It was happening again. The Music Box was doing a David Lynch Retrospective for the second time. It would span his entire career up to the present. More than than, it would be as comprehensive a retrospective out there. Every film, every short film, the Dumbland shorts, Desire and Hell At Sunset Hotel, Industrial Symphony No. 1, David Lynch: The Art Life, Lynch One, the Duran Duran concert he shot, even his daughter Jennifer's Boxing Helena was shown in a rare NC-17 print! I had to choose wisely. I was lucky enough for the showings of Eraserhead, Lost Highway and Inland Empire to fall on the days I didn't have work. I was most excited for Inland Empire on the big screen. But I was also curious about Lost Highway, the one Lynch film I have seen the least. Well, besides Dune and The Straight Story. So I bought my tickets.
I had arrived at my girlfriend's apartment at 2 pm. The day was all planned out. The Music Box was playing Eraserhead with a special Q and A by Charlotte Stewart. After that, Lost Highway was gonna screen. We left early. The last time I attended the Lynch retrospective it was Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The whole theater was decked out in references to the director's work. The aisles in the theater had zig zag carpeting evoking Twin Peaks. The lounge that is a place of social lubrication was christened "The Black Lodge". This time at the Music Box, it was no different. a Dale Cooper standee loomed over the top of the box office. A Mulholland Dr. street sign was nestled atop the sign for the lounge. A Winkie's sign was adorning the wall by the concession stand. The bathroom mirrors had inscriptions of 'The Ows Are Not What They Seem". It was LynchLand.
The crowd was a magical concoction of cineaste and genre fan alike. Something few directors are able to pull together. One guy will be wearing a 'The Beyond' t-shirt and will pass a guy wearing a Kubrick shirt.
Now when I say comprehensive, I have to stress it. In the lounge, they had all of the Weather Reports Lynch did playing in a row. Before each film, they had interviews with the director about his work and even appearances on Late Night talk shows. For the Eraserhead screening, he discussed the Bible verse in which he looked to and, of course, will never tell anyone which one it was. The post Q and A with Charlotte Stewart was wonderful. A woman bursting with stories. She went out with Jim Morrison. Yes, THE Jim Morrison. She hung out with Neil Young. For the scene in which she pulled the suitcase out from underneath the squeaking bed, Lynch told her one simple direction: keep pulling until it's free.
My girlfriend decided to take the train out after the Eraserhead screening and since I wanted to stay for Lost Highway, we parted ways until the screening was over.
I went into the theater for Lost Highway after grabbing a Large Coke. A behind the scenes press junket was playing. I was immediately reminded of the essay David Foster Wallace did on Lynch during the making of this film. After the Behind the scenes bit, a music video for Nine Inch Nail's Perfect Drug played. The soundtrack to this film is filled with 90's alt-rock: NIN, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, Smahing Pumpkins. But it's This Mortal Coil's Song to the Siren that always stops me in my tracks. It's ethereal beauty has cemented it in my top 3 favorite songs. Lynch said he wanted to use it in Blue Velvet but for some reason couldn't at the time. So he used it here.
The two guys behind me were real film geeks. Or at the very least, one was. The type where one guy has to unload all of his trivia onto his friend to impress him into thinking how knowledgable he is on a particular subject. I can't say I haven't done this before. The one guy doing most of the talking was tall, lanky with glasses. The lights dimmed and David Bowie's 'I'm Deranged' started playing against a speeding highway. The film was better than I remembered. So much so, it jumped into my top 5 of his works. Right behind Eraserhead, Inland Empire, Fire Walk With Me and Mulholland Dr.
The credits rolled and people started emptying out of the theater. I messaged Charlotte that the movie was over and I should be at her apartment in a half hour. As I exited, the two guys who were sitting behind me came out too. The discussion they were engaged in was about Lost Highway and where it stood in Lynch's filmography. It then took a couple detours. "David Foster Wallace wrote this huge essay on the making of the film" the lanky guy said. I was a little tempted to jump into the convo but decided to stay out of it. I was still tuned in to their frequency.
