photo by John Curley

Santacon 2009 events are currently being planned around the world this December as Christmas approaches. Over on santarchy.com I’ve been actively tracking the cities currently being targeted for Santarchy invasions.

To get a better idea of what Santarchy is all about, here’s my 40 minute documentary on the 1996 Santacon in Portland “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon ‘96″.

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by Ed Hunsinger

Santa’s Little Secret Service took a slight break from protecting the jolly old man, jesus and Frank Chu mobilized for a special mission to protect the Easter Bunny while he visited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 30th Anniversary Celebration. During the all-day tour, the Bunny was asked to leave the Cherry Blossom Festival, rode down Lombard Street, and finished the day with at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 30th Anniversary. The Bunny joined the Sisters on stage in front of 10,000 onlookers, and led the Sisters parade, complete with police escort, to their street party on Noe.

Upon special request by the Office of the Santa, the protective mission of Santa’s Little Secret Service extends to other Pagan-Christian holiday VIPs. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny have maintained close diplomatic relations ever since the Constantinople Incident of 321 AD. In light of this longstanding cooperation, the Office of the Santa once again asked the Service to protect the Easter Bunny (codename COTTONTAIL) during its Easter Sunday visit to San Francisco. The mission codename: Operation Enduring Cottontail.

Good thing that they were there, otherwise Zombie Jesus might have attacked!

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First Bacardi ripped-off The Cacophony Society’s Breakers to Bay Salmon Run, then Absolut Vodka co-opted the Pillow Fight and now the latest underground event used as the theme of a television commercial is Santacon (Santarchy) with Motorola’s new “Santa Swarm” ad for their bluetooth headsets.

The ad was produced for Motorola by creative agency DraftFCB working with the production company Harold Group. It was directed by Jamin Winans who made the really cool short film “Spin” that I posted about last year.

Thanks to Spacemonkey for the tip!

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Geek Entertainment TV has posted their coverage of San Francisco Santacon 2008.

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Last weekend at Santacon in San Francisco, Santa’s Little Secret Service was hard at work protecting luminaries like Jesus Christ and Frank Chu.

E. D. W. Lynch has some background info on the Santa’s Little Secret Service which was first deployed during Santacon 2006.

More photos can be found in the Santa’s Little Secret Service Flickr group.

photo by Mitchell Aidelbaum, E. D. W. Lynch & gastronomicdiva06

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Photos are starting to come in from this year’s massive San Francisco Santacon. For more Santacon coverage around the world, check out the Santacon 2008 list of cities on Santarchy.

- Geek Entertainment TV (GETV)

- WHAT IM SEEING

- The San Francisco Citizen

- SFist

- The Snitch (SF Weekly)

- Santa’s Little Secret Service

- Eddie Codel

- Mitchell Aidelbaum

- Berderp

- M2

- Steve Rhodes

- Sandwich Girl

- Enric Teller

- Stephen

- Joe

- Santa Spaz

- SeenyaRita

- Jen Fogg

- Kevco

- Aaron

- James Reffell

- Grodeen

- Jennifer Simpson

- Lisa Sculati

If you know of any other San Francisco Santacon photos, video, blog posts or media coverage, leave a link in the comments.

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This year’s San Francisco Santacon takes place on Saturday, December 13th. Stay tuned to the SF Bay Area Sanarchy blog and subscribe to @sfsanta on Twitter for the latest news and updates on the event.

I’ve uploaded an updated version of the Santacon Carol Book to the Santarchy website, which you can download, print out and bring along with you during this weekend’s naughty Noel mayhem.

For more info the other Santacons being planned around the world this year, check out the full list of Santacon 2008 cities.

See Previously: Santacon 2008, Global Santarchy Invasion Planned For December

photo by John Curley

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April Baer of Oregon Public Broadcasting did an pre-event story on this year’s Portland Santacon for NPR’s All Things Considered. You can listen to it here.

See Previously:

- Santacon 2008, Global Santarchy Invasion Planned For December

- You’d Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon ‘96

photo by ohhh_yeah808

Thanks to Santa Yankee Pants for the tip!

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Santacon 2008 events are currently being planned around the world in December as Christmas approaches. Over on santarchy.com I’ve been actively tracking the cities currently being targeted for Santarchy invasions.

To get a better idea of what Santarchy is all about, here’s my 40 minute documentary on the 1996 Santacon in Portland “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon ‘96″.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Twitter, Facebook & FriendFeed.

CTV News is reporting that Rudolph The Red-Nosed was arrested during the Vancouver Santacon last Saturday, December 15th. Prancing is not a crime!

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In 1996 The Portland Cacophony Society hosted Portland Santacon ‘96, the third annual Santacon event (the first two took place in San Francisco). 40 Santas from the San Francisco Cacophony Society boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to join other Cacophonist Santas from around the country who were all converging in Portland.

I brought my video camera along, shooting the Santarchy as it unfolded, chronicling the non-stop cat-and-mouse game between the naughty Santas and the police. I edited the video I shot into my 40 minute Dragnet-style documentary “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon ‘96”.

I used to send copies of the video to people planning Santacons in various cities, as a kind of Santarchy training video. At long last I have finally posted the video online in it’s entirety for the whole world to enjoy, thanks to our friends at Blip.tv.

Along with The Cacophony Society, the documentary features Art Cars, 24 Hour Church of Elvis, plus Chicken John and his Circus Redickuless.

Here are the production credits, along with a review by Jack Boulware.

The video was shot on HI-8 and manually edited on SVHS (no fancy non-linear editing) at Film Arts Foundation (FAF) and Artists’ Television Access (ATA).

UPDATE: For more Santacon videos from the archives, check out Weird America’s coverage of San Francisco Santacon 1995 and Los Angeles Santacon 1997.

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The 2007 edition of the Santacon Carol Book, chock full of naughty Christmas songs assembled by Bitter Brooklyn Santa, is now available for download as a PDF. Print it out to bring along with you on all of your Santarchy adventures this holiday season.

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Next Thursday, February 1st, V. Vale is hosting a book release event in New York for his new RE/Search book Pranks 2. The event takes place at Bluestockings Bookstore in the Lower East Side and starts at 7pm, with a $5 to $7 suggested donation. John Law will be there on a pranks panel, along with Ron English, Julia Solis and possibly The Yes Men. I’ll be on hand as well, showing an excerpt from my Santarchy documentary “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon ‘96” were Cacophony Society santas invaded Portland in 1996.

Here’s more info on the event from the January RE/Search newsletter:

The New York Release of RE/Search’s new book, Pranks 2

Thursday, Feb 1, 2007 – 7 PM
$5 to $7 suggested donation

Bluestockings Bookstore/Cafe
172 Allen St, New York NY 10002
212-777-6028
bluestockings.com

Video showing of excerpts from Ron English’s “Popaganda,” the “Yes Men” Film and Scott Beale’s “You’d Better Watch Out” documenting the Cacophony Society’s wild “Santarchy” escapade in Portland. (For the past ten years, groups of folks dressed up as Santa Claus have invaded department stores, hotel parties and other events, causing ideological havoc and consumer confusion–anarchic fun! Over the years, the Santas have spread to major cities over the planet.)

Far more than a video show, the Feb 1 evening will encompass a Panel (taking audience Q&A’s) with local New York artists who appear in RE/Search’s newest book, PRANKS 2: Ron English, Julia Solis, the YES MEN (tentative) and JOHN LAW from San Francisco. All interested in RE/Search’s 30 year history, pranks, and cultural subversion in general are urged to attend and meet-and-greet featured pranksters both before and after the show. This is a rare opportunity to engage with prankster pioneers, while supporting the counterculture RE/Search publishing enterprise.

UPDATE 1: A second RE/Search Pranks 2 event will take place on Saturday, February 3rd at The 58gallery in Jersey City, NJ.

UPDATE 2: Here are a few photos I shot of the event.

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On Christmas day, 60 rogue Santas reclaimed the South Pole for the 4th year in a row at Santarctica 2006 during winterover at McMurdo Station. Here’s full story from Sandwich Girl. More on Santarctica over at Boing Boing.

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photo by Scott Beale

It was great to finally show my Portland Santacon video again last night after all these years. Cafe du Nord was packed, with many santas in attendance, even some veterans from the infamous 1996 Portland Santacon. Of course it didn’t take long for me to pull out my own 5D and shoot a few photos as well. Thanks to everyone who came out last night and a special thanks goes out to Guy and the Cafe du Nord staff, they were great. One of these days I’ll make a DVD of my video as well as putting it online.

UPDATE: Steve Rhodes also shot some photos of the party.

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Hey guys, this is just a reminder that I’ll be screening my 1996 Portland Santacon video tomorrow night to kick off the 1996 Portland Santacon 10th Anniversary Party at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. The event starts at 8pm and it is free. We’ll be having a Santa open mike following the screening.

