A social media user snapped a photo of a bizarre vehicle at Lake Merritt in Oakland. The story behind it is much more involved — and expensive — than expected.
It’s not a turtle. It’s not a bug. But it’s not a standard car, either. On Oct. 12, a user of X, formerly known as Twitter, stopped his bike ride to post a photo of a truck-sized green van with bug wings and a jet engine. “Just now at Lake Merritt,” David Gallagher wrote. To figure out the story behind the strange sighting, SFGATE tracked down the mysterious sculpture and spoke with one of its creators. The vehicle is an art car called “Project: Empire.
The car is also equipped with 13 high-end Meyer speakers, which broadcast stereoscopic sound collages of rocket noises and archival NASA sound bites designed by Mate, who works at the sound design division of Lucasfilm. Sarriugarte told SFGATE that the locally built Meyer speaker system was nearly half of the construction costs alone, pricing the system at somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000. The sculpture comes with a whole website’s worth of lore.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Oakland man discovers rare animal in trash binAn Oakland man discovered a rare leucistic raccoon in a trash bin while volunteering at Lake Merritt.
Read more »
Oakland man charged with crashing stolen Lexus, killing two East Bay residentsVera Hampton, 67, of Antioch, and Derrick Shaw, 64, of Richmond, were killed when a man with eight prior felonies crashed a stolen Lexus into their Lexus on Sept. 24, authorities said.
Read more »
Oakland man killed in solo Fairfield crash now thought to be homicide victimThe 44-year-old man, whose name hasn't been released, was found dead inside a pickup truck at about 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Read more »
Pa. man rescues neighbor with Alzheimer’s trapped inside burning rowhouse: reportsWhen he heard a call for help, neighbor Damian Komorofski quickly jumped into action to rescue the man trapped inside the three-unit row home.
Read more »
Man, 20, charged in West Chatham shooting that critically injured man working as CTA security guardA 20-year-old Chicago man has been charged after a security guard on the CTA Red Line was shot and critically injured over the weekend, authorities said.
Read more »