2019 Grant

We're giving $500 in free printing to the person who can come up with
most compelling vision of their future. I'll be totally honest, its a
trick. If you take time to visualize your best-case scenario future
self, to really flesh it out in your mind, you sub-consciously work
your way towards it. Bang! You made an awesome life for yourself. And
I predict that your best-case scenario lives are pretty awesome. And
then I'm living in a more awesome world. But so are you. Its a
victimless crime.

Rule #1: Write at least a few paragraphs on where you want to be in
the year 2019 and post in as a comment on this post before January
31st, 2009.

Rule #2: Post this to your blog, email your friends, tell the
paparazzi, etc. Let's find out just how magic the internet is.

Rule #3: We'll give the best vision a $500 gift certificate, and start
the contest over again.

Comments

[Evan Groendyk]

I am a student at Western Michigan University and I am pursuing a double major in environmental studies and spanish. My environmental studies major is depressing. I am forced to confront and critically consider the plague of apathy in the heart of human beings as it relates to the reality of an unhealthy environment. Faced with biological scourge and outright mass extinction, human beings still consider themselves to be supreme over all things biotic and abiotic.

This is where the spanish comes in. It is my goal to be the most potent agent of change possible and to try and create enthusiasm as it relates to environmental knowledge in as many ways as possible, in both languages. I genuinely believe that the earth needs serious change, whether I need to throw a molotov cocktail at the house of the CEO of monsanto or whether I need a gargantuan banner from VGkids with some offensive comment strung over a highway overpass.

The 2019 grant would advance my mission. As I am a student living on a pauper's salary, the grant would help to forward the message that extreme change needs to happen immediately if we are going to even have a planet that is liveable for the next 300 years or so. By getting the grant, I would be able to display to a broad audience a variety of issues that I hold dear, that must change immediately, all with high quality, eye catching graphics. Peace and blessings.

[Erich Harbowy]

Every eighth grade boy in America wants to be either a game winning quarter back or a rock star. Ever since I picked up my first guitar I fell under the former notion of how the world should run. So in, you guessed it, the eighth grade I started joining bands. This is all well and good and remained a happy little hobby that placated my understanding of how to pick up girls for homecoming dances without all of the usual nerves involved in high school dating.
SOOOO, one day I joined a band that was "SERIOUS." (oooh, aaah...) We worked really hard and on the eve of our first tour our drummer got caught doing 70 in a 25 with illicit narcotics in his back seat. No really, you can't make this stuff up. So there goes Serious band #1. Well put similar, "really, that didn't happen for real did it," scenarios into the next three serious bands. Junkies, Flunkies, and Miscreants abound, every band has gone defunct for the same reasons all bands go defunct. But not this one. Here it is the heart of the matter. The name of the band is Take and we are now in Denver and I am writing to tell you not where I want to be in 2019 but where Take will be in 2019: Playing sold out shows at Madison Square Garden and The Palace of Auburn Hills (with cameos at the elbow room of course. how can you forget the elbow room?) I know this is the truth. Here's the back story:
I Lived on First Street in Ann Arbor for four years of my life after college. Not more than 1/4 mile away on Ashley lived my now co-writer Jesse for about eight years. In all that time we never met. I moved to Denver 2 years ago and Jesse 1 year 6 months ago. Still, neither of us had any idea the other existed. Both of us responded to the same 3rd party craigslist "make the band" ad. The serious band that formed immediately went defunct. (more drummer issues. go figure) But Jesse and I persisted. Within 14 days of starting we recorded a full length album that, I promise you, is better than anything you've heard in a while. By day 30 it was mixed and mastered. Of course we're musicians and broke so pressing won't come until after the holidays, but you get the idea. Anyway, this week I find out that Jesse's brother, who now lives in ypsi, lived his duration in Denver, get this, THREE HOUSES FROM WHERE I LIVE NOW. This story goes beyond coincidence. So here it is the sell line. We know that this band will be famous soon enough, but to get there will take capital and persistence. Persistence we have in utter abundance. Capital we don't but(here it comes) you can provide us with some! $500 dollars seems like a good place to start. And wouldn't you love to be able to tell people that you helped us at the beginning? And, get this, Karma seems to work its way back around in the end. So, there it is. Jump on the Take bandwagon early. Thanks for your time. Cheers, Erich

[Charlie Slick]

My name is Charlie Slick and I've put together 4 full length albums and played close to 200 hundred shows since I started playing as Charlie Slick in 2005. As time goes by, I find myself becoming more and more intertwined in the business of music. I am currently working full time at a Garden Store in Downtown Ann Arbor and I spend all my free time trying to make a career for myself in Rock N Roll. I and many other musicians/artists would want nothing more then to quit our day jobs and play music full-time.

