"Arty Sunflowers" My Lilly White Ass.

Ayone driving Interstate Highway 35 through the Central Texas region, from basically Buda to Round Rock (inclusive) will note that everything on both sides of IH-35 is ugly retail development. For a while, I was wondering what the blue structures behind the strip mall (on the highway side) were all about. The first one, I thought maybe an old-school satellite antenna, but they kept adding more. Then it became obvious that they were solar panel mounts. Okay, fine. You want to make a solar panel installation look different, and pay huge bucks for the privelege of having some artist's name on it? That's capitalism for you. But don't call it pretty.

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This is about as good looking a view of these installations as you will ever find. Note that every single person aside from this photographer, who ever sees this "art" is forced to view the urban/retail BLIGHT in which it is situated, and it looks like so much "keep austin wierd" JUNK on the side of the road.

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Ooh, they have lights. Great. Note the huge arc light illuminating the parking lot and street lights on the highway. These lights are lost in the glare, and unless you buy the "art" schtick, they are COUNTER productive.

Humbug to Gizmag for buying into it.

Update: Gizmag forgets, but these things are still here. This is as good as they ever look, due to unmown grass that is unusually green after a rain. The grass is hiding the frontage road, or else it would look worse. Click the pic to see it much bigger.