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life is filled with silly cross-over stories, juxtapositions of events and serendipitous moments. flash, our resident larger-than-life cubist statue in ventura and his twin, buster in phoenix are no exceptions. the exact ages of the boys are not known, nor are the details of their creation, or all the travels and adventures they experienced before they found us. we first met them in a junk shop in phoenix, looking a bit under the weather after a stint at a demolished nightclub in scottsdale. the cubist style of the pieces clearly marked them in the deco style of the 1930's, but as they are of fiberglass, they are a lot younger than their 1930's style would suggest.
the statues were particularly appealing because of the deco styling of the ventura restaurant building. with a new coat of paint and some bases made for each of them, they were set to go back to work. but... what to name them? flash and buster of course... after flash gordon, the mythical hero of the 30's, and the real life hero who portrayed him, buster crabbe. as it turns out, buster crabbe and the proprietor of my florist cafe each occupied the same room (although years apart) at a virginia military school. buster, of course, was an olympic medal winner in swimming achieving fame in the 30's. he lived in southern california, swam there, and then acted in hollywood. after buster concluded his acting career, he opted for a change of lifestyle and geography and relocated scottsdale, arizona. buster was a role model of goodness and sincerity and focus of purpose... all things that we at my florist bakery admire and would like to emulate. so, with that we're proud to have flash and buster in our midst. want a bit of the goodness to go with you?... give him a pat on the butt as you pass by. there's a bit of magic everywhere.
