Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times Anticipating the future? A subway commuter on the phone.Soon you may long for the squeal of train against track and the squeak of underground rats.
Complete cellphone service is coming to the subway system.
AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers can already gab away at 36 stations; this week Verizon struck a deal to join them. Coverage for all 277 underground stations is expected by 2017.
But do you want it? Do you dread it? The Parisians can handle it â€" can’t we?
We want to hear from New Yorkers who already make calls underground, and from those who hate the whole idea.
Share your thoughts in the comments section, by e-mail or post them to Twitter with the hashtag #NYToday.
(Double points if you do so from a subway platform far beneath the street.)
Here’s what you need to know for Friday and your weekend.
WEATHER
Today will be mostly sunny, in the mid 80s. Same for Saturday. Sunday will be a bit cooler but all in all a great weekend.
TRANSIT & TRAFFIC
- Mass Transit: Subways are O.K. Click for latest M.T.A. status.
- Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.
Alternate-side parking is in effect.
COMING UP TODAY
- The mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio spends the morning at Bellevue Hospital, where he will receive the endorsement of the State Nurses Association. Joseph J. Lhota is a guest on Geraldo Rivera’s radio show on WABC 770 AM at 10:15 a.m. Anthony D. Weiner greets seniors in Harlem. And William C. Thompson Jr. hosts a roundtable discussion with African leaders in the evening.
- In the comptroller’s race, Scott M. Stringer attends a meeting with Chinese home care workers.
- Beer, barbecue and blues at 2 p.m. on Pier 84, where West 44th Street meets the Hudson. Need more be said? [Free]
- O.M.G.! The boy band One Direction is at Rockefeller Plaza, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. [Free]
- A retro game night featuring video, board and some not-so-old-school Xbox games on Grove Place in Downtown Brooklyn, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. [Free]
- Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom†plays at Beach 106th Street on the Rockaway Peninsula, in Queens, at sundown. [Free]
- Jimmy Heath and the Jimmy Heath Big Band perform world premiers of new music as part of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, 7 p.m. [Free]
IN THE NEWS
- The comptroller candidates Eliot Spitzer and Scott M. Stringer debated on TV yesterday. [Observer]
- Anthony Marshall, the imprisoned elderly son of Brooke Astor, was granted medical parole. [New York Times]
- Meet a world-class surfer from Montauk. [New York Times]
- The City Council overrode the mayor’s veto, voting to greatly increase oversight of the Police Department. [New York Times]
- Nasdaq resumes trading of all securities after a glitch took the exchange down. [NY1]
- (Which prompts the question: was it a squirrel?) [WSJ]
- On that note, a possum invaded a Bryant Park subway stop. [Gothamist]
THE WEEKEND
SATURDAY
- Dress up as your favorite anime characters or just ogle those who do on International Cosplay Day, in Manhattan, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. [Free]
- “La Traviata,†by Verdi, on screen in high definition at Lincoln Center Plaza, Saturday, 8 p.m. [Free]
- An Afro-Punk festival returns to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. All weekend. [Free]
- Dance performances at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, 3 p.m. [Free]
- Corona Plaza, an outdoor space in Queens, celebrates its one-year anniversary with music, dance and art. 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. [Free]
SUNDAY
- Celebrate Dominican culture at the Dominican Festival in Brooklyn, on Graham Avenue and Broadway, all day long. [Free]
- Hilliard Greene and the Jazz Expressions express themselves through jazz by the Harlem Meer in Central Park, 2 p.m. [Free]
- Velvet Painting Takedown, where 20 artists go to town on the tacky medium. Eat vegan chili and eventually vote for your favorite. At the Active Space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. [Free]
- It’s the last day of “the other free Shakespeare in the park.†The Hudson Warehouse Theater Company presents “The Three Musketeers.†In Riverside Park near 89th Street at 6:30 p.m. [Free]
AND FINALLY…
Yesterday, New York Today chronicled a little known moment between young New Yorkers and young Beatles.
On this day in 1968, another musical phenomenon, Jimmy Hendrix, hit New York, tearing up the Singer Bowl at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. You can watch Hendrix’s guitar magic from that long ago evening here.
If you think that Flushing and guitar legends don’t go together, think again. The lead guitarist of K.I.S.S., Paul Stanley, grew up there.
(And the bassist hung out just a few subway stops away in Jackson Heights. Though he was called Chiam Whitz back then, not Gene Simmons.)
Nicole Higgins DeSmet contributed reporting.
We’re testing New York Today, a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.
What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, e-mail Sarah Maslin Nir or reach us via Twitter at @nytmetro using #NYToday. Thanks!
