Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Austin! After a short hiatus, come 2010, Flash Mob Austin will be back and better than before. Instead of doing a mission every month, we're going to focus on planning the largest, most organized missions we can once every season. In our off months, we encourage you to utilize our Ning forum to participate in and organize smaller, more localized flash mobs.

We will have a planning meeting this Saturday, January 9th TIME AND DATE TBA (postponed due to the inclement weather) at Shipe Park to talk about some of the upcoming missions. Ideas on the docket include an MP3 experiment, a not-Valentines Day event, and some outdoor summer street theatre. We hope to see you there!

To stay connected, join our Improv Everywhere forum, friend us on Facebook, and stalk us on Twitter.

Photo of Agent Adams & Agent Filkins ©Jon Bolden.

Mission Report: Dignitary Dinner Out

Dignitary Dinner Out – Mission Report

Saturday October 3^rd, 2009

By Agent Stall

"Dignitary Dinner Out took place on a wet and soggy Saturday in downtown Austin near the University of Texas campus. Agents met at the TCBY on MLK for their pre-meeting briefing. After donning nametags with their chosen (silly) titles they made their way a block up the street to the Wendy’s at the corner of MLK and Guadalupe.

Meanwhile, at Wendy’s…

Agent Stall and Agent Petrick had arranged the small dining room tables into a long conference-like table complete with tablecloths and matching napkins and plastic utensils for the dignitaries. At this point the Wendy’s staff began to get curious as to why a man in a 3-piece suit and a woman dressed as a waitress were converting their dining room into (something resembling) a formal dining hall. We decided not to reveal our ploy just yet so we just told them that “We’ll be having a large group coming in a few minutes” so they could prepare the kitchen to receive the royal party.

After preparations were complete the agents began arriving. Upon entering the restaurant Agent Stall, acting as maître d’, announced their name and title loudly for the whole restaurant to hear. They were then seated at the long table by Agent Petrick to await the beginning of the meal. As the guests continued to enter, the Wendy’s staff began applauding after each guest came in and sometimes repeated the guest’s names.

After all were seated Agent Stall, Tons0fun, and Agent Petrick took everyone’s order, placed the order at the front counter, and brought out the food on a “crystal” (aka plastic) platter. Hilariously, the staff played along and took particular care to organize the food on the tray for the servers to carry out.

While Stall, Tons0fun, and Petrick were hustling and bustling, the dignitaries engaged in cultural discussions led by Agent Filkins about their respective imaginary homelands.

After the meal each of the dignitaries passed in front of the counter to thank and bid farewell to the staff in the tradition of their homeland.

All told about 25 dignitaries attended the mission, making the total headcount 27. I felt this was a very successful mission and had an absolute blast doing it. I want to express my undying gratitude to the lovely and talented Agent Petrick for her invaluable assistance in executing the mission. Oh, and thanks to Agent Tons0fun for the jumping in at the last second to help serve the unexpectedly large crowd. Of course, I’ve been known to say that I left my heart in Indiana and that I can never come up with a witty phrase involving the word “Filkins”… but I just wanna say that y’all rock too!"

Thanks Agent Stall, you did a fantastic job as Lead Agent and we had so much fun!

Oct. 3 : Dignitary Dinner Out

Not going to ACL on Saturday? Enjoy a fancy dinner, Flash Mob Austin style on Saturday, October 3rd:
Agent Smith will be the lead on this mission. He has written the following instructions:
Come dressed up in fancy clothes, you will be pretending to be a foreign dignitary. Think of a silly name/title.
Examples:
"Sir Trouser, Duke of Pants"
"Lord Monty, Minister of Mice"
"Mrs. Abernathy, Ambassador to Mordor"
"Councilor Tekli, Jedi Foreign Relations"
"Mr. Stynk of Scandinavia, Master of Cheese"
WHATEVER.

• Pre-meeting @ TCBY area ( 303 W. MLK between Guadalupe and Lavaca). You'll receive a blank name tag so you can write your title on it.
• The maître d (Agent Smith) will go ahead to an undisclosed fast food restaurant, set up tablecloths, candles, etc
• The servers (who will be pre-selected Point Agents) will escort you to the undisclosed fast food restaurant, acting as tour guides (note: **This gives us exposure to people on the street, people driving by**)
• When you arrive, the maître d will announce your name to the restaurant. You'll be escorted to tables.
• Servers will take orders, go to counter to place them. Note: This is probably where the employees/managers will be like "What's going on??" THIS is the reason for the back story.
• The servers will present the food to you when it comes out. You will leave after eating, and optionally, meet back up at the TCBY for the post-mission brief.

