UNTITLED BOOK CLUB -
How much does bias influence understanding? Every other Tuesday we read and/or discuss texts that have been stripped of their context/author/etc to see if they stand on their own merits. Then we discuss them and also try to use contextual clues to determine the author. It's fun if you like that sort of thing. RSVP here.
HUMAN MUSIC WORKSHOP -
The goal of our music club is to function as a system for musicians to evolve within. We listen to your music, released or unfinished, and discuss what was experienced by the group and how to help push the art forward. RSVP for the upcoming session here.
ALL THE YOUNG NUDES (GR) -
Bi-weekly life drawing workshop for all skill levels. Every other Thursday. $10 for members, $15 for strangers. Paper and pencils/charcoal provided, or bring your own. Drinks and snacks for sale, or BYOB. Informal and unpretentious, but also occasionally led by a certified instructor. Foundational art skills can also be enjoyable and social. RSVP here.
ST. ARTURO'S ART WARREN - We rent art studios to people who make art of all kinds. Four sizes. 5x10, 7x10, 10x10, and 14x10. $100, $200, $300, and $400 per month, respectively. Includes membership. Shared project space and quarterly gallery shows included. Not bad. Not bad at all.
CERBERO BREATHWORKS - Join Cerbero (sir-bay-dough) Breathwork for powerful and creative healing. They mix a simple 3-part breathing pattern with tarot, loud contemporary music, gentle touch, and a whole array of self-care practices and principles. First Saturday of every month at DO NOT START. Sign up through their site.
GR PSYCHEDELIC SOCIETY - Monthly discussion group for the mycologically and psychologically inclined. It's good to get out of the house and possibly your mind prison every now and again. First Sunday of the month. Free to members.
MEATCRAFT: THE ART OF BEING PEOPLE -
Monthly discussion / activity group for human beings to discuss the difficulties of remembering what that means in the modern world. We are trying to use our thinking to get rid of our sickness, fear, unhappiness, and failure. We will try to get a clear understanding of how to use thinking to see and heal the world as it is. "Thinking is my fighting" as Virginia Woolf said. RSVP here.
SCREEN PRINTING WORKSHOP - Our professional screen printer friend never actually got around to helping us set up what is now a fairly fully-functioning studio for the production of t-shirts, totes, hoodies, etc. But we figured it out anyway (mostly) and are now bringing all our teenage t-shirt dreams to life. Wednesday afternoons from 12-3 feel free to pop down and watch the show, and we will share our very limited knowledge with you. If you are a professional screen printer who would like to help us understand what we are doing and perhaps teach a class let us know. It's the blind leading the blind over here.
A NEW OLD THING - A spiritual discussion/activity group for those who do not feel served by the available options. Exploring religious and spiritual malaise, ritual and intimacy, and the connections between differing viewpoints that nonetheless seem to travel the same path. Sundays from 11am-1pm.
CLUSTER B VICTIM SUPPORT GROUP - Peer-led meetup for friends, family, and lovers (current or former) of people with Cluster B personality disorders. NOT for Cluster B individuals. The purpose of the group is to share and evaluate the trauma, damage, and exhaustion that comes in the wake of trying to love or help them. If you have been hurt, manipulated, invalidated, and abused by BPD/NPD/APD/etc but do not have someone who has been through it, come share your experiences with people who understand. Every other Monday starting April 20th, 5:30-8:30pm.
YEAH MEDIA IMPROV MASTERCLASS - Bobby is doing a four venue, month long improvisation masterclass, the final two sessions to be held right here at DO NOT START. Keep an eye on Yeah Media's social media for more information.
YEAH MEDIA Full-Day Improvisation Intensive -
This 6-hour intensive will quickly accelerate students into a state of collaborative exploration through improvisational theater techniques. Viola Spolin's original games are incredibly useful for cultivating presence and bringing about a state of heightened awareness, and of course, fun! During our scene work, we will bring genuine emotion into our performances. There will be a break halfway through the session. For the second half of our practice, we will experiment with the esoteric, political, and contemplative modalities of improvised performance. Sign up here.
PROOF OF PRESENCE - Proof of Presence is a mastermind group with a spiritual and motivational core. We are a collective of dreamers and doers who gather to witness, support, and inspire each other. Blending structure with fluidity, creating a space that feels both exciting, profoundly safe, and different from everyday life. We essentially build a small, powerful ecosystem for hope and action. Cultivating a truly special environment that honors the timeless journey of becoming who we are by sharing our individual passions and actively envisioning our desired futures with inspiring group activities. Together we anchor them into reality. The vibe is: lively, friendly, safe, sacred, timeless. 6-8PM every other Thursday, starting April 16.
SKILL TOY CLUB - Nate is a yo-yo person (a person who professionally uses a yo-yo; it's not an insult) and is going to organize a club for the skill toy community to hopefully culminate in some sort of championship exhibition thing, which will also probably be here. More info coming soon.
SPEED D(EB)ATING SESSIONS - A monthly workshop where we pick topics or hypotheticals and pairs of strangers join up to talk them through from arbitrarily assigned viewpoints. Can you successfully navigate critical discourse and overcome internal biases to make valid points or discover nuance? Can you find the rational path through binary thinking? Do you find dialectical thinking kind of hot? Have we got the debate club for you. Coming in February to a DO NOT START near you.
works in progress:
DO NOT START LENDING LIBRARY - James is in the process of making a database for the books in the warehouse so that we can lend them out to members. They are (mostly) catalogued. Soon we'll have a system in place to track them and we're in business (the business of lending out books, which is free to members, so not much of a business model). Donations of reading materials are welcome and appreciated. We don't have room for everything, but if you have copies of good stuff lying around or titles you think would benefit from wider readership we will happily add them to the collection.
BAD MOVIE THEME PARTIES - Aren't you tired of watching two good movies every Wednesday on our giant wall? Wouldn't you like a different day of the week with a different kind of experience? Think costumes and bean bag chairs, etc. Everyone lying on astroturf drinking cheap beer and wine, extolling the virtues of '60s exploitation films or Hot Frosty, maybe They Live or Wrestlemania III (not a movie, but a cinematic experience nonetheless). We are tired of quality cinema made by respected craftsmen! We want hot garbage that can be enjoyed for enjoyment's sake! Stay tuned for showtimes and let us know if you have any good (bad) suggestions.