The latest issue of Stay Free! contains an excellent and lengthy interview with Bill, the man primarily responsible for the flash-mob phenomenon of 2003. Bill is a very smart man, and he has lots of smart things to say about the phenomenon he inspired. Here’s an excerpt:

I had conceived [flash mobs] specifically as a New York thing. People in New York are always looking for the next big thing. They come here because they want to take part in the arts community, they want to be with other people who are doing creative stuff, and they will come out to see a reading or a concert on the basis of word-of-mouth. Partly they want to find out what everybody else is so excited about, but partly they just want to be a part of the scene. You have this in other places too, but I feel like there’s something in New York that makes it kind of a city-wide pastime. Part of what I liked about this idea was that it would be very frank about the pure scenesterism of it. What is it that would make people come to the flash mob? Well, it would be the fact that if it went off as planned, lots of other people would be coming. The desire to not be left out was part of what would grow it. I didn’t have all of these grandiose notions about it at the time; I mostly just thought it was funny. But I thought of it as a stunt that would satirize scenester-y gatherings.

The interview was conducted by Francis Heaney, whose blog you should be reading.