2004.12.26 12:20
Re: cityscape collage
more cityscape collage, Romaphila
It started more than eight years ago when it was realized that Hadrian's Tomb and Logan Circle share the same circular footprint. Then, about two years ago, it was realized that ancient Rome's axis of life, as delineated by Piranesi, and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway share the same length and design articulation, with again Hadrian's Tomb and Logan Circle being the key register.
Now delineation of the 'bilocalopolis' begins. The Tiber and the Schuylkill flow through the cityscape. Augustine's tomb and City Hall have their similarities. Rome's Corso is now the same as Broad Street, the longest cardo in the world. X marks the spot of the first Gothic camp outside the walls of Rome and the no-man's land of the Vine Street Expressway interchanges.
I'm especially looking forward to Girard College (the large five-sided rectangle to the north) becoming Girard Collage.
I wrote something on 16 December 2004 which turns out to be a succinctly worded culmination of over 10 years of investigation, and also the touchstone for a finally foreseeable catharsis.
2004.12.28
death of Susan Sontag
2004.12.28
opening of Leaving Obscurity Behind, the 2005 Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club convention
2004.12.28
Artifact of Ottopia No. 107
Plan der Herreninsel
Versailles Reenacted
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2004.12.28
Artifact of Ottopia No. 108
Plan of Versailles
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2004.12.29 11:18
Sontag died on Dienstag
from an email to a friend 28 December 2004:
"Today is Horace Trumbauer's and Guy Debord's birthday, the beginning of Leaving Obscurity Behind, the 2005 Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention. Lots of activity at Logan Circle/Hadrian's Tomb."
Hadrian's Tomb was built because the Tomb of Augustus was full. Record numbers of recently dead attend the opening--Leaving Obscurity Behind indeed.
Otto's speech? Impeccable! "It appears we should add some Cret paper to the roster."
The induction ceremony of new members of the Horace Trumbauer Fan Club thrilled all.
Dr. Albert C. Barnes and Susan Sontag
It was great seeing Le Corbusier slap Barnes around during the initiation.
Le Corbusier, too, while on a lecture tour in America, was a victim of the doctor's bad manners, though he almost had a chance to see the collection. His application for admission, he was informed at first, was approved--for a date and time specified by Barnes. When the architect replied that the time was not suitable because of a previously scheduled lecture, however, Barnes was offended. He wanted a fight. In a letter accusing Corbusier of being drunk during his stay in Philadelphia, he informed him that he was no longer welcome at the foundation. The architect's reply was conciliatory. He was not interested in quarreling with Barnes, he wrote; he preferred to fight with those that disagreed with him on artistic matters, and he knew that the doctor, instead, shared his own enthusiasms. He was certain that he would never meet Barnes, but he wanted the senseless state of war that existed between them to come to an end. Barnes never answered the letter; he returned it, with the word "merde," written in large letters on the envelope.
--Howard Greenfield, The Devil and Dr. Barnes: Portrait of an American Collector, p. 252-3.
It was also fun seeing Barnes circumnavigate Logan Circle in an envelope with "Shit" all over it. A spectacle suggested by Debord.
The fan club is always in need of more woman members, so Sontag's initiation was a most happy event. Tableau reenactments ensued:
"Against Interpretation"
"Notes on Camp"
"On Style"
"The Aesthetics of Silence"
"The Pornographic Imagination"
Susan is now in charge of the "Unguided Tour" department, and she joins Duchamp and Jennewein in the presentation of "[Learning from] Nudist Camp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art."
Barnes is so impressed with African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke A Back that he's even further rethinking the display of his collection after it moves to Philadelphia.
2004.12.29 17:10
Susan Sontag
My favorite story about Susan Sontag was told by herself (I think in a 1980s New Yorker article) where she recalls 'camping' outside Thomas Mann's house in Pacific Palisades in hope of meeting the author. She was ultimately invited in. Thomas Mann is my favorite author as well.
2004.12.29 18:54
Susan Sontag
Yes, thanks John for the link to Notes on "Camp"... just reread it. Spooky.
Haven't read Death Kit yet, however (except for just reading the initial paragraphs of the selected excerpt in A Susan Sontag Reader a few minutes ago--I think I was reading about an act of necrophilia!)
Susan Sontag was born 16 January 1933.
Leaving Obscurity Behind is scheduled to end 17 January 2006, coinciding with the death of Theodosius (395) and the birth of Benjamin Franklin (1706), but it appears that 16 January 2006 will be the convention's real last day.
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