You know, I really need to write more so I don’t seem like a viral marketing strategy for The Chumby, which I still lust after — but on to other things.

I’m a fan of harmless creative mischief. I’m not talking about those hidden camera shows, where someone is humiliated for the sake of ratings. Even if the target has a laugh afterward, it’s still pretty mean and the commerical aspect makes it mean for profit. Nope, not a good combination.

I’m a fan of those moments where people get together and do something just for the sake of the act itself. For example, I have a couple of friends who dressed up as robots and walked around campus, occasionally pausing to dance to a Bee Gees song.

Another example. Our friends Ian and Bronwyn went around campus planting crocus bulbs for no particular reason — just to see them sprout in surprising places in the spring. For Ian’s birthday, Andrew and I got inspired by Addams Family II and decided to make Ian an angelfood cake — made from real angels. Well, not really. We made the angelfood cake, iced it, and then stuck in little plastic angel parts (heads, arms, legs, halos, etc…) that we found in a craft store. I wish I had a picture. The look on Ian’s face was precious.

And then there is the Improv Everywhere, which gets mobs together to do a lot of public stunts. Check out their Slo-Mo Home Depot and MP3 Experiments to see what I mean. Good stuff. Silly, social, creative, and mostly harmless.

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