"Berlin Wall, Main Street Station" by Flickr user bryanh
The Berlin Wall fell November 9, 1989, fifteen years ago, and fragments of the concrete blockade have become memorial installations in public space. Some not so public, as Smithsonian.com notes: "[P]ortions of the wall can be found in entirely unexpected places too—from public restrooms to private gardens—transformed from symbols of oppression into backdrops for sculptures, paintings and even urinals." More on the unintentional Marcel Duchamp-like statement on political oppression:
In the Main Street Station Casino in Las Vegas, men can do something they would have been severely punished for doing in Berlin pre-1989: pee on the Berlin Wall. In reality, a glass barrier prevents any urine from splashing on the historic wall, but the men's room at the Main Street Station Casino does have a section of the Berlin Wall, upon which three urinals are mounted. Boyd Gaming Corporation, who currently owns Main Street, told CNN that the Wall was already in the bathroom when the company bought the property. Female patrons aren't completely out of luck—according to CNN, they can request that a security guard escort them into the bathroom to look at the Wall.
"Berlin Wall is one of the more popular items for sightseers at Main Street Station," says Boyd spokesman David Strow in the original travel report at CNN.com.
Other Berlin Wall of sites at Smithsonian.com.
LA NOTE: If you click through you will see the Los Angeles segment that sits on Wilshire Blvd. The portraits of Presidents John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were by Los Angeles muralist Kent Twitchell, marking the beginning and ending presidential administrations during the wall's life span.
Other Berlin Wall of sites at Smithsonian.com.
LA NOTE: If you click through you will see the Los Angeles segment that sits on Wilshire Blvd. The portraits of Presidents John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were by Los Angeles muralist Kent Twitchell, marking the beginning and ending presidential administrations during the wall's life span.
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