It was 1990 and my friend Peter and I ditched high school on a Thursday to go see a move up in LA. We went to school in Torrance and if you know that area at all, going to LA proper was like an amazing journey. That’s where cool things happened like seeing B-level stars buy eggs at the market. Nothing that cool happened in Torrance. So Peter and I go to a 2pm show of a movie I can’t even remember now. And standing in front of us was this tall man with a dark haired woman. And from the back I was thinking “Wow, this guy’s hair looks like David Lynch.”
Let me explain. I had (have) a serious Lynch addiction. Twin Peaks wrecked me seriously. It was the most beautiful, surreal and screwed up show I had ever seen and I loved every second of it. I went to Vancouver to see the falls and the lodge shown in the tv show. Yeah so typical of senior high schooler. Oh she’s sooooo cool because she’s into The Smiths and thinks she understands Twin Peaks and the midget dances. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was me. Whatever. Peter walks to the side so he can get a better view, looks at the person in front of me and I could tell by his frenetic body action that it was him. It was David Lynch. We bought our tickets quickly trying to follow Lynch but he strangely disappeared. We were heartbroken. We checked the bathrooms, but no Lynch. So we went into the movie we paid for. And we sat down. And there he was again. Lynch was sitting right in front of us. I have no idea what movie we watched because frankly all we did was sit quietly and stare at the back of this brilliant man’s head.
The movie ended, people left, but we just sat there waiting for Lynch and his lady friend to move. He was talking to his lady friend (who we thought was Isabella Rosellini – but it wasn’t and thank god because my 17 year old brain would only be able to muster this: you know that scene in Blue Velvet when Dennis Hopper was looking at your hoo haa while getting high….dude that was amazing).
Throughout the the movie, Peter and I were debating if we should ask him for an autograph. Whispering to each other you do it, no you do it. Yeah, total dumb dorks. That was us.
I sensed Lynch was moving to get up so I reached out and tapped his shoulder. My friend Peter leaned back and stopped breathing.
“Excuse me sir are you David Lynch?”
“Yes I am”
“I uh, I uh….think you’re amazing and I love all your work.”
“Why thank you”
“Would you autograph something for me?”
“Of course.”
So I fumbled in my bag digging for any piece of paper while hearing my friend Peter speak 200 words per seconds at 2 octaves higher then I’ve heard his voice before about how he loved “On the Air” even though it was canceled after only a few episodes.
After finding no piece of paper, I dug out a dollar bill and handed it to him.
He stared at it thinking I was tipping him but then I gave him a red pen and he signed it.
David Lynch fucking made my day.
So when I see videos like this of him, my heart just gets all warm and fuzzy.