durham shots

Thank you Professor Hudson - you are the bee's knees

I have a new favorite Professor in town. Don't get jealous Shannon. Professor Hudson, an art history scholar, sent me a list of tranlated statements from the ancient walls of Pompeii. Feist your eyes on the oh I DONT KNOW total similarities to modern day bathroom graffiti.

He sent me pages, but I picked some of my favorites for your optical pleasure.

This is my personal fav:

II.7 (gladiator barracks); 8792: On April 19^th, I made bread

VI.13.19 (House of Sextus Pompeius Axiochus and Julia Helena; left of the door); 4485: Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you

VI.14 (vico degli Scienziati); 3042: Cruel Lalagus, why do you not love me?

VI.14.20 (House of Orpheus); 4523: I have buggered men

VI.14.36 (Bar of Salvius); 3494: In one bar, a picture depicts two men playing dice. One shouts, “Six!” while his opponent holds up two fingers and says, “No, that’s not a ‘three’; it’s a ‘two’”. By the door of the bar, another picture shows a short man driving a group of men out. Above his head are the words, “Go on, get out of here! You have been fighting!”

VI.14.36 (Bar of Salvius; over a picture of a woman carrying a pitcher of wine and a drinking goblet); 3494: Whoever wants to serve themselves can go on an drink from the sea.

VI.14.37 (Wood-Working Shop of Potitus): 3498: What a lot of tricks you use to deceive, innkeeper. You sell water but drink unmixed wine

VI.14.43 (atrium of a House of the Large Brothel); 1520: Blondie has taught me to hate dark-haired girls. I shall hat them, if I can, but I wouldn’t mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this.

VI.15.6 (House of Caesius Valens and Herennius Nardus); 4637: Rufus loves Cornelia Hele

VI.16.15 (atrium of the House of Pinarius); 6842: If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend

VII (House of the Tetrastyle Atrium); 2060: Romula hung out here with Staphylus.

i love this

wEEKend UpDate.

Taylor, Emily, and I had a pretty great time this weekend shooting bathroom graffiti in the NC Triangle area. We started in Chapel Hill and worked our way back east. We took a lot of still photography of bathrooms that were reccomended to us by passerby-ers. haha. We just talked to everyone that we met and asked them for advice on places to go. It turned out to be rather fruitful.

I would like to personally thank Judd for taking us around Chapel Hill campus and showing us the best graffiti we had seen all day. He was the biggest help! Also, I would like to thank Judd for restoring my faith in men and humanity. But that is a whole 'nother blog topic.

We met this great guy named Tim too! He emailed me from his Iphone at the beer shop in Carrboro, some great graffiti that he has taken pictures of in Brooklyn. I posted the picture that he sent me. I love connecting with new people through this film. Oh and if you look closely, you can see the name James about 24 times in there. James get over yourself bro.

There are some pretty sweet I Love You graffiti's on the walls of downtown Carrboro. Even though its not on bathroom walls, I still liked it.

ALSO! anyon and everyone that reads this- I know theres at least one of you. Well I know at least Courtney Bridgers reads this, but I hope there are more- PLEASE document your life and by life i mean document the bathroom graffiti that you come across in your life and send it to me on here or at Joselyn@usa.com. BE A PART OF THIS BEAUTIFUL THING.

Tomorrow IT ALL BEGINS!

WELL i GUESS this whole crazy idea TECHNICALLY began IN joselyn's head a few MONTHS ago, BUT tomorrow WE (taylor, Emily, and JOSELYN) are HOLDING THERE first Interview for the LAVATORY LANGUAGE! In case I haven't filled you all in properly, I want to state that The Lavatory Language is a freeform living breathing experimental documentary that we lovely ladies are and will continue to be working on for the next few months. Wish us luck on our journey to the heart of bathroom graffiti through the ages. We'll be looking at historic graffiti from Rome and Pompeii as well as from up the Eastern Seaboard of the good ole USofA. If any of you lovers find some graffiti worth showing EMAIL JOSELYN@USA.COM with the picture and a short description of where and when you saw it and maybe what it meant to you. We'll take anything. So get your disposable cameras out and start snapping. It will get uploaded on here!

