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Okay, the Art Car Ball. It was basically a huge party in a nightclub parking lot. We got there early, not knowing what to expect. So we had lots of time to walk around and look at the cars before it got really crowded. I met the fabulous Chaigirl from the artcarz mailing list (I think her real name is Kim) and her cute baby Toby. Chaigirl is a collage artist so she and I talked about copyright issues for a little bit. She also has one of my two favorite daily drivers in the entire parade. She had used expanding construction foam (the kind that comes in a spray can) to make all kinds of neat shapes all over the car. She'd painted the foam mostly purple and teal, and embedded clocks all over it. There was even a little tiny art car on the hood. It detached so her baby Toby could play with it!

I guess now is a good time to talk about the two main categories of art car: daily driver and sculpture. The sculptures tend to be the most impressive or eye-catching because they generally involve greater modifications to the vehicle. But I have to admit, I find myself more drawn to the daily drivers. Maybe it's because that's what I drive, so I find them personally inspiring. I see other daily drivers and I think, "what a great idea! I could do such-and-so to my car too!" But I'm never going to get that kind of inspiration from, you know, the giant sunflower or the praying mantis.

OK, back to the Art Car Ball. I also met Linda Lindsey, whose car I had already photographed because she's staying at our hotel. It's the red car with sparkles, gems and puffy paint all over it in a delicate filagreed design. She had added a giant tiara to the roof for the event.

And I met the woman who drives "Peaches on the Beaches," a car I had seen in Austin last fall at a Day of the Dead parade. I had left a note on the windshield with my web address but hadn't heard back from her. So it was nice to catch up with her here. I didn't realize at first who she was, because she had brought a different car. (Because of the new rule that you can only have the same car in the parade for two years.) She was driving a VW Beetle painted like the Rolling Stones, but she showed me a newspaper article about Peaches on the Beaches.

As Georg mentioned, there was a stage outside with a bunch of kids break dancing to old school hiphop. The only song I remember them playing was "Earth People" by Dr. Octagon, which I like very much. Perhaps I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy, but I have to admit I enjoyed the break dancing music much more than either of the live bands we heard later. We left before the headliner, Mojo Nixon, showed up.

As it got dark more cars and lots of people started to arrive. The costumes were amazing! There was a couple dressed like mermaids: long shirred skirts, foam fins, and roller skates. And people in all sorts of goth gear -- lots of black, lots of leather. I think my favorite was the woman in a black leather corset and a big puffy square dancing skirt. There was also a woman in a grass skirt and a coconut bra. I'm pretty sure she was a driver but I never found out what car. There was also a couple wearing giant fuzzy wigs, about 3 feet high. Prom dresses, butterflies, monks, you name it, there was someone dressed like it.

Many of the more impressive cars arrived after dark, including the giant praying mantis, a Scooby Doo van with huge holes cut out of the sides, and a van that had been converted to a helicopter including full-length tail and a propeller that turned! After dark I also got to meet Erin, who was staying at our hotel and drove my other favorite daily driver in the entire parade. It's covered with intricate mosaics made of beads, glass, coins, keys, bathroom tile, buttons, everything imaginable. She said she had done it section by section, so each section would be coherent, and she had been working on it for six years. Her efforts paid off! It was incredible.

One thing we were not expecting was the fire. Lots of the cars had gas jets attached, and when the sun went down they all lit up. The most impressive was giant cockroach which had these pipes that arced over it, completely covered with flame. I tried to get a photo of it but we took so many photos that night, I haven't gotten to that one yet. The Popemobile's giant cross also had flames. Which was a bit edgy, but then the Popemobile was one of the edgier cars at the event.

Georg and I talked about this at some point -- the fact that most art cars are decidedly non controversial. For the daily drivers it's obvious. I mean, you've got to drive that thing every day, you're not going to cover it with dildos or something like that. But even the event-only cars are usually more funny ha-ha than funny strange. Perhaps it's because the cars are seen by hundreds of thousands of people, including lots and lots of kids. Maybe there are more controversial art cars at the museum.

Which I just realized we did not get to! Oh man, I can't believe we came all the way to Houston and we didn't go to the Art Car Museum! D'oh!

Okay anyway, back to the Art Car Ball. It was a crazy scene, and we were having a blast watching people look at the art cars. But we were both really tired, having driven in that morning. And I was feeling frustrated and upset about the web cams -- which were not working! surprise! and so we decided to leave around 10:30. Easier said than done! We were parked in the middle of this huge party. We waited until we saw another car leave and did what they did -- inch out through the crowd towards a side exit.

Once we got near the exit, a volunteer noticed that we were trying to leave and tried to help us by guiding the crowd out of the way. Unfortunately, just at that moment a guy to the left of us set off a bunch of roman candles attached to his head. The guy was jumping around with fireworks spewing out of his hat, so you can imagine that no one was paying any attention to us! The people standing in front of us stood there slack-jawed, staring at the fireworks guy and not moving at all, until the volunteer finally got them to move back just enough so we could leave.

I have to say that particular volunteer was amazing. I saw him at every event and he was totally on the ball, always seeing where he was needed & getting it done. He seemed to have a lot of experience directing traffic. He even reminded us to turn our lights on after we got past the crowd. He was great!