Monday, December 19, 2005

David Lynch Reports the Weather (**VIDEO**)

by Mark Burbey

If you're a David Lynch fan, you're as much a fan of the man as you are of his films (Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, etc.). He's a unique individual who makes amazing films, and seems not at all as personally dark as the subject matter he embraces. The people who think he's just weird are the same people who think Bjork is just weird, failing to see the intelligence, the creativity, and the humor in their work.
Several years ago, Lynch launched a website (www.davidlynch.com) where he could sell his wares, create short films, and have the occasional webchat with his fans. More recently, Lynch has been offering a daily weather report from his home/studio in Los Angeles: http://www.davidlynch.com/dailyreport

If you're a big fan of both Lynch and L.A., it's doubly cool and certainly worthy of becoming a daily habit. Even Lynch's way of speaking is unique -- very deliberate, very regional (not sure if his accent is from his years in Philadelphia, or his native Montana, or neither), and unquestionably endearing. Fascinating also is the surrounding detritis visible within the frame -- spray bottles, plastic cups, a wall phone in a wooden box, his favorite coffee cup, and other common items of mystery. Lately he's been ending each report with a plug for his new DVD collection of Dumbland, the Flash animated series originally created for members of his website. At the end of one report, Lynch simply held the Dumbland DVD in front of him on the table he's always seated at, saying, "If you truly love someone, prove it." Nuff said in this season of giving.

Even better, though, was the line that accompanied his pitch of Dumbland in his Dec. 22nd, 2005 report: "If you think you're a worthless, ignorant piece of waste, this may be the kite you'll want to fly."

How many film directors make themselves available in such an original and entertaining fashion? None I can think of. Then again, David Lynch is like no other director living or dead, and nothing makes waking up in the morning better than a daily dose of Lynch.


Thursday, December 08, 2005

Remembering John Lennon

by Mark Burbey

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of the John Lennon. If not for the insanity of Mark David Chapman, Lennon would today be 65 years old, and undoubtedly an elder statesman of modern music and alternative thought.

As a member of the Beatles, he came to fame and changed the world of music, but even more importantly, his life after the Beatles was one devoted to ending the madness of a world at war, not only between countries but between individuals.

The lyrics of "Imagine" say it all:

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world..."

A radio talk show host in San Francisco this evening said that he worked at a station in the ‘70s that refused to play “Imagine” on the basis that it was offensive. They refused to play the song because it imagined a world without heaven, without religion, and the potential of offending god-fearing listeners eclipsed that of playing a great song with a great message. This level of ignorance and fear and lack of imagination was exactly what Lennon was trying to change. Who knows if, given a chance, Lennon could have turned the tide, but the world needs voices like his, and even though he’s gone, his voice remains.

And it’s of paramount importance that we remember, and imagine.



Shortly before his death in 1980, John Lennon said this
about the creation of “Imagine”:

"Well actually that should be credited as a Lennon/Ono
song, a lot of it - the lyric, the concept - came from Yoko, but
those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho and I sort
of omitted to mention her contribution, but it was right out of
'Grapefruit', her book, there's a whole pile of pieces about
imagine this and that and I have given her credit now long
overdue."

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