Kinda like a midnight showing of Rocky Horror...

i think xkenny13 is on to something... attention all farkettes, rehearsal for flash mob flashing is to be held at my house tonight

gee, might be about time for me to make another trip up to the cities.....

xkenny13:

That's what I thought this was just from the headline. Then I read the article. I sighed. I cried. I moved on.

...a bunch of morons gather in an assigned area and pretend to be performance artists"

Oh. I thought that was the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association...

/esoteric

Bose demonstration specialist Airika Sneve
Now which Wonka child was she?

This is really old. A cool idea, but it's one of those things that'll go out with a whimper. Like legwarmers.

The Mob sound about as bored as a friend of mine who visited every local church where "speaking in tongues" was a regular occurrance, just to see if each group sounded internally similar (they did).

But... I mean, why?

Same in this case, too.

"MOOooooo"

Isn't this a repeat? It seems even more stupid the second time I read about it.

On an unrelated note, check out the chick in the personals ad: "I've had it with this New York winter."

Winter in July? *head explodes*

That is just friggen brilliant! I love the idea.

Could you imagine like 100 people doing this at a mall acting like a train or something. That would be wierd and hilarious.

Performance art w/ pretentious art-types trying increase social awareness=old and busted

Flash mobbing with absolutely no redeaming values other than being spontaneous and funny=new hotness

Flash mobs could be considered part performance art, part guerrilla theater, part prank or part desperate cry for attention -or part realization that "I spent $100,000 and six years on a farking BFA!"

'Morons' and 'performance artists' are redundant.

You know, I just didn't get this when Chris was describing it to me and our wives over dinner a few weeks back, and I still don't get it.
But then, there are lots of things I don't get that plenty of people enjoy and lots of things I enjoy that plenty of people don't get. No one was hurt, nothing was stolen, and freedom of assembly is given a shot in the arm - You're free to assemble even when the point of your assembly is specifically not to have a point.

I read the headline wrong and thought it said mob flashing.

/disappointment....

Great. People trying to be spontaneous and unique ... according to someone else's script.

MacGabhain said

freedom of assembly is given a shot in the arm - You're free to assemble even when the point of your assembly is specifically not to have a point.

But freedom of assembly does not extend to private property. Stores, even big malls, are still private property. If mall staff asked them to leave, and the "mob" chose not to, they could be arrested and charged with trespassing. This would not violate any freedom to assemble they may feel entitled to.

Let's do it in mascot costumes! I ran around last weekend in a big bear costume. People don't know how to react to someone in a bear suit coming at them on a sidewalk; most pretend they can't see you.

You wanna impress me, break out a hundred-person conga-line in the middle of your local mall.

Or get enough people to quickly spell out something funny on the bottom floor of a two-story mall, and then have everyone up top get a chuckle out of it.

A bunch of un-creative morons tresspassing in the Bose store isn't art, and it's not funny, and it's not even original. The sears thing was mildly more creative and amusing, but only marginally at best.

That's the problem with morons today.. they don't even try anymore. Their idea of being wild-and-crazy is standing around in a store acting like morons. Oh yeah, wild. Did that take you all week to come up with?

"Ok. We're all going to go down to the school... pick out booths, and punch "straight ticket Libertarian" at the same time. On three: Think Free! One...two...three!"

Flash mobs could be considered part performance art, part guerrilla theater, part prank or part desperate cry for attention. Think of it as telephone-booth-stuffing for the 21st century.

My vote is: "desperate cry for attention"

I mean why else would anyone take the time to organize a gathering without some sort of tangible goal?

Stupid, nah. Amusing? probably. Kinda like whose line is it anyway, but not funny

ghey

when and where's the next....performance? gathering?

i've got a shiatload of napalm i can't sell on ebay. figure dumping it on these sheep is as good a use as any.

HA! F@gs!

I think this is hilarious! Maybe not for the store employees as in this case, but to be an innocent bystander in Sears or any other place and see this would be absolutely hilarious!

In an unrelated topic, I was once fooled by a "real" mannequin in Bon Marche. Thought for sure it was a typical mannequin...till she blinked and looked right at me. Needless to say, I jumped, said a cuss word, and then started laughing.

Funny stuff.

But freedom of assembly does not extend to private property.
Oh, absolutely. My point was that no one asked them to leave (which at least Chris would have done without question). No one overreacted and brought out the stun guns and clubs because a bunch of people happened to get together for 5 minutes. Given the tenor of our country over the last couple of years, I think that's a big step forward.

A bunch of un-creative morons tresspassing in the Bose store isn't art
It's only tresspassing if they are told to leave and refuse.

