Austerity hobbled France gets festive!

[Warpy]

Christmas is coming to Paris early this year!

Tree, a sculpture by the American artist Paul McCarthy, went up today in Place Vendôme. The sculpture is the centerpiece of the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC), which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Tree also coincides with the opening of "Chocolate Factory," the artist's first solo survey in France, which in turn coincides with the grand reopening of the Monnaie de Paris.

The organizing theme for this special celebration of contemporary art in Paris appears to be what the French call le plug: Not only does Tree bear an uncanny resemblance to the flanged sex toy, "Chocolate Factory" will see workers produce thousands of chocolate figurines of Santa Claus holding this "emblem."

Chiara Parisi, head of cultural programs for Monnaie de Paris, calls the piece un grand fantasme. It's easy to laugh at the sentiment; after all, we are talking about butt plugs.

http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/10/paris-erects-an-unlikely-christmas-tree/381585/ for lots of snark and a few more examples of the artist's work

Great video at http://xin.msn.com/en-sg/video/watch/us-artist-paul-mccarthy-brings-giant-inflatable-tree-to-paris/vp-09de5127-f2df-42a8-8c41-072c35653675

[RussBLib]

2. chocolate butt plugs!

ewww.

Way to go, Sir Paul, you nasty little bugger.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

3. Of course

The first thing I think of when it comes to art and chocolate is the Golly Green Giant's butt plug. Or according to Google Translate, "Le butt plug de plaisir géant vert".

[beam me up scottie]

4. ...thousands of chocolate figurines of Santa Claus holding this "emblem."

[onager]

5. It could be worse....

Avaliable from Divine Interventions.com. No, it really is...

[beam me up scottie]

6. Mark Morford wrote a column about those.

Not a fan of his generally but his stuff makes me wish the rest of the world could be more like San Francisco.

[onager]

7. From Sophisticated Theology to...

...employment advice, international atheism, music, movies and butt plugs.

Damn, I love this group!

[beam me up scottie]

9. Me too!

I've come here when I needed support for problems that had nothing to do with atheism (or DU) and I've never been let down.

You guys rock!

[deucemagnet]

8. That picture made me do a double take.

"Wait, is that...? No, it can't be. But, yeah, it's..."