The Clown Building is located on the corner of Rose Avenue & Main Street, in Venice California.
According the the website www.roadsideamerica.com: "Sculptor Jonathan Borofsky's creation is three stories tall, standing on a large crate above the entrance to a Long's Pharmacy (likely a relatively new tenant.) The clown was created in 1988 with aluminum, steel and painted fiberglass. Borofsky's intent was to capture the festive street performer mashed up with a "formal classical ballet dancer."'
Most "roadside attractions" (giant dinosaurs, jack-a-lopes, world's largest ball of string, statues of Paul Bunyan, etc) are fond along rural highways, designed to get drivers to stop and spend some money.
The Clown Building was just designed to add to the overall ambiance of Venice. And in that case, it's very successful. Kind of like this mural "Isle of California" (1972) located at 1616 Butler Avenue over in West Los Angeles. More on the "funky side" of Venice in a bit.
Last night I came across a link to a church in Denver called Scum of the Earth Church. I kid you not, there actually a church called Scum of the Earth: http://www.scumoftheearth.net/. According to their website, they are a church for "the left out and the right brained."
Their name comes from a passage in the New Testament: "When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." (St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians, 4:12,13).
Wow, that's an amazingly gusty name for a church.
Thinking of the crowd in and around Venice, I wonder what kind church - if any - this gritty outdoor piano player (on the Venice Boardwalk) would ever consider being part of? Maybe that's the last thing he'd ever consider. Maybe, but maybe not. My guess is a church that goes out of their way to welcome anyone and everyone, or as their website says "the left out and the right brained."
I'm wonder if our friends in Denver would ever consider a church plant in Venice?
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