Day 76: Scary Clown, Chicken Car

In Santa Monica, there's the good, the bad, and the fugly.  We are landmark challenged.  We don't have a Statue of Liberty, a Liberty Bell or a Space Needle, so we'll take what we can get.  What we have is the hideous scary clown on the corner of Main and Rose, and one of my personal faves, the chicken car.  The chicken car strutted out West in 1997 by a gentleman who drove it out from Ohio.  He bought a CB radio for help with directions from the truckers, and to overhear the priceless comments: "Hot damn - I just got passed by a chicken!" It is now owned by Tommy Kendall who parks it on California and 17th street.  On our way to Aidan's school when we are groggy and running late at 8:20, the chicken car stands out from all the other Odysseys and Prius' (Priii?) -- it makes us smile.  The level of impracticality and whimsicality involved in the conception of this vehicle must be applauded.

Now back to that scary clown.  I had to google "scary clown main street santa monica" to find out some of the storied conception of such a work of (gag) art.  I am still confused.  Apparently it was meant to be a monument to ugliness, so in that respect it is a success.  The artist Jonathan Borofsky's vision was to be "an accommodation or resolution of opposites in one.  Not only does this image bring the male and female together in one figure, but also, two opposite types of performers are represented: the formal classical ballet dancer and the traditional street performer."  I wonder if substance abuse was involved...If so it would really explain, if not excuse, a lot for me.