Maybe it isn’t Picasso

June 4, 2023 9:23 PM

“You know, everybody’s taste in art is different. But that’s not the point.” When the Neighbors Don’t Share Your Vision (And Your Vision Includes Giant Transformer Statues). [NYT gift link]
posted by Mchelly (41 comments total)

I work in the built heritage industry, and this is a really illustrative example of the way heritage regimes meant to preserve cultural significance (in architecture, social sense of place, community and so on) can also be weaponised as a means of conformism and control, and of course, where it so often intersects with high property prices, for exclusion. I'm very much on Team Transformer.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:37 PM on June 4, 2023 [11 favorites]

The point, she continued, was historical preservation

Actually it's about ethics in gaming journalism
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:00 PM on June 4, 2023 [14 favorites]

Actually it's about having enough money to do this.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:21 PM on June 4, 2023 [8 favorites]

I think I dislike every single person involved in this story, from the NIMBYs on one side to the Father Time of Cryptobros on the other.
posted by ZaphodB at 10:31 PM on June 4, 2023 [26 favorites]

I'm all for weird art in residential neighborhoods, but boy, anyone who claims with a straight face that "A lot of people used to call me the real Tony Stark" by way of justifying his expensive toy collection is not someone I'm going to waste a lot of effort trying to defend.

I'll also say that it can be frustrating to be the neighbor of someone who gets their jollies drawing traffic to a residential area that doesn't have the infrastructure for it. It doesn't sound like this guy is selling tickets or chartering tour buses yet, but there is definitely a point at which I start to sympathize much more with the nimby side and it's when you can't find parking on your street because a bunch of tourists are there to see your next-door neighbor's Transformers statues.
posted by potrzebie at 10:40 PM on June 4, 2023 [16 favorites]

METAFILTER: Your Vision Includes Giant Transformer Statues).
posted by philip-random at 11:06 PM on June 4, 2023

This guy seems all kinds of shady to me. That whole hand wavy military intelligence story? My dad was in military intelligence, you don’t get rich from it.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:10 PM on June 4, 2023 [11 favorites]

It's interesting to compare reactions to this vs the reactions to the Flintstones House.

It's a similar story-- rich people, NIMBYism, pop culture statues-- but it's so, so much easier to root for somebody when they're not a Tony Stark-worshipping AI-pilled defense contractor.
posted by Pitachu at 11:15 PM on June 4, 2023 [11 favorites]

The girls all turned the colour of the
avocado
when he would drive by in his
...
Doradus.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 12:06 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

...when you can't find parking on your street...

You say this like it's a bad thing?
posted by daveliepmann at 12:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is that Optimus Prime?
The article says it's Optimus Prime and granted I haven't seen the latest movies, because I didn't enjoy the earlier ones, but so far as I'm aware Optimus Prime is Red, and when in robot form has a pointy head and large windowy things on his chest.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:37 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

"A lot of people used to call me the real Tony Stark"

Hahahaha, any chance you paying them to say "yes" a lot?
posted by loquacious at 2:18 AM on June 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

Oh, gross, he likes the Michael Bay Transformers?!
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:37 AM on June 5, 2023 [12 favorites]

Someone in my mother's neighbourhood has a large sculpture of a gorilla dressed as a luchador. One of my sister's neighbours (same rough area) has several game-themed sculptures in their front yard, including Lara Croft and a life-size Dovahkiin (like this one). Personally I wouldn't choose to own or display any of those things, but I find them hard to condemn if they're bringing their owners joy.
posted by terretu at 3:35 AM on June 5, 2023

“Maybe it isn’t Picasso,” she continued. “It isn’t a sculpture by Degas, but I think he’s entitled.”

Kitty Kelley nails him.
posted by chavenet at 4:13 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, gross, he likes the Michael Bay Transformers?!

I've been rewatching them and they're not that bad if you fast-forward through the hour in each film they should have left on the cutting-room floor.
posted by mikelieman at 4:29 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Some rich people get mad at other rich people for not riching the way you're supposed to rich.
posted by signal at 4:41 AM on June 5, 2023 [16 favorites]

The photo of the motorcycle parked in front of the kitchen cabinets just feels intensely weird. A lot of this just feels intensely weird but that is the weirdest to me. How annoying would it be to constantly climb around that? What the fuck.

Dude’s a Human-Like Wealth Object, I guess I shouldn’t expect him to make any sense any more.
posted by egypturnash at 4:57 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that that isn’t Optimus Prime, or the complete disregard for scale. OP is at least 1m taller than Bumblebee, often more in the source material.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:01 AM on June 5, 2023 [8 favorites]

This is definitely an article from the who-gives-a-shit-about-these-assholes department of journalism.
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:52 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I'm on team "everyone sounds terrible" in this situation, but the main guy is far and away the most terrible. The dude is creepy and sketchy and would be a horrible neighbor no matter how rich or poor he happened to be. And also, so entitled that he felt above the permitting process, which rarely ends well.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:09 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

ll also say that it can be frustrating to be the neighbor of someone who gets their jollies drawing traffic to a residential area that doesn't have the infrastructure for it. It doesn't sound like this guy is selling tickets or chartering tour buses yet, but there is definitely a point at which I start to sympathize much more with the nimby side and it's when you can't find parking on your street because a bunch of tourists are there to see your next-door neighbor's Transformers statues.

