Public Art, Munich Style

So Santa Clarita has this giant bear statue in Valencia Heritage Park. I named him once when he spent a week in City Hall, but I can't remember what name I gave him (Franklin?). Anyway, he's a part of the CA Bear Project (hmm that's kind of a weak link), which is an attempt at some CA-wide public art... I say attempt because I'm pretty sure Franklin (?) is one of the only art bears.

Munich, however, has the Lion Parade (and the website is awesome).

When I first got there, I saw one or two of these lion statues. They were painted and kind of random and I wasn't really sure what they were doing...but no, they're EVERYWHERE. I don't think you can walk 100 feet without encountering a lion. And I'm pretty sure no two lions are the same. Some of my favorites:

This one has a stein. How appropriate.


Neopolitan?


Art, a bench, and a trashcan: quite the multitasker.


I think this one is having an identity crisis.

So yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. I think the SCV should adapt the bear project into something equally cool, although I'm struggling to come up with a smaller animal that lives there...besides, like, the coyote. The coyote parade would not be very impressive.

On a mostly unrelated note: now that I have had German beer, I can never drink another beer again.