I was a dancer on the A train today

When I was riding the A train from 125th Street to 59th Street leaving City College, a person was dancing, while another man was playing music, singing, and commenting on the man’s dancing. At first I was listening to my iPod, and the dancer looked like he was doing really weird movements. I decided to turn off my music because I noticed that the rest passengers were really enjoying the performance. I thought that his dance moves were still peculiar while listening to his music, however the audience was probably impressed by his enjoyment of dancing. He even tried to get one of the female passengers to dance with him, but none of the ladies were willing. Then he tried to get anyone to dance with him and asked me to dance. Since I am not good at saying “no” to people and since I love to dance, I agreed to dance. I did not mind dancing in front of people, but I was not comfortable dancing and holding hands with another man. Nonetheless, I believe that I had a unique commute, and the dancer and singer/commentator did collect a lot of money in the subway car. It’s not bad to have a job dancing on the subway, especially if you can get a person of the opposite sex to dance with you (if you can’t you have to improvise). I wonder why no women perform in the subway.

Dawn by Federico García Lorca

The four columns of mire could be the bridges connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn, except that there are three bridges with at least three columns each.

Spikenards are costly perfumed oils of ancient times used primarily for their fragrance. So when I read “spikenards of drafted anguish” I understand “fragrant oils of anguish selected for a certain purpose”. What does this mean?

“furious swarming coins / penetrate like drills and devour abandoned children.” Hmmm…

I don’t understand.

American Journey

This documentary seemed more focused on Philippe Séclier’s personal journey that about Robert Frank’s book. To me, it felt like Philippe decided he was going repeat Frank’s journey and decided he might as well film it. The documentary was not particularly well thought out. Many of the places Séclier visited because they were photographed in Frank’s book, The Americans, no longer existed, which made it rather insignificant to have in the documentary. Also, many of the people that were interviewed in the documentary did not know much about the book and often did not remember when Frank came around. The two best parts of the documentary were the interviews with Frank’s printer and publisher because they provided stories about the process of making this book and also the true purpose of making this book. These were really only the two interviews that provided good insight into the making of The Americans.