Post-9/11 World
I remember the first time I heard someone say “everything is different now, we’re in a post-9/11 world.”
At this point in time, the events and impact of 9/11 are not looming so much in the conscious mind, but more as an ever present background tapestry. But it still is there, altering the collective unconscious permanently.
However, from time to time, there are reminders, typically witnessed as increased
security. Some of it appears to function a bit like public pacifiers – such as tight security in relatively small, nondescript office buildings of no import where a terrorist threat seems inconceivable.
Occasionally we find national guardsmen with machine guns in subway stations. The most frustrating are the restrictions in areas of interest to visitors, both resident and non-resident. One primary example is the lobby of the Woolworth Building. The lobby was a favorite “secret” of mine. At night, one could visit and see the magnificent vaulted lobby with blue and gold glass mosaics, murals, marble and the sculptured caricatures. See a previous article here. Now, you cannot enter the lobby unless you have specific business in the building. And this type of saga is replayed in various ways and places throughout the city.
The sentry guards in the photo were on the upper level of the west side highway during fleet week, near the Kearsarge – see that posting here. Their silhouettes, cutting out shapes in the skyline against a dramatic sunset was a silent and poignant reminder that we are in a post-9/11 world …
Related posts:
View of the World
I hate to use the phrase de rigueur again, but if there ever was a need for it, this is a prime example. Because familiarity with this image, View of the World from 9th Avenue, is de rigueur for every New Yorker and anyone who wants to understand thi -View of the World
Skinny
I love small and/or skinny places. Not just aesthetically, but their very nature leads one to imagine that perhaps this place has been missed by others and is off the beaten path. Or perhaps the place is unusual in other ways - after all, a mainstrea -Skinny
Wicked nice loo
The other day I was waiting for someone in the lobby of a nearby hotel and had my camera with me so I headed for the restroom (back in January I published my first "hotel loo" post, which generated many great comments and hundreds of hits).When was t -Wicked nice loo
Saint Cecilia Parish
In the late 1800s the maids ("Irish working out girls") and coachmen serving the Yankee aristocracy of the Back Bay section of Boston requested a church of their own. Saint Cecilia Parish was established in 1888 and the church was dedicated in 1894.C -Saint Cecilia Parish
Wake Up Call
Wow is all I could say as I stood at Times Square looking west along 42nd Street into one of the most amazing sunsets I have seen. This stretch of 42nd Street is already quite dramatic at dusk or at night. But this sunset was remarkable with the heav -Wake Up Call