Mr. Shirley and Big Al.
Here’s a nice shot. One of the Dancing Sisters took this one. Not sure who had the camera at this point.
Pre-Parade Photo from The Chron
Allen and I are number 11 in a collection with 50 other photographs from the Chronicle. The photo is as we were driving into the staging area of the 2008 Art Car Parade.
About one third are from this year, one third from 1988, and the rest of various other places and times: last year, in studios, etc.
Art Car Parade Prep - Allen OldiesMobile
Whew! I’m still breathing hard. Just got back from the beer run for Saturday morning.
I usually have regular thursday night and friday night plans. I bailed on both of them. No thursday games with friends. No friday running sound for the Ringwalds.
I helped out Allen Hill in preparing the OldiesMobile for the Art Car Parade on saturday. Lot’s of starts and stops, and success and failure, as art cars are want to be. But I think we’re ready for the morning.
I borrowed a generator from our service department. It is built to support an ambulance, so it’s totally over engineered for running a band. Loading into my car with a fork lift was the first warning - this things gonna be heavy.
Thursday, Allen and I moved it from my car, tested it, it worked great. We moved it into the Mobile. Friday I get home, he’s in my driveway, we move it from the Mobile, it’s a no-go. We call Sir Henkel and with three, we 1) pick it off the ground to a table, 2) off the table to the hood, 3) off the hood to the roof. Job performed, Sir Henkel retreats. (more…)
Chron: Commercialism and Art Cars
Here’s an article against corporate infringement into the art car scene. It’s more invective because of it’s harsh title - which is just typical “journalism”. I heard a few discussions on this topic at the many events I was at. Mostly, the corporate cars don’t show for the quirky events and thus don’t effect the “counterculture vibe”. The parade is a media event, and I fully expect corporateness to show up for a 250,000 person crowd.
I heard one major complaint about the McDonald’s shoe visiting schools on Friday. It’s a reasonable complaint, though one not shared by all artists. The complaints about the Shoe’s stereo being too loud are much more common.
What humors me the most is the social elitism of the comments to the article on the Chron’s web site. (”It’s not art because I don’t like it.”)
Is commercialism driving off fun of the Art Car Parade?
A few say sponsors detract from the event’s counterculture vibes
By SARAH VIREN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
May 13, 2007, 9:57PMPatrick Stanley exhausted his supply of souvenir hard hats an hour before Houston’s Art Car Parade started Saturday. Each bore the name of the construction company he works for, SpawMaxwell, just like his art car, a 1958 Edsel Pacer.
Chron: Hit The Road
Here’s an art car story that ran in the Chron prior to the parade. It’s a traditional feel-good pre-parade story. Very unlike the Sunday, post-parade attempt to stir the hornets nest.
HIT THE ROAD
Bumper-to-bumper funky – For many artists, Houston’s Art Car Parade is a chance to show off their skills in front of thousands
May 9, 2007, 7:02PM
By EILEEN McCLELLAND
Copyright 2007 Houston ChronicleGiant electric toasters, dancing lobsters, fire-breathing dragons, pirate ships, life-size statues of ZZ Top.
You name it, think it or dream it, and you might see it on the road during Saturday’s 20th annual Houston Art Car Parade. This year artists from at least 16 states will send 250 vehicles of all descriptions for a ride down Allen Parkway.
Houston’s is the oldest and largest art-car parade in the world, a party put on annually by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. Last year, more than 200,000 people watched a flying saucer, a fat rat and a collection of penguins all ride into downtown.
Beyond striving to reach new heights of creative expression, artists also vie for $10,000 in awards in 14 categories. Awards will be presented during the Orange Show Brunch and Awards Ceremony, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday at the Orange Show, 2402 Munger.
Here’s a glimpse at what four regulars are working on for this year’s parade:
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Art Car Weekend 2007
Art Car weekend is always a great time, and there was no exception this year - the 20th Anniversary year. It started for me at the Art Car Ball which had moved to the Son’s of Hermann Hall on Heights/Yale. There was an “outlaw” ball this year at the Meridian, location of the ball the last few years. I suspect it was because planning had already begun on the Meridian’s part by the time the move was contemplated by the local artists.
There was a bit of rain (which is to say a massive torrential downpour replete with hail) that washed some of the attendees inside and definitely kept down numbers. It was still quite fun, though, and I met some people I didn’t previously know.
Friday morning came early as I met with Big AL to drive one of his two cars in the Main Street Drag. This is a truly fun event that begins early in the morning at the zoo, as cars are divided up into packs of about 10 each and go on different routes visiting schools and hospitals. Two motorcycle police escort each team through town to keep the pack together.
Friday evening the symposium and all around gathering was held at the Art Car Museum with half of Heights Boulevard being blocked off. Several bands play outside. There’s some talks given inside. Some nice fire from cars which is not allowed in the parade. (Mark Bradford was driving/walking his cars around the citgo parking lot belching flames.) (more…)
