Radio Daze

Oars, anyone?

This MTA Arts for Transit poster on the westbound 7 platform in Jackson Heights caught my eye. The copy begins: "The subway system brings people together by providing an easy way to move from place to place, letting us travel to all corners of the city to connect with friends, family, and sometimes, a special someone." The leave out connecting with bosses, coworkers, and often backbreaking and/or mind-numbing labor, but fair enough.

Product placement?

It continues: "Artist Jonathan Bartlett imagines a love affair with the city set amidst the natural beauty of Central Park, only a subway ride away." Quaint. Looking closer, I noticed the small transistor radio perched on the stern is tuned to 93.9, the call letters of WNYC, the public radio megastation. Suddenly, with a soundtrack of Scott Simon, Leonard Lopate, Jonathan Schwartz, Brian Lehrer, or This American Life, the whole scene changed complexion. From bucolic paddle to banal babble in three digits. 

(Full disclosure: Written by a recovering NPR addict. It took just one semester's commuting on the BQE to ween myself.)