Have you heard?! I'm having a party to celebrate eleven crazy months and kicking off the home stretch of My Million Dollar Year, where you can see the project up close and personal, inspect artifacts, see installations of stuff I've made with artifacts, and - this is the best part - see a screening of some of the best moments so far on camera! The party is also featuring a Q&A with me after the screening, and a performance by Toronto's MC Sean Ward!
It's all taking place at Cinecycle, 129 Spadina Ave (down the alley between Richmond and Adelaide), on DECEMBER 1st. Doors are at 8pm. Admission is $10.
Press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2005
CONTACT: press@mymilliondollaryear.net
MY MILLION DOLLAR YEAR: A LOOK AT ELEVEN MONTHS OF THE PURSUIT OF A MILLION BUCKS
MY MILLION DOLLAR YEAR is entering its final grand month with a party and event at CINECYCLE on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1st at 8pm!
Brainchild of Toronto media and performance artist Astrid Bin, MY MILLION DOLLAR YEAR is a year-long exploration of money, what it is, and what it takes to make some. Since January 1st Astrid Bin has been pursuing every avenue of money making she can think of - everything from corporate sponsorship to offering to eat things on a dare - to get close to what everyone says is the impossible goal of a million dollars in 365 days. Gathering international press, a huge online following and mountains of hate mail, she has documented the entire exhilirating, hilarious, heartbreaking, fantastic, magical process online at www.mymilliondollaryear.net, as well as on camera.
Astrid is celebrating eleven months and is kicking off the twelfth with an event that shows the process so far up close and personal, with installations of things she's gathered through this process (such as dozens of losing lottery tickets), evidence of adventures she's had (such as artifacts and pictures from a month-long tour of the USA), printed documentation (such as her extensive blog, personal journal, and hate mail received from around the world), with a party to ring in the final month of this extraordinary project.
The event features a special performance by Toronto's own MC Sean Ward, and culminates in a screening of selected footage from the year so far!
Admission is $10 at the door. For more information, email press@mymilliondollaryear.net.
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I was lucky enough to be featured on ShittyBlogs.com! Only a 3.5 shittiness rating?! I'm shocked!
While in Athens, GA (a fantastic place by the way, you should go tomorrow) I met with a reporter from the Athens Banner-Herald who was not only extremely cool and good to chat with, but also gave me a walking tour of the downtown. They ran the article the week after I left town.
Creative Loafing in Atlanta was looking for someone to kick off their Is It Art? feature the week I was in Athens on My Million Dollar Road Trip. After getting lost in Atlanta where every single street is named Peachtree and they all lead to CNN, I met with them and told them what I was doing. They ran the story the following week.
Was on the Dudley and Bob show in Austin, TX, on KLBJ FM, right before hitting the road for the long drive to Vegas.
I was on the John DeBella Show in Philly today. John has, quite possibly, the best moustache I have ever seen.
Dose Magazine, a free daily paper in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa did a story on me today!
I was on CityTV's Breakfast Television today! Great interview and I impressed them with my mad Etch-A-Sketch skillz.
Guess who was MSN.ca's Site of the Day today!
Astrid on the Mighty Morning Show with Dicky Barrett, on Indie 103 in Los Angeles!
Radio appearance! Dicky is a fun guy. I was on right before - get this - DONNY OSMOND. Hilarious!
Astrid on the CBC!
My Million Dollar Year was featured on CBC's The Hour, with George Stroumboulopoulos (only in Canada would a celebrity have a name so problematic to spell).
Second press release:
MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: press@mymilliondollaryear.netTORONTO ARTIST AND ENTREPRENEUR SENDS HER REGRETS TO DONALD TRUMP
TORONTO, CANADA - Artist and entrepreneur Astrid Bin sent her regrets to Mr. Donald Trump and his new wife Melania Knauss this morning for missing their wedding.
"Administering www.mymilliondollaryear.net (which has gotten nearly 100,000 hits so far), corresponding with people interested in my project, perfecting my money-making strategies, and continuing the documentation of making million dollars in 2005 has kept me awfully busy. Unfortunately, my work - as well as the lack of an invitiation - made getting down to Palm Beach this weekend just impossible. I sent them a lovely card. I hope they like it."
