There's good crazy and there's bad crazy. I'm not referring to literal needs-meds-and-supervision crazy. Just, you know, CRAZY crazy.
On the GOOD side - there are the people of Improv Everywhere, who stage "missions" all over the world (but are based in the capital of crazy - New York City). Missions like No Pants 2k8 (it's an annual event) and the Food Court Musical and the infectuous Frozen Grand Central - which has now been recreated in, like, 40 countries. They are insane. And awesome. And I would totally freeze with them or maybe even consider dropping trou for the cause. Improv on the streets, making some kind of interactive theater / performance art prank for the world around them to gape at and, hopefully, enjoy. A beautiful reminder that the constraints we live within are so often simply the ones we put upon ourselves. 900 people on New York subways wearing no pants certainly stretches one's concept of anything being possible.
I found this thanks to Alexandra Billings at Stillettos and Sneakers, who always has awesome videos and the most entertaining stories of pretty much any blogger on the planet. She's that incredible. Seriously.
...On the BAD side there are people like the ones The Food Whore writes about in this post. Now, I know a lot of people complain about small children in public places and the behavior of parents and a lot of the complainers don't have kids and don't have a clue and are being petty.
This is not that kind of story.
This story is about a trip to a pizza parlour during which two of FW's fellow patrons decided to treat everyone to their cute baby being flown around in their arms airplane style. Again and again and again. For the duration of their meal. The parents in question are clearly MAD if they think complete strangers want to have their dinner interrupted with a baby they do not know dive bombing their table REPEATEDLY (Does anyone know these people? Someone MUST know them. Someone should be like, "Dude. I saw this story on the interweb and I think it was about you guys... Um. You guys have got to cut that shit out, man. It's creepy.").
The Food Whore owns and runs a restaurant and catering business, so she actually has MANY stories about how stupid and insane people can be, but this one struck me as particularly wierd. However, if you enjoy stories of bizarre human behavior - spend some time over at her blog. Suddenly every wacky-ass relative and creepy neighbor you have begin to seem really sedate next to the people who step foot in her place of business.
So that's my 2¢ for the day.
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
Goodbye Paula. You will be missed.
2 days ago
I Loooove Improv everywhere. My favorite is the jumper. When they carried in the itty bitty little trampoline, I almost wet myself.
ReplyDeleteI love the jumper too but my favorites are the group ones like Frozen and No Pants.
ReplyDeleteAnd that baby story. Dear lord what's wrong with those people? Even now after years of parenting I am constantly saying things like, "Don't do that, you're in a restaurant and people are trying to eat." I go out of my way to make sure my children don't bug other people and so I hate it when idiot parents like this give the rest of us a bad name.
I KNOW. I hate that some people have an automatic "Oh no, there are children in here." reaction. I think a lot of that has to do with parents like that. They DO give parents a bad name. I mean, sometimes kids are going to pitch a fit in a public place or cry loudly and non-parents need to understand that that isn't bad parenting or terrible children - it's little humans doing what they do sometimes. It's normal.
ReplyDeleteBut babies dive-bombing your dinner? THAT is not normal. In no alternate universe is that considered appropriate restaurant behavior.
My fave improv everywhere is the Frozen. It's not only absurd and shocking and visually interesting - it's kind of beautiful.
Yeah, the Frozen is probably the coolest...because its not necessarily a comedy like many of the others; its a multi-faceted expression. But still, the Jumper is the funniest, to me at least.
ReplyDeleteI also like the commentary of the shirtless trip to A&F.
I lived in NY and sometimes I wondered if it was "needs meds" mental ilnesses or if it was just "I'm in NY, no one will look twice, i can do what i want" mentality. I was once waiting for a subway when a man a few feet away from me broke out in a fist fight w/ the column next to him. No joke, started yelling and punching a cement column. Then stopped, turned and boarded the subway like nothing happened. I wondered... was there something wrong w/ him, or was he testing NY, to see if anyone would say or do anything... maybe it was a dare and he went home and said to his friend "dude, you should have seen the way this chick was staring at me... but i did it, i picked a fight w/ a column in the middle of Grand Central Station". :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I love kids, all shapes, colors, sizes, and no matter how loud they get or how obnoxious i have a lot of patience for them. But parents, that's another story. I was at a funeral where the parents let this little girl run up and repeatedly touch the body... seriously, she's only a few years old, she has no idea what's she's doing or how it will affect others, but where are the parents and WHY ARE THEY LETTING HER TOUCH DEAD BODIES?? I agree with the rest of you, it's not the kids, it's the parents that give kids a bad name.