Update Friday morning: just received this bulletin from Phil:Due to major traffic and safety concerns, people dropping off non-perishable items for food drive MUST enter Bellefontaine off Fair Oaks and proceed West. We want this to be safe and successful with no danger of accidents or the city shutting us down.
BTW, we are in desperate need of volunteers for both days. Please call Phil or email him if you can assist on either day for shifts 8-11 or 11-2, Phil @ AgentPhil.com or call 626 644-3227.
Drive a little further south on St. John Avenue from yesterday's photo and you'll come to the Fork in the Road.
Today's photo was taken by Phil Coombes, pictured at right. I myself have avoided photographing the Fork.
This is not because I don't like the Fork. Hell, everyone likes the Fork. But everyone has also photographed the Fork, talked about the Fork, written articles about the Fork. (This is because Phil is some kind of genius publicist.) I figured I didn't need to add anything about the Fork. But now the Fork is about to be the location of Put the Fork in Hunger, "Pasadena's largest food drive ever," so I'm on the bandwagon. Um--plate.
Ken Marshal (the Fork's creator, whom you know from the Coffee Gallery Backstage), Bob Stane (formerly of the Ice House and now of the Coffee Gallery Backstage) and Phil Coombes, (local real estate broker, AgentPhil.com) are the oomph behind this project to benefit Pasadena's Union Station Homeless Services. Union Station puts on an annual Thanksgiving Dinner at Central Park. This year they're expecting 5,000 people, and I don't suppose it'll surprise you to hear their food banks are extremely low.
Ken, Bob and Phil are asking for your help. This Saturday and Sunday, November 21st and 22nd between 8am and 4pm, just drive by the Fork in the Road where Pasadena and St. John Avenues meet south of Bellefontaine. It's just south of Huntington Hospital (you'll want to stay in the left lane whether you take St. John heading south or Pasadena heading north). Drive by slowly and hand your non-perishable food items to the volunteers in the bright orange t-shirts and holding outreach bags.
(I don't know what an "outreach bag" is, either. Don't worry about it. I suspect it'll be obvious when you get there. It's not like there'll be people at the fork wearing bright orange t-shirts and holding a variety of bags to confuse you.)
Ken, Bob and Phil are also looking for volunteers to help on both days this weekend, "especially high school students looking to put in service hours." For further information or to volunteer, contact Phil @ AgentPhil.com or call 626 644-3227.
Right now my browser's napping so I'll give you more links tomorrow. I think you've got enough information for marking your calendar and for putting non-perishables on your grocery list. Wouldn't it be great if all of Pasadena turned out for this event? A traffic jam, yes, but a fun one.
30 comments:
In this area they could just have easily chosen Chopstix. Admittedly, it woodn't have sounded quite the same.
So this is American slang? New?
Wow! Seeing this fork on the city daily photo portal was enough to make me head on over to Pasadena. Great commentary too!
Who stuck their fork there!? Funny!
That's a wonderful bandwagon, Petrea, and what a great idea to have drive-thru donation drops ~ I hope they achieve all that and more.
GR8 fork -- I can only imagine the size of the meal.
In all this time of living next door to Pasadena, I never knew about this fork in the road!!! My hubby's Rotary club has provided and served a few meals at the Union Station...it's a wonderful organization...I hope they are very successful in their food drive!!!
Hey! I do want to talk about the fork. My daughter and I drove by it the day it went up -- before all the publicity. We were so delighted, and we instantly wondered if it was guerrilla art or planned by the city. Love the fork! Love it.
Dina, I was playing on "put a cork in it," which is slang for "be quiet." Well no, it's slang for "shut up."
Hi Greensboro, thanks for stopping in. I'm glad I finally posted the fork and it's not even my photo!
Hi Leif, you too!
I hope so, too, Shell. I think it's a great idea. Very energetic.
It's got to feed 5,000 people Tash. And that's just one day. They feed people all year. That's a lot of food.
Chieftess, the Fork is new--it was a guerilla installation and it's only been there since Halloween. Our IP seems better this morning so I'll have links to more information tomorrow. The short story: Ken, Phil and friends gave the fork to Bob for his birthday. It was a surprise.
I'm glad you love the Fork, Margaret. It's popular. I think this shows how the popularity of a piece has a lot to do with its location.
Really, did no one yet say 'Fork it?'
