Wild Wheels

"When I grow a car..." begins Gene Pool, and we know we're in for something really weird. Pool's Grassmobile-created by gluing grass seeds to his car, and watering and tending his portable lawn-is just one of the 46 Art Cars portrayed in filmmaker Harrod Blank's hoot of a documentary Wild Wheels. Blank, the proud owner of a festively decorated 1965 VW Bug named "Oh My God, "in honor of the most frequent remark made by gawking onlookers, took his Bug and his camera on a quest across America searching for like-minded individuals who saw their cars as their canvas. And he found some real characters: Dalton Stevens, the "Button King," who didn't want to wake his wife with his insomnia, so he took up the popular hobby of randomly sewing buttons on his pants... and then he looked out his window at his car, and his aspirations grew; or Jon Barnes, who drives "The Ultimate Taxi," featuring flashing disco ball, swirling smoke, and a personalized karaoke performance of "Me & Julio Down at the Schoolyard"; or Eric Staller, whose Lightmobile sports 1,400 mini-lightbulbs blinking in 25 computer-driven sequences. Religious cars, memorial cars, UFO-inspired cars, and the mechanically urinating Hippomobile...this is about as much fun as you can have with a VCR. One of my favorite videos this year. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: Tara Releasing, 124 Belvedere #5, San Rafael, CA 94901; (800) 995-6068; CA: (415) 454-5838.)