6^th-7^th Avenue Tunnel

Friday April 17, 2015

3:30 P.M.

 

Standing on the north side of the tunnel, gripping his acoustic guitar sits a street performer. The crowd of people rushing between the 1,2,3 trains and the M, F, L, and PATH trains seem to take little interest in him. A few nod their heads in recognition of his acoustic performance of Luck in the Sky With Diamonds and other Beatles tunes. A single man in a suit reached down and deposited something into the open guitar case in front of him. The long hallway offers a different dimension to the music, not at all similar to a theatre or concert venue but charming in its own way. I see a few smiles cross the faces of passersby. A woman with a child smiles as she drags the child to the train. A couple strolls down the middle of the tunnel, holding hands. I can’t be sure if their happiness is accentuated by the music, but I am happy to think that it might be. The thing that perturbs me the most is the inaction of the majority of the people in the tunnel. New Yorkers are famous for having nothing faze them, but perhaps it would be nice if they stopped and looked and listened to the world around them for once. The other notable distraction to this free concert is headphones. Walking along to their own music these people do whatever they want to their own tune. But they are missing out on the other things, the sounds of the city, and the soundtrack of the city, provided by the subway musicians of New York City.