Delusion: The Spartacus 24/7 Project

I saw Spartacus the first time just a few months ago. Happened to catch part of it on Turner Movie Classics and I decided to rent it. Which was a mistake for someone like me. As a by-product of Catholic schools, I've long had a problem with arbitrary authority. And I'd never seen a movie that so closely insinuates cruelty and brutality with the trappings of class and hierarchy. For a few weeks after watching it, I found myself more pissed off than usual at the self perpetuating and aggrandizing hierarchies that we often find ourselves in.

And I thought that it would be cool to have Spartacus playing somewhere in Memphis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a years. A public performance and protest.

Then I saw this television:


I passed it by coming home from work about 2 weeks ago. It was facing Sam Cooper Boulevard, on the cusp of the Broad Avenue Arts District. Unfortunately, the day I first saw it, I was sick and didn't feel like turning around to take a picture. But it made an impression. It was turned as though for the viewing pleasure of the passing cars on Sam Cooper. And it was a console TV. Like TV trays and Lazy-Boys, console TVs really hearken back to the golden age of TV watchin'.

A TV fit for Spartacus.

Nothing like a console TV playing a movie about the struggle against hierarchy and brutality for the citizens of Memphis as they drive by.

24/7/365/Binghamton/Kubrick.

But I figured it would be gone the next day.

But it was there when I drove by a week later. No one had carted it off. Amazing. That's when I got these pictures.

Sadly it was gone the day after. Ending my Spartacus 24/7 project dream delusion.