Twin Peaks: the Return part 6 Don’t Die (Twin Peaks WA)

David Lynch & Mark Frost 
Snoqualmie WA & Los Angeles CA 2016

One of the longest sustained and complexly composed sequences so far (at least in my estimation) within Lynch’s new eighteen hour film was found in the latest section.  It concerned a hit and run accident that occurs at the site of a major scene in Fire Walk with Me, an intersection with a four way stop, where Laura and her father, Leland, came to some realizations prompted by the intervention of Mike, the one armed man from the Black Lodge, who pulled around a long line of cars backed up waiting for an old lady to slowly cross the road.  This time, however, there’s a young boy in the cross walk and the driver of the truck (a much bigger one than Mike’s pickup) is Richard Horne (I assume he’s Jerry Horne’s grandson, Audrey’s son, and he’s played by Eamon Farren) who’s high on coke and shook from an encounter with Red (perhaps another denizen of the Black Lodge, a kind of Magician or at least an Illusionist, played rather brilliantly by Balthazar Getty,) and witnessed by Carl Rodd (proprietor of the Fat Trout Trailer Park, played with exceptional dignity and compassion by Harry Dean Stanton) and a good-natured woman named Miriam Sullivan (who has just eaten two slices of cherry pie at the Double R Diner, played by Sarah Jean Long.)  That the viewer suspects well beforehand that the accident will occur in no way lessens its effect.  Every element in the sequence is perfectly balanced right down to that Eisenhower dime that spins far too long in the air and the golden smudge of the boy’s soul seemingly absorbed by the electrical lines.

Wagon Master

John Ford 
Oljato-Monument Valley 
San Juan County Utah 1950 
starring Ben Johnson (13 June 1918 - 8 April 1996)

Today being (the great horseman and actor) Ben Johnson’s 99th birthday, it seemed best to put up some frames showing him in his best role, or at least his biggest, in what John Ford believed was one of his own best works, Wagon Master.  It’s worth noting that Johnson began working for Ford as a stunt rider and that he was of Irish and Cherokee ancestry, which is something that Ford was bound to appreciate and admire.  Ford was never one to shy away from a good looking young man who knew how to handle a horse and I’m glad for it, because I happen to agree with him in this matter.  Wagon Master really is one of his masterpieces and Ben Johnson has more than a little to do with its beauty.

Nuestra Amiga la Luna

dirigido por Cesar Velasco Broca 
una producción de Bravo Tango Zulu y Terranova 
India, Suiza y España
2016

Following a six year hiatus, during which time he spent some three years in India (having claimed that he'd retired,) Velasco Broca returned to film making with this 15 minute b&w 16mm short.  Below is the official synopsis, though it can only begin to suggest the breadth of the imagery presented.

Hadji is a disabled young Hindu man who lives humbly, close to the river Ganges. After losing what little he had, he is accepted as a disciple by a strange spiritual leader of Russian origin. This alliance will lead them to some bizarre incidents that will have consequences throughout the other parts of the West.

Octopi and Friends at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Cannery Row
Monterey CA 
31 May 2017

My friends Ne Oo and Thin Mar Oo took me to the Aquarium last Wednesday where I paid close attention to the Octopi and took some photographs that may serve as the basis for a few of the paintings I’ll show at Max Fish in New York next December.  They had some fun in the Children’s Gift Shop playing with a few items marketed to the wee folk.  Their little impromptu performance will likely end up depicted in paint as well.