Gawker: Subways

Poster Boy, Live In Action

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:16:01 EST

Anonymous subway-based ad remix artist and minor obsession of ours Poster Boy has been caught on film! All we had before to identify him was this photo(shop). Animal NY's vandal-in-chief Bucky Turco spent a nice evening with PB in a Brooklyn subway station, just cold maxing and relaxing and shooting the breeze while carving up ads with an X-acto knife and attacking trains. We now have a definitive description of Poster Boy: a male wearing a hat, doing art. If you see anyone matching that description, call police immediately. (Not really, snitches!). Watch the full clip below:

Poster Boy In Action from ANIMALmagazine on Vimeo.

[Animal NY]

Poster Boy: Trains, Planes, And Britney, Bitch

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:18:16 EST

Poster Boy: an anonymous ad remixer in the New York subways. Art: is it what he does? Culture jamming: a term too annoying to use any more, though everyone knows what it means. Sell out: is he bound to, eventually? Questions: he asks them. Britney: slut, psycho, or star? Maria: is she really poopy? Man: why is he flying on outside of train car? Poetry: why aren't I good at it? Five new Poster Boy pieces: after the jump, ya dig:

[via Flickr]

Poster Boy Gets Political

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:17:16 EDT

Anonymous subway ad vandal Poster Boy hasn't let his newfound fame go to his head. (Maybe he has? We don't know the guy personally). He's still traipsing around subway platforms with an X-acto knife and a tube of glue, busily remixing posters while slack-jawed commuters stand by unaware, presumably. After the jump are five of his newest works—I have to admit that the "FART" one is the best of all:

[via Flickr]

Anti-Groping Ads Too Sexy For You Horndogs

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:20:09 EDT

Just like giving out condoms makes kids have sex and giving out clean needles turns upright citizens into junkies, the government must protect us from public service ads more likely to destroy us than to save us. Concerned about all the horny bastards rubbing up against women on subways, New York City had an anti-groping ad campaign ready to be rolled out to the sicko public (that's you). But they had to scratch that. These ads would just set you perverts off even more!

The New York City Transit campaign was set into motion after a study last year by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer found that 10 percent of women surveyed reported having been sexually abused in the subway and 63 percent claimed to have been sexually harassed.

Stringer recommended a public awareness campaign, which NYC Transit quietly prepared. The agency made it as far as developing mock-ups, which never went to print.

Sources said the agency held off on launching the campaign out of fear it could actually provoke deviant behavior.

I'm thinking the slogan "Rub against me and I'll expose you" is the problem here.

[NYP]

Ads For Ad Show Swallow Commuters

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:21:40 EDT

The New York subway system is taking full advantage of its plan to sell all flat surfaces for advertising, including the outside of trains. The latest and most appropriate sponsor of the metal cattle car that you squeeze yourself into every depressing morning: Mad Men, the acclaimed show about advertising! Even if you barely miss your train as it pulls away, leaving you frustrated and abandoned, you'll still be educated about the existence of Mad Men. Sweet. More pics of the hellaciously busy interior of these message-wielding cars, after the jump.

[Flickr via Thighs Wide Shut]

"If you don't have any change, I accept bills"

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:11:12 EDT

Did you know that there's an annual competition of NYC street performers to determine who gets the right to the lucrative spots in the subway system? There is, and you can listen to it here. These are the musicians you will feel the urge to assault in a few months. [Time]

Master Subway Poster Artist Shows His Oeuvre

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:11:03 EDT

The mystery NYC subway poster artist whose works have instilled in us a new respect for cut-and-paste vandalism has a Flickr account! And it's chock-full of impressive works that have heretofore been seen only by those commuters lucky enough to happen upon them. But now we're bringing you five of the best new ad art remixes from his collection. Help "Fight marc ecko with one hand," after the jump:

You Have Hopscotch To Live For

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:24:40 EDT

How many times have you gazed out on the subway tracks during your daily commute, wishing only for the sweet release that hurling yourself upon them would provide? Plenty of times; you're reading this site, so we know your job sucks. Some people do throw themselves in front of trains, which represents not only a wasted life, but also a hugely inconvenient municipal clean-up job. So Washington, DC has ordered up some stuff to keep your mind occupied while you're on the platform—games like Hopscotch and "I Spy." The slogan on the games reads "Life is fun. Keep on living. Use caution around the tracks." Perhaps hopscotch was not the wisest choice, then? And let's be honest—the slogan of this campaign should really be, "Anything to Momentarily Distract You From Suicidal Thoughts." After the jump (ha), one of the "I Spy" games. This would only cure a very minimal level of depression:

[via Adrants; photo via Peter Kreder]

Toilet Paper That's There When You Need It

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:04:34 EDT

An entire car or cars on the New York subway's S line are reportedly done up in advertising for Cottonelle toilet paper, including this: "the very walls are sheeted with faux toilet paper wallpaper." A terrifying precursor to covering the outside of the train in toilet paper as well? Or merely a thoughtful nod to subway poopers? Either way, everyone now knows what the "S" stands for. (Too easy?) [Guest of a Guest/ Earlier]

Is The New Banksy Loose In The New York Subways?

