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Moving forward with one eye on the past...
I just came across this entry from Q Daily News talking about the nature of NY and how it meshes, or doesn't, with the opinion that nothing should be built over the WTC site. This is indeed a complicated issue. On one hand, it is a graveyard. On the other, so it a street corner where someone was killed by a stray taxi or mob hitman. On one hand, 16 acres of land in such a small island can't really be kept undeveloped when there are already many acres of undeveloped land. On the other, so what, it is still the site of an insane attack. Jason Levine, of Q Daily News, puts the conundrum in another context - not just the facts themselves but the context of the events - NY City and the question of the nature of NYC. Does the nature of NYC lend itself to a giant green cemetery or fully-developed modern structures over such hallowed ground? NYC is filled with history, from the Bowery to Wall Street to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It is also constantly reinventing itself, from Grand Central Station to Times Square to the giant Trump building overshadowing the United Nations, to the humungous AOL/TW complex going up on Columbus Circle. How should a city like this deal with the WTC site? Other cities are probably big enough to house large memorials/cemeteries without taking away from their industrial and commercial districts. NYC real estate is more of a zero sum game. When traveling abroad I love visiting "old sites" and ruins. When in my hometown, NYC, I am sufficiently gratified by a simple marker or plaque for historic places. For example, one of my favorite spots in Brooklyn is just under the Brooklyn Bridge. Part of what makes this spot so awesome is not just the breathtaking view but also a simple set of plaques that mark this place as the place from where General George Washington embarked during the Battle of Manhattan/Brooklyn, in August, 1776. I love standing on the pier, looking in all directions, and imagining what it must have been like all those years ago, battling for freedom on the spot where I now stand as a free man. The place is filled with history and emotion yet there are no huge displays or monuments, just a simple set of plaques. I would rather be able to bring my children to a redeveloped World Trade Center (with appropriate historical markings, etc.), than a World Trade Cemetery. That's just my opinion, I may be naive. PS- my other favorite spot in NYC is Battery Park, an extension to the island of Manhattan, created with landfill excavated when the WTC was built (follow the link for a more exact history). Reality - Celebrity - Reality - Celebrity
Keep repeating those words. Reality television has had its ups and downs. Until recently, reality TV was dominated by "real" people who happened to want to be celebrities so they agreed to act out their real lives in front of ever-present cameras. Then the industry turned on itself and started putting celebrities in reality television. It seemed like all game shows (the other rage) never had "real people" on anymore. They were filled with various iterations of old and new celebrities from all genres of celebrity. The next step in this evolution is the insanely popular Osbournes show on MTV. I guess this is as good a time as any to say that I am a big fan of reality TV and watch almost all of the shows. And no, I am not embarrassed. The Osbournes is a very funny and silly show. it seems I am not the only fan. Ozzy Osbourne has been invited by his newest fan, George W Bush, to visit the White House. Ewwwww. Counting down...
I wish everyone a very happy and healthy next two days. I will be celebrating the last two days of Passover... counting down the seconds to the Thursday night finale of Passover and my thin body's indulgence on an entire pizza pie. YUM! Peace out! IT is Crap!
As I write this, Andersen Cooper, one of my favorite anchor-non-anchors (he hosted The Mole and now co-anchors CNN mornings with Paula Zahn) is interviewing a director who made a documentary on "IT GIRLS" set to air soon on the Women's Entertainment Network. This is such crap. An IT girl is, supposedly, an interesting woman with a certain pizzazz and zest for life. They also happen to be in the fashion industry. The two IT girls brought on the show are vapid, self-centered idiots. If these are IT girls I'd rather socialize with UN missile inspectors. Andersen Cooper is started to laugh at their stupidity and small-mindedness. Bless his soul for noticing the idiocy here. How do they get on CNN? Who is making these decisions? Who is learning anything? Why is this news? Return to Normal?
"When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together." -From A Fortunate Man, by John Berger, p. 122 (1967). For the first time since early September, 2001 I drove by the location of the former World Trade Center. First on the east side of the site, going north, and then on the west side (the West Side Highway) going south, towards the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. I drove literally over ground that had been covered in ruins and only recently repaved and opened to traffic. Having not ever gone down to the site to take pictures of a cemetery, this was the closest I have ever come to ground zero. The site was amazing. People lined the streets. I drove for what seemed like entire minutes right by the former location of the Twin Towers. I never realized how much space they took up. Acres and Acres. On the way back home, driving on the West Side Highway for the first time in 7 months, I almost cried. The massive lights erected look even more amazing up-close than they do from my window. I had no idea they were situated in the parking lot in front of one of the newest multi-mega-plex movie theaters. I have been there many times since its opening and never thought something like this would be in its parking lot (sorry, I love huge, gorgeous, high tech movie houses, more so than quaint and antiquated movie houses from the 50's). I don't really have anything else to say. Just wanted to share my experience. Until now traffic was all forced to the east side, causing annoyance but nothing more. Now traffic returns to normal, but the huge loss remains. |
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