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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A day in the life of a transit bandit.

Hello August, the sunniest and hottest month for all you sticky commuters to enjoy! For my parting words, I wanted to share with you some of my adventures I've had on the train and I've chosen 3 of my most memorable experiences (most of them are performances.) I had a great time posting and blogging and sharing things interesting to me. But, for my final hurrah, here goes nothing.


8 P.M. Friday, 1 train

As I walk down into the crowded zoo that is the 42nd street Times Square 1,2,3 Station, I think to myself what I would give to have my own motor vehicle right now, literally anything from a jetpack to a motorcycle would be sufficient. The station is hot and commuters are becoming impatient as they perspire. The crowd is not surprising, women in heels accompanied by other women in heels or a man dressed in something tailored and J. Crew. I take out a water bottle from my backpack. Hot. No, not hot, sweltering. I start walking towards the other end of the platform to possibly find a map and get a better estimate of how much time my commute is going to take.  I gradually make my way to the other side of the platform, just as I start fiddling in my bag for my headphones. I hear a wonderful voice renditioning "My Girl". As I approach closer, the woman singing stands next to a little boy who looks about 7 or 8. I stand in the crowd surrounding the duo and slowly my attention span sways to my phone to play Candy Crush, until suddenly a young powerhouse voice revels the whole entire station with shock of how such a small person can let out such a big voice. I am astounded, so astounded that I actually give money! Something about a young struggling singer really tugs on my heart strings, especially one singing My Girl. The beauty of it was that sometimes you are very likely to find a below average performance, but other times you can have your mind blown. Their voice is their instrument and their train car is their venue and they put their heart on their sleeve to let thousands of strangers listen and donate if they feel compelled, that's essentially the role of an entertainer.



2 A.M Thursday, 4 train

 It's one of those nights, and by those nights I mean its past midnight. So, I have to wait forever for the train. From what I've encountered, most people on the train at this time are either heavily inebriated or homeless, needless to say I am not excited. I sit down on the available bench and try to escape the rest of the world with my portal to music through headphones and close my eyes and breathe deeply. I feel a gentle pat on my leg. I open my eyes to find a younger gentlemen in his late 20's looking right at me. "Yes?" The words race out of my mouth, what could anyone have to ask, let alone say at this hour?
 The man looked down and smiled,"Well, originally, I was alone and I'm not from here so I wanted someone to speak to somebody, but then I saw you were very beautiful, so I forgot what I wanted to say." Flattered, yet slightly confused, I utter, "Oh, well hello," I didn't comprehend in my mind how unordinary it was for someone to want to talk to a stranger if they're bored. Suddenly, out of nowhere I blurt out, "Do people do that where you're from?" The man looked up with a pondering face, "I guess no, not really. I don't really do it much either. But, it's 2 A.M. in New York City. Live a little," and walked away. That struck me. What did he mean? Why wasn't I living? What did he consider living? Was he insinuating that after a certain point of nightfall that it is okay to talk to strangers?  I decided to answer all these questions on my train ride home. Most New Yorkers are stuck in their own bubbles, and simply do not care about anything except getting home or work or their destination in general. Our mentality seems to be, everyone for themselves.

3 P.M. Sunday F Train
 
Sluggish Sundays. All I can say is I am going home from my best friend's house and I am not happy because I am tired. Honestly, I just want the train ride to zoom by because if it doesn't, I will certainly sleep through my stop. The train car is pretty empty, so I take that as a sign to get lost in my music and thoughts. "Hello everyone," a tall urban man rises and says, "my name is Jonathan and I am raising awareness for sick children in the hospital, like my sister Janelle, and if you like what you see, please give a donation. My best form of expression is my dance, and I'm not very good with my words." I take off my headphones, as my interest is peaked because I was once a dancer. Jonathan takes out a mini boom box out of his backpack and sets it on the ground and presses play. The whole train cart then becomes his stage. He began to breakdance and  swing through the poles. All his movements were flowing and fluid. The beat was clearly, an instrumental hip hop beat and everything he did was natural. After, he was finished, I gave him a thumbs up. "Thank you for your story," I said.


 I hope everyone picked up even the littlest of somethings from my blog. I hope the blog provided informative or entertaining information that one could carry with them. My adventures will continue and I know y'all will also have adventures that are worth telling. Everyone needs to share their story, because your story is your journey.

