Tag Archives: Commuting

I was a dancer on the A train today

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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.

View of Ridgewood from above

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I took this photo when I was going to the Metro Mall on Metropolitan Avenue on 10/11/2014. This is also what I would see every day on my way to high school and back home from the M train. Since the subway is elevated and on a hill, I can see my neighborhood from above and Forest/Highland Park in the background. Sometimes, I felt like if I was flying through Ridgewood when I took the subway to school.

Books of Q88

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Over the past few weeks, I feel as if I’m more aware of the diversity around me when I commute.

1.5 hour of daily commuting to class has tamed me to bring a book–any book, to spare myself from mental torture. Usually, I finish my homework between classes (4 hours. more than enough time), so I am almost always in dire need of brain stimulation. I carry around 2~3 books at a time, not because I enjoy reading, but because subway rides can become unbearable for someone like me.

When 7 train closed down on Saturday of the Macaulay museum meeting, I was forced to take Q88 to Woodhaven for the first time in my life. As soon as I claimed my seat on the back of the bus, I found my self sitting in front (because the seats of the bus allowed 4 people to face each other) of a hispanic man holding red “Sacra Biblia.” He had quite a tranquil look on him, as if he was going for a church meeting, or as if he is a deacon or an acolyte, giving a heavy impression of piety, not according to the definition of Euthyphro and Socrates, but by the definition engraved in our natural human-ness, in that one can imagine that the man is having a relationship with God on his ride to wherever he was going.

Next to him set an elderly lady, murmuring at a volume inaudible, holding a small crimson book. As she mouthed each word, I became curious to see the contents of the book, as the title written on the spine of the book was too faded out to be legible. Luckily, I was able to see the chapter title of the page, which read: “Sanctuary Spell.” That was a great brain stimulant. I started to think: is the “spell” the “spell” that I know? Like… Witchcraft? Sorcery? Magic? I hate to be rude, and if anyone is offended by this post, I will gladly apologize, but I just have to say: I loved the irony that the lady had to sit next to the man.

When I and Sam went to Book Culture to buy the required reading, I noticed that there were several sellers of books around the block.

How much longer would such things exist?

What if books become like scrolls; what if archaeologists in the years to come take my journals and notebooks and infer that humans of 21st century actually wrote things on a bundle of bound papers with ink and graphite?

 

Books are cool. We should love them.