In the book Vandal Squad, Bronx bred author Joseph Riviera recalls his time serving the on the MTA police’s Vandal Squad from 1984 to 2004. Originally employed to reassure the public safety, Rivera spins anecdotes about his day and night job on the No.4 line train. When he started subway trains were covered in graffiti inside and out, kids would randomly smash windows, and violent crime was part of the routine that subway riders witnessed.
Photo:  Joseph Rivera


The concept of this book intrigued me. I think this is the first ever-published book about graffiti from a cop’s point of view, which lends a unique view of the evolution of law enforcement’s attitude towards graffiti. Joseph Riviera describes the arrest of the most notorious Graffiti artists. While many writer’s and crew’s have regaled us with tales of their arrest, rarely do hear the cop’s side of the war on graffiti. He gives you a clear idea of how things were at the time.  Most of the photos in this book are from Riviera’s collection. With most of NY’s active writer’s mentioned, Vandal Squad should create an interesting buzz.

Photo:  Joseph Rivera
 
Look out for the upcoming release planned for this December 2008 published by the Powerhouse Book under the Miss Rosen Edition. 

Release December 2008.

Get this book from:
http://www.powerhousebooks.com/book/433

In The O Mission Repo, Travis MacDonald’s presents an erudite 143-page poem, gleaned from the 9/11 Commission Report. The majority of the text has been erased, masked, or blurred on each page leaving a few floating carefully chosen words and phrases, which together give new significance and life to the report’s text.

A lot of questions popped into my head as I read through the work; about the 9/11 attacks, about the report, its purpose, its target audience, about our current position seven years later, and so on. The innovative mixing of media also triggered questions about the similarity between art and politics (obvious to many I’m sure, but it was the first time I saw such a direct correlation) and revelations about the art of writing, in and of itself. Artists and politicians often share a certain superior air of “I know something you don’t”. Whether it comes from their talent, intelligence, or privileged position, they have access to or can decipher special information. They know stuff we don’t, or so they would like to us to believe. And in an ideal world their job would include revealing and explaining these secret truths to us unknowing, docile citizens/mortals. When reading MacDonald’s complicated and sometimes elusive writing, one cannot help but wonder if the artist is not conscientiously highlighting and playing with that similarity.

The book is also impressive in its originality and meticulousness. The method or process here is not to “create” from scratch but to strip an existing narrative, and produce new meaning. And in a sense isn’t that just what the act of writing consists of: pulling words from an existing lexicon and arranging them together to create intent? The lexicon in this case is a detailed account of the 9/11 attacks, the political climate that preceded them, recommendations for future strategic improvements and other bureaucratic minutiae. Obviously this it limits the writer’s vocabulary considerably. The now familiar names, words, and expressions recur constantly and the anti-terrorism and national security ‘jargon’ becomes MacDonald’s palette, which he uses to paint a completely new narrative. “Terrorism” becomes “errorism”, “operation” becomes “opera” and “Usama Bin Laddin” becomes “Lad”.

There are many truly beautiful passages, though at times lugubrious (perhaps because of the content of the original text) but unfortunately the poet’s voice or intent becomes a little lost in the disjointed composition The complex presentation of the book may have contributed to my disorientation but overall I found it difficult to grasp his perspective even though I was unsure of the reason why. While the unique concept and design of the book (part visual art, part literary art) are original, gripping and, if nothing else, thought provoking, I was also left a bit puzzled and with a slight headache. Take from that what you will.

- Butters