The Soviet inspired imagery of Go West got me to thinking about Red symbolism in my own town.
The Seattle neighborhood of Fremont (famous for it's Solstice Parade and general air of hip funkiness) has this fabulous statue of Lenin - a prize from the collapse of the USSR when Russians were selling anything that wasn't bolted down for rubles on the dollar.
We also have our own 'Red Square' - the Central Plaza at the University of Washington, named for its red bricks (my Alma Mater, BTW). A quick tour:
The most prominent structures are the triple "pillarmids" as Jake Kotze would call them. Two nearly equal large brick towers, with a smaller third. Symbolic pyramids on the plains of Giza/Cydonia?
Red Square also displays a literal pyramid - the red hued Cor-Ten steel sculpture called 'Broken Obelisk'.
The two largest buildings on the square are Kane(sic) Hall and Suzzallo Library.
The 240-foot long Graduate Reading Room features cathedral ceilings and tall stained glass windows and spans the entire third floor of the west face of the library. Its distinctive look is said to have been inspired by Henry Suzzallo's openly-stated belief that universities should be "cathedrals of learning." --Wikipedia
That old Tree of Knowledge again.
Hogwarts West
Adorning the exterior of the early wings are terra cotta sculptures of influential thinkers and artists selected by the faculty. They include Moses, Louis Pasteur, Dante Alighieri, Shakespeare, Plato, Benjamin Franklin, Justinian I, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herodotus, Adam Smith, Homer, Johann Gutenberg, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles Darwin and Hugo Grotius. --Wikipedia
Seems like a pretty good list of Masons, Grand Masters and such.
What's funny is that Red Square is the cruisiest place on campus - horny male students looking for quick lust relief are always lurking about, day and night. The sons of Adam, tentatively peeling off their fig leaves directly below the monuments created by the great apron wearers themselves - like mammals beneath the feet of the dinosaurs... right before the asteroid.
3 comments:
Mr Ralph Ellis informs in "Eden in Egypt" that Adam and Eve are more likely Akhenaton and Nefertiti or some wife of Amenhotep 4. He connects the fig leaves to the aprons worn by Masons such as the Chief Architect 'Adam of Eden', or perhaps rather 'Aton of the Nile'. Maybe...
Interesting. His connecting the fig leaves with the Masons is cool. The Masonic veneration of all things Egyptian is understandable and readily apparent in the media - as you skillfully point out! Love those vids.
Thanks for commenting, much appreciated.
Michael
Good work. I enjoyed your connections around Univ. of Washington. Extremely uncanny I'd say...
A pleasure as always.
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