The reason behind the fabricated back story is because I was picturing what would happen if I was asked 'What is going on?' since the servers and I would undoubtedly be asked. This would make the whole kitchen at the fast food restaurant be like "Ooh coooooool! We're serving foreign dignitaries!"

What you agents are responsible for:
-Wearing fancy evening clothes, as formal as possible
-Bringing cash for dinner. When we hold missions within a business we always want to leave them with a feeling of "Wow, I'm glad they chose our location!" and increase their revenue to additionally foster feelings of goodwill, so make sure you bring even just a couple bucks to get something off the Dollar Menu!
-Be on time and of course, bring a friend along! This mission can be pulled off with as few as 10 agents, but would be SO much more effective if we have 25.

When and where: October 3rd, 5:30pm meet at TCBY at 303 W. MLK between Guadalupe and Lavaca.
RSVP via Facebook, you posh little darlings.

2nd Annual Bat Bridge Pillow Fiiight: Mission Report!

Photo credit: Chris Carley

WE DID IT! We had a great time out on the hillside Saturday night with all of you, thanks so much for coming out! WOOT. Pillow fights are the best! As mission leader, sans our fabulous, fearless Agent Adams (sad face for weddings that take people out of town), I was surprised once again at just how smoothly everything seemed to go. There were a couple hitches, and they are lessons we'll learn from, as we do each and every mission as an experience, but overall I would say this was a roaring success. Following my standard love of bullet point messages, I'll lay out some high (and low) lights of the mission from my perspective, please add your own in a comment:

• Upon arriving for the pre-mission meeting I was shocked to see not the typical 5 people gather, but grow to over 25 of us shoved in Dominican Joe's upper seating area! It was wonderful to see so many new faces! In fact, I was the only one of those present who had actually been at the very first FMA mission the previous year.
• Once we got to the hillside we all made sure those of us in on the initial start group could see each other, and then simply sat and watched the sunset. It was really beautiful too, I should go down there more often just for that! It was kind of ironic because I ended up sitting directly behind Agent R.D. and his daughter, who won the pillow fight last year.
• Agent Laney came up to Agent Kiley and greeted her with a friendly pillow whack which was returned, and then her two friends started hitting the family members sitting on the ground, and I was sitting nearby in my pink shirt hoping against all hope that in that small group (which was garnering a LOT of attention) they would remember to hit me, thus giving me a legit reason to jump up with my "OH MY GOSH! PILLOW FIIIIIGHT!!!" exclamation. I was also tensing as I wished no one else would prematurely start hitting their friends before I could yell. No one did, and I was so relieved. All went on cue, which felt really great! Way to restrain yourselves, folks! =0)
• The fighting itself was fun, and I made sure to scout the perimeter for those standing about looking on with pillows in hand, of course, or those with their backs to me, and say "Sneak attack!" with a laugh while flinging my pillow around. I got hit (Agent Bertman took a couple good whacks!) more than I swung actually, but it was loads of fun.
• When the whistle blew and the winner declared (who won?? Please identify yourself or tell us who won if you know them!) by our excellent ref, Agent C.E., I heard a great cheer among all those sitting on the hill, not just the pillow fighters, which made me smile. =0 )
• Watching the bats come out was great, too! I think I enjoyed it a LOT more this year than last, I was actually focused enough to really relax. Bats ARE cool, seriously.
• Agent Tons0Fun's brother Anthony shot footage from the bridge, and Agent Smith gave me a flash drive with footage that we'll edit up and compile ASAP to get an awesome video out there! Thanks ya'll! If you have pictures or other video, please send it to us at flashmobaustin@gmail.com
• One of the girls in Agent Kiley's family group received a very painful looking split lip from an individual who clearly was not thinking of the repercussions when slipping his keys into his pillow case and then whacking around at people's faces. Please, let's all learn from this and make sure that what we're doing is safe for all involved, we want to establish a harm-free fun environment. If you're that guy with the keys in the pillow, please don't come to our missions unless you have a VERY clear understanding of what we as Flash Mob Austin stand for and what we do not. Fun is never to be had at the cost of other's safety or well being. Don't screw it up for the hundreds of folks who work hard to keep our reputation golden.
• Due to a directional oversight on the leadership team for this mission, there was a small error in the location clarification and a few really well meaning and excited pillow fighters ended up on the wrong side of the river. This is something that caused me great distress because I know you all come out with such good intentions and make a huge effort to make FMA a part of your lives, and I'm very sorry that any one of you had to miss the pillow fight due to an oversight such as this. Agent Laney suggested next year we make a map with the location clearly marked, and I think it a brilliant idea and wish we had thought of it this year. Again, my apologies to those of you who missed out on this mission, but please please please, give us another try! We'd love to have you complete a mission successfully.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out, told your friends, REMAINED SILENT ABOUT THE SOURCE OF THE ORGANIZATION and came with your pillow to have some fun under the bat bridge! Don't forget to post comments about your experiences below.

