Yesterday 80-some Public Ad Campaign activists took to Manhattan billboards to deface and cover up corporate messages.

MELISSA ROMANOVICH, 60, WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN

Have you been aware of the defacement of billboards here in New York City?

Vandalism? Yes I have. I see a lot of porno on the billboards. Children are exposed to it.

How do those ads make you feel?

Well, I don’t even own a TV. I know what’s going on in the world so I don’t need propaganda.

How do you gather your news?

From real encounters with real people, like policemen and things like that.

Do you have a lot of encounters with policemen?

Yes. I’d really rather not explain it.

Do you find the nudity in these billboards damaging to children?

I’m anti-gay and I’m anti-porno. I’m 35-years celibate. No sex.

Why did you choose celibacy?

Because I was raped three times by big, black, powerful men. I withdrew from the American dating scene and I come home alone every night. I’m a big recluse. I live down the block. I pay $139 for four rooms. I’ve lived there since I was 17.

Do you need a sub-letter?

No, I’m a recluse and I wouldn’t stand it. I walk around naked sometimes.

How do you leave your mark on New York City?

I’m a 40-year journalist. I write about what I see, the real world. When I leave my door in the morning I see the homeless, the drug-dealers, the real world. I don’t keep a blog. I write for myself.

Some people would consider American flag clothing to be a defacement of a national symbol.

You know where I got it? The back of a motorcycle. Petty theft. I don’t believe in the defacement of the American flag. My wearing it is just a non-radical joke. I just happen to wear it because I can’t stand my hair in my face. I’m 60 years old; I don’t feel the need to explain myself.

Have you ever lived in San Francisco?

Yes, I was 21 and it was during the Haight-Ashbury time. Free love. Drugs. I lost my virginity when I was very high. I was on a king-sized waterbed with a vibrator [chuckles]. A man was there, too. We had penetration.

ADOLFO GONZALEZ, 35, GRAND CONCOURSE, BRONX

The defacement of billboards: What do you think?

It’s sabotage.

They’re sabotaging the paid-for message.

It’s wrong. Why? Simple logic. Think about standing in front of the house you own and I come with paint and spray all over it.

You’re saying it’s a matter of property rights.

If I catch this person I am going to beat this person and I am going to call the cops. If I own a property and I put a billboard on the side of a building, I’m responsible to keep the advertising space the same as when you first agreed to advertise on it. If I see somebody painting on it I will follow him. Maybe if he wants to be a tough guy and say, “No, I don’t want to stay here and get arrested,” I have to use some technique to neutralize the guy to make him stay until the police come.

Have you ever gone to an Iron Maiden show and written on the bathroom wall, “Iron Maiden rulz”?

No, I hate this kind of decoration. It makes the place look ugly.

You could write, “I hate your graffiti.”

No. When I was a bike messenger I had a friend who was a walking messenger who would always write his name “Menace.” I wouldn’t tell on him because I didn’t want to be an enemy, a snitch. I care about private property but this bench here? It’s fucking Bloomberg’s.

“Fuck Bloomberg”?

Fuck Bloomberg. I like that, that’s good.

LUCILLE BIGNOM, 24, BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN

What do you think about artists climbing up to billboards, painting them white, and then creating their own messages?

I think it’s hilarious.

Why?

Because people pay a lot of money to get their ads put on the billboards. Artists are just advertising themselves and you really never know who they are. Somebody going through all that trouble is awesome.

Activists say it shouldn’t be up to corporate advertisers and property owners to decide the city’s landscape.

Yeah, because not just anybody has $10,000 for their own ads. I don’t like to walk down the street and have everyone trying to sell me something. It’s annoying.

Have you ever left your own artistic embellishment on the city?

I just write my name everywhere. There are a couple of my tags over there on the bathroom doors.

You work at the Mars Bar. What’s the graffiti policy?

Uh… go ahead because who’s stopping you! As long as you don’t use a whole can of spray paint that will stink up the whole place, we really don’t give a shit. Buy something. Show a little respect for the place. Then again, I guess tagging on something is showing the opposite of respect…

…Things are flipped here.

Yeah, someone writing on the wall is just adding decoration. One morning this summer the crazy Greek guy who lives in the basement painted all the walls white. Just took it upon himself. The walls had been painted and drawn on by people who had been coming here since the 80s and 90s who are now dead–and now so are their drawings. When the Greek painted the walls, though, he didn’t paint under some paintings that had been hanging up. Because of that we have these windows to the old graffiti.

-PETER MADSEN

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