There was a man panhandling on the uptown R platform at Canal who got on the train and began singing the wimpiest falsetto “Ave Maria” (Back/Gounod) you’ve ever heard: barely audible, not always in tune, kind of sounding like a haphazard mix of a few songs at once, though the intent was clear.

At the next stop a bunch of kids, likely on the cusp of teens and twenties, got on. Upon noticing the singer, one of the dudes hurriedly pulled out an acoustic guitar, instructed his friends to clap along, and busted into “Tomorrow,” kind of in the same vein as this Me First and the Gimme Gimmes version.

But did the “Ave Maria” singer give up? He put his hands over his ears and attempted to keep singing. In a stunning display of NYC-style apathy, a few people on the train managed to gaze blankly at the floor, pretending none of this was happening (everyone else was appropriately amused and bemused). Yet by the time the train pulled into 8th Street, the “Ave Maria” was starting to sound like Annie.

Coincidentally, the sun will come out tomorrow.

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an unwimpy version of "Ave Maria"