Here’s a great write-up on the event from mikl-em:

It was the Cacophonist of times, the first Santa Rampage planned for outside the City by the Bay. And vision of riots danced in The Man’s heads. Cuz Saint Nicholaus x 10 x 10 x 2 soon would be there.

And shit.

Yup, 200 Santas invaded Portland (some were indigineous, actually) 10 years ago. And a bunch of this city’s usual suspects were of course leading the charge. The list reads like a Ho’s Ho of SF Cacophony. Melmouth, Geekboy, Cortez, Holmes, Burke, John, and of course that damn Beale guy. With his video camera!

It was before my time. Just before my time. I was here but I hadn’t quite drunk the water yet. :) I went the next year to LA. You can see a very quick cameo of Danielle, early on–she didn’t go to Portland though, it’s in pre-launch festivities.

I believe that this video, assembled by Scott Beale, Stu Mangrum, and Scott’s voiceover guy friend, is the best encapsulation of the mysterious, beautiful, intoxicating and creative mischief that we breed out here in Norton’s city. Practitioners of forgotten social arts and biters of feeding hands, the post-something, semi- comatose cultural criticism of the Drunken Masters, all hail Santa(s) in Perversitus Bacchanalium Uber Alles. And shit.

Whenever friends came to visit and wanted to know what I’d been doing, I would play them this video. It was much easier to explain that way. It’s like this. Every weekend. *Sigh*.

10 years ago? No way. You’re lying. Not every weekend is like this anymore. It’s probably still going on, and I’m just not sticking my foot in it as often. But on Tuesday, we’ll get a nice fat taste of Vintage 96 Cacophony. Wear something you can get messy. Like say a holiday outfit from Oriental Trading Company (remember, one size fits none).

Also, check out the awesome photos of the 1996 Portland Santacon that Wm Leler shot that year.

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As the world enters the 3rd weekend of Santarchy, I thought it might be a good time to take a look back at the early days. Chuck Cirino recently posted his classic San Francisco Santacon ‘95 video that he shot during The Cacophony Society’s second Cheap Suit Santa (Santacon) event where over 100 Naughty Santas invaded San Francisco in 1995. This one features the famous scene where we hung Santa Melmoth from a streetlight on Market Street.

San Francisco Santacon 1995 was my first full-blow Cacophony event and is what sucked me into its vortex. Here are a few of the photos that I shot that year. One of these days I need to scan in the rest of them.

Speaking of Santacon videos, I’ll be showing my Portland Santacon 1996 video next Tuesday, December 19th at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco at the 1996 Portland Santacon 10th Anniversary Party.

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It turns out that a horde of zombies infiltrated last Saturday’s San Francisco Santacon 2006.

Last year Zombie Kringles invaded Ann Arbor as part of Zombie Claus. It’s the meme that just won’t die. Oh wait, it’s already dead, undead that is.

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Photos are starting to come in from the various Santacon 2006 events that are taking place around the world. More photos can be found here and here.

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Ten years ago in December 1996, several members of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, including myself, put on Santa suits and boarded a SouthWest Airlines flight out of Oakland to Portland, Oregon. Yes, we actually flew in full Santa suits, including beards and hats. Imagine doing that now. In Portland we met up with other Santas from all over the country for the 1996 Portland Santacon, the first ever Santacon outside of San Francisco. This was back in my documentary filmmaking period, so of course I had my video camera with me and made a short (mock)documentary about the event called “You’d Better Watch Out: Portland SantaCon ‘96”.

I realized that many people that I have met in recent years have not seen this video or even know that I used to make documentaries. So, to remedy that, John Law and I will be having a special documentary screening and 1996 Portland Santacon 10th Anniversary Party on Tuesday, December 19th at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. The doors will open at 8pm and we will be showing the documentary at 9pm sharp. The event is free and we are encouraging Santa attire, if that’s your bag. After the screening we will be having a Santa Open Mike, so any Santas or even Elves are welcome to take the stage and do their worst. The event will also serve as a post-Santacon 2006 event for Bay Area Santas and we would especially like the 1996 Portland alumni to join us and tell war stories and show off their scars.

It’s been years since I screened this documentary. It’s been on cable access, in Santa film festivals and I used to sell tapes. So now, for one night only, you’ll have your chance to see it again. At least until I get around to making DVDs. Here’s a review of the documentary written by Jack Boulware for the SF Weekly. Oh and check out the awesome Portland Police Memo that was sent out to warn the citizens of Portland about our impending invasion.

For more on this whole Santarchy thing, check out santarchy.com, especially Santa Melmoth’s write-up on the early history of the event.

illustration by Greg Reynard

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