23 July 2009

Pirate Flashmob

| Louise Curtis
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Canberra author Louise Curtis is creating a twitter “novel”, and launching it with a pirate flashmob at Lyneham shops on Saturday 1 August from 2:00pm. This is a free family event.

Normal-looking crowds will gather outside Tilleys and the second-hand bookshop, then at 2:00pm pirate hats, beards, eyepatches, fake rum and scars will spontaneously appear – along with pirate talk, free lollies, and free short-short stories. At 2:30pm all the pirates will spontaneously vanish, leaving an ordinary group of people and their suspiciously-bulging bags.

Information on the flashmob and Louise Curtis’s twitter tale can be found online at twittertales.wordpress.com or call Louise on 0402 548 978.

[ED – When zeitgeists collide]

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Holden Caulfield said :

Isn’t talk like a Pirate Day at the end of August (or sometime thereafter)?

yarr, it be september 19th 🙂

Louise Curtis7:48 pm 23 Jul 09

A flashmob is a group of ordinary-looking people who (prepared in advance) suddenly act oddly all at once in a public place (mystifying all around them). Very shortly afterwards – often only a few minutes later – they stop doing whatever it is and look and act completely normal again.

This flashmob is unusual because it’s openly publicised (usually flashmobs are advertised via social networks, so the effect is more unexpected), and is advertising an upcoming twitter story. Purists – as you can see above – object to the flashmob having a purpose other than to confuse/amuse.

To follow the tale/flashmob developments (the story begins August 1, hence the flashmob that day), join twitter via http://twitter.com/Louise_Curtis_

Mike Bessenger said :

Whats a flash mob?

Google it.

something spencer tunnick photographs?

Mike Bessenger2:53 pm 23 Jul 09

Whats a flash mob?

6 years too late.

so, this being widely (everyone does read RA, don’t they?) advertised, will it be hijacked by a rogue ninja group? that ought to be a hoot…

It sounds like a lot of fun to me.

Thoroughly Smashed11:32 am 23 Jul 09

People still do flashmobs?

I’m keen but not with fake rum.

screaming banshee said :

I feel for the parents of the kids who will probably be quite upset when all of a sudden the fun they were having is taken away from them as people pack up and leave without notice.

A bit cruel really.

Maybe it’s just me but I’m not sure too many kids congreagate at Tilly’s on a Saturday (do they?). Those littlies that are likley to be there this weekend will be there having seen this or other similar adverts.

Good luck to the organisers though, hope you enjoy the day and acheive what you’re trying to do.

johnboy said :

Well, sadly not EVERYONE in Canberra reads riotact yet.

I know not everyone listens to ABC Canberra, but Louise was on there spruiking yesterday.

johnboy said :

Well, sadly not EVERYONE in Canberra reads riotact yet.

Well that can’t be right, would it?!

screaming banshee10:36 am 23 Jul 09

I feel for the parents of the kids who will probably be quite upset when all of a sudden the fun they were having is taken away from them as people pack up and leave without notice.

A bit cruel really.

Holden Caulfield10:24 am 23 Jul 09

Isn’t talk like a Pirate Day at the end of August (or sometime thereafter)?

Louise Curtis9:57 am 23 Jul 09

Yep. The flashmob is merely a quasi-mob, mainly because
a) I can’t keep a straight face when doing something truly obscure in public.
b) There will be children (see point (a)).
c) As if pirates will follow rules anyway.
d) I’ve never been part of a flashmob, and a quasi-flashmob is better than no flashmob at all.

Flashmobs should be artsy, even eerie. This will be weird (a degree toward eerie) but mostly fun.

I’ll search for a Neuraliser on ebay immediately.

Handily, advertising (particularly on community notice boards) doesn’t reach the whole world. So there’s guaranteed to be a few mundanes wondering what on earth is going on.

Well, sadly not EVERYONE in Canberra reads riotact yet.

Screaming banshee is right — publicising a ‘flashmob’ (which is so 2003, anyway) means it’s not actually a flashmob, just a publicity stunt.

Flashmob fail.

DarkLadyWolfMother9:43 am 23 Jul 09

Obviously just before 2pm, they’ll get out the Neuraliser and people will forget what’s about to happen.

Exactly screaming banshee, what’s the point in them, if everyone there knows what is going on?

screaming banshee9:12 am 23 Jul 09

Isn’t the point of a flashmob that only the mob know about it and everyone else wonders what the hell is going on.

Advertising kind of defeats that.

Deadmandrinking9:07 am 23 Jul 09

Twitter-novels are the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard. What fun is it going to be if it’s split up into a 160 characters?

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