Friday, April 16, 2010

Is it art? Or graffiti?

Yesterday evening, I went on my normal Alki walk. It was a nice night out. Wonderful views of Puget Sound. And about halfway along my walk, I found two characters "decorating" a truck. I've seen vehicles hit with TP and stuff written on the windows before, but at a glance, I could tell this was something special. The two guys had an enormous roll of plastic wrap and were just starting to wrap the car. And looking into the cab of the truck, I could see it filled with packing peanuts. Right up to the windows.

That was evil. But when I took a closer look, I was even more impressed. They lined the inside of everything in the truck with aluminum foil. The steering wheel, the seats, the head rests on the seats, the review mirror--everything covered with aluminum foil. How long this must have taken I can't imagine. The packing peanuts was pure evil. Whoever owns that truck will likely be finding those for months on end.

And I decided, I needed photos. This was a work of art. This is something I would have normally guessed was Wassa's work, except I know Wassa, and neither of the two men doing this was him. I asked what unspeakable crime the owner of the truck committed, and was told he was getting married. The fool. *shaking head*

I wanted photos, but I didn't have my camera on me. Curses! I walked home.

This Alki walk is a good five or so miles in length, and after getting home, I sat around for a couple of hours getting some work done and letting my feet rest. But I still wanted photos, and I didn't know when the owner of that truck would be back and start the cleanup. I needed to get pictures that night. So I grabbed a camera, and at 2:00 in the morning, I went off to take photo.



These are the best photos that came out. The flash was blinding, and the natural light at 3:00 in the morning was less than ideal. However, you can see the packing peanuts in the vehicle, half covering the steering wheel (which itself was wrapped with aluminum foil). I walked back home and went to sleep.

I wanted to see if I could get better photos, however, so I did my walk a third time in the light of day the next morning, hoping none of the cleanup had started. And YES! It was still there, completely untouched!

I'm not really sure the photos from the light of day were any better. The glare of the sun caused its own problems, and I actually had to touch up these photos in my photo-editing software to make them look this good!

I really like the aluminum foil trim on the tires of the truck. That just seems classy to me.

Then I posted a note on the car saying, "The letterbox can be found in the peanuts." No idea if the owner will understand that message, but the mystery will certainly intrigue him. =)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROFL

Amanda from Seattle said...

Thanks for the photos! I heard the story early on and couldn't wait to actually see it!!

ArtGekko said...

I love how they put foil on whatever was hanging from his rear-view mirror. Very thorough!

Packing peanuts are the minions of evil. I hate those things!

Ray said...

I've done the peanuts to my sister in her mini van. Filled the entire front right up to the windows. The worst part was that she and her husband had to go to church the next morning and ended up cleaning all the peanuts out before leaving.

Ray
Happydaze

Whirlwind said...

We were in a parking lot of a strip mall once and saw some people wrapping a car in the plastic wrap. This is much more devious!

Blue said...

All I can say is payback would be sweet and swift

Anonymous said...

For our pastor's 40th birthday a bunch of teenagers completely covered his car with little post-it notes.

BJ_Mama said...

THAT'S HILARIOUS! Peanuts are genious!

Anonymous said...

@ ArtGekko:

Point to Ponder - What do they ship packing peanuts in?

LB

Stacy Christian said...

One winter in HS, we shrink wrapped a car and poured water over it. Fordsicle!

My favorite was putting pea gravel in the hub cabs though.

AG--bubble wrap!

Anonymous said...

Have heard of it, but not seen it... lifting the car & placing melon rinds under the wheels. The tires spin - they aren't going anywhere! Packing peanuts are harder to find these days.

GreenJello said...

I once aluminum foiled a friend's office for his 40th birthday. It took 3 hours. Foiled everything-- pencils, pens, his phone, chair, walls, floor... It was hilariously funny!

Lisa said...

Dude, they even foiled his sunglasses that are hanging from the rearview.

He got off easy. My dad and his brothers grabbed my uncle on the night before his wedding and shaved him COMPLETELY from head to toe. Not a hair of any kind ANYWHERE.

rhowell7 said...

ART~ and a cool science project too! Great pictures, I love the Northwest, miss it for sure!
Rho's Place