Coincidence???

Of all my far flung family, nephew John lives farthest away- in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to be precise.
And it's from this tropical city that the most bizarre public sculpture story comes today.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, a 59 foot high traveling rubber ducky made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's arrived and was anchored in Glory Pier in that port. It was greeted by dancing girls in yellow balloon costumes and colorful merrymakers of all ages.
The inflatable yellow duck is traveling around the world gathering fans and kudos wherever it goes. Here, the adorable bird towered over the crowds who came to welcome it yesterday.

(Photo from mercurynews.com)

 

Here's where the story gets spectacular.

As of today, a super typhoon named Usagi is headed straight for the duck's tub. The ducky crew knew about the imminent typhoon ahead of time, of course, and plan to deflate and cover it while the storm blows through. All will be, presumably, safe. But as perverse as it might seem, I'd actually love to see that sucker take off and ride the waves all the way to Hong Kong, where an earlier version of the same statue deflated earlier this year.



Mysteries of Ballman

Look at this sculpture from Johannesburg, SA.
Now look again. It's made purely of soccer balls and cable.
It is called, appropriately enough- Ballman. (OK. Go there.)
I ran across it when I was researching "sculpture in advertising", a fascinating topic in itself.
The original 36 foot high piece was created by Nike's design team along with British Ratcliffe Fowler Design to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup. According to the  fabricator, it contained 5.500 Brazilian Soccer Balls arranged to look like Real Madrid hero Cristiano Ronaldo.
At the end of the Cup, though, the balls were supposedly distributed to various  football programs throughout the nation.
But word on the web is that it still hangs (only containing 3,000, and not 5,500 soccer balls) in the Carlton Shopping Center in Johannesburg.
What I want to know is- is it still there? How many balls are in it now?
Anyone want to clear that up?