Dancemobbing the RNC

Liza Sabater

Back in July, John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Grateful Dead songwriter, proposed a simple idea in BarlowFriendz: Dancing in the Streets: Revolution with a Smile : Let's vex the hell out of the Republicans by dancing in the streets. More than 415 comments where posted in his blog and from that, about 100 have asked to participate. Here's the email I received today from Barlow about the event. Anybody interested in participating in my dancing "platoon", just email me : blogdiva [atski] culturekitchen [dotski] com.

From: John Perry Barlow
Date: Tue Aug 24, 2004 01:22:31 America/New_York
To: John Perry Barlow
Subject: Guerrilla Dancers, Start Your Happy Feet!

Greetings, Dancers!

You were probably wondering if plans to dance with the pedestrian Republicans during the RNC are still on. They are, and I hope you will be part of them.

[snip]

There are a number of items I could use some help with. They are as follow:

1. MEETING SPACE. We will need a fairly large place to convene on the 29th. I'm still looking for a dance studio, or similar space, that is relatively convenient to Manhattan. If you have one, or are aware of one, please contact me.

2. SOUND DISTRIBUTION. I've still not solved the problem of how to distribute the music we will be dancing to. I would prefer that it not be audible much beyond the operational radius of each dance platoon. Someone watching from across the street should be completely mystified about what these people are dancing to. For this reason, using a single boom-box is not ideal. Besides, we don't want to give the authorities any reason to consider us subject to arrest. A boom-box turned up loud enough to be heard over a hundred foot radius might be a boom box loud enough to attract official attention.

On the other hand, I have tested my original design - an iPod with an FM transmitter broadcasting to four or five transistor radios - and have found the popular transmitters of insufficient range. If anyone knows of a small transmitter capable of broadcasting a hundred feet, please let me know.

There remains some possibility of getting one of the smaller New York radio stations to broadcast Music to Vex Republicans By, but I haven't found the right contact yet to make this happen.

Ideas are certainly very welcome.

3. MUSICAL SELECTION. I'm looking for music that readily inspires hard, crazy dancing, and is, at the same time, politically provocative. I can think of a lot of Rolling Stones songs that fit this bill - "Street Fighting Man" being a case in point - but they are too generationally specific. I don't want this to be a Baby Boomer fiesta. I'd prefer to see a broad variety of ages and types in each group. (We just can't look too much like scruffy young demonstrators, lest we be sent off to a "Free Speech Zone." Besides, someone matching that description might be an infiltrator, sent by the government to mess with our groove.) If you have music you'd like to use, please e-mail me an MP3 file of it or bring it to the organizational meeting.

4. TARGET LOCATION. We will want to choose eruption zones carefully for maximum Republican contact, pedestrian density, unpredictability, and lack of duplication. If there are 5 groups erupting 5 or 6 times a day for 3 days, that would require at least 75 different locations. Of course, we will be opportunistic, but we need to map the zones of opportunity. One of our colleagues has obtained a map of all the areas that will restricted to convention delegates and attendees. We'll want to strike often on the perimeter of that area. Your suggestions of good locations to cut loose will be welcome.

5. MORE DANCERS. As I say, I don't expect all of you to turn up. Many of those who do will not be able to dance all three days of the convention. For this reason, I'd like to have an available pool of about 100 dancers. So, when you come to the organizational gathering, please feel free to bring willing friends. Feel further free to send this and following bulletins out to others who might be interested.

6. PLATOON LEADERS. As I say, I will need a number of folks to help work out various details between now and the 29th. Also, since I expect this enterprise to be largely self-organizing, I would like to find some folks who would lead and coordinate the various dance pods. Please contact me if you're interested.

More soon,

Barlow

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John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident
Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Berkman Fellow, Harvard Law School