Meow meow henrietta pussycat meow meow
Anyone can tell you that flash mobs have jumped the shark. Just as a flash mob is an ephemeral event, the time for flash mobs was ephemeral…
The problem, of course, is that flash mobs have become non-ephemeral. You go with a large gang of your nearest and hip-thinkest friends, you get your instructions and you go gape at the place where the mob will be held. Occasionally, you press a digital camera to your snotty nose and flash one off for the records. Afterwards, you hang around and mutually did-you-see for fifteen minutes.
For me (and of course, this is all one person’s opinion), I found the original charm in the sudden appearance of organized behaviour out of everyday disorder, and then the nonchalant dissolution. It was a community that didn’t know any of it’s members, but you knew you belonged, with a wink.
Last night, I was in the gang, but I felt isolated and depressed. I didn’t belong. I didn’t know why I was there. I didn’t know why I was in Paris or on this world. What does it all mean?
It was well organized, but the moment has passed. The instructions were:
“Chat-pot (literally ‘party of cats’, but phonetically the same as chapeau or ‘hat’)
Leave this area and go to Place Beaubourg (in front of the Centre Georges Pompidou, the museum of modern art). Quickly find the Cat painted on the ground and it’s borders, then distance yourself from the Cat. Stroll calmy in the square avoiding the Cat until 19h30.
At 19h30 exactly, put on your funny hat, approach the Cat quickly and stand on it’s lines (the black part of the design). Thus, the form of the Cat will be made of flashmobbers. Space yourself to completely cover the border, including the body and the tail.
At 19h31, meow for two minutes.
At 19h33, light your lighter and leave it lit for two minutes of silence.
At 19h35, a participant will cry ‘La nuit tous les chats sont gris!’ (‘All cats are grey at night!’). Echo this phrase as a group, extinguish your lighter and leave the square calmly.
Be careful with the flame and other’s clothing.
Thank you for your participation.
Keep this paper, you will find a useful password in it.
See you later! ParisMobs.”
GKarlsen
Holy Smokes!!!
It would seem the insidious forces of Melancholy have overrun Pernity these days young Skraba. Fear not, the year’s death spiral is almost complete and soon the new year will rise phoenix’esque from the ashes of the past, the days will get longer, you’ll find your homestead, and the equally inexorable forces of Hope and Optimism will smack you in the ass and say “Hello”
A cat-themed flash mob?? I would have been so there!
Perhaps flash mobs have run their course and we await the next phase of human history. Perhaps.
But sometimes in the dying phase of an artistic movement come the most profound works – and I think that this is such an event. A “party of cats” where one meows for 2 minutes? Chance and Slippers wish they had been there!
Meowy Christmas everyone!
Ass-smacking? I suppose you’re right, GK, there is hope after all!