Words Without Music

PHILIP GLASS In the late 1950s and early 1960s apartments were not expensive, and they were plentiful all over the city, not as it is now. Rents were low and the subways dirt-cheap. When I first arrived a token was fifteen cents, the same price as a slice of pizza. A truism known probably only to New Yorkers is that the price of a subway ride and a slice of pizza would always be the same. Or they play tag with each other so closely that you would have to suspect that somewhere behind the scenes the prices of these two New York City staples are inextricably bound together — fixed, as it were. Odd facts like this abound in New York City and can keep the place endlessly interesting. Today a young musician or dancer will have a much harder time finding an affordable place to live and work….