Thank You

A huge thanks to the hundreds of agents who came out tonight to participate in our latest mission. The weather could not have been worse, and we can’t thank you guys enough for sticking with it in the rain and the cold. Agent Shafer will be working on the video footage very soon, so stay tuned. Tag your photos with “iebb” on Flickr, and post links in the comments. For now, here are a couple of shots of the meeting point from Agent Nicholson.

Comments

  1. Unequivocally, I think I found a lot more fun in this mission that to be expected, due to weather and such.
    Thanks to everyone that dared come out and get a little wet and cold – I’m sure it was fun!

  2. damn you for originaly saying it was going to be on thursday and damn aol for not working till it was too late, i wanted to go :{

  3. I gotta say – I was so excited to go, I brought my wife and my sister since we live in Jersey … and we tried to wait on the bridge but the wind was ridiculous, and if we stayed any longer I would have been looking at divorce papers. We finally walked off the bridge after 10 (maybe even 10:15) soaked to the bone.

    I think it could have been awesome, if we could have had some better weather. Having said that – it could have been organized to be a little quicker in view of the weather (I know you probably had over 1000 people, so I understand) but I’m sorry I missed out on the actual photo taking. But, I won’t be getting divorced, so – all’s well I guess.

  4. Wow! It was cold and wet, but it was still so amazing to be standing on the bridge and know that you were a part of something this big. I wish it had been better weather, but I met some people I probably wouldn’t have met if the weather had been nice (there’s nothing like having something to commiserate over together). It was a total blast!!!

  5. This was my first mission. Even though it was wet and cold i still had a lot of fun. Shared a few laughs with complete strangers and took a bunch of pictures of the support cables of the Brooklyn bridge. All in all it was a great experience, can’t wait till the next mission. Thanks for the great time!

  6. This was my first mission, and i must say, it was a blast! Even though there was horrible rain and wind, i met two amazing people, and we had great laughs! I cant wait until the next mission, and i hope i get to meet more amazing people!
    -if there is a girly scream made by a teenage boy in the video, that would be my brother.-

  7. I’m fairly upset that I couldn’t come do this. It would have been my first mission, and I had been looking forward to it since I got the email, but the second I asked my parents for permission I got the standard “no way”… Though my mom did say that if it was earlier in the day, I MIGHT have been able to go.

    Maybe next time, I hope. I still have no idea what you guys did, though I’ve got an idea, and I can’t wait to see the footage!

  9. Allyieh- I saw (and heard) him!
    This was my first mission and it was great! I take it it worked?
    Can’t wait for the next one!

  10. This was my first mission with the crew, too! I don’t regret standing out there in the middle of the bridge, but I really do wish it had been today (Saturday), it’s beautiful out today. All in all, I’m glad I was there and can’t wait to see the video. Looking forward to the next one!

  11. I lasted through the mission, but didn’t last very long at the pub. I was soaked to the bone! But I had a great time, can’t wait to see the video!

  14. EVIL weather, but fun nonetheless!!
    I honestly didn’t realize how pretty the flashes would look, since from my standpoint, all I saw was light.
    But wow! That 2nd picture looks great, I can’t wait to see the video!

    And it was funny watching Charlie run back and forth xD
    Poor him….

  15. I was there with my girlfriend and while she was huddling under her umbrella on the bridge, with wet and cold feet, I was hopping around near the manhattan side of the bridge in excitement.
    we held out until the second round of photo waves went past, and then we joined the crowd on the way off the bridge.
    My camera was sucky, hers wasn’t that wonderful either and we don’t have any “good” photoes, but we did have… wait, no… I did have a nice time, and she indulged me admirably.
    Looking forward to more missions and the video of this one.

  16. I was in a taxi on my way to this but my friend ditched me and I has to turn back to grand central. I was so upset it looked like fun bad weather or not. Oh well theres always next time for my first mission. hope you guys had fun, cant wait to see the video!

  17. Oh man, SO cold!

    Miserably cold and miserably windy and miserably miserable, but yet amazingly fun :D

    Me and my friends were absolutely drenched. We stayed ’till the end, but by the time we got on the subway and evaluated our wetness, it was basically decided cold and wet was the new style…

    Pretty fun though, made some friends with people whose first mission this was, they seemed to enjoy it :D

  20. First mission and I went with 3 of my friends. Crazy as it was and miserable as the weather was we had a blast. I think if you can have fun doing this then you just have to accept you are the right person for this medium. MORE!