My goal is not however, to be signed by a major label and spend my life galavanting around the world on some E True Hollywood story-esk 15 minutes of fame. I want to build my own company. I want to do everything in house and hopefully hire all my friends into our company. Not just a record label either, I mean, I want to do everything in house. From studio recording to the actually vinyl record pressing. More then that too, books, Artwork, and possibly movies. In 2019, I imagine that the cost of movie production and effects will go down enough for more and more smaller movie studios to pop up, much like what has happened to the music industry. We'd be doing cross promotions so that the musicians would act in movies would lend creditability to directors and Directors would make videos for Musicians. Painters would paint record and movies covers. Hopefully everyone would be turning people onto each other. We will also offer a wide range of low run things like signed albums, prints, and pre-emptive memorabilia.

Transactions would take place in an online store at first but by 2019 we would have a physical store as well. We're not talking about a crack team of producers putting together block buster movies and and platinum albums. We are talking artist making art for the general population. I say pop because there does need to be a market for this stuff. We are a business and we can't be making stuff that no one buys. If it's any good, people will buy it, we've just gotta give them the right price. Besides, I'm more interested in creating common ground and experience than things that exclude people.

Hopefully by keeping everything in house, we won't have to make the compromises like selling music to commercials. We would instead, have a jingles division where musicians could come together to write music for commercials and such to keep the gears turning if they need money to tour or promotion. The jingles would be sold as products of the whole team, therefore keeping the artist individual names and art clean. The plan is not to make millions of dollars and buy ridiculous things. I don't plan on reaping the profits of this company. All I want is a chance to do cool things and produce things that entertain and speak to people.

I love Movies, I love Music, and I love art, but I don't believe that things things should be free. People need to be rewarded for their hard work and all I and most artists want is a chance to do the things that they are good at. Maybe we can take back our art with the very tactics that I feel have been used to take it from us. I'm not sure exactly of how all the small things will work out but I do have a plan for this year. Every once in a while, something beautiful slips through the system, a movie, art, or music that walks the line between art/pop and I think we can make more of that and I think it can be sustainable. Lets skip the middle man.

[Hiro Hayashi]

I am a local San Francisco artist. when I graduated from High School in 1999, I moved to live alone in LA to experience living alone and finding my road to what I will become for my future. Living there for 2 years was great, but something was still missing. So I packed up my stuff, sold both my car and motorcycle and used whatever money I had from it to live in Japan.
Altho I am Japanese, it was still hard living there as a american born Japanese. Not knowing what to expect and how to get places, also only being able to say "Hi" the first year was deffinetly a challenge. But as time went by, I startted to enjoy my culture. While I was there, I worked as a chef, trying to survive on my own and not knowing when I will go back to the USA.
So the time finally came. After living in Japan for 4 years, I've decided to go back home and do what I really love, and that was drawing. So again, I packed my stuff and headed out the door to go back. Now I know what road I want to take, so once I got back the first thing I did was to work at a retail store that dealt with local upcoming artist.
This was a great oppurtunity for me to learn from others. Because of this I have been in couple of group shows, some solos and also landing some commission jobs for my art. But even if this all sounds like it's going well, I still have many things to learn. I am now working at a part time job, learning about frames and art supplies. This is also a plus for me.
But for 2009 I'm hoping that another part of my goals in life will come true. I'm planning on starting my own apparel line useing my artwork, and have a online store for it. I can't afford a retail shop for now, but I am hoping that at least by 2019 open up a shop that supports up and coming artists to any one that is taking the same challenge I've went thru to find what they want to do.

[mary kasprzak]

heres my 2019 bullshit... short n sweet.

i have a bfa... i make 10.50 an hour... it sucks. i thought i wanted to go to grad school n be a college professor but fuck that i dont want to be another 50 grand in the hole. so... i plan to start with tees and earrings. hopefully i have enough skill to pick up the slack through out the month. then hopefully i can quit my day job. im too bossy to have a boss. i just want to live comfortably and make shit not answering to someone whos full of shit. with or without your help its happening. the company name has been brewin for a couple weeks... no hints.

:) mary

[Erik Zempel]

I'm pretty sure that being married to a VGKids employee automatically precludes me from winning, but I thought it was an interesting exercise so I'm just going to do it anyway...

