The Gates in Central Park
 

Any of you Yankee ( ;) ) or well-traveled Ledgies going to see this?

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/THE_...0212095436.jpg

Yeah, it sounds a little crazy. But I like crazy. And how romantic, just in time for VD, to be walking through chilly Central Park, under all that flowy fabric with your loved one(s) on your arm...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050212/D8871J600.html

Are they taking it down after awhile? I think it looks strange, all that square orangeness. I think the trees and greenery look better just by themselves. But, in reading the article, people said it was pretty, so. :shrug:
I think it looks ugly, though. :) I can't believe it cost 21 million dollars. How gauche. :laugh:

Yeah, it's only a 16-day exhibit, then everything will be taken down.

But "trees and greenery"? Amber, it's Central Park in the middle of winter... :laugh: ;)

And the artist payed the entire bill *himself*. And these little kids? I'll bet they'll *never* forget today.

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/THE_...0212150537.jpg

Looking at the picture, besides the big orange squares, I do see trees and greenery. I'm sorry, do you not see those trees? Am I having hallucinations? And, even if some of the trees don't have leaves, they still look way better to me than giant orange squares. :shrug: I know the artist paid the bill himself. What's your point? Yes, i'm sure the kids find it very wondrous. "look, kids, we put up these giant craptastic orange cloth square thingies in this beautiful park! Isn't it incredible? It's 21 million dollars worth of orange cloth squares! Isn't this artist brilliant?" :laugh: :lol: :laugh: Sorry, couldn't help myself. :xoxo:

Beautiful! Orange is my favorite color.

Amber has bad taste in artistic expression. :xoxo:

No, I just a)Don't like Orange
b) Think giant orange squares in an already beautiful park is not that cool, it sullies the look of the park.
c) Artistic expression? They're giant orange squares made of cloth. :shrug:
d) It's pretty hard to improve on the beauty of that park, and that artist definitely has not done it.
e) It looks like they're zoning off to put up a Wal - Mart
f) Have I mentioned that giant orange squares clash horribly with the beautiful nature in that park?
g) I bet that park is pissed! I sure would be if I was already gorgeous, and then someone put a giant orange shawl on me! (No offense to anyone who looks good in orange)
:lol: :laugh:
*some people like anything if someone calls it art* :xoxo:

Whatevah.
 

I like them though it is not what I would have done :cool:

I much preferred his umbrellas... :) even still, though. :shrug: That seems to me an incredible amount of resources used for the outcome. Even if I did not think it was butt ugly. :lol:

It looks like an exceptionally long carwash. I personally think it's pointless, especially to the tune of $21 million, but if people are getting some joy out of it that's nice.

I think it's cool, I like what they've done in the past. I'm going to New York next week so I'll check it out then.

Your avatar is FAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just wanted to say that - back to the scheduled programming :laugh:

I love it. Sadly I won't get to see it.

I know you didn't mean it to come out that way, but...

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Didn't you read the article? They're SAFFRON, not orange. :cool:

The Wal-Mart comment was dead-on, tho - I hadn't thought of that. Now that's all I can think of when I look at the pics. :( WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

I think it was "How romantic, just in time for VD" that did it for me. ;) :wavey:

Yes, yes, sweetie, saffron. Sorry. :laugh:
Sorry I ruined your enjoyment (really!) but i just thought it was butt ug. :shrug: :o
:xoxo:
Way to go with the VD comment! :lol:

Christ, have you ever bought saffron? :eek: An ounce costs more than I make in a year!

D'oh! I'm a dumbass. I thought I had edited/fixed that -- I typed 'VD' at first, then decided to change it for that very reason. :laugh:

A little ironic, tho, especially considering the freaky HIV strain that just popped up in New York... No glove, no love, people!!!

You didn't ruin it -- but you are one of the last people I thought wouldn't like it... :laugh:

And I read "butt ug" at "butt plug" at first. I guess it's all this talk about VD... :lol:

I saw this cool show on how saffron is made. I knew it came from flowers, but I didn't realize it was one or two little hairlike red strands from the center pistil, and then the rest of the flower is worthless. :eek: And an acre of flowers only yields a few ounces of finished spice.

And I don't even like how it tastes. BUT IT SURE MAKES A BEAUTIFUL COLOR, ESPECIALLY AGAINST DEAD SNAKY WINTER TREES WITH NO LEAVES. ;) :laugh:

And Houston would never, ever, ever do something like this, which is why it fascinates me so. If something doesn't please the drunken football/baseball/basketfall fans (and involve all their brand-new multi-multi-million dollar sports arenas), it doesn't happen here. :distress:

The most unnecessary invention ever. More unecessary than the Popeil's Showtime Roaster.