The claims about traffic are wildly exaggerated by the NIMBYs as per usual. Georgetown has significant traffic and parking problems everywhere regardless of what art decorated which houses and based on local reporting the statues were not drawing people in any kind of significant enough numbers to put strain on infrastructure beyond what's already occuring.
posted by Nec_variat_lux_fracta_colorem at 6:49 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is the most "White People Problems" thing I have seen in a LOOOONNNGGGG time.
posted by KingEdRa at 7:26 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is the most "White People Problems" thing I have seen in a LOOOONNNGGGG time.

I know that definitions of whiteness are ever-changing, but the article does point out that he was born in the Sinai peninsula to a family of Egyptian Jews. I can just about guarantee that not all of his neighbors see him as white, regardless of how other people might choose to perceive it.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:50 AM on June 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

Transformers should not have even been legal to make in the first place, but the same could be said of rich people. If this was someone making art to decorate their space with, cool, but this is some rich turd with too much money doing what every rich turd wit htoo much money does: actively make others enjoy their lives less in some measurable way that quickly aggregates into the removal of the rich part of person being the only sensible response.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:55 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

we should be so lucky that those with wealth would devote their energy to these diversions

he could be buying media and sponsoring white supremacist terrorism, I'll take Shitty Transformers thank you
posted by elkevelvet at 9:01 AM on June 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'll also say that it can be frustrating to be the neighbor of someone who gets their jollies drawing traffic to a residential area that doesn't have the infrastructure for it.

I'm reminded of this Christmas documentary I watched last year. I can't recall anyone's names or the name of the documentary, but it was about one of those "Mr. Christmas" guys who decorated so much for the holidays that the tourists and tour busses were coming through, and then Mr. Christmas moves to a place with an HMO and then lawsuits start happening.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:24 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I live on a block with an actual nuisance that keeps most of the residents awake for most of the week. Having people complain about two mute statutes as a "nuisance" really burns my biscuits.
posted by 1adam12 at 10:48 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Exactly. The future neighbors of Cop City wish that giant transformers were their problem instead of gun and bomb ranges.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:32 AM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that that isn’t Optimus Prime, or the complete disregard for scale.

I'm glad someone else said this. I feel like I'm going insane.
Every article I found says that this is bumblebee and optimus prime. The wikipedia article corroborates this. No one, anywhere seems to be talking about the fact that this is clearly not optimus prime.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:24 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wait.... This Article has a different statue on the right hand side which does appear to be a mini optimus prime. Was it replaced at some point for the current one?
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:29 PM on June 5, 2023

Ok, so Between Sept 2021 and Dec 2022 mini Prime was replaced with an unidentified blue and yellow transformer.

I assume because mini prime looked silly next to proper BumbleBee.
But all subsequent reporting has not updated that it's no longer Optimus Prime because no one cares about the truth! (Or they don't know what Optimus Prime looks like and are trusting previous reports)

I think.... that probably satisfies me.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:41 PM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

“A lot of people used to call me the real Tony Stark,” he said, referring to Iron Man’s alter ego.

Damning with faint praise.

Additionally, I don't think Tony Stark would do free PR for IP he doesn't own.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:41 PM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Seems quite restrained compared to the Headington Shark.
posted by Grangousier at 1:46 PM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think I dislike every single person involved in this story, from the NIMBYs on one side to the Father Time of Cryptobros on the other.

My long-standing position on this kerfuffle is that Georgetown and this dude couldn't have happened to a better bunch of people. At least the rest of the city gets to rubberneck and eat popcorn while they go rounds.
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:57 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

The dick who had it built has moved on, but the Pamela Anderson House abides.
posted by flabdablet at 3:38 PM on June 5, 2023

I feel like I'm going insane.

Because I'm getting all paranoid about it I was wondering if the whole thing was an LLM fever dream.
posted by Mitheral at 6:05 PM on June 5, 2023

> No one, anywhere seems to be talking about the fact that this is clearly not optimus prime.

To be honest, I didn't really look at the photos at first, but I am now considering which Autobot it actually resembles more than Optimus (the current frontrunner is Evac, from the Transformers ride.) I'm also considering whether or not this guy ordered an Optimus or just whatever Transformers-esque statue he could get. Is he a fake Transformers fan? Everybody knows Optimus should be a truck!

You have inflicted a terrible curse upon me.
posted by Pitachu at 8:52 PM on June 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think.... that probably satisfies me.

I read the wikipedia article in more depth and found the following line:

"Howard later moved the smaller 6-foot (1.8 m) Optimus Prime sculpture that was displayed outside his house onto his roof and replaced it with the current 10-foot Optimus Prime sculpture."

And I am no longer satisfied.
I've decided the best approach is to contact Dr. Howard directly, so I've done that.
I'll let you know if I hear back.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:01 AM on June 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

I was originally on team “everybody involved is terrible”, but the guy who argues that the transformers are entitled to be in an historic district because they’re technically thousands of years old? I kind of like him.
posted by tdismukes at 4:42 AM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m here for Just this guy, y’know’s journey. You people crack me up.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:01 PM on June 6, 2023 [2 favorites]