I lived for a while in New York’s East Village on Avenue A. At that time there were many old apartment buildings that used DC current. You could buy inverters and DC appliances at the local apartment store. It was a very odd situation and most people would have gladly switched over to AC except for the high cost of rewiring. Con Ed had to keep the DC power going for a variety of impractical reasons. The NY Times article in the link is about how the last of the DC has been turned off and all customers are have 117V AC feeds. Customers who want to keep their DC wiring have converters to DC.

I blogged this because I wanted to tell the story of Ruby Neebone (no K?). She was an art student at Cooper Union at the same time that I was an Electrical Engineering student. I was in her apartment on St. Marks Place a few times. It was an ancient place with DC wiring and a very old flush toilet with the tank in the ceiling. Ruby had used aluminum foil like wallpaper to cover everything in the bathroom. It was rubbed smooth so it was almost like a room of mirrors.

There was a kind of interactive performance art that was called A Happening that was au currant back in those days. The Supremes even had a song with that name. Happenings don’t seem to happen any more, but they were a big deal when I was going to college.

One morning we got out of our morning classes to see giant footprints in front of the school. There were signs and posters advertising “The Big Lay, Hope You’ll All Come” with instructions to follow the footprints. We followed the big yellow footprints around the block. They paused at the light. We followed them across the street to the Architecture building that had a big rotunda like entrance with sweeping marble staircases on either side. We waited there for the big lay.

At noon the music started. Ruby Neebone (no K?) came out in a chicken suit, playing a flute, and danced around the room. At the end of the song she squatted down, clucking and when she stood up there was an egg in the middle of the floor. Everyone cheered and confetti and streamers came down from the overlooking gallery. I’ll never forget it.

Sometimes I don’t get art, but even when I don’t, I am often impressed.