You may have never heard of the Cacophony Society, but chances are you’ve heard of events created by the group or its members, such as SantaCon, Burning Man, and the Urban Idiotarod. Chuck Palahniuk was a member, and the group’s antics provided the inspiration for Project Mayhem in his book Fight Club. The society, which was founded in California in the mid 1980s, had a profound cultural impact that went far beyond the local art scene – they still hold SantaCon every year in Tokyo, fer crissakes.

So when this fishie headed down to Santa Ana this past Saturday for the screening of Jon Alloway‘s new documentary film, Into The Zone: The Story of the Cacophony Society, and corresponding art exhibit, we expected to see the plenty of press covering the event. But no.

We recognized journalists in the crowd, but couldn’t find one writing about the show. Shouldn’t the local alternative press be all over this, we asked? “My editor couldn’t make room in the budget,” one journo explained. “What alternative press?” replied another. To date, the L.A. Record appears to be the only publication to give the event a write-up.

To be fair, the LA Weekly and OC Weekly both ran stories prior to the event. But overall, the lack of coverage suggests our local media has some disappointing cultural blind spots.