The Unappreciated Subway Artist

If you ride the subway at all, chances are that you’ve come across someone singing, playing a musical instrument, dancing, or doing acrobatic stunts in the subway. Let’s face it, we don’t usually bother to look or listen. After all, in most cases it’s a street bum croaking away to a song that has been sung to death or making a sad attempt of playing the guitar. But sometimes, there are people who seem truly talented. Do you stop to appreciate them? 

A few months ago, I saw a group of young, athletic boys take a moving subway train by storm, doing crazy somersaults and back flips with such control and finesse that they could have been in a Cirque du Soleil show. Last month, it was a little boy playing such a beautiful piece on his cello that he could have been the next Yo-Yo Ma. Recently, it was two women singing the opera with such great vocal strength that I could still hear them as the train pulled out of the station (see the video recording I took below). I’m no judge for America’s Got Talent but honestly, some of these people knew how to put on a show!

There’s a famous story about a social experiment conducted in a Washington DC station where a world famous violinist played his best work for 3 straight hours. While his shows would normally sell out with people paying $100 a ticket in the art world, no one stopped to listen to him in the subway station. Maybe it’s the abundance of starving artists around us, or maybe we don’t have the time to stop and watch “street acts” in the busy, grungy setting of a subway station…but it brings up the question, have we become desensitized to art and beauty around us? Can we only appreciate it when it’s in a formalized setting of a hall or theatre? I suspect there is still more hidden talent in the city subways. The question is whether we will bother to stop and appreciate it when we see it. 

A subway act gone ignored

Opera singers in the Herald Square stop

A starving artist playing the guitar at Penn Station (he's there every day!)

What about you, readers? Have you seen any subway acts that have wow-ed you?

Of Museums and Martinis

It’s Friday and you get a message from a friend – “Happy hour at the museum tonight?” Normally, that would garner a response like, “Is the name of the bar Museum?” or “Girlfriend's already drunk!”. Well, if you have been to the Rubin Museum, then you’ll know that a happy hour at a museum is possible!

The Rubin Museum of Art is a small place that focuses uniquely on Tibetan/Himalayan art. Every Friday night, part of the museum turns into a lounge where a DJ plays worldly eclectic beats and a mixologist serves up fun cocktails like a Watermelon Mojito or Pomegranate Margarita. There’s even a small food menu comprised of fusion South Asian tapas like naan pizza and coriander shrimp.

When I first visited this place, my friends and I were so engrossed in the eating and drinking part of the experience that by the time we were ready to check out the museum, it was closed! It was kind of shameful. Recently when I went back, I made sure not to make the same mistake again. Once we had a drink in hand, our group proceeded to walk around and check out the exhibits. The one we saw, which is still ongoing, is called Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics. It was definitely interesting!

Funky cocktail drinks at the Rubin Museum

DC has its fair share of museum happy hours too, like those at the national Smithsonian museums and at private galleries. Phillips After Five is a happy hour held on the first Thursday of every month at the Phillips Musuem. The gallery organizes an enjoyable and interactive happy hour with live music and tours, making it easy for people to meet and appreciate modern art! There was something so bourgeois, yet fun, about sipping a glass of wine and discussing a Picasso painting with friends that I can’t wait until my next visit!

So if you’re the type of person who typically finds museums too educational or feel the need to add some culture in your life while still socializing, a happy hour at a museum might just do the trick. It’s certainly different from the usual weekend routine!

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