:eno rehtona s’ereH

David Lynch doesn’t usually say interesting things (though I love his movies) and this guy, Mark Cousins, doesn’t normally give good interviews (though I love that they exist). But this one (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) actually worked out really well.

There’s a gem at the very beginning of Part 3 when Lynch tells of how the character of Bob evolved in Fire Walk With Me.

Also, one minute in to Part 4, he describes not only his philosophy of moving the eye in his paintings and films (using textures as rhythms), but also tells his “Eye of the Duck” story. The idea is that a duck makes a good subject for a painting because of its textures and more importantly the relative amounts of the textures and their spatial relationships. The bill and legs, with their thinness, color, and line-ness move “fast” (not sure whether this refers to how the eye physically moves or perhaps the way the neurons fire in response to the visual stimulation but I think I know what he means–he says fire and electricity are the fastest). The feathers on the main body, with their blob shape and amorphous texture move slow. But the key, the “jewel”, is the eye (it is the “fastest” part of the image). And it is perfectly placed on the duck. If it were placed on the bill or feet it would be overwhelmed by their fastness. If it were placed on the body it would get lost. It’s placement with respect to the bill and the S-shaped neck connected to the body is just right.

Lynch claims that he tries to put in an “eye of the duck” scene in each of his movies. This is a scene that isn’t necessarily essential to the plot, but is absolutely essential to the artistic effect of the movie.

If you search through interviews, you can find Lynch mentioning which scene is the eye of the duck scene in his various movies (his answers sometimes conflict). Fans sometimes speculate on which scene they think is the one.

So I will do that here, speculating on the Lynch movies that are relatively fresh in my memory:

Mulholland Drive
The cowboy

Lost Highway
The phone at the party

Blue Velvet
“In Dreams” at Ben’s house

I thought these tracks were horrible at the time. But they sound sort of sweet taken out of context coming out of laptop speakers three years in the future.

toby schachman - peter slime (feb 6, 2006 430am).mp3
This one was dedicated to Danny!

toby schachman - lava larvae (featuring dan jacobs) (feb 8, 2006 215am).mp3
What makes a melody sound Russian?

A nice Valentine’s treat, I think!

Sundialtone - Boundaries (demo).mp3

Bill McKenna, architect