  21. Anyone have their version of the games of telephone that we started? We started one in one direction and one in the other.

    That was possibly the coldest I’ve ever been but I had a lot of fun. Hot chocolate afterwards was delicious.

  23. Poor Charlies voice was practically gone by the time he did the second run from manhattan side to brooklyn side.

  26. Wet weather–no problem! A Good time had by most if not all!
    What better way to spend my last night being 50 years young!!!!
    Officially joined the 51 Club, today(5/17)!!!!

    Hope for more FUN like this, in the coming year!!!
    Thanks to everyone!

  27. I was so excited about getting into a mission, but my little group missed the first bus by 10 seconds, then the second bus took 2 hours due to Manhattan traffic last night, and my friend did a little subway-system-screw-up, and we ended up lost and forcing ourselves to keep moving and at least get to the meeting point at 9:45 in hopes someone would still be there… There was one guy there, Andrew from Hell’s Kitchen who was late as well. It was cool to at least meet somebody headed in the same direction. The three of us are disappointed we didn’t quite make it, but hopefully next time the weather will cooperate… Can’t wait to read the reports!

    On the way out of the subway station, I stopped someone and asked directions, the man looked at me and said, “What is going on there? Some kind of big meeting there tonight?” so I said, “What do you mean?” and he said that a lot of people had come up and asked him the same directions over and over, “hundreds of people all with umbrellas”.

  29. I didn’t mind the rain, the wind, the cold, or standing in the middle of the bridge for an hour. I just think it’s not the same if you’re not doing stuff directly in front of people so you can see/hear reactions. Not one of the best missions…

  30. Top of bridge + wind + rain = very cold but somehow still fun 8)

    I think nobody anticipated the communication problem and how loud the cars and the rain were. An afterthought is we could have had somebody drive a very noticeable vehicle along the bridge with blinkers on and high beams repeatedly flashing with a steady horn or something along those lines as a cue for everyone to snap their photos. Watching Charlie run made me want to brace myself for a faceplant.

    The “grand finale” was a disaster. We should have had a set time say 1030 with everyone referring to the huge amitron clock I believe that was on the Brooklyn side.

    Still as a first timer this was a fun experience and I will definitely be back for future missions =)

  34. Wow, you guys have a huge pool of agents to work with; the turnout, despite the weather, was amazing. I’m looking forward to the next big mission like this. In the mean time, I’ll be recovering from last night–and investing in a new umbrella.

  35. This was my first mission, and it was thoroughly silly! I came alone (I suppose all my friends are more sensible than I am; their loss) but met lots of cool folks (guy from the southern hemisphere with a creative beard whose name I didn’t get, should you happen to see this, let me know if you’d like to get a drink some time- I was (possibly) the (only) girl with a purple umbrella). I’m really curious to see how this madness looked from the other bridge, people going across on the train must’ve been impressed.

    Also, I don’t seem to have caught pneumonia, hurrah!

    http://flickr.com/photos/sillycaitlin/tags/iebb/

  37. I hate to be the one to say it, but that was miserable for me. Granted the weather was not something anyone could have controlled but a bit more planning would of made things go much smoother. I did meet friendly people and we chuckled here and there but Charlie, instead of running the span of the bridge multiple times instruct the audience in a simple technique. Telephone. Just have the person on one end of the bridge start the action and say go to the person next to them. That way the flashes are more properly synchronized and you don’t have to run across the bridge several times. Just a thought. Not trying to stop the parade of positivity. Additionally (and perhaps this was in use), try using simple radios to communicate with other agents.

  38. @Splash Pants,

    Believe me, the plan was not for Brian, Jonah, and I to have to run across the bridge three times. Maybe you missed the meeting point, but the instructions were for the flashes to be coordinated via “Telephone” like you say. We started it and it went about 15 people and stopped. So at that point we figured if it was going to happen we had to run like hell and make it happen. I’m not sure why it stopped the first time, but it was cold, rainy, windy, and the cars splashing in the rain below were noisy… so I guess it was hard to hear the person next to you. We learned alot on this mission and would definitely do things differently if we did it again, but hindsight is 20/20.

