Sippy Paul is pictured here with big league Sippy fans, Clara and brother Finn at the annual Pumpkin Weigh-off.
This year’s winner is over 1500 lbs! Its a nice time of year on the coast and we’re glad to be back.

We get to meet one of our kid rock heroes. No, its not Raffi, nor is it Dan Zanes, not even Greg from the Wiggles. Bill Childs has been doing kid rock radio since before it was called that. His show “Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child” airs on Valley Free Radio • 8 to 10 am Saturdays • Northampton, Mass. • 103.3 FM and on iTunes too. He’s the co-founder of the Fids & Kamily Awards with Stefan Shepard (Zooglobble) and the Lovely Mrs. Amy Davis . We finally meet Bill in person and get interviewed by his boss, daughter Ella.

At the end of our astounding second set at ACL (it really was quite good . . . ) the stage is bumrushed by a tide of PWOKs (people without kids). While we really favor this demographic, truth be told, these are not the largest part of our fan base. Its an amazing moment, we all look at each other – its finally happened – INDIE ROCK CROSSOVER!!

No such luck, Ben Kweller is on the schedule 15 mins after our stop time, this crowd is just trying to get a good spot for the next show. Now we know what its like to be on right before Patti Smith at Lollapalooza. We all have a laugh over it and Sippy Mark lets the fans strum his guitar.

Hooray, the families have arrived in full effect. We find once again
that Austin is a home away from home for The Sippy Cups. Great
families, great kids, even in this heat – a rousing good time was had
by all. This setup was the best of the outdoor festivals. The Kid
Stage was near enough to all the others to get some pass by traffic.
Lots of people brought their kids and the programming was terrific.

Theres a beach set up right next to our stage with chairs, sand and
giant blowers with water schpritzers built in. This is promising -
it could attract people to this area, also if were overheated we
could just hang out here (as the Verlanders have chosen to do.) This
show typically gets into the 100+ degree range!

We arrive unscathed in Austin. This is our second time playing this
wonderfully hip family-friendly town. At SXSW we had a big outdoor
show and a great time. This one promises to shine as well. The
stage is produced by Tor Hyams who also did Lollapalooza. Tor is a
kids music producer and all-around cool guy. What will the turn-out
be like? Will people bring their kids to this big festival that
offers shows by Bob Dylan, Bjork, Spoon, Muse, Damien Rice, Crowded
House, The Sippy Cups?

We do our second live morning show appearance (Good Morning San Diego
was the first back in April). Good Morning Texas is very
professional and beams out live from the dramatic American Airlines
Center in downtown Dallas. We don’t get to interrupt the weather
report with juggling and ad lib as we did in San Diego, but we do
have Sippy Lia and her cousin Chloe join us on air and Sippy Mark‘s
sister Cindy bakes us a huge tray of her famous chocolate cupcakes.
We perform Use Your Words, Magic Toast and tape Jingle Bell
Rock for their Xmas Eve show.

We arrive at the rock star ready Belmont Hotel in Dallas and
immediately run into our favorite road warrior, the musician,
songwriter and studio owner, John Vanderslice. John owns Tiny
Telephone in SF where we recorded much of Electric Storyland, but
I‘ve never actually met him since he spends a lot of the year on the
road. He regales us with tales and economics of good road work. He
reminds us of the beauty of third cities and the warm welcome he
receives in places like Iowa and Florida. He says he could give it
up on a moment‘s notice but I remind him that he really loves it.