The Everlasting Struggle Bus

In most cases patrons of public transportation are not memorable and do nothing out of the ordinary to create anything worth remembering. However, here in Seattle, there is a sizably larger minority of travelers compared to most other places who decide that there should be some drama getting off the bus. These individuals tend to fall into two groups.

The first group of individuals don't cause problems, but it's always interesting to watch. These group of people seem completely oblivious to the fact that there's a big red light and a bell sound that go off when someone has already requested the bus to stop at the next stop. This usually means they'll pull the cord about 10 times wondering why there is no bell sound going off, usually while they're sitting there looking at their phones while trying to shove themselves out of the window seat by basically stepping through the passenger in the aisle seat while carrying 2 bags.

The second group of passengers is where problems have previously arisen. These passengers are the ones who under almost no circumstance will pull the cord. I've even overheard riders brag to their friends about how long they have gone without having to pull the cord (as if that's some kind of achievement). These people are generally alright as long as someone else who actually pulls the cord gets off at the same stop. However if they're the only one who wants to get off the bus, then we start having problems. Some of them will pull the cord at the last second possible, which usually results in a swift stop and a strong lurch, and some will even get off at the next stop someone else requests. However, what peeves me the most is when passengers will call to the driver for a stop. There is already a mechanism in place for you to request a stop that's used by almost all the other passengers, and apparently some passengers feel that it's so below them that they will verbally request a stop like it is their private chauffeur. Public transportation is not there to serve you at your whim, but is there to serve the community as a whole. Last week I even saw a passenger scream at the driver to stop at a stop that wasn't requested and kept shouting at the driver as he got off the bus as if the driver should have known that he wanted the bus to stop there. Unfortunately this is a regular occurrence in traveling with King County Metro, and each trip always leaves open the opportunity for another unwanted adventure.

A Slight Redemption, With A Twist

Two Thursdays ago (I know, I'm bad at this updating thing), I went to see a second performance of the Seattle Symphony. However, the adventures began before I even arrived at the concert hall.

I previously detailed my various bus adventures, including someone getting arrested and my poor luck involving the downtown tunnel station. This time both were combined when someone was arrested on the bus heading towards the downtown tunnel station. When the bus arrived, the driver wouldn't let anyone on, citing that the engine was overheating and needed to cool down. After about 10 minutes, we were allowed to board the bus, but the bus wasn't moving. Several minutes later, the police arrived to arrest a rider. Apparently he had been drinking and was verbally threatening other passengers. At this time, the bus driver then spoke to the officers and we disembarked from the bus to catch the next bus to the tunnel station. Needless to say, that bus was pretty packed with two busloads of riders, and I barely made it into the auditorium before the program began.

Tchaikovsky & Dvořák

Thursday, September 18, 2014

7:30 PM

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Richard Wagner

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 - Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito
Andantino semplice – Prestissimo
Allegro con fuoco

Daniil Trifonov, Piano

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Allegro Maestoso
Poco adagio
Schertzo: Vivace - poco meno moso
Finale: Allegro

This time I had orchestra level seating, which means I had a more "standard" view of the orchestra (sorry no pictures). Overall I felt that the orchestra played more as one cohesive unit, which was a nice improvement over the previous performance. I was pretty excited to see the Tchaikovsky piano concerto performed, though it would be difficult for anyone to match the legendary Van Cliburn. Trifonov is a very technically talented pianist, though he seemed to give off a nervous vibe, hurrying through certain passages; more concerned about finishing without a mistake than being expressive. His movements were a little jerky, and this was most evident when he was walking/bowing/etc. It seemed to reflect some lack of elegance and stage presence, reducing his ability to truly bring music to the audience. Overall the performance was pretty good, but definitely not great. My next date with the symphony is this Saturday, a performance that Hillary Hahn has pulled out of due to medical concerns. We'll see how that goes...

The Downtown Tunnel Station and Murphy's Law

Early I wrote about how I see weird things on the bus, and I continue to chronicle my bus adventures. Recently, most of my trips that involve the downtown tunnel stations seem to result in some kind of issue/incident.

My Murphy's Law experiences began in May, when I was trying to go SEATAC airport. A bus had broken down at the first tunnel station (Westlake) going southbound, and the bus wasn't towed into the middle area of the tunnel (between the two lanes) for about 20 minutes. My bus going downtown showed up right after the bus had been moved out of the way and they were boarding passengers into the alternate bus. This meant that the light rail (train) that goes to the airport can't run, so the resulting fiasco resulted in three trips worth of commuters trying to cram into a single train. It also didn't help matters that we had to depart the train one stop away from the airport and board another train because the train was beginning to overheat. My return on that trip featured the "phantom bus" that never showed up.

More recently I ran into another similar incident coming home from downtown. In this case I didn't see any cause of an incident, but there were at least 3 full busloads of people waiting for the university express, which is not a normal sight. After the next university express bus arrived, only a small handful of individuals boarded the bus. Since this route is run every 15 minutes, it would have taken over an hour to board a bus. Instead I boarded a bus above the street to head back to campus. However, while we were going up Broadway in Capitol Hill, we were temporarily slowed by a small march speaking against the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, further delaying my return to campus (and work :P).

Granted I take the bus most days to and from work without incident (though today something happened which resulted in all the buses I could take home from the office between 6 and 7 to arrive at 7), but apparently I seem to attract mistakes when I take pubic transit downtown.

Moved In!

So I've been a little busy but now I've moved into a new apartment in a much quieter side of town (thank goodness for that). In the meanwhile some interesting sights:

There was a metro bus with a Dianetics advertisement (on the inside). For those of you that are unfamiliar, Dianetics is the book written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology about the metaphysical relationship between mind and body (or at least in his mind). I've had the "opportunity" to visit the L. Ron Hubbard Museum in Hollywood and I spent most of the time trying not to laugh at the poor guide, who was utterly brainwashed in the workings of the cult.

IKEA now stocks the Daim candies again-there was a period of several years (up until a few weeks ago) that the candies were not sold. As an IKEA fan, I was glad they brought them back. Now if they would only restock the dessert cakes that had broken Daim pieces in them. Speaking of random foreign foods, I'm half-tempted to order a case of Guarana soda.

Taking The Bus

My bus rides are never as weird or interesting as the one depicted by Cyanide and Happiness, but I tend to find that riding the bus exposes me to the greatest range of people around, ranging from the downtrodden castaways to the clean and well-dressed. Since it is a means of public transportation, however, there have been a fair share of uneasy times.

A few weeks ago I was taking the bus to Northgate Mall on a weekend and a (somewhat not right in the head) gentleman gets on at the same stop at which I'm getting on the bus. However he starts to have a long discussion with the driver, and soon enough, our bus gets stopped by the police and the man is escorted off the bus and detained. I'm not sure what was going on, but my guess was that the driver was not happy for some reason to have the police come on the bus and physically remove the passenger. Several months ago I was also on a bus downtown with a belligerent passenger who kept cussing out the driver before getting off after being on the bus for only one stop.

In addition to the belligerent, there are the passengers who try to talk to everyone about their lives and their inflated sense of self-worth (or perhaps they just like to hear themselves talk). Most notable was several weeks ago on the light rail to the airport during the afternoon rush there was a fellow who tried to have conversations with everyone about their private lives. I can understand a little bit of small talk, but on a jam-packed train that's carrying twice as many passengers as usual due to a bus breakdown in a tunnel station preventing traffic for 20 minutes? I think talking to a stranger who likes to hear himself talk is the last thing anyone wants to do.