In the next 10 years I see both our economy and our climate changing in drastic ways that will affect all of us. 2009 will be a turning point - the economic and climate crises will converge and cause us as a society to re-think "business as usual". The service industry will be hit hardest as customers have no money to purchase services they are able to do themselves (such as cooking food) and oil prices and regulations will put an end to cheap asian imports.

This will force us to radically change the way we live. We'll have to change the amount of energy we waste, the amount of travel we'll do, and the way in which goods are produced. The suburbs will collapse as it will no longer make sense to inhabit an area so dependent on the availability of cheap oil.

Although this sounds like a doomsday scenario, I find it all entirely exciting as the possibilities are endless. We're finally going to do away with the staunchy old systems and build a new world. We will encounter a lot of problems along the way which will require ingenuity and hard labor, which represents nothing but a blue ocean of possibilities for American citizens.

Erin and I will be dealing with this in our own way. We plan to return back to the land with the purchase of a farm that will be hopefully complete this month. Our goal will be to become as self-sustaining as possible. Our food will be grown (organically, of course) by ourselves. We hope to install green technologies such as photovoltaic panels and wind generators to produce our own electricity to remove our dependence on polluting technologies. By 2019 we'll be well established and hopefully teaching others in our ways.

[Bryan Angelo]

I'm Bryan Angelo, I'm 16 i own Luckythree Clothing And Status Desings, i'm a partner and head designer with Surrounded Clothing. all located in New Jersey. i hope to be out of college with my masters in Graphic Design and visual communication working for a company and also working for small organizations like cancer foundations making shirts and design work donating them to the foundation. i also hope to be running my companies and building Surrounded Clothing. but mostly in ten years i hope to be alive and well setting new goals for my self to accomplish :)

Thankss!!
LOVE VGKIDSS
you've helped so much.

[Jen Thomason]

My inspiration comes from my sweet family. I have the pleasure of being artist/teacher/mama to five beautiful children and the wife of an artist/teacher/woodworkin'papa. We love each other and our kids like crazy and stay up late drinking spicy tea dreaming about travel and where we could live to make our family life even better.

I think a farm with lots of open space for the children, a basketball court for the eldest Boy-Bomb, gardens for me, a heated wood shop for my lover, animals for Fearless Frankie, a soccer field for Galloping Grey, kitties and bunnies for Goodie Gracie, and lots of hammers and balls for Boom Boom Brown!

There are so many beautiful places out there and we're gonna find ourselves one where we can grow our own food, kids, and dogs, and have big musical magical bon fires any time we want. I think the mission is to create a space for our family and friends to appreciate the simple parts of life that rock. The sunsets over an open feild, a tomato fresh picked and warm in your mouth, kids up trees screaming with glee, and teenagers sitting around a boom box in the drive way talking about the things they'll do with their life, someday!
Thats my hope for 2019!

[Jen Thomason]

My inspiration comes from my sweet family. I have the pleasure of being artist/teacher/mama to five beautiful children and the wife of an artist/teacher/woodworkin'papa. We love each other and our kids like crazy and stay up late drinking spicy tea dreaming about travel and where we could live to make our family life even better.

I think a farm with lots of open space for the children, a basketball court for the eldest Boy-Bomb, gardens for me, a heated wood shop for my lover, animals for Fearless Frankie, a soccer field for Galloping Grey, kitties and bunnies for Goodie Gracie, and lots of hammers and balls for Boom Boom Brown!

There are so many beautiful places out there and we're gonna find ourselves one where we can grow our own food, kids, and dogs, and have big musical magical bon fires any time we want. I think the mission is to create a space for our family and friends to appreciate the simple parts of life that rock. The sunsets over an open feild, a tomato fresh picked and warm in your mouth, kids up trees screaming with glee, and teenagers sitting around a boom box in the drive way talking about the things they'll do with their life, someday!
Thats my hope for 2019!

[Jeff Conley]

