Christian Ideals in Gothic Architecture

In the mid 1100s, innovations allowed Abbot Suger to devise plans to build the first Gothic, or "French Royal Style" cathedral. Prior to his creation, cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style. The new building techniques utilized in Gothic architecture allowed these new cathedrals to be built in a manner which creatively displays religious beliefs.
Due to lack of architectural technology, Romanesque style was very limited in capability, centralized around the buttress it used. Romanesque cathedrals used wall buttresses, which were attached directly to the outside wall. Consequently, this buttress style could not support enough weight to allow a cathedral to exceed about two stories in height. The architectural style utilized rounded arches, which limited the heights of doorways as well. Also, due to the lack of support given from the wall buttresses, heavier walls were required to support the roof, which led to few windows, leaving the interior darkened.
The development of the flying buttress, which was detached from the church wall, consequently allowed for further innovations. Flying buttresses allowed for taller cathedrals and towns raced to see who could build the tallest one. The Gothic cathedrals towered over everything else in the town, making it visible from a further distance. Since the roof had more support, it became possible to use more windows. In most Gothic cathedrals, the walls would be primarily composed of them and gave rise to stained glass use. Additionally, architects borrowed pointed door arches from the Muslim world, which allowed them to use various door heights. The resulting buildings were light-filled, airy and pointed-looking.
While Romanesque architecture did its best to embody and express medieval European religious ideals, Gothic expanded upon that. Romanesque cathedrals were built in the shape of Jesus' cross. The altar pointed east, toward Jerusalem, as their world was awaiting the second coming of Christ. Due to structural limitations, the buildings drew the eye horizontally, tying the viewer to the land. Gothic architecture maintained the cross-shape and eastern orientation, but added to it. In the use of stained glass, the Old Testament stories were on the northern wall and the New Testament stories were on the southern wall, which was where the light would shine through most. The intention was to honor the Christ whom they were awaiting. Also, at the western entrance would be a stained glass rendition of the Final Judgment, as God judged those who entered. The stained glass use allowed people to learn the Bible through pictures in an age of high illiteracy. The pointed style of Gothic architecture drew the eye vertically, which caused one to look towards the heavens.
The innovations which led to the shift from Romanesque to Gothic architecture allowed cathedrals to expand upon the ideals their buildings already embodied. Primarily through the development of the flying buttress, stained glass became a key church composition, which would further spread Christian knowledge.

A Poem about the Past 36 Hours

I threw out our picture.
I told Victor,
"I want to fall in love."
Last night.
Now there's just me
where we used to be.

xoxo
andee

Feeling like a d-bag today...

"What really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films, these things matter. Call me shallow. It’s the fucking truth."
To be fair, here are the contents of my iTunes.
Why hasn't my iPod exploded yet?

