If you happen to need a used school bus, you'd be advised to visit Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on the morning of November 3. That's when Clyde Jackson will auction off surplus school buses from the Okaloosa County District, with a few trailers and tractors thrown in for good measure. It's a motley collection of vehicles--many are often bought just for parts and more than a couple come without a key.  It's not uncommon for people to bring their own tow trucks to drag their purchases off the lot.

   
In school you're encouraged to stand behind your work; but what's best for term papers does not necessarily apply to old school buses. In fact, Jackson's terms of sale could not be any more clear: 'As is, where is, with no warranty or guarantee.' That's the spirit.

--David Coggins

With today's pimped out luxury vehicles (flat-screen TVs, voice command systems, etc.), it's easy to forget about the lowly tail light, the modest bit of plastic that, when illuminated, gently reminds the car behind you that you're slowing down--and that they should too. 

Yet designer Stuart Haygarth celebrates precisely that in his chandelier built from cars' rear reflectors.  A highlight of this year's London Design Festival (read more about the event here), it manages to elevate the utilitarian to the level of high concept design.

--David Coggins

In his retrospective, Spiritual America, now on view at the Guggenheim, Richard Prince treats Frank Lloyd Wright's rotunda like the world's largest muscle car garage.  His sculpture, American Prayer, built into a resin base, looks like a high school kid getting his ride ready for the summer cruising season.

American Prayer, 2007 from Richard Prince: Spiritual America, Guggenheim Museum 2007


Spanning work from the past three decades, Prince appropriates images from advertisements and popular culture--he's partial to the Marlboro Man, New Yorker cartoons and fetching nurses from pulp novels.  He also collects hoods from cars that he paints and hangs right on the wall, like vivid minimalist monuments.  Prince doesn't forget the ladies, however, witness the appropriated photograph, Girlfriend, of a biker chick in a leopard print outfit, sitting on a motorcycle like she means business.   

Point Courage, 1989

Untitled (girlfriend), 1993

--David Coggins