Image by Larry LaBonte

Download the song Dr Strange MCain for your ipod!

The art car creation that we affectionately call Dr. Strange-McCain was originally called the Missile Dick Chick Art Car and was constructed in Oakland, California and then madly driven to Houston, Texas by an intrepid team of artists to perform in the big art car parade there, The Houston Art Car Parade

Image by Larry LaBonte

Co-creator Haideen Anderson rallied her friends and cohorts in the street theater troupe Missile Dick Chicks to fly in to jazz up the Houston audience. We thought that Houston would be a great place to introduce the car, because in addition to being my old art car stomping grounds, it is also a city full of war profiteers, containing the corporate headquarters of various oil companies and mercenary corporations such as Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown & Root. We hoped that our car would be seen by some of these people as well as the art car parade faithful.

The trip across the country was frought with unexpected stops and various breakdowns, yet we persevered and made the gig on time. I now admit that we almost bit off more than we could chew bringing not one, but two old buses out of mothballs (the art car and the MDC tour bus). In the parade, there was an attempt to take things to a new level, combining art car eye candy with the powerful agit-prop performance of the Missile Dick Chicks. We raised a bit of a ruckus, as you might imagine.

The chicks were accompanied by Secret Service agents and military personnel, as well as a couple of notable Republican politicians. More on the Missile Dick Chicks can be viewed at their YouTube channel

One of the videos, titled Ode to McCain, features our Dr. Strange-McCain art car in the Houston parade. Our next move was up to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota for an art car cruise, which pre-positioned us for the events surrounding the Republican National Convention, including the Liberty Parade. The primary memory I have from Minnesota was of all the great people that we encountered there. Our crew was big and boisterous, and we will forever be grateful to all of our hosts, cohorts and collaborators. You know who you are!

On the way to the Liberty Parade, our two buses were pulled over by almost a dozen police vehicles. It was the day before the convention started, and the different police agencies were practicing their inter-departmental cooperation.

Image by Rick McKinney

Of course, once they understood that we were not mad bombers, they allowed us to proceed to the Liberty Parade, which we barely made it into by minutes.

The next day was a big march on foot, 15,000 people strong, not covered by the mainstream media of course. After the march, we encountered a stand-off between bandanna-wearing kids and the mutant-ninja-turtle riot cops and even tasted a bit of tear gas ourselves. Members of our team witnessed the cops chase down various groups of kids, beating them with billy clubs and drenching them with pepper spray shot from large cannisters. As a country, we still have a long way to go regarding freedom of expression, to say the least.

We were invited to participate in a show at the University of Minnesota’s Weisman Museum titled American Political Sideshow on the last day of the convention.

I do not believe those at the museum had any idea what was about to appear at their front door. Neither did the convention delegates, who were treated to many rounds of improvisational street theater while coming and going from the convention center. Overall, it was an eventful week, full of events.

Massive abbreviation allows me to steer the bus home to California, where we snuck into a Nevada City event called the Constitution Parade. I figured it was a test of our freedom of speech. Of course, we then participated in Art Car Fest and the How Berkeley Can You Be Parade. Sometime during that weekend, a naked George Bush rode on our missile!

Sarah Palin came to the Bay Area for a fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame. We just could not resist the opportunity to attend the event, at least from the perspective of the street. A cool dude named Victor hopped on the bus with his video camera, and his wife Enza edited together this UTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX9oeALhz0U

The video includes songs that we recorded, karaoke-style, with our own lyrics.Film maker and sound engineer Olivier Bonin , www.madnomad.net, helped us to record songs and create the Dr. Strange-McCain video These songs were designed to be performed by McCain, and include: Highway to Hell, All You Need is War and Bomb Bomb Iran. Special thanks to Jill and Menusch for the great lyrics on that last one.

Our work is not yet done….and it is important to mention that a project of this size and scope was not accomplished by Haideen and myself alone.

