The Visage of the Mighty
Sometimes bad moves just make it easy for a jinx to find things. Such as when the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce thought it was a good idea to build a sandcastle bust of President Obama in a place where it might rain. The Washington Times reports that “a torrential downpour that struck Charlotte Saturday afternoon damaged the Mount Rushmore-style sand sculpture bust of President Obama — an ominous beginning to what many fear is a plagued convention.
Workers were trying Saturday afternoon to reform the base of the sculpture, built from sand brought in from Myrtle Beach, S.C., pounding and smoothing out the sand that had washed off the facade of the waist-up rendering of the chief executive.
The sand sculpture was protected from above, and Mr. Obama’s face didn’t see too much damage. But the storm was so strong that its heavy winds blew the rain sideways, pelting the president’s right side and leaving the sand pockmarked and completely erasing his right elbow.
Are You Sure This Is A Good Idea?
Sometimes the choice of imagery is so unfortunate that it diminishes rather than honors the subject represented. This is particularly true of leaders who inspire a cult of personality that precipitate tributes in bad taste.
The Obama sand bust evokes another piece of ill-fated statuary. The Marcos bust in Pugo, La Union on the road up to the spine of the Cordilleras was built in the degenerate phase of the Marcos years, when sycophancy had erased all the remaining vestiges of sound judgment. “The bust was built in the early 1980s when Mr Marcos was still in power, but fell into disrepair after he was overthrown in a popular revolt in 1986.” As the BBC notes, it was finally blown up by persons unknown in the middle of the night in 2002, possibly by treasure hunters who thought it might have contained a clue to the fabled Treasure of Yamashita.
Sick Transit Gloria Mundi
Even before it was blown up, I couldn’t help but feel twinge of sympathy each time I saw that statue. It was so hideous that not even he deserved it. One could even say the culprits did the memory of the dictator a favor by applying TNT to it.
Statuary that merely celebrates the man often has a demeaning quality quality about it. It is the monuments that memorialize an idea that stand the test of time. Thus the imagery of Mount Rushmore may inspire because it is more about America than four mortal men. The test is that no man who commissions or allows to be built a statue of himself deserves one. I guess you can’t blame a man for the pictures that souveneir manufacturers put of him on beach towels or statues chambers of commerce erect on street corners.
And for those who actually think it’s a good idea — these words of warning:
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
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The Wan erodes on his right flank … at base … such is augury.
Powers, Clinton and Jarrett astir …
A man not born of America …
The unwinding of a windage …
Errant data snubbed, at the end, by resistance …
Reduced to nullity.
Rushmore? For Obama? On what factual basis?
Outcome egalitarianism, undone, as ever, by the forces of nature.
In artistic representation as in reality.
So endeth styrofoam columns….or sand ones….
An earlier quote from Obama (was that when he was still from Kenya????)
“Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot reported:
Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability to cast and run his operation. When David Plouffe, his campaign manager, first interviewed for a job with him in 2006, the senator gave him a warning: “I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it,” he said. “It’s hard to give up control when that’s all I’ve known.” Obama said nearly the same thing to Patrick Gaspard, whom he hired to be the campaign’s political director. “I think I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Obama told him. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.””
Sometimes the choice of imagery…
Delicious cymbalism:
http://www.nationalreview.com/media/video/315656
File under: So what’s a metaphor phor?
Usually the career of a politician, especially a bad or evil man, contains enough drama to provide fodder for a theatrical tragedy. While Barack Hussein Obama is ready made for psychological dissection, such as was provided by Dinesh D’Souza in “2016: Obama’s America,” that role always appears uncomfortable on him. It is like an oversize suit placed on a child sent out to pretend that he is his father. Right out of the gate the Obama administration started with a pratfall. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cursed him with the unearned Peace Prize. From that moment it has been impossible to take him seriously.
The future focus of serious study is more likely and profitably to be the sycophants and enablers who advanced Obama than the man himself. Nobody studies Romulus Augustulus. Obama does not even rise to the historical standard of Louis Napoleon playing Napoleon III. Marcos for all his flaws was a more substantial character who lived a life in full.
Wretchard, there is ONE difference between ol’ Ozymandias and our “Dear Leader”–
And on the deity’s crumbled base did leer –
“A god I am, oh vile America, cheer:
I’ve turned your works to sand, I jeer!”
Yet e’en so do zombies try to now rebuild
The wretch’s wreck, so sterile and severe,
Their souls befuddled and their hands unskilled.
No one (thankfully) still worships Ozymandias.
An Préachán
Two things come to mind: 1. The principle of the 7 p’s (Proper prior planning prevents p*ss poor performance).
