LTVSquad

Author: Control@ltvsquad.com

  • Multiple Underbelly-related Arrests

    Multiple Underbelly-related Arrests

    It didn’t take long for people to start getting arrested in their attempts to view the underbelly project.

    Apparently in the last few days a group of 6 people tried to access the abandoned station and were greeted by the NYPD. The result of course was 24 hours going through the system.

    A separate rumor is going around the newsroom that a crew of foreign journalist attempted to access the location and were also arrested, DCPI press passes be damned.

    I say it very often on this blog, and I’ll say it again: Don’t go into NYC subway tunnels. It’s bad idea. Tunnels are confined spaces where injury and death are readily possible. The photos of this project are all over the internet. People continue to send us these photos. They are not hard to find. If you want to see the art, do so from your own home.

    You’re also wasting the NYPD’s time. There’s few of them on patrol these days and I’d imagine they don’t want to waste time on dumb trespassers. Give them patrol guys a break. I’m sure the last thing they want to be doing is sitting in some dark dirty tunnel waiting for you to show up.

  • Response to Underbelly, from MTA and the public.

    Response to Underbelly, from MTA and the public.

    First, let’s look at what the MTA has to say about this situation – from the second ave subway saga blog

    MTA Response:

    I asked the authority about their official response to the so-called exhibition, and it was as you might expect. “NYC Transit is working with the NYPD in the investigation and follow-up on this matter,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. “Further inspections will be made to this and other similar locations throughout the system to better secure these areas. We remind the public that any such incursions into unauthorized areas of the transit system is considered trespassing and is punishable by law not to mention, dark and dangerous.”

    Meanwhile, I learned this morning as well that an MTA work crew went into the old South 4th Street station to explore the site. They were spotted entering the shell at the northbound end of the Broadway stop on the G train, and Donovan told me that the authority’s crews are working to identify potential access points and to seal up these abandoned areas. “New York City Transit staff were on site today to assess the station’s security and make some adjustments to make it more secure,” Donovan said.

    Next, let’s see what the public has to say about this art project:

    PUBLIC RESPONSE:

    Second ave subway comments:

    #
    Tsuyoshi says:
    November 2, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    They should open it up and charge admission.
    #
    Andreas says:
    November 2, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    I knew it was there..! The site is accessible without crossing the crosstown tracks, it’s just a few feet North of the SB platform at the Broadway Station. My guess is that this area would be the vertical circulation to the never to be station… I saw construction workers a couple of times over there… I wish i had the opportunity to visit this art space!

    Gizmodo comments-

    Either this is one cool art space or the biggest urban legend ever to be invented that will probably cause art loving adventure seekers life, limb or an entry into their newly minted criminal record if they’ve committed none thus far. Having said that, crap, I might try to find the damn thing.

    Gothamist comments:

    [1] | RJ Rushmore

    I went down to see The Underbelly Project, and it was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen. Just the sheer amount of art they were able to get down there. And the space is so unique…

    4] | BoozeParty

    Good stuff. I should do a little tunneling and check some of this out.

    Conclusions:

    I think the MTA’s opinion is clear. Going in tunnels to do anything while not being an MTA employee or contractor is ILLEGAL and FROWNED UPON. There’s good reason for that. Dozens of people die in the subway tunnels every year. They’re not ‘people friendly’.

    The public, on the other hand, seems to fall into 3 groups:
    1) People who will pay money to go there
    2) People who would willing to be blindfolded and lead around in circles for hours then get to see it – these people would probably pay triple the price.
    3) Artists who are hating on it for various reasons.

    My sources tell me you don’t need to go into a subway tunnel to access – that there is at least one hidden doorways to it that are safe for MTA employees to gain entry. Given that public safety could very likely be accommodated, it is my position that the MTA should give the people what they want: Open this to the public. Charge admission. People will come from around the world to see it. If it can’t be opened day to day, Let the transit museum give tours once every month or two. Again: Charge a lot of money. The MTA could make a decent clip off this project over time.

    Yes, apparently it was created illegally, but when you overlook that fact and instead look what we’re left with: A station full of art where one never existed – this is quite the potential win story for NYC and the MTA as a whole. A huge collection of artwork, given to the MTA for free, by masters of their trade!
    If you agree, write to the MTA and let them know what already seems pretty clear: The people want in. The people will pay money. You have nothing to fear but fear itself!

  • SWAG

    SWAG

    Swag is a lovely rarefied print zine from the ever creative Utah. Yes, you want to get one.

  • Underbelly, Exposed.

    Underbelly, Exposed.

    There’s going to be a lot of buzz in the morning over this mysterious link that is just now starting to appear on the radar – http://www.theunderbellyproject.com/. There’s already photos/video/slideshow/article in The Sunday Times of London (paywall). I imagine the local media will be all up on this during the next week.

