Long before the Internet, the scribblings in the john-stalls of the Cleveland State men's rooms were a world of their own, so help me! It got so bad back in the 1980s that they had to paint the walls of the john-stalls BLACK! But even that didn't dissuade the avid CSU scribble-dudes from excreting their ink while excreting their other stuff.


There was a lot of the regular stuff, of course: scatological dissings, idiotic humor, gayquest, Tolkien musings (that Eye was everywhere), and plugs for various musicians, bands and songs -- in the latter category, there were tons of stuff about Devo, P. Styrene, Johnny Blitz, and Vambo (an entity mentioned in songs by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band). But then there were the odd and very actual discussions -- often rantings -- between various oddballs assuming absolutely ridiculous personas and often expounding the most obtuse gibberish! I remember "The Genesis Of Dr. Mannis", which was actually in CHAPTERS from one restroom to another (he eventually "changed" into Captain Azure). There was a ridiculous and continuous philosphical debate between Ego and Dr. Derego (a lot of "doctors" among these graffitists). There were even various "celebrities": Carl Kolchak, Dr. Roger Korbey (from the first 'Star Trek'), "the Magician" (from that old Bill Bixby series), and even Count Vlad Tepes Dracula. But mostly there were more original yet obscure entities such as Mr. Mute, the Brain from Lorain, the infamous computerized Guardian (who was always "neutralizing" everybody else's graffiti), Great Tor Crusher, the 5-H Squad, the Space Goat (ha!ha!), and of course Grafitti Man [sic -- and he obviously WAS sick].

Oh ...

And let us not forget -- THE GREAT IMPERIAL LIZARD AND HIS MIGHTY LEGIONS OF ROYAL BRAIN POLICE! Yeessh ...

When I recall reading all this crap back during the '80s, it now seems only obvious that the Internet JUST HAD TO HAPPEN! Because no amount of college restrooms could ever satisfactorily contain all that mental excrement. Indeed, as evidence for this there was all the graffiti which sometimes appeared OUTSIDE of the johns. I remember that for years a writing of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" remained scrawled on a corner-wall of University Center. Yeesh ...


I trust some of you have survived CSU's Evil Graffiti Period.


Any comments? Any condemnations?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2007 08:40AM by baronightwolf.

John Holmes... good actor. (Paging Keith Newman...)

Ho, ho! Too bad you had to give up your show, Eric/Sergio/Boogiepop. Hopefully you can grace us with another one soon.

Hey John Holmes was top notch!

How about all of the different "line" sayings by the urinal in the 9th floor men's room.
"outline"
"Feline"
"Kevin Kline"
"Lines of Coke"
"Do that and it's a police line up"
"Colonel Khadafy's Line of Death"

etc.

Scruggscorp Syndicated Radio
Sunday Nights, Midnight- 2 AM

Yeah. I also remember 'the Communist Youth Brigade', and their:
"FREEDOM IS AGAINST UNITY -- FORGE THE CHAINS, ENSLAVE THE PEOPLE!!"


And who could forget the Reagan-era rants? Like:
"SAVE THE WHALES -- KILL A RUSSIAN TODAY! (KILL TWO HUNDRED MILLION -- THEY'RE SMALL ...)"