SYDMOB #4 Saturday, 4th October 2003 - Approx participant count: 170

Emailed Instructions

SYDMOB #4

On the morning of Saturday 4th October, you should have already synchronized your watch to the time of the telstra clock available by calling 1194

By 11:40am you should be in the inner city. Go to Haymarket (China Town) and locate the "Golden Tree" on the corner of Sussex St and Haymarket St

http://www.whereis.com/search/email_map_redirect.jhtml?id=283862

(The Mob Rep will be present at this location only between 11:50am and 12:25am)

Within that vicinity locate the Mob Rep wearing a backwards black baseball cap & sunglasses. Once found, say this phrase "Monkey See?", you will then receive your instructions.

**NOTE: It is vital that EVERYONE intending to take part in this event approaches the Mob Rep to receive their OWN SET of instructions

Move away, read it, then follow them.

Script Instructions (Black Beanie Mob)

SYDMOB #4

SYDMOB #4 (black beanie mob)

Mob Length: ??? (converge at 12:35pm, disperse when signalled)
Mob site: Dixon Street Mall, China Town

By 12:30 you should be casually mingling around the gate with the lion statues next to the Covent Garden Bar. Don't bunch up too close and be sure not to block the mall.

12:35pm - A Mob Rep wearing a black beanie should now be walking through the gate into the Dixon Street Mall. Fall in behind, single file. Allow some room between yourself and other mobbers.

*Monkey see ? Monkey do ! Follow the Mob Rep, all actions carried out by the Mob Rep must also be carried out by you. If you cannot see the Mob Rep, follow the actions of the mobbers you can see in front - You should also feel free to vocally improvise if you so wish (please refrain from profanity)

When the mob rep turns & removes the beanie, DISPERSE!

No one should be left at the site. Go about your normal business.
Once read and memorised, hide this slip from view. Do not throw into a public bin.

Script Instructions (Grey Beanie Mob)

SYDMOB #4

SYDMOB #4 (grey beanie mob)

Mob Length: ??? (converge at 12:35pm, disperse when signalled)
Mob site: Dixon Street Mall, China Town

By 12:30 you should be casually mingling around the Chinese Pergola, located at the top of the Dixon Street Mall. Don't bunch up too close and be sure not to block the mall.

12:35pm - A Mob Rep wearing a grey beanie should now be walking past the pergola into the Dixon Street Mall. Fall in behind, single file. Allow some room between yourself and other mobbers

*Monkey see ? Monkey do ! Follow the Mob Rep, all actions carried out by the Mob Rep must also be carried out by you. If you cannot see the Mob Rep, follow the actions of the mobbers you can see in front - You should also feel free to vocally improvise if you so wish (please refrain from profanity)

When the mob rep turns & removes the beanie, DISPERSE!

No one should be left at the site. Go about your normal business.
Once read and memorised, hide this slip from view. Do not throw into a public bin.

 

We tried something very different in this event, and we're very happy to say it definitely came through with flying colours. The first and most important aspect we changed from the previous events was to try to be more spontaneous ,rather then have a scripted event which the mobbers would just follow. We picked the location, and gave the basic outline (which instructed the mobbers to follow and perform every action that their designated Mob Rep does), but as for the actual actions performed, those were thought about and done 'on the fly'

Then of course is the whole 'roving mob' approach we took rather then a stationary one. Both mobs completed 2 laps of the Dixon Street Mall, then we decided heading around the block to meet back at the bottom would be a good idea. So with a quick doe-see-doe between the two Mob Reps, off they went coming back to the eventual disperse (this time we thought all the mobbers well and truly deserved a big round of applause before hand though)

What we hadn't counted on though was the very slim chance of another individual walking up through Dixon Street Mall at 12:33 wearing a black beanie, thus giving all the Black Beanie Mobbers a false (yet very hilarious) start. I'll let a fellow mobber explain it:

In case people were a bit confused about what happened at the black beanie end, we had a bit of a false start... A young guy wearing a black beanie just happened to pass through the Chinatown gates just before the appointed time and a whole horde of mobbers started to follow him in single file... The poor guy and his friends were getting VERY VERY confused about all these people following them and kept turning around (upon which the mobbers also turned around)... Eventually someone near the front asked him if we was the mob-rep and the quizzical look on his face said it all... The black mob then returned to the starting point... I explained what had happened to the guy and he thought it was hilarious... No doubt he'll be along for future mobs...

(Photos of the 'False Start of the Black Beanie Mob' can be seen here plus other shots taken of the event. Courtesy of John Peake)

Then also take into account the chances of a busker wearing a gorilla suit standing under a tree in the mall as well, giving us ample usage of our somewhat themed "monkey see - monkey do' event! All these things managed to make this event very very funny indeed. Not only did we once again get a lot more people attending then we'd thought we'd actually get (In fact, we were having doubts about holding the event over the long weekend due to the fact that a lot of people may not actually be around for it.. we were certainly wrong about that!), but we also managed to once again push up the benchmark.

Everyone that attended did an fantastic job of keeping up with the general insanity of the event and left with a big wide grin on their face. We too left with grins on our faces (also sweat as well.. that gave us all one hell of a workout!) So to all the mobbers that once again proved all the wowsers wrong.. EEE-EEE! OOOH-OOOH !

MOB IMAGES

Below is a collection of images taken at the event (Thank you very much to Camilla, John Peake, & Jenn )

Dixon Street Mall, ChinaTown - Black Beanie Mob end

Grey Beanie Mob end

This Mob Rep is looking somewhat confused...

..but not near as confused as this guy was.

Grey Beanie Mob comes out with style

Mobbin' Chimps!

Pleased to meet you..

..as are the 50 people behind me.

Pleased to meet you too.

Thats a long line of friendly mobbers

Happy mobbers!

Laughing mobbers!

VIDEO FOOTAGE (and other media)

Of course the best way to appreciate how much fun an event was, was to actually have been there. If you couldn't be there then theres always the best next thing - video footage. With events like this one, sometimes photos just can't do it enough justice (though they do manage to catch some pretty cool moments you'd miss on film.. but anyway) Below are 3 avi files which follow the 'Grey Beanie Mob' and eventually end with the 'Black Beanie Mob', with both mobs meeting for the disperse. Watch for the busker in the gorilla suit and the look on the Black Beanie Mob Reps face when he rounds the corner for the disperse to find the Grey Mob is nowhere in sight. (Note: No, we didn't throw in music into the third file, thats a busker :P He was rewarded with applause for his great sense of timing though!)

These files require that you have the latest DivX Codec, available here

sydmob4_1.avi 6.3MB
sydmob4_2.avi 3.3MB
sydmob4_3.avi 3.6MB

For those of you on broadband connections, here are the higher quality files of the same footage:

mob4_1.MPG 49MB
mob4_2.MPG 23MB
mob4_3.MPG 34MB

As always, any other footage or photos people wish to contribute is more then welcome. Thanks to all who came out to today's event, it was amazing to see such a great turnout - We promise that #5 will be as just as much fun ((: