since i'm starved for content, you're starved for amusement, my ears feel very warm and the manhattan sky is fighting against its overcastness, why don't i recycle some email i wrote? yeah? ye-- in time i'll get piccies up here, but the last thing i need to do is remind you that i can't hold onto anything specifically my digicam software but i'm not here to harp like a banshee about my failings as a human being.

wednesday, after work in the noho building by broadway and houston in the kicking manhattan region, i walked for four long hours, but it had some import. down broadway, passing by the toronto queen west type stores but in the bad bad buildings and the uneven roads with metal plates all over.

and came across the pit.
formerly ground zero.
formerly the world trade centre.
and man, it's heavy.

if you haven't been there, i'll fill in some blanks. those that have may find this opportunistic, but i am a sincere touchy-feely kinda guy and i want to understand the context of the area it was and how life was and now is.

before you get there, there's this one church along the way and around it is a monstrous fence of makeshift memorials: letters, photos, dead flowers, grungy stuffed animals, fading printouts, written fabric. then, a large two tarp fence with security personnel around the entrances armed with a barcode scanner to read plastic badges. already at this point, you stop hearing the oppressive din of traffic, even though some of the roads right beside it are open, at least partially. signs saying DON'T CLIMB THE FENCE are ignored as people strain to see and the signs include little messages, prayers of sorts alongside invictive against the sideshow. then on the south side, liberty street, a viewing area.

it looks like a construction site,
it looks like an archaeological dig,
it looks like an open mine,
but it looks ghastly.

the east half is on street level with parts of concrete lying around, giving it a rundown parking lot feel, except with parts of metal sticking up in places, one of which was welded into a cross and lots of dusty sand. the west half is about seven or eight stories lower and you can see the remains of the parking garage, some pipes, maybe even part of the subway line. a long straight ramp goes down and there are ten trucks down there, orange plastic fencing wrapped around the garage levels. you can see little nubs along the vertical side, like parts of a pine cone, showing how the support weight was distributed. workers doing shiftwork punchclock stuff but with very little jest. very sombre.

the surrounding buildings remain, including two of the smaller parts of the world trade complex (one and two world financial place), but there are huge scars abound. two of the skyscrapers are covered in a dark mesh net with supports to the ground, like they were giftwrapped. one older governmental looking building has red and white patches over its surface and one building lost all its windows and looks condemned. the trailer offices all have messages about their lost brethren, from the firemen to the k9 units, the nypd and the port authority police. there's a jonathan richman song called lonely financial zone with its haunting backbeat and minimal melody and it makes for an eerie aural equivalent. it is with a combination of luck and good engineering that no other buildings were levelled.

debate is running high on what to build next. the key argument is "revitalizing the neighbourhood" vs. "honouring the fallen" vs. "ensuring this can never happen again". one recurring thread is linking up the space to the park along the hudson river, which has its own memorials. however, the skyline won't be restored to its former shape, leaving a big empty space in the sky.

other than that, it was a walk down to battery park, along the piers and the view to staen island, the statue of liberty and new jersey, watching people fish from the hudson (and catch some bigguns) back up broadway, drifting away eastwards through parts of city hall, the secluded and beefed secure government buildings, with raising barriers for the courthouses and traffic thwarters for the justice buildings. then it was chinatown as dusk hit and it's then you realize that manhattan doesn't have great street lighting. back to broadway then, stop off at a music store close to work, a pharmacy to buy shaving equipment and an attempt to look at a park avenue restaurant, but they're all closed, expensive or full. modest deli food, although i worm up to 42nd before going back to the club, with swollen feet and all.