What has been happening in other places, however, is that the police have been working on finding out where these are going to be ahead of time and heading them off before anyone enters any private property, despite the fact that in the case of a store, unless a "no loitering" (or, perhaps, "no browsing" -- or "by appointment only") sign is posted or a person is asked to leave, it is assumed that the public is welcome to be in the store during business hours.
Now, the police could certainly have obtained the consent of the store owner to prevent access to their store, but I'm not at all certain the the NYPD would bother to go to the trouble of doing so.

Kiyote: you think the bear suit clears the sidewalk? try
the 2-man horse costume. on a tandem bike.

Why is it that for every new and unusual idea, there are hundreds of assholes who can't wait to shoot it down?

And why are they all on Fark these days?

I'm not sure why, But I'm strongly compelled to go to one of these things. Then maybe yell FIRE!

Man, and I thought comic book conventions were collections of vast amounts of losers with too much time on their hands. Driving out to the Mall of America so you can hang out with other artist losers? I thought an artist would never, ever be seen at any mall, period, much less the biggest one ever. Do they even sell all-black clothes there? In Minneapolis, no less, the capital of flyover territory.

In these days, when you have road rage and terrorism and guys beating up baby ducks, I think this sounds like a bit of harmless fun. I would have cracked up if I'd seen a whole group of people acting like robots for no reason. Truth be told, I probably would have thought it was some kind of promotional contest.

scrowdid:

It's not new. It's not unusual. It's just sad people filling an empty place in their lives with the internet. More art happens at a typical fark party than at one of these pitiable gatherings.

I agree. Stupid, but then again, they're just grabbing attention. No laws are really being broken yet, so what's the deal?
I'd like to see one, just to see the reaction they get.

Bummer- Whose Line Is It Anyway? isn't funny. Unless you mean the British version, then it's all right.

/Drew Carey needs to be chained to Mariah Carey and tossed off a boat

MacGabhain It's only tresspassing if they are told to leave and refuse.

Actually, it'd be interesting to hear a real legal opinion on this matter.

I mean, the people went into the store with the sole intent to disrupt/cause a scene. They had no intention of actually looking at stuff to buy it. Thus, they weren't customers in any sense of the word. It's generally assumed that people are welcome in stores because they're potential customers and stuff... but these guys weren't.

Now, from a "Prove it in court" standpoint, obviously the morons are covered in solid gold. Not even I would suggest trying to throw the law at them. I'm merely curious from a curiosity standpoint.


Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "Attention whore" style "performance art"... I live in the San Francisco bay area, anyone who's ever been to San Francisco itself knows exactly how amusing some of the attention whore artists can be. Last time I was in town, there was some guy standing in the middle of the sidewalk holding a big branch from a bush, kinda hiding behind it. He wasn't trying very hard to hide behind it, mind you. Anyone who actually looked would have clearly saw it's a guy holding a branch. But he just stood there. For minutes at a time. People would walk past and not pay attention. Every now and then, however, he'd lower the branch and go "BOO!" Jesus H Christ you've never seen a flock of tourists scream so much. It was classic. Hilarious. One asian-looking lady even passed out right on the spot. (I'm aware that this could be considered harassment, and that it's on questionable legal grounds.. but screw it, it was funny to watch.) Now *THAT*'s "performance art."

Why is it that for every new and unusual idea, there are hundreds of assholes who can't wait to shoot it down?

I like to think of it as performance art, a bash mob.

This is what happens when people go straight-edge. Sad really.

i find that pretty funny

Just to clarify, we were sitting in a bar across the street watching the guy. It's not like I was standing there staring at him like some kind of goddamn tourist. Incidentally, however, there were a LOT of tourists just standing there watching him. It made the surprise even better because anyone who was actually paying attention would have noticed the crowd of people watching the bush.

All the robot guys who paint themselves silver are cool, too. Even if they are freaking crazy.

2003-07-23 06:30:23 PM gromky
In Minneapolis, no less, the capital of flyover territory.

Um, this happened a couple of weeks ago in NYC.

This just points to the political apathy of so many Americans. They have an urge to participate in public demonstrations, but apparently it's distasteful for them to express any sort of political opinion or -- ghod forbid -- feel outraged or appalled at what their government is doing in their name... or isn't doing in their interests.

Just more evidence that this country is completely farked.

Frankly, something like that would really piss me off. If I'm going to the mall, I want to get in, buy my new jeans, and get out. The more people I have to navigate around, the more annoyed I get. Hundreds of people gathering at the mall to act like goddamn robots would be enough to really piss me off.
But I guess as long as they stay out of parking lots, streets, and anywhere else where I drive, I'll get over it.