A group loitering in matching t-shirts on our corner turned out to be part of a leadership training class on a stealth assignment — to perform a random act of kindness. We said that’s what we were doing, too, but not on assignment.

At first, though they were puzzled and bemused, they took our cards. Then, they couldn’t figure out how to be kind to us or whether we fit the profile of who they wanted to be kind to. After learning that we were on our way to lunch, the group silently reached consensus to bankroll our lunch. One of the Coca Cola guys took charge and pulled out some bucks and said “Here, lunch is on us.” We were stunned. Here we were perpetrating our acts of kindness and somebody one ups us! Fortunately we got a grip and took the dough and went to eat burritos in Liberty Place. (image is leadership training class members, Mark Quinn, Michael Kimball and others — we’re not sure who’s who– with Libby, in the kindness convention)

In other street action, bike messenger Ben, who is also an artist, arrived the second week in a row for two sets of Dorothy cards, one for himself and the other for his dispatcher, Sean. Based on this scientific sample of the bike messenger business, we now believe we can confirm that all bike messengers and their dispatchers are artists. (image is Ben and Roberta)

For the first time ever, we noticed cell phones had changed the dynamics of what happened on the street. For starters, it made for more rejections of our art. And then, it stopped us cold when a man in need of a cellphone interrupted our giveaway. He borrowed Libby‘s cellphone to call his wife when she didn’t show up at their meeting place (OUR corner). Turned out they just didn’t see each other. They were both madder than hornets and obviously late for something. We were riveted by the family drama.

Movie stars

Last week, comic book artist, Manning Krull, who said he was leaving for Paris, did a double take when he recognized us as stars of Wendy Weinberg‘s “Art of Activism” documentary, which he had seen at Prince Music Theater. This week in the double take department, a student turned around and paused when she, too, recognized us from Weinberg’s documentary, which she had seen in her art history class. The ICA still rejects us (see story here) but we’re in art history! Click here for more information on Weinberg’s video.

One man paused for conversation and wound up accusing us of zealotry. He said how are you different than the people who hand out religious tracts. We conceded his point; art is our religion. (image is not our accuser but another passerby willing to pause for a moment’s conversation with the ever yacky Roberta and a piece of art)

We also got a visit from Jennifer Zarro, former curatorial assistant at Esther Klein Gallery, who came out specifically to get her free art. Zarro is an art history Ph.D. student at Rutgers and she enjoyed our contemporary art. We consider Zarro’s enthusiasm another thumbs up from art history. (image is Zarro in yellow hat.)

We’re supposed to go out again on Friday. We hear it might snow, so look on our website for notice of cancellation.