Rule of Being Young #1: When your friends ask you to go to a concert when you have class the next day, forget about class and go to the concert.
Archive for September, 2001
I need someone to flirt with. I think my life would have more direction and structure if I had a flirting partner. C’mon, folks, sign up.
The Neighbor just yelled at me and kicked my ass into perspective. She basically told me that I should stop believing I’m this great enlightened figure in the world that is the most talented and all-knowing and that I should haul my ass and do some work, and THEN I could really fulfill my potential as an insightful, witty little [Selfish] boy. So true.
I am never honest with myself. And that is why I am constantly stuck in the same problems.
I’m still messed up from watching Jon Stewart’s emotional speech. (see yesterday). To watch this guy…this comedian.. to watch his voice crack with raw emotion as he speaks about the wtc attacks… it’s…um… heart-breaking.
I’ve come to realize that I’m a fairly empathetic guy. (I just noticed that “empathetic” is an anagram for “me pathetic”.) When I see other people crying or upset, my heart especially drops. Hearing of deaths never affect me as much as going to the funeral, where you can see the dead’s closest relatives and friends crying and grieving like widowed Ewoks. And watching Mr. Stewart burst into hopeful tears humbled me greatly.
how the networks handled it: an update
On Thursday sept 20, the Daily Show had its first show since the Attacks. Like I was saying before, it is extremely difficult for television shows to go back to their routine, especially if they were comedy shows or something shallow and hollow (like E!). How did the Daily Show, one of the most sarcastic, biting, and intelligent shows out here, handle it? Jon Stewart delivers this powerful, beautiful opening monologue; something I was not ready for, even though people had warned me beforehand. You can see a video of it here: 56k/broadband.
NBC’s West Wing is producing a special episode entitled “Isaac and Ishmael”, which will address recent events. Aaron Sorkin, the show’s writer/creator, apparently put together a script in three days, and they’re rushing production for the Oct. 3 broadcast date they are shooting for. The episode is is pre-empting the season’s premiere and is considering “stand-alone” with respect to the show’s current plotline.
oh yeah, and there was this little show.
DaveNet: Time Zero?, “I heard a discussion on NPR where a drama critic from the NY Times who also had covered the first bombing of the WTC said something profound. He said don’t bother keeping a a copy of the 9/12 NY Times, keep the copy from 9/11. He said ‘That world is gone now, forever.’ “ You know what? I remember that particular newspaper. You wanna know what was on the front page? the New York City Mayoral primary election. fucking A.
I’ve got to stop reading about the repercussions of the wtc attacks. It’s making me very very sad and very apprehensive about about our future.
How the Networks Handled It: an analysis of tv reactions
It’s sort of strange. For the first time that I can remember, all the major networks ran straight news for about a week without practically no commercials. Just continual news coverage. Nothing normal on. No Jay Leno, no David Letterman. That makes sense. What are they going to joke about in their monologues? They always grab headlines and poke fun, but it’s seems absurd for them to do something like that with the headlines coming out these days. [note: I caught a little Leno tonight. the Chin was somber as hell].As for cable channels like TBS, MTV, and VH1, most of them canceled all their broadcasts and instead broadcasted a sister station. For example, TNT was airing CNN (aol time warner related.) MTV for a couple of days was showing CBS coverage. This made sense as well. Usually when a big news story happens, the cable channels can ignore it and continue in their own little marketed universe.
However, this brought everything to a screeching halt, particularly MTV. There’s no way they could air bouncy teenager fluff-shows when downtown New York City is a war-zone. MTV is especially sensitive because their headquarters lies in Times Square. How could their flagship program TRL round up their teenage extras? Who the hell wants to talk about pop music? It’s odd, what MTV did in the days following. Basically, they took off all their stupid shows and aired straight music videos (with a red, white, and blue MTV logo in the corner.) with teenagers’ reactions to the wtf attacks in between videos.
In other words, it takes the destruction of the world trade center to get MTV to play music videos.
I bet the terrorist attacks have put a lot of things into perspective for a number of people. Think of those poor saps that work at Access Hollywood. For those who do not watch much TV, Access Hollywood is part-entertainment-news and part-tabloid show that is as vapid and braindead as you can get without becoming that Teletubbies show. I don’t know how you can watch thousands of people lose their lives on live TV, and then show up for “work” the next day to discuss whom Tom and Leonardo have been spotted kissing last weekend. And you have to be perky! All the time. This week’s also going to be tough for the E! channel as well. i’ve heard reports of E! anchors having to remove the chirper-ness from their voices and put on their “sad-faces”. Creepy stuff.
Basically, the wtc attacks have turned upside down every aspect of our lives. And it hurts.
away, but glad to be here
On Tuesday, when we were all glued to our televisions, most of us found AIM to be a good method of contacting people (phone lines were clogged). So we all stayed online to signal our OK-ness, but most of us were running around doing other things at various times. The following is a collection of my friends’ AOL IMer away messages from that day:
- i”m here and i’m fine
- The city that is supposed to never sleep is fainting right now…Peole are inherently good — I still believe-)
- i guess i, like a lot of other people, am just wondering, what do we do now???
- giving blood @ st. luke’s…
- We are doing fine here. Please pray for those involved. …..
- good luck everyone
- if you pray please do so now. and donate blood if you are able to.
- tryin to give blood…i want revenge
- if you’re not in front of your television, you’re not an american.
- hope everyone and their loved ones are okay…
- someone please restore my faith in mankind….
- day after my b-day and everything gets fucked up. and im not here. leave a message
- trying to continue a day
- “may you not live in interesting times.”
- total disaster….if you pray, please do so now. 9.11.01
What a long day that was.
System of a Down singer Serj Tankian speaks about the wtc attack.
reading:
- Needed: a new age of enlightenment: “Because in all the media coverage I’ve seen so far, nobody has been asking the right, the important, questions. Like: why did this happen, what circumstances got us into a de facto state of undeclared war with the Islamic world, and what can we realistically do to prevent those circumstances from ever recurring.”
- Fighting the Good Fight: Fundamentalism and Religious Revival: “The term fundamentalism has rapidly entered the vocabulary of social science in the past two decades as a general designation for revivalist conservative religious orthodoxy.”
good idea: Hip hop crew pull twin towers cover.
bad idea: Networks, Movies Cutting Images of New York Skyline.
Fox News created an interactive relief & rescue map of the city that shows different hot spots of activity. Good for people not familiar with NYC’s geography. [via mefi]
Evan Williams set up a wtc blog that has “articles and links relating to the 11 september attack on the world trade center.”
An Afghan-American speaks: “You can’t bomb us back into the Stone Age. We’re already there. But you can start a new world war, and that’s exactly what Osama bin Laden wants.” <via evhead>
“A huge array of military capability…is available to President Bush when he decides what military action to take in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States.”
Michael Moore again: “The sorrow and anger builds across America. Talk radio tonight was filled with calls for carpet-bombing every Arab country. Many want revenge, blood. But a surprising number of people have called for us to not add to the killing of more innocent humans.”
Hypocrisy and talking heads: What the national media is not telling you about these terrorist attacks