Trip Report – Festival of Disruption May 2018 – Day 2

Festival of Disruption kicked off on May 19, 2018 at Brooklyn Steel. Following an exciting first day in Brooklyn, New York, I was excited to attend event curated by David Lynch. Festival proceeds helped the David Lynch Foundation teach at-risk youth, veterans, and women to meditate. I was most looking forward to meeting other Twin Peaks and David Lynch fans whom I only knew from Twitter. The day did not disappoint!

It was raining as I left my hotel in Brooklyn. Thankfully I brought a compact umbrella as Brooklyn Steel was about 1.3-miles from where I was staying. Along the way, I stopped at Hungry Ghost Coffee for a cup o’ joe.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, a fellow Twin Peaks fan and Festival of Disruption attendee, Sarah (aka @CookiePusher on Twitter) took photos of me leaving the coffee house. We ended up next standing next to each other when I arrived at the venue. Thanks for the photos, Sarah!

Upon arriving around 9:30, I was given two wristbands – one for the event and one for drinking (priorities!). Of course, I was sporting a Twin Peaks-themed t-shirt created by Fifth Sun apparel, and my awesome Owl Cave ring by Rocklove Jewelry.

Attendees waited outside the venue before passing through security around 10:00 a.m.

Doors to the stage are opened at 11:00, so I had time to explore the venue outside the theatre.

The long hall outside the venue for Brooklyn Steel contained a bar along with several tables offering merchandise and information.

The merchandise table offered a variety of Twin Peaks Showtime Store and David Lynch products. Many of these items, such as apparel, patches, and accessories, are currently found on the for Twin Peaks. It was nice to see these items in person (and in other place beside my home).

The bar offered the two Twin Peaks-themed beers from Mikkeller NYC Brewery – Log Lady Lager and Damn Good Coffee Stout. Before the weekend was done, I enjoyed several cans (preferred the Log Lady Lager slightly more than the Coffee Stout). I saved multiple empty cans but housekeeping at my hotel threw them away – super sad face!!).

Jewelry designer and presenting sponsor ALEX AND ANI had a pop-up booth at the event. They became involved with the David Lynch Foundation last October and were offering a specially designed “Meditating Eye” products to support the organization. ALEX AND ANI will donate 20% of the purchase price from each Meditating Eye product sold on their website, with a minimum donation of $25,000 between October 2017 and December 2018, to the David Lynch Foundation (see the website for all the details).

Sacred Bones Records also had a booth at the event, which had many of the recent Twin Peaks and David Lynch albums and CDs available for sale. They have done an outstanding job keeping my favorite music of all time alive!

While at the booth, I spotted a postcard with an image of Julee Cruise. I didn’t think much of the card and added it to my collection of things. While waiting for the theatre doors to open, I realized what was printed on the cards – new vinyl is coming in August 2018 from Julee Cruise. They are releasing a vinyl copy of Cruise’s “The Voice of Love” from 1993, and 12-inch album containing three demo tracks. The latter album uses an image of an EP compact disc I have featuring “Rockin’ Back inside My Heart” from the early 1990s.

I asked Dean Hurley about the demo tracks and he said Sacred Bones should be releasing more details soon See this page to pre-order the two albums. Take a listen to the demo track of “Floating” by Julee Cruise above.

Throughout the venue, there was a series of gold framed squares containing a variety of quotes. Here are a few of my favorites.

Above the exit, there was a giant canvas with a symbol from the Festival of Disruption.

Once the doors of the theatre opened around 11:00 a.m., I quickly found a seat in the third row from the stage. There was a video loop containing details about the event playing on the giant screen.

Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation and teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM), welcomed the audience (you can find him on Twitter at @MeditationBob). He showed a short presentation which had David Lynch drawing a picture while describing TM (you can see the segment at the 2-minute mark in this YouTube video).

Bob’s first guest was filmmaker and co-creator of Showtime’s Billions. He discussed his experiences with meditation and working in the film and television industry.

Brian shared his take on managing failure. He said that it’s important to keep working, even if it means doing only five minutes of work. The five minutes of work turns into ten and then it continues. It’s important to do the thing you love because it matters to you.  I loved his honest throughout his entire discussion. Follow him on Twitter at @BrianKoppelman.

Before the next presentation, attendees saw the first trailer for a recently launched Kickerstarter campaign, “I Know Catherine, The Log Lady,” This feature-length documentary film will be about TV icon Catherine Coulson, best known as the Log Lady in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks.

You can get involved with making this documentary a reality by visiting IKnowCatherine.com.

Up next, Lindsay Zoladz spoke with Isabella Rossellini and Kyle MacLachlan about their experiences creating David Lynch’s masterpiece, Blue Velvet. Words can’t describe how excited I was to hear both of them. I had never seen them in person so my “geeking out” level was quite high.

Below is a few clips of Isabella and Kyle speaking about Blue Velvet and Dune

Here are several photos from their talk.

I could have listened to their stories all afternoon. Both of them are wonderful story tellers and shared some wonderful memories that made viewing Blue Velvet on the big screen even more enjoyable.

Following the screening, we had the afternoon free until 7:00 p.m. when the live music sets began. This was the best afternoon as I finally got to meet so many fellow Twin Peaks fans whom I only knew as a Twitter handle.

@Twin_Petes  and I shared some Twin Peaks Beer. Pete was incredibly kind to write a profile on me for his incredible project, Une Me Solitaire: Fans in a Living Novel. 

Kyle MacLachlan super fan and Bookhouse Babe @Bretagnarchy

Bryon & Ben unwrap Twin Peaks’ mysteries in their outstanding podcast @TwinPeaksUnwrapped. Check it out on Apple iTunes HERE.

I was also glad to FINALLY meet Pieter Dom who runs WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com. We’ve talked via social media for years but never met in person.

In addition to meeting fellow Twin Peaks fans, I also met a few stars from the show. One of my favorite characters from Twin Peakson Showtime, Ray Monroe, was played by George Griffith. He was at the merchandise booth and was wonderfully gracious speaking with fans and posing for photos. We discussed the RockLove Jewelry ring I was wearing which reminded him of the one he wore in the show.

I also spoke with Rebekah Del Rio who performed in both Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks on Showtime. She shared stories about working on the film and series such as the number of times she fell on stage in Club Silencio (about 13 but they used the first take), and recording “Llorando.” Rebekah signed my program (while using my back as a table). I couldn’t wait to hear her sing on Sunday night!

Doors to the concerts opened around 7:00 p.m. where attendees entered a world of blue.

First up was long-time music and sound contributed Dean Hurley. He performed an hour-long DJ set. Prior to his set, I spoke with him at the Sacred Bones Records booth about his work with the Twin Peaks Archive music releases. I gushed about how grateful I was for his efforts and hard work, as that music has become the soundtrack to my life.

After Dean Hurley’s set, I moved to the second floor for the rest of the evening. By this time, the general admission viewing was starting to fill up. Jon Hopkins followed Dean for about a 45-minute set.

I had never seen Jon perform but I was familiar with some of his work via the radio program Hearts of Space (in particular program #888 – Time of Transition).

I wasn’t prepared for how awesome of a show and set he would create. Really got the crowd going.

I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with The Animal Collective before Festival of Disruption. Their music was definitely experimental, yet the audience seemed to love them. I really liked the visuals on the screen behind the band.

Flying Lotus wrapped the night, and for some reason I didn’t take photos of his set. It’s probably because Pieter Dom and I were too busy goofing around at the SmileBooth photo booth.

The second image was a tribute to the scene in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me when Agent Dale Cooper sees Agent Phillip Jeffries in the security camera. Sort of like this…

All said, a very interesting and extremely enjoyable first day!

Related Articles:

• Trip Report – Festival of Disruption May 2018 – Day 1
• Trip Report – Festival of Disruption May 2018 – Day 3