Maybe you’ve heard of the Mission District stencil storytelling endeavor already. I hope so, as it’s a great little interactive-fiction object d’art. The short version: the stencil craze in San Francisco’s mission district is evolving, like so many other art forms, from fixed to sequential subject matter. That is, it’s evolving into a storytelling medium. As you, the reader, navigate around the Mission, you happen upon these story fragments stenciled onto the sidewalk. As you read them, one after another, a story unfolds. Depending on what order you read them, you end up with a somewhat different tale than that guy standing across from you, who got to this fragment from a different direction. Good stuff.

As you’re wrapping up your holiday weeks and slowly returning to work, I offer you a couple of related links to soak in and enjoy. First, read Russ Pitts’ great article on the subject, called “Night Bandits of Graffiti,” at its native home over at The Escapist magazine. Then, go and peruse fragments of the tale in this Flickr gallery.

“Weeks pass. Afternoon after afternoon, they stroll in the park, drinking in each other’s stories.”