Thursday, March 15, 2018 8:38 PM

Someone's annoying, incessant ring tone (on a xylophone, three ascending major thirds followed by a pause) turns out to be a bird and thus somehow beautiful. A conversation with overlapping rhythms, half in Arabic, half in Russian, combines the voices of unrelated people walking past me, talking on their cellphones. The play of lights and colors on the surface of the street comes from an electric billboard above and behind me, reflected by the sidewalk tiles. A high, slowly oscillating whistle echoes from somewhere in the neighborhood; no longer trying to identify it, I enjoy the sound.