Cacophony Society
The Cacophony Society is “a randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society.” It was started in 1986 by surviving members of the now defunct Suicide Club of San Francisco.
Cacophony could be described as an indirect culture jamming outgrowth of the Dada movement, and the Situationists. One of its central concepts is the Trip to the Zone, or Zone Trip, inspired by the Temporary Autonomous Zone.
According to self-designated members of the Society, “you may already be a member.” The
San Francisco chapter
The San Francisco Branch of the Cacophony Society were the primary organizers of the annual Burning Man festival after Michael Mikel attended its previous incarnation as a beach party at Baker Beach in 1988 and publicized the 1989 event in the Cacophony Society newsletter. Cacophonist Kevin Evans conceived of Zone Trip #4 in 1990 and organized it with John Law and Michael Mikel, publicizing it in the newsletter as "A Bad Day at Black Rock". Harvey and James were subsequently invited to bring their effigy along, after they were prevented from burning it on the beach by law enforcement. Other significant events created by the Society are: the Atomic Cafe, the Chinese New Year’s Treasure Hunt, the picnic on the Golden Gate Bridge, Pet Cemetery Bingo, The Crucifixion of the Easter Bunny, the Brides of March, Urban Iditarod, and the Sewer Walk. After a lull in activity in the San Francisco branch of the society in the late 1990s and the cease of publication of that chapter’s monthly newsletter Rough Draft listing of events for the San Francisco Cacophony Society (172 issues were produced during the years 1986 to 2001). a group of subscribers to the practically defunct society’s email discussion list became active under the Cacophony Society aegis following a mock Pigeon Roast put on by a fictitious organization calling itself "Bay Area Rotisserie Friends" in San Francisco’s Union Square in 2000 proposed by Drunken Consumptive Panda. This new group of Cacophonists is occasionally referred to by its members as Cacophony 2.0 and emphasize their chaotic, ebullient spirit with the motto “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your [bull]horn.” The Society’s newsletter was briefly revived under the name 2econd Draft.
Los Angeles chapter
The Los Angeles branch of the society listed events in their monthly newsletter, "Tales from the Zone." After several years of mailing out monthly newsletters, they switched to an on-line newsletter format. The events produced by the Los Angeles branch often pushed the boundaries of pranksterism with several historic events, including "Cement Cuddlers", an event where they filled a dozen teddy bears with cement and put them on toy store shelves, complete with bar-coded labels and "Klowns against Commerce" which tested the limits to which a clown could abuse business men in downtown Los Angeles before being assaulted or arrested.
The Los Angeles group splintered in late 2000 when longtime leader Reverend Al declared a "bold new direction" for the branch and allegedly joined an Orthodox Christian community out of guilt over the deaths of two young Cacophonists who reportedly died in a drunken post-event car accident (though one of the men eventually turned out to be completely fictitious, and the other, Peter "Mr. Outer Space" Geiberger was discovered some months later, alive and well and quite amused at tumult resulting from his 'death'. On September 13, 2006 Geiberger actually died, which proved somewhat anti-climatic in light of the elaborate mourning of his initial "passing.") In 2005 Reverend Al resurfaced as Dr. A.P. Ridenour, leader of a safety consciousness organization, The Art of Bleeding, along with several members of the Orthodox faction of Los Angeles Cacophony.
Seattle and Portland chapters
By the mid-90s, Cacophony had spread to four major centers along the American west coast. In 1996, Portland Cacophony hosted the infamous first Naughty Santa rampage to take place outside of San Francisco. The arrival of the planeload of Santas was met by Portland's finest in riot gear, as someone in the SFPD had thoughtfully sent word ahead, apparently warning of them of the impending danger to their liquor stocks and the virue of their women. or not. Swift, thoughtful and very friendly action by Santa Melmoth, inviting the police along for the fun, kept confrontations to minimum. The weekend resulted in only one arrest - involving a gift wrapped in a playboy centerfold given to someone without checking the recipient's ID to make sure he was over 18. For several years Portland Caco took responsibility for the Disgruntled Postal Workers -a group of surly, heavily armed people in postal uniforms who, when they felt like it, delivered newspapers and other forms of "mail" at Black Rock City, until BMorg outlawed their guns.
Other chapters
Even as "official" Cacophony activity was dying down in SF and LA, Caco chapters continued to spring up in other US cities and in other countries. Cacophony chapters are now or have been active in about two dozen North American cities and in at least a half dozen other countries. The Santas have even reached Antarctica.
Sounds Like Cacophony
Many activities have been inspired by Cacophony and vice versa. Although in San Francisco its currently in vogue not to apply the officially Cacophony label to similar activities, Zombie attacks, Peewee Herman day (commemorating Paul Reubens' arrest in a porn theater) and other goofs are alive and well. The Santa rampages, always somewhat ambiguous, and have been largely disassociated from Cacophony as many have devolved into traditionalist pub crawls, devoid of creative spark. Periodically, klowns, bunnies, zombies and others have staged anti-Santa activities, to shake things up. Some have called such activity counter-culture jamming. Another example of counter-culture-jamming is Smiley Man, a neon prank installed secretly on the Man at Burning Man 1996, the last year that Cacophony founder John Law was Director of Operations at Burning Man, before control of the festival was taken over by a new corporation headed by one of the other founders, Larry Harvey. John Law had been responsible for the original neon on the Man, six years earlier.
Flash mob activities share some ideas with Cacophony, as well as groups like Improv Everywhere and movements like Discordianism. The Society also has links to the Church of the Subgenius and the annual Saint Stupid’s Day Parade held on April 1 in San Francisco, sponsored by Bishop Joey (AKA Ed Holmes) and to the Billboard Liberation Front a group of artist/pranksters responsible for several infamous billboard alterations. Urban Explorers also have taken some inspirition from early Cacophony events such as the Sewer Walks.
Possibly the most widely known Cacophony member is novelist Chuck Palahniuk, who has mentioned the Society in both his writings and interviews. He used the Cacophony Society as the basis for the organization Project Mayhem in his novel and movie Fight Club. Palahniuk himself was pranked by a gang of Cacophonist waiters at one of his book readings in San Francisco.
Another infamous Cacophony Society member is Paul Addis, who took counter-culture jamming to a new level with his campaign of pranking the Man at Burning Man (AKA Zone Trip #4), beginning in 1997 with a pair of silver inflatable balls. Addis has been charged with Arson for his alleged role in burning the Man early at Burning Man 2007.
External links
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