I'm so glad I live in New York City--especially now that the cows are here.

June 26, 2000 10:28 AM

I'm so glad I live in New York City--especially now that the cows are here. My favorite ones are the huge dancing cows across the street from F.A.O. Schwartz.
posted by grumblebee (10 comments total)

The cows are great! There's some dope ones in Washington Square Park too. Has anyone seen the one by Central Park covered in blue and green USB plugs? RAD! By the way, how much does it run to actually purchase a vibrantly adorned ceramic bovine for one's own home?
posted by NickBarat at 11:15 AM on June 26, 2000

There's a proposal underway to place 1,000 fibreglass bulls in Silicon Valley:

"Dabb's fiberglass cattle drive is one of numerous so-called ``creature shows'' in the works across the county in the wake of Chicago's phenomenal success. Officials there estimated that the cows generated more than $100 million in additional tourist dollars for the city, and $3.5 million more for charity."
posted by tomalak at 11:19 AM on June 26, 2000

Will the tourist bucks hold up when every city in North America seems to be doing one of these projects? IIRC, Cincinatti, New Orleans, Toronto, and St. Paul are currently running similar kinds of public sculpture exhibits, and more cities (including my own St. Louis) are planning them for next year.
posted by harmful at 11:29 AM on June 26, 2000

The cows are cool. I saw them in Chicago. And now that I live in NYC, I too am glad the cows have come to visit. I think when the cows go to Silicon Valley, I'll go visit them. Is it wrong to be attached to a giant ceramic cow?
posted by camworld at 11:30 AM on June 26, 2000

The Big Pig Gig is where it's at. Walking around and checking them all out is a great way to spend a lunch hour or two.
posted by Mick at 11:36 AM on June 26, 2000

The only thing that saddens me is that I SO want to paint a cow of my own, but I don't have one to paint. There's this great store here in NYC called Our Name Is Mud that sells blank (white) ceramics--plates, vases, mugs, candleholders, etc.--and they have all these tables where you can sit and paint whatever you buy. I wish they sold little ceramic cows. Until they do, you can paint a cow online here (but you have to complete the free registration first.)
posted by grumblebee at 11:52 AM on June 26, 2000

can someone explain this phenomenon to me? in chicago, it turned out to be just one more way to dump dollars into already-wealthy tourist driven neighborhoods rather than drawing attention to developing communities (as was stated in the original proposal). besides, chicago didn't *really* need another reason for tourists to aimlessly wander into traffic, as is their wont...
posted by patricking at 12:21 PM on June 26, 2000

I was wondering what all the cows were about. Theres a whole bunch of them in front of City Hall which led me to believe they were some kind of moronic avant-garde artist attack on Giuliani.
I like the one made of wires.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 12:54 PM on June 26, 2000

When we do something really cool here in Chicago, you just know that their gonna rip us off in New York. What really gets me is that the guy in NYC claims that he thought the whole thing up independently - that he wasn't inspired at all by our stunning bovine display.

I better not hear any wise ass remarks from people who know that Chicago took the idea from a Swiss city either. That kinda talk will get you thrown in the river, if you know what I mean . . .

posted by aladfar at 2:54 PM on June 26, 2000

If anything, such statues can provide good entertainment: check out antlerwatch.com where they monitor the status of the Toronto Moose . Apparently they are great targets for vandalism (I believe a good betting pool can be a result of this):

"Total Antler Loss: 42.47%
62 of 146 known Antlers are currently unaccounted for.
Total Moose Loss: 8.00%
6 of 75 known Moose are currently unaccounted for."
posted by mkn at 1:53 AM on June 27, 2000