Althouse: "Hallelujah Chorus" flashmob fiasco.

December 21, 2010

"Hallelujah Chorus" flashmob fiasco.

"... as they burst into song, there were reports that the building's floor began to move and creak, and witnesses reported hearing popping sounds."

40 comments:

Revenant said...: It seems odd to call a flashmob chorus "impromptu".; 12/21/10, 10:38 PM
Skyler said...: Sounds like harmonic halleluia resonance.; 12/21/10, 10:38 PM
shirley elizabeth said...: I guess this is what people do now in place of caroling. I don't think I'd mind if were so trendy.; 12/21/10, 10:44 PM
Penny said...: Do any of us really care where they are...long as they aren't serving on our jury?; 12/21/10, 10:52 PM
reader_iam said...: That'll larn'em not to perform [even that part of] Handel's "Messiah" in the wrong season.; 12/21/10, 10:52 PM
Penny said...: Sadly, reader...

There ain't much learnin' done these days.

We got sweaters and bikinis when we don't don our seasonal skin.; 12/21/10, 10:59 PM
Peter Hoh said...: In her report about the original "Hallelujah Chorus" flashmob (in Canada), Gretchen Carlson warned us that "they" probably wouldn't allow this kind of thing in a mall in the U.S.; 12/21/10, 11:21 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This is why man invented Auto Tune.; 12/21/10, 11:26 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The plan was to go around the food court seven times... with their hands raised, singing and sounding a trumpet.; 12/21/10, 11:31 PM
Penny said...: "This is why man invented Auto Tune."

Auto-tune.... a creation of humanity, Lem?

Or was it merely a few guys getting together doing cool things without understanding their cool thing was about to work, and then become a verb?; 12/22/10, 1:33 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/22/10, 6:04 AM
traditionalguy said...: These Christianist Worship Mobs are insulting all Asians in the crowd, who feel left out because they cannot pronounce Hallelujah.; 12/22/10, 6:18 AM
KCFleming said...: The flashmob of our Procrastinator's Chorus has been rescheduled.; 12/22/10, 6:38 AM
Kylos said...: You're going to have to explain your prejudice against these carolers, Penny – or is this some joke I'm too dense to figure out?; 12/22/10, 6:44 AM
KCFleming said...: Whodathunk that cellphone technology could turn 21st century humans into a pack of wildebeests?

Was it the Devo App?; 12/22/10, 6:54 AM
Kev said...: (the other kev)

I'm betting it was all a clever (if unwitting) distraction and when the merchants come back, they'll find all their stuff stolen.

Humbug.; 12/22/10, 7:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Kylos, agreed. I think it's really cool. I would love to see one live.; 12/22/10, 8:01 AM
AllenS said...: I would like to get together with a bunch of paratroopers, go to the University of Madison, and at the top of our lungs, sing Blood on the Risers.; 12/22/10, 8:17 AM
David said...: It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.; 12/22/10, 8:28 AM
Unknown said...: AllenS said...

I would like to get together with a bunch of paratroopers, go to the University of Madison, and at the top of our lungs, sing Blood on the Risers.

They'd probably have you all arrested for violating their free speech code.

EV "mence" 2 or more male mouses.; 12/22/10, 8:32 AM
Daniel Fielding said...: Talking about structures that might collapse, I worry sometimes if the student section of Camp Randall Stadium would fall from all the Badger fans jumping simultaneously in tune to the song they play on the loudspeakers when th e Badgers score or a RB gets a long run.

