Artist Paints Fake 'Low Flying Planes' Sign Near Ground Zero

WNBC.com ^ | May 13, 2003

[Zeroisanumber]

"Zeroisanumber Puts Boot to Ass, calls it Performance Art".

[Dialup Llama]

>Hey, my humor was good natured, but not celebratory! n fact, I talked my coworker pal to hit the streets with me after lunch to look for distraught women to take advantage of!

You make no sense. Anyone making jokes the morning of risked getting a fist in the face. I have never, ever heard a 9-11 joke and hope to never hear one.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Despite not ever having setting foot in NYC, what happened on 9-11 has impacted me greatly, and the events of that day remain a very clear memory.

Now, I personally know that I could not stomach any jokes about that particular day, but I do remember when, a couple of months later on 'Saturday Night Live', they did some spoofs regarding Bin Laden et.all and how I was so relieved to finally be able to laugh at something, that I almost wanted to cry...in gratitude.

...Well, there's MY emotional moment of the day.

[A Navy Vet]

"This is tasteless but pretty funny"

Yeah, I can just see the relatives of 3000 American souls burned and crushed that day just guffawing their rears off...not to mentioned the relatives of the killed and maimed service personnel in Afgan and Iraq. Yup, this is a real tummy tickler.

It may be clever, but it's not f**king funny.

[Panzerfaust]

I'm with you Navy vet, it isn't funny. If I lived there and this was bugging me, I'd solve the problem on my own.

I'd say 4 or 5 quart mason jars, filled with white paint, lids on, hurled at the "art", would solve the problem a hell of a lot quicker than some stupid historical building commission.

If he is free to paint on the building, then someone else is free to deface it. WTF, people in NYC are so helpless.

[kristinn]

So what's stopping someone else from painting over it?

[A Navy Vet]

Works for me.

[Sam Cree]

Most cities require a permit for a sign like that, which must follow certain specifications. I'm sure NYC is not an exception. Beyond that, persons painting them normally must be licensed.

Regardless of the propriety, there are at least a few violations of city ordinance here.

[Sam Cree]

"he is a sign painter"

Not really. There are some errors in composition so basic that not even a beginning sign painter would have made them. Aside from that, though, looks like a fair amount of time was spent on the thing. Cleaning it off is going to be difficult if he used enamel and the bricks are porous.

[Ciexyz]

Hey, it's our tourist. I haven't seen him for a while. lol

Yeah, trot him out every so often, he's a familiar face. Maybe the "legend" will start up again.

[Ciexyz]

Arrest this guy for illegal graffiti.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I took the sign as a statement of fact, not a joke or a hurtful comment. Was it meant to be funny?

[Jay D. Dyson]

"It's disturbing but I guess it wouldn't be art if it didn't disturb you in some way," said real estate agent Vanessa Low.

When I was a young boy, I thought art was supposed to inspire people.

Then I went to college and I was told that art was supposed to piss you off, confuse you, make you act like you "get it," and pretend to understand art's significance.

Then I graduated from college...with a degree in commercial art.

I still think the rest of those bums at college are full of $h!t.

I'm no longer a young boy, yet I believe that art is supposed to inspire people.

And anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell something.

-Jay

[F16Fighter]

"If you take a low humor view of it, that's really in your mind, not mine," said artist James Peterson...

Might it be in his "mind" if the artist found himself tossed down a few flights of stairs??

Of that I would take a "high humor" view...

[Genesis defender]

[I]n fact, I talked my coworker pal to hit the streets with me after lunch to look for distraught women to take advantage of!

Those women were distraught because some of their fellow New Yorkers had just been crushed to death, and the victims' bones, intestines and body parts were scattered all over Ground Zero. These women might have known some victims who had their heads crushed, hands or limbs severed, and who may have died slow, agonizing deaths. Many ladies were probably searching for their loved ones, not knowing if their husbands, brothers, sisters, etc. were dead or still trapped in the rubble or at a hospital.

And you were thinking of scoring.

[MEG33]

A good sand blasting or spray painting would help the situation.

[baseballfanjm]

Tourist Guy! Haven't seen him in a while. Anyway, that "low flying planes" joke is cold and sick. Only an idiot would make that and not expect everyone to be offended. Art? Yeah right.

[zip]

I took the sign as a statement of fact

Apparently you have missed the point. That sign is speaking to the aircraft that crashed into the WTC and killed 3000 people.

[BSunday]

I lived in nyc and was cracking jokes about it before noon on 9-11.

Before noon? So, are you saying that having lived in New York gives you an excuse to be a complete moron? I don't buy it, somehow.

[HitmanLV]

I talked my coworker pal to hit the streets with me after lunch to look for distraught women to take advantage of!

How charming and gallant

Look, I was kidding! People react to different situations differently. I wisecrack through almost every situation that's tense - it breaks the tension and adds some perspective.