Posted
by Joel Mathis
October 3, 2003 at 11:05 a.m.
Cup O'Laura
_No. 7 on our list of Top 10 things to love about Lawrence, as determined by the voters, is the Sunday carillon concerts. Know what? I can't recall ever having listened to the bells playing on the Campanile on a Sunday. I am completely unqualified to write about it.__So I appealed to Laura Lorson, who originally nominated the concerts to the list, to tell us why she loves the concerts so. The rest of this blog is her words:_The University's World War II Memorial Carillon and Campanile wasn't built until 1950, and officially dedicated until 1951, but I can't imagine Lawrence without it. Apparently, there was some controversy concerning the project at the time. It seems that people wanted a World War II Memorial Swimming Pool, or World War II Memorial Tennis Courts, or more dormitories -- or, actually, a whole lot of things. All things being equal, the carillon is better. On a late summer Sunday afternoon, you can hear the bells come softly, snaking through the late day heat, playing counterpoint to the cicadas and their angry buzzing. On fall Sundays, they sound crisp and precise and beautiful, like Mt.Oread itself is singing. When you hear them played in the winter, they cut through the air like a knife -- and in the spring, they're soft and sentimental and make you almost sad, as the school year winds down. The bells are a little weekly gift from the wind, when it's blowing your way. You can find out what's going to be played in the weekly concerts by visiting the website www.carillon.ku.edu (for the current Fall list, go to [www.carillon.ku.edu/fall2003.html][1], though I myself like being surprised. More often than not, the carillon concerts wake me up from a Sunday nap, since I live about a block from campus -- and invariably, they make me happy enough that I forget it means that Sunday's almost over. I have read that the best spot for hearing the carillon is really more than 200 feet away from the tower -- I know that I certainly hear it just fine from my couch on Louisiana Street, or walking through West Lawrence. It's also very nice to take a little spin around Potter Lake or Marvin Grove when you hear Dr. Elizabeth Berghout (who is the official University Carillonneur) get going. But anywhere in shouting distance of the campus will work just fine, too. The advantage to hiking up to the Campanile when you hear the weekly concert starting is that you can usually get a program listing the music-of-the-day there. You can also get a tour of the Campanile after the concert, which is nice -- and let me tell you, there is something just almost heart-melting about standing up at the top of the hill looking out into the Kaw Valley, with the music from the carillon just filling up your senses. Rumor (and, well, the website) has it that as carillons go, ours is really top-notch. Good to know. Kind of a surprise, but then again, Kansans tend to go all-out when they're really fired up about something, as we were following World War II. The sounds from the carillon -- whether it's the Westminster Chimes marking off the quarter-hour or a full-blown concert -- are kind of comforting to me -- a little reminder of the presence of the University in this community, but in a good, non-annexing-big-chunks-of-land-for-more-parking-and-what-are- you-gonna-do-about-it-Sparky kind of way. It just kind of reminds you that the Liberal Arts , and the Fine Arts, really DO enrich our lives, when we let them. [1]: http://www.carillon.ku.edu/fall2003.html
Comments
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murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
Let me be the first to say that the Campanile is lame, the bells are annoying, and the University is one of the least cool things about Lawrence. Thanks.
dex (anonymous) says…
hahaha ... my only two complaints of the campanile is that the bells wake me while i'm trying to sleep well into the afternoon hours and i think that saying camp-an-eel-ee is dumb. but, i enjoy the music while walking up and down the hill and the view at the top is nice. i don't even mind those that try to play it at 2am, but i do wish they would practice more (or drink less).
dex (anonymous) says…
oh, and i think the kitchen at milton's is one of the least cool places in lawrence. i don't like it when people beat me to complaining about a new blog.
Jason (anonymous) says…
Bahahahhaa, way to exact vengence upon murderama and the innocents he works for dex :)
house (anonymous) says…
Murderama, this town would not be as cool as it is without the University. The culture and different walks of life it brings is a true mirror of Lawrence. Even scumbags like you.
dex (anonymous) says…
this university would not be as cool as it is without me, and lawrence as well, by transitivity.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
The city of Lawrence keeps making more and more concessions for the families of thses rich college kids... they want to keep that money coming through town... as a result, Lawrence is becoming more and more like Johnson County or suburban Chicago. Nyah.
