Why.

October 16, 2001 3:29 PM

Why. I know it's a WTC reference....but I haven't posted one in a while. This Flash animation is the first thing to allow me to properly grieve since I turned on the TV the morning of 9/11. I bawled through this.
posted by bkdelong (30 comments total)

While I appreciate the sentiment, an Enya soundtrack, a 6.9 meg file size and images of people jumping out of windows were all too much. Warning us about the last two would have been nice. Not being callous, I got weepy too.
posted by machaus at 3:40 PM on October 16, 2001

interesting. i saved a ton of photos from thw WTC attacks...its funny (for lack of better words), these photos have more effect on my now a month later than they did during the actuall attacks did. Guess its setting in.
posted by jmd82 at 3:41 PM on October 16, 2001

I think the images spoke much louder than the author's editorial at the end.
posted by jpoulos at 4:06 PM on October 16, 2001

Good find! God Bless America.

Brace for incoming from the self-loathing, hate america first crowd.
posted by Real9 at 4:09 PM on October 16, 2001

Words like "crude," "banal" and "ill-conceived" spring to mind, but tears do not. The fact of what happened stands as a tribute to those who died; gooey sentiment just defiles their memory.
posted by donkeyschlong at 4:15 PM on October 16, 2001

I hate to mention it, but I'm willing to bet he didn't have permission to use Enya's music.

If he did, it would be plastered all over it thanking her.

And now, if the music industry comes after him on this, they're going to look like complete asses.
posted by nickonomicon at 4:20 PM on October 16, 2001

Ok...um.....donkeyschlong.
posted by schlomo at 4:21 PM on October 16, 2001

Powerful and poignant. Thanks for the link.
posted by Oriole Adams at 4:26 PM on October 16, 2001

Well, the last sentense says it all... We will prevail.
posted by Ulwen at 4:30 PM on October 16, 2001

that's "prevale"
posted by jpoulos at 4:31 PM on October 16, 2001

donkeyschlong: i agree. and i doubt most such 'memorials' have permission to use the content. the local paper here reported on some 'poor sucker' who had put up a 'memorial' site. it was just a collection of copyrighted photos taken by journalists. he was then taken to task by a photojournalist from new york who insisted via letter, and by posting in the 'poor suckers' forum, that he remove the site. according to the local paper, he moved the site to an australian host. the whole thing smelled fishy to me - i found that the domain in question had been registered on the 11th, contained the phrase 'worldtradecenter' and is owned by someone in another state. the 'memorial' site in question does not even come up anymore. i suspect the 'poor sucker' actually sold the domain in question for a profit or profited in some other way not apparent to me. i suspect the 'poor sucker' totally rolled that reporter, and i've sent a letter to the paper pointing out these facts. at any rate, who needs a memorial? i for one will surely die (hopefully far in the future) with the images from that day's horror still fresh in my mind.
posted by quonsar at 4:34 PM on October 16, 2001

As a response to this 'memorial', I'd like to offer this simple but moving photo I found the other day.

The image is not mine, but it is original in this circumstance, and it inspired me far more than an overwrought blast of Enya does.
posted by kokogiak at 4:44 PM on October 16, 2001

Thanks for the link bk...
posted by Oxydude at 5:33 PM on October 16, 2001

This is a politically correct, sentimental snuff film. It looks like the sort of over-the-top parody you might expect in a Verhoeven movie like Robocop or Starship Troopers.
posted by bingo at 5:34 PM on October 16, 2001

kokogiak: agreed, most heartily.
posted by donkeyschlong at 5:36 PM on October 16, 2001

it was very moving. however that song three times in a row is not.
posted by Satapher at 5:37 PM on October 16, 2001

also, bingo: right on! :)
posted by donkeyschlong at 5:37 PM on October 16, 2001

My teeth hurt after watching that... or at least the first part. If you need sappy memorials like this to make you shed a tear for the dead of September 11, then you need to seek help. I certainly don't need someone parading pictures in front of me to make me mourn.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 5:44 PM on October 16, 2001

It makes me sad, and it makes me cry. But watching the video for Limp Bizkit's 'Rollin' makes me cry. I have to say that I don't like all the schmaltzyness. I don't think that it'd be impossible to have a decent 'flash' memorial - but I haven't seen one. I do think it'd be interesting to see a memorial with a picture and name of all of the known victims. Something that would at least help with perspective rather than just showing all the same pictures we've seen with music we don't like.

