Even more milestones

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, but, as you will see, I've been pretty busy.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about something special that happened 100 years ago; specifically, the birth of my father-in-law.

As it turns out, some other pretty important stuff was happening in 1912. In fact, in the same month that Colonel was born, the first class of students started classes at the Rice Institute in Houston. To commemorate this momentous occasion, and to celebrate the even more momentous milestones of the intervening 100 years (like, for example, Henry's and my matriculations and graduations!) what is now Rice University held a incredible centennial birthday bash last weekend.

The highlight of the weekend came Saturday night, and it even overshadowed Henry's 40th reunion (although that is definitely a significant milestone).

The University put on an absolutely unbelievable lightshow in the central quad, using its lovely buildings as the "canvas" for the art. A German outfit called Urban Screen, which has done similar shows at the Sydney Opera House and the Museum Quarter in Vienna, put the 20-minute extravaganza together. 

WOW! What a show! You can see a video of it here, which can give you a small taste of what it was like in person, along with some interesting information about how it was done. Our group of friends all agreed that it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before. 

In addition to being visually amazing, the show highlighted Rice's history very nicely, and I even saw photos of some of my favorite profs in the montages. But earlier in the weekend we were treated to some more detailed remembrances of Rice history, both sublime and ridiculous, through two very interesting videos.

The first one was called "Beyond the Hedges," which refers to the hedge "fencing" around the campus that, at least when I was there, was considered to be a buffer between the idyllic campus and the real world of the rest of Houston. You can see an excerpt from the documentary here. Although I felt that I knew a fair amount about Rice's colorful history, especially since I've been reading the wonderful Rice History Corner blog, I still learned a lot from the video.This documentary focused on the period after the lurid murder case that almost robbed the as-yet-unborn institution of its birthright, which is naturally what most people know about Rice history, if they know anything at all.

So much for the sublime. The next video was all about the famous 1988 prank, when a group of Rice engineering students turned the very large, and very heavy, statue of Rice that sits in the middle of the quad, so that it faced the Library instead of the admin building. There's a picture of it in its temporary new orientation on the left here.

Of course I'd heard of this prank, but wasn't even sure when it happened, much less any other details about it. What a lark the documentary was! I couldn't find a copy of it online, but will continue to look because it was hugely entertaining. However, you can read about it here.

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Of course there was also a football game this weekend, and Rice won. However, the most interesting thing for us was the opponent. It was our own hometown, working-for-tier-one-status UTSA! Judging by the support that the team was given at this road game, I'd say they've made a good start toward the big-time, at least in the category of fan enthusiasm:

Look at all that orange!

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I'll close with some shots of another lightshow venue. We didn't get to see it in action, since it only "turns on" at dawn and dusk, and we were either still in bed or partying at these times of day during our visit. Maybe next time.

It looks pretty awesome even in dormant mode, wouldn't you say? It's called the "Skyspace" and was still under construction during our visit last year for my 40th reunion.

This time, though, we got to walk all around and over it. You can go inside and see a small enclosed space, or walk up some stairs and be in the "balcony." on the left is a picture of Henry down inside, taken while I was up top.

Here's a look at the clear blue Houston sky through the hole in the roof:

...and here's a view from just at the bottom of the installation's hill:

I found a little amusing sidelight (so to speak) as we were leaving the Skyspace and heading back to our car. The large open space (one of the few left on what's becoming a very crowded campus) is ringed by some attractive light fixtures. But their normal operation might possibly interfere with the lightshow. And when you spend that much money (and it looks like an awful lot) on an art installation, you don't want anything to interfere with it.

So inventive Rice engineers came up with the high-tech solution that you see in the light fixture on the right. The foil is on the side of the fixture closest to the Skyspace. Clever, eh?

100th anniversary celebrations, 40th reunions...lots of milestones this weekend, along with lots of fun, lots of visiting and lots of history. Whew! It was also a lot of work!

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I took off from Houston Sunday morning for my annual librarians' meeting in Washington, where I was very remiss in taking pictures. But now that I'm back home for a while, after I rest up from all this activity, I will try to get back to more frequent blogging.