This past week I’ve been in two different stores that are selling pictures of the New York skyline with both WTC buildings. Are people really buying these pictures? I understand that they are a part of American History, but why would you want that reminder of such a tragic event hanging on your wall? I can see why people might want the picture of the three firefighters with the American flag, but a picture of two buildings that thousands of people died in? There were probably people in those buildings when these picture’s were taken that are now dead. Is it some sort of conversation piece? I just don’t get it.
You want something worse? In my Sunday paper a couple of weeks ago, there was a flyer from some "mint’ (name escapes me now) that’s selling a ceramic model of the WTC site.
“A philatelic collector was able to document the tragic day by going to his local Post Office, just 30 minutes from Manhattan, and getting this [picture of NY skyline with Trade Towers shown] World Trade Center postcard postmarked 9/11/01 on the reverse. Rare–$100.”
From the Nate’s Autographs July auction catalog.
I have a picture of the towers in my office, as do most people I know who were downtown at the time or who lost someone in the towers. It’s kind of a memento, like one might have a picture of one’s grandmother.
I can’t defend the ceramic models.
I live downtown, and I have a 11 x 17 picture of the pre-9/11 skyline now hanging in my living room – I purchased it shortly before Christmas. I don’t consider it a grim reminder of that day, I consider it a reminder of what the world ought to be, and a remembrance of my friend who died and friends whose entire lives were turned upside down. I also consider it a benchmark of what we need to return to – not twin towers at the tip of Manhattan, but normalcy and peace.
I don’t mean to sound insensitive manhattan and tlw. I guess it means different things to different people.
I didn’t think that you were insensitive, dreamer. We all have different perspectives on these things, and such remembrances are going to mean different things to each of us.
My new daughter is named for her cousin who died in the Oklahoma City bombing and our friend, an NYPD officer who died on 9/11. Many people would say “Oh, how morbid, every time you think of your daughter you’ll think of tragedy.” For us, it’s more like every time we think of our daughter we’ll also be reminded of the brightness, the light, the blessing and the legacy of those we lost, and how it can live on in each of us.
I can just see it now.
Stamp Man wakes up in his Harlem apartment on September 11, 2001. It is 9:30 AM. He scratches his ass as he walks to the TV. He flicks on the TV, and sees the WTC falling apart. Immediately, the most natural response possible comes to mind: “Fuck! I gotta go get that WTC post card stamped! Why, it’ll be worth a shitload of money later on!”
Unbelievable.
Apparently some dude filed a trademark application, on the afternoon of 9/11, for the phrase “World Trade” as a movie title. :rolleyes:
Maybe they can get Leonardo DiCaprio to star in it.
I don’t have a problem with selling unadulterated pics of the pre-9/11 NYC skyline. They were, after all, extremely symbolic landmarks before then. I can totally see people wanting a reminder, as others have said here, of what was, or what should be.
But (even though there appears to be a market for it) the stuff with flags, crying eagles, and “9/11/01” superimposed on it seems pretty tacky.
Yep, another New Yorker checking in. I know a lot of people who have WTC pictures displayed now. A few years ago, someone gave me a gift of a framed photograph from my graduation in Washington Sq. Park, and the WTC is a nice part of the landscape, and that’s what I have displayed on my desk. I like having something that is both personal to me, and features the WTC so well. For some reason, it brings to mind the fact that my grandmother has a photo of President Kennedy hanging on the wall – I think for many people, it’s a fond reminder of good things in a time of loss and confusion.
A little amazed by the postcard, though, I must say. Last winter holidays, someone received a tree ornament of the WTC in the office grab bag – opinions were mixed as to whether this was appropriate or not. I was on the “kinda not” side, yet I’m also the person wearing the Santa Hat (well not NOW, at the office party) with the NY skyline complete with WTC embroidered on it. So I think my point is that people have all sorts of different comfort levels with this, and that’s an ok thing.
I feel I should close with something Pitt-ish (since I’m terrible about that), so I’ll add that ten months later, I’m still thinking “You creepy little rabid FUCK, thinking it would be a good idea to blow up the WTC, you are a jerky, slimey, disgusting person! And if I’m ever in a room with you, I will personally, single-handedly, gouge out your eyes using a ceramic model of the WTC. Then I will sell them (the eyes, but not the model, I’d keep that) on e-bay, in the grossest display of American consumerism that I can imagine.”
I get y’all beat. I copuple of months ago, I passed a vendor on Fifth Avenue who was selling colorful pastel drawings of the planes crashing into the towers. Unlike most vendors, he was gone the next day, and I assume that was his body dangling from a nearby lamppost . . .
Then there is that site that is selling metal plaques with 3-d relief thingies OF THE WRECKAGE and each plaque contains “some percentage” of actual metal from the WTC.
That is about as tacky as a product can get, IMO.
I work downtown, in the World Financial Center. [Yes, I was there on 9/11, already in the office]
Street vendors are doing a thriving business in WTC ‘memorials’. All kinds of booklets, CDs, photos, etc. And tourists are buying them.
And, while I’m in the Pit and have tourists on the mind…
Please don’t block the only pathway between my offices and the subway. I know there’s a small makeshift shrine there, but it’s a narrow passageway and I’m either (i)going to work, and in a hurry; (ii)going to a client or prospective client, and in a hurry; or (iii)going home, and in even a greater hurry. Please let me pass, and please do continue to spend your money here in NYC (and if you are not spending lots of money, then just get the hell out of my way :))
There’s a pictorial book out through one of the “mints” that I think I’m going to buy. This is an important piece of our history, and I want to keep it for my children.
I still want to get a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle for Sep. 12…I thought the headline was perfect. It was a picture of the twin towers on fire, and the headline said, “BASTARDS!”
I don’t see anything wrong with pictures of the intact towers. It evokes different emotions in different people, and in most cases it’s a tribute and memento to those lost but never forgotten.
It’s pictures of the wreckage I don’t understand.
And who the hell would wear those “I (plane) NY” shirts? What is that even supposed to mean, that you’re a terrorist?
I too work downtown and can verify that the WTC memorial crap industry is very busy. I say crap because it’s mostly a lot of really cheaply produced items like postcards, t-shirts, hats, photographs, pins, etc. that have pictures of the towers, the American flag, FDNY/NYPD (the manufacturers not having any affiliation with either organization), 9/11, etc. These sidewalk vendors, previously selling VHS and CD bootlegs, quickly changed their wares to suit the outburst of patriotism following 9/11.
Pretty much what everyone’s been saying. Tasteful, well-produced images of the intact towers: okay. Cheap reproductions, or images adulterated by weeping eagles and the like: not okay. Images of the attack: disgusting.
What I’ve been looking for, and have not yet been able to find, is any artist’s conception of what Manhattan looked like circa 1492. No buildings, no anything except trees. I know someone must have drawn or painted such a thing at one time. I would very much like to have it on my wall, if it exists.
I need it to further remind myself, as I often do, that this ol’ earth has been around for a long, long time, and it’s going to be here for a long, long time to come. We talk of the “end of the world”, when we really mean the end of civilization, or even just a heavy blow to society as we know it. Even if there is a total extinction of mankind, this planet is still not going anywhere.
I think having a picture of the towers (pre-911) is fine. What got me was how everyone went nuts deleting the towers from pictures, movies, and shows. To me, that’s like running around your house after a loved one passes away and cutting their face out of every picture you have.
To extend the analogy, I guess, having pictures of the attack or the wreckage are like having a picture of your loved one’s corpse, or of the moment they died. Might be some historical or scientific value there, but as memorials? Creepy.
I think they did it because of people like me.See, I live in NYC, and have spent plenty of time in Manhattan, but I don’t spend enough time there to really know if a building is missing or on the wrong block in a movie (like I read was done in Spiderman).If the towers were removed from a picture of the skyline, I wouldn’t realize that was were they were supposed to be, unless a blank area was left in their place. But seeing them in a movie or TV show (or not seeing them on my way to work in the morning) always reminds me.The reminder won’t affect some movies or TV shows,but I probably wouldn’t be laughing too much after seeing them in a comedy.