Usually when you see someone on your city's underground metro system not wearing trousers you either avoid making eye contact and move to the other end of the train car, or nonchalantly snap a picture with your camera phone... and then move to the other end of the car while avoiding making eye contact. Either way, it's taken for granted that your trouser-less fellow passenger probably has no sense of public decency likely because they are very, very drunk.
This upcoming Sunday, however, the Amsterdam metro system shall be flooded with ordinary folk much like you and me who will be (at least for the most part) sober and who also will not be wearing any trousers, skirts, or in fact bottoms of any kind.This is because Sunday is Global No Pants Subway Ride, where people in many of the world's largest cities make a statement by riding the underground in often freezing January weather with their butts hanging out.
Don't believe me? I know I don't want to believe me, but this video of the "Broekloze Metrorit 2011," the official name of Amsterdam's branch of the No Pants Subway Ride, offers indelible proof.
The organization that started the No Pants Subway Ride is New York's Improv Everywhere. First held 11 years ago in New York, the popular movement that has no political agenda and aims simply to shock and elicit laughs has rapidly spread around the world to cities including Tel Aviv, Sydney, Zurich, Copenhagen and even Calgary (where it's predicted to be -21 degrees Celsius with snowfall this Sunday!) Check this full city list to see if your hometown is participating in the No Pants movement. If you're in Amsterdam this weekend, I suggest you find a reason to ride the Amsterdam metro around 15:00 this Sunday... it promises to be a hoot. If however you likewise want to terrorize unsuspecting metro passengers with your bare ass, check out the Amsterdam branch's Facebook page for rendezvous location and time - the only instruction is that you wear your winter coat and shoes, and act blasé. Which, admittedly, might be difficult.
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