Roosevelt University occupies Chicago’s Auditorium Theater building: a massive, cubical structure. It stretches along Congress Parkway from Michigan Avenue, to the east to Wabash Avenue to the west. It is both a Chicago landmark and a National Historical landmark. This means that greedy Chicago mayors can’t tear it down or convert it into condos. It is said that Ferdinand Peck, the Chicago businessman ultimately responsible for the Auditorium Building, wanted to build the world’s largest and grandest theater, and that he wanted to bring high culture to the working class citizens of the city. Laudable goals. Indeed, both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Civic Opera had early homes here. Now, Roosevelt University occupies the aged, sturdy interior. As I entered the Michigan Avenue mouth of the building’s pedestrian passage, I was greeted by those ubiquitous green and white “What Matters” provocations that exist as the means of university advertisement. At first, it was easy to ignore those ads. They’ve evolved, however, and they’ve grown metaphorical teeth. They’re not aimed at people interested in degrees in Business Administration, or Finance, or anything like that. They’re aimed at people who seem a bit more interested in the moral, ethical, and artistic legacies we’re likely to leave behind. As I walked through the Congress Parkway passage of the Auditorium Building, I didn’t expect to consider the questions various advertisements posed. I certainly didn’t think that I’d spend much of the day thinking about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declaration that education is the real safeguard of democracy, or a “What Matters” poster stating that a picture is worth 1000 words, but that in this day of digital manipulation, perhaps words (like manipulated images) reflect not reality but an agenda. I was impressed by the intellectual elegance of the window-poster. It didn’t set up a right/wrong dichotomy or ask anyone to embrace their “inner Luddite.” Instead, it simply asked if words have lost meaning, or if they’ve simply become more important than ever. This was something I was not expecting to see so near the heart of Chicago’s tourist/shopping district. I was not expecting to read presidential quotes and stunningly sharp observations of contemporary American culture. I was not expecting to have my kettle set to boiling today…and I’m glad it happened. Though the “What Matters” posters and even window-projected videos aren’t shown here, I suspect that they are markers of what went into the creation of this image. I was largely alone in the Auditorium Building pedestrian passage, facing the cultural core of the building…the huge, ornate theater itself. I was intrigued by the play of light and color and the odd “cliché” of classical pillars, chandeliers, and references to “high culture” gleaming in wan, afternoon sunlight, while business as usual went on in the more gray regions just outside of the passage itself. I thought of it as strangely telling that the passage-darkened façade of the Auditorium Theater was a haven of color and texture in largely gray and lifeless surroundings. I rather liked the almost baleful glow of those flying-saucer chandeliers and the glassy sheen of the buffed granite (marble?) columns. In short, I’d walked through a sumptuous display of something other than what Chicago has fallen in the habit of offering. I liked what I saw, and was surprised to learn that though tickets for Auditorium Theater performances aren’t cheap, they’re not stratospherically expensive, either. Well, the good seats are a bit pricey, but the decent seats are decently priced…by “high art” and student budget standards. I rather like that. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all approaching the verge of a great weekend.