Although I don't think something with Blitzkreig Bop would be entirely appropriate either.
posted by QrysDonnell at 5:53 PM on October 16, 2001

It was a bit over-the-top, but far less so than any other attempt I've seen. It actually managed to be quite moving (for me) and the use of the medium was extremely well conceived and executed, I thought. I agree that it should have ended before the commentary at the end.
posted by rushmc at 5:59 PM on October 16, 2001

I do think that people need to make a better attempt to separate the 'we're sad' stuff from the 'we're going to kick your ass' stuff. I'm not against the 'war' at this point, but I see it more as something that we have to do and not as something that I can 'enjoy' us doing. (Like, woo hoo! We bombed Kandahar, oh hell yeah, Payback mother! We're gonna have your ladies in bikinis!)
posted by QrysDonnell at 6:11 PM on October 16, 2001

don't worry...the sap will end as the"war" doesn't....now I suppose I should look at the link myself....but I do happen to like Enya-she's been able to make me weep ever since that Kaycee Nicole abomination.........
posted by bunnyfire at 8:01 PM on October 16, 2001

QrysDonnell -- Don't say that too loud, or they'll hear you. We're not allowed to point things like that out to them anymore, or they just get mad and start calling us hippies and asking us why we hate America.
posted by Hildago at 8:29 PM on October 16, 2001

kokogiak---
That's the single most beautiful photo I've ever seen of the World Trade Center. Thank you.
posted by realjanetkagan at 8:32 PM on October 16, 2001

I'm confused...I watched the first 30 seconds and I hear this wonderful song by Enya, and it's the sound track for...the plane crashing into the building? I can understand family photos of the victims, I can understand photos of the people involved in the rescue, I can understand photos of those that watched the horror, and I can understand photos of flags, signs, hugging, consoling.
But of the plane crashing into the building? I gave up and shut it down after seeing that.
And I think that's the last time I'm going to bother looking at these "tribute" sites. Everyone seems to mix schmaltzy sad photos with crass angry photos and it just doesn't work. Either be angry and show the devastation, or be sad and show the pain/humanity of it all. Mixing them together just confuses things.
posted by Grum at 8:45 PM on October 16, 2001

bingo: BINGO!
posted by eyeballkid at 10:27 PM on October 16, 2001

I had not seen many of the pictures before, and I am very appreciative for that part of it. The interspersed slogans, the theme music, and especially the clumsy sermonizing at the end I certainly could have done without. All the sap and fluff really distracted from the powerful images, otherwise I would have gotten a bit teary over this.

That said, I have not yet learned how to do anything with Flash animation and suspect it is far easier to sit here and criticize someone else's work than to make a silent, mostly text-less tribute of my own. Thanks for the post, bkdelong.
posted by Bixby23 at 2:26 AM on October 17, 2001

well, now that I have seen it....let me kick the jaded side of myself to the curb.

I needed to see that.

and I needed the enya to get thru it.

get over it.


I live near Ft bragg and before this is over I may be going to some funerals myself...
posted by bunnyfire at 3:55 AM on October 17, 2001

Sentimental snuff film, indeed. Bingo got it right. I closed the window when I saw the second plane about to hit the building. Who wants to see that again? It's mass-murder porn for sickos who have to see pictures of death and suffering in order to grieve. I can weep just fine, thank you, without again seeing an image of that plane smashing into the building.
Someone posted here that the "memorial" includes pictures of people jumping. What kind of sick fuck wants to watch that?
posted by Holden at 4:25 AM on October 17, 2001

Is there a danger that grieving too much for strangers will lead one to be unable to grieve properly when it is for people that you do personally know and love?

I'm not trying be cynical about this - I'd like to know if the huge access to the world offered by the media is actually likely to affect people in this way. There were stories after Princess Diana died that some people in the UK were more upset by that than by subsequent deaths in their own family.
posted by kerplunk at 5:08 AM on October 17, 2001