RADIO-CONTROLLED

Sunday, May 3, 1998

In Saturday's entry, Vonda McIntyre wins the Nebula Award for her novel The Moon and the Sun. Bravo!

Today the Seattle Cacophony Society put on the first Radio-controlled Art Car parade, in Fremont. Fremont is one of the cooler Seattle neighborhoods. I wore my patchwork dress, the most colorful and festive outfit I own.

I stopped at Archie McPhee's on the way, to buy prizes for the participants. The event wasn't supposed to be a competition, but I wanted to reward folks for joining us. I handed these out at random times during the event.

I was the first to arrive, of course, but Christina and Tobin showed up in a few minutes, then Nick, Steve (a new member) and my sister M--- with her two sons and a friend of theirs. Tom Lawrence, and Jane Hawkins and Sam, completed the group. Steve's car was great! It was the only one built from a real RC car, the kind meant for racing. It's the black platform in the picture, with a high heel shoe worn by Miss Washington resting on black velvet.

Nick gave us the news: Jayson and XE had had their baby, a girl! This is the first cacophony baby born in Seattle.

My car is the coral-colored one, with a blue tail. It still could use some more elaboration.

It was a beautiful afternoon! Sunny, and I had neglected to bring sunscreen. I'm feeling it tonight! Usually I always bring some to our outdoor events, and strongly urge folks to put some on.

At first we thought Jayson's car wasn't working, but I just hadn't found the correct switch to turn on. His car was covered with random trash, fake food, and plastic cockroaches. I operated his car while the boys took turns operating mine.

My nephew B--- ran my car into the leg of a man who was waiting for the bus. The man was quite testy about it! "You should train your son to say 'Excuse me'," he said grumpily.

We ran the cars around to the delight of the folks who happened to be there, first around the statue, then down the block and back. Finally we decided to take them down to the Fremont Sunday Market, which was a few blocks away.

It was quite an impressive procession! There was a bit of a problem with car controllers interfering with each other, since the cheap cars were all on the same frequency. But that just gave our proceedings the proper cacophonous note.

Local (student?) filmmakers showed up while we were running the cars at the Market, and they filmed us and I did a quick interview. It will be interesting to see if this footage ever shows up anywhere! I think this will be an event worth repeating. There is the fun factor of playing with the cars, and repeating will give more people a chance to develop their cars.

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I went dancing this evening, taking the bus down to the Showbox for Zoot Suit Sunday. I showed up early, before the lesson. It was fun dancing with an almost empty dance floor. I got several favorable comments on my dance skills, not from partners but from people who had been watching. Gratifying! The John Holt Combo was the band, and they played a lot of swinging, medium tempo tunes, good for dancing to. The place wasn't too crowded, even though there was a live band.