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:58:27 EDT

Last week we showed you the supremely artistic "Darth Vader Meets Murakami" work of the anonymous vandal whose canvas is poster advertisements in the New York subways. But as impressed as we were by that, new photos—purportedly by the same vandal—have surfaced that, conceptually, make the earlier work look like a quickie plaything. This anonymous person has messages. All with only the ad posters themselves to work with. We're told these are all genuine, and not Photoshopped. Well, anonymous vandal: You are really fucking good. The six new photos [via And I Am Not Lying], after the jump.

Good News: Even More Subway Ads

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:13:13 EDT

Not content to simply line the subway station entrances, station walls, station signs, and interior of buses and trains with advertisements, New York City transit is reportedly set to enter the final frontier: ads on the outsides of subway trains. They're already testing out the idea with Continental Airlines ads on the 42nd St. shuttle [NYP]. Subway officials think this idea will go great with their existing "brand cars," where one advertiser takes over the interior of a whole car. As terrifying as this practice sounds, we know they need the money. So we'd like to strike a compromise: they're allowed to sell every last inch of the trains to advertisers, but in return they have to bring back this practice:

Walking Yourself Out Of The Subway: Awesome?

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:04:36 EDT

When a Chicago subway train got stopped for an hour in a tunnel yesterday morning, riders there did what many of us have thought of doing many times, but have not for fear of our lives: they got out and walked. That is just awesome. Less awesome: when officials heard people were walking along the tracks, they shut down power to the entire line as a safety precaution (for third rail zapping possibilities), which automatically stranded thousands more riders. It's a grassroots revolt ethical quandary!

The rest of the riders on the line then had no option but to walk out, which left some of them stranded underground for hours. Everyone agrees the Chicago Transportation Authority failed miserably, but opinion on the righteousness of the self-evacuating riders is split. I think most people who have been stranded on packed subway cars would say: righteous indeed. Or maybe: selfish pricks. Philosophers are welcome to weigh in. Subway officials can go to hell.

[pic of Superwoman evacuee looking incredibly spiffy after traipsing through a subway tunnel via Chicago Tribune]

Subway Cell Nightmare Coming "Soon"

abalk — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:00:59 EDT

Good news for crazed narcissists who think the world should be able to reach them AT ALL TIMES because they're just that important: The MTA is set to announce a deal to wire all 277 subway stations over the next six years. Sadly, your cellphone will only work in the stations, but hey, at least that time you spend sweating on the platform waiting for a 6 train that never comes will now be scored to a soundtrack of, "So then I was all, 'Why won't you tell your friends we're dating?' and he was like, 'Let's not cheapen it with labels,' which kind of makes sense?" Even better, the terrorists will only be able to remote-detonate their bombs in the station, so you can kick back and relax while you're cruising through the tunnels at 3 miles per hour.

MTA To Announce Deal On Cell Service for Subway [NYS] [Image via]

We're hearing from tons of people bitching ...

abalk — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:30:28 EDT

We're hearing from tons of people bitching about their morning commutes. Apparently an "incident in Queens" has played havoc with our fragile subway system. Naturally, there's nothing on the news. Did you have to take four trains to get to work today? What the heck is going on?

Subway DVD Hawker Takes Salesmanship To Next Level

Doree Shafrir — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:20:33 EDT

Observed this weekend on an uptown A train: a typical subway scene. An entrepreneurial sort was selling DVDs from a canvas messenger bag slung over his shoulder; titles available included Rush Hour 3, Mr. Bean's Holiday, and The Bourne Ultimatum, all for the low, low price of $5 each. "That won't even get you in the door of the theater!" he proclaimed. Which is true. Have you been to a movie lately? Jesus Christ. Anyway, deals were available if you were interested in purchasing more than one movie. Also, if you were leery of the quality of the DVD, this resourceful man had a solution.

