PalenQ

Anyone who's taken the London Tube enough has heard the recording to explain delays on a line

"Man under train at Mornington Crescent, etc, we regret the delay"

Well now London mainline train stations could be announcing

'Man Under Glass' - the newest ploy, no doubt the brainstorm of London Mayor 'Red' Ken Livingstone, to highlight a crackdown on drunk driving in London during the holiday (not "Christmas') season.

So a man - perhaps a convicted drunk driver or an actor - is now making the rounds of train stations where he sits under a huge beer glass to river home the campaign.

So if taking trains in London keep your eyes peeled for Man Under Glass and perhaps tip a pint for him IF not driving.

He was shown in all his glory on Keither Obermann's Oddball show on MSNBC last night - and they compared him to the daredevil who suspended himself over the Thames a few years ago near Tower Bridge i think - the magician David XXXX?

PatrickLondon

We shall, of course, politely ignore him. Unlike David Blaine, something about whom really got up a lot of people's noses.

Much more striking was one of the new digital advertising screens in my local station, the first advert in which was for the homelessness charity - it showed a child (life size) apparently beating against the screen from the inside. After that, a man in a beer glass would just be ho-hum.

BTilke

I saw him yesterday in Paddington (actually I saw two different guys under the glass, one in the morning, another one late in the afternoon). And he wasn't sitting, he was standing.

People gave him a glance, then ignored him. A few tourists snapped photos. Most people had more important things to do/see.

BTilke

Anyway, I think the morning guy was an actor, he was pushing against the glass, posing etc. The afternoon guy was just standing there running down the clock. There was no chair provided, so if they wanted to sit down, I guess it would be on the floor with the (assumed) fake beer suds floating around. A few people around the glass were passing out some kind of booklet, presumably about safe drinking. There were few takers...people who already drink sensibly know what to do and those who don't aren't likely to have their behaviour changed by a pamphlet.

Josser

David Blaine was a real disappointment, wasn't he?
It was quite obvious that when a man came to "clean the glass" every night, they just swapped places.
At the end, everyone was expecting something interesting like a mini-explosion where he vanished in a puff of smoke, but all that happened was that he got out of the box.
What on earth was the point?

celticdreams

Soon as I saw the title of this post I thought of David Blain (or Freak-in-a-box as I called him). I was lucky enough to see him the day after someone was aiming a laser pointer at him and he thought it was a laser sight from a rifle. Like anyone would care enough...????

marginal_margiela

Man Under Glass: I thought that was an installation by Damian Hirst at the Tate Modern. NO?

Thingorjus

PalenQ

the one that won the Turner Prize?