Group Projects in New York City this Weekend

So much working together goes on around here. Many times group efforts are most notable after midnight, but some are day time affairs.

#1 Group Project: 

On Friday night, we were coming back from the comedy show that Bente and Charlie had invited us to on the Upper West Side. Charlie plays poker with the headliner. The headliner was... not good. He was up there thinking he was sharing Deep Thoughts. And yeah, it didn't go well. The audience was its own spontaneous group project sharing various shades of WTF -- some more loudly than others. 

But all this, while colorful, is completely irrelevant. 

Here is my actual Group Project #1: 

It happened on the subway home. 

I sat down next to a woman who talks when she gets drunk. She was telling a quarter of the subway car that she just moved back from Florida after getting divorced from her third husband. She muttered something like "What am I doing wrong in my life?"

....and suddenly it was a therapy session with five therapists lined up in the seat across from her. One guy who looked like he just stepped off of a Buena Vista Social Club film set stared at her with serious eyes and said, "You need to learn to spoon. Spooning is important in a marriage."

#2 Group Project: 

Also on Friday night, a lot was fucked up with the trains and we got off at 34th Street. Which is inarguably a confusing subway station. On a narrow crowded platform you have to make a lot of choices about which rabbit hole of a stairwell to select to go down. And if you make the wrong choice, you can end up idk on an LIRR train to Babylon Long Island. Point being, the pressure is on.

A guy was panicking. He kind of narrated his concerns. "All I want to do is get on the #1 train downtown. Why is that exit closed? If that exit is closed is there another one open? How do I get to the #1 train downtown?"

Someone pointed him in the right direction.

The guy said, "Thank you, this is my first time doing this!"

I said, "And you're doing a great job, it's very confusing."

And with that... directions given, self-esteem bolstered, the guy was good to go.

#3 Group Project:

Corpses. Photo by Joy Bergmann.

10th Avenue in midtown is a cemetery of dead lantern flies. Every single person walking down the street, with unspoken solidarity, begins stomping with steely eyes and great concentration. We are warriors, together on the battle field. 

Even the Bridge and Tunnel folks are on the Team. We were up by Hudson Yards last night when some twenty-something in nude high heels and jorts wailed, in the most Sopranos of all accents and loud enough to echo off the concrete, "You have to get them, they are killing the trees by my house in New Jersey!" 

#4 Group Project:

Tom and I were sitting in our fancy lawn chairs in central park with the Norwegians and Helen from the Ukraine. We were up on this hill. At the bottom of the hill was this whole group of adults playing that Red Light Green Light game from Squid Games. We decided it must be some kind of adult day camp. It was mesmerizing as far as spectator sports goes. They didn't kill the losers though, in case you were wondering.

Lining up for Squid Games Red Light Green Light