{"id":363,"date":"2004-09-11T18:27:56","date_gmt":"2004-09-11T22:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=363"},"modified":"2007-09-07T07:34:42","modified_gmt":"2007-09-07T12:34:42","slug":"you-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-too","title":{"rendered":"You, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent the first anniversary of Sept. 11 walking around NYC with my girlfriend at the time<\/a>, taking pictures, listening to the wind, and helping her get an “I Love NYC” tattoo on the back of her neck. Here’s a link to the editorials I wrote<\/a> for my magazine on the attacks and the first anniversary.<\/p>\n

Last year, I spent the day at home, waiting for a truck to bring me 2,000 copies of the 9.11 novel I was publishing, The Immensity of the Here and Now, by Paul West (still available<\/a>!).<\/p>\n

This year, I drove into NYC to pick up my girlfriend<\/a>, headed out to a Mac store to pick up an Airport Extreme base station, walked around the town of Nyack for a bit, and had a pleasant afternoon. She told me how, during the ceremony where the names of the dead were read, some elderly couple read a few names, and the wife kept hectoring the husband because he skipped some of them. Here’s the whole list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the drive in this morning, I ruminated on the anniversary. Heading out of my town, there’s a wonderful view of the NYC skyline (not so far south as to see the WTC area, unfortunately), and it put me in mind of the day of the attacks, seeing that same skyline from the highway near my office. The weather was absolutely gorgeous here on 9.11.01, and a plume of dark smoke stretched north across the island of Manhattan. On one hill, people were setting up tripods and taking photos of the city. Memento mori.<\/p>\n

I don’t feel like going into it too much nowadays. We all responded (and continue to respond) in our own ways, and I try not to begrudge anyone else’s ways of approaching it.<\/p>\n

About a week after the attacks, I was able to start listening to music radio again (I’d been unable to take anything but news radio at first). One of the rock stations played “New York,” by U2, from its most recent album<\/a>. I’d never heard the song before.<\/p>\n

New York, by U2<\/em><\/p>\n

In New York, freedom looks like too many choices
\nIn New York, I found a friend to drown out the other voices
\nVoices on a cell phone
\nVoices from home
\nVoices of the hard sell
\nVoices down a stairwell
\nIn New York
\nJust got a place in New York<\/p>\n

In New York, summers get hot, well into the hundreds
\nYou can’t walk around the block without a change of clothing
\nHot as a hair dryer in your face
\nHot as handbag and a can of mace
\nNew York
\nI just got a place in New York
\nNew York<\/p>\n

In New York, you can forget, forget how to sit still
\nTell yourself you will stay in, but it’s down to Alphaville<\/p>\n

New York, New York<\/p>\n

The Irish been coming here for years
\nFeel like they own the place
\nThey got the airport, city hall
\nDance hall, dance floor, they even got the police
\nIrish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
\nReligious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
\nHappily, not like me and you
\nThat’s where I lost you
\nNew York<\/p>\n

In New York, I lost it all to you and your vices
\nStill I’m staying on to figure out my mid-life crisis
\nI hit an iceberg in my life
\nYou know I’m still afloat
\nYou lose your balance, lose your wife
\nIn the queue for the lifeboat<\/p>\n

You better put the women and children first
\nBut you’ve got an unquenchable thirst for New York<\/p>\n

New York, New York<\/p>\n

In the stillness of the evening
\nWhen the sun has had its day
\nI heard your voice whispering
\nCome away now to New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent the first anniversary of Sept. 11 walking around NYC with my girlfriend at the time, taking pictures, listening to the wind, and helping her get an “I Love NYC” tattoo on the back of her neck. Here’s a link to the editorials I wrote for my magazine on the attacks and the first … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “You, Too”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-5R","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":395,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/music-news","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":0},"title":"Music News","author":"Gil","date":"November 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an invite to any of my NY\/NJ-based readers: Ari Scott, a delightful singer-songwriter (and former official pre-VM girlfriend), is releasing her new EP I Can Open My Eyes at The Bitter End (147 Bleeker St., NYC) tomorrow night (Tues., Nov. 30) at 9:30pm! Join me, the official VM girlfriend,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/private-life","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":1},"title":"Private Life","author":"Gil","date":"April 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Looks like my commentary and links about the war on terrorism, the pharmaceutical industry, independent publishing, snuff films disguised as religious commentary, and ape breakups (which help explain the profusion of gorilla rampages in zoos across the country) are growing in appeal. March was another record month for visits to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1396,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/so-much-to-do-so-little-time","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":2},"title":"So much to do, so little time","author":"Gil","date":"March 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry, dear readers: no Monday Morning Montaigne for you this week. I'm way too busy with the April ish, this afternoon's DCAT event in NYC, and tonight's anniversary-plus-1-week dinner at Cafe Matisse. But my wife has a couple of weekend wrapup posts for you to check out: Harissa Explains It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/back-2","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":3},"title":"Back!","author":"Gil","date":"July 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Not exactly rested and ready, but at least the big issue is wrapped, in time for my family's visit for the next 7-10 days!To get re-started, here's a post by The Brooding Persian, about the 4th of July in Iran.In the Persian calendar, today is 18 Tir, which has become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3585,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-3909","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":4},"title":"What It Is: 3\/9\/09","author":"Gil","date":"March 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Montaigne, Cultural Amnesia, and Liar's Poker. What I'm listening to: \"Little Person,\" the theme song to Synecdoche, New York. A lot. What I'm watching: The first season of Breaking Bad. What I'm drinking: Miller's (Westbourne Strength!) & Q Tonic. What Rufus is up to: Celebrating his first\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-3909#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039333354X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":654,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/memorial-day","url_meta":{"origin":363,"position":5},"title":"Memorial Day","author":"Gil","date":"September 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, one of my best friends asked me what I plan on doing on Sept. 11. I told her that I was trying to write a longish piece on the Twin Towers and NYC, but the last two weeks have made it pretty tough for me to concentrate on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}