Michael Adam Warren's Blog, page 13

Twin Peaks: The Return Soundtrack Released Today!

Today we get to enjoy the release of the full official soundtrack for David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). The release is split into two different releases, with the Roadhouse acts plus a few other treats of lyrical songs on the one album, and the instrumental score music on the other album. Both albums are being released on MP3 download, Audio CD, and Vinyl, so you are sure to find your perfect format.
On the first album you get every Roadhouse performance and then some, from Chromatics to Nine Inch Nails to Julee Cruise, this album is a solid gift for all moody and atmospheric music lovers, whether they are Twin Peaks fans or not. No other TV soundtrack is remotely like this release.
Here we have established names like Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, famed Mulholland Dr. (2001) vocalist Rebekah Del Rio, and smaller up-and-coming indie bands like Au Revoir Simone contributing original songs and hit songs. Not many soundtrack albums will feature such a solid mix, which is a testament to David Lynch's ability to draw in talented people for what may likely be the swan song of this great director's career.
And of course the second album primarily features the magnificent compositions of long-time David Lynch collaborator and celebrated soundtrack composer Angelo Badalementi, whose unique touch helps instill the album with the classic flavor of the original Twin Peaks, but with a healthy dose of original changes to make it sound fresh and unique to The Return's tone, too.
In addition to Angelo Badalamenti's bold score, we get a few pieces from Johnny Jewel of the Chromatics fame and Witold Rowicki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima from the much discussed and celebrated Part 8 of The Return. This album blends the terrifying with the beautiful in a way only Twin Peaks can....

A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5

A book opening/signing with the authors of A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5 is taking place this Saturday on September 09, 2017 at Shelby, North Carolina in the United States of America. Their comprehensive critical guide opens worldwide for purchase on September 19, 2017. Until then, it can be preordered or if you happen to live near Shelby, NC, you can pick up an early copy and get it signed by the authors.
I have not yet read this book, nor am I familiar with the authors, but it does sound like an intriguing read and is definitely on my radar to check out. As a fan of Babylon 5 (1993-98) and its complex story universe, it will be interesting to see how the two joint-authors approach the material. Babylon 5 is a remarkably unique science fiction TV series that helped push the bar for everything came afterward. And I personally suspect this show was crucial in inspiring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-99), Battlestar Galactica (2005-09), and The Expanse (2015-Present).
The book signing takes place on Saturday September 09, 2017 at 11am EST at Hip-O-Kat Retro & Vintage, the address for which is 105 N. Lafayette St., Shelby, NC 28150.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) 25th Anniversary

Six years ago, back during my original article series 35 Years of David Lynch, I wrote a review and write-up on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), in which I argued that Fire Walk with Me was due for a serious reevaluation by critics and that a positive step in that direction would be a Criterion Collection Release of the film. My dreams have come true and Criterion has announced such a release on Blu-Ray this October 17, 2017, featuring a newly forged 4K master film transfer supervised by David Lynch and number of retrospective featurettes and interviews.
Although a 4K UHD (Ultra-High Defintion) release has not been announced yet, such a transfer would make that release possible in the near future. This transfer would also make a special theatrical release a possibility, too, since most modern movie theaters are equipped with 4K projectors and could easily arrange a few screenings of a newly remastered digital print. It would be wonderful to see a theatrical release of Fire Walk with Me to celebrate its inclusion in the Criterion Collection, so far that is just one of my other pipe dreams.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director David Lynch
- 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised by Lynch
- Alternate original 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- The Missing Pieces, ninety minutes of deleted and alternate takes from the film, assembled by Lynch
- New interview with actor Sheryl Lee
- Interviews from 2014 by Lynch with actors Lee, Ray Wise, and Grace Zabriskie
- More!
- PLUS: An interview with Lynch from the 2005 edition of filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley's book Lynch on Lynch

Happy Birthday Alicia Witt!