A.F.I., Ace Of Base, Adam Sky&Danny Williams, The Advantage, The Adverts, Aeroplane, Aesop Rock, After Midnight Project, Agent 51, Aiden, AIDS Wolf, Air France with Roos, Akane, Alan Braxe, Alberta Cross, Alec Ounsworth, Alela Diane, Alesana, alex gopher, Alexa Woodward, Alexz Johnson, Ali Love, Alkaline Trio, All Hail, All Time Low, Allister, Amazing Baby, Amazing Transparent Man, Ambitions As A Rider, American Nightmare, Amy Kuney, Amy Meredit, Andrew W. K., Animal Collective, Anjulie, Anna Ternheim, Annie, Annuals, Ape School , Apocalypse Hoboken, Apostle of Hustle, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, As You Wish, Ashlee Simpson, Ashtar Command, At the Drive-In, The Ataris, ATB, Atlas Sound, Attack! Attack!, Au Revoir Simon, Audiocrush, The Audition, Audraglint, Audrey Katz, August Burns Red, AutoErotique, Autokratz, Autopilot Off, Avey Tare & Panda Bear, Avoid One Thing, Baby Monster, Bachelorette, Bad Astronaut, Bad Religion, BALZAC, Band Of Horses, Barthezz, Bassnectar, Bayside, Beach House, Beastie Boys, Beat Happening, Bedlight For Blue Eyes, Beep Beep, Beirut, Belle & Sebastian, Ben Kweller, Beni, The Berzerker, Best Coast, Beyonce, Bibio, Big and Rich, Big Boi, Big D & The Kids Table, Big In Japan, The Big Pink, BirdyNamNam, Bishonen Idolpop Genocaust, The Bitters, Björk, Black Box, The Black Ghosts, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Black Kids, Black Lips, Blaqk Audio, Blink-182, Blitzen Trapper, BLK JKS, Bloc Party, Blondie, The Blood Brothers, The Bloody Beetroots, Bon Iver, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Boogdish, Booker T., The Boomtown Rats, Bosque Brown, Bottom Line, Box Car Racer, Boxcar, Boy 8-Bit, Boy Kicks Girl, Boys Noize, Brass Castle, Breakage, Breathe Carolina, The Breeders, Bright Eyes, Brokencyde, The Bug, Buraka Som Sistema, Busdriver, The Buzzcocks, By the End of Tonight, C+C Music Factory, The Cab, CANT, Canyons, Carly's Day Out, Cartel, Cash Cash, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Cassette Kids, Cassian, Casual Touch, Cat Power, Caustic Notions, Chairlift, Charlotte Sometimes, The Chemical Brothers, The Chinese Stars, Chiodos, Choir of Young Believers, Chris Gehrz, Chromeo, The Chubbies, Circle Takes the Square, Circlebirds, The Clash, Cliché Breaks 04, Clock Opera, The Closet Squatters, coasting, The Coeds, Cold War Kids, Constantines, Costello, Cotton Jones, The Cramps, The Crayon Fields, Crookers, The Crusierweights, Crystal Antlers, Crystal Fighters, Crystal Stilts, CSS, The Cure, Curses!, Cursive, Cymbals Eat Guitars, D-12, Da Buzz, The Damned, Dan Deacon, Daniel Francis Doyle, Daniel Johnston, Danzig, Dark Meat, Datostrom, Dave Melillo, Dave P & Adam Sparkles, David Bowie, David Byrne, David Gilmour Girls, A Day to Remember, Ddmmyyyy, Dead Boys, Dead Kennedys, Dead Man's Bones, The Dead Milkmen, The Deadly Syndrome, Deastro, Death Cab For Cutie, Deathface, The Decemberists, Deerhunter, Delorean, Delta Spirit, Department Of Eagles, Depeche Mode, Desaparecidos, Descendents, Designer Drugs, Desire, The Devil Wears Prada, The Dexateens, The Dictators, Dido, Die Monitr Batss, Diesel Boy, Dirty Projectors, Discovery, Disruptive, The Distillers, Divit, DJ Encore, DJ Gregory, DJ Kaos, Dj Manaia, DJ Sammy, DJ Tiesto, Djs@Work, DMX, DNA, The Dodos, Dolce, DOOM, Down By Law, Dr. Dog, Dr. Dre, Drake, Drop The Lime, Drums of Death, Du Jour, Dynamite Boy, E-603, E-BOYS, Early Man, The Early November, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Eddie Vedder, Editors, El Perro Del Mar, Electric Owls, Element 101, Ellie Goulding, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello, Emanuel, Emery, Eminem, End Of Julia, Enda, Enema Bandits, Eric Church, Erik Hassle, Erykah Badu, The Escape Frame, Escape The Fate, Eternal Summers, Eve, Every Time I Die, Fabian, The Faint, The Fairlanes, Fake Blood, Fake ID, The Fall, Family Portrait, Fan Death, Faunts, Fear Before The March Of Flames, The Felice Brothers, Felix Da Housecat, Fever Ray, Finally Punk, The Fitness, The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, Flight Of The Conchords, Florence And The Machine, Fonzerellies, Fool's Gold, Foreign Born, Forest Fire, Forever The Sickest Kids, Former Child Stars, Foundation, Four