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When I realized that the tenth anniversary of 9/11 would fall on a Sunday, I was relieved for wholly selfish reasons: I wouldn’t have to spend a workday worried about whether my lighthearted business of joking about TV was inappropriate. I was prepared to let the day pass without any kind of reflection, as there are countless other outlets that have already done it in more expansive and meaningful ways (such as New York Magazine’s Encyclopedia of 9/11 and Esquire’s Surviving the Fall).
Then I saw the State Farm 9/11 tribute in which kids sing “Empire State of Mind” to a bunch of New York firefighters (video below), and I almost cried because I’m apparently a 50-year-old housewife from Duluth. I should probably stop blogging and just bake you all some cookies.
So yeah, 9/11 gets a post. Along with the State Farm video below, I’ve included a couple more photos and links to poignant stuff or cultural ephemera that caught my eye.
Artist Jason Powell holds up pictures of the tragedies in front of the now-peaceful scenes of the attacks. [flickr]
“Mountain Dew or Crab Juice.” “Blecch! Ew! Sheesh! I’ll take a crab juice.” [caps via Eye on Springfield]
And lastly, because I watch it every year: Jon Stewart’s first “Daily Show” monologue after 9/11. It gets me every time.
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I was told there would be cookies?
Sat night I watched MSNBC as they replayed NBC’s coverage from 9/11, with some editing, as it happened. Then they followed up with a show with the on air people talking about what was going on behind the scenes. It was pretty compelling. It brought back all the confusion and horror that I felt that day. I was surprised that I could feel that much emotion 10 years on.
There has been a lot of backlash from this commercial. People have been getting upset, saying that 9/11 effected the entire nation and that NY has been getting too much attention.
I understand that people from all over the country died, and even more have given their lives in the years following 9/11, but as a lifelong New Yorker, attending 14 funerals after 9/11, they can go fuck themselves
I cried too, so I guess I’m also a 50 year-old housewife from Duluth. Wanna go to the bingo with me tomorrow night?
So is it okay to admit that this commercial made me cry? Because it made me cry.
After watching this commercial yesterday, I am apparently a 65 year old red state grampa. My first thought was why are little kids singing a song with lyrics about doing ecstasy and fucking basketball players?
/oatmeal raisin, if you’re taking requests
I haven’t been able to find it, but in the 2001 World Series, at the first game in Yankee Stadium, an NYPD officer sang a version of “God Bless America” that was so stirring I still remember it vividly almost ten years later.
Also, it puts to shame all other God Bless Americas at baseball games. It was a great moment, but let’s not make it a tradition. NYPD officer in New York two months after the tragedy is one thing, so maybe a contest winner from Tempe doing it for the A’s in July is definitely another.
Meanwhile, in California, one radio station did a two hour special about “Alternate theories”. Proving no matter how much faith you have in humanity, you can always be disappointed.
I was going to go to church with my gf for the first time in a long long time (it’s a church that a lot of people walked into for rest and refuge after the towers fell) but due to outside forces, could not. We did an hour and a half of penance by watching the reading of the names. I haven’t cried in freaking years, but I couldn’t stop myself, and didn’t try. So sad.
Tim, I’m from Boston and you should hear the people here complain about the focus NYC gets for 9/11. “Those planes took off from here, you know.” Yeah, thanks for reminding me that our airport sent everyone on those planes to their deaths.
Ah, Boston! They never let you forget how much they hate New York.
I forced myself to watch the CBS special out of respect for the fallen. I was alternating between crying and choking on tears. That was some fucking insane footage where you could hear the bodies hitting the floor outside the lobby.
Why can’t we leave the giant spotlights on year round? It’s such a lovely and eerie symbol. And it helps me figure out which direction I’m facing.
9/11 has always been an abstraction to me. I’ve never been to New York, and I’ve avoided media coverage of the event because it seemed like they were twisting tragedy into a souvenir t-shirt. That documentary flipped a switch in me. Seeing the logistics of navigating the rubble and dragging body parts from the collapse made it real. People who died that day had emails to answer and paperwork to fill out and phone calls to make. How do you even begin to move on from that?
Rebecca. I sat in that church next to Ground Zero on the 4th of July. I did not want to see Ground Zero. Eventually I got up, walked through the grave yard and as soon as I got close to GZ, I was met with a vendor selling a slick book called TRAGEDY. I turned around.
