Automotivetry

Language & me!

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:49:00 +0000

This morning I woke up to...

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:40:00 +0000

...frozenetry!

All my magnets were frozen to my car. It was kind of pretty, so I whipped out my cameraphone to grab a picture.

(click image for bigger)

There's a drought still on in Georgia, you know.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:40:00 +0000

...and this person just wants to help out.

A nice (?) change of pace from the dirty poems

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:23:00 +0000

I have to admit, I went out of my way to make this one appear as disturbing as possible.

From Becky

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:07:00 +0000

Ok, I confess, this is not a stranger's poetry, it's Becky's!

I like the phrase "me leg"

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:23:00 +0000

Some advice for a saturday morning

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:01:00 +0000

Sweet? Creepy? Um?

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:15:00 +0000

This was over my driver's side door handle last week...

Smooth Shiney Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:53:00 +0000

No mysteries here

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:05:00 +0000

This was my first "poem" where there was no mystery about the author. My friend Steev, who works at the same company I do, is the perpetrator here! He and another friend & coworker, Rob, have an itty bitty feud going on, so I can only imagine Steev's delight when he discovered that rob is a word that comes standard with magnetic poetry.

Awwww

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Someone in my apartment complex left this one the other night. Since I don't know anyone who lives there, I assume it was for whomever was with the poem writer. Or the person just likes to write poems. Anyway, it's nice!

All the dirty words together at last

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Click image for larger

I'm pretty sure someone just put all the dirtyish words together at once here.

Oh you can? Ok then.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:23:00 +0000

The thing I like the most about this was the way some other word was turned in to "day".

ETA: Apparently this is a quote from that godawful movie Face/Off.

The terror of poetry

noreply@blogger.com (Lizerati) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Ok, I've got the words on my car and now I am gripped with the terror that they are going to fly off on the freeway when I leave work today. I'll be arrested for littering and causing some weird, horrible, poetry based 30 car pile-up. Sorry guys, I know Atlanta traffic is bad, but just wait till 6pm. Don't take 75 north.

What is poetry?

dugitman@gmail.com (Doug S.) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:50:00 +0000

One of the more interesting aspects of this public submission format is picturing the poet in your mind. Who was it? What did they look like? What were they feeling and thinking while fiddling with your car? Although this is more a declaration than poetry, I picture a young woman who has just left her ultrasound. She is unable to make phone calls fast enough to give her friends and family the news. When you have a baby there are a couple times you want a bullhorn to scream out to the world what you are feeling. This is one of those times. I see her standing behind my jeep looking for the "!!!" magnet. If poetry is "communication in beauty or the evocation of feeling"-- this must surely be the latter.

Poetry From the Hospital

dugitman@gmail.com (Doug S.) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:56:00 +0000

Friday, July 25th we welcomed our 3rd (Seth) into a sterile delivery room. Since we scheduled the induction for 7am, I was able to park our Cherokee in the first visible spot in the attached parking garage. In the past 3 days, it has been nearly impossible to visit the maternity ward or emergency room without passing my car. There has been so much response I have had to snap pics and rearrange magnets to make room for new works. Lots of cliche's and lots of non-poetry have been left out, but I'll include a couple to give you an idea of what to expect if you happen to park your magnet covered car in a building where people enter and leave existence on a regular basis.

This was the first. It's short, pretty, and has a serene quality to it. If any pharmaceutical reps passed by and make this the new tag line for Lunesta, I will demand royalties...or whatever the drug-ad equivalent is called.

Indianapolis weighs in

dugitman@gmail.com (Doug S.) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:31:00 +0000

Although I had hoped my first automotive poem would be profound and revelatory, you have to post what you can get. This was made in the parking garage above my downtown store location right off Monument Circle in Indy. In fairness, the symphony and its patrons park in the same garage so I like to think of it as the abstract of an essay on generational differences in modern America and how the establishment perpetuates the divide. While Joe assures me it is kids making d*ck jokes, I believe he is crass and cynical. Like Ponyboy, I'll stay gold.

Also, I will start carrying a better camera for this project

Don't bother with the non-essential places

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:09:00 +0000

I like to think that the person who wrote this one is an artist at heart. I also think they couldn't find a "the" to go between "only" and "essential". But maybe that's the art of it...

Sounds like a theme park in hell... Or the Bronx

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:06:00 +0000

Not really sure what to make of this one, but it was fun to see someone use the ampersand.

Sage Advice

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:55:00 +0000

I'd be lying if I said I didn't crack up when I came out to see this one. I'd also be lying if I said I didn't fully expect this to be the kind of thing I constantly came out to.

Umm...

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:20:00 +0000

Sometimes, people just get random, and it comes out interesting. In other news, I've been searching iTunes for some Chocolate Music, and all it came up with is Parliment.

The first line of an epic tale

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:16:00 +0000

This is, like, poetic and stuff! You'd think someone was writing poetry on my car.

A Question for the Ages...

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:10:00 +0000

Ah, blasphemy. It makes for good poetry. (captured at EB Games near my house)

I was bored, had $50 to spend on magnets, and a free afternoon. This is what I came up with:

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:28:00 +0000

And on my very first day, not 10 minutes after putting all the magnets on and walking into the Thai Food place to pick up my order, I had my first composition (which can be seen above, but I took all the pics at once, so pretend it's not in the first two and clap wildly for this one):

It's a gigantic simile with a preposition in the middle. I love it.

About Automotivetry

noreply@blogger.com (JtP) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:02:00 +0000

So this is where I tell you what this is all about whatnot. But really, just looking through a few pictures here should give you plenty of context about what's going on here. So I suppose this section is quite unnecessary, isn't it?

Although, I suppose I could tell you how it all came about... Yes, that seems like it'd be appropriate here, thus justifying having an "about" section.

So I have this friend, Lori. Lori is a poet. Not only is Lori a poet, she is quite an exceptional one. She's one of those people that personifies the description of a free spirit. She's a flower child through and through, and I love everything there is to love about a person, because she's wholly good and a benefit to the human race.

Anyway, Lori used to drive this adorable little Mini Cooper car, and one day, while working on a client site together on a project, she had about two armloads of stuff to carry to her car, but only one set of arms. So, being the chivalrous young man my mother would be proud that I have become, I helped her carry some goods to her car. She popped the back hatch of her car, and I saw a ton of little magnetic poetry pieces laying all over the place.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Lori," I said, "You're the only person I know who could literally haul poetry around in the trunk of her car." We shared a laugh, and then off the cuff, I followed up with "You should place it all over your car and let people say things with it."

Of course, this being the world o' web 2.0 and whatever, we both shot glances at one another and decided this NEEDED to be a thing. A real thing, with pictures and a website and whatever. So I registered the name Automotivetry.com, bought a bunch of magnetic poetry, and ran around town for like six months experimenting with the idea - mostly to see if people would actually participate, or if they'd just smirk and keep going.

Well, as it turns out, there is a healthy amount of both that takes place. Enough people participate that I am perpetually curious when I return to my truck everywhere I drive. Enough people pass right by and smirk, pausing to enjoy the fanciful thoughts of people unafraid to slide magnets around on someone else's car. But virtually everyone I observed who came in contact with my truck were at the very least curious. So I figured I'd go ahead with it and see what happens.

So far, it's been a ton of fun.