david lynch - 3

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Happy Smiles, Dark Dreams

David Lynch — such a happy guy, why such dark movies?

I haven’t read enough of his interview books or studied enough of his approach to art — which ranges far beyond film — to begin to answer that question, of course. But I did read Catching the Big Fish, where David outlines his approach to life and creativity. Achieve a state of bliss each day through transcendental meditation, then let everything flow from there.

This does seem like a counterintuitive process to anyone familiar with the bulk of Lynch’s work. Frank Booth came out of a state of bliss?! Lost Highway emerged from someone having a good day? INLAND EMPIRE is all about what springs from the joyful things in life?

The thing is to look a little deeper and find the emotional balance to the darkness present in almost all his work as well. Laura Palmer ascending at the end of Fire Walk With Me — a much maligned movie that doesn’t deserve its criticism. Julee Cruise singing “The World Spins” as we find out who the murderer is on Twin Peaks — because he’s killing again at the same time — and people feel it. That’s very important. That people feel the presence of the evil in their lives. Everyone jumping up and dancing to Nina Simone’s “Sinner Man” at the end of INLAND EMPIRE. The sunshine and lawnchairs back triumphant at the end of Blue Velvet. The ears back where they’re supposed to be.

And David himself singing at the end of Eraserhead, “In Heaven, everything is fine. You’ve got your good things, and I’ve got mine.”

Okay. I admit even I can’t think of a single redemptive moment to go with Lost Highway but it’s still a good flick. And just because I haven’t found the moment yet doesn’t mean it’s not there. I’ve only seen the movie once. And most people walk out of a David Lynch movie the first time they see it feeling like they’ve been hit over the head with a plank.

This may sound odd, but I believe the reason David Lynch movies work so well is because horrible as they are, they do arise as he says from someone with a genuinely positive outlook on life. Let’s be honest, there are any number of movies out there portraying horrible worlds. But the hearts of these worlds generally are only maudlin or unperceptive at best, which waters down the experience. Having something genuinely good at the centre of Lynch’s universe creates such a deeper contrast the mix carries so much more force. Start from a state of bliss and you can make even a nightmare appealing when you get past being chilled.

I like this idea. I’ve only written one work where I decided to let my central characters be straight out heart-damaged nihilistic murderers — a book of poetry naturally, titled We Might Have Been Up To Little Somethings. Haven’t found anything even remotely resembling a market for it, so it may end up yet on a blog. All my life I’ve resisted working with characters like that, for two main reasons. One — I think it’s a cheap trick. Too easy to manipulate the reader by, no subtlety. Two — I don’t particularly enjoy the thought of being engulfed in such a character’s head. Or letting them in mine.

But I suppose I had something of a Lynchian epiphany writing Little Somethings, as the darker my characters’ existence grew the more I found myself focussing on what was still good in their lives. They grew more and more distanced from it, but had the self awareness to know that. As a result of that knowledge, it became increasingly important for them to find a way in which to pass on what they were losing as they sank deeper into their own path to destruction. When I finished the account, I realized it was a manuscript that actually made me feel good about myself.

Of course, nobody’s dared to read it yet. I’ve offered …

So in an odd sort of way, if you give yourself permission as David Lynch does to start from a base of light, you can explore the darkest shadows you want to safely. And the brighter your light, the darker the shadows you can delve into.

Just remember to sing at the end of it.

Mind you, even that can have its mystifying implications. My all-time favourite scene from any David Lynch film — and I have many — will always be Rebekah Del Rio in the Club Silencio singing “Llorando” from Mulholland Drive. You know the one. Where the singer drops to the floor unconscious halfway through the song, and the voice keeps on singing …

*****

The MayWorks Festival of Labour & the Arts 2015 Presents the Book Launch of:

A Reader's Guide to the Unnameable

by Ron Romanowski

McNally Robinson Booksellers 1120 Grant Avenue Winnipeg

Monday, May 4th, 2015 7PM

In the Atrium

See the poetry video by Dylan Baillie: http://bit.ly/1JgD1Gf

More on MayWorks Festival events: http://mayworks.org

A book launch and literary thrill-ride for poetry fans and everyone else by one of Winnipeg's most experimental poets.

