I just learned something new today, that the Department of Homeland Security issues permits for the City of Santa Ana, CA to host events, according to a letter sent by Vicky Baxter, Executive Director of Downtown Incorporated of Santa Ana, to the Cacophony Society, who are providing installations and amusement during the Art Walk at Grand Central Santa Ana, the city’s large arts complex. The February 4th Art Walk celebrates the premier of Into the Zone: The History of the Cacophony Society, which will be our subject on Movie Night, February 13.

The Cacophony Society, with lodges in thirty-six U.S. cities and nine countries around the world and whose motto is

You may already be a member

is a group of post-Dada, post-modern, chaos and art creating, urban, urbane Erisians. These disciples of Dischordianism and neo-Anerisia–whose members were instrumental in organizing Burning Man–have long staged events like the Art of Bleeding (faux educational programs in health and safety); mock protests over ludicrous causes; the placing of cement filled teddy bears in public places; painting chalk outlines of bodies on sidewalks; and other

experiences beyond the mainstream.

The Cacophony Society’s antics inspired Project Mayhem in  Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and organized the earliest  flashmobs. And they are  known to be savvy media hoaxsters/culture jammers. But really, would anyone stage this kind of a prank falsely claiming to be from a city official which cited (teh horrors) the Department of Homeland Security? According to a post by Reverend Al Ridenour of Cacophony Los Angeles (who, full disclosure, I have known for years), Cacophony received a letter from Vicky Baxter, Executive Director of Downtown Incorporated of Santa Ana stating:

Today I received a call from Mike McCoy, Homeland Security who issues permits for events from the City, with concerns about the February Art Walk and the association with the Cacophony Society. He spent some time looking at the website and is concerned about what will be presented to the public because the City of Santa Ana is co-sponsor of the First Saturday Art Walks. He is asking for a detailed description of what will be presented to avoid any issues with public complaints or controversy. I did not anticipate this but he is right. We do co-host the First Saturday Art Walks with the City.

Please send me the details of what is planned so we can inform Mike.

I called Mike McCoy, who is based out of DHS’s Sacramento office where he works in Logistics Management as a pay grade GS15 level employee, and left a message. (BTW, the DHS doesn’t list their local numbers; you have to call the DC headquarters and get patched through. Scary!). Mike McCoy didn’t call me back.

I wanted to know the how and why of DHS issuing permits for Santa Ana’s events. Do those permits cost money? What types of events must must be permitted? What happens if Santa Ana holds an event without a DHS permit? And does this apply to every city in the USA? Is DHS present at the Downtown LA Art Walks? And what exactly about the Cacophony Society’s website is so darned disturbing? What are his concerns about the Cacophony Society? For how many art events throughout the country has the DHS requested additional information, and what were those shows? Are Cacophony members going to fall under surveillance now, and for what exactly?

Cacophony LA responded to McCoy with the following letter:

We understand the Department’s domain over public complaints and controversy in the arts as well as the precedent setting crowd control issues and threat of civil disturbance raised by the April 3, 2004 GCAC’s exhibition of art by Thomas Kinkade “Painter of Light.” In cooperation with your request for further information, we are providing the attached list of public art and performance scheduled as part of our opening.

ART CARS

These are playfully customized cars typically decorated both with thrift store finds, and other colorful detritus, generally free of sharp edges or objectionable content. … It should be pointed out that the visual and sculptural references in Reverend Linville’s “Ass Car,” are exclusively confined to parts of canine anatomy freely displayed throughout our country wherever dogs are found. …

DO IT YOURSELF PROTEST AREA

One of the iconic activities engaged in by the Cacophony Society is mock protests over ludicrous causes. Honoring this tradition and as a satiric nod toward the controversial and ultimately dangerous nature of public discourse, we provide a soapbox, poster board, and markers to Society Members as well as enthusiastic passersby.   These activities and limited use of bullhorns will be conducted in accordance with our understanding of issues of pubic nuisance and noise abatement and/or guidelines issues at DHS discretion.

COMEDY & MAGIC

Comedian-magician Bieno Svengali as well as comedian Eric Cash will perform.  Exact content of their sets is not confirmed at this time, though Cash is expected to preside over a mock raffle “giveaway” of an Afghani war orphan.

And to show there are no hard feelings, Cacophony added this bonus attraction:

HOMELAND SECURITY HOSPITALITY STATION

In the spirit of free discourse and rapprochement, The Cacophony Society will dedicate a table to the display of introductory literature on the CS as well as whatever literature or materials DHS would care to provide.  A live representative will be available for discussion. Coffee and donuts provided.

Oh I have one last question for Mr. McCoy from the Department of Homeland Security: Am I on a list now for writing about this?

image #2 Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck, drawn by Pamela Coleman-Smith, 1909; public domain

Tonight a friend and I headed out for the premier of Electric Daisy Carnival Experience, August 22nd’s FDL Movie Night subject, directed by Kevin Kerslake. EDCE documents the huge two day rave–featuring world renowned acts and DJs like Swedish House Mafia,  Groove Armada, Kaskade and Moby, plus art installations and carnival rides–which, up until this year, had been held in Los Angeles.