That commercial got me, too.
That commercial was horrible. I’m not trolling, but seriously, so awful. I hate the sound of kids singing.
Ah Boston, they never stop reminding everyone else how easy it is to hate them.
Thank you Ally, that was better.
Dude, no way. This is proof that 9/11 has become nothing more than a commercial / political selling tool. When that commercial wrapped and the State Farm logo came up I was like – fuck this. I could see the Executive pitching that horrible POS to the board: “OK, we need to make people think we are sympathetic by doing a bit 9/11 ad! That way they are unsuspected them when we drop them for coverage after they get into an accident. It’s perfect.” We act like a bunch of little bitches when it comes to 9/11. It’s a horrible event, but it happened because America is full of brazen and ignorant morons. We should have taken 9/11 as a wake up call, not turn it into a comercial selling tool. Kids singing is so fucking campy. Awful in fact. This commercial is the perfect storm of executive bullshit trying to pass of as a heartfelt message. It’s exactly the opposite. Thanks 9/11 for making us waste 10 years in shit hole iraq and afghanistan! Seriously – this commercial is so embarrassing I wanted to get in a plane of my own and fly it into Giants stadium.
Killing all the Jet AND Cowboy fans in the tri-state area??? Never forget…..what could have been.
So Wrong – Bingo, these ads are all being done to prove how patriotic, empathetic, mericun and deserving of your coin the company sponsoring the ad is. I mute the TV or go out for a smoke when one comes on. These Ivy League Madison Ave fuckstains and company executives don’t have one shred of humanity in their bones. I keep track of asshole companies who pull shit like this and make a point of buying from someone else. In fact, I don’t buy anything from companies that over advertise unless there is no other option.
@ So Wrong:And here you come in acting like youre totally immune to corporate greed, then make light of the whole situation with your comment about flying a plane into Giants Stadium, just so everyone can see how cool and edgy you are. As A Native New Yorker AND a Giants fan, I can say with all certainty, that you are a piece of shit.
As a former New Yorker, I just want to say that I want to have sex with Christina Hendricks.
I never said I wasn’t a piece of shit. What I ain’t is a kool-aid drinking dumbass who waves a flag just because. Our country is ass-backwards. We have memorials for the 2 times we actually got attacked. If they did this in other countries they’d have shit like this happening every day. As Americans we need to stop acting like victims and realize that we were attacked because the rest of the world fucking hates us. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the world sucks too, but they also don’t occupy us with their military forces and dig up our land for oil fields. I love America, I just hate what it’s become. Sept 11th should be a stark reminder about how we’ve how deluded this country is. If you really think anyone responsible for that whole remembrance bullshit had any other intentions from ratings and selling tools you are ignorant.
@So Wrong. So you’re aware that you are in fact a piece of shit…are you also aware of how moronic and ignorant you sound? If not because you actually wrote “kool-aid drinking” but because of your claim that 9/11 happened because America is full of ignorant morons like yourself.
Yes. America was attacked because we mingle in other peoples business. Do you even pay attention to what is going on in the world? I’ll tell you what, if China marched into your back yard and started building pipeline you’d be pretty pissed too. Yes, I am a heartless piece of shit but at least I have a realistic view of the world and don’t blindly bow to a flag just because thats what I’m told to do. If America isn’t full of ignorant retards how do you explain people like 1. Palin / Bachman / Boehner / Perry being allowed to speak in public without being stoned 2. Fox news is allowed to exist. 3. The entire south and midwest …shall I go on? I would say maybe 10%, if that, of America is full of actual sane people. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the world is just as retarded.i.e. see any country ruled by crazy religious factions….but then again, so is America. But back to the whole point of this thing – This ad was not done with good intentions at all. Every bumper sticker / gratuitous remembrance special / shitty country song – gratuitous and manipulative. All I am saying is why is not asking why we were attacked. Instead of acting like victims, we should be asking why it happened and maybe…idk…smarten up in the way we interact with the world. All we are right now are a bunch of self-ish hoarders with our fingers on the button for a nuclear holocaust. If China invaed we’d hit the nuke button so fast with no remorse of the fact that we’d start the end of humanity. But please…tell me how great this country’s leaders are. We’re misguided and instead of being told the truth we a coddled.