  39. I guess I did miss that instruction. Hopefully next time will go more smoothly.

  45. So, yeah, the weather FUBAR’d it . . but I agree with Splashy Pants, a little more organization (walkie-talkies, and maybe an insider on a bicycle) might have helped. Better weather, of course would have helped.
    The guy on my right, Jeremy, was a real good sport – followed instructions and played along. The woman on my right (wouldn’t tell me her name) was a real ass and didn’t follow instructions. She broke the telephone line from Brooklyn because she didn’t want to talk to me (maybe she thought I was going to steal her camera . . . wtf? Play along or don’t play at all).
    All in all, it was fun, sometimes these things work, sometimes they don’t, from the ones that don’t work, it’s a learning experience. I was happy to be a part of it all.
    Me, I’m a trooper, I come prepared, no matter the weather or what ever comes, I’m sticking to the plan.

  46. oops, in my last comment, Jeremy was on my left, the ass who wouldn’t follow instructions was on my right.

  47. The instructions could not have been any more clear. I don’t see how that could have been Charlie’s fault. The weather was brutal, but it didn’t seem like many people near me cared much about making sure things went off without a hitch (and therefore make a killer video and get us out of the cold sooner). That’s what was really a shame.

  48. Frankly, I think the weather was the main negative issue. Surprisingly, we had the numbers, the organization was well above the minimum required. I think that the ratio of agents to players made it difficult to keep them organized enough to perform the monumental task at hand. In the simplest sense, it was count and click, but given the numbers it would be daunting to keep them all on task.

    All that aside, I think it was worth my own 1 hour trip and getting soaked. I am still hyped to see the end result, and I am somewhat leaning towards the “mulligan” that was mentioned.

  51. That wasn’t too bad of a mission, the weather really did suck though, I wish I had an umbrella, me and my friend were lucky enough to be standing next to umbrella girl (you know who you are). Umbrella girl thought I was a doctor, HA! The bar afterwards wasn’t bad either. All-in-all a good night.

  52. We have a couple of really fantastic time lapse photos taken from the Manhattan Bridge where you can see the massive row of flashes, which look like blue dots. Agent Sokoler got some great shots. Hopefully we’ll have everything ready to go soon along with the video, but it may be a week or so before it’s all ready to go in a mission report.

  53. I was really thrilled with the human race on Friday. The fact that Improv Everywhere can ask people to show up somewhere on a rainy miserable Friday night, with a flash camera, to do something harmless and collective and fun, and the crowd that results is too big for the Brooklyn Bridge… makes me happy. Thanks to everyone that came, and thank you Charlie for running across the bridge three times to make it happen. And it was cool that you recognized me, even in my rain-soaked and badly hypothermic state, heh. ^_^

    Interesting moment: one of the coordinators was talking on a cell phone on the bridge, and when they realized he was one of the organizers, a gaggle of people squealed and started taking his picture.

  54. Wish I could’ve gone. I had to see the play “The Country Girl”. It was amazing and worth it of course, but I wanted these things to be on different days. Oh well. I wore a top hat on that night, and that’s all that counts. When’s the next mission?

  55. This was in fact a great mission, despite the weather. me and 3 others showed up expecting it to be a sort of “paparazzi to strangers” mish but it turned out to be much better, hopefully the dark gloomy weather didnt block out the video for it, looking foward to future missions!

  56. So, if the Brooklyn Bridge is 1595 feet from shore to shore, how many of us turned out? Charlie, guess? 800? Whatever the amount was, it met my goal of having a community experience. That’s what you do, Charlie, create community. Thanks for lighting the flame.

  57. No offense, guys, but I think trying to complete this stunt on a cold, rainy night was selfish and misguided. The fact that hundreds of people showed up and stayed because you asked them to does demonstrate an amazing devotion to Improv Everywhere, but I think you took advantage of it – and given the weather conditions, the amount of time it took to complete the stunt and the lack of communication from organizers was nearly unconscionable.

    That having been said, you can see my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/beeeej/tags/iebb/ . And as much as I whine, I’ll be back the next time I’m called to duty, because the odds are outstanding that it will never again be as unpleasant as this was.

  60. Hi there, folks. I’m looking for someone. I don’t know your last name. All I know is that you answer to John, or is it Jon? Anyways, you say you’re a social scientist who lives in Rego Park in Queens. You met us quite randomly. We were a group of students from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. We all chatted for a time while at the meeting place and then you had to go to find your friend. We never found you again after that. If you’re out there, please let me know. Or if anyone else here knows who I am talking about, please let him know I’m looking for him. I know it’s a longshot but, I have nothing to lose. My email is wallscrawlpoet@hotmail.com.

  62. There were lots of factors at play in our decision to go forward with the mission despite the weather. It was not a decision made lightly, and many of us stressed about it all week. One thing we had to consider was that Agent Nicholson (our amazing senior photographer) flew all the way from California to be a part of the mission for one night and then fly back the next day. If we moved to Saturday, he would have flown cross country for nothing. Also, there was the chance of rain on Saturday night as well. As it turns out, it rained quite a bit last night. Not an all day rain, but several showers right around the time the mission would have been. I almost think that surprise showers would have been worse, as people would not have been prepared with umbrellas and jackets, etc.

    Finally, we learned only on Wednesday about a “light installation” spanning the length of the bridge was being installed to celebrate the bridge’s 125th birthday. It was to go up Friday the 23rd and stay up through Memorial Day. So moving the mission to next weekend wasn’t an option either– it would be dumb to do our own light experiment on top of someone else’s. (info: http://gothamist.com/2008/05/14/5_day_celebrati.php)

    We picked this date a month in advance and worked hard to get our entire crew together for the 16th. Everyone who wanted to participate cleared the night on their calendar. We had 750 people RSVP even after we made it clear that it was probably going to be nasty weather. People were ready to go. So we went for it, and I’m proud of all of you guys for making it happen despite the elements.

    If you sign up for an IE mission, you’re going to get an adventure, and I think it’s fair to say that’s what we all got on Friday.

  63. I just want to say that friday night was INSANELY FUN! The excitement of the mission definitely outweighed the rainy weather. I would just like to thank all of the senior agents and Agent Todd for making such an effort for this event to happen. It also shows how many dedicated agents we have- imagine how many people would have come if the weather wasn’t bad! So just wanted to say how much fun I had and I will definitely be doing more missions!

  64. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to miss the mission. I have a guess, but I’m not 100% sure what went on. Could someone please explain what exactly the mission was for those of us who are dying to know and can’t wait for the video to go up? Thanks and keep up the awesome work IE.

  65. Rain, who cares. It’s NYC.. are you guys not all used to holding an umbrella that doesn’t keep you dry at all? I’m glad the plan continued. I would have been upset if I had come hung out in the rain for nothing. I had a great time and am eagerly waiting for the video and pictures!!

  66. I just found out that the Manhattan Bridge pedestrian walkway was closed last night and is also closed tonight (construction or something.) So if we had postponed to Saturday we would have lost our prime shooting spot!

  67. Here are links to pics I took (sorry, no flicker account).
    #1 at the meeting point,
    http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb01by3.jpg
    #2 on the way to the bridge
    http://img164.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb02eg8.jpg
    #3 on the bridge
    http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb03bk7.jpg
    #4 the folks to my left (toward Manhattan)
    http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb04bl1.jpg
    #5 a crew dude runs past
    http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb05tj0.jpg
    #6 the total Babe to my right (toward Brooklyn) http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iebb06ce6.jpg
    Enjoy!

  68. Hey Charlie just wondering what was the original plan? From BK to Manhattan and back twice then a grand finale right? I actually thought we were all going to be able to see everyone’s flashes reflect off the water or some distant structure but that was clearly not the case. How did you plan on getting everyone to flash at the same time?

  69. @BLieve,

    Yeah the plan was supposed to be from BK to Man and back twice and then from BK to Man a final time but the flashes were to be cumulative. Meaning, once the wave hits you, you keep flashing. What ended up happening was we got from BK to Man and back and then to Man again, and then as we were coming back the second time people started leaving. Mob mentality, I guess! So we just started screaming finale and asking everyone to take a bunch of pics at the end.

  72. Hey,
    This was my first mission. I think it was fun but the wheater was terrible!!! I hope the flas wave is going to be seen well on the tape from the manhattan bridge. I hope getting soaking wet was wearth it. when is it getting published?
    I put my pics on Flickr and tagged it IEBB. and on my blog/website i also put my 3 favorites.
    Regretably the conditions to take pictures werent really the best.
    lg have fun
    i am very happy to get some response/comments on my Blog because it is new and it was a lot of work.
    scroll down to the date then u ll see the pics of Improove Everywhere. :)
    vlg Klemens

  75. This past Friday’s mission sucked. You guys really blew it, and gave a lot of us the impression that you’ve outlived yr usefulness.
    A huge part of what’s made IE’s prior missions so compelling was the interaction between the Agents, their mission, and bystanders.
    There were no significant bystanders on Friday night, and zero meaningful interaction between the IE mission and the public.
    I also can’t understand why you had us spend ~40 minutes standing on the bridge in the rain, waiting to begin.
    I also don’t know what moron thought people could count off at the same speed which they could press the shutter button on their camera.
    Furthermore, the whole stupid stunt could have been performed electronically…there was really no need to have human beings hold cameras. You really didn’t need human bodies for this mission. It was a complete misuse of yr resources.
    I suppose you had us “performing” for yr video camera…but I think that’s kind of weak. If the aim of this mission was to get a viral video out on the internet, well then, you guys have jumped the shark.
    In summary, whoever planned this stunt really fucked up, and is guilty of wasting an pretty awesome amount of potential energy.
    You guys have arranged some amazing missions in the past, but this time you guys really stunk.
    Impressed by yr lameness,
    Jeffrey

  76. I’ve been reading every single posts since I discovered IE. This time I’m confused. What was the mission? All I’m reading is everyone was on a bridge, it was a bad weather and you all had camera with you. It feels like I’m reading a trailer of a mission to be released during this blockbuster season.

    Since the mission itself is not described yet (unless I missed it somehow), I’m just trying to figure out what the hell could it be? Or is this some sort of Online mission itself? Trying to get the readers wonder about a mission, that probably didn’t even take place, lol… :)

  77. i hate to say it, but i have to agree with the folks who have expressed disappointment on this one. i stuck it out as long as i could, but i was soaked to the bone and shivering so hard i could barely stand up — the wind up there was BRUTAL, especially after standing still for longer than half an hour. i was also stressed about protecting my camera from the rain (it’s a fairly expensive DSLR that i would be heartbroken over damaging). don’t get me wrong, even with the rain i was psyched at first, but as time wore on and we didn’t DO IT, the utter misery started to set in. when it finally happened, i didn’t have enough warning to get my camera into place (i had been trying to shield it from the weather until we actually started, and it turned out, we didn’t have any warning that we were actually starting), and so after ~40 minutes of freezing my ass off on the bridge, i didn’t even get to be a part of this.

    it’s a great idea and i think it would have been awesome in better weather. (i think the organizational problems were at least partially to do with the weather… people being huddled and distracted couldn’t help anyway.) so don’t get me wrong, i say this with love, and i will certainly be there for the next crazy thing you ask us to do… but i think you should’ve called it. the only thing i enjoyed about the evening was when i FINALLY got home and was able to get warm and dry again. :/

  78. To Jeffrey,
    Lighten up! I got soaked as well but don’t feel anyone f’ed up. Things don’t always work out like they are planned. It’s called “life” Go with the flow guy and try and have some fun

    This was my first mission and I met a few interesting people and did something different on a friday night. Yeah I was cold but I caught a cab fairly quickly and had a blast. I’ll be back for the mulligan if you need me.

    And Charlie, thnx for the explanantions of why you had to go ahead with it. Seems like it was the only chance to try and pull it off

  79. Some are just born to bitch. Maybe Jeff will create his own awesome mission of awesome awesomeness to impress us all. Do it soon, dude! We’re all holding our breath!

  81. Charlie and the IE Agents,
    I am regular participant and I believe strong promoter of your events (missions). I have had fantastic time with you guys and too many great stories and pictures. However, this event was an exception to the rule. I understand it was your first attempt at this specific mission. I have to ask, was this mission straying from the general premise of IE? The goal of the mission appeared to be to film an interesting video? In my limited and humble opinion, the mission might be more enjoyable to the Agents participating if they experience the ‘effect’ in person and did not have to wait a week for the video. Again, I am a huge fan of IE so please take this as a purely constructive thought. Cheers, Chris

  82. @Agent Day,

    Each Improv Everywhere mission is a unique experience. In 2006, 60 people stood in the 15 degree weather for an hour, and all they did was dial a phone number. Was it fun? No. But everyone was excited to be a part of something bigger– knowing that 60 phones were ringing in the bookstore down the street.

    The same year agents danced in the windows for Look Up More, each having no idea how the mission looked until seeing the video and photos a week later.

