Well, it seems DL's TM fixation is not over, and it's now going to be a part of his filmography, as he's travelling to India to make a documentary about it.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/11/david_lynch_talks_meditation_a.html

 It's a shame that he can't use TM to come up with a new mind-bending film. At least he's back making films, so, even if I'm not very excited about this next film, it gives me hope that we'll see another proper "Lynch" film one day.

Let's just hope that David changes his mind a little about the structure of this documentary during the shooting, to put a very lynchian tone at least in its form and its "narration", especially when he will "dive" into the indian civilisation (I pray to not have an "interview film"...)

Roland Kermarec

There was a fiish..iinn the percolatrr!

The Radio City benefit videos are up:

http://dlf.tv/livestream/

Part 2 at 14:53 is the beginning of a series of TM documentaries DL is directing. (It's old footage of the Beatles and MMY set to wind and sitar.)

Ben:  "We've laid in a gala reception for your fair-haired boys tonight.  All of Twin Peaks' best and brightest."

Jerry: "We're holding it in a phone booth?"

Wow so TM will even charge via cinema tickets and DVD purchase for you to see their promo video now? I wouldn't mind TM so much if it didn't charge such high prices to learn it - highly suspicious behaviour from any organisation who claims to spread something which will bring about world peace. I meditate frequently and in looking for classes TM was one of the techniques I considered, there are however some quite serious accusations out there against it.

I want to be gutted that Lynch isn't focusing on a new film that interests me but I fall very firmly into the 'INLAND EMPIRE is a masterpiece' camp and struggle to think what he'd follow it up with. It felt like a destination for a life time of work and I am not sure where he'd have taken it so I guess this seems like the natural next step. Eitherways I will probably end up seeing it 'cause it's Lynch.

It's not Lynch I'm really cynical towards - I believe he genuinely thinks that there is  a unified field of conciousness and that we come from it and that he can't create world peace if enough people tap into it. Hell it makes me like the guy a little more, despite my contempt towards such stuff. And I think he's just trying to get to spread the word and make some more cash toward the DLF, no problem with that. He just trying to do his bit and do what he thinks will help the world. What I have an issue with the the very principle of what TM purports to be - essentially it's no different than any other meditation with a chant thrown in however it wraps it all up in some cult like zeal and behaviour. Not to get all 'won't somebody think of the children' but it worries me that he is able to go into schools and talk about how physics agrees with TM about the quantum unified field and that is the wellspring of all ideas. He & they don't even have the first clue what 'unified field' even means' which troubles me that they have the abiity to spread this sort of misinformation at large scale events. It's not far away from creationism.

Or experimental, edgy, disconcerting and a mass murderer could use it to justify his MO.

I guess we can't go back in time.

 I think the year 2000 when Mulholland was made was for me the grand finale of that 20 year lynch at the top of his game time. Correct me if i am off but, I know Lynch was always into meditation and I guess the MMY to some degree. But the artist who made his distaste for digital vs true film as he explained after Lost Highway, went thru some changes, right after Mulholland- just a couple years later. Digital was in, the MMY became front and center, and the flavor of Lynch's signature work seemed gone.

So, he is making a film -good. The subject, sorry I'm just not into his 24/7 MMY phase.

i dont know, i like what red room is saying about inland empire. all of you know that i hold the film as another "masterpiece", and as much as i like the White Album(if i had to pick a fav beatle album that would be the one), it was still a picture of a band falling apart, and, at least to me(and my run-on sentences  ), that IE is lynch pulling it all together. meaning the darkness, the light, the wind through the trees, coffee, lumberjacks, and the unified field. and that, meaning the unified field, is still what i believe IE to be about(of course there are plenty of subtexts, which may be the problem for the film not finding as large a fan base as MD did). i also see it as a film about film, which i think is just as interesting as the unified field theme that coarses throughout IE.

oh and 12-that was fucking hilarious!

Are you saying Lynch was against digital after LH, but changed his mind before IE? I didn't know this. Can someone give me an argument for digital over film? What exactly is the difference? I'm sure the methods of capturing the picture are completely different but how is the effect different?

