2004.04.18 14:50
5 years ago today, etc.
tsPOWa
wishful thinking or part of a novel idea?
[It's interesting how five people you meet in heaven and Il Campo Marzio start in the same fashion--comparing:
Chapter One
The End
This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.
Mitch Albom, the five people you meet in heaven, 23 September 2003.
So, now that you have a fairly good idea of who Ambrose and Theodosius are, it is time to learn more of Honorius (the younger son of Theodosius who is now Emperor of the West) and his wife Maria. Honorius was the last ancient ruler to [re]build the walls of Rome (because of the "Gothic Wars" --Christian "Goths" that is) and he also built an imperial mausoleum attached to the original Basilica of St. Peter's. Sometime in the 1500s the sarcophagus of Maria was discovered (very likely while the old basilica was being demolished to make way for the new/present one). The sarcophagus of Maria may well be the last substantial imperial artifact of (the city of) Rome, and after an illustrious title page and a frontispiece, it is an image of the sarcophagus of Maria that Piranesi uses to begin his Campo Marzio publication. In a most elegantly covert way, Piranesi began the 'history' of the Campo Marzio with what is really it's ending, and what is probably the world's greatest designed architectural inversionary double theater goes on from there.
Stephen Lauf, "Re: lack of life", 19 January 2002.]
2004.04.19 12:31
Re: Is all that attitude really necessary?
Ah yes, the Tragically Hip Mysteries.
Asking for a price-list usually breaks the wind. Or at least now you know where to get extras for Square Logs of the Arctic Circle.
Guess who was Baroness Herring von Frankensdorf before she married.
2004.04.19 15:23
Re: If you build it, then it's likely to be torn down.
Last time I was in Eva Stotesbury's Ballroom, the place looked like this:
You know, all the art of the Metropolitan Museum was in this place during World War II.
museum in not peace
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2004.04.19 15:28
Re: 5 years ago today, etc.
I knew about five years ago, but I didn't expect to find out yesterday that Franziska was born a Baroness Herring von Frankensdorf (from Austria).
2004.04.20 12:09
"...your film will be confiscated."
In an effort to get fit, I've started to take morning bike rides leaving from my back door. I make my way up to Roosevelt Blvd. (US Rt. 1) where it crosses Tacony Creek (where Indians once camped) and then head east towards the site of the world's largest building implosion (excepting the WTC), quondam site of Sears and Roebuck Northeast Distribution Center and now home to HOME DEPOT, WAL-MART, STAPLES, PEP BOYS, MATTRESS GIANT, OLD NAVY, etc., etc. I circle this complex once completely, and then head north a bit to circle the NAVAL INVENTORY CONTROL POINT (a big .US place). On Robbins Avenue, on the lawn in front of the naval depot's main office building, are three vintage fighter planes. I had forgotten these planes were there, but now I recall being always excited to see them as a young child. As I pass the main entrance gate to the depot, I think to stop and ask one of the guards if one is allowed to take pictures of the planes from outside the fence. The guard (in a very friendly manner) answered, "No, you're not allowed. If you are seen doing so by one of the security patrols your film will be confiscated." I then asked if this policy was put in place after 9-11, to which the guard replied, "No. I know the Russians have 1000s of pictures of them, but you're still not allowed to take pictures. It has always been a security breech." I then told him "I'm glad I asked" and rode off. I now head south towards the Roosevelt Blvd. again, just a block east of the implosion site. I again circle the shopping center and then head home.
elapsed time: 45 minutes
Much of this loop comprises long straight stretches, and the terrain is consistently very close to flat. Today, I was mostly thinking about Baroness Franziska von Ow. Earlier this year, my mother told me that, although the Baroness had her own car and, before the war, her own chauffeur, in 1943 the Baroness's car was in the garage, albeit without tires--the Baron's car was confiscated outright so he took the trolley to work as Dean of the agricultural machinery department of Munich's technical university. On many days, the Baroness left the villa on her bike and apparently rode into town, or, as my mother says, "Who knows where she went."
2004.04.20 12:26
surely touched by Eva Stotesbury...
...on 23 June 1916.
I especially like the design.
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2004.04.20 16:29
Re: "...your film will be confiscated."
In 1950, after returning from the U.S.S.R. (now Ukraine) and finding herself again living in Bavaria, my mother stopped by the Baron's villa, but alas the house was occupied by U.S. military. Franziska's eldest son recently confirmed this by stating, "The U.S. military were quite long in the house." These days, the villa is rented out, although owned by Franziska's eldest daughter, who lives on the old family farm in Württemberg. (The oldest ancestor of mine on my mother's side, that I know of, was, in the early 1700s, mayor of a town in Württemberg.)
The Baron's family and household staff (i.e., my mother the cook and Magdalene the upstairs maid) spent Christmas Eve 1943 in the Japanese Room. My mother played checkers on the floor with the children, but the Baron always made sure the children won. Born actress that she is, my mother simply feigned surprise and laughed aloud at her 'defeats'. The Japanese Room has since moved, and is today at Schloss Piesing.
To hear my mother tell it, Baroness Franziska von Ow was somewhat of a tragic figure. She told my mother a lot of personal things, but I won't go into that here.
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2004.04.20 20:14
Cenotaph of Gordon Matta-Clark
Ever since All Saints Day 1994, i.e., a couple days after the world's largest building implosion, Gordon Matta-Clark has been 'living' within and around the quondam power-house of the imploded Sears and Roebuck Northeast Distribution Center.
cenotaph 1: an empty tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person who is buried elsewhere 2 : someplace inhabited by a spirit rather than by a body
Gordon and Otto never met until 1999, when Otto made a visit to Friends Hospital, the first psychiatric hospital of the United States, which is right across the Roosevelt Blvd. from Gordon's "cenotaph". Gordon and Otto instantly became best friends, and Otto especially likes how Gordon still manages to make Ludwig extremely nervous.
2004.04.21 11:32
Re: "...your film will be confiscated."
H sent me a link which contained the following info:
Located at 700 Robbins Avenue (the Navy ICP Philadelphia/DLA complex), NATSF was the Naval Air System Command's central manager of technical documentation and operator of the Navy's first automated central repository for engineering drawings. NATSF's mission was to provide the Fleet with technical manuals and documentation containing operational, outfitting, and repair information for Navy & Marine aircraft, missiles, and equipment. These services consisted of managing the development, acquisition, evaluation, and distribution of maintenance manuals, technical directives, engineering drawings, and Work Unit Code manuals. Similar services were provided to the military of more than 40 countries through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases.
As a result of a "BRAC" decision, the Command was disestablished on 1 October 1998.
--
I remember the 1998 disestablishment as local news, as, for years, the "Navy Depot" was a large local employer. The site is not now inactive, however. I have no idea what is going on there now (and to be honest, I never knew until today exactly what did go on there), but the facility is just now seeing the completion of a whole new security fence along (the half mile stretch of) Tabor Road and Robbins Ave. When I saw the new fence construction beginning last Fall, I immediately thought "homeland security".
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