MTA portraits
There’s a certain melody that even trains have along with a special rhythm all on their own. I found that the MTA, while it posessed a more timely and artistic quality that Chicago’s el, did not have the same pleasing aural quality of the TTC Now, I do a good imitation of subway sounds but it doesn’t come through via text too well. Suffice it to say that when the TTC trains start up they make three different pitches of sounds one following the other as the speed and thrust of the train increases. The MTA trains only make 2/3 of these sounds if one is particularly lucky and the el usually just has a more sputtering noisy sound througout. MTA trains are cleaner than the el but with way more graffiti (again, sort of an artistic quality)
Again, I’ll never see these people again but I will remember them forever. Click on more to see about ten subway portraits.
April 27th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Way more graffiti? Wow you should’ve seen the trains in the ‘80s. They’re immaculately clean now compared to how they used to be.
April 28th, 2006 at 6:12 am
oh I don’t doubt it. I was just saying relative to the Chicago transportation system. Actually, to be clear, I felt that NYers were somewhat more accepting of the graffiti situation overall. In Chicago, it is often a tag for a gang and people are more afraid I think because overall it is more dangerous here maybe. Or atleast it feels like it is.
May 4th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
check out “street thief” movie (i saw it last nite). takes place in chicago, but i think the subways appear only once (if at all). but you’d appreciate th’other location shots. and i shoulda ‘taken’ the ‘da vinci code’ poster that was on ‘1’ train last nite, since i’m a collector / packrat, and i love-to-hate the mta.