Traffic was barely moving when suddenly five cop cars sped past us and we saw helicopters spinning overhead. We could see Hollywood Blvd was shut down at Highland Avenue. Stuck on the road, with no news stations on the radio (wtf? it’s all talk radio now in LA, sucks when you need up to the minute information and there was nothing on Google news or Facebook yet either), we rolled down the window and asked a traffic officer what was going on. He said

Bomb threat

Needless to say, we didn’t tweet that or post that to Facebook without confirmation! Thankfully it wasn’t anything that awful (kind of irresponsible for him to tell us that, btw). But it was a full-on tactical alert.We parked and ducking under the police tape, worked our way through the crowds.

The officers  holding riot batons would not let us near Graumann’s Chinese Theater and wouldn’t tell us what was going on.

Even when I identified myself as a member of the press to the officer in charge–though maybe my long red dress, fishnet hose and army boots may have lacked fourth estate authority, but hey I was going to a film premier–the only information I got was:

There are thousands of people here, this is an emergency.

Oh, and no, we couldn’t go see the movie.

So we did the only logical thing; we went to Musso & Frank for a snack, on the way overhearing a pair of passersby discussing

Did you see that dude who lit the cop car on fire?

At Musso’s we ran into some would-be EDCE attendees also displaced by the LAPD who had seen what went down. Over salads and drinks, they told us their story.

DJ Kasakade drove his flatbed truck down Hollywood Blvd. to the theater, and a crowd followed him. The police came, but by then there were several hundred people–thanks to Twitter–who had shown up for Kaskade’s appearance dancing, plus tourists and locals. Some were kind of upset that there was no rave/show, some were just cranky, period. And they got angrier when more and more police showed up in response to the crowd not dispersing when ordered to.

At the film’s afterparty EDCE director Kevin Kerslake told me that about 600 people out of an expected 1000 were able to get into the theater (they must have gotten there very early; we were aiming at 7:10 for a 7:30 arrival/8pm showtime). Kerslake said that

it was crazy, they set cop cars on fire!

The Los Angeles Times and Variety report that the police said rocks and bottles were thrown, and that two police cars were set on fire.

This video shows kids jumping an police cruisers and shots fired, beginning around 3:00

Our dinner companions did not see the action around the cop cars, though they did see the police fire projectiles at

kids, these skinny little rave kids

hitting one, though no injuries were reported, per the police.

The UK Mail Online was upclose and caught all the action, including rioters jumping on police cruisers.

Insomniac, Inc .,which produces Electric Daisy Carnival, was not involved in the impromptu block party that arose when when Kaskade appeared.

Pasquale Rotella, chief executive of Insomniac Inc., issued the following statement:

Tonight’s premiere of the ‘Electric Daisy Carnival Experience’ film was designed to highlight one of the largest and most prestigious electronic music festivals in the world. Unfortunately, a small group chose to disrupt the film’s premiere due to their mistaken belief that a ‘block party’ with a popular artist was going to occur.

I want to make clear that while this film showcased an Insomniac event, Insomniac had nothing to do with the supposed ‘block party,’ which was not a part of the premiere. The crowd issues that arose were a result of individuals responding to social media information which mistakenly led them to believe they could see artists perform…Insomniac strongly believes in personal responsibility and hopes that anyone who didn’t comply with police orders is held accountable.

The LAPD arrested two people after detaining dozens. Joyfully, the planned after-party at a nearby club went off without a hitch, with Kaskade spinning and dozen of elaborately costumed dancers performing.

Insomniac, Inc. had staged the hugely popular all-ages Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles at the LA Coliseum and neighboring Sports Arena for 13 years, moving to Las Vegas this year.  In 2010 a 15-year girl died from an Ecstasy overdose. Police reported 165 arrests during 2010′s two-day long event attended by 185, 000.  Thing went smoothly this year at the Las Vegas event which drew 230,ooo people, and Insomniac donated $75,000 to Nevada charities.  In recent years raves were one of the few sources of revenue for the aging Coliseum–built in 1921 and enlarged for the 1932 Olympics–which also hosts the USC Trojans football games, other occasional sports and music events, and over the years has been used as a location in film and television.

A 2011 LA Times investigation revealed an official at the Coliseum had worked as a paid consultant for the company, planning the medical and emergency services, with the approval of by then-Commission General Manager Patrick Lynch. Lynch  resigned in the wake of the Times disclosures, and while the  Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission began investigating the employee, Todd DeStefano, who denied any wrong doing.

The movie, Electric Daisy Carnival experience will be in theaters one night only, August 4.

Photos 1, 3 and 5: Lisa Derrick. Photo 2: Amanda Grace. Photo 4: Monah Li