Kinetic Conveyances

Mark and I walked down to Pearl Street on this pure blue-sky Colorado day, and then over to 29th Street where the Kinetics Conveyance Parade was assembling. In this yearly May event, kinetically designed conveyances are displayed for all to see, prior to a race the following Saturday which starts on ground but includes a tricky run across Boulder Reservoir and its mud flats as well. Designing a vehicle that works well both on land and water, and is a sculpture, and is creative and interesting, is not easy.

There are many, many prizes, not just for winning the race but for all manner of distinctions, including awards for Sculpture, Engineering, Costumes, Team Style, and others with such names as “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” “Murphy’s Law” and “Best Bribe” (to be blatant). Most participants dress up for the event, and thus we observed black and white Jersey cows with black sparking top hats doing the can-can next to a vehicle with a matching black and white tail, pirates in a vehicle shaped like a shark and sporting an eyepatch, glittery silver dragons with red spikes down their tales in a vehicle with a matching dragon tail, Irish green outfits with red wigs, and much more. The parade includes one pass by the grandstand for official judging, but then another pass by the stand again where bribes for the judges are expected: food, shooters, or whatever else comes to mind. To understand this and other Boulder events, it is helpful to have a reference, thus this pointer to the “Keep Boulder Weird” site for those who need or want to know more.

We spent a little quality time on the upper deck at 29th Street Mall on the veranda of the Purple Martini, sipping our drinks and observing the scene, with a truly extraordinary view of the Flatirons and the more distant snow-covered Continental Divide as a backdrop.