Happy Birthday Alicia Witt! Some attentive viewers of The Walking Dead (2010-Present) might remember her as the memorable Savior Paula, whose interactions with Rick's group led Carol on a season-long attempt at pacifism to avoid fighting in the impending war with Negan.
Alicia was the brilliant younger sister of Paul Atreides, "St. Alia of the Knife" in David Lynch's science fiction epic Dune (1984)–which I created an extended edit for called Dune: The Complete Saga . Alicia's memorable performance as a child in that movie has long been a highlight for me and my family, and the glee she shows in dispatching her enemies in that movie is something special that does not happen in movies very often–pure magic. The most precocious assassin in all of Dune !
Alicia then graduated high school at 14 years of age so she could focus on acting, which she got to do with David Lynch again as Donna's younger piano-playing prodigy sister Gersten Hayward in the TV classic Twin Peaks (1990-91). She also happened to be a piano-playing prodigy in real life, too, and has done well for herself as a musician / singer combo to be reckoned with!
I loved her as Crispin Glover's troubled wife Diane in David Lynch's short-lived anthology series Hotel Room (1993), which featured some of my all-time favorite acting moments from her. It is tough to a find a version of this to watch, but worth digging around for Alicia's role.
And notably, for me at least, she had a very successful run as Cybill Shepherd's TV daughter Zoey in Cybil (1995-98). I was totally not the target audience for this show, but as a teenager with a crush on Alicia I found myself pulled in and surprisingly found myself thoroughly enjoying the show. It is a very underrated, well-written comedy series that is still worth checking out.
And Alicia turned heads again as a grown-up Gersten Hayward in last night's Part 15 of Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), where she lovingly cradled a troubled Steven in the woods. Along with Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) in Community (2009-2015), Alicia Witt is in all our hearts! We love you, Alicia!

Team Snow vs. White Walkers in Fan-Made Game of Thrones Trailer!

"We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow...." A fitting description of Jon Snow and his relatives, the Starks of Winterfell from Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song , which features prominently in a new Game of Thrones fan-made trailer by video editor Nick Growall.

" Game of Thrones : Beyond the Wall" Trailer is blowing up across the internet featuring the ragtag crew of Jon Snow's men-on-a-mission movie in the middle of Game of Thrones Season 7. And yes, it is as awesome in the show as the trailer suggests. Watch tonight's episode "Beyond the Wall." It is one of the best episodes of the series.The trailer is very well done, with hints of 70's exploitation cinema editing tricks that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. This trailer does a good job of setting up the true awesomeness of this heroic team up. One expects The Magnificent Seven , Suicide Squad , Inglourious Basterds , Wild Bunch , The Dirty Dozen , and Guardians of the Galaxy to join Team Snow after their mission is complete and lift up a drink for them in Valhalla.

Late Night Twin Peaks Parody!

Late Night with Seth Meyers has some fun pretending to make a talk show inside Twin Peak's famous Red Room, and it is surprisingly funny and engaging. I know this is a joke, but I want an actual talk show like this now. Along with the recent WWE parody, it looks like parodying David Lynch and Mark Frost's surreal masterpiece is all the fashion nowadays and we Peakers should revel in every glorious moment of it.
Kudos for the technical team mimicking the same film techniques used to bring the original Red Room sequence to life. This is a worthy addition to the Twin Peaks Parody Pantheon. I just wish the sketch ran even longer and it was a permanent fixture of the show.