We received great assistance from and must thank Rick McKinney, Mike Tackaberry, Elliott, Chris, Randi & Mikey from NYC, Allen Christian aka Mr. Lucky, Mary Jane LaVigne, Jan Elftman & David Lewis, Larry, Kathryn & Sean LaBonte, Maryanna Harstad, Mike Marceyes, Dan Das Mann & Karen Cusolito, Kevin Mathieu, Olivier Bonin, Bill Kennedy at ACE, Flash & Dana, Charlie at the Boxshop, Rebecca Goyette, William Rihel, Pepper Mouser, Mike Scranton, Danny Maccarini, Jim Skinner & Melinda McAllister, Will Hill & Big Jim, Ted Campbell, Bart Kaplan, Terry from New Zealand, James Joseph Plumb Bob, and…all other friends who helped us, and especially…. …all of the MISSILE DICK CHICKS, including, but not limited to: Dolly Daily Bombings, Sparkle, Bubbles Bomlovah, Candy Can, Baby Lonia, Halle Burton, Becky Boom Boom Bushwacker, Jayne Dough, Maiden China, Lula Lollypop, Vendetta Washington, Wanda Mae Dixon, Dixie Mae McCall, Bonnie Bell Boeing, Mrs. Lucky Martin, Missile America, Missy Dixon, Shirley Death, Honey B. Well, Olive Whitmore-Cash, Annie Riggins, Dickletts Chicklett, Cybill War, Neo Connie, Pickles Monsanto and all other chicks and all of their inevitable support crews! You are incredible to stand up and sing loudly, and we sing with you!!!

Bonus Video: On YouTube, search on Sarah Palin Missile Dick Chicks for a stellar version of Onward Christian Soldiers!

Even art cars get horny every once in a while! On the way to Minnesota, the Dr. Strange-McCain art car asked me to pull over in Ennis, TX, so it might relieve it’s extra pressure. Being the good art car dad that I am, we pulled over and let it make love to this water tower!

Tower Penetrated

Missile Truck with watertower

John McCain was spotted recently in Minnesota demonstrating the proper technique to ride a missile. He is obviously getting ready to BOMB IRAN! CHeck out his white knuckle technique…

What kind of art car does one make during such a political year? With all this “Bomb Iran!” drivel in the air, we couldn’t resist a contemporary twist on the Doctor Strangelove theme. Our favorite political street theater troupe, The Missile Dick Chicks, needed an art car for their 2008 World Domination Tour. So we built it and hit the road for what was to be an insane 4000-mile maiden voyage from San Francisco to Houston and back. Trying to write about it now, we are stymied by the sheer shock and horror of it all. But give us time. With the Democratic and Republican conventions still ahead, the adventure has just begun.

It has been a long time coming, but Sue Shefman’s red RAV4 has received a makeover by Haideen Anderson and myself, and we just gave a great ride to San Francisco Chronicle features writer Meredith May. And she was kind enough to write about the experience in an article titled, His cars often take turn towards whimsy. Thanks Meredith for such a fine article. Now we load Cheerio and her roof riding companions Shalom and Aloha onto a transport truck bound for Houston.

There is a woman in Texas named Sue Shefman who is crazy about hippos. Back in 2000, at the turn of the last century, Sue found me and commissioned me to transform her two year old RAV4 into the purple hippo car named Harmony, that has had a great life transporting Sue, often dressed as a clown. The gig helped me to gain the resources to move west at the beginning of 2001.

About eight years later, Sue contacted me and asked me to build her a second hippo car. She liked her first one so much, that she pretty much wanted another one much like Harmony, but this one would be red and named Cheerio. Normally, I am not interested in doing the same thing twice, but this was a beloved repeat customer and it would be my first art car created onto a brand new car. I am happy to say that Cheerio the hippopotamobile is almost finished. Haideen Anderson fully collaborated on this one and it is turning out extra special because of her contributions. I hope Sue has this car for a long time, and will be sharing images of the finished product soon. In the meantime, here are a few process pics!

The new hippo car will have two baby ‘roof rider’ hippos, one named Shalom and one named Aloha. We are almost ready to paint everything and are finishing up the mechanics of the two winking eyes.