A little over three weeks from now, this town will be swamped. The question is, what can you do that will be fun, won't get you tased, and that won't get you put on the no-fly list? Answer: I don't know.
I asked myself that same question, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the advantages that come with this convention being based on home turf. So after the fold I'm going to bleg something from Denver people, and people who will be in Denver for the convention at least three days beforehand.
The rough idea, for one part of this effort, is to converge flashmob style on a crowded convention sidewalk somewhere and pull off something so Crowd Theory 3.0 that people are left there wondering what the hell just happened... something like, I don't know, this:
But with a different song, and different singers, and a different location, and different camera angles, and etc... Observe the crowd reaction (and don't be 'The Crossword Guy').
Wikipedia has this to say about the use of the term flashmob:
The first recorded use of the term flash mob was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik's event.[2][4][5] The term was inspired by the earlier term smart mob.[4]
Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English defines flash mob as "a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse."[6] This definition is consistent with the original use of the term; however, both news media and promoters have subsequently used the term to refer to any form of smart mob, including political protests;[7] a collaborative Internet denial of service attack;[8] a collaborative supercomputing demonstration;[9] and promotional appearances by a pop musician.[10] The press has also used the term flash mob to refer a practice being used in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store at the same time in order to drive a collective bargain with the store owner.[11]
But of course, here's an easier way to think about the term flashmob.
Here's another.
Anyway, I should mention I'm trying to organize a flashmob during the convention. With every single thing legal and good.
Say you want to carry out some lawful guerrilla shit during the convention but can't sing for shit? Don't let that get in the way. Do something else. Worse comes to worst, you can still play in the binoculars only soccer match I was planning for the library grounds where all player's jerseys are stamped on the back with names of embattled Republican Senate incumbents. You wouldn't need to sing to play there...
Like this, only in the park by the library off Colfax:
Anyway, I'll put out a more detailed call for help later. This is just a prep post... Point is, and I apologize for even bringing it up, that it would be a hell of a time to mess around prepping for the street in Denver.