# Sick of the Fucking Gates **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 14, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961 "2005-02-14T03:35:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/61 "2005-02-14T16:07:30Z")
Another shrug from another New Yorker. While the fawning media coverage is very vaguely irritating, closing my eyes on the subway in the morning makes all of the tabloid covers disappear. It’s just privately funded bread and circuses. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/62 "2005-02-14T16:52:10Z")
In my opinion, the gates are… well, that’s not the point. They are Orange Motherfucking Gates. They are what they are. If you like them, frolic amongst them and have your picture taken next to one. I probably would, if I were there. My beef is with the news coverage. How can you do a news story in excess of thirty seconds on a bunch of Goddamned Orange Gates? They’re orange! They’re gates! They are orange gates. And one of the people who thought up the gates has hair of an orangey hue. Did I mention that someone has put up orange gates in Central Park? They are not purple doors, red windows, or any of that shit. No, my friend. They are orange gates. In other news, NASA is designing a spacecraft to send human beings to Mars. Well, Diane, Mars is said to be the red planet, but there’s something orange going on here in New York! Take a look at this video, if you dare! No wonder people in flyover country, which has a higher number of gates per capita than New York, think New Yorkers are insane. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/63 "2005-02-14T17:07:47Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > No wonder people in flyover country… Heh. Wait till [their next one.](http://christojeanneclaude.net/otr.html) All youse SUV-havin food-growers will be flocking out to the place while trying to decide whether to call it the AR-kan-sawz or ar-KAN-sas River. And you know what? It’ll be too late because New Yorkers will already have booked all the good hotel rooms. BAHAHAHAHAHA! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/64 "2005-02-14T18:44:32Z")
[The light](http://www.terragalleria.com/images/pacific/samo3864.jpeg)…aaagh, [the light](http://www.thesojourners.org/images/MOART6-2b.jpg)…Carol Ann…do not walk into the light… ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/65 "2005-02-14T18:50:40Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > > [@danceswithcats](#): > > > > FWIW her name is Melinda. Belinda was the good witch in Oz, I think. > > That’s _Glinda_. 😉 Oh, those “–inda”! Go, girls! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/66 "2005-02-14T20:16:40Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > My beef is with the news coverage. How can you do a news story in excess of thirty seconds on a bunch of Goddamned Orange Gates Aah - I see! If that had been a little clearer in the OP, I think you’d have gotten a lot more agreement and a lot less “You uncultured Philistine”. Haven’t had any coverage out here, so am not saturated with it, but I know the sort of thing and can synpathize. ---
**Author:** ![cards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/67 "2005-02-14T20:35:45Z")
[QUOTE=LilyoftheValley] They’re not **orange** gates! They’re **saffron-colored** gates! QUOTE] _I’m just wild about saffron…_ _and she’s just wild about me_ ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/68 "2005-02-14T20:57:03Z")
I amnot sure about hte gates,I would hazard a guess that the effect on TV is less than in person. But I admire the risk taking and imagination. Even if it were a complete failure (which some think it may be, I guess) I still admire the chutzpah. ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/69 "2005-02-14T20:58:06Z")
Is the deal about one of Christo’s umbrellas falling off the hills in California and hurting/killing someone a joke? I’ve heard that referenced a few times, but never bothered to research it. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/70 "2005-02-14T21:12:17Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > There’s no reason to think that a couple of pretentious asses can’t make something pretty. They haven’t yet… ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/71 "2005-02-14T21:20:50Z")
> [@Slacker](#): > > Is the deal about one of Christo’s umbrellas falling off the hills in California and hurting/killing someone a joke? I’ve heard that referenced a few times, but never bothered to research it. No, it actually [happened](http://www.theapesheet.com/archivethree/newart.html). > [@](#): > > On October 26, 1991, Lori Rae Keevil-Matthews was visiting Christo’s umbrella project in Tejon Pass, California. The piece was an environmental project consisting of 1,760, 485-pound yellow umbrellas planted throughout the pass. As part of the project, Christo had also installed 1,340, 485-pound blue umbrellas in Ibaraki, Japan. Keevil-Matthews was killed by the piece after a 40 M.P.H. wind pulled up an umbrella and smashed her against a boulder. “Out of respect to her memory” Christo had both pieces taken down. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/72 "2005-02-14T21:45:10Z")
> [@Slacker](#): > > Is the deal about one of Christo’s umbrellas falling off the hills in California and hurting/killing someone a joke? I’ve heard that referenced a few times, but never bothered to research it. Don’t be silly, dear boy. That’s not a joke. That’s performance art. Have you no culture? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/73 "2005-02-14T21:51:19Z")
Re the umbrellas and the 70’s shower curtains {someone stole _my_ simile}, there’s this IMHO thread: > **[WHO Does Jeanne-Caluse's Hair??](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302048)** > > I was watching the unveiling of those ridiculuous Christo arches in Central Park this morning, and noticed the artist’s wife…who the hell does her hair? She looks like the old Bozo the Clown! Shocking orange tint-electrostatic explosion…man, is she... ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/74 "2005-02-14T22:19:47Z")
I still prefer the cows. [http://prague.cowparade.com/cow/gallery](http://prague.cowparade.com/cow/gallery) ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/75 "2005-02-15T00:04:12Z")
