so here is what you do on a cold, stormy, rainy day in los angeles…..you run around with a camera in one hand and umbrella in another and look for these in the streets of la brea, street art central in LA. don’t be afraid to poke your head in every alley, behind every dumpsters…if you can, dare to unscrew with your cold and bare hands a tarp that allegedly is protecting a banksy on a gas station’s wall (ok this particular scheme didn’t quite work as planned). you’ll be so amused, you’ll forget it’s not supposed to rain like that in LA.  i promise.

where i don’t indicate the artist that’s because i don’t know who it is. tips are appreciated.

photos banafsheh ghassemi and kris walsh 2009

Old Monopoly edition

Who is Mr Monopoly and What are the real stories around the Monopoly board game?

Monopoly is considered, the father of all modern board games. Its popularity doesn’t know borders or language barriers and from its firsts years of life, it became the favourite board game of kids and parents.

There are so many stories and incredible facts around Monopoly that would be impossible talk about history of board games without making any reference to these events. Friends playing Monopoly in the most unusual ways and people attempting incredible records.

Here you can find some real stories and incredible facts that surround the Monopoly board game:

A Monopoly game was played underground in Greenlay, Colorado, in 1974. Eight boys played and lasted 100 hours. The participants were rewarded with a cake representing a big (and sweet) Monopoly board.

On April 10, 1974 two students at the University of Michigan, David Kemper and David Lichterman painted a big Monopoly board on the ceiling of their dormitory. To defy the gravity laws, the two students had planned to play the game using balloons filled with helium. However, at that time helium was very difficult to find, so the two students made a formal request to Parker Brothers who immediately sent them few barrels of the precious gas.

Mr Monopoly

A curios Monopoly underwater record was attempted by a team of scuba divers in Massachusetts. Parker Brothers technicians worked hard to create a special version of the game that could be used underwater. The result was a waterproof and heavy Monopoly board. In 1983 in Buffalo, 350 underwater divers played a Monopoly tournament for 1080 hours.

Even Monopoly can have its ups and downs according to a dozen people in Torrance, California who played Monopoly in a moving elevator for 148 hours.

1967 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, a group of students of Juniata College played a game of Monopoly using the streets and sidewalks of the campus as the board. The players moved around the huge board receiving information from bike messengers and radio transmitters.

During the Second World War the Allies used boxes of Monopoly to hide and introduced strategic material for their prisoners in Germany. To help the prisoners escape, Allies secret service transformed Monopoly in a top-secret escape kit, hiding in the game box a compass, small metal tools and a map.

Monopoly Stamp

The face drawn on the Monopoly board behind the bars of the prison has a name: “Jake the Jailbird” . According to the legend in 1967 in England, some robbers played a game of Monopoly with the money of their last job.

In 1973, the Atlantic City’s Public Works superintended proposed to change the name of the real Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues, But the bill was vetoed due to the public outcry. Even the then president of Parker Brothers, Edward Parker, wrote a letter to manifest his protest saying that “The Baltic and Mediterranean Avenue belong to America and Americans”.

In the movies “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “The King of Marvin Gardens” (1972), Jack Nicholson talks about the Monopoly as the game where everything is bought and where you can win or lose everything; as in the real life.

In 1959, during the American National Exhibition in Moscow, six Monopoly boxes were part of the display. At the end of the exhibition, the boxes had mysteriously disappeared. At that time In the Soviet Union, the game was banned to being “too capitalist” . Today there is a Russian version of Monopoly, written in Cyrillic.

Old Monopoly cards

Monopoly was a great success in Cuba until Castro came to the power. Fidel ordered the destruction of all the boxes of Monopoly in Cuba.

Following the requests of NASA, Parker Brothers has already created a special Monopoly, using anti fire material (houses and hotels are made of aluminium). The Monopoly board is ready to go to the the space. In fact, the psychologist William J. Beausay believes, that during long periods in the space, the astronauts must have a pass time to help them stand the isolation and the small spaces. Beausay hypothesize a Monopoly tournament in the space with big cash prizes to motivate astronauts and distract them from homesickness.

Monopoly numbers:

• more than 160 million boxes sold around the world

• more than 500 million people around the world have played Monopoly once.

• more than 5 billion in Monopoly little green houses have been built since the first board game launch in 1935.

• Monopoly is manufactured under license from Parker Brothers in 43 countries, sold in 80 and translated into 26 languages
.
• a version of Monopoly was created Alfred Dunhill, with gold and silver houses, was sold for 25 thousand U.S. dollars.

• The longest Monopoly game ever played lasted 1680 hours, equivalent to 70 days
.
• The longest Monopoly game played in a moving elevator lasted 240 hours. Other unusual games were played n a tree house (286 hours), underground (100 hours), in a bathtub (99 hours) and upside down (36) hours.

