KY DERBY UGLY FESTIVAL

Okay, time for me to get on my high horse again. I was just thinking the other day that it’s been a long time since I ranted about anything. I wondered if I was mellowing in my old age, but knew that couldn’t be the answer. I still get irritated about the same things I’ve written about in the past: I still think Bush is a fucking idiot, still think Camilla and Charles should rot in hell….starting yesterday, still think Italian drivers are damned scary, and still have ZERO tolerance or sympathy for anyone who drinks and drives. So why so quiet lately? I don’t know, I guess no one has pushed the right buttons, until today, that is, when out of curiosity I decided to check out the Kentucky Derby Festival website. I knew better, really I did, but I looked anyway.

I was born in Louisville, Art works at Churchill Downs. We do have a sense of civic pride, really. We love to promote Louisville, especially at Derby time, but damn! They make it hard to do with posters as ugly as this:

Who selected this poster, students from the school for the blind? The ringmaster of the Barnum and Bailey Circus? Someone who just didn’t give a damn? You know, there WAS a time when the KY Derby Festival poster was really beautiful, really interesting. A competition is held every year, and you’d think it would draw talented artists, but apparently if it did, their ideas were rejected in favor of this god-awful thing. Is THIS what we want to show the world? Is THIS what we want to be known for?

Personally I think the management at the KY Derby Festival must be on the decline. I’m not exactly sure when this decline began, but I can remember when not only were the posters beautiful and in demand, but the design was also featured on sweatshirts and t-shirts made available for sale each year at Derby time.

These shirts were a great way to support the KY Derby Festival, to show your civic pride, and to have an attractive piece of clothing to boot. Sweatshirts haven’t been offered for sale for a number of years, and I have no idea why. It’s not unheard of to have SNOW on Derby day, so they’d certainly be a seasonally appropriate item, and of course wearing the sweatshirt long after the Derby is over just continues to promote the Derby and Louisville in general. Who decided to stop selling sweatshirts??? Of course when the design is as ugly as it is this year, who’d want to wear one anyway?