I’ll come straight out and say that the opening night of Everything Is Festival was simply amazing! There’s no other way to put it. 

But let’s skip back to the start of the day and I decided to try and get to grips with the area I’m staying in, so I spent from 11AM until 5PM wondering around the Hollywood area and actually figuring out how everything connected. Though on a scolding hot sunny day maybe that wasn’t the best idea!

Then is was time to head to the Cinefamily for the reason I’d actually come here – Everything Is Festival! Now the opening event, Memory Hole, was free to get into and first come first served and there was no way I wasn’t going to get in. So I’d decided to get there early and just see what was happening, of course it turns out I got there way too early, but the couple of other people in the queue already were super friendly and I got chatting to them quickly and the queue built up steadily behind us. I also got to say Hi to EIT main man Dimitri, who proved to be a total 100% gentleman all the way through the evening and was just so great to chat to. 

Now bear in mind that Memory Hole is made up of so of the strangest found footage I’ve ever seen and it’s scored to make it all seem even weirder, so I had no idea what to actually expect from the show tonight. So when the doors opened and we we’re let in I had no idea what to expect in there, what we actually found was totally genius work from EIT, the entire cinema was pitch black as soon as people walked in, the only light came from two roving video cameras that we’re filming the audience coming in and then projecting it onto the screen, which in turn was being manipulated and scored by some very disturbing ambient sounds. What a great idea, we became the entertainment for the start of the night! 

Then after about 30-minutes of this, the stage came to life with a 6 foot tall slice of talking nightmare pizza, which introduced us to the Memory Hold screening. Now I’m not going to tell you anything about what we saw, it’s so amazingly odd and out there that you’ll just need to see it for yourself. Which you might well actually be able to do as I picked up one of the limited edition VHS releases of it that they had for sale straight after the show! So we’ll all have to have a get together soon so you can all experience it first hand, only probably with out the 6-foot tall talking nightmare pizza.

More super cool stuff happened, but I don’t want these blogs to get too long and for me right now it’s 2.20AM and I’m flagging badly, so here’s a look at the Memory Hole VHS:

So straight after that it was the special Samurai Cop screening with cast & crew reunion. Samurai Cop never let’s you down and the Cinefamily crowd ate this up, so great to hear so many people having a good time watching this. The cast & crew Q&A was great fun and everyone had great stories to tell about how the film came about and what happened while they filmed. 

Now the party was still going on, but I’m exhausted, the jet lag is still kicking me, really hope I get a proper sleep this time. But I have to say that the Cinefamily staff and volunteers we’re all so amazingly friendly and helpful tonight, they made me feel so welcome and so at home, they even called a taxi for me as there’s now wifi there, which means no Uber can for me. I can’t wait to get back there tomorrow now! 

 

So I’ve made it to LA! That’s my view for the next 10-days, wish you we’re all here to share it with me. 

I’m writing this at 10PM local time, which I think means it’s now 6AM UK time, which means I’ve officially been awake for over 24-hours. How was today then? Real easy actually, the flight was good, only half full so I got an entire row of seats to myself. I’d seen every decent film playing and couldn’t bring myself to watch The Other Wonan, so settled for working my way through the TV show section, I ended up watching a random episode of Games Of Thrones, which still doesn’t do anything for me.

The best thing about the flight was the crazy cab driver that picked me up, I’d always wanted to have a guy waiting for me at an airport with my name on a card and he came really close, from now on you can refer to me as Ales Kidd if you want! Wish I’d got a picture of that. But he had the wildest stories and didn’t stop talking once all through the drive, telling me about how he’d been a mercenary for the Russian army, how he’d been to every country and broken every speeding law they had, funny and odd at the same time.

Then as I’m staying on my own tonight until my friends get here tomorrow I found myself at a lose end, so on everyone’s LA advice I fixed myself up with the amazing Uber app, typed up a taxi and headed for the one place I wanted to go to first: Ameoba Records! 

