Summer Weekend

I had a break from being on the train this past weekend and was in Newport, RI.  Instead of having a hot sticky breeze of a passing train try to cool me off, there was a cool salty breeze off the North Atlantic as I sat on a bench and did this watercolor sketch of The Breakers.  Although considered a "cottage" in its heyday by the Vanderbilt family, it's really a just a huge stone house built with an eye toward European palaces and Italian Renaissance palazzo style.

Father's Day and More

Happy belated Father's Day to all the Dads out there.  I enjoyed sitting next to Olivia and her Dad a few weeks ago on their way home.

Run out of gift ideas for that birthday coming up?  I've designed the perfect solution: the Commuter's Cuckoo Clock!  Complete with all these accessories and a conductor that pops out and announces the time!

The title track of singer-songwriter Nick Drake's album, Pink Moon is a perfect mellow song to listen to on the train ride home after a stressful day.  But on Wednesday night I was lucky enough to see the song come to life looking southeast down the Harlem River at the rising full moon.  As it happened the ingredients of just enough haze, a little smog, and humidity from earlier rain showers gave the rising moon a pinkish cast as it ascended into the night.  Walking home from the train station, the pink cast had been replaced by a blue reflective glow that bounced off all the trees and houses giving the neighborhood a very surreal vibe.

The Commuting Landscape

It's not just humans who commute on the train, it's all the "stuff" that comes along for a ride too. 

The tunnels and passages are heating up down in the labyrinth of Grand Central - just wait till August!

That's right, one evening last week I was sure I had entered a televised gameshow as I listened to the public address system on the train.  The conductor announced each stop with such gusto and enthusiasm I was sure if I closed my eyes I would awake to find that the train had arrived on the set of the Price Is Right.  But to my great disappointment my train car did not transform into a great assemblage of lights and cameras; I found myself walking off the platform straining to hear the echoes of  the great announcer as the train slipped away into the night.