Like most of Mr. Scott’s movies, “Pelham 1 2 3,” which is set to open June 12, is a finely calibrated box-office machine with plenty of fireworks and star power. But for anyone who has spent time past a turnstile, one of its chief attractions will also undoubtedly be how devoted it is to the look and feel of the subway and how well it pulls it off. In early reviews since the trailer was released on the Internet, even the most bloodthirsty critics — New York City subway buffs — have had a few nice things to say.

As most fellow geeks that like to laugh and point out blatant inaccuracies on film and TV, I was interested to see for myself how well they would portray the system, especially given how well it was done in the 1974 edition. I was actually quite pleased with it; it seems that the MTA provided a lot of background to make many parts of the story quite plausible. The thing that piqued my interest was the escape scene where they ended up in the Waldorf-Astoria. It turns out that there indeed was a platform at Grand Central for this hotel. This sort of thing was not all that uncommon back then. However, the station where they filmed the escape scene was labeled “Roosevelt” which is nowhere near Manhattan. I’m thinking that it must have been in the abandoned section of the Roosevelt Ave station in Queens.

Another interesting plot is sending the runaway train to Coney Island instead of South Ferry. As Coney Island is outdoors that would make the filming more interesting; but I’m not sure how a 6 could get switched to BMT tracks to take it to Coney Island. At a minimum it would have to be switched to the 4/5 express tracks to send it over to Brooklyn in the first place. I’m thinking that the train would have derailed long before making it in any event.

The 70′s edition had more interaction between the hijackers and the passengers; there is a lot more character development in that story line. In this edition, it is clearly all about the stars Travolta and Denzel which also works well.

The intro for the 2009 version features the high pitched whine that anyone that’s ever ridden the 6 would be familiar with; I thought that was a nice touch. However, the original has the best opening credits score of any movie! I’ve embedded it below for your listening pleasure.

First, the Winter 2009 NY Coherence SIG will be on Thursday January 29th at the Oracle office on Madison Ave in midtown. Registration is required in order for the bouncers in the lobby to let you in, so be sure to check the link and register if you plan on attending. Yours truly will be talking about using Coherence in production and a peek behind the scenes at the tools and techniques used to provide support for Coherence. We’ll also have one of our customers (Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO of Squarespace, Inc.) presenting as well as one of our top architects Brian Oliver speaking about using Coherence in a WAN. He just gave a presentation at the London SIG last week that was well received.

For those in the Boston area, you can check out the Boston Scalability User Group in Waltham run by Anthony Chaves. Here is the registration link if you’re interested in attending. This meeting will be a free format discussion on all things scalable, so if you have any questions about a new project or experiences (good or bad, the latter being more entertaining) you’d like to discuss among your peers this is a good opportunity to do so. I should be at this meeting as well.

Update: Due to the weather the Boston SUG meeting has been postponed.

In the virtual world we have a new LinkedIn Coherence Users group that has attracted over 30 members on its first day! If you’re a Coherence user or are interested in networking with Coherence users and architects, feel free to join this group.

While I’m in NY for the SIG, I’m going to try to take some time to check out Joel’s new downtown office.

Apparently I’m not the only one with this opinion. Back in 1972, map designer Massimo Vignelli designed a map that emphasized the routes over everything else. Only straight lines, 45 and 90 degree angles were used. As an MTA spokesman said at the time,

“Maps like these have to make deliberate distortions to clarify. We tried to make sure that nothing unnecessary distracts the eye from the subway routes. There’s no sense in using a transit map for geography lesson.”

However, according to the NY Times article the map was not well received at all. After much complaining, the map was redesigned and a new (much more geographically accurate) version was issued in 1979.

From the article:

Although designers love to discuss why Mr. Vignelli’s schematic map didn’t fly, no single theory has emerged. The graphic designer Michael Bierut, however, suggests that New York’s street grid was to blame.

“Londoners are actually unclear about how close one stop is to the next,” he said. “But a lot of Manhattanites could tell you authoritatively how long it would take to walk from Fifth and 28th to Seventh and 44th. So the geographic discrepancies in the Vignelli map, which are no more than those you find in lots of subway maps around the world — they’re just glaring.”

