Yesterday evening was the reception / opening at the New York Transit Museum for the new exhibit, The Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue El. The majority of the photographs were taken by artist Theresa King, however her artistic pieces are supplemented by historical accounts and photography, as well as signage from the El.

Several people spoke at the reception, including the artist herself. She said that her motive for taking the pictures that final day was because she loved trains. I can certainly understand that myself… if I didn’t like trains I don’t think I would be writing a blog like this. Someone, I don’t recall who, also wondered whether the young people today would look back on the trains today in the same nostalgic sentiment that they look back at the Myrtle Avenue El. From my personal experience, I think so. Ever since I was a child I rode on the Harlem Line, though of course it wasn’t until more recently that I rode it regularly to commute to work. (This month marks the end of my first year of regularly commuting by train) Maybe this is a sort of odd observation, but I don’t really adore the M7′s as much as I do the older M3′s. There is just something about the cold roboticness of the voice announcing the stops, to the high seat backs that allow you to slip into anonymity that I don’t really enjoy quite so much. On the M3, with the lower seat backs, you can see the people riding in the car. When you ride regularly you see the other regulars in the other seats, and give them a little smile. And some you even have conversations with…

Well that certainly got a tad off topic. Last night I was only briefly able to talk with the artist, and I introduced myself, but she was quite busy talking with some other people. Had I been able to talk to her, I think I would have asked about her preference for shooting photographs right now. The photos from the exhibit were taken in 1969, and obviously photographic technology has significantly improved since then. Now the majority of people, including myself, shoot digitally. The colors and graininess of the photographs taken by King are said to be a limitation of the film available at the time, but it is partially those colors and grain that heighten the nostalgic effect. And even now, there is something to be said about the color range, grain, and detail of an image taken on a roll of film that a digital camera can not really reproduce.

If you have the chance to go see the exhibit, I highly suggest it, especially if you’ve never been to the Transit Museum before. There is just something incredibly authentic about a transit museum actually being in an old, no longer used subway station. Anyways, here are some photos from last night, of the artist and the exhibit. I plan on posting some more images later in the week of the transit museum itself, and of the unexpected museum “employee” I encountered in one of the restored old subway cars.

One woman at White Plains today had a terrible start to her morning. She was pooped on by a pigeon. Guess they didn’t like her too much. Cue the obligatory pigeon photo…

House painter lady was back again at the train station. “Housepainter! Housepainter! Ma’am do you need a HOUSEPAINTER?!” She just doesn’t quit! Despite the fact that I don’t think I actually saw a single person take one of her cards. At least the politicians hand out their papers, people take them, and promptly throw them in the trash once they get into the station. But hey, at least it feels like they did something!

I saw more delightful youngsters from *unnamed school* at White Plains again… what a wonderful lot of young men. The soccer team felt it would be necessary to brag to everyone on the platform about how they bullied this other young man during lunch, and it turned into the “best lunch ever.” They also laughed about how they would probably end up driving that young man to suicide. And to think that I laughed at the guy who was singing quite loudly the day previous on the platform. I would have much preferred him. Come back singing guy!

I decided to finally get a twitter account for the blog. I just started it out, we’ll see how this goes. If you want you can go and follow me :D

Oh, and before I forget, today is train conductor Guy’s birthday! If you see him, wish him a happy birthday!

You know what I seemed to forget this whole summer? Kids that ride the train to school. It was so wonderfully quiet without them… but now they’re back! Around White Plains I tend to see quite a few students from *unnamed school*… and when they aren’t discussing how they use cell phones, text messages, and all the other current technologies to cheat on their exams, they focus on getting the rest of the train passengers sick with what is probably swine flu. If I was a little bit nicer, perhaps I would have brought a box of tissues with me and given it to the whole lot of them. The other day the train really was filled with a symphony of sniffles. They all piped in at one point or another, but one kid, well, he was the metronome. He kept the beat of the slow-paced song with his every-five-second sniffles. Several people boarded the train and sat rather close to these kids, but within a few moments of hearing their song, they quickly got up and left. But hey, if you feel like sitting by yourself on the train, you can also use this tactic. Just start a terrible round of fake hacking coughs when people are boarding the train… Eighty, if not more, percent of the time, everyone will keep their distance from you, the sickie.

The other day I had to double check that I didn’t have any vision problems when I saw two identical twins on the platform. The amusing thing is that they must have gotten into a fight or something, because they were each pretending like the other wasn’t there. They were standing about twenty feet from each other, and I stood right in the middle, looking from one side of the platform to another. Really, I thought I was crazy, or my eyes were playing tricks. Too bad I missed the fight, must have happened shortly before I arrived at the station. That might have been interesting. I wonder though, who the hell do you root for when two identical twins get in a fistfight?

In other news, politicians are again hanging out at the train station, oh joy! Politicians are always my favorite. Last week there was a man passing out papers about Rob Astorino. I always love to see what is going on, so I went to grab one. But the man didn’t hand one to me right away, instead he squinted his eyes and stared at me. And then he mumbled, “are you even OLD ENOUGH to vote?!” That is sort of like when I go to restaurants and the waitress asks if I want a kids’ menu. Or at work when someone asks me if I am visiting my mommy or daddy… dammit, don’t you just hate when that happens?!

Back to politicians though, is there any amusing term that one uses for a person that is constantly following around a politician? Groupie? Or perhaps fanboy? Mr. Astorino apparently needs to find some better fanboys to pass out papers, ones that don’t mumble and you can actually understand. Like Dan Schorr’s friend with the large moustache. He is very loud and you certainly can understand him, other than the fact that you wonder where the sound is coming from because his facial hair is so large you don’t see his lips move.

