Art or ‘sickie’ shrine? NYC’s giant phallic pink leg is creeping people out
Back in April, New York City unveiled a behemoth of a statue in the middle of Times Square called “Grounded in the Stars.” Standing at 12 feet tall, the bronze sculpture depicts an average-looking, overweight, anonymous black woman dressed in casual clothing standing with hands on hips. The artist, Thomas J. Price, said it was designed to challenge traditional norms regarding who deserves monumentalizing, forcing a confrontation with the supposed systemic erasure of marginalized bodies and identities.
In other words, it’s a woke, finger-wagging lecture in the form of a looming bronze woman.
And a lot of people hated it. The statue sparked a firestorm of criticism and mockery from people of all races, some of whom demanded the statue’s immediate removal.
But New York City just can’t seem to get the message that its denizens are sick of looking at bad art. That very same month, it debuted a 10-foot fountain in the form of a pink foot and leg covered in red-lipped mouths with tongues sticking out, giving the impression of infection or disease. The artist, Mika Rottenberg, designed the grotesque structure as an “irreverent take on the tradition of classical fountains.”
When Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of “The Rick Burgess Show” and “Strange Encounters,” recently traveled to the Big Apple to visit his son, he was fortunate enough to avoid this bubblegum-pink monstrosity, but his content producer, Chris Adler, wasn’t so lucky.
On a trip to NYC for his wedding anniversary, Adler and his wife encountered the “big pink foot.” He plays a video of the fountain for Rick and the panel.
Rick immediately notices something strange about the shape of the leg.
“It’s so important to look at the toes,” he says, joking about the phallic shape of the shin, where the rounded top shoots out water. “I noticed a lot of people from the Pride parade begin to gather around it like it was a god.”
“I guess they didn't notice the foot,” he laughs. “I hate to disappoint you; it's a leg.”
“There’s some sickies out there,” says Adler.
To hear more of the panel’s conversation and see a video of the fountain, watch the clip above.
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Demons in the dark: The terrifying experience that permanently ended a radio show’s horror series
Ghost stories are all fun and games until they’re not.
Years ago, when Calvin “Speedy” Wilburn, Rick Burgess’ longtime co-host and producer, traveled around the country visiting haunted sites for a popular October series on the now-retired “Rick and Bubba Show,” he had no idea he’d encounter actual demons.
Dubbed “13 Days of Horror,” the well-intentioned Halloween series was supposed to be a lighthearted way to enjoy October festivities. Rick describes it as a “Scooby-Doo ... Ghostbusters kind of thing.”
But it wasn’t long before the crew discovered that there’s no such thing as lighthearted horror.
On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” Speedy shares the harrowing story of a demonic encounter that shook him so deeply, the team shut down the series forever.
“13 Days of Horror” focused primarily on visiting purportedly haunted historical landmarks. Speedy and the camera crew often teamed up with paranormal groups armed with infrared cameras and EMF meters to venture into the country’s dark corners.
However, one “very cold Alabama night,” the team broke with tradition when, instead of visiting another landmark, they met up with a lady and her young daughter at their house, which they claimed was haunted.
The crew immediately knew they were dealing with something different when the child showed them bloody scratches on her body where a demon had allegedly attacked her in her sleep. The mother told bone-chilling stories of her daughter waking up with braids in her hair that weren’t there before she went to sleep and candles being blown out en masse around the house.
Speedy recounts how upon entering the home, he could feel that “the vibe was different.” There was a “heaviness” and a “darkness” that “weighted on [his] shoulders.”
The paranormal hunters they were with then began “asking questions for the spirit to appear.” They even had the young girl, who was “horrified,” ask her spiritual tormentor questions about why it was attacking her.
That’s when Speedy and the team shut it down and left the house, knowing that what they were involved with was no laughing matter.
On the car ride back, one of the staff members who had been taking pictures in the home pulled out his camera to look over the images.
The photos he had taken were completely black except for numerous “orbs” hovering everywhere.
That’s when the crew knew for certain that what they had experienced was “not a spooky, funny, let's go have a good time, Mystery Machine, Scooby-Doo, bring back a funny bit for the show” situation.
“This was a demonic heaviness, a serious situation we were in, and looking back on it and knowing what we were doing and what we were asking, you just feel so foolish,” Speedy tells Rick.
While that experience shut down the series permanently, there had already been other experiences that had made the crew wary about their “13 Days of Horror” segment. There was another time when the crew was left quaking in their boots after visiting the children’s wing of an abandoned mental institution.
Speedy also shares wild stories from his dad’s days of going door-to-door sharing the gospel that will make your blood run cold. From a woman who “roared like a lion” at the sound of Jesus’ name to a sick patient who spoke in a voice that was not her own, these moments confronted Speedy with a spiritual reality far beyond the playful scares the crew had set out to chase.
To hear the details of each harrowing demonic encounter and Rick’s biblical response, watch the episode above.
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From fiery seraphim to masked demons: The true faces of spiritual beings
For centuries, artists have depicted angels through paintings and sculptures. They usually have giant wings, placid, ethereal visages, and flowing robes. Sometimes they are male, other times female.
But is that how scripture describes them?
What we see in art is a far cry from biblical angels, says Rick Burgess, host of “The Rick Burgess Show” and "Strange Encounters."
Angels, he says, aren’t these haloed, feel-good spirits. They’re “a supernatural military.”
“There are different types of angels; there's different ranks of angels,” he explains. “There are times where they look like humans,” specifically “like males. … We never see anywhere in scripture that they appear in what we would call human female form.”
He points to Daniel 10, in which an angel appears before Daniel. The being has “the appearance of a man” and likely is the angel Gabriel, based on context from earlier chapters. Verse 6 tells us, “His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.”
The angel tells Daniel that he would have come sooner if not for a spiritual battle with the "prince of the Persian kingdom” — most likely referring to the demonic entity influencing the Persian realm — that waylaid him for 21 days. He tells Daniel that the archangel Michael, who he describes as "one of the chief princes," had to assist him to overcome this demonic opposition.
“Apparently in the ranking of the angels, this particular demon outranked the messenger angel,” Rick speculates.
Further evidence of supernatural hierarchy occurs in the book of Jude, when Michael and Satan have a dispute over the body of Moses. Unlike the battle mentioned in Daniel, Michael does not engage in direct confrontation with Satan but instead says, “The Lord rebuke you.”
As far as looks go, the appearance angels take in scripture is as varied as their rankings.
Many angels are so visually stunning that they have to remind humans not to worship them. Others appear as normal-looking human beings. In fact, in Hebrews 13, we are told to be hospitable to strangers because we can unknowingly entertain angels.
Other angelic beings, however, are very strange in appearance. The seraphim are described as having six wings and a fiery essence. The cherubim have four wings covered in eyes, and they move with wheels (also covered in eyes) that operate in perfect harmony.
If angels are this diverse in appearance, does that mean demons are too? Might they walk among us undetected? Or are they the red-skinned, horned fiends of legend?
“If it's possible that we've entertained angels and we did not know it, is it also possible that we've entertained demons and we did not know it?” asks Rick.
There’s a good possibility that they too are varied in appearance.
Rick has seen one variety himself. At a men’s conference a few years ago, he was mocked by a group of demons while telling the story of his son’s tragic death. To hear his harrowing tale, watch the episode above.
Want more from Rick Burgess?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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