Its time we told the Left to shove it and if offends them - to leave for some destination where they're not offended by all things American - like Rocky The Champ.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Posted on 09/07/2006 9:39:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
YOU'D THINK someone had recommended putting a pink flamingo, disco mirror ball or white tire planted with flowers at the top of the Art Museum steps.
That's the reaction I saw in yesterday's vote of the Art Commission. You know, those hoity-toity, artsy-fartsy, holier-than-thou, Barnes-move-backing, quiche-eating, latte-loving, al Qaeda-inspired, vegan, no-nuke, save-the-whales, Green Party, white-Christmas-light-hanging, Birkenstock-wearing, Swiss-cheesesteak-eating dilettantes who've thrown the Rocky statute down the steps at the museum.
Don't kid yourself, merely putting the statue on the grounds of the museum isn't enough. It needed to be exactly where the tourists arrive expecting to see it - at the top of the steps.
And here's another thing: The entire process was a sham. Yesterday's vote was about as surprising as a meeting of Stalin's Politburo. The foundation for the new location had been poured and the cement dried before a single ballot was cast.
I'm worried that this gang will now have time on its hands to, say, try to impose a dress code at Eagles home games.
Either they forget where they are or they're part of the crowd that has a chip on its shoulder thinking we're forever living in the shadow of New York. I've never understood those don't celebrate who we are.
We're unique. This is Philadelphia, a city whose greatest cultural event is a bacchanal called Wing Bowl. We celebrate the New Year with a Mummers Parade. We eat cheesesteaks and scrapple. We idolize the Broad Street Bullies. We have warts. We aren't Beautiful People. We don't have celebrities. We re-elect mayors whose administrations are under investigation. We like simple things. We are proud of the neighborhoods where we were raised and celebrate the shore towns where we vacation.
The rest of us are happy with our station in life among cities. We've taken many national licks, but more important is our proven ability to get off the canvas. This is a town that survived Legionnaires' disease during the Bicentennial. Two MOVE fiascoes. Snowballing Jimmy Johnson. Mitch Williams coughing it up.
The railing collapse at the Army-Navy game. And the scaffolding mishap at the opening of the National Constitution Center. But always answering the bell at the next round. Like Rocky.
That's why this is more than a battle over the definition of art. Hyperbole aside, it's a battle about what defines us. Are we supposed to be embarrassed about putting a statue of a fictional boxer at the top of the steps of a world-class collection of art?
Hell, no! In my book, the Art Commission caught a break when Sylvester Stallone didn't offer to put it inside the place. Now that might be a legitimate controversy.
And this is a piece of art created for a movie, not the fake façade of a Western town in a John Wayne movie. There is a difference.
A. Thomas Schomberg created the Rocky statue. I wondered what he thought about the fuss, so I tracked him down yesterday. From the way his work has been characterized, I half expected to find him on a back lot in Burbank, Calif., tacking together a new set for "Desperate Housewives." To my surprise, I found that he's a career sculptor whose sports statuary attracted Stallone's interest many years ago.
No wonder that the seven 30-inch versions of the statute go for more than $25,000 a pop - if you can get one. Schomberg told me that not only did Stallone commission him to make the statue, but he "had a very, very vivid description of the period that he wanted me to capture in terms of the sculpture."
So, not only was it used in "Rocky 3," but Sly Stallone, Rocky himself, was the one who oversaw the making of it.
Schomberg was gracious. He told me that the Art Commission is entitled to its opinion - but so are the rest of us.
"I think that the Art Commission has a responsibility to the Art Museum, but they definitely have a responsibility to you, to me and to the people in the city of Philadelphia. They have to place it where the majority of those people want that statue. I did not object to it at the Spectrum because it plays a major role in the movie, but the top of the steps certainly plays a major role in the entire image of Rocky," he told me.
What a great idea. In a town that votes on lights at intersections, we should've had an election on this one to take the pulse of the community. And it's not over. No one said it couldn't be moved again.
In the meantime, Art Commission, I gotcher art right heah.
Its time we told the Left to shove it and if offends them - to leave for some destination where they're not offended by all things American - like Rocky The Champ.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Is this for real? That scene defines the movie, and practically a generation! Bourdieu was right about art and elitists...this is sad.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
bump~!
Rocky is no "champ."
That was a fictional movie.
That's the reaction I saw in yesterday's vote of the Art Commission. You know, those hoity-toity, artsy-fartsy, holier-than-thou, Barnes-move-backing, quiche-eating, latte-loving, al Qaeda-inspired, vegan, no-nuke, save-the-whales, Green Party, white-Christmas-light-hanging, Birkenstock-wearing, Swiss-cheesesteak-eating dilettantes who've thrown the Rocky statute down the steps at the museum.
ROFLMAO PING!
Tell us about the collection of Monets inside the museum.
Or have you ever been inside the museum?
In the meantime, Art Commission, I gotcher art right heah.
Thank you for posting this. He hit this one out of the park.
What is your problem? I've been inside the Museum and I don't see your point. I have a Monet hanging right on the wall behind my computer.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!?!?
NOT CLEANING..lol
Mine is only a big poster. Actually have 4 Monet prints. He's my favorite artist.
I've been invited to the Barnes Institute.. have you? LOL!
Don't try to tell me one of them is "Chrysanthemums".
oh dj .... you even did a white guy dance ....
LOL!
Rocky is no "champ."
That was a fictional movie.
Well, I guess I'll be signing off of FR...I'm obviously all of the above because I too hate the entire "Rocky" series and couldn't give a rat's ass whether or not they put his statute up at the museum.
I have Water Lilies pool, another water lilies and two I don't know the name of. But my favorite is:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/art/19th/painting/cc_monet001.jpg
Hey, it's a bit more dignified than the Elaine Benes dance... or, uh, my breakdancing routine in front of the future U.S. Surgeon General. ;-)
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