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    Sean BrodyJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 5:32pm

    Another is that the memorial aims to convey the feeling of a subtle but intimately disorienting chaos lurking underneath a facade of normalcy. It works on that level for sure. Easy to lose your bearings.

    Also, it has a Dunkin Donuts, which I have to admit I wasn’t expecting, but did not object to.

    Nothing really complements contemplation of genocide better than brightly-coloured balloons and a Boston Creme donut.

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      dothedewSean Brody
      8/10/15 5:36pm

      Yes, as a Jew I associate donuts and oil with the miracle of Hanukkah. To commemorate the use of gas on my people I would have thought a Taco Bell would be a more appropriate symbol.

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      Cherith CutestorySean Brody
      8/10/15 5:38pm

      but did not object to.

      What has Boston done to you?

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    DoubtthiswilllastJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 6:10pm

    That “memorial” is so inadequate it that it really questions the remorse of the German people.

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      AstrixDoubtthiswilllast
      8/10/15 6:57pm

      It’s one of several. Can you point out where the Romani monument is without googling? ;)

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      twinsmommyDoubtthiswilllast
      8/10/15 7:02pm

      Nothing could really be adequate for an event of that scale. Simple is a good way to go IMO.

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    Gary-XJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 5:38pm

    I was there about two weeks ago, and I thought it was one of Eisenman’s better built works*. While walking down in it and slowly being swallowed by the slabs, three German kids came running across the top of it, jumping from slab to slab and shouting at one another. They weren’t the only ones doing this. The whole field was an interesting mix of people being respectful and others treating this as little more than a curb. I’m still not sure what to make of that.

    That said: fuck this dude and his 15 hour layover. #vagabond, my ass.

    *Once while giving a lecture, Eisenman recounted how upon completing it, he received a call from Richard Serra who called it “the best architecture he’s ever done.” When he asked Serra why he thought it was his best work, Serra responded, “Because there isn’t a single damn bathroom in it.” It seemed like a thing Serra would certainly say.

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      artdorkGary-X
      8/10/15 5:43pm

      Freaking Richard Serra. He WOULD say that.

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      inthrall88Gary-X
      8/10/15 5:45pm

      I have noticed recently that “vagabond” is one of our more incorrectly used (and over used) words. Taking a vacation from your $120k/year job and staying at hostels instead of hotels does not make you a vagabond.

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    notsomethingstructuralJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 5:34pm

    davedriskell: Hello Berlin, Germany. 15 hour layover. Checking the sites. Drinking the beers. Eating the bratwurst.

    This photo shows none of these things.

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      doesthiskinjamakemelookfatnotsomethingstructural
      8/10/15 5:38pm

      He had 15 hours in Berlin, threw on work out clothes and headed out to sully a Holocaust memorial? Wow, we do Berlin veeerrrrry differently.

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      Cherith Cutestorynotsomethingstructural
      8/10/15 5:39pm

      I believe this is one of the sites?

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    1PompadourJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 9:42pm

    So he didn’t intend to desecrate anything. He only meant to show off his agility on what seemed an inviting surface and meant no harm; he certainly made that point in his letter. So he gets a pass from me. IMHO (and I’m Jewish, and I lost my extended family in Lithuania and Rumania) you can’t enforce reverence, or even propriety —- let alone learning of the story behind it, especially as new, clueless young people come along. Every person is going to relate to the monument in his or her own way, and that can change. Somebody running around thoughtlessly in it at age 12 may stop and meditate at age 20, and cry there at age 60 when they’ve experienced loss themselves. The message there endures, no matter what transient behavior takes place around it.

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      delicatelee11Pompadour
      8/10/15 10:13pm

      Thank you for a reasonable perspective on this. I’m the first to poke fun at the cross fit evangelists, and this guy probably is terrible, but I can’t totally fault him for this particular incident. I visited this memorial at 21 and definitely have some “peek-a-boo” pictures taken in between the columns, which I would never do now, whereas I visited the 9/11 memorial recently in a more reflective / somber state while people around me were taking smiling family photos. The reality is that memorials exist in the world, not in a vacuum, and therefore people are going to engage with and experience them in different ways.

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      gramercypolice1Pompadour
      8/10/15 11:30pm

      This is a really good point. I understand why the post makes sense to publish and have no problem at all with Jordan’s copy.

      But I also think we worry too much about reverence at any memorial. the living have no obligation to stop enjoying life just because someone else died, no matter who it might be. This guy really wasn’t the least hit disrespectful. He was just going about his life. I’m not a Crossfit fan, but if he’d been a ballet dancer and struck a pose, or if he was kissing his gf or bf on the cheek, or he was pointing at his Yankees cap, so what?

      People who are alive have one obligation to the dead, no matter how horrible their death: live your life full on. Remembering the dead and how they died is fine. It’s a good thing. But it shouldn’t get in the way of anyone living their life the way they choose. And I think if the dead could talk, they’d say, “Don’t worry about us. Enjoy every second. It’ll be over soon enough.”

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    raincoasterJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 7:07pm

    Reminds me of the time I saw some marketing douche on Twitter dedicate his “next 500” pushups to the victims of a mass shooting. Honestly, these people live in a very strange, very insular, very, very white world.

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      Laura Bush Tilmanraincoaster
      8/10/15 11:42pm

      I remember that... he didn’t get most of the RT were making fun of him.

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      raincoasterLaura Bush Tilman
      8/11/15 3:07am

      I thought he was being satirical at first. But no. Wow.

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    dothedewJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 5:56pm

    For the next stop on his Deranged Fitness Tour of Humanity’s Horrors™, I hear he will be doing chinups from a real hanging tree in the American South.

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      WhyMustICrydothedew
      8/10/15 7:04pm

      As a woman of color, I think your comment sums up the absurdity of this man’s current worldview and life choices.

      +1 for you, good sir/madam

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      WolfishGrindothedew
      8/10/15 7:21pm

      ...you’re going to hell, you know.

      See ya there! :)

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    Raw Deal MontyJordan Sargent
    8/10/15 5:31pm

    Crossfit Douchebag Exhibits Exceptional Douchebaggery

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      gramercypoliceJordan Sargent
      8/10/15 5:43pm

      This post may elicit the greatest number of legitimate punchline comments in the history of Gawker. It is like the verbal equivalent of the New Yorker cartoon caption contest. And I say that with respect and anticipation.

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        pfinlay01gramercypolice
        8/10/15 5:57pm

        And like all New Yorker cartoons, “Christ, what an asshole” is the perfect caption.

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      HaighaJordan Sargent
      8/10/15 5:37pm

      You know, he really missed a chance for the photographer to shoot him from a dramatic low angle, and run it through a b&w filter, for that real “Leni Riefenstahl” look.

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        madmolfHaigha
        8/10/15 7:20pm

        Something like this ?

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