Aspiring to Greatness
Just what Ann Arbor needs: another “aspiring writer/artist.” But this one’s special; before he moves here, he wants to line up a female sponsor who’s “smart, attractive, younger than me, meaning under 30, and prepared to pay the bills” in return for “soaring conversation and passionate erotic ecstasy.” We knew there had to be a down side to A2’s strong showing on Sperling’s latest “Best Cities for Unemployed ‘Artists’ in Their Thirties to Sponge Off Younger Women” list.
Otherwise known as “humane, organic assisted suicide”.
“I knew I wanted to end it, but I didn’t have the courage to swallow the bottle of pills…It was the last few minutes that were saturated with that soaring, passionate conversation that did it, I just couldn’t take it anymore…”
posted by Sarah on January 25th, 2006 at 9:44 am eHonestly,I think this guy’s more likely to inspire homicide than suicide. It’s remarkable that he’s made it to 30. Are artist years like dog years?
posted by Nitro on January 25th, 2006 at 1:04 pm eDon’t go mocking my ad!
posted by Dave on January 25th, 2006 at 1:48 pm eAs the circles in my life get smaller……….
posted by stella on January 25th, 2006 at 5:45 pm ewhos willing to fish out a picture we can post, i’d love to have a visual to go with that ad
posted by Just a Voice on January 25th, 2006 at 6:20 pm eThe football sculpture that was stolen from in front of BW3 made World News Now.
posted by Jon T. on January 26th, 2006 at 4:57 am eAAARGH you mentioned the stupid football sculptures GOD HOW I HATE THOSE FOOTBALL SCULPTURES.
“oo, did you see that fabulous thing Chicago did with the cows? What can we do that’s like that BUT INCREDIBLY CHEAP LOOKING AND INSIPID?”
Wanted: Dude with a giant foot: some kicking required.
posted by Nitro on January 26th, 2006 at 8:33 am eThat reminds me of the old joke:
“What do you call a musician who doesn’t have a girlfriend?”
“Homeless.”
posted by Garry K on January 26th, 2006 at 9:43 am eThe football sculptures: what happens when Ann Arbor feels the need to top the Telegraph - I-94 bridge for a public-art response to a one-day event.
I really didn’t think you could get tackier than the football-bridge, but here we are. God, those things are ridculous. On the plus side, by comparison the fire hydrants look pretty damn good.
posted by Jen on January 26th, 2006 at 10:17 am e“oo, did you see that fabulous thing Chicago did with the cows? What can we do that’s like that BUT INCREDIBLY CHEAP LOOKING AND INSIPID?â€
Well, to be fair, a lot of other cities copied Chicago’s Cows (which, themselves, I believe were ripped off from Zurich). The cows actually made sense in Chicago (the stockyards) but the idea was copied exactly in New York, which was pretty stupid (Cows in NY? Why? And how did they lower themselves to aping *Chicago*). Los Angeles apparently did it with angels. I think I’d rather have footballs than angels, though at this point Ann Arbor is pretty far behind the curve on the fad.
“Wanted: Dude with a giant foot: some kicking required.”
Which, for some reason, makes me think of the ‘Super Best Friends’ South Park with the giant stone Abraham Lincoln rampaging through Washington.
posted by mw on January 26th, 2006 at 10:36 am eTotally unrelated — Jen, would you email me? I’ve got some photography questions.
lwinling[AT]umich[DOT]edu
posted by Dale on January 26th, 2006 at 10:45 am eDon’t forget the Buffalos in Buffalo, and the cars in Detroit, and the Broncos in Denver…I thought I would gag when I saw the footballs here, ugh.
Getting back to the subject of this thread, it that isn’t a perfect snapshot of the dating scene in Ann Arbor, I don’t know what is.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 26th, 2006 at 10:45 am e“oo, did you see that fabulous thing Chicago did with the cows? What can we do that’s like that BUT INCREDIBLY CHEAP LOOKING AND INSIPID?â€
The worst was the city of Midland, who did it first with the ugliest troll things I’ve ever seen, and then with foxes. It really was a tacky, pathetic plea for validation that made sense for a tacky, pathetic city like Midland. But Ann Arbor shouldn’t need to resort to it.
There’s a dating scene in Ann Arbor? I’m still trying to find it.
posted by Dave on January 26th, 2006 at 12:30 pm eI thought the cows in Chicago were an unwitting tribute to the O’Leary’s cow that started the Great Chicago Fire. Doesn’t it almost make sense to make an homage to the heifer that once burnt down your city?
Either way, it’s tough to top Toronto’s moose in the streets project for tackiness (or Canadian-ness): http://www.flickr.com/photos/davezilla/10454787/
posted by FAA on January 26th, 2006 at 1:42 pm eI seem to recall some good fish sculptures in Baltimore, and DC did “party animals” (donkeys and elephants). Both of which I thought were fun, actually.
