All the Updates

I tried to take a picture out the front and back doors as so to document the fact that it is snowing today, October the 27th, 2017, but the camera on my phone couldn't capture it and I thought posting a picture with superimposed snow (even though it is happening) would be a fake, cheater thing to do.

I've never not loved the piano.

Someone asked me today where my film review of It was, which means that this one person must have enjoyed my film reviews at some point over the years and therefore this validates me as a person, as a writer, and as someone who paid for and is still paying for a (mostly useless) film degree. The truth is, I haven't done many film reviews because I took a full-time job two years ago with Americorps as a reading tutor, and then just last May started full-time graduate school at Augsburg University for a masters degree in music therapy, which is to say my spare moments are all pretty much spoken for. In addition to piano, my at-one-time major instrument, and violin, my at-another-time second major instrument that's been left to sit way too long, I'm learning guitar, ukulele, and . . . (shhhhhh) voice. The interesting thing about this is the fact that my voice is not particularly ideal for singing, it's low and nasally, so more equipped for things like humming, ranting, or annoying people but it's coming along.

The education piece been exciting, challenging, and at times, very scary, but I really do love it, and have found myself more than once appreciating all the years of writing at Iowa's Summer Writing Festival and The LOFT Literary Center, because as it turns out, graduate school, even for music, is a shit ton of writing. Although in an interesting side note I'll add that chemistry, biology, and anatomy (all prerequisites for my admission) did not draw upon any writing, liberal arts, or narrative-based skills at all, and having to re-learn how to be tested on solid, scientific facts was somewhat of an adventure for someone whose main scholastic efforts tended to be, "GOOD ENOUGH," or "ALL MY BULLSHIT SOUNDS LEGITIMATE WHEN WRITTEN OUT THUS," (see former).

Regardless of my life, work, and educational commitments, I have missed writing about film and television. I taught a film appreciation class for Minneapolis Community Ed for five years and had to bow out this semester, and I find myself missing that, too. Funny how the things you tell yourself are too much seem to find their ways back to you if they're important enough.

We've started The Walking Dead and everyone loves it, especially the dynamics between Rick and Negan, which are admittedly very graphic, very unpredictable, and kinda sick. Here's the reason I'm okay with it: YOU CAN USUALLY ACCEPT AN ENEMY AS LONG AS THEY HAVE A SOMEWHAT WINNING/UNSTABLE-YET-NOT-ABRASIVE PERSONALITY. And I think a bit of comedy is also necessary. Some favorite examples:

  Howard Payne in Speed. Intelligent (he makes bombs), mildly unstable, but high on the comedy factor. Loved this guy.

  Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart. Not terribly smart, quite abrasive, and extremely unstable but enough comedy to carry him through (and by comedy in a David Lynch film I mean grotesquerie.) 

  Annie Wilkes in Misery. This bitch is crazy AF but still finds time to play with her pet pig, listen to Liberace records, and watch The Love Connection. Bonus points for being a dedicated fiction reader.

There's just something about a bad guy/girl who manages to entertain you while being bad. You don't necessarily root for them, but you get a little excited when they come on. This isn't always the case; there have been tons of terrible, disgusting villains that you really just wish would piss off and die. Scorpio in Dirty Harry, Martin Keamy in LOST, or Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones. Gross, abrasive, and no redeeming qualities therefore prompting wild applause in their respective deaths. Do you have any favorite villains? Or any you absolutely hated? I'd love to talk more about this, Walking Dead, or any other similar topics!

I don't like you, Negan, but I don't want you to go, either.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about It: why I loved it and why I took the family to it.

All the Twin Peaks #2

Twin Peaks Journal
Episode #2, "Traces to Nowhere"
Airdate: April 8, 1990
Written by: David Lynch, Mark Frost
Directed by: Duwayne  Dunham

Summary: Cooper receives preliminary autopsy report
of Laura Palmer; Leo criticizes Shelly for neglecting to
do his hidden bag of laundry, then becomes angry because whoops his bloody shirt was in there; the high school boys get sprung from the clink.

Pete makes coffee and has a problem with a fish, Catherine and Ben are having an old-person affair with each other; Deputy Hawk sees a one-armed man; the Log Lady's log will someday have something to say; Leo abuses Shelly; Dr. Jacoby has the necklace, Sarah Palmer sees some scary-ass dude in a vision at the foot of her daughter's bed. Who the hell was that?

yeah, NO.

Other Areas of Interest


* Cooper seems intrigued by/suspicious of Audrey immediately.


*Leo's truck: BIG PUSSYCAT. (??)


*Ronnette's father's tone is amusing, "She used to joke, it was the sweetest-smelling job she ever had." Has she had other, less-sweet-smelling jobs, then?

*Norma seems a bit cold toward Cooper until he orders more pie.

