Trading cards that highlight fun facts about retired subway conductors and operators. Key chains with a fake rat’s foot for “good train luck.” A bucket hat with a sliding veil that riders can borrow to cry in private.... The transit-themed newsstand will have no other purpose than to amuse and intrigue New Yorkers....
Nice photos. I like this kind of art installation. Comical. For the people.
पोस्ट्स
१७ टिप्पण्या:
Newsstands are still a thing?
Puppets are the first thing I think of when I think of NYC subways.
how much is their rent for the space? or are they Just sqatting?
Lazarus said...
"..Newsstands are still a thing?"
apparently NOT. Which explains WHY the space Was empty
NYC looks pretty grimy. It needs more Japanese and conservatives of all kinds. You know, clean people who leave things better than they find them.
The comedy will be useful for a while. Mamdani's just getting his feet wet. It won't be long before the whole of NYC will be about as funny as Solzhenitsyn's cancer ward. In the immortal words of Emilio Lizardo, laugh while you can, monkey-boy.
There's an epic novel a-brewing about the City and the Apocalypse. I have only a few notes so far, but a pretty good title -- "One Day in the life of Eustace Tilley, or Reflections in a Red-Tinted Quizzing Glass"
"Newsstands are still a thing?"
The ones in the subway closed during the pandemic and never really came back. Perhaps the shuttered one at Boro Hall (build into a wall, not in the middle of the platform) will turn in to some kind of exhibit.
The newsstand in the article has the misfortune of being in the middle of the platform, on a stop where the platform isn't particularly wide. In the picture, you can see a guy leaning against it. Standing away from the platform edge, back against a wall, has become standard practice for many riders today -- too many schizos and psychotics in the subway, and you don't want to be the next victim pushed onto the tracks by some nut off his meds and fighting his demons. People of a certain age, especially women, do that pretty automatically now. I suspect the reality of that kind of crime in the subway will have an impact on how this art project plays out.
I like the clocks that give the time in each borough. This is the sort of thing I miss from living in New York. Most cities have "found art" like this, but not to New York's standards. It's the only city I know where that quartet playing Mozart while you wait for the train might also be the string section of one of the best orchestras in the world. Where there might be a parade going down your street at 10 PM on a Tuesday and you never find out why. Or where the food cart in front of the courthouse might have the best souvlaki you've ever tasted.
"From each according to their puppetry, to each according to their freebies", said Mamdani as he added puppets to his list of private property.
Aren’t the NYC subways essentially free, with the domestically challenged (homeless/bums) now using the cars as their crash pads? The subways are going to deteriorate until they start charging everyone for their tickets, and jailing those who don’t pay, endanger others, etc.
Even 50 years ago, when I visited, NYC had the worst, the grodiest, subway system I had ever ridden. New Yorkers just closed their eyes, and focused on this sort of thing. Not for me.
We were in NYC last week. I used to go regularly but this was the first time in about 10 years. Wasn’t excited about going but was pleasantly surprised. Stayed in Manhattan but rode public transport exclusively. No uber or taxis. Subway lines we were on were pretty clean, few homeless. Saw a few turnstile jumpers but not as many as I expected to see. New terminals at LaGuardia were very nice. Old ones were a dump. Streets were generally free of trash. Times Square in the evening is a bit crowded and somewhat sketchy. And we were near Central Park stabbing location when it happened. But other than that. Would return.
Those clocks remind me of that "New Yorker" magazine cover with the imagined view looking west, ignoring anything not in the city.
All your freebies are belong to us.
Open a gun shop for the Subway
SNL subway newsstand musical sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJEW2q2F50
CC, JSM
I'm glad they had fun. Based on the photos, it appears that absolutely nobody not actually involved in the project gives a rat's ass.
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