Just got back from a fantastic vacation in Austin, TX. My friend gave me a mermaid Barbie who lights up, has a mermaid baby, and lives in a shell that lights up too. It's amazing! I also bought some fish (a lobster, some big koi and a glow-in-the-dark jellyfish) at a store called Toy Joy.
Alas, we missed World Art Car Day in Houston on Saturday, which I hear was quite an event. But on the bright side, we did see several art cars at Austin's Dia de los Muertos parade. There was a political car called "Democarcy," a shrine to Frida Kahlo in the bed of a big truck, a beach theme car with sandcastles, a very cool lowrider that went up on three wheels to the delight of the crowd, a car with dinosaurs, one painted with giant fruit, and a little car with big springs all over it. (where do people get these amazing ideas?)
Seeing all those amazing cars made me want to get home immediately to get back to work on undersea mahjongg. I vacillated between feeling inspired and feeling like a dilettante whose car sucks. They were decorated everywhere, inside and out. Some of them even had sound effects!
Aside from the parade, Austin was a city full of cool cars. My friend lives near South Congress, which seems to be a hip neighborhood, and we spent a lot of time hanging out there. Everywhere we looked was another amazing car -- restored classics, Starsky & Hutch muscle cars, old Beetles, you name it. I even saw an Opel, in good shape too!
Anyway, we're back to regular life now. I spent some time this afternoon attaching my new purchases from Toy Joy to the car. (Mermaid Barbie is too nice to be glued down; she'll go on the rear shelf.) It was slow going because the kids next door kept interrupting me. They cling to the fence and yell at me until I put down the caulk gun and go talk to them. They're actually interested in my dogs, not my car. A typical conversation goes like this:
"Hey! Hey!"
yes?
"What are you doing?"
gluing fish to my car.
"Oh. Your dogs are barking at us."
they bark when you shout at them. I'll put them inside so they won't bother you.
"No, don't! We want them to come over here so we can pet them."
they're old and not used to children. I don't think they'll come too close.
"Well can't you make them?"
I wouldn't mind once or twice, but we go through this over and over until their mother notices and orders them away from me. I don't think she likes me. I'm not sure if it's the car, or the fact that I used to have green hair, or the fact that my yard is such a shambles.
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Hey! I'm not sure how I got to your page, but my car's on it! (Hope Springs). I love the shots of it. Good luck with your car - never never feel like a dilletante - my car is nothing compared to what shows up at the Houston art car parade, but it makes me smile every day.
So I've just dropped my daughter off at the children's museum this morning when I see a pig car pull into the drive-thru bank. Of course I'm three lanes over and half a block past before it registers. A pig car! My old Lingui軋 bud Sarah Ovenall has a pig car! And it's South By Southwest week, so the whole world is in town.
I frantically negotiate a maze of one-way streets to get back to the bank and find the pig car is still in the drive-thru. There's even an empty parking space. I scrounge around my car for a coin to put in the meter, then sprint to the bank exit, hoping not to get run over by a hotfooted customer. Made it! Now, how to communicate with the driver of the car without getting shot or arrested? I wave, I point, I mouth the words "Are you Sarah Ovenall?" The driver makes eye contact, seems unfazed. I guess if you drive an art car, you're used to odd
interactions with the lunatic public.
It turns out she's not Sarah Ovenall. She's not even the owner of the car, but a friend driving Aralyn Hughes' pig car, with art by Sam Hurt. Of course, I should have recognized the style. We agree that Sarah and Aralyn
should know each other.
On returning home I hit Google and manage to locate both Aralyn and mysterious Sarah. It turns out that Sarah's car Little Pig Boy died a while back, but she has a new one, Undersea Mah Jongg. It also turns out that Sarah has visited Austin in the last year and I didn't know (sob!). Furthermore, she has not one but two weblogs associated with her various projects. Link, link...
So... Aralyn, meet Sarah. Sarah, meet Aralyn. And Sarah, next time you come to Texas, please pleeeeease let this old Lingui軋n know.