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David Lynch endorses Obama
10.22.2012
09:34 am
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Helmut Newton’s famous portrait of David Lynch with Isabella Rossellini
 
Are you an undecided voter? Do you feel you haven’t properly gleaned the character and/or policies from either of our two presidential candidates? Do you ever just wish that the guy who directed Twin Peaks, Eraserhead and Blue Velvet could offer you some super wacked-out political insight?

Well, you’re in luck! Last Thursday, director and doe-eyed brunette enthusiast David Lynch gave Obama his endorsement on the unaffiliated pro-Obama blog, 90 Days, 90 Reasons. On a site of celebrity endorsements, some intelligent, some impassioned, and some that are just funny, Lynch’s testimonial stands out as a singularly earnest declaration in anagrams.

Dear Americans, Republicans, and Democrats Alike,

I am going to vote for re-electing President Obama. I have noticed something in Mitt Romney’s name, which I think speaks to what he is about. If you just rearrange a few letters, Romney becomes R MONEY. I believe Mitt Romney wants to get his Mitts on R Money. He would like to get it and divide it up with his friends, the Big Money Bunch.

I believe he would like to get his Mitts on R Money, R Resources, R Freedoms, and R American Dream. I do not trust Mitt Romney to look after the best interests of 99% of Americans. I think electing Mitt Romney would be a catastrophe for our country—one which would be real difficult to straighten out later. Please do not let Mitt Romney get his Mitts on R Money or R United States of America.

—DAVID LYNCH
Los Angeles, California

It’s kind of a relief, actually. There have always been rumors floating around that Lynch was a Reaganite Republican, but I think his rhetoric about the 99% quashes them pretty effectively. It’s sincere, yet removed, and avant-garde in its mundanity—Lynchian elegance at its finest, and another great artist against oligarchy.

Posted by Amber Frost
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10.22.2012
09:34 am
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David Lynch: ‘Ideas flow through like these beautiful little fish, and you catch them’
09.13.2012
06:02 pm
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David Lynch - describing the one that got away?
 
Confidence has nothing to do with David Lynch’s endless supply of ideas. He credits meditation for that. It helps his ‘ideas flow through like these beautiful little fish, and you catch them,’ as he tells Miranda Sawyer, in this interview from The Culture Show in 2011.

The interview is loosely anchored around the release of Lynch’s album Crazy Clown Time, and bobs around various subjects before fading out on Lynch’s flow of ideas.

Going by how long the likable Ms. Sawyer is on screen (compared to Lynch), this interview has been heavily edited. Perhaps because Lynch rambles? Or, is he too intelligent for BBC viewers? Or, more likely he wasn’t giving the Beeb the sound-bites they required - which is always an issue with interview packages like this.

And note also, there are no cutaways of Mr Lynch, or any shots of the great man pottering about the beautiful Idem Studio in Paris, where he was working last year. Still, these are minor quibbles, as Lynch, with his Jack-Nicholson-on-helium voice, and Stan-Laurel-grimace, is always watchable and never less than interesting.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.13.2012
06:02 pm
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If ‘Dirty Dancing’ were directed by David Lynch
08.07.2012
04:25 pm
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This is an oldie but goody. A trailer for Dirty Dancing re-cut to replicate the look and feel of a David Lynch film. I think it succeeds magnificently.

Things do get weird up in the Catskills.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.07.2012
04:25 pm
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‘The Pink Jack’ : AC/DC vs David Lynch vs. Dead Can Dance (NSFW)
07.20.2012
04:30 pm
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This mash-up is from 2008, but I just discovered it and dig its sexy spookiness. It was produced by Wax Audio and Reborn Identity, the guys behind the Mashed In Plastic project.

David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti: “The Pink Room” (from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me)
AC/DC: “The Jack”
Dead Can Dance: “Dawn of the Iconoclast”
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.20.2012
04:30 pm
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‘The Cowboy And The Frenchman’: A film by David Lynch
07.19.2012
01:38 pm
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Hard-of-hearing cowboy Slim (Harry Dean Stanton) encounters an alien spy - or maybe not - in this goofy short film from David Lynch.

