this art stinks

Get your mind out of the gutter! This isn't a gratuitous jab at Bad Art, but a look at a world of undiscovered creativity right under our noses. We've all had those slightly-unbelievable images of sidewalk art floating into our inboxes for years (I hate those, and Bert from Mary Poppins would certainly be holding his nose) but all along, who knew that the true god of road art was in the details?

I am all over these manhole covers. There's everything here from beauty to the beast. They run the gamut from beautiful fish art on sewer covers in Japan (how appropriate) to the ubiquitous manhole covers I grew up with in West Vancouver. After looking at an amazing selection of them from just one burg (yours is probably there, too), this is the one I remember seeing more than any other. I must've spent a lot of time looking for lost change while I was growing up.

Now that Rudy has made me aware of this amazing underworld and I have an actual PayPal account, I am holding myself back from ordering one of these. I especially like the one from London. These don't even have prices on them so they must be the most au courant thing in the ghetto.

But what really stinks is that someone got there before me. Oh well. If I can't become a gutter artist then I guess that means I'll have more time to ponder one of the truly great philosophical questions.