Subway Shots

Looking back at my 2nd "Week-in-my-Life" series which ended last night, it was a pretty mundane, run-of-the-mill week for me. Nothing as nearly exciting as last time when I was almost run over by the Jesus-stickered livery cab. The good news is that the decaying odor in the hallway is gone finally.

Last night, just after 8:00pm, as I was standing in the subway station at 14th Street, having alighted from the 3 train and waiting for the 1 train to take me one stop further north, I looked up and saw the picture you see here with my camera phone. Now, anyone who has ridden the NYC subway system knows never to look up, because you're horrified by the sooty, mucky, gunky, stalactitey refuse that hangs down from the ceiling, threatening to crash down upon you at any moment and smother you with some unknown chemical compound that inevitably would either kill you, or turn you into a mutant superhero. But on this rare occasion, I looked up and was pleased to discover that the MTA has been increasing the number of digital screens telling you how long until the next train arrives. I don't know why it's taken NYC so long to put these into place. The London underground has been doing this for ages, and if memory serves me correctly they have it in Paris and Rome as well. It's a common courtesy, notifying passengers how long they have to wait. Somehow, having this knowledge makes you more patient. The unknown frustrates you more. Knowledge is power, as they say.

About 12:30am this morning, waiting for the F train at the 23rd Street station, I decided to snap the next two pictures, and decided on the spot that this will be the beginning of my new blog photography series Subway Shots. The first one shows the platform and the tracks. Pretty disgusting, huh? Wait until I get a great a shot of one the rats.
This next one is a poster encouraging people to visit Miami. I thought that was kind of ironic that I was standing in NYC looking at a poster encouraging one to go to Florida, something I do quite a bit, although not necessarily for the reasons they're suggesting. Yes, of course the poster is even greater because of the two hot guys on it, with one of them smooching the other. And, yes, this is gay Chelsea! The funny thing is that these two guys look familiar to me...just not sure why...