Disgraced ex-president Donald Trump once told the Times of London he had no heroes, but, nevertheless, he ordered erection of a National Garden of American Heroes before his Mar-a-Logo exile.
Nevermind that he had no location or budget. He wanted to honor the men and women who made America great, people like Daniel Boone, Kobe Bryant, William F. Buckley, Jr., Johnny Cash, Whittaker Chambers, Buffalo Bill Cody, Davy Crockett, Walt Disney, Milton Friedman, Lou Gehrig, Dr. Seuss, Barry Goldwater, Billy Graham, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Sam Houston, Whitney Houston, Steve Jobs, Vince Lombardi, Annie Oakley, Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan, Babe Ruth, Antonin Scalia, Fulton Sheen, Shirley Temple, Alex Trebek, John Wayne, and Cy Young.
Historians think that’s a bad idea. So does current president Joe Biden, who rescinded the Dead Celebrity Garden order.
More:
“Biden kills Trump’s sculpture garden of ‘American heroes,’” Nick Niedzwiadek, Politico
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Image (alternate “Heroes Garden” concept) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Two-armed robot YuMi IRB 14000 can sculpt like a Renaissance master.
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Two days before fleeing the mess he made in Washington, lame duck Donald Trump issued an executive order “establishing a statuary park named the “National Garden of American Heroes,” his reaction to the removal of statues celebrating America’s racist past. In keeping with his deep reverence for America’s history, Trump’s imaginary garden is planted with tributes to 244 legendary dead Americans like William F Buckley, Johnny Cash, Alex Trebek, Vince Lombardi, Walt Disney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Daniel Boone, Kobe Bryant, Johnny Cash, Whittaker Chambers, Julia Child, Henry Clay, Roberto Clemente, Buffalo Bill Cody, Samuel Colt, Davy Crockett, Barry Goldwater, Billy Graham, Charlton Heston, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope, Audie Murphy, Annie Oakey, Elvis Presley, Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Norman Rockwell, Babe Ruth, Fulton Sheen, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Shirley Temple, Sam Walton, and Cy Young, as well as founding fathers like John Wayne.
Also included are some notable personages who might object to inclusion in this Trump-ordered hodgepodge were they not conveniently expired: Muhammad Ali (Muslim and Civil Rights activist), Hannah Arendt (analyst of Totalitarianism), Dorothy Day (founder of the Catholic Worker movement), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (liberal feminist jurist), Samuel Gompers (labor leader), Woodie Guthrie (radical songwriter), Helen Keller (suffragist, pacifist, radical socialist, ACLU founder), Edward Murrow (journalist), environmentalists Ansel Adams and John Muir, and Civil Rights icons Medgar Evers, Barbara Jordan, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and Rosa Parks, for example.
Don’t get too excited about this. The Executive Order doesn’t specify a site for the “Garden of Heroes,”and there’s no funding, either. In other words, it’s a typical Trump construction project.
More:
“Trump orders creation of ‘Garden of American Heroes’ amid backlash over monuments,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian
“I Beg Your Garden? Trump Adds ‘Hero’ Names To Statue Garden Unlikely To Take Root,” Barbra Sprunt, NPR News
Executive Order 13934 Revised, January 18, 2021
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Image (alternate “Heroes Garden” concept) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Nina Berman explains how she took her photograph of the “King of Kings” statue at the Solid Rock Church in in Lebanon, Ohio. A Worldcrunch OneShot video.
View the short video, then read the update here.
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After developing several of those frivolous biomedical devices, sculptor Seth R. Goldstein finally made something half the population can really use, a machine that can tie your necktie. Now there’s one less excuse for not having a real job.
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In 1998, a reverential Republican Congress changed the name of DC’s National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. On Monday, a grateful nation’s corporate owners unleashed a sculptural tribute to our sainted 40th President there. The nine-foot erection is convenient to one of the airport’s Pet Relief Areas (dog owners: please do not confuse the two).
“Lunchtime on Top of a Skyscraper,” by Sergio Furnario. Based on a 1932 photograph by Charles C. Ebbets.
Don’t know why it was on a truck on Bleecker Street last Sunday, but we enjoyed it immensely.
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Cellphone photo (of a Sergio Furnari sculpture) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the birthday of American artist Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976). It’s a version of his famous hanging mobile sculptures (if you have HTML5, it moves). Here in Washington, Mr. Calder is celebrated every day by the United States Senate.
Hey! What’s new in Baltimore?
Better go back and find out.
– Frank Vincent Zappa, “What’s New in Baltimore?”
Musician and composer Frank Zappa (1940-1993) was born in Baltimore, spending boyhood years in a Park Heights Avenue row house and at nearby Edgewood Arsenal. His family moved to California in 1952, but Charm City is honoring its native son with a statute from Lithuania. There will also be free performances and a symposium at this weekend’s sculpture dedication.
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