There’s some neat graffiti here in Malta — but it’s the old fashion kind, with little messages left here and there about love and often hate. Like a time-warp to the 1950s (and backward — to the etchings on latrine walls of roman times). There are a few places where the mural type graffiti is up, but I’m less interested in that because I can never understand the font they use and it looks just like the stuff in North America (I’m sure it’s different to the connoisseur, but I’m not) — where as this stuff seems particularly Maltese (and readable!).
On a walk along the south coast, I found these carved into some Cactus leaf-apendage-things. I wonder if they change shape as they grow.
Past the cactus, there is this wonderful triangular slab of limestone jutting out into Gnejna Bay. People swim from here in the summer, and have time to carve into the soft rock, which wears down rather quickly. It makes the letters look round and soft, reminding me of the font Terry Fox had on his Marathon of Hope t-shirts.
Some people had more free time.
On the 400+ year old fortified walls of Valetta, high above the Grand Harbour, scene of some of the most ferocious bombing of WWII (Malta was the last Allied holdout) people have also carved.
This stuff was found inside the back of a dirty arcade in Valetta, just past the city gates. I hope the wanton Erika heeds the message or has gone into protection. People who use caps like that should not be messed with.
In the same location there are people ready to take on the horrible gay people too, who are certainly ruining the island.
On a pillar across the way from the arcade, there is some political graffiti. The PN stands for the National Party. Interesting that there is lots of specific political stuff here. In Toronto, I can’t ever remember seeing “Go NDP” or “Yo Stephen leave Jack alone in peace bitch” (though once I wrote “Vote Union” in the basement bathroom at the Oasis because I was tipsy, retarded, and had a black marker). Toronto political stuff is usually more against “the man” in a general hippy sort of way. Also in Malta lots of sports messages, supporting teams like Manchester City or Juventus (the Man City kids are way outnumbered by the Man United fans though, so I hope they’re hiding with Erika and the gays).
And the universal, if you can get over the crazy foreign phone numbers.
I also put more pictures and stories about Malta and Scotland over at the Toronto Psychogeography Society Blog.
