Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Loathe, Italian Style


Welcome to palazzo palooza. Here Renaissance art multiplies faster than Angelina Jolie’s family. After putting in one pint-sized version of Michelangelo’s David which was greeted with an uproar by the neighborhood metrosexual aesthetes, the owner engaged in his own cloning experiment that resulted in more than a dozen mini-Mikes gracing the driveway. I think he stopped short. What these driveway sentries need is a realistic body paint job to rid them of their tastefully monochromatic white. Red pubic hair, anyone? Renaissance means “re-birth.” But in this case it looks more like after birth. There’s ugly and then there’s aggressively, in your face, make-your-neighbors-sign-a-petition ugly. This house is the later which has caused it to become a Los Angeles tourist attraction. Rarely is such an aesthetic achievement so richly rewarded outside of Las Vegas. Although the fact that the owner has created this monument to bad taste intentionally takes just about all of the fun out of it. You can almost feel the house winking at you from its wrought iron curly cues. Watch for the t-shirt stand. Although I must say I’m a bit disappointed by the clashing Italian statuary and the French fleur de lis. It's too timid a gesture. I would have hoped for a more provocative juxtaposition. Something more imaginative. Say, a terrazzo mosaic of OJ Simpson’s Bronco running over Lady Justice. Or better still, a window etched with an image of Osama bin Laden holding a knife to the throat of a big-eyed kitten. All in good time.

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