The Kinetic Grand Championship is a 3-day, 42-mile bicycle race over land, sand, mud and water. Many refer to the as the “Triathlon of the Art World.”
Day 1 is done with no major disasters, or lose of life. Deadman’s Drop did takes its toll on a few sculptures running too frail a front wheel. Tacos anyone? The Kinetic crab made it to the bottom in perhaps the quickest decent of the day. Unfortunately, it was upside down on its shell when it got there. It was righted, and the crew finding nothing wrong, continued on.
The field is as diverse as ever with entries coming from as far away as the east coast, and even one from Scandinavia. Lots of first timers, or Kinetic virgins will find that having this much fun can be very hard work. For many it becomes a labor of love it seems. Brian Slayton better known as the Funguy, might explain it differently, but being in the race for the last 16 years it would only be a matter of semantics.
Brian and crew make up the Funguys team and are one of the favorites to win in more than one of the many categories. With their blue & yellow, red spotted, double mushroom mobile, they are clearly one of the favorites with the spectators. Though competing for the awards is not the focus. Fun, pageantry, and more fun, in the pursuit of glory is the aim. Also bacon comes in there somewhere.
Joined in the pursuit of glory are entries such as the 12' high, gleaming silver, platform, peeptoe, pump, named 'Foot Fetish'. I wondered, why no clear heal? The creator probably didn't want to send the wrong signal.
Another sexy entry is, "Hot Chicks" Two healthy blonds wearing far too little to keep warm under the cool, high-overcast coastal weather that lingered all day long. Though, they didn't seem to notice. Did I mention they navigated the course dressed as partly feathered chickens riding along in a giant size cast iron skillet, complete with propane flames shooting from beneath the pan?
This pursuit of glory was taken to heart by the groom of the entry "Run Away Groom", when several naked pictures of the second most gorgeous redhead he had ever seen, were sent to his I-phone, the day he was to be married. Naked that is, except for
a green satin sash, worn as a pageant queen over her shoulder, on it, in black capital letters, the name
'GLORY' seemed to rest upon her breast, cradled in her cleavage. Below that in lowercase, the words,
'commitment kills'. The Run Away Groom, in tuxedo, was spotted by many all day long, steering his Kinetic get away trike with one hand, and with the other holding his I-phone out to ppl along the course, and asking, "Have you seen Glory?" The bride to be, in traditional White wedding gown was just minutes behind, every where he went. When asked by streaming media course host, and official harold to rutabaga queen, what she was going to do? In a determined voice she said, "I'm going to get my Groom back". I thought to tell her it might take her mind off Glory, if she had Faith, but I decided not.
Day 2 comes online with streaming video at 10AM West Coast Time and a link to it can be found here along with everything else you might want to know about the Humboldt Kinetic Grand Championship
http://kineticgrandchampionship.com/about_the_race.php
Also a very cool site is the Kinetic Sculpture Lab, if you want to check out how some of these amazing, and sexy works of art are built.
http://www.kineticsculpturelab.com/ken.php
Here are two very cool vids from years past.
