When I saw that the indie magazine Hobo Camp Review was producing a David Lynch tribute issue, I was hooked right away and tried to come up with something. But what should I write? My mind immediately drift to detectives in trench coats and coffee shop donuts.
Before he passed, Mr. Lynch was a source of inspiration, creativity, and humor for me, and of course the creator of incredible shows and movies like Twin Peaks and The Elephant Man. Aside from Twin Peaks, his writing and directing have often been divisive, from 1984’s Dune to his more avant-garde pieces like Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire. A friend once convinced our movie group in Hawaii to watch Blue Velvet, and I confess that I barely remember anything about the confusing story and dreamlike visuals. The three or four beers I had beforehand probably didn’t help. Our movie group voted unanimously to never let him pick the movie again.
Despite the “Lynchian” weirdness of his work, there was always sense of heart, and of appreciation for the small things in life. I loved that about his writing. In Twin Peaks, it manifests itself as Detective Cooper’s love for coffee, and in David’s own interviews and soundbytes he could sometimes be heard praising a simple cookie, or the delights of Bob’s Big Boy. David was also a practitioner of transcendental meditation, and while it’s not my exact cup of tea, he did a great job of sharing the benefits of meditation with people. He released daily weather reports on youtube during covid, which was both silly and surreal. Unlike some of the other celebrity tributes that came out at the time, he came off as… I dunno… sincere.
So with all of this in mind, I tried to think up something fitting. It’s not up to his level, but it was a blast to write. Plus, it delves into two more favorite subjects of mine: coffee and donuts. Check out The Ghost of a Lost Donut at Hobo Camp Review, in their Lynch issue.
