Arts DEVOté

Missing links You know what this paper needs? A “Get Away” section. Don’t get Arts DEVOté wrong, there is plenty to point to in Chicotown that is worthy of your arts-craving attention, but everyone who lives here knows how easy it is to get very comfy and forget that the rest of the world is only a few hours away.

Chasing Windmills … and Whirligigs If you can’t actually get your body away from the North State, try living vicariously through the online adventures of others, like the never-ending roadtrippers of the Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations documentary series. The original KCPT (Kansas City Public Television) program has charged its hosts with visiting and filming every piece of visionary, outsider and environmental folk art in the country—from the Loony Lagoon in Bath, Md., to the Fossil Cabin in Como Bluff, Wyo.—for the past 10 years. The meticulous adventurers of RRVRR are just making it to the Western states, and though the show’s interactive site (www.rarevisionsroadtrip.com) is a great source of getaway ideas, to get hip to visionary destinations that you could easily road-trip to yourself, head over to www.roadsideamerica.com and check out the state-by-state listings. California is loaded with attractions, such as Leonard Knight’s desert beauty, Salvation Mountain (pictured).

Just stupid While he has you online, A.D. suggests you visit the Stupid Comics section on cartoonist couple Dave and Shain’s Web site, Mister Kitty International (go to www.misterkitty.org and click on the “Exxxtras” button). It’s an impressive selection of unintentionally hilarious and just plain confusing comics such as Areba Koala , featuring the interspecies coupling of a koala bear named Areba and his partner Kep the penguin, shown daydreaming about a shirtless Charles Bronson, a shirtless Clint Eastwood and a shirtless Kris Kristofferson while enjoying a “spicy paperback” in a bubble bath. The best parts are Dave and Shain’s running commentaries, such as this moral to the story of Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle vs. an army of weird gorillas: “The weed of injecting gorillas with secret serum bears bitter fruit of dismemberment!! A lesson for the ages.” True that.

Over and outta here Enough talk. A.D. is on his way to the city and the Castro Theatre to see David Lynch’s Inland Empire at the opening night of the S.F. Independent Film Festival. It’s Lynch’s first film in five years, and if some of the reviews are to be trusted, it’s one of his trippiest yet. Check www.inlandempirecinema.com for the official trailer, and also see the Inland Empire MySpace page for the French version and Lynch interview clips.