Mission Statement

I have created this project to spark interesting conversations.  I find, more often then not, people fall into "comfortable" lifestyles and when they are sitting on a bus and someone asks them "what have you been up to lately?" they answer, "nothing much, and you." Their answer "nothing much and you" could mean a million things in my world. But for a large handful of people it means they go to work everyday, either work hard - or half ass their work, go home,  kiss their spouse, if they don't have a spouse maybe pet their cat, cook dinner, watch some tv or read a book, do a few chores and go to bed.  In the morning they wake up to the load beeping of their alarm clock and do it all over again. That is when asked, "what have you been up to lately," they respond "nothing much and you." They are saying this because they live a "comfortable" life. Aka mundane, safe, normal, maybe boring, and somewhat uneventful. Now, I find nothing wrong with this.  These are hard working, tax paying humble people - They just do not have very many interesting or new things to converse about to their buddy at the bar, or a lady at church, or a stranger in a hotel lobby.

When people take risks, try new things, go to unknown places, talk to strangers or tackle a new task they have something at least somewhat interesting to talk about. I want to provide an opportunity for people to tackle new tasks, learn something new so they can feel like they got something done - aka - achievement, aka GET ER DONE!

I have created a series of missions (tasks) for people to tackle. I heard of people doing/starting projects similar to this in the past (like Miranda July) but this is very different from those projects. Their projects sent people on missions and then they had their "missionaries" email them about it blah blah copy paste it. But those projects were on the world wide web (like mine) but it was not bring people together physically face to face in the community they live and wrok in. Most people participatin in projects like Miranda July never met one another, they knew eachother via internet only.  These fans of the project most likely were not interacting IN PERSON. My projects are to be tackled by the fine citizens of MINNEAPOLIS (and metro area).  All the missions will bring people together and create conversations FACE TO FACE...in MINNEAPOLIS, THE BEST CITY IN THE WOLRD. (I am starting a new blog just dedicated to way I love Minneapolis soooo much...that is for another day though)

Some missions will be easy, some hard, some complex, some not, some controversial, some silly, some short, some long, some environmental, but above all they will all be ORIGINAL and hopefully a mission that no one else have ever created ever. No one is required to do a mission, hell, no one is even required to read this blog... but if you decide to read this blog and a mission sparks your interest, try it!  If you try it and don't like it, stop. No one is required to finish a mission. But, if you finish the mission and have a little spare time, I invite you to come meet with other participants and share your experience with us in person. Or share your experience with anyone IN PERSON. If you have a lot of extra spare time...write about your experience and I will post it on this blog under the "stories" tab. Feel free to take photos on your mission too, I will post those as well. This way all those NYC artists can read about our cool project and feel jealous that they cannot participat in it, bunless they by a palne ticket to come talk to us face to face, and that would sprak an interesting converstion. Point is - don't feel pressured to do anything.

BE HONEST. If you have time to write be honest. We do not want to sugar coat our stories, because sugar coating is for sissies and I know that no one that is cool enough to read this blog is a sissy. And sugar coating is a) boring, and b) lying. If you encounter trials or problems on a mission write about it. Because that is interesting. If life becomes easy that is when we fall into a mundane boring hole. Climb out of that whole, read this blog, go on a mission and try to stay out of that mundane hole for the rest if your life. And well you are out of that hole breathing fresh air, reach your hand down, talk to a stranger and help pull them out of the hole too.

Remember I am a starving (seriously I am so broke I don't even have a bank account) artist and I am creating this blog for one reason: to spark conversation face to face. I am not doing this for a class in a University, i dropped out years ago. I am not doing this for a job - don't have a "real" one and that is why I am starving and have so much time on my hands to, you know, sit at a coffee shop that has a computer for 5 hours to type up stuff like this. Now I am a freelance artist/musician/agent/writer so I have a little cash for coffee. But I am happy. Blah Blah this is not my life story... so back to the mission.

I will hold meetings once a week at a Samali cafe in West Bank in Minneapolis. The meeting will be an opportunity for participants to converse about the mission they went on - he people they met, the place they went and such. The meetings will take every Friday at the cafe at 9pm. I know people like to go out to bars/venues/restaurant/parties on Friday nights, but this is a place where you can hang out and meet people without paying a cover, without getting drunk and doing things that you may one day regret. Not to mention the food and drinks are tasty and cheap and if you bought food at the restaurant you would be supporting a family owned small local business.  People need to give cafes like this business so that they can stay open. This project is all about meeting new people and having quality conversations aka in Minneapolis aka you might meet someone that will change your life at this cafe or meet someone on one of your little missions.

I hope that you decide to go on a mission and complete it. I hope that you have fun and learn something new about yourself, others, the world around you, and everything/one that surrounds you in your everyday life. These things/place/people/animals/ect ect ect are around us right in front of our face.  We walk by them everyday, but we do not notice them, because we are to busy running to the bus we catch to work to stop and look at the beauty the world holds. I hope that these missions can open your eye, eyes, hearts, souls, arms and mind.

The world holds unlimited possibilites no lets go out and GET ER DONE. And when its done, lets start talking to people - All sorts of people: Strangers, family members, professors, baristas, waitresses, your nanny, roommates, cops, homeless people, bosses, co-workers, anyone and everyone. We all have mouths, we all have ears. Most of us are blessed with the ability to hear and speak, so start talking and begin to listen. If you are deaf, or you need to communicate with a deaf person, text them, write them a note or email. Communication is beautiful and very easy.

Best of luck on your missions. Let the conversations begin.