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Los Angeles, CA 90012 How to Reach Us on without their leader, or are they aimless, as lost as the Merry Pranksters without Ken Kesey? acophony Societies are disorganized groups of artists, kitsch hounds, slackers and noisemakers in search of experiences beyond the go wherever there are some raw materials from which we can make our may already be a the Los Angeles Cacophony Society Web site, at la.ca- cophony.org L.A. cacophonists have staged Laundromat poetry readings, picnics on earthquake faults and field trips to cryonics companies. At the L.A. Pet Cemetery in Calabasas they have visited the markers of luminaries ranging from Tom horse, Tony, to Blinkey, the frozen chicken interred by artist Jeffrey Vallance. They have parodied far-out theories about the Kennedy assassination, holding what they called unprecedented orgy of paranoia and True to their anti- consumerist underpinnings, they have engaged in reverse shoplifting, planting everything from to Cement- bears filled with various retail outlets, only to watch as confused cashiers would struggle to ring up the strange merchandise.

One time a group of the urban pranksters descended on Universal squeaky-clean City- Walk Mall sporting tattered garments they had barbecued in a park the day before. CityWalk should reflect L.A.’s apocalyptic soul, they reasoned, including its poverty and grit. Unfortunately, visitors just assumed the cadre of charred outcasts were human billboards for the ride. subvert prime-time said cacophonist Robert Moss, 45, apart-time actor and computer consultant. we rent a club and put on a show, fun, too.

But the real nut of Cacophony is going out in public everyone goes and knows what to doing he history of the Cacophony Society, which exists for the most part as an oral tradition, is as slippery as a waterlogged rat skittering through a maze of city drainage something local cacophonists have been known to do. The group was founded 15 years ago in San Francisco. Ridenour discovered Cacophony in 1991 and decided to import it to L.A. He planned a bogus UFO landing. At a local convocation of saucerheads, Ridenour passed out fliers announcing the landing at a beachfront park.

Near the airport, Ridenour, who confesses a fascination with all things religious, staked out a giant landing pad, constructed a 20-foot foil cross, burned incense and decorated the scenewith religious icons.He donned a clerical collar and called himself Rev. Al. The curious and crazy came, his nom de guerre stuck, and the Los Angeles Cacophony Society was born. You may never have heard of the cacophonists, but you may have heard of some of the people and events they claim to have inspired. The list includes novelist Chuck Palahniuk, author of the anticon- sumerist who is said to have frequented meetings of the Portland Cacophony Society, the San Francisco event that was the precursor of Burning Man, and Santacon, the folkloric fatman frolic that originated in San Francisco nine years features squads of drunken Santas climbing on buses, going to strip clubs and engaging in other un-Santa- like behavior.

The cacophonists are part of an avant-garde tradition descended from Dada, the profoundly influential artistic movement that started in Zurich and swept Europe and the U.S. in the second and third decades of the 20th century in reaction to the social upheaval that followed World War I. Dadaists aimed to provoke. The spirit of Dada was in events: cabaret performances, demonstrations, declarations, confrontations, the distribution of leaflets and what we now call seems like they are in this tradition of cultural resistance, provocation, epater le said sociologist Jeffrey Halley, a professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio, who focuses on European and American avant-garde movements. Unlike some of their predecessors, however, cacophonists are not political.

are not anarchists. We are not left Moss said. comment on Most, in fact, are products of the middle-class sensibility against which they rebel. Many work in obscure jobs on the edges of the entertainment industry. Cacophonist Eric Harris, a.k.a.

Grammarian, described the group as guys in high school in the A.V. club, kind of nerdy, who bring the 16-millimeter film projector to class. Sociologists say marginal groups such as the cacophonists often serve an important social function, bringing attention to what one academic called details of in the culture. That function, however, can often only be discerned in hindsight. create ideas that are out there, waiting to be said Clarence Lo, a sociology professor at the University of Missouri who studies social movements.

more groups like this, the more we begin to rethink those things we take for Halley agreed: are testifying to something about American society, and that is extremely important. As a reality, as a critique, as a I its mid-1990s heyday the Cacophony Society held two to four events a month. Ridenour estimates he spent 40 hours a week writing newsletters, distributing fliers and overseeing construction of elaborate papier props. He even transformed rooms of his house into impromptu theater spaces. is a kind of war against the culture of buying Nikes and making your kids watch said Ridenour.

Eventually, Ridenour found it difficult to carry on his full-time job as an animator. He burned through his personal savings staging events. (He now works as a freelance journalist specializing in offbeat stories and occasionally writes for The Times.) And the adrenaline rush began to wear off. Take Santacon. Once, the event was a handful of madmen in Santa suits, running the streets, risking arrest.

