LYNCH PARTY

January 20 . .

On this day in 1946, in Missoula, Montana, director David Lynch was born. Here’s hoping he looked nothing like the newborn baby in 1977's ‘Eraserhead’.

Ah, David Lynch . . problematic prodigy of the macabre. Genius or pervert? Primitive or visionary? Tongue in cheek or genuinely demented? All, or none?

His oeuvre instantly summons dark, disturbing images. The severed ear from ‘Blue Velvet’ . . Laura Palmer’s corpse from ‘Twin Peaks’ . . Willem Dafoe’s rotting teeth from ‘Wild At Heart’.

I once attended an afternoon showing of ‘Eraserhead’ at the Beekman in New York. Some college kid had brought his elderly grandmother to see it. When I passed her in the lobby, she was quaking in her stockings, scared, disgusted and livid with her grandchild for exposing her to such disturbing – and disturbed – images. I left wondering what kind of kid would take his grandmother to see ‘Eraserhead’.

So celebrate its creator’s birthday and dive right into the mucky gray industrial dementia that is 'Eraserhead' - today's selected 'Movie A Day.' Just don’t blame me if you can’t sleep tonight. And, for God’s sake, don’t let your Grandmother see it.

Here’s a taste, if you dare . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t2lj9sZvMM