So, I was watching Heroes.

[conuly]

And last season was all about a nuclear holocaust in, uh, my city, and this year is all about a worldwide plague (featuring scenes of, wow, my city), and during the show is a commercial about some disaster film featuring, imagine that, scenes of my own city.

I am so sick of people destroying New York.

Every disaster film ever seems to feature NYC getting destroyed. Even if it's the entire world getting destroyed, they show footage of New York. Tidal waves crashing into the WTC (back when there was one, of course - I could never watch promos for that one, even before 9/11), aliens shooting the Statue of Liberty, I don't know. And endless scenes, of course, of abandoned New York City streets.

Why don't they pick on some other city for a change? How about Des Moines? I hear Des Moines is nice this time of year. Or Vancouver! They do all their filming in Vancouver anyway, why not just admit it? Or let's do something really crazy and do a city like New Delhi! Lots of people live in New Delhi! Or if you need that New York State atmosphere, you could always go for Buffalo. Lots of good jokes about Buffalo, and if it's a nuclear winter, well, there's always snow in Buffalo. Don't have to edit it in or fabricate it, it's just there.

That health teacher I mentioned a while back, that was in 2001. And after the disaster (which is to say, for very nearly the entire term), he referred to the WTC site (when it came up, which was more often than reasonable, at least after the first couple of months) as "Ground Hero" Really stressed that h in it, and it used to really annoy me. I don't even like saying "Ground Zero" and simply refer to it as the World Trade Center. That's what I've always called it, and until something else is there I see no reason to stop. Everybody knows what I mean anyway. I have a point with this paragraph, and that point is... uh... well, I guess it's just that it's really annoying and everybody should go destroy something else for a change the end.

(It's more than annoying. Like I said, I never could watch films which showed my city getting destroyed. This is my city! Hurts my very heart. Destroy the rest of the country, destroy the world, have the entire universe prematurely implode, but please show footage from somewhere else, thanks. That's all I want.

Comments

[towanda.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that would be disturbing after awhile. Especially since tragic things actually happen there. Don't blame ya at all.

If it makes you feel better, I think Stephen King blew up Des Moines in The Stand. And London bit it in 28 Days Later. And LA melted in Volcano (if you can sit through it!) :)

[conuly]

I don't like the disaster movie genre in general (though I did love 28 Days Later, especially since I figured out early on that the disease could never possibly have actually become worldwide and thus had spared my city), so that's not really my concern, though thank you.

It's just that seeing NYC get destroyed (especially over and over again - remember all those around the turn of the century? I could barely turn on the TV for a while!) actually upsets me, sinks my stomach like it's real. In honesty, even once or twice would be a lot for me to put up with. I deal with it from Heroes because I know that in the end, they won't really destroy the city.

But seeing something disturbing over and over and OVER again is worse.

[tenou-k.livejournal.com]

They tried that with Jericho and it turned out that no one cares when it's not New York.

Which is creepy and morbid and almost urbanophobic.

I made up a word : \

And also, I don't think I ever left a note when I added you, so retroactively, hi, linguaphiles, every once in a while I would read your journal and I liked it, so I added you.

Yes.

[elfster.livejournal.com]

Damnit, no one ever destroys my home town. Hamilton sucks :p. But then a large number of people don't even know where New Zealand is let alone Hamilton :p.

[conuly]

I know where New Zealand is. But if Hamilton is a large city, I feel kinda bad.

[elfster.livejournal.com]

187,960 people ;). It's NZ's fourth largest :p.

[mayna.livejournal.com]

I know where Hamilton is, I even drove through it on our trip to NZ. :-) (nothing to see there, we were more interested in invading Matamata. ;-)

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they have spent enough time in other cities in Heroes that the audience might care if THOSE cities were destroyed too. Like Las Vegas or even Odessa. Or a fake city, like Gotham or Metropolis. That's a good way to show that it's a big important city but it isn't personal to anyone.

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

i didn't realize you lived in new york!

i grew up in westchester county and my dad and i were on the tappan zee bridge driving home from nyack right after the planes hit. i didn't see the planes actually hit, but we were stopped on the bridge a long time watching the buildings burn...so i actually witnessed that and it freaks me the fuck out now to see footage of it (especially fake footage), having actually watched it happen in real life.

[conuly]

We're on Staten Island. My sister was on the boat when the second plane hit, she saw it from there. My cousin we're not in touch with, he works with Sanitation, he apparently saw a lot of it from Fresh Kills, and presumably was working overtime for ages in that thankless task.

[rachelkachel]

If there was a disaster movie where Salt Lake got destroyed, I'd probably think that was pretty cool - but only because nobody ever pays attention to Salt Lake, so it would be this neat unusual thing. But if Salt Lake was the default as New York is really, I'm sure I'd feel the same way you do.

