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This weekend in Grand Central is the final stop for the Christmas Carol Train tour! This event is free, and will be held at track 37, as well as Vanderbilt Hall. Dates and times are as follows:
Friday, October 30 9AM-7PM
Saturday, October 31 9AM-6PM
Sunday, November 1 9AM-4PM

Enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime attraction where guests of all ages will get a behind the scenes look at the magic, the spectacle and cutting edge technology of the all-new motion picture “Disney’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL” directed by Robert Zemeckis.

See a sneak peak of the film in our state of the art Digital 3-D Theater!

Experience a Behind the Scenes look at the making of the movie!

See original artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum in London, England.

Morph your face into characters from the movie using HP TouchSmart PC’s!

See concept art, models, costumes, and maquettes!

Plus Carolers, Snow and Much More!

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So I happened to encounter an article that was in Danbury’s News-Times this morning, regarding an event happening tomorrow (Thursday) at the Brewster train station. The event is a Prayer Vigil and Walk for Peace, concerning immigration reform in the United States. I’m seriously one of the last people to be advertising anything that contains the word “prayer” in it, but I must admit I found the article interesting.

If you’ve taken the train from Brewster, you know there are many immigrants, and probably also many illegal immigrants in the area. I mentioned in a previous post of a past incident where I took the train from Brewster, and while standing in the crosswalk waiting to go to the station, a man stopped for me and shouted out his window, “’ll only stop for you because you’re a white girl!” It was obvious what he was referencing… I was not one of “those immigrant people” that frequent the area around the station.

I certainly thought that the people of Brewster will remember the incident that happened in June, where a mother and her eight-year-old daughter were killed outside a dance studio in Brewster. A drunken, unlicensed and illegal Guatemalan immigrant driving a truck plowed into the two, killing them. Just searching for a link to this story, I find so much hatred, like this gem:

I volunteer to feed this piece of garbage into a wood chipper alive with his hands taped to his ankles

These animals must be dealt with. If the government does not do something, someone will.

But as the article states, think of Diane Schuler, the driver in a deadly incident on the Taconic Parkway. Investigators found this American citizen to be both drunk and high, and driving on the wrong side of the road. Eight people lost their lives in that crash, several of them young children. In incidents like these, maybe one should not be blaming illegal immigrants, but drunken drivers.

And with all this hate, maybe a place like Brewster does need an event like this.

Prayer Vigil and Walk for Peace in our Community
Thursday, October 15, 2009, 7PM
Metro North Railroad Station, Brewster, NY
For more information call 845-225-4698
or e-mail Charlieg424@comcast.net

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.

Photographs from the Members’ Reception at the Transit Museum on September 29, 2009. The reception opened the new exhibit, The Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue El, photographs by Theresa King

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