I Am Not Going To Lie ...

David's death got me, big time. We attended our friend's wedding where in Twin Peaks Laura's body was found (a hint--it is before the bridge to Bainbridge Island) relatively recently. Yes, it is still there. The diner is still in the Snoqualmie Falls too. This whole universe could have been created only in the state of Washington. But (apart from Eraserhead) it was this which announced, fucked as it was by the studio, of a visionary of an immense scale. Forget about the Elephant Man. 

Star Wars, heh, a lobotomy to sci-fi. This was the world so bizarre and so enticing that the whole view, lacking dramatically in Herbert's books, of the Dune universe came alive. Frank Herbert, ever present on the set was in awe from David's vision. Weirding modules--that's what David's art was. Weird, bizarre and infinitely beautiful. But it was this, probably, which describes David the best. 

Of course, Harry Dean Stanton too. We live in the presence of a true artist (please, don't give me this Tarkovsky shit) and his body of work is immense. 

There will never be another him ... 

Oh, No!

 That's a huge loss. Huge ... 

David Lynch has died at the age of 78, his family announced on Thursday, Jan. 16. "It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch.  We would appreciate some privacy at this time," read a message on Facebook. "There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, 'Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.' " "It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way," they added.

RIP, David. 

The State Of The Affairs...

 ... in the world today as expressed by David Lynch in his masterpiece. 

I have to admit, prescient in Herbert's book and Lynch's fantastic imagining of it. Reminds you of anything today?

A Superb Summary By James Kunstler...

I do not always agree with James, but when I do, I humbly accept the fact that he is one of the best word-smiths of our generation in English-speaking world. Get a load of this:

After two-plus years of “Joe Biden” — well, our country is bypassing the banana republic stage of dissolution and depravity and steaming quickly into a Hieronymus Bosch dystopia of financial, social, psychological and moral ruin. Every official utterance is a lie. Everything’s broken or breaking. And seemingly, on-purpose. The nagging question, of course, is on whose purposes?  And why is Mr. Zelensky flitting from one country to another the past month? Because the game of Let’s You and Him Fight is drawing to a close and Mr. Z may find himself fatally unpopular back on the home-front. He has managed to send upward of a hundred-thousand young Ukrainian men to their deaths in the meat-grinder, and perhaps a million more have hightailed it for other countries. Ukraine will now be a land of mostly women, children, and old folks — with just enough surviving soldiers left looking to hunt down the comedian who turned Ukraine into another one history’s sick jokes.

For those who do not know who Hieronymus Bosch was--the guy had a vivid imagination, to put it mildly. I am positive that Hellraiser franchise of Clive Barker drew extensively on Bosch's sensibilities. 

Or was David Lynch's Giedi Prime the modern pinnacle of hell?

You decide while reading James' excellent summary.

It Is Friday. Chrysta Bell, Help Us.

Let's relax and enjoy a true art of incomparable Chrysta Bell from her latest album. That is what you get when you are THE muse of David Lynch and are an enormous talent in your own right. That feels like a finest cognac, or, in my case, the most delicate and finest of whiskeys.  

Exquisite, simply exquisite musically and visually.

I Could Have Written About...

How Russia sent NATO packing, and rightly so, but when I was about to write how

Russia suspends diplomatic mission to NATO after 'spies' expelled. Russian officials announced Monday that the nation would suspend its diplomatic mission to NATO following NATO's expulsion of eight consecutive Russians for spying, a report said. The staff members at the Western military alliance's Moscow mission are to be divested of their accreditation, and NATO's office in Russia will be shuttered, said Sergey Lavrov, Russia's minister of foreign affairs."If NATO members have any urgent matters, they can contact our ambassador in Belgium on these questions," he added.

I don't know why this hasn't been done earlier but, evidently, even Russians have their limits, when a very dear friend of mine sent me this: 

U.S. Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine became the first openly transgender four-star officer in the uniformed services on Tuesday after she was sworn in as the first female four-star admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that Levine was ceremonially sworn in as a four-star admiral, making her the highest ranking official in the commissioned corps and leading 6,000 Public Health Service officers.

Sergei Viktorovich.... help!!!  

This is beyond surreal. Masha Zakharova spoke about the situation with 80 genders three days ago in Moscow (in Russian). This will not be shown in the West. You know, "free" West with "freedom" of speech and all that. But you know what? Because I am getting tired of talking about primitive one-cell creatures populating D.C., and I mean both on the "left" and on the "right", here is how aesthetics of free people looks like, granted, it is 32 years ago. 

Today, the only thing you can get is...transgender admirals and fugly woke, whatever they are, things which kill any testosterone and drive what's left of the US into the state of a permanent freak show which you have to accept or you will be sent for the attitude adjustment in the labor camps to kill any desire to want a woman, like your wife, you know, because being sexy and desirable is verboten. Like, you know, ask Robert Duvall and George Lucas...

...before Lucas lobotomized and killed the genre of science fiction in less than 12 parsecs... 

In related news, I really like this this piece that came out yesterday--it is very true, David Lynch never made a movie designed for "normal" people, he left that job to George Lucas. That is why Lucas never produced anything of real value after the rape of original Star Wars, while Lynch stunned the world with his work time after time until he reached a pinnacle of cinematography with his Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. I don't know if anything in modern TV can ever top this--the bar is too high, you need 12 parsecs to top it. 