My name is Jeff Conley. I am 28 years old and have been a full time musician since I graduated from college in 2002. Since then all I have ever wanted was to play shows for a living and tour around the world on a bus or plane or train and live "the life".
Something, however recently has changed for me though. The more shows I play, the more something feels just a bit off... it's actually kind of scary to find that the one thing that you have wanted to do since you were a little kid is not producing the kind of excitement you always thought it would. What do you do when a dream that you have had for about 18 years is starting to come true but your not sure if it's what you want anymore. Don't get me wrong, I will never stop playing music live, but I suppose the reason for me feeling this way is that the older I get, the more important it is for me to be around my family. For this reason, my family decided to start a little company called Naukabout.
It is basically a clothing line focused on the preservation of the places we love to be and the things we love to do. Your way to "Naukabout" may be skiing off of cliffs or simply having a catch with your kids in a leaf pile in the back yard. Your Naukabout is what ever you make of it. When we were little kids our Dad told us when we got home from school to get out of our school clothes and put on our Naukabouts to play....Since we started the company, this concept of preserving the things we care about the most in life has caught on in a big way and we have partnered with a number of like-minded non-profit organizations...
In 2019, my biggest hope is that my parents can look at us 3 boys and their grand children and know that their dreams for us came true... that their children are taking a concept that they, my parents, created when we were very little and turned it into a company that is making a real difference in the lives of people all over the world.

[Doug Cook]

When I was born my parents almost named by Raphael, after a baseball player... Now I go by Douglas Cook, the name the ended up choosing. In 10 years I hope to see the following happen for me...

I want to spend my mornings sitting in the basement of my new house, at my desk, writing a book/letters/articles. Steps away is the wine rack, full of new and old wines to share with friends, and steps away from that is a record player playing Sinatra or Fleet Foxes. My son Soren comes rumbling down the stairs to get me to come up and make him pancakes. I oblige. We make a huge mess, eat our pancakes, and leave the mess for later. He's 6, we're reading through the Hobbit aloud in the mornings after breakfast. We're on chapter 5, we've been on chapter 5 for 2 weeks now. He just wants to keep reading it. His imagination is beyond my comprehension at this age.
Later in the day I drop Soren at my brothers house to play with Winston and Sunny and I run off to the office for Weaver, the magazine we started 10 years ago, to review this weeks layout and catch up with our new editor. I can't stay because I have to go present a paper in my 14th Century Irish Theology course, and I'm already late.
Getting home at night my wife and I put Soren in bed, pour a bottle of wine and watch Bottle Rocket, we fall asleep on the couch. I wake up to realize that it's still 2008.

Something to look forward too I suppose.....

[Claudette Jocelyn Stern]

I have a small press known as "Infinite Possibilities" and an entity called "The Idea Factory" that is an art and exhibit and performance collaborative. Both names attest to where my inclinations reside and where I might find myself in 2019. I'm compelled by community and collaboration and how we care for ourselves and our surrounds.

Presence, and the capacity to allow care and thoughtfulness into each moment, is probably as large as my vision gets. What occurs, what externals surface, as a result of keeping to those intentions are less intriguing to me.

I have, and share with my creative clan, a vision we have come to call "The Ranch". It surfaced as a result of my yearly migration to New Mexico but has evolved into a community of the mind working its way toward a community of many. It is a residence and refuge, art colony and workspace, an environmental haven and gathering place. It is ever evolving. It is a place of kinship and collaboration. A friend of mine in academics tells me that when times get tough she goes to "The Ranch" in her mind.

I suspect that "The Ranch" will indeed come to fruition but, much like the concerted effort to elect a true leader and visionary, President-elect Obama, the combining of will and consciousness had to come first.

[Chuck Sams]

It is easy to picture 2019 in my mind.

Subscriptions to my small newletter/magazine have grown slowly but steadily every year. The Cedar Sweeper is a small success story with enough subscription and newstand sales to support my small family. My wife and our two daughters are now involved as ad sales, subscriptions, and editorial duties are too much for me to handle on my own.

We make numerous local trips every year to support The Cedar Sweeper's content and to feed our ever growing outdoor habit.

It is early in the year (2019) and I am standing on the prettiest little Michigan steelhead stream. There is no wind and huge snow flakes fall straight to the earth. There is only the sound of the snow hitting the leaves and the running water. The girls are just upstream working a deep bend hole and occasionally I can hear their voices over the snow and water. I lean my rod against a tree and breath in the sweet air that is success and freedom. And I wonder if they are as happy as I, having blended the two things that I love the most?

[Matt Ball, Co-Founder, Vegan Outreach]

We envision a world with much, much less suffering, because fewer and fewer people eat our fellow animals.

It is hard to comprehend just how much society has changed in recent history. Prejudices we can hardly fathom today were completely accepted just decades ago. For example, if we read what was written and said about slavery -- fewer than 150 years ago -- the defenders were not just ignorant racists, but admired politicians, civic and religious leaders, and learned intellectuals. What is horrifying to us now was once respected.

Today the vast majority of people are now opposed to cruelty to animals; thus, the discussion now must focus on helping people see that eating meat violates their own principles. This effort is only just beginning.

