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Friday, July 4, 2008

No wonder he's turning his face away...

This is King Lear, famous tormented soul and the star of one of Shakespeare's most lauded tragedies. He's been played on stage and film by Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Orson Welles, and James Earl Jones. The king is an icon of twisted emotions and the utter complexity and frailty of the human condition.

Now King Lear, twenty feet tall and dedicated in 2008, presides over the public square between the Chicago River and the Tribune Building, across from the Wrigley Building, in downtown Chicago. And directly behind him is the NBC Building (exactly as shown in this photo) home of NBC Studios, home of the Jerry Springer Show.

This is ironic juxtaposition of epic proportions. How far the arts have fallen.

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