October 23rd, 1998

From The New York Times

Timothy (Speed) Levitch, the loquacious New York City tour-bus guide, sidewalk philosopher and one-man almanac of urban lore profiled in Bennett Miller’s compelling documentary film ”The Cruise,” is a man who enjoys making himself dizzy. One of his favorite activities, he confides, is to spin around under the twin towers of the World Trade Center and, when thoroughly disoriented, to look up and reel under the illusion that the buildings are toppling down on him.

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January 23rd, 2003

From Salon.com

The most revolutionary proposal isn’t on the table of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. or the Port Authority or the governors of New York and New Jersey. It’s in a short film by Richard Linklater (best known as the director of “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused”) that premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, exactly a week after the public hearings on the new WTC site proposals.

In the 20-minute film, “Live From Shiva’s Dancefloor,” Manhattan walking-tour guide Timothy “Speed” Levitch posits that the site should be turned into a park full of free-roaming American bison, popularly known as buffalo. “Sixteen acres of blazing green grass, a place for togetherness, healing out loud, and spontaneous culture,” says Levitch. “And in the middle of the park, the memorial should not be an inanimate slab of stone, but should have a heartbeat.” Thus, the buffalo.

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