Anything For a Cheap Laugh

[mallorys_camera]

I saw Eraserhead when it first came out (1977.)

Eraserhead nauseated me.

Thereafter, I avoided David Lynch, ignoring the Whaddagenius rants from media & friends.

But, yesterday David Lynch died.

Reappraisal and possible redemption seemed appropriate, so I watched the much-touted Mulholland Drive.

I liked it more than I thought I would.



Mulholland Drive has two parts. The first part is a dream; the second part is a narrative about the girl who has the dream.

It is impossible to capture a dream with a real-time camera (though you might be able to do it with animation), but I will say Lynch does manage to capture the feeling of a dream in that moment after you first wake up when your overheated brain is struggling to impose a narrative on all those rapidly evaporating images.

And Naomi Watts is very, very good in the role.

I can see why Lynch assumed cult status.

Mulholland Drive is very surreal. But surrealism edges into horror, and I’ve never been a big fan of horror movies. The only directors in that genre whose works I enjoy are Ari Aster & Jordan Peele, but that’s because they use horror as a vehicle for social criticism.

And though I used to read a fair amount of horror, I find I can’t anymore. It’s as though as I’ve aged, my boundaries have become more porous somehow. Contagion by an unspeakable Big Bad has become an actual threat. So, I’m not gonna go out of my way to watch anything else by David Lynch.



Also, Unity Mitford’s Hitler diaries just got published.

I’m a big Mitford Sisters fan.

My favorite Mitford Sister is Decca (of course)—at whose North Oakland home I once had tea because Marybeth was a pal of Benjie Treuhaft’s first wife. At some point, Decca herself wandered downstairs in a battered bathrobe to join the merriment. What I recall best was her foghorn voice with its wonderful U accent—“gel” (hard g) for “girl”—which got louder and louder as she poured teacup after teacup of gin for herself while the rest of us dabbled our tiny spoons in Earl Grey.

Decca also wrote me a lovely postcard after Birth Tales was published.

Reams have been written about the relationship between Decca and Unity, who shared a bedroom growing up. The bedroom was divided into a Communist part (Decca) and a fascist part (Unity.) I wish I could remember the exact line Unity used to inform Decca that, while she would not hesitate to kill Decca's Communist husband for the sake of Nazism, she hoped she and Decca could still be friends.

The Big Question that haunts historians: Did Unity fuck Hitler?

On the basis of the diary extracts—thank you, Daily Mail!—I am guessing not.



In other news, passed the IRS certification test with flying colors. Whew! 😀

But the BIG news is that RTT has decided to run for a seat on the Ithaca City Council. It’s an election that can be won with just a few hundred votes, and honestly, I think he’s got a good shot at winning it. RTT is the best networker I have ever met. He’s really good at sending those interpersonal pseudopods out. And he thinks politically.

Chattered away for two hours with BB at a café in Montgomery that had better coffee & more charm than any place I’ve found in New Paltz, so go figure.

BB amused me no end by quipping (in regards to what, I cannot remember), I saw all the red flags, but I thought they were decorations. (Great line!)

Went off to the Y for my modest but effective workout.

Wandered home to find Iggy Icky in the kitchen packing up to return to NYC. Traded quickfire jokes with Icky in the kitchen, all the while wondering, Why are you bantering with this creep? He tried to freeze you to death! But apparently, I’ll do anything for a cheap laugh.

So, all in all, it was a good day. Though maybe not for David Lynch.

Comments

[suzannareads]

Congratulations to you on the test, and good luck to RTT! Some people have a real gift for being interested in everyone, which is sort of the essence of politics.

[mallorys_camera]

RTT does have a talent for connecting with people.

[lethe1]

"My attitude to Esmond is as follows ― and I rather expect his to me to be the same. I naturally wouldn't hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me. But in the meanwhile, as that isn't necessary, I don't see why we shouldn't be quite good friends, do you. I wonder if he agrees.
As to me turning against my Boud as you say, how could you think I would. On the contrary I was one of the very few who always was on your side, all through." ― Unity to Jessica in a letter dated 11 April 1937, in: The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters / edited by Charlotte Mosley (p. 90 in my edition).

So not only does she hope that she and Decca could still be friends, but also, as long as their respective ideologies would allow it, she thinks she and Esmond could be friends.

[mallorys_camera]

Yes, that's the quote! Thank you. It was torturing me that I could no longer remember it and was entirely unsuccessful in tracking it down. (I owned that book, too, once, but alas, no longer have my library.)

Poor Unity.

[smokingboot]

Good luck to RTT!

Re Eraserhead, I loved it when I first saw it, tried to watch it again and felt nauseated just as you mention. Physically I just couldn't keep watching. But I may be ready to try Twin Peaks now.

This photo of you and BB is beyond cute:-)

[mallorys_camera]

I can't deal with mutant babies. 😀 And I saw Eraserhead a full decade before I had a (thankfully un-mutant! Whew!) baby. But I do get Lynch's appeal.

beyond cute

Awwwwww. Thank you! ❤️

[lethe1]

Twin Peaks is a must-see (in my opinion).

[mallorys_camera]

I'll probably watch it at some point. 😀

[smokingboot]

I'm going to give it a go. Wondering if it's binge-watch material.

[mallorys_camera]

Reliable reports say it is extremely bingeable. 😀

[lethe1]

Yes, in those days there was no such thing as binging (bingeing?), the BBC aired one episode a week and we had to wait (im)patiently for the next one. So if we could have binged, I think we would have.

I was studying in those days and a fellow student and I would always discuss the latest episode during breaks. It so intrigued the others that when the series was eventually broadcast on Dutch TV, the whole class started watching it too.

[smokingboot]

Whatever I love, I glut upon, a dreadful habit! But yes, binge watching is one of my wicked pleasures.

It sounds as though it would have been fun to watch as part of a class audience.