Monday, September 30, 2013

Dream Whip 15


Dream Whip 15
the pedal powered movie tour
this is available from microcosm publishing 

It takes a rare bike trip oriented zine to pique my interest as a reader yet I read this zine in three days over Labor Day weekend, savoring every page.

Dream Whip 15 is a zine about a bike tour and much more. Bill Brown filmed a documentary about activists on the US / Mexico border & devised a unique way of screening the film for people – he would bike to the cities and towns where the screenings would be held. Bill and a group of friends who join him and disembark at various points along the route set out from the Lincoln Memorial and journey through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and eventually reach the Colorado state line. Bill chronicles the journey in diary fashion.

What is quietly stunning about Dream Whip 15 are the small, poetic observations found within its pages. Simon & Garfunkel sang about how we've all gone to look for America. Well, here it is – a snapshot of it anyway, in summer and autumn 2006. There are tragic bridges, communities on the verge of fading into ghost towns, bad coffee places, kind people, mysterious gunshots, wind and rain, telephone museums (we've got one here in Warner!) and roadside attractions. Mostly it’s mile after mile of pedaling toward your goal yet staying focused in your body in the moment.


Reading Dream Whip 15 is like reading a long letter from an old friend telling you about their summer vacation. Except that their vacation involved finding their dog voice.

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