I hate the chuggers (charity beggars) in Seattle. So today’s news buried in The Stranger about how these street canvassers are getting the smack down and agreeing to reform (I’m talking to you Shay and your fedora wearing, clipboard twirling munchkin buddy) gives me great joy. Planned Parenthood has been great. They respect the people they interact with. Kudos and respect to you. Dialogue Direct on the other hand, which has been giving Children International a bad name for years by verbally accosting Seattlites and pissing off all sorts of pedestrians, does not.

Here’s the quote from The Stranger:

Seattle’s top four charity canvassing firms have signed a citywide code of conduct pledging to stop aggressively begging pedestrians to save the whales/children/indigenous flautists. Canvassers are now prohibited from stopping traffic,walking backward, or even “advancing toward a pedestrian… more than one step.”

It’s about effing time.

I love me some Mexican wrestling. It’s absurd and high-octane. There’s mystery and danger. It’s a battle of good and evil.

As I’ve been walking around the past couple weeks I’ve noticed that graffiti on our streets is facing the same sort of paradox. There is some graffiti that is absurd, others require spiderman-esqe skills to reach tops of buildings to pull off. Many of the people who wheatpaste, tag and stencil are cloaked in a shroud of mystery … seeing as how they’re breaking the law, there’s an inherent risk of being caught, aka danger. Finally, the epic battle of good and evil. Seattle has some really creative people. We sit in cubes all day pouring our brains into pixels and bytes. Many of these people also have alter-egos and distribute their message in inspirationally beautiful ways. Yes, I’m talking about you Narboo, Tnglr, Henry, and Xavier Lopez Jr to name a few. These guys are sharing … dare I say … art on the streets. Which brings us to the bad. So help me God, if I have to see another shitty, half baked tag written with a Sharpie that’s only purpose is to declare that you were here, I’m going to scream. Tag yourself there on Facebook. Save a maintenance department a few hours of having to clean up your piss poor attempt at a new way of writing your name. If you can’t play with the big boys bringing something interesting to the table to share with Seattle, go home and write on your own walls and let your mom clean up your mess.

That feels better. Now back to the good stuff. Lucha!! Shameless plug time, Lucha Vavoom, if you’re reading this: please come back to Seattle. We love you. Not in the creepy stalking way (unless you’d rather we did) but genuinely. We’d wrestle a little mini chicken to get you back up here. Pinky swears.