It was so good to be back there, if you’ve never been it’s such a brilliantly old school record store and so huge. But the best thing is that it stocks new and 2nd hand stuff, so you never know what’s going to be in there. I headed straight for the DVD section, which also still carries VHS and LaserDisc! Then it was back down to the 7inch single section to find two amazing boxes, one marked SPACE the other Odder & Odder, or something like that. Space was all singles about outer space and aliens! I couldn’t stop myself, I had to get a handful from both boxes, here’s just one to give you an idea of what I picked up tonight:

And believe me there’s plenty more where that came from! So now I’m going to try and stay up until past midnight, just to see how long I can stay awake. I have a breakfast date set up tomorrow morning and then it’s supply shopping to cover the rest of the week! Now I just can’t wait until Everything Is Festival starts on Thursday evening!

 

 

So here we are, after a year of waiting and planning it’s now the eve of the big trip, this time tomorrow my plane will just be taking off as I head to LA and Everything Is Festival: The 5^th Dimension!

I’d been thinking about going back to the West Coast for a while now, but my original plan had been to go to the San Diego Comic-Con, but the more I thought about that I realised it just wasn’t for me, too big, too crowded and to be honest just not what I’m into now.

My real change of heart though came last year, I’d been following what had been happening at Everything Is Festival since the first one a few years back, always a fascinating and unexpected line-up, and always sounding so much fun. So when they streamed it all live back in August 2013 I was hooked on watching as much as possible and that’s what made up my mind for me. That time next year I wanted to be there in person!

Skip forward a year and here we are, my flight is booked, my accommodation is sorted, I have tickets for every event at the festival and best of all I’m taking part in the Found Footage Battle Royale!

 

So before I head off I thought I’d run down my Top 5 events I’m looking forward to at Everything Is Festival: The 5^th Dimension. Although to be honest I’m actually looking forward to everything that’s playing!

Number 5 – Show & tell with Dr. Demento

Dr. Demento has been a searching for oddities in music for decades, he’s unearthed so many fascinating discoveries that this in person audience is just going to be fascinating, really can’t wait to see and hear what’s going to be unleashed at this one.

Number 4 – Welcome To The CyberNet

The previous Everything Is Terrible mixes Comic Relief & Does The Hip Hop had the best and fastest editing I’ve ever seen on any mix tape, it was so intricately put together and such a relentless non-stop barrage of footage that I simply can’t wait to see what they’ve come up this time around. Especially as it’s all early internet based!

Number 3 – YouTube Treasures

This one is perfect for me, comedians Kyle Mooney & Nathan Fielder will be taking us through some of their favourite YouTube obscurities, I just know this is going to be so much fun, simply hanging out with two other people who do exactly the same thing I love to do, simply can’t wait to see what they’ve uncovered

Number 2 – Memory Hole

Now this is going to be something very special, the opening event is “The Memory Hole” Art Opening, I’m not even sure what this is going to be, but Everything Is Terrible have found the motherload of vintage home video footage and have been releasing it online under the name Memory Hole. What I’ve seen so far marks a new high point in video discoveries, the stuff is so weird, I’ve no idea how they’ve turned it into an art exhibit, but I can’t wait to find out. This one is free entry, so I’ll be getting there very early to make sure I can get in.

 

Number 1 – The Found Footage Battle Royale

Here we go, this is the big one! 16 contestants go head-to-head in the ultimate battle of found footage and I’ll be one of the 16! I can’t wait to be there and just see what happens, will be so amazing to get onstage and introduce one of my clips. I’m not even sure how the night is going to work, I just hope that I get to show all my clips somehow, I just want to make everyone there laugh as much as possible! Who knows how I’ll do, it’ll just be so much fun to be there and take part in it!

So that’s my highlights for the festival, I’m going to try and write and entry here each day about what’s been happening, though I’ll see how it goes, I’ve no idea what else I’ll be getting up to while I’m there! Wish me luck!