He pulled out a portable DVD player, one of the ones you can buy now for like $99, and offered to play the discs for anyone interested in a purchase. Such service! He stayed in the car for several stops, showing mostly Rush Hour 3 (perhaps that's why it's dropping at the box office?) and making several sales. He said he's often on the A train, so you can probably catch him if you time it just right.

'New York Times' Commenters Are A Surly Bunch

abalk — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:50:27 EDT

What sort of person reads the New York Times? The comments section from a post about this morning's commuting issues on the paper's City Room blog might provide a clue. Since the Times doesn't seem to do it, we've gone ahead and picked out Gold Star recipients from the wealth of worthy insights the paper's readership provides. Enjoy!

Its a good thing we've spent all that money after 9/11 to fix up the communication system on the subways.Nobody at Atlantic Ave. knew what was being said.Were they speaking Chinese,its a joke !

Oh,yes, plenty more where that came from.

Everyone is screwed. What I really hate is that they were not talking about subway service on any of this morning's news programs. It was all about how LIRR and Metro North was severely backed up or canceled. Nothing was mentioned that nearly half the subway lines in the city were shut down! I walked to the 1 train to find the station was closed. Of course the MTA woman there was completely useless. Me: "Excuse me, what's going on? Are the trains running?" Her: *rolls her eyes, with attitude* "I don't know. I guess the trains are messed up. I can't help you." *rolls eyes again* I walked to the 23rd Street ACE and the uptown tracks were open (downtown side was completely closed). An F train rolled into the station so I hopped on and it hit to local stops on 8th Avenue. It stopped at 59th/Columbus Circle and I walked crosstown from there. So glad I don't live in Brooklyn, like all my friends from college. As much as they rave on and on about how Brooklyn is so much better than the city, they always bitch about the TERRIBLE train service. Suckers.

I am stunned how unreliable the New York Transit system is. For the price it must be the most poorly run system in the world; For half the system to be knocked out by a night of heavy rain is embarrassing. Even worse is the announcements/notifications that they give their PAYING customers. I entered the subway today, and there was no announcement, sign, employee, or anything else that would warn me that something was wrong, or which track to use. Once on the track, there was also no announcements or warnings. Even on the train all you hears is "This train is wah wah wah waaaah wah waah weh wah." Let me know the system is not working BEFORE I pay to use it. I could have walked to work faster, hailed a cab, used my bike, anything except the train. If the MTA was an airline it would be bankrupt in a year. I won't even mention how dirty and broken the stations are.

Who needs the Taliban? We've got Con Ed and the MTA!

Has it occurred to anyone that if this keeps happening and tons of people are stuck in subways, like at Port Authority and Times Square, that it would be a perfect opportunity for some mean people to do a lot of damage? Come on MTA, I don't think the rain should be the cause of all these problems. Doesn't it rain a lot of the year in London? You don't hear about these problems there.

Al-Qaeda may have figured out that all they need to do is go to work for ConEd if they feel like blowing up the city or the MTA if they feel like crippling it .... just think about it: regular hours, nice benefits, you can be as destructive as you like and everyone just thinks you're doing your job. Because how could we tell you're not?

I don't know about all of you, but I enjoyed walking to work for once and checking out all the Wall St. business women on the way....

And finally, our favorite:

@!#$% The MTA... They are such losers... scum of the Hudson.
— Posted by Michael Bloomberg

You said it, Mr. Mayor! Gold Star!

Flooding Cripples Subway System [NYT]

Mike Bloomberg Is A Fake Commuter

Choire — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:00:19 EDT

Michael Grynbaum—Harvard boy, former New York Observer intern, former New York Sun intern!—spent the last five weeks tailing Mayor Bloomberg. And guess what? Everyone's favorite subway-taking, straphanger advocating, public-transportation loving mayor is a total fraud. Yes! Is crazy! Two big-ass S.U.V.s wait outside his house every day, and sometimes then they drive him 22 blocks to an express stop, passing two locals. Also? He only takes the subway twice a week at this point. The N.Y.P.D. pays for the cars and drivers, and no one's quite clear on why he needs two. Unless his giant head is detachable from his little short body?

Mayor Takes the Subway — by Way of S.U.V. [NYT]

From our commenter Senor_Wences: "A female ...

abalk — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:20:34 EDT

From our commenter Senor_Wences: "A female coworker at a previous job told me this story: She was out late and drunken at a post-work cocktail thingie, then began her long subway ride from Midtown to Brighton Beach or Sheepshead Bay or wherever the hell way down there she lived.

