More shots of graffiti from around the San Francisco Amoeba Music on Haight Street -- including some pics from directly across the street from Amoeba.

On a recent trip to the Haight Street Amoeba, I once again found myself drawn to the outside walls of  Amoeba Music San Francisco -- specifically the top part of the wall outside from Haight Street down to the corner of the alley (away from Golden Gate Park) that leads to the parking lot where all that gradually changing wall of graf lays in beautiful, bright colorful wait. It includes the barred windows with their intricate tags that always remind me of stumbling upon some hieroglyphics in some ancient cave.

Luckily, on the day I took these pics I caught the Amoeba parking lot almost empty -- with only one car parked in front of those beloved droopy eyed heads that offer comfort to many an admirer. There will be another set of pics (Part V) posted in a week, also taken recently and featuring more of the graf around SF Amoeba.

Among graffiti artists there is a code -- many rules of the game -- and one rule is that you only tag businesses or public property -- not private -- meaning people's houses or dwellings.

But today I passed a red brick apartment building with an ugly ole tag rudely scrawled along the side of it and I thought to myself: I guess homeboy didn't get the memo!

This is the third and final part in this particular graffiti-outside-Amoeba Music, San Francisco photo gallery. In the future there will be another series of pictures (some new, some not included here, and some of the same pieces from different angles) from outside Amoeba Music, San Francisco.

That next upcoming series will also include some of the graffiti in the immediate surrounding area on Haight Street -- such as that parking lot on the corner and the building directly across from Amoeba on the other side of Haight Street.

But for now, here are more shots of graf in that alley on that one side of the Amoeba building off Haight Street. As with the other two parts in this series -- posted a few days ago -- please feel free to add any stories (good or bad) or opinions (pro or con) on graffiti, or the URLS linking to cool graffiti websites, etc., in the COMMENTS box (scroll way down) below. Thanks!

After yesterday's AMOEBLOG (the first part of this three part showcase of the graffiiti art outside Amoeba Music on Haight St.) two good comments were posted -- both positive/pro graffiti art. Melissa in SF wrote that she is also in favor of graffiti as art but how she'd "wish they'd clean up them big heads in the back...it's all messed up with cheap tags and dirt, and that has been my fave piece forever!" -- this in reference to one of the heads captured in the pic to the left here and also below in four pics. I agree with Melissa. And to me these particular images are just so striking that I literally could stand (or sit) in front of them for hours on end gazing upon their blinding beauty. And truth-be-told, I have spent a lot of time doing just that -- sitting down for long periods and slowly taking in the street art in front of me. It's no different than going to a gallery/museum and allowing ample time to fully absorb an art exhibit. Which reminds me of one time a few years ago downtown San Francisco on opening night for the MoMa for some hot, hot show. I wish I could remember exactly what the new about-to-be-unveiled exhibit was. It was one of those really well-publicized and hyped exhibits that everyone was talking about at the time...kinda like the buzz surrounding the ongoing Vivienne Westwood show in SF. But anyway, the point was that it was opening night and there was a huge mob of people (many there to be seen or to simply chug down the complimentary wine and cheese) all queuing up outside. In fact, the line was so long it snaked all the way down Third Street towards Mission and around the corner down this little alley/side street. But on that side street on that chilly San Francisco evening, as everyone was chatting and looking ahead wishing for the line to move faster, right to their left (behind a wire fence) were all these stunningly beautiful fresh graffiti pieces. But the people in line, anxious to get inside, all seemed to ignore the street art that (in my opinion at the time) was way better than the exhibit inside. The point being that street art, like the graffiti that adorns the outside walls of Amoeba SF and across the street from the store too and all around the immediate Haight Street 'hood, is in reality a wonderful public art gallery there to be enjoyed, and better still, it never has a cover charge.

I have loved graffiti for as long as I can remember. I guess from when I first saw it way back in the day emblazoned on the sides of New York City subway cars. That was 1978 and I was real young and had arrived in New York City -- fresh off the plane from Ireland -- my first time in America. Arriving in New York City in the late seventies was scary and being faced with the vision of graffiti (something I had never seen before) was at first a shock, but soon it provided a sense of comfort. And within a short time I grew to love this subway and street art that seemed to be everywhere in those days. This was back in hip-hop's early days -- before the so-called "four elements" had been drummed into impressionable minds by "hip-hop academics" -- I.E: people who came to the music/culture after the fact and from outside, but who nonetheless wrote the books (literally) on this culture that they learned of secondhand.