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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LPS5 who wrote (8200)	9/6/2001 9:42:10 AM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Respond to of 19428

Ideas Abound for Dot-Com Monument Sought to Warn Future Generations By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Washington. Lincoln. Vietnam War veterans. Failed dot-coms? A group of young Web designers and filmmakers hope to build a monument to the dot-com bubble. "We want to make the point that what we saw was an excess of greed and hubris and arrogance," says Michael LeFort, a New York producer spearheading the effort. "What we saw is something that should be indeed remembered and something that shouldn't be repeated." The idea arose while Mr. LeFort and his group were working on a documentary film about the Internet crash and asked subjects what a monument to the dot-com collapse should look like. Earlier this summer, they decided to hold a design contest to actually try to build one (and, perhaps not coincidentally, generate publicity for the film). Once their so-called Monument to the Failed Dot-com Economy Commission picks a winning submission, they plan to seek funding from public or private sources to build it by the end of 2002. Silicon Valley is a likely location. "We feel strongly that it should be a physical monument [rather than a Web-based memorial] because we want the next generation to see something that will stand the test of time," Mr. LeFort says. The group has received about 70 proposals so far, via postings on Internet newsletters and through their Web site, www.themop.com. "One I liked is a circular walk, a yellow-brick road," says Chas Mastin, another organizer in Culver City, Calif. "In the middle of the circle is an eternal flame, fueled by [worthless paper] stock options." He adds: "A lot of the ideas are holes in the ground, filled with old computer equipment." Some of the more printable proposals: You want a monument to the failed dot-coms? A GIANT AERON CHAIR! A sculpture of a bandwagon totally overloaded with investors waving stock certificates. The bandwagon would be pulled up a steep incline toward a dangerous cliff by the pets.com sock puppet. A circle of statues of everyday people with their arms reaching to the heavens and expressions of painful ecstasy on their faces. In the middle of the circle will be a large hot-air balloon that inflates every hour like Old Faithful, then quickly loses its air and covers the statues in shiny Mylar. A Disney-like animated robot that recites statistics about the dot-coms and how much money they burned through. If popular, this could be a subscription-based monument. A large steel wading pool filled with clear Lucite that has embedded business cards of all the failed dot-coms. The companies didn't go anywhere -- therefore, the cards in the monument are stuck in plastic. A giant bronze sculpture which is a pile of papers: at the bottom, worthless business plans, in the middle, worthless stock options, and at the top -- PINK SLIPS! Any monument to dot-coms should incorporate the ideas of a revolution gone sour with excess -- and what is a better symbol for that than the guillotine? I suggest building a large guillotine, but the blade should be serrated and reflect the Nasdaq's rise and fall. Because we had absolutely NO communication with our management, I propose the dot-com monument should be a GIANT soda machine from our office, with statues of me and my colleagues looking at the soda price to determine if we're going out of business. First they were free, then subsidized, then face value -- but when they became part of the revenue model, we knew we were in trouble. A large bronze desktop computer with its monitor tilted upward. Attached to the back of the computer are a set of flimsy, fantastical wings fully outstretched. The entire contraption has the feel of a Leonardo da Vinci design; just looking at the wings, one is aware of their inability to support the weight of the machine. A huge roll of toilet paper with all of the names of dead dot-coms on it. A giant empty Kozmo messenger bag with the [company's slogan] "We'll be right over" with the "right" crossed out. A bunch of people (statues) holding up an upside-down pyramid (scheme). A jumbled pile of broken computer components sits peacefully in a park. Deep within the pile, a recording of a strangled voice yells, "Sell, sell, sell!" Take the money for the monument and start a soup kitchen in San Jose. Name the dishes after dot-gones.