I had the pleasure of hearing R&B singer Alice Tan Ridley last night at 42nd St. I was running late for a friend’s birthday party, but I had to stop and hear her sing “Midnight Train To Georgia” - she is simply spectacular!

I shot a little video of her singing on my camera I was going to post, but then I saw this other great video of her singing ‘Let’s Stay Together’ with some seemingly random doughy middle-aged white guy (I can say that because I am one) - but, as it turns out, this guy can sing too - which flips out the crowd!

Updated - here is the video I shot:

OK and now I have added like four more - they are all great!

There isn’t one clip here that doesn’t make me smile a mile wide and want to get up and dance.

Watch:

Bille Jean!

Midnight Hour!

Proud Mary!

I Will Survive!

Here is the video where Jodi Rell was in earshot of her rail yard project going well overbudget lonngg before she said she was aware of it:

Sometimes wall-to-wall train advertising is welcome, as is the case with Westin’s hotel’s new makeover of the New Haven Line Bar Car into a Polyneisan Tiki Bar theme. The car previously had all the sex appeal of a 1970’s public school cafeteria. AMNY Subway Tracker has the details.

Personally, I would prefer that MTA do its own remodel of this car, to make it look like a regular car, because this bar car is used regularly in the *morning* to supplement the lack of regular cars. I can attest that sitting on top of that bar on the way to work in the morning because there are no seats IS NOT COMFORTABLE.

Unfortunately, the new M-8 cars will take forever to get here, will probably be delayed by the Rell New Haven Rail Yard budget fiasco, and even once they do ship, they will trickle in slowly over months.

PS At least its not a Hilton Hotel promotion.

Lots of you know the secret of Track 61 at Grand Central, which houses the custom train car built for FDR so he could be transported beneath the city without exposing the public to the extent of his Polio disability.

Today’s Matt Lauer examined the mystery of Track 61 for the Today Show:

Via Trainjotting

Check out the Top 10 Transportation Photos by the readers at Wired.com.

Above: “I’ve Only Got Eyes for You” By Daniel Austin

I never watch Jimmy Kimmel’s show - I am a Letterman fan, and I don’t stay up that late anymore. I used to like The Man Show a lot though, and his girlfriend is hot.

Recently Jimmy did a list of his favorite comics for Reader’s Digest. (In related news, Reader’s Digest is still in print, and has staff young enough to make a website.)

I agree wholeheartedly with his impressions of Chris Elliott. I too, loved ‘the guy under the seats‘ on Letterman, and always felt that his projects felt short of what he was capable of. I had such high expectations of “Get A Life” (co-starring his dad, Bob Elliott, of Bob and Ray fame. Alas, they never really came to fruition. Oh, and don’t get me started on Cabin Boy:

Which is much the same problem which originally plagued Kimmel’s second pick, Tracy Morgan. I never liked Tracy Morgan on SNL, but now that I am a 30 Rock fan I blame SNL for not knowing what to do with him live. The closest SNL came to writing good stuff for Tracy Morgan was some of the ‘Astronaut Jones‘ skits.

Kimmel’s third pick is Stern sidekick Artie Lange, but I haven’t listened to Stern in years.

Finally there is this guy I had never heard of - Zach Galifianakis (which Kimmel rightfully points out, is an unfortunate stage name). I needed to learn more about this guy, so I surfed him on YouTube.

Not all of his YouTube stuff is that good, so let me save you some effort and post a great standup video of Zach in action.

We reported earlier this week that T-Mobile, the last wireless carrier in the US to launch any sort of 3G technology on its network, would take its first baby steps with UTMS and HSDPA in New York this week.

Unfortunately, shortly after that news came out, an internal T-Mobile memo was circulated which instructed employees to tell customers that the 3G rollout would initially only involve voice, not data - so they would be stuck with pokey EDGE.

Today New York City T-Mobile users with HSDPA-capable handsets are comparing notes, and some seem to believe the that launch has happened and indeed, includes faster data speeds.

I am not entirely up to date on what handsets T-Mobile sells which are HSDPA-capable, but I know if you brought over an unlocked HSDPA GSM phone from AT&T or overseas that should work.

The best place to get in on this conversation and compare notes with users is this busy thread on HowardForums.com.