From Lynch’s website:

After the international success of Blue Velvet, Lynch was approached by Fiagaro Magazine and Erato Films to create a film as a part of their “The French as Seen by…” TV series. At first Lynch turned them down, but then he caught some ideas and agreed. The Cowboy and the Frenchman was the first time Lynch worked with veteran actor Harry Dean Stanton, who would later be featured in several other Lynch projects.

Stanton is a real hoot.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.19.2012
01:38 pm
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Chris Isaak’s rarely seen ‘Wicked Game’ video directed by David Lynch
07.02.2012
07:31 pm
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Here’s a rarely seen video of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” directed by David Lynch in 1990. It was included on the original VHS release of Wild At Heart and hasn’t appeared on any commercially available video or DVD since.

I find this alternate video far more interesting and true to the spirit of the song than the much better known official video which was directed by Herb Ritts and therefore looks like a Calvin Klein commercial.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.02.2012
07:31 pm
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David Lynch’s new video will erase your head
04.03.2012
03:08 pm
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David Lynch made a video for his song “Crazy Clown Time,” the title track from his debut solo album, and it is exactly what you might expect from the master of suburban weirdness: violent, sexy and nightmarish.

With this kind of brain wave activity, no wonder Lynch practices Transcendental Meditation.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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04.03.2012
03:08 pm
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‘David Lynch in Four Movements - A Tribute’
12.30.2011
02:21 am
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This 20 minute mood piece composed of clips from films by or about David Lynch plays out like one long extended epiphany. Lovingly put together by Richard Vezina. 

Music : Angelo Badalamenti/David Lynch : Questions In A World Of Blue, The Pink Room, Into The Night, Mysteries of Love
Vocal : Julee Cruise

Films:
Inland Empire, Mulholland Dr., The Straight Story, Lost Highway, Fire Walk with Me, Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead, The Grandmother, The Alphabet, Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch, Blue Velvet - Mysteries of Love: Documentary
 

 
Via Open Culture

Posted by Marc Campbell
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12.30.2011
02:21 am
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David Lynch and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons discuss machines and technology
11.04.2011
01:47 pm
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Billy Gibbons Painting by Eileen Martin from Fine Art America

This is taken from today’s Guardian newspaper’s Film & Music section, which has been guest edited by David Lynch, and it makes for one of the most bizarre “music” interviews ever published:

Gibbons and Lynch – but mainly Gibbons, with the occasional “Doggone right” and “Exactly right, Billy” from Lynch – are talking about the beauty and power of industry. About the roar of factories, the growl of engines, about how the clang and clank speak to something within us. We’re meant to be talking about the block and tackle pulley system, but it’s pretty clear from the start that none of us can sustain a conversation about that, and so the block and tackle is just the key that starts the motor that in turn drives our discussion down the highway.

For Lynch, in any case, the block and tackle seems to be as much metaphor as literal device. It’s a system of pulleys, designed to enable a person to lift a greater weight than they could unaided. The pulley was invented around 2,400 years ago by the Greek philosopher Archytas, a scientist of the Pythagorean school (he’s also thought to have been the first person to invent a flying machine. Bright boy; his mother must have been proud). Then Archimedes realised the simple pulley could be expanded into something with even greater power – the block and tackle system, which he designed to help sailors lift ever greater loads, according to Plutarch. Thousands of years later, the basic system is unchanged: the block is the pulleys – the more pulleys you put in the block, the less the force you need to apply – and the tackle is the rest of the of the apparatus.

“I heard about the block and tackle and I’ve seen it work and it seems so magical,” Lynch says of his fascination. “It’s connected in my mind with the American car” – one of its common usages is to lift the engine block from the body of a vehicle – “and it’s kind of perfect that Billy talks about it. Billy had got a kind of guitar power – I always like the idea that his guitar is gasoline-powered.” That’s not quite the only reason Gibbons is joining us today. When Lynch originally asked for a piece about the block and tackle in this week’s Film&Music, we pointed out that the section dealt with film and music, rather than physics and mechanics. Lynch, though, was insistent. OK, he said, if you’re only going to do it if it’s got a film or music angle, then you can have ZZ Top talking about the block and tackle. And here we are

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Read the full article David Lynch and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons dream about machines over at The Guardian.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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11.04.2011
01:47 pm
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Listen to David Lynch’s new album ‘Crazy Clown Time’
10.31.2011
06:15 am
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The new David Lynch album Crazy Clown Time is exactly what you would expect from America’s greatest contemporary surrealist: crazy clown shit.

