BEAUTY: Architecture--Metro Stations Around The World

The Toledo Station in Naples, Italy is a design marvel. The effect is dazzling but the execution is so simple, achieved with colored mosaic tiles and strategically placed lighting.

It may only be Barcelona, but the Drassanes Metro Station could be in Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or a set from the 1970s classic TV show "Space: 1999."

Moscow's Komsomolskaya Station captures the grandeur of Tsarist Russia.

The Solna Centrum Station in Stockholm, Sweden is carved out of living rock. The red is actually the sky in a mural that spans the entire station.

Stockholm's Stadion Station is also carved out of rock but this one sports a blue color with a little touch of rainbow.

Jules Verne must have inspired the submarine-textured Arts et Metiers Station in Paris.

Sometimes the design elements greet passengers even before they descend underground. Here, the entrance to the Bockenheimer Warte Station in Frankfurt looks like an antique subway car has poked up out of the ground. It is actually the escalator down!

From The Daily Telegraph, here.

Currently listening to...

...a flashback to 1980: "Subway" by Urban Verbs.

In many ways, this song from a Washington D.C.-area group really exemplifies the zeitgeist of underground music at that time. It features a vocalist who sing-speaks in a tone that suggests he might lose it at any moment, the drums and bass are a kind of kick-ass/ garage-band/ Manhattan New Wave rhythm section, and the lyrics express a sense of isolation from society, and an embracing of an urban landscape and faceless technology as a replacement for human interaction. It's all so very 1980.

I had their album on cassette.

Every morning I go under the city
Handful of change takes me away from it all
I leave my problems up on the street
And ride the subway where it’s always warm

Subways
We’re all going the same direction
Subways
We’re all going the same speed
Subways
It all gets obscured
Then it begins to make sense

See that man read his morning paper
See that woman fiddle in her purse
Even though I never ever met them
I can assure you, they’re my best friends

On this subway
‘Cause we share an emotion
Subway
You know it’s vaguely enticing
Subway
I’m under confusion
Now I…I can’t relax

Down here I don’t have to say anything
I just sit and look out my window
Miles flashing gray and white past my face
It’s good to get way from these pressures
Down here I have never felt guilty
There’s no sun streaming at my eyes
On this train I’m never ever lonely
People smile from pictures on the wall

Subways
We’re all going the same direction
Subways
We’re all going the same speed
Subways
It all gets obscured
Then it begins to make sense

Subways
The driver's voice is on
Subways
Now I’m back at my stop
Subways
I can’t face what out there
So I’m…I’m not getting off