In Austin, we have a Christmas Tree Bandit running around and decorating trees on the roadside in the middle of the night. In Austin, it is perfectly normal to find a masked person all dressed in black, in the middle of the night, armed with Christmas ornaments. If you run into one, just say hey and then walk away. Do not disturb the Christmas tree bandit. He may be armed and dangerous!
And then there are copy cat bandits. They too come in the middle of the night armed with Christmas decorations. And decorate more trees. Right now we have about 40 decorated trees along the roadside. And it all happens in the middle of the night.
It is on my way to work so I enjoy and appreciate what they do.
But not the city of Austin. They think the bandits are defacing public property. They don't have as much of a problem with the decorating. It is afterwards. Who will clean it up? They think it is littering. Is it? The Christmas Tree Bandit cleans up his tree. But what about all the others? S/he can't really take care of 30-40 trees. Without being caught that is.
Carol wrote about it last year.
In Austin, the city motto is, "Keep Austin weird."
And Austinites go through great lengths to accomplish this.
What do you think? Littering? Weird? Uplifting?
And do you think I should go there in the middle of the night and decorate a tree with something like... empty wine bottles?
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6 comments:
I think it is fantastic! "Tolerate Harmless Deviance" has always been my motto. Especially since I am a harmless deviant myself. I would hope that people of Austin who are enjoying these guerilla art performances should form a group of volunteers to clear the trees at a later date if the artist/pranksters don't get around to it. It is helpful, I think, for a city to know itself as a creative environment. Of course, I am not there to see more clearly what this is all about.
I say it is uplifting! They are doing something unpolitically correct and I love it. I agree with mythopolis to have volunteers come and take it down after the holidays.
About the empty wine bottles..I would have to say no only because with the way you almost get in trouble taking pictures, I don't want you to get in trouble with the law with having "open" containers in your car. Ugh!!! I don't have enough to bail you out. LOL!
Have a beautiful day my friend!!! Let us know if you decide to decorate a tree.
Mytho: Deviance is good. Yep I can tell that you are a deviant:)
Jodi: Glad you think it is uplifting. Good thinking about driving around with empty wine bottles. I did not think about it. And so glad that you would bail me out if you had the resources:)
He takes the tree decorations down himself (at least all of the ones he puts up-people have been known to add some) but the City still thinks he's breaking the law, since he does not do it within 30 days of putting up the decorations. "Defacing Public Property" they say. Bah Humbug! I say.
I love the Christmas Tree Bandit. He's my hero.
Go, Bandit, Go!
Carol: You did so much better job of explaining it than I did.
Also, do you have a crush on the Christmas tree bandit?
It's a great idea, IF people clean up after Christmas ;)
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