City Hall Bullshits And Strongarms The Way For Rocky Statue At PMA; Inky Goes Along For The Ride
It’s rare that you see a piece as blissfully ignorant of the facts in the Inky as today’s piece on the Rocky statue by Michael Vitez. It concerns this morning’s hearing by the city’s Art Commission concerning whether or not to move the much-debated Rocky statue to the foot of the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At issue: The Art Commission has long been deadlocked over the statue’s worth in a classic clash of art and commerce. In other words, everyone knows that, artisically, the statue is a giant piece of shit, and frankly, a cloying embarassment to this city’s long and illustrious art history; meanwhile, it’s a major attraction for fannypacking, rubberneckin’ tourists. This part is not news. What is, however, is that in anticipation of the hearing, the city has already gone ahead and done this:
City crews last week poured a cement foundation on the lawn, just north of the steps, where the 2,000-pound, 8-foot statue of Rocky Balboa will be placed if the vote is in favor.
Yeah, that’s right, they’ve already started putting the thing up. You know, just in case. The City Hall excuse is that, oh, if we hadn’t ‚Äî and if the statue move gets approved ‚Äî they wouldn’t be ready. And can you blame them? City Hall is never ready for anything, much less fucking Rocky Week. (Yes, we are having a “Rocky Week.” More on this retarded monstrosity later.) So instead, Vitez’s piece contains lots of lip service about how much the city respects the Art Commision, what an important piece of Art-capital-A the Rocky statue is, and meanwhile, not much mention, really, of how much of a done deal this all is. Just like the casinos. Just like Murderdelphia. Just like every other piece of shit legislation the Street administration has been pushing through lately in the mad dash to lame-duck-ness. If it sounds like we’re pissed, well then you guessed right. The Rocky statue is FUCKING UGLY and our city is run by UNSOPHISTICATED RUBES.
Phew. Sorry about that. Just needed to vent a little bit.
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