The D.C. Punk Archive, and the poorly drawn pets fundraiser
Things I Saw This Week — Friday, Sept. 26
Advertising
Colossal is among the companies responsible for a resurgence in hand-painted advertising murals throughout New York City. The result is something like artisanal advertising, where techniques perfected by graffiti artists and muralists have been transformed into a form of marketing for brands looking to cash in on the artsy reputations of city neighborhoods.
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Colossal’s murals aren’t cheap. Its mural advertisements start at $30,000 per month, and the cost varies based on the location of the rented wall. The ads have been so successful that Gucci has leased a long-term space on the side of a building on Lafayette Street in NoLIta. There, Colossal artists’ creations have included a tablescape still life (to show off a pair of oversized pink sunglasses) as well as a mural featuring Harry Styles and the designer Harris Reed (to sell a new perfume).
Those ads are big business. Out-of-home advertising revenues, which includes methods like highway billboards and subway advertisements, reached a record of $9.1 billion in 2024. Landlords in search of auxiliary revenue streams are allowed to lease the exterior walls of their buildings for advertising purposes, which has been a boon for property owners in prime neighborhoods. Even buildings designated by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission are eligible as advertising space, though companies need to adhere to strict regulations around colors and layouts.
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There is a concern that the murals are being used to reshape the city to serve commerce, said Eric Felisbret, a street artist who was part of the graffiti crew Crazy Inside Artists from East New York, Brooklyn.
“The mural may look similar to street art, but it’s selling a product,” said Mr. Felisbret, 59. “There’s a loss of space for artists that just want to paint for art’s sake rather than painting with the goals of a corporation in mind.”
Art
On Pasadena Humane’s “poorly drawn pets fundraiser.”
Owners across the country submitted photos of their cats, dogs, birds, turtles, hamsters and horses on Facebook with a small donation to be turned into works of art by a team of shelter staff and volunteers.
Pasadena Humane assured people they’re a lot better at caring for animals than they are at drawing them. Some of the animals were done by extremely talented artists. The others … tried their best.
Alyssa Staniland, Pasadena Humane’s philanthropy communications manager, told LAist the fundraiser exceeded expectations with around $11,000 raised across more than 450 submissions.
Food
A guide: “Samin Nosrat Gathers Friends for Dinner Every Week. Here’s How You Can, Too.”
And, from KQED: “A Santa Cruz Gardening Collective Cultivates Belonging for Queer and Trans Asian Americans.”
Literature
Critics loved it: A New York Times review declared that it belonged in the company of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills. But the book never found a big audience. “It doesn’t fall comfortably into any one particular genre,” says Jeremy Davies, the editor who oversaw the reissue. “It’s extremely ambitious. It takes in a whole bunch of registers and literary approaches, from biblical to classical to poetic to supernatural and science-fictiony.”
Music
NPR dives into the Los Angeles Gothicumbia scene.
It’s Gothicumbia night; a mostly monthly dance party combining goth and cumbia music. Cumbia is a genre of Latin American dance music that first became popular in Colombia in the 1960s. It combines guitars, synthesizers and African-based percussion. The night is a chance for LA’s Latino goths - or darks - to turn out in their best outfits and sweat the night away.
Gothicumbia is the witchy brainchild of a Latino-American creative collective called Los Goths Co., whose founders keep their identities anonymous, both for the sake of maintaining an air of mystery, and so that no one person can be singled out. “United by music, laughter, and expression, we host unforgettable experiences and craft unique products that reflect who we are as a community,” they told NPR in a statement. “We celebrate our dual identity with those who find joy in the blend of tradition and darkness.”
The mashup is clearly resonating with Latino partygoers. Hundreds of first generation kids who grew up listening to Bauhaus in their bedrooms, and Los Angeles Azules at family birthdays, are flocking to the dance nights. The collective’s recent Gothicumbia nights in Sacramento, San Francisco, and Riverside drew crowds between 700 to 1,000 people a night.
In Washington, D.C., punk music meets the library.
Hardcore punk and libraries might sound like an odd couple, but the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library has become a hub for the music in a city with a long, vibrant history with the genre and scene. In its back rooms, the library houses the D.C. Punk Archive, an increasingly important repository for music and artifacts from the scene that attracts fans from around the world. On its rooftop, the library hosts summer shows.
This particular evening, what was happening onstage looked a lot like punk shows always have in the city that produced Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Rites of Spring: teens, or recent teens, pounding through songs that blend chaos and control, shouting spitfire lyrics that sound as though they could set the nearby federal buildings ablaze.
But amid all this moshing, there’s something new happening at this century-old public institution — and, more specifically, inside the 11-year-old archive. At a time when the identity of the city is facing federal threats, there’s a renewed ambition among Washingtonians (of both the punk and librarian variety) to keep this spirited history alive.
Armed with a new lead archivist, an influx of volunteers and a rush of Instagram followers, the archive plans to introduce an oral history project this fall on local art spaces such as d.c. space and Rhizome. Another huge future undertaking: digitizing its vast collection of music, zines, set lists, photos and other ephemera. And, of course, there are the summertime rooftop shows, which run through September.
Theater
Broadway musicals are struggling, per the New York Times.
None of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made a profit yet. Some still could, but several have been spectacular flameouts. The new musicals “Tammy Faye,” “Boop!” and “Smash” each cost at least $20 million to bring to the stage, and each was gone less than four months after opening. All three lost their entire investments.
Lavish revivals of much-loved classics are also fizzling. On Sunday, a revival of “Cabaret,” budgeted for up to $26 million and featuring a costly conversion of a Broadway theater into a nightclub-like setting, threw in the towel at a total loss. A $19.5 million revival of “Gypsy” that starred Audra McDonald and earned strong reviews closed last month without recouping its investment. Even a buzzy production of “Sunset Boulevard,” which won this year’s Tony for best musical revival, failed to make back the $15 million it cost to mount.
New musicals are particularly endangered. Since the coronavirus pandemic, 46 new musicals have opened on Broadway, costing about $800 million to bring to the stage, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Only three have become profitable so far. Strong reviews, word of mouth and in some cases Tonys have not been enough. And this fall’s new musical offerings are sparse: There are just two, one of which has only two people in its cast.
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Producers attribute the high failure rate to a number of factors. The costs of bringing song-and-dance spectacles to Broadway have skyrocketed in recent years, while ticket prices for musicals have remained relatively flat. Attendance still lags slightly below prepandemic levels. Jason Laks, the president of the Broadway League, estimates that only about 10 percent of musicals are now profitable, around half of the historical average.
Broadway’s long-running juggernauts remain popular, and many theatergoers seek them out over newer offerings.
Songs I Listened to This Week
(Click here for an Apple Music version.)
Podcasts I Listened to This Week
The United States is Southern now | Explain It to Me (Vox)
Much like migratory birds and retirees, college students are flocking to the South come September. Big state schools with large football programs and robust Greek life, like the University of Alabama or the University of Mississippi, have seen an influx of students from the North; the number of students who left the North to go South for school increased 30 percent between 2018 and 2022.
There are lots of reasons for this change. It could be the fun campus experience, or that Southern campuses relaxed Covid restrictions before their northern counterparts. It could be a change of scenery. It could be that students are getting more bang for their buck at a time when college tuition is at an all-time high. But whether it’s #RushTok or less student loan debt, students are embracing life South of the Mason-Dixon line.
According to Bloomberg senior reporter Amanda Mull, this is just one symptom of a larger embrace of Southern culture. She unpacks those changes on this week’s episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in podcast.