Category Archives: NYC Subway

NYC, NYC Subway, Uncategorized

The Subway Symphony

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes.”A magic beyond all we do here.” Albus Dumbledore

 

Music has been in my life since I can remember. From my mother’s lullabies, to 7+ years of playing in band and a lot in between, music has been something my whole body yearns to have on a daily basis. It doesn’t just settle the buzzing noise between my ears, music calms me body and soul.

New York City has every type of music available for every type of person. There are symphonies and operas; jazz clubs and discos. New York City is the home to The Juilliard School (a place I used to dream about what it would be like to go there), Broadway, Central Park concerts, and The Carnegie Club featuring Frankie and the gang on Saturday nights (oh I could sit and listen and sing and dance forever here). Ellen’s Stardust Diner is known for its server’s singing performances, as they are all aspiring Broadway stars (and I would venture to bet this is the same with 75% of the rest of the servers/hosts in the city, that or aspiring actors). Yes, music has permeated every part of this city you can think of and more. But one of my favorite places I have found music in this city is in subways.

When I first moved here I was going through the subway station at Times Square when I saw a children’s Mennonite choir singing hymns. I’ve seen the saw violin, the one-man band, an astounding opera singer, and a blues group that could almost take you straight to the Delta if you let your eyes stay closed long enough. While some of these are people simply looking for a way to get by, many (like more than 350) are a part of the MUNY or Music Under New York presented by the MTA Arts for Transit. This amazing program, started in 1985 shows so many talented, amazing people. But it’s sad, while these professionals sit and play for hours, hardly anyone takes the time to stop and notice them. Remember when this happened in D.C.?

This concert violinist was almost completely ignored, simply because we are too busy with our day to stop and listen to the music. I admit I get like this far more often than I care to admit, but the other day I really stopped and listened and discovered someone amazing. Erik Heger was 5-years-old when he happened upon 10 harps hiding in his grandfather’s attic. Being a badass soldier in WWII (as Heger put it), he looked up to his grandfather as his hero. When he discovered this other talent of his grandfathers outside of shooting down the bad guys, he decided it must be really really cool and the rest is history. Heger can play anything you can think of. From Katy Perry to Jazz and Blues, classical beauties and compositions of his own. And if you saw him on the street, you would not pin him as a harpist (at least I wouldn’t, coming from Utah, most harpists are pretty little blonde girls). I sat and listened and chatted with him for over 45minutes, and I could have stayed longer if I didn’t have to get home to make my husband dinner – Heger was simply amazing. Here he is playing Mad World from Donnie Darko:

Stop and listen to the music every once in awhile, even if it’s just for five minutes. That five minutes may be just the thing your mind, body and soul needed.

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Dogs, NYC, NYC Subway

Walking Your Human in NYC

dog-taking-his-human-for-a-walk

I come from a very human-friendly town. I would say that about 90% of the local population owns a human and they can be seen everywhere around town. Park City even hosts a bark-o-ween parade and bash, just for dogs to show off their amazing taste in costume. Go trail running and you will see dogs and their humans. Go biking and you will see a human trying to keep up with their four legged friend – and dogs parks and lax leash laws are dotted everywhere. Park City seems to pale in comparison, however, to what I have seen in New York City.

With this ‘horrible’ winter we have had, booties have been a major necessity and they come in every hue and pattern you can think of (including fur lined). Sweaters, puffy vests and one piece suits are worn by almost everyone. They are fur lined, bejeweled and embroidered. They come from D&G, Juicy, Lord & Taylor and more. Most days our four legged fellows greatly out-style me!

Now it’s not the amount of dogs and their impeccable fashion sense that really amazes me. It’s the places I have seen them! Dogs take their humans to coffee shops, restaurants and banks. They take them on the subway, which is awfully brave of them (I did think about how terrified my old dog would have been riding in such a thing). But the places that have really surprised me are dogs taking their humans to retail and department stores. In Ann Taylor the other day, I saw a mid-sized dog walking around like it was nothing. Dogs take the humans to Macy’s and Bloomingdales, Uniqlo and Tiffany’s and everywhere in between. . And while I haven’t seen a Great Dane taking their human shopping yet, I don’t know that I will be surprised when I do.

Now do I think this is a little ridiculous to bring your human into all these places? Just a bit. But I understand. These NYC dogs have such impeccable taste, I understand they are probably needed for fashion advice among other things. But perhaps you could just bark in approval or growl in disgust over their choices once they get home?

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NYC, NYC Subway

NYC Subways: The Ultimate People Watching

Constant. Always in a hurry to get somewhere- which is often to push past you to get to the platform and just stand there when you knew the train wasn’t coming – never in the mood to talk or even look up.

