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!

We’ve now been around long enough for Time Out to call us pioneers! 

Let’s take a dive back into seedy old New York City with this amazing quality footage of a late night drive around Times Square and 42nd Street back in 1980. Just check out those cinema marquees!

In the week that sees the release of the ultimate Twin Peaks video box set that’ll ever grace our shelves, we’re taking a look at another essential item in anyone’s Twin Peaks collection – the 1991 UK produced board game!

Released with little to no fanfare back in 1991 I stumbled across this while browsing in Forbidden Planet one day, that was when it was situated on New Oxford Street after the move from Denmark Street. Down in the basement was where they kept a lot of film related toys and figures, mingled in amongst everything else was this eye catching great looking box, looking very Twin Peaks like with it’s well designed box art.

What’s interesting about the game is that when you look at it and the contents you’ll notice a distinct lack of any character images from the film, meaning that the games creator’s probably only got permission to use the name of the show and not any of the characters featured in it. Which is a shame as pictures of Copper, Laura and the rest of the cast would have been a good extra to have featured. But the designers have done a good job with the look of the box and the board; sadly the same can’t be said for the actual gameplay itself.

To be honest I’ve never actually played the game, in fact parts of it I’ve never even opened, that’s simply due to the fact that the rules make it seem like one of the most anti-fun games I’ve ever come across. The rules seem so complicated and convoluted that I could never work up the desire to actual sit down and play the thing; the rules had the same effect on anyone I showed them to. Though hats off the original creators for actually trying to create something that incorporated elements from the show, it’s just it didn’t turn out to be very fun, or sell itself very well.

But we do have the great looking box to enjoy and seeing as the game was a UK creation it’s not that hard to pick it up on ebay UK, though prices vary wildly so it pays to be patient as most people greatly over-value the price of this set.