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The Peanuts Vs. Rock 'N' Roll

Posted at 12:00 PM on November 20, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis

Charlie Brown, by A.M. Kuchling under Creative Commons licensing

You remember the story: Charles Schultz was famously dissed by his hometown newspaper, so he packed up his easel and took his little comic strip elsewhere. After the rest of the world fell in love with The Peanuts and Schultz became a multi-gazillionaire, it became safe for the Twin Cities to embrace their newly deputized favorite son.

We mention this not to open old wounds, but to revisit one of the more discouraging examples of government art subsidization in the public space: the Peanuts On Parade program that is responsible for putting sculptures of Schultz characters all over our fair city. (Even its precursor, the Cows on Parade project in Chicago, was somehow less, um, cheesy.)

Still, we thought we'd finally come to some sort of acceptance. And then our favorite British music tabloid landed on our steps and the tears of rage welled up again: We get these hydrocephalic fiberglass cartoon characters led by Charlie Brown, and London gets thirty massive electric guitars led by Paul Weller. So wrong. And yet, so right.

Photo (CC) A.M. Kuchling

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