David Lynch: The Art Life (2016)

David Lynch: The Art Life (2016), originally Kickstarted with the working title, "Lynch 3," is a highly anticipated documentary years in the making. It demonstrates David Lynch's typical daily routine as a painter and is packed full of interesting anecdotes from his early life and development into the artist he is today. It is a worthwhile viewing experience for anyone deeply interested in David Lynch's work in films and television and would likely interest anyone who has ever seriously contemplated transitioning into a full-time, professional artist.
Although David Lynch has discussed his life as a young artist at length before in other documentaries, interviews, and Q&A sessions, the documentarians do an excellent job of weaving together mostly new facts and unique takes on these stories to give a much fuller picture of David Lynch's early life than we have ever experienced before.
And the periodic anecdotes sprinkled across a healthy mix of archival footage and home videos with modern footage of Lynch's introspection and painterly process is nothing short of beautiful and frequently can feel as bizarre as the man's artwork itself. This is definitely a strange, uniquely nostalgic documentary about a man's life and his love affair with the artist's life.
And interestingly, the family connection that originally scared him earlier in life seems to be a powerful anchoring influence on him now today. It is interesting to see how David Lynch's worldview has pivoted and shifted over time, but still see that same child-like joy light up his eyes when he paints a canvas today as much as when he was a boy.
There is something fun and charming about seeing David Lynch work alongside his youngest child, little Lula, who admiringly mimics her papa as he goes about his daily routine as a painter. One aspect of this documentary that is tough not to love is to see David's eyes light up as he plays with his daughter and shows her what he is doing and how he is doing it.
It is an endearing treat to see these intimate family interactions, something only possible with trust and familiarity with the cameraman, credited as In a recent interview with Hannah Ewens at VICE, The Art Life's director Jon Nguyen said, "David's a very private person and he has his close friends, and I think really, if it wasn't for Jason being there helping make it, and him having the trust and kind of friendship with David, this wouldn't have happened. You can't come off of the street and get David to open up like this."
Jon Nguyen also commented to Hannah on the timetable and the way the documentary was filmed, "The interviews took place on the weekends and that was about twenty-five interviews over nearly three years. Jason was living at David's complex, so he would get a call on the weekend from David saying, 'Hey, I've got an hour. Why don't you come down?' and then they would sit down and Jason would set up a microphone and it was like chatting to an old friend."

The home movies and still images from throughout David Lynch's early childhood is also a great part of this documentary, as it helps transport us into that era of America and see his parents and early influences on him. To some degree, one can see little seeds that would turn into the white picket fences of Blue Velvet (1986).
In these archival footage sequences, I actually felt hints of Terrence Malick's Tree of Life (2011), which is a little ironic since David Lynch once publicly commented to the Los Angeles Times, "Some people go nuts for Tree of Life. I love Terry Malick. But Tree of Life wasn’t my cup of tea." Asked what he specifically didn’t like about the film, Lynch repeated. "It wasn’t my cup of tea."
David Lynch grew up post World War II and a lot of his aesthetic seems informed by that era of mechanization and industrialization. The imaginations of the children his age were still filled with imagery of the heroic exploits of America in the war. And these things would find their way into their childhood games and drawings.
I enjoyed watching the look on David Lynch's face as he flipped through old photos and took walks down memory lane. He obviously has a rich mix of the happy and the sad going through his mind, only about a portion of which he discusses. At one point he touchingly starts explaining a farewell he had with a neighbor named Mr. Smith before his family moved to Virginia, but David becomes so choked up that he cannot finish the story. He never does.

