Is a convertible practical? Yes.

Our user conference was from November 5-8, and my team volunteered to produce our customer videos. That required a plain backdrop of some kind, so I choose white seamless paper, which arrived in a 10 foot roll.

As you can see from the photo, it fit comfortably in the car with the top down, and the headrests provide stabilization.

The interesting thing is that when I was driving to the office with it in my car, I noticed these odd little cars on Highway 101 near San Mateo (south of San Francisco). I originally thought they were "Smoot" cars, but my developer corrected me.

The model pictured is the convertible version of the Smart Car, which is basically a tiny Mercedes that's already taken off in Europe because it's incredibly easy to park. I did some research, and you can get a great deal on a fun car if you drive mainly within city limits.

Unfortunately, I was watching the one in front of me, and the disrepair of Hwy 101 was becoming very apparent to the Smart Car driver. He was having trouble holding a straight (or he was messing with his cell phone). The wheelbase of the car is, I think, less than half of my 330cic, and the width is probably less than 5 feet. It's a car you can get your arms around.

I briefly considered plopping down $50 to reserve one of these www.smartusa.com but since I commute 70 miles roundtrip, ANY possibility of being either blown off the road by a semi or getting rear-ended because I couldn't get away from a lunatic driver killed the idea. Top speed of these cars is 85 mph, I believe.

BMW has already previewed the "1" series edition of the convertible, which surprisingly has 4 seats. I'm guessing it's in response to the VW convertible. They kept the soft top which I like a lot.

For city dwellers, however, I think your prayers have been answered.