Start with the maps. All the lines, crossing each other, along side each other, different colors, different directions. So organized. So well planned (I'm sure some would argue with that). Each station listed. It's a work of art really, modern art. I'm totally into geometric shapes when it comes to art. Simple. Clean.
The subway itself is so interesting to me too. Something about knowing that I can go clear across the city with someone else driving me. Expectations defined and delivered. Stations crawling with people. Thousands of people. People watching at it's prime. Every race, nationality and fashion representation present. Waiting. Waiting for the doors to open. Standing like a statue so the exiting groups have to move around them. Wanting to be the first to board so they can get a seat. Keeping to themselves, plugged into their iPods, reading a book or the paper, politely ignoring the stranger next to them. No one talks. Quiet except for the screech of the metal of the wheels against the track. Bodies moving in unison to the turns and bounces the train suggests. It's like being alone in a room of 100 people.
My first experience was the NYC subway. All of about 5 minutes, I had no time to be mesmerized. My addiction came when I experienced the Paris metro. Each station beautifully decorated, street musicians playing their instruments so it echoed down the tunnels, Parisian men with babies and strollers seemed so out of place but not really. I brought a metro map home and had it framed.
I found this book in Boston. You know I'm in love.
