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November 19, 2003

Blogging the convention
: There's a very lively discussion going on under a Kos post asking for suggestions about what bloggers want to do at the Democratic convention.

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All fame, no fortune
: Nick Denton's hiring bloggers.

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Incredibly geeky turns of phrase, Chapter I
: Lawrence Lessig's way of saying pissed off: "This always spins me down."
Yeah, that really crashes my heads, man. It blue screens me!

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The memorial
: I'm going to keep staring at the September 11th memorial proposals to let them sink in.
So far, they all feel complicated. I'm hoping that staring at them will bring out a clear and simple idea. The most powerful memorial must execute a simple and clear idea.
I also note that all the designers are architects or artists who might as well be architects. The New York Times writer on NPR this morning said they're all unknowns. But they're all pros. And I suppose that's to be expected. That's all the more reason why we should be glad that they're going to display all the proposals from us nonpros. As they said at the announcement today, that, in and of itself, is a memorial.
My own proposal below.

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Iranian GoogleNews
: Hossein Derakhshan, Iran's weblog pioneer, launches IranFilter, a collaborative blog with news from Iran. It's a great use of the medium -- and good reading:

: Iran Fooled U.N. Inspectors with Decoy Site
: Tehran's First Pizzeria
: Iranian cleric busy playing matchmaker for iranian lonely hearts...
: Iranian-American Goli Ameri runs for U.S. Congress as a Republican in Oregon.
: Uneasy youth abandon politics for chat rooms and porn sites:

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Wie sagt Man 'lesbian' auf Deutsch?
: Heiko thinks Howard Stern would be a hit in Germany.

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Separated at Starbucks
: Chris Pirillo and I need to make sure they're not spiking our decaf.

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First the Reagans, now Michael Jackson
: Pity CBS' scheduler. First, they had to scramble to replace The Reagans. Now they have to scramble to replace a Michael Jackson special that has been "postponed."

Given the gravity of the charges against Mr. Jackson, we believe it would
be inappropriate at this time to broadcast an entertainment special.
However, we are very mindful that Mr. Jackson is innocent until proven
guilty. We will consider broadcasting the special after the due process of
the legal system runs its course.

Or they could send it to VH-1. [via Cory Bergman at Lost Remote]

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The Day After
: Twenty years ago tomorrow, The Day After -- a TV movie from the time when TV movies mattered -- depicted a nuclear holocaust in America. I was a TV critic then and, as I recall, I liked it.
The movie was filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, and so the amazing Lawrence.com remembers the time when TV destroyed the town.
Now this might sound trite but it is true: On September 11th, when I came out of my haven in Chase Plaza II after the first bits of sun broke through the black cloud of debris, I looked around at a world covered in the white dust we all came to know so well and the first image that came to mind was from The Day After. [via Terry Heaton at Lost Remote]

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Jonestown, from one who was there
: Tim Reiterman, the reporter who made Jonestown an investigative story, looks back [via Matt Welch].

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Paris the thought!
: An US writer appears on Howard Stern's show this morning to report that Paris Hilton is so upset over her video-oh that she's "bawling" and even "doesn't feel like going to parties anymore." No, not that!

: There's a fun game started in the comments. One says the parents were nuts to put a city name before that last name and he wants to introduct himself as Des Moines Airport Hilton. Another suggests a change to Monaco Hilton.
I, however, think that given current behavior, the most appropriate new moniker might be Fresno Hilton.
Any other nominations?

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Imposter to the throne
: I'm all for freedom of the press and unfettered ability to investigate. But I do think the Mirror went too far giving a reporter a false identity to see whether he could infiltrate Buckingham Palace security to get near the Queen and the President: "He had a full view from a pitch by the state dining room through a net curtain. Had he been a terrorist hell bent on assassinating the royals or Mr Bush, nothing could have stopped him." Well, I suspect that there were also metal detectors and other means of making sure he didn't smuggling in a nuke.
It's a cliched story. It's a nonstory in many ways. And it gives the bad guys ideas.
The palace has said they have "not ruled out" prosecution of the reporter. And maybe that's the right thing to do. One still needs to act responsibly, for we are all in this together.

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Big fat lie
: KFC is dropping its horrid ad claims that -- in the Atkinds era -- fat fried chicken is suddenly health food, the Guardian reports. That was the single most disgusting ad trick I've seen since the invention of spam. Clearly, in a nation besieged by obesity and heart disease, fat is not suddenly good for us. I don't endorse nannyish efforts to regulate or legislate or sue food companies into responsibility for our eating habits. But KFC, it seems to me, opens up the entire industry for such action with such clearly fraudulent behavior.

