(Photo credit: The T-P's Matt Hinton)Brad Pitt introduces The Pink Project.
[Today]... Pitt is slated to lead news reporters on a tour around the area's conglomeration of pink art pieces, then to issue a public call to corporations, foundations and church organizations around the world to "adopt" the blocks, for $150,000 each, to support his project.
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Eventually, Pitt said, planners will turn the all-natural pink fabric covering into novelty items, such as bags, that will be sold to raise more money.
"Why pink? For me it screams the loudest," Pitt said. "It says that this place, where so many people thrived, is still sitting there like a barren wasteland, and we can change that."
In addition to being a tool for fundraising, the giant pink pieces will, Pitt said, become the ornamentation for a nightly driving tour in the style of City Park's annual "Celebration in the Oaks" festival, albeit with a more somber focus. Expected to open to the public Tuesday evening and extend for five weeks, the tour will feature the large pieces interspersed with 1,000 smaller bulbs representing the residents who died in Katrina. All the lights will be solar-powered, he said.
In addition, the whole installation will be laid out in the precise pattern of the constellations as they glowed on the night of Aug. 29, 2005, he said.
It's incredibly difficult not to like what Brad and Angelina are doing here: pouring millions of dollars of their personal wealth into New Orleans, lending their names, their time, their connections... showing confidence and hope... unpretentiously and wholeheartedly... ya gotta give it up to them. Brad Pitt has totally won me over. Hell, I can't even begrudge him his decision not to do any more nude scenes in films.
Consider how easy it would be to be snarky or cynical about some of the details in this project-- constellations, puh-leez!-- had Pitt, (or his staff), despite good intentions, made a hollow remark or an egregious oversight that made locals cringe. Such blunders would seem almost inevitable given his high hopes and ambitions. I mean, making the lower 9th into a pink art project for touring? Seriously? Yet, Pitt has been nearly "tone perfect" throughout the process. He's doing stuff, without annoying New Orleanians. That's no small feat! I have no criticism or cynicism about his Pink Project. None at all. I can only say, truly: "Great job, Mr. Pitt. I'm proud that you call New Orleans home".
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But, "Is brown the new pink?"
In a word: Yes.
Dean Broder goes to the "pretend place" and says the GOP should nominate McCain and Huckabee for Pres and Veep, because those two candidates have shown more "simple humanity" than the others on the trumped up illegal immigration issue.
Nah gah da.
Immigration "heroes" such as David Vitter-- whose commitment to Cat 5 border walls in Tejas seems stronger than his commitment to Cat 5 flood protection in LA-- should be asked about deportation. Would he be in favor of a mass deportation after the borders are "sealed"? Would he be in favor of grassroots initiatives which aim to expose illegal immigrants and embarrass Federal and local law enforcement officials who are not arresting these potential terrorists? Perhaps such activism could begin in New Orleans, where Latino workers (who are helping to rebuild the city) can be found in higher concentrations. The basic idea here is to see how far immigration demagogues will go, and see if they'll blink at "deportation" hypotheticals. Deportation is widely deemed as "going too far" by people with "simple humanity", yet is barely far enough for the small but loud Tancredo/Buchanan wing of the GOP. And I wonder what Senatorial candidate John Kennedy will have to say about immigration? (I personally could care less, but it's a big big deal amongst conservatives.)
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Lovely and Pearlgirl were driving around the CBD recently, when the following conversational exchange occurred:
P: "There's Daddy!"
L: "Where?"
P: "Over there!"
L: "You mean that guy? That's not Daddy. That's..."
P: "Yes it is. He looks exactly like Daddy, except he has brown skin."
I really like my daughter's Kantian filter.
Seriously, when Lovely told me about that exchange, I was intensely proud as a parent.
Labels: "Race", Art, gays, Huckabee, immigration, Jolie, Lovely, McCain, oyster, Pearlgirl, philosophy, Pitt
