Blog #2

WHAT I HEAR

By Brian Alexander

Hunter College - Media 160-Lab 02 - Fall 2015

My 2^nd Blog Assignment for my Media 160 class that was to observe and write about the sounds we hear. I thought that this would be good to do in a public space where there are lots of people moving about and heading towards their destination.  I choose to go to Grand Central Terminal for this assignment as it has 750,000 visitors every day.1

As you know Grand Central Terminal is located in Midtown Manhattan (42^nd Street and Park Avenue). It is a railroad terminal that connects the Metro-North Railroad to Duchess, Putnam and Westchester counties in the State of New York as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.   In the lower level of Grand Central Terminal is the NYC subway.  The Lexington Avenue subway lines (#4, #5 and #6) travel from three boroughs, the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn (expect for the #6 trains which travels from the Bronx to Manhattan) all stop at Grand Central Terminal.  The #7 trains which come from the Flushing area of Queens also stops at Grand Central Terminal.  The S trains (also known as the Shuttle train) travels from the West side of 42^nd Street & Times Square to the East side of 42^nd Street & Grand Central Terminal.

Anyway, with people traveling from the suburbs of NY State and Connecticut and from four of the five boroughs in New York City I thought it was be an interesting mixture of people that I would be able to observe and listen to as they travel through this major terminal.  

I made this observation on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 between 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, which is the time a lot of people take lunch. 

The first sound I hear was, “May I help you?”  It was a cashier at a bakery talking to customers who were looking at the various items posted on the menu board at the bakery.  I hear two women laughing as they posed for a selfie picture they took of themselves with their camera phone.  I hear a baby crying somewhere in the terminal but I didn’t actually see the baby.  I noticed the sounds of the footsteps as people walked up and down the stairs.  I walked upstairs to the Apple store, which located inside Grand Central Station.  I hear the sound of music playing from a pair of speakers that were connected to one of the many Macintosh computers the Apple store had on display. 

I hear the sounds of various semi-professional photographers as they focused on and shot multiple pictures.  As I walked around the terminal I started to hear chatter as numerous people that were nearby talked to their friends, colleagues and relatives at the same time.  I heard people carrying on conversations with other people on their cell phones. I noticed the squeaky sound of sneakers as people walked by.  I heard the sounds of heels clicking against the floor as women walked by. I hear foreigners speaking in their native language.   

On my way to the restroom, which is in the lower level, I passed by several people waiting in line to place an order for their lunch.  I observed people sitting down in the restaurants as they ate their meals.  I hear the sounds of the utensils as they hit the plates.  I hear people being polite as they said, “excuse me” as they tried to pass by a crowd of people in their direction.

It was a pleasant day.  There was no rain.  The weather was nice.  People were kind to one other.  I didn’t hear any rudeness.  I didn’t hear any arguments.  These are the sounds I observed at Grand Central Terminal.

1.  Http://www.thedailybeast.com. N.p., 1 Feb. 13. Web. <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/01/grand-central-terminal-100-years-100-facts.html>.