Friday, July 25, 2003

 
MOB #5.
External link:

I went to Mob #5 this afternoon. After getting to the appropriate bar for my birthday, I received this information, which included a small map of the area:

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*** MOB #5 ***

THE SITE:

Central Park -- near 81st & Central Park West. Enter between 80th and 81st, across from the museum [of Natural History]. Make your first hard left, merge with another path, then turn left again. Walk to the right in front of the ridge and face CPW [Central Park West].

START TIME: 7:18. DURATION: 8 minutes. Disperse at 7:26: no one should remain at the mob site after 7:28.

Stand still and stare straight forward. For the first three minutes, make as little noise as possible. If you can make a realistic bird call, you may occasionally do so.

By 7:21, you may all make bird calls, unrealistic or no.

By 7:23, you may also mumble, "bird noise."

By 7:25, you may also call out, "Nature here! Come get some nature!" to passersby.

At 7:26, chant "Na-ture" for 20 seconds; cheer, and disperse.

Please do not take photographs at the mob site until 7:23.

Please do not interview anyone at the mob site until 7:26.

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So, that sounds pretty clever on paper, I think, right? But in practice, it was a little disappointing, I thought. In the first place, there were very few passersby, and the vast majority of people on the street were filming the mob, which was pretty awkward and silly (but not in a good way), I thought. In the second place, people did not follow the directions very well, and the mob was not in synch, and almost all of the stuff we'd been instructed to do from 7:23 to 7:26 got skipped. I guess that's no big deal, and it is, after all, the raison d'être of a mob to be unruly. But, I don't know. It felt a little hollow for things not to go off as planned, in front of almost no audience. It felt a little like the joke was on us, instead of on them.

I have an audio recording of the event, which I will upload as soon as possible. I made it using my video camera, with the lens cap on, in a bag, and I'm not 100% sure how to separate the audio from that, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Check my more recent entries (above) to see if I have.

This is The Official Record. 12:40 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/07/mob-5.html

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