MetaFilter posts tagged with tightrope

When I see three oranges, I juggle. When I see two towers, I walk.

jessamyn — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:55:56 -0800

When Man on Wire won a Grand Jury Prize: at Sundance this year, many could hazily remember Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers in New York in 1974 (previously) but few knew the extent to which the entire endeavor was a wacky multinational caper. Additional trivia: The movie has gotten 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; Debra Winger has it written into her film contracts that there should always be a visual tribute to Petit; [conspirator's] Jean-François Heckel's reward for the twin towers coup was to be unceremoniously expelled from the United States, whereas Petit received a lifetime pass to the WTC observation deck; Petit has been arrested over 500 times and can kill someone with an issue of People Magazine. Longer Petit interview from 1999 on Charlie Rose. In Petit's own words

I found out that the only way to protect my life was to know as much about the wire, about the rigging, about my limits as possible. Life is something to be cherished, and in this very, very dangerous profession of mine, a millisecond of inattention, a millimetre of being in the wrong place puts you out of balance and you lose your life immediately. Since I absolutely don't want to do that, I am in a very strange kind of solid control, in a world that is made of infinite fragility...

Not quite a tightrope...

twiggy — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:05:06 -0800

Slacklining is like tightrope walking on crack. There's even instructional sites dedicated to it. I'd never heard of it until running across this pretty unbelivable video, which led to the discovery of keywords and what is apparently an entire culture. Some of the basic tricks include surfing, the 360, various acts of balance reminiscent of breakdancing or olympic balance beam and even a front flip. Oh, and of course then there's complete insanity...

Without a Net

three blind mice — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 06:23:20 -0800

On this day in 1974 French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the still-unfinished (and largely unrented) towers of New York's World Trade Center. In the course of a single morning, the unexpected -- and illegal -- actions of a daring young Frenchman and a few of his confederates would change public opinion about the troubled towers, which were courting financial disaster and facing a barrage of architectural and social criticism (pdf).

The Greatest of Ease...

miss lynnster — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 21:11:25 -0800

"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting."
Karl Wallenda, January 21, 1905 – March 22, 1978

After 43 years of waiting, Karl's adopted son Mario Wallenda, now 64, rejoins his family dynasty and returns to the high wire. (more inside...)