Bus TV

I didn't see it until I was onboard. An intermittent flicker, flashing against the windows of every shop, every bank, and restaurant we went by.

Now they're putting digital advertising on the sides of city buses.



A moving Times Square, the bus with its big TV shouts:
Heineken!
Denzel Washington!
John Travolta!
Snickers!



The frantic, twittering panel splashes a blue streak against everything it passes. Makes the stainless-steel backs of coffee carts and fruit peddler carts turn televisual. Blasts Cemusa's glass shelters and newsstands.

The city of reflective surfaces was built for this. Ads screaming back at themselves, multiplying.



Repeating and repeating:
Heineken!
Denzel Washington!
John Travolta!
Snickers!

On donut shops, bodegas, and empty storefronts still for rent.



Heineken!
Heineken!
Heineken!



The rushing, hustling television turns eyeglass lenses blue, too, blanking out the faces.

And the faces turn. All the eyes turn to look.

They can't help but to stare at the bus going by. They were lost in thought--good thought, troubling thought, thought that puzzles out a problem, writes a novel, crafts an apology or confrontation--it doesn't matter.

Thought is not welcome here. Don't even try.

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