The footballs aren’t doing it for me, though, I’ve got to admit.
posted by Bruce Fields on January 26th, 2006 at 4:07 pm ePersonally, I like the fire hyrant art here in A2…at least I haven’t seen that done to death in every other burgh in the nation.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 26th, 2006 at 4:26 pm eOn the cows:
posted by BC on January 26th, 2006 at 4:57 pm ehttp://www.cowparade.com/
… with a little luck someone will get the remaining 11 before too long. Is it fair to say that they got the ugliest one?
posted by Sketchy on January 26th, 2006 at 5:42 pm e… wouldn’t it be ironic if the missing football showed up in a parking structure?
posted by Sketchy on January 26th, 2006 at 5:43 pm eHey, Dale - I’m not running it so much anymore, but I’ll track down the details for you sometime over the weekend or early next week.
Hey, everybody else - Sorry, my email’s down and this is just easier.
On topic: I don’t mind the hydrants, but I would have preferred artists doing their own work, instead of the “imitate a well-known artist” bit they have going. Other than that, they’re not too shabby.
posted by Jen on January 26th, 2006 at 6:50 pm eonce the super bowl is over, maybe we can ship all the statues to tuscalosa or gainesville since they, too, live and die by the local college football juggernaut
posted by Tim on January 26th, 2006 at 8:37 pm eLet’s pile them up in the “Big House” and explode the whole damned thing. That would be festive.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 26th, 2006 at 10:24 pm eBoston did cod… the Cavalcade of Cod, it was. It was pretty much magnificent. They were well-built, topical, humorous, and well-decorated. I agree that the footballs look quite cheap in comparison.
posted by Boston Fan in Michigan on January 27th, 2006 at 3:37 am e…I’m actually pretty sure that the City bought those painted footballs at Target for $36 each.
I like the fire hydrants. They have a pleasant amateur-art look to them. They’re not pretentious.
posted by Nitro on January 27th, 2006 at 8:22 am eWhen did Ann Arbor ever get involved in anything done in Detroit? Seriously, there used to be a Berlin wall there; I think as a kid (between the ages of 0 and 18), I must have been in Detroit like 5 times, tops. And when we wanted a Zoo, it was Toledo.
posted by Daniel on January 27th, 2006 at 9:05 am eD.C. did elephants and donkeys…
posted by Daniel on January 27th, 2006 at 9:06 am eCincinnati had pigs — the city was once known informally as “Porkopolis”.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 27th, 2006 at 9:47 am eYou still could have gone to the Detroit Zoo, since it’s not in Detroit.
posted by Dave on January 27th, 2006 at 11:01 am eP.S. I think the city should have grafitti artists spruce up the AATA buses with some art. That would be pretty cool.
posted by Dave on January 27th, 2006 at 11:03 am eMost of the graffiti around here consists of repetative, BORING tags (punctuated by occassionally funny stencil-art).
I used to LOVE the guy who made the weird, hollowed-out faces though…they were all over the old Broadway Bridge and around Kerrytown and the north side of town. I wanted to hire him to paint one on a wall of my house. He moved, unfortunately.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 27th, 2006 at 11:10 am eThe fire hydrants are painted by children with the help of an adult. That’s why they are so charming.
posted by SS on January 27th, 2006 at 7:23 pm eIf you guys want good graffiti, you’re not looking in the right places.
posted by Chris L. on January 27th, 2006 at 8:32 pm eUhh, there is good graffiti? What is it beside overly stylized writing and cartoonish drawings?
posted by murder on January 27th, 2006 at 10:13 pm eChris L, please enlighten me. All I see these days is “Green” and his tag is BORING.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 28th, 2006 at 1:26 am e… like this face, OF?
http://ia300143.us.archive.org/1/items/avatar_tag/sketchyavatar.jpg
posted by Sketchy on January 28th, 2006 at 11:25 am eThat’s pretty cool, but that’s not the guy’s style I mentioned in the post above. His were much more primative.
posted by OFWinsurgent on January 28th, 2006 at 1:32 pm eI like a good number of the stencils around town, if we’re counting that as graffiti.
posted by Jen on January 28th, 2006 at 10:32 pm ehey OFWinsurgent!
Sketchy’s photo depicts work by “the guy you mentioned in the post above” L.R. did that in collaboration with Mary and Michael Ann back in the day. BTW I just saw some of his work exhibited at the U of M gallery in the basement of Rackham. Some outsider art exhibit. It was rad.
posted by The Dead Milkmen on February 13th, 2006 at 1:02 am eHey DM, I just saw some of the faces that have survived despite the fact the guy doesn’t live in town anymore…on the railroad overpass on Miller as you are headed west out of town. There are 3 or 4 panels of them.
posted by OFWinsurgent on February 13th, 2006 at 12:27 pm e