New public art for Third Avenue and 22nd Street?

EV Grieve reader Empire checks in with these photos. Is this some kind of new public art? Empire notes: "It's parked facing the wrong direction (against traffic, albeit in a proper spot). Then there are stickers on it that say, 'Please, don't take me into a museum' ... and 'Google me, asshole,' which i tried to do, but couldn't make out the letters in the tag."

Dog day afternoon

At the South Street Seaport.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Sign graffiti

The World of DVD is closing: So how many adult shops are left on Eighth Avenue?

Walking up to the Times building on Eighth Avenue...across from the Port Authority...



I notice the World of DVD, located on Eighth Avenue just below 40th Street, is going out of business. (Technically, it's going out for business.)



I go inside to check the sales. The usual stuff -- with a dash of crapola B movies upfront (who knew John Cena was in so many films?) to make it seem a teensy legit. The "buddy booths" are upstairs, where two men are standing, waiting for something. Nothing much doing. They barely glance my way. Another man stands in the back. He's holding a mop. The row of booth-style peeps are empty.



How the shop looked a few years back...



So yeah, it's very old news that the XXX joints of Times Square past — the Major Midtown Wanton Hussy Belt is my favorite description of previous eras — are gone, replaced by the corporate sheen of multiplexes and chain stores. Still, a touch of the seedy element remains. But what is left? I continue north on Eighth Avenue. There's the Show World Center there on the right, featuring DVDs, lingerie, toys and booths. It survives for now.



Then there's Gotham City, which sits next to the Lace Gentlemen's Club between 43rd Street and 44th Street.



Signs promise "live fantasy girls." On the second floor. I take a look. I figure they're old signs from the glory days. Uh, well, no. On the third floor, three women sit in front of peep booths. One of them may have been a man. Though probably not. The woman closest to the stairs gives me the rundown: "$30 for a strip show and $40 for a masturbation show." She ends her sales pitch by saying, "You can totally masturbate!"

Totally?

Moving along...

The infamous Playpen was an adult-oriented mecca along the southwest side of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street. That whole parcel came down in late 2007 to make way for whatever blandness the Tishman Realty Corporation has in mind.




And as Jeremiah noted, the northwest corner of 44th Street and Eighth Avenue is ready for demolition...the building housed two adult DVD stores...(one of the stores moved to 37th Street and Sixth Avenue.)





Then, apparently, there is another Gotham City on Eighth Avenue, this one between 47th Street and 48th Street. This store also promises "live fantasy girls." On the second floor. The booths are in the back. You can pretend to browse for lingerie in the front section of the floor. One woman is on duty near the booths yesterday for the post 9-to-5 crowd. She looks at me, and makes a hissing noise. "Tssssssssssssst." And motions for me. I wave and head back down the stairs, pretending to look at a thong first.




So. On Eighth Avenue between 40th Street and 50th Street, I saw the following:

Three stores that sell DVDs and toys. They feature viewing booths.
Two stores with "live girls."
One gentlemen's club.

OK, six...

There are also three adult DVD stores on 40th Street between Seventh Avenue and Ninth Avenue.
Cheetahs Gentlemen's Club is on 43rd Street between Eighth Avenue and Seventh Avenue.
Private Eyes Gentlemen's Club is just west of Eighth Avenue on 45th Street, next to the Al Hirschfield Theatre.
I'm sure there are other adult-theme stores in the immediate vicinity. This is simply what I see on this trip.

According to the Times, there were 96 sex-oriented sex shops on Times Square in 1977; down to 35 in 1987.

In any event, I see more of the winker-feeler-groper-looker set in other areas of Times Square, the sparkly new part with the chain stores and big window displays, such as this one on 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue...




For further reading:
Questionable prostitution charges at 8th Ave. porn shops (Chelsea Now)

Somewhere around Penn Station

Something to match my sweater.

Putting the ass in water gun assassination

Fliers are up in the neighborhood for the next Water Gun Assassination tournament in NYC from June 1-22.




