Coloring by misschraddøn, MonkeyBoy Dan
July 3rd, 2009 11:09 AM / Location: 53.484194,-2.235200Much like the high scorers our thoughts turned to happy fun chalk times of our youth, and the sheer unalloyed innocent joy it can bring.
Chris came up with an awesome location outside the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, as it is (a) pro community art and (b) good friend of Chris and my ex-housemate Ruth lives in an odd tetris block shaped duplex overlooking it perfect for the taking of pictures.
Following his run in with the fuzz Chris thought it prudent to check with the council as to the legality of this venture. Oh dear, oh dear oh noes - local byelaws class it as graffiti, which contrary to the delightful t-shirts you may have seen, IS a crime. Mace in the face from a GMP copper is no-one's idea of a good time.
But..... It was an AWESOME location so we went ahead and did it anyway :)
Speed being of the essence in avoiding any busybodies from narcing us out to the rozzers we made it a competition. One hour to create a piece on the subject of SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. Because SPAAAAAAAACE is a truly epic subject.
Chris was scaling up a picture he ms-painted for an aborted Under the Influence and I improvised a star trek/battlefleet gothic space pirate galleon thing. I dont think you'll be too surprised to find out it's more effort for me to keep the continuously fizzing space piracy inside my brain than to let it spill out onto the pavement like this.
This is a good point to scroll down and look at the pictures. The rest of the text can wait.
Reaction of Passersby:-
1) Woman occupying the far side of middle age with nagging voice (I didnt look up when she accosted Chris as I was intent on trying to get my nacelles straight, which is tricky).
- "Do you have permission to do that?"
The magic of lying was swiftly deployed - "It's for the craft centre. If there's a problem with it we're happy to wash it off afterwards."
- "It's not anything rude is it?"
- "Well, this rocket did look a bit like a penis but I've changed it now. It's about space."
Remember kiddies, never pass up the opportunity to legitimately use the word penis at an old lady.
2) Ornery man of about 45, walking with the aid of two crutches, with the air (and face) of an arthritic bulldog stumping along like the pteradons from Walking with Dinosaurs.
- "What's this then?"
Chris again lept into the social breach -"It's a public art thing to brighten up the neighbourhood. I'm working in chalk because I draw like a four year old! (endearing urchin grin)"
-"Yeah, I can see that. (sneer)"
3) Taxi driver.
He stopped his cab in the middle of the street (not that big a deal, it's a quiet street) and reversed a ways to get a good picture with his phone. Gave us a big thumbs up, Huzzah!
4) Harry!
A lovely older gent (pic below) that loved our stuff and engaged us in coverstaion about what a wonderful sense of community there was in and around the Northern Quarter, and how he wished he could have shown our art to a nice American couple he'd just met in a bar. He was pretty sloshed. :)
5) Asian dude.
Came out on his balcony to take photos (Chris was mildly upset that this guy asked permission to take a photo of something on the public street outside his own house). We engaged him in pleasant shouting and being a man of obvious good taste he said that mine was the best.
PS:- inspiration for Nasal Death-Ray Cannon
Our canvas
The bollards mark off this area from the actual pavement (or sidewalk for the colonials) so our art work would not block the route of anyone hurrying to a very important business meeting.
Warp nacelles
Fun-Fact-of-the-Day: I was nicknamed monkeyboy for wearing this t-shirt, rather than getting the name and then seeking it out. So now you know.
Extra Vehicular Activity
As this technical diagram clearly shows, this astronaut is performing an EVA maneuver at L1, the Lagrange point where the Sun and Earth's gravity cancel out.
Celestial Phenomena
Top left to bottom right:- Spiral Galaxy, Comet swarm, The Dread ship REAVER firing torpedo, Gaseous nebular, asteroids (inhabited by Clangers and their good friend the Soup Dragon).
WE LOVE MANCHESTER SPACE!
Close up this looked great as the raised bumps on the surface made bright star spots in the midnight blue background.
Chrome Dome
The bridge of the Reaver, styled as a Daft Punk type robo-skull complete with nasal mounted death-ray cannon. In the far right you can see an M-class planet with single moon, probably where the crew fenced their last haul.
Asian dude.
This guy loved it. And thought mine (Dan) was the best so clearly and individual of taste and refinement.
Pretty big
2 lots of 4 yards by 3 is pretty big. Times it by the illegality multiplier of WHOA! and you get epic.
From Ruth's place
Chris oriented his to look good from this angle, mine was for people walking by on the street.
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Susy you've given me an awesome idea.
i must now go out and get a hundred glowsticks.



















Yep, you're pretty great indeed.
L1. Highly technical diagrams *drools*.
You know what would've been WHOA WHOA awesome? Glow in the dark chalk.