Sorry for the inconvenience, but the Sprockettes will not be performing at Sunday Parkways this weekend due to a scheduling glitch.
We still encourage you to come out and support the other performers and organizations and celebrate a little combustion-engine free cavorting in the streets for the day.
See you Saturday at 2:25om. Tour de Fat has free entry and entertainment 12-5pm.
People, this is serious. We have yet another tour mascot: Chicken the cat. We forgot to mention that last weekend was the 13th annual Dead Baby Downhill. Enormous hot pink and black hugs go to Nickey Robo, her roommates, and Chicken for housing us in Seattle. The Dead Baby party was incredible, and we shared the stage with Seattle’s Bicycle Belles, the B:C:Clettes (how can you not enjoy it?), and On the Double. What? The bike dancing and the double dutching took over a city block until good and late.
Of course the solar-powered Tour de Fat festival the next day was fabulous, even in the cloudy and 60-something degree weather. And we’ve got another one coming up this weekend, y’all.
You know they sell New Belgium beer at Tour de Fat, with 100% of the money going to local non-profits. But did you know if you go to a grocery store these days and purchase a pack of Fat Tire that you’re buying an heirloom? Look carefully at the Fat Tire carrying-case-box-thing artwork because there is, in fact, a hot little Sprockettes bike resting in the grass just begging to be picked up and danced upon. On that note, we’ll see y’all under the Hawthorne Bridge this Saturday afternoon.
Just a happy little reminder, y’all, that we are still bringing out the bike dancing, even though the Midwest tour is complete.
Keep your eyes on the “Shows” tab on this site. Here’s what August has in mind for us….
August 8: Tour de Fat, Seattle at Gas Works Park around 2:25pm
August 15: Tour de Fat, Portland at Waterfront Park by the Hawthorne Bridge on the West side around 2:25pm
August 16: Sunday Parkways, Col. Summer Park SE Belmont and Se 20th
August 22: Tour de Fat Boise, ID at Ann Morrison Park
We’ve been dancing at around 1:30-2:30pm at Tour de Fat shows, and Sunday Parkways should be 1pm. Don’t be late. We take names, and if you’re tardy, you might have to stay after school and clean our chains.
Sorry for the delay in posting, folks. Here’s the updates from the “From Cascadia With Love” tour last Midwest stop, Minneapolis, MN. By the way, Minneapolis, we love your light rail system and your extensive bicycle highways! Several folks proudly boasted to us “We’re the number two bicycling city in the US, just behind Portland!”
Once again, Daniel wowed us with his driving prowess, carrying us across another state line and another time change into MN. We arrived to warm greetings from Nate, Jake, and Tommy who had recently returned home from their month-long Minneapolis to Portland round trip bicycle tour. We crashed on the front steps, looked fruitlessly for the elusive Minneapolis mascots, Corrina and Rudi the cats, and then hit the Hard Times Cafe for some veggie dinner. Next stop was down the road at Medusa for their regular drag night dance party. The Sprockettes have long been proud of our face glitter at performances, but these Minneapolis folks brought us to our knees with their glittering skills. The dance/performance party was in a tightly packed little space, the night’s theme was sci-fi, and we were the opening act of the night. Due to some space constraints inside, we ended up dishing out just a little teaser performance instead of our full set sometime near midnight. Dancing with a fog machine, bubble machine, and strobe light was really fun if not slightly blinding.
The next day was Tour de Fat, and it was chilly. (I hesitate to say it was full on cold, as Minnesota residents would laugh at us for thinkin 60 degrees is cold. But Ok, we felt cold.) Some of us spotted these bizarrely puffy gray and black things hovering still in the sky. We don’t know what they were, but they were somehow blocking the sunlight. Fortunately, the day stayed dry, but it was rather autumnal. An amazing crowd showed up, given the cool, windy weather. This was a pretty heavily costumed crowd, which made it a lot of fun. We met a few MDCs (I’m not spelling out the name, just to be a little family friendly, y’all) who talked about using street performance as activism. While the Sprockettes are not as overt as MDC in using dance for political activism, if you’ve seen this summer’s set, you know that we have a public transportation agenda in addition to some song lyrics such as “Let’s go out for a bike ride,” and “Do you wanna ride my bike?”
