The Nuffnang PJ Flash Mob is still quite fresh now that it is over as when it was just announced. The idea was simple: show up in front of The Heeren with your PJs under your disguise, and on cue, rip take off your disguise and do a silent dance in your PJs, along with all the other bloggers and our gorgeous celebrity bloggers. Sounds like a hell lot of fun right, not to mention that it will be a first in Singapore.

When I read the announcement by Nuffnang, I imagined a busy Orchard Road with a lot of human traffic outside and within The Heeren, where everyone was just minding his/her own business. *cough GSS *cough Saturday afternoon* Some just came out of the mall with shopping bags on both left and right hand plus shoulder; some eating Old Chang Kee curry puff along the street; and some just walking about. And then at around 5:43pm, about half the crowd outside The Heeren start to undress to their PJs and start dancing randomly, silently, to the tunes pumping out of their earbuds and headphones. Then the unassuming crowd start to notice Xiaxue, Sheylara, Thy Dowager, Underage-Girl and Ice Angel are actually among those silent dancing, and so they start to get really excited (afterall, they are famous). In a matter of seconds after you hear screams of excitement from the crowd, cameras and cameraphones start cropping up and so do sporadic camera flashes. Then, after about 4 minutes, the silent-dancing PJ-wearing bloggers put their disguises back on and disperse randomly in all directions, only to meet up at a secret location later. This IS a flash mob.

According to Wikipedia, a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. Nuffnang's PJ flash mob is a version of London's silent disco in April 2006, except that participants in our silent disco had people wearing PJs. With that definition, I would like to highlight some points that make a flash mob a flash mob, and compare it with what happened last Saturday:

• Large group of people. The group of people who participated last Saturday is considered a sizeable crowd. It was large enough to get some attention, but small enough not to overwhelm or overpower the "victim" crowd. The mob consisted of Nuffnangers and Singapore's top celebrity bloggers.
  
• Assemble suddenly. Okay, I am not sure how it started because I was a bit late, but from hearsays from other bloggers who witnessed it, I'd say the mob gradually formed outside the venue. Or more properly, the mob started to appear patch by patch on the venue in groups of at least five. And it was greatly anticipated by a lot of people, which isn't right because a flash mob is supposed to be a surprise.
  
• In a public place. The Heeren @ Orchard Road would have been the right place at the right time to catch the crowds, but the renovation site beside it doesn't fit well at all.
  
• Perform an unusual action. The mob was to suddenly strip to their PJs then do a silent dance to their MP3 player music. What happened was the mob showed up in their PJs, gathered together, started pillow fighting, then started to boogie.
  
• Brief time. The time to perform the unusual action had to be long enough to pin the attention of the "victim" crowd, but not too long to become a highlight event.
  
• Quickly disperse. This means to disappear from the crowd. The mob didn't really disappear: they marched out of the venue and back to the assembly area.

The flash mob last Saturday was more like a Blogger PJ Tour. No doubt it was fun, but it didn't really give the same impression as a flash mob would have had. For those who haven't seen a flash mob yet (or at least a proper one), watch this:



This happened in New York's Grand Central station, where a mob of around 200 people froze on the spot for more or less 4 minutes, then went back to life and quickly blended back in the crowd.

I still would not consider Nuffnang's attempt a failure though but rather a learning experience for future flash mobs. As was promised, our PJ-outfitted celebrity bloggers were present to boogie with their readers/fans. That, unfortunately, was an opportunity I missed.

Oh yeah, on the way to Paragon from the flash mob venue, I saw a pair of police officers headed to the mob's direction. I have no idea about whether they were attending a message or just doing normal patrol, but it made me paranoid for a short while that they were going to disperse the flash mob. Oh well...

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For the actual facts of the event, I stand corrected. Like what I said, I was late for the event. Hence I was also not able to take photos. *sigh