report from the first "bike stroll"

Sunday, we went out for an aimless slow ride, ostensibly a) to check the gearing on my new Sturmey-Archer 5 speed internally geared hub and b) to see, in person, some murals we'd seen in pictures last Friday night at C-U's Pecha Kucha night (which was a great success!).

Well, the hub's working great but we never made it to the murals. We got sidetracked watching some UIUC dance students perform an improvisational piece -- while dressed to look sort of like zombies -- in a barn on the south side of campus. Bike Project volunteer Tony wrote about the experience for Smile Politely:

There was a large troupe of dancers in dark coveralls moving about, shuffling, sliding, writhing, and plunging in a mixture of zombie-like and playful ways. Almost as interesting as the dancers was the space. The basement of the barn was a dairy operation with eerie metal cages and milking stations set up in a circular array. Upstairs in the humongous domed hay loft a silo formed the center and the curvature of the roof drew the eye upward.... A spare musical accompaniment complemented the improvisational dancers as they were drawn into the hay loft. The audience was mixed in with the performers and they were clearly engrossed in the piece.

And so we're making Bike Stroll a weekly event. More details soon, but we'll be having very slow, very relaxed aimless rides around town on Sunday evenings departing at 5:30pm from The Bike Project shop. Check the blog again soon for more details!