more subway love

i have a love/hate relationship with the new york city subway. on the one hand, it is incredibly convenient (you can get everywhere, and i say this having lived in cities where public transportation did not take you everywhere), the fare's pretty darn cheap, and some of the best people-watching takes place underground. in terms of hate, it smells like pee and i'm pretty sure it's the next terror target. (at least i can ride it now without getting panic attacks.) anyways, we're focusing on the love.

i think the best thing about the subway is the buskers. and i am not talking about the candy bar kids or that guy selling spinning tops. a few weeks ago, s and i were on the 4 heading downtown and three guys got on. two of them were incredible acrobats, doing flips in place in the cramped aisles (literally, one guy did six back flips in a row in place, he was like one of those tin toy monkeys that flips over and over), hanging off the bars and twisting themselves around without once bumping anyone seated below them. (the third was eating nerds, and we debated whether or not he was involved. it turned out he was in charge of carrying the boom box. and eating nerds apparently.) i gave them a dollar; i was in awe. once they were done flipping, however, the chatty one started talking about how much he loves doing this, and we got quite the life lesson (a dollar well-spent, indeed). it makes him happy, and he is happy to make other people happy. and subway acrobatics are the only thing he wants to do. he went to college and it just wasn't for him. he is thinking about joining the armed services, but only the navy. (apparently you don't get benefits in the army.) but he won't join up until bush is out of office, because he hates bush. i was laughing, because honestly, to go from back flips to bush in only 3 stops is pretty entertaining.

i also love the musicians. (i didn't tip the mariachis on my f train the other afternoon, but in my defense i was hungry and cranky, and they weren't wearing costumes. i like a little effort.) yesterday i got an excellent barbershop quartet, who charmed the baby sitting catty-corner from me. it was too cute, them serenading the little boy, him looking up at them with wonder and delight. and all day today i've had "too young to fall in love" stuck in my head after listening to the sweet sounds of the subtations as i made my way uptown. they got seventy-five cents. not because they didn't deserve more. i was just saving up for coffee.