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Saturday, January 16, 2010

See Saw, Underground

Saw Lady, NYC
Photo by myself at the Union Square subway station.

'The Saw Lady' played the musical saw Friday afternoon, stopping some people in their tracks. 'New York, New York' was a crowd favorite, for obvious reasons.

A wood saw is basically 'played' with a cello bow. Higher notes are made by bending the saw more tightly. The saw sounds like a more wobbly, ghostly version of a cello, and of course, can only play one note at a time.

I've seen the The Saw Lady on numerous occasions. This time, she was wearing fingerless gloves, and looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

Edit: I received a lovely thank-you note from The Saw Lady. My photo is posted on her blog, here.

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Back to our mouse problem, which I first described here.

The situation escalated when I heard the little creatures munching through our kitchen cabinets, late one night. Then I heard them talking to each other. High-pitched squeaking, probably discussing how the cabinets tasted, or that with a bit more munching, they'd reach the coveted trash bin.

A coworker who had mouse problems last year swore by a battery-powered trap that basically electrocutes the poor things. The mice are lured in by peanut butter, until they stand on a metal plate, otherwise called a mouse zapper.

I had my doubts. No longer. The first night I woke up and saw the light flashing on the trap, which meant that it was not empty. Opening it up, I found two tiny mice, zapped to a humane death!

Related posts: Live Music, Union Square, Pulling Strings on the Subway Platform and On Music and Elephants Underground.

8 comments:

Washington said...

I was curious to hear the music from a saw!

Funny story! Poor mice!!

ChickenUnderwear said...

Washington, you can listen to her, here..

http://www.sawlady.com/

ken said...

kitty, nice slice of NYC life with the Saw lady and when will we see pictures of your mice? Not dead, of course..maybe sipping some parsley wine?

Anonymous said...

Amazing. Mouse traps are quick.

Luis Gomez said...

Music playing and mice gone! Perfect.

dianasfaria.com said...

Oy! I guess that is a happy ending, hopefully there were just two!
I like this photo, the Saw Lady looks so happy playing her music.

NYCDreamin said...

Great photo of the Saw Lady. I've been reading Natalia's blog for about a year and a half - she always some some interesting stories of her experiences in the subway playing her music.

Profile Not Available said...

I bet that sounded cool, particularly given the acoustics of the underground/metro. Willing to pass on the photos of the mice. : )

I love your black and white photos!