Day 1 Son!

Day 1: Monday, January 14th, 2008

So we didn't cover all the stops we had hoped. Our goal was to cover the stops on the C Line from 110th Street Cathedral Parkway to 14th Street and 8th Avenue, over a 3 hour time period. But we had very large and significant stations this trip, so I can't feel like we didn't accomplish a lot, and I didn't want to rush and miss anything. So, Christi and I decided on no time constraints, no deadlines. Whatever we cover from 11am til 2pm is what we cover. Fine by me!

We started at our home turf, 110th street, Cathedral Parkway stop. Nothing too intriguing here since this is the station most familiar to us being located right across the street from our apartment. It is a nicer station and cleaner station than most I must say. There was some nice mosaic artwork portayed on the platform. Overall. not too much activity, especially at 11am on a Monday. This station typically is pretty quiet, except for your occassional stragler or homeless person looking for a dime. Since the 110 Central park West area used to be a big crack dealing area, there still is an element of those souls lingering about.
Next we hit 103rd, 96th, and 86th. Not much notable at any of there stations. All are fairly small and no artwork was recorded.
Next, one of my favorite stations thus far: 81st street, Natural History Museum. This station displays some of the most beautiful and unique artwork the subway has to offer. Different species of animals cover the platform walls. Bright colors and 3-D effects sharpen every image. On the downtown side a sea with fishes of every variety covers the wall . You feel like you're not in a subway at all, but swimming amongst fishes. All uncertainty and fear of the subway diminishes due to the fairytale fishes and brightwinged butterflys overlooking the people waiting patiently for their train to arrive. A calmness ensues and we are kid's again.
After 81st, we head to 72nd street. Not much notable here either. So we move on to 59th Street Columbus Circle. 59th is another large station. The Time Warner Center is located at this stop and is generally a very classy area - outside of the subway. I am surprised 59th is not a nicer, cleaner station, but I realize it is undergoing intense construction. I intend after construction is completed, it will be one of the nicer stations in the city. The NYC Transit Police are also located at this station. They keep felons here whom have commited crimes in or on NYC subways or buses.
Next we hit 50th Street. A nicer, cleaner station than most. Escalator's are functional at this station and the structure reminds me very much of the stations in London and Copenhagen. Very sleek and open. At this station you must exit the platform to get to the uptown side, so on our way back our card's had read "just used" as we re-entered the turntile some 10 minutes later, so the "cheerful" subway attendant had to manually send us through. Miss thang seemed a bit annoyed!
By this time it was almost 1pm and hunger was setting in, so Christi and decided to grab a bite at 42nd Street, Port Authority. I have a strange love for this station. Back in the day, before we lived in New York, Christi and I used to take trips and drive from our house in Pennsylvania and take the bus from New Jersey into Port Authority. It was a very familiar and oddly comforting place for us. We spent late nights and early mornings in the old PA. It brought back a lot of crazy memories. So we got a bite and then decided this would be our last station to cover for the day. We knew this station was largely significant and was going to take a big chunk of time, so we did not want to rush. Naturally, a lot of activity goes on at this stop since Port Authority is a major transportation hub for many tourists not to mention workers coming to and from NYC everyday. We noticed that Port Authority was a heavily patrolled station. Cops at most entrances, even undercovers keeping aware of any suspicious activity. After 9/11 happened, the city's security was severely questioned. This question was put to the test when I attempted to videotape the outside of the Task Force offices. No more than 20 seconds into filming two men immediately stormed out and asked if I was the one videotaping. They must have seen me from cameras inside. I said "yes" and asked if that was OK. Assuming I was a tourist, they let me go with no problem.
We saw lots of artwork, wall murals, shops, newsstands, and most notably musicians trying to bring light and soul to the sometimes dreary days underground. The art was astoundingly beautiful. There were an array of wall murals I had never noticed before because I was too busy getting from point a to b. There was a few characters we came upon. One man just stood admist the commuters as he impersonated bird noises aloud. There was a 3 piece blues band performing on the platform, who were very good indeed. Most notably, a Michael Jackson impersonator drew quite an audience as he did his finest moonwalk to Billie Jean and other MJ hits. I wasn't sure if this guy was really a talented Michael Jackson clone or just a comical nutto tryna make an easy buck off tourists who didn't know better. Both I suppose. Brave for certain.
In life we all want something we can rely upon and in a sense the subway is the heart and soul of nyc, a friend. Other's who don't know it may look at it as creepy, filthy, dingy, a poor man's means of transportation. Where pan handlers swell and drug dealers dwell. Yes, you'll have all this. But isn't that what makes New York so surreal? That an educated white businessman can share a seat with a homeless crackhead and it be just another day on the train. We all are trying to get somewhere, to someone we love, to work, to a show, to a museum, to a part of town we haven't been before, to our homes. We wait and sometimes we wait long and sometimes the waiting turns into frustration, but then we look around and realize we are all in this crazy place together. Til next time under the city...Over n Out :) Linz