When Even Russians Mark The Occasion. Friday On saturday.

Ria yesterday posted a material titled (in Russian) Who Killed Laura Palmer.  

Кто убил Лору Палмер? Сериалу "Твин Пикс" — 30 лет

It is the 30th Anniversary of Twin Peaks. It is significant. Some still say that Lynch wanted to explore Marylin Monroe's death and codified it in this TV Series after was denied the funding for doing this directly. Because of that we got to enjoy something much better than any Marylin Monroe series could have even been, since it gave us a dreamscape we would, otherwise, have missed. I agree, the Second Season came out a bit mangled once it reached its second half, and we never have got to see a spin-off about Audrey Horne (boy, with Sherilyn Fenn being at the top of her game and appearance this could have been fantastic), but in the end we all have been rewarded with the Third Season. Well, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was really good too. Sadly, many people died since then: Miguel Ferrer, incomparable Peggy Lipton, Harry Dean Stanton, Log Lady just to name a few. 

I know why this whole thing touched me so profoundly--North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls, including this "Great Northern", where all this drama takes place, are so near and dear to me. It is also the exact date (April 7) of my wedding, which is older than Twin Peaks by 6 years. There are very many coincidences both numerical and geographic which attract me to the place and the story. Hopefully, when this Covid-19 thing blows over and restrictions are lifted, we are going to Tweedes Cafe (RR Diner in the show) in North Bend to try, no, not the Cherry Pie, but "A damn fine cup-o coffee" and some staples.  It is something to look forward to and knowing that both Frank Herbert (born in Tacoma), David Lynch (born in Spokane) and Kyle MacLachlan (born in Yakima) were born at the vertices of this funny triangle of  Tacoma-Spokane-Yakima gives all this so much more pleasure to visit places of my so dear Dune and Twin Peaks. They should play Angelo Badalamenti's tracks there, when it is raining outside, which is only normal for Western Washington. 

 

Afterglow Friday.

It came to me that after watching Twin Peaks Season Three. It all came together spurring from Davis Lynch's Dune which I know by now every line, that Twin Peaks wrapped it up for me in terms of what Paul Atreidis, played then by Kyle MacLachlan, embodied in Special Agent Dale Cooper. Lynch, probably, embodies the pinnacle of an American culture in a sense of finding humanity, beauty and love in the midst of a complete insanity, mayhem and confusion. Ah, yes, about the beauty. So let's recall one which blew everyone away then in late 1980s and still, even today, remains beautiful, however merciless to all of us time is. Sherylin Fenn's beauty is so powerful that it is incomprehensible how we ended up with tattooed gift-less pretentious nobodies trying to define femininity and attraction by bearing it all.   

This is not to mention the fact that Angelo Badalamenti's music is haunting and once you heard it--it stays. Here is Fenn doing her dance in 1990:

And this is her in 2017. 

It is, indeed, dreamy. Badalamenti (Angelo) and his music is this ingredient which makes it simply intoxicating. But then Season Three adds Chromatics. Here is fans' compilation:

Here is official; 

I envy people who would experience this for the first time.

Let the force be with...or they don't make them like this anymore.

In 1984 a movie came out. No, I am not talking about "it can get there in 7 parsecs" Star Wars VI which, actually, if my dementia doesn't fail me, came out in 1983. No, I am talking about Dune. Specifically, David Lynch's Dune, made as an adaptation of Frank Herbert's immortal novel. Basically, Herbert's Dune is a War And Peace of Sci-Fi and, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest geopolitical novels of all time. But that is not the point--the point is the movie, which since then was condemned, degraded, humiliated to the point that David Lynch disowned it, having some Alan Smithee shown as a director and none other than Judas Booth (rings a bell?) as a scenarist, exhibited in a credits to a famous 3hr 15 minutes uncut version. 31 years has passed since a "box-office bomb" and all "thumbs down" version which became....a cult classic. What was forgotten, that Herbert was extremely dry in describing the universe of Dune. He wrote a superb geo(space)political palace intrigue and drama, while remaining surprisingly uninspiring in giving us a glimpse into what this world looks like. It took David Lynch's genius to give us a picture which, since 1984 disturbs, excites and fascinates true lovers of a genre. Herbert himself conceded that, far from being "consultant" on the set, he was simply amazed at what he observed. 

All those art "specialists" define the style of Lynch's Dune as noire-baroque. It is more than that--it is bizarre, it is dark, it is horrifying, it is paleo futuristic  and it is inhuman and that is precisely why Dune's characters come across so alive (how about outstanding actors' work?) and so human. No adaptation (well, Sci-Fi Channel's one) came even close in conveying the awe, horror and wonderment of an incredible world of the Spacing Guild, Space Travel, Bene Gesserit and a boy, grown to become a leader. The picture which was painted did become Dune and I am eternally grateful that this cinematic masterpiece came out when there were no imbecile teenagers publishing their "opinions" on the net from their iPhones and when the standard of human (especially female) beauty, friendship and sacrifice was high. Ah, yes! In the year 10191 there is NO democracy and the Universe is ruled by the Padishahs-Emperors. It is feudal.....and no computers. 

Music by ToTo and Brian Eno--it is the awe and shock!!

The spice must flow...........