A character created by William Joyce is under attack. A giant sculpture of Dino Bob, the titular character of the picture book "Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo," sits atop the Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas.Word from the Abilene Reporter-News and the Austin American-Stateman is that the city gave the museum four months to remove the great green giant lug from the museum roof or request a permit for an extended stay. The museum prefers to move Dino Bob to a new locale and has donated some money to that end.
According to the Statesman's John Kelso, Dino Bob has been on the building for seven years and is in need of a fresh coat of paint and a wash. Apparently, birds have been marking their territory a little too aggressively. Kelso writes, "Usually, dinosaurs like Bob live out at the putt-putt golf course. But in Abilene, Dinosaur Bob, on loan from Austin artist Bob 'Daddy-O' Wade, is the town's Mona Lisa, or at least a help when giving directions. It would be kinda like kicking the hippos out of Hutto, OK?"
Abilene kids have written letters to the editor of Reporter-News. A website, www.savedinobob.com, has popped up. The town's fury is (sort of) palpable. Check out the Reporter-News story about Thursday's town protest. There's a priceless photo of a little kid ready for some serious civil disobedience. "Water cannons, be darned! Long live Dino Bob!"
Joyce and his office sent me a note about this growing story this morning. If you don't already know, Joyce is the man behind "Meet the Robinsons" and "Robots."
He's jumping into the Dino Bob stew.
The Reporter-News reported, "This week, Joyce donated money to the 'Save Dino Bob' campaign ... . Joyce said he is excited about the effort to save the dinosaur from extinction.
"'If I have to come and picket, I'll picket,' said Joyce, a Louisiana artist who is in Los Angeles working on a movie project. ...
"He is working with a Dallas animation studio on a short film based on the book 'Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo' that would debut in 2008 in conjunction with the book's 20th anniversary. A feature-length film is also a possibility."
What say you, readers? Is it time to organize a sit-in? If you do, don't sit directly beneath Dino Bob. Those birds might give you a fresh coat of paint.
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6 comments:
running low on stories ay?
Cool story.
I love how the Abilene paper calls Joyce a "Louisiana" artist. That's as rude as calling an Austin artist a Texas artist...hold on... let me drag out my soap box... and set up the microphone... tap,tap, tap...testing, testing, testing, ahem...Joyce is a Shreveport artist. I'm quite sure the folks from the great state of Texas know where Shreveport is since most of them trek over here once a month........this concludes our regularly scheduled broadcast.
Low on stories? Na. But it's good to see you back, Marshall.
Kathryn, soap boxes are always welcome if made of environmentally friendly, biodegradable, zero carbon emission materials. I'm sure you are in compliance, so broadcast away. ... Of course, I usually collect royalty fees upfront, and I require seven forms of identification to secure air time, and it's always nice if you hire union, but I'll let you slide without audit. I trust Louisiana bloggers. Shreveport, that is.
Oh, he's keen on picketing in Abilene, is he? That just proves he's never been there. It's an awful place. Infinitely more interesting with a dinosaur than not.
Thank you fro bringing such nice posts. Your blog is always fascinating to read.
I think there's something poetic about a crumbling dinosaur sitting atop a museum, Noma. There's an essay in there for ya. Or at least a kernel of an idea to work with. Museums? Dinosaurs? Extinction? Can I be more pessimistically clear?
But to clarify, "I love museums. Lots of my best friends are museums."
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