are walking dead. You have lost sight of the world you live in and might as well punch the clock and drop down 6 now. Your children are probably living this night life and you don't even know it. OR thank you for waking up and seeing what is happening today on the streets and in art.. oh and by the way this movie is probably a ruse.

BUT watch it and do so with your children especially if they are young teen boys. Caution should be had as the language is of the type that your 12 year old speaks around his friends, but would never disclose to you.

 

So why is this so important to watch? well because it IS a ruse, but at the same time it IS REAL. All of our street signs around the Antelope Valley now feature 'tags' and our underpasses and [out of direct eyesight] brick walls are covered with graffiti. Some of this work is exceptional and some of it is nothing more than dog piss marking territory. Your job as a parent is to figure out what part you will play in your child's artistic future by either stifling the creativity and forcing it on to the streets or embrace it by eventually leading it into a gallery.

 

The film is so much more than graffiti and tagging, but at face value it is a valid discussion and may be a catalyst for understanding what street art and pop art are viewed as today. 

[Graphic Experience 945.1718]

Once again, everything you say is right on. And yes, I can tell you many horror stories of trying to deal with the bureaucracies in order to right some wrongs out there. We are like the "stepchild" of L.A. County, for lack of a better term, and we are always shortchanged in "services".

 I have lived in the area for 27 yearsand I still love the geography. It's the reason I moved there. I could have moved anywhere in the Antelope Valley all those years ago, but I fell in love with the views, the buttes,  the darkness at night, the stars, need I say more? 

I would love to able to return the natural surfaces to their natural surfaces!  I have to do some real climbing to get to some of the areas sometimes to do my "un-natural" cleaning ! It would be a great challenge to use real blasting systems. I wish there was an easier solution. 

[Adam Chant]

There are a few graffiti spots in Alpine Buttes near Lake LA that have been like that going on a year or more. I have reported it to both the city of Palmdale and County of L.A. and no one has actually taken care of it.

There is a $500,000 annual contract for graffiti abatement held by a company located 60 miles away that is responsible for all unincorporated parts of the Antelope Valley, but it's rare for them to even step foot in this community let alone take care of matters off the major beaten path. 

 

With some of the more specialized blasting systems and environmentally friendly cleaning agents it's 100% possible to have natural surfaces returned to their original look and feel with no signs of damage or shadows of wrong doing. 

I respect the desire to return architecture and nature back to normal with paint, but for the earth the ultimate goal is to return things back to original. We have the technology to do it, but no one has stepped up to the plate to make it happen..

I tried.. but I'm not a general contractor so starting a business that takes a proactive stance on graffiti abatement isn't something I can do. However there is no doubt that with the economy the way it is some out of work general contractor or painting contractor will see the light and start up a proactive graffiti business.

It's high time that we let commercialism seek out work instead of putting the burden of clean-up on the public and a public works employee or passive contractor sucking on the teet of L.A. County  funds.

[Graphic Experience 945.1718]

You are right on about everything !

I am a "closet" fan of Bansky, although a hater of meaningless and stupid out-right defacing graffiti.  There is now even graffiti on natural rocks and that makes me absolutely CRAZY. I actually go out with "rock-colored" spray paint cans and cover over it, making it look as natural as I can. I've gotten pretty good at it !

I had heard of Exit Through the Gift Shop and wondered about it. Now, I really want to see it.