Chico Murals

In moments of frustration, M. has sometimes been heard to curse people with the words “A plague of Chico murals on your neighborhood!” I have mixed feelings about Chico’s output. Given that the Lower East Side is not exactly an area of great natural beauty, the splash of color is certainly welcome. On the other hand, there is something undeniably creepy about them. I think it’s the eyes. The newest one, of the late Pope, is particularly sinister, making the recently-departed pontiff look ominously Aryan. I wonder if it’s permissible to hope that someone will go out and whack Puff Daddy or Fifty Cent, so that I don’t have to walk past this every day for the next two years.