Shot from the top floor of 14 Wall St. J P Morgan (the person, not the bank) used the entire floor as a piet de terre.

Wonderfully surprised by the renovation of Alice Tully by Diller Scofdio + Renfro and FXFowle. Is it a shark or a ocean liner? Interiors and sound quality were great too. I heard Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Steve Reich & Musicians.

This sign was found in the bathroom of the 31st floor of One Chase Manhattan Plaza. The typography is mesmerizing.

Image source: flickr

1. If you are waiting for a train, and the incoming train cars go, packed, empty, packed… do NOT enter the empty car. The *best* case scenario is that the AC is broken.

2. The subway trains run in the same direction as that cars run on the street above the tracks.

Image source: backspace.com

3. The compass roses that the MTA is placing in front of subway entrances, started out as an intervention by riders, and is what I would call ethical graffiti.

4. The A and D trains run express from 59th Street to 125th Street, which is great if you want get to Harlem, but not so great, if you are trying to visit the American Museum of Natural History.

5. The subways do, in fact, run on a schedule.

6. Google Transit combines subway schedules (see point 5) and Google Maps to provide directions using public transportation in New York, and many other cities around the world.

7. The displays with real time updates of the next train that the MTA have been introducing on the L line has been in other systems, such as DC’s Metro and the London Underground for years and even decades.

Blogs on Subways:

Second Avenue Sagas

Subway Blogger

AMNY Subway Tracker

Going Underground’s Blog

I was walking in midtown today and saw crowds of people staring and pointing at the fairly new New York Times Building. I generally ignore this kind of gawking, but there were more people stopping than the average film shoot gets. I got a little worried, in case, something *bad* happened. After a couple of blocks I finally asked someone, and was told that someone was climbing the building. Apparently, two climbers, Alain Robert and Renaldo Clarke scaled the New York Times Building. I caught a glimpse of the second one, who started around 6.00 pm.

Image source: Wikipedia

This is going to be slightly off topic, so you’ve been warned. Carly Simon seems to be bubbling up into pop culture consciousness, even without being included on a Quentin Tarantino/ Wes Anderson film soundtrack. Her controversial “He Hit Me” she wrote that is covered by Grizzly Bear on their Friend EP and in live shows.(Please read comment thread.) On an anecdotal level, a friend, Ray, randomly mentioned that he has been into the Simon track “Why.”

A little additional internet research is showing that she is also releasing her next record on the Starbucks label, and one of her songs was featured on American Idol. I’m waiting to see if she shows up anywhere else. How are these related, if at all? Can the fluctuations of the comeback popular culture be tracked, traced, understood and gasp predicted?

All this leads up to the big question I want to ask, which has to do with her ode (dare I almost say, pre-rap battle?) to Warren Betty (or Kris Kristofferson or Mick Jagger, depending on who you ask) “Your So Vain.”

The lyrics of the accusatory chorus “you’re so vain, you think this song is about you, don’t you?” have always confused me.

um… the song IS about him, isn’t it?

Image source: New York Magazine

This week New York Magazine cover story is about New York’s dropping murder rate, and asks the question, what would it take to get the rate down to zero? My only response is, didn’t that already get figured out in Minority Report?

Image source: IMDB