My family's obsession with cows started many years ago with a comment my mom made to her then boss. He was portly and made the mistake of wearing a shirt with up-and-down stripes. When he asked what he should have worn instead, she commented, "Cow clothes!". He thought she was crazy (which, sure, she is, but that's besides the point).
A department store flyer not two weeks later showed a kid in a white shirt with black cow spots. Proof of her lack of insanity? No, but it started the cow craze.
For years afterwards, mom was gifted with all manner of cow things. Stuffed animals and figurines, calendars, wooden eggs with cow spots, framed pictures of mom with a calf at an orchard, flags, and so on. She became so inundated with cows that eventually, she insisted "NO MORE COWS!". It didn't work, but the flood did recede some... My cow gifts have scaled back to the occasional book from different places I visit. There are surprisingly quite a few, actually...
- Don't Eat the Bluebonnets by Ellen Leventhal
- Shamoo, a Whale of a Cow by Ros Hill (signed by the author!)
In 2006, the Cow Parade was in Boston, MA and I happened to be visiting while it was on display. There were 100 cows primarily in downtown Boston - and it took us a few days, but we managed to track down about 90 of them. It was a family outing, with everyone participating at some point over the few days.
For those unfamiliar with the Cow Parade, it is a collaborative art exhibit. Artists are given a cow sculpture in one of 3 shapes to decorate. The cows are placed around a city and are on display for a few months. At the end of the exhibit, the cows are auctioned off, with proceeds benefitting charity.
Some of the Boston cows were incredibly beautiful, some were very simple and others we certainly didn't understand. To each his own, really. All the cows have a lot of effort put into creating them. Here are a few examples of my initial Cow Parade experience...
The night I heard the Cow Parade was coming to Austin, I called my mom and said, very excitedly, "THE COW PARADE IS COMING TO AUSTIN!!!". I apparently was too excited and bubbly to be clearly understood as I had to repeat it two more times before she understood what I was saying. Immediately, she started making plans to come visit before it ended.
Our cow hunt began moments after she pulled her suitcase off the luggage carousel. The airport was host to three cows. While we didn't like the first two much (just a matter of personal taste, really), it was honestly a good start to reset ourselves for the Austin culture instead.
Our third cow at the airport was titled, "Happy People" and was more in line with what we anticipated. Mom sure was happy with it.
Our goal is to see all the cows, so today we targetted the ones that were less central and would require a lot of driving. With over 50 cows in town, we visited 13 today. From having lunch at Hut's and driving through downtown, we spied a few more, but didn't stop.
The Cow Parade is always a surprise. You never really know what you'll find or where you'll find it. Some cows are easy to find, like the ones at the airport. Others, you have to look around for a bit more, like the "Texicow" at the Austin Film Studios.
We drove in the driveway where their main Red Building was... No cow outside, so we went in, where a girl actually asked if I was there to audition. We walked through the building (empty save for the folks sitting in a room waiting to audition) and even out back where there were lots of RVs in a reallybig parking lot. No cow. Going back out front, we thought maybe it was on the roof of the building or someplace odd. No deal. Sometimes things happen to cows. In Boston, there was this:
We speculated that perhaps this had happened to the "Texicow". As we were walking back across the parking lot, though, I spied it! It was a good distance from their parking lot, up near the next driveway that seemed to require a security pass to get beyond the fence. We trekked across the crunchy grass to see the details of the silouhette we could only see from the parking lot.
The sayings were quite cool, and the "Don't Mess With Texas" was done in the reflectors like on street signs, so it would be very visible at night.But the other side of the cow was covered with pictures.
Some cows are very interactive. One of my favorite cows from Boston, "Moo Indigo", had a sensor in its mouth. When you walked in front of it, music would begin to play. My nephew, Ayden, loved this cow, too. Mom and I both think he would like the "I've Got the Moosic in Me" cow...
A large group of folks came out of the radio station and asked us to take a group photo. Mom asked if they wanted the cow in it - and sadly, the answer was no. But many of them had no qualms about playing with the xylophone inside the cow.
Another interactive cow was the "Magnetic Cow". It hasn't had much magnet love, but some... folks are invited to add their own magnets to the cow. It is out by the visitor center at Mueller Lake Park.
Having a sense of humor is almost a necessity with the cows, too. In Boston, mom was made fun of for her frequent photos of the backsides of the cows. But some great art is here! This was true with the "Magnetic Cow".
And one of my favorite cow tails of the day, "Got Color?"...
The "Got Color?"cow was outside the George Washington Carver museum in east Austin. Not only was it really cool (the sides were done really well, with very different effects close up and from a little ways away), but we got to meet the artist, Bob Jones. He was a very pleasant man, and his daughter even lives in the Boston area. It was one of my favorites for the day.
While some cows are simple, almost plain, others are quite inventive. Another of my favorites for today was the "Mooquet" cow displayed outside Breed & Co.
In addition to the flowers in the top, there was a good amount of detail on the actual cow.
And sometimes the detail on these cows is utterly amazing. While they are all a labor of love, some really have to of taken a serious amount of time. "Partying with Picowsso" in front of the Bob Bullock museum was certainly one of these. From a little bit back, you can see it took effort...
But when you get a little closer, you truly see what went onto this canvas.
As I was writing this tonight, I noticed the map we had been using was actually outdated and from July. In September, they released a second herd of cows into the city, bringing the total from about 50 to about 70! We actually missed one at one of our stops today. We may or may not make it back to search it out, but tomorrow we'll certainly have our work cut out for us in finding some of the others.
It's a good thing I found the new map, because some cows have mooooved. Others may be missing entirely... Because for some reason, some Austinites feel a need to vandalize these poor cows. Apparently, Austin has even been the worst city for vandalizim - worse even than cities like New York or Chicago where you'd expect that sort of behavior more. On the one hand, it makes me proud to have come from Boston where it was lower, but ashamed to now consider myself an Austinite.
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