ARTCRANK! “A poster party for bicycle people.”

Bicycles, Art, Food, Coffee, Beer! (Can I live at Artcrank?)

This past Saturday Minneapolis was host to yet another remarkable collaboration of creativity, bicycling and community involvement. Hundreds flocked to celebrate bicycle culture at one of my favorite Minneapolis events, ARTCRANK! Local artists, organizations, businesses, musicians and bike enthusiasts came together for an unforgettable night.

The number of bikes parked at the bike valet was crazy!

The event began here in the city in 2007 in an effort to grow and support community through creativity and the arts. Local artists were called to create bike inspired designs that could be transformed into a poster of which prints could be sold for an affordable price. Proceeds of the event go to a Cause Partner that promotes, bicycling, community, art, or just strives to make the world a better place. Since then the event expanded all over the U.S. and to London.

Sean liked this one, since it featured a skeleton.

The Artcrank crowd

In Minneapolis this year the event took place in the Warehouse District at Traffic Zone Gallery. Widmer Brothers provided over 20 kegs of craft beer and exclusive ARTCRANK pint glasses were sold to those who got there early. Clif Bar and One On One Bike provided free valet parking for people who rode to the event. Minneapolis food trucks were outside delivering some of the most delicious food in the city, and a life-size paper bicycle could be seen at the beginning of the gallery.  Music was provided by the Current and kids even got in on part of the action at the family pre-party. This year’s ARTCRANK Cause Partner was Springboard for the Arts’ Artists Access To Healthcare Program. Thanks to all the support from the aforementioned businesses, organizations and the hundreds of attendees, Artcrank was able to raise over $3000.

Sean and I from Varsity Bike & Transit were eager attendees. We partook in both the affordable craft beer from Widmer Brothers and we filled our bellies with food from the various Minneapolis food trucks (I ate red curry tacos, AMAZING). I circled the gallery space several times noticing new posters each time and admiring the life size paper bicycle made by Neenah Paper. I chatted with a number of people that I recognized from various aspects of the bicycle community and stood in awe of the sheer number of bikes parked in the bike valet. An unexpected highlight was a spontaneous artistic creation (made with the help of a number of little ones) out of the paper cases in which the Artcrank pint glasses were shipped.

This life-sized paper bike sculpture, made by Neenah Paper, was one of the highlights of the show.

This Twins themed poster was one of our faves. Who knew Minnie and Paul could Trackstand?

So Artcrank recap? A place where you can hang out with a diverse range of bike people, you can buy affordable original art, listen to free live music, drink bottomless craft beer for $5, and help raise money for a good cause.

Why can’t Artcrank happen every weekend!?  Oh well, until next year!

P.S. If you missed the opening night party, you can still check out the posters at Traffic Zone Gallery until May 12th. Check out the Minneapolis Artcrank site for more info!

I love the Twin Cities Pride Festival. It is the one time of the year when the entire GLBT community comes together to celebrate who we are. Every year it features entertainment stages, hundreds of exhibitors and vendors, food courts and one fabulous parade. I spent this year’s festival with some of my favorite people. We drank, danced, biked, laughed, screamed, celebrated and danced some more. Saturday night featured music in Loring Park, with performances by Expose, Tori Fixx, and Kat DeLuna. (Don’t worry, I didn’t recognize all of the names either!) You can watch the performers from inside the beer tent ($15 admission), or from any of the gardens’ surrounding areas (Free). At one point we were playing on the playground, which proved to be way more fun than fighting our way through the massive sea of people. There were so many people. This year an estimated 467,000 people came out to celebrate! Amazing! The end of the evening is announced with a small fireworks display. I had already left the park at this point, so I heard them, but didn’t see them.

The parade always seems to result in the burning of some section of my skin. Apparently 11 am is way too early to be thinking about sunscreen. I’m sure my bloody mary with breakfast had nothing to do with it! So I have a lovely tank top burn line to remind me of the fun I’ve had. The dykes on bikes have led the parade for as long as I’ve been attending. They are on motorcycles, and oh so sexy. Following them is a mix of churches, bars, businesses, organizations and another one of my favorites, the roller girls. The parade runs down Hennepin Avenue, and ends at Loring Park, where you can listen to more music, eat a variety of food, and check out some exhibits. The Saloon Bar has a block party on Sunday. It runs from 2pm-3am. Tiffany and Jody Watley were two of the performers this year. I also heard but did not see them as we made our way to the Gay 90’s for some end of pride dancing.

So if you’ve never been to the Pride festival, I highly recommend it. It’s a great time for everyone. Hope to see you next year!

emily

Some days biking and dealing with bikes are more interesting than others. Yesterday was one such day.  Riding to work through Loring Park I spotted a woman riding a brighter bike than mine, which is an accomplishment (good or bad, you decide).  She was riding a watermellon bike mostly flourescent green with pink wheels and other parts.  I thought it looked great and would’ve loved to seen it closer but chasing down woman has never been a good way to start off with someone.  Hopefully I will see her again.  It would be hard to miss her.

Then, at work we found a YouTube video a couple of years old of Jameson at the old store.  It is short but great because he says how great it is to work at a shop in a very eloquent way.  It is always good to realize how good you have it.

At the bike shop we had a problem I have never seen before.  A fellow worker who will remain anonymous (his name starts with a K) managed to get a ratchetting wrench stuck in between the frame and the kickstand that he just installed.  As the bolt was tightened the wrench moved down and was pinched between the frame and bolt.  This was a new bike so we had to be careful to remove it.  Luckily the owner was very kind and went to have dinner while we dealt.  After a couple of failed tries and destroying the tool we cut a slot in the end of the bolt and loosened it with a screwdriver.  An hour to put on a kickstand is embarrasing but it was a good learning experience.  Never use a ratchetting wrench (Pedros in particular) to install kickstands.

After work I was coming home on the Midtown Greenway thinking too hard when I was passed by another biker.  He slowed down in front of me which seemed odd.  He had a mini boom box strapped on his bag and gave me a minute or two of our own personal sound track and then took off again into the night.  I enjoyed it whole heartedly and love the fact he was buzzing around just to give a little bit of pleasure to strangers.

Kingston