Subway Art at 23rd St. A/C/E: Marilyn Monroe
There’s a pretty cool piece of wheatpasted subway art on the Uptown-bound side of the A/C/E at 23rd street in Manhattan. The posters are pasted in what had been empty spaces for advertising — these knocked my shoes loose a little when I saw them on Saturday morning:
For Google/ machine-reading purposes, the posters are images of Marilyn Monroe looking particularly lost and dazed with bleary, Warhol-style makeup. The text of the poster reads:
Then it hit me. I’m not going to be famous. I won’t get to be a rock star. I am going to be stuck on the payroll doing work that doesn’t interest me for a very long time.
You can see a closeup after the jump …
Someone has ripped away a diagonal slash of the center poster and written in ballpoint pen
Stop complaining! It won’t help you!”
These posters just cut me right to my soul-bone. On the one hand, the message is so grim and bleak. On the other hand, I totally agree with both the original message and that of the ballpoint remixer. It’s true. I’m not going to be a rock star, and I am going to be stuck on the payroll somewhere. I’ve had that suspicion for some time now, and now my heart’s fully digested the message. BUt the weirdest thing is, I don’t feel like part of me has died.
Instead, I feel the most liberating sense of peace. And this poster, maybe it’s saying that that’s okay, too. Look at Marilyn there. She looks lost, miserable. And she sure was. Her life couldn’t have been any different than mine, unless she were like, a contract killer for the Yakuza or something. She burned bright, couldn’t handle it, and died lonely and lusted after, but never felt loved.
If the opposite of that is being stuck on the payroll, that might be okay … although I’m sure to complain from the opposite viewpoint in a day or two.
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October 1st, 2007 at 8:23 am
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October 1st, 2007 at 8:44 am
It’s a fascinating glimpse into what it is we want to be and what it is we are, and it’s a good reminder that people should be careful when it comes to what they wish for.
I suppose when you boil it down, it’s better to be a stable wage-slave with dreams as opposed to a high-maintenance, plastic icon with an empty, vapid existence.
Yes. We have to buy our own drinks and pay for our own dinners, but god damn it, we’ve earned them, and they taste so much better as a result.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:09 am
At some point, it hit me that I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to be a rock star.
Some days it’s hard to get out of bed and into the office, but I do. I get a kick out of the job and it affords me the lifestyle that I want to live. Isn’t that better than living life to somebody else’s standards?
October 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am
as a songwriter i know once wrote..
fame don’t take away the pain
it just pays the bills
and you wind up on alcohol and pills
and..is ist me or does she look a lot like brit in that shot??
xoxo
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:24 pm
This poster has been around for a while, actually (though maybe not in that location). I only remember because it struck me in the same way, the first time I saw it.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
But Marilyn was famous. So, is the poster saying that, even though you think that way right now, you still could end up being as famous as Marilyn, if, like she did, you blow the right people?