David Lynch's Festival of Disruption Descends on NYC: Photo Recap
by Amanda Koellner
Flaunt had boots on the ground as David Lynch brought his creative maelstrom to bear on NYC. The Festival of Disruption, now in its 3rd year and appearing in NYC for the first time, unites musicians, artists, dancers, and thinkers under a quintessentially Lynchian umbrella to help fund Transcendental Meditation programs for students, prisoners, soldiers, and others in high-stress environments. This year's roster boasted some of the most vital names in the avant-garde: there were film screenings and interviews with stars from the David Lynch constellation (Isabella Rossini, Kyle MacLachlan), psych-inflected sets served by musicians Angel Olsen, Animal Collective, Au Revoir Simone, Jon Hopkins, and Flying Lotus, and a meditation session lead by Brian Eno among other strange delights.
Perhaps best of all, we now know what happens when you interrupt one of Lynch's meditation sessions, as told by Kyle MacLachlan:
"When I was working with him on Dune, I knew he would disappear for a few days to meditate. One day in particular, we were all staying in a dorm room in a studio and I went down to his room to ask two questions, and on the door was a sign that said, 'No Mole Stars.' I was like, 'No Mole Stars?' And I knew David was a little eccentric. And it was drawn in a particular David way with a star on it. And I knocked on the door and asked, 'Am I interrupting?' He was meditating. He said, 'That's OK, Kyle, come on in. Did you notice the sign on my door?' I said, 'Yeah, "No Mole Stars."' And he said, 'It's No Molestar'. So that's how I learned Spanish. That was the first and last time I interrupted him."
Never change, Mr. Lynch.
Photography by Amanda Koellner