2. Something remembered (dimly) from the last time I watched The Wizard Of Oz about 50 years ago, namely the fate of the Wicked Witch of the West when rain fell on her. Bye, bye Barry and good riddance!
A statue built of sand is eerily representative of Obama the man. Sand and water is not enough to make concrete.
They built the bust with loving hands
They used the very finest sands
They built with care as love demands
Convinced that it would stay
The rain god said who is this runt
This little man, this silly stunt
To disrespect with this affront
A storm I’ll send today
The wind and lightning came and went
And when the storm was fully spent
The sandy sculpture of the gent
Had gone and washed away
And so it is with mighty airs
That thinks the public really cares
For sandy busts with vacant stares
Of some slick poppinjay
The time approaches that he’ll go
His works all sand that breezes blow
To the four winds with naught to show
As he gets washed away
Walt, I have to admit that the first time I read
‘And so it is with mighty airs’ in my mind I saw,
‘And so it is with mighty ears’
Dude does have some serious overlarge aural protuberances. He had his teeth fixed as an adult, he should consider getting his ears pinned back a little. Cosmetic surgeons can fix that.
And his Daddy didn’t love him, or even bother to get to know him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MNtzBlZWHc
That sculpture has Obamao rather resembling Idi Amin… after a nice bowl of missionary stew.
What I see from the present left and right is their hatred of repentance. This is what is so good about Mitt Romney his repentance from his old views. But the claim from the left is he do this for the ring of great power.
Both Mitt Romney and wolf smile Obama confess Jesus as their savior. If Obama wins I pray he finds repentance ,too. This is what Christian is all about repentance from sins.And repentance, I believe, becomes a higher issue in order to save the west from failure
That sand bust is racist– the sculptor should have used some Sand of Color from Hawaii.
Every campaign for president should hire an old retired comedian, say Don Rickles, and run every grand idea they come up with by him;
” What if we have a genuine beach artist build a sand sculpture of our fabulous candidate, wouldn’t that be terrific?”
” When did you start using hockey pucks for brains ?”
I believe the Political Cartoonists Union must have an agent planted in the Obama headquarters to feed them these ideas. We are going to see this image for a long time, it will become the defining picture of this administration.
How about this for a cartoon – Clint talking to a stool with a sand image of Obama that is slowly crumbling away.
A SAND sculpture……… What a wonderful (and delicate) target for Occcupy demonstrators at the upcoming convention. Will Obumble even be recognizable by the closing day of the convention?? More to the point, will his SCULPTURE even be recognizable by the end of the convention??
RF: It’s “Sic transit…”
Thus the imagery of Mount Rushmore may inspire because it is more about America than four mortal men.
As I read it, Mt. Rushmore is not about four men, but one: T. Roosevelt. I don’t know whose inspiration it is, but it seems clearly meant to associate TR with those other three. Our current Dear Leader did the same thing, albeit only verbally, comparing himself with several past greats. He received the due opprobrium for such a gesture.
I take from the visage of that “sculpture” and the one of Dr. King that art schools don’t really teach skills anymore…
Hideous.
8. Walt
Great as usual, Walt. But I kinda like this change:
“…this silly RUNT.
14. walter adams
“…Clint talking to a stool…”
This was actually better than you thought it was walter.
12. waxwing01
What I see from the present left and right is their hatred of repentance.
Oh, I don’t know about that wax. You must have missed Matthew Dowd (ex-Bush speechwriter who must be related to Maureen) this morning on the George Snaffalagaphous show. He took on both Clint and Rep. Paul Ryan (as did Democrats) calling Clint ‘bizarre’ and Ryan a liar in his convention speech.
The next thing was completely bizarre: George Will vociferously rejected Dowd’s assertion…with…perish the thought – FACTS!
There’s lots of “Republicans” who want anyone but Romney to win. And if they (and Christians) take that stance, they are contributing to their own suicide(s).
It is one thing to argue from the truth – that IS honorable. But it is rote stupid to argue on the side of your political enemies, while ignoring the truth to boot.
There is something else working here.
Why sand – didn’t they qualify for government cheese?
I’d like to see a large statue of Obasmus done in cheddar cheese … and left out in the weather for about a month.
re: sculpture of man’s ascent (or not)
The hand above reminds me of The Awakening. In decades past I’d see it at Hains point when I needed to walk off some steam – usually contemplating just how we could end the monstrosity D.C. had become – because, unlike bacon (as Glen says “everything is better with bacon”) it has become impossible to say that anything is better with D.C.. Where the slight amount of good in a few areas is just totally overwhelmed by the bad and worse in every other.
