The Classy Cosmopolitan Part of the Mississippi Delta
August 13, 2022 10:46 AM   Subscribe

 
I can't think of a more appropriate set for a modern reboot of Logan's Run.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:48 AM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]


surely there is some grandiose conspiracy theory about this right
posted by glonous keming at 11:50 AM on August 13, 2022


Here's a familiar face.
posted by box at 12:00 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]


I moved to Memphis on a whim. Didn't do a lot of research beforehand. Drove across the I40 bridge at night and incredibly tired and somehow didn't notice the pyramid. Several weeks later I was back down town and saw it. I immediately pulled over and googled "giant glass pyramid Memphis."
posted by nestor_makhno at 12:18 PM on August 13, 2022 [5 favorites]


If my kids ever ask me what it felt like to live in the 20th century, I’ll show them this photo, which I took from Mud Island 10 years ago.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:27 PM on August 13, 2022 [13 favorites]


Between this, the Luxor, and the Walter Pyramid, why was there an early 90s push to build uh pyramids?
posted by geoff. at 12:33 PM on August 13, 2022


If you want a sense of scale to compare it to the Giza Necropolis and pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, hopefully this link will work:

https://acme.com/same_scale/#29.97766,31.13294,35.15553,-90.05163,17,SL,S

The Bass Pro Shop pyramid is just slightly smaller than the Khafre pyramid, though I believe the aspect ratio of the Bass Pro Shop pyramid is taller. It's also notably not aligned at all to a nearly exact astronomical north-south facing.
posted by loquacious at 12:46 PM on August 13, 2022 [11 favorites]


As someone said on Twitter a few weeks ago: In a few millennia time, dudes will be adding lead and microplastics to their food to follow the “anthropocene diet” of the great ancients who built the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid and the lost city of Miami.
posted by acb at 12:57 PM on August 13, 2022 [28 favorites]


Between this, the Luxor, and the Walter Pyramid, why was there an early 90s push to build uh pyramids?

Also the Steelcase pyramid in Grand Rapids.
posted by LionIndex at 1:05 PM on August 13, 2022 [5 favorites]


...why was there an early 90s push to build uh pyramids?
Though I was rather young at the time, the thrill and sense of hope that swept through America’s second- and third-tier cities on news of the 1984 commissioning of le pyramide du Louvre (the grandest of the grands travaux de François Mitterrand which finally put Paris on the map) are still etched in my memory.
posted by theory at 2:14 PM on August 13, 2022 [7 favorites]


surely there is some grandiose conspiracy theory about this right

idk how grandiose but the local urban ledgend revolves around a crystal skull that was placed there by the original developer. here's some info from our local alternative weekly: https://www.memphisflyer.com/the-s-issue-you-had-questions-we-found-answers
posted by microscopiclifeform at 2:29 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]


Damn, based (drumroll) on the name, I assumed this would be a temple to the funkiest of all instruments.
posted by kersplunk at 3:01 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]


Interesting and mildly ironic that the builders of the Memphis pyramid reached across oceans and thousands of miles for their inspiration with the Cahokia mounds only a few hundred miles upriver.
posted by jamjam at 3:08 PM on August 13, 2022 [5 favorites]


- Previously on the blue

- I still think that the main motivation for building it in the first place is Gateway Arch envy.

- I would have guessed that the crystal skull came from Dan Aykroyd's vodka label, since he and Isaac Tigrett were partners in House of Blues.
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:08 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]


If there's a pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee - then what do they have in Cairo, Illinois?
posted by bartleby at 3:26 PM on August 13, 2022 [2 favorites]


I wrote that Memphis Flyer piece linked earlier, and let me assure you all that the full and true story of how the Great American Pyramid came to be built is both much stranger and much more corrupt than you can possibly imagine. The Bass Pro thing is the least interesting part of the story.
posted by vibrotronica at 3:35 PM on August 13, 2022 [20 favorites]


And please allow me to self-link to 48 Hours Inside The Bass Pro Pyramid.
posted by vibrotronica at 3:41 PM on August 13, 2022 [12 favorites]


If there's a pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee - then what do they have in Cairo, Illinois?

My whole family's from that region. There was a whole thing there where they named their towns after great historic places: there's a Paris, a Troy, a Dresden, a Vienna, a (New) Madrid, a Moscow, a Milan... Only a few of those are pronounced the way you'd think. There's a Hayti, pronounced HAY-TIE, and some people say it's after Haiti and others say it isn't.