At the same time, powerful economic forces will kick in because meat is ultimately inefficient. It is more efficient to eat plant foods directly, rather than feeding plant foods to animals and then eating the animals' flesh. Of course, people aren't going to substitute tofu for meat, but that is not the choice they'll be making. Food science has advanced such that the best vegetarian meats are able to satisfy even hard-core carnivores. Deli slices from Tofurky, burgers from Boca, Gimme Lean sausage and ground beef, Morningstar MealStarters, Gardenburger’s Riblets and Chik’n -- all of these dismiss the notion that giving up meat is necessarily a deprivation.

The faster the growth in people eating vegetarian, the faster vegetarian meats will improve in taste, become cheaper, and be found in far more places. (Compare a 2006 Boca Burger to a 1986 Nature Burger, and imagine how good a 2026 veggie burger will be!) In addition, in vitro meats become more viable each year. In meatro can also be more efficient than actual animal corpses, and can be engineered to have the same benefits as vegetarian meats: no cholesterol, good fats (omega-3s), no factory farms, no slaughterhouses, no manure ponds, no greenhouse gas emissions, no food poisoning, no mad cow, no avian flu. These technologies will also be accelerated by the growth of vegetarianism.

Despite all the current horror and continued suffering, if we take the long view and are willing to commit to the work that needs to be done, we should be deeply optimistic. Animal liberation can be the future; as The Economist concluded, "Historically, man has expanded the reach of his ethical calculations, as ignorance and want have receded, first beyond family and tribe, later beyond religion, race, and nation. To bring other species more fully into the range of these decisions may seem unthinkable to moderate opinion now. One day, decades or centuries hence, it may seem no more than 'civilized' behavior requires."

With our efforts, de facto animal liberation could be achieved with a whimper, not a bang. Change will not come by revolution, but through person-by-person outreach progressing hand-in-hand with advances in technology, leading slowly but inexorably to a new norm that, to most people, hardly seems different. But an unfathomable amount of suffering will be prevented.

It is up to us to make this happen.

[Ken MacGregor]

In contrast to all the altruism above, I am afraid my vision of 2019 is a selfish one. Basically, I want to pull a Jeff Daniels. I am an actor/writer who owns a sketch comedy company in Ypsi (Monkey Rampant), and I am working hard toward making my mark in the entertainment industry.
I have starred in my first feature film ("The Whisperer in Darkness," a very low-budget H.P. Lovecraft movie), and am even now working with local movie company, Lion Belly Media to produce my first comedy DVD.
I plan to use my success commercially to fund a small, black-box theater in Ypsilanti. The theater will run original plays and shows by local talent (including my group, of course) and will ultimately bring people from all over to Ypsi (ideally downtown).
So, when I'm famous and I own that theater, I will display in the lobby one of the shirts I got from VG Kids with my $500 gift certificate.
Thanks.

[james marks]

I love reading these essays over as they trickle in. As the owner I'm ineligible from winning, but I can't help but want to craft my own. Here goes:

I'll be 40 years old. VG will be exceptionally stable and held up nationally as an example of modern ethical business practices. The production space is the anchor tenant of a rehabbed industrial building that also houses a thriving community of artists and musicians. I'm surrounded by people who live life on their own terms, fly in the face of convention, and take pride in the poetically unlikely.

The impact VGKids has on Ypsilanti is unmistakeable. We're part of the magnet that draws and keeps young, talented, awesome people.

The importance of my presence at VGKids is minor, I've built my principles into a culture of people who know how to make the right decisions. I'll have sold VGKids to the employees, and stay on as a counselor. I'm financially independent. I'll travel with my family. Bask in the glory of the world, be inspired, and continue working on what I always have: bringing beauty into the world.

[chris ryding]

In 1989, I had my awakening. The things I think, say and do, the foods I eat, the ideals I hold dear, all influence the Universe. My life should be based on those things that are positive. So I became a vegetarian for environmental and ethical reasons, opened an arts and ethics based activist cafe in Detroit, reached out to the art and music communities and began planting seeds of hope and peace.

By 1999, reaching hundreds of people a day had morphed into reaching thousands a day with those same ideals, now in a larger company, all the while still planting seeds of independednt thinking and action and based on the premise of the greater good.

In 2009, I've reached a stage where the playing field is now national in scope. The ideals are still altruistic, the need is still there, and the goal of helping thousands upon thousands spread peace and realize thier own path and role in the future ever closer to becoming reality.

