28th Street Station - C/E Train: Graffiti Transformed

New York has cleaned up quite a bit in the past few decades but you still can't walk a few steps without seeing something defaced. I've become pretty blase about it. However, these defaced posters really caught my eye. They are all located next to each other on the same wall. Someone cut out pieces from one and pasted them on the others. A simple idea but in doing so, the original message and meaning is changed and all due to whatever images were immediately at hand. I found it theoretically fascinating.





Art is everywhere. Pay attention!

Downtown A Train - E.B. White Here is New York

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something...Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.

W110 and Broadway - Lobsters

I was chatting with my fishmonger when I noticed he got a brand new lobster tank. "Nice tank," I said. "If only I can afford the lobsters in them."

"I hate lobsters," he responded.

A few decades back, my fishmonger worked security in Florida. He had the night shift which ended at 5 or 6 in the morning. He worked right on the beach so he kept his scuba gear in his locker. After work, he would change out of his uniform into his scuba gear and walk right into the water. Having done this so many times, he knew the reef like the back of his hand. He went about picking lobsters from their favorite hiding places. He would emerge from the water an hour later with a dozen lobsters in his bag and head home to make breakfast that somehow incorporated lobster in it for his wife followed by lobster for dinner later that evening. The remaining lobsters he gave away. What he couldn't give away, he cooked and froze. This went on for years. Lobster omelets. Lobster salads. Lobster soups. Lobsters steamed, grilled, boiled, baked, roasted, broiled...

"I can't stand the stuff anymore."

W34 and 11th Ave - Vibe

I was walking through the convention center when I stopped at an exhibitor based in San Francisco. We were talking for awhile about his product when he asked "How long have you been in New York?"
"8 years," I responded. "Is it that obvious that I don't belong?"
"It's not that...you still have that California vibe."
"Cool."

You can take the man out of California but you can't take California out of the man.

W18 between 5th and 6th - The Evil Eye

I walked up to the counter ready to pay for my ham and egg sandwich. The woman behind the counter was focused on her newspaper. I quickly glanced at the article and notice a picture of Pope Benedict. She looks up at me.

"I don't like the current Pope."
"Oh. OK. I'm not catholic so I don't really know. Did he do something?"
"Just look at his picture. Pope John Paul looked so calm and saintly. Benedict looks like he's hiding something."

She rings up my order. "It's the Evil Eye!" she blurts.
I laugh and walk out the door.

Amsterdam and W78th - Pay Attention!

My fiance and I were walking in the Upper West Side to go to the GreenFlea Market. We were engrossed in discussing the kitchen island counter material for our new apartment when I noticed in the corner of my eye a woman with red hair coming towards me with her two kids. The person and I both stopped for a split second like you always do in a crowd trying to figure out which way that person is going to walk. Well, we did a little dance and walked around each other. I never bothered to look up and continued my all important conversation about how our kitchen island was to be constructed. A few seconds later, my fiance interrupted me and whispered...

"You know you just almost walked into Cynthia Nixon."
I need to learn to pay attention to my surroundings more.

Uptown 1 Train - Compulsion

The train was already crowded when it pulled into Times Square and I wasn't quite willing to give up my much coveted seat just yet. Dozens of commuters got on, jostled around and settled down. As the train pulled out of the station, the woman standing in front of me pulls out what I initially thought was an old hard bound dictionary. She props the book open on her hip while leaning against the pole for additional support. She looked quite uncomfortable so I gave her my seat.

When she sat down, I commented on the size of the book she was reading. The book was the complete works of Shakespeare. She explained she was going to watch The Tempest next week and decided to re-read it again. This was the only copy she had in her collection. I asked her if she had much more to read. "Oh, I finished that the other day. Now I'm reading the rest of his work before I watch the play."

She packed the massive book away as we pulled into Lincoln Center station. She offered me my seat back and hauled the book off the train.