Is it art?

I had fully intended to post this photo I took a couple weeks ago, and then I saw this blog post asking the very question I had in my mind. Is it art? Of course, I knew my answer already but I'm sure there are some who would disagree.

To me it's ... blank dreary cracked wall, or...this? I'm thinking this hands down.

Similar art works are popping up all over town. Even pre-earthquake there were many art works like this, as I've photographed already. But post-earthquake there seems to be, first of all, more of it (as more blank walls become available), and second, an almost tacit appreciation of it as Christchurch grapples with ideas of how to make our ravaged, uglified city more attractive.

I love this stuff. What do you think?

Every Little Boy's Dream House

Were things in the 60s and 70s simpler or just different?

We didn't have computers or iPods or iPads or Wii or Xbox. We didn't even have TV. I remember my first direct brush with technology was listening to Dad's Army on a valve radio in my bedroom on Sunday nights. I wonder if Josh will remember, 40 years from now, huddling under the covers playing Minecraft on his iPod.

As nostalgic as I tend to be, I realise times have changed, priorities are different, and it's a brave new world. But every now and then I enjoy how Josh simply does not understand what it means when I tell him that I did not have a TV or a computer when I was his age. We comprehend these things as adults, but children simply have no concept. "No TV? You mean, you didn't have one in your room?" "No Josh, we didn't HAVE one. At all. Possibly no one on the whole street had one." Oh, yeah. He finally understands. "So why didn't you just go buy one?"

Arrgghhh...

Anyway, I digress. Sort of. When I was a boy, an awesome treehut was probably the epitome of entertainment. Sure we had bikes, and toy cars, and even train sets. We made guns out of bits of wood, and bows and arrows out of tree branches.