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The biggest Hollywood scandal ever?
: Correct if I'm wrong, but isn't the Michael Jackson case the biggest scandal in the history of Hollywood?
Sure, OJ was tried for killing people. But Jackson's a much bigger star and a much stranger star and doing anything to a child -- if he did it -- gets you a reservation in hell. This story is going to be berserk beyond anything we've ever seen.

The sheriff and prosecutor who announced the arrest warrant against Jackson just now on TV are making the big mistake of acting all jolly about it, cracking jokes about how Jackson's isn't their kind of music and how they'd advise against sleepovers at Neverland Ranch. Dumb. They're acting as if this is their moment in the spotlight when, in fact, it's a serious case. And it doesn't help that it's two doughy white guys arresting a once-black guy.

Howard Stern said this morning that no matter what happens in this case, the parents of the 12-year-old alleged victim should be hauled out to the public square of ridicule themselves. Knowing what we know and hearing what we've heard about Jackson -- true or not -- what responsible parents would ever send their child into his grasp? Stern essentially accused them of selling the kid to Jackson to get the chance at a case and a payday.

Jackson's finances have been shaky. He has been weirder and weirder. We are about to watch the final phase of what will probably rank as the worst fall in memory.

My colleague wonders whether Michael Jackson will moonwalk on his perpwalk.

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Substance v style
: Harry quotes Bush's speech at length and then asks:

...what is exactly the problem with any of this?
What exactly is conservative, isolationist, racist about any of this? I know he has a really bad and unnerving habit of producing an inane looking grin after making a deadly serious comment but looking at the content rather than the delivery, what is the problem?
Democratic revolution? Opposing tyranny? Shake off decades of failed policy in the Middle East? No toleration of oppression? Freedom for all mankind?
Tell me please if I am going mad but didn't the left used to come out with visions like that?

: He shows a sense of humor, too:

It was pointed out to me that the last noted American to visit London stayed in a glass box dangling over the Thames. (Laughter.) A few might have been happy to provide similar arrangements for me. (Laughter.)

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My memorial

: The eight finalists for the September 11th memorial were announced this morning.
So now I'll show you mine.

: The idea is quite simple: A memorial in video that tells the stories of the lives of the heroes and innocents of that day; a memorial that focuses on their lives, not their deaths; a memorial that breaks free of stone and steel and allows everyone to participate in the memory.

: On the two footprints of the towers, I envisioned pavilions -- a pavillion of memory, where pilgrims could watch the video and remember, and a pavilion of peace, where the remains of the unknown would be interred and where anyone could find silence and refuge.
The plaza would include large video screens showing the stories constantly.
It would also include, importantly, a wall where people coming to the site could leave their own memories and tributes, for millions who have gone to the World Trade Center have felt that need.
Anyone could also record memories and tributes that would be included in the memorial. It is an interactive memorial.
All of this would also be visible on the Internet. The memorial is not limited to this place.

: I'll give you the entire text below; it tells the story. On the board I presented, I took pictures, like that above, and tried -- given my paltry design ability -- to present the idea.

3000 WINDOWS
on the lives of the heroes and innocents of September 11, 2001

A living and interactive memorial in video

This memorial will use video to tell the stories of every person who died on September 11th. With family photos, home movies, and tributes from loved ones – in image and in word – leading news producers and filmmakers will work with families to create films of one- to three-minutes in length about each of the fallen.

Together with brief films about the place (the building and the rebuilding), the event (emphasizing the heroism rather than the destruction), the survivors, and the outpouring of support that came afterward, this will become a memorial that by its sheer size – its hundreds of hours – and its intimacy is able to present the enormity of the tragedy.

The films allow the memorial to focus on the lives of these heroes and innocents, rather than on their deaths. This memorial will assure that they will live on as more than merely names carved in stone.

The video tributes will be displayed on screens of varying size throughout the site – on very large screens along two open walls, which can be watched by hundreds or thousands of people… on smaller screens mounted on columns around the site that can be watched by smaller groups according to published schedules… on screens that greet visitors as they come down the ramps to the site… and on individual screens in a Pavilion of Memory to be erected on the north tower’s footprint, where mourners, pilgrims, students, visitors, and family members may chose to see any stories.