Tickets not necessary. Admission is free.

A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable

is avant-garde Winnipeg writer Ron Romanowski’s sixth poetry collection.

His first, Sweet Talking, was published in 2004.

His work has appeared in journals and in numerous anthologies.

His poetry has been read on national CBC Radio.

Ron continues to work with, among many other cutting-edge themes,

definitions of authorship and identity in his latest collection.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Part Two of "Hamlet the Barbarian" went up on Monday, with the results posting on Friday, May 1st. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Continuing the debate on what’s culturally inappropriate, and what’s just plain inappropriate. Also — who can really quote the last line from Hamlet? It may surprise you!

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.

david lynch 2

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Meditating on Meditation

I read David Lynch’s Catching The Big Fish last week, his book on Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. He wrote it to raise funds for his Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace.

Yes, I’m talking about that David Lynch. You know — Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive? Purveyor of terror and nightmares most of us would prefer not to face? Eraserhead David Lynch?

David’s on a crusade of sorts to bring peace to the universe through transcendental meditation. While Catching the Big Fish does read like a tract written by a somewhat unconventional Jehovah’s Witness at times, it has a lot more substance to it beyond that. Plus some fascinating insights into Lynch’s creative process and opinions on film.

But the thing is — as he explains himself — David Lynch likes to explore the world from a state of bliss, and that certainly comes across. For someone who makes such dark and fearsome movies, he’s really a very happy guy. Subject for a whole other line of thought next week.

David believes he’s onto something by introducing meditation early into the education system, as he says has been done with some startling results in a number of schools in the States already. Producing some very positive results. Late in the book he mentions small groups of advanced meditators getting together to exert a positive influence on their immediate world:

     The theory is that if the square root of 1 percent of the world’s population, or 8,000 people, practices advanced meditation techniques in a group, then that group, according to published research, is quadratically more powerful than the same number scattered about.

     These peace-creating groups have been formed for short-term studies. And every time the advanced meditators got together in a group, they dramatically affected the area around them. They measurably reduced crime and violence. How did they do that?

Good question, David. I’m not one to buy into this sort of thing, but I have to admit, even reading his book seemed to put me in a positive frame of mind. I’ve been having some nasty nightmares lately — see future novels — but the night after I finished reading The Big Fish I had wonderful, positive dreams the whole night, and awoke feeling strangely refreshed.

I have given this meditation thing a shot in the past. David says when you really connect and transcend, you open yourself up to a much deeper state of creativity, and that’s when you can catch the Big Fish — the best, and deepest ideas.

David specifies that the relaxation technique alone won’t take you to a transcendental state, and I believe I have to agree with him on that. I approached the discipline using only the relaxation technique, since I don’t have a formal faith atom in my body, and I never experienced a state like those David describes. Except once, back in the eighties, which I brought myself to strictly through writing poetry. However even though I used a less than effective method according to David, I did have some surprising results.

I’m still alive for one thing.

There was one day back in early 2005 before I was diagnosed as having a tumour the size of a small pear in the left atrium of my heart when I was still trying to function as if I could live normally. Other miserable circumstances — since rarely does only one horrible thing happen to you at a time — put me in a situation where I had to walk ten blocks through a freezing Winnipeg winter to catch a bus. One wrong heart beat and I was dead from a massive stroke, the tumour blocking the blood flow to my body. As it was my lungs were filling with blood that couldn’t move through my heart properly due to the obstruction. Needless to say, about a block into the ten, I wasn’t doing so well …

So I meditated my way the full distance to the bus stop. I was not in good shape by the time I got there. But I was — and am — still alive.

When I first started practicing the technique I also found I could catch some little fish if not the Big Whopper by doing so. Here are a couple of the poems that came to me as I delved as deep as I could manage, then anyway.

Pondering Crimson

With arrogant charm I assure myself

of the immutability of colour and place,

but in the centre of my profound attainment

you disturb my complacency with a placid smile.

I retreat with fleeing self-assurance,

no longer certain — losing myself in crimson

assures my place in Arabian nights

generated by the distant, uninformed imaginings

that have always fuelled

my every desire of dreaming.

