timothy connolly wrote:
>
> Let me tell you I love bronze sculpture. Smooth female
> nudes are my personal favorites.
>
> Excuse me if I am not overjoyed at the thought of an
> imaginary character on a television sitcom gracing the
> Nicollet Mall.
>
> Then again, why not? It should fit in nicely with an
> out of scale bronze flying bird in a quasi Japanese
> rock fountain spritzing water which leaks out the
> corner of its base and a twisted mass of somewhat
> shiny metal, resembling twisted trolley track or piano
> keyboards or whatever was in the artist's mind at the
> time, that also limply spritzes water on those rare
> occasions when the pump is working.
Well, you never know. The Powers-That-Be may be onto something here.
Face it, Minneapolis isn't very good at doing original things. We do
much better when we're copying someone else, and we're not shy about
admitting it. If we can spend so much time, money, and energy
copying New York and Chicago, why not copy that little bitty town
right across the river? They did pretty well last year with that
Snoopy business, you know. What was it called? "Peanuts On Parade"?
Come on, Minneapolis, what's the sense of copying someone if you're
only going to do it halfway? Must we be forever destined to be known
as a city of half-measures? Let's copy St. Paul all the way on this
one - let's smother the city with swarms of lifesized polyurethane
statues of Mary Tyler Moore. Call it "Mary On The Move", or
something like that.
Steal a page from St. Paul's book and sell sponsorships for these
Maries. It worked for St. Paul - for example, the Downtown St. Paul
Radisson had a giant bellboy Snoopy dancing down the sidewalk in
fron of their establishment, all dressed up in his cute little
bellboy uniform, and there was a newsprint Snoopy in front of the
Pioneer Press building. Their 102 Snoopies told the tale of St.
Paul's history and personality, and we could do the same with our
Maries. Why settle for one Mary Tyler Moore, just standing on the
corner throwing her hat in the air? How about a plastic Mary Tyler
Moore standing in front of City Hall, throwing out the results of
all the public opinion polls that show no citizen support for public
spending on sports stadiums? How about Mary standing on the
unshoveled sidewalk in front of an MCDA property, throwing a handful
of salt on the walk? How about Mary standing at a bus stop, throwing
her transfer up in the air because the bus is 20 minutes late and
she now has no chance of catching the connecting bus to work? Or a
big, grinning Mary Tyler Moore in front of the new Block E
development, throwing handfuls of hundred-dollar bills in the air.
That would be a capital representation of our city's spirit.
Let's do it, Minneapolis. This could finally be the key gimmick that
will make our city the major cosmopolitan megametropolis it has
always fancied itself to be!
With tongue only half in cheek,
Mark Holtz
Downtown, Ward 7
_______________________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