It’s humbling to observe how people, many with the best of intentions, could harm so many. A classic greek tragedy, that which we do to ourselves, wittingly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Awakening_(sculpture)
How much was spent on the sand sculpture?
Josh; NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).
Sgian Dubh; George Will and ‘facts’ in the same sentence does not compute.
walter adams; Yes, for someone claiming to be a great politician, the 0bumbler is exceptionally inept. Since politics is the art of the possible built on a foundation of compromise, inept might be too mild a term.
PA Cat; You’ve been to Hawaii?
http://www.lahaina-family-vacation.com/maui-black-sand-beach.html
Lovely place. A girl taught me to drink beer there. She taught me other things too, but this is a family club, so we’ll stop now.
Showering at Penn State is the same as voting the Democratic ticket.
> The test is that no man who commissions or allows to be built a statue of himself deserves one.
This was my basic sentiment on the question of whether or not Neal Armstrong should have received a state funeral, given that he never would have asked for one. Not that Obama would have ever done it. Armstrong wasn’t his kind of hero.
#14: That would be the political institution of the jester. Prior to Barack Obama that role was gladly taken up by such jesters as Bill Maher, the SNL cast and other professional comedians who ceased their role when Obama took office to Obama’s great detriment.
Looks like Yoda with a fat Obama face.
I’m sorry, but I just have to recommend this: the song Big Butter Jesus
http://youtu.be/f0OxLXe5YnQ
Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.
–”Mr. Tambourine Man” by Bob
Heaven does not speak. It reveals It’s decrees only by way of occurrences and events. — Mencius
I note that the Philosopher cited had some definite opinions as to what should be done with rulers who lost the Mandate of Heaven.
Subotai Bahadur
I just looked at the weather forecast for Charlotte, Sept 3 to Sept 6. Not good for sand sculptures. Scattered thunderstorms with chance of rain each day between 40 and 60 percent.
They were smart not to hold Obama’s closing speech in an outdoor stadium ….er …..um …. wait…
Mebbe it’s just me, but doesn’t the sandcastle psuedo Mt Rushmore image of King Looney Tunes Buraq seem kinda, well – racist-.
It kinda portrays him as some kind of mack daddy pimp with a big, malevolent, phony – I know a sucker when I see him – grin. It just reinforces all sorts of bad black stereotypes. Now we all know there is a lot of truth to that caricature of him, but wouldn’t that dumb ass staff of his know better?
Or was the artist of this sculpture doing a Francisco Goya, who painted his portraits of Spanish Royalty back in the day to emphasize all the fashionable frilly finery that the Royaly wore (which caused the stupid Royalty to just love his portraits), but also showed really grotesque facial features as a political comment? Mebbe his staff is just that dumb.
Or as with his poster reprise of high Stalinist art, does his staff want subliminally to convey that mack daddy image?
I have been trying to resist but I am a weak person…And like it that way.
Enter Sandman by Metallica;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmM79YadYM
Jazz version for you non-rockers, Hard Rockers, expand your horizons.
Say your prayers little one
Don’t forget my son
To include everyone
I tuck you in
Warm within
Keep you free from sin
‘Til the sandman he comes
Sleep with one eye open
Gripping your pillow tight
Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never never-land
Something’s wrong, shut the light
Heavy thoughts tonight
And they aren’t of snow white
Dreams of war
Dreams of lies
Dreams of dragons fire
And of things that will bite, yeah
(refrain)
(Whisper)
Now I lay me down to sleep (x2)
Pray the lord my soul to keep (x2)
And if I die before I wake (x2)
Pray the lord my soul to take (x2)
Hush little baby don’t say a word
And never mind that noise you heard
It’s just the beast under your bed
In your closet in your head
(refrain)
#16: I don’t know, that bust of Marcos looks pretty sick to me…
Shovel Ready! Did anyone mention Shelly?
Is the ‘desert hand’ ascending or descending?
“Someone left the sand out in the rain.”
God blows up graven images. If a statue remains okay, then it was only a man. If it crumbles to smithereens, then it may have been God or his son.
Nebbecanezzar (sp? too lazy to look it up.)
Well I can’t help but think of the Mr. Sandman song parodies. My favorite so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE0M9R1YXH0&feature=player_embedded
There’s no obvious reason to believe that President Obama’s campaign commissioned the sand sculpture nor any reason to think that the chamber of commerce saw it as anything other than a promotional gimmick. And they succeeded in that, as the major news outlets, like the Washington Post began to carry photos and accounts of the statue.
