Bethany Bradshaw is a Senior English major from Texas. This summer, she is interning at a literary agency and living on her own in NYC for the first time. She loves the city, window-shopping, and cats. You can read more about her and enjoy more of her excellent writing at www.bethanybradshaw.com. Bethany will be contributing to The HIdden List and sharing things that she finds exceptional. Enjoy!
The other day I was walking on Pier I at sunset, looking over the Hudson River, thinking about what my roommate told me about the number of dead bodies that could be lurking somewhere within its murkiness, when I found this phenomenon:
Two brightly painted pianos, placed back to back at the end of the pier, with the words “Play me, I’m yours,” pasted across their sides, welcoming my itching fingers.
They are a part of NYC’s latest (and, I think, greatest) art project.
Too bad these guys weren't there
Of course, I obeyed, stretching my sadly out-of-practice hands over their black and white smiles. Luckily, I still remembered Linus and Lucy. So there I was, playing Guaraldi on a blue, slighly tiny piano, on a pier, at sunset, overlooking the Hudson River. (I had stopped thinking about the dead bodies at this point.)
Having exhausted my (one-song) repetroire, I happily relinquished the bench to another member of the small crowd now gathering around the unexpected pianos. He launched into his (much larger) repertoire of Broadway classics and sing-a-long standbys. So, of course, we all sang-a-long.
It was incredible to watch. Slowly, people stopped walking their dogs, stopped talking on their phones, and started singing. (He was playing Alphaville’s “Forever Young.”Alphaville’s, NOT Jay-Z’s.) A couple that was out on a romantic stroll, a middle-aged woman who was not, people fumbling for the words in their second language – everyone at least joined in on the chorus. A few girls even broke out in dance! I had just stepped into a musical.
In a city where everyone minds their own business and just gets where they’re going, this stopping, and singing, and interaction was a rare – and – welcome pause. The grinch would have brought back Christmas – it was that beautiful. And, apparently, this music-induced pause is happening all over the city. I would call that exceptional.