For more on the 1972 map redesign, see this map guide on subway.com.ru. The site nycsubway.org has a great scan of the 1972 map. This map was discontinued in 1979, so I have very vague memories of it. Looking at this map now I offer the following observations:

• Central Park is a square, and a tiny one at that.
• Roosevelt Island and Randalls Island are completely missing from the map. I was going to point out the missing Tramway link but that was not built until 1976.
• The transfer at 42nd St between the 8th Ave IND (The A, C, E lines) and the Times Square station is not drawn. I’m fairly certain this existed way before the 70′s, and it would be something important to know.
• The Grand St station is on the East River!
• Queens appears to be very small and it appears to have a lot of subway coverage. Even looking at maps in the 80′s and 90′s, the subway coverage of Queens is quite distorted. To see what it really looks like, have a look at this mashup. Queens is much larger than the map indicates, and most of it is not covered by subway.

In learning about this history, the most amusing thing is the quote “There’s no sense in using a transit map for geography lesson.” That is exactly what I used it for, and it has served me well to this day!

Unfortunately, the week that we chose to spend in NY turned out to be one of soggiest on record. Every day was overcast at best, and there were several days of non stop rain. Living in Florida, the rain is not quite so inconvenient since we all use cars to get around, and for the most part parking is plentiful wherever you go. However, pleasant weather is enjoyed much more as a pedestrian than as a driver.

Despite the weather, we did get to enjoy certain venues, one of them being a Broadway show. We picked up a pair of tickets to see Beauty and the Beast at the TKTS booth in Times Square. This was our first Broadway show and I must say that it was a very good performance. Just about everyone on stage needs to have three talents to be successful: acting, singing, and dancing. I think that each of them pulled it off very well.

We also trekked uptown to see the Cloisters at Fort Tyron Park. I really wish the weather was nicer on this day because the park is very nice, and there were some really nice gardens inside of the Cloisters as well. The Cloisters is an extension of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to medieval art. The building looks and feels like a castle, and many of the doorways consist of actual doorways of medieval buildings. The main thing that Maria wanted to see was the Unicorn Tapestries. She had been fascinated by them since childhood and was very much looking forward to seeing them. Looking at them up close, the detail that the weavers were able to achieve was amazing. Although the tapestries are huge, they have the same level of detail as paint on a canvas.

I was looking forward to seeing Massive B spin Dancehall at The City nightclub, and I was not disappointed. We showed up around 12 and the early DJs were spinning some old tunes. Their selection was excellent even if the mixing left something to be desired. An hour or so later the Massive B crew showed up and really woke up the crowd. As is the case with their mix tapes (which I have been listening to for at least 10 years) and their show on Hot 97, the selection and mixing was top notch. They also had Kiprich performing that evening, but the performance was mediocre (and the crowd let him know) so we left a little after he started. The promotional CDs that they gave away were not bad, although the songs were not as new as the literature suggested.

On Thursday evening we hung out with Dario and Frank, two guys that I went to grade school with and grew up with in the Woodside projects. Frank is doing IT, performing installations and administration for a company in NJ. Dario is buying and selling stocks on Wall Street, and also recently started a Hip Hop record label, Firewater Records. So far they have a few artists signed up and a couple of mix tapes, with more on the way.

This trip was my first experience with JetBlue. These were the best coach seats I have ever had by far. There was plenty of legroom and each seat has its own LCD TV with 20+ DirectTV channels to choose from. The trip to JFK from Orlando was very smooth and trouble free. On the way back however, after boarding the plane we sat on the tarmac for 20 to 30 minutes. It turned out that there was engine trouble and we would not be able to fly on that plane. After pulling back up to the jet way, they had us go to another gate. They pulled another jet out of the hanger and sent us on our way. Before takeoff, the flight attendant apologized for the delay and informed us that they would give us $50 off our next trip to compensate (which drew enthusiastic applause from the passengers.) And sure enough, I have the following in my inbox:

Dear Patrick,

Thank you for flying with JetBlue Airways on flight #41 from New York’s JFK on 10/14/05. We regret that we did not operate your flight as scheduled and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that the maintenance delay may have caused you. As always, our foremost consideration in these cases is the safety of our customers.

As a gesture of apology and goodwill, we have issued each customer on your flight a $50 JetBlue electronic voucher. When you are ready to use your voucher, please call 1-800-JETBLUE with your confirmation number **** for this flight. The voucher is for you and is non-transferable; vouchers are valid for one year and cannot be used as a payment option for online bookings.

We thank you for your understanding, and look forward to a future opportunity to welcome you aboard JetBlue Airways.

Very impressive. I will certainly fly with them again in the future.