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"Short Notes" | urban adventurers |
| last entry  09-29-01 ||  joining the urban adventurersfrom WTC to abandoned mental hospitals and beyond Traipsing around in abandoned mental hospitals has become trendy. [See some of the other sites listed to the right for examples] Yet I, along with my now long distance pal Chad Kleitsch and I did this with some measure of official sanction before it became a "thing" Actually, Chad has done this for some time, not only at old asylums, but through empty factories, and a trip to India. It was he who gave me my first official taste of the phenomena known as "Urban Adventuring" ...not that I had never done this sort of thing, more that I'd never known there was a name for it. And, actually, I'd kind of forgotten about my adventuring around those empty buildings with Chad until the past couple of weeks ...until after the kamakazie style crash bombing of the jumbo jets into the World Trade Towers.  It was pictures from the World Financial Center, such as the one of the right from the New York Times, after the September 11 "bombing" which took an eerie, albeit, deja vu tone photo: Jeff Mermlestein, © 2001 New York Times for me, bringing back a series of weekends a few years back when I was assigned to escort a fine arts photographer ~that was Chad~ around the empty buildings where I work. We later became good friends, and also went on to work  on a similar project at another ~completely abandoned~ hospital grounds. The experience is at once exhilarating and psychially draining. You are at the same time conscious of the thrill of discovering dramatic images remaining photos on this page and subsequent pages © 1999, 2001 | will brady or chad kleitsch of light but they coincide with the grim recognition that you are at the nexus where something both devasating and horrible has taken place. Now, the similarities between our trekking about the buildings and grounds  of two different [largely] abandoned facility campuses and those at the World Trade Center quickly end. WTC took place before an audience of literally billions of people, it was swiftly condemned and examined almost as the buildings (and the souls trapped within them) were collapsing to the streets below. Already the destruction of the WTC towers stands as a massive cultural symbol for the brutality mass murder and acts of public terrorism. In comparision, most have never known about, nor heard of the plight of literally hundreds of thousands of people who were intentionally locked up and ~yes, terrorized and tortured~ in places that some naievely supposed were there to help them. With this page, we stop ignoring these lesser known institutional acts of terrorism ~a forgotten part of this planet's (not just America's) history. For if we are to truly combat terrorism, it must be done on all fronts, and exposure comes first.  | last entry | WEBSITES include:  Infiltration | "going places you're not supposed to go" Abandoned Missile Base Tour | one of the first sites I'd found of this genre Dark Passages | abandoned mental hospitals Ponitac State Hospital | from The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit Urban Adventuring | tips on how to sneak around SOME WTC Destruction WEBSITES include: my reaction on 9-11 follow up thoughts 9-27 Ultrasparky writing from New York City Terror in the USA; from a perspective in India justin's links from the undergroundGo to: rondak.org web essayists Media / Journals / e'Zines site index search engines since 12 June 1999 about "Short Notes" "Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while working for a newspaper in the Adirondack Mountains some years ago. The format was similar to what you'll find here, except augmented with pictures and maps. The subject matter shall sometimes be personal, at other times comments on events or situations of which I am aware. Comments, suggestions welcomed but not always acted upon. LEGAL & DISCLAIMER NOTICE: © 2000 / Will Brady I hope you've found this site interesting, even thought provoking || Occasionally some images come from commercial sources and are reproduced here under fair use guidelines of US Copyright law || Please don't write to me about the content of other peoples' sites linked from here || On the other hand, please let me know of any inactive links || Constructive comments, suggested links to add, are welcome. This website is maintained by Will Brady / wbrady@connix.com / Last update: see most recent entry |