There was a great segment on NPR's All Things Considered earlier this week on a billboard campaign for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
The billboards are positioned as if they're informational plaques for paintings, with the city scenes below cast as the works of art. The people of Los Angeles become part of the exhibit. For example, one billboard over a particularly nasty stretch of L.A. freeway reads, "Still Life (Sheet Metal and White Lines on Asphalt)." Another positioned over classy restaurants on Third Street, where sharply-dresed valets line the curb, reads, "Men Running with Keys."
It's not all fluff, either. Reporter Andy Bowers points out one of the billboards, towering over a Starbucks that had just opened in the "working class" neighborhood of Echo Park. The title of the piece? "Gentrification."
I couldn't get the images, the idea out of my head. I really started looking around at things, and how everyday scenes might be cast in an artistic study of modern life. Tonight as I walked onto campus, past the omnipresent parking guard in the booth at the Maile Way gate, I paused as a woman in a beat up Mazda forked over three dollar bills. In my mind's eye flashed the caption, "The Cost of Higher Education."
I never liked billboards, and I'm very glad they're outlawed here — where advertising laws are so restrictive, even soda machines have to be covered up lest they be cited as commercial blights. But inescapable social commentary is probably one of the most appealing uses for the medium I've seen. (Moreso than wedding proposals, at least.)
Pardon the 'meta moment,' but as I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing with the new site setup, I want to share some pictures that didn't make it into an entry.
;) | Katie really loved her Elmo birthday cake... even though dad ruined it by covering it with saran wrap earlier in the day. When it came time to pull it off, Elmo came off with it! |
;) | Birthday number three was the first time Katie figured out the "blowing" thing. One breath, four candles (one for good luck — weird local tradition), just like that. |
;) | Conversely, she actually seemed a little bored with the "unwrapping" thing. She took her time, using only one hand. Then again, she had only one wrapped gift, so maybe she was just savoring the moment. |
;) | Katie loved the Fisher Price "magic water" kitchen set Jen and I picked out for her. She always liked her toy food and utensils, and the kitchen made the whole chef fantasy complete. |
;) | Katie's other big present was a tricycle. She figured out how to pedal on her own incredibly fast. This is one of my favorite photos to date... if only to prove she's not a baby anymore. |
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