Photo Only & a Goofball Idea

In the Tradition of Cacophony

Stop me before I go to the Dollar Store again!!

People often ask where the spirit of the Cacophony Society has gone. Back in the ’90s, members would celebrate Emily Dickinson’s birthday by going to a bar to sing her collected works to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas. It’s this trial-and-error laboratory of pranking and themed chaos that created Burning Man and Santa Rampage, but most of the original Cacophonists have aged out.

Each month, Cacophonists would propose stunts and their fellow members would execute them. The stunts, not the proposers. Some stunts were magical; picture seven hundred Santas singing in the streets. Or Apocalypse Café, where hundreds brought casseroles to a late-night potluck in an abandoned bus station. Some stunts, less so. During the one-time party Hoot-&-Holler-Paint-&-Burn, people convened in an abandoned freeway underpass and lit a bonfire of garbage and spray-painted graffiti, and my friend, Lana—tall, blonde, blasé—rolled her eyes at the hijinx and said, “This is stupid.”

Well, Lana, stupid is in the eye of the beholder.

Next Wednesday, I propose we pop-up a very large miniature holiday village on the vacant, gravel lot next door to The Cavern. At Christmas Story Night, you’ll receive one of 100+ small houses, churches, or shops, and a couple batteries. Please bring a tiny Phillips-head screwdriver if you have one. Put the batteries in the building—voilà—we’ll cap the evening by placing our pre-fab village where it will glow softly and strangely in the night. There, people without a clue will happen across our creation and be charmed. It takes a village to build a village.

We will be the Whos and create our Whoville. Then, sing that Whoville song—or not, geez, I hate to sing. Still, Cacophony was never about “looking good” and being cool. Let’s create some magic. Holiday Godzillas invited to pose, but not actively smash.

Join us!

Now the Photo Only!

Thank you! to Sean for making and bringing cookies to workshop last week. They were wonderful!