DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Scott At LACMA

Q: Does your car have a nickname?

A: It's not a nickname. It's her actual name. It's Trixie. I've owned Trixie since Thanksgiving of 2010.

Q: So you bought it used?

A: I had a truck that was stolen from outside my apartment. This was two days before Thanksgiving 2010. I ended up getting a rental while we tried looking for the car. You wait for the police to look for it, and then if something turns up, they'll let you know. The insurance company was like, we'll settle with you probably within a month, which they ended up doing two weeks later. The day after the insurance company cut me a check, the police found my truck way out in Whittier. Usually they're chopped or people joyride them into a ditch. In my case they found my truck and the people who stole it actually fixed it up—fixed all the problems—and cleaned it.

Q: How did the cops know it was your truck?

A: The day before it got stolen, I noticed that the locking mechanism on the passenger side had been taken out, so I thought it was just vandalism or that someone was trying to break in. But as it turns out, they can take it out and make a copy of the key from the locking mechanism.

Q: They really planned this heist, huh?

A: Yeah, then they came back the next night and stole her.

Q: Wow. That's pretty flattering.

A: It was a really nice truck. I didn't clean that one very often either. The second part was that they had found my truck, and it was much better than I had kept it. But it wasn't mine anymore because at that point the insurance company owned it, so they did whatever they do with recovered cars. With the insurance money, I bought Trixie.

Q: Where's the craziest place you've ever driven to in this car?

A: I've taken her to Vegas before. She fit in quite well.

Q: Did you do anything out of the ordinary while in Vegas?

A: Um, I don't know if you consider cranking Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" while driving down the Strip a weird thing.

Q: And you and your friends were screaming out the sunroof?

A: More or less.

Q: Do you have any rules in the car?

A: Make sure you wash your hands before you get in the car. They'll get really dirty, really quick. I mean the whole shotgun rule. You know, if you're inside the car, then you can call shotgun. I don't do the blitz rule.

Q: What's the blitz rule?

A: If you yell blitz then it wipes clean the shotgun rule, and whoever touches the car first gets to sit in the front.

Q: Do you get a lot of demand to sit in the front?

A: Yeah, well I try to make the back as comfortable as possible, so that it evens out. Maybe I'll keep party gifts under the back seats, and we'll do a raffle to see which seat gets the party gift.

Q: No other rules?

A: I guess any time you're listening to music and the song gives you an instruction, like in "Sweet Home Alabama" when they say "turn it up!" then you actually have to turn it up.

Q: Speaking of music, what do you tend to listen to in the car other than Miley Cyrus?

A: I'm a big J-Beebs fan. A closet J-Beebs fan.

Q: J-Beebs?

A: Justin Bieber.

Q: Oh wow, so you call him by a nickname and not his real name?

A: Yeah, you know, I try not to tell too many people about that. The funny thing is I went on a date this last weekend, and I definitely on purpose, right before I picked her up, changed the radio to a classic rock station. The purpose was so she wouldn't know what I was listening to.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about your car?

A: I always keep a set of bocce balls in the trunk. Just in case. You never when you're out and you need some bocce balls. Usually there's a deck of cards in the center console. Yeah, I'm a magician.

Q: Oh are you? Where have you performed?

A: I've performed at IO West in Hollywood, college gigs, and I've actually done magic for Ellen DeGeneres on her show. She really likes magic, too, which is great.

Q: Great, can I see a magic trick in Trixie when this is done?

A: <laughs> Yeah, sure.

Photos and interview by Michael Shen, blogger of lacantdrive.com

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