They say one of human’s number one fears is public speaking, but sitting in a subway in the morning makes me think tight public spaces are right up there. Of course, this awkwardness and seeming inability to even meep (although cursing with your face down seems easy enough) makes for fascinating people watching.
In my two weeks of living in New York, I have discovered there are two VERY DISTINCT groups of subway riders – morning riders and after 1pm riders (because I am amazed how many people seem to Start their day around noon!). The morning riders look like this:
crammed subway
Notice that this picture is by the subway door. Because like your massive college lectures, the thought of actually moving to the middle and being near another person you don’t know – nuh uh, forget it! Most are silent, for many that silence is broken very faintly by the constant texting they seem to be doing (or perhaps it’s email, but even so, how in the world do they have service!?). If you are crammed right next to these types, they look at you like, ‘um, excuse me, why are you touching me?’. Getting a smile out of people is almost impossible.
One of my favorite things to do in the morning is see who I can get to smile back at me. Ridiculous I know, but it’s quite amusing when you look around, taking in people’s mannerisms. Judging whether they actually got to shower this morning, or if it was a, ‘shoot I shouldn’t have had those five drinks after work’ kind of mornings. I would say 2.5 out of 10 actually smile back (the half being that half smile while quickly looking away’. Most people, however, avert their eyes so quickly as though they were a two-year-old told not to peek but they just couldn’t help it. By the time I get to work, the crowds have significantly thinned and only the texters and students remain with me – so still no conversations to be had.
The afternoon/evening crowd is quite different. Maybe that’s because their fifth coffee of the day has finally kicked in, or maybe they just realize they are actually going to survive this day. I am definitely 9 for 10 on return smiles, and even ‘hello’s and ‘how are you’s are shared often. But the best are when conversations start. Here is what I have learned so far from personal conversations or evesdropping:
“There is nothing for me to be unhappy or unsmiling about because I am here and that makes today great” (elderly man who sat right next to me – 40years in NYC from the ‘DR” (Dominican Republic) three kids and two grandkids later – life is grand)
Not everyone can read a map that’s right behind them (as I’m trying to explain where to get off for Times Square while pointing it out on the map behind the woman’s head. The next stop she got a little scared – we were still 6 stops away – thinking they had missed their stop, obviously paying attention to me)
There seems to ALWAYS be some trivial thing to complain about (thins usually has to do with work and gets old to me really fast so I tune out rather quickly).
Adults just have no idea how things actually work and some video game teaches you so much more than you’ll ever learn in school (honestly had to try so hard to not crack up at these high schoolers on their way home from school).
I’ve heard people ask for money because of hard times in their lives and had a man come serenade our car with beautiful spanish singing and guitar. And while this wasn’t on the subway, a Mennonite choir sung beautiful Psalms that echoed throughout every corridor (it was so beautiful I missed the nest two trains to stop and listen.
As I continue to ride the NYC subway I hope to strike up more conversations with as many people as possible and to improve my 25% morning smile return. Until then, I’ll continue in partaking in personal bubble breaking in the mornings and making new temporary friends in the evenings (or at least getting good, juicy gossip 😉 ).

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NYC, NYC Subway

My Internal Compass Needs Work

I have grown up always knowing that east was where the mountains were, therefore, I could (almost) never get lost. In the last three days I have been yearning for those mountains so I could pretend to have some sense of direction. I have none.

wasatch uofu

Who needs an internal compass when you have this!?

My first day coming back from work I took the 1 express down. All of a sudden everyone is getting off and they are announcing that if you want to get off at South Ferry you MUST be in the first five cars. I don’t want to go to South Ferry. 40 minutes later I am still walking around, hoping somebody will notice this lost looking person walking and turning on the same street – nobody does, and I’m too stubborn at this point to ask for help, I can do this damn it!

Subway map

Day two I get off at the 9/11 Memorial. I think, “I’m home early, I’ll go see Ground Zero then just walk home”. So wrong. Almost 45minutes go by and my husband calls to make sure I’ll be home. He left his keys at the office. I inform him that he may just have to come find me and then we can both go home together. He chuckles, reminding me that I told him I was on my way home at least an hour ago. Thanks for rubbing it in, I feel slightly more inept now, ugh.

Today I head out feeling confident. I now know I have to transfer from the 1 to the 2 or 3 to ensure I get to Wall St. I know that the Kilarny Pub is just two right turns from where I get the subway. All I have to do is get off the subway at Wall St. and I’m safe, right? Haha don’t make me laugh. I am talented enough to walk out a completely different area than where I entered. Why can’t the Wall St. stop just come out on Wall St. only!? I am proud to say that it did only take me 15 minutes this time – and only one frustrated phone call to my husband. I’m getting better!

wall st sub

Wall St. is very neat for many things. The Bull the Bear, more suits than you will ever see in your life (and at all hours of the day too – who goes to a bar at 10:30 with their suit still on, briefcase still in hand!?). You can almost feel the power pushing on the doors. The flags almost seem to fly a little stronger, a little harder – they know they are somewhere important. But Wall St. you are horrible at giving me a sense of direction. No grid, no numbers, just a million streets, all getting smaller and smaller as you reach the tip of the island at Battery Park.

Now you may say, ‘you have a smart phone Chelsea, use it’s smarts’. This is true, and I have used it. But when Siri tells me to go north on Pearl St. I turn in a circle and realize I don’t know which way is north.  I must also admit my stubbornness here and say that I want to think I can find it on my own. Foolish in this smart technology age? Probably.

I huff down on our couch, venting to my husband about how I have decided I really don’t like this area and all it’s confusion. ‘Did you know the two bodies of water used to be referred to simply as the East and West Rivers?’ I gripe. Too bad from the middle of Manhattan (at least in the Financial District) there appears to be only towering mountains of metal. He just smiles and tells me I’ll dominate it come Monday.

I knew I would miss home, but who would think the first reason I would miss those mountains was because they provided me with my ‘internal compass’?

Bring it on Monday. Bring. It. On.

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