Artists vie for chance to go underground

It's a rite of spring: performers auditioning for the privilege of doing their thing in grubby, noisy New York City subway stations.

Seventy showed up last week at Grand Central Terminal, vying for permission to set up their underground acts for tips. They appeared before a jury of musicians and transit employees in the elegant Vanderbilt Hall above the train tracks.

This year's motley musical crew, from countries around the world, will soon find out who won the right to be part of the Music Under New York program run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the nation's biggest mass transit system.