I have no problem with immortalizing the Fonz in bronze. Milwaukee shouldn't be ashamed of commemorating the Happy Days icon. I just thought a different location for the statue might be more appropriate than a downtown site. (I don't think Fonzie hung out much downtown.)
I question a Fonzie sculpture located near the Chase Plaza office tower. However, I don't object to the statue itself. I don't think it would reflect poorly on the city at all.
A statue of Jeffrey Dahmer would be a different story. That would feed into a negative image of Milwaukee, though it probably would draw loads of tourists.
I don't understand why some people are getting so bent out of shape over the Fonzie monument.
Actually, I do understand. They're snobs, elitists.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Arts agitator and Hotcakes Gallery owner Mike Brenner threw a self-described "temper tantrum" this week and vowed he'd shutter his gallery and leave Milwaukee if a proposed bronze sculpture of Fonzie, the character from the "Happy Days" TV series, is installed here.
Brenner's hyperbolic rant, made via e-mail and first reported by OnMilwaukee.com on Wednesday, was seconded Thursday by gallery owner Brooks Barrow, who vowed to follow suit.
"If Hotcakes closes, then I too will walk," wrote Barrow, owner of the Brooks Barrow Gallery in the Third Ward, in a post to JSOnline.com's Art City blog.
The Fonz sculpture, an $85,000 project of Visit Milwaukee, according to Brenner and Barrow, is a "monument to small town Milwaukee" and an icon of mediocre public art, something Milwaukee has been plagued with for years.
David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, inspired by the ruckus raised by Brenner and Barrow, weighed in with his own e-mail Thursday, sent to area media. The Fonz sculpture is a harmless novelty, he said, though it may clash with a significant public art project planned for Wisconsin Ave.
Everything in the world clashes with "The Calling."
Gordon doesn't seem to have a problem with that.
There's no question that the whiners are snobs.
What's wrong with a "monument to small town Milwaukee" anyway?
What would be a more fitting monument to Milwaukee? Would a "big city" depiction of gun violence and murder be better? Instead of Fonzie and his trademark thumbs up pose, would a statue of a thug with a gun be a more appropriate representation of the real Milwaukee?
The city would be much better served by embracing small town values than big city blight.
Are Brenner and Barrow so sensitive and so stubborn that they couldn't bear to remain in a city home to a statue of Fonzie?
Really? Is their allegiance to their community that weak?
Consider how many truly offensive things are seen on the streets of Milwaukee. Brenner and Barrow should be troubled by all that stuff, not a bronze Fonz.
If the critics don't like a Fonzified Milwaukee, they should leave and spare us the hissy fits.
The pompous and pretentious Brenner and Barrow can threaten to close their galleries. They can hold their breath until they turn blue and pass out before they pack up and move away.
And Gordon can pontificate about art in the city but I doubt he'll win over many hearts and minds.
Personally, I think Brenner and Barrow and Gordon should take it down a notch. They should go bowling. Bumper bowling would probably be best given their obvious self-esteem issues. Yes, they should rent some shoes and bowl a few games, chow down on brats and beer, snack on beef jerky. They need to loosen up.
I don't really buy the notion that the bronze Fonz will be a major tourist attraction, but it's sure to draw dramatically more visitors to the city than Hotcakes and the Brooks Barrow Gallery.
If Milwaukee residents can live with that ghastly orange monstrosity "The Calling" for all these years, I'm sure the vast majority will manage to survive with a statue of Fonzie and get by without Hotcakes.
As this debate heats up and the rhetoric becomes more extreme, I wonder where Mayor Tom Barrett stands on the issue.
Does he welcome the Fonz with open arms or does he side with the pouty snobs?
I suppose, as is so often the case, Barrett stands on the fence with one thumb up and one thumb down.
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