    This was definitely a different type of mission for us, and the audience who saw it is definitely very small. When we conceived it, we figured there would be tons of people on the Brooklyn Bridge walking and biking by us trying to figure out why the hell people were standing in a straight line with cameras. Due to the weather, we were pretty much alone on the bridge. We also talked about the people driving on the Manhattan Bridge, riding the Q train across, and living in the many apartment buildings in the area who might look at the Brooklyn Bridge at the right time and see something awesome. I hope that happened. I also like that we don’t really know if it happened or not.

    IE strives to cause scenes, and even if barely anyone besides us saw it, I would certainly say that it was a pretty big scene on the bridge on Friday night.

    We try to do things that are going to be fun experiences for the participants. We knew this was not going to be as much fun as some of the other recent ones, which is why we made sure to organize an official after party so folks could make a full night of it.

    The goal was not to create a video, the goal was to create a participatory event where strangers could work together to create something cool, which I’d say we managed to pull off despite the weather.

  83. I had a great time, despite the weather. It felt kind of insane, with the wind blowing up on the bridge and being soaked to the bone, but I certainly got a story out of it…
    Had a good time at the pub afterwards, and made a few new friends–and it was nice to meet you, Charlie. I look forward to doing another IE event soon! My (few, as my camera was having a tough time in the rain) pics are here:
    http://flickr.com/photos/bluespf42/sets/72157605135300071/

  84. Agent Scott – I’m the girl in the pink boots and the khaki trench coat who managed to be in almost every one of your pictures somehow. Thank you for posting this biographical experience for me! Your pictures turned out fantastic.

  85. I really wanted to go to this mission but being very ill and a one hour Metro North ride was not a good idea for me. I could care less about the weather, I love rain actually. Congratulations on your latest mission.

  86. Agent Pearl: You can thank laziness. I’m a big baby in cold wet weather and also getting over a cold (haven’t still) so I didn’t want to stray too far from the closest subway entrance. So I pretty much stayed in the same Manhattan-side spot the whole time to take pictures!

    I actually do regret not spanning more of the bridge. But it’s easy to say that now that’s it’s sunny out.

    Anyway, thanks for the note!

  87. Thank you Charlie and to the others who organized the IEBB. This was my first mission and the rain/wind just made it that much more exciting. It was almost like an initiation process to becoming agent and I would do it all over again. Considering this was a voluteer effort, I’m sad that there are some poor sports out there giving you a hard time. Thank you again! You’re the BEST!

  89. This was my first mission, and my BF and I were really excited. We thought the idea was fantastic, it’s too bad the weather made it difficult to deal with. The cold wind and rain sucked, but I can’t wait to see if the flashy thing actually worked.

    http://flickr.com/photos/susiejulie/tags/iebb/
    I wouldn’t mind trying this again in a month or so with nicer weather. Can’t wait for the next mission regardless!

  94. Looks like our mission had a “missed connection”:

    http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mis/684454403.html

    “I stood next to you and your friend on the bridge in the rain yesterday. I thought you were cute and tried in vain to talk to you as much as possible. You had a yellow umbrella, I had thick-framed glasses and a blue hoodie, and we talked about donning war paint and starting sing-alongs.

    I looked for you after we got off the bridge, but I must have lost you in the crowd. Hopefully you’ll see this!”

  96. I can only wonder how many people would have turned out if the weather was nice. Being cold and stuck in the rain always makes for a good memory, and this was no exception. Good times!

  98. Man i hve to get around to uploading my photos. i will probably do this tonite. it was pretty fun all things considered. the line didn’t hold

  102. This was my first mission, and I had so much fun! I loved that so many people turned up in crappy weather to do something insane for really no reason at all, and I can’t wait to see what comes out on the video/time lapse. And here in NYC, “spring” pretty much means “rain,” so our chances of not getting wet were slim in the first place. I do think it would have been completed better if the action had started sooner — we were standing a long time before anything happened and all the skinny people got cold.

  103. This was my first (perhaps only) mission. I’m from North Carolina, so I was just lucky the mission happened to be scheduled while I was in town for my sisters graduation.

    I’m glad it went forward, even with the rain, and I really don’t see why people are complaining.

    If you didn’t think it was worth getting wet and cold, in the wind, why did you come on the bridge?
    If you think IE should not have gone through with it — I don’t quite understand why you were even there?
    If you can’t decide for yourself that you don’t think it is worth getting wet and cold, how does it become IE’s responsibility, to tell you weather (pun intended) it’s worth it or not?

