July 24, 2005
A Borf-In at Dupont Circle
This DCist biked down to Dupont Circle yesterday to check out the previously mentioned Meet Borf event that was supposedly going on. This is what we saw: at least a dozen cops; a bunch of young kids giving out anarchist literature, free spray paint, and other information by the fountain; and lots of people chalking random messages or, er, interesting screeds. Talking to a few of the Borf supporters there, they told us that there is no one Borf - they claimed the police report stating John Tsombikos was the "main Borf" was incorrect, though we don't know why the Post article seemed to back that information up. We also found out that "I am Borf, you are Borf, Borf is everybody, we hope," and that the Borf message and tags, instead of declining in the face of the earlier arrests and publicity, will "hopefully" increase. More lessons learned: the anarchist drink of choice is Coca-Cola, and Borfites, for some reason, think the cops read DCist.com to keep up-to-date on goings-on around the city. That's right. DCist: keeping the popo informed since 2004.
Anyway, though as far as we could tell John Tsombikos wasn't there, the Borfites were happy to chat with anybody who showed interest, even the police. Just another Saturday in Dupont Circle. More pictures can be found here.
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Suburban children have WAY too much time on their hands..
you're just jealous, JT.
Well, actually, yes I am. I wish I had enough time on my hands to spend my Saturday afternoons displaying my childish contradictions for everyone to see.
My opinion of dcist slips just a little more with every article on Borf.
Unless dcist is going to start covering all, or some, hell even one, of the people spray painting in less affluent areas of the city, framing what they do as art or somehow politically or culturally important, then I'd sure appreciate it if you'd stop paying so much attention to this particular white, male, well-off tagger. I'm positive that it's not the intent, but frankly this is starting to come off as downright racist in what gets publicity and praise.
This is citizen journalism. You're not getting paid. You don't need to pander to advertisers and their target clients. So stop treating wealthy white kids painting in wealthy white areas (of a predominantly black city) as something special. There's no excuse for it.
In a coffeeshop tonight (a locally-owned one, of course - you'd never see this in a Starbucks), we saw not one but two people with what appeared to be Borf tattoos on their arms. I died a little on the inside. I pray with all my agnostic heart that it was just marker.
i've seen Borf tattoos too...
we're not pandering, or targeting for advertisers. christ. exactly, we don't get paid, or report to anybody, so the stuff we cover is stuff we want to cover, or that readers ask us to cover. for everybody who hates one post, we get 10 emails wondering why we don't cover it more. we genuinely cover things that we think the readers want to read about, and borf has been one of those things. every time something happens with him, we get loads of emails wondering where our coverage is. so if you're not happy that we cover him so much, well, you're welcome to express your displeasure, which you have already happily and anonymously done in more than one thread, but more DCist readers than not seem to like hearing about borf.
I can see how the misunderstanding occurred, so just to clarify, when I say "you don't need to pander to advertisers and their clients" I meant that, well, you didn't have to and weren't. I don't really count the small ads as anything that really substantively sways what gets covered in DCist.
A clearer way I should have made the point: you don't get pay, you don't have advertisers breathing down your neck and making demands, so... please consider ways to not repeat mainstream media's bad habits.
Yes, you do this out of fun. But it's still a political act, and I don't think "in the name of fun" excuses the coverage skew. Look, there's too much good politics and media awareness by you great folks who run dcist for me to accept just the 'if we're having fun, it's all good' sort of approach. C'mon.
Catherine, please understand that I didn't mean it as a remark against you as a particular dcist reporter. You rock. Everyone rocks as far as I'm concerned. It's a critique of a pattern of coverage by dcist, not you or anyone in particular.
Finally, if anonymous comments aren't allowed or are discouraged, please make that clearer in the post form, not by making it sound like something is strange or wrong in your reply to such comments. I did make one other remark about this, but accidentally in response to the wrong article (one that had nothing to do with Borf), and hence also the remark about it here. In fairness though, when Bork gets covered again and again, perhaps it's disingenuous to get upset over negative feedback around it over and over again.
well, i understand where you're coming from. thanks for clarifying your position. as far as comment policy, it is linked in our "about" page. you can find it here. an exerpt which i strongly agree with: "Good comments are rarely anonymous, because good commenters stand behind their opinions."
