Although a little delayed, I figured that I would write a review on [c]The Gates[/c] that caused some controversy back in February...

Basic Info: Artist's name: Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Title: The Gates
Dates: February 12th through the 26th 2005
Location: Central Park in NYC
Media: 7,532 16foot high frames from which hang rectangles of heavy saffron-colored nylon fabric.


The idea for [c]The Gates[/c] first came to creators, Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the year 1979, during a period when many artists were working directly with the landscape. They both desired a location which could turn nature into theater. They eventually found that Central Park in New York City, which lay deep in the heart of a city of towers and outlandish gestures, would be the ideal "stage" setting.
It has taken Christo and Jeanne-Claude twenty-six years of planning, fundraising, and proposing in order to have their ideas come to life. Finally, on January 22nd of 2003, the major of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, announced that a permit would be signed to allow Christo and Jeanne-Claude to begin constructing their fabrication. In the twenty-three miles of walkway they have placed around 7500 sixteen foot frames which each hold a rectangular piece of saffron colored nylon fabric which flows freely with the wind.
[c]The Gates[/c] have been described as a series of pictures with its endless spectators occupying that lower halves of each individual gate. The installation allows common, everyday individuals to become part of a piece of artwork in a small way. Most New Yorkers seem to appreciate [c]The Gates[/c] for the right reasons. Mainly the color and excitement of it all has brought a light into the common February gloom. It has also made many of its viewers more conscious of the parks serpentine design and perhaps even more aware of the park's genius designer, Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead.
Although [c]The Gates[/c] was put up for only sixteen days, I believe that the effects of this piece of artwork had a number of different individuals will stay with them for a long time. Although [c]The Gates[/c] is a triumph in and of itself for conceptual installation art, I believe that that twenty-one million dollars spent to produce this project could have been put towards a far nobler cause. Considering the overwhelming amount of devastation existing in this world with world hunger and war, I am sorry but money like this should be put toward something more substantial then decorating a public parkway for sixteen days.

For a humorus viewpoint of this artwork please check out this site and watch the video...

On [c]Friday March 18th[/c] , deep inside a guarded room far from gathering protesters, [c]Terri Schiavo [/c] on stopped receiving the vitamin-enriched fluid that keeps her alive. Doctors removed the feeding tube of America's most famous brain-damaged patient after a Florida judge rejected efforts by Republican leaders in Congress to stall the end of her feeding. Unless congressional Republicans can get the tube restored, medical experts said, Schiavo will die within two weeks.
The removal came after a dramatic sequence of legal arguments that began Friday morning when the House Government Reform Committee issued "subpoenas" to Schiavo, a woman who has been unable to speak for 15 years; her husband, Michael Schiavo; and several doctors and employees of her hospice, ordering them to appear at a congressional hearing March 25. Then, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee formally invited Michael and Terri Schiavo to testify on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's statement pointedly noted that it is a federal crime for anyone to interfere with a person's testimony before Congress.

I don't think legislative bodies or agencies have business in a court proceeding," Greer told a lawyer representing the House Committee on Government Reform during a hastily called teleconference. "The fact that you -- your committee -- decided to do something today doesn't create an emergency.

There was a brief pause, and then a lawyer stationed at the hospice asked Greer whether his order would go into effect immediately. Greer's answer was "Yes."

As long as someone is alive, there is hope," said Giovanna Brann, 53, who drove to the hospice from her home in nearby Largo. "If you love someone so much, you don't pull the plug.

Schiavo's feeding tube has been removed twice before, most recently in 2003 when a law pushed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) gave him the authority to override Greer's orders and restart Schiavo's tube-feeding six days after it had been stopped. The law was later declared unconstitutional.
The legislative focal point of the case has now shifted to Washington. The U.S. House and Senate agreed in principle Thursday to pass legislation that would move jurisdiction in the case to the federal courts, effectively leaving Greer powerless. But the two legislative bodies were unable to reach a consensus before adjourning.
Now the Senate, whose members had planned to take two weeks of vacation, plans to reconvene Monday to debate a bill aimed at saving the life of Schiavo, 41. The prospect of Schiavo's death inflamed emotions in the Capitol on Friday as lawyers in Washington and Florida did battle.



All in all, the pictures of Terri seeming to smile or responding to touch are fakes . She moves involuntarily, and by taking enough video footage or photos, you can always sift through them and find ones that seem to show signs of life. The tragic fact is she has no life left in her. She has died once already, now she is dying a second time, day by day, hour by hour, on television and in the press. The fact is plain and simple: Terri Schiavo is brain dead . When we think of a 'brain', the shape we picture is the cerebral cortex. The space in her head where that organ should be is filled instead with empty space and pockets of loose cerebrospinal fluid.
Where is the public voice brave enough to say to those demonstrators, "Look, we know you think you're saving a life, but you're being manipulated by people who want to stir you up for what they really want, people who don't give a damn about Terri Schiavo"? Where is the voice calm and reasoned enough to say, "This poor woman isn't even alive...she has no brain."