Year Strong, Frank Sinatra, Frank T.R.A.X, Frank Turner, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Frankie Rose, Freeland, French Fries, French Kicks, Friendly Fires, Frightened Rabbit, From First To Last, Fruit Bats, The Fugees, Fujiya & Miyagi, Fukkk Offf, Fun Size, Further Seems Forever, Gametime, The Gamits, Garbage, Garbardine, Gary Low, The Gay Blades, Generation X, The Generationals, George Gershwin, Get Shakes, Ghostface Killah, Giana Factory, Girls, The Glass, Glasser, Glassjaw, Gnarls Barkley, Go Real Slow, Golden Boots, Golden Bug, The Golden Filter, Goldspot, Gorillaz, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Green bean, Green Day, Greg's Last Day, Grint, Grizzly Bear, The Groovie Ghoulies, Grouper, Grum, Gucci Vump, Guttermouth, Gwen Stefani, Haddaway, Halifax, Handsome Furs, Happy Campers, harlem, Hawnay Troof, Health, The Heartbreakers, Heartless Bastards, Heartsrevolution, Hecuba, Hellogoodbye, The Henry Clay People, Hercules and Love Affair, Here We Go Magic, Hero, Hess Is More, HexCrusher, Hey Today!, HIGHLIFE, Ho/Pe, The Hold Steady, Holiday Shores, Holy Fuck, Holy Ghost!, The Horrors, Hot Hot Heat, Hot Rod Circuit, House Of Fools, Housse De Racket, Houston Calls, Human Highway, The Hush Sound, Huxtables, Ideal Soul Mart, Iggy Pop, The Impossibles, Interpol, Islands, Ja Rule, Jack Beats, Jack Penate, Jack Rakove, The Jam, Jam & Spoon, James Pants, Jana Hunter, Japanese Motors, Jason Lytle, Jay – Z, Jay Reatard, Jeffree Star, Jeremy Jay, Jimmy Eat World, Jinxpack, Joe & Will Ask?, Joe Henry, Joe Pug, John Frusciante, John Lennon, John Paul White, Jónsi & Alex, Josie & The Pussycats, Joy Division, Jupiter, Justice, K'naan, Kanye West, Kasper Bjørke, Katy Perry, Kavinsky, Keenhouse, Keepsake, Kelly Osbourne, Kid Cudi, Killer Mike, The Kills, Kiss, Kitsune, Kittenglitter, Knockout, The Knux, Koushik, Krazy Baldhead, Kut U Up, La Bouche, La Roux, Lady Sovereign, Ladyfinger, Ladyhawke, Laidback Luke, Lake Heartbeat, Land Of Talk, Lane Meyer, Langhorne Slim, Last Japan, Latham, Lauryn Hill, Le Corps Mince de Françoise, Lemonade, Les Sins, Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez, LexiconDon, Lightning Dust, Lil Wayne, Lily Allen, Lindsay Lohan, Linus Loves, Lisa Hannigan, Lisa Mitchell, Lisa Stansfield, Lissy Trullie, Listenlisten, Little Boots, Living Things, The Locust, Londonbeat, Loney Dear, Lorene Drive, Los Amigos Invisibles, Love Equals Death, Luckie Strike, Lucky Boys Confusion, Luke Top, Lykke Li, M.I.A., The M's, M83, Mad'House, Madcap, Madonna, Mae, Magazine, The Magic Kids, The Maine, Major Lazer, Malakai, The Mantles, Mapei, Marchand, Marilyn Manson, Marilyn Monroe, Marissa Nadler, The Mars Volta, Martin Evans, Martin Solveig , The Mary Onettes, Massive Attack, Masters At Work , Mastodon, Mates Of State, Matt Van Schie, Matty G, Mayday Parade, Mayer Hawthorne, MC Chris, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Melt Banana, Memory Cassette, Memory Tapes, Metallica, MGMT, Mi-Sex, Miami Horror, Michael Cassette, Midnight Juggernauts, Midtown, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Migraines, Miike Snow, Mike Bones, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mindy McCready, Minimalistix, Mink Deville, The Misfits, Mishka, Mission Of Burma, Mitzi, Moby, The Modern Lovers, Modeselektor, The Moldy Peaches, Momma's Boy , MONARCHY, The Moondoggies , Morrissey, Mos Def, Mötley Crüe, Mountain Man, The Movielife, Mr Oizo, MSTRKRFT, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Mu-Gen, Mujava, Munk, MxPx,, My American Heart, My Bloody Valentine, My Chemical Romance, My New Life, N*E*R*D, Nalepa, Name Taken, Naomi Punk, Narcotic Thrust , NASA, Neko Case, Neon Indian, Neva Dinova, New Found Glory, New Order, New York Dolls, Next To Nothing, Nick Lowe, Nico, NICOTINE, The Night Marchers, NightWaves, Nite Jewel, No Age, No Mercy, No Use For A Name, NoFX, Noise Ratchet, Noob & Brodinski, Nurses, O.N.O, O+S, of Montreal, The Offspring, Oh No, Omarion, Os Mutantes, Other Lives, Ours, Outkast, Ozma, Pain, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Panda Bear, Panic! At The Disco, Pansy Division, Pantera, Papercuts, Pariah, Passion Pit, Patti Smith, Peaches, Pearl Harbor, Penetration, Peppe Le Funk, Pere