The low cloud cover keeps the memorial lights from projecting up into the sky and the glow spreads out horizontally.
As I stand on my balcony to record the image, I think of the people -- I don't know who they were -- who lived in this apartment in 2001. They must have stood here on the morning of the 11th and gazed on the incomprehensible sight.
(I did not adjust the color in this photograph. I only turned up the contrast and the sharpness a little. The intense warmth of the color -- that is there.)
Posts
20 comments:
Great photo. Mind if I nick that to use for my desktop?
Thanks. The creative commons license lets you download it, but don't use it commercially, and give me credit it you use it out in the world.
'Twixt brass cymbals, sky and sea,
Glow gold buildings, beaten be.
good picture, but I have a vision of one of those alien behemoths from Independence Day hovering over the site and the clam shell doors opening on the weapons bay.
It's a beautiful picture, but there's a bit of a mushroom cloud effect, unfortunately.
I was thinking more Ghostbusters.
But it's lovely. And not the produce of a special effects house!
It's a good picture. But I really hope they stop the beams of lights once the new buildings are up and the memorial is built.
It's time to move on.
You can still respect and remember the dead without the silly symbolism, i.e. Pearl Harbor Day.
Post of the year. Beautiful.
As I stand on my balcony to record the image
Riveting!
Beautiful photo.
Yes; as several others said, my first thought was "oh, you alien bastards! Leave poor New York City alone!"
Re downtownlad (8:42pm): I disagree that there's any "silly symbolism" in Prof. A's picture or post. "It's time to move on" is such a vague statement that I can imagine 9/11-related contexts in which I'd agree with it. But some of us very strongly believe that 9/11/01's symbolism relates to lessons just as important, and much more subtle and easier to confuse or forget, as 12/7/41.
The first few hours of the morning of 9/11/01 were a beautiful, sunny, crystal-clear day in Manhattan. I hope you have another such tomorrow, Prof. A, and that it lasts all day long, leading to a clear sunset that encourages calm reflection and thanks for the relative peace and safety on U.S. soil since 9/11/01. Thank you for the photograph, and the reminder it implies.
That's a wonderful photo. Urban life is beautiful sometimes.
And I agree that DTL's being silly and shallow. We should never forget that those two towers stood there, or how they were destroyed.
I think the lights are the best monument and stunted by clouds makes them no less impressive.
NOW I have your "idea" discussed off line.
We should never forget that those two towers stood there, or how they were destroyed.
Forget? Well, it's human nature to move on. How many D-Day commemorations did you see this year in June? In a ten years, most college freshmen will never have seen the Twin Towers in person and 9/11 will just be recent history, just like Kennedy's assasination was for me (I was barely 3 at the time -- no memory of it at all).
Time is relentless.
ahhh but Madison Man...a good memory or interest in things past is what distinguishes you and others from the household cat.
Personally, I've always felt that instead of building anew on the site, the lights should be placed permanently. It's a very stirring memorial.
Every morning when I left my house….I could see the twin towers in the distance from the top of my stop…if I changed trains at 4th Avenue, you could see them looming over the opposite platform, even though they were far away…..I would cut through them if I took the E train to go drink at the bars on Trinity Place…I used to go get tax forms from NYS tax dept before the computer age when everything was handwritten….when I was in college at Pace, I would hit the bookstore and sometimes some of the shops to kill some time between classes…the absence of those two towers is the same as if you lost a tooth in the back of your mouth…you rub your tongue over the spot and feel the absence of something that should be there but is not…it is basically untreatable and you still feel pain…occasionally it bleeds and is really painful…other times it can be a dull ache…you feel it but it’s like background music…you can push it out of your mind…other times it is real and immediate…maybe it’s just a working class New York thing for me…since a lot of the people who died were working class New Yorkers….bookstore clerks, secretaries. fireman, restaurant workers…not the egghead academics and pretentious intellectuals…so you do move on with you life…of course you suck it up and go about your business….but you still can feel that missing tooth…..and some days are worse than others…..Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord,
And let perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls And the souls of all the faithful departed
Through the mercy of God Rest in peace. Amen.
How many D-Day commemorations did you see this year in June?
D-Day isn't a good parallel for 9/11, since D-Day was an attack launched BY American and our allies. 9/11, like Pearl Harbor, was an unjustified peacetime attack *on* America by our enemies -- and we still commemorate Pearl Harbor.
In any case, while it may be human nature to "move on", doing so while Islamists and Islamist governments still exist in the world would be grotesque. That would be like saying "Pearl Harbor? Eh, old news" while still at war with Japan.
Sept. 11 is not a federal holiday; Nov. 11 is. Get over it, doughboys!
Post a Comment