I discovered the snake my freshman year. I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world, especially because of the design. It was like this angular, mechanical monster-esque thing, but it also has these big friendly eyes. It's been my favorite Syracuse landmark ever since.

I'm from New York City, but this past summer, I spent it in Syracuse. I spent a lot of time downtown, and, when we had the chance, we would play music by the serpent, Walt. My girlfriend would play guitar and I would play ukulele. It's a great place to be visible to people, to share music with them. The best part, even if people didn't stop as they passed by, they would sure enough be smiling. It's a scene you don't see a lot in Syracuse, people playing on the streets. Especially playing in front of, like, a goofy-looking serpent.