Ubu, A Perfect Circle, Perpetuous, Person L, Pete Yorn, Peter and The Wolf, Peter Bjorn and John, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, The Phenomenauts, Philip Glass, Phoenix, Pictureplane, the pillows, Pinback, Pink Floyd, Pink Mountaintops, Pixies, PJ Harvey, Placebo, The Plain White T's, Plastiscines, Poison the Well, Polly Scattergood, Poney Poney, Pony Pony Run Run, Pop Noir, Popo, The Postal Service, PRE, Prefuse 73, The Presets, The Pretenders, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Private, Project Bassline, Proxy, Queen, Quintron, R.I.V.E.R., Radish, Rain Machine, Rainbow Arabia, The Ramones, Rancid, The Raveonettes, Reach The Sky, Real McCoy, Realicide, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Red Hot Valentines, Reggie & The Full Effect, Relation, The Rentals, Res, Revolting Cocks, The Rezillos, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Rihanna, Rise Against, Riton & Primary 1, Riva, Rival Schools, River City High, Rob Zombie, Rock Kills Kid, Rogue Wave, Romanthony's Nightvision, Rooney, The Roots, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rufio, The Runaways, Ruth's Hat, Saetia, Saint Etienne, The Saints, SALEM, Salt-N-Pepa, San Geronimo, The Sandwitches, Santigold, Saosin, Sarah Jaffe, Saturday Supercade, Saves The Day, Say Anything, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, School of Seven Bells, Schoolly-D, Sean Bones, Sebastien Grainger, Sebastien Tellier, The Secret Handshake, the Secretions, Self Against City, The Selmanaires, Senses Fail, Set Your Goals, Settle, Sex Pistols, Sharam, Shazam, She & Him, Sheraff, The Shivers, The Shoes, Short Round, Shout Out Louds, Shower With Goats, Showoff, Shut Up Donny, Shutting Up, Sick Lipstick, The Sidekicks, Sidwho?, Silver Columns, Silverstein, Simian Mobile Disco, Simon & Garfunkel, Simon Schama, Sing It Loud, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Skankin' Pickle, Sky Larkin, Sleepy Sun, Slick Shoes, Slim Shady, Smashing Pumpkins, Smith Westerns, The Smiths, Snap!, So Many Dynamos, Social Distortion, Socratic, The Soft Pack, Soldout, Solillaquists of Sound, Solo, Son Green, Son, Ambulance, Sorry About The Fire, The Sound Of Arrows, Space, Sparrow House, Speaker Junk, Spinnerette, The Spinto Band, Spoon, St. Vincent, The Staples, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, The Starting Line, A Static Lullaby, Stephen Malkmus, Stereoheroes, Stick Figure Suicide, Stiff Little Fingers, Still Flyin, The Stooges, The Stranglers, Stretch Arm Strong, The Strokes, STS9, Student Rick, Stunt Monkey, Suckers, Sugarcubes, Sugarcult, Summer Camp, Susan Christie, The Swell Season, Swingin' Utters, Syd Matters, System Of A Down, T. Rex, T.E.D.D., Taken by Trees, Takka Takka, Talbot Tagora, Talking Heads, The Tallest Man On Earth, Tally Hall, Tapes n Tapes, Technotronic, The Teenagers, Telekinesis, Telepathe, Television, Terry Lynn, Thee Fair Ohs, There For Tomorrow, These New Puritans, Thievery Corporation, Thieves Like Us, Thrice, Thunderheist, Thursday, Tiga & Zyntherius, Tiger Army, Tilly and The Wall, Tin Machine, Tiny Masters of Today, TLC, Todd Snider, Tody Castillo, Tokyo Police Club, Tom Waits, Tommy Sparks, Tonstartssbandht, Toro Y Moi, The Tossers, The Tough Alliance, The Toxic Avenger, Trailer Trash Tracys, Travoltas, Triobelisk, Tsunami Bomb, TURZI, The Twelves, Twenty2, Two Door Cinema Club, Ty Segall, Tyler Collins, Tyler Melashenko, U2, Uffie, Ultravox, Underoath, Unearth, the Unicorns, The Used, Vampire Weekend, Van Halen, The Vandals, The Vaselines, VEGA, The Velvet Underground, The Veronicas, Veruca Salt, Vetiver, The Vibrators, The Virgins, Viva Voce, Voxtrot, The Walkmen, Warpaint, Washed Out, WAVVES, We Are Scientists, We Both Know, We Have Band, We Versus the Shark, Weezer, Westbound Train, The Whip, White Hinterland, White Lies, White Rabbits, The White Stripes, Whyioughtas, Wild Nothing, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Wire, Wolf Parade, Women, Woolfy, The Wunder Years, X-Ray Spex, The xx, YACHT, Yage, Yaphet Kotto, Yatagarasu, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yellow Fever, Yellowcard, Yo Majesty, You Me At Six, ZaZa, The Zombies, Zomby, 4 Strings, 9 Lives, 22 Jacks, 800 Octane.