According to the StreetWars Web site, to qualify to play:

-- You must be 18 years old or above please!
-- You must live and work in the 5 boroughs of NYC.
-- You have to be available late at night, in the cover of darkness, on either May 30th or May 31st to pick up your assignments in person.
-- You must be physically able to make at least one kill attempt per week. That means going out and actually trying to smoke someone. Just stalking and giving up does not count as an attempt. So if you need to run some business trips out of town for a few days is fine. But if you need to be going for a whole week during the game, then you would be disqualified.
-- Please, nobody who still lives with their mamas

The Times had a piece on StreetWars last fall:

StreetWars was created in 2004 by Franz Aliquo, then a 28-year-old securities lawyer, as a cure for a boredom phase he was working through. Mr. Aliquo named himself Supreme Commander and, with a friend known as Mustache Commander and other helpers, has held several killing tournaments in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London and Paris. The game resembles the 1980s campus phenomenon Assassin, itself a reminder of the 1985 film “Gotcha!” starring Anthony Edwards and his paintball gun.

The contestants are mostly in their 20s or early 30s, from what could be called the kickball set; about 35 percent in the current war are women.

Posts that I never got around to posting: Bus ads that cover a lot of the bus

On Park Row downtown.

The end is near

At 14th Street and Fourth Avenue.

Flashback to last fall...

Fashion models

The Times recently had a photo essay that I liked on Lifestyle Forms and Display, which "designs and produces mannequins and clothing forms at a plant at Cozine and Alabama Avenues near Starrett City in Brooklyn."

And, despite Kim Cattrall, I've always been fascinated by mannequins. Need to get my mannequins set up on Flickr. Meanwhile. Until then...

From somewhere on 27th Street. (And if these aren't the scariest damn things around....)



And...

Happy holidays!

As of yesterday, March 25, the holiday lights were still up in Chinatown.

New Yorkers really like the new Cemusa bus shelters and newsstands, survey by Cemusa says

We get news releases!:

New Yorkers Show Overwhelming Support for City's New Bus Shelters and Newsstands

93% feel structures improve city's appearance

NEW YORK, March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Survey results released today by Cemusa, Inc. indicate that a vast majority of New Yorkers are pleased with the new bus shelters and newsstands installed throughout New York City. Ninety-three percent of respondents feel that the new design of newsstands and bus shelters improve the city's appearance and 88 percent like the new designs. Furthermore, of the respondents that indicated the new design influenced their opinion of New York City Government, 89 percent said the change was positive.

"We are very pleased by the overwhelming response to our street furniture installations in New York City, and that our work has contributed to an improved opinion of our partner, the City of New York, as well," said Susan Baron, chief executive officer, Cemusa North America. "Our new bus shelters, newsstands and automatic public toilets were designed exclusively for the city and the people of New York, which makes it all the more rewarding that they have been so well received."

Cemusa's coordinated street furniture program for the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) is part of a 20 year contract that began in 2006. The contract calls for 3,300 new bus stop shelters, 20 new automatic public toilets (APT) and the replacement of 330 newsstands. To date, 1,586 shelters, 130 newsstands and two APTs have been installed. Additionally, Cemusa has fulfilled its payments to the City through 2010.

Newsstand and Bus Shelter Results
When asked about the city's new newsstands, New Yorkers surveyed responded that the upgraded newsstands sometimes result in higher purchase levels. Twelve percent of the respondents said that they purchase more from the new newsstands than they used to, citing greater appeal and cleanliness among reasons for increased purchases.

Survey results also indicated a majority of NYC pedestrians and commuters feel the new bus shelters are cleaner (62 percent) and more pleasant (61 percent) than the old shelters. Additionally, 47 percent described the shelters as better lit and 35 percent feel they are safer.

Advertisement Results
The survey results also reinforced that advertisers who appear on Cemusa bus shelters and newsstands in NYC can expect a significant return on that investment, with 65 percent of respondents indicating that they notice the advertising on newsstands/bus shelters. More than half (52 percent) of those individuals responded that the advertisements at newsstands and bus shelters make them want to buy the products they see.

[Cemusa image via BoweryBoogie]

Noted

Two signs of the Christmas holiday even though it was actually March 2

J&R on Park Row...



At 10th Street and Avenue A...

Noteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed

Off Broadway in the 20s.

A sign that I like

On Third Avenue in the 20s.

One shit playoff game...and we quickly forget

On Park Avenue South.

Who wants to go for a ride in the cellulite reduction treatment car?

On Spring and Mulberry. And it just fits by a hair in that parking spot.

Blood for coffee

Flower bounty

On Madison Avenue in the 30s.

Graffiti watch

Earlier this week, CityRag had an appreciation of some NYC graffiti...with links to their older posts on graffiti around the city, such as in the East Village and on the Bowery...and LES.