A Splashy Performance

We may not know much about art, but . . . Taco Bell kicked off its Rock Art Cups for Charity promotion recently at the new downtown Shark Club with a party featuring performance artist Denny Dent.

Those weary of fortunetellers and caricature sketchers should consider Dent for their next party. He most certainly will ruin the carpet (and the ceiling and furniture too), but he delivers: He throws paint, sticks his hands in it, kisses it, zings it and slaps it--all to create large-scale rock-star portraits. That night he used everything but his nose to render Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon.

The Rock Art Cups are 32-ounce plastic cups featuring artwork “inspired” and signed by singers Diana Ross, M.C. Hammer, Bell Biv DeVoe, George Michael and the Scorpions.

A nickel from each 99-cent cup sold will be split among the City of Hope, the Starlight Foundation, the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation and the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research.

Although none of the Cuppees attended the festivities, the audience screamed its appreciation of Dent’s work. Dent screamed back: “THIS IS AN ART ATTACK!”

Pseudo Eco-Freaks

At a recent dinner party a couple were priding themselves (somewhat tongue in cheek) about being politically correct: not eating veal, supporting the right causes, that kind of thing. “So do you recycle?” someone asked. The man paused. “Only when someone’s looking.”

Essentials

What you need to maneuver the L.A. scene: What’s the latest fabulous gadget for techno-heads? A wireless remote control for your car stereo/CD player. No matter that your fingers are only inches away from the regular controls--everyone knows that remotes are much more fun.

“It’s a toy, that’s what it is,” says Michael Lipton, sales counselor for The Good Guys store in L.A., where remote-control junkies are coming in to get their button-pushing fix. Adding a remote to a system can cost $59 to $200; whole stereo units with remotes run $450 to $900.