The 6 Most David Lynchian Moments from the First-Ever Festival of Disruption
Article by: The Festival Lawyer|@FestivalLawyerWed October 12, 2016 | 00:00 AM
This past weekend, downtown Los Angeles saw the first-ever Festival of Disruption, a two-day music and film festival curated by legendary director and noted weirdo David Lynch.
Lynch named the festival after a quote from the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who once proclaimed: “Life is a festival of disruption.” All proceeds from the festival went to the David Lynch Foundation, a charity dedicated to bringing meditation to persons suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
In the festival guide given to attendees, Lynch stated that his intent was to gather a group of artists, musicians and cultural influencers who could briefly turn the Ace Hotel and the surrounding downtown area into a “weird and mysterious world” to explore. I got a chance to explore that world this weekend, and, for the most part, I felt like Lynch succeeded. There was plenty of weird to go around.
Here are my six favorite “uniquely Lynchian” moments from the Festival of Disruption.
A Damn Good Cup of Coffee
On Saturday morning, I lost my phone, got caught in an insane L.A. traffic jam, and otherwise experienced my own personal festival of disruption in just getting to the festival. I arrived at the Theater at the Ace Hotel only minutes before Mel Brooks’ panel was scheduled to start.
As the theater darkened, a short movie started that involved Lynch awkwardly flirting with a Barbie doll head that he was holding in his hand. As the camera kept its extreme close-up on the Barbie doll head, Lynch, (using a fake Barbie doll voice) asked himself questions about his Signature Brand coffee. The short "commercial" ended with Lynch promising to take the doll head out to the lobby of the theater for a cup of coffee.
It was the first thing I experienced at the festival, and things only got weirder from that point on.
A Festival by David Lynch with (Almost) No David Lynch
Throughout most of the festival, Lynch was never seen in the flesh. This led to a strange feeling that Lynch was somehow behind the curtain, manipulating things like the Wizard of Oz. In fact, during his talk, Chris Stein (co-founder of Blondie) wondered aloud if it was possible that some of the weirdness and vibe of the event was being created behind the scenes by David Lynch, who was maybe releasing "odd people" into the festival to interact with attendees.
Lynch finally made an appearance late Sunday night. He walked on the stage briefly to thank everyone and stated that he wanted to, “share some secrets about Twin Peaks.” Lynch then looked off to the side of the stage as if being called, said, “What was that? Oh, we’re out of time..” and walked off the stage again.
Being John Malkovich's Neighbor
The Ace hotel and its surrounding environs were a perfect location for the festival. As Chris Stein joked during his talk, “The hotel looks like Eraserhead, only without the neon signs.”
The coffee bar inside the hotel had the Twin Peaks soundtrack on a continuous loop. Menu items included the above mentioned David Lynch brand coffee as well as mini cherry pies for those channeling their inner Dale Cooper. A steady stream of eccentrics, hipsters and iconoclasts streamed through the coffee bar and into the lobby of the hotel.
This intimate environment led to lots of chance encounters with the performers. On Sunday morning, Chris Stein and Debbie Harry gave an amazing talk about New York in the early 70s, the future of Blondie (Stein let slip that Blondie would be touring with Garbage behind the new album #fuckyeah), and Stein's love of photography.
Photo by: Cameron Bowman
During the talk, Stein and Harry described a photo in the festival’s photography exhibit that had been taken after a fire at Stein’s apartment. Stein decided to pose Harry in front of the stove with a spatula, Harry deciding to wear a dress that had previously been owned by Marilyn Monroe which had also been damaged in the fire.
After hearing this amazing description, I decided to walk over to see the nearby photography exhibit, promptly walking into Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, who were also leaving the venue.
After returning from seeing the exhibit, I ran into actor John Malkovich, who happened to be staying in the room across from us at the hotel. Resisting the urge to yell, “Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich,” I was only able to mutter a, “Good evening Mr. Malkovich” in a barely audible voice before retreating to my room in laughter at the absurdity of having John Malkovich as a next door neighbor.
Robert Plant’s Desert Trip
The rumor about Robert Plant, the golden-throated god of Led Zeppelin, is that he is an amazing pain in the ass diva who has single handedly blocked all efforts towards a Zeppelin reunion.
If that’s true, there certainly was not a trace of that on display Saturday night. With his long grey hair and beard and his flowing outfit, Plant looked less like a diva and more like some sort of rock n' roll Gandalf. He seemed acutely aware of the fact that, not too far away, most of his contemporaries were out in Indio headlining the Desert Trip festival. Or as he put it, “For better or worse, we aren’t at that thing in the desert tonight.”
Maybe he was mad about that. Or maybe he just wanted to prove a point about Zeppelin’s place in rock history. Whatever the reason, after a few solo songs that nicely showed off his interest in world music, Plant suddenly shifted gears and began to rip through a set of some of Led Zeppelin’s most massive hits.
Plant seemed to enjoy blowing everyone’s mind by reminding them that one of the biggest rock stars on the planet was playing an intimate theater set. Several times he would ask, “Maybe you know this one?” in his best “Does anyone remember laughter?” voice before launching into a legendary song like “Dazed and Confused," “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” or “Whole Lotta Love.”
It was a surreal moment and the audience went predictably nuts. Plant ended the show by teasing, “What a great crowd you turned into.”
Virtual Reality?
Between Downtown L.A.’s eclectic environment and a Presidential debate Sunday night that involved questions about grabbing women’s genitalia, it was hard at times for the festival to be as weird as real life. Perhaps for that reason the festival also offered the nearby “Within” exhibit. The exhibit gave attendees a chance to explore several virtual reality realms.
My favorite was a VR setup that allowed you to interact virtually with your partner as the two of you (wearing virtual capes of course) sent streams of color at each other from your mouths, the color and shapes changing based on the sound you made.
St. Vincent’s Blue Velvet Moment
Of all the artists who performed at the festival, St. Vincent (née Annie Clark) seemed to most embrace the “weird and mysterious world” that Lynch was trying to create.
Wearing one of those sun dresses that tourists buy at beach destinations, (the ones that have a women’s bikini body airbrushed onto them) St. Vincent transfixed the audience with an intimate and hypnotic performance. Appearing with couches and furniture behind her that made the stage look vaguely like Isabella Rosellini’s apartment in Blue Velvet, St. Vincent performed a set that was sort of her work mashed up with David Lynch’s work as seen through the lenses of a Broadway show.
Clark’s three back up dancers acted out vignettes as part of her songs. For example, during “Prince Johnny” her dancers mimicked Frank from Blue Velvet breathing from a mask and slapping and attacking Dorothy Valens. Later during “Marry Me” a dancer dressed as a nun presented St. Vincent with a series of gifts (a towel, a ruler, a cocktail) that Vincent coolly accepted while singing with just a piano accompanying her.
The audience collectively seemed to be holding their breath during the set. At one point someone yelled, “We love you Annie!” Without reacting, St. Vincent merely said, “Are you sure this is what you want?” while premiering a new song, the heartbreakingly beautiful “New York.”
The whole effect was mesmerizing, funny, disturbing and memorable – just like the best of Lynch’s work.
