It perhaps reflects the amount of time I spend on-line that my first reaction to this was well, at least they spelled everything correctly..jpg)
This particular specimen is located in a tunnel that goes underneath some train tracks, a block or two away from a Church of Christ in Iowa City. (It's basically right where Kirkwood Ave. bends, for those of you in town.) I think it's a not-unreasonable assumption that the author probably attends the church, but even if they don't: who proselytizes through vandalism? Could this possibly be effective? Or is it some kind of sneaky reverse-psychology anti-proselytization?
Looking back, I mainly regret not adding something to this to make it funny. Funnier. Whatever.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Iowa City Graffiti: The Only Way
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4 comments:
Perhaps they wanted to counter all of the evil, gang graffiti with some 'nice' vandalism? It's not the heat, it's the stupidity.
I like the bloodstains next to it.
Rather, I choose to believe those red smatterings are bloodstains. It gives the graffiti a bit more ominous weight, as if there would be actual repercussions if you didn't follow Jesus' one way.
Plus I think blood is funny, y'know, having grown up on violent devil-worshipping cartoons (although my apostolic mother wouldn't let me watch the Simpsons--they were a bad influence...?).
Looking at this latest picture, maybe this is an effect of an herbicide (either applied directly to the leaves, or washed into the root zone.) Some fertilizer products can include a monocot herbicide. You have yellowed, twisted new growth from a bunch of monocots that all happened at the same time. You could possibly have a growing point disintegrator at work. I also found some interesting pictures and information here:
http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/pestcrop/2009/issue11/index.html
(scroll down a bit to "Cases of Possible Chloroacetamide Injury")
And being that you are in Iowa, land of corn, here is something that is effecting corn, and might be causing the same problem in your dracaenas:
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/TwistedWhorls.html
"Wrapped & Twisted Whorls in Corn"
Some people I've talked to have vocabularies essentially limited to evangelical refrains. When all they can think, say, and do is in this vein it seems only natural to see this graffiti. Surely you've seen "Jesus Saves" scrawled in bathroom stalls?
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