christmas creep

The above image was posted on boingboing today as a chocolate Santa holding what was purported to be a Christmas tree but looks like something a lot less wholesome. Turns out though that it wasn't at all wholesome to begin with. Artist Paul McCarthy has transformed Maccarone gallery in NYC into a fully functioning chocolate factory and, under the name Peter Paul Chocolates, will begin selling these holiday edibles on November 15th. The design is based on his 2002 sculpture Santa Claus, seen below on display at Art Basel 38 but which has found a permanent home in Rotterdam.

And given his background and the fact that residents of Rotterdam refer to it as the Kabouter Buttplug (roughly translated, The Buttplug Gnome), I'm pretty sure we can say with all certainty that that ain't a Christmas tree.

In other holiday news, they've started hanging lights in the trees on the street in front of my work building, and while I would love to bitch about how ridiculous it is to start decorating on November 5th, it admittedly makes me feel kind of festive. Nice.