David Lynch memories

RIP

Lending my VHS of Eraserhead to my friend Ali in sixth form, only to have her watch it in her parents’ garden shed and have such an intensely claustrophobic experience she has never watched it again.

Choosing Mulholland Drive to borrow from Blockbuster Video at 14-years-old to watch with my parents just because the cover was so dreamy and enigmatic. Alongside Being John Malkovich it was the first adult film I had seen after a childhood of being largely disinterested in non-animated cinema.

Getting full body shivers of pity and nausea at the scene in which Sherilyn Fenn wanders around in a daze jabbering as she dies after a car crash in Wild at Heart.

Whooping in excitement when The Pixies played ‘In Heaven’ at Reading Festival in 2005.

Being deeply, deeply thankful for the interval in the cinema screening of INLAND EMPIRE and me and my friends, back from the first year of university, not knowing what to say or think in the pub afterwards.

Watching season one of Twin Peaks with the first friend I made at York university (Catherine, we haven’t spoken for years and I miss you) upstairs in her room, discussing each episode… and then having to track down season two on a Region 1 DVD, working out a way to play it.

Accidentally turning off the autoplay feature after my late night student radio show on Exeter university campus and so having to resort to playing the only CD I happened to have on me – the soundtrack to Eraserhead, which I then improvised post-apocalyptic gibbering/ whimpering over for a full hour-and-a-half.

Watching the ‘Ants’ episode of Dumbland repeatedly during the early days of YouTube.

Laughing manically at Wally Brando’s monologue in Twin Peaks: The Return while my sister looked on bemused; our reactions being entirely flipped when Dougie was first introduced. Making my peace with Dougie.

Taking my (ex-) step-son to the cinema to see The Straight Story and being a little sad he took so many toilet breaks but glad that he laughed at moments of deadpan whimsy.

This old drawing of various supernaturally-coded characters in Lynch’s work:

Being delighted when I discovered that Bruce McCulloch had recorded a song about Eraserhead.

Being sad when I discovered that there had been a collaborative project [ed: actually two!] between Lynch and The Residents in the works.

The ending of Twin Peaks: The Return.