JT Kirkland has way too much time on his hands or he'd realize that BORF's accomplishments at the age of 18 will FAR outweigh any impact he will have on the world/world of art in the next 18 or 80 years. His blog is nothing but a child whining for attention, and now here we see him projecting himself onto BORF. This guy isn't an artist--just a jealous poser.
oh and good grief,
let's see the whole fucking world is talking about BORF so for DC not to cover it is a bit stupid. And what of some tagger in NE? Who cares--these guys aren't stand-outs. The work just doesn't provoke like BORF.
and catherine,
anonymouse comments are nice b/c you can tell it like it is and now have to be subject to strawman fallacy. i mean hell what if im GW wanting to get in the mix. its just not good for my rep-- Get it? stop taking yourselves so seriously and maybe the rest of DC will loosen up w/you.
"Good comments are rarely anonymous, because good commenters stand behind their opinions."
Doesn't this seem like a terribly ironic thing to post in a news story about anonymitity. So BORF's comments weren't good b/c he didn't sign John to them? Would he be getting coverage now if he'd signed John instead of BORF. OF course not.
what are you talking about?
I think a good comment is one that's thought out, has a well-made point, and is sincere. Sometimes people may feel more inclined to write better comments when posting under their name, sometimes anonymity helps. Anonymity itself doesn't make the remarks any inherently better or worse.
kissmelater: no, no the whole world is not talking about Borf. Not even close. Not even large portions and populations of DC. Honestly, do you actually believe that, that "the world is talking about Borf"? I think this may be a case of confusing your world with the world.
--
Ok, the last thing I think it makes sense to do is spend lots of time commenting on what I remarked is being over covered. So goodbye (on this topic). I do hope dcist folks will consider putting their energies into more important, or at least diverse and different, stories.
i think you people at dcist do a great job. i appreciate the varied topics of your stories.
keep it up. thanks!
Let's see. once washpost makes it front page of the Style. Wooster covers this. Between the two--the shit is going to bleed out on the net. Try a google search on BORF.
and Catherine--what am i talking about? Strawman fallacy (its a philosophical term) is when people attack the person instead of the argument. like i commit it when i attack jt kirkland, because his desire to be a famous artists colors his criticism of BORF, who already is.
My cat's breath smells like cat food.
Strawman fallacy (its a philosophical term)
Haha, oh man. I love it when people with a semester of college under their belt start whipping out their PHIL 0001 texts. Technically, just so you know, it's a logical fallacy, and it's irrelevant to this argument. Borf has been attacked as a person in the context of his message and who he is, and a perceived hypcrisy between the two, with examples raised to support this argument. For instance, there is the fact that young John has happily destroyed property in the district, yet he hails from the suburbs. Another example would be his purported anti-capitalist bent, yet he readily accepts money from his parents to park their car in a garage when he drives into the district, amongst other things. The point has been that while John has argued against the way this world works, he has not had to actually live in it and support himself, instead criticizing from the safe seat of support his parents provide.
If Borf really wants to impress people who argue the above, he will eschew his parents' money when preparing his defense. He can pay for a lawyer with his own money, go to legal aid, or defend himself. He should show some responsibility instead of letting his parents take care of things, yet again.
Borf is one of the main reason I read DCist! He, she, they, it, is the "man"! The real question is how many man hours did the Park Police squander in sending that many cops to Dupont Circle for hours on end. It would be cheaper to clean up a ton of graffiti, I'm sure! Did they think a spontaneous act of wit manifesting it’s self as a two tone stencil might cause mass hysteria?
As for the Borf haters… if you hate borf so much why don’t you just move on? Because you love to hate borf! Without borf you would have nothing snappy and hip to talk about. Admit it! You need borf as much as you hate borf. If Cool “Disco” Dan made a come back you would cream your shorts!
Losers!
