from The Washington Post:
The funkiest UFO in the galaxy is about to land in Chocolate City.
The Mothership the iconic stage prop made famous by legendary funk collective Parliament-Funkadelic has been acquired by the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture where it will help anchor a permanent music exhibition when the museum opens its doors in 2015.
Im about to cry! Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton said over the phone from his home in Tallahassee on Wednesday. Theyre taking the Mothership! Theyre shipping it out! .?.?. But Im glad its going to have a nice home there.
It isnt the original Mothership. This 1,200-pound aluminum spacecraft was built in the mid-90s an indistinguishable replica, Clinton says, of the smoke-spewing stage prop he first introduced to slack-jawed funk fans in 1976.
But by 1982, Parliament-Funkadelics towering debts forced the groups Washington-based management company to trash the Mothership in a Prince Georges County scrap yard. And what happened next has become the stuff of myth. Was it stolen? Did it burn in a fire? Is it still floating around somewhere in the cosmos?
Read the full story here.