MIND THE GAP

From the moment I stepped off the plane at Heathrow, intense UK VIBES have been felt!!

I was immediately stupefied by the exciting hodgepodge of people/cultures, the stunning architecture from before the US of A even really existed, the bizarre discrepancies between American English and British English (‘pants’ are underwear?!), and about 10,000 other subjects ripe for vibe exploration.

One of the most essential vibes of daily London life is The London Underground aka THE TUBE. The Tube is a public transit system that serves basically all of London and many of its surrounding counties like Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex. Like many things in London, it’s super old (153 years to be exact).

Empty Tube at Edgeware Road. Photo: Allen, my roomie

TUBE FAST FACTS:

• Annual passenger numbers: 1.305 billion
• Average train speed: 33kph
• The Tube’s logo is known as “the roundel” (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar)
• Typeface of the Tube’s branding: Johnston
• Jerry [JERRY! JERRY!] Springer was born at the East Finchley station (LOL)
• Sting and Sir Paul McCartney are rumoured to have ridden on the Tube in disguise
• In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Dumbledore states to McGonagall, “Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.”

Also, Emma Clarke, one of the ‘Mind the Gap’ voices that ring out when the tube trains stop, has her rendition posted on Soundcloud:

Station stops like Cockfosters, Shepherd’s Bush, and Barking provide immature riders like myself a good chuckle, but one stop that especially caught my eye was RAYNERS LANE.

Rayners Lane in London is the home of mysterious electronic/R&B/pop artist JAI PAUL. Way back in 2010, Jai essentially set the blogosphere on fire with his demo track “BTSTU”. Drizzy Drake and even Beyoncé went on to sample this song for tracks of their own.

Sadly, besides one other amazing song release (“Jasmine”) and a 2013 leaked album of unfinished demos, the public doesn’t have any other information on the elusive Londoner.

The founder and owner of XL Recordings (Jai’s label), Richard Russell, told NPR: “Jai is a wizard…the way he’s going about things is, I think for many, baffling. But…he’s going about things in the most Jai Paul way you could possibly go about things. And who knows where that may lead.”

Who knows what the truth is regarding the situation, but if I see Jai on the Tube, I’ll surely ask what’s up.