Notes from the Outside

We had a very eventful weekend, in which Mike spent participating, and I spent time not taking part. A good time was had by all. It was meant to be a 'Mike' weekend as my friend comes to visit on Wednesday and there were lots of geeky activities happening for him to expend his energy on.

The first was on Saturday in the form of an MP3 experiment. The details are all in the link, but basically this involved wearing a T shirt in either red, yellow, blue or green, downloading (but not listening to in advance) an MP3 track, and coming armed with an umbrella and un-inflated balloon, at a set time and place. The time was 2pm sharp (watches were synchronised, black and white spy film style) and the place was Mission Dolores Park.

I don't like organised activities much, particularly secret ones. What can I say? I'm cynical and mistrustful. This is Mike's idea of Saturday afternoon utopia, so we set off, and Mike had even managed to bring some friends. Yep, that's right, we actually spent some time with other people this weekend - frankly miraculous. I had listened to the first few minutes of the track and after getting over the grating, irritatingly slow voice; I made it to instructions involving stranger and tree hugging, thumb wars, and waving to strangers and knew that my worse suspicions had been realised. I decided instead to play sociologist (I've even have some training in the field. Impressed? Don't be) and watch and record the reactions of the unsuspecting park goers, who had thought they were taking their dog for a walk, or their children to the play area, but instead had stumbled upon a large group of primary coloured clad lunatics.

It felt a little bit play school to me. I have heard of MP3 experiments which involve turning up at a busy train stations and all stopping and remaining absolutely still at exactly the same time. That sounds cool, but elaborate hokey cokey gets a bit dull, even to the trained watcher. Mike plans to write up details on his blog what the experiment entailed and his views etc, which I will post a link to, but I have the luxury of unemployment which means I can post now.

My personal highlights included when told to point to the Golden Gate Bridge and other local landmarks Mike getting it exactly wrong and then, when noticing where everyone else was pointing quickly doing an about turn and confidently pointing in the correct direction, as if he had known all along. Also when playing thumb wars with his random stranger, who he took ages to find, although too far away to see his facial expression, I knew he had lost as his whole body looked perplexed. He later claimed that his opponent had extraordinarily large thumbs, which of course must be true.

The reactions of the non participants were mixed, but for a group of young boys playing 5 a side right next to the crowd of activity, literally anything could have happened and all they would be able to recall would be the details of the match. One woman who happened to be walking through the park looked frankly unimpressed and dismissed it out of hand as people trying to make a human Rubik's Cube. Lots of people stopped to watch, semi curious. It was better than naval gazing anyway. It could possibly have been the helicopter which endlessly and noisily circled the park, presumably filming, which attracted their attention in the first place though. Unless I had come prepared with a well written and non-leading questionnaire and a clip board to make myself look official, we will never know for sure.

I am especially rambling today, and I am still on Saturday. OK - the rest I will right in short hand. I met a nice Texan who had explored lots of the UK and pronounced Bath and Edinburgh hilariously. I managed not to laugh. I drew a chart depicting the strength of crowd reaction to the experiment over time on a napkin, which one of our companions, Ed, took a picture of. I like my work to be appreciated. I managed to then lose it after I promised I would upload it to the blog. I seem to remember it was rubbish though and had badly proportioned stick people and unrealistic umbrella pictures.

My best part of the day though was being fortunate enough to witness one event (apart from going for ice cream - in a different place as the queue was too long where we had wanted to go, so we opted for some Belgian beer and chips, the next best thing surely, in a place which taught German in the toilets. Nice touch. The ice cream story is for another time I think - this is getting confusing now.)

The event involved a loud and barefoot transvestite of advancing age and baring more than a passing resemblance to Doc from Back to the Future, especially if Doc had ever worn a red party dress with a fake bra stuffed with socks. He made her way up the hill in the park loudly shouting obscene stories about his dog to anyone unfortunate enough to be in earshot while she wheeled a home made wooden cart full of what must have been bricks behind him*. She took such a long time to go such a very short distance that a chivalrous soul who must have just entered the park and therefore missed the bowel-movingly deep-voiced obscenities, rushed to help what he must have thought was an old lady in need. His epiphany lasted a millisecond where his face flushed ever so slightly, and then he managed to rearrange it into something suitable and polite for the occasion. His wife / friend / girlfriend /companion / sworn enemy who he was keeping close / pet dressed as a human, when hearing the 'old lady's' joy expressed and instructions on the best way of cart pulling, who had the benefit of being behind and out of sight, found the whole thing rather amusing and struggled to retain her mirth from falling out of her mouth and into the ether.


* I realise this sentence is grammatically very dubious but I am playing safe with gender allocation. I would be genuinely grateful if anyone could give me any advice.