The spike - scratched?

Gordon

I was passing by this morning and the bottom section is rough looking but in parts is scratched to reveal a shiny undercoat.

Is the shiny undercoat the true material or is it scratched?

Gaz

Thats the design for the bottom section.

Makaveli

Yeah it looks kind of stupid.
Is the design of anything in particular or is it just some abstract design?

eth0_

Originally posted by Darth Homer
Thats the design for the bottom section.

That's a.....design?? I thought it was where the protective coating had come off, thought they were going to shine it up?

If that's a design....i'm Van Gough.

s8n

If that's a design....i'm Van Gough.

s8n waves at van gogh......and wonders what hes doing on boards when he should be off creating another masterpiece

Gordon

I thought that it could be a design so I looked for a nice pattern but it just looks like someone has scratched it. It seems to stop abruptly at the second section though! Maybe this will be similar when polished up

LFCFan

it's supposed to be inspired by the rock they found while digging the foundations.

Trebor

it is suppose to catch the light and reflect it, making it look purty, so if it was entirely polished there would be a lot of accidents

Gordon

I just saw it properly earlier today and the bottom section although it has a stupid scratch design on it - looks clean and shiny/matt. When you eye up to the second section it suddenly looks dirty and... crap. That's a shame. Also wierd, there's a flapping cable at the very top - anyone notice that!

moan moan moan moan moan.

I like the idea though, it inspires me deep down. So much so it inspired this thread...

Mewzel

my theory is they are trying to make it look less needle like.
most needles dont have designs like that after all :ninja:

Tusky

the bottom is shiney because it has had the sheet around it and the top is dirty, the design is on the first panel yes

deimos

its purpose is to stop stoners from climbing to the top, they start climbing, they see the shiney stuff, get overwhelmed, fall off, forget what they were doing and say "i think i can climb that" and the cycle continues

oneweb

I just posted a, um, post, with the same question. It looks like it was a cheap paintjob and it's all starting to peel away

It'd be a nice "design" if it was the whole length of the spike. But it's not. So your eyes are lead from the shiny bits which do in themselves look cool, to a mucky matty upper.

Bleugh

fisty

Ah sure its only there to freak out the junkies on parnell st..
"Look a Shiny Needle!"
"Man I gotta go fix!"

Victor

Trust 'em to turn on the lights during the day :rolleyes: (not that you get much darkness these days )

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/920673?view=Eircomnet

After long, dark wait, city spire gets light-up date
From:The Irish Independent
Tuesday, 24th June, 2003
John Lawrence

IT cost €5m, took over four years to erect and was shrouded in controversy. But in less than a fortnight, Dublin's city centre Spire will finally be officially unveiled after numerous delays.

City fathers have decided the 300ft monument is to have its formal christening on Monday July 7.

The internal top lights will be illuminated at the 11.30am ceremony, which will be overseen by Lord Mayor Dermot Lacey, at one of his last engagements in office.

Dublin City Council had toyed with different dates around the weekend of July 4, but have settled for the mid-morning July 7 event.

There will be a "bit of entertainment and brief speeches," and a general invite to the people of Dublin has been issued.

Mayor Lacey was not initially a fan for the structure and didn't vote for it when the council debated the issue originally.

However, now that it's up, he's seen the light and is a convert to the cause, which has a 20m deep foundation in O'Connell Street's granite bedrock.

He said: "I couldn't visualise it then, but now I think they made a good decision. It's so different and striking, so fair play to the people who voted for it."

He defended the cost of the steel sculpture saying it's "a small part of the budget for O'Connell Street's regeneration".

He added: "That in turn will bring the city more money and the proceeds from it will be greater than the cost."

A trust from image rights is to be set up to benefit artistic projects in Dublin.

Meanwhile, Finglas-based priest, Seamus Ahearne, has said the aspirational Spire is a much needed psychological lift for Dublin people.

The Augustine priest, who works in a disadvantaged part of the city, said those who viewed the monument as "nothing but waste" were "misery seekers".

