Results tagged “marcecko”

Isn't the Internet wonderful? It lets baseball fans vote in an All-Star game player and now it lets people around the world decide what to do with a historic ball. After purchasing the ball that Barry Bonds hit to break baseball's all-time home run record, fashion designer Marc Ecko has decided to give the public a vote on what to do with the ball. On the website Vote756.com, Ecko gives voters three choices, "Bestow it. Brand it. Banish it." That's bestow it to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk and then send it to Cooperstown, and banish it to space via rocket.

As part of Adidas's new spring line of End to End sneakers for Foot Locker, the German shoe manufacturer has created an EndtoEnd Project exhibit in an empty lot on Lafayette and Houston. Adidas had different graffiti artists create designs for shoes in an East London warehouse, so in bringing the finished shoes to the states, Adidas has the artists tagging a replica of a NYC subway car!

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that allows people between 18 and 21 years to buy spray paint and broad-tipped markers. Yes, the city has been trying to block the sale of things that might lead to graffiti for over the year, but the law was so nutty that District Judge George Daniels stopped the city's ban until the issue could be further looked into.

Who doesn't like sassy judges? Last year, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the city's attempt to stop Marc Ecko's graffiti party was a "flagrant violation of the First Amendment". (He said that if the graffiti party were banned because it might incite graffiti, what about street performances of Hamlet or Oedipus Rex?) Now he has ruled that a Picasso worth tens of millions can be sold at Christie's tonight.

It's Marc Ecko 2, City of New York 0! After suing the city last week over the law that now prevents people between 18 and 21 from carrying wide-tip markers or spray paint, a federal judge ruled that the law has no "rational basis." The city is supposed to stop enforcing the law on Thursday at 5PM. However, the part of the law that prevents people between 18 and 21 to buy etching acids, which are tools in scratchitti, is still in effect. Scratchitti is considered one of the most annoying scourges in the subway system these days, as most train windows are covered with it. Last week, the NY Times reported that the NYC Transit was looking into putting Mylar on all the windows, but it was unclear whether or not they'd do it (what with the money it'd take and how well it would work).

Clothing entrepreneur Marc Ecko is suing the city once again. Ecko who found himself pitted against the city when a permit for a party to celebrate his new Atari game about graffiti taggers was revoked last summer- only for a judge to rule that the party had to go on after Ecko sued the city - is battling a law that makes carrying broad-tipped markers and spray paint illegal for people under 21. The new law makes posession a crime, whereas before police had to prove an intent to deface, which seems crazy, because what if you're an art school student - you can't bring supplies? Ecko's lawyer, Daniel Perez says, "There is no justification for telling a 19- or 20-year-old that you can use your index finger for pulling the trigger of an M16 on the battlefield or pulling a switch in the voting booth, but not to push the trigger on a can of spray paint." But AM New York reports Ecko's foe, City Councilman Peter Vallone, as saying, "All Marc Ecko is doing is promoting his video game. A video game which teaches kids how perform the crime of graffiti. We knew we were pushing the envelope with this law, but it is necessary to combat graffiti." Ecko doesn't need to promote his video game through lawsuits - he's on America's Next Top Model, for heaven's sake! And Atari, quick, develop a game between Ecko and Vallone!

Yesterday's gorgeous day was the perfect setting for Marc Ecko's graffiti street party to celebrate the release of his video game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. However, the party became a minor First Amendment cause celebre as City Councilman Peter Vallone successfully started a wave to get the party permit revoked, only to have a judge rule the party must go on. Newsday called it a throwback to the '80s with boomboxes, breakdancing and graffiti, and Ecko told reporters, "It's about art but they used an old tool of fear-mongering, a political thing, trying to lean on family values, using graffiti as a negative when it's really just a bunch of young people getting together to express themselves."

Right now, the legal party for Marc Ecko's Getting Up video game is getting underway on West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Animal magazine's Bucky Turco sent a photograph that shows the subway car replicas up ready to be vandalized...just kidding, City Government alarmists - the subway car facades are ready to be decorated by many graffiti artists. We're sending someone to check out the scene, but if you happen to head there, let us know what it's like.

