Dad and Me in a Darkened Room, April 8, 1990

“I used to go to Bob’s Big Boy restaurant just about every day from the mid-seventies until the early eighties. I’d have a milk shake and sit and think.”

— David Lynch

I love David Lynch. I love him for his work, but I also love him for being so thoroughly David Lynch. There are prominent people in this world who you just wish weren’t so thoroughly themselves. David Lynch was not one of those people.

There are so many things that I could write about David Lynch, but others will probably write those things.

I will write this though:

On April 8, 1990, I stretched out on the couch in the downstairs family room at my parents’ house. My dad was sitting in the matching chair across the room. The room was dark, except for the television light, as we began watching the debut episode of a new television show called Twin Peaks.

Following the extended version of the Twin Peaks opening theme — has there ever been an opening theme sequence as long as the Twin Peaks debut? — Dad and I found ourselves becoming ever more immersed in the beguiling world that David Lynch and Mark Frost had created. I don’t think either of us spoke during the entire episode.

I knew as soon as the end credits rolled I had just watched the greatest two hours of television that I’d ever seen. It is still the greatest two hours of television I’ve ever seen.

My dreams were directed by David Lynch that night.

Watching it with Dad is one of my favorite memories of the two of us spending time together.

So, yeah. I love David Lynch.