*Leo putting the soap in the sock to give Shelly a "code red,"---was he a Marine like Bobby Peru?
Gross.

I love your hair, Donna! #CutsbyToad

Rating: 🍩🍩🍩 (Three doughnuts out of four possible)

This episode takes us further and offers a bit more information on the lead-up to Laura's murder and what was happening with everyone else in town. For example, Josie and Sheriff Truman are involved; Catherine and Ben Horne are involved; Shelley and Bobby are involved, Big Ed and Norma, and so on. And there seems to be some confusion or at least complications over who Laura Palmer really was---was she the coke-snorting homecoming queen dating the quarterback, or the picnic-dancing sweetheart dating the biker? Tutoring Josie in English, organizing meals on wheels, tutoring Johnny Horne? She seems really over-scheduled, I'd probably need cocaine, too.

Best Lynch Moment: Cooper meeting Audrey---"Do your palms ever itch?"
Best Line: "By God those things will be quiet now!"--Nadine Hurley
New Characters: "The Bookhouse Boys," the One-Armed Man
Coffee, pie, or doughnut references: 9
Journal Entry of the Day: Hey there, Sarah! Have a smoke on me, kay?

 

Scorpio rivals Bobby Peru in gross factor: Dirty Harry.

Dirty Harry, 1971, directed by Don Siegel. "A San Francisco cop with little regard for rules (but who always gets results) tries to track down a serial killer who snipes at random victims."

Back in about 1989, my dad took us to some old video store in Willmar that was going out of business. They sold beta tapes; we had a beta VCR. I think Charlie and I each got to pick out a few movies and my dad got himself a box full. Of course it was a fight once we got home over whose film was going in first, and having paid for all of them, Dewey won. He chose this film, and while I wasn't exactly excited about watching it, I did. And loved it. And begged to watch all the sequels (which were also purchased that night). My mother was less than thrilled about this. I think she hates Dirty Harry (or anything with Clint Eastwood) just slightly less than she hates The Blues Brothers, which was another one Dewey, Charlie, and I absolutely loved. . . I'll give my mother credit, we probably made her crazy with all the ridiculous stuff we watched over the years. She picked Sophie's Choice and Terms of Endearment for her choices in the beta box that evening, btw.

Anyway. There are really only two things I'm going to say about this film, other than how much I love it. 

1. When this film came up in school, it was in an American Studies class (not Folwell Hall, surprise, surprise) and it was held as the most definitive example of Right-wing politics invading Hollywood for its time (1971). I sat in that class completely mesmerized, thinking, Jesus H, how did I miss all this? I mean, are you sure? The mayor, yes, was a clueless douche. Overly liberal? I don't know. Scorpio's peace sign belt buckle? Whoopee. Obviously he was not a spokesperson for the San Francisco Hippy movement as HE WAS KILLING PEOPLE FROM ROOFTOPS. AND RAPING 15 YEAR OLD GIRLS. I think the hippies would have passed on him, honestly. Harry's big gun a symbol? Yeah, whatever. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And Scorpio was a goddamned criminal. End of story.

2. Speaking of Scorpio. Whoever they got to write this guy deserves an award for creating the most disgusting character, pretty much ever. It would be a good fifteen years before Lynch and Dafoe brought Bobby Peru into the running, but bloody hell, man! All the smiling and giggling and cackling . . .  "I just wanted you to know something, I've changed my mind! I'm going to let her die!" Said HAPPILY, about Ann Mary Deacon, rotting in the sewer, as if it's amusing! This guy was shittin' awful! It was almost painful how long it took for Harry to just finally end him. Like in 24, with some of those evil villains, the ones you're just praying will meet up with Bauer off the grid? It was fitting that Harry waited until Scorpio thought he had gotten the drop on him before pulling the trigger. Regrettably, it did not take his head "clean off." 

You tried to kill me! 

My favorite moments are Harry's first step onto the scene at the first murder (scowl, always the scowl), and the tossing of his badge into the river after he shoots Scorpio. And pretty much every line he utters during the whole film. . . 70s gold, man, 70s gold.

Wild At Heart.

What's it about? IMDB says, "Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor." I suppose I need to do a better job with actually giving legitimate descriptions of the things I rant about on here instead of just peppering some pseudo film or book review with my emotional blathering, so there you go. 


I learned a lot of things from this film.

1. Just how creepy David Lynch really is. I didn't ever watch Eraserhead or The Elephant Man or Blue Velvet until I was in school for film. This, for some reason, I saw because my mother's best friend from college brought it home, probably from Honzay's in Bird Island (we had a Beta); I think I would have been in tenth grade. Yes, this is a severly inappropriate film for a fifteen-year-old, but I don't even think my mother knew I was watching it. My brother might have even seen it too, I'm not sure, but he would have been twelve. Whoops.