Wolverine letterman and alum here.; 12/22/10, 8:41 AM
garage mahal said...: @Daniel Fielding
Jump Around. It's it's at the end of the 3rd quarter.; 12/22/10, 8:56 AM
MadisonMan said...: Flashmobs are so last year.; 12/22/10, 8:56 AM
Anonymous said...: Sounds like the sort of thing that might happen here if all of MUL's sockpuppets show up at the same time.; 12/22/10, 8:59 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Peter- you sound like you could be on the Media Matters payroll and assigned to monitor the big and bad Fox News.; 12/22/10, 9:05 AM
former law student said...: The Roseville Galleria is still trying to recover from the arson fire a slacker youth set there in October. Claiming that his sister had been abducted by aliens, he used chemicals he had stolen from his grandmother to set fire to the GameStop, causing $6.5 million in damages to the Penneys/Macy's wing of the mall.; 12/22/10, 9:15 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I remember my father saying the military warned the troops "don't march in step when on a bridge" as it could cause a bridge collapse.; 12/22/10, 9:17 AM
bagoh20 said...: The performance brought down the house...almost.

Someone needs to organize such an event with suicide bombers and get it to go viral. The world could take a breath.; 12/22/10, 9:32 AM
KCFleming said...: Flashmob then smashed mob.; 12/22/10, 9:51 AM
chuckR said...: Buildings and bridges are built for a certain level of load. Pack in enough people and you exceed that load. The worst load for a bridge is the day they let people walk across it. The 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate bridge, planners figured 50k people would show up - 800k actually came to celebrate. The guesstimate loading was 2 1/2x the design load but that still provided a theoretical 2.5x safety factor. Nonetheless, a fun time was not had - claustrophobia, bridge swaying in the wind, etc.
Bonus, if you can get people to jump at the resonant frequency of the structure, even worse.

wv - lortico - dunno, somehow related to portico?; 12/22/10, 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Hipster youth secretly longing for meaning and tradition nearly bring down the house in an ironic display of belonging against the dark soulless forces of material consumerism and holiday mall shopping.; 12/22/10, 9:56 AM
Known Unknown said...: I think flashmobs should live up to their names and show us some ta tas, too.; 12/22/10, 9:58 AM
Richard Dolan said...: So we find out what the locals are doing in Sacramento via Althouse in WI linking to the BBC? Ease of access on the internet, a function of familiarity and presence as much as anything else, has become today's megaphone. Odder still: Ann's megaphone is
more powerful than almost all local media (and not a few national ones as well).

Progress of a sort, I suppose.; 12/22/10, 10:05 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: When the Canadians did this, there wasn't a problem.
Why? Americans are obese, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE; 12/22/10, 10:16 AM
bagoh20 said...: "When the Canadians did this, there wasn't a problem.
Why? Americans are obese, of course."

Most of us Americans eat one to two Canadians a day. They aren't very filling. Even the vegans have a few now and then. They're not technically a meat.; 12/22/10, 10:21 AM
Larry J said...: AllenS said...
I would like to get together with a bunch of paratroopers, go to the University of Madison, and at the top of our lungs, sing Blood on the Risers.

Speaking as a former 11B2P, that would be fine entertainment.

The 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate bridge, planners figured 50k people would show up - 800k actually came to celebrate. The guesstimate loading was 2 1/2x the design load but that still provided a theoretical 2.5x safety factor.

I remember seeing photos of that incident. The load was so heavy that the arches on the Golden Gate bridge flattened out as seen in this photo.; 12/22/10, 10:27 AM
Peter Hoh said...: The Canadian flash mob video was a big hit when shared around the living room after dinner with friends a couple weeks ago. I think that quite a few of us would jump at the opportunity to participate in one of these events.

AJ, yes, during her interview with the organizers of the Canadian event, Carlson managed to find a War on Christmas® angle.

Can't find a clip in the 30 seconds I gave myself to find it, however.; 12/22/10, 11:02 AM
Jason said...: They should have changed keys a half step in either direction.; 12/22/10, 11:08 AM
Anonymous said...: I remember my father saying the military warned the troops "don't march in step when on a bridge" as it could cause a bridge collapse.

We learned about this in high school physics: the resonance frequency that the Tacoma Bridge reached, although according to wikipedia, the real cause of the collapse was aeroelastic flutter, whatever that is.; 12/22/10, 1:04 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Daniel Fielding, part of the stands at the Other UW™did fall down, fortunately with no one in them.; 12/23/10, 12:47 AM