Slug & Lede

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/22/nyregion/20080822_LASTSTOP_FEATURE.html?ref=multimedia

This multimedia package lays out the final stops of each of the train lines of the New York Subway System. With almost 30 different routes running on more than 10 different lines 22 hours a day, the system itself is huge. This package include a central interactive map, photos, videos, and audio clips. The central map is overlaid with the paths of each line, with the end of the line for each linking to a package of photos, videos, text, and audio pertaining to each.

From my perspective, this is an intriguing, complete, and enjoyable mulitmedia package. As someone whose only NYC experience came in the form of a stopover at Laguardia and a cab ride through the city to Newark, this is a highly informative piece about one of the most famous parts of NYC - but something I knew nothing about. Each of the parts of the package easily accessable, make sense in terms of location and function, and are visually inviting. Nothing is wasted here, and the piece leaves me wanting to see an entire map of the city’s subway system.

The package gives the user the entire picture about what constitutes the end of the line on different routes and lines, and what kind of place the end of the line is. The way the producers of the package showed the differences between say, the 203rd street stop and the Rockaway Park stop makes clear what each place is and what it is about without being pejorative or giving way to bias. The package does a great job of telling the story in a concise manner, the only way it could become too time consuming would be for the user to choose to get lost in its depth.

Hillary on the train to Chicago.

I’ve known my friend Hillary since I was 11 years old. I’ve taken more pictures of her than I can count, which may or may not be creepy, but this was probably one of the coolest looking photos I’ve taken. We were taking the Metra to Chicago in August 2007 for a concert. We had to take two different trains to get there, so we had lot of time to kill. When we discovered that taking a picture by the window would show a mirror image on the other side, we were entertained, and the rest is history.