LA always starts to flutter in January and February with the wide range of awards ceremonies happening in town - SAG, Emmys, Oscars, Grammys and god knows what all else all demand a very high celebrity-in-town quotient, so sightings increase, and every weekend will doubtless have traffic jams caused by red carpets and limousines. Woop de doo.
This year, thanks - I'm assuming - to the Oscar nomination for "Exit Through The Gift Shop", a different kind of pre-award buzz has been going on, since a number of Banksy works have blossomed on the walls of buildings in and around LA.
I was walking around the corner from Profeta one afternoon and saw a crowd in an alley looking at a wall, and then saw a pretty funky image of a child soldier with a gun, but the magazine held crayola crayons instead of bullets - and the wall around him was covered in cute flowers. And this on the wall of an Urban Outfitters, no less! I didn't give it much thought, thinking it was a Banksy rip off or something. It even crossed my mind that it might be a hyper-cool tie-in to UCLA's production of 'Forgotten World'. Of course it wasn't - it is an actual Banksy!
Next thing to cross my mind was that maybe it was actually evidence that Jamie Oliver IS Banksy - since he too has set up shop in Westwood for some kinda healthy-eating project called 'Jamie's Kitchen'.
Turns out that several Banksy creations have sprung up around LA, and many have already been defaced, and even worse REMOVED INTACT so that they can be sold! See, that's what is wrong with this town. They put a price on everything and know the value of nothing. (Thank you Ambrose Bierce.) Before the Westwood one was defaced, a substantial number of stickers had been put up around it - tacky opportunists trying to capitalise on the attention of passersby. But then, isn't Banksy one too?
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