This LA Weekly article on the Murakami/Revok/Auger billboard insults our street smarts and suggests that the brash action taken by Murakami regarding the billboard is ok since he's "...shipping it back to Japan." Apparently the writer, Shelly Leopold believes anything Murakami's PR is telling him/her (I don't know if Shelly is male or female) and has taken the liberty to spread their word as gospel. C'mon LA Weekly, you really believe Murakami just yanked the billboard and is having it shipped to Japan? Let me give you my opinion on how this really went down and how this piece of lazy journalism could have been written had Shelly made a bit more effort to get the facts. Revok/Auger miraculously grace the billboard on Melrose and even respectfully going around Murakami's characters showing respect to the artist (which is a big deal when those two show you respect), Murakami's peoples find an image of it on the nerd, have CBS Outdoor remove it with a quickness. They don't even realize what an honor it is to have your billboard graced by two of LA's all out kings. They rip it down and a couple weeks later realize the mistake they've made when some more influential and in-touch LA artists friends holler at Murakami and say, "What happened to the billboard Revok/Auger helped you out with?" So Murakami's PR spins it into, "Oh we're shipping it back to Japan because Takashi wants it." You expect us to believe that? If Takashi was really hyped on the "remix" and realized the importance of being accepted and not dissed by two of the most notorious writers on the planet he would have reached out to Revok/Auger and asked permission to take it down and keep it. Or even offer to compensate them if he was to take ownership of it. He didn't, he ripped it down within two days of it being up. This action highly suggest that Murakami was not hyped, had no idea what an honor the affiliation was and acted out of spite rather than gratitude. Had he known, he would have let that billboard run and racked up the street cred that would have come with the affiliation. For Shelly to purvey that Murakami tore the billboard down in two days to have it shipped to Japan is laughable and takes all the credibility away from the article. There is the one percent chance that it's true and we'll see the billboard pop up again in Kanye's next Murakami showcase on "Cribs." But even if it is still around and intact I'm pissed Murakami didn't have the street sense to let that shit run. And you should be too. That's my piece, maybe I'm just bitter because once I saw an image of that billboard on the nerd I packed up my camera bag and drove down to LA to shoot an open shutter night shot of it. I instantly knew the importance of the billboard and wanted to record it for myself. Did anybody get a professional hi-res shot of this? Holler if you did.