NOB HILL--It was hard to miss the picture of Mayor Chavez on the front page of this morning's Albuquerque Journal. It was one of those posed live-action shots that the mayor is famous for. Pat Vasquez-Cunningham of the Journal gets the credit for the original photo. But let's take a closer look at it...just because we like to play with the paper while eating breakfast.
The two guys doing the
real barrel work that morning look pretty darn amused by the whole thing...probably due to a number of things.
- If the mayor had any sense he would have taken the weight ring off the bottom of the barrel before lifting it into the truck.
- If Councilman Cadigan had any sense he would have dressed like he had some.
- And where are their "Mayor Marty's Clean Team" vests? Everybody else, from city employees to prisoners doing community service, has to wear them.
But you say, "Wait a minute. These aren't real guys working, it's a visual symbol of our civic leaders getting things done." And that leads us to the symbolism itself. And what does that barrel represent? Petroglyphs? Peace and Quiet in the valley? The wishes of most of the City Council? Heave it into the truck.
Here is a picture of a man who can get it done all by himself. Even Michael Cadigan looks like he is trying to get out of the way!
The other feature of this publicity photo concerns who is
not in the picture. For instance, where are:
- people from the trampled Village of Los Ranchos
- the rest of the City Council
- the judges and Army Corps of Engineers who went along with this
- the west side developers who contributed so heavily to his campaign
Bridges are meant to bring people together. But not this one.
The two guys doing the real barrel work that morning look pretty darn amused by the whole thing...probably due to a number of things.
8 comments:
Great post. Again.
Also, Chavez kind of looks like he has an... err.. feminine chest.
That blaring red shirt just screams "Hey Look at me, take my picture. Yoo Hoo look over here"! I need to get out of here.
Don't you just love photo ops.
good points and good observation!
Ah, the poor trampled people of Los Ranchos. Those 1200 wealthy ultra-Republican souls who are being trampled by 120,000 working, middle class Albuquerqueans. Oh, how I weep.
As West siders, we should pick a day to boycott Montano and drive through Los Ranchos during the commute.
Then the poor ,trampled Los Ranchos citizens will be lining up at ABQ city hall to expand Montano.
It says volumes that you are "anonymous" but call people you don't know names. The valley (even in Los Ranchos) is a diverse community. I know...I lived there for 20 years.
I saw this topic covered on the tube. It was pretty funny. Marty was all set for the photo op as he attacked the orange barrel with gusto. He hoisted the barrel about waist high when it started to have a life of it's own- because of the weight ring. It was at this time that the Calvary came to his rescue. The two fellows on the truck were amazed and amused at the less conventional 2-man approach of barrel removal.
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