Today’s youth know only of the Smurf’s wild adventures with Neil Patrick Harris in NYC. They’re too soft to be told stories of Smurf-on-Smurf gang violence that broke out over the only Smurf female. Those were tough times in Smurf Village.
In reality, the young children I saw wandering down Clarion Alley with their parents were learning all kinds of life lessons about human excrement, public urination, and alcoholism. I don’t think they even noticed Gangster Smurf.
The poster above is in Clarion Alley. It’s a reference to the now-defunct Games of Nonchalance, who had the same poster of the mysterious Eva Lucien in a tiny alley in Chinatown some years back.
Sometimes I walk through Clarion Alley just to look. It’s not that I don’t want to take photos of the murals, it’s just that I don’t want to be so cliche. But today I decided to take some photos in spite of my own unoriginality, and you’re looking at the result.
These are the newest murals, etc. that caught my attention.
As long as we’re on the topic of 16th Street’s favorite pigeon feeder, there’s a mural of the guy over on Clarion Alley that you should check out.
Actually, you should check out Clarion Alley in general. The murals tend not to last too long there, which is both a blessing and a curse. But the quality and creativity is outstanding.