Pimping & Pumping Jesus (a very sacrilegious blog post....or not)

You've been warned. This might be really offensive to some of you!!!! But it's funny to me, so there:)

On Saturday, Glenn and I drove up to Long Beach so I could meet Jake the Alligator Man, and so the two of them could get reacquainted. We had a wonderful time saying hi to Jake, making fun of all the cheesy/touristy shops (i.e. ones that sell sweatshirts with airbrushed wolves howling at the moon and dreamcatchers hanging in the background, or airbrushed unicorns dashing by waterfalls with rainbows hovering above). Glenn antique-shopped, and I book-shopped (love the couple at Banana Books there!), and we both walked away with Jake bumper stickers; mine says, "I Brake for Jake the Alligator Man."

Here's where you can catch up on Jake, if you two aren't friends already:
http://www.marshsfreemuseum.com/pages/jake.html
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2973
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_the_Alligator_Man
***And I just found out -- Jake the Alligator Man's birthday is the same as my brother Jordan's! August 8th....

It was such a lovely day on Saturday....perfect weather....perfect company....great conversation and great Mexican food....On our way out of Long Beach, we stopped at a closed/abandoned fueling station with a gas pump and a few tanks, all covered in rust, weeds clawing all over the place. We noticed everything had been painted in an....interesting way.

First, here's the sign that explains everything:

Notice how this was dedicated on Tori Amos's birthday? What's with all these birthday connections?!

Now, here are some shots of the "murals":





Now here are some shots of the backside of the tanks. See that creepy, rusted bicycle? It just needs a doll with a cracked face, a stray mitten, and maybe an unlaced, dirtied tennis shoe to complete the Full Creepy Effect.



Now, I was pretty creeped out and freaked out by all this (and very entertained, as well). What? You took it upon yourself to paint religious images all over an abandoned gas station? Are Glenn and I the only ones who find this....WEIRD? Had we just walked into the next David Lynch film? I mean, I actually found these to be anti-religious -- grotesque and hideous and downright unsettling (wait, maybe they ARE religious, in some organized and oppressive kinds of ways....). So I had to make fun of them. Glenn and I were up to the challenge. We figured if these folks decided to Pimp Jesus, we could certainly spin our take on Pumping Jesus. Thus:



Okay, if I believed in Hell, I'd probably be going there after this! But I figure I already have the cards stacked against me, so what's one more pumping station (of the cross)?