Both of us did some time working in Jersey as well, but most of the time we were crossing the Hudson River. Some of my earliest commutes were down through the rocky tunnels into Hoboken through Jersey City, and since I'm a natural tourist, I was always staring out the window. One thing caught my eye every day, and made me smile a little bit. It was a big old gas tank that looked a bit like a tiny submarine, 7 or 8 feet tall, 10 or 12 feet long, rusting away, onto which someone had stenciled the phrase "DAS BINKY." I never took German, but some googling leads me to think it means "The Toy." Day after day I passed this, and it always made an impression. Something to brighten up the otherwise plodding commute. And no one else seemed to notice, so it became "my" das binky. My toy.
Like anything else that becomes "your" public secret, it began to take on a life of its own, even if only in my head. Das Binky became the unofficial name of my one-man recording projects. It was the name of my fantasy football teams. Anything requiring a bit of generalized anonymity became "Das Binky".
And thus, the blog was named.
Turns out I'm not completely alone. A guy who's also into music and a train geek recorded an electronica ode to Das Binky. And there are a few other google references to it. For the first time, I was able to find a picture of it. It's not how I picture it when I picture Das Binky, since I saw it from the same angle every day for a few years, usually in morning light. But it's nice to have a little proof it wasn't just all in my head.
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