Astrid's current project, My Million Dollar Year, is a project in which she makes a million dollars in 2005 and documents the entire process online at www.mymilliondollaryear.net, as well as on camera. She will be compiling the footage into a documentary entitled "My Million Dollar Year: The Art of Making A Fortune" in 2006.
The project was inspired by debt, and a desire to change. "At the end of 2004, I was forty thousand dollars in debt from my education and barely able to keep ahead of debt payments and expenses," remembers Bin. "I didn't see a way out. I decided that I needed to change my life and do something drastic. Something like making a million dollars in a year. I want to change my lives and change the lives of others with this project - if I can prove that I can change my life with only an idea and conviction, what else is possible?"
The site launched on January 1, 2005 and has already gotten nearly 100,000 hits. It allows viewers to watch the project as it progresses through a weblog, and allows the audience to participate in the project by contributing directly, interacting with Astrid, and buying items that are part of the story (you can buy a copy of a hate letter she has received, or an object that has had a role in this developing story - her dental X-ray that indicated the need for a root canal, for instance). A myriad of objects with the My Million Dollar Year logo are also for sale, such as hats, shirts, buttons, and notebooks.
"As someone who's made himself famous by being a relentless self-promoter, I hope Mr. Trump understands that I was busy this weekend," Bin says. "He more than anyone knows that the first million is the hardest."
You can watch the ongoing story at www.mymilliondollaryear.net.
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Reprint of article below.
If I had a million dollars ... I wouldn't be in Astrid's Bin debt situation
RAJU MUDHAR
TORONTO STAR
She wants you to consider it an artistic way of making money.
Astrid Bin graduated from art school in the same position as many new grads: $40,000 in debt with little prospect of paying it off. In December, under a bridge near her Parkdale apartment, she broke down in tears because she just couldn't deal with it any more. The kicker was realizing she couldn't afford to heat her apartment for the third winter in a row ...
First press release:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: press@mymilliondollaryear.net
TORONTO ARTIST AND ENTREPRENEUR CLAIMS MAKING A MILLION DOLLARS CAN'T BE ALL THAT HARD
"I'll show them what one screwball can do!" -- Marge Simpson
TORONTO, CANADA - What do you get when you combine an artist, an entrepreneur, thousands of dollars of debt?
Astrid Bin is a 25 year old from Toronto who is also in excess of forty thousand dollars in debt, largely from her education. Like many other students, upon graduating, she had no job prospects that would make enough to manage debt and keep her above the poverty line. Since graduation, she started a business, which doesn't afford her a decent standard of living. "I was in tears walking home in December because it was freezing and I knew I couldn't afford to turn on the heat in my Parkdale apartment," remembers Astrid. "At that moment I decided that this called for something drastic, something like making a million dollars in a year."
My Million Dollar Year is a project that runs from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005, in which Astrid makes a million dollars and documents all the events that lead her to it, through video and an extensive interactive website. The video will track her progress and personal triumphs and crises, which Astrid plans to release in 2006 as a documentary by the same name.
So where's the money going to come from? "I'm going to leave some of it up to chance; I'm going to play the same six lottery numbers every week, for example. I'm also going to sell all the ephemera associated with this project - my bank statements, credit statements, losing lottery tickets, tshirts, and so on. I'm curious to see how these things will gain value the more attention the project gets."
On it, users will be able to read the daily logs of Astrid's experience, her successes and failures, buy artifacts of the project (such as one of twelve bank statements, losing lottery tickets, etc), and follow this unique and compelling project carried out completely in the public eye.
A lot of people are asking what would possess someone to carry this out. Besides desperation and being profoundly fed up, Astrid gleans a lot of inspiration from reality TV. "I feel reality TV is totally contrived, the element of human struggle is mostly lost in people who are living in mansions for the duration of the show and have nothing real at stake. My Million Dollar Year is compelling because it's a task people are telling me is impossible, that was born out of a desperate situation, and that I know is going to be difficult, and there's something very real at stake: my future and my sanity, for example. I am carrying out a common and usually private struggle honestly, openly and completely for public consumption."
Is she out of her mind? Maybe. Is this a ridiculous prospect? Most definitely. Will she succeed or fail? We're all stuck watching.
Astrid Bin is available for interview. For more information, visit www.mymilliondollaryear.net.
"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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