TJ's New Pitchman for Fremont Brewing

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A giant sculpture of Vladimir Lenin that once stood outside a hospital in Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution now occupies a prominent corner in the heart of the Fremont neighborhood's commercial district. How the statue came to be installed there is a long and controversial saga you can read here. Since it's installation, it has apparently become somewhat of a giant piece of kitsch on the level of a plastic flamingo in one's yard, especially during the holidays when it is regularly bedecked with red lights and crowned with a star. One year someone even knit it a giant red mitten. Like other large sculptures in that neighborhood (the Fremont Troll or Waiting for the Interurban) the Lenin statue is seen by many as a piece of novelty art to be interacted with. It being such a landmark, I was not surprised to to see that the display artist for a local Trader Joe's had painted a rather good likeness of the statue to advertise TJ's special on these micro brews made in Fremont. Fremont Brewing doesn't use the image. It's logo is a Blue Heron.