From then on it became a little bit like the President’s home-brewed beer, objectively if not intentionally, yet another piece of a memetic battleground that is extraordinarily heated. Just recently a media figure was fired for remarking, on a hot microphone, that the Romneys would be glad to host a party where black people drowned. Thus, parties, beer and statues have all become a kind battlefield of perceptions. Nothing is neutral any more and since everyone is contributing his favorite sand castle song lyrics, here’s mine.
#24 stoicheion
Never been to Hawaii myself, but my mother took a trip there some years back and sent me a postcard of one of the black volcanic sand beaches. Would love to have seen them myself.
Hate to spoil your pleasant memories of the islands– did you know King Putt and his, um, consort are planning to move there next January– if the guys at Hillbuzz are correct?
“The woman who is organizing the funding of the Obama’s post-presidential estate is Penny Pritzker (pictured above, in between the worst President since Jimmy Carter and a woman who only dresses appropriately on Halloween or April Fool’s Day), who is also in charge of raising the donations for Obama’s presidential library and museum. The two are more or less the same project, with the priority being to get the $35 million together to fund the purchase of the Obamas’ new home. It appears that Pritzker herself may contribute up to half of the total purchase price, making up the difference from whatever the Obamas could not afford and the fundraising wouldn’t cover. Pritzker is a billionaire who in recent years resolved a long-standing family feud over her late father’s vast business empire that includes the Hyatt Hotel chain as well as assorted manufacturing operations. The wealthiest families in Chicago are being leaned on heavily to contribute with Penny aggressively guilting them with ‘appeals of you don’t want the President to be homeless in January, do you?.’ That’s more or less an exact quote from Penny, if my source within her social group is not paraphrasing.
Fundraising has been lackluster, though, as there is not much interest in helping to fund either the presidential library or the Obama’s new home since Chicagoans are feeling stabbed in the back that the Obamas are abandoning Illinois for the warmer clime of Hawaii; the general consensus is that Chicagoans are waking up to the fact that the Obamas have gotten everything they could out of Chicago and are now moving on to bigger and greener pastures. Kailua offers them all the fancy restaurants, the shopping, the golf, and other amenities they like plus the sunny weather they love and it’s closer to the Pacific and Middle East where Obama believes he’ll command the highest speaking fees as an ex-US president who’ll happily denounce America for years to come for paying foreign crowds, in much the way that Jimmy Carter has earned his living since 1981.”
http://hillbuzz.org/who-is-funding-the-purchase-of-the-35-million-beachfront-hawaiian-estate-for-barack-and-michelle-obama-to-move-into-come-january-2013-2013
To quote a certain unfortunate newscaster from a few years back: Chicago is—OUT?
41. PA Cat
Sounds nice, a mansion in Hawaii. After all, it gets cold in Chicago. It’s always interesting these fellows who endlessly go on about how the rich don’t do their share, got their wealth by exploiting the poor, then end up in these mansions. The Reverend Wright also lives in a mansion.
Years ago a fellow had a word for it: ”limousine liberals”.
Lets coin a new phrase; “Mansion Malcontents”.
They will need to buy a cheap Ferrari for their homosexual security consultant to drive around.
Maybe a sit-com called the South Side Hillbillies?
Charlie don’t surf.
OT? but related in an International Left sort of way: OBAMA 2016, the movie, is well worth seeing (and hair-raising).
And another documentary, darkly comical, an expose of the United Nations, was the subject of a long and fascinating interview on CSPAN: Brian Lamb had a sit-down with its director and producer, Ami Horowitz.
“U.N. Me,” with the trailer and info at UNthemovie.com . Ami really exposes the corruption and insanity there. Interestingly, he had a crew of writers and cameramen who were “all liberals,” who’d worked for The Onion, even Michael Moore. Ami is a conservative, and says he was the only one on the shoot. But he also says that, far from holding him back, by the time the crew (originally idealistic about the organization) had had some experience with the REAL UN, they were urging him on to be even tougher! Dis-illusioned!
That last bit is really interesting: it’s just such an entering wedge of Reality that contradicted what I’d been brainwashed into believing that made me look at the whole Democratic edifice again, with a critical eye. That was the beginning of my conversion, if you will.
The “sandcastle” may be a perfect metaphor for the 0bama Administration. What’s worse is 0bama’s “economic sandcastle” policies which are wrecking American jobs and by extension America’s international standing.
0bama is huge wrecking ball gone wild. He is a loose cannon on the deck. He has got to be dumped overboard!
Leave Barack Obama Alone!
Rain washing away the sand sculpture of Obama is nature’s way of saying, “You didn’t build that.”