IN THE SUMMER of 2002, a group of Santa Cruz, Calif., cinephiles hauled a DVD player, projector, speakers, and a 300-foot-long extension cord to parks and abandoned lots around the city, where they'd project their favorite movies onto blank walls. They posted a schedule around town, people showed up with blankets, and the Santa Cruz Guerrilla Drive-In (GDI) was born. Last summer, The New York Times reported that copycat GDIs had appeared from LA to Denver to West Chester, Pa. Since then, however, the movement has been challenged by Bryan Kennedy, a Berkeley, Calif., tinkerer who argues that watching movies on a blanket under the stars may be ''a very cool thing to do, but it's not a 'drive-in."'
Last fall, Kennedy, a 25-year-old Web developer, installed a DVD player, projector, and power inverter in his car and figured out how to beam a movie's soundtrack to nearby car radios via a low-power FM transmitter. That way, he explains on his website, MobMov.org, instead of slapping mosquitoes GDI-goers can ''drive in to a parking lot, tune their radios, and watch their favorite flick from the comfort of their car"-and, presumably, steam up the windows.
''Drive-ins were popular originally because it was like having your own private cineplex," opines Kennedy, who explains that MobMov is short for ''mobile movie" and a nod to the recent phenomenon of flash mobs, a movement in which large groups, summoned by cellphone and text message, assemble hastily in public spaces.
''If you wanted privacy, you'd just roll up your windows. If you wanted to be part of a community, you'd roll them down...." Convinced of the brilliance of his scheme, Kennedy recently started selling a ''mob-in-a-box" package (pre-assembled player/transmitter/inverter set-ups) online.
Asked via e-mail if he knew of any high-tech GDIs in the Boston area, Kennedy said that he did not. However, since MobMov was praised on the geek-chic blog Gizmodo.com earlier this month, he's been ''talking with folks in LA, Florida, and England (so far), helping them set up their own," he e-mailed. ''Boston will likely happen someday soon."
Joshua Glenn is associate editor of Ideas. E-mail glenn@globe.com.