• January 24, 1974, the first Lottery Monopoly, was win by Susan Bell in Paris, Tennessee. As a reward she received a box of Monopoly with real money ($15.140 )

• in 1978 the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog offered a chocolate version of Monopoly for $ 600.

• In 1934, when the monopoly was presented for the first time at Parker Brothers, the publishing house rejected it because, according to them the game contained 52 fundamental errors

• A Computer research identified the 3 most landed on boxes: Illinois Avenue, “GO” and B&O Railroad.

• Each year are printed only for the English editions notes for the equivalent of 40 billion dollars. More than double those printed by the mint of the United States.

• “Mr Monopoly” is the name of the man drawn on the monopoly box.

Reference: Incredible facts about Monopoly

Thanks for your interest!

]]> http://nosaintsinla.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/mr-monopoly-by-alec/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:00:04 +0000 SICHLA http://nosaintsinla.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/mr-monopoly-by-alec/ http://mr17blog.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/%e5%a4%a7%e5%af%8c%e7%bf%81-3/ Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:10:25 +0000 Mr17 http://mr17blog.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/%e5%a4%a7%e5%af%8c%e7%bf%81-3/

有很多人都覺得玩大富翁需要很長時間才玩完一局，事實上呢個遊戲唔係短短一小時內可以完成。不過有些方法可以縮短遊戲時間。呢D玩法唔係我自己想出來的，係來自遊戲說明書或正規遊戲。

SHORT GAME RULES

首先洗好地契每人派兩張，每人按地契的價錢買，然後照正常開始遊戲。原本起酒店要先起四間屋，係short game rules，起三間屋可以起酒店，照收番酒店租。最後只要有兩個人破產就end game。

TIME LIMIT GAME

同SHORT GAME RULES一樣每人派得兩張地契，按契俾錢。然後計時開始，大家agree 一個時間完。

快骰版

其實呢個係大富翁新版本。快骰版大富翁俾普通版只係多左一粒叫快骰(Speed die)既野。呢粒快骰完全加快左成個遊戲。

快骰唔係普通骰仔，得點數 1 至 3，另外三面係「巴士」同「Mr Monopoly」。當然無快骰可以搵粒唔同顏色既普通骰仔頂上，點數 4當「巴士」，點數 5、6當「Mr Monopoly」。擲到「巴士」就可以選擇其中一粒普通骰或兩粒骰的點數前進，擲到「Mr Monopoly」首先要依普通骰的總值行走，照樣抽卡、買地、交租。之後就係快骰之「快」的關鍵。如果銀行有地未賣，你就可以移到下一塊未賣出的土地，照正常你可以買定拍賣，所以玩快骰版好快就會賣晒d地。如果銀行賣晒所有地，你就會去下一塊要交租的地方。

So this past Valentine’s Day weekend was a glorious three day adventure full of “what if…?” questions and movies galore (ranging from the laughter inducing to the thought provoking to the lost). I spent a good portion of the weekend of love in the comfortable confines of midway, UT, tucked away in the majestic Heber valley. As such events warrant light packing and good humor (not the ice cream bars, though they are certainly not looked down upon in the slightest) I did not bring a razor or shaving cream with me. Upon returning to Provo, I was met with a desire to do absolutely nothing. So my days were again full of movies and couch sitting. As I contemplated returning to school and real life on Tuesday morning I noticed the follicles on my face had been rather active. I knew that I could not maintain facial hair because of the honor code agreement I signed with my school (a certain image must be maintained and that image does not include beards of any kind, and me being a man of my word, I must oblige). Delving deeper into my memory of useless facts and profound knowledge I remembered that a mustache was acceptable. Such a glorious strip of upper lip rug-age has always avoided me. In the past I was unable to get past the “creep-stache” stage without going crazy or giving in to peer or motherly pressure. But this time, it was going to be different, defiantly! (maybe). But despite my inner concerns, I have decided to go for it. I have decided to attempt to grow a mustache. This caused me to dwell and ponder the history of such a great institution. So I turned to wikipedia while in my cultural anthropology class. There were many fun facts that I was able to find out and wish to share here, now. The first sighting of the glorious upper lip lampshade was in a painting from circa 300 BC of a Scythian Horseman. It just so happens that the Scythians and the Samaritans were pretty much cousins. Did the Good Samaritan have a fat Stache of mus? Who knows? In the military, the larger your mustache was the higher the rank you held. The moustache was also a sign for villainy in early comic books and black and white movies. (I am reminded of the cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and the villain (Snidely Whiplash) that would tie up the girl and put her on the train tracks. Then at the end of the episode he was standing there as the train was barreling down the tracks toward our fair maiden and the question was often posed by the narrator, “where is our hero (Dudley Do-Right)? Will he make in time? As if for some strange reason they didn’t make it, which they always did by the way.) Ok, back to the stache. There are many variations of the nose’s welcome mat. Some are Fu Manchu, Handlebar, Toothbrush (Hitler), and the pencil just to name a few. There are also months dedicated to the growth of that particular piece of carpet. “March Mustache Madness” (a play the NCAA Tournament moniker “March Madness”) and “Movember” are just two of them. So there you go, the mustache is here and it is here to stay.

