Some cool stuff, old and new, in Rome and Detroit

First, I am glad to report that Gammarelli is ready to ship our new processional canopy, and we will have it in time for Corpus Christi.  It will match our white Pontifical Mass set.  Here are some shots of the guys playing with it before boxing it up.

Hmmm… I must get in touch right away with La Lame in NYC about appropriate appliqués.

Today a priest friend and I went to the Detroit Institute of Art.   The Star Wars exhibit is now open.  Obi-Wan’s gear…

C3PO’s stuff.

What Chewy might have looked like…. whew.

Ooops… that was Federico, Prince of Urbino at 18 months old.

This, however, is from Star Wars…

The detail and textures are simply amazing.

And the concept for the opening credits… notice anything?

And, just so that you don’t think that we spent the entire time in there, here is a magnificent French ivory.  Read it from the bottom up, left to right on each level.  Each box has two scenes, and they magnificently blend against each other.  Note in the first panel, the lovely S curves, typical to French Gothic.  I loaded a large image so you might be able to click it for a new tab and see it larger.

Wow, right?  What a happy lexicon of images, also like poetry.

And speaking of multiple images, there was a good display of tobacco baseball cards, an entire series for 1909-11.

Yes, they had a Honus Wagner, in another case.  Here are a few highlights… passing over Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson and Cy Young.

I wonder who will pick up on these guys…

That last bit was for a friend who is a bit of a Cubs fab.   Eamus Catuli.

And these houses are just around the corner from where I am presently writing.  There are blocks and block and blocks like this in every direction.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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14 Comments

  1. jaykay says:

    It looks great – congratulations! And that gorgeous chasuble that appears in some of the pics (St. Philip Neri-style, midway between Roman and Gothic?) – wow!

    Obi-wan’s costume looks sort of… Dominican? Ordo Jedorum.

    O.k., maybe not. Sorry, Fr. Thompson ;-p

  2. VP says:

    Pardon the metaphor, but the curator and you each made a great catch on the “Tinker to Evers to Chance” layout. Chicago beat the Giants that day; that double play was one of the Cubs’ last bright spots for about 100 years.

    These are the saddest of possible words: / “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
    Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, / Tinker and Evers and Chance.
    Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, / Making a Giant hit into a double
    Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: / “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

  3. Jenson71 says:

    Johnny Evers was an active Knight of Columbus and helped out with them in some capacity during WWI.

  4. cstei says:

    I am going to Gammarelli’s on Monday I can’t wait.

  5. Those devastated houses: what happens everywhere the left runs things.

  6. karmato says:

    Tip of the old cubs cap to you….
    Alas a 10 – 1 loss tonight at the hands of the Indians. But at least it was not 20 degrees at game time.

  7. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Actually, Dave Filoni rescued Chewbacca’s original design (as he has done with a lot of the old Ralph McQuarrie concept art), and used it for the character Zeb, in the Star Wars: Rebels animated series. Zeb is pretty awesome, but he would not have made a good partner for Han!

    If you have never watched Rebels, it is a delight. Filoni and his team made a show that really feels like Star Wars, and is full of fun and adventure. Unlike the recent movies, the cartoons also have original stories and make sense. (Just as with his Clone Wars series, though, the first few episodes are a bit shaky. Have patience until the cast and writers hit their stride.)

  8. Grant M says:

    Obi-Wan’s costume seems to show mixed Dominican and Franciscan influence. Maybe the designer, like Dante in the Paradiso, was devoted to those two great Saints. That is how you reference the Catholic imagination without causing offense.

    [Indeed!]

  9. GregB says:

    Last year the PBS show “This Old House” covered the renovation of two houses in Detroit. They also covered the the local initiatives that are trying to work on neglected homes in Detroit.

  10. teomatteo says:

    Those abandoned homes. I am writing a novel about na almost abandoned catholic church in a desperately blighted area of Detroit. The small latin mass parish of 75 families are deeded the property around their church to rebuild. Mayhem ensues.

  11. Andreas says:

    I must confess that in scanning the photos I fear that I mistakenly believed that the first from the Star Wars display (that of Obi-Wan’s costume) was yet another bit of something from the Gay-La that has been described in earlier Postings herein.

    The ivory diptych is glorious indeed.

  12. KateD says:

    Wow! Seems like an opportunity for redevelopment….if only there was SOMEONE in our government knowledgeable about land development.

  13. JustaSinner says:

    Liberalism on display!!!! Like acid, corrodes everything it touches.

  14. Semper Gumby says:

    Those Honus Wagner tobacco cards are rare, no wonder they had it in a separate case, and probably accessed by drawbridge over a crocodile-filled moat. VP: Thanks for that poem, I’d forgotten about that, think it was written by a Giants fan. Little did he know that a century-long drought was coming up for Chicago.

    teomatteo: Sounds like an interesting read you’re putting together. You probably heard of this already but in 2008 Matt Labash had a long Detroit article “The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep.” (Though it appeared in the Weekly Standard it’s a stark piece of writing with some foul language, mostly by firefighters toward city management over the death of a fellow firefighter killed in one of those abandoned but un-demolished houses). The article ends with a poignant anecdote about a homeless man and a Bible. A local reporter mentioned by Labash wrote a book about Detroit about five years ago.

    Two French photographers did a remarkable photo essay of abandoned Detroit hotels and classrooms somewhere on Time magazine’s website.

    Here’s one paragraph from Labash:

    “The city council has been such a joke that one former member demanded 17 pounds of sausages as part of her $150,000 bribe. Its prognosis for respectability hasn’t grown stronger with Monica Conyers, wife of congressman John Conyers, taking the helm. She has managed to get in a barroom brawl, threatened to shoot a mayoral staffer as well as have him beaten up, and twice called a burly and bald fellow council member “Shrek” during a public hearing. But with all the problems facing the city, the council still found time to pass a nonbinding resolution supporting the impeachment of George W. Bush.”

    Anita Moore OP (lay): Yep.

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