Today's Local News: Buskers Come to Myrtle Subway Station

In the five years I've lived in Bed-Stuy, there's always been musicians on the J,M,Z trains. Not as frequently as some other trains, like the Q, but often enough that to see a trio of Mexicans singing with guitars on one's commute home, is not a wondrous occurrence. However in the last week, in the Myrtle Station I nearly tripped over a skinny white boy happily strumming a stringed instrument, possibly a banjo, with his open case at his feet. This busker was standing, of all places, at the foot of the stairs by the doors in between the token booth and the passageway to the trains. At evening rush hour, no less. It seems he could not have picked a more awkward place and time to play his music and annoy the crowds of exhausted rush hour commuters trying to get home as quickly as possible. I haven't seen him since, possibly he was trampled underfoot. I wouldn't have been surprised. Not only was he noticeable for his bad positioning but he was also the first busker I'd ever seen at our station.

And then today, the old Chinese man pictured above was playing his stringed instrument, not all that well, but this time in the open air, obstructing no one, on a calm weekend. For some reason this filled me with great joy. Or perhaps I was already filled with great joy. So I got out a dollar and had Little Joe deposit it in his instrument case.

Then this evening, we were struck by the vibrant, enormous rainbow in the sky. Also the first I'd seen, it seems, in my 15 years in New York. This has to be a sign. Of great changes, all for the better.

Brooklyn weather: Balmy and Colourful.