Cathedral Talk

Originally recorded as a trial episode back in mid-2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Tom discusses whether building mega-skyscrapers next to the Empire State Building would disfigure the the New York City skyline.

SEE: 15 Penn Plaza

SEE: The Guardian (2010)—New York skyscraper to rival Empire State Building

SEE: List of the Tallest Buildings in the World

SEE: Burj Khalifa

SEE: Space Elevator

The gents discuss whether cinemas and big-budget movies are on the way out due to all the new streaming services.

SEE: List of most expensive films ever produced

Tom asks David and Zack what the traffic rules are for stopping for a school bus with an active stop-sign on a divided highway.

SEE: School Bus Laws By State—When to stop and when not to!

Zack struggles to contemplate Tyrannosaurus as a big chicken.

SEE: NYT (2019)—T.Rex Like You Haven’t Seen Him: With Feathers

SEE: Supervolcanos

SEE: Geocentric vs. Heliocentric Universes

SEE: Relativity of Simultaneity

Tom completes the "Phase 1" (1163–1170 A.D.) of his 2:1 scale Minecraft model of Notre-Dame, consisting of the vaulted double-ambulatory and above it, the second-level gallery, complete with various low flying-buttresses.

SEE: THSchutt’s Notre-Dame(2:1) build, Phase 1 (1163–1170 A.D.)

David and Tom recount their experience at the National Building Museum to see the Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition which has been open since April 2022 through September 2022, with countless graphics and interactive applications.

SEE: National Building Museum (NBM)

SEE: NBM—Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition

SEE: Museum of London—Great Fire of London (1666), Minecraft Model

SEE: Virtual Reality

SEE: Augmented Reality

SEE: National Trust, UK—Explore Virtual Ruins in Minecraft (Grian’s Corfe Castle)

SEE: Grian—Using Real Ruins to Create a Castle in Minecraft

SEE: Assassin’s Creed

SEE: Pagan Scientists at Chartres Cathedral

SEE: The Paris Fire Brigade

SEE: Deep-Cleaning of Notre-Dame’s Limestone

Zack probes Tom and David regarding artificial chimes and carillons that use recorded bell sounds rather than actual bells.

SEE: Electronic carillons

Tom recalls his experience of hearing a full peal at Bath Abbey.

SEE: Bath Abbey Bells, full peal on Oct. 17, 2021

SEE: Royal Crescent in Bath, England

Tom recounts his first trip to Notre-Dame during Easter 2007, when the 19th c. Bells where still hung for ringing in the north tower belfry.

SEE: Notre-Dame 19th c. Bells, ringing Christmas 2011 (ground level)

SEE: Notre-Dame 19th c. Bells, ringing Easter 2009 (galerie de chimeres level)

Tom and David reminisce over their joint trip to see Notre-Dame on Easter 2013, just as the new peal of bells had become operational for Eastertide.

SEE: Notre-Dame 2013 Bells, full peal “Sonnerie du Grand Solemnel”

SEE: Notre-Dame 2013 Bells, ringing Easter 2013 (Tom & David recording)

Tom shares photos provided by the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris foundation depicting the fire damage to the north tower belfry, obtained after much persistence.

SEE: Fire Damage to Notre-Dame North Tower Belfry (scroll down)

Tom discusses building the Roman Colosseum in Minecraft, demonstrating how he modeled its curvature based on the theories of Ingegner Giuseppe Cozzo, while discussing its history and influence upon Gothic architecture later on.

SEE: Tom’s Colosseum(1:1 scale) build

SEE: Tom’s Colosseum curvature calculations & plans (Excel spreadsheet)

SEE: Cozzo’s Polycentric-Curve Theory for the Colosseum

SEE: Tom’s YouTube Colosseum video

SEE: Wiki—The Roman Colosseum

SEE: Wiki—Classical Roman Arch

SEE: Wiki—Groin Vault

David gets inspired to categorize the different types of podcast listeners with his own polycentric modeling; Zack provides helpful feedback.

SEE: The Polycentric Circle of Cathedral Talk’s Listeners (MS Paint work of art)

The Cathedral Talk YouTube channel now has the first couple of podcast episodes uploaded with some nifty video footage as an optional accompaniment. More episodes are to be uploaded in the future (at unavoidably irregular intervals).

SEE: Cathedral Talk YouTube Links

More restoration news at Notre-Dame continues to be published now that we have passed the third anniversary of the fire.

SEE: FRANCE24—Notre-Dame Restoration Update for 3rd Anniversary of Fire

Tom discusses the unorthodox decisions made with the construction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City which put its categorization as a “Gothic” cathedral up for debate. David and Zack consider revisions to our overall definition of Gothic architecture.

SEE: Wiki—St. Patrick’s Cathedral

SEE: NYT Article—Restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, A Gift to NY in Time for the Pope

SEE: Wiki—Gothic Architecture

David presents his very late Christmas gift to Zack, reminding Zack to share literature he received for Christmas about cathedrals. Meanwhile, Tom shares an article about a “soundscape archaeologist” who is working to recreate the sounds that would have existed in Notre-Dame during the medieval times.

SEE: The sounds rebuilding Notre-Dame’s previous vaults (article)

SEE: Guédelon Castle

Tom, David, and Zack evaluate the experience of live music, judging what its advantages are over recorded music. Tom argues that experiencing cathedral music is one of the hardest live-music venues to replicate. The gents ponder how humans have many different ways to listen to music.

SEE: Hello Internet (podcast)

SEE: Mahler’s 2nd Symphony

SEE: Deep Listeners, by Judith Becker

SEE: Eidetic memory

SEE: The Organ of St. Paul’s Cathedral

SEE: XKCD Comic 878: Model Rail (nesting concerns)

SEE: Synecdoche, New York (movie)

SEE: Self-similarity

Tom shares his latest progress on building the twin-aisled vaulting throughout the ambulatory of the chevet for his 2:1 scaled Minecraft model of Notre-Dame.

SEE: THSchutt’s Notre-Dame(2:1) build, Phase 1 (1163–1170 A.D.)

David discusses how the Steve Jobs movie, written by Aaron Sorkin, is very entertaining yet wildly erroneous. Tom compares this with other loose adaptations of history. Zack debates how to judge characters within narratives.

SEE: Steve Jobs (2015)

SEE: The Iliad

SEE: The Trojan War

SEE: Shakespearean histories

SEE: Richard III (play)

SEE: Julius Caesar (play)

SEE: The Lord of the Rings

SEE: Saruman the White

SEE: Paradise Lost

Tom discusses how different some Minecraft players can build not only epic castles, but also the very mountain ranges that said castles can be nestled into.

SEE: NoxusBolgar’s Tephra Castle & the Town of Noxshire

Zack shows how certain player-made structures can greatly enhance the already amazing caves of Minecraft patch 1.18.

SEE: Jeracraft’s Epic Lush Cave Transformation

David shares his favorite style of building in Minecraft: cliff-side houses with a view.

SEE: Build Therapy’s Cliffside House

SEE: Spiderboy’s Cliffside House

Tom inquires about Zack’s fictitious Roomba.

SEE: Roomba

SEE: Lego Colosseum

The gents discuss why donating to Notre-Dame is a worthwhile endeavor and how they decide what makes a cause worth donating to.

SEE: Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris

SEE: 2011 Virginia earthquake (DC, MD, VA)

Tom provides more cardinal errata regarding the different ranks of catholic cardinals.

SEE: Cardinal (Catholic Church)

David discusses his new favorite Netflix movie.

SEE: Don’t Look Up (Netflix)

Tom quizzes David and Zack on the nomenclature for different vertical elements of Gothic cathedrals, having already quizzed them in Episode 3 on groundplan lexicon.

SEE: Gothic Cathedral Vertical Elements Vocabulary (matching)

SEE: Triforium

SEE: Gallery

Zack gets confused about ostriches.

SEE: Ostriches