Sara (anonymous) says…
because, clearly, everyone who goes to college is a rich kid? please.
dex (anonymous) says…
i don't see how having 20,000 (fiscally irresponsable) "rich college kids" spending their money in lawrence is a bad thing. i would be out of a job without them as would the employees at several local restaraunts, bars, and other establishments. i think it's great that lawrence gets a lot of money from johnson county and the surrounding communities.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
You're right, Dex, it isn't a bad thing... except that that money is being pumped into places like Starbucks, the Gap, Ambercalledme-a-Bitch, and all of that plastic shit out in West Lawrence. This town is being turned into a god damned strip mall to keep the suburbanites from moving away when the school year ends.
And Sara, my point wasn't that all college students are rich-- once again, you jumped the gun, looking for a reason to shit on me. Go away.
I'm aware not all college kids are rich-- I'm poor as fuck, an I went to college. But the University definitely caters to the ones with money. And there's nothing you can say that's going to convince me otherwise. That's just my opinion. Fucking deal with it.
Shelby (anonymous) says…
Rob is BACK!!!
Shelby (anonymous) says…
I must say though that I like some of "that plastic shit". Frankly, I own some rather nice threads that were purchased from The Gap, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I also shop at Wal-Mart, Target, Hy-Vee and Dillons. If there were a locally-owned, mom-&-pop place, they would have to be better in every facet that I deem important (read: price, selection, quality, etc.) in order to get my business. But I digress.
Furthermore, there's a great future in plastics.
And the carillon campanile thing or whatever is...okay. #7? Hell no. As a WWII memorial, sure, I think it's important.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
hahaha! a great future in plastics... Mr. Shelby, are you tyring to seduce me?
dex (anonymous) says…
... if you don't mind me saying so, this conversation is getting a little strange.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
I go away for a few hours, and Rawb's started a riot.
I've got some thoughts about all this, but I'm going to save them for a little bit.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
Might as well say it now, Joel, cuz I think everyone else is done talking.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Not thoughts about YOU. Thoughts about "is KU good for Lawrence or not discussion." Which I'm still trying to articulate well in my own mind before setting them free in cyberspace...
Sara (anonymous) says…
I can think of a few people who would do well to think for a few minutes before posting half-cocked.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
My dear, who might that be? Me or you?
dex (anonymous) says…
i believe "a few" could technically include both of you, and perhaps others. who else? i want names!
Shelby (anonymous) says…
Me.
Shelby (anonymous) says…
I get that a lot (half-cocked)...mostly from girls.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
Wow! You get all the way halfed? Got ME beat...
lesticia (anonymous) says…
Hey, I like the tower and the bells.
Everything caters to the rich in one way or another, no doubt about that... for profit ventures cater to the rich, and even non-profits have to cater to the rich for funding. I personally think it's amazing that someone had the balls to torch that Hummer plant in California... I am far too paranoid to do something like that. I am getting paranoid now just writing that. Oh jesus, I better stop typing before I become another person for Ashcroft to spy on...
ashcroft (anonymous) says…
lesticia -- you're on my list, and i've checked it twice.
lesticia (anonymous) says…
eek!
RalphGage (Ralph Gage) says…
What does blowing up Hummers have to do with the Campanile?
I was there when the Campanile was dedicated. My uncle's name is engraved in the granite, and my grandfather's name is there as one of the contributors.
I was there again when it was rededicated.
I have walked up the hill in all seasons to attend class and heard the bells.
My uncle was captured on Corregidor and died at sea as a prisoner of war. He has no other monument. That's what the memorial is about.
Give it a break.
Joel, where the hell are you?
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
OldTimer: I'm here. Sometimes I don't get to check the blog for a couple of hours because, well, I'm working.
I don't think what we have on our hands here, though, is really a debate about the relative merits of the Campanile or the bells. It's about what we want Lawrence to be like. The rich vs. poor, east vs. west, "real" vs. "plastic" comments were all uttered in the last blog, as well, when people started chatting about the "corporatization" of Lawrence.
What I'm finding, then, is that nearly every item on the Top 10 list -- even the freakin' bells -- is becoming a kind of Rorschach test for those of you who read this. But really, sometimes a big phallic monument that plays music is just a big phallic monument that plays music. No need to burden it with the baggage of Lawrence's culture wars.
And finally, to Rawb: You're kidding yourself if you think that much of what is cool about Lawrence would exist here without KU. We'd be Salina otherwise ... and Salina, bless its little heart, ain't that cool. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, man.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
On another topic entirely:
This was a correction in today's Philly newspaper...
In Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section, an article about the film Kill Bill erroneously referred to Ricardo Montalban's character in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as a Klingon. Khan was an evil human bent on universal domination, though he does quote a Klingon proverb.
... and here are some letters to a media Web site about the correction.
