Not far from the North Pole, Santa’s sleigh springs to life in Toronto. You soar high above the earth, dropping presents in chimneys while visions of sugar plums dance in your head. Elves sing, faeries dance and snowflakes fall as we celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. Bring: costumes, silly hats, decorations, hot chocolate, candy canes, secret snowflake presents, cameras, dreidels, musical instruments, paper snowflake or just a friend to the end of the track at Kipling station at 11:11 PM on Thursday, December 8, 2005.

In November of 2005, we had a massive pillow fight during an anti-gun rally in the city’s commercial center, Dundas Square. The coincidence was hilarious and the feathers were everywhere – it was snowing in the fall!

Feathers fly and teddies soar as you converge on Dundas Square for a giant urban pillow fight! Swing and whack as you evade pillow-wielding assailants. Join us for this London-style silliness: bring a soft pillow to the middle of the square at 2 PM and wait for the signal. Pillow fight!

PILLOW FIGHT!
TODAY NOVEMBER 13 2005
DUNDAS SQUARE // 2 PM
YONGE & DUNDAS, TORONTO
Bring a pillow :-)
rain date: rain or shine!

Deep below the streets of Toronto on Planet Earth, subterranean bliss erupts before your eyes. You step onto a subway car, hear three chimes and suddenly you are riding the rocket. Ads are replaced with art, aliens blow bubbles, astronauts dance and robots sing. On Tuesday, August 16th, you earthlings are invited to join a subway party for a night of cosmic proportions. Bring: costumes, instruments, bubbles, cameras, decorations, space toys, glowsticks, moon boots or just a friend to the southbound track of Downsview station at 11:22 PM. Your destination: alpha centauri! You blast off with enough time to catch the last rocket back to Earth.

Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
Ride the Rocket subway party
Downsview Station, Toronto
11:22pm. Meet at the end of the southbound track.

The fine print: You can join the party at any point on the Yonge-University-Spadina line (just wait by the last car at your station). This event is all ages and 100% free. There is no need to sign up, simply show up, but make sure to join our mailing list! Contact kevin or lori (at) newmindspace.com. Please respect our transit workers: leave the subway car clean so they will welcome us back. Check back nearer to the event in case the time is changed (to accommodate the last train). If for any reason you have not reached Finch by 1:10 AM, get off the train and go south again.

We would like to invite you to have a picnic on August 7th 2005 with your friends and family!

The First Sunday Picnic, dreamed up in Sydney, Australia, is a gathering of friends and family on the first Sunday of each month to be free! Chores can wait until Monday, we say, so unfurl your blankets and bust out your baskets and join us for a picnic in the park!

First Sunday Picnic
Sunday August 7, 2005
Christie Pits (Bloor W & Christie)
In front of the big rock in the playground
Noon until we gracefully disperse.
Rain or Shine (bring a bathing suit for the pool)

Game One: Kensington Market

Join us for a game of Capture the Flag, the urban game with teams, sides and flags! Run around the streets of Toronto’s Kensington Market, land of Al Waxman and bicycles. Outwit opponents, hiding behind fruit stand corners before you find their flag, outmaneuver their flag keepers and dash home for a point in the pulse-quickening game of yesteryear. Defend your territory with all its vintage goodness by tagging trespassers and sending them back to their side. The games in New York have been wonderful; come capture the flag in Toronto for a night of summer joy. The streets are your playground, reclaim them!

July 26th, 2005
Capture the Flag
Kensington Market, Toronto
College & Augusta, 9:30pm

Game Two: Bay Street

Join us for our next game of Capture the Flag, the urban recess game where teams hit the pavement! Run around the streets of Toronto’s Financial District, land of towering skyscrapers of steel and glass. Ride subways, streetcars, buses & escalators to the enemy base, hide underground in the PATH system, find their flag, outmaneuver their flag keepers and dash home for a point in this pulse-quickening game of capture. Defend your concrete turf by tagging trespassers and sending them back to their side. Our last game and subway party were wonderful (thanks to you!); come capture the flag in Toronto for a night of Autumn joy. The streets are your playground, reclaim them!

Capture The Flag! Bay Street
Friday September 30th 2005
King St. & Bay St. // 8:30 PM
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Game Three: Yorkville

Gargoyles, peacocks and beavers, oh my! We invite you to join us for our last(?) game of Capture the Flag on the entire downtown campus of Canada’s largest university. Defend your territory by tagging trespassers and sending them back to their side. Utilize 7 subway stations, two streetcar routes and three buses to get to the enemy flag, outmaneuver their flag keepers and dash to Queen’s Park for a point in this fast-paced, heart-pumping urban game.

We will meet on the steps of Sydney Smith at St. George Street and Willcocks St. on October 21, 2005 at 8:30 PM. Take the subway to St. George and walk two blocks south, or take the Spadina streetcar to Willcocks and walk east, or take the #94 bus to St. George St. Cellphones highly recommended to communicate with your team!

Starting in June 2005, Newmindspace hosted a series of urban games in New York City. Taking a cue from Manhunt Toronto, we first had games of Manhunt in the West Village, Manhattan and DUMBO, Brooklyn. The game then evolved into a team game utilizing mobile technology and larger numbers, manifesting itself as Capture the Flag in Williamsburg.

The players who frequented our games continue to play in streets of New York in our absence, embodied in the group NYGames.net, later taken over by Urban Madness.

As far as we can tell, this is the only video that exists:

In the frantic days before our mothers both came to Toronto, we realized that we owed our moms a lot and they deserved something extra-special! No candy nor flower nor hallmark card will do, we said, and we got to work on making mom’s day super nice for them.

We decided to go to Kinko’s and photocopy 1,000 original paper hearts that said “I love you mom!” on them. Using a ghetto concoction of sugar and cornstarch, we pasted one to every side of every surface on Queen street from University Avenue to Spadina.

The first Newmindspace event ever was a giant urban easter egg hunt. Inspired by The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, we thought it would be fun to do an easter egg hunt, but instead of the usual location in a park, we thought we should hide them within the grey urban landscape to bring some color and joy.