This sculpture has reminded me of one of the robots Wayne Coyne drew for the last Lips album for a few years running. Any second now, he’s going to charge the Bonaventure and start shooting up the joint.

Admittedly, I’m a Flaming Lips fan. I grew up in Oklahoma! My choices for state pride included the Flaming Lips, Sooner football, wheat (the crop), Sonic Drive-In and a vast array of country music. The Lips were setting shit on fire and revving motorcycle engines in clubs I wasn’t allowed to go to. Do the math.

A bit of online digging reveals the sculpture to be Four Arches, created in 1974 by Alexander Calder. Just outside the tower you can find two additional robots giving and receiving, 24 hours a day: [photo]

Bonus photos (not by me for a change):

• Good photo of the robot
• Not so good photo of the robot, but vintage plaza nomenclature
• Wayne’s original drawing as captured by Lips manager Scott Booker