Ultimate Taxi: All About The Ride

Cruising around in a perversely flamboyant taxicab isn't just another Aspen gimmick. For Jon Barnes, the cabby behind the wheel of the wacky checker cab, it's a way of life.
Other cab drivers spend hours and hours a day waiting around for the next fare. But whether you work in a cubicle or a taxi, you need to bring the fun along with you, he voiced, just loud enough to be heard over the classic Doors' tunc L.A: Woman, which was blaring through all eight of the vehicles' speakers Saturday night.
To me, it's more fun making people happy than racing people back and forth to the air¬port in the snow. And it gi ves me an excuse to buy expensive toys, said Barnes, drumming to the music on an electronic drum kit affixed to the right side of the dashboard, just above a keyboard.
Twenty years ago this week, Barnes, 45, began his career as a chauffeur in Aspen. High Mountain Taxi was his employer until 1990, when he launched Ultimate Taxi, which he touts as the only recording studio, theater, nightclub, planetarium, toy store and Internet¬connected taxicab in the world. Complete with smoke and fog machines, green and red lasers, fiberoptics, neon and...