It was quite informative to learn of David's bad influence by the wrong kind of friends and how disappointed his mother was in him, in particular. He talked about how he developed different worlds with his family, friends, and artistic pursuits and he dreaded the possibility of his worlds colliding with each other. This touching on the ambiguation that plagues so many of his characters from film and television.
His early childhood memories of a naked woman in trouble wandering through his neighborhood and wanting to help her, but being too frightened and young to know what to do. To a degree, I feel like that feeling never left David Lynch and a part of him developed a strong desire to help "a woman in trouble."
And touching to me was David Lynch's complete and total love affair with painting that developed in him early in life and never left him. David's mother seemed particularly keen on cultivating these artistic sensibilities in him from an early age, eschewing coloring books for just blank sheets of paper in David's case. Something that David pointedly mentions was not done for his younger brother and sister, but specifically for him.
It is humanizing to hear of David Lynch's teenage tensions with his father and how an early and important mentor named Bushnell Keeler emerged to help ameliorate some of those tensions and convince David's father to encourage his son to continue his pursuit of painting. I was particularly interested in hearing David's stories about Bushnell, a name he resurrects later in Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) as the name of Dougie's patient and intuitive boss.
What emerges from the documentary is a beautiful depiction of David Lynch's growth as a human being and an artist and how his struggles in both his personal life and career came to a head in his first marriage with Peggy Reavey, the mother of his first child, Jennifer. It was fascinating to see how these bonds added extra pressure on David, but also helped eventually ground him as an artist.
Moving out on his own from his family originally and beginning to make a new life for himself, first in Boston and then later in Philadelphia, was an especially difficult time for him. He seemed to develop agoraphobia and was having a harder time leaving his abode, something Twin Peaks fans will recognize in more extreme form in the character of Harold Smith (Lenny von Dohlen). And I get the impression that Peggy helped the real David emerge out of his shell and feel more and more comfortable expressing his own original ideas in painting and step back out and re-engage with the world again.
Experiencing so many strange and dark occurrences in Boston and later in Philadelphia, from insane next-door neighbors, to a general pervasive feeling of darkness and confusion was just what David Lynch needed artistically. Philadelphia in particular jumpstarted his muse and he began experimenting more and more with new kinds of paintings, including paintings that move over time with sound effects.
David Lynch began implementing animation techniques and then intermixing live-action footage with animation, creating a style all his own. He showed a lot of promise in these early film works and managed to earn several grants that enabled him to study art and filmmaking in greater depth. All of these projects eventually culminated in the creation of his first feature film Eraserhead (1977), which is still infamously surreal and horrific with just that slight mix of dark humor to create a mood and style that would always be known thereafter as Lynchian (or Lynchesque in Great Britain).
Although Eraserhead would try his artistic soul over its long five-year production, eventually resulting in the dissolution of his marriage and the disapproval of his father. And in spite of all the doors opening with film, David Lynch never stopped pursuing the art life with his painting. Even after he gained the director's chair for prestigious films, like The Elephant Man (1980) and Dune (1984), David kept going and going with his painting and would never stop.
I get the impression that if David Lynch was forced to do just one thing artistically, it would be painting. He seems to be a very tactile artist who enjoys getting his hands deep into his medium and do something different with it than has ever been attempted before. And honestly, he is the same with his films and TV productions when he deigns to make them. For instance, he said the process of making Eraserhead (1977) was his favorite since he basically created an entire world from scratch with his own two hands. The ubiquitous black and white patterned floor that would appear in several of his projects first began here, as he stenciled the floor by hand. This pattern would go on to show up prominently in the deleted footage of Dune (1984) and the dream sequences of Twin Peaks (1990-91). One of the unexpected treats of this documentary are the little moments of joy on David Lynch's face that get caught here and there. One such moment takes place when a trio of mechanical birds start singing and chirping a tune out randomly in his workshop.
The look on David Lynch's face says it all. The Art Life for David Lynch is a magical world where anything can happen. It is a place where the robins can all come home to bring all the love and light back to the dark world, just like in the ending of Blue Velvet (1986). The simple, tactile pleasures of taking one thing and transforming it into another is just as artistic to David Lynch as painting, too. And a workshop with lumber and other raw materials are as much a part of his artistic process as paints and brushes. Ultimately, this documentary gives us a glimpse at the humanity of David Lynch, particularly in his early life, but also offers a look into the everyday routines that go into his artistic process. And although we see him writing a little bit here and there of the upcoming Twin Peaks: The Return, we mostly get the rare glimpse of a true artist pondering over his life, his past and present, and on what to do next with the canvas before him. We get a chance to explore with David Lynch his early successes and failures of life, his relationship with his parents, and his difficult climb out of obscurity and into becoming a prolific and respected director and artist. His triumphs in life being the result of first travailing across many arduous years of rejection, being misunderstood, and insulted for his unique style. Ultimately, though, we see that The Art Life for David Lynch was never really about glamor, money, or fame, but was the only life that would enable him constructively to funnel all his creativity into something substantial and real. And in spite of the fame and success he has experienced, I admire that he has always cultivated his artistic core and focused on the work.
Although David Lynch enjoys his relatively lonely artistic fortress of solitude in Hollywood Hills, I am personally grateful when the creative work he creates occasionally bleeds out of him and causes David Lynch to step out of his comfort zone and collaborate with others to create new and unique movies, music, and television the likes of which the world has never known before.

