Dude paints over Steve "Espo" Powers' Kurt Vile mural
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
ESPO is already planning to "repaint/update" the mural.
I don't have any more info than anybody else about this. Some days Philly fucks itself up.
So this is the ignorant piece of shit that took it upon himself to buff the @steveespopowers Kurt Ville mural. When I asked if he knew it was a commissioned piece by a world renown artist he said he did and he didn't give a shit. He claimed it attracted graffiti to the neighborhood!
The Metro wrote about it too. Basically: Everybody agrees that this sucks.
UPDATE: Nils Bernstein at Matador Records says ESPO is already planning to "repaint/update" the mural.
UPDATE 2: The "dude" in question was, apparently a guy who goes by the name of DJ Lee Mayjahs. Local journalist Leah R. Kauffman interviewed him about it, and got to the heart of the matter. Basically: He's sorry. He's willing to pay whatever to make up for it. He says he wasn't in his right mind.
If you ask me, Kauffman handled this the right way. She outed the perpetrator while treating him like a human being. I was a little worried about the backlash this act could have inspired, not so much from Kurt Vile fans, but from Philadelphians who get pissed off when other Philadelphians foul the nest. A lot of people on Facebook joked about finding the guy and tagging his house and such.
Hopefully we're ready to rebuild, say bygones, and move on to hilarious memes where the vigilante painter moves on to whitewash other landmarks around town.
