Arts DEVOté

TO THE PLACE I BELONG
By the time you are reading this, Arts DEVOté will be recuperating from a trip to the right coast and a two-for-one holiday on a secluded mountain in West Virginia and the less-secluded Capitol Mall of Washington, D.C.(An early last-minute missive from the road: A.D., Mrs. A.D. and bro-in-law A.D. were treated to the D.C. fireworks on the horizon as we drove from Dulles International Airport to the eastern part of W.V. and a place where the sky was significantly less lighted-up. In fact, viewed from the porch of this home in the woods, there were ZERO lights in the night. The middle of nowhere is wonderful).

While letting his mind drift away from Chico, A.D. drifted all the way onto the Internet, where there just happened to be a couple examples of rad art—just enough to fill a vacation column.

“GOT A WIG FOR HIS WIG”
Speaking of the country’s first president, even the mere marginally Internet-obsessed of you has been exposed to (infected by?) the hilarious George “Washington” video by cartoonist Brad Neely and songwriters Cox and Combs. The abbreviated historical rap brings to light the less-reported details about our country’s father. Did you know Washington “ate opponents’ brains and invented cocaine”? Or that “on a horse made of crystal, he patrolled the land”? Go to the awesome Super Deluxe video site and get your learn on. While there, learn the truth about JFK in Neely’s collaboration with the Professor Brothers, “History Lesson No. 1” (JFK truth No. 1: “He smelled like the future”).

Since you’re already out there, browse on over to Neely’s kick-ass comics site: www.creasedcomics.com.

GREEN WORLDLINESS
Everybody, including the CN&R (see p. 20) is coming up green these days. But if you are still not on the sustainability train (electric train, naturally), go now and visit artist Chris Jordan’s site and have your brains blown out by his Running the Numbers and Intolerable Beauty exhibits. Seeing what 426,000 cell phones (the number retired every year in the U.S.) all in one spot looks like will make you want to go back to sending smoke signals … or should it be steam signals? (Fewer emissions.)

WEEKLY DEVOTION
• Not so fast … A shout of comfort goes out to the hard-working cast and crew of Knock ’em Dead, the dinner theater that never was. The Wall Street Players have pulled the plug on their debut in the Chico Events Center due to “management problems” (no a/c at rehearsals, for one).