Flash Mobs

There's a phenomenon that's kind of under the radar, at least it is for me.  I guess if you watch "Glee," which I don't, you've probably caught wind of it.  It's called a flash mob.

In Glee, in musicals, and now suddenly in real life, groups of people spontaneously come together to sing and dance.  While I love a good musical, I love good music with dancing.  The cause of that might be that I'm entirely too self-conscious to let myself go and dance, so I have to get the joy of that vicariously, watching others do it.  But I can sing (not as well as I used to so I keep it kinda low), and I can sing along with the music and maybe fantasize that I'm flying and floating along with all those beautiful people.

Flash mobs are just groups of people who come together on an agreed-on cue, do some performance of some kind, and disperse.  Boom, done, that's it.  No passing of hats, no playbills or announcements.  If you're there to catch it, good for you.  If not, look for it on YouTube.

Seriously.  Look for it on YouTube.  There are so many flash mobs, from small and relatively amateur all the way up to gigantic and very professional, with lots of cameras there to capture the moment and good recordings so it doesn't sound like it was recorded with a cell phone.

Norris Little Theatre did one for Independence Day.  It was a little too small, in my opinion, to have the impact that it could have had.  Too bad and I have no one to blame for it but myself - I played a part in the last play, and I survived a few Arthur Murray courses.  I could maybe have held it together long enough to do one little flash mob.

Then there's the gigantic flash mob that involved the Black Eyed Peas, Oprah, and one seemingly hyperactive fan at the front of the crowd.  There's Oprah filming the performance and the crowd and the one ecstatic fan.  Then suddenly more fans around her are dancing.  Then more.

And then, amazingly, the entire crowd is dancing.  They're all in on it.  The only one who didn't know what was coming, apparently, was Oprah.  A nice sendoff, really, for the lady who kept surprising her audience members with impressive gifts: here's one back for you.

Sweetie sometimes gets woken up in the middle of the night.  More often than not, it's the cat who sleeps curled up on my shoulder, stretching and walking across Sweetie's belly.  Nice kitty.  So there she was wide awake and cranky at the cat.  She stumbled downstairs and fired up Youtube.  What she found, she loved.

Here's a few Sweetie recommended to me:

Frozen Grand Central Station

Do Re Mi in Antwerp

James & Abby's Wedding  This one might be my favorite.

What's the point of a flash mob?  Well, it's fun.  And it sure looks like the people watching are having fun.  And who doesn't want to have fun?  If you have the option to give somebody a boost, isn't that a great thing to do?

Sure it is.

Okay, I guess I should participate in the next flash mob.