2005.04.07 10:35
"The Pope's Funeral and Ichnographia Romaphilia"
LEAVING OBSCURITY BEHIND
"The Pope's Funeral and Ichnographia Romaphilia"
John the Baptist [Piranesi], Julian Abele and James Stirling
8 April 2005
coinciding with the culmination of the first great Triumphal Way Reenactment of the 21st Century
It's a little unexpected, but preparations are coming together rather quickly.
provides the best orientation so far, but still has to be coalesced with...
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"Don't forget to look through the archives."
from an email to friend 19 December 2004:
Things are getting busy here in preparation for the commencement of Leaving Obscurity Behind, the Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention, 28 December 2004. All the guests are getting their accommodations set via Ichnographia Romaphilia--one of the highlights of the convention is that all the guests are in a constant state of bilocation between Philadelphia and Rome, with the register being the match of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the axis of life of the Ichnographia Campus Martius--oddly, Fairmount and the Vatican Hill are the 'same place.'
"It's great how where the dead Pope celebrated Mass in Philadelphia marks exactly the spot where the bilocations intersect."
Last night I remembered that Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass 3 October 1979 right in the center of Logan Circle (on a large platform built over the Swann Fountain especially for the occasion). I was there that day too, and later on I tell about how I got in fairly close without a ticket.
Getting back towards Logan Circle, I go into the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, where I haven't been in over ten years, and haven't been in while empty in 25 years. For some reason, I found it to be enormous inside. I guess it just is enormous, and actually quite nice architecturally, very Renaissance Rome. I notice within one of the side chapels is the chair used by Pope John Paul II while he was in Philadelphia 1979. Since no one else was around and the railing to the chapel was only 2 feet tall, I decided to go sit in the chair myself. I found those few seconds sitting to be quite intense, so I got up quickly because otherwise I would have gotten way too comfortable.
Well, what do you do after having sat in one of the Pope's chairs? To be honest, I was in a very good mood the rest of the day.
"You know, it didn't take Rainier two seconds to get here."
"Well, he really did miss Grace."
"And with the two of them going back to Ocean City again, the Jersey Shore's gonna be great this summer."
"How come he right away wanted to go with Grace to Memorial Hall."
"That's where he was last in Philadelphia, at John's Funeral, and it wasn't at all easy for him to be in Philadelphia without Grace back then."
"I heard he's already making up Pennsylvania gambling jokes."
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2005.04.08 funeral of Pope John Paul II
2005.04.08 12:25
modernity/post-modernity
Does it say anywhere that modernism must end as soon as post-modernism begins?
If so, then who writes these rules?
Did Judaism end as soon as Christianity began? Did Christianity end as soon as Islam began?
2005.04.08 19:12
modernity/post-modernity
raj, the religious analogy employed is not a stretch when you consider how this thread began, specifically in reference to a "paradigmatic shift". Christianity is a paradigmatic shift vis-à-vis Judaism, and Islam is (in part) a paradigmatic shift vis-à-vis Christianity.
Interestingly, the rise of Christian architecture did coincide with the end of 'classical' Pagan architecture--not long after Christian basilicas were built in Rome and Judea (under the supervision of St. Helena), the legislature under Constantine I (the son of St. Helena) began to steadily outlaw Pagan cults. Ultimately, under emperor Theodosius I, all Pagan cults within the Empire were outlawed, hence no more classical Temples.
Is what I do modern or is it post-modern? Honestly, I don't care.
Was it European Colonialism that began the end of many indigenous architectures throughout the "non-Western" world? Can the 'international style' of CIAM be seen somewhat as an extension of Colonialism?
These are questions that interest me much more than whether Gehry is modern or post-modern?
2005.04.08 19:24
Poetry
The Changing Light at Sandover
James Merrill
The Waste Land
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
.....
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