Writing this blog has turned me into an avid follower of graffiti and street art culture here in NYC. I enjoy checking out new work and meeting artists, so I try and make it to as many exhibitions and other events as I can. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. As hard as I try to find out about them, I find myself missing things only because I never heard about them. There is no unified source of info about street art and graffiti events on the web. This is why I decided to create Graff Cal.

Graff Cal is a super simple website with a calendar of graffiti and street art-related event listings. It’s mission is to compile all of these into one place and we’ve teamed up with Fresh Paint NYC to make it happen.

The site is still a work in progress, so look for big updates soon. See you at an opening!

nyc.graffcal.com

Looking for a gift for the train buff in your life? Look no further. Underground Signs is a company that makes customized NYC subway signs. Not only can they recreate actual signs from the MTA’s 468 stations, they can also make completely personalized ones, like the Konami code above (video game nerds will get this one). The signs are officially licensed by the MTA. They also just obtained the rights to recreate signs from Boston’s MBTA. Traitors.  Check them out at underground-signs.com!

The NY Daily News reports of an interesting little sign alteration at Union Square. It seems that Harry Potter fans have added a new train line—the 9 3/4 train. This number is a reference to the platform in the Potter books where one can catch the train to the Hogwarts School Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The sticker is placed in the spot once held by the defunct W train. The MTA says they had nothing to do with it, but it would surprise me one bit if one day they stooped to the level of selling ad space on their signage.

As part of its special Subway Issue, The New York Times invited artists and readers to design their own personalized version of New York’s subway map. Several designs were published including a couple by well known graffiti legends—one by Lady Pink (top) and another by Stay High 149 (below). As it were, The Times also featured this blog in the same spread. What would your subway map look like?

Why Are You on My Train? is a video blog by Alli Goldberg and Jen Jamula. Both of them moved to New York to pursue their acting careers after graduating from Yale’s theater department, but found themselves doing something they never expected. “Our blog was partly born out of riding the subway to and from auditions and a) wondering who the people were around us and b) wanting to engage,” explained Jen.

So far, the duo have met some extremely interesting people including: a group of hockey players from Canada, a photojournalist that travels with a military unit in Iraq and a writer/lawyer who was on his way to pick up lingerie for a documentary he was working on. The idea is to post one new video interview every week. Go check them out now!

A band called Atomic Tom performing their song called “Take Me Out” live in the subway… with iPhones! I think Apple should make this their next TV commercial.

via NY Times Bits

I take (and get sent) tons of photos of graffiti and other street art that never make it on to Subway Art Blog for one reason or another. Because of this, I’ve decided to start a Flickr page to act as a home for all these images. Add us as a contact!

The rabble rousers over at NewMTA.info made news recently as they posted some of their new and improved GREED subway service change signs at West 4th and 34th Streets. New MTA is a bogus MTA website—nearly identical to the original—that features some subway news satire.  For example, one headline reads: “MTA Suspends Student MetroCards, Tells Children To Get Fit By Walking.”

With the looming service cuts and fare increases, we’re glad to see New MTA is back in action. We are also glad to see they improved their grammar since the last time we’ve heard from them.

The W train appeared on the Oscars’ “In Memoriam” segment last night. One big name that didn’t appear was the M train. Fans of the M line are up in arms about this blatant omission. A candlelight vigil is planned for next Thursday.

Via @FakeMTA

Poster Boy, "Unfare"

In his first new advertising mashup flickr post since April 2009, Poster Boy targets the subway fare. The work is probably not current considering there are no Harry Potter ads in circulation right now, but is an older work posted for the first time to draw attention to a petition to save student MetroCards which he linked to in the image’s caption. We encourage you to sign it and help this cause!

In other Poster Boy-related news, it seems his upcoming book, The War of Art, will be released later than originally expected. The publisher’s website sets the release as May 2010, although Amazon.com still has the date as March 23rd. The book is expected to include many of his works which were completed after he stopped posting on flickr.