Artcar Sighting

Saw this beauty on 11th Street walking home one night last week, and all I could think was, "now there's something you don't see every day."

The picture's awful, unfortunately -- I snapped it quickly and didn't want to stick around too long for fear that the trapped souls trying to escape from the car would come after me. But if you look at the large version of the pic on Flickr, you can make out the phone number. So naturally, I googled it. I mean seriously, who has time to make phone calls these days?

I quickly found this post in a Yahoo group about "Artcars." Well, that makes sense. I've never heard of an "artcar" before but if I had to name this creature, that might have come up. Right after "Ghostbustermobile" and "Hell on Wheels." But being a ruthlessly persistent Google bloodhound, I branched from there and googled the poster's name. His home page was easily found, with lots of links and blogs. I went on to search for general information about Artcars. There are bunches of web sites easily found. The pictures of these things are out of control. If I ever found myself driving down I-95 next to an Artcar procession, I'd probably assume that I was no longer on the planet earth, or had eaten an especially funky Arby's sandwich.

The owner appears to be from Baltimore; maybe he's in town for Artomatic. Or maybe he just felt like taking the ol' gooniemobile to DC for a spin on a nice day.

Artomatic, by the way, is phenomenal -- I've been once and barely scratched the surface, I'm hoping to go back once or twice more before it closes on the 15th. If you haven't been, go, now.