But I perceive no loss

in moving from complacent to complaint;

I give myself up to the changes

that must result from my recognition that

no object is stationary in this universe

— especially not your smile

— and I launch myself headlong

from the tallest peak of doubt

to fall gloriously

through vibrant space, deep, deep,

submerged and submerging

into the fathomless pool

of your oh so personal quiet ...

The Ancient Sands of Egypt

Beneath this sun, I cannot be — 

begin to fall, to crumble, to drift ...

fine, infinitely grained,

wind-tossed,

almost liquid, living ...

beyond thought,

slow as the desert

moving towards the tomb.

Ages pass. Another joins me.

In the shadow of the grave,

regaining form

we are lovers until the sunrise.

Then the 5000 gods of Egypt

render us sand once more

but mixed ...

each infinite grain

loving just as profoundly

each other infinite grain

as did the whole

as all the ages of man

pass by with a last, gentle

sigh ...

As a matter of fact, the title piece (and title obviously) for my published poetry collection, Destination Mutable came out of this experiment.

There’s definitely something to be said for goin’ fishin’.

*****

The MayWorks Festival of Labour & the Arts 2015 Presents the Book Launch of:

A Reader's Guide to the Unnameable

by Ron Romanowski

McNally Robinson Booksellers 1120 Grant Avenue Winnipeg

Monday, May 4th, 2015 7PM

In the Atrium

See the poetry video by Dylan Baillie: http://bit.ly/1JgD1Gf

More on MayWorks Festival events: http://mayworks.org

A book launch and literary thrill-ride for poetry fans and everyone else

by one of Winnipeg's most experimental poets.

Tickets not necessary. Admission is free.

A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable

is avant-garde Winnipeg writer Ron Romanowski’s sixth poetry collection.

His first, Sweet Talking, was published in 2004.

His work has appeared in journals and in numerous anthologies.

His poetry has been read on national CBC Radio.

Ron continues to work with, among many other cutting-edge themes,

definitions of authorship and identity in his latest collection.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

We’ve passed the halfway mark! The Electric Detective Chapter Nine posted Monday, April 20th, and the first part of (oh no — but I guess it had to happen) Shakespeare-Ish goes up Friday, April 24th! Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continuing at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Caroline has a name crisis thanks to an absent-minded author, and is the world really ready for … Hamlet the Barbarian?

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance. But there’s been some problems with the scanner, so appearances may be deceiving.

David Lynch - One

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Don’t You Already Know?

Cinema is a lot like music. It can be very abstract, but people have a yearning to make intellectual sense of it, to put it right into words. And when they can’t do that, it feels frustrating. But they can come up with an explanation from within, if they just allow it. If they started talking to their friends, soon they would see things — what something is and what something isn’t. And they might agree with their friends or argue with their friends — but how could they agree or argue if they don’t already know?

David Lynch — Catching the Big Fish

I think this quotation raises a very interesting point. Art in any format is so subjective how can anyone truly argue its objective merits? Some questions regarding what a work is or isn’t might be more obvious than others on first look. Some people might argue they don’t find the Mona Lisa particularly attractive, but no one’s going to say it’s not a great painting. But what about say, oh I don’t know …

A David Lynch movie? Or Ron Romanowski’s poetry? (See below.)

Almost anything Lynch has done is fair game in this discussion, with the possible exceptions of The Straight Story and Dune. The Straight Story’s pretty much … a straight story, sorry, can’t get around that one, and even Lynch admits Dune is just bad. For the record, David didn’t have final cut on that movie.

But what about the brilliantly enigmatic Mulholland Drive? INLAND EMPIRE? Or Lost Highway? Or even his most arguably popular work, Twin Peaks? Or we could go really out on a severed limb and ask this question of … Eraserhead.

Many people come out of any of these viewing experiences shaking their heads with a blank expression on their faces. Totally lost. They might as well have been reading poetry! Yet David says that when they sit down to discuss the piece, how could they agree or argue if they don’t already know what the movie is or isn’t for them?