Frank Herbert Interview on Dune's Origins

Frank Herbert is a fascinating man who lived a full and interesting life, so whether you agree with his viewpoints or not, you can enjoy him explaining the origin for many of his ideas. If this rare interview with Frank Herbert teaches us nothing, it is that he was likely a lot of fun to talk to and debate with on a variety of challenging topics. And now that Dune is being brought to life again in a new screen adaptation, it is worth taking a look at those ideas again.

Dr. Jacoby is a Dancing Magician

Sometimes us young whippersnappers forget that the old people of today use to be young yesterday, and a healthy number of them were remarkable in their prime. Well, the pop culture of the internet received a good-spirited jolt to remember one of the most remarkable performers in the world is still with us, the amazing Russ Tamblyn.
Classic Twin Peaks (1990-91) fans will remember Russ Tamblyn as Laura Palmer's eccentric psychiatrist "Dr. Jacoby" and modern Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) fans will know by his gold-shovel selling, pirate podcasting alterego "Dr. Amp."
When Russ Tamblyn was in his youth, he became of the most gifted teen heart throbs of his generation, training to be an adept dancer that mixes gymnastics and acrobatics with his moves. He was the star of some of my childhood favorites, George Pal's delightful Tom Thumb (1958) and The Woodsman in Pal's follow-up film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).
But most people will recognize Tamblyn best from his unforgettable role as the streetwise Jets gangleader Riff in the Academy Award-Winning West Side Story (1961). He was essentially Mercutio to Richard Beymer's Romeo (Tony). West Side Story won 10 Oscars the year it was released, including Best Picture and Director.
Here we have in one continuous take one of Russ Tamblyn's finest on-screen dances and work of choreography ever captured on celluloid. This is truly one of the great moments from cinema history, from the classic Glenn Ford starring Western The Fastest Gun Alive (1956). This was classic Hollywood filmmaking at its best.

Russ Tamblyn. Amazing. https://t.co/Z4Dfaw5KQY— Steven Weber (@TheStevenWeber) August 5, 2017

And this clip has recently gone viral with Steven Weber's tweet sharing it and other celebrities chiming in their accolades.

Omg watch it all https://t.co/ifhwtekl3B— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) August 5, 2017

My dad is a badass. Full stop. https://t.co/L6rLZ8c1Um— Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) August 5, 2017

Fan Short Film: The Summer House at Pearl Lakes

An excellent fan-made short film by Thor Amli about Leland Palmer's summer up at Pearl Lakes as a little boy when he met BOB for the first time. "Do you want to play with fire, little boy?" It makes me wish The Return spent a little bit of time establishing some flashbacks to set up the conflict with BOB over the decades.
Excellent use of Leland's compulsively sung show tunes from the series proper. This short film has reminded me that there could be some pretty interesting ground to cover in a prequel series to Twin Peaks someday, connecting some of the dots from the town's past with what is happening in the town's present.
This short film also reminds me how completely different The Return has felt tonally from the classic Twin Peaks. Even this fan-made short film feels a little more similar to the tone of the original series, strangely. It makes me hold out hope that we get to see child Leland and maybe even child Laura in the series proper someday. There is some definite dramatic potential there in flashbacks, at least.