Posted on 04/18/2015 3:38:00 AM PDT by Silly
Dear Diary:
A singer often in need of a handy practice area, I sometimes vocalize in the subway (in addition to busking). The cathedral-like acoustics of these underground passages are friendly to the voice, and on my lunch break I can loosen my tie and warm up with some scales.
I have found a little cul-de-sac perfect for this at a station near work, out of the paths of the Midtown commuters rushing through. Passers-by who hear my tenor coloratura sometimes pop their heads around the corner in curiosity; some smile or wave. But I go there for the architecture, not the attention, and am generally left alone.
An indigent man once joined me in this space on a cold winter day. He began pulling out from under his clothing the newspapers he had been using to keep warm. Then...
(Excerpt) Read more at cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Enjoy!
Silly
For the first time ever, last week, I heard "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a test of the emergency broadcast system" coming from the PA system in a NYC subway station. Twice, in fact.
Wow, I do not think I have ever heard that before. Must have been strange.
I read it. Very nice. I understand there are many that live in abandoned subways. Working in NYC for 25 years one just gets used to the homeless and mentally disturbed.
But i’ll never forget being on the 1 train and the doors not opening at the stop. I got frantic and then what I thought was a terribly mentally disturbed filthy miscreant told me with a steady voice and perfect diction that only the fist five car doors open. I thought she had lost touch with all reality decades earlier. But she sounded as sane and stable as any person I ever knew. That event stayed with me.
Yeah, one gets used to the mentally disturbed that run the place.
What hit me from that incident was why would a person who sounded very rational and professional be doing living in the subway system. She didn’t babble the answer. She sounded well spoken. I’ve never understood that incident. My uncle had mental illness. He might have been able to tell me only the first five cars open, but you would have known that he was mentally ill.
I have occasionally gone out to Georges Island in Boston Harbor, where there is a civil war era fort that has a great big, underground brick lined magazine with a single door to enter.
I have taken my saxophone out there and played inside it...it feels like you are inside the music!
Thanks, so glad you enjoyed it. It’s always a wonderful day when a piece of mine hits the Diary.
It is a wonderful experience making music in the subway. You do feel like you’re inside the music, that is a great way of putting it. I just purchased a cornet and look forward to noodling around with that in the subway, too.
Well, they used to, but absolutely not anymore. In the past, the homeless were allowed to be anywhere and everywhere, to their detriment and the City’s. Today police and workers on on patrol to move them out of spaces, get them into facilities that are gradually becoming more realistic and practical about giving them real help.
At the moment, I am helping a friend who became homeless a week or two ago. He just stopped by my place this morning (left 3 minutes ago) for a sandwich, coffee, phone charge, and pick up extra HIV meds he is keeping here. It is a real challenge to help the homeless. Acts of charity that are moral, kind, and well-intentioned can actually produce the opposite effect if they are not executed wisely.
Please keep my friend in your prayers. Let’s just call him “John.” He needs a job so he can get a place... Thanks.
SIlly
Its always Awesome when something you wrote gets printed. I got an editorial printed once and I was on cloud nine for days lol
Congratulations. Nice little story.
I have yet to have the NYT Post any Comment I have made when responding to one of the Leftist Tirades.
It appears their Moderators don’t have any use for my “opposition” viewpoints. I’m sure they would banish me to the Subway if they could.
It is a true high, and it takes lots of time to come down from it.
There are strategies in not getting comments banned (for instance, by not ranting). We tend to think the Times is 100% bad, Godless, un-American — it has earned that reputation — but let me tell you: Please read a piece of mine from August (link below) and tell me that there’s no hope in getting our narrative into the Times.
tinyurl.com/ddgrateful
Come back and comment once you’ve read the story. I am very proud this made it through. You’ll understand once you’ve read it.
Silly
Nicely done, being Grateful is a disappearing trait amongst today’s Population.
The only problem I have is relating to Liberals who in my experience are NEVER grateful of anything. They only feel Joy when they can take away the Freedoms of those they disagree with, namely People like us.
They wouldn’t be Grateful if Obama succeeded in loading us all into Cattle Cars since it would just fulfill only one tiny item on the list of Grievances.
Liberals are ISIS without the Throat slitting Knives, instead using a compliant Media and Politicians to do their dirty work for them, and dirty it is.
Perhaps you could Post your Article here and get a wider Audience who would appreciate reading it.
I do wish I had the skill set to write so entertainingly, but alas, my Wife always reminds me that I allow myself to be a bit direct in explaining my differences with the Factually challenged, AKA the NYT Editorial Board and the following NYT Reader Comments Section.
I think the NYT has all my Posting Names imbedded into their “Enemies” Database, never allowing my opinions and thoughts to see the light of day.
Or, I’m just a bit paranoid. LOL
Thanks for checking out the piece, KC. I did post it here, by the way:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3253053/posts
The aspect of the Grateful piece that was so gratifying is a woman with a stroke reporting that God is so good to her upon hearing my song, my reporting the incident to the Times, and the Times reporting it (in my own words) to a much, much wider audience, on newsstands across the country and a worldwide Internet readership (just a bit wider than FR).
And through the process of getting published, I have personally become acquainted with the composer of the song, the young man who illustrated the piece so beautifully with a cornucopia guitar case, an atheist professor at an Ivy League school who I now correspond with, and many, many other people. Even found out that a lady a work, a newly hired executive, loved the piece so much she read it out loud at church to her congregation, and other Christians at the office stepped out to identify their faith openly. It helped get me hired last November to sing and play for a very large group of Muslims, who were thrilled with my music, admitting they don’t have that kind of music in Islam. This Muslim audience was gathered in a room you may have heard of — the storied Grand Ballroom of the legendary Plaza Hotel in New York City. I brought the house down. Just this week I was just asked by them to return and sing again in November 2015. All due to a little piece of writing, KC.
Yes, God’s name and His grace through suffering was reported by the Times. Maybe it’s time you stop focusing on what’s wrong with the Times, and do some thinking about how you communicate your ideas... or even the ideas themselves. And work on your writing. Take it is a gentle, loving rebuke.
I’m happy you engaged me in this matter; it was a good reminder even to me the effect this piece has had on people.
Truly blessed, and duly grateful,
Silly
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