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Pastimes : Things That Amuse Me -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: shadowman who wrote (2350)	10/5/2001 9:46:27 AM
From: mr.mark	Respond to of 12669

From the top of the WTC Leah Garchik San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, October 4, 2001 Twenty-seven years ago, high-wire artist Philippe Petit came from France to Manhattan with a "surprise to offer to the world," he told TIC this week. Petit's mission was to cross the sky between the towers of the World Trade Center. Petit, then 25, had been preparing for the walk for seven years, from the time he saw an architectural rendering of the future towers in a magazine. "It's an incredible story," he said, "and I have been working on a book and a film about that story, and now I am taking a poll as to whether the project is still alive." On Aug. 7, 1974, Petit crossed back and forth seven times in 45 minutes, carrying a 27-foot-long pole. "By the first or second step, there was already quite a big crowd, and by the middle of the performance, I was told there were 100,000 people looking up. . . . My love for those towers was so great that I refused to even consider the possibility that I could fall. . . . My performance was about man's triumph and freedom, not about risk and danger." When he came off the wire, New York City police arrested him. At the same time, he recalled this week, police lined up to shake his hand, and shortly thereafter, "the people in charge of the building gave me a lifelong pass. It was an artistic feat shared by millions as a breath of fresh air and an inspiring act. . . . The media at the time said that finally the just-opened WTC had been humanized." Petit went on to other heights, most notably the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, where he has been artist in residence for 22 years. "I have to admit, I have always been drawn to enormous size. I love that rebellion against the small and against limits." As to his way of life, "I cannot say I am a rich man. I am a struggling artist. I have written seven books, and lecture on creativity, drawing and theatrical directing." On Sept. 11, "I was in upstate New York, working on a video presentation about my adventure, the full story of a young man in love with two marvelous towers." When friends called and told them about the attack, "I ran to a friend's house. I don't really watch TV, but I actually found myself all day being glued to the little screen." He says he was wounded by the attack "in probably a very similar way as the architect, although he's no longer alive. I have read lately accounts of people who designed and built the towers, and they must have a parallel feeling, of losing something very dear to them. And that's besides, of course, the human tragedy." He's hoping now "to do a walk of hope and rebuilding," somewhere on a wire strung above Central Park. "As an artist I feel I must and I want to make people look up again." sfgate.com