It’s been a busy start to the month of June, and it’s only going to get busier as it lurches onward towards July. The month started with a nice meal at an Indian restaurant in Beverly Hills with my dear friend LJP, continued with the bottling of my next beer (which I will be detailing here shortly) and was followed by the wedding of my old Echo Park roommate Katherine to her former-boyfriend now-husband Zach. This past week was a busy one at work, but I was lucky enough to steal a night out mid-week for a release party for whatever the new Game Of Thrones beer is called. Friday night was a writer’s meeting, Saturday I spent the latter half of the day on a food and booze crawl around downtown, and today I continued the drinking with an early lunch/brunch followed by a screening of It Comes At Night. If you haven’t already seen it — and you like atmospheric and creepy horror movies — you should definitely check it out. Over a few more beers afterwards a buddy and I tried to talk as if we knew exactly what it all meant, but I’m sure we’re both wrong. I spent part of this evening listening to podcasts and interviews with the writer/director to see if he’s given anything else away about his intentions. I feel like I left the theatre with a pretty good grasp on what I’d just witnessed, but it was just ambiguous enough to give me pause. I don’t think I can heap greater praise on a film than that. It’s been a while since a new release has made me think that much. On a similar note, the latter half of my Sunday night has been devoted to Twin Peaks. How fucking good have the first six parts of this new “season” been?
I’ve spent the last few Mondays reading the requisite reviews of the parts which have aired thus far. Not because I’m trying to glean anything from them, but because I want to see if people who get paid to write about TV are enjoying this ride as much as I am. With literally NO expectations at the outset, I couldn’t possibly be more enraptured. The deliberate pacing, the sporadic comedic moments (Michael Cera! … “Is it about the bunny?” … pretty much all the early scenes with Kyle MacLachlan as Dougie), the dreamlike quality of it all, even the live bands at the roadhouse have entertained me. And I’m the last person on earth you’ll see bobbing my head to a Chromatics or Sharon Van Etten song. I have nothing but complete faith in Lynch, and am happy to drift along with his warped vision for this series without any preconceived notions of what it should be. The minute you try to apply logic to it, or start to wonder about a linear narrative, is the moment you drain all the joy from the journey. I’d say something like, “Don’t sit there waiting to turn the page, let the page turn you…” but you’d probably laugh and argue, “Evan…you’re just stoned.”
Sunday Mix Tape – Number 410
Turn Over
01. Clark-Hutchinson – Free To Be Stoned
02. Mark McGuire – Vision Upon Purpose
03. Chihei Hatakeyama – Distant Steam Train Whistle
04. Emma Ruth Rundle – Hand Of God (acoustic version)
05. Message – Turn Over
06. Tony Clarke – (They Call Me) A Wrong Man
07. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Lord Of The Plains
08. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Tenderness
09. Rapoon – Bonjour Nuit
10. Jimmy Scott – Sycamore Trees
