Gotta Love It

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The other night I was in the 2nd Ave subway station and a busker was playing the saxophone.  It’s a total New York cliche – the echo eventually drowned out by the roar of a train – but it still sounds great.  Here’s a snippet:

Saxophone in the Subway

Subway Mapping

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Last week Google added subway lines to the list of items that it shows in Google Maps for NYC.  What’s neat about this is that we can now plot where the subway lines are in the real world vs. where they appear on the MTA subway map:

Google vs. MTA New York Subay Maps

A couple of themes emerge:

  • Manhattan is ridiculously oversized in the MTA version.  Note how much smaller it should be
  • If you live in East Brooklyn or the entire borough of Queens you’re pretty much out of luck when it comes to subway transport
  • It is ridiculous how far the subway lines are from both JFK and LaGuardia

Signs in the ‘Hood

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One of the little joys of living in my neighbourhood is watching the subway ads get defaced. If it was just a matter of people tagging the ads, I’d consider it vandalism, but the locals have turned it into an art form (I think there are some very creative but underemployed folks in my hood who are quite bored waiting for their morning commute to Manhattan. Perhaps a hint of social deviance as well).

Below is a scene from earlier today. Our local artist carved out the baby’s smile and found that it was perfectly overlaid above a row of teeth below. There is an artistry of sorts lurking here.