February 9, 2008
Freezing Can Be Fun!
Weeks of record-breaking, finger-numbing, Antarctican weather are leaving Torontonians frozen across the city—and someone thinks it's hilarious.
Who could be cruel enough to snicker as you stand miserably in a pool of slush, waiting thirty-something minutes for the streetcar that was stopped up by unprecedented snowfall?
On February 16, the jerks themselves want to watch, photograph, and videotape you at your frozen-est... inside the Eaton Centre. Frozen, that is, in time. Would you believe the nerve?
Just like the No Pants Subway Ride, "Frozen at the Eaton Centre" was copied, er, inspired from the guys of Improv Everywhere in NYC. Just a few weeks ago, the ubiquitous pranksters stopped time at Grand Central and flabbergasted many of the visitors to the world's largest train station.
The act is simple: meet at 1 p.m. outside the mall at Yonge-Dundas Square, sync up your watches, and wait for the signal. The stunt only requires two things: One, that you channel your inner Michaelangelo and become statuesque. Breathing and blinking will be discouraged, but tolerated. And two, you've gotta keep a straight face. We're not saying you've gotta go all Posh Spice on us, just keep it natural.
If you've got a rebel streak and want to join with the pranksters, mark a 5-minute break in your Crackberry, and set aside some time to stop and... remain stopped. But don't trust us. We all know it can't be considered a real event until all the details are listed on Facebook.
Photo by Squeakyrat from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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good, good.
The FB event shouldn't be closed, though.
Wouldn't it be cool if we came up with our own ideas instead of importing them from bigger cities? Isn't that what we complain about with our city planners and council members -- they won't take the initiative until something has been tried and tested and beaten to death elsewhere before we make a half-assed attempt at it?
There's actually an interesting behind-the-scenes thing going on with this, because there are two groups currently planning to freeze at the Eaton Centre––this one, on the 16th; and this one, for March 1st. The latter's group first wall post (bashing Newmindspace, incidentally) is on February 3rd. And this group's wall...is private, but it's been around since at least the 7th.
Both events were inspired by Improv Everywhere, so if it's not a coincidence that the founders of the Toronto events came up with the same idea, the question is which one is copying the copy.
>:[ to Facebook links.
Wouldn't it be fun if we just did things we felt people would enjoy and feel good about, instead of worrying about super original and ultra cutting-edge? Isn't that what we complain about -- that we Torontonians compare ourselves too much to other cities and that something isn't any good unless it one-ups someone else?
i agree with the whole originality bit...but isn't there always the "why can't we do that over here". So until we get more original events (i'm sure they take suggestions)...we can live with this.
1) they are doing awesome events to liven up Toronto
2) They are out there organizing this stuff...if you don't think it's good enough then you should be organizing these crazy events!
An update just sent to everyone in the Facebook group:
"We'd like to have everyone on Level 1 from the Queen St. subway entrance to Shoppers Drug Mart and everywhere inbetween (around American Eagle, Sport Check, Pottery Barn etc). As not to anger store owners, please DO NOT stand in the stores themselves. Stick to the walkways.
At 2:05 pm carry on like nothing happened."
There are about 1,400 confirmed attendees for this, which means that about 300–400 people are probably gonna actually come.