Darlinghurst Blog: Street Art: The Invisible Man

There used to be a poetically-minded person armed with a piece of chalk who would write alphabet-themed lines of verse on doors, walls and footpaths around Darlinghurst. Dubbed The Alphabet Man (but who's to say they weren't a woman), the person would write such things as P for Perpendicular, S for Serendipity or B for Bedlam. 

I captured this I for Invisible Man tag (above) about six months ago and it was probably the last time I saw a piece by The Alphabet Man. The script pays homage to the Invisible Man, who has been leaving curious painted, text-heavy and colourful, tiny boards of art around the streets for years. Who is the Invisible Man? I don't know, but he seems to be preoccupied by a Lisa-Marie, as the name often appears in his pieces. 

The above piece, which I found last Saturday in Wisdom Lane, suggests Lisa-Marie may have broken his heart. It's a fairly recent piece, too, so I hope The Invisible Man is alright. 

The following piece was pinned onto a telegraph pole on Liverpool Street in front of a row of heritage terraces and is about Lani who may have been a slave to Tim Tam biscuits:

Someone tried to nick this one, but it seems the Invisible Man employs super-strength super-glue to attach his artworks:

This one says some not very nice things about a ''fag-hag'', who appears to have been a fugitive from the planet Klaatu:

And this last one, from Foley Street, appears to be a list of people and the years they ''escaped'' (Lisa-Marie again) or possibly and sadly, died.

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If you have any photographs of Invisible Man artworks, please email them to me at violettingle@gmail.com and I can add them to this gallery.

Darlinghurst Blog: Detritus: Police Action

There was quite a bit of police action on Bourke Street in the early hours of Friday morning and my trusty spy in the Darlinghurst flatlands, Ruby Molteno, was on hand to capture it all. The incident began about 1.15am with the sounds of car tyres screeching and an almighty crash, followed by the thuds of people running and a police siren. The next thing Ruby heard was a policeman yelling, ''Hands behind your head, or you'll get shot''. 

The police had cornered two suspects in an empty lot on Wisdom Lane. After cuffing them, the police made them lie face down on Barnett Lane, aka Ten Buck Alley, as they waited for back-up. 

Soon after, the police dogs arrived and barking like crazy they ran sniffing around the laneways before homing in on another two suspects who had jumped a fence into someone's back yard. 

All four were taken to Kings Cross Police Station.

So what was it all about? According to police sources that Ruby spoke to, the four men (who, incidentally, had shaved heads and mullets) were allegedly travelling in a car on William Street, when they tried to evade a Random Breath Testing stop. They veered out of control - nearly hitting a policeman - before crashing into a bike rack on Bourke Street and then making off on foot.

Night owl Ruby, who was passing by at the time, managed to see most of the action and later captured these pictures of the car being towed. 

I don't know what the men were charged with, but the bike rack no longer exists.