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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

On Music and Elephants, Underground

Jazz underground, NYC
Photo by myself at the 34th Street subway station.

The Alex Lo Dico Ensemble played jazz to the rush hour crowd, Tuesday evening. I wrote about them earlier, here.

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Like most places, it's not an easy time in New York right now.

The city is facing another subway fare hike. A vote today (Wednesday) determines whether the fare will jump from $2 a ride to $2.50.

Is it me, or does the subway fare seem to continually go upwards?!

As an antidote, I offer you this. The circus is in town and guess how the elephants get into the city?

They take the tunnel, of course.

Yes, the Ringling Brothers elephants walk themselves into Manhattan underground, via the Midtown Tunnel. It's an annual spectacle that I've heard about but never attended.

Hopefully next year, I'll give everyone a heads up - if you're near the tunnel entrance, you can see them all come out.

More about the elephants here.

Related posts: Tales From Below - A Subway Transcript, Pulling Strings on the Subway Platform and Art Underground the MoMA Way.

9 comments:

roentare said...

You have captured the essence of street photography. I love this shot very much!

Olivier said...

2$ à 2$50, cela fait une belle augmentation, je savais que NYC avait de gros problèmes de budget, mais quand même.
Je suis tout a fait d'accord avec Roentarre...Superbe photo
$2 in $250, it makes a nice increase, I knew that NYC had big problems of budget, but really. I am everything made in agreement with Roentarre... Superb photograph

Victor said...

Your blog really gives one the sense of what's it's like to live in NYC. Excellent. Cheers!

dianasfaria.com said...

I love live music, especially in the subway.
Great shot Kitty.
& That would be neat to watch the elephants arrive!

Terry at Blue Kitchen said...

One night in St. Louis, I was driving back to the office to work through the night and feeling sorry for myself. I was stopped at a red light that was just about to turn green. A pick-up truck pulled slowly into the intersection; I knew it would delay me further and prepared to fume at it. Then I saw it was hauling a half dozen or so cages on wheels, each containing a single tiger. The circus had been in town, and the animals were being hauled to a railroad yard to move on to the next town. As I enjoyed this magical moment of watching the tigers' fierce eyes flash in my headlights, I suddenly no longer felt sorry for myself about returning to work.

Kitty said...

Thanks so much, James, I am truly flattered.

Hi Olivier and thanks!
Yes, you're up on NY news. The MTA has been chronically mismanaged. It's really too bad for a major metropolitan area.

Welcome Snapper
I look forward to checking out your blog!

Hi Lily
I can just imagine the elephants and am kicking myself for not thinking about this earlier. Good to see you.

Terry, that's a wonderful story, and well told.
I can only imagine what it was like.

I feel terrible for such beautiful animals to be hauled around and caged. At the very least, they can provide us with a sense of wonder and respect for Nature.

• Eliane • said...

Those guys are terrific! They sometimes play in the Times square subway station and had me miss a series of trains. :)

Anonymous said...

Elephants in the tunnels! Wow!

Fredrik said...

Great as usual, Kitty!