cheesebikini?

UPDATE: Our Senior Manhattan Correspondent David Danzig made a video of the mob. It’s a 5.5 Megabyte download; get it here. David badly needs help serving up the video. If you have a little extra bandwidth and server space and you wouldn’t mind mirroring the file, please contact David (david [at] danzig.com).

The fourth New York City flash mob headed to a hoity-toity fancy-pants SoHo shoe store, where participants pretended they were on a bus tour from Maryland, and acted excited yet bewildered about the whole thing.

For more great photos, visit Satan’s Laundromat and moistandtasty.com and Happy Robot. For more details about this flash mob, see David Danzig’s description. Bravo, New York.

Were you there? Post links to your coverage in the comments below.

At least 150 flash mobbers spun in circles this evening while crossing busy Market Street in San Francisco. They spun and crossed over and over again, back and forth, until the flash mob suddenly disappeared, 10 minutes after it began.

More photos here. Post links to your coverage in the comments below!

Someone has distributed an invitation to what will be the first San Francisco flash mob; I’ve pasted it below as it was e-mailed to me.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After the flash mob, please don’t head directly to the BART (subway) station. Part of a flash mob’s beauty is that it dissolves immediately; everyone heads off in different directions, leaving onlookers completely confused. Because this event will take place near a BART stop in an area with almost no available parking, most participants will arrive by BART and will tend to leave by BART. But if everyone heads to the Powell BART station at once, the mob will stay together, destroying that tasty mob-disappearance effect. So if you’re taking part, at 6:37 depart in a direction OTHER THAN towards the BART. Just stroll up to Chinatown, or go grab a beer at your favorite Tenderloin bar, or just take a walk around the block.

(If you’re wondering what a flash mob is, see this entry for an explanation.)
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Trusted sources in Minnesota slipped cheesebikini an invitation to the first Minneapolis flash mob, and now you’re invited too. It’s scheduled to begin next Tuesday, July 22 at 6:25 pm Central Standard Time. And it looks like it will happen in the infamous Mall of America. I’ve pasted the announcement below; if you attend, please send us links to your photos and other coverage.

PLEASE NOTE: Don’t be a sucker! Large corporations might try to organize their own flash mobs to increase consumption of their goods and services. Keep this in mind during any flash mob. If you participate in this event, please don’t purchase a single item within the Mall of America during the flash mob, or while traveling to or from the event. If we all adopt this policy it will prevent transformation of the flash mob movement into a series of crass corporate marketing ploys. (The organizers of the Minnesota flash mob emphasize they are not affiliated with the Mall and do not intend this to be an event supporting the Mall; nonetheless this is a good policy to keep in mind.)

Rumor has it that the first San Francisco flash mob will happen this Wednesday night, July 16th, although the invitation has not yet been distributed. Stay tuned. (That’s right, it’s scheduled to take place on the same night as the next New York city flash mob.)

(If you’re wondering what a flash mob is, see this entry for an explanation.)
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A fourth flash mob is scheduled to begin in New York City at 7:18 pm next Wednesday, July 16th. I’ve pasted the event announcement below, as it was e-mailed to cheesebikini. (Thanks for the tip, anonymous tipster.)

(If you’re wondering what a flash mob is, here’s an explanation.)
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Two new flash mob announcement lists and discussion forums have emerged.

The “dutchessmob” Yahoo! Group was created by folks in Dutchess County, New York, who are planning a flash mob out there.

The “flashmobs” Yahoo! Group seems to cover flash mobs worldwide.

The Manhattan flash mobs keep growing. Above are photos from the third flash mob held in New York, courtesy of fredhoysted.com (top photo) and satanslaundromat.com (bottom photo). You’ll find more photos at Satan’s Laundromat.

It seems that between 200 and 500 people (reports vary) gathered along the city-block-sized railing above the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central Station, then at a given moment they all engaged in 15 seconds of raucous and unexplained applause, before filing out again.

Attendees were instructed to bring dollar bills too for some reason, but they weren’t used. (There were three terrorism scares reported earlier today in New York City; perhaps that’s why the dollar-bill plan was nixed.) Thanks to fredhoysted.com, to satanslaundromat.com, and to our Chief Manhattan Correspondent David Danzig for early coverage.

UPDATE: Jane has more photos at moistandtasty.com.

Do you have photos from the event? How about video or audio? Please link to your coverage in the comments below.

(For background information, see the first flash mob post.)
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NEW YORK MOB REMINDER: The next big New York City Flash Mob will take place tonight at 7:04 pm — details here. If you’d like me to post your photos and coverage (or links to them), send them to (sean[at]cheesebikini.com) or post them in the comments below.

Also, the Minneapolis Mob group is putting together plans for their first flash mob to take place on July 22, and they’ve built a Yahoo! groups site to manage the madness. Minneapolitans can find details at their FAQ page.

Meanwhile, we’re very slowly getting our mobs together in San Francisco. Folks have created at least two separate mailing lists (1, 2) for people interested in San Francisco activities along these lines. I’m plugged in to both mailing lists and will post news of any event announcements on cheesebikini.com as soon as I receive them.

Plans for two upcoming flash mobs have been announced.

Wake up, London, Tokyo and San Francisco. New York already scooped you on this; will you let Minneapolis beat you to the punch?

A group in Minneapolis is planning that city’s first flash mob ever, to take place July 22 at 6:25 pm. For more details visit the new Minneapolis mob homepage. (Thanks for the tip, Minneapolis Mob.)

New Yorkers are planning a third Gotham flash mob to begin July 2 at 7:04 pm; I’ve pasted the event announcement below, as it was e-mailed to cheesebikini. (Thanks for the tip, MOB project.)

Mob safely.

(If you’re wondering what a flash mob is, see this entry for an explanation.)
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Swarms of people dressed as Agent Smith converged in Tokyo and Osaka this week, following the Japan premiere of “The Matrix: Reloaded.” (The movie features hundreds of clones of the character Agent Smith.)

They even reenacted fight scenes from the movie. This looks almost as scary as a Star Wars opening night in Silicon Valley.

Photo courtesy of rottentomatoes.com, where you’ll find more photos and video clips. Thanks to chanpon.org for the tip.

UPDATE: Xaky from rotten tomatoes reports that a new, bigger Matrix mob event will take place in Tokyo Sunday, June 29. If you want to participate, see details here.