¢ Philly Inquirer insults both species 10/7/2003 2:24:19 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From frank ahrens: i suppose a generous reader would allow the spirit of the Philadelphia Inquirer's correction re Ricardo Montalban's role as Khan Noonien Singh in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," and would appreciate, as doubtless would Mr. Montalban, clearing up the fact that he played a human rather than a Klingon, a mistake that is an insult to both species. But the letter of the law would insist on clarifying that Khan, while indeed human, could hardly have been labeled "an evil human bent on universal domination." Rather, he was a product of his times, a superhuman who was bred to be smarter, stronger and more aggressive during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. And universal domination? I think not. Rather, Khan is propelled by the entirely sympathetic motivation of avenging his wife's death after he and his people were marooned on a planet that proved barely habitable by Capt. James T. Kirk, who failed to check on their progress, leaving them victim to sandstorms and nasty little creatures that deposit their larvae in victims's ears and wind themselves around the brain stem, bringing madness and a yearning for the sweet relief death would bring.
¢ Khan's not just a product of his times 10/7/2003 5:42:45 PM
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
From frank hayes: Subject: Frank Ahrens' letter. I was shocked -- shocked! -- to see Frank Ahrens' obvious distortion of history in criticizing that Philadelphia Inquirer correction. As a little research with Google easily turns up, Khan Noonien Singh is hardly just "a product of his times" who's merely avenging his wife's death, as Ahrens suggests. The guy started World War III, for petesake! This is clearly another example of a Beltway insider attempting to bury the sordid past of one of his neofascist heroes. Or maybe it's a typical media liberal making apologies for a notorious terrorist. It's so hard to keep these things straight these days.
Yup. Journalists. Geeks.
dex (anonymous) says…
now THAT's funny. get a life, it's just a tv show! i doubt those guys have ever even kissed a girl.
murderama (Rob Gillaspie) says…
Sorry, I'm right, you can all fuck off.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Whoa, Rob. I think I was respectful in disagreeing with you. Why you gotta be that way?
Sara (anonymous) says…
it's part of his charm.
buttons_palchuk (anonymous) says…
Umm...hate to go back to it (and it has nothing to do with carillon concerts) - but if Lawrence didn't have the University of Kansas this town wouldn't be even close to what it is. Most things you think are cool wouldn't be here. Instead, Lawrence would be Topeka.
Shelby (anonymous) says…
Yeah Rob, why you gotta act like a Romulan?
Jason (anonymous) says…
Shelby: Hey! I resent that!
dex (anonymous) says…
jason -- i don't think your ears are pointy enough to be a native romulan; why the resentment?
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Yup. All of us. Geeks.
Jason (anonymous) says…
Dex: Lies! All lies!
dex (anonymous) says…
ohhhh, right. so the klingons suddenly grow bumps on their heads, and you loose your pointy ears. i'm not buying it for a second.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
From MSNBC.com
anchorage, Alaska, Oct. 8 - A self-taught bear enthusiast who once called Alaska�s brown bears harmless was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in the Katmai National Park and Preserve.
the bodies of Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found Monday at their campsite when a pilot arrived who was supposed to take them to Kodiak, state troopers said Tuesday.
Treadwell, co-author of "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska," spent more than a dozen summers living alone with and videotaping Katmai bears. Information on Huguenard was not immediately available.
The Andrew Airways pilot contacted troopers in Kodiak and the National Park Service after he saw a brown bear, possibly on top of a body, at the camp near Kaflia Bay.
Park rangers encountered a large, aggressive male brown bear within minutes of arriving. Ranger Joel Ellis said two officers stood by with shotguns as he fired 11 times with a semi-automatic handgun before the animal fell, 12 feet away.
"That was cutting it thin," said Ellis, the lead investigator. "I didn't take the time to count how many times it was hit."
Sara (anonymous) says…
Tigers and bears - not pets. As a man much wiser than me once said, Nature is red in tooth and claw. These people who hang out with animals two and three times their weight, that have millions of years of evolution honing their instinct to kill - well, let's just say, my money's on the tigers and bears. Until the guns come.
grittykitty (anonymous) says…
yes, I love the university. there would be no music scene without it....not saying that all musicians need to be affiliated with the University.
But it draws bands to lawrence, draws free-thinking individuals, brings diversity and makes Lawrence an oasis of liberal thought in the mid-west.
Poor good? Rich bad? Poor bad/rich good? Without the generosity of the rich, we wouldn't have the first universities,museums, non-profit organizations, etc. We all play a part in this society rich and poor.
