There are three dosa restaurants between the 1100 and 1300 blocks of Kingsway. House of Dosa (1391) was the first (late-1990s), followed by another (now defunct) run by the owner of the restaurant where the House of Dosa owners once worked. Following that, the Dosa Factory (1345), which many say has better food than House of Dosa, but a decor that feels slept in. And now Dosa World (1150), at a site that once housed Indian and Thai restaurants.
In an effort to attract business, Dosa World put out a flower box that might have come from the old Cedar Cottage Cafe site at the northeast corner of Kingsway & Clark, currently a hole almost as big as the one its co-owner, Francesco Aquilini, is alleged to have dug for himself as both a husband and a father. I watched as this box was planted this summer, and it saddened me to see that plants chosen for their bright colours were also those that require a fair degree of sunshine, something that is not possible outside a north-facing business.
And now this graffiti, which is clearly the work of four, each distinct from one another in colour, line and form. As you can see, the box was treated to a preliminary coat of white paint, allowing the black pen purists to stand out, be seen. We know now who "Drop Steady" and "below" are, though reading their names here, in my text, is only half of it, for these taggers are not here by design, only by that which is legible, as writing.
A violence of presence by those who have difficulty imagining a realty other than their own. I would say the same of the Vancouver Mural Festival. Yet another sign of the times.
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