The first time I made it almost until Johnny Farragut met his end and then couldn't take any more. This is to say, it was too disturbing for me *BEFORE* Bobby Peru came on. I remember being severely troubled by those old codgey dudes wandering around the hotel.
Or Marietta, covered completely in red lipstick and the damned elf shoes? It seemed to be one big cluster of weirdness, and honestly, I didn't understand one bit of it.


2. About a year later, I was talking to a friend about it and she said something like, "isn't that movie, like, full of sex or something?" Until then, honestly, I hadn't even processed that YES, it was, because of all the other creepy shit that was going on. Plus I never really found Nic Cage that hot (until years later) so I had no interest in it. So we rented it on a Friday night and watched it straight through--it's quite long, actually, and it was full of sex. This time, I watched it and thought, "Wow, she's really into him. And boy, they really are having sex in many different positions WITH THE LIGHTS ON! What's she gonna do if he, you know, leaves her?" Since getting dumped was the biggest concern any girl with no self esteem could have. . .

 And what do you know? She gets pregnant, he lies to her, robs a bank with Bobby Peru, goes to jail, and leaves her standing at a railroad crossing with his son, who he had never met. I was absolutely crushed, I remember it very clearly. But he comes back. And I bawled. A lot. And then I think Wendy and I took off somewhere and got into some weird situation with Keith Paananen standing on the side of the road, hitch-hiking, maybe?

Somehow, through all of the weirdness, it's still my favorite sick little love story. And Sailor Ripley, as a character? Best. Lines. Ever. Although that screaming through the song at The Hurricane has got to go. It's almost as bad as James Hurley singing in Twin Peaks.
"I'd like to apologize to you gentlemen for referring to you all as homosexuals. You taught me a valuable lesson in life. LULA!"

3. Let's talk about Bobby Peru. Seriously, has there ever been anyone this gross? I did an image search and of course, the only ones that came up were the ridiculous TEETH when he's making his disgusting little drooling, bad-guy laugh when he reveals to Sailor that he, Bobby, has outsmarted him ("those are dummies, DUMMY!") Apparently the fitting of the teeth was a big event on the set during the filming, with Lynch gleefully telling Dafoe, "Time for your teeth, Man!"

 Ugh. I seriously almost vomit every time I see those teeth. It's almost a relief when he blows his own head off. And the whole exchange with Lula in the bedroom when Sailor's away is just horrid. The stuff that he says to her? Downright terrifying. It's disturbing to me that I find the writing of this character so impressive when the character himself is probably *the grossest* thing, ever in a film. Some dude at Blockbuster tried to argue with me once that Hopper in Blue Velvet was a more disturbing villain, and because I never argue with anyone, I let him win that one, but I really don't agree. The nitrous mask made Hopper seem a little bit more monster-ish, maybe, but nothing can compete with those goddamned TEETH! And the way Peru is all snappy and reactionary about the Tonkin Incident? Definitely waaay more unstable, but sly enough to come wandering into Lula's hotel room and orate on puke, pregnancy, and jack rabbits? What a nightmare.

4. Diane Ladd should have won the statue in 1989.

What's your favorite Lynch?

Twin Peaks episode 1

airdate: April 12, 1990
director: Duwayne Dunham
writers: David Lynch, Mark Frost

Summary: Cooper receives the preliminary autopsy report; Shelley finds Leo's bloody shirt; Cooper watches the video of Laura at the picnic; James, Bobby, and Mike are released; Pete discovers a fish in his percolator; Catherine and Ben plot to burn the saw mill; Deputy Hawk sees the one-armed man; the Log Lady promises that "one day my log will have something to say;" Leo beats Shelley; Dr. Jacoby has the necklace.

*** Three star rating. Stab it and steer.

Notes: Cooper seems intrigued and suspicious of Audrey immediately. Leo's truck is "Big Pussycat." Laura and Donna's dancing is heinous. People around here say "not exactly" a lot. Josie slinking around the house in her scant nightgown is rather inappropriate. Bright red dress? (Lil?) Ronnette's father's tone is amusing, "she used to joke, it was the sweetest-smelling job she ever had. . . " Was it a rule that all women had to wear knee-length skirts? I enjoy Behmer as Ben Horne. Norma seems cold toward Cooper until he orders more pie. Good code red with the soap in the sock when Leo assults Shelley. Was Leo an ex-Marine like Bobby Peru? Dr. Jacoby has an obnoxious way of eating.

Best Lynch moment: Cooper and Audrey: DO YOUR PALMS EVER ITCH?

Best line: BY GOD THOSE THINGS WILL BE QUIET NOW! --Nadine Hurley

New Characters: The "Bookhouse Boys," the one-armed man

Coffee, pie, or doughnut references: 9