The rich need to stop blaming "the poor" for drugs and crime (when the coke-sniffing rich are driving the drug market)and pay their fair share of taxes.The poor shouldn't blame "the rich" for everything and take responsibility for their government.
jeanne (anonymous) says…
Well said, grittykitty! I could never live in the mid-west without the university, and excellent points regarding the rich and poor. I would only add that I think we have far to many of both in this country --a situation that will only worsen with the Bush-fronted government.
As for Campanile, I used to take my son sledding on that hill, I walked through it on graduation day, and the music lends a special atmosphere to the campus --makes it feel like a world apart somehow.
Star Trek? Never watched it. Bears? Beautiful, but from a distance.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Headline on CNN: "Siegfried: Tiger wanted to help Roy"
Umm.... I think that's supposed to say "Tiger wanted to help himself to Roy."
But that's just me.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Also from CNN.com:
Maryland first lady regrets Britney remark
annapolis, Maryland (Reuters) -- Maryland's first lady was only joking when she said she would like to shoot pop star Britney Spears, but it is no longer a laughing matter.
Kendel Ehrlich, wife of the state's Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich, was criticizing what she views as the entertainment industry's negative influence on youth, during a domestic violence prevention conference last week in the city of Frederick.
"Really, if I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would," Ehrlich laughingly told the audience, accusing the 21-year-old Grammy Award-nominated singer of exaggerating the importance of sex for young girls.
**************
Comment: Sex is out. But apparently violence is OK.
OtherJoel (anonymous) says…
Yeah, that was pretty brilliant of Kendel - at a conference opposing (domestic) violence, no less. Bob's no rocket scientist either -- and he has an awful toupee (or an even worse haircut).
Another news tidbit -- Relating to the conceal & carry law in MO, I heard that KCI is considering allowing people to carry weapons on the concourse! While I have mixed feelings about the crackdown on airport security after 9/11 (good idea, largely ineffective strategies), why would we purposefully allow lethal weapons anywhere near an airport, particularly in this day & age? Whatever the justifications are for the lifting of the concealed weapons ban, I fail to see why anyone would have a reason to take a gun with her/him to the airport. I may not have gotten the entire picture, especially since I heard this from the morons on the Fox 10:00 news. Has anyone seen a better explanation of this elsewhere?
ML (anonymous) says…
Re Joel's mentions of the cuddly human/animal encounters in the news this week~~I'm very put out with Timothy Treadwell and with Roy for not having gotten themselves killed/mauled a couple months earlier so I could use their stories in my "When You Gotta Go" blog. How inconsiderate of them to wait until now. It wouldn't have been any skin off their---uh---let me rephrase that: it wouldn't have changed their outcome any and it would have given me more fodder for my commentary on weird deaths and Darwinism. Selfish--that's what they were. Maybe I'll have to do a follow-up. I just need to wait a little longer for that west Lawrence mountain lion to maul somebody. Then we'll have a lions, tigers, & bears piece. It should write itself.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
ML: Let me know what your next blog is about. I'll see if I can't make a few ... arrangements.
OtherJoel: Good to hear from you again. Your absence from this blog was noted. Don't the Feds have final jurisdiction over airports? Or is it just when you get on the plane?
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
From a Washington Post editorial:
Fit to Print
Thursday, October 9, 2003; Page a36
while we're on the subject, there is one problem facing the Schwarzenegger administration that might be beyond solving: The man's name won't fit in newspaper headlines. At 14 letters, it far exceeds the limits of the standard one-column headline, unless reduced to the type size used for stories about bus accidents in Malaysia.
This has been a problem for leaders ever since the coming of daily newspapers, before which time they could have names such as Nebuchadnezzar or Suleiman the Magnificent or whatever they pleased -- there was plenty of room on the scroll.
The modern American practice has been to reduce our presidents to their initials or a very short nickname: jfk, fdr, Ike. Alexander the Great would in our time be known to readers of The Washington Post as ATG and to readers of the New York Post as Big Al. Mr. Schwarzenegger and his handlers unfortunately have only a brief window for producing a salable headline persona of their own before some desperate copy editor does it for them. We'd suggest that they avoid movie titles and anything involving an umlaut.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
ML (anonymous) says…
Joel~so glad you want to help out. All you have to do is drape yourself with a few raw chickens & pork chops and meander around on west campus at dusk. It'll be a snap. Just make sure you have a few blogs cached with the editors so they can keep your space going for a while. And if you survive, just think of the stories you and Roy can share at the rehab facility.
OtherJoel (anonymous) says…
I thought that airports were federal jurisdiction as well -- again, this was just something I caught on the TV news as I was flipping through. That was all I had heard about it, but I hoped that there might have been someone else around that knew more.