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Scumbags with Cameras

by Thomas Beller 04/02/2003
Neighborhood: Upper West Side

Photographs by Alexej Steinhardt and Thomas Beller Click here for more information about the 360 One VR When not in use however, the attachment comes with a plastic jar that screws over the mirror ball, to protect it. The plastic jar makes it look downright lethal, weird, and mad-scientistish, and I was a little concerned [...]

The New York–Baghdad Connection

by 03/28/2003
Neighborhood: Manhattan

Day three 1,300 cruise missiles and bombs hit Baghdad. At work I have to use the freight elevator to bring my bicycle into the office. The elevator’s operated by an older Eastern European man with a deeply lined face and thinning hair. He dresses in the company uniform and a pair of beaten Air Jordans. [...]

A Real Bomb in America’s Secret War

by 03/28/2003
Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad

A flaming sunset in western Cambodia, in the middle of 1972. I was coming back from my uncle’s house. I was about 500 meters from my house, when there were suddenly terrific sounds, like thunderclaps, “Boom! Boom! Boom!” Immediately, I saw the spark and the firelight emerging into the flaming sky. I was very frightened [...]

Notes and Pictures From An Anti-War Rally

by 03/24/2003
Neighborhood: Manhattan

I took a taxi to the peace rally. My driver was a Puerto Rican guy playing loud salsa music. There was no partition. Some post cards were taped to his dash. He sat in the driver’s seat with pride of ownership. It was his cab, I was his guest. He had the window down and [...]

Ladies & Gentlemen at the Rally

by 02/16/2003
Neighborhood: Midtown

The cold wreaked transformation: bone chilling and serious, the kind that keeps people home, yet here we were, all of us, shivering, waving signs, gleeful. Maybe half a million, and if the media says otherwise don’t believe it. Half a million! Could we really stop a war? At times like this, people change. I saw [...]

9/11 Archive

by 12/26/2002
Neighborhood: Multiple, World Trade Center

The View From the Seventieth Floor by Sandy Gelpieryn Death Masks at Ground Zero by Kendra Hurley The Numbers by Bryan Charles The View From Silver Lake Park by Gabrielle Walter Don’t Look Back by Kevin McLeod Scenes From The Brooklyn Bridge by Jim Merlis The View From Long Island Part Ii by Adam Baer [...]

Noppi

by 10/30/2002
Neighborhood: Financial District

1. Well, that’s it, Noppi, I’m up early again, I can’t sleep. My throat is killing me and I’m coughing. I think it’s the smoke because everyone else has it too. The subways are quiet. People bump into each other and don’t apologize. A woman slips in through the closing doors and takes the seat [...]

The Season of 9/11

by 09/19/2002
Neighborhood: World Trade Center

Another September as bright as a dime. Another morning of clear air, another day of hearing shrieking jets and watching strangers acting strange in the streets. Another day of firefighters in their FDNY T-shirts and brotherhoods of policemen in their dress blues, this time like old war veterans dressed up for the parade, assuming a [...]

Shouldn’t We Be Digging?

by 09/11/2002
Neighborhood: World Trade Center

I am not a firefighter, police officer or paramedic, but when a nurse at the Red Cross barricade mistook me for one and asked, “Are you coming?” I said, “Yes.” That was 8:45 P.M. on September 11th. What followed was a two-day odyssey at Ground Zero. I worked with many good-willed people on bucket brigades [...]

Forces at Work

by 09/11/2002
Neighborhood: World Trade Center

I am a skeptic when it comes to psychics like John Edward, the hunky television charlatan, who claims he is able to communicate with “The Other Side.” When I have a premonition I tend to deny it. I denied one in late August of last year when I was seven months pregnant. While organizing my [...]

A Rape and A Fire, Then Starbucks

by Thomas Beller 06/16/2002
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

He rushed into the Starbucks on 87th Street and Lexington Avenue, camera in one hand, laptop in the other, holding them up high, like they were platters of food. He wore an FDNY baseball cap on backwards, and a light green, somewhat military looking vest over a blue shirt. He moved among the tables very [...]

Arab Like Me

by 04/20/2002
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg

After 9/11, I stepped into the Williamsburg bodega that I’ve been going to for years. Some of the workers I know by name, others are just familiar faces. We’ve mentioned our Middle Eastern backgrounds to each other. “She’s Egyptian,” said the Palestinian woman behind the counter, gesturing towards me. But her co-worker already knew. “Don’t [...]