When Celia Cruz died in 2003, NYC graffiti artist Antonio "Chico" Garcia painted a lively mural of her on Houston (at Ave B). We dug it. Street art meets musical tribute…. very cool.
When Pope John Paul II passed in 2005, Celia was covered up by a pastelish rendering of the man… not quite as well done as Celia, but still, very timely, and again, a beautiful gesture.
THEN, fresh off the plane from the tropics, sunburnt and groggy-eyed (and pissed off at American Airlines), I noticed that the Pope had been replaced by none other than bachata pretty-boys AVENTURA. To quote a dear friend of mine, "eso queeee?" Had Aventura died? No… This work of "art" is promoting their new album. Huh? Now, I have nothing against Aventura (seriously), but wtf? Has Chico sold out? What’s the deal? What do YOU think? We’re gonna track down Chico and get the dirt… but in the meantime, feel free to pontificate/argue/defend/whatever regarding this.
**NB: we realize this has been up for a while, but just were kinda embarassed about taking a pic of Aventura (well, a mural of Aventura, which is worse), and had to sneak out in the dead of night (and cold) to do so. Either way, it still troubles us.