But it's exactly like the Roaster -- You set it, and forget it! :cool:

And I disagree, but not sure I want to type why. :laugh:

Wait, wait - isn't saffron yellow, anyway? That art is sooo orange. I would actually say kind of salmonish orange. No, I haven't bought saffron. right now, and often, i have one spice in my house - Rosemary. :laugh: (and salt and pepper)

Please don't, my darling. :laugh:

Um, I disagree too. :wavey:

No, it's a light orange. I bought it once. For $21. :shocked:

BWAHAHAHA!!! :laugh: :lol: :laugh:

It is not orange, it's "saffron"! :laugh:I saw the artists on the Today show. I was horrified by this until I realized that it was temporary. In that context it is neat.

[QUOTE=Nixxxed]Any of you Yankee ( ;) ) or well-traveled Ledgies going to see this?

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/THE_...0212095436.jpg
[QUOTE]

I saw it just today; took the kids into NY w/ some neighbors. What an enormous waste of $, IMO. Lots of homeless could have been fed and housed w/ that money..... it looks like a lot of orange sheets hung out to dry. Very odd.

-Lis

:nod:

I fail to see the point of it.

Bought it? Hell, I've never even heard of it until now.... :confused:

Anyway, I think it's pointless for that kind of money. I don't care if it is "saffron." :laugh:

What could $21M have bought?
Hmmm...
Let me think...
Let me go ask some of the people on the streets of New York....

Honestly, I can appreciate art. I fail to see the artistry of this. I preferred the umbrellas, too.

No need. $21M (of the artists' OWN money) = $254M for New Yorkers.

Wow - the nerve of that guy and his wife. Hanging a bunch of orange bedsheets, and pumping more than a quarter-of-a-BILLION dollars into New York's economy... :rolleyes: ;) :laugh:

-------------------------------------------------------

'The Gates' Bring $254M to N.Y. Economy

(emphasis mine, a La Strand... :D )

By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press Writer

Published March 3, 2005 at 4:14 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) -- "The Gates" was "a daring labor of love," Mayor Michael Bloomberg says and the 7,503 pieces of saffron fabric being dismantled this week leave a financial imprint: $254 million spent by visitors to the Central Park installation.

"It was like Christmas out there," said Paul Harvey, an Irish-born carriage driver located just outside the park. "Two weeks of Christmas."

Bloomberg boasted Thursday during a news conference at Mickey Mantle's restaurant on Central Park South that the intent of the event was to provide "a big, bold project that would set our city apart. We showed the world that New York is safe and exciting."

The installation featured a series of door frames or "gates," hung with fabric, spaced along 23 miles of Central Park's footpaths. It drew an estimated 4 million visitors to the park, including 1.5 million out-of-towners, between Feb. 12-27. The same period in a typical February usually sees 750,000 visitors.

There were 300,000 international guests, representing a 20 percent increase in the number of foreigners usually visiting Central Park in February, officials said. In midtown, hotel occupancy was 87 percent compared to 73 percent last February.

The artists - Bulgarian-born Christo and his Moroccan-born wife, Jeanne-Claude - picked up the entire tab for the construction and dismantling of the exhibition, financing the project with sales of their drawings and other works.

The $254 million in economic activity includes spending for hotels, restaurants and concessions and cultural institutions, as well as use of subways, buses and taxis, plus shopping and general entertainment. It does not include revenue from visitors who were here on business and would have spent money anyway.

Much of the extra cash went "into the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers," Bloomberg said.

Central Park Carriages, for example, had a 200 percent increase in the number of its horse-drawn carriage tours. Mickey Mantle's served 1,000 customers on weekend days, a figure more in line with the holiday season than the doldrums of February. For some, dinner was followed by a show on Broadway, where ticket sales went up 17 percent during "The Gates."

The park's pushcarts reported a 200 percent increase in sales. Vendor Pradit Das said he was peddling as many as 500 hot dogs and just about as many pretzels each day from his spot near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Normally, he doesn't even roll out his cart in February.

The Met, meanwhile, offered merchandise with a "Gates" theme, from T-shirts to books to caps that pulled in $4 million. Profits went to Nurture New York's Nature Inc., a nonprofit group supporting the arts and environment, including the city's parks.

"The Gates" even benefited New York cultural institutions as far away as Queens, where the PS 1 Contemporary Art Center reported a 100 percent increase in attendance.

Bloomberg noted that many of the gates will continue to stand in the park through the weekend, giving visitors another chance to experience them.

Teams hired by the artists began taking down the gates this week. The thousands of tons of steel, orange plastic and saffron-colored nylon fabric are to be recycled as everything from paint rollers and steel reinforcing bars to PVC pipes.

I usually like Christo's installations, they make me discover art and nature under a new light. My favourite is his wrapped Reichstag:



Romy

I saw The Gates last week, here are some pictures I took...


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ntralpark4.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ntralpark5.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...ntralpark3.jpg

Sorry, never liked him. (And I have a degree in art) Just not my taste. Seems just silly to me.

Somehow, they look way better in the snow. :shrug: Nice pics. :)

Me, too. I fail to see much of a point. :sorry: