One of the first things we saw was the chapel. As we were wandering through it, we were invited to join a little private tour of the bell tower with some people who were devoted to bell towers. Turns out, there are many ways to play the bells. I know that this will disappoint you, Hopkins and Stearns (they're obsessed with change ringing), but some people play the church bells on a little keyboard. This does seem like faking it to me--I think that there should be a rope and some jumping up and down involved in bell ringing.
Either way, the girl who played the bells was great (she played Shenandoah and other Appalachian folk songs, which was wonderful). Plus, the view from the top was great!:
Plus, she gave us a little architectural tour on the way to the top. She pointed out the business school (which you can see in the pictures above and below).
Evidently the business school was supposed to be an architectural combination of the adjacent Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House (below) and the chapel itself. You can faintly see the giant gothic arches of the business school lobby.
I like the idea, although I can't say that I've ever actually seen one of these architectural combinations work out really well (interestingly, the brand new Georgetown business school building is also a combination building).
We also visited the museum on campus, complete with little work study students as security guards. What struck me most was one of the modern art pieces, which was a do-it-yourself project: It showed how to make a urinal out of a sweater with just a sweater and two hooks on the wall. It showed an example of a sweater urinal. And then it provided the two hooks and a sweater. As Francisco pointed out, it seemed like something some drunk frat boys invented. (There were also lots of lovely things in the museum, including an exhibit on emotion in art, but I think I'll always remember the sweater urinal.)
Although Francisco had eaten pizza for dinner the night before and breakfast that morning, I convinced him that we needed to eat pizza for lunch, since I'd never tried deep dish pizza. I have still never tried deep dish pizza. Somehow, while I thought I was ordering deep dish pizza, I ordered thin crust. I have been having communication problems with waitresses lately: the other night I ordered a beer and she brought me a pitcher. Sigh.
We finished up our U of C visit with some bookstore visits, which were great fun. And provided me with reading for my return flight.
(picture, picture, picture)
2 comments:
No no no--you can't be upset with Rockefeller for not having change ringers. It's a carillon! Totally different (and still awesome) thing!
I think the bell tower instrument is an organ of some complex variety, so swinging on the bells is out. Who would invent such a thing--a piano that yanks gargantuan bells around?
There are also Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen buildings across the Midway that are intended as modernist reflections of the Gothic style of the quad. I suppose the reflection is there if you think really hard about it, or have it explained to you by you architecture professor (as I did). I would not intuit it.
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