Last weekend Corvus was visiting to help with circus events at Hampshire, thus, for the first time since the inception of Downside-Up and the INTERROBANG tour, the entire troupe was all together in one place!  Hoorah!  We took advantage of this fact by doing a photo shoot, the beautiful results of [...]]]>

friends in high places..

Last weekend Corvus was visiting to help with circus events at Hampshire, thus, for the first time since the inception of Downside-Up and the INTERROBANG tour, the entire troupe was all together in one place!  Hoorah!  We took advantage of this fact by doing a photo shoot, the beautiful results of which you can see all over the interwebz.

We trouped into the Hampshire College woods on bikes with all the circus gear we could carry, and spent the morning cavorting in cornfields, climbing on each other, and eventually giving up on trying to look “serious.”  Hardly any of the shots of us trying to look straightfaced and solemn in all our depression-era glory actually worked (photo below is one of the few exceptions), but we figured we look prettier while grinning and laughing anyway.

In-house photographer/designer Molly set up and took many of the shots, but a huge thanks to Martin who took charge of camera when Molly needed to be in the picture.

the INTERROBANG gang

Check out the rest of the rockin’ shots on flickr or facebook!

Dozens of bicyclists drifting through the streets of Seattle, hauling guitars, cellos, multiple drum kits, a 2000-watt pedal powered PA system, smiling and waving at confused pedestrians and annoyed drivers, being serenaded by a musician on a bike-stage:  this is the essence of the Bicycle Music Festival.

It was, put simply, AWESOME.  There [...]]]>

live on-bike music

Dozens of bicyclists drifting through the streets of Seattle, hauling guitars, cellos, multiple drum kits, a 2000-watt pedal powered PA system, smiling and waving at confused pedestrians and annoyed drivers, being serenaded by a musician on a bike-stage:  this is the essence of the Bicycle Music Festival.

It was, put simply, AWESOME.  There are about 15 touring musicians, orchestrated by the Ginger Ninjas, who teamed up with about 10 other local bands.  A few bands would play at a park – the sound entirely powered by audience members pedaling on bikes – everything would be packed up onto the bikes, and we would critical mass through the streets to the next venue.

Max juggles heavy bike locks - very impressive

The music was great, the atmosphere was spirited, vegetarian sandwiches and vegan donuts were handed out by Food Not Bombs, good times were had by all.  One of the highlights for me was meeting up with a bunch of other jugglers.  It’s incredible how magnetic whipping out a few juggling balls can be.  Some of them were better jugglers than I was, but I taught all of them how to pass and how to steal – I think partner and multi-person juggling is even more fun than individual tricks.

When I was handing out Downside-Up business cards and telling folks about our planned bicycle-tour, Max the juggler said Hey! I’ve heard of the Downside-Up Circus!  My face contorted into an interrobang of disbelief and exclamation.  It turns out that he knew one of our troupe members, Corvus.

It was fantastic to see the results of a successful bicycle performance tour, to prove that we aren’t just chasing an impossible dream, and exciting to hear about the Ginger Ninja’s next venture: a bicycle tour of Europe!

More photos from the day can be found here.

the Sprockettes dance their [...]]]> This weekend I went to the Tour de Fat in Seattle at Gasworks Park, a touring festival sponsored by the New Belgium brewing company to promote their beer, but mostly to celebrate bicycles and art.  There were a few spectacular performances that I thought I would to recap and review here.

the Sprockettes dance their biker girl hearts out

First, I saw the Sprockettes, an all female bicycle dance troupe from Portland, Oregon.  Clad in hot pink and black, they gave a spirited performance dancing to what sounded like 80s/90s pop-punk music, half of them lip-syncing along.  Some of the simple acrobatics they did using their little trick bikes were really clever and fun.  Their dancing wasn’t always synchronized, but that was not the point.  The point was that every move they made, they made with such GUSTO, such vigor and spirit.  Watching them made me feel like our culture is not actually doomed, and the revolution will be lead by girls on bikes clad in pink hot pants.

the Baron Vegan von Hamburger

The other show I saw was the Squirm Burpee Circus, by a group know as the Handsome Little Devils.  Their show, as they proclaimed, was a “vaudvillian melodrama, with good guys and bad guys.”  Their schtick was pretty straightforward, but effective and enjoyable.  The bad guy, the Baron Vegan von Hamburger, had a contraption he used to to turn the audience’s applause into pure evil, in the form of a giant black balloon.  But!  if the audience applauded TOO loud, the machine would malfunction and the balloon of evil would burst.  The good guys, brothers Mike the Handsome and Dashing Dave, with their assistant Lolo making a love triangle, performed some first rate juggling, swing dancing, and tricks, as well as having some of the best audience banter I’ve seen.

my dad enjoys a very unusual bike

Unfortunately I missed a show by Nanda, a group of juggling and acrobatic ninjas from Port Townsend.  In addition to the variety of performances, there was other bike fun to be had, at a section of the park full of funky, rideable art bikes that were some of the strangest (and funnest) looking bikes I’ve seen.

Seeing such an outpouring of bike love and creativity got me really exciting for bike touring around the northwest, and seeing the performances got me really excited to start developing our own show, INTERROBANG!

On our lovely new website, which I’ve been working hard on all summer, there are so many things you can do!  including:

+ Read about our mission and vision [...]]]> Greetings and welcome to the unveiling of the Downside-Up Circus!  We’ve been planning, dreaming, and scheming since February, and now we’re finally ready to publicly proclaim our plans.

On our lovely new website, which I’ve been working hard on all summer, there are so many things you can do!  including:

+ Read about our mission and vision statements

+ Find out all about our summer 2010 INTERROBANG tour

+ Check out our first-rate troupe lineup

+ See how you can support, sponsor, or book us

+ Explore photos and videos from our past performances and tours

Here on our blog over the next year we will be documenting the process and planning of our first year of operation, leading up to our summer tour.  We’ll also post all the things that inspire us along the way.

Please drop us a line, leave a comment, or forward this on to a friend! We’d love to hear from you and we’re hoping to meet and inspire as many people as possible.

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