A few minutes before 1 p.m., a group of people in their 20s sat on the steps of the Barnes & Noble Booksellers store facing a bridge that connects it with the National Aquarium. Others shuffled around the bridge, glancing at their cell phones to check the time.
Goff, dressed in a trench coat, walked to the middle of the bridge. The boombox he had planned to bring wasn't working, so he brought an iPod, speaker and bullhorn. Once he pulled the items from his backpack, people cheered, ran onto the bridge and flocked around him.
But the speaker malfunctioned, so the crowd ended up singing a cappella. Crooning the song through the bullhorn, Goff pumped his fist in the air as the crowd danced and clapped around him.
"It's grass roots; you've got to make the best of it," Goff said after the event. "It's all in the spirit of Rick."
Yesterday's flash mob was expected to have 327 participants, according to a guest list on the social networking Web site Facebook, but about 50 showed.
"I guess not everyone is dedicated to rickrolling as we are," said Frank Short, 20, who drove from Fairfax, Va., to be part of the flash mob. "I would've flown here. I'm infected by this song every day."
When asked whether he was getting tired of "Never Gonna Give You Up," Short replied, "I don't think that's possible. I'm offended by the question."
Goff advertised the event on Facebook, Craigslist and some Baltimore message boards. The word-of-mouth marketer from Fells Point invited his friends and urged them to tell their friends.
"The turnout was decent," he said. "I would've been happy had 10 people shown up."
madison.park@baltsun.com