[snale.livejournal.com]

I think the reason NYC keeps being blown up is because if, say, Boulder got blown up it would not have the same international impact. New York is a truly international city, and a city that represents (possibly more than any other city) freedom and toughness, a city of dreamers and survivors -- if New York is wiped out, it looks bleak for the rest of the world. So take it as a compliment. Filmmakers love to destroy New York because New York still holds that deep and meaningful place in people's hearts. Maybe moreso now than ever. Anyway, there are just as many "dream come true" stories based in New York as disaster movies. Personally I think I find those more offensive.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Watch Japanese stuff, it's all about Tokyo getting destroyed. :p~

[conuly]

Yeah, there's that. But... Hiro is Japanese! And he's got a Meaningful Name, too! Tokyo should at least get a cameo in Heroes. I mean, post-dead Tokyo.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Well, I wonder.... there is this pop-psych thing that the Japanese feel the need to destroy Tokyo because they have "Hiroshima complex" (in fact it annoys me quite a lot).

But why do Americans feel the need to destroy New York if this is true?

And why does no one want to destroy Budapest on-screen? Not even the Hungarians. meh. I'd say it's a money issue (FX do cost quite a lot), but there have been some quite ambitious projects, even action-packed movies (*shudder*) that involved blowing things up. Just not Budapest by and large.

[towanda.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that would be disturbing after awhile. Especially since tragic things actually happen there. Don't blame ya at all.

If it makes you feel better, I think Stephen King blew up Des Moines in The Stand. And London bit it in 28 Days Later. And LA melted in Volcano (if you can sit through it!) :)

[conuly]

I don't like the disaster movie genre in general (though I did love 28 Days Later, especially since I figured out early on that the disease could never possibly have actually become worldwide and thus had spared my city), so that's not really my concern, though thank you.

It's just that seeing NYC get destroyed (especially over and over again - remember all those around the turn of the century? I could barely turn on the TV for a while!) actually upsets me, sinks my stomach like it's real. In honesty, even once or twice would be a lot for me to put up with. I deal with it from Heroes because I know that in the end, they won't really destroy the city.

But seeing something disturbing over and over and OVER again is worse.

[tenou-k.livejournal.com]

They tried that with Jericho and it turned out that no one cares when it's not New York.

Which is creepy and morbid and almost urbanophobic.

I made up a word : \

And also, I don't think I ever left a note when I added you, so retroactively, hi, linguaphiles, every once in a while I would read your journal and I liked it, so I added you.

Yes.

[elfster.livejournal.com]

Damnit, no one ever destroys my home town. Hamilton sucks :p. But then a large number of people don't even know where New Zealand is let alone Hamilton :p.

[conuly]

I know where New Zealand is. But if Hamilton is a large city, I feel kinda bad.

[elfster.livejournal.com]

187,960 people ;). It's NZ's fourth largest :p.

[mayna.livejournal.com]

I know where Hamilton is, I even drove through it on our trip to NZ. :-) (nothing to see there, we were more interested in invading Matamata. ;-)

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they have spent enough time in other cities in Heroes that the audience might care if THOSE cities were destroyed too. Like Las Vegas or even Odessa. Or a fake city, like Gotham or Metropolis. That's a good way to show that it's a big important city but it isn't personal to anyone.

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

i didn't realize you lived in new york!

i grew up in westchester county and my dad and i were on the tappan zee bridge driving home from nyack right after the planes hit. i didn't see the planes actually hit, but we were stopped on the bridge a long time watching the buildings burn...so i actually witnessed that and it freaks me the fuck out now to see footage of it (especially fake footage), having actually watched it happen in real life.

[conuly]

We're on Staten Island. My sister was on the boat when the second plane hit, she saw it from there. My cousin we're not in touch with, he works with Sanitation, he apparently saw a lot of it from Fresh Kills, and presumably was working overtime for ages in that thankless task.

[rachelkachel]

If there was a disaster movie where Salt Lake got destroyed, I'd probably think that was pretty cool - but only because nobody ever pays attention to Salt Lake, so it would be this neat unusual thing. But if Salt Lake was the default as New York is really, I'm sure I'd feel the same way you do.

[snale.livejournal.com]

I think the reason NYC keeps being blown up is because if, say, Boulder got blown up it would not have the same international impact. New York is a truly international city, and a city that represents (possibly more than any other city) freedom and toughness, a city of dreamers and survivors -- if New York is wiped out, it looks bleak for the rest of the world. So take it as a compliment. Filmmakers love to destroy New York because New York still holds that deep and meaningful place in people's hearts. Maybe moreso now than ever. Anyway, there are just as many "dream come true" stories based in New York as disaster movies. Personally I think I find those more offensive.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Watch Japanese stuff, it's all about Tokyo getting destroyed. :p~

[conuly]

Yeah, there's that. But... Hiro is Japanese! And he's got a Meaningful Name, too! Tokyo should at least get a cameo in Heroes. I mean, post-dead Tokyo.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Well, I wonder.... there is this pop-psych thing that the Japanese feel the need to destroy Tokyo because they have "Hiroshima complex" (in fact it annoys me quite a lot).

But why do Americans feel the need to destroy New York if this is true?

And why does no one want to destroy Budapest on-screen? Not even the Hungarians. meh. I'd say it's a money issue (FX do cost quite a lot), but there have been some quite ambitious projects, even action-packed movies (*shudder*) that involved blowing things up. Just not Budapest by and large.