OH YEAH. WE NEED MONEYS! If you have some extra money give it to us please. WE need it for developing our film! And for gas. And for food. And if our food gives us gas we need to buy pepto and we need money for that. So, if you want us to bake you stuff, seriously Taylor is an awesome baker! She makes Magnolia Cupcakes that will knock your socks off - LET US BAKE FOR YOU. or visit our T-shirts and MOre Store at www.cafepress.com/filmnc!

Pompeii GRAFFITI!

Click on the following links to see some translations of graffiti written and preserved on the walls of the ancient city of Pompeii

http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin_Vulgar/Texts/Pompeii_Graffiti.html

This one is great. The naked guy is pretty stereotypical. oh wait no its not because it was the first naked guy graffiti ever.

This picture to the left is considered the first political satirist cartoon in all of history. shizam.

GOING TO RICHMOND THIS WEEKEND!

HEY LOVERS AND POTTY PALS!

Taylor, Emily, and I are going to Chapel Hill, CArrboro, Raleigh, Durham, and Richmond this weekend to look for fantastic examples of bathroom graffiti! If you know any place that we should go to, please let us know! We are open to suggestions. I would love for you all to send me names of bars, restuarants, clubs, or bottegas etc.

Also, we are looking for great pictures of cave drawings, so if you have any cave painting pictures from archaeological digs that you went on, feel free to send them to me. haha

We are so excited.

We are translating the language of lavatories. Its how people connect and prove they are alive.

SELENA KELLEY! Is Amazing and sent me a picture from a bathroom

I love this monster. I wonder if this campaign was fruitful. I like the use of bold around the words "sanitary napkins." I think that really sets the tone.

She just emailed me this picture. KEEP THEM COMING PEOPLE!! I love to see what people think is funny or moving.

Joselyn Thursday September 3rd 7:44pm

Some Picture Taylor Sichting Gave Me

Hahaha. So True.

I have found the first PHALLIC wall graffiti.

This is the famed Kumeyaay cave drawing. Scientists believe that the the image on the right hand of the screen is an "elderberry flute." To be frank, I think its a skin flute. Maybe it is innapropriate to say that, but men have a tendency to create such visuals on the walls of the bathrooms I have been seeing as of late.

Here is an ok Bathroom grafitti website with a GREAT NAME!

http://www.thewritingsonthestall.com/
Czech it out.


Also, if you see some graffiti that you like, LEAVE A COMMENT! With the name of the place and the day that you found it and upload a pic even or leave what it said. GET INVOLVED. JOIN THE CONVERSATION.

LOVE JOZELYN

A Facebook Upload of a Bathroom in NYC

From Courtney Shea: @ 12:54pm September 2nd, 2009
hey girl I just saw your status and it made me remember a picture I took in NYC in the bathroom at the bar Angels and Kings. Ha it was awesome. They had newspaper cover the walls and people could write on it. So it was graffitied up! And on top of it they had a red light so it made it look sooooo cool.

The Experimental Documentary The Language of Lavatory : START

BANG!
The experimental documentary The Language of Lavatory investigating the culture and roots of Bathroom Graffiti is BEGINNING TODAY. Well technically it started 8 months ago when I had the initial idea, but I feel like the creation of this blog has started the journey that I've been wanting to take for some time.

This is my team:
Joselyn McDonald - Director- an island of complexity - THATS ME!
Taylor Sichting - Director of Photographer - beautiful and creative
Emily Sheetz - Audio - the moral support and coffee hound

We start our journey tonight in downtown Wilmigton. We will be documenting the bathroom graffiti in Bottega Wine and Art Bar, The Soapbox Launrolounge, The Copper Penny pub, and Blue Post bar.

If you have suggestions or pictures, PLEASE POST THEM OR SEND ME EMAILS. I love that.

We all have a desire to prove our existence.