After a fabulous Tour de Fat afternoon, we taught Daniel some acro-balance moves and headed back to our homebase, the incredible, old house where Jake and Brie live. That night, there was a fundraising benefit for Bedlam Theatre, which is conveniently located right next door to Medusa, the performance space from the evening before. That place looks like the love child of Imago Theatre in Portland with a rooftop bar. Gorgeous. We were lured there by our dearest friends, Mucca Pazza, who performed at the Chicago and Minneapolis Tour de Fat shows. They brought the house down and coaxed the last little bits of energy out of our bodies on the dance floor.
Right around waking up time (7:30 am on Sunday!), Corrina the cat finally forgot she was terribly shy and let a few of us pet her. Much like her and Rudi, we felt the bittersweet tug of sticking around for more love and attention and burrowing away for a moment of stillness and the comfort of home. The fact that we had plane tickets for Portland already paid for might have been the only real thing that ended up pulling us out of that fine Minneapolis house and our friends’ loving arms.
Tour de Fat goes on into October, and we have five more stops with them. But we did bid farewell to the absolutely gorgeous Midwest, and we bid a hearty “see you later” (not good-bye) to the folks who housed us, fed us, cared for us, cheered for us, danced with us, and showed us a miraculous time. Agent Curse, Agent Trouble, and Daniel were thrilled to meet up with family and friends from back home. The rest of us were so grateful to finally have made it to that part of the country to see the natural beauty and soak in all the love. We have undoubtedly returned to Cascadia with much more love than we started with. Please stay tuned for more updates in a couple weeks; right now we’re shifting back into our routines, and we’ll pick back up with Sunday Parkways and Tour de Fat soon!
“From Cascadia with Love.”
Crowds, y’all have been so amazing buying t-shirts, spoke cards, and other Sprockettes merchandise (all of which we make ourselves!). Looks like we’ve run out of some t-shirts in the sizes and designs that some of you wanted. We’re so sorry we weren’t able to bring any more with us on the road. So stay patient, but more importantly, stay in touch!
If we ran out of something you wanted, please email us at sprockettes@gmail.com with a description of what you wanted (black with pink print, pink with black print, black with white print, stars, moons, size, male or female style, etc.) and your contact info. When we get back home from the tour next week, we’ll work out the best way to get those things to you. It may end up being a PayPal thing or a send us a check and we’ll mail it thing. We’re not sure yet how that will roll out, but keep in touch with us, and we’ll let you know soon, soon, soon.
Some folks have asked about the music and artists we dance to. The music you’ve heard this summer is:
Get Serious by Portland’s Euromotion
Burning Coal by Portland’s Here Comes a Big Black Cloud
Anthem by Rad America’s Show Me the Pink
Bike Ride by Trucks
Ride My Bike by Triangle
Bike Rack by Transportation Authority of River City (Louisville, KY)
S.O.T.I. (Sexy On The Inside) by Olympia, Washington’s Romanteek
(and a couple others, wink, wink)
Oh, oh Madison. How do we love you? If we count all the ways, we won’t even make it to Minneapolis on time. ( Speaking of, check out the “Shows” tab for a recent update on when and where in Minneapolis Friday and Saturday!)
After about 8 hours on the road and a fabulous lunch at Mr. Salsa’s in Oglesby, Illinois, we pulled into Madison, WI ready to rock. Where, oh, where was this rocking to take place, you ask? Well, we really didn’t even know until we had arrived in town. All the graceful magic we’ve manifested (and have had enormous help manifesting by all the indescribably amazing hosts we’ve had in each city) brought us to Angela the artist, photographer, and neo-burlesque performer. Sweet, sweet, daring Angela in the house so gorgeous it could be a museum, the one filled to the brim with art, costumes galore, and fresh produce from her back yard. Not only did she appear from the ether just to host us, but she immediately took us on a night tour of beautiful Madison, stopping at a bar to drum up excitement for our show, and heading down to a sandy beach lake for the night.
The next day found us chalking the dedicated bike/ped paths with announcements for the show, stopping at the coffee shop 40 hundred times, admiring the community garden that lay directly behind Revolution Cycles, and spreading the word (with the awesome flyers Angela designed and printed on hot pink paper just for us). Both before and after a huge organic brunch at the house, Angela took part in a first-ever event. She learned an entire Sprockettes dance number, SOTI, to be performed at our show. And did she ever perform it! How do we thank you, Angela, for being gutsy enough to just jump in and for doing it in your very own hot pink and black? And thank you Jeff, for bringing the peeps to your shop for the party!