    Here’s are the facts: Somewhere under NYC there’s an abandoned subway station, and in said station, over 100 artists created works of art in this space. The works of art run the range from installations to paintings, aerosol to utterly insane. The names behind these works run from the very well known to the obscure. Where else in the world will you find a Sane piece feet from a Swoon? Some other well known names: Roa, Mark Jenkins (who’s use of this space is described by many as utterly terrifying), TrustoCorp, Posterchild, Jeff Soto, Gaia, Jice, F5, Smells, Cash4… the list is a ‘who’s who’ of the art world.

    There’s no words that can really do this space justice, so instead here’s a batch of photos:

    http://tagbomb2.ltvsquad.com/DisplayPage/ID/24/Sec/Gallery/

    Vandalog really catches the emotion that must go through one’s mind if you were to accidentally stumble across this place.

  • Bringing the 80s art back

    Bringing the 80s art back

    Anyone who has been lost in the last few weeks around the southern reaches of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn could be excused for experiencing a powerful Koch administration flashback. On the wall of a brick warehouse there, visible from the parking lot of a furniture store, a huge mural unfurls itself, a loving, seemingly spray-by-spray re-creation of one of the more infamous pieces of graffiti ever to ride the subway: a 1980 work by the artist known as Seen that covered the length of a No. 6 train car with the ominous phrase “Hand of Doom.”

    Most interesting project. Too bad they can’t do up an old work train full of redbirds or something…

  • Bushwick Terminal 2010

    Bushwick Terminal 2010

    Photos from a summer day poking around the olde Bushwick Terminal and WM yard areas – a hotbed for NYC Graffiti.

  • Smart Gallery

    Smart Gallery

    There’s nothing stupid about finding an abandoned building and covering the walls with a dope collection of graff.

  • Boston Bullshit / Woes 6 months

    Boston Bullshit / Woes 6 months

    You gotta love Boston. The inferiority complex of that city is beyond pathological. I’ll save you from one of my lunatic rants and instead toss you over to Ether’s commentary on the sad sac shitty that is Beantown., where you can get his take on their fun newspaper cover this week.

    While we’re blabbering about the city of second best, now’s a good a time as any to point out they just sentenced Woes to the standard 6 for bombing their subpar subways. . I say fuck that. Anyone that served in Iraq and hasn’t killed anyone deserves at least one free pass – time already served.

  • Pyramid of Hate gets a new neighbor.

    Pyramid of Hate gets a new neighbor.

    IMG_9126

    IMG_9128

    IMG_9130

    IMG_9185

    New neighbor of the beast, Gasaxe’s Tag of Steel. Weighing in at over 200lbs, that’s some heavy freakin’ metal.

  • Hotbox Stripclub

    Hotbox Stripclub

    A few members noticed this club and it sat on a ‘to-do’ list for months. An initial recon run found all the doors locked tight with double layer doors and no windows at all. This should not have pushed this location onto the back burner of the investigations list but it somehow did. Normally such a laps in protocol would never be tolerated but let’s face it, booze money and women are way more interesting than old abandoned buildings – and anyone who says otherwise is a lying sack of cat crap.

    Eventually a report landed on my desk about this location  – and from all the possible members,  it came from a female. According to her there was indeed access . She entered only to find there was a beeping sound from some sort of alarm system. They aborted but were planning to go back. You’d think some of our hyperactive sexually overdriven 20something boys would have lead the pack into this place, but eh… maybe the memo didn’t get on their desks either.

    LTV Squad: Now hiring ‘minister of memos’ – please don’t apply, we will find you. At home. While you’re sleeping.

    Anyway-

    Abandoned strip clubs are very rare in NYC. Often a club will close, only to reopen a month later under a different name. This one was shut down for over a year, so it seemed clear no one would be reopening this location. With fresh intel on hand we went to take another look.

    The access point was perfectly discrete and able to accommodate a team of 4. I personally lead the way inside and confirmed my own suspicion – the alarm was coming from a broken fire alarm panel. At this point it had been beeping for at least a week with no one showing up to turn it off. Clearly no one gave that much of a shit about this place, though the fact that power is still on means someone somewhere is paying the bills.

    The club interior proved to be everything you’d imagine – bar with stripper poles on a stage behind it in the center of the building. Behind the stage were all those secret rooms your mom works in. There was a VIP lounge complete with it’s own stained couches and stripper pole.

    >But there was something else going on here. In the back there’s a room with a ladder and paint buckets. The bar is coated in dust, but there’s stacks of tools and equipment sitting on it dust free. There’s a jobox locked tight, probably full of pricey power tools.

    >Next to a dirty sink behind the bar I find a 2010 yellow pages. Huh. This confirms our suspicions about the power still being on – this place isn’t completely abandoned. That doesn’t really bother any of us, but the extreme heat in here does. The hot summer combined with no windows has made this entire building one big oven. Content with the crappy photos (walls painted black, not really the greatest for photography), we bail out and are pleased to be back on the midnight streets where the temperate is probably around 85… that’s got to be 20 less than inside the box…

    Time for more booze. Another night, another mission.