So, she passed out, as drunken girls do. She came to just as a "homeless" man was about to finish in her face. The doors were open and she ran out, up the stairs, and a cop happened to be there on the street. She was breathlessly telling her tale, when the cop recognized her.

Turned out they'd gone to high school together. She found herself saying, yeah, yeah, things are great, I'm doing good!

Thinking to herself, I'm a person who passed out on the subway at four in the morning with some stranger jerking off on me, and feeling the lie that was her life.

I wish I'd stayed in touch with her. She drank a lot."

"Almost every New Yorker has a subway horror ...

abalk — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:25:30 EDT

"Almost every New Yorker has a subway horror story, whether it's a midnight 'flasher' or something more bizarre. But are these moments just 'the typical New York experience,' or do they represent a crisis in the transit system?" Um, who says they're mutually exclusive? [Metro]

Don't Crap In The Subway, Darling

abalk — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:55:10 EDT

Our pal Cajun Boy passes along the following correspondence. It's an ominous warning for those of you who venture above 14th Street:

I want the MTA to launch an investigation on the poop bandit at the Fifth ave/ 53rd st station. Every morning this week, some HUMAN has taken a shit somewhere in station. Monday and Tuesday it was on the stairs, then wed. it was right as you got out of the train, and someone had already stepped in it. I have been disturbed by this every morning, as it could be the most revolting thing I have ever seen!!!!

You know, say what you will about the mallification and Disneyization of New York City; so long as we've still got citizens who are willing to take a dump on the subway platform, we're still the greatest town on Earth.

Adventures in commuter anality: Should one ...

Choire — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:23:31 EDT

Adventures in commuter anality: Should one take the local or wait for the express from Union Square to Grand Central? Should one get a life? [Ask MeFi]

Times Square Still Extremely Unsafe For Children

abalk2 — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:32:13 EDT

This is a terrible, terrible thing, but we could not withhold it from you.

Metrocard Machines Sometimes Broken

abalk2 — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:20:29 EDT

Were your Metrocard machines working today? A tipster notes that "all over NYC the subway machines aren't taking credit/debit cards...so cash is the only option. Can be a real inconvenience when the closest ATM is 10 minutes away." First of all, we're not sure how different this is than any other goddamned day on the MTA. When we ever find a machine that a) accepts cards and b) actually works, we shut the hell up about it lest someone from Transit find out and disable it. More importantly, how fucking hard is it to keep an emergency twenty in your wallet or purse or sock? This is New York City. Not long ago, if you lived, say, in the East Village, you'd have to walk to the Chemical Bank at Broadway and 9th for money; it closed at 2 p.m., and there was nowhere to get money on weekends. Nowadays we know the prevalence of ATMs makes everyone feel like there's always going to be a place to get cash around you, but for fuck's sake, show a little goddamned sense. Hasn't anyone seen After Hours? —balk

Are the Terrorists Winning? Martha Stewart Hijacks Borat's Spaceship, F Train

www.gawker.com — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:00:35 EDT

The national housewife superego has lady feelings? Yes, maybe. Via the Post, the AP reports that Former Inmate 55170-0549 might soon become Mrs. Martha Helen Kostrya Stewart Simonyi (evidently, WASPiness works by the one-drop rule). Her omnibeing notwithstanding, Martha is currently in Kazakhstan to cheer on and/or get married to her space-tourist manfriend, who's set to blast off today. Unfortunately, he is not Lance Bass. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Post, and half a world away, a New York City subway car yesterday was attacked and transformed into "a cozy living room with curtains, flowers, throw pillows and rugs" in a "guerrilla installation, dubbed 'No Train Like Home.'" No signs indicate that these heinous transportation/decoration acts are related, but that's because Martha Stewart is a evil genius, like Marilyn vos Savant without the ILF part.

Who is this "longtime boyfriend Charles Simonyi," you ask, ready to "blast off today for a 13-day tour of space, a trip for which he paid $20 million to $25 million"? An enemy of freedom, that's who. The AP's Maria Danilova bravely fills us in:

"He's in excellent spirits," Stewart, 65, said after their tete-a-tete. "He's very fit and very well trained."
Stewart and Simonyi, a computer programmer who helped develop Microsoft Word, have been romantically linked for about a decade.

Yes, the woman who makes you feel inadequate in the home has made a devil's pact with the man who taunts you with animated paper clips at the office, the cretin who insists on deploying infernal green squiggly lines under clauses that, thought perhaps syntactically adventurous, are far from ungrammatical. And why is Mr. Simonyi, Czar of America's Hegemonic Productivity Suite, insisting on taking a Kazakh spacecraft? Could it have something to do with PowerPoint's complicity in the Columbia space shuttle disaster?

