whither will you wander?

February 17, 2011 3:48 PM

Having shot to fame as the star of OK Go's video "End Love" (previously), Maria the Goose now faces possible eviction from Echo Park Lake.
posted by oneirodynia (11 comments total)

A nice flickr set of photos and videos of Maria, often with her friend Dominic.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:54 PM on February 17, 2011

The "property of the state" comment is irritating. The city is causing the problem creating the need to relocate her in the first place. Assuming her human friend is serious about the move-to-Oregon plan, what's the harm? He's clearly not going to mistreat her.

Also, can anyone speak to the legitimacy of the argument that she's state property? What if she flew/waddled over state lines?
posted by mingodingo at 4:14 PM on February 17, 2011

Man, urban gentrification is weird, especially in LA.

Up until the mid 1990s or later they used to regularly fish dead bodies out of that lake. Echo Park used to be one of the very last places you would want to go in LA, well, assuming you weren't looking for crack, and even then you'd probably rather go somewhere else like East Hollywood or the Crenshaw. I wish I had pictures of the old Echo Park because it was like unto a post apocalyptic scene from The Young Ones or Escape from New York. It used to literally be a DMZ on the border of a number of large and very active LA gangs fighting over the right to sell crack or other drugs there, a real east meets west meets south scenario.

People would drive out of their way to avoid just driving through it if they were on their way north to, say, Glendale from downtown LA, and if you know the streets and routes around Echo Park "out of their way" is a really large jog to the west or east to avoid Echo Park and it's convenient access to the start of the 2 freeway.

Heck, it still was pretty dangerous and sketchy just a few years ago, and probably still is a bit sketchy, but not like it used to be.

Now? An excessively friendly and photogenic goose. And OK Go! music videos. And jogging yuppies. So weird.
posted by loquacious at 4:19 PM on February 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Having shot to fame as the star of OK Go's video "End Love"

No matter how horrible my death, at least I will go cold knowing that line isn't in my obituary.
posted by timsteil at 4:20 PM on February 17, 2011

"bird debris"?

Jesus, the place is covered with chunks of exploded birds?

If you can't say "shit", just go with "waste". Bird waste. See?
posted by Ron Thanagar at 4:25 PM on February 17, 2011

My 4 year old loves this song, and asks for it as "the goose video". I won't tell him. I noticed after viewing 10 or so times that it's the same park (right?) as the beginning of Act II of Dr. Horrible. Any Maria sightings in that?
posted by norm at 4:39 PM on February 17, 2011

It's really nice that they're actually considering Maria's welfare in all of this:

"But Maria is a top priority now, say people involved in the discussions. She might end up at MacArthur Park Lake, a few miles away. On Thursday, a zoo biologist examined her and determined she'd be fit to stay and socialize with construction workers to satisfy her need for human contact."

I think the "state property" line is more an issue that it isn't appropriate to take living things from the park and do what you want with them. The state would really prefer that you didn't go grabbing park geese and claiming them as pets, even if they are migratory (or just really really like you), so it's not so much them claiming the goose is theirs as it is them explaining that the goose is not, in fact, yours to do with as you please.

But we're all missing the most important thing about this article, which is that it includes an adorable stipple portrait of Maria.
posted by stefanie at 4:46 PM on February 17, 2011

That goose seems pretty gosh darn awesome. Definitely the highlight of that OK Go video. Are all greylag geese this cool or is Maria an exceptional goose? They're surely not as bad as swans who are mostly dicks.
posted by mhum at 7:31 PM on February 17, 2011

After seeing the close up of Maria in the slideshow accompanying the WSJ article, I really, really do not want to be bitten by a goose. Yikes.
posted by maryr at 9:04 PM on February 17, 2011

After seeing the close up of Maria in the slideshow accompanying the WSJ article, I really, really do not want to be bitten by a goose. Yikes.

The only difference between a bird and a dinosaur is about 100 million years and a few percentage points more oxygen in the atmosphere.

And this is a warm and fuzzy goose story. We've had the debates about what evil bastards geese really are before. Maria is chasing Dominic because she thinks he's a taco.
posted by loquacious at 10:38 PM on February 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

loquacious: We don't have to take your word for it. It is in some sense one of the subjects of the film Mi Vida Loca from 1994. And also Quincanera from 2006.
posted by vacapinta at 2:39 AM on February 18, 2011