Please stand by for the closing doors 

34th Street Station or 34th Street Spa?

What is the new trend, and even if it is just a prank can you please sign me up. Yeah, everybody has those days where a short subway ride can frizz your hair, turn the subway into a sauna with your sweat, or completely ruin your makeup. But I never expected anyone to follow through with this even just as a prank, check the video out!



What in the world! People are getting really creative. They, actually, turned the station into sauna which includes fresh towels, soothing music, icy water with fresh lemon slices, and hot stone massages. The prank was done by Improv Everywhere, a New York city based prank collective that causes scenes and enjoy's causing a stir in New York city folk.

But, wow, that one is really something.

Please Stand by for the Closing Doors

BUSKRS - what is it?

Okay, I am supremely sorry about all the websites I've been sharing with y'all, but this one's very similar to Underground Public Library, except its MUSIC. I mean, who hasn't seen a wonderful subway performance, unless of course taking the subway isn't your transportation preference or you are a tourist in the Big Apple. But back to the point, but what buskrs.com does is make surround sound recordings of the NYC subway's best performances. On the website's "About me," there is a definition of busker provided which is a "a person who entertains in a public place for donations."
This video in particular really struck me, because it was played at my best friend's subway stop (7th Avenue) that I am in more than my house, but it is AH-MAZING, watch for yourself!


The website's author, Brett Paine Murphy describes his hobby like so:

Some musicians are local, others have come from half way around the world or migrated from small towns across america. Most come here with hopes and dreams of making it big and for others this is the only thing that separates them from the panhandlers. They wear their hearts on their sleeve and pour their souls out to strangers.
Well done, Mr. Brett Paine Murphy, well done.


Ew, ew , ew bedbugs found in the N train!

If you live or commute anywhere by the N line, I truly sympathize for you because that is vile. Bedbugs were found in at least 3 N trains last week. The MTA has planned to make checks in the Coney Island rail yard which is the last stop southbound on the N train. The location of the bed bugs was said to be in the cushions in the train cabs that motormen use.


Two N trains were taken out of service and fumigated after bedbugs were found in some of the cars.

MTA PLANS INCREASE!

What? And by what, I mean WHAT? I am not ready to pay more for my very necessary commute. Apparently on Monday, July 28 the MTA announced that next year there will be a 4 % fare hike, less than the original proposed hike of 7.5, but still not ideal. These are approximates on how pricing will look like in 2015:

  • Single ride would go from $2.50 to $2.60
  • Unlimited weekly passes would go up from $30 to $31.20
  • 30-day unlimited passed would jump from $112 to $116.50
This increase will not be impacted by the recent and ongoing agreement with the LIRR, bus, and subway workers. Instead, the MTA will fund those by dipping into reserve funding. Along with the $14 million dollar budget revealed earlier this week calls for $20 million dollars in improvements. The MTA also plans to increase staffing to prevent equipment failure and a quicker response to subway track problems.

The following fare hike is scheduled for 2017, as of right now that increase is predicted to be another 4%. Talk about confusing and upsetting half of New York City commuters.


Underground New York Public Library

Recently, I was browsing online and I discovered something called the Underground New York Public Library, basically it's a blog of photos taken of different people reading various books/Kindle books on the train

Click here to visit the blog.

The most interesting thing for me,  when looking at the blog is the books range from classic like "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger to apparently instructional books like "How to be a Man: A guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentlemen" by Glenn O'Brien. They also post daily from Sunday-Friday! So if you're looking for book ideas, look no further! Also, to spice it up on Sundays they post a "Sunday Morning Bible," which is like highlights and other interesting thoughts from the author of the blog.

Hopefully this inspires some of y'all to grab a book and have something to do on the train, because it sure inspired me to reread Catcher in the Rye, and get insight from Holden Caulfield.

"I left all the foils and equipment and stuff on the goddam subway. It wasn't all my fault. I had to keep getting up to look at this map, so we'd know where to get off. The whole team ostracized me the whole way back ton the train."
For me, that is such a familiar instance, I have definitely gone on the train and gotten off without something that is really important and had a significant amount of people judge me for it.

Please stand by for the closing doors