16th or 17th or 18th (not sure) Annual

New Year's Eve Appliance Toss

Cleveland Ohio

Read on to get the full story below.

Skip the introductions and go right to the Gore.

No thanks, I'm just hear to read about
the "Triumph of Death"

Explanation: Ok. It's impossible to explain what you are about to see, and unless you already know what you are about to see, you are in for a visual treat that could only be compared to Brueghel's most famous painting, "The Triumph of Death."

Basically, what led me to this "phenomena" is that I was talking to I.T. Marvin about a busted Wacom tablet and somehow somebody (real or spirit) mentioned appliance toss and the conversation quickly turned to the subject of the "New Year's Eve Appliance Toss ", which Marvin told me was still in existance and had been going on annually for the last 15 years (a scary thought indeed). I vaguely remembered attending the New Year's Eve Appliance Toss party in University Circle in Cleveland Ohio by accident way back in 1986-1987. Back then, I had taken a photo of Chris, the guy who is responsible for the mess you will see below, so I thought I should attend this year's and deliver the old photograph to him. I did just that, and below is the chronology of what subsequentially happened.

Uhhh...here's the story. Click on any picture to enlarge.

People arriving: We saw this car driving around the neighborhood. They appeared lost but we could tell by the looks of what they had in their trunk where they were trying to get to so we signalled them to follow us.

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Preparing for the Toss: Specialists were on hand to test the appliances and prepare them for the big midnight toss. The plan was to have electrical items that could work be plugged in and operating while they were being tossed over the porch for a more vivid experience

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Toss Inventory: There was a nice variety of appliances. Computer hard drives were also abundant.

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Basic Scenario:This is the vehicle that the appliances were going to be tossed onto from the porch balcony above. It wasn't a car this year, it was an Aerostar minivan. It had a target painted on its top. The people are on a second floor balcony.

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The Los Angeles Cacophony Society

http://la.cacophony.org

http://losangeles.cacophony.org/lacaco.htm

IDEAS for FUTURE EVENTS

Ideas for pranks, public buffoonery, questionable art & performance or field trips to local Meccas of eccentricity are all welcome. We harvest these notions from the net and discuss their logistics at our monthly meetings. What does it mean to host your own event?
Bang out an event entry below and see what you can start!

IDEA: A New Year's "Appliance Toss". We I lived in Cleveland these guys I knew had an Appliance Toss for New Years. They got a abandoned car, towed it just below their balcony. Party goers brought a variety of useless old appliances (TVs, Stereos, Toasters, a Washer and Dryer!, etc.) to throw atop of the car at 12 Midnight. It was too much fun and I thought that the Cacophonists would get a kick out of it. The following day the car was towed, smashed appliances and all, to one of the worse neighborhoods in the city and left there. I'm willing to bet it's still there, this was back in 1987.
INSTIGATOR: Andrea <andrea63@earthlink.net>
HOW COULD YOU HELP?: I can haelp set up but don't know where we could hold it -

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Read All About It: "THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH" Pieter Brueghel "the Elder" (c.1530-1569) Tempera and oil on panel: 1,17 x 1,62m Flemish School, 16th. century. It was painted around 1562 and was in Antwerp as part of Philips van Valkenisse's collections. In 1774 it was listed in the inventory of the Palace of the Granja de San Ildefonso. Later, in 1827, it came to the collections of Museo del Prado, Museo Real at that time. Breakdown of Details: The painting could be defined as the view of a great desolate landscape of violence, where a deathly army works havoc and routs all living beings. Following specific lines, Brueghel organized the chaos constituted by the countless skeletons. This horrifying panel was inspired by one of the medieval literary themes of the Dances of Death, where Death triumphing evenly over all social strata is reflected. Different traditions converge in the origin of these Dances: beliefs, popular legends and pious or scholar sources.

The upper sector is the largest part of the painting and emphasizes destruction of nature: fire has caused a desertic area - influenced by Bosch's iconography - occupied by death or torture instruments.

The deathly squadrons of the medium area ravage the crowd: bodies are piled up, captured, crushed by death...

In the foreground, the different social hierarchies - the emperor, the cardinal, the pilgrim, the gamblers or the couple of lovers - ...are all of them victims of the same executioner: Death. This one prevails in the scene riding a starving horse and holding a scythe, inspired in the Apocalypse 6,8: And I saw, and behold, a pale-green horse, and he who was sitting on it - his name is Death, and hell was following him. This apocalyptic show bears a clear message which Brueghel conveys through pictorial language: death has no mercy and exterminates all living beings.

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