I was at the Southport station for the Brown Line. The two guys followed me up. When I was on the platform, a group of 4 twenty-somethings walked by and congregated in a circle further away. Their discussion was about Lost Highway and Lynch. Another group of three behind me talked about their experience watching the movie. Now the only person I can fully geek out to about these films is my girlfriend. Outside of her, it is people whom I have met online. They live states away so I can't just call them up and say "Hey, you wanna grab some coffee and hang out?". So here I am in a station filled with Lynch fanatics like myself. I don't engage with any of them. I just quietly wait for the train. After about 15 or so minutes, it announced itself with a screaming.
Then things started to get weird.
The Brown Line Station for the Wellington stop was located right across the street from Advocate Medical Center. It was 15 minutes to midnight. I was walking past a line of brownstones when, I spotted a guy with a blue track suit wearing a backpack. He was across the street from me and looked to be on his way to the medical center when, suddenly, he just collapsed to the ground. As the ground came up to meet his body, I stopped in shock. A wave concern came over me. Is this guy having an attack? What is happening? The collapse happened right on a ramp that led to the entrace of the medical center. I decided to cross the street and see what I could do. While crossing, a bald man out on a stroll was heading in the same direction as the collapse man. I figured this was good, the more help the better.
When I got to the man on the ground, I asked him if he was alright. No response. He looked to be in his late teens. The bald man saw what was happening and asked the man if he needed help. Again, no response. The man moved a little. What looked to be spittle lay on the ground next to his face. The bald man told me to stay with him while he went inside the medical center for help. His concern was the fact that this guy was on an entrance ramp and how dangerous it was. "Do you need help getting up?" I said. The guy started moving. Not a word. The bald man came out and said security and an EMT are on their way to assist.
"I didn't wanna call for an ambulance and then have the man charged for it. Thank you for staying with him" said the bald man. "So how is your night going?"
"It's going well up until now." I said. "How is your night going?"
"Just hoping I win the lottery" he chuckled.
"Don't we all."
A burly man in a security uniform made his way down the ramp toward the collapse teenager. As he made his way down, a security jeep rounded the corner and parked itself in front of the entrance ramp. The security guard took out a small flashlight and shined it in the teenager's eyes. The woman in the jeep thanked us for alerting them about the man.
The bald man wished me a good rest of the night and we parted ways.
While this incident colored a considerably normal evening, what made it all the stranger was this was the second day in a row I saw a person collapse and have to have medical assistance.
I work in a restaurant as a food runner on weekends. I put together orders and take them out to the table. It is rote, boring. But I like it that way. Predictability equals a controlled environment. The days goes by fast and easy. Only this day my bedlam of banality was rocked. A server came into the kitchen and said a man looks like he is dying at his table. This urgent concern was expressed to the manager who, upon hearing, went outside to check on the man. An ambulance was called.
I came out of the kitchen to see what was going on. A man was in a booth slouched down with his wife next to him. I went back to the kitchen knowing medical assistance was on its way to help this man. Hosts and servers congregated in little clusters to see what was going on. This of course, disrupted what was going on in the restaurant. I went back out again to check and the man was on the floor with EMTs standing around him. He was taken out in a stretcher. It was a chaotic hour.
As I walked to my girlfriend's apartment after my experience, I was still processing what happened. How two events like this happen back to back. The first thought the came to me was how our healthcare system is barbaric. The cost of ambulance for an emergency should not be factored into one's head when someone sees another person having an attack or medical condition. The second thought was just how fragile we are as human beings. At any second, something can happen.
I reached my girlfriend's apartment and hit the buzzer and waited. Thinking about how I was going to tell her everything that just happened. Thinking about how some cosmic force, if any, was trying to let me in on a secret. The buzzer rang and she let me in.
