Music in sidewalks

From staring today at the sidewalks of Boulder, I have come up with a realization: Those young kids who want to have the glory of participating in modern culture, but actually have nothing to say, will scrawl the names of dead black musicians on walls and sidewalks. This is true whether here in Boulder, or in Tel Aviv.

What started this train of thought off for me was seeing, yet again, the name of Bob Marley underfoot on a sidewalk slab, having been scratched there by someone before the cement dried. I immediately thought of the graffiti I had seen throughout one of the less affluent neighborhoods of Tel Aviv: 2PAC.

Dead black musicians, whom the graffiti-writers were not themselves old enough to have known when they were alive: Bob Marley and Tupac Shakur. I could make the clichéd remark that all great musicians and artists speak to those who come after them; in fact, I just have. I know that at least in Bob Marley’s case, his popularity is widespread even in those socio-economic classes that he was not trying to encourage. I am convinced that it would be an easy task to get a roomful of drunken bank presidents and other Republicans to sing along with “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!”

I have no idea whether this is what Bob Marley intended or wanted for his songs, but there it is. Music ends up in the strangest places, like sidewalks in Boulder and walls in Tel Aviv.

[And no, “2PAC” is not what it says on that picture. I just liked the picture of this other graffiti in Tel Aviv.]