Our Urban Odyssey
what’s your story?

So now it’s ok?

So it’s not new news that NYC subway cars now have advertisements slapped on their steel sides. But this blog is new so I’ll bring it up now. These advertisements are just a sanitized version of what graffiti artists knew back in the day when they were bombing the cars with their art. They are perfect canvases for moveable art. Art that is not stationary but travels and takes its message TO YOU. Don’t like what I have to say? Gonna say it anyway AND in all the boroughs. Then I’m going to do it again tomorrow. But I digress. The difference being now it makes money for companies. Its artists aren’t predominately lower income kids, city kids or kids of color. It’s Joe from marketing! I know, I know… we can get into the differences between the two (I mean OTHER differences than the ones I mentioned), one being something invited and legal, the other not. We can talk about the broken window theory that Malcom Gladwell discusses in his book The Tipping Point. I don’t carry sanitized memories from childhood of riding in subway cars with lights that flicked on and off half the time you were between stations, with car walls painted in a cacophony of contorted, dripping letters that made me feel like I was in a funhouse. But history does a good job of reminding you of how race and class often determine the validity of your societal voice.

For a collection of subway photos visit:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nycsubway/

For a blog on subway graffiti art (where I got this picture) visit

http://oldschoolscholar.com/graff-writers-artists-nonetheless/

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