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Street Fighters Too

By Matt Chaban 8/02/12 5:41pm

Street Fighters Too

Takeshi Miyakawa

Designer Defused! Accused Plastic Bag Bomber Takeshi Miyakawa Gets Six Months Probation

After a tumultuous weekend spent in jail over an art installation gone wrong (or a city still a little too on edge), Takeshi Miyakawa was released into the world, relieved but also a little bit shaken.

The soft-spoken Brooklyn-based Japanese designer still did not know his fate after his I [heart] NY shopping bag lights had him suspected of planting bombs in his adopted borough, but last week, a judge let him go with only minimal punishment. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/23/12 5:54pm

Street Fighters Too

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Accused Shopping Bag Bomber Takeshi Miyakawa Still Loves New York, Just Wants a Bath and a Beer

Takeshi Miyakawa was released from custody a little after 4:30 this afternoon. The Greenpoint-based designer spent the past four nights behind bars for hanging I [heart] New York shopping bags, illuminated from within by an LED matrix of his own design, on trees and lamp posts around North Brooklyn.

So, does Mr. Miyakawa still love New York? “Yes, I do,” he said as a pack of reporters gathered around him outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jay Street, a few long blocks from the Manhattan Bridge. It was an odder than usual scene, just so, for the media scrum outside the halls of justice, with the impromptu press conference being conducted in equal parts English and Japanese, Mr. Miyakawa speaking softly either way.

He wore the same mint-green button-up shirt and baggy nylon cargo pants he had been arrested in at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, after cops spotted him hanging one of his pieces at the corner of Bedford and Lorimer Avenues. A similar piece he placed early Friday morning on Bedford and North Sixth Street got three surrounding blocks shut down when a curious 311 call turned into a zealous 911 response.

“I was in shock,” Mr. Miyakawa said of his arrest, “but I was more in shock that people in Williamsburg were locked down for two hours, and I really want to apologize to them.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/23/12 5:53pm

Street Fighters Too

p1030326

Accused Shopping Bag Bomber Takeshi Miyakawa Still Loves New York, Just Wants a Bath and a Beer

Takeshi Miyakawa was released from custody a little after 4:30 this afternoon. The Greenpoint-based designer spent the past four nights behind bars for hanging I [heart] New York shopping bags, illuminated from within by an LED matrix of his own design, on trees and lamp posts around North Brooklyn.

So, does Mr. Miyakawa still love New York? “Yes, I do,” he said as a pack of reporters gathered around him outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jay Street, a few long blocks from the Manhattan Bridge. It was an odder than usual scene, just so, for the media scrum outside the halls of justice, with the impromptu press conference being conducted in equal parts English and Japanese, Mr. Miyakawa speaking softly either way.

He wore the same mint-green button-up shit and baggy nylon cargo pants he had been arrested in at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, after cops spotted him hanging one of his pieces at the corner of Bedford and Lorimer Avenues. A similar piece he placed early Friday morning on Bedford and North Sixth Street got three surrounding blocks shut down when a curious 311 call turned into a zealous 911 response.

“I was in shock,” Mr. Miyakawa said of his arrest, “but I was more in shock that people in Williamsburg were locked down for two hours, and I really want to apologize to them.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/23/12 11:46am

Street Fighters Too

The cops bagged him. (Courtesy Louis Lim)

Takeshi Miyakawa Will Have His Day in Court! Friends of Plastic Bag Bomber Hope He Will Be Freed Today

It was the glowing plastic bag seen round the world.

Over the weekend, Takeshi Miyakawa was arrest for his clever I [heart] NY shopping bag installation, which was mistaken for a bomb by the police on two occasions, the first of which shut down Bedford Avenue.

Rather than releasing Mr. Miyakawa on $250,000 bail Sunday morning, as the Kings County District Attorney recommended, the presiding judge at his arraignment ordered him remanded into custody for mental evaluation, which could keep him behind bars for up to a month.

Today, another Brooklyn judge will decide whether or not Mr. Miyakawa, who has been in prison for almost five days now despite reports of his cooperation, can go free. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3:27pm

Street Fighters Too

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You Might Spend 30 Days in Jail If Your Plastic Bag Art Installation Turns Into a Bomb Scare That Shuts Down Bedford Avenue

Plastic shopping bags, the city’s dandruff, get stuck in trees and wrapped around light poles all the time.

Rarely do they cause a bomb scare.

But that is what happened on Friday morning, shortly after 10:30 a.m. According to Gothamist, someone had simply called 311 to complain about a bag a gentleman had recently deposited into a tree on Beford Avenue and inquire about its removal.The 311 dispatcher, apparently spooked by the description of an installation by Brooklyn designer Takeshi Miyakawa—an I [heart] NY plastic shopping bag with a wire hanging out—directed the annoyed neighbor to call 911.

The cops showed up, then the fire department, the the bomb squad, which shut down Bedford from North Fourth Street to North Seventh Street for two hours.

Each May for New York Design Week, Mr. Miyakawa has made various installations throughout  Manhattan and Brooklyn to coincide with the annual festivities, including a floating chair that, like the bags, glowed. It was a spirited—if unsanctioned, but also generally harmless—effort. The installations had gained a modicum of notoriety within the art and design communities, but little notice elsewhere. This year, the work got him thrown in jail, for up to a month, if not longer. Read More

By Reid Pillifant 8/26/10 2:31pm

Street Fighters Too

New Roosevelts Open Office in Espada's Backyard

As promised, Bill Samuels’ New Roosevelt Initiative has opened a field office in the Bronx, as a base for its fight against Pedro Espada Jr.

NRI also announced the hiring of Yorman Nunez, a political organizer who had previously managed the campaign of Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter. Pilgrim-Hunter dropped a primary challenge to Espada last month–at the Read More