Hands down, Lou Reed’s New York is one of my favorite records of all-time. Lou’s at the top of his game musically, topically, lyrically (mostly), and emotionally (though with ol’ deadpan Lou it’s hard to tell sometimes).

Released in 1989, it’s a somewhat dated commentary on New York City and our society in general. There are many frank ideas about wealth, poverty, failed leadership, religion, greed, and race throughout the set that are timeless and, sadly, unresolved or unchanged.

On the whole it’s one of Lou’s better albums.

One song in particular — “Strawman” — always gets me riled up, partly because of the subject matter and partly because you can really hear Lou getting riled up himself.

The words to the tune are pretty simple and self-explanatory. I always find myself summing them up with one simple question that Lou himself asks in the song:

Does anyone need a $60,000 car?

Now I don’t know what Lou drives nor do I begrudge anyone for owning a $60,000 car. The song just gives me a little perspective and sometimes I — better yet, we — need that more than anything else.

Take a few minutes and listen for yourself.

Lou Reed “Strawman”
from New York

My kids love public transportation. Especially Charlotte’s new light rail system.

Every time my two-year-old daughter Sophie sees anything pertaining to public transportation — a city bus or light rail train — she calls out LIGHT RAIL! in that sweet little voice of hers.

My five-year-old son Nick knows all the light rail and Charlotte Trolley stops from 7th Street to Tyvola.

Anyway, it’s a fondness for kids and their obsession with public transportation that endears me to illustrator Christoph Niemann’s The Boys and the Subway, a story and illustrations from his blog Abstract City at The New York Times.

Check out these excerpts:

Illustration by Christoph Niemann

My sons Arthur, 5, and Gustav, 3, are obsessed with the New York City subway system.

Illustration by Christoph Niemann

People often ask me for directions in the subway. Even though I know my way around rather well, I still have to defer to Arthur very often. Yet it seems people don’t trust the advice of a preschooler. They should.

You gotta see and read the whole piece. It’s priceless.

Back in Charlotte from a week-long residency in New York City. I use the word residency mainly because I felt very natural there, as if I had been there for years instead of just days.

Collecting loot and drinking pints, riding the subway, navigating the people, the streets, and the blocks of lower Manhattan, tapas in the Village with friends, finding things to do and see and places to poke into…it all just seemed so effortless and natural. I miss it already.

The main reason for my trip to New York was to show my book to some photo editors with whom I’ve established a phone/email rapport over the past several months. Making that face-to-face connection with anyone that may hire me — better yet: anyone that may trust me to shoot and deliver an assignment — is very important to me.

Most of the editors and art directors I work with here in Charlotte are people I’ve met in person and even broken bread with, so to speak. I value those relationships immensely and am always making an effort to strengthen them as time permits.

Since some/most of the magazines I’d like to shoot for are based in New York, a trip up there to meet the photo editors of those magazines, on this and future trips, is appropriate.

I met with and showed my book to thirteen photo editors. Some looked while others turned the pages, some turned the pages of the book quickly, some turned them slowly, some asked about the images, some asked questions about me, some crossed their arms the whole time, some said a lot, some said barely anything, one showed me around the magazine’s offices and offered me the views of Manhattan from their lofty windows, and one shared some incredibly forthcoming and valuable advice about improving my book and shooting for them in the future.

I didn’t expect to walk out of my meetings with an assignment or with the promise of one. All I wanted from these meetings was the opportunity to meet these people, face to face, and strengthen our relationships.

Some relationships take years to build. Yet each begins with one person making a move towards the other and putting out their hand for a hearty handshake. It may sound a bit naive or too hopeful, but it’s the honest truth.