Flushing out some "7scapes"

...from a photographer's notebook

Detail from "7scape No.3"    ©2014 Steve Ember   See it full-size here

Rather listen? Here's a podcast I produced this year (2016).

A s I mentioned in another post, when I was a kid, my Dad thought he could get the New York City Subway out of my system by taking me on one of the longest rides possible from midtown Manhattan, the BMT line to Coney Island.

What I said then bears repeating: Nice try, Dad!

By my teen years, I had acquired a fascination with the IRT No.7 train, then called the Flushing/Corona line.

What made this particular line so intriguing? 

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Call me pathological (or, Lest we forget)...

Sorry, but I just couldn't decide what to call this end-of-year ramble, but as years' ends draw close, my nostalgia synapses begin firing off at a passionately high voltage, so I think either title should work...

Many years ago, in a distant universe, I did a music program called "Ember at Large." 

For one of my shows, I interviewed the brilliant songwriter and jazz performer Dave Frishberg. We were discussing the inspiration for some of his wickedly witty and sometimes wistful lyrics.   

I think we might have been talking about his song “The Dear Departed Past.”  It could have been “Van Lingle Mungo” or “Do You Miss New York?” Doesn’t matter. What I most remember was his telling me he had “this pathological fondness for the past.”

Oh, yes, he had a twinkle in his eye when he said that, but if you listen to his songs (or even just read a lyric), you’ll realize he takes some serious rapier-like jabs at some of what’s gone wrong with present day culture.  And if there was a lot wrong with said culture in 1986 when I recorded that interview…

So I guess the end of another year is not an altogether inopportune time to lift a glass to “the dear departed past,” and recognize some of its worth, lest the dizzying progression of dehumanizing technology chuck more of it into the great cosmic dumpster.

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