The Super Special Nostalgia Train

My friend Marissa informed me yesterday that she managed to catch a Special train this past weekend! At first, when she showed me the photos that she took with her crackberry, I thought that it was just the combined effect of a very dirty subway car and some vandals who got a hold of white paint. But Marissa told me that the entire train was just so retro-looking, and everyone in the car was just taking photos with their cell phones.

Anyway, I hoped that these Special trains weren't just running on Thanksgiving weekend because I really want to sit in it. So I looked it up on the MTA website, and these trains are called the Nostalgia Trains! According to the MTA, they will be running in place of the V line every Sunday from November 30 to December 28 between 10 am and 4 pm.

Below are a couple more pictures thanks to Marissa.


This just looks so cool. I really hope I will be able to catch it one Sunday before it stops running.


Subway seats back then had cushions? Why did they stop doing that and replaced it with that hard, shiny plastic surface which causes me to slide around involuntarily when the train lurches forward, resulting in awkward encounters of hip-bumping/touching with the stranger seated next to me?


It looks so spacious! I wonder if the MTA does this every year, and I just never noticed it for the past three years that I've remained in New York for Thanksgiving. Either way, it's nice that they are making an effort to spread some holiday cheer, what with the current credit crisis and all. I love subways and public transportation in general, so this just makes me so happy!

Seasoned Reporters Say...

"You want to know the truths that aren't obvious, you want to bear witness to the world, you want to tell a story." - Russ Buettner, a reporter at the New York Times, previously of the New York Daily News and Newsweek.

"It's a good job. They pay you to talk to people, and then they pay you to write about it– it's amazing." - Tom Robbins, a reporter at Village Voice, previously of the Daily News.

Chess

Washington Square Park

Even though I go to NYU, I no longer live on campus so I rarely walk through the park. I usually end up skirting around the edges of it to get to the library on the south side of Washington Square Park but that's about it. But last week, I was decided to actually walk by the north side of the park, and it's funny what a difference a change of perspective makes. I never pay attention to the park anymore because chain fence depresses me. Why are we changing the park? It was perfect the way it was.

I think landscape design people must have planted some fake grass in the park or something to that effect because the grass behind the chain fence looks so unnaturally green. The color was too vibrant, especially since it's in the middle of fall, approaching winter.

I dug up some photos that I took of the park over a year ago. I think the photos were taken around spring time, and I just shot them using a disposable camera. They're not fantastic, but they remind me of how the park used to be.

This double bass player is awesome! He doesn't usually use a bow (at least I don't think I have ever seen him do so) and he just plucks the strings and sings his heart out. I think he can usually be seen on the north-east corner of the park now that the center is not an option.

Kafka Was The Rage

I just finished a book today! I know it's not much to get excited about, but I haven't finished a book since the summer ended because I've just been so caught up with reading for school. Rachel lent me Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, and when she pressed it in my hands, she proclaimed it one of the best things she'd ever read. Mind you, this is also the girl who reads that Twilight drivel for pleasure, so I was a little bit skeptical.

Surprisingly, I found it to be a rather quick read, because the author's writing was very fluid, in the sense that it was easy to just continue reading. It was by Anatole Broyard, who was an American literary critic for The New York Times. His description of Greenwich Village and the characters who roamed it (Dylan Thomas and W.H. Auden made surprise appearances– they lived around the corner) was so fascinating to me. I mean, it's stupid when I say it because I am so young, but the Village really has changed from its literary heyday in the 50s. I wish it has retained some of the naivete that is described by Broyard– I wish it wasn't so trendy and cool and such the utter pretension that it is now. To be fair, some parts of the Village, like further West, seems to have retained some of its trueness, kinda independent spirit (though you could say how the hell would I know since I didn't live there in th 50s.)

Here's a little bit about writers dancing:

"I liked it better when writers danced. Even Hemingway, another clumsy man, knew how to dance, and I can imagine even Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas dancing. Writers used to get more out of simply being."

Ok, I'll admit. It's kinda a name-droppy book. But it's still incredibly interesting.

Cool Bike Racks for New York

Last Friday, New York City's Department of Transportation announced the results of the CityRacks Design Competition. First place is a silver frame that is in a shape of an O. Like for Obama! What a happy coincidence!



Kinda curious looking right? I don't think people will be able to chain more than two bikes onto it, so it doesn't seem to be particularly space-efficient. Also, doesn't it look like it could be easily yanked off the ground?

The second place winner is this yellow snake-like rack, and I think this is my favorite. The color makes me so happy, and the shape is just so interesting to look at.



And third place is another O-shaped frame, but it's a cheery kerry green this time. Perfect for pedestrians to rest their tired feet, I suppose.



Honestly, my least favorite bike rack was the winner because it looked so bland compared to the other two.

What was wrong with the bike racks we had? The ones that are like mountain and valleys, with the sturdy black frame going up and down, up and down? I liked those, and you can put more than two bikes on them. Maybe if the DOT just added more of those around the city and painted them in fun colors, they would be just as eye-catching as these CityRack winners.

Sailing For The First Time

I went sailing for the first time during the summer, and it was such an amazing experience. Being out in the water always makes me feel slightly foreign, like I am alone and out of reach from civilization. Of course there were other people in the boat with me, but when I looked out into the sparkly, sun-reflected water, it felt like I was on another planet. 

So I decided to start up a blog again, and we will see how long this one lasts.