Explosions of Steam and Mind

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Holy cow... So I just witnessed a frightening, intense event here in NYC. I was riding the bus south on Lexington, and just a block south of Grand Central Terminal this deafening rumbling sound came from nowhere... we looked around and saw to the North that there was a geyser of dirt brown substance jetting from the middle of the intersection. Literally, the entire corner was exploding into the air. Everyone including the driver ran from the bus and part-way up the street. I turned around to see insanely frightened people, and I mean I have never seen people look so scared, alternately looking at and running from the scene. I couldn't believe my eyes. It seemed that the street was giving way and the geyser of what later turned out to be steam, water, and dirt all mixed together, was coming closer. Apparently the hole just got a little bigger, but it seemed centralized. I stood in the street with some others who ran up with cameras and taped the whole thing. It kept on going, the police showed up and started roping off the area, getting really upset and yelling/hitting people who wouldn't back off. I kept moving around because I wanted to see how this thing played out. I was interviewed by a Japanese reporter on live TV who kept trying to lead me to say I thought it was terrorism related, which I really thought was only a possibility. Eventually, after about half an hour, the sound and steam subsided, leaving what appeared to be mud coming out the hole, maybe ten feet high. Some public works people opened up some manholes and closed some valves, by this time I'd extracted from a local news team that it had been a steam explosion at a steam generator under Grand Central. Now I'm at an internet cafe and things have quieted down mostly.

In other news, yesterday I spent most of the day at the Met, which is a nice art museum with some cool stuff and a lot of really old stuff. Yes, this is what I got from it. It was a voluntary donation to get in, and some of it was really incredible, especially in the modern art section. At night I saw the philharmonic play but didn't hear much because everyone was talking a lot. Then, went to my new hostess Amy's apartment and we made fudge, which was delicious. Today Amy and I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art and saw the Psychedelic Era art show. There was some really incredible stuff there, showcasing music posters, new art styles, some really cool hippie projects like this inflated tube that ran out several hundred yards into the ocean and was big like a sewer pipe, so people were walking around inside. There were several rooms showing how light shows were being produced to go with music and create a more intense sensory experience, and finally some protest films about the war and state of the government, which got me kind of upset that nothing much has changed. So then Amy had to leave for class, I went upstairs to another exhibit which was made of silver-covered styrofoam that we were all supposed to write on. My artistic contribution was jumping as high as I could and punching the wall, which almost got me kicked out. My next contribution was writing "Jackass" with an arrow pointing to where the museum guard stood, which did get me kicked out. I'd already seen everything there. So then I went to the bus and rode south to the beginning of this post.

Yesterday I saw the "Imagine" mosaic on the ground in Strawberry Fields, and it really moved me. I don't know why really, but it was decorated with roses and candles and such and "Dear Prudence" was playing. I was touched. It made me wonder what I should be doing really, to try and move the world in the right direction. How would I know? And if someone like Lennon couldn't do it, how am I going to be any different? Should I just not care? Probably not but how much is enough caring? There was a lot to think about yesterday, and just as much today seeing as I almost died in a steam explosion. More later.

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