On December 31st, a minuet physical motion will align a big hand with a little one, pointing them directly toward magnetic north and marking the start of a new year. While waiting on the subway platform on my way home from work yesterday, I stood next to a man who, for the moment it took to compel his body forward with a mercenary scream, could find no reason for making it that far.
The man threw himself in front of the F train as it arrived at the station, locking eyes with the conductor in his the final moments before being swallowed by Newton's first law. He left behind a small, white plastic bag that sat, a silent witness, at the edge of the platform nearby. It was the kind given out at corner delis, and I imagined sandwich leftovers and extra napkins inside, but I couldn't look.
No one paid attention to the bag; it was lost in the crowd of people who gathered and called to the space under the second car where the man was lying, silent and unseen. I stood dumb, mute, my rational mind battling my disbelief; How could someone do that? Why? I left the station to call 911, realizing as I did so that the conductor probably already had. I called a friend instead.
Someone just jumped in front of the train. The paramedics haven't arrived yet. No. I don't know. No, I left; I didn't know what else to do.
I got back on the train this morning and headed for work. Women pulled compacts from their bags and checked to see that the makeup they'd thrown on in a dash from their doors had not been applied overzealously; men paced back and forth, reading their New York Times. All was ordinary. The sound of friction, though- the screech between the iron and the train as it came to a halt- seemed different, sharper, more metallic. I had to stop and cover my ears.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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About Me
- Alexis Stember
- “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Blog Archive
Links I Like
- My Website
- My Other (Less Wordy) Blog
- 52 Projects
- Amy Stein's Photography Blog
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Bells and Cockleshells
- Brad Linder's Blog (Audio Related)
- Brooklyn Vegan
- Cineholla Collective: Cullen's Blog
- Conscientious- Fine-art Photography Blog
- Conversational Reading
- Current TV
- DIY Photography
- Errol Morris's Homepage
- Film is Not Dead
- Flak Photo
- Forgotten NY
- Free Sound Project
- Graphic Literature Library Guide
- Graphic Novel Resource from UNC
- IMDb
- Instructables
- John Stember Photography
- JPG Magazine
- Learning to Love You More
- Librarians' Internet Index
- New York Times
- NPR
- On the Issues
- Peter Stember Photography
- Pitchfork TV
- Portroids
- Public Radio eXchange
- Re:Sound
- Resources for Documentarians
- Salon Magazine
- Salt Blog
- Saltcast
- Slate Magazine
- Sound Portraits
- Stereogum
- Story Corps
- Stranger Than Fiction IFC
- Strobist
- The Believer Magazine
- The Economist
- The Nation
- The New Breed of Documentary Photographers
- The Online Photographer
- Third Coast Festival
- This American Life
- Utne
- White Whale Crossing
- Wired Magazine
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