As you are no doubt aware, today is the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and DC. There has been lots of hub-bub in the media. The single best thing that I’ve seen is an amazing, data-rich graphic that the NYT ran, which was prepared by Ben Schott. The graphic shows, in amazing detail, what we’re been up to for the past five years. The chart reminds me of the data presentation theory of Edward Tufte, who I got to see speak once. I am an instant fan of Mr. Schott and look forward to picking up his book Schott’s Original Miscellany.
Update to original post: Deborah Sontag’s story in the NYT about the rebuilding effort at Gorund Zero is pretty amazing as well.
Speaking of Five Years, here’s a great clip of David Bowie and The Arcade Fire performing Bowie’s song of the same name. The song has nothing to do with Sept. 11, having been recorded at least 30 years prior, but I dig it all the same.
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March 6th, 2007 at 9:45 am
[...] I’ve been waiting for today to roll around for a few long years. Today Arcade Fire’s new CD is finally released into the wild. I’m heading out at lunch with friend and driver, Shaft, to get my own copy. We may have to eat in the car. I mention it here because the album has been tastefully named after the John Kennedy Toole novel, The Neon Bible. Their last album made a 2004 best books list (you can read about it in this post where I also bust out a Holden Caufield reference). I have also managed to work the band into a post about 9/11 that featured a video of the band singing with David Bowie. I’m a little shameless in my enthusiasm is what it comes down to. Additional reading: The NYT Sunday Magazine fawns over the band and TTT’s Frank says (paraphrasing) - believe the hype. [...]