'Blue Velvet' keeps popping up here and there and I'm reminded that it's one of the best films I've never watched to the end. It's too reminiscent of where I lived and those to whom I was exposed during early childhood (my brother, on the other hand, loved the film
because it reminded him of those same places and people and it's
funny--I mean, what's not to like about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSoWg3nBeU?). When it was released, my just met future husband took me to see what I thought was a David
Lean film
![confused \<]](./images/smilies/confused0044.gif)
. I naively settled in expecting a 'Dr. Zhivago' or 'Lawrence of Arabia' kind of film experience that morphed into something so bizarrely riveting, but traumatizing, I finally bolted from the theater 3/4 of the way through

. Years later, I tried to watch it on dvd, twice, but didn't get any further.
David Lynch really taps into the over-the-top surreal experience of weird, outrageous behavior and a comedy of fear; so much so, I have to wonder about his own background. What's he about? Maybe I'm just projecting my own experiences onto someone who's really a genius raised in a 'normal' 1950's family. I think 'The Elephant Man' is a masterpiece in filmmaking, I really liked 'The Straight Story' and watched 'Twin Peaks' in small doses. I'm not really going anywhere with this, except sometimes I wonder about the childhood experiences of visionaries like Lynch. Alice Miller wrote a book, 'The Untouched Key', which analyzed traumatic childhoods of a number of artists and political leaders; Lenore Terr did the same with Stephen King and others in her book, 'Too Scared to Cry'. Both are fascinating reads.
The greatest sin is to be unconscious. ~ Carl Jung
We may not choose the parameters of our destiny. But we give it its content. ~ Dag Hammarskjold 'Waymarks'