As for you racially / socioeconomically obsessed pseudo intellectuals you obviously live in a comfortable theoretical world of your own. Anyone can do graffiti, you don’t have to rich or white! Name a poor black deprived graffiti writer active in DC today? Can’t? I wonder why? Graffiti doesn’t appeal to young black kids in DC right now for what ever reason, but you cant’ draw reverse racist conclusions from that.
and your breath smells like your cat's ___?
rubyred, im not talking about borf here, just catherine's little "the best comments come from people who use their real names" and yeah that is the only thing i remember from my PHIL class and i thought it was a common expression not me being esoteric. 1 million apologies.
i never said the best comments come from people who use their real names. good comments can come from people who post anonymously. however, i'm inclined to take anonymous posters a lot less seriously than people who use their real names and/or contact info, because, in my opinion, if you can't back up what you're saying with some accountability, you've just got no credibility.
Re: "strawman"
You are both wrong - it is not a "philosophical term" nor a "logical fallacy." It's a rhetorical technique:
The practice of refuting weaker arguments than one's opponents actually offer. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to your opponent.
If DCist wants to be BORFist, that's their prerogative. It's not like this site is a real journalistic endeavour that strives for an all-encompassing coverage of issues important to the city.
catherine--so it comes back to taking this (this thread) too seriously. loosen up. you're certainly not offering any insight into a real discussion on street art in the first place. these borf pieces are sophmoric in your hands first.
or in other words:
put your BORF in
put your BORF out
put your BORF in
and you shake it all about
and then you do the hokey pokey
and you play a game of GORF
that's what its (this board) is all about...
okay, kissmelater. thanks for your perceptive thoughts.
When I grow up, I'm going to bovine university.
I'm surprised that the anarchists would drink Coke - any credible corporate-hating ultraliberal should know about the working conditions of their bottling plants in Colombia. See http://killercoke.org
perceptive? calling a puddle a puddle don't take much.
kissmelater -
Thanks for the kind words. The person who commented above ("JT") is not me. I always sign my full name to my comments and link to my blog. It does flatter me though that any time you read "JT" you will think of me. Sounds like I've had quite an impact on you!
Posting messages on blogs in all-lowercase doesn't exactly lend credibility to one's words, either.
oh jeez. if my propensity to use lower case letters is a problem for you, well, i really don't know what to say about that. but feel free to question whatever other parts of my credibility you think are in doubt.
jt -- five bucks says you wear tighty whities
Great comeback kissmelater. Utterly profound. Impactful. Astonishing. Enlightening.
You can send your $5 to my email address via Paypal.
Ad hominem is when one attacks the person instead of the argument.
I love rhetoric.
I love DCist.
I love Borf.
hey thanks.
Unless, of course, you are rhetorically attacking a woman, in which case it is an "ad feminam" attack.
Of course. Mea culpa.
DCIST SUCKS SO HARD. YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF TOOLS!!! STOP POSTING OTHER PEOPLE'S ARTICLES AND PICTURES TOO. LEARN SOME FUCKING RESPECT! AMATEURS!
awesome post--just when things were starting to simmer. let's get cyndi spain in here and talk about the art of BORF and i can bust out my new word ad borfinem. hey maybe we can even get BORF to sellout and do a 24 hour print sale. isnt that what DC artists are doing these days JT?
kissme -
Yeah, it seems that at least five local-ish artists are selling their prints via a blog. Duane Keiser started it all. I followed up next. Alexandra Silverthorne next. Robert Walton and then James Bailey. It's been cool so far and has gotten our art out into the world.
Thanks for reading my blog so closely!
great--ill keep an eye out for you guys on the front page of the Style. and in the meantime stick around the BORF blogs where you bottom dwell so well.
Front page of Style? What does that have to do with anything?
And yeah, I google Borf every hour on the hour to see where I can leave comments about Borf. It fulfills me to no end.
God. These Borfies don't know anything. Real anarchists drink Faygo. Nitwits...
By the way, Cool Disco Dan is still out there, you just don't see his garbage on storefronts.