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Post by Shane on Jul 12, 2018 20:21:42 GMT
I found this video on YouTube, and thought I'd link to it here. It's a bit of background on the 1932 photo of New York construction workers having lunch in an...unusual spot. First saw the photo at least 25 years ago. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCYDzsQ_yM |
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Post by Scott on Jul 13, 2018 4:51:28 GMT
I would hate that job. There was a movie called Q - The Winged Serpent (1982). There's a giant winged serpent living in the top of the Chrysler Building. It flies around eating people. In the end, there are cops hanging outside the top of the building shooting at the monster with machine guns. It was before CGI and stuntmen refused to do it, so they had to use construction workers. They didn't say who operated the cameras. |
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Post by Shane on Jul 13, 2018 16:36:37 GMT
I wouldn't have survived my first shift. I've got no head for heights, and I'm clumsy enough at ground level as it is.
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Post by Shane on Jul 13, 2018 21:02:17 GMT
Something that'll really cause sweaty palms is the story of Philippe Petit, who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974. He made 8 crossings. And lay down on the cable, which was one inch in diameter. He also bowed to the crowd below. He was up there for the better part of an hour. There have got to be easier ways to get your kicks.
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Post by Scott on Jul 15, 2018 1:30:22 GMT
I would have been a nervous wreck watching. Later, I would have felt guilty for having never cared for tightrope walking as a form of entertainment. It's dangerous, but it's still not very good.
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Post by Scott on Jul 15, 2018 17:37:53 GMT
Like I saw this tightrope walker on The Tonight Show years ago, and it should have been impressive but she was only five feet off the ground. I sat there wondering what kind of monster I was that wasn't entertained unless there was a chance that she would die horribly.
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Post by Shane on Jul 15, 2018 20:24:36 GMT
I'm not a big fan of it either. I'd heard of Petit's walk, but didn't know much about it until a couple of years ago. I was channel surfing and ended up watching a film called The Walk, which tells his story. I did some more research on it after that.
While I'm sure that there are some spectators who are attracted by the prospect of a fatal mishap, many others probably just get their kicks from watching the walker do something that they would never have the nerve to attempt. In the case of The Walk, I knew that Petit had survived his walk and that the film was safe to watch. In spite of that, I still found it tense viewing. A lot of us would be fine with attempting to walk a wire five feet above the ground. We'd be somewhat less keen on attempting it at over a hundred stories up.
It's incredible to look at the lengths Petit went to in order to make the walk. Since he had no permission, Petit and his crew had to go to great lengths to circumvent security and get all the gear up to the roof. He then had to use a bow and arrow to shoot the cable across to the second tower's roof. When he finally stepped onto the wire, he realized that it wasn't properly rigged but he reckoned it was safe enough. He knew he wouldn't get another chance.
One of the funniest parts of the story was one of the cops threatening to go out there and get him if he didn't get back on the roof. I think that will go down in history as the Emptiest Threat Ever.
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Post by JD on Jul 16, 2018 16:37:16 GMT
Nooo, don't want to watch.  |
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Post by Scott on Jul 16, 2018 23:11:52 GMT
Ever see this? It's the last twenty minutes or so of Harold Lloyd's Safety Last.
Harold plays a young go-getter working in a department store. As a publicity stunt, he arranges for a human fly to scale the building.
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Post by Shane on Jul 17, 2018 20:01:43 GMT
Hadn't seen that one before. And to think Spider-Man made it look so easy.
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