Tony Pierce of Bus Blog posted the above photo Wednesday on Facebook.
It shows a pristine wall at 4334 W. Sunset Blvd in Silver Lake--that is, if you overlook the freshly-painted logo for Solutions!, a video and audio repair place popular with locals.
For years that wall and the image on it have served as an ad hoc shrine for musician Elliott Smith who featured it on the cover of one of his albums.
When Smith committed suicide, fans started first posting, then writing tributes on the wall.
The building's owner, Stefon Lew, says he has enjoyed hosting the tributes for nine years.
But it's time to clean things up, he adds.
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So over the last couple months, he's been slowing repainting the wall, bringing it back to pretty much its original state.
Lew says at some point he'll give it some texture-make it a kind of "three-dimensional book."
He also wants to place a life-size sculpture of Smith in the precise curve of where it appears the album, Figure 8.
If you look carefully, you can also see Lew has added a little "Figure 8" at the right end of the image, suggesting the "8" shape that never really was.
Lew says it's his right as the owner of the building to make the changes.
"It's time to make the wall a wall again," he said, claiming he owes it to the neighborhood.
No comment from the group Punk Rock Marthas, who only this fall temporarily added paper cranes and red construction to the image, as well as covering over fan's comments in the white area.