I remember doing this, in fact … Bob France, Mike Cipryk and I went to a midnight showing of Eraserhead when it first played Winnipeg, God knows how many years ago. And we went back to Mike’s place afterwards to thrash it out. God knows we had opinions. Not that those opinions resolved anything for us about the movie that night, as I recall. I don’t think any of us hit on what I appreciated most about the movie when I saw it again finally two years ago — the weird positive spin and sense of redemption at the end of it. But then, I don’t think any of us were paying attention to the soundtrack when we first saw it. And that’s always a major mistake to make when experiencing a David Lynch movie.

Out of the darkness and horror comes light and beauty at the end … The horror is real, but so are the angels. The shadows wouldn’t be so black without an equally potent contrasting presence in the films of light.

Which leads me to a topic for a future blog. How does such a happy guy as David Lynch make such nightmarish movies? We’ll take a look at what makes him so happy in the first place next week. But the point is, perhaps focussing on the undeniable nightmare always present in his work as most people do isn’t always the proper message to take away.

Because David Lynch makes some truly beautiful art. I don’t think I already knew that the first time I saw a few of his movies. But now that the idea’s in my head, I see everything differently.

But as for Ron, well … We all better go to the booklaunch on May 4th and make up our own minds about that.

*****

The MayWorks Festival of Labour & the Arts 2015 Presents the Book Launch of:

A Reader's Guide to the Unnameable

by Ron Romanowski

McNally Robinson Booksellers 1120 Grant Avenue Winnipeg

Monday, May 4th, 2015 7PM

In the Atrium

See the poetry video by Dylan Baillie: http://bit.ly/1JgD1Gf

More on MayWorks Festival events: http://mayworks.org

A book launch and literary thrill-ride for poetry fans and everyone else by one of Winnipeg's most experimental poets.

Tickets not necessary. Admission is free.

A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable

is avant-garde Winnipeg writer Ron Romanowski’s sixth poetry collection.

His first, Sweet Talking, was published in 2004. His work has appeared

in journals and in numerous anthologies. His poetry has been read

on national CBC Radio. Ron continues to work with, among many other

cutting-edge themes, definitions of authorship and identity

in his latest collection.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Murder in an alien’s heart. Obsessive fixation on constructing mechanical women. And pirates, of course. Episode Nine takes a surreal, decadent dip into the world of E.T.A. Hoffman and Jacques Offenbach on Monday, with the results posting on Friday, April 17th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Vadim Strakar strikes back at Slick Danny Grievous. What is this, avant, beta?

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance. But there’s been some problems with the scanner, so appearances may be deceiving.

compulsions

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Positively Compelled

With great reluctance, I recently had to make a lifestyle choice.

I decided working on 4 novels a day caused me anxiety. So I’m going to have to settle for only 3 a day from now on.

So what is this compulsion to write I experience? I won’t say I suffer from it, because quite frankly, outside of the anxiety of trying to balance 4 plots in my head at once, I enjoy it.

The clinical term is hypergraphia. That’s Latin for “compulsion to write”. Not entirely illuminating, but it’s always nice to have a fancy name for your odder mental processes. 

The condition at its most extreme can be quite debilitating. Those who actually do suffer from it are compelled to write everything that goes through their heads, regardless of trying to organize those thoughts to tell a story or create a novel or whatever. Fortunately, in my case, my hypergraphia is nicely balanced by my other condition — hyperlexia. The compulsion to read. I don’t know if the fact that I spend practically every moment I can when I’m not writing reading has helped to focus my hypergraphia or not. Maybe after all my reading I just think the world should operate like a good novel, so I am compelled to write down my observations of it as if it does.

I think it’s a good mix. I admit I am perhaps an extreme example of both conditions. Trying to turn out at least three full novels a year and reading at least 100 plus books a year at the same time. It’s a good thing I like to cook too, and insist on getting out to the gym twice a week. Because when I’m speed-walking around the track I like to plot what I’m going to write next when I get home, and then —

Ahem. It’s a good thing I like to cook too.

I don’t feel this balance of compulsions in my life is a bad thing. In fact, I’ve been healthier in body and mind these last few years when I’ve been able to indulge my compulsions than I was for the first 35 years of my adult life. That says something.

