Hail End Table!

He’s a freedom fighter! He’s an end table! He’s both! He’s Spartacus! The Basil Street gallery (whose products also appears — with similar copy — as Design Toscano) would appear, at first glance, to be a repository of International Kitsch. A veritable barrel full of fish, waiting for the right guy with the right shotgun. But you’d be wrong. The pieces may be too heavy or oversized or blatently erotic, but that’s not kitsch, just bad taste (or hot, depending on your opinion of chiseled nekked men and women).

No, to qualify as Modern Kitsch, it needs that delicate balance of high workmanship brought to a nasty end. In the category of end tables, you have plenty of candidates. If you’re fond of endangered species, why not a giraffe under glass?

Or, how about Sumo wrestlers?

How would you like to have that stare you from across the room for the rest of your life?

But my pick would be the “Spartacus” end table. Think of it: The gladiator who fought Rome and ended up being crucified, who inspired such loyalty among his men that they, too, sacrificed themselves in the most horrific manner, who inspired the wonderful Kirk Douglas movie, with its defiant cry "I AM SPARTACUS!" Now available to support your copy of Soap Opera Digest, your glass of Pinot Noir and the Pringles. Look for future end tables featuring Che Guvara, Martin Luther King and of course, Jesus of Nazaruth.