In the “Unanswered question” Charles Ives…. The insurancerenaissance composer asked “how do we justify our existence on this minor planet?”
George Gershwin of Tin Pan Alley asked that question in “Porgy and Bess”, Porgy visiting Catfish Row. Lenny Bernstein ‘s “West Side Story” answers. Dore Schary “The Red Badge of Courage” responds.
With all the sound and fury, sorting out the permutations of a consumer society, the riveting account of channel 7 news breaking the constancy of mediocrity by their breathtakingawareness of N Y Fire Department “heroes escalating a 68s floor rescue of two “workers” trap at One World Trade Center, when one of their two ropes of their scaffold broke.
II
Hanging by their thumbs sort of speaking, the Fire Department justified their heroic roles, their permutations seemed to transcend their presence, post ambush of 3000 human beings on the hijacking of three jets into the twin towers on 9/11/01.
III
Surrounded by the trivia and the trite, only the NASA , with its twin Mir(the Russian variation) serving the cyber spacetechnology… a rescue 68 floors above West Street sidewalks, spectators watching, their concentration unbroken by these fire department heroics….cutting through the thick glass windows, lowering another scaffold …
.”The Red Badge of Courage”
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For over 90 minutes the channel 7 reporters spell bounded by the NYFD were the NASA daredevils of eternal memory (Frank Dwyer, a former cop) who sacrificed their selflessness forCharles Ives’s “the unanswered question”
“The Red Badge of Courage” playing out? I
“The unanswered question”
Indeed!
The City that never sleeps, November 12, 2014