To me, in 2019, I am looking back at a life dedicated to peaceful existence, and watching with pride the fruits born from planting seeds all along the way. A better planet, less violence in the world, an empowered people. In 2019, I am at peace with where my path has led me, and pleased that I acted rather than watched way back when. You get what you give.

[John Gaviglio]

In the year 2019 I will be riding a clean-burning coal/electric/nuclear hoverboard (I know! Finally!) made by a government-run GM. It will be pretty rad with some stickers of bands I like plastered on it because I will still want people to form an opinion of me based on what I advertise.

On the 93rd anniversary of the Scopes-Monkey trial, scientists will confirm discovery of a 'missing link'. Upon this discovery, a surging of support for the Theory of Evolution will wash accross our great nation. Support will top out at 51% of Americans trusting in science instead of the bible (up 1% from today).

In 2019, the government will still be stealing from you and me, along with the banks, as well as people I read about in the news that you think could only be fictitious (but who aren't - I see them every day here in NYC). The only difference is that these people are new, having replaced their blue-blood predecessors in 2014. So the cycle continues.

We will have less trees in the world, but more people to hang out with. That will be sweet because I love parties!

[Timothy Pizza]

In the year 2019, I'll be living in the Desert and walking on four legs. This is because I'll be a Giraffe. You won't believe anything I say here. You don't belong here any more than I do. But I am the one who will go across the line. I have something different. I'm everywhere, scouring black markets, invading your local Zoo, posting on Craig's list, and when I find a healthy Giraffe infant I am going to call upon the Lizard. His promise still remains.

I met the Lizard when I was six years old, my older brother was holding him by his tail before he dropped him into a mason jar full water and made me watch the Lizard drown. He laughed like a Hyena while its back arched and twitched to a fro. Eventually he stopped twitching and the water became cloudy. I've never cried a drop since then. Still to this day many years later, the Lizard, he comes to my dreams. He tells me about the perils of humans, how we are cursed by our own minds. He also tells me about the joy of animals and their simplicity of which we (humans) could never possibly understand. The Lizard knows how terrible I felt when I watched him drown in that mason jar, he knew about the harrowing visions and the guilt, shame filled and horrible. The Lizard, he has forgiven me. He's even become what some would call a friend.

In a place not far from here, where the light bends, we, the Lizard and I can manipulate the things around us. In this place were all spread thin between reality and dreams. Rules don't apply to us there. I can be anything there. On February 1, 2019 an asteroid is coming. You don't believe me but it is true.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2147879.stm

This asteroid will carry a new kind of electricity, new to you anyway. This kind of electricity, if held to the bent light of the sun will allow me and the baby Giraffe to be one. I'll leave my human skin and bones to forever rot beneath this earth, meanwhile my soul and mind will spend its remaining years in the vessel of a healthy young Giraffe. I'll be so tall, and I will have the prettiest eyelashes. I'll never have to make eye contact again. I'll never have to speak another word. I won't be able to. Giraffe's do not have vocal cords. They have flesh radio transmitters. Their long necks act as antennas, sending and receiving Giraffe related information. All to the music of world, in the soft heat of the desert, and the chance of this cursed life, to stand so tall and proud listening to songs hidden in the morning wind. The precious gifts life has denied man will all be mine. I will understand the Giraffe. I will view from the height of peacefulness and stand alone, away from all of you. The Lizard and I do not pretend.

[Michael Solo]

2019 -

It was the summer of Twenty-Fifteen that put the final nails in the coffin of the American Auto Industry. When a gallon of gas, or “clean burning bio-fuel” to quote Exxon Mobile, got jacked up to twelve dollars a gallon, people all over the country stopped worrying about being gauged at the pump and started worrying about how the hell they were going to keep their home, feed their kids.

The never-ending party of the American Dream really got busted up by the cops that summer. It was pretty awkward for some who thought it was going to last forever. Hell, I didn’t have that much to lose, but there were riots in the streets of Hollywood.

It was a pretty normal summer around here. Shit, I live in Ypsilanti. We’d more-or-less gotten used to the idea that there wasn’t going to be a quick-and-easy solution that would put us all back to work making boondoggles. Detroit got its hopes up for a time, but not even my parents could afford a “car of the future” on what credit cost in those days and most of my friends had already been riding their bikes to work for years.

My son, David, was born that summer. It was a hot one. Hot and dry. Sarah and I had just moved back into the house here on Prospect so that I could fix up the place and she could help care of my sister’s kids and stay home with the baby. I took down that chain-link fence - last one on the block to go down, actually - and we put our space to good use in the community garden that runs the block. That old above-ground pool in the back, the one that I now proudly refer to as my “fishery”, saved our collective ass that summer. It used to be a grey-water reservoir for the passive pump.