Yesterday afternoon, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that the city had to allow Marc Ecko's graffiti party to go on tomorrow, because revoking the permit was unconstitutional. Gothamist is amazed - and pleased - that the people managed to win this one, because the Bloomberg adminstration seemed to be on a roll with clamping down on the fun things in life, like smoking, being noisy, protesting in the park. We hope that some of the artists participating in tomorrow's event will wear shirts with Judge Rakoff's face on it - here's part of his ruling explaining why the city's argument was silly:

"By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder... As for a street performance of 'Oedipus Rex,' don't even think about it... The denial of the permit on the stated grounds that the demonstration will 'incite' others to actually paint graffiti on subway cars is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment and cannot stand."

Will copies of Hamlet and Oedipus Rex, not to mention West Side Story which Rakoff mentioned last week, now be zooming up the Amazon charts? Gothamist can only hope! While the city is considering whether or not to appeal (Bloomberg hates losing...just hates it!), Ecko et al. are still planning on tomorrow's party on West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, which starts at noon. Ecko told reporters he was "just excited" and added, "We knew this was worth fighting for, and clearly the mayor must have been misinformed." Heh!

- And the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open on Labor Day - send your parents/ friends/ out-of-town visitors there when you need a break! Or go yourself, as you've been putting it off all summer! [Thanks, Newyorkology]

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff will hear Marc Ecko's lawsuit against the city today at 3PM. Ecko sued NYC last week because his permit for a party where graffiti artists would decorate fake subway cars (we're talking facades of subway cars) was revoked over concerns that the party would encourage graffiti. Newsday has an interesting excahnge from Friday's court hearing:

Paula van Meter, a city attorney, argued in court that painting subway replicas is not protected speech because it "necessarily simulates a criminal act."

Continue reading "Court To Decide on Graffiti Party"

After the city has decided to revoke the permit for the launch party of his new graffiti video game, designer Marc Ecko is doing the next best thing: Suing the city. And the NYCLU is getting involved, joining Ecko in a press conference yesterday asking the mayor to reinstate the permit. Animal Magazine publisher and graffiti enthusiast Bucky Turco was at the press conference gave us his report, with including Ecko's invitation for the Mayor:

His lawyer, Daniel M. Perez stated, "Mark Ecko will be filing a lawsuit in NY Federal Court." They have enlisted the help of the NYCLU who wrote and sent a letter to the Mayor today. Arthur Eisenberg, the legal director, cites a Supreme Court Case, Brandenburg v. Ohio, that set a precedent to protect the exhibit Ecko is hosting. The Ecko people have also determined that If they can't get the permit they plan on canceling the event. Mark Ecko mentioned "I don't condone illegal graffiti, but I don't condone censorship either."

Continue reading "Ecko to Sue the City"

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/08/12/graffiti_games_party_under_fire.php">after complaints by City Councilman Peter Vallone last week, the Mayor, and then city, acted to stop the block party. Even though Marc Ecko, the lifestyle brand owner who designed the game, worked with the community and actually got a permit, the NY Times reports that the city said Ecko did not say the permit was a party, because apparently that makes all the difference. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Look, there is a fine line here between freedom of expression and going out and encouraging people to hurt this city...Defacing subway cars is hardly a joke; encouraging people, kids in particular, to do that after all the money we've spent, all the time we've spent removing graffiti." Yeah, given the Mayor's anti-graffiti initiatives, it's not surprising he's acting this way. The Mayor added that if the live graffiti element were dropped ("This is not really art or expression, this is, let's be honest about what it is: It's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest."), Ecko could still get a permit, which basically takes the wind out of what the game is. Ecko's spokesman tells the Times that they may look for a private space for the graffiti decoration part of the party because "We're not going to fight City Hall. We're not going to win." Hey, is that the spirit of Getting Up? By letting the man walk all over you? Gothamist can only assume that a truly "authentic" graffiti game launch party - yes, a totally contradictory turn of phrase - would have some sort of underground party as well.

City Councilman Peter Vallone, who seems to have unofficially tagged (hee) himself the anti-graffiti Council member, wants the city to stop a permit for graffiti artists to tag subway car replicas, according to the NY Post. The party is for Atari's new game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, and people associated with the event tell the Post that Vallone is hypocritical, since one of the artists, Lady Pink, participating had been commissioned by Vallone to create a mural. There's also a quote from Animal magazine's Bucky Turco, who has been keeping an eye on Vallone's anti-graf remarks: "To actually try to stop the event is paramount to censorship, which is worse than graffiti. I really think this guy is using graffiti as a soapbox. I don't think he can get into the press for anything else."