I am curious if anyone has seen the new David Lynch documentary. It looks awesome but it's only played a few cities in Europe as far as I know. The director has a myspace page for it: http://www.myspace.com/davidlynchdocumentary2007. The Twin Peaks festival website says that it will be playing there this summer, but I am not going. Supposedly there is a short version of it that will go on the INLAND EMPIRE dvd, so I guess if it doesn't play near me before then I will settle for the condensed version ...although sometimes shorter is sweeter.

Also, Amanda and chan chan, I saw Richard Beymer's Whatever Happened to Richard Beymer documentary at a festival and I liked it a lot even though that birthing scene was a bit much to swallow. He obviously seems to be quite a colorful character with self-confessed voyeuristic tendencies and a wildly lavish past. But I have met a lot of people that know him and they have all attested to his goodness despite his wild side. Hmmm... typecast as Ben Horne? Perhaps.

Richard also seems to have written a book (similar to the movie?) called Imposter or Whatever Happened To Richard Beymer? He has a myspace page with some pretty whacked out stuff in his blog where he describes his book. I can't wait to read it. I can't seem to find anything else about it online but it's posted to myspace.com/richardbeymer.

Take care,
Lisa

Hey Scott,
Am an avid David Lynch fan. Like many on here I think Fire Walk With Me is his signature work. A true example of when everything Lynch is about is truly firing. I see Laura Palmer as his most evocative and heartbreaking character (Dorothy Vallens runs a close second in my book). I just wanted to comment that I feel Lynch shifted his focus with Lost Highway (not just in his departure from more conventional storytelling or structure) and has been blowing my mind since (The Straight Story was a nice interlude which even with its G rating revisited some of Lynch's small town obessions).

I must confess, however, that I am a Lynch fan who didn't make it through Eraserhead. I had to turn it off as I was truly freaked out. That was a few years ago now, so maybe with a clearer head i might be able to tackel it in the near future.

Take it easy,

Ryan

Hey Scott,
Am an avid David Lynch fan. Like many on here I think Fire Walk With Me is his signature work. A true example of when everything Lynch is about is truly firing. I see Laura Palmer as his most evocative and heartbreaking character (Dorothy Vallens runs a close second in my book). I just wanted to comment that I feel Lynch shifted his focus with Lost Highway (not just in his departure from more conventional storytelling or structure) and has been blowing my mind since (The Straight Story was a nice interlude which even with its G rating revisited some of Lynch's small town obessions).

I must confess, however, that I am a Lynch fan who didn't make it through Eraserhead. I had to turn it off as I was truly freaked out. That was a few years ago now, so maybe with a clearer head i might be able to tackel it in the near future.

Take it easy,

Ryan

Laura, Laura. The amazing Laura would have to be my favorite character... I love in Fire Walk With Me, when she & Bobby are in the woods and she is *wasted*: "Look, Bobby! I found some dirt! *giggle*" Also, the poignant scene with James, where she mocks him repeating her name.

2nd favorite character is a tie between Benjamin Horne (always best when with his brother Jerry) and Bobby Briggs for his cocaine-fueled rages...

[thanks so much, Amanda, for that excellent Richard Beymer story! So he really is as sketchy in real life...]

What's everyone's opinion on Lynch's Transcendental Meditation thing?

twin peaks always makes me a little sad, now, and you know why, scott! i miss watching it with you (and many others) in lawrence while drinking coffee and eating chocolate peanut butter pie, and SCREAMING when bob popped up from behind the couch... my favorite character... i need to think about it. you'd think i'd have figured it out by now.

My favorite character?
Well that's classified ;)
aka MAJ. Garland Briggs.

least favorite:
Dick Tremaine, James Hurley

Nobody's cooler than Agent Dale Cooper and his coffee /donuts breaks.

My favorite Twin Peaks character?

Leland, hands down.

Deputy Andy is great, too.

My favorite Twin Peaks character?

You know, I don't have one. I rented the first season and just couldn't get into it. I like Lynch a lot, Mulholland Dr. is my favorite movie, period. I have yet to see anything as grand as that but, his other stuff is hit or miss. And for me, I know I'm in the minority here, but Twin Peaks was a miss. Maybe if I had been into it when it was first on, I would appriciate it more, but, watching it now, it just looks so dated, so painfully early '90's that it made me cringe. I however have only seen season one, and I've heard that it doesn't start to get really interesting until season 2, which has yet to come out on DVD. So who knows, when/if they release season 2 on DVD and I get to see the rest of the series my feelings about it might change, but, as of now it didn't really grab me at all.