You should see little David back there now - spends all day helping out whoever will let him lend a hand and giving the chickens hell. I let him have his fun. Next year he’ll be off to school everyday with his mom. She teaches art and animal husbandry over at the community school on Prospect Park. He’s a bright kid. He wants to be a farmer and a musician just like his old man.

We did have a few rough years there, I’ll admit. Winters were the hardest until we got wood stoves put in and fuel enough for everyone on the block. A few of these houses used to stand empty and every one of them has been broken into once or twice over the last few years. I think things have pretty much leveled off now. Property owners finally realized that it’s pointless to kick people out of houses that are worthless and everyone’s found some way to contribute. Even the Thompson’s have given up trying to “make it on their own” and their jarred soups and curries make our Sunday trade market the envy of every other block cooperative from here to Ann Arbor. Everyone works together, everyone’s got plenty to eat, and no one even misses TV anymore.

I think back to ten years ago and I can honestly say that I didn’t even know a single person on my block. It’s so unreal when I think about it now. I used to interact with the same faces every week just like I do now, but checking out at the grocery store just made me feel guarded and anonymous. I, like this house, still had a chain link fence that was separating me from everyone else. I didn’t really know people and I didn’t care to know them. I didn’t give a thought to my neighbor’s welfare, whether he was getting along ok, whether he was healthy or had enough to eat. I guess we’ve come a long way, but like I said, this is Ypsilanti, and not much has changed around here.

[JENNA BAYLY]

2019...In 10 years...(Given, the apocolypse doesn't end it all.)

I wanted to come up with something that didn't bore the "average" mind. Yet, something stunning. Something compelling. Something thoughtful...an attention-grabber. I do not have future visions of changing the world or saving the world in some "earth moving" way. I am the female lead vocalist in a rock band. I DO NOT ask to be a rock star. I would love, ultimately, to be doing what I love (music) full-time without having to do much of what I don't love so much (work... as in, other than music). I believe music is work, like anything, You must work for what you want. I also believe, however, that there must be a healthy balance in order to succeed. When it begins to feel like work with no passion or enjoyment left, it becomes pointless. In my opinion, art has to come from a place of enjoyment. Whether you are enjoying your insanity or your happiness... art comes from that. In 10 years, whether I am insane by then, or whether I am joyous, I hope to use those emotions as the vehicle to create without the daily grind of nonsense taking up most of my time (like it is now). I know, struggle is art...but you must start somewhere, right?

[Frankie Concord]

I’ve been pacing back and forth for an hour. The screams are getting louder and louder by the minute as the excitement grows in the background. Music is blasting, but I can still hear the audience clearly. It’s time to start my preshow warm up. I’ll start with my stretches and then I’ll go to my rudiments. As I count the rudiments out loud I think ‘I can’t wait for next year’. A grin reaches my face; I’m humored by the dumbest things. Next year will be 2020, which I think is cool. I was actually excited when it was February 2nd 2002. I smiled every time I wrote the date down on paper for school. I’ll dub next year as the year of Barbara Walters. My wife will like that one.

The music stops. It’s time to exit my room and meet with the rest of the guys. I hope I can remember how to get to the main room. Backstage is never as nice as I used to think it would have been. Most of the time it reminds me of my old high school locker room area, but bigger and filled with a bunch of dirty roadies and hot chicks. This time I found the room and met up with the rest of the band easily.

Before we take stage, somebody in the band always gives a little ‘pump up’ speech to get us ready to kick ass. Today was my turn. I hadn’t thought about what I was going to say. We all grouped into a circle and smiled in anticipation of the show. Everybody put their arms on each other’s shoulders and turned their attention towards me. I spoke:

“Guys, I was just thinking, ten years ago we were a local unsigned act. We had to spend all of our free time out on the streets doing everything we could to make as big of an impact as we could. We paid for everything out of our pockets. We poured our heart and souls into developing the band into what we could only dream of. Well now, we have it made. We have our own label taking care of day to day stuff in the background. We don’t have to go pass out flyers every weekend. We don’t have to worry about paying for the studio or photo shoots. All we have to do is to get up on stage and give these guys everything we’ve got. So let’s show Japan how to rock out!”

As we leave the room and head for the stage, the chants begin, “Pir-ar! Pir-ar! Pir-ar!” (Short for Pillar of Autumn) All of the lights in the stadium dim, we take the stage, and the audience roars. I love my job.

