Angelfuck, Laura Palmer, 'Mats

Greetings earthlings,
I am back. I barely left, though. I was supposed to be in Chicago, right? Well, my friend's car broke down, so we didn't go. SO I moved. I cleaned. And then we ended up going to a friend's cabin in Nisswa. Wha? It was relaxing, and filled with Trivial Pursuit Championships and Fuck Your Neighbor, which is a pretty damn great card game, people. Good times were had. I made everyone listen to the Misfits, who I am just getting into now, because of Elizabeth, Danzig Bless Her. (Danzing, man. That voice! It's almost a croon! A punk croon. That I adore.)

Things:

1. I can't believe I'm at work and not dazed in the wilderness like Laura Palmer. (PS I have recently become *obsessed* with Twin Peaks.) Hey, watch out.

2.This is super rad (it’s the ‘Mats on SNL when Tim came out!): homepage.mac.com/jdmajaris/QTmovies/iMovieTheater100.html

3. I bought a shit ton of CDs last night: Neil Young’s latest, the new Liz Phair, new Franz Ferdinand, Iggy Pop compilation, “Million in Prizes.” I am scared that the Phair is gonna be sub par. I don’t like it so far….iiiieeee. The best new music I have right now is the new Ike. IKE REILLY: Irish lyricist, rocker extraordinaire. The words, the rock. Sublime.
4. Guitar lessons. I just had my second one. More on that later. I promise.

Back to #1... for a while. Black coffee, sex, murder and pie. Special Agent Dale Cooper. Coop. (“This is—excuse me—damn good coffee!”) The sexuality and richness of the characters is astounding! David Lynch is a crazed genius. Thanks to Cynthia and Elizabeth for bring this show back into my life again.
The way Lynch makes the familiar unfamiliar is one of his best talents. Defamiliarization? Is that really a word? A very CSCL word at least, right? K, this is from the 1971 Robert Scholes’ New York Times book review of The Bell Jar. (Yep, it wasn’t officially released in the U.S. until 1971. Crimey!)

In "The Bell Jar," Sylvia Plath has used superbly the most important technical device of realism--what the Russian critic Shklovsky called "defamiliarization." True realism defamiliarizes our world so that it emerges from the dust of habitual acceptance and becomes visible once again. This is quite the opposite of that comforting false realism that presents the world in terms of clichèsthat we are all too ready to accept.

Admittedly, David Lynch comes off a little more intensely than this. It’s surrealism and it’s creepy. But his whole, “I’m from Middle America, Montana where the coffee and pie are pure heaven,” injection into Cooper's POV/experiencing Twin Peaks is the part that comes across so “defamiliar.”


The rain these days makes staying in and watching this show so cozy and inviting. The whole show, Twin Peaks—the town, even—feels just like October. A crazy, surreal dream-like October, that is. Filled with Fire and Sex and Coffee and Strange Songs.

I just watched the beginning of first episode of the second season, which may also be my favorite episode, so far. These are some of the memorables:

*Coop to Audrey when he finds her naked in his bed: “Audrey, you’re a high school girl. I am an agent of the F.B.I.” Me: so?? Do it, Coop! (course this is from an earlier episode, I just had to relive it.

*Andy Brennen ( I love him more and more) stepping on the board on Leo Johnson’s porch, knocking his nose bloody and causing him to perfom one of the most hilarious, prolonged comedic reactions I have ever seen on TV. He’s dazed and smiling and stalking around with his knees bent and far apart for, I swear, 2 whole minutes (read Lynch quote on absurdity making you laugh above). I haven’t laughed much harder at much else in my whole life. The best bit: by doing the see-saw effect on the board the flat foots discover boots and a “whole lot of cocaine.”

*The following scene shows an unknown local man in the R & R Diner shouting in orgasmic ecstasy: “HOT DAMN that pie is gooood.” Right then.

*In this episode you have James actually revealing (kinda for the first time) how WEIRD Laura was. Just spooky and twisted and weird—in a Lynch way, *of course.* He tells Sheriff Truman: “Laura said a lot of nutty stuff. Half the time it went right by you,” (Well, maybe you, James. Laura is on tape saying, “James is so sweet, but so dumb!”)
He tells Harry about the fire thing, “Would you like to play with fire, little boy? Would you like to play with Bob? Would you like to play with Bob?” EEEEEEEEE. Fuckin’ creepy.


*Lynch and Frost wanted to end the first season with “as many cliffhangers as humanly possible.” So, the opener to the second season has about 50% (maybe more, actually…) of the characters in the hospital. What the fuck? This is kind of hilarious.
Best hospital visit: Bobby to Shelly. HOT HOT HOT. They make out a lil’ with Shelly in the hospital bed. And yes, she has an oxygen tube up her nose.

*Finally, Cooper gives his theory about what went down the night Laura Palmer bit the dust. And he uses doughnuts as visual aids. WTF. “Drugs and alcohol were consumed.” Of course he inserts “Sparkwood and Twenty-One,” too.

Wotta show. Hard to believe this bizarre, wonderful thing was on *network TV*!! In 1990. Lynch, I love you.