Sideshow

Altered States and MacArthur Park's Life Aquatic

by Kristin Friedrich

• Sideshow has met some wondrous and vaguely surreal people Downtown, including but not limited to skinny sumo wrestlers, portly strippers, a town crier, roller derby advocates, feminists in gorilla suits, and two guys who built a boat to float down the L.A. River with their dog. But Eames Demetrios, who presided over a slide show last week at the Arts District's Analogue Press, might take the cake. He appeared in conjunction with Analogue's latest periodical, "Altered State," which includes one of his collages.

  Eames Demetrios described an alternative country called Kymaerica at the Arts District's Analogue Press last week. Photo by Will Dearborn.

  Demetrios is the grandson of Charles and Ray Eames. He currently heads the Eames Office, and appears all over the world promoting and protecting his family's design legacy. But he also researches a country called Kymaerica. That's right, Kymaerica.
  
  As he told his audience of approximately 40 people, it's like America, only its map includes a few territories located in the ocean, and its history has been crazily re-imagined. Demetrios, an affable, sane-looking man dressed that night in all black, mixes alternative world, sci-fi and utopian professorship; a road trip/acid trip aesthetic; and a DNA-bound genius for recognizing swatches of design beauty in seemingly mundane landscapes.
  
  He showed dozens of slides, including the Krblin Jihn Kabin (that's "cabin" in Kymaerica speak) that he restored in Twenty-Nine Palms because of its religious significance; evidence of the battles waged by the Conch Republic in what we call Florida (on the Kymaerica map, Parallel Phlorida); and the Museum of the Bench, north of Abilene, Texas, where Demetrios said thousands of benches can be seen in their natural habitat. He was deadpan throughout, and took questions from audience members, including a concerned query about why the history of Kymaerica isn't taught in schools.
  Visit analoguepress.com and kymaerica.com.

• In an effort to introduce kids to the joy of catching catfish, the city's Department of Recreation and Parks is holding a fishing derby April 9 at MacArthur Park. The lake has been stocked, the event is free, and rods, reels, tackle and bait for kids will be provided, as will guidance on the bait/hook process. Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific will have a mobile saltwater tank displaying sharks and other marine life. The event is 8 a.m.-1 p.m., at the intersection of Alvarado and Seventh streets. (213) 368-7390 or laparks.org for more information.
  
  
• Oahu native Jake Shimabukuro, dubbed by fans "the Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele," appears at the Aratani/Japan America Theatre April 8. He performs everything from traditional Hawaiian melodies to rock, though for Beatles and Ozzy Osbourne covers, he uses an electric ukulele. At 244 S. San Pedro St., 8 p.m. Call (213) 628-2725 ext. 139.
  Send potential sideshows to kristin@downtownnews.com.
  page 18, 4/4/2005
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