Taking Back the Streets: International Pillow Fight Day
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.24.08
We have written before that our cities are public space, not just an infrastructure to get you from store to workplace to home but something that has been designed for pleasure, culture and enrichment of our lives. We have posted often about Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken, who have organized pillow fights and subway parties in Toronto and New York. It has gone worldwide and is now the urban playground movement. This past weekend there were massive pillow fights in 30 cities around the world, from Atlanta to Zurich.
Thousands battled it out in New York's Union Square, shown above. It must have left a big mess; Lori and Kevin tell us that "the general lack of volunteerism means that next year, we are asking people to eliminate their feather pillow usage unless they clean up afterward. Again, please DO NOT bring a feather pillow to next year's pillow fight unless you clean up at least two pillows worth of feathers before you leave."
Fabulous video set to music., more videos here and a flickr set here
The goal of the Urban Playground Movement: "to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by the endless creep of advertising into public space. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants, not consumers, in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world." ::International Pillow Fight Day
haha, I've participated in renegade, spontaneous pillow fights in Philadelphia...
I did too and it was amazing.... thanks josh for the link
Everyone can't pick up at least 2 pillows worth of feathers.
This would violate Newtons laws (conservation of energy/matter).
Only the first 50% of people could possible pick up 2 pillows worth of feathers.
This is one of the few videos that has ever had my cat riveted to the screen! She watched the whole thing!
The only other thing I've seen her actually watch on a screen was some science-fiction movie where an alien (who looked like a red beach-ball) attacked the crew. She watched that. :-)