The thing I don't get about TM, or at least his fascination with it, is it seems like it's purpose is to enrich your life and allow you to focus on other activities, the ones that, you know, actually matter. To focus on TM and nothing else, seems to misunderstand the point. I wouldn't presume to know more than Lynch, but do you think this is a valid point?

digital vs. film

-multiple millions in production costs

-processing, dailys, all that crap that goes with celluloid(i still love it tho)

-most 35mm cameras only can handle 10mins of film. if youve ever seen hitchcock's rope youll know what im talking about. he shot that in ten min. takes, but edited it to look like one continuous take.

-digital cameras can hold as little or as much film as you want, you can shoot for 45 min with out having to take out the tape(if there is one), being cheaper and smaller, you can set up multiple angles for one shot, instead of shooting the same scene over and over from different angles, which is required of most film shot on celluloid

-aesthetics. sure it looks grainy as hell. distorted even. but i like it. and i think IE could be no other way.
but, as far as his declaration that he'll never do film again, im curious as to how he will use digital cinema as the technology advances.

i almost forgot, what about my idea of the film being about FILM? i think this is a much more interesting topic of conversation, and doesnt tend to get lost in all the hubub about TM and such, which i readily admit, i have my suspicions as well. hell id like to help world peace by meditating. but i dont have the bucks for a mantra, so where does that leave me? not in the TM world proper, thats for sure.

everyone should listen to booth more often! including me.

ALSO:

dont forget what lynch is doing as a producer. herzog's MY SON MY SON... is digital and was a couple million AND he shot it in san diego, peru, and someother far of herzog place. maybe LA.
and this was a large production.
from the looks of Lynch(ONE), there was much of the film that needed very little production members, including DL, so im inclided to believer that if he got a story idea, he'd be out chasing it. probably cheaper than herzog, which is incredible in itself. 

 Love that - one of my favourite descriptions I've ever heard of surrealism is on a short film on youtube explaining it's concepts 'Surrealism isn't about breaking the rules. It's about breaking you.' I know a lot it is made of Lynch as a surrealist but I don't know that I've ever heard of him describing himself as such... I think he'd say abstraction was closer to his ethos (although I'd dispute this - he's a surrealist).

 I'm right there with you on IE being about film - it's the reason IE is seen as the bastard love child of MD. It's also (part) of the reason I love IE so much, it's everything Lynch has ever done, just... MORE. I'm a Sgt Pepper man myself but in this case I'd go with the White Album.

 As Booth said, there isn't some secret society that 'gets' INLAND EMPIRE, anymore than there's a secret society that 'gets' Fire Walk With Me. Does that film say anywhere in it that the first 30 minutes are a dream? No, that's an idea a large portion of fans like. They're whatever we think they are. Lynch would go along with this, it's the reason he goes out of his way not to explain films. It's the reason we've spent 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 1 decade, etc. on web forums talking about his work. 

What is Unified Field? It's (possibly) the Answer, the big one. It will connect the dots between quantum physics and relativity giving us a standard set rules which govern physics as we know it (unless it turns out there's smaller stuff - this starts heading in the direction of the various theoretical string theories which is wider ranging relies more on the notion of fields and rather than try equate the two principles it would explain it all by looking at the smallest measurements of energy and an understanding of those will naturally explain how quantum theory & relativity fits together).

What is Unified Field in relation to TM? I believe they call it 'Unified Quantum Field Theory' within the realms of TM in much the same way shampoo commercials call talk about 'pro-v', 'aminoacids', etc. it's an attempt to say something scientific without actually saying anything (and the phrase 'Unified Quantum Field Theory' is nonsense, it should be Quantum Relativity or neither). As far as I understand it TM essentially says we/our concious vibrates and we can use TM to better align our vibrations, this allows us better access to our subconcious/access to the unified field which, to bastardise Jung is a kind of collective unconcious - a field of conciousness for the cosmos.

Put stock in whichever one of those you want. Like I say I practice meditation but believe in a much more biological explanation for my practice and it's benefits. I am glad TM is around in some respects because we wouldn't have my favourite movies/tv series without it. I just object to the fact it takes peoples money & uses pseudo-science. I object strongly to anything which uses scientific terms against their intended meaning as it spreads ignorance at best and at worst is a deliberate attempt to con people.

I would actually be really interested to hear about the TM interpretation of IE it's not something I've heard of before and would love to hear about it, I've never though much about their relation beyond 'here's a bunch of ideas and images Lynch got directly/indirectly from his TM practices.