it’s Bloomington, IN, y’all.

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!

greetings from The Salad Bar

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.

some Portland community activity

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!

summer tour is on

While summer in Portland is a sight to behold, we’ve decided once again to be part of New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat.  It’s so much more than just a summer festival.  The parade and festival’s proceeds go to bicycle and environmental charities,; the beer cups are all composted; and the worker-owned, wind-powered brewery makes a fine, tasty beer. Our “Shows” page lists the sites where we’ll be performing,  as part of Tour de Fat and as part of our undying committment to perform with and for other community groups out in the street.

Because we’re flying to Chicago in July, we want to off-set our carbon footprint as much as possible, given that we’re a bicycle dance group that speaks out for transportation solutions (have you seen our bike rack dance yet?!?!) and environmental kindness. Last year we toured in a veggie oil powered bus, but this year we’re having a little trouble finding one in the Chicago area. Huge thanks to Allan, Portland’s own bike group transporter, for his assistance in trying to find us a local ride out there. But if anyone else can give a shout out to their folks in the mid-West who would love to drive us around for a week in a grease bus, please do. We know with the harsh winter weather out there, the area isn’t crawling with grease buses, but if anyone has any leads, let us know! We will pay a driver, and we would love to keep that money in the hands of a local activist!

We take off July 10th. Stay tuned.

Multnomah. County. Bike. Fair. Saturday.

This is the show you do not want to miss. Or the two shows, to be precise. Saturday, June 27th, 2pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE 20th and Belmont).

Multnomah County Bike Fair is a fabulous afternoon party filled with bikes of all shapes and sizes, bike jousting partners of all shapes and sizes, and a multitude of booths offering up goods and services all bike-related (well, some are food related or bike AND food related). In addition to a number of other delightful entertainment opportunities, the Sprockettes will be doing two performances. We’ll be up at 4pm and again for one special song at 6:15pm. You can’t miss either  of them because the first includes the debut of two new dance numbers, and the second is a performance with live music!

For our dedicated fans who have repeatedly asked for that pink shirt in medium (or any other thing we haven’t seemed to have lately), never fear. We have a whole batch of brand new, fresh off the presses t-shirts printed by real live Sprockettes artists. Come visit our booth to see our new t-shirts, lapel pins, and homemade spoke cards. We were going to have Sprockettes commemorative plates, but we ran out of time to press those.

Come participate in the fun (dancing to live music or competing) or just to watch. All are welcome. Root beer garden for the little ones!

keep on rollin’ with us!

Huge thanks to all the fantastic folks who are keeping Pedalpalooza (and all other summer bike events) a vibrant, amazing, bike-embracing, giant Wow!

Yesterday was Sunday Parkways. It was incredible to pedal through the streets, sharing the full roadway with all manner of individuals and families using every kind of bike, wagon, skate, stroller, and tennis shoe. There were even puppies walking safely down the middle of the street, people. As per usual, the official Sprockettes helmet-mounted camera was out of batteries. I’m sure you didn’t even know we had one because we can’t get the batteries to hold a charge long enough to snap anything good to post. Luckily, there were a bazillion fabulous photographers out there, including Jonathan in his bicycle icon socks.

We’d like to give a huge shout out to the locals as well as the out of towners who showed up to Sunday Parkways. A special thanks goes to the man from Tucson who saw Veer, fell in love with Portland bike culture, and is in town for the entire Pedalpalooza festival. Even though it didn’t rain like it did at the Earth Day show depicted in the movie, we do hope we gave him and everyone else the high-energy, fun show they came for.

Which brings me to my next point. If you require even more Sprockettes energy to keep you rolling through the busy week, come to our Hawt Damn Hot Pink Potluck B-B-Que, family friendly ride, and performance on Tuesday night. That’s June 23rd. The Mercury lovingly listed us a pick for the week on p. 15. That means you have to come!

6pm at Alberta Park: Meet up for the family friendly ride. Wear your hot pinks and blacks if you got ‘em.

6:30pm: Gather up and roll together at a comfortable pace to Peninsula Park. Bring some food to share with the crowd (we’ll have grills going) and your own plate, cup, and utensils.

7:00pm: Sprockettes will perform. Prepare yourselves for the unveiling of a new dance number celebrating the glory of transportation solutions!

And don’t forget the Multnomah County Bike Fair on Saturday at Colonel Summers Park (SE 20th and Belmont)….

Holy Pedalpalooza

Folks, I hope you’re ready for Pedalpalooza 2009 because it already started! Thursday, June 11 was the kick-off for a few weeks of Portland-style bike fun.

Check out the SHIFT site for more details than you can shake a bike pump at. Come to everything!!!

While everything that goes on is amazing, we’ll just highlight a few events the Sprockettes will taking part in or hosting ourselves. You’ll likely see us around at a bunch of events, but here’s where you’ll see us dance and flaunt the hot pink and blackness.

June 21st, Sunday:                                                                                                       SUNDAY PARKWAYS at Peninsula, Arbor Lodge, and Kenton Parks (See http://www.gettingaroundportland.org for a route map.) 9am – 4pm

Join the family-friendly walk, skate, ride, pull in a wagon as a 7.5 miles over a couple loops of N  Portland are blocked to car traffic and open to human powered movement. See event details for more info on the happenings. We perform at Peninsula Park around 1pm.

June 23rd, Tuesday:

THE SPROCKETTES’ HAWT DAMN HOTPINK POTLUCK BBQ

We enjoy a kid friendly ride in style to Peninsula Park, where the Sprockettes perform a special summer teaser show at 7pm. Followed by an evening of grillin & chillin ’til dusk. We meet at Alberta Park at 6pm and ride over to Peninsula at 6:30.
Bring: Food to share, a fork, & a plate. Dancing shoes. As always, wear hotpink if you’re feelin’ it in public.
We provide grills & some homemade goodies to share.
Expect a water feature (yes, Peninsula Park boasts a water feature) and, of course, music & dancing. We will be composting/ recycling, so leave no trace!

June 27th, Saturday:                                                                                           MULTNOMAH COUNTY BIKE FAIR (the Sprockettes anniversary!) at Colonel Summers Park @ SE Belmont St. and 20th Ave. 2:00pm-7:00pm MCBF is the catastrophic culmination of 2+ weeks of Pedalpalooza bike fun.

show to benefit Lotus Seed Ashram

Come help us celebrate and build community. This Friday, June 5th, the Sprockettes will be at the Lotus Seed Ashram for a big, family-friendly fundraising event. The Lotus Seed folks are looking to buy the former church that currently houses their center so they can continue offering their services and outreach in the place they love to call home. Their mission statement says “The Lotus Seed is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing yoga, movement, and art to underserved populations through outreach programs and continued education.”

We’ll be performing around 7pm, but festivities will be going on before and after that. There will be a bike parade following our dancing.

Check it out:

Friday…7pm…4635 NE 9th Avenue (NE 9th at NE Going).

zoobomb pyle dedication

This is it! The Sprockettes are beginning the summer performance season starting now! We’ll be dancing around 6:30pm  at the new pyle, a phenomenal new art installation/Zoobomb pile. Look for Chain Reaction dancing too! Come celebrate with us as a new era of bike piling and artistic collaboration dawns. We certainly aim to prioritize awesomeness.

This installation and event were made possible by collaborations with Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Bureau of Transportation, and some fabulous local artists, Brian Borrello and Vanessa Renwick.

http://zoobomb.net

Zoobomb is a 5 year running weekly bike event that meets every Sunday around 8:30PM across from Rocco’s Pizza (949 SW Oak) in Portland OR. Bring a bike, MAX fare ($2.00), bike lights, and any safety gear you want to wear.
It’s a good time and you WILL have fun!
MINI BIKES ENCOURAGED – ALL BIKES WELCOME
HELMETS ARE A GOOD IDEA
* RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK *
LEAVE NO TRACE

summer dreamin

This is not actually all that far-fetched of an idea for us. As long as those polka dots are black on hot pink, anything is possible.

Stay tuned because very soon we’ll have our summer show  dates up. There are lots of local shows and events and some more Tour de Fat touring action.

And honestly, we have commissioned the building of a sound system that might not be pedal-powered, but it will hit the streets with us, pulled by a bike. We’ll just say it will power our pedals.