Cairo doesn't have a pyramid, but the city of Paris TN has a 1:20 perfect replica of the Eiffel Tower in a quiet little park that's usually empty.
posted by mochapickle at 4:44 PM on August 13, 2022 [3 favorites]


Between this, the Luxor, and the Walter Pyramid, why was there an early 90s push to build uh pyramids?

Also the Steelcase pyramid in Grand Rapids.


The Sacramento Ziggurat was built in 1997.


If there's a pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee - then what do they have in Cairo, Illinois?

IBIS AND JACQUEL. A FAMILY FIRM. FUNERAL PARLOR. SINCE 1863.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 4:53 PM on August 13, 2022 [13 favorites]


If there's a pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee - then what do they have in Cairo, Illinois?

Syrup
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:25 PM on August 13, 2022 [13 favorites]


And please allow me to self-link to 48 Hours Inside The Bass Pro Pyramid.

Wow, this place really needs one of those Ikea horror novels written about it.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:20 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


and Nashville has The Parthenon of course
posted by glonous keming at 6:25 PM on August 13, 2022 [3 favorites]


You're gonna make me go off on one of my 'WHY don't we have World's Fairs and International Expositions anymore? They produce such interesting architectural leftovers!' rants.
Eiffel Towers! Montjuic fountains! Atomiums!
Knoxville still has its Sun Sphere from '82, right?
posted by bartleby at 6:51 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]


Sunsphere? Recently reopened!
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:01 PM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]


We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
posted by migurski at 10:14 PM on August 13, 2022 [5 favorites]


Indy has it too:
The Pyramids are three pyramid-shaped office buildings in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. They were constructed between 1967 and 1972 by the College Life Insurance Company (now part of Americo Life, Inc.) using a design by architect Kevin Roche. They are noted for their abstract quality of the opacity of the concrete walls which face the nearby highway and the reflectivity of the glass curtain walls that face the landscaped grounds.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:52 AM on August 14, 2022 [2 favorites]


I love the Indy Pyramids, precisely because they're so unexpected. Indianapolis isn't a bad town--I've been there a few times for Gen Con, and it's pretty easy to get around in--but the architecture generally isn't much of a much, and it was a bit of a shock to be tooling around, looking for my motel, and all of a sudden these Blade Runner-esque towers are there. (Kind of like not understanding how weird and 1970s-SF Oral Roberts University is in relation to the rest of Tulsa until you see it for yourself.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:01 AM on August 14, 2022 [2 favorites]




Back in '09 I was working a job down in Las Vegas and my boss was very excited to stay at the Bass Pro hotel/casino. I was surprised it was a thing at the time, but well it does seem so very American when I think about it. The "feature" of a balcony overlooking retail space is just so on the nose dystopic, I'm not sure I would be able to take it seriously if I read it in a book.
posted by calamari kid at 3:14 PM on August 14, 2022 [1 favorite]




You're gonna make me go off on one of my 'WHY don't we have World's Fairs and International Expositions anymore? They produce such interesting architectural leftovers!' rants.
bartleby

They do still happen, just not in the US. The US hasn't hosted one since either 1962 in Seattle, or 1984 in New Orelans, depending on how you define World's Fair/Expo (the 1984 Expo was technically a "Specialized Expo" not a "World Expo" as defined by the International Bureau of Expositions, the world expo governing body). The 1984 one has the dubious distinction of being the only exposition to declare bankruptcy during its run, so that might explain why America lost interest in hosting them.

But they've been happening consistently since then around the world. The last World Expo was actually held this year in Dubai, having been delayed by Covid from the planned 2020 date. The next one will be in Osaka in 2025. And those are general World Expos, there are various Specialized Expos held all the time between the main ones.
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:40 AM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]


You're gonna make me go off on one of my 'WHY don't we have World's Fairs and International Expositions anymore?

One answer is that the internet and television make it so that people don't have to drive across country and check out an exhibition to find out what other countries might look like anymore.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:07 AM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]


There was a whole thing there where they named their towns after great historic places: there's a Paris, a Troy, a Dresden, a Vienna, a (New) Madrid, a Moscow, a Milan...

I've been lazily planning a vacation where we visit all of "The World" without leaving Texas. (Carthage, TX; Athens, TX; Paris, TX, etc.) The more effort I put into it makes it look like we'll have to wait until retirement so we can take enough time off to do it properly.

vibrotronica, loved your self link the last time Bass was on the blue. Thanks for sharing again!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:20 AM on August 16, 2022


As star gentle uterus points out, the world’s fair still happens every five years. I’ve attended 3 of the last 4, skipping Dubai for a variety of reasons including Covid. The ones in both Nagoya and Shanghai featured some architectural marvels; Milan felt a little more temporary.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:30 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]


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