It's 6:20 and I'm too excited to sleep. The battery power for webcasting lasted so long yesterday that I think we're going to start again around 11:30. We'll be there at 9 for judging and staging. The parade starts at 1, and our number is pretty low (51) so I'm thinking we'll be done by 1:30. Then we'll have lunch -- a picnic provided by Peggy and Chris -- and head back to the hotel. They have something else going on after the parade (some kind of "art boat" water event called Anything That Floats) but Peggy and Chris need to get back to Austin and Georg and I will need a nap & then time to attach the rope lights to the car.
I have to get the car from valet around 8, find street parking somewhere, clean the back seat, then come back at 8:45 for Georg, Peggy and Chris. This valet-only thing at the hotel is a colossal pain in the ass. I'm definitely going to mention this on the Orange Show questionnaire. If I had know I wouldn't have access to my car I wouldn't have stayed here, group rate or no group rate. (And free cookie or no free cookie.) Besides, seeing all the cars and meeting the other artists in the parking lot was one of the best parts last time.
Harrod Blank's new movie, Automorphosis, was good, although they had severe technical difficulties so the movie ended up starting almost 2 hours late. First one audio channel (the one with the dialogue) was missing. They spent about a half hour trying to fix it, while we sat around and chatted. The nice thing was they kept repeating the intro to the movie, which used a smoking hot Asian Massive track neither Georg nor I had heard before. I'm going to write to Harrod and find out what that track was.
Then they sent someone out to go home and get a VCR. When that happened we left and walked around the block looking at the art cars. The only new things I saw were a "bed of nails" car completely covered with nails point side up -- I really hope it isn't a daily driver! -- and an "art Segway" that looked like a magic carpet with puffy clouds covering the wheels. So cool! It was too dark for a photo; I hope he's there tomorrow.
We talked with a few people while we were waiting and I got the "you're the one with the website" comment a couple more times. Now I feel totally vindicated about spending so much time on the website. Also chatted with a couple of people about my tattoo, because I was wearing an outfit that showed the top of it. It's nice of people to notice and comment on the quality of the work, but I really wish they wouldn't assume "can I see it" means "can I touch you." At least no one thought it meant "can I pull at your dress and look down your back." That does happen on occasion but thankfully not last night. I guess I need to develop more of a "back off" attitude.
Anyway, as we headed around the block we heard someone calling that the movie was starting again. Went back up to the viewing room (the second floor of Treebeard's restaurant) where we saw the first 5 minutes or so with dialogue, and then the tracking went out! They were trying to fix it with a flashlight, but it was taking longer and longer and eventually Peggy and Chris gave up and went back to the hotel. Georg and I stuck it out and a few minutes later (8:45 maybe?) the movie started again. It was great. Fun and funny and also touching at times. There were whoops and cheers whenever someone in the Houston scene, especially someone in the room at the time, showed up on screen. It felt a little long, but I think that was because of the late hour. And also because Georg and I were sitting right under an a/c vent that was uncomfortably cold. The film was actually only 90 minutes, not long at all.
Harrod must be having some issues with the structure of the movie, because at the end he handed out a lengthy questionnaire and begged us all to return it. We talked about the questionnaire as we were walking back to the hotel (it was a nice walk by the way, not too far and beautiful breezy weather) and agreed that the only question we couldn't really answer was the one about whether the parade footage suggested that art car drivers create their cars in order to be in parades & should therefore be dropped. We don't really think that a room full of art car drivers at a parade is the right audience to answer that question! I hope he'll do a test screening with people who don't have art cars and give them the same questionnaire.
The first time I saw Wild Wheels, I had Little Pig Boy but I didn't know there was an art car community or anything like that. I'm trying to remember what I thought of the parade footage. I guess I thought that those must be famous cars or something. I certainly didn't think that I could be in a parade. Little did I know!
OK, it's almost 7. I've been staying quiet so Georg could sleep but it's time to get a shower and start getting ready.
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