Every Day is like Sunday, especially Saturday.

Ordered. I don’t think people fully grasp how excited a fresh Moleskine makes me. My old one is near and dear.

From the farm to my stomach… eggy weggs!

“There’s a good guy,” she wrote the boy. “Somewhere. I saw him for about a week. Then he went into hiding and there was just this shell of a man who left me with a level of disgust.” She needed another appletini. She hated saying appletini so she would never order them publicly.

Too early in the morning to do anything and too late to go back to sleep, she called her stand-by up instead. He was asleep so she read over the letter he had sent her earlier that day. Her foot fell asleep but she did not care.

****

I wonder when I’m going to realize that I’m not a writer and I’m not a musician. I’m not a fashion designer and I’m not an artist. I think its most likely that I will continuously pursue things I am not good at until I’m gone. Maybe that’s what people do. At least I’ve never rhymed “rain” and “again.” I appreciate a lot of things and imitation is the highest form of flattery.

I took this while waiting for my Nicole so we can get smoothies and thrift.

I’m the queen of Cheetos-town with my orange lip.
Unfaithfully yours,
Andee

One, Two, Three and to the Fo.

"Ohhh baby
I dedicate this to all the pretty girls
All the pretty girls
Its on [echo]
All the pretty girls, in the world
And the ugly girls too
Cause to me your pretty anyways baby."
-ODB: "Baby, I Got Your Money"

[I've heard this song a kagillion times and have just grasped the amazing factor of it in the past two days. I've also been listening to "Gin and Juice" and "Ain't Nuthin But a G Thang." I've also been on a Will Smith kick... Think "Miami," "Gettin Jiggy Wit It" and "MIB." I embrace my weirdness, clearly.]



I had this weird idea today in history class that the reason why humans have advanced more technologically in the past hundred years than in the previous thousand is because, prior to that, inbreeding was often encouraged in one manner or another, until it was a recognized problem, at which point the church put a big ole "NO" stamp on it. Just a thought.



There is a guy in my Medieval History class who looks like Rick from Degrassi:TNG... You know, the one who puts Terri in a coma and shoots Jimmy [aka Drake]. I want to take a picture of him for my blah-blah-blog but that is probably very rude.



Unfaithfully yours,
Andee

Double-Decker Bus

"Take me out tonight
Where theres music and theres people
And theyre young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I havent got one
Anymore."
-The Smiths: "There is a Light That Never Goes Out"

[I was jamming that song this morning like it ain't no thing. That's just how life feels when you're as nomadic as I've been for the past five years. Home is always so temporary. By not settling down in any one place for longer than a year or so, I've found that I'm more comfortable with people than places.]

Yesterday's blah-blah-blog caused quite the ruckus in the comments. It made me sad to see everyone being so hurtful to each other. Read the news. There's plenty of hate in the world and no need to add to that.

I have an obsession with Johannes Kepler lately. Carl Sagan explains why I relate to him better than I do:
"As a boy Kepler had been captured by a vision of cosmic splendour, a harmony of the worlds which he sought so tirelessly all his life. Harmony in this world eluded him. His three laws of planetary motion represent, we now know, a real harmony of the worlds, but to Kepler they were only incidental to his quest for a cosmic system based on the Perfect Solids, a system which, it turns out, existed only in his mind. Yet from his work, we have found that scientific laws pervade all of nature, that the same rules apply on Earth as in the skies, that we can find a resonance, a harmony, between the way we think and the way the world works.
When he found that his long cherished beliefs did not agree with the most precise observations, he accepted the uncomfortable facts, he preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions. That is the heart of science."
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Episode 2: The Harmony of Worlds

Unfaithfully yours,
Andee

The good guys dress in black.

"How could we know? that song, this show,
we'd learn so much about ourselves.
From Toledo, to Tokyo,
the words were scribed on every page,
and now there’s books up on our shelves.
Did you know how you would move us, did you know?
When the lights first came upon us,
and we saw The Everglow.
and the moment's magic swept us away.
and the young mans dream was almost seen so plain."
-Mae: "We're So Far Away"



Mi amiga, Cio, offered up the challenge the other day to make a list of reasons why you wouldn't date yourself.
Here is my attempt:
1. I'm not a very good cook.
2. I snore and also drool in my sleep.
3. I like "crappy" music.
4. If I have a problem with you, I'll probably write about it on dearoldlove.com.
5. I'm analytical.
6. I'll probably get drunk and tell you silly things.

That's all I have for now... Definitely harder than I thought it would be!
xoxo
andee