The Cleveland Show
David Lynch has done a lot of weird things throughout his career. We’re going to look at a lot of them here. But we have to start with his latest nutso endeavour, which very nearly trumps everything else Lynch has done. Yes, he's been making cameo appearances in Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show .
As Gus The Bartender, he appears as the proprietor of The Broken Stool, first hiring Cleveland Jr and then helping Cleveland to get over Loretta’s death. Typically esoteric and, yuhuh, completely mental.
Electro-Pop
Odd director of mental mindfield movies decides to make accessible pop music? It’s so mad that only David Lynch could do it. After “experimenting with music” in his own studio, Lynch has two singles now available on iTunes - ‘A Good Day’ and ‘I Know’.
Produced via an independent British label, with the help of music engineer Dean Hurley, the songs are not that much of a stretch for Lynch, who crafted them using his characteristic spur-of-the-moment approach to films.
“It's intuitive,” he says. “Intuition is the number one tool. You act and react, you see and hear, you use that thing of intuition to go to the next step… it kind of goes like that.” The songs are very catchy. We like.
Transcendental Meditation
Lynch has championed meditation since the early ‘70s, when he was initiated into spiritual movement Transcendental Meditation, which uses a form of mantra meditation.
In 2005, the auteur launched the David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education And Peace in order to begin research into TM, while he’s setting up a seven building base for the operation at a cost of roughly $7m. We're sure The Dude abides.
Twin Peaks
Lynch’s first proper dive into the TV forum resulted in perhaps the cultiest of cult TV shows. Little people, giants, dead girls wrapped in plastic, doppelgangers, some bloke called Bob…
“We had zero thought that this thing would travel so well around the world,” Lynch says. “Somehow there was something that was caught and appreciated by all different kinds of people. It was a magical thing that no one could have foreseen.”
Sadly, after a trouble second season that suffered naggy network meddling, Twin Peaks was cancelled. But we’ll always have those amazing first 17 episodes.
Signature Cup
If we learnt anything from Twin Peaks (other than to fear backward-talking, red-suit-wearing little people), it was that David Lynch loves coffee. Just take a look at the caffeine-obsessed FBI Agent Dale Cooper, whose obsession with cups of Joe were clearly set in place by Lynch.
So what do you do if you’re David Lynch? You create your own coffee blend, of course. “It's all in the beans ... and I'm just full of beans,” reads the brand’s tagline, a line lifted from Lynch’s Inland Empire.
Weather Reporting
Not only does Lynch love coffee, he also seems to love the weather. In fact, he’s so enamoured of it that he’s set up his very own weather report – which he delivers daily on his official website.
David Lynch – Daily Weather Report is also available via Lynch’s YouTube channel. Lasting just 30 seconds, our favourite master of the bizarre sits at his desk and dishes out his verdict on the day's outlook. It’s only useful for Los Angelos, though – Lynch only covers the LA area. Still, an interesting little curio nonetheless.
Shot In The Back Of The Head
Fitting that Lynch should helm a Moby music video – the album that track ‘Shot In The Back Of The Head’ comes from was inspired by a speech that Lynch once gave on freedom in creativity. Naturally, Lynch was given complete control – and Moby didn’t want to change a thing.
“I loved it,” the singer says. “If David Lynch had turned on a camera in his living room and had it pointing out his window, I’d have been happy with that. The very fact that he would be willing to give up some of his time to work on a video for me is so flattering.
“When we got the video someone I work with suggested a change, and I said, ‘No, no, this is his vision, and I enthusiastically accept it. I couldn’t go back and ask him to modify.’”
Catching The Big Fish
Lynch takes his love of Transcendental Meditation to the literary world with his book, Catching The Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, And Creativity.
The title, according to the man himself, is based on Lynch’s notion that “ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper.” Lynch even read the entire thing out for the audiobook, and puts all the profits toward his Foundation.
Dangerous
So rare that trying to find it online is like searching for the holy grail, David Lynch’s teaser video for Michael Jackson track ‘Dangerous’ was shot in 1992, and is considered a collector’s item thanks to its scarcity.
Thanks to YouTube, we’ve tracked it down . At barely 40 seconds long, it’s an arty, abstract snippet that’s very Lynch, and completely random.
Dark Night Of The Soul Booklet Design
Want David Lynch to do something arty for your latest album? Just ask him. That’s what Danger Mouse (the musician, not the cartoon) did for his album collaboration with Sparklehorse (the musician, not the My Little Pony character).
Lucky for Danger Mouse, Lynch was inspired by the music and set about taking arty snaps that he felt chimed with the sonic soundscapes. The resultant photos were turned into a two room art installation at the Michael Kohn Gallery in LA, as well as a 100 page book that came with the album.