the thick/thin creepstache

Tom Selleck: the Master of the Mustache

Mr. Monopoly rocks the stache on the upper east side and in the confindes of your local neighborhood penitentiary.

I downloaded a version of Monopoly for my phone a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve always been a fan of the game, but rare was the opportunity to play, mostly because my friends and family didn’t have the thriving competitiveness and stamina required to master the board game.  Years later, despite advances in technology, there is still nobody that wants to play, but thanks to said technology, now I can play against my phone.  If it hasn’t already been prevalent, I think now it’s quite obvious I have no life.

Anyway, here are a few pieces of Monopoly strategy:

• Never buy Utilities at full price (Electric or Water properties)
• Railroads provide the the most consistent revenue throughout the course of the game.  Pick these up first if possible
• The first two properties available (Mediterranean & Blatic) are the worst investments in the game until you can get 4 houses on them.
• Having 3 houses per property on a monopoly provides the best use of your money. 
• The most likely rolled number is 7 2 & 12 are the least probable.

Yesterday, I witnessed what I would call a public space intervention at the Royal Bank on Sherbrooke, close to McGill University. When I say banking, I mean an exercise rather like sticking one’s finger in the dyke; depositing a few dollars into an account in an attempt to avoid getting washed away in a sea of debt. I was sitting waiting my turn, when in walked a slim man wearing a suit and an incongruous pair of clunky walking boots. Accompanying him was Mr. Monopoly – as in the bespectacled, moustachioed, top-hat-wearing man who represents the world-famous board game.

The slim man starts shouting at the sleepy crowd of bank clients, in English.

Slim man: Excuse me! Can anyone lend us $25,000? Can anyone give Mr. Monopoly $25,000 for the limousine ride home?

At this point, I think the performance is quite amusing. I attempt to catch the slim man’s eye with my sheepish smile – wanting to convey that I am too broke to lend even a nickel. But the slim man is not really looking to interact with the crowd. No, he’s up to something entirely different. He thereupon bursts into French, which is clearly his first language.

Slim man: I want you all to know that today is Black Friday – the darkest day of the whole shopping year. Canadians will spend more money on Christmas today than on any other day of the year. So withdraw as much money as you can, spend as much money as you can. Get out there and spend all your money! Think about it!

And having hectored the rather confused crowd this way, the slim man departs, accompanied by Mr. Monopoly. Afterwards, a confused Anglophone in line asks, what was that guy talking about? An equally confused woman says she thinks it’s something about going out and shopping. I think of adding my two cents on what it was about, but opt for silent brooding instead. I like silent brooding!

I have been thinking about public space a lot in the last week – how those magic words “public space” can be invoked in order to lend gravitas to whatever an activist or artist is attempting to do. I think the general idea of many public space interventions is to try and reclaim our streets, sidewalks, malls and other gathering places from the purely profit-seeking imperative of corporations, and at the same time, to deliver a “wake-up” call to the supposedly unaware consuming citizens that are sleepwalking through their lives.

But often, public space interventions are totally pretentious, silly, and self-righteous! When an individual sets himself up as the appointed one for delivering a wake-up call to society, he (or she!) places himself outside of society. He is saying that he knows something that society doesn’t know but needs to hear. As with Mr. Monopoly and his agent, he adopts a lecturing tone with his audience – treating a group of individuals as if they are no more than a herd. He demeans the individuality of everyone in the crowd, by making vast assumptions about their behaviour and motivations.

I wasn’t in the bank trying to withdraw thousands of dollars to go on some mad Christmas spending spree! I was paying in the very first deposit for my new business partnership – Villeray Communications – which one day, hopefully, will pay me enough to eat, pay rent, heat my apartment, etc. Nevertheless, I felt the condescension for me dripping from every word of Slim Man, the agent for Mr. Monopoly. I was relieved when the dopey duo exited the building. Nobody needed them there in the first place — not even on Black Friday!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I write to humbly ask you to consider revising the labeling of your popular board game, Monopoly.  I have searched all sides of the colorful box and though you specifically detail the age-appropriateness of the game, and the number of people who can play, you have overlooked a serious piece of information that should be included so that potential buyers are as informed as they should be before bringing your product into their homes.

