David Lynch

David Lynch was. Goodness, it is so hard to write about him in past tense, especially considering… Well, everything? Everything he has done, accomplished and planned. A sad, sad day for me, Twin Peaks Cafe and a lot of people out there.
Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.
A few years ago I had this thought in my head: what would life be like without David Lynch in it? A small, silly thought as I was flipping through my David Bowie records. Because, in my mind, they are an ultimate duo – David and David. Kindred spirits, that I always wanted to be a small part of.
After all, I always felt extremely connected to Bowie’s music and to Lynch’s creations. This place is the obvious example. Because without David Lynch (and Mark Frost) there would be no Twin Peaks, and there would be no Twin Peaks Cafe without Twin Peaks.

Two remarkable souls that now will be traveling together through the cosmos, the universe, the multiverse. And of all days, I decided to post on David’s birthday, a perfect tribute.
Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.
My journey with David Lynch began, as with most fellow travelers, with Twin Peaks. I was in high school, out for an entire week with a flu or other viral infection. I was laying in my bed, feeling utterly miserable as one does when sick, and pouting. Because there was nothing to watch.

In the era of digital streaming, I was bold enough to complain that there was NOTHING for me to watch. That was when my mum got a HBO subscription and as I was scrolling through, I saw Twin Peaks.
It was familiar, because I remembered that my grandpa used to watch it very late at night (along with CIS: Vegas), but since I was a little one, I never really took any particular interest in his late night watching.
I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them, not necessarily the way they happened.
My grandpa was already at the other side of the cosmos, so I never really got to thank him for this memory, which now turned out to be one of my core ones. Because starting that show, on my iPad in bed, with a sore throat and stuffy nose, shifted something inside me.
A switch was flipped, if you will; a seed was planted. Seed was planted in the wrong season, but the only thing that the seed, such a stubborn little seed could do, was stay in the ground. It could stay rooted, growing downwards only to give a small green piece of a stem or a leaf to peak above, years later.

And that little green stem or leaf grew even more as the years went by, to finally bloom into a beautiful, eternal, ethereal sunflower you know today as yours truly. That moment when I pressed play changed everything, even if I had no clue about it just then.
I don’t think that people accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense; I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable.
I remember being absolutely confused, outraged, blown-away and in total awe all at once. And in that moment, as I went from one episode to another, suddenly well enough to sit up in my bed, throw hands in the air and laugh my lungs out at the absurdity of it all.
I felt alive. As if David Lynch himself was there with me, sitting at the edge of my bed with this smile of his, explaining absolutely nothing, because, after all, I am watching the show, am I not? Thus, I should have all the answers right there in front of me.

But like many, I understood nothing, relishing in the delicious confusion, where plot lines were tangled like 5 sets of headphones and phone chargers. You know, I am STILL IN PROGRESS with my Twin Peaks break down (and by all means, it is a mental one)
The second season left me with more new questions rather than answers. And only to find out that I know absolutely nothing and will require a proper re-watch.
Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole.
Season 3 came as a perfectly weird conclusion, after exactly as many years as one would expect. Say what you will, but I loved it and will not accept any criticism about it.
But then Fire walk with me came into the picture, a year or so later, and it became my perfect opportunity for the first re-watch. To this day, I keep forgetting just how much of a horror Fire walk with me is. The show is not that scary; it’s creepy alright, but not scary.

The movie, however, scares me shitless every. Single. Time. And yet, I love it, I absolutely ADORE it, I love David Bowie, I love Chris Isaac. I love everything about it.
And that was enough for me to start digging more into David Lynch movies, starting with the infamous 1984 Dune.
Everything I learned in my life, I learned because I decided to try something new.
Now, if you know me well enough, you know I have nothing but love and pure sentiment for 1984 Dune. It’s like a soft, electric blanket for me, that smells like my childhood. This being said, it is a terrible book adaptation, absolutely horrific (Still better than Jodorowsky, though).
BUT! It is a great sci-fi film, and it kept the genre weird; it opened a lot of doors, a lot of windows and even the attics for many others. It was bold, it was brave and it was Lynch. Even though he had some regrets about it, I like to watch it every now and then and be amazed by just how terribly amazed I am each time.

And it was enough to keep my then ever waving interest, in a life flooded with superheroes and all that. It was enough for me to watch Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., and Eraserhead.
And with each watch I was left with a loud mind, with thoughts whirling like the inside of a washing machine that just never turns off. It’s always one and always requires something to be added, a detergent, a fabric softener, anything.
People do strange things constantly, to the point that, for the most part, we manage not to see it.
Each film was a different type of fertilizer for that small seed which by that time had very strong roots but the plant was still small. The full bloom came in September of 2019, when I started this blog.
And Twin Peaks was always in a picture, even when I talked more about Chris Nolan… Or Star Trek, or music. Without this show, I would not be the writer, the creator, the painter I am today. And I don’t like “what ifs” when they reflect on the past. Because, essentially, it is what it truly is – the past. I don’t want to dwell on what or who I would be IF something.

What if David Lynch was still here? Well, he is, in our hearts, in his movies, paintings and the ever-loved weather reports. Oh, how I loved these clips… How I still love them.
You can understand conflict, but you don’t have to live in it.
David Lynch was an avid meditator. Is that even a word? I am not sure, but he practiced meditation twice a day. He even started the David Lynch Foundation to promote transcendental meditation for stress reduction and healing. Today, at 9 PM CET there will be a global meditation on Zoom to honor him.
David Lynch originally pursued a career in painting, and his transition to filmmaking was purely accidental. He created a short film to accompany a painting, which eventually inspired him to explore cinema. Which to me, is a universal wisdom that sometimes you can find your true calling by accident. And it’s absolutely beautiful.

David Lynch loved coffee. It was a cornerstone of his work, it was an absolutely essential part of Twin Peaks. Now each cup of “black as midnight on a moonless night” will forever be my favourite tribute to him.
David Lynch turned down the chance to direct Return of the Jedi. He said he wouldn’t have creative control and that he felt overwhelmed by Lucas’s vision. Perhaps if he would take that chance, his Dune would be completely different. And what a loss that would be.
These so-called bleak times are necessary to go through in order to get to a much, much better place.
David Lynch was a Visionaire, who did not compromise. He stood his bizarre ground always, and with his hair defying gravity. David Lynch might have been misunderstood by many, but he understood everyone.
He will be greatly missed in the world of cinema, art, music and writing. But… What is grief if not love, preserving? And as I reflect on loss this past week, it couldn’t get more real than that.

People come and go, people leave us forever but that love stays. I miss my grandfathers a lot lately, as people around me struggle with the same kind of loss. The same kind of emptiness. And for each of you, going through something similar, let me leave you with these words from David Lynch:
I learned that just beneath the surface there’s another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn’t find the proof. It was just a kind of feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force–a wild pain and decay–also accompanies everything.