Sometime in the early 1970s I heard that the first friend of my life went
missing, and then a month or so later her body was found in some South
Carolina woods near where she and her family had moved to. Janet married
quite young (I heard), and also divorced quite young. Her ex-husband was
high on the suspect list.
While spending the summer of 1981 in Washington DC, I learned that Jim
Williams shot Danny H. and that Jim was accussed of murder. Here I knew (or
at least met a few times) both the killed and the killer. You too might know
the story by having either read or seen MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND
EVIL. In the years after jail in the early 1980s, Jim and I shared the same
best friend, and thus I then had a closer than usual but still literally
distant friendship with Jim. With all the stuff that I (and very few others)
know, why aren't I busy trying to write the next record breaking
best-seller? I even have copies of letters that Jim wrote while he was in
jail, but somehow "laws of silence" unwittingly prevail. [One of Jim's
favorite phrases was "You don't know a thing." As far as I know, I'm the
only person to have said "You don't know a thing" to Jim in the same way he
used to say it to others. Another thing that is not generally known is that
one of Jim's strongest motivations was to continually "Piss off the right
people."]
And then in (I think) 1986 Ismael Faruqi and his wife were brutally murdered
in their Philadelphia suburban home. I was good friends with their
architect-student neice, and even dated one of their daughters a couple of
times (I know we at least saw SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER together). Faruqi was the
last Palestinian governor of Galilee, and then head of the Religion
Department at Temple U. I only learned of Faruqi's past political postition
after his death; I certainly didn't know it the night he drove me home after
a late night charette.
["And we become these human jukeboxes. Spitting out these anecdotes!" -- SIX
DEGREES OF SEPARATION]
Meanwhile (kind of) Theodosius is still lying in state at Milan, and "he's"
going to be there for 38 more days. I have no idea why the laying is state
is to take so long except that the total forty days may be some kind of
reenactment of the forty days Christ spent in the desert, which is today
reenacted annually via Lent. Perhaps this was somehow Ambrose's design,
because it is interesting that after forty days, Ambrose should then deliver
an obituary within which is the story of how the True Cross was found. [Get
it? First Lent and then the Crucifixion.]
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
missing, and then a month or so later her body was found in some South
Carolina woods near where she and her family had moved to. Janet married
quite young (I heard), and also divorced quite young. Her ex-husband was
high on the suspect list.
While spending the summer of 1981 in Washington DC, I learned that Jim
Williams shot Danny H. and that Jim was accussed of murder. Here I knew (or
at least met a few times) both the killed and the killer. You too might know
the story by having either read or seen MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND
EVIL. In the years after jail in the early 1980s, Jim and I shared the same
best friend, and thus I then had a closer than usual but still literally
distant friendship with Jim. With all the stuff that I (and very few others)
know, why aren't I busy trying to write the next record breaking
best-seller? I even have copies of letters that Jim wrote while he was in
jail, but somehow "laws of silence" unwittingly prevail. [One of Jim's
favorite phrases was "You don't know a thing." As far as I know, I'm the
only person to have said "You don't know a thing" to Jim in the same way he
used to say it to others. Another thing that is not generally known is that
one of Jim's strongest motivations was to continually "Piss off the right
people."]
And then in (I think) 1986 Ismael Faruqi and his wife were brutally murdered
in their Philadelphia suburban home. I was good friends with their
architect-student neice, and even dated one of their daughters a couple of
times (I know we at least saw SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER together). Faruqi was the
last Palestinian governor of Galilee, and then head of the Religion
Department at Temple U. I only learned of Faruqi's past political postition
after his death; I certainly didn't know it the night he drove me home after
a late night charette.
["And we become these human jukeboxes. Spitting out these anecdotes!" -- SIX
DEGREES OF SEPARATION]
Meanwhile (kind of) Theodosius is still lying in state at Milan, and "he's"
going to be there for 38 more days. I have no idea why the laying is state
is to take so long except that the total forty days may be some kind of
reenactment of the forty days Christ spent in the desert, which is today
reenacted annually via Lent. Perhaps this was somehow Ambrose's design,
because it is interesting that after forty days, Ambrose should then deliver
an obituary within which is the story of how the True Cross was found. [Get
it? First Lent and then the Crucifixion.]
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