#19: Welcome Back!

 

Hello Again!!!  :)

There's nothing like a nice smile, green snot, a vacant stare, anal probing and some ninja ass to welcome you back and make you feel right at home.

2009 was a very silent year for this blog, but I didn't stop taking pictures in the subway, so I have a lot of new stuff to choose from.  And I want to thank you for all the fan support I've received this year.  It means a lot to me to hear you guys are having fun with this project.  I hope to make it up to you in 2010.

By the way, the "Ninja Ass" photo is from a subway artist mod of the poster for the film "Ninja Assassin".  It made laugh when I saw it and I thought, "shit, I 'have' to post this!".  So I want to also thank the artist who did it for pushing me to go back to this blog.

#17: Random

Four random pics I just happen to love.  And here are a few notes about the techniques used, in case you're curious: 

•"Ashlee Simpson and kid drinking water"   The kid was on the top poster, Ashlee's face was hidden in the old one underneath.  She appeared when a chunk got removed from the front b&w image.

•"Leatherheads" (Clooney and the other dude).  Their faces were cut out/taken from another poster and pasted on top of the ones with the women.  

•"Gourgeous Smile"   I guess the art gallery description of the technique, would be 'mixed media'.  I just find it plain ol'funny. 

#16: Cate

This is Cate Blanchett.  The ridiculously gorgeous actress, Cate Blanchett.  And this is proof of the Indestructibility of her beauty.  No matter what you do to this woman, literally, she still looks amazing.  

#15: Text

So your strength isn't painting or etching your way with a knife, but you still have something to say about one of these posters.  Go ahead, this is an open art form.  Use whatever means you can to express your opinion.

#7: See no evil. Speak no evil... Smell no evil???

...well, it is New York City.

By the way, can you see where her nose ended up?  It's on the other girl, next to her.  That is actually an evolution of that 'cutting' technique I showed before.  They cut out elements from one place and stick it back somewhere else.  In a later posting I'll show you some great examples of this method.

#6: What would Freud say?

It's such a childish thing to giggle at drawings of penises but, "what the hell" I say, "go ahead and giggle, dammit!!"  There's a lot of shit to worry about in life, so if a stupid doodle of male genitalia makes me laugh, so be it!  I'll take a good reason to smile anytime.

#3: Why Me!!???

I knew I had another chewing gum shot I wanted to add to that previous post.  Here it is.  This poor girl got ripped in her posters.  She's an anchor of a morning news show.  Which brings up the topic of who gets defaced and who doesn't.  

Once you start paying attention to one thing in your surroundings, you quickly begin to see patterns.  

I learned that some celebrities NEVER get their posters messed with.  I studied the phenomenon and came to realize that the cooler the celeb is, the more "street cred" the person has, the lesser the chances of getting their face altered in a NYC subway poster.  People like sport athletes, especially NBA and NFL players, can have a poster for a month, promoting shoes or TV shows, and not a single scratch on them.  Instead, a morning news anchor with a cheesy poster saying "I'm jolly and fun, so please watch my show", will definitely ALWAYS get plastered with this kind of art.  And there are other patterns or reasons for who gets it and who doesn't.  

So there is some social comment here.  It's not just simple goofiness.

#2: Tools of the Trade

It's not just mustaches and black teeth.  A Sharpie is not the only tool they wield.  These used chewing gum.  I love the color on the yellow one! 

These pieces are particularly short lived because the maintenance crews that clean the stations take them down as soon as they see them, so you have to be lucky to find one.  The one with the kiss, for example, was taken down the same night it appeared, but the 'artist' redid it the next day.

Actually, I haven't seen any with gum in about a year.  Oh yes, there are fashions and trends that appear in this joy of defacing as you will see...

#1: Birth

My First Blog!  

One of the great things about riding the New York subway is coming across these ad posters that have been altered by who knows who to make them funny.  Of course, this is a "criminal" act, defacing public property... but it's FUNNY!!!  I've always been fascinated by these things in human culture that naturally make people laugh.  Like a fart.  A fart always makes people laugh.  The proverbial banana peel slip, that's always funny.  Painting a mustache and a black tooth on a picture of someones face, that's funny!  

After my first year in New York, I realized I had become a fan of these creatively defaced images.  I looked forward to passing by this or that train station to see that one face in that poster with a black tooth I had seen the other day.  And I was always saddened to find that a favorite one had been taken down, replaced by the next poster promoting the next boring product.  I soon became aware that somebody had to keep some kind of record of this ephemeral street art.  Since I always carry my digital point-and-shoot with me wherever I go, one day I said "fuck it, that someone's gonna be me".  

A few weeks ago, I told a friend about my odd collection of photos and I mentioned that I wanted to do something with them at some point, but I wasn't sure what.  She said, "make a blog".  And light came out of my body like Amelie when she had an epiphany.

So here it is.   Again, it's my first blog, so forgive the initial mistakes while I figure things out.  I probably won't be writing that much.  This is more about the pictures themselves.  

The posters might date the moment they were captured, specially when the one getting the curly mustache is a celebrity in a movie poster.  I began collecting these in the spring of 2006.