One More Reason for a New, Single-Terminal Airport

Yessir, here we are. Yet one more reason for a new, single terminal airport at KCI, tearing down and walking away from our existing terminals:

FLASH MOBS!



Think about it!

As it stands now, with those pesky, ultra-convenient, already-built terminals we have and enjoy, with a gleaming, shiny, new single terminal, the airport authority could hire people like this and film a "spontaneous" dancing, flash mob. And if you're lucky enough to be there, you'll get to see and enjoy it.

Worst case scenario?  You'll get to watch it, after the fact, on KMBC-TV and KCTV-5 "news", along with the daily YouTube catch-up and cat and dog video segments.

It'll go viral and JUST THINK OF ALL THE GREAT MEDIA ATTENTION KANSAS CITY AND KCI WILL GET.

Sure, it'll cost us millions and it's stupid to tear down good, working, again, convenient, existing buildings--that we actually enjoy and appreciate--and it's horrible for the environment, what with throwing two entire terminals in a dump somewhere and the airlines don't want or recommend it and, oh, sure, our price per ticket of flying in and out of that new airport will go WAY up, as other cities that have done this have learned, to their shame, expense and frustration but...

WE'LL HAVE FLASH MOBS!!

AND A SHINY NEW AIRPORT!

Entertainment overnight

A Philip Glass "flash choir" in New York City's Times Square:



Happy 75th birthday, Mr. Glass.

And once again, thank you, NPR, for bringing the arts to us.

Of all the flash mobs

Of all the flash mobs that happen, it seems to me that the one that should happen again and again, year after year is either people performing Handel's Messiah, year after year, at different locations, like this: or they should do Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his 9th Symphony--or both. People could do these forever, year after year, and no one would get tired of them, unlike everything else that's done. Just a thought. A hopeful thought.

I'm a sucker for a flashmob

and this is recently done.That said, I remember, even as a kid, when "West Side Story" first came out, that I found the depiction of mobs doing modern, contemporary dance jarring, at least. Here's another, from across the pond: I love how sweat pants, in Europe, apparently mean "gang clothing". I also love that both versions were updated to include both sexes. Leonard Bernstein lives.

Yet more fun--this time from Brussels

What a great, great culture. Hope you enjoyed it.

KCMO School District and CC Plaza have the same problem: irresponsible, lazy parents.

The bad news? Sure, we all know now, and have since at least Sunday morning that there were kids roaming the Plaza again, Saturday night and that shots were fired (5 to 6, it's said). Additional bad news? Mayor James was there. But therein lies, also, the good news because now, suddenly, our mayor is invested in both recognizing and solving this problem. I--and, I think others--have been calling for the mayor and his office and City Hall and the City Council and churches and their leaders and businesses and civic leaders to get together to see what kind of solutions could be offered to solve both this problem and the problems of shootings and drive-by shootings, etc. Now, suddenly, since Mayor James was there when the shots rang out, he's saying the same thing, fortunately. According to today's Star: "Churches, schools and businesses, also, need to get involved, he said." Thanks for finally joining us, Mayor. He also pointed out in this morning's article in the Star that parents are responsible for this, too. So maybe, just maybe, if the city and School District, both, are trying to solve this same parental problem--and I think we all agree they are--maybe we can get closer to a combined solution for both. It won't be a quick fix but the curfew for teens seems like a great, fair and sensible place to begin. I think we should follow Philadelphia's example with fines of $300.00 per teen and $500.00 per parent for violating the curfew, too. That would make people pay attention rather quickly. If it's good enough for Philly, it seems good enough for us, as well. Here's wishing us all luck. Here's hoping.

Flash mob clarification

As I said, for clarification of what a "flash mob" is, compared to what happened here in town at Crown Center last week with the Hallelujah Chorus, notice how, in this group and their performance, it really did seem like a "flash".  It seemed as though it was spontaneous and "just happened," as opposed to the few hundred people standing around, waiting for the beginning of the song here.

As I said earlier, too, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking what happened with the chorus at all.  In fact, I said it then and I'll say again, I wish I had been there.  It just didn't seem like a "flash", that's all.

Have a great week, y'all.

Man, I wish I had been there

                                Merry Christmas, y'all

Link:  http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/19/2531136/random-act-of-culture-strikes.html

Government, the people and society today

MoveOn.org just put out a "flash mob" video that was apparently performed and shot yesterday at a Target store that protested the $150,000.00 their company's president gave to a right-wing, Republican candidate, rather infamously (or famously, if you're on that side). The organization is using it to raise people's awareness and fight the unlimited corporate donations that are allowed to go to campaigns and politicians since the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year. The reason I bring this up is because it is showing, once again, the place of change we're in right now. This is mixing the "flash mob"/dance craze along with the old political protest. And while that's an okay idea, what's fascinating right now is the reaction by young people, mostly, I assume, at YouTube. It's bizarre. What's obvious from the responses to the video are 1) the fact that most people don't know what this protest is about and 2) the blatant hate, mostly against homosexuals. A sampling of some of the responses: if you don't want to be called a giant queer, don't dance around like fairy in the middle of target jackasses. i think thats a given...; and then this one: ok gays have gone to far again. I call this extremism. but then again straight people just dont care. Besides the inability to spell, it points out that there seems to be this whole generation that doesn't understand politics, government or what's going on in the country. In short, I fear for the future of this country and it's their future and their country but this is nothing but bad. Between the corporations buying the government and then not knowing what's going on, it can be nothing but bad. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FhMMmqzbD8

If you thought that last "flash mob" was fun...

I think this one was even better.

Again, let's organize and coordinate some flash mobs like this on the Plaza for Saturday night entertainment with people from all over the city. We could do them in Mill Creek Park.

Anybody game?

This, then, is a "flash mob"

Could we organize these on the Plaza on Saturday nights?

It looks like everyone had a good time, everyone was entertained and no one was intimitdated or hurt and no laws were broken.