Over time it grew into a multiple city hundreds of Santas roaming the streets not only around Los Angeles, but also in Portland, Brooklyn and even London. a weird way, it became Ridenour said. became too traditional. It became expected. like the anti-holiday that is holiday Sometime around fall of 2000, Ridenour just seemed to lose steam.

The Web postings grew old, the activities petered out. Then, in perhaps the ultimate cacophonist act, he turned the philosophy upon itself and pranked his fellow cacophonists. wanted it to go down in a Ridenour said. wanted it to end. I looked at cacophony as a big theatrical extravaganza, so I wanted a big end to it So, after the final night of the Museum of Mental ca- twisted version of a Halloween haunted house, in October reported on the Web site the grisly death of a member in a drunk driving accident.

(That member had actually moved to New Orleans.) Professing pain and spiritual confusion, he faked his own conversion to Some members fell for the prank; chaos ensued. heard him say more than once he wanted to do a prank that would make the group said 42-year- old Al Guerrero, a.k.a. Al Pastor, Al Qaeda or Al Fresco. felt it was an aggressive act, an act of desperation, an act of finality. It was like an internal time After that, went into retirement.

or months, until the meeting at Mr. the group was in disarray. In the gloom, cacophonists lay their calendars on the table, scribble save-the-date notes and request volunteers. Numbering about 18, they could be PTA members divvying up duties for back- to-school night. Out of the shadows wafted whispers of the subversive: How about a Mexican Night, with fake INS raids and faux day laborers? A field trip to L.

Ron museum, in full nautical regalia? A weekend caravan of campers to bring paint and encouragement to Leonard Knight, who lives by the Salton Sea, painting a mountain of stone with Bible verses? The freaks and misfits had their energy back. But few of the ideas were fresh. Most of the proposed events were staged performances, not the daring Dada to which caco- phonists once aspired. something Rev. Al said Kim Cooper, newly appointed public relations person, invoking Ride- nour as if he were Mao, Fidel or God.

recycling of Excited members called the recent meeting a renaissance. Privately, though, some members concede concerns are legitimate. you age, you are not as said Guerrero. just a sign of growing up. There was a time when most of the events could get you arrested, or you would wind up running away from the police at the No longer.

At the height of the controversy over the fate of Belmont Learning Complex, built on an environmentally suspect site downtown, Harris tried to plan a nighttime trip to the school to see if there really was toxic waste at the site, and to plant some if there were going to break in, look inside the Guerrero recalled. in the end it turned out people were just too Joe Austin, a professor in the department of popular culture at Bowling Green State University, said the plight is not unusual. all avant-garde groups have some charismatic leader, living on the border of a self-destructive life because of what they are involved in. Usually there are a lot of other people in their wake, sort of like lieutenants and soldiers. But that immediately sets up the problem of reproduction.

There is no one to take over after they get It may be too early to tell, but maybe the time has passed. As Halley, the Texas sociologist, put it: are not a movement, but a Cacophony: Pranksters Are at a Crossroads Continued from E1 CLARENCE WILLIAMS Los Angeles Times is a kind of war against the culture of buying Nikes and making your kids watch AL RIDENOUR By PATRICIA DANE ROGERS WASHINGTON POST wo things we know about older Americans: Twenty years from now, there will be more of them than ever before, and most of them will want to stay in their own homes as they age. To meet this demographic challenge, the research arm of the National Assn. of Home Builders has been seeking innovative ideas from the young by launching a design competition for senior- friendly housing. In the second annual contest held last fall, more than 90 students of architecture, interior design and occupational therapy addressed problems such as narrow doorways, dangerous stairs and inaccessible kitchens and bathrooms.

Winning designs included wide entryways with flush thresholds, handrails disguised as decorative molding, such as chair rails, and spaces with pocket doors to create aroom for a caretaker. Half of the submissions focused on adapting a cluster of existing urban townhouses and the rest on designing a new single-family residence that would enable people to in The results were unveiled last month at the NAHB Research Center headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Md. Some of the best ideas will be incorporated into a model idea house being built by the center and scheduled to open to the public this summer. Readers looking for information about aging in place will also find the Web site a handy resource: www.nahbrc.org Just click on to find links to related literature, a checklist for simple structural adaptations that could be made to any house and a directory of helpful products. Home Designs Keep the Elderly in Mind Alook at housing that enables seniors to in Start your day with a fresh plate.

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