Video of bottles rolling on subway train floor
I rode the L train into Canarsie and then the F train to Coney Island and back in an effort to document how two empty bottles naturally roll around a subway car.LinkIf you ride the subway in New York City, you will often see empty bottles moving freely about. No one ever picks them up. No one notices when the bottles bump into their feet. No one minds the sound of glass banging into metal poles. In terms of visual phenomena, I think the way empty bottles interact with commuters offers a great insight into how New Yorkers' deal with irritation/distraction. Also, I think the bottles look like sad little beings, banging into ankles, essentially tugging at their pants leg for attention, and being persistently ignored and abandoned.
I shot this footage and didn't know the right way to phrase it until I heard a song that I thought best complemented the bottles' lonely experience.
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What's next - plastic bags in the wind?
This is more of a statement of how New Yorkers (or anyone who take mass transit) deal with trash in their transitory environs.
"Ain't my job to pick it up. I get off at the next station, anyway."
This was irritatingly pretentious, though thats what I expected when the description alerted me to the fact that the filmmaker had filmed on the L and F trains.
Won't someone PLEASE think of the bottles?
Limedcoconut, hipster fatigue is a very real phenomenon.
@Limedcoconut - Hey, whatchoo got against the F train?
We all mind, we all find them annoying and we choose to ignore them when they hit our feet. Once something hits the nasty floor of a subway car it's gonna stay there...
an F train rider.
Hipster? I think not. Everybody knows that subway + camcorder = TERRORIST.
Since when is the F train pretentious?
When I think the F I think of old Russian people and the faint order of smoked whitefish.
It's ALWAYS Snapple bottles. ALWAYS. Never, say, Arizona Tea. I wonder why that is.
The reason anyone sees trash on public transit is because some people are PIGS! And that's because we aren't allowed to say, "Don't litter" to some slob sitting next to us. Because that slob is going to say F-ck off or pull a gun. That's because our society (USA) has empowerd filthy, dirty, nasty, rude people, and left the rest of us to clean up after them. The pigs should be caned when caught. And it's gonna hurt. Spit some gum on the sidewalk, 10 smacks with a cane. OH the pain! Let your dog crap on a sidewalk and you might end up dead. Sounds good to me.
Great idea, but I agree... a little too heavy on the schmaltz factor.
Concerning the "Ain't my job..." comment... yeah, it's really not our job to pick up other people's litter on the subway. From what I understand, there are people who make a surprising amount of money with a great retirement pension to do exactly that. We all pay a lot of money to ride these nasty-ass trains! Do we get a 1/2 off custodian discount if we sign an agreement to rid each car we ride of one or two pieces of trash? The answer is no. And NO ONE wants to touch someone else's grody bottle. We've all seen these bottles filled with all sorts of disgusting substances.
I also really like the suit who rights the bottle with his loafers to keep it from rolling around.
Its not, i just didn't want to be exclusive.
I love how ya cant defend the L against accusations of pretentiousness however.
Canarsie. Where everything looks the same.
Canarsie. Where everything looks the same.
I enjoyed the video, but shouldn't you give credit to the director by name somewhere in your article?
Sigh, I'll just ignored the inane, fussy comments here about such a cute, pretty little artsy video and say, "great find, boingboing!". Thanks! BTW, I'm buying the music now via iTunes HERE (Link will take your iTunes app straight to the song).
Hi there. I directed the video. I certainly can't fault the american beauty comparisons. That's what I get for filming something that occurs fairly naturally - though we did bring these bottles onto the train ourselves. Don't worry though. We recycled them after the shoot.
Regarding the L train and F train - they certainly weren't vehicles for pretention when I was growing up on the Lower East Side. But I see your point. It is hard to say L train without thinking of the burg and its hipper side. At the time when I shot this, I was living off the Graham Avenue L stop. The L train was just the train at hand. Plus, if you go into Canarsie, you have less chance of hassle from the MTA.
I think it's an amazing NYC phenomenon that these bottles just roll around and no one notices them. I'd say only about half the time that I've ever watched, have people even flinched when the bottle knocked into them. That struck me as a very New Yorker thing and inspired the shoot.
Anyway - thanks to everybody for checking out the video. Thanks cowicide for the link to the band on itunes above.
And super thanks to boingboing for the post. Much appreciated!
- Casimir Nozkowski
Yet another reason to like the Washington DC-area Metro's "no eating or drinking" in the Metro rule. No (hardly any) rats and you don't get bopped by pig trash.
I really enjoyed that video, the music was perfect for setting the mood.
There is absolutly no comparison between the L and the F. I was riding the C once (having transfered from the F at Jay St.) watching a plastic Liptons Brisk bottle do the same. The train pulls into Broadway Nassua, doors open, stocky NorthFace parka wearer get on, bends over, picks up said bottle and tosses it onto the platform and proceeds to sit down to read ElDiario. Jeff #9 is plainly not a New Yorker. He has a paranoia the is plainly from one of those places west of the Hudson, probably OHIO. If he's ever even been to the city he was probably in Midtown.
why isn't there a bottle trap on the floor somewhere? Why in litigation-happy America aren't hundreds of people who stepped on bottles suing the train operators? Why aren't bottle scavenging routes for deposit bottles doled out to the indigent?
To the filmmaker: To your credit, it was filmed nicely, and good music taste. I was just less than impressed at the content, I've seen the bottles and have been entertained by them I just didnt think they were particularly spectacular or worthy of study, but then again if art is anything at all, its subjective.
Oh sorry jeff #9 I just assumed Ohio. I see by your profile that it's Michigan (the militia state). I shouldn't just go off and accuse people of being from OHIO, because that is horribly rude and mean-spirited. Especially someone from the militia state. Please accept my apologies.
"If you ride the subway in New York City, you will often see empty bottles moving freely about. No one ever picks them up. No one notices when the bottles bump into their feet. No one minds the sound of glass banging into metal poles."
Not to get all argumentive about a good-natured little video, but as a categorical statement, this is baloney. I certainly see people minding when bottles are rolling around, and I certainly see people picking them up. I pick them up.
Obviously these things vary from train line to train line, from neighborhood to neighborhood, and by time of day. But that's the point, they vary.
@ Casimirn #16, ignore the obligatory Buzzkill Patrol. IMO passion and creativity are in and cynicism is out.