Screens in the Pavilion of Memory will be set into windows between white concrete columns reminiscent of the World Trade Center’s façade. Thus, rather than looking out of those windows onto the world, we will be looking in those windows, onto the lives of the loved ones we lost there that day.

The video stories will be designed to be appreciated without sound, on large screens, and with sound, on individual monitors. Thus, the site will remain quiet and respectful.

In addition, to give visitors a place of quiet contemplation and prayer, a Pavilion of Peace will be placed on the footprint of the other tower around a sarcophagus – built of material from the original towers – holding the remains of the unknown dead. Benches in this pavilion, radiating out from the center, will provide a place for contemplation.

Both pavilions will be built to the edges of the footprints and up to ground level in translucent material, lit white. White is the color of the entire memorial: all structures, the video columns, the benches inside the Pavilion of Peace and on the plaza, and the plaza surface itself will be built with material the same shade as the lost towers. This is not a place of dark death or of black smoke. It will be heavenly white.

The only element of the site that is black is the List of Names. They will be scrolled continuously, white-on-black, on large vertical screens flanking the two largest video screens. The names will be displayed at times alphabetically and at times by affiliation (by fire company, by corporation, by nationality, by hometown).

Finally, the memorial will include a Tribute Wall under the large ramp, a place where visitors may leave messages and objects as they have done every day since September 11, 2001. The people of the world have felt a tremendous need to contribute to the memorial and this plan will allow them to continue. They will also be able to record video tributes and memories; selected moments will be used in an ongoing and updated video displayed at the memorial. Thus, this is an interactive memorial: a living memorial.

Visitors will be able to return to the memorial time and time again and perhaps never see everything it has to offer. But these visitors will also be able to purchase selected videos from the entire memorial collection. And every film will be made available on the Internet. Thus, this memorial will not be constrained to these walls and this ground; it will spread through the world with its message of memory and hope.

All proceeds from sales of the videos – as well as contributions taken at the memorial’s exits – will go to a Victims of Terrorism Fund established to help people hurt by other terrorist acts. The fund will be administered by the families.
Note that the site will have a reserved room for the families, where they may view any of the video stories and find privacy.

Please note that this memorial affords its builders considerable flexibility. The films about the heroes and innocents can be presented in any order – that is, all films can be presented alphabetically but at various times, firefighters from one company can be seen with their brothers, colleagues with colleagues. Thus special recognition can be given to firefighters, police, and medical emergency workers who gave their lives that day. Also note that apart from the pavilions built on the towers’ footprints, the placement of all elements is flexible. In addition, the plan can accommodate such additions as a bridge over the site to provide pedestrian flow that does not disturb those below but also allows a new perspective on the site from above.

This is a new definition of a public memorial. No other memorial weaves such a rich tapestry of the lives of those memorialized. No other memorial invites such contributions from those who come to pay tribute. This memorial breaks free of stone and steel – and the commemoration of death – to celebrate lives.

: Here is Greg Allen's proposal.

: The Wall Street Journal has pictures of six of the proposals.

: At the unveiling of the finalists, the head of the the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. read the Gettysburg Address on the very anniversary of its first delivery:

It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

: The jury announced that, indeed, all 5,201 submissions will be displayed and each of us will receive a certificate of appreciation. I am very touched. Thank you.

: New York Times story here; click on the slideshow on the side; a better presentation than the Journal. ImagineNewYork.com promises to have the designs up, too; doesn't yet.

: Full presentation of the finalists here.

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Fads
: Kiro5hin is listing the top 10 faded Internet fads. Note, naysayers, that blogs are not among them.

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Hal, your plays suck, by the way
: Harold Pinter's latest on America:

Under Bush's leadership, Pinter said, the United States resembled Nazi Germany in its ambitions. He compared the prison camp for terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay to a concentration camp.... "It is by far the most dangerous state that has ever existed."

Y'know, I suffered through watching and reading too many of your plays, Hal, and I gotta say it now: They suck. People tried to imagine that there was some buried intelligence behind all that nonsensical babbling. But the truth is, there isn't. You're every bit as nonsensical as you sound.

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Journalism war
: The AP observes a war between "celebrity journalism" and -- for lack of a better description -- "real journalism" at Arnold Schwarzenegger's first press conference as Governor. Some want to know about fiscal issues. Some want to know Arnold's opinion on steroids. Expect war.

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