Catherine wrote:
WELCOME BACK, GR!
I'm looking forward to your photos and to your report on everything you saw.
Thank you! Yes, I'm working out the first pass of notes now, and it's surprising because while I was up there, I didn't feel like I was learning some mind-blowing amount of stuff . . .
But now that I'm back, MAN! My mind is really taking off with everything, and I can see cutting the notes is going to be a huge, but very worthwhile, process. I'm saying it will be awhile to get this all together, but I suppose I'll post a first draft excerpt below to give you guys something to live on while I work my ass off in the studio getting this story closer to completion.
DarkKnight2 wrote:
Glass, I went to the Loose Change web site. Is there anyway to download the movie so I can burn it and watch it on television? Can't afford to purchase the DVD.
There should be, but I'll have to check. They had boxes of DVD's for free in New York. They gave them out to us to pass out to the crowd, but passing stuff out to strangers is the toughest way to go, as far as getting stuff across; and it just doesn't suit my personality. But later that day, when it was just me and sloth, people would see our t-shirts and ask us about it. And in no time I passed out 4 of the 5 DVD's I had to pass out. If I can burn copies on my own, I'll probably do that and start passing them out. Right now I wish I had at least 30 - 50 copies just to pass out to the people at work. One kid in NY also said he had trouble downloading Loose Change, so I'll try to burn copies, and if I can do it successfully, DK2, I'll send you a PM and mail you a copy if you like. If we agree to do that, let's handle all the details in a PM.
CHRONOLOGY NOTES (demo)Even these notes could be fleshed out with quite a bit more detail, so it's going to take time, like I said. But the following is a demo cut, a trailer if you will, of the GR text relating to the trip.
GlassRace wrote:
CHRONOLOGY NOTES
Part I. Journey Up
Sloth arrived Sunday evening @ GR's apartment; we talked and watched football; the game was over @ 11:30 so we caught a few z's, waking up at 1 a.m. and hitting the road for New York
in northeastern Maryland we ate at a Waffle House; we were the only people in the restaraunt, and the two employees were nice and mentioned to us about the two "crackheads" running around in the darkness outside, looking for "a ride"
travelling up the dark highways we were surprised by the frequency of tolls in the Maryland/Delaware area; then we hit the NJ turnpike, which is where GR kept almost falling asleep then snapping back awake; sloth played a mixture of music on the CD player and rolled the window all the way down quite a bit to stay awake; the further north we went, the colder it got
we reached our exit on the NJ turnpike and were pleasantly surprised that the toll was only $5 and change; the little card we got upon entering the turnpike led us to believe that the toll would be more like $20
the streets of Newark that led us to Penn Station were the usual bombed out post-industrial wasteland that is typical of the northeast; we arrived at the parking lot at 4:54 a.m., worked out where on the lot to park with the Jamaican accent attendant, grabbed our packs, and headed into the station
we wandered around the station looking for where to buy tickets; it was a little confusing because about four different styles of train run through the station, and we specifically needed a PATH (Port Authority) train, and a machine that sold one-way tickets, not 30-day passes, which was the only thing available from the first machine we found
the vibe of the station was interesting; for example, we stopped in the restroom, and they were opening it up -- sort of a prison fence inside that divided it in half; some homeless looking types were in there cleaning up; on the platform there were numerous styles of employees, from maintenance to security to train operators, conductors, etc. they were from all different nationalities, as were the passengers on the train itself; boarding the train GR was impressed with the magnificent diversity of the New York/New Jersey population
the train operator finally boarded, and she had this beautiful long straight platinum blonde hair that was striking against her navy blue railroad hat and uniform; GR took this as a good omen for our trip that we had a good-looking driver to take us to the World Trade Center
it was about five stops and fifteen or twenty minutes from Newark to the WTC; even though it was 5:30 a.m. when we departed Penn Station, the train became quite full by the second stop, with all seats taken and some people standing
when we rolled into the WTC station, sloth tapped GR on the shoulder to look out the window behind him; outside the window was Ground Zero itself, the train track cuts right through the side wall and into the "bath tub" of Ground Zero; it was truly a remarkable sight, all at once, to see exactly in real life what we had only known through images; steel and jagged concrete, screeching train wheels and the occasional brilliant blue spark of electricity, sort of a half-finished futurescape of half rock and half modern technology
we exited the train and proceeded up several escalators and staircases to reach the street; around this time is when GR took his first photo, of inside that station itself; while coming up the final escalator to the street, the dark blue sky was absolutely magnificent; exactly like some of the dark blue skies in the background in the movie King of New York, except it was real life, and it was cold, with a gusting breeze pinballing through the indifferent, utterly vertical valleys between skyscrapers, carrying with it the fragrance of pavement, exhaust, and time
Ground Zero is at the intersection of Church St. and Fulton St., and the place was crawling with cops and media, even at 5:55 a.m.; above all, the beauty of the sight was stunning; the striking blue sky and the buildings, the impact of seeing Ground Zero and how compact it is, nestled in between the many other glass and steel structures; a new WTC 7 has already been built and is standing there like a blue glass ghost under an indigo dawn