We got to the show, and of course, the crowd was already pumped and ready to see some fabulous bike dancing. Folks filled the parking lot and the roof above Revolution Cycles. We danced our hearts out and brought Angela up for an encore presentation of SOTI, which she ruled. The DJ did a bang-up job morphing the end of our set into a dance party. There was a live band inside the shop and a DJ in the lot. Madison, we love you. We love your bike paths and organic coffee and bursting berry trees and bushes and swimming lakes and your food. The food. Right, the food. Onto the food.
After the dance party, Chris took us to his outstanding restaurant, The Weary Traveler and treated the Sprockettes (and Daniel, Agent Tippy Tappy, and Angela, Agent Olive Talique) to dinner and drinks. Amazing. Amazing. He serves local and organic food and has a beautiful menu. There isn’t a website, but if you are ever hungry and thirsty while you’re near 1201 Williamson St in Madison, you will love this place. Do be sure to check out the Specials board, as there is now a very special little souvenier to be found right at the top. Thanks, Chris, for feeling the vibe and treating us to a wonderful meal at the end of our very busy day.
After dinner, it was another night ride out to the lake for a bonfire. I would write more about that, but it’s only just now happening so who knows what the night has in store! You’ll just have to check back to see.
I forgot to mention our town mascot! This time around, it’s Velo the cat, who lives at the bike shop (which is 2 blocks from where we’re staying). He’s a long hair and has his summer shave on, making him feel like a velveteen rabbit. Velo regularly receives postcards and updates at the shop that Angela writes for him about her travels and adventures. He’s a well-rounded little black cat, Velo is. Now that he’s seen the Sprockettes, he’s ready to relax, content knowing that if a mini-bike dance team can roll into his parking lot and take the town by storm, absolutely anything is possible. Anything.
From the gallery of Alexis Ellers . Tour de Fat Chicago, July 11, 2009
We have arrived in Bloomington, Indiana. Not only have we arrived, but we’ve collected a few local mascots here. Picnic, the dog, and a feisty cat who didn’t tell us his name last night (it’s Kirk, fyi), welcomed us warmly into Melissa’s home. Melissa’s currently got some land outside of town where she has an animal sanctuary. There are 10 cats there, and Sprockettes fans, she would love donations to help keep this amazing sanctuary running! Melissa, your kindness, and your unicorn-themed home are a dream come true. In the battle between unicorn and narwhal, we don’t know who to cheer for. But we do cheer for you and your friends, who are wonderful hosts.
Speaking of hosts: Agent Curse’s mom in Michigantown, IN, had a 12 course vegetarian buffet ready for us when we got to Indiana Monday. We ate, caught some rays in the grass next to her garden, dozed on every piece of furniture in her living room, and hit the road. Daniel flew us past corn field after corn field in our great white van all the way to Bloomington and our temporary home in the Near West Neighborhood, whose motto is “Living in Diversity since the 1880s.” Love it.
We showed up in town and flew to our show at Boxcar Books. The world’s best crowd awaited us there and cheered us on through a fantastic set in the parking lot. We’re thrilled with the love and excitement. As we rolled through the streets to find some dinner later that night, folks drove by, cheering us on, and that just energized us all over again. Steven, you did an outstanding job making this event happen and for bringing the masses out to see the miracle of bike dancing.
So picture this: on a Tuesday morning out front of the Bloomingfoods Market & Deli co op, over a cup of organic Love Buzz coffee, a conversation is overheard. Two people. A pink bike with hot pink chain. The woman says, “A pink chain! If I was gonna ride bikes, it would be a bike with a hot pink chain.” The man says, “Yeah, me too. If I was gonna ride bikes.” Then, they departed in their Prius. Hey y’all, we love supporting local co ops, driving fuel efficient cars, and talking about bikes.
We swam out at the lake, after a short hike through Indiana hardwood forest. The sun was amazing, the water warm, and the limestone rocks so wonderful to lie on. On our way back to town, Daniel stopped at a roadside stand and treated us to fresh, local peaches, sweet corn, and watermelon. This place is absolutely gorgeous.
Tonight’s performance at the Farmer’s Market in front of Bloomingfoods was great. We had a huge crowd and were interviewed for the local Herald Tribune. Thanks, Herald Tribune. Word has it, this was the largest crowd the Tuesday night Farmer’s Market has seen!
Right after we roll out of town tomorrow, looks like the festivities begin to celebrate the 30th anniversary for “Breaking Away,” fimed in Bloomington in 1979. Go, Cutters!
