The 24-hour availability of mass-transit, the diversity of the "ethnic food," the architecture, the grime and the graffiti. Everything. I recently returned from visiting my immediate family in NYC this past weekend and must say, I'd really missed New York. Growing up in Queens, I used to see the tag "Trake" spray-painted everywhere and, as per proper bragging rights, sometimes in difficult-to-reach places, like the beams and girders of elevated subway platforms. With the way street-art and graffiti has blown up in popularity -- to the point of over-saturation and backlash -- as well as recognition of its cultural significance / potential for political commentary, etc, even in just this past decade, it was nice to finally see the work of Non-Banksy's and Non-Shepard Fairey's again, even if only quickly in passing.

Many times the "message" is obvious and heavy-handed. On the way through Brooklyn into/from Manhattan, I'd seen the rooftop "CON$ervative goverMENt" piece for years now. You'd also see the (to me) suggestively pornish pairings of the tags "Rambo" and "Pony-Boy" here and there, up on a billboard or two. The other day I noticed for the first time the "I am Troy Davis" lettering done-up huge on an apartment-rooftop in The Bronx, visible from the Cross Bronx Expressway. I laughed initially and thought, "Man, that must be the most obvious and straight-forward piece I've seen yet." I am so-and-so. Great. I'd originally intended to post something about how honest the guy was in his self-aggrandizement, unless there was some "His Name is Robert Paulson" or "I am Spartacus" thing going on with this. As it turns out, the sentiment behind it was more akin to the latter. Of course, the situation was much more serious, of graver consequence, and I do feel a shade guilty for being presumptuous and for having not known / having been out of the loop.

Despite appeals, the introduction of new evidence, and 7 of 9 eyewitness apparently recanting and changing their stories, Troy Anthony Davis was executed on the 21st of September 2011, for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. There had been a rally held in NYC in 2009, from which the graffiti might date, and a great deal of public outcry and support for years -- of which the "I am Troy Davis" declaration was but a part. Denied a last-minute stay-of-execution, Troy Davis maintained that he was innocent to the end.