Moody, sexy, spooky and hypnotic, this is perfect Halloween music. I fucking dig the way the country-noir voodoo merges with Lynch’s Transcendental Meditation mind trips, riffs on dental hygiene, melting slide-guitars, funereal drum beats and rinky-dinky new wave rhythm tracks that would sound absolutely corny without Lynch’s serial killer vocals. I’m looking for an adjective to describe this tantalizing mix of the ordinary with the mad and all I come up with is “Lynchian.”

It’s streaming right now at NPR. Turn down the lights, pour yourself a glass of wine or fire up your favorite herbal blend and let Doctor Lynch perform his psychic surgery on your frontal lobes.

Fans of Johnny Dowd should really dig the fuck out of this. I’m guessing Lynch has heard a fair share of Dowd.

Crazy Clown Town will be released in the USA on November 8.

Lean in and listen:
 
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/30/141598329/first-listen-david-lynch-crazy-clown-time

Posted by Marc Campbell
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10.31.2011
06:15 am
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David Lynch: New track ‘Crazy Clown Time’ released
10.04.2011
07:13 pm
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He’s at it again: David Lynch releases his first solo album Crazy Clown Time next month, and if you want to get an idea of what it’s going to be like, then take a listen to the title track, which has been uploaded onto You Tube.

It’s what you might expect from Mr Lynch, strange, weird, and somehow compelling - though personally, I’d like to see some pictures to go with it, and maybe some beer and popcorn too.

Check here to get your copy
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.04.2011
07:13 pm
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Misty Roses: Wichita Linemen from the Black Lagoon
09.25.2011
05:33 pm
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Robert Conroy has the voice of an angel - an angel who’s lived a season in hell.

Conroy is one half of the exquisite pop duo, Misty Roses, whose beautiful and ethereal voice is married to the dramatic and mesmeric music of Jonny Perl. From when they first met, they understood each other. Call it synchronicity. Call it good taste.

Together they are Misty Roses - the most startlingly original and brilliant group of the past 5 years.

In an exclusive interview with Dangerous Minds, Misty Roses, Conroy and Perl, explain the who’s, what’s, why’s and wherefores of their music.

Robert: ‘I met Jonny in late 2002, when he was still living in Brooklyn. We had a mutual friend and, in passing, I mentioned to that mutual friend that I was obsessed with Scott Walker and Julie London. To which he said “There is only ONE other person ON EARTH who is obsessed with Scott Walker AND Julie London! That’s this English guy I know, Jonny Perl!” And I found out he was a musician, and I was intrigued - so I got Jonny’s number and I called him. We met soon afterwards, and we just realized very quickly that we were on very similar frequencies. I mean, after our first rehearsal - which was three hours long, maybe - I think we came away with working demos of three or four songs that ended up on our first LP. We understood each other - musically -  from the get-go.’

Born and raised in NYC, Robert had performed with a range of bands “post-punk, goth, electronic” over the years, and says he “was lucky enough to have a front row seat for a lot what happened musically over last decade or two.” The range of experience only confirmed his talents and focused his ambitions.

Robert: First and foremost, I am a singer - I’ve trained with some serious vocal coaches, in my day. And I like a lot of different kinds of music. So if I dig the people and I dig how they write songs and they dig how I write songs, then I’m game.’

British born Jonny has always been musically gifted, as a child he learned to play the cello, piano, and saxophone. Before Misty Roses he had played in a variety of combos, and was playing with a surf band in NYC when the conversation about Julie London brought him to Robert.

Jonny: ‘The synergies between our musical interests seemed so strong that we both figured it was worth giving it a shot.’

Together, they create music that is the perfect fusion of cabaret and cinema, of torch song and widescreen. You are listening to the score for a dream by Kenneth Anger or Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Douglas Sirk or David Lynch.

