Allen Ginsberg "greeted them wearing nothing but boxer shorts on his head and a do not disturb sign hung on his penis."

Them = George Harrison and Pattie Boyd and John and Cynthia Lennon. 

The Beatles winced at this and left shortly afterwards, Lennon hissing at Allen, �You don�t do that in front of the birds.� It was their loss....

Artist whitewashes a crappy old motel, including the palm trees that surround it.

"As you walk the western edge of the trendy hamlet of Silver Lake on the city�s storied Sunset Boulevard...  you�ll see dozens of people standing precariously in the middle of four lanes of traffic to Instagram the piece, which is about as social-media ready as a public art piece could possibly be...."

Projection, as the work is named, could have been staged at any of the city�s derelict motels, really. But [Vincent] Lamouroux�who lived in the neighborhood years ago�had his eye on this one in particular. The Googie-style sign on top reads Sunset Pacific but everyone here calls it the Bates Motel, partly because it�s on the corner of Bates Street, but mostly because this moniker appropriately conveys its freaky Psycho vibes.

Vacant for over a decade, the motel�s ability to attract drug activity and gun violence has turned this stretch of Sunset into a kind of no-man�s land. During his days as a city councilman, LA�s mayor Eric Garcetti tried unsuccessfully to rehab it, sell it, then demolish it, calling it �one of the most troublesome properties in the city.�

No trees were hurt. They were sprayed with an impermanent "shading compound" that is intended to be used on trees. Not for art projects, but to protect them from heat and insects.

A very nice art work. I approve.

"What happens in Las Vegas typically doesn�t last for very long, but Mrs. Willis�s fluorescent sign proclaiming 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada' ..."

"... designed by her and installed by Clark County, Nev., in 1959 in a $4,000 splurge of civic boosterism, became a beloved and surprisingly enduring symbol of the casino capital�s extravagance."

From the obituary of Betty Willis, who died Sunday at the age of 91.

�We thought the town was fabulous, so we added the word,� Mrs. Willis said in a 2005 interview with The New York Times. �There was no other word to use.�

She never copyrighted the logo or profited from the sign directly. �It�s my gift to the city,� she said, although she later acknowledged: �I should make a buck out of it. Everybody else is.�

The image was freely reproduced on souvenir tchotchkes ranging from snow globes to Las Vegas centennial license plates.

If the image hadn't been freely reproduced, would it have lasted all these years and would we be reading her obituary today?

In Madison, Wisconsin, the Farmers Market returned to the Capitol Square today.

The farmers were there...



And the deep-fried cheese curds...



And the proponents of peace...



And the Walker-haters...

The Badgers Caf� is open...

... talk about basketball...



... or the protest panty-liners that are all over town today... or anything else you want.

Go Badgers.

And go Spartans. You know I picked Michigan State and Wisconsin for the final game. I told you that on March 17th:

So I looked at the NYT interactive tool, and I made it so Wisconsin plays Michigan State in final game. I used some sophisticated ranking tools to make that happen.

UPDATE: Victory!

"Employees at several Austin businesses have found stickers saying 'exclusively for white people' placed on their windows..."

"... sparking an investigation into their origin and condemnation from the mayor."

The stickers also say "Maximum of 5 colored customers / colored BOH staff accepted," apparently referring to the "back of house" operations at a restaurant. They featured a city of Austin logo and claimed to be "sponsored by the City of Austin Contemporary Partition and Restoration Program," though no such program exists....

Raul Alvarez, board president for the East Austin Conservancy, said the stickers are likely in response to gentrification in the area on Austin's east side. "I certainly share the concerns about the history and culture and affordability that's being lost because of the rapid development, but our organization tends to focus on what it is we can do to preserve what makes East Austin unique and not focus on strategies that divide the community," he told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

What's your sign?

3 signs � seen yesterday on State Street � bespeak 3 quite distinct frames of mind. What's your sign?

1. Believing in basketball...



2. Coffee and sado-masochism...



3. Wistful robot with a blue flower...

The sign says "Memorial Union Terrace/CLOSED/For The Winter" but it's 60� here in Madison.

A man in shorts waits for a lake and a snowball to melt:



Many people have crossed the chain with the "CLOSED" sign, perhaps because the "CLOSED" sign is subject to interpretation � it's not substantively winter � or maybe because they don't care about your signs, man....



And here's another chain crossed:



That little yellow sign says "CLOSED," but come on... you can't close a lake...



Welcome to spring, everybody!

Out in the hinterlands of Wisconsin.

Past Titus Lane...



... and Argue Road...



... we noticed some things in decline ...