This is all great, great stuff... love the personal Twin Peaks stories. But I still want you all to tell your favorite TP character...

That's a great story Amanda, I've always wanted to attend one of those twin peaks festivals. I'm also going to look for "Whatever happened to Richard Beymer" nothing can be as ridiculous as Crispin Glovers "What is it".

A few summers ago, my (now-)husband and I -- both big Lynch fans -- drove out to Washington to attend the annual Twin Peaks/David Lynch Fan Festival. Our (then-)roommate had gone the previous year, and returned with photographic documentation of her Pabst Blue Ribbon-fueled make-out session with Michael "Little Mike" Anderson who, later in the evening, danced in his signature style to her karaoke rendition of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me".

Naturally, our interest was piqued.

My experience at the Festival can be summed up thusly: it was one of the few times when I have felt as though I was one of the *least* nerdy people in a given space. Sadly, this included some of the actors who were present.

Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran) was very genial, and insisted on switching eye glasses with me at one point (because, she explained, she'd worn a pair with the same frames for a Lean Cuisine commercial). Catherine Coulson (the Log Lady) arrived, sans log, after airport security advised against transporting it in her carry-on luggage. Richard Beymer (Ben Horne) kept staring at my not-especially-ample boobs while he was talking with my husband about growing up in the Midwest.

(The height of schadenfreude that weekend: Mr. Beymer screened his short, high-concept film "Whatever Happened to Richard Beymer?", at the Festival. In one, pivotal scene, the camera zooms into the vagina of a woman in the throes of childbirth, revealing a starry space-scape with a computer-animated Buddha floating therein. Somehow, I managed to applaud politely at the end of it all).

This page seems to have it, I'm downloading it right now so I dunno if the file works yet or not.

http://this.bigstereo.net/2005/10/19/antony-the-johnsons-letterman/

From my blog:

BOB & ME

I was a child when Twin Peaks was originally airing, and It scared the hell out of me (especially BOB). Our house was being painted, so my family was staying at my grandparent's place (A big house surrounded by acres, and acres of forest) It was a crisp, starry connecticut fall, and the sounds of crickets and cicadas were deafening. I went outside to walk my dog before bedtime, and through the racket of the insects, i heard the sole hoot of an owl, I had finished watching the episode in which Garland Briggs dissapears while night fishing with Dale Cooper. Cooper spots the owl, a brilliant light flashes in the distance, and Major Briggs is nowhere to be found. I wasn't trusting that owl one bit. Terrified we (my dog & I) sprinted across the field back to the house, turned on all the lights in the kitchen, and drank hot chocolate. The Giant's warning: "The Owls are not what they seem", were taken quite seriously by this 10 year old boy.

Maybe it was the same year, my father took me with him to an auto-body shop for a car repair. I sat in the passenger seat, as my father walked towards the office. A man emerged from the garage who was a dead-ringer for BOB. Long dirty grey hair, filthy jeans, he looked as if he had been drinking motor oil. I put the seat back, and crouched down to hide from him. Since than, I've always had a fear of auto mechanics with long, filthy hair.

Finally, As I type this, I'm listening to AM radio, and an add just came on requesting volunteers for "Meals on Wheels" coincidence? I fucking hope not.

Oh yes Sheryl Lee's performance in "Fire Walk Me" is absolutely mind blowing. The very last (angelic) shot always makes me cry.
And I agree this movie is Lynch's masterpiece.

Have you ever seen early Mike Figgis' like "Libestraum" or "Stormy Monday" (and a more recent one, "The loss of sexual innocence")?
In terms of structure and mood they are very similar to Lynch's work IMO.
Figgis can be awful sometimes but when he's in full mode, he's just amazing.

f.

Hi Scott,
Huge Lynch fan as well. His movies have totally inspired my music.
Here's a great website for up to date Lynch news, http://www.dugpa.com
You probably know about it, but thought I'd pass it along.
xo,
Chad

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