This week, Mr. Astorino himself was in White Plains. Sort of just standing there smiling. As everyone rushed by. But hey, I noticed something… the little brochure that was being handed out, it looked a lot like another politician I know! I can’t believe the resemblance! Even the design of the brochure is the same… can you believe it?

Alright, alright. Perhaps that was a bit much. But I mean, it isn’t like anyone ever photoshops pictures of politicians!

Actually, this whole thing was amusing, because I had the brochure sitting on my desk here at work, and my supervisor came in and said, “Oh my god, that is Robbie Astorino! I was in third grade with him!” If only she knew about Robbie and his american flag bikini. I think Sarah Palin has one just like it too! Hmm…

Good morning from White Plains station.

Hooray, this week the signboards around White Plains station have been updated. A minor but nice improvement, much cleaner type that is a lot easier to read. The speed of the scroll has been increased a bit, though now I would have to say it is probably a little bit too fast.

The outdoor signage has been changed so the train destination is much larger. Hopefully this will help with all the idiots wondering where the trains are going, but considering a lot of the people I see around here, probably not.

Earlier in the week we were also treated with (or subjected to some more interesting advertising) of a new 2010 car, which I believe was the 2010 Buick LaCrosse.

People around the station were passing out reusable black bags with the car logo on it, which will be rather great when I have to go grocery shopping this weekend. :D In the parking lot an actual car was parked there, and you were encouraged to open the doors and take a look inside.

Some people checking out the car

As far as some of the advertising campaigns we get around here, this one was rather cool… or at least different from the norm. Though I don’t know about the name LaCrosse. Because when I see it, I certainly think of something different.

Hello everyone, and good evening from White Plains station. I’m back from vacation now… Returning back to the north is a bit depressing, as the temperature is steadily going down, and the nights are growing longer and longer. Before long the train conductors will be breaking out their flashlights…

Shortly before I went away, I happened to notice the above ad at Goldens Bridge station. I did think it was a bit odd. Along the bottom of the ad it said that it was paid for by the government. After doing more research, it seems that the government has paid five million dollars for this junk.

Immediately when I saw the ad, I thought to myself that this ad was not promoting happy marriage… The government is using taxpayer money to promote heterosexual marriage. Irrelevant of whether a person accepts the notion of gay marriage or not, I really don’t think the government should be spending the money in this way. So what if it comes out to a penny a person? That is a remarkably stupid way of justifying anything. Five million dollars is a LOT of money.

Another ad from the campaign. Ads like this have been posted on public transportation across the country.

Anyone else have any constructive thoughts about this? I say constructive because I really don’t need to be flamed by religious nuts talking about how gays are going to hell, etc. There are so many more constructive things that people could be attacking instead of gay marriage. Seriously, I think the entire human race is obsessed with the fact that they know what is “best” for every other person on the planet, and forcing their beliefs on others.

Good afternoon from high in the sky… I’m currently on a flight headed for Orlando, and I figured while I have some wi-fi and nothing else better to do, I’d make a post before the blog goes on a temporary vacation hiatus. I happened to take public transportation to Westchester airport, I’d actually never been on a Bee Line Bus before. I do have to say that is probably the most comfy public bus I’ve ever been on in my entire life.

Hey guys, I’m workin’ here!

In order to get to the bus, I took the train down to White Plains from Goldens Bridge. I’m not exactly sure what kind of work is going on there, but there were several trucks and such doing some construction work at the station. I will honestly admit to you right now that I did not know that trucks that can ride also on the rails even existed. Then I saw a yellow pick-up truck fly right past me as I was waiting on the platform. It was too fast for me to snap a picture of, but apparently these larger trucks that were also there have little track wheels that can pop down and allow it to ride the rails.

Considering my exceptional ability to encounter drunk and crazy people, a delightfully intoxicated young man kept asking me when the train to New York was coming, his words incredibly slurred. He then walked back and forth up the platform a few times, impossible to walk in a straight line. As he wandered perilously close to the edge of the platform, it started a conversation about who would jump down and rescue him if he happened to fall off. Great. Finally he collapsed against the wall, and thankfully didn’t fall off the edge of anything.

In other news, the New York Transit Museum looks like they are going to be having an interesting new exhibit. I happened to make a post earlier in the week about some of my issues with the museum, all of which have been resolved. I’m not one for censorship, including self-censorship, and originally I had edited my post. Finally I decided it best to remove it altogether. The entire situation did allow me to learn a little bit more about the museum, most notably about their new exhibit: THE LAST DAY OF THE MYRTLE AVENUE EL: Photographs by Theresa King

Opening in 1888, the Myrtle Avenue el ran from downtown Brooklyn to Queens, passing through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Middle Village. After eighty years, to the dismay of many passengers, the Myrtle Avenue el closed in 1969 and was demolished the following year. Yet, in the mid-20th century, the el’s wooden train cars and antiquated stations still held fond memories for riders who grew up in those neighborhoods.

THE LAST DAY OF THE MYRTLE AVENUE EL: Photographs by Theresa King is a photo essay shot in a single day forty years ago. The photographer recalls, “At midnight on October 3, 1969 over a thousand people eagerly awaited a train – not just any train, but the final train to run on Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue elevated line. These people were taking the last ride on this historic elevated train. As soon as they crammed on, the train rolled along from Brooklyn’s Jay Street station to the Metropolitan Avenue station in Queens. At the end of this sad journey, some passengers took artifacts to remember this very special old timer and bid a fond farewell. The pictures were taken during this last day at various stations along the Myrtle Avenue el in Brooklyn. During my childhood, I rode this train daily and loved the look of the station stops and the train itself. When I realized the line was due for demolition, I wanted to document a part of Brooklyn’s past that would be no more.”

The exhibit will run from September 29, 2009 – February 28, 2010 at the Transit Museum.