Robert: ‘We have been described as Lynchian - which we take as a great compliment. (And we did cover a David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti song on our disc Komodo Dragons - so it sort of fits, don’t it?) But we both love the way Mr. Lynch takes something seemingly innocuous and pretty - such as a song like “Sixteen Reasons” or “Blue Velvet” - and discovers all these inherently disturbing elements beneath its surface.  I hope we create a similar kind of frisson with our best songs.

‘Musically, we are deeply influenced by non-rock popular music from the later half of the Twentieth Century.  Soundtrack composers like Ennio Morricone, John Barry and Jerry Goldsmith, exotica, bossa nova and tropicalia records, dub and a lot recordings of jazz and vocal standards - Ellington, Julie London, Peggy Lee, Nina Simone and such like.

‘Likewise, the work of people we like to call “middle-of-the-road mavericks”- artists who were able to create music that was both very accessible and deeply idiosyncratic and more than a little odd. People like Scott Walker, Serge Gainsbourg, Bacharach and David, Dionne Warwick, Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield, Jimmy Webb, Bobbie Gentry, etc. And these influences get filtered further through the “rock” music we like, which is primarily the “artier” end of the spectrum. Stuff like the Velvet Underground and its alumni, Bowie, Roxy Music, Sparks, Joy Division, The Banshees, The Associates, Soft Cell, The Smiths, The Pet Shop Boys, Suede, Broadcast, Goldfrapp, etc.

‘Jonny described our sound as “glamorous easy listening music” initially. I loved that. Jonny and I are really attracted to glamorous sounds. We love orchestrations - strings sections, and french horns and flutes. We dig those gleaming, cold textures of synthesizers from the 1970’s.

All the things that you’re supposed to reject if you’re into music that is “true” and “real”.  We dig artifice.’

Jonny: ‘Yes - we had pretty much all these things in common as interests from the start. I will never shake off the Smiths/Postcard/C86 influences I had when I started to play guitar, but there has always been cross-fertilization - from playing in orchestras and ensembles to collecting old easy listening, Latin and Brazilian records.’

Robert: ‘And our music tends to drift into the shadows, as it were. Traditionally - until the last century, really - “glamour” was an occult term. Its a synonym for “spell”.  One casts a glamour. And that connection to magic also suggests a sense of mystery - I think. Nothing can be truly glamorous without an element of darkness or strangeness. All my favorite music has some eerie, even creepy, aspect. And I find a lot of classic horror and science fictions films - like Forbidden Planet or Suspiria or The Bride of Frankenstein - wildly glamorous. Star Trek  and Space: 1999 likewise.’

Their first performance as Misty Roses took place in an old East Village Buddhist tea house. Jonny played guitar and backing tracks, while Robert “channeled Dusty Springfield”. For both, it was a moment of magic, and the promise of greater things seemed almost within reach. Almost….
 

”Starry Wisdom” from ‘Villainess’ by Misty Roses
 
More from the fabulous Misty Roses, plus bonus tracks, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.25.2011
05:33 pm
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David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’ in 60 seconds, done in clay
08.16.2011
11:06 am
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British animator Lee Hardcastle excels at getting to the very essence of a film (usually a horror film) with his 60-second claymation reenactments of movies like The Exorcist, Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Here’s Hardcastle’s take on David Lynch’s cult classic Eraserhead. I love the Northern accents, all done by Hardcastle himself. His accent ups the funny factor considerably.

See more of his Done in 60 Seconds with Clay webseries at Lee Hardcastle.com
 

 
Via Dazed & Confused magazine

Posted by Richard Metzger
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08.16.2011
11:06 am
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Trippy audio-visual tribute to ‘Twin Peaks’
04.13.2011
12:19 pm
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Crazy audio and visual fan-made project for Twin Peaks nuts titled “A Witch House & Okkvlt Guide to Twin Peaks“ by various artists. You can get the CD here.

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
“Diane…” the Twin Peaks tapes of Agent Cooper

(via Nerdcore)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.13.2011
12:19 pm
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David Lynch’s hair compared to well-known paintings
03.17.2011
07:30 pm
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Thanks, Richard!
 
(via The Painter)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.17.2011
07:30 pm
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