五角大樓藝術品：60萬美元咯咯叫蟾蜍雕塑

我 又 看 見 三 個 污 穢 的 靈 、 好 像 青 蛙 、 從 龍 口 獸 口 並 假 先 知 的 口 中 出 來 。
他 們 本 是 鬼 魔 的 靈 、 施 行 奇 事 、 出 去 到 普 天 下 眾 王 那 裡 、 叫 他 們 在 　 神 全 能 者 的 大 日 聚 集 爭 戰 。
啟 示 錄 16:13-14

五角大樓藝術品：60萬美元咯咯叫蟾蜍雕塑
Pentagon Art: $600,000 Gurgling Toad Sculpture
By Paul Bedard
Posted: March 31, 2011
Translation by Autumnson Blog

A $600,000 frog sculpture that lights up, gurgles "sounds of nature" and carries a 10-foot fairy girl on its back could soon be greeting Defense Department employees who plan to start working at the $700 million Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. this fall. That is unless a new controversy over the price tag of the public art doesn't torpedo the idea.
一件60萬美元的青蛙雕塑會亮起、咯咯“大自然的聲音“，並孭有一個 10呎的童話女孩在背上，可能很快就會向國防部僱員打招呼，他們計劃今年秋天開始在七億美元的弗吉尼亞州亞歷山大馬克中心工作。那除非不是一個對公眾藝術品價格標籤上的新爭議，就是破壞了想法。
Decried as wasteful spending that will be seen by just a couple thousand of daily workers who arrive on bus shuttles, foes have tried to delay the decision, expected tomorrow, April 1. But in an E-mail, an Army Corps of Engineers official said that the decision can't be held up because it would impact completion of the huge project.
被譴責為浪費的開支，那將每天衹被幾千搭穿梭巴士抵達的工人看到...一位陸軍工程師官員說，決定不能被扣押因為它會影響巨大工程的完成。
The City of Alexandria just announced that there are four works of art being considered and that a final decision needs to be made fast. The artwork was put on display for public comment from March 24 to today. The Alexandria News first reported the hasty announcement to decide a winner.
亞歷山大城市剛剛宣布，有四件藝術作品正被考慮，和一個最終的決定需要迅速作出。作品會被展出，供市民從3月24日到今天發表意見。亞歷山大新聞首先報導該決定一個贏家的匆忙宣布。
The schedule surprised some who thought that the costly artwork project was on the "back burner," according to critic Donald Buch, a member of the mayor's advisory committee overseeing the Mark Center project. "What's the rush?" he asked.

Buch says he's not opposed to art, just high-priced works that won't be seen by many. He estimates that only 2,500 will see the artwork every day as they use the bus transfer station at the Mark Center. "Who the heck is going to see it," he asked. "To spend six hundred grand to amuse the same people every day is nuts."

The Mark Center is one of the facilities that thousands of defense workers will be reporting to as part of the Base Realignment and Closure plan, or BRAC, that is shifting workers around Virginia and Maryland. The BRAC plan itself has been criticized as wasteful.

The four art proposals for the bus terminal include works for a wall and sculpture. But the one drawing most attention is the fairy and frog from artist Cheryl Foster. Her proposals describes the sculpture this way: "A 10-foot fairy, using an American Toad as 'transportation,' scurries to the entrance of the station. The interior of the toad is illuminated and the sounds of nature emanate from his throat." She said that nature inspired her.

Buch suggested instead that the Corps should consider a nature park or water feature, not a toad.

According to the Corps, the artwork was the city's idea. A city official, however, said that Alexandria officials didn't demand art, but just asked that public artwork be included in the structure. What's more, the official said that the $600,000 is federal money, and that no Alexandria funds will pay for the art.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/03/31/pentagon-art-600000-gurgling-toad-sculpture