[Amanda Schemkes, Vice President, Action for Animals]

Walls painted a spring yellow. Laughter. Fingers on a keyboard. Open windows. An embracing scent of food from the kitchen. Excited voices. Couches that let you sink into the conversations that will change the world. On the back of the front door are notes written onto the wood by the kids who’ve stepped through it and embraced what it means to say that one person can make a difference, and that the life of one animal is worth it. This is the house of my dreams for 2019; it is a house that is interwoven with the history of Action for Animals since 2008.

During the summer of 2008, I traveled on Warped Tour with Action for Animals. I spent tour talking with teenagers about vegan and animal rights issues, and I came home inspired by their interest, intelligence, and desire to help animals. I came home believing in the power that young people have to speak for change and wanting to do what I could to help them speak effectively. By the beginning of 2009, I was starting to lay out my plans for heading an Action for Animals program of youth-oriented outreach that not only educates young people about veganism and animal rights, but also teaches them how to be activists. And the more I thought about what I wanted to do, the more I began to see the house with yellow walls.

This house is the headquarters for the youth program. Teenagers can volunteer, participate in internship programs, and feel at home. They can learn how to establish an animal rights club at their school and have the resources to get started. They can find out how to develop a campaign and meet people who will work with them on it. They can pour through vegan recipes and try them out in the kitchen—with vegetables picked from the garden in the backyard. They can bring their parents over and show them that an activist kid is someone to be proud of. They can attend talks given by people in a variety of animal jobs and think about their own futures. They can believe in taking on the world and being a voice that animals will be proud to have speaking for them.

The work to achieve this image of 2019 will be centered around teaching young people why and how to be vegan, raising their awareness of their power to question and using it effectively, and inspiring them to be activists for animal rights through education, support, respect, and creativity. In 2009, the yellow walls are just an option on a paint swatch, but not forever. At the bottom of the Action for Animals logo are the words Taking Sides, and over the next ten years, those words will come to represent the youth program as taking sides for change, compassion, and lives.

[Matt Greenzang]

The year is 2019 and my graduation day is done,
Columbia is now behind me but the best is yet to come.
Six years ago I turned my tassel and shook my dean’s hand,
And I look toward my future - now this is where I stand.

I recall a trip to Jackson Hole, after college was compete,
This is where all my ideas began, right in the driver’s seat.
Wyoming was a ways away, and the car ride was so sad,
There must be some other way to keep the air from getting so bad.
“We promise a car that runs much more efficiently,”
LA auto-show makers repeatedly made this promise to me.
As we drove along the road, to Old Faithful we were nearing
Into my head popped an idea from something I remember hearing.
There was a train in Jackson Hole that recently was shut down,
It’s inefficient workings caused all in Wyoming to frown.
“What if they used a Mag-Lev train?” The thought just crossed my mind,
“Let’s use the same idea in cars; it would be such a find!”
The next three years were spent developing an idea so hot,
A magnetically propelled vehicle, who ever would have thought!
The concept quickly caught on, the word was on the street,
My name was daily in the news; I was the man to meet.
One day I received a call, General Motors was on the line,
“We want to buy your car good Sir,” “Finally, it’s about time!”
To GM I sold my ideas, for a price that remains undisclosed,
Now my cars are everywhere, from the idea I solely proposed.

My days are now spent fulfilling my passions, and things I love to do,
Giving back to others, and looking for new ideas to pursue.

[stacia cumberland]

my heart is whole and i am at peace and free.
i have clarity and purpose.

i imagine a day in 2019 when i wake up without resentment for anything i will be doing that day. i am not anxious for my day or worried about it’s outcome. i move confidently throughout my interactions with friends, family, and coworkers. their successes don’t threaten me and their needs don’t overwhelm me. i have a clear sense of what I am really good at and an equally clear sense of the things i should allow others to do for me. in my 10-year dream, i will not be defined by my circumstances or my occupation or my bank account.

my heart is whole and i am at peace and free.

it is hard to say if my dream is altruistic or selfish. to be sure, my dream concerns myself, but I can’t help believe that if all this is true of me, i will give and love more freely. my time and energies will be free to share with those around me. i will be fully present in my relationships and not hindered by my insecurities.

i’ll probably be a mommy in 10 years and i’d love to be running a home business with my husband. i’m hoping our fantastic australian cattle dog will still be around and it would be really great to be a valuable part of our community. but most of all, i want that mommy and business partner and dog owner and community member to be whole, at peace, and free.