The soundtrack is from regular Aronofsky collaborator Clint Mansell who has used Tchaikovsky’s music as a base for his; which sounds intriguing.

Every time I watch the trailer the hairs on my neck stand on end.

Quite fantastic.

Via my chum Matt Hamm

I love this video from Sam O’Hare. New York City shot with a tilt shift video camera; a wonderfully different perspective on The Big Apple.

It is this character, this personality that makes a city almost like a person. As with people you might get on with that personality or you might not.

Sometimes a city will grow on you, sometimes you know you will never like a city and sometimes it will be love at first sight.

Over the last few years I have definitely realised I am a city person, not that I don’t love the country and I will always love the coast, but cities and me we have an understanding.

In the words of Underworld Mmm Skyscraper I Love You.

I’m still left open mouthed and shocked every time I see footage of the planes hitting the towers and the buildings collapse. When I visited Ground Zero I was surprised that I didn’t feel more emotional. I’d expected to be moved by the site, but instead it just felt like a large building site; which amazingly eight years later it still is. What is amazing is just how big an area it is, and that so few of the surrounding buildings were destroyed.

I’m still undecided how I feel about the new towers that will, one day, be built there. Part of me feels that new towers must be built to show the terrorists they did not win, but another part of me feels that with so many lives having been lost at Ground Zero the site should become a memorial.

I did have one moment in New York that really brought 9/11 back to me. I was standing the lobby of my hotel when a classic American fire truck roared past with its sirens blaring trailing a huge American flag. It made me think of similar footage I’d seen of the fire crews rushing to the towers and of course how many of them died there as well. It sent the hairs in back of my neck on end and a shiver down my spine.

My thoughts today are with the familes of those that lost loved ones.

The Photo

Was taken by a friend from American Express at 6 am on 9/11. She was leaving for work in the World Finance Centre, next door to the World Trade Centre, and was struck by how beautiful the towers looked.

Stephanie and I worked together for a few years in London, then in 2007 Stephanie made the huge step of moving to New York to live and work.

Biting The Big Apple records that adventure and Stephanie’s thoughts and experiences of living in New York City.

It’s been really interesting re-reading a number of the posts with a new perspective following my first trip to New York.

Take a bite from the Big Apple.

I saw a number of locations from films in my all too short trip, but by far the most striking was Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station was one of the highlights of my visit; it is simply beautiful and yet beautifully simple inside. There’s none of the clutter you see in UK stations; just a wonderful open space crafted from marble with the most stunning painted ceiling above.

Looking down across the concourse made me think of the wonderful scene in The Fisher King where Grand Central Station waltzes around the main characters:

Amazingly Grand Central Station wasn’t closed for shooting, and so the odd confused looking rail passenger can be fleetingly seen in the background.

A fittingly beautiful scene for such a beautiful building.

The panoramic photo was taken with the excellent iPhone app Pano

Here are the photos of my short trip; enhanced with iPhone fuzziness: