> and Russell lost his hair in the process.
>:)
at least we know he has a conscience. he and his brother seem like dialectical opposites.

i've got a question for you though. i've seen your work on your website, your background in art, and your link to style wars. i figure that you have some interest in graffiti and i was going to post this to see what people think, but i was more interested in what you have to say because it goes along the lines of this post and your background.
during this past semester i did an intense study of graffiti. i originally set out to study graffiti's use in marketing and the effects, but got so caught up in the history of graff, and its use as a communication tool (synthesized in this: http://www.graffiti.org/faq/artistic_constr_esposito.html, and this: http://www.graffiti.org/faq/esposito.html - please read when you have a few minutes - it'll give you an idea of where i'm coming from with all of this) and i realized that my original goal requires another semester of study.
As you probably know, Sprite, Nike, Reebok, ESPN, ABC, and many other MNC's use graff or graff-inspired imagery in their ads and they make tons of money off of images that continue to be considered illegal works of art. I believe that they owe the graff community something, and they can help to bridge the two sides of the graff argument - those who believe it should be considered legal, and those who fight to keep it illegal. it doesn't have to be a large promotional act, but it could be. something like building legal walls that are available to large amounts of artists, which can go a long way in the graff community. they could go as far as having a tour of legendary graff artists that paint at select sites. such a project could benefit MNC's too. it's a logical and ethical step in the right direction that would go under the heading of community relations, becoming a valuable non-taxable donation write-off. they've milked the graff community and left it dry - using social cues created by graffiti to sell their product - and when people get sick of their products, intrinsic ties have the potential to damage graff as well.
i guess i'm wondering if you think this is viable, and if you'd be willing to mindstorm with me for a second to think of other ways that MNC's can give back to such a non-nuclear community without further damaging its value-system.

Ra - the sovereign god of the Egyptians, the sun god, typically represented as
a hawk-headed man bearing on his head the solar disk and the royal
sacred asp, or cobra, as represented upon the headdress of divinities
and royal personages of ancient Egypt, usually over the third eye as an
emblem of supreme power.

"let your children, name themselves. claim themselves..."
-saul williams