my favorite work memory from this store will always be “hey remember when the subway inside the store closed down and they let me take a bunch of their shit for free and now it lives inside my house?”
The world is oftentimes such an ugly place, but sometimes it can be so beautiful.
Like, when two choirs, one from Croatia and the other from Zimbabwe, met on the opposite sides of a Lisbon subway station and both sang to each other.
I unfortunately do not know what the Zimbabwe children choir sang to them (although it was so beautiful), but the Croatian klapa Kastav sang 'Kuća puna naroda' (a house full of people).
And let my reward be a house full of people,
my life, give me a voice, so I can embrace you with songs.
people cosplaying on public transit are the backbone of our society and i am SO serious. there is no greater omen of good fortune than seeing hatsune miku on the bus.
‘Love is the one thing that we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.’
“Eulogy from a Physicist” by Aaron Freeman, with quotes from Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, and images from NASA, Interstellar, Getty, Petrichara, and Reuters.
1- NASA: GOODS-South.
2- NASA: NGC 1850.
3- NASA: Iberian Peninsula.
4- Christopher Nolan: Interstellar.
5- NASA: From the Earth to the Moon.
6- Hannah La Folette Ryan: Subway Hands.
7- Adams Evans: Heart Nebula.
8- NASA: Exploring the Antennae.
9- NASA: Crescent Moon from the International Space Station.
Public transportation is humbling, by which I don't mean there's anything lesser about it, but that it reminds you in the best possible way that you're not the main character of the universe. Even in a world class public transportation system you're occasionally going to encounter people begging, crying babies, people talking loudly or emoting, people wearing outfits you may consider weird, body odor, delays and inconveniences. I'm not saying you need to put up with straight up harassment or anything like that, but you need to accept that the world exists outside of you. If your entire world is your workplace, your car and your nuclear family, that is going to impact your politics and your perspective. It's no wonder so much of the US is designed to this exact end, and how so many suburban Americans who value comfort and convenience over all else are losing their damn minds. The US is an international embarrassment when it comes to transit, but even in sophisticated networks you still have to share a space with other human beings and you need to act like an adult about it.