State Museum

This afternoon, after several hours of route research on Eleanor's computer, I biked back to the Empire State Plaza and the State Museum.  I spent most of my time there in the 9/11 museum, the first permanent exhibit on the subject.

I got sucked into a film made by a pair of French brothers -- they had intended to chronicle a day in the life of NYC firefighters, but instead they got the World Trade Center impacts and collapses.  One of the brothers was in the lobby of WTC 1 while bodies were falling from the tower -- each sickening THUMP made every firefighter wince -- and while WTC 2 collapsed.  The smoke was so thick they couldn't see the other tower and didn't know what had happened, but when they stepped outside everything was covered in ash and paper.  Fortunately they evacuated the lobby before tower 1 collapsed as well!  It's an extraordinary film.

The museum also had a nice exhibit about New York's geological history, including maps showing the continents' positions during each geological era.  It certainly gives one some perspective.

In the evening I baked some chicken for Eleanor and myself, and then her friend Thu picked us up and drove us to the film festival.  "West Bank Story" was the one she really wanted us to see.  I was a little disappointed that it was an American film rather than actually Israeli or Palestinian, but it was very clever, and if not inoffensive, at least mutually offensive to both sides!