The Sprinkle Brigade

Update: February 29, 2008 @ 9:34am

The interest in dog poop simply astounds me.

I got an email today titled "About Your Post: The Sprinkle Brigade". I always think these are sort of funny 'cause it's someone who found my blog via a web search. These are almost always connected to someone trying to sell something too. Guess what? Yep, someone was trying to promote their product.

It turns out that there is a company that has a calendar dedicated to dog poop and other items that, in my opinion, are just "ewwwwwww". This is what the email had to say:

Have you ever seen monthlydoos.com

this is a dog poop calendar that has been around since 2003.

Um, okay. My reply was pretty terse as I'm hoping that folks on the Internet at large don't think I have some obsession with canine crap. What made the Sprinkle Brigade funny to me was the random nature of walking down the block and seeing a random decorated piece of dog poo. That's different from going out of my way to purchase products centered around the them of dog poo.

However, who am I to squash entrepreneurial zeal?

If commercial expressions of dog poop is your thing, maybe Monthly Doos is the calendar and their other products are for you. Click over and enjoy.
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Hahahahaaha!

I love it. I've clearly recharged and I'm reinvigorated enough to actually pay attention to the news again.

This is so much so that I've decided to tune into CNN International again. My theory is CNN tries to put the most negative spin on news stories as possible. However, as my cable provider doesn't provide the BBC's newscasts, I'm stuck with CNN.

No offense Anderson, I adore you, but after watching CNN most of the time I just want to find a nice cave with the modern amenities and food delivery and never come out.

However, the newscast did provide some levity, so maybe they missed me tuning in. They talked about The Sprinkle Brigade* which is a group of street artists that decorate the dog poop that some rude New York dog owners choose not to clean up. Fuckers...I hate people who can't bother to use a pooper scooper or whatever the latest thing is.

Anyway, the reporters were so freaked out that they didn't show the web link, but that's okay. I looked it up. Thank you Google.

I love what the Sprinkle Brigade is doing. It's weird. It's subversive. However, the best thing is you're more likely to notice the errant dog poop and not step in it. Since I like my blog poop free just click on the link above for subversively decorated dog poop.

Here is another webpage that discusses the issue of dog poop at length. It has pictures of the showing the colossal rudeness of a women in Seoul who brought her toy dog and the subway, and, yes, the dog let loose in the subway car.

The Sprinkle Brigade story actually reminded me of another article I read in the current issue of Good Magazine. The Good Guide to Culture Jamming was an interesting read although I'm not sure if I completely agree with Sam Schwartz's perspective. However, even though I've heard of the concept, I'll admit this is the first article I've read about culture jamming.

Culture jamming is an attack on the authority of the dominant culture. Some culture jammers trick the mass media into passing subversive messages. Others construct new canvases to broadcast their ideas outside of the old structure.

Culture jamming is not undertaken to promote a brand or any other commercial interest. There's another term for that: advertising.

I think the decorative dog poop fits this description. It's a big red blinking light to some rude dog owners in New York City to pick up after their damn dogs. I'm sure pedestrians appreciate it too. Maybe the next time I go to the Big Apple I won't have to literally dodge the crap. I've been lucky, so far. I have had no misteps into dog poop ever, and I've spent weeks wandering around Paris. Maybe Paris needs it's own chapter of the Sprinkle Brigade, but I've heard they've cleaned a lot of the dog poop up in Paris.

What's funny is while I'm writing this the Oprah is on and it's a rerun of the episode with Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer or dog trainer to the stars. Seeing dogs that get more love than orphans is, as an adoptee, is just sad.

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*The folks at the Sprinkle Brigade also have a blog: http://sprinklebrigade.blogspot.com/

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