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"Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s."
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"Today, Helvetica — a 1950s-era typeface that has gained fame and popularity because of its versatility — is the official standard in the New York City transit system. But that has been true for only 20 years or so."
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"ONE day not long ago, in a sunlit apartment on the Upper West Side, John Tauranac could be found examining a large, taped-together draft of a subway map."
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After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.
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The cell-phone novel, or keitai shosetsu, is the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age.
Monthly Archives: December 2008
links for 2008-12-21
Posted in del.icio.us
‘Fuel Dump’ Scharpling’s Twitter Novel…
Maybe in the sprit of the “cell phone novel” reported on in this past week’s New Yorker, Tom Scharpling, host of my favorite radio program ever, “The Best Show on WFMU” (it really is both of those things) is now writing a novel, ‘Fuel Dump’ on his Twitter feed.
So far, a character named Michael Richards, a celebrity of sorts, seems to be in a very dark mood despite his lavish surroundings, as he remembers mistakes of the past. Though I only know names like “Brentwood” and “La Cienega” from reading L.A. crime files of the rich and famous, I feel like I’m there with Michael as he complains about his GPS system’s fickleness. I really hope this novel continues to develop. What other creative writing is developing on Twitter? I’d love to hear about it!
NYPL on Flickr Commons
New York Public Library now has 1,300 images from various collections on Flickr. Pretty cool!
on not participating in the Kent Ave Bike Clown Protest…
Photo Credit: frizzick on Flickr
From Gowanus Lounge:
The ongoing Wiliamsburg Bike lane wars, which have pitted bicyclists agains the Hasidic community, will take an interesting turn on Wednesday when Bike Clowns show up to protest. This Wed (12/17) from 8:30-10am, clowns will be riding amuck through the streets from the Williamsburg Bridge and following a route South on the new Kent Ave bike lane, and loop thru Williamsburg? Why? To defend their turf!!! It seems a number of people are thinking the new Kent Street bike lanes are there for their own personal double parking needs, and they’re just getting in the way!
I ride Kent Ave fairly frequently, have nearly been run off the road by maniac mini-vans, and forced in traffic by double-parked trucks of business owners who are loading and unloading on Kent. Still, the thought of dressing up like a clown to protest that ‘treatment’ (which I’d really categorize as indifference) by the predominately Hasidic drivers that work along Kent Ave. has me a bit confused. I’m sure the message is crystal clear in the minds of the participating cyclists, but from a distance it smells an awful lot like mockery and intimidation, with a healthy dose of disrespect for the community.
Drivers in that area DO need to realize that bicycles are traffic too, that the City made those lanes in a continuing effort to encourage bicycle transportation and start scaling back automobile congestion. Cyclists in that area need to accept that there are going to be cars. When those business people go to Community Board meetings to protest the lanes, follow them there and testify that the bike lanes mean a lot. But clowns? Not so much.
A ride on the “Nostalgia Train”
On Sunday, I got the chance to catch the “Nostalgia Train” on its run from Queens Plaza to 2nd Ave along the V line. The trip brought back a flood of memories – not because I ever rode an R-4 subway car in ‘real life’ (too young for that, thanks) but because as a kid, I regularly visited the Transit Museum and its collection of antique cars and buses. As the old subway trundled along the heat and ozone generated from the old motors was really the best part of the experience, considering that nowadays, a ride on the subway is clean, air conditioned, sterile – even the brusque voice of the conductor has been replaced by the pleasant, automated ‘Shining Time Station’ – like voices.That reminds me, the MTA has also been touring one of their classic buses from the “Jackie Gleason” era, but I can’t seem to find any info on the MTA Website about the tour and I forgot my camera on the day the bus sat outside the Library at Grand Army Plaza.
On the way back to Queens, I ran into a couple of friends and their kids taking the ride to Rockefeller Center. One of the kids happily assured me “we’re not on a real train.”
The Nostalgia train runs from Queens Plaza to 2nd Ave for two more Sundays, December 20th 21st and 28th.
Posted in Personal history, Transportation, Uncategorized
Questions about NYPL – or should we call it “MYPL” now?
photo credit: InfiniteJeff on flickr
Earlier this week, NYPL head, Paul LeClerc was asked questions by Times readers about New York Public Library. Primary focus was placed on the current state of the collections, the buildings, and the hours of operation at the research facilities and the neighborhood branches.
Of the relocation of Teen Central, LeClerc says:
“Teen Central will move from its temporary location in the Columbus
Branch to our new Grand Central Branch, at 135 East 46th Street, when
it opens this spring. The 13,000-square-foot site will provide access
to a number of collections that were at the Donnell Library Center…”