If there is an inner compulsion I’m not admitting lying behind all this, I believe it’s a need to see the world in terms beyond the societally conventional to truly make reality come to life for me. Like any good hypergraphist, I admit everything I see and experience is fodder for writing. But more precisely in my case, fodder for story. Creatively interacting with my world, not just letting it roll over me. The same applies to my wife and her eye for photography. We’re looking at the world in different ways from most people, and that’s a good thing. Feeding our souls.

Photo by Renee Beaubien

It’s a luxury of a North American middle class existence of course, particularly as lived in Canada in my case. You don’t have these kind of options if you’re wondering where your next meal’s coming from or what new fresh hell is going to descend upon you today in a war zone.

Yet, maybe you need stories even more in those situations to make sense of your world. Stories have always been with us. It can be reassuring to know that whatever happens to you, you can write about it. Sometimes because you have to to let the rest of the world know what’s wrong with it.

And then hopefully we’ll write about fixing that together afterwards.

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Lightning strikes, rendering the Detective truly Electric in Chapter Eight of The Electric Detective, posting Friday, April 10th. Already up on Monday — the less than satisfied winners and always discontented losers after the results are tabulated for Episode Eight, Lem-Ish. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

I’ll be honest. The end scene on Friday is what inspired the entire story. 

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance. But there’s been some problems with the scanner, so appearances may be deceiving.

good photography

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

Combatting the Interdump

All photographs by Renee Beaubien

Oh, technology’s a wonderful thing!

More people taking more pictures and writing more nonsense and dumping them onto the digital airwaves every second! Never before in the history of man has so much garbage circulated so quickly over the entire breadth of the globe so comprehensively! The Age of the Mediocre is truly upon us!

Like I’m doing anything but adding to the problem by making that observation. No, the whole point, as Jared Lanier pointed out in You Are Not A Gadget!, is to think about what you post to the Internet before you actually post it.

If you’re writing, that means giving the piece a draft or two, maybe checking the spelling and grammar, hell, even editing a bit if it won’t entirely short circuit your self esteem.

But what about photographs?

Simple, right? Shoot and upload. Why does there need to be anything else to the process?

Because of the simple self evident reason that it’s more rewarding for people to look at a good picture rather than a bad one. Or mountains and mountains of mediocre shots.

My wife the photographer and I had an extended discussion on this subject when we dared to go for a long walk a week or so ago, the temperature having finally risen to something bearable to exposed skin. I asked her why she wasn’t taking her camera along with her? She replied she’d already worked enough on photography that day already. But you haven’t taken any pictures yet! I protested.

We then outlined in detail the full process of what photography has become for her, as someone trying to take a serious approach to her Flickr account. A process that has certainly become a lot more than just shoot and upload.

Doing a little old fashioned systems analysis, we decided there are actually twelve steps to her process in today’s technological universe. In short order, they are:

1.   Find or compose something worthwhile to take a picture of.

2.   Actually take the picture. Or in most cases, pictures.

Because you can, with a digital camera.

3.   Do a pre-sort on the camera itself, checking for photos that

don’t make the grade up front and deleting them there and then.

4.   Upload the remaining photographs to the computer.

5.   Work through this group and edit out the ones that still aren’t quite up to snuff.

6.   Organize the selected photos by theme into folders.

7.   Choose the best shots within the theme.

8.   Do digital editing on any shots that need the work

or are improved noticeably by doing so.

9.   Organize the final selected and reworked photos into an album for Flickr.

10.   Add watermarks for identification and copyright purposes.

11.   Upload the album to Flickr.

12.   Backup the new project on a stand alone terabyte drive from the computer.

Do all that, and then you have a finished piece of work worth posting on the Internet.

But don’t take my word for it. Take a look for yourself.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/128997372@N08/

*****

REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

Weather Girls go to war on Monday, in Chapter Seven of The Electric Detective, posting Monday this week, while the remaining Contestants take a trip to a different sort of space place in Episode Eight, Lem-Ish, starting on Thursday, April 2nd — a day early to allow for Good Friday being a holiday. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Meeting strange manifestations of inner fantasies made real face to face. That’s a normal week for me writing this stuff, but now the Contestants get a taste of it too. 

Episodes to Date:

Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno

Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale

Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak

Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper

Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland

Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy

Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena

Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …

All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance. But there’s been some problems with the scanner, so appearances may be deceiving.