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

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.”

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.

Limedcoconut, hipster fatigue is a very real phenomenon.

an F train rider.

When I think the F I think of old Russian people and the faint order of smoked whitefish.

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.

I love how ya cant defend the L against accusations of pretentiousness however.