Mulholland Drive. There’s some violence in it and it’s suspenseful, but a lot of the foreboding is heightened by the soundtrack. (If you want to make the scary parts less scary, you could turn down the sound.) But the movie is worth the dread and tension. It blew my mind.
Twin Peaks is sort of scary, but I’d say it’s more funny than scary and more weird and a great starting point in my opinion besides that I’d say blue velvet or Mulholland Drive or really just start watching his interviews and weird stuff on YouTube. I really don’t think you can go wrong.
My basement is very scary and I wouldn't go in it even to save myself from a tornado, but I'm still into the idea that the universe might be down there. Or maybe in my attic? Or the plumbing? Also into the idea that I don't have to cut off my own ear in order to make great art.
Seriously, thanks for this. Much needed this morning.
Alex! I think you got at why Lynch's passing is particularly tough for me. Knowing that he had found some sort of inner peace and was still capable of delving into the darkness was a big deal and bucks the notion that we all have to be miserable to create something great.
"Waiting for the shower to get hot, I asked God to let me come back to this place at least one more time." I'm not even sure what to say about that, except that I'm really glad you wrote it.💘💘💘
I love the idea of waves as a metaphor for your half glimpsed feelings of excitement. The tide might be coming in (with all your ideas) but in waves, which sometimes disappear and sometimes surge forward. Overall, the tide is still coming in. How’s that for a bit of positive thinking for you!! Keep going Alex, you’re a wonderful writer!
You’ve hit upon something I haven’t heard anyone say: his being brilliant and having a dark vision but not being a dark or miserable person in his personal life. I loved how he was both deep-thinking and positive.
He had a script from 2010 that he said, in 2022, he was "still hoping to get made.” This implies he was not able to get financing for his film. Which is fascinating, but should also be somewhat of a comfort (albeit a cold comfort) to other artists. (i.e., if wildly revered David Lynch could not get money for his next film, maybe others shouldn’t feel too bad if they can’t get money for their projects.)
That quote about pain hits. I’ve always said that what we endure doesn’t make us better creatives or creative in general, it has us seeking ways to understand our pain and suffering, it may become a way to cope out a way to share our experiences with others. But also, people can just be creative. Many of us want to find meaning and understand or share what our world looks like—pain or no. I often wonder what I could do without my illnesses. I remember my boundless ten years and think about putting half that energy to my creativity. I have always been creative, so I would still always have something to share. It was just be different somethings. It’s mind blowing, really.
Yo, Alex, you're a lighthouse too. David Lynch says stuff we already know, but don't know that we know. The thrill told you; it's obvious.
"I felt strangely good — a rare but not unfamiliar state in which all is right and all makes sense, creatively and otherwise. I yearned to write everything down because it all connected because how could it not? ... I get to be here, where even though it’s dark, I’m blinded with light."
Dark and angry is when we're starved for that state. And we say, "Because it sounds like bullshit," because we're bitterly sad about it, whacking down that irrepressible knowing, tiny pleasures, whiffs of bliss.
A small edit: "Maybe the feeling is BOTH a state of things, AND more a momentary awareness of that which is available to me always."
Alex, this is a great post. I don't mean to be too simplistic, but if you believe you will return to the feeling, you will. I can't wait to hear about it when you do.
I don't think I have ever watched anything Lynchian – where do you suggest I start? I don't like SCARY, which is what I hear Twin Peaks is?!
Mulholland Drive. There’s some violence in it and it’s suspenseful, but a lot of the foreboding is heightened by the soundtrack. (If you want to make the scary parts less scary, you could turn down the sound.) But the movie is worth the dread and tension. It blew my mind.
Twin Peaks is sort of scary, but I’d say it’s more funny than scary and more weird and a great starting point in my opinion besides that I’d say blue velvet or Mulholland Drive or really just start watching his interviews and weird stuff on YouTube. I really don’t think you can go wrong.
I’d recommend The Elephant Man. You may weep but you will feel the love in it.
My basement is very scary and I wouldn't go in it even to save myself from a tornado, but I'm still into the idea that the universe might be down there. Or maybe in my attic? Or the plumbing? Also into the idea that I don't have to cut off my own ear in order to make great art.
Seriously, thanks for this. Much needed this morning.
The whole universe being down there does make it scary, right? Scary and exciting but also pretty scary. How do I even organize all that? ;)
What if it’s already organized?
Alex! I think you got at why Lynch's passing is particularly tough for me. Knowing that he had found some sort of inner peace and was still capable of delving into the darkness was a big deal and bucks the notion that we all have to be miserable to create something great.
Exactly dude exactly!!! He is proof that really you can just be the thing, it’s so simple yet often so difficult???
No basement in my house but I am a weirdo and I attract weirdos. That’s the best thing about me.
Weirdos are the best!
"Waiting for the shower to get hot, I asked God to let me come back to this place at least one more time." I'm not even sure what to say about that, except that I'm really glad you wrote it.💘💘💘
Dang BA this made my day
😘😘😘
he's a lighthouse
I love the idea of waves as a metaphor for your half glimpsed feelings of excitement. The tide might be coming in (with all your ideas) but in waves, which sometimes disappear and sometimes surge forward. Overall, the tide is still coming in. How’s that for a bit of positive thinking for you!! Keep going Alex, you’re a wonderful writer!
The tide always comes in again. I like that.
You’ve hit upon something I haven’t heard anyone say: his being brilliant and having a dark vision but not being a dark or miserable person in his personal life. I loved how he was both deep-thinking and positive.
Yeassss exactly!! Like who else can u name like that
He had a script from 2010 that he said, in 2022, he was "still hoping to get made.” This implies he was not able to get financing for his film. Which is fascinating, but should also be somewhat of a comfort (albeit a cold comfort) to other artists. (i.e., if wildly revered David Lynch could not get money for his next film, maybe others shouldn’t feel too bad if they can’t get money for their projects.)
What of one doesn't have a basement?
The void is the universe
Well, then, that's cool!
We had a fab basement on the east coast. But I think I found G-d in the attic.
I remember Eraserhead played at the NuArt in LA for years.
I miss Lynch already.
Tbh I don’t think he’s ever gone cuz he was never here he was something else
That quote about pain hits. I’ve always said that what we endure doesn’t make us better creatives or creative in general, it has us seeking ways to understand our pain and suffering, it may become a way to cope out a way to share our experiences with others. But also, people can just be creative. Many of us want to find meaning and understand or share what our world looks like—pain or no. I often wonder what I could do without my illnesses. I remember my boundless ten years and think about putting half that energy to my creativity. I have always been creative, so I would still always have something to share. It was just be different somethings. It’s mind blowing, really.
Mind blowing indeed
Yo, Alex, you're a lighthouse too. David Lynch says stuff we already know, but don't know that we know. The thrill told you; it's obvious.
"I felt strangely good — a rare but not unfamiliar state in which all is right and all makes sense, creatively and otherwise. I yearned to write everything down because it all connected because how could it not? ... I get to be here, where even though it’s dark, I’m blinded with light."
Dark and angry is when we're starved for that state. And we say, "Because it sounds like bullshit," because we're bitterly sad about it, whacking down that irrepressible knowing, tiny pleasures, whiffs of bliss.
A small edit: "Maybe the feeling is BOTH a state of things, AND more a momentary awareness of that which is available to me always."
Tell us more, please.
Both are true!! I’ll try and tell more I will
Eraserhead is indelibly etched in my basement.
Alex, this is a great post. I don't mean to be too simplistic, but if you believe you will return to the feeling, you will. I can't wait to hear about it when you do.
I think he meant the universe was in us. In our lives. As close as any part of your house.