34th Street

Did you know about the instrument at the 34th St. station - N/R/Q platform? No neither did I. It's what happens when you don't read. Or in this instance when you do read. Or when I read. about the middle of the platform, you can find a small plaque which describes an instrument installation. In a green metallic bay aove your head, embedded into the steel. The bay has a series of opening with sensors inside, so when you pass your hand over the sensors, whatever pre-programmed sound is emitted. The theme is rainforest. I think it was built in the mid-90s when saving the rainforests was still a popular cause.

I haven't heard many people talking about the rainforests in awhile. I guess they're a lower priority. or maybe people just gave up. or the generation concerned with the saving of the rainforests were never able to pass the importance to the next generation. They were busy becoming irate with the gulf war II and the destruction of other people. 9/11 changed alot. the destruction of people by people seems more immediately pertinent than the destruction of trees by people. but each generation has their own causes, their own need to strike their independence from the last generation who fucked everything up somehow and is still fucking everything up. and we get new noise daily. and the media blasting from every conceivable open window.

The instrument on the 34th st platform is unexpected. i started waving my hand over the open portals the other night. it was friday night around 12:30am - so technically sunday. i had just seen cocorosie at the terminal 5 (a cavernous place more suitable to post-apocolyptic industrial dance parties than any inspired theatrical musical acts). so i was waving my hand, and which caused the machine to emit various bleeps with a wash of rainforest inspired noise. like some osund maybe that would be used during a grateful dead show in the drumz segment. it was fairly loud too, and a number of others onthe platform raned over to see what the ructkus was and who the cause was. i got a few nasty looks from people sitting who would rather not be interrupted by some jackass fucking around with a noisemachine in the middle of the night. but i was inspired. and its public. the plaque informed me that theere was a parallel instrument on the other platform--the uptown side--and that one hope for the installation was that people would communicate and collaborate across the tracks, since there were speakers on each side piping out all sounds created by both instruments. anyway, one disappointment was that all of the portals up top created the same sound. the overall sound changed in whatever pre-programmed series, but they did not vary per portal. after some playing around, I heard sounds nto generated by my flailing hands. they came from someone on the other side--some thug looking character throwing his backpack up over the holes. then he walked away. disinterested. but then someone walked over with a child on his shoulders. he raised the little one overhead to trigger the mechanics. soon, someone else form across the platform, another ghetto looking person who looked as if he would sooner blot out your eyes with a spiked shiv form his belt than communicate in any form with me started joining in. we had a little back and forth and with multiple people working on the machine, before the train rolled down, blotting out any beam constructed tone fabrics. maybe we fulfilled the hopes of the creators. and maybe someone was reminded of the rainforests as well.