Ah, frak, too much Battlestar Galactica for me. Fun post!
What is it about larger-than-life ordinary objects that just makes people smile? (I just HAD to photograph a giant safety pin sculpture at the De Young museum in SF over the weekend.) Sounds like this fork will be involved in a very worthy cause -- I too hope the food drive is a huge success. (This fork photo reminds me of a friendly huge-cutlery heist I was a part of when I lived in Minneapolis. I think I have a photo somewhere of me posing with a giant knife, fork and spoon.)
And I would like to place an old fashioned can opener near that stainless steel contraption called Disney Hall.
I like this fork 'cause its a local fork, not something imported from a big city art group...
I read somewhere that the City may keep this guerilla (gorilla?) fork if it passes all the safety issues, so I hope Caltrans doesn't object.
As for the food drive(by), what sort of non-perishables do they want? I hardly ever buy canned food any more, so I'm out of touch.
I didn't realize they were doing this for charity. Pretty cool!
Now that you've said "fork it," Dez, everyone'll be saying it.
Katie, it brings to mind Claes Oldenburg, does it not? I keep thinking of the big arrow alongside San Francisco Bay.
Pascal Jim, you didn't answer my question in yesterday's comments. A Google search yielded naught.
Bellis, the press release isn't specific. But I think about what kinds of foods are nutritious and will go a long way in cooking for a large crowd: rice, beans, canned vegetables, pasta--anything that makes a good part of soup or stew. Anybody else have suggestions?
Ben, I don't know if that was the original plan but it's a good idea.
Has anyone pointed out that the "fork in the road" intersection is not actually a fork in the road? There's no choice to make about which direction you're going to take; from either direction you can only stay on the right. Robert Frost could not have chosen the road less traveled had he come upon Pasadena's Fork. (And I also think that using it for this charitable purpose is a fine idea.)
It is like Claes Oldenberg; reminds me of the giant shuttlecock on the lawn of the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in KC.
Great way to promote a great cause!
Fork over the goods Pasadena!!! Great cause and one hellluva great marketing idea for it. Love it.
V
Ha. Think it's great!
Docker, was it Yogi Berra who said, "If you see a fork in the road, take it"? You're right about this one. At least that makes it an easy choice.
Ms. M. you sent me on a Google image search. Imagine, after my childhood years as a badminton whiz I never knew until tonight what a shuttlecock is.
Ha! "Fork over the goods" is a great phrase, V. You should be a publicist.
Lynn, I do hope Pasadena agrees with you.
"Stick a fork in me, I'm done," said the road. Wacky prop but it sounds likea great event. :)
Desiree - love the BSG reference!
couldn't stop thinking about your post tonight as we watched some young friends in "Beauty and the Beast Jr"...had a nice little giggle.
and Dina---nu, stick a fork in it, you're done (like a brisket).
Amy and Trish, i.e. I'm done, like I'm finished saying what I wanted to say??
Petrea, well, I didn't know "put a cork on it" either.
Oi, this American language--so hard to learn overseas.
Dina, you remind me of a phrase on my "learn French in your car" CD: "Vous parlez Americain, pas Anglais." (You speak American, not English.)
Dina---yes, "I'm done", "I'm finished"= "stick a fork in it"...ergo, "stick a fork in hunger"="stop hunger by donating food to the food bank this holiday season".
Even those of us who are native American speakers...it can be difficult...two, to, too; blue, blew; to name a few that can be tough.
For a quick list of things that make no sense, try George Carlin's routines---"jumbo shrimp", "military intelligence"...hilarious.
a friend who moved here when she was small--her mother watched game shows and TV to learn the lingo of America.
Dina's a native American English speaker, she's just been gone a long time. But you enjoy the slang, don't you, Dina?
Petrea and Trish, thanks.
Sure I like new slang if I know what it means. But sometimes I get in trouble using regular words which have without my knowing taken on "dirty word" status. Like urban slang.
Yeah, maybe I should get a TV just to watch the American programs (surely Israel has many), for language improvement. But that would not leave time for blogging ....
I don't think you need American TV, Dina. There's more communicating going on here on the web.
If you're learning your slang from me you're in trouble. I don't think I'm what you call "mainstream hip" anymore. Not that I ever was!
I'm from across the pond and don't understand half the slang I read, so this is right up my street.
Hi Mystery Games. Welcome. Here we'd say "right up my alley"!
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