    I am assuming (and certainly hope) most people who didn’t think it was worth it didn’t come. And it appears over half the people there (at least by those posting here) are still glad they went.

    I think _if_ IE had any responsibility, it was to go through with it, if at all possible – for those people. The people who still found it worth it. Many of which were from out of town, and might never get a chance to do an IE mission again.

    Don’t you think it is kind of self-centered, to say IE should have called the _whole_ thing off, just because _you_ couldn’t figure out for _yourself_, that it was rainy and windy that night, and you didn’t think being cold and wet was worth it?

    That’s my 2 cents anyway.

    I didn’t really get that many pictures, as I was trying to keep my digital camera dry. And didn’t get definitive shots of those to either side, cause I was waiting to the end, which didn’t really end up happening as planned. But here is what I got. (I lightened them, so you can see pretty well)

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/86718832@N00/tags/iebb/

    I still had fun and thought it was worth it. :) Thanks for the memorable adventure!

  106. Dammit Charlie can we get a preivew??

    Another afterthought, why not flashlights instead of cameras? I understand you want to take the picture but damn flicking a flashlight on and off for a grand finale woulda been much easier.

  107. @BLieve,

    We tested flashlights at our test run. They didn’t look quite as good.

    Improv Everywhere missions typically take 10 days or so before they are posted. This is nothing new. Agent Shafer is editing on a volunteer basis and it’s a slow process. We’re hoping to have it up after Memorial day.

  109. Unless there were other people on the bridge with yellow umbrellas talking about war paint and sing-alongs, which I really think we should have done, I guess I’m the missed connection.

    The weather may not have been the best but I had fun and met tons of great people.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/26928770@N04/

  110. My first mission at last! I barely made it to this one but I’ll be back for more, and next time I plan to join the crowd for libations afterward.

    Took the rest of the night to fully unclench my frozen umbrella-holding hand, and two days to completely dry out my shoes… but it was, as I’d hoped, an experience worthy of withstanding the weather, despite the breakdowns in executing the original plan.

    Here are my bad photos (except a few that truly aren’t worth wasting the bandwidth) – fighting a windblown umbrella really does nothing for a person’s photographic skills!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/26904387@N04/sets/72157605231893747/

    I eagerly await the video… and the next mission.

  112. Gotta admit, I’m also not too impressed with how few of the participants have posted their photos thus far, a full eight days later – but of course that’s not IE’s fault. :-)

  114. hey, it takes time for some people to post their photos, not to mention the fact that the weather made for plenty of amazingly bad pictures and awkward faces that we might not wanna post. Oh, and lets not forget those people with disposable cameras that have to take them back to be developed–and chronically late people like me too.

  119. my pix suck horrificlly but I did have a good time holding the line.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/67704921@N00/tags/iebb/

    On to the mission itself. Not everything always goes off perfectly that’s why they are missions and not performances. Reading how everyone complains about it. I don’t think you guys came in with the right mindset. It’s not so much about doing something but having a good time doing it and making memories doing so. If you didn’t like the situation then you shouldn’t have accepted the mission.It’s not like you didn’t know it was raining when you met in foley square. To complain that the weather was terrible when you could have easily stayed home is stupid. Also bashing Charlie on this mission and calling it short sighted is nuts.All the factors that you have to take in for doing something of this scale is crazy. All things considered he weathered the storm(no pun aww ok pun intended) pretty well. If you’re going to be a soldier do not be a summer soldier. I came home soaking wet and cold but I was horse from screaming and laughing. I’ll offer some advice if you’re coming to just be a part of a scene just beccause then do yourself and everyone else a favor and stay home.

    Anyway i’m ready for the next mish!

  120. ? no video yet? are you serious? by the time the video gets here people are going to be like, oh yeah whatever.

  121. Yes, we’re serious! Editing video is lots of work and our editor is doing it on a volunteer basis, so be patient! We hope to have it done very soon.

    In the meantime, enjoy the new header as a tease.

  126. Editing a decent video is lots of work. I can vouch for the poor guy on the basis of my school video projects.

    Looking forward to the full missions report and video. C:

  127. Now this is what I call “working towards a better future”!

    It’s my first time at this blog. Wouldn’t it be nice if this kind of team work be more viral? So much can be achieved.

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