One of our suburbs had this bright idea...I think for a fundraiser...and pigs appeared on street corners. They're all painted with a theme in mind...corn, tourism, etc.
Then again, we have the "butter cow" sculpture every year at the state fair.
Actually, it was Zurich where one of the local Chicago businessmen (a shoe store owner actually) saw them. And since unlike most of us, he has Pharoah Richard II on his speed dial, a couple of months later a new major civic art initiative was born.
So who do we have to kill to see pictures of this cow created from other cows' secretions?
DEAN
After poking around the state fair website, I found one of the most disturbing photo albums in the history of photo albums. I didn't find the butter cow (there's like 650 photos and I'm NOT going through them all) but I DID find this:
Make your own joke.
If you're bored and want to see some truly strange images, go to www.iowastatefair.org/fairphotos.html and see a bunch of photos from the 2001 fair displayed in random fashion. You can also go to www.iowastatefair.org/photos/ and just click on each photo. They apparently weren't smart enough to put up an index page to keep you from the file directory.
Ah yes, a fun Friday night in Iowa...cruising the goat herds, checking out the prize animals, just enjoying the carefree life of a young Iowan. Of course the really rebellious kids sometimes get into sheep instead of goats.
I haven't seen it in awhile, but I remember that there was a Quetzocoatl snake statue on the south end of Cesar Chavez Park. I remember thinking that it looked like a big turd since it was brown. A couple months ago Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the Tech Museum and did some stuff with kids. They all made big, decorated fiberglass shark statues. They were all colorful and cool looking so the city put up a bunch all over downtown. After a couple of weeks they were thinking of taking them down because many people vandalizing them. Some are still up but are in danger because some blind people say that they violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Anyway I'm rambling, so that's it.
"Kent Brockman here once again at The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, where a complete evacuation has taken place. Details are sketchy at best, so we've taken what little information we have, added our own theories, and concluded that whatever the likely disaster, it's most likely the work of our former president Richard M Nixon, even though he is rumored dead." -Kent Brockman
I remember that snake! It was a pile of poo, especially to my mom. I always remember her saying when she found out that they'd be making that snake statue "They're using my tax dollars to make a pile of poo?"
As for the sharks, they still have them there the last time I went to San Jose back in September. I thought those were pretty cool.
We had dog statues all over Ketchum, Idaho this past summer and then this fall we had horse statues all over areas of Somerset and Morris Counties here in NJ - the NY Times had an article about this cultural phenomenom this past fall and the posters on the NYT Arts Forum roundly bashed the whole concept. Pretentious hacks that they are.
Stylin' and Profilin' - Custom Made from Head to Toe.....courtesy of Michael's of Kansas City
Just off campus at Penn State, there is a statue of a pig.
On campus, the Joe Paterno bronze statue looks eerily like a mini-Korean War memorial, which in turn is a bastardization of a PSU alum/professor design. But that's just not as odd as the Grange putting in a pig statue at the home of the Nittany Lions.
Aaron Thomas BTW, any other non-religious statues called "shrines"?
A few blocks from my apartment, there used to be a really cool stature of an elk. That's right, an elk. I couldn't figure out what possible symbolism an elk could have for the city of Somerville, but a friend told me, "Look across the street, moron!" where an Elks' Lodge was located. So, I'm kind of sad... I was hoping to hear the legend of a heroic elk herd whose rampage had cut off a British retreat and facilitated one of the Continental Army's earliest victories in the Revolutionary War, y'know, a really cool early American history story that never gets told on Boston's "Freedom Trail" tour or something. BUT NO... it's a symbol for a freakin' Elks' Lodge... I mean c'mon, even the seagulls in Salt Lake City have a real purpose... BTW, the elk statue has been removed. Now, I am sad.
"Come to the Dark Side... You Know You Want To!" The Evil Buddha, spreading Alcoholism, Bad Humor and Chaos since 1971
I'd like this tie better if it was a little brighter, but that just might be my crap-ass work monitor making it look so dark. Either way, not a bad tie at all.