Halifax’s own Classified, takes a page from City Spk in his new video, Anybody Listening? which makes use of the song title as urban typography plastered all in different spots on the streets of Toronto.

Anchorage is a place i have never been. yet. i hear it is a hopping little place with a lot of military sorts and a large asian rim type population that comes and goes quite a bit on the intercontinental stop over flights. It seems like the sort of spot to disappear to. Why play around? If you are going to go to the edge of the earth do it right.

photo by kahunna

You go there and you go away for good type of thing. Maybe this is what Michelle Shocked had in mind when she dropped this gem way back in the 80’s. It still holds its weight. And probably has the best liine of the decade. The whole thing is a letter from NYC to up there and goes — Leroy says hello…

Holy shit. How are you going to argue with that. Anchorage, Alaska — anchored down in Anchorage. That is what the song says too. On top of it all…

In the wild wild East where established brand names are benchmarks for competitions, there is no shortage of challengers, with confusing identities as seen in these pics.

Name recognition, read at your risk ;-).

No, the pics were not photoshoped.

The Bibilotheque Nationale has an extensive collection of historic imagery, including photos and postcards online. Here are a few store front type from the glory days of Montreal.

What? on the streets of Shanghai in 2009? No, we did not resurrect Andy to do a replica. This is just another mélange of art + commercialism + globalisation, as seen in a touristy area.

Quoi? On a ressuscité Andy Warhol pour peindre un portrait à nouveau de Mao à Shanghai en 2009? Non, C’est purement un autre exemple de l’art + le commerce + la mondialisation, montré ici dans un coin fréquenté par les touristes.

A little New Jersey Old Time hip hop stuff from Poor Righteous Teachers. Out of Trenton NJ, my favourite part being the bridge that says ‘Trenton makes the world takes.’ Duly noting its once glorious manufacturing history. Now it is is mostly a downtrodden rust belt town, with govnt offices (it is the state capital) that wealthy suburbanites commute into. These guys had a political angle that tried to mobilize inner city people to take back their city through self pride and self direction and control. If memory serves me correctly they were coming out of 1990. And plus the tune is just plain infectious…. makes me want to dance upon a bridge with some funny type pants on or do the electic slide a little in front of the state capital dome with a beret on. If memory also serves me correctly some guy emerged from an alley at one point when i was there to try and sell me a massachusetts drivers liscence. No thank you i said.

Voila mes amis. This is the video for 2007 Polaris Prize winning Montrealer Patrick Watson’s song the Great Escape. Like the man says — Doo do dooo da da wa (repeatx10), Bad day looking for the great escape. Words to live by i suppose by Mr. Watson…

The startling beauty of the pencil drawn animated piece is from fellow Mtl people and urban artists Alex Produkt (see photo above) and Kathleen Weldon. Doo do dooo da da wa (and again repeat 10X)

Belgian artist parra is currently showing in an exibition at the Hvw8 gallery in LA.

He makes me wish that i had a box in place of my head. And that my friends is quite

a feet… because under otherwise normal conditions i like my head just fine how it is.

Apparently, the real show around the hvw8 headquarters though is the impromtu things that appear out back in the parking lot.

Like this homeless gentleman red who displays some shocking beatboxing skills. holy kamoly!

Ca c’est la nouvelle chanson Crazy par Ghislain Poirier sur Ninja Tune. Il a été filmé dans les distriques du Plateau Montreal (check le photo en bas), Vieux Montreal et China Town. Il est un vrai home town boy lui…