Look, "treason" is not a term we throw around lightly here. But if it looks like duck confit, and has the mouth-feel of duck confit, it's duck confit. And as noted, foot soldiers for Martha's secret lifestyle confederacy are already taking up positions in New York:

Ellen Moynihan said she conceived the project a year ago as a way to highlight "how much of a second home the subway system can be for millions of commuters."

But mostly, she said, she wanted to see how straphangers and the MTA - which was not told about the project - would react.

At Avenue U, a police officer peered in the car and shouted, "What are you doing?"

When the four women responded, "It's an art installation," the officer seemed skeptical, but waved in disgust and the doors closed.

It took 40 minutes to complete the decorations, including welcome mats that were duct-taped by every door.

The snazzy subway car brought smiles to many riders' faces, but some were displeased.

"This is criminal," a woman said. "It may be beautiful, but that's not the issue. They are obstructing the subway."

First obstructing justice, now obstructing subways. Is this how liberty dies, at the hands of Design?

Astro-Knot Buzz for Martha [NYP]
Railroad Apartment [NYP]

Craigslist's Missed Connections: The Breakdown

Chris Mohney — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 11:30:31 EDT

The "Missed Connections" of the Craigslist personals provides some of the most richly mined comic/tragic territory in the whole Internets. No surprise, then, that Intern Mary would eventually turn her statistical eye on the section. Short on perversity but long on pathos, we decided to dwell purely on the concrete — namely, where are all these missed connections missing their connection? Whether at work or on the subway (or for those who work on the subway), there are many possibilities. After the jump, a study on which locales feature the highest incidence of frustrated amour.

Craigslist "Missed Connections" Locations, September 25-29
_{(click to enlarge)}

We apologize for the cluttered nature of this lovely pie chart, but there's simply too large a spread of data to readily categorize. How do you lump in "Dog Walking" with "Comic Book Store" or "Hypnosis Show," for example? Nevertheless, the obvious 800-lb gorilla is the subway, where New Yorkers apparently have both the time and inclination to fantasize about their fellow creatures. But which subways, you ask?

Craigslist "Missed Connections" by Subway Line, September 25-29
_{(click to enlarge)}

The 6 edges out a win in traveling eros, though the F seems to be slutting it up quite nicely as well. The 1, N, A, and L trains make up a close pack of second-tier sexiness, with most other lines (including the PATH) sharing the basement. More geographic data is needed to plot the hottest stretches of each line, but we're willing to bet the missed connections on the 6 drop off precipitously once it hits the Bronx.

Earlier: Craigslist's Miscellaneous Romance: The Breakdown, Craigslist's Strictly Platonic: The Breakdown

MTA Talks Move More Slowly Than the F

Jesse — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:55:55 EST

D'oh. Talking! Why didn't somebody think of that before?

But seriously, folks: What's the over/under on how long till a second strike over this same non-contract?

MTA, Union Urged to Talk [NYP]

Ghost in the Machine, NYC Version

Jesse — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:35:33 EST

On the E train this morning. "No eyeholes or anything," the photographer astutely points out, "so I doubt it is a burka." Any better guesses?

'Post' Masters the MTA Obvious

Jesse — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:55:12 EST

Oct. 14: Negotiations start on new contract.
Dec. 16: Old contract expires.
Dec. 20: Systemwide strike begins.
Dec. 22: Strike ends.
Dec. 23: Full MTA service resumes.
Jan. 20: Union membership votes down negotiated deal.
Feb. 10: MTA, TWU announce that no substantive new talks have taken place.

A slow track? You think?

TWU Talks on Slow Track [NYP]

The MTA's Marketplace of Ideas

Jesse — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 10:21:50 EDT

The transit authority yesterday announced a little Christmas present: weekend fare discounts between Thanksgiving and New Year's. How'd it go over? We have no idea.

Today's News:

Today's Times:

Even MTA Foes Cheer Transit Discount [NYDN]
Fare Cuts for Holidays Are Called Into Question [NYT]

EVERYBODY PANIC

Pareene — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:50:53 EDT

Seriously, Matt — your setup for the great Harriet Miers tolerance fake-out gets a goddam siren and us New Yorkers' IMMINENT FUCKING DESTRUCTION gets scare quotes?

If we didn't work from home we'd be so panicking right now. If you see 19 guys with backpacks on the train home tonight, SHOOT THEM IMMEDIATELY.

Police Investigate New York Subway Terror Threat [ABC]
Drudge Report