February 3rd, 2008

The Decorated Trucks of Japan

Sundays are for sitting, or lying, and doing nothing particularly important. In fact, the less I accomplish on Sunday the more successful I consider the day. So here’s a good activity while you’re waiting for the Super Bowl; check out Masaru Tatsuki’s Decotora photos and an interview at Ping Mag.

Dectora is an abbreviation for Decoration Truck. It’s a kinda of art popular in Japan that begin with some movie about a dude who drives a garnish truck around the country. Dectora soon spawned Deko-Chari which is bike art. You know, if you’re a kid you’re not pumping a big rig but you can pimp out your Schwinn bicycle like the cool kids. Anyway, the photos of these trucks are amazing, and worth a few clicks. Besides the link above, here’s a few more: link#1, link#2, link#3, and, if you’re feeling spunky here’s a link to a YouTube video, which is in Japanese, but has a nice blues riff and shows the trucks in motion. Feels like it was made during the Nixon years, or during a Tarantino bored period.