Onward to Madison!
The Sprockettes’ From Cascadia with Love tour is underway! Let me try to translate some of it into cyber-magic for you.
We’ve been staying in a gorgeous, historic part of Chicago filled with boulevards and wide, green parks and spaces. It’s ike Portland’s Park Blocks but huge, and the streets are lined with towering brick and stone buildings reminiscent of fairy tale castles. Most of us are staying in a National Register Historic Building built in 1809. Hey, happy birthday, house! A huge shout out to Ryan, Allen, Eric, and Michael for letting us stay in their gorgeous home just across the street from Palmer Square where Tour de Fat was held. And to the Sprockettes’ local Chicago mascot, Champu the dog (that’s Spanish for shampoo) and his people, Jack and Brandon (and their other roommates whom we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting and begging for coffee). Champu boasts the mid-West’s cutest tail wag and is bi-lingual, having grown up in Costa Rica. And thanks, of course, to Agent Trouble’s sister, Jenny, and Caesar, who let the rest of us stay at their home. Their home proudly boasts our *other* Chicago mascot, Albee the Boston terrier. Albee can lick your ear at least 60 times per second, and he will. He took excellent, snuggly care of the girls at that house.
So Palmer Square was under renovation for 18 months, reopening mere days before TDF. Shwew, I tell you. Consequently, it hadn’t been mowed well, and not that we’re complaining, but it was nothing if it was not a good, old-fashioned salad bar growing out of the dirt. It was sketchy for our fancy bike trickery. After a few practice runs on The Salad Bar, we knocked a few tricks out of the show and rolled it out Cascadia style for our new Chicago friends. The donated bikes from Working Bikes are hilarious and adorable and totally decked out in hot pink and black paint, puffy paint, and electrical tape. Sure, we have a few white tires and seats, some purple grips, but they are Sprockettes bikes all the way.
After TDF, we had dinner on the rooftop, watched the area raptors soar around and do their raptor thing, and the next stop was a pie party. Every kind of pie imaginable. Vegan chocolate avocado pie, people. We got some double dutch action going and danced the night away until heading out for drinks and…dancing! Sunday brought us continued warmth and sunshine (oh, I didn’t mention it was in the mid-80s by early morning on Saturday and only went up from there). Some of us did a little farmer’s market action, we made brunch to thank the folks who’ve housed us so lovingly, and then it was off to explore the town. Just before sunset, we did another show in a park just down the road. After the show, the Sprockettes and audience alike rolled down to a house party to live up our last handful of hours in gorgeous Chicago.
Tomorrow, we hit the road in our rented 15-person van. What? We have a phenomenal driver, Daniel, who will drive us this week and then return the van in Chicago as we fly out from Minneapolis. It was the only way we could get a rental for that large a vehicle, as they don’t rent one way out of state for those behemoths. Thank you, Daniel, for appearing at the perfect moment and offering to let your life revolve around hot pink and black for a whole week. We’re grateful to you and all the other Chicago folks who have made this stop on our From Cascadia with Love Tour outstanding and one to remember.
As you have realized by now, the Sprockettes spend the heart of summer outside Portland. We always debate whether to go, or stay, whether to play with our home community during our busiest time of the year or spread the word. But Portland, we never stop thinking about you.
Yesterday, a couple of us led a bike dancing workshop for a wonderful group of girls in the Community Cycling Center’s All Girls Bike Camp. As is our habit this summer, we were cameraless, but we have the memories of the fun! The young ladies developed a mission statement for the day (and met all of the goals!), aced many bike tricks, flew through some Sprockettes choreography, and wowed us with their natural acro-balancing skills. We give huge thanks to these girls who were all trying something new; we were so proud that they all moved at their own pace, adapted the tricks to fit their bodies just right, and were active, supportive observers of each other. They had the collective spirit from the get go.
Looks like many of the levels of camps are sold out already. Yeah, CCC! But please check out their site to see if you can find a spot in the right age group for your younger friends and family members. They will learn countless skills they can carry with them for life in a fun, safe, supportive, and energetic environment. Thank you for having us, CCC.
PS: Three of the Sprockettes are flying to Chicago this afternoon to meet our mid-West crew and begin decorating the ultra-generously donated performance bicycles! The rest of us fly out 6am on Friday. Anyone who wants to come to the airport and wave good-bye to us at 6am is welcome!