5:05, Fifth Ave – 59th Street: “DBD?” I look up. An elderly, Chinese woman is leaning over in front of me, holding an array of DVD cases which she fans out like playing cards. “DBD?” she says again. There are a few big-budget movies from last summer (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, “Captain America: The [...]
The Commute, Part 6
5:00, 49th Street: A group of four girls in Fendi sunglasses and mini dresses who had just boarded at Times Square exit here. It occurs to me that the distance they had to walk – down the stairs at 42nd Street, through the cavernous, labyrinthine Times Square station, across the platform to wait for the [...]
The Commute, Part 5
4:53, 34th Street: Herald Square, possibly my least-favorite place in the entire city. Those snapshots you have in your head of New York City streets as being seas of people pressed shoulder to shoulder and stretching off into the distance for miles have their origins here. It is a shopper’s paradise, or nightmare, depending on [...]
The Commute, Part 4
4:49, 23th Street: A twenty-something man and woman, seated across the aisle from me, proceed to have the following conversation- Girl: Who was that guy that stopped by the bar last night? Guy: Who, Marco? Girl: The guy you were talking to when Kim and I were at the jukebox. Guy: Yeah, that was Marco. [...]
Composition Books: Confessions of a Luddite
Recently I’ve been reflecting on my relationship to technology (or lack thereof). While I’m a notch or two short of a pure Luddite (I do drive, I can’t avoid a computer screen and maintain employment), I find myself distrustful of technology at best, and as a writer dismissive of it completely.
The Commute: Part 3
4:44, 8th Street: Two young, black kids enter the train holding cardboard boxes. They’re a classic Mutt-and-Jeff pair, one tall and lanky, the other short and squat. I have trouble placing their ages, but it’s doubtful either one has reached high school yet. The tall one stays near me at the front of the car, [...]
Summer, 1991: Broke and Back in Philly (Part 2)
Despite the fact that he didn’t have a job or much in the way of prospects, he still managed to get a girlfriend that summer—and who knows what that means about the lack of “eligible” middle-aged men, why we seek relationships, his oral acumen, or anything else. My mother was kind enough to get him [...]
The Commute, Part 2
Read “The Commute, Part 1″ 4:39, Canal Street: As the doors slide open, the mournful strains of an erhu can be heard far off in the distance. On the wall outside, beneath a row of Chinese characters made of multi-colored tiles, someone has written “Obama is the Manchurian candidate”. Our car disgorges a handful of [...]
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