Meanwhile, a start has been made on street works to frame a granite plaza around the GPO. A square tree-lined plaza will have grey, white and pink granite stones which were imported from Spain and China.

oneweb

He said: "I couldn't visualise it then<snip>

Bit thick? It woulda been a big long thing sticking up into the air.

Anyway, i prefer the bollards*. The finish on them is nicer too**



*ok, maybe not
**that's true

MDR

The time capsule .... good idea ... was it a last minute thing I wonder ?

Contents of the time capsule

Mark Bolger , Athy, Co. Kildare:

Property Pages from newspapers to show how we live today and 2003 house prices
Caroline Kearney, Blackrock, Co. Dublin:

A car brochure - to show what we drive now
An RTE Guide to show what we were watching
A pen to show that we still wrote with ink.
Eleanor Birmingham , Douglas, Co. Cork:

Her weekly shopping till receipt to show what we bought and how much it was.
Robert Martin, Lexilip, Co. Kildare:

An Argos catalogue to show our lifestyles
Aidan Duane, Newbridge, Co. Kildare:

A packet of Major and a script of a play produced in Dublin this year.
Karen Mullen, Clondalkin, Dublin 22:

VIP magazine to show the fashions of today and Irish lifestyles.

Big Chief

has anyone seen those weirdos that sit meditating in front of the damn thing every morning and listening to some fooked up meditating music stuff with the legs crossed and all....???

someone care to explain that atall, i thought it was just a once off thing when i walked by it last week (ive started getting the bus to o'connell street in the morning instead of walking since last week..) but every morning when i walk bye to work they are sitting there on there towels, legs crossed with shoes off....

anyone else seen this and know what its all about?!

bloody hippies!

MDR

good grief .... its a hippy magnet .....

amp

I like it, but because I'm driving through town almost everyday, it's starting to fade into my subconcious.

Dublin needed a landmark. And for half a million it's pretty good. Those that whinge about the money going to hospitals and stuff should never go to Paris, New York and London where they spend probably vast multiples of the cost of the Spire just maintaining they're lucritive tourist attractions.

Gotta put money in to get it out.

amp, now vented, wipes foam from mouth and goes for a smoke.

Sparks

A great bloody big metal pole rising out of the ground and going up to three times the height of the surrounding buildings - and it fades into amp's subconcious????

Fscking hell...

MDR

And for half a million it's pretty good.

well it was closer to €4 million but whats €3.5 million between friends.

I like it, it was well worth the monso, any real Dubliner understand that Nelsons Column had to be replaced. They may not agree with what replaced it, but hey I like it, its new, it innovative, and it has a funny name ....

Arguing the money could have been better spent elsewhere, is aways a valid point, no matter what you are spending money (save perhaps in the health service).

If we practised that mantra daily, in every expenditure, Dublin would be a sewer. The people need to live in a nice city, people come back from Amsterdam and Paris, and complain at the state of Dublin, they the same people moan about any public work money is spent.

This country is full of defeatests, I am glad the spire is there it stands are testament of ability to rise above them, and do something new and daring for a change.

MDR

A great bloody big metal pole rising out of the ground and going up to three times the height of the surrounding buildings - and it fades into amp's subconcious????

So therefore by your rational, the Eye of london is a great big Ferris Wheel, of the Effiel Tower is a huge Ariel. Fact is, you could see it for it is, a magnificent piece of modern art, but your eyes are coloured by the defeatest desire shared by your countrymen, to find fault in anything done by your countrymen, you delight in the ability to find fault with Ireland, and people wonder why the Irish only ever seem to get a chance abroad, its because domestic Irish attidutes would never give them a chance.

Most people wrote the Spire off without ever seeing the plans, they did the same thing with Anna Life, and then wept at her departure. The Spire is GREAT, its the Irish attidude that sucks.

LFCFan

Originally posted by MDR
a magnificent piece of modern art,

Ok, stopped laughing now. It's a bloody big spike in the ground. How is it a magnificent piece of modern art? I agree that Dublin needed a new landmark, but they could have come up with something a bit more imaginitive. It'll probably grow on me though.

