Posted on 04/22/2007 6:39:07 PM PDT by The Mayor
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HALL OF FAME #19 THE WEEKEND THREAD T.G.I.F. at the Finest |
Every Thursday at the Finest  |
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ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL~~~
Thanks Dolly, I love that picture.
Good Morning ‘tonight’. I am the cow’s tail always. I love your flags........glorious Old Glory!
If it wasn't a political float we would have won 1st place. The judges told me after that it was the best float in the parade.
Lady Liberty is then our little daughter, Lilly.
That cute little teeny tot is your girl? She steals attention away from the flag, which is gorgeous!
I love our flag and Mrs. Mayor & friends honored it wonderfully.
Thanks for Military Tribute every week, Rus - so appreciate you for keeping it going for us.
God please protect our troops and watch over their families and loved ones at home. Thank you for the sacrifices you are all making.
That is awesome, Dolly!
What a gorgeous garden - I wish it were mine. But I’d need a full-time gardener to take care of it, because I hate to garden. :(
Thank you, Billie, for all that you do around here to make the Finest a beautiful place to be!
Hugs, Miss Luvbo, and goodnight :) - just put up the Warm Fuzzy Wednesday thread.
Wow.. was a beautiful baby.
Being surrounded all these years by my beautiful ladies, I’m somewhat the expert on beautiful ...
Piper Jane - Absolutely Beautiful!!!
The Flag was 5 X 7 and I mounted it on 2- 2X4’s and bent a piece of 1/2 inch rebar to make the flag look like it was blowing in the wind.
I have some other pics of yhat float somewhere, I need to find them because we are doing another float this year with our Church. Patriotic theme so we have to come up with some ideas.
My daughter has requested not to me Lady Liberty, she said her arm hurt holding the torch for 3 hours...
Piper Jane is just beautiful!
These [Shoes] aren't Made for Walkin'PRADA "OPENS" IN MARFAby Luke WarmPhotos courtesy Lizette Kapre, Ballroom Marfa, and the Art Production Fund West Texas gets a Long-Overdue
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| Courtesy Lizette Kapre, Ballroom Marfa, and the Art Production Fund |
| I was still bemoaning the disappearance of the Oasis Gas Station between Valentine and Fort Davis, when "our man in West Texas" called to tell me that the Oasis had "been replaced" by something or someone named Marfa Prada. When I Googled Marfa Prada, I half-expected to see the girl who sat behind me in 9th grade science class, but I soon learned it was actually Prada Marfa - a piece of art. Store as sculpture. Searching images - it appeared before me - a beautiful lighted-from-within 15 x 25 box with no unsightly utility lines or detracting parking lot. |
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| Courtesy Lizette Kapre, Ballroom Marfa, and the Art Production Fund |
| West Texas has a history of faux-ruins. Beginning in the 50s, flatcars arrived from California carrying "Riata." This huge prop became the plywood-thin mansion of Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant. The mansard-roofed prop bravely weathered the West Texas climate for years. It's last appearance was a cameo appearance in Fandango. Then there was the Oasis Gas Station for the movie Dancer, Texas, pop. 81 and finally Contrabando - a complete faux-village built just north of the Rio Grande on highway 170 that has appeared in both US and Mexican movies - at least one of them named Contrabando. But Prada Marfa takes the proverbial cake. Movie sets are meant to be art but seldom are they wry statements. Prada Marfa is (was) both. It's "Grand-opening" / showing occurred on October 1st, 2005. (My invitation was probably lost in the excitement of hurricane Rita.) When I first saw the photos of the sculpture - I knew that the glass windows and doorway probably didn't see the sunrise of October 2nd. (Actually, the vandals took three days to arrive.) |
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| Courtesy Lizette Kapre, Ballroom Marfa, and the Art Production Fund |
| A time-released time capsule. The artists and supporters of this project knew this too. Made of earth-friendly earth, this biodegradable adobe building will slowly melt back into the landscape once the looters have removed the merchandise. The slow fade to oblivion will provide countless hours of conversation for motorists driving through West Texas. Starting with simple questions like "What the hell was that?" it's sure to inspire more thoughtful dialogue - like "When is advertising art?" or "When is art advertising?" Or (for really long trips) "What is art, anyway?" My question is: If it wasn't Marfa Prada, then who did sit behind me in 9th grade science? Texas' most famous outdoor sculpture is probably the weather-worn, graffiti-covered "Cadillac Ranch" outside of Amarillo. It's been baking and freezing in the Panhandle for 30-some years now and still going strong. But like the man said about progress - there's nothing wrong with it - it just went on too long. Prada Marfa may never outlast those bodies by Fisher, but it's already become the most talked about sculpture of the 21st Century - despite the puny traffic count of highway 90. |
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| Courtesy Lizette Kapre, Ballroom Marfa, and the Art Production Fund |
| Tabloid Theory Someone (name withheld by request) has suggested that Prada Marfa isn't a sculpture at all - but a trap set by aliens wanting to abduct humans. One has to admit that a desolate West Texas highway might just be an excellent place for specimen gathering. There might be a connection with that 24-hour taxidermy shop that suddenly appeared outside of Toyah, Texas in 1998 and disappeared about two weeks later. What if that taxidermy store was to lure male specimens and "they" decided a second one was needed to lure females? Walk in for a handbag and next thing you know you're being prodded awake by Clingons. Yikes! |
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| Cruel Shoes The first batch of comments about Prada Marfa that we read (on one of the 72,000 entries on Google) was thoughtful - and mostly anonymous. One person called the sculpture "a cruel mirage." I guess if I stopped and waited an hour for it to open before figuring it out - I might call it a cruel mirage, too. As time passes, fewer people will slow down to gawk. My suggestion would be to do it again as a hologram. Let the vandals come and spray paint walls that aren't there. Better yet, it could be a convenience store / gas station hologram with a sign showing $1.85 gasoline. Now there's a cruel mirage. |
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| "I can't take 'em back, honey, I, uh, lost the receipt." Some people are concerned with what role Prada played. Was it a simple blessing or a partial sponsorship? Who cares? A bigger concern should be the foot problems that will soon arise when local women start walking around in mismatched pairs of shoes. The shoes in the sculpture were actual items from the Fall 2005 Prada collection - but from the photos they appear as solitary shoes. |
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