The summer of 2007 is memorable to me for two reasons. First, I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Astana, Kazakhstan’s bewildering (if perhaps not quite bewildering enough) planned capital city. And second, I got access to an advance copy of Spoon’s sixth album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. At no point during that summer’s long and multimodal commutes did I dare to dream that a credited co-writer of “Don’t You Evah,” the ninth best song on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, would one day declare that my writing filled him with “something like rage.”
It’s a real honor to hear from Julian Tepper. As far as the substance of his feedback, though—huh. Tepper argues that I “missed” and “dismissed” the fact that people have historically used the subway map to get around New York. I didn’t. He writes that “those who behold the new New York City subway map will no doubt feel far less for the dream that our city is based on and the mystique and sense of awe that defines its spirit.” They won’t. He asks “what is a New York City subway map that fails to speak directly to it?” Here I can’t help but think…
