Here are the first ten cars. They are the ones I liked the very best, even though is was extremely difficult to narrow it down to ten, of the 250+ vehicles in the parade. Click on any of the pics to see a larger version. They'll all pop up in a new window.

	Psychedelic Truck
	Sunflower
	Zebra Car
	The CowPope Limo
	The Papal Bull
	Monster Bug
	Gnarly Stump
	Gnarly Stump Rear View
	Dragon Car
	Double Bug
	Dog Car
	Fsck Me Pump

The Art Cars 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 The Art Bikes The Art Folk Technical Notes

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

I got a call about a week before this years Art Car Parade from Sarah, a good friend from TRF. We used to work together at the Sea Devil, one of the taverns there. She was going to be working at the beer concession there, and they needed more help.

I've always loved the Art Car Parade, though I'd only seen it a time or two before. One of the main reasons is that it's a grass-roots, "run-what-you brung" kinda art show - there are no juries, no high-falutin' art-degree constipated poobahs deciding who gets to play in the sandbox - it's completely open to anyone that wants to cobble together a funky ride. Artistic freedom uncut.

So, I jumped on the chance like a chicken on a june bug, and after a quick call to ensure she could get her shift covered, CG did too. Since they still needed a few more folks to round out the crew, we got out our little black books, called some of our friends in the business, and got the rest of the openings filled.

We had a blast, and made some good moolah.

They were much better organized than most festival-type affairs, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the weather was good, though it was cloudy, and the light was a bit dull for the best photography, as you will see. The lady in charge of the vendors was as nice as she could be. She had known us from TRF, as she was the vendor co-ordinator there a few years back, and was happy to see a crew of experienced high-volume servers that could get the beer across the bar, and the money in the drawer, in an accurate and rapid fashion.

The best thing was that during the early part of the day, while the parade was actually going on, the beertending was fairly slow. One or two people could easily handle it. So most of us took off to watch the parade.

Hoping that such would be the case, I had loaded up with batteries and memory cards for the digital, and spent most of the parade shooting it. You can see the results in the following pages. I've divided them into groups.

First, Art Cars, the assemblage of wild and wacky contraptions that one can tell at one time had descended from mundane four-wheeled automobiles. It is by far the largest group, and is broken into several pages.

Next are the Art Bikes, which seem to have two-wheeled ancestors, some with, some without, a means to motivate them other than human muscle.

Finally, there is the gallery of the eclectic, the odd, the witty, and the bizarre people that paraded or attended the same, whom I have dubbed the Art Folk.

Finally, really finally, (I guess that last paragraph was, in fact, the penultimate one) for those of you that are interested in digital photography, and/or image editing, I added a page of technical notes relating the various hoops I jumped to get the pics in somewhat presentable fashion.

Disclaimer: I have made up all the names for the vehicles in the pics. Any resemblance to the name that the creators gave them is purely incidental, and attibutable to my poorly developed extrasensory abilities.

All pics will pop up in a new window, and you'll need to have javascript enabled in your browser.

Enjoy.

The Art Cars 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 The Art Bikes The Art Folk Technical Notes

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

"ShowPony" is Texas slang meaning an extremely attractive young lady.

She came up and got a beer from me at the Art Car Parade. After I popped my eyes back in my head, I waved the camera at her, and told her that some sights just have to be recorded for posterity. :-) She then ever so graciously agreed to pose for a pic.

As we were posing for the pic, I asked her if she noticed that her high beams were on. She laughed and said no, she hadn't. I replied that since it wasn't cold at all, I'd accept that as a compliment. :-) She laughed some more. I further allowed as how I thought I should point out the fact. She said she didn't mind, laughing even more. (I'm purty sure it wasn't her first beer)

Yes, I got her email address. No, you can't have it. :-)

The Art Cars 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 The Art Bikes The Art Folk Technical Notes

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment