The Politics of Fun
“[In a consumer society] Fun morality displaces ‘goodness morality’ which stressed interference with impulses. Not having fun is an occasion for self-examination… ” — Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism
ZOO-BOMB CENTURY
The Zoo Bomb Century is a daylong descent (they ride about 3 miles downhill from the zoo, take their bikes up in the elevator that connects the subway to the zoo and repeat this procedure until they’ve raced 100 miles). The Zoo Bomb Century is also an annual event in Pedalpalooza—Portland's 3+ week bicycle festival.
The Zoo Bomb Century is also an annual event in Pedalpalooza—Portland's 3+ week bicycle festival.
During that war for oil known as the 2nd Iraq war the cops would jump cyclists and throw them onto the pavement if they briefly took over the street to make automobile drivers acknowledge a sustainable method of transportation. Now, ten years later, the cops will be directing traffic to facilitate our naked bike ride.
To create this next event the couple that bookend this photo simply posted on the Pedalpalooza.org calendar what you see beneath the next picture:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM RIDE
SW 3rd Ave & Harrison St 4:00pm - 7:00pm Calling all Pucks, Bottoms, fairies, lovers and dreamers for a leisurely read/read aloud of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. We'll stop at 5 parks along the way.
Convincing the young that biking is more fun than driving—
that was the great political accomplishment of our bicycle activists.
LE TOUR DE GENTRIFICATION
Here a vibrant African-American neighborhood with a club where the great jazz musicians played was demolished to build a hospital complex that was in the end never actually built. The talk was about gentrification as ‘colonization by other means’ (by market forces) and the privatizing of our ’CULTURAL COMMONS’ i.e. alternative bicycle fun being turned into a marketing brand to sell the city to out-of-state yuppies.
CULLY BAR CRAWL
We'll be crashing 6-10 dive bars ending at karaoke so you better be able to hold your alcohol. What happens in Cully stays in Cully.
The regulars of the bars we crashed were extraordinarily gracious. Here at The Shady Lady, not even Kenneth's crow was the slightest bit flustered.
Bicycle Gurls
We're undeniable
Skin-tight shorts, sleeve-less top
Sun-kissed skin, so hot
You'll crash your bicycle
Oh oh oh oh
PHOTOBOOTH RIDE
Bring your groovy wigs, bedazzled garb and some cash-o-la. Ride starts at Florida Room, then we jaunt over to Alleyway, Beulahland, and end at Dots Cafe. Let's see how many people we can cram into a booth.
Get a bike, get a life.
waiting for the LOUD AND LIT RIDE to begin
Officially the biggest bike party of the year that doesn't ask you to take your clothes off.
The revolution will not be motorized.
(One of the ride's several mobile sound systems).
JESUS ON A BIKE
His message for America: “Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are heading.” This was a music video shoot for a song you can hear by clicking on its name: Jesus on a Bike MP3
Mary Magdalene arriving with Jesus & disciples to deliver bread to Food Not Bombs
“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.” – John Berger
THE LITTLE LEBOWSKI URBAN ACHIEVERS RIDE
We are lovers of Lebowski (the Dude), bikers of the city with the necessary means for taking 'er easy. Come out with your best costume or a robe if you are a lazy man. There will be re-enactments of various scenes at 7 parks throughout the city.
Some will say: “No surprise they love the laziest man in Los Angeles, the Dude, since Portland is: ‘where young people go to retire. ‘”
However, the bicycle culture set out to challenge not just society’s transportation priorities. …
(Maude Lebowski in the Dude's bowling dream scene)
It‘s like that dude from Concord said:
“It appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left.”
TALL-BIKE JOUSTING
Bring 5 bucks, a helmet and your balls/overies to Irving Park at 3pm. Bracket system tall bike jousting and the top two winners get the purse!
The marks from a tall bike fall earlier in the week can still be seen on this hardcore cyclist's face. Part of the bicycle culture’s lasting appeal is that it can be dangerous fun that doesn't endanger anyone but oneself.
FASCIST ARCHITECTURE OF PORTLAND
Before Portland was famous for bicycles it was known for its architecture: flamboyant Victorian iron front buildings…. But Portland is also home to an unheralded collection of buildings inspired by the early 20th century classical-moderne style of Italy's Fascist years. This tour is led by architect Rick Potestio.
I expected only cold brutality, but the Fascist buildings were as warm and inviting as this prime example, the Portland Art Museum. My expectations were also undone when on the night of the 2013 naked bike ride the museum charged a dollar per item of clothing and so encouraged its patrons to be as naked as its statues.
EFFIGY ERADICATION RIDE
"Make an effigy of 'last year you' and
all the junk you want to part with,
strap it to your bike. Eradicate effigies at sunset."
False love, faded dreams, last year's deepest pain…
Some with eyes open only to an inner world as they talked of their most private pain, one after another we spoke of the past we wished to burn away…
"Seasons must turn."
he'll say after he tosses his offering into the fire. Then we'll all say in unison, "Let the Sun return."
"Burning Fire. Fill me with passion! Turn my words — into action!"
The ride leader, Adriane, concluded the ceremony with a reading that closed with this couplet.
How wonderful the inclusiveness of an alternative culture that advertises intimate rituals at a hidden bend in the river.
DROPOUT BIKE CLUB PROM
9:00pm - 5:00am, We ride at 10pm!
Dress up in your finest Prom attire,… Most bumpin mobile sound systems in PDX, party DJ's and live performances, Be Grillin all night, and at 2am we will crown the King & Queen.
How resilient this subculture that maintains its feisty spirit even as some of its ideals become city policy and…
…market forces exile many of its devotees to the outer suburbs.
Leah & Kaya, King & Queen of the 2015 Dropout Prom
How silly this notion that resistance isn’t futile, it’s fun?
THE SPROCKETTES
The Bike Fair concludes with a performance by The Sprockettes. Ten years ago The Sprockettes introduced synchronized bicycle dancing to Portland as a way to bring more women into the bicycle subculture…
…and challenge societal stereotypes concerning the necessary prerequisites for female fun.
Little Sprockette, at the graduation ceremony of THE SPROCKETTES' SUMMER CAMP FOR GIRLS.