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! Wonderful art…but diminished substantially by a horrible venue…form does not meet function here. WTF were they thinking! They should have picked this [place.](http://www.californiaskiresorts.com/gfx/trailmaps/ca12tm01f.jpg) From the top of Panorama Gondola to Hangman’s Hollow to Upper St. Anton to Saddle Bowl to Gremlin’s Gulch traversing through World Cup all the way over to Coyote down to Lower Dry Creek and into Easy Rider to the base. Another Opportunity Wasted.[sub]TM[/sub] May they live to see another Opportunity Of This Magnitude[sub]TM[/sub] and not screw it up again. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/76 "2005-02-15T04:23:59Z")
> [@RTA](#): > > Too bad that some of you folks that get to see them can’t step outside of your pinched-off and mean little perspectives for two seconds, so you can try and appreciate something intended to give you just a fleeting moment of aesthetic pleasure outside of your obviously humdrum and artless existence. Because if I can’t appreciate something you feel looks pretty, it logically follows that I must have a “pinched-off and mean little perspective?” No matter what the art was “intended” to do, I simply think it’s ugly and it’s in the wrong damn place. If that makes my existence “humdrum and artless” in your eyes, then so be it. > [@Trunk](#): > > You figure out a way to create 7500 curtained gates that can go up quickly over 23 miles, be unfurled easily and at the same time, have negligible risk of either falling over or being stolen, and have them be just as easy to remove without leaving a footprint. Okay. Do I get 20 years to figure it out? Sorry, but in an age of supercomputers and guided missile systems, gates with curtains on them (no matter how many, or how hard they are to knock down) are not a technical miracle. I think there are a number of reasons to dislike this display, some perhaps more valid than others: [ul] [li] **It’s just plain ugly** - IMHO, of course.[/li][li] **Perceived lack of talent on the part of the artists** - Many people think that any fool could do this, and it’s hard to blame them for that attitude. The way regular people look at his work and call Christo a hack is the same way that many artists look at Thomas Kinkade and call him the same. Would it be fair to say all of them are simply jealous of his success, and that there’s no other reason for their bitterness?[/li][li] **Media attention** - _Real_ technical miracles are just a 10-second blip on the news if they manage to make it on there at all. This guy is getting all the coverage he wants and then some.[/li][li] **They fucked up Central Park** - One of the few patches of nature in an urban jungle and this guy wants to fix it up so that it reminds people that they’re in middle of the city. What’s up with that?[/li][li] **They didn’t make it themselves** - Of course, it would be impossible in a project of this scope, but I think at least some people will liken it to Picasso hiring people, telling them where to place each stroke, and acting as something of a supervisor. This is probably the least valid of the complaints. [/li][li] **Pretentious artists** - Check out some of these gems from their [errors](http://christojeanneclaude.net/errors.html) page:[/ul][/li] > [@](#): > > Christo was born in Bulgaria NOT IN SEVEN OTHER COUNTRIES > [@](#): > > It is totally idiotic to call Christo and Jeanne-Claude the “wrapping artists.” > [@](#): > > In 1994 they decided to officially change the artist name Christo into : the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They have been working together since their first outdoor temporary work: “Dockside Packages, Cologne Harbor, 1961.” Because Christo was already an artist when they met in 1958 in Paris, and Jeanne-Claude was not an artist then, they have decided that their name will be " Christo and Jeanne-Claude", NOT Jeanne-Claude and Christo. > [@](#): > > There are 3 things Christo and Jeanne-Claude do not do together: > > ``` > * They never fly in the same aircraft. > > ``` What the… ? Interestingly, a large section of the errors page features some common questions about the umbrella display, _none_ of which are “Did an umbrella really kill someone,” which, at least around here, is pretty much the only question people are asking about the umbrellas. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/77 "2005-02-15T04:38:05Z")
> [@RTA](#): > > rollerblading yuppies steering around clumps of frozen dogshit I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that this, or something similar, has been an art exhibit somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/78 "2005-02-15T13:13:37Z")
While I happily admit to loving Christo’s work, I must concede the pretentious charge against him and his wife. On the other hand the same could be said about 90% of every rock and roll star that ever lived but we don’t mnake a big deal about that. Whay not? Why is it only the visual artists that are always charged with pretentiousness? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/79 "2005-02-15T13:37:40Z")
> [@El Zagna](#): > > While I happily admit to loving Christo’s work, I must concede the pretentious charge against him and his wife. On the other hand the same could be said about 90% of every rock and roll star that ever lived but we don’t mnake a big deal about that. Whay not? Why is it only the visual artists that are always charged with pretentiousness? I think rock star pretentiousness (which I also concede) is more confidence and coolness, whatever that means. Artist pretentiousness, especially what I’ve seen from “the artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude” is more just over the top silliness; it’s like they’ve made themselves into a joke that everyone but them gets. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961/80 "2005-02-15T13:42:10Z")
> [@neutron star](#): > > Sorry, but in an age of supercomputers and guided missile systems, gates with curtains on them (no matter how many, or how hard they are to knock down) are not a technical miracle. Sadly I think this pretty much sums up the whole freaking ball of wax. Some people like art. Other people think that weapons are more interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sick-of-the-fucking-gates/289961.md?page=5)