Before I offer my labeling suggestion, you should know that our family has been lifelong Monopoly players and we always – each and every time! – have the same problem with your game, which leads me to believe that a change in labeling would save other players the same dilemma as the one we have repeatedly noticed.  Further, I have conducted nonscientific polling of other family members and acquaintances and have discovered that the problem appears widespread.

Last night we had Family Game Night.  We started with a fun and casual pizza dinner and noticed that everyone was in a good mood.  We laughed, shared funny stories, and generally enjoyed each other’s company.  I offer this information so that you will know that our problem was not a simple random fluke of poor humor.  No, we were happy – at least at first.

After dinner we began playing your bestselling game.  I was the dog (he’s so cute!) , John was the moneybag , our youngest son was the sporty car , and his sweet girlfriend was the shoe .  Again, we were all delighted with our selections of mini metal game pieces.  We eagerly rolled those pudgy little dice to see who went first, and then the game started in earnest. 

It went downhill pretty fast from there.

The game started around 7 pm and went on for about 3 and a half hours that quickly disintegrated into dog-eat-dog.  By the time the game was over, our happy little family had disintegrated into a cutthroat mob, each ready to wheel-and-deal their way into real estate mogul status.  It was, I must say, disappointing to see each of us stoop to such a low level.  By the time the game was over, we had all seen the evil side of each other.  Two words:  NOT. PRETTY.

Your mascot, the rollypolly Mr. Monopoly is typically drawn to appear good-natured and chipper:    Was this a conceptual error, or deliberately, and devilishly, misleading of your consumers to lure them into the mistaken belief that Monopoly will actually be lighthearted fun?  I contend that either Mr. Monopoly is a disturbed individual who enjoys watching people sink to their baser natures, as our family does each and every time we play Monopoly, or he is exactly the wrong one to promote your game!  Either way, Parker Brothers should reconsider how Mr. Monopoly is drawn, at least, and show him as the diabolical character he truly is.  Truth in advertising, you know.  I have a few suggestions for a more honest mascot for your product:

How ’bout this, more truthful, version of Mr Monopoly looking a little bit diabolical:   

Or maybe you could drop Mr. Monopoly altogether, but still stay with a cartoon, but one that is more intellectually honest like this: 

Or, for those of us who know that this game brings out our evil side, you might even consider this: 

My apologies.  I’ve run far afield of my original point, so back to my primary reason for writing this letter.  I beg of you, for the sake of all things good and decent, and in the name of family values, please consider placing the following warning on the outside packaging of your product (in bold lettering please):

WARNING:  Playing this game may cause temporary negative side effects including, but not limited to:  personality changes (often demonstrated by greed and double-dealing) , outbursts and/or displays of temper.  Players may develop lawyeristic tendencies, both in the interpretation of game rules and in overall ethical makeup.  The negative side effects, though typically temporary, may result in relationship disruption.  This disruption is generally reversed upon vowing to never play the game again and/or placing the game at the curb on the next scheduled trash day.

Thank you for hearing me out.  I trust that you will do the right thing for the future generations of Monopoly players to come.

I must sign off now as I have other letters to write – mostly letters of apology.

Sincerely yours,

Monopoly Victim in Texas

xxoo

I’d almost say that this ad is unfair, but…

-Marc-

Επιτέλους μία ψήφος που θα έχει αντίκρισμα… Όχι ψεύτικες υποσχέσεις των πολιτικών… 100 τις 100 εγγυημένα…

Η Hasbro διοργανώνει ψηφοφορία για να βγάλει τις πόλεις που θα αποτελούν τα τετραγωνάκια στη νέα παγκόσμια έκδοση της monopoly. Κλασικό παιχνίδι, όλοι το αγαπάμε, αλλά εγώ είμαι ο καλύτερος!!

Λοιπόν μπορούμε να ψηφίσουμε εδώ για την Αθήνα, την ώρα που ψήφισα ήταν στη θέση νούμερο 10 και οι 20 πρώτες θα μπούνε. Ψηφίστε και εσείς να δούμε σε ποια γειτονιά θα μας βάλουν, υποψιάζομαι θα έιμαστε απο τις πιο φτηνές hehe, αν και απότι λένε τα ρεπορτάζ για το κόστος ζωής θα πρεπε να μαστε στις τελευταίες hehe

ΥΓ. Ο κύριος Monopoly δεν μοιάζει με τον Φερέρ της ΑΕΚ ? Πολλοί το λένε