9-11 TRIBUTE 9-11-03
I didn't realize I'd have a lot to write about this week but a trip back to Brooklyn on the anniversary of 9/11 cleared my head. In the past month I've been getting chilling reminders of the whole tragedy. One was watching the movie "Bowling for Columbine" which I have to say was a great documentary, but there is a scene in the film where they show a montage of horror juxtaposed with Old Sachmo singing "What a Wonderful World" that will give even the strongest man chills.
The other reminder that really hit home was a book called "FOREVER" by Pete Hamill. If you are into historical fiction, and want to taste what it was like in Manhattan from 1740-2001 this is a good book to read, the ending is crazy!!
9-11-03
Icrashed at Vern's apartment and in the morning Vern hooked me up with some Mecca Gear he designed and we took off back to the city. I stayed on the F train said good-bye to Vern and went straight down to Park Slope, Brooklyn where I used to live in 2001. It was weird walking the streets of the old neighborhood on the anniversary of the tragedy. I walked past my old brownstone, and a few blocks away is a church on the corner of 7th Avenue and President Street. I've passed this huge old church a million times but never went in. On the street there was a sign that said, "Open to all, a photographic memory of 9/11" by some photographer I didn't write down. I went in and walked around, the photos were great, so touching. They really took me back. They were really poignant and captured those days of, and after with great clarity. I walked deeper into the church and it was beautiful. What an amazing building, wood everywhere, and gigantic, like a huge 19th century theater, one of Park Slope's oldest and a landmark I had never seen the interior of, and all this time, right under my nose.
I then walked over to a bagel store and bought some breakfast. Still feeling a little hung over I walked up to Prospect Park to eat my meal in the shade of a tree. I sat down and started reading The Village Voice and eating my food when a troop of about twenty elderly Russian speaking tourists came down the path. They were led by young Russian translator/ tour guides. They all stopped at the benches I was sitting at and took a break. They were all speaking non stop in Russian while I was reading and eating. Then in the middle of the big open field in the park this dude came running out. He had a big bag, and from it he assembled a massive kite. He must have made this thing himself or had it custom made because the kite was around 10 feet in diameter, and was a giant American Flag. From the flag there was a tail a few feet across and like 40 feet long, the tail again must also have been home made because it started with an American Flag, then went into solid colors of Red then White then blue, 15 foot long bands of solid colored fabric.
The Russian speaking folks all quieted down as he started to launch it.....it raised up proud above the trees, it seemed like the whole park had fallen under a hush. He let out a few hundred feet of slack and it shot higher into the sky. What a great thing to do, he just launched a flag for all Park Slope to see, some of the old Russian speaking people started to silently cry, maybe I did a little too.
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo