9/11/01, ten years later.

I guess because I like putting myself in uncomfortable situations, I am watching a two-hour documentary on 9/11 (102 Minutes That Changed America) that first appeared on the History Channel. All first-hand footage. Pretty upsetting footage, especially now that I've lived in New York for a little more than two years now.

After living here, I definitely have a much more solemn take on the event than I did when I watched it happen from my English classroom as a freshman in high school. As much as conspiracy theories run rampant, there's no denying how much of a gamechanger this was for American culture and the international political atmosphere.

So, two days from the ten-year-reunion...where were you guys when you saw this shit happen? How did it affect you, personally or not? I'm not starting this thread as a conspiratorial pot-stirring session, but don't let that stop you from voicing your opinion on that too.

some of that footage is scary as shit.

Is anyone else gonna be listening to William Basinski - 'The Disintegration Loops' on the day? Apparently the project was finished just before the attacks, and William and his friends got on the roof and watched as the music played in the background.

edit: this:

I was on my way to work that morning. I had no idea of what had happened since I didn't listen to the radio. I walked in and it was a little too quiet. so me being the light hearted sometimes sarcastic type at work, I threw on a big grin and said "WHY THE LONG FACES!" the lady at the front desk then stood up and let me have it... I thought she was having a bad day so I apologized and walked away... everyone else in the office was quiet and all looked as if they were in shock. I then thought that things must have been bad because all the pressmen in the back were in our offices. My ex boss was no where to be seen so I automatically thought that maybe he had died. Then I remembered the sound of a radio... they were all in the office listening as the event was unfolding. One dude took me aside and was explaining what was happening. We did nothing that day.

i remember it well, was at work just around the corner from where i lived at the time. the first reports that came through were quite downbeat - just brief reports of a plane crash in NY that we read on the BBC website, then more info came through and everybody was stunned and glued to the news channels on line. in the end they let us all home early and me and my friends all gathered around the TV in disbelief, wondering what was going to happen next...there was a real feeling that the US might just nuke somebody and WW3 would kick-off or something.

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there was a real feeling that the US might just nuke somebody and WW3 would kick-off or something.

I must have been 11 years old. I came home from school, poured a bowl of sugarpuffs and my parents were watching the news. I didn't really know what was happening or why it mattered. I think I was probably pissed off I couldn't flick over to some angry beavers on nickelodeon >:0

  On 9/9/2011 at 11:36 PM, eugene said:

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there was a real feeling that the US might just nuke somebody and WW3 would kick-off or something.

We got out of school early, listening to the reports. It was incredibly unnerving.

It really pisses me off, on a number of levels, how much of an effect this had on world memory. I am gonna sound like an ass right now, but I honestly associate 9/11 not only with those who died on the flights, but everyone killed in the wars as well. This has been a hellish decade.

Whats the difference between 9/11 and a cow?

  On 9/9/2011 at 11:28 PM, asymmetrical head said:

I was on my way to work that morning. (...) We did nothing that day.

Slackers. Slackers the lot of you. See this is why china is gonna beat your arse. Get back to work !!

my mom woke me in the morning before school and told me what was happening and it didn't really sink in how major it was till i saw it on tv, the first plane crash. i walked to school and my first class was computer class and everyone was sitting around watching it on tv and i was told that another plane had crashed... 9/11 really did change the world.

i woke up between the two collisions and watching the 2nd tower hit live on tv my immediate thought was "oh oh" and "wow! america really will do anything to try and keep on top of the world"

was in 6th grade gym class. they made an announcement on loudspeaker.

the tv showed the towers. in the locker room the kids said 'it's the fucking nazis, mannn!!'

we laughed, we went to lunch. in orchestra the teacher had it on the tv. we saw the towers fall live.

they told the teachers to turn it off of the tv.

the footage looked like independence day.

Remember coming home from elementary school that day. Just had the most boring biology class ever. Sunny and beautiful day.

Turned on the television. Didn't really realize what was going on, and how terrible it was, until I saw people starting jumping out of the windows of WTC. Really scary imagary. But I still had trouble realizing how big it was and what was really going on. Took me at least a couple of days. I was a young lad back then.

some people died, all at the same time

woo..

  On 9/10/2011 at 12:32 AM, LUDD said:

i woke up between the two collisions and watching the 2nd tower hit live on tv

Same here. I think. Although perhaps my memory has been warped by 10 years of media filtering.

I actually also think I watched the second collision live on TV... Fuck... Why can't I remember that.

My un-jaded un-snarky response. ..with my family in Maryland. slept through the actual attack. Woke up. It blew my damn mind. Wow. what an event. Thought about everyday for a 4 years straight.

i saw the second plane hit

was in a us gov't class, taking a quiz

i basically thought "oh shit how many of my friends are going to die because of this"

10 years later the answer is 2.

I woke up early for school and saw the first plane hit. before i left the second hit. i was in my first class of the morning, a photoshop class, and the towers fell. my school had an assembly to let everyone know that we were not at war and were perfectly safe. it was fucking bizarre. i had no idea what to think or feel. also, on the way to the assembly my teacher made fun of my shirt. I made a website that mocked how short he was and he tried to fail me. the website was really good so all i got was a talking to and an a. lol.

spetember 11th.

I was sleeping when my Taiwanese not-a-US-citizen girlfriend (now ex-) called me up with shock and tears in her voice and commanded "turn on the television." At about the moment I did, the first tower collapsed. The rest of the day was weird, kind of like some major sporting event where they keep showing the same clip on the TV over and over again - the plane collisions, the towers falling down. And I kept watching, very overwhelming.

yeah man every class i had that day had CNN on and it was just the same footage over and over. i skipped everything after lunch and got stoned and went to my friend erin's place and we listened to music and talked about how fucked the world is.

Don't remember much in the way of reactions. I think my elementary school put the flags at half-staff the next day, but that's about it.

someone on micromusic.net (used to spend alot of time there back in the day) told me a plane had crashed in nyc, then i went home and saw the reruns of the first plane hitting the tower and it's still the only time in my life i can remember that my jaw literally dropped.

:O

i mean, it is pretty fucking rare it literally see a plane drive itself into a tower.