Have any of you seen the painted cows all over the city? Seems that they have been all over the world but as soon as they come to our lovely city some scrote bags decide to vandalise some of them. That really pisses me off. Dublin sucks and it's the people that make it suck. There needs to be a major attitude adjustment. The spike is one step in the rejuvination of O'Connell street but for any rejuvination to work we need to change the attitudes of the people who live here.

amp

Originally posted by Sparks
A great bloody big metal pole rising out of the ground and going up to three times the height of the surrounding buildings - and it fades into amp's subconcious????

Fscking hell...

Anything, no matter how outrageous, different or big will eventually fade into subconcious if experienced enough.

It's a human condition.

Sparks

What, hang a man long enough and he'll get used to it?
You know, I've never really believed that...

Victor

Originally posted by MDR
If we practised that mantra daily, in every expenditure, Dublin would be a sewer. The people need to live in a nice city, people come back from Amsterdam and Paris, and complain at the state of Dublin, they the same people moan about any public work money is spent.

The problem is our choice of style (or rather snobbery) over substance. We put nice granite paving on the footpath, but leave the potholes in the road.

Sparks

Victor, I think the problem is more that we then get drunk, urinate and throw up on the granite paving...

MDR

The problem is our choice of style (or rather snobbery) over substance. We put nice granite paving on the footpath, but leave the potholes in the road.

Victor, I think the problem is more that we then get drunk, urinate and throw up on the granite paving...

Are these not part of the same problem, the Irish condition ?

Public expenditure in the upkeep of roads is healthy enough, but employment of person to inspect roads that have been dug up by private companies, to ensure they have been put back properly, is consider superfluous.

I agree with LFCFan that we need a major change of attitude to sort ourselves, but I don't think we are really that far gone, and see our constant defeatism as our worst problem.

If we live in a culture of fear as my sig suggests then, I suppose its equally true to say that we live in a culture of defeatism.

As for investment, I would agree with Victor that we are snobs, putting down granite paving before fixing the pot holes. I see it as a consistancy of maintence problem, something we seem to suffer across Irish society, wether its in businesses, hospital etc. We have no problems with large capital expenditure to refurbish or build something, but then afterwards, the investment stops and that thing is let go to rack and ruin, until it is refurbished again ten years later ? I really have no problem with granite paving, as long as I could be guaranteed that someone would come along with a power hose and clean it on a regular basis, and ensure thats it put back proparily when some telco digs it up.

The whole problem is, that we are gonna start to maintain things proparily, we are gonna need to put more in the coffers, people don't want to hear that, they immediately react with 'I pay enough tax' etc, they should stop wasting money on X (usually the Spire is pretty high on the list here), and don't get me wrong I believe there is inefficiency the needs to be sorted.

Ok, stopped laughing now. It's a bloody big spike in the ground. How is it a magnificent piece of modern art? I agree that Dublin needed a new landmark, but they could have come up with something a bit more imaginitive. It'll probably grow on me though.

Oh so your an art critic now ?, ok I will accept that if the 'people' don't consider something as art or something worthy, it should not be classed as such. The problem with the spire et al. is that no matter you filled the void on O'Connell street with, it would have suffered the exact same critism, Irish people are itching to find fault, in fact the positivily delight in finding fault and never give something a fair chance.

I heard the same f**king story about Anna Life over a decade ago for christs sake .... I wish people would change the record.

LFCFan

Originally posted by MDR
I heard the same f**king story about Anna Life over a decade ago for christs sake .... I wish people would change the record.

In any other country the Anna Life could have been a nice addition to a street but in Dublin it just became a toilet and thrash can for the filthy mongrels who saw fit to treat it as such. I hope the Spike will lead to better things for O'Connell Street because as the Premier Street in Ireland it should be treated with respect. At the moment it's treated like a sh1t hole and as such becomes one. There are some magnificent buildings but there are also some rotten ones. O'Connell Street is something we should be proud of, like Grafton Street. Let's just hope the Spike leads to better things for the Street.

bok

First time I seen it I thought someone had spray painted it.


Anything, no matter how outrageous, different or big will eventually fade into subconcious if experienced enough.

Completely agree with you. Got used to it now seeing it every day