San Francisco Valentine's Day pillow fight a hit

By Gary Iribarren

For the people who couldn't stand to breathe more feathers, they retreated to the outskirts of Justin Herman Plaza where the second Great San Francisco Valentine's Day Pillow fight was held.

Love birds, couples, double-dates and romantics filled the exclusive restaurants lining Embarcadero Road, booked to capacity for the Hallmark holiday, Valentine's Day. But as the couples were ordering their first course and surveying the wine list, the sky erupted in a cloud of feathers when the fighting began promptly at 6 p.m.

As the pillows burst, the flash mob scene looked as if it were in the midst of snowstorm.

The rules were simple:

1. Tell everyone you know about the pillow fight

2. Tell EVERYONE you know about the pillow fight

3. Arrive with pillow hidden in a bag

4. When the Ferry Building clock strikes 6 p.m., BEGIN!

5. Don't hit anyone without a pillow unless they ask.

If you're hearing the echoes of Brad Pitt's voice in your head, that is due to the satirical take on Chuck Palahniuk's cult classic, Fight Club, organizers employed when publicizing the event. This was the second installment of pillow fights that San Francisco has seen, the last dating back to 2006. Nobody has taken direct credit for the fight, but the mystery behind the planners is precisely the edge of suspense that urged hundreds of strangers to converge for a happy-go-lucky free-for-all.

"It's extremely disorienting in there," said senior Matthew Koji Yoon. "But hot damn it's a hootin' good time."

It should be noted that at that point, he charged back into the flash mob, pillow swinging in a samurai warrior technique. Chances are, you have seen videos on Youtube of large groups of people performing unusual or funny acts, all in bird-flock formation. Bill Wasik, a senior editor of Harper's Magazine, first coined the term "flash mob." He orchestrated the first recorded successful one on June 3, 2003 -- his attempt in May that year was foiled by anonymous tips.

Wasik, in an article entitled "My Crowd, or, Phase 5: A report from the inventor of the flash mob," revealed his hand in the event, describing it as a social experiment fashioned to poke fun at Hipsters to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity amongst them in being part of the next big thing.

But this seems to have backfired on Wasik. In the wake of his experiment, there have been many notable flashmobs -- namely the silent disco in April 2006 where people congregated to dance to music from iPods and CD players and the World Wide Pillow Fight Day on Mar. 22, 2008 -- 27 cities ranging from Beruit to Houston to Shanghai participated.

Flash mobs demonstrate the evolving communication technologies that empower people. Events like these depend heavily on the Internet -- Facebook, private blogs, Twitter and 3G networks come to mind to coordinate thousands of complete strangers with a common goal. What can be accomplished when people can communicate efficiently and quickly, en masse, was underscored by the large turnout.

But the power of mass communication and efficient collaboration was the last thing on the minds of eager pillowfighters that came from all over the Bay Area. Observation was welcomed, but participation was celebrated, not merely as an act of defiance towards the increasingly commercialized Valentine's Day, but just to have fun. Laughter encompassed the fighting, though most aimed for the torso and the head.

A circle was formed around a fierce one-on-one battle between a 6-foot-5-inch black man, dressed in tight jeans, a black Sex-Pistols-esque leather jacket, black combat boots and dreads down his back against a 5-foot-7-inch pudgy white kid, decked out in a snowboard jacket an baggy blue jeans. And just like in Fight Club, the duel ended and they embraced each other with tired grins.

Perhaps someone's' ex was in the crowd or someone was heartbroken that night. Perhaps the very person who had denied you was in attendance. The irony of beating someone up on Valentine's Day appealed to the old and young alike -- cheap, fun and an energetic way to spend a Valentine's Day. But fun was the elemental fuel of the event. The hundreds of smiles and laughs after the urban skirmish left a feeling of release throughout the streets of San Francisco.

Contact Gary Iribarren at giribarren@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.