Rap Rap Chess (found art / DIY personals)

I visited the home of BB pals Richard "Dangerous Minds" Metzger and Tara McGinley last week, and Richard showed me this gem, found on a telephone pole nearby. "I'm still peeing myself laughing about this guy," says Richard.

MAN CLAIMS TO LOOK LIKE MICHAEL FROM "GOOD TIMES" (Dangerous Minds)

Update: A savvy BB commenter points out that the guy's a) prolific b) known.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Art and Design • Happy Mutants

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

merreborn

This guy’s pretty prolific:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/xeomt/bizarresign2.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/xeomt/phonepole.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/xeomt/011009_16401.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/xeomt/6a00d83451afa369e201116903283e970c-.jpg

And of course, credit goes to the finder:
http://vnboards.ign.com/morningthaw/b5156/110832568/r110838833/
Anonymous

TED8305, you are my hero of life. I laughed out loud.
hbl

I would love to meet some hot chicks with big butts. I had no idea the solution had been staring me in the face every 30 yards along the road.

I’m gonna get my sharpie and laminator and staple gun. It’s like Friday night come early.
fistula spume

These are messages from the mystery blob that’s devouring the Alaskan coastline. Don’t call it!
nathanmaas

Who wrote these? It’s incredibly similar in style to David Bradbury Haning, but with handwriting more like The Zodiac Killer. Examples:

http://haning.blogspot.com/
http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/10/05/dd_zodiac01.jpg

Perhaps someone decided to create a hybrid of the two.

The claims on this one: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/xeomt/bizarresign2.jpg are so completely like Haning, it’s ridiculous.
jimbuck

I am also looking for women to give me money. No need to become my sex slaves, and I don’t care if you’re asian, white, hispanic, black, or anything else. Just give me money.

I look sort of like a blend of David Cross and John Malkovich.
dr.hypercube

Present at the birth of a meme.
Anonymous

Hah! I’ve stumbled upon this guy’s work before, check it out: http://jeffgreco.tumblr.com/post/142898867/boing-boing-has-discovered-a-local-la-sensation
Thac0

Proud to get in on this at the beginning this could be huge!
Xopher

I bet it’s an art piece. I bet he’s trying to see if anyone seriously responds. I just hope he’s planning to give the serious responders a gift certificate for a forehead tattoo that says “WELCOME.”
Anonymous

This guy is all over my neighborhood. Some of them are really great.
grawlrus

i thought wesley willis had died?
mypalmike

It’s like myspace, but on a utility pole.
JL Bryan

This BB post just opened up a whole new world for me.

Anything you want–no matter how ridiculous, unlikely, desirable, or expensive–just hand write your wish and tack it to a telephone pole. Problem solved.

Maybe it’s some weird postmodern urban voodoo. I wonder if chicken sacrifices are required?

Now, to go grab a pen, paper, and a box of thumbtacks…and possibly a chicken…
Tim

I first read this headline as Rep Rap* Chess. I am disappointed…

*http://reprap.org/
Brainspore

Your move, craigslist.
Ted8305

If I looking for White, Asian and Latina ladies. Him name is Hopkin Green Frog.
I lost my ladies.
329-3228
Love, Some Guy Who Looks Like Michael on Good Times.

P.S. I’ll meet some ladies.
I want to meet ladies to help me with Things.
Who wants to help me with Things.
LavenderNotes

Nachos. Movies. Pizza. I am so there.
Sterlz

I can confirm personally this man is a derilect/”outsider artist” from the West Hollywood area. I work off of Melrose, and have spoken to him personally. I confirm that he is a rather large african american man, and his name is Jay. Prolific he is indeed. I have app. 5 or 6 of his pieces that I have taken home, and kept. Super funny stuff in an off hand sort of way. I asked him if I could take his picture, as I am an illustrator, and I wanted to draw him (natty dreds, raiders shirt, dude looked cool.). He denied vehemently, and insisted that he: “doesnt have the time man” and just sorta ambled off taping up more signs. Here’s where it gets a little funny: I actually offered him cash to take his pic. Denied.

Go Jay!!!
zikzak

Maybe he just needs help learning a song?
Anonymous

Any women who avoids this guy are “not getting hassled, not getting hustled” while he tries “keeping his head above water, making a wave when he can”.
SeattlePete

I was on a business trip to LA about four months ago when I spotted my signs. One was a request to meet people who were interested in arm wrestling for money, and the other was about needing help “getting my stuff back from BIll Clinton”. The handwriting was identical to these. The only difference was that it said “checkers” in one corner and “chess” in the other. I should have made copies of them, but I sent the originals in to FOUND magazine.
Cimbert

You have to wonder how much action this guy gets. It must be working or he wouldn’t keep posting.
Anonymous

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK’S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.
jawsy

Here’s some posts from losanjealous about these signs:

http://www.losanjealous.com/2008/11/21/for-sale-on-melrose-wolverines-daughter-2-books-taco-bell-thundercats-movies-moneymy-heart/

http://www.losanjealous.com/2008/12/12/that-goofball-with-the-hand-lettered-melrose-signs-is-at-it-again/

http://www.losanjealous.com/2009/04/09/mid-city-hand-lettered-sign-bandit-strikes-again-affirms-michael-jackson-appearance-tags-marley-usc/

Googling the phone numbers, I found these, too:

http://twitpic.com/2zjpy
http://twitpic.com/1obi3
http://i40.tinypic.com/5xy76.jpg
Anonymous

The Mingering Mike of classified ads.
MichaelRN

Um, sorry to be a wet blanket and all, but it seems to be a rather benign (although admittedly entertaining) manifestation of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Art and madness have always been intertwined to some extent.
MooseDesign

Did anyone else think of PaRappa the Rapper when they read the headline?
Padraig

Okay, I’ll admit it.

What is this Rap Rap bit about??

I am completely clueless about this…other than the fact that it’s quite odd and funny (peculiar).
ihaveseenenough

I don’t know if it’s still the case, but when we called the number about a month or so a go, the voicemail went:

“Choke. On a coke.

Smack on.

Leave a message at the beep and we’ll call your right back.”
Anonymous

I’ve rode the bus with this guy on more than one occasion- he takes the 210 bus down Crenshaw into Hollywood but stops off a lot to put up his fliers. He’s a very big (buff, not fat) black guy with natty dreads and he likes smoking weed.
SamSam

I also read Rep Rap for a while, and was really confused by the image. Had the Rep Rap machine become sentient and started playing chess and trying to attract the ladies?