CLIQUES

Lodged between a tarot reader and a quick-sketch artist on Venice Beach one Sunday were some odd fellows with a sign that said: “Free Casts--Arms or Legs.” “Feigning injury is in,” they insisted, urging passers-by to plaster up and concoct heroic stories about their bad breaks. These are the same folks who infiltrated a recent UFO conference at the LAX Hilton, handing out leaflets from the so-called Brotherhood of Magnetic Light that spoke of the discovery of the Magnetic Christ, a sacred icon that would attract UFOs to Vista Del Mar Park on a certain evening. On that evening, following an elaborate ritual, a huge glowing something-or-other did waft over the beach before bursting into flames.

“Candid Camera”? Nope, Cacophony. The Los Angeles Cacophony Society is a group of self-described “spelunkers of the unconscious” who prowl the urban landscape hellbent on sabotaging the mundane. “We want to turn the city into a playground,” says Cacophony’s spiritual leader, Alan Reidenour, a computer animator who goes by the nom de guerre of Reverend Al. “We want to offer people an alternative to going to clubs, movies or generally spending a lot of money. “

Reidenour launched the L.A. Cacophony Society last April when its year-old San Francisco counterpart was looking to expand. Besides throwing fracture parties and creating close encounters of a dubious kind, cacophonists host poetry readings in odd venues and arrange offbeat field trips to such exotic locales as Grandma Prisby’s Bottle Village in Simi Valley and the giant head of Elvis near Joshua Tree National Park. The group also publishes the Zone, a monthly newsletter that advertises Cacophony events and serves as a clearinghouse for local weirdness. And anyone can host any kind of event as long as it isn’t religious, political, profit-making or dangerous. “The goal,” Reidenour says, “is chaos--and fun.”