Over and Out,

Agent Filkins

2nd Annual Bat Bridge Pillow Fiiiiight!

DATE: Saturday, August 29th.
LOCATION: Congress Ave. bat bridge

Show up any time between 7:15- 7:50 p.m. (that's what time people start lining up to watch the bats). Sit on the NE side of the hill (near the underneath of the bridge). Sit on your pillow, as if you're simply there to watch the bats. MAKE NO MENTION OF A PILLOW FIGHT OR FLASH MOB AUSTIN.

At 8:00 on the dot, two kids will start hitting each other with pillows. Their older brothers will start arguing, then their families will start arguing. Then suddenly one parent will hit the other parent with a pillow. Agent Filkins (who will be wearing a bright pink shirt) will yell "OH MY GOSH! PILLOW FIIIIIGHT!" at the top of their lungs. As soon as you hear that, GO!

The fight will go on for four minutes. Some of you should pretend to be dead. A referee will declare a winner. A whistle will be blown. After that, sit down, as if NOTHING EVER HAPPENED.

If spectators ask you about the pillow fight, make sure you have an excuse ready (example: "Dude, I just came her to watch the bats, then some jerk hit me with a pillow. I was just defending myself.")

NOTES:
NO FEATHER PILLOWS. If you pillow leaks, clean it up. The city of San Fransisco recently banned all flash mobs after a park pillow fight caused $20,000 worth of damage to their water lines.

Instead of having a massive fight in the middle (like last year) let it escalate. It may be funnier to have little fights all over, but feel free to whack people from other groups.

PRETEND you are not there for the pillow fight. Pretend you are simply:
1. Standing up for one of the kids, or
2. Standing up for one of the parents, or
3. Defending yourself

Don't be late. As always, parking is a task. The fight is only four minutes, so if you miss it, we'll be sad.

MAKE NO MENTION OF FLASH MOB AUSTIN.

If you want to meet on the Dominican Joes patio for a pre and post meeting, the core leadership team will be there at both 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

THERE WILL BE AN AFTER PARTY (ages 18+) downtown. Location pending.

Oh, and look! Here's a link to our Facebook event page.

Pirates vs. Ninjas: mission report!

Mission Report from Agent Melissa:

Hey guys! Thanks for those of you who came out to Barton Springs Saturday night to join the epic water gun battle! It went better than I expected. We had a great turnout with pretty even teams. Special thanks to Agents Ryan, Coleen, and Farris, our featured Flash Mobbers who took on extra roles during the fight.

My favorite parts:

• Some of the costumes were amazing! I loved seeing people put so much thought into this mission.
• The looks we got when we all walked into the pool area. People knew something was going to happen; we certainly got attention even before the mission started!
• A ninja raiding the pirate's water balloon stash early on in the fight. (How sneaky...) :)
• Ninjas shooting us pirates through the trees in a very sneaky, hidden ninjas fashion.
• Two words- Chuck Norris. ("Shoot Chuck Norris!" at the end- brilliant)

Share your thoughts about the mission here. Thanks again for a successful July mission, check out the HILARIOUS video here!

Epic Battle: Pirates vs. Ninjas

It's going DOWN at the Barton Springs night swim this Saturday night.

Pick your side:
Wear WHITE to fight with the pirates.
Wear BLACK to fight with the ninjas.
Other costume accessories HIGHLY ENCOURAGED.

We'll meet at 8:45 p.m. on the grassy knoll between the small parking lot and the playground. This meeting is REQUIRED to assign team territories and to give out special assignments. We'll also be letting you know exactly how the battle will end. (Free night swim starts at 9:00. The battle will start at 9:15).

Make sure you defend yourself! Bring a water gun or a water bucket. Floaties, eye patches, and noodle nunchucks are optional.

Let us know you're coming at:
OUR FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE