{"id":70586,"date":"2014-04-30T19:05:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T23:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=70586"},"modified":"2014-05-01T12:01:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T16:01:17","slug":"david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The filmmaker comes to BAM.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"David_Lynch_-microphone_-10Aug2007\"<\/a>

Lynch in 2007. Photo: Thiaggo Piccoli, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

What, in retrospect, did we hope to hear from David Lynch last night? In \u201ca rare public appearance,\u201d the filmmaker appeared in conversation with Paul\u00a0Holdengr\u00e4ber at BAM, to a sold-out crowd. The people were there. Lynch was there. And so \u2026 now what?<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t as if we expected to walk out with David Lynch decoder rings, finally capable, having listened to him, of educing his films\u2019 meaning<\/em>. Much of their joy derives from their refusal to cohere. Nor could we reasonably hope to reconcile the work with the man\u2014the gap between the Missoula-born Eagle Scout and the psychosexual Grand Guignol of, say, Blue Velvet <\/em>has always been pretty difficult to bridge. That\u2019s all part of the Lynch magic, and you can hardly expect a guy to declaim upon the essence of his magic.<\/p>\n

So why were we there, then? Did we simply want to see him bodily, to confirm the corporeal existence of a man whose work sometimes seems\u2014extraterrestrial<\/em>? Sure. But we also presumed we would learn something, anything, about him. Something new, something that qualified as insight<\/em>: something that might make the whole Lynchian gestalt that much less opaque.<\/p>\n

Such was not the case. <\/p>\n

As David Foster Wallace wrote in 1995, \u201cLynch\u2019s movies are about images and stories in his head that he wants to see made external and complexly real.\u201d Lynch has expanded the grammar of film as much as any director of his era; he has as singular and penetrating a vision of American life as any living artist\u2014and he had almost nothing to say about his work, especially not about his movies. He wasn\u2019t going to talk shop. He wasn\u2019t, with the exception of a bit about Eraserhead<\/em>\u2019s Lady in the Radiator, going to talk about the stories in his head. Sometimes it seemed he wasn\u2019t going to talk, period.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time I heard it,\u201d he said of Bobby Vinton\u2019s cover of \u201cBlue Velvet\u201d\u2014\u201cand images started coming from this song\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Aha! What<\/em> images?<\/p>\n

David Lynch didn\u2019t say what images.<\/p>\n

Holdengr\u00e4ber tried to draw him out. It was just the two of them onstage, under the hot lights\u2014two chairs, a small table, an area rug, and an awed hush. In his gentle Continental croon, Holdengr\u00e4ber read aloud a few florid quotations and asked Lynch to react.<\/p>\n

Lynch didn\u2019t care much for reaction. The quotations were beautiful, he acknowledged. Many things last night would be described as beautiful.<\/p>\n

On a big screen behind the men, an iconic image from Blue Velvet<\/em> appeared: a detached, decaying ear half buried in a suburban lawn. And Holdengr\u00e4ber ventured, coyly\u2014he might ask, why this <\/em>ear \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have to see the film,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n

This got a big laugh. Silly Holdengr\u00e4ber, the audience seemed to say, with his insistence on interpretation, his outmoded desire to know more<\/em>! Still, maybe he could goad Lynch into saying something about his thoughts, his inspirations\u2014the intro to Eraserhead<\/em> crept onto the big screen, and Holdengr\u00e4ber recited another beautiful quotation about the dreamlike nature of the cinema\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s done,\u201d Lynch said conclusively of Eraserhead<\/em>. \u201cThen it goes out into the world, and it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the people broke into boisterous applause. Absolutely! It is what it is<\/em>! What a genius! Who could deign to take issue with such self-evident, tautological truth?<\/p>\n

Holdengr\u00e4ber was a bright and quick-witted interlocutor\u2014but his measured, psychoanalytical approach was humorously at odds with Lynch\u2019s gee-willikers shtick. He displayed a series of paintings on the big screen\u2014Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon\u2014and treated them like Rorschach blots. What did Lynch see<\/em> in them? How did they make him feel<\/em>? Lynch didn\u2019t even have to answer, really; he could proffer an all-American gee-whiz shrug and trot out those sincere adjectives. (\u201cBeautiful \u2026 fantastic \u2026\u201d) He never had to put his art on the line.<\/p>\n

And thus we heard that David Lynch loves Jimi Hendrix (\u201cHe may be the best guitar player\u201d); we heard that David Lynch loves Kanye West (\u201cI love \u2018Blood on the Leaves\u2019 \u2026 so minimal, so powerful, but at the same time so beautiful\u201d); we heard that David Lynch loves the paintings of Francis Bacon and Edward Hopper; we heard that David Lynch loves sugar (\u201cgranular happiness\u201d); we heard that David Lynch loves factories, or rather, he loves what factories are made of: \u201cI love smoke. I love fire. I love metal. I love glass. I love plaster. I love bricks.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Lynch loves, and he believes. He would have you think that this is all he does\u2014he\u2019s just folks<\/em>! He believes in coffee. He believes in the harmonics of ideas. He believes, of course, in transcendental meditation, in beams of white light from the Buddha\u2019s eyes, in a reservoir of unlimited human potential.<\/p>\n

An image flashed onto the big screen: the sun-drenched exterior of Bob\u2019s Big Boy, in Burbank. Something thawed in Lynch. He began to talk. He went to Bob\u2019s Big Boy every day for seven years, he said; he\u2019d order a chocolate milkshake and lots of coffee. He\u2019d show up at two-thirty in the afternoon, hoping the shakes wouldn\u2019t be runny since the machine had had time to cool down after the lunch rush. Plus, a diner, as he astutely noted, is a terrific place to lose yourself. You could free-fall into one dark mental crevasse after another, could do some serious psycho-spelunking\u2014but with the people, the food, and the warm incandescent light, you\u2019d always know how to recover yourself.<\/p>\n

At last! Lynch was telling a story\u2014<\/em>was opening up<\/em>\u2014we could picture him arriving daily as the crowd thinned; installing himself, maybe, in the same booth every time, in wordless enactment of some Lynchian ritual; wondering, as some late-model soda jerk got to work on his order, Will today be a perfect milkshake day<\/em>? In three years, he only got three perfect shakes, he said. In fact, so lacking was quality control that he one day took it upon himself to go out back behind the restaurant, searching for the box of milkshake mix\u2014what was in<\/em> that stuff, anyway?\u2014dumpster-diving behind his favorite haunt, searching, bent on solving the mystery.<\/p>\n

Why did he want to know?<\/p>\n

What sorts of images occurred to him in the diner?<\/p>\n

He might have gone on, but Holdengr\u00e4ber had no further questions on the subject. And with that, any hopes of \u201creal talk\u201d\u2014of getting to kinda know the guy\u2014were dashed.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perfectly defensible for an artist to claim that his work is self-contained, or that he\u2019s no more attuned to its mystery than his audience is. No fan of Lynch\u2019s would disagree with his assertion that\u00a0\u201csome people like to have a meaning, and some people don\u2019t care, because it allows you to dream.\u201d But there are gradations to this position. An artist can discuss his vision, his ideas, without filing a final verdict on what his work means<\/em>. He can offer a window to his work without declaring it the <\/em>window.<\/p>\n

Lynch took a hard line. No way in hell would an aspirant filmmaker leave that auditorium with a scrap of technique from the master\u2019s table; no way would a casual fan find a new way of seeing. Again, there\u2019s nothing wrong with such limits. But one wonders why a man who so disdains explanation<\/em> would consent to appear in conversation\u2014before thousands of spectators. There were eager apostles in every one of the 2,090 plush seats in the Brooklyn Academy of Music\u2019s Howard Gilman Opera House (\u201cbeautiful theater\u2026\u201d) just waiting to hear \u2026 something<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But Lynch knew his audience\u2014he knew that most any something<\/em> would suffice. As Flavorwire notes in its fawning review of the night<\/a>, Lynch boasts \u201ca\u00a0genial\u00a0folksiness that would make the average grasping politician jealous. When Lynch says \u2018guys,\u2019 \u2018girls,\u2019 and \u2018folks,\u2019 he means it, and doesn\u2019t sound coached to death.\u201d More than an artist, Lynch was<\/em> a politician last night, and this was a campaign stop\u2014he was burnishing his reputation as a savant, as David Lynch, the willfully eccentric auteur-entrepreneur. The crowd at BAM was largely of that new, younger generation who have come to Twin Peaks<\/em> by way of Netflix, who have not been aware of Lynch long enough to have seen one of his movies in theatrical release. He knew we were already believers; where once he was Hollywood\u2019s\u00a0enfant terrible, he has assumed, somewhat uneasily, the role of \u00e9minence grise.<\/em> He didn\u2019t have to talk seriously about his art. He just had to be kind of faintly \u2026 you know \u2026 Lynchian<\/em>. He had to build his brand.<\/p>\n

Lynch hasn\u2019t made a movie since Inland Empire<\/em>, which appeared in 2006; rumor has it he\u2019s working on one now, but in the intervening years, he\u2019s found the time to record two albums of electronic music, to open a nightclub in Paris, to market his own line of organic coffee\u2014and you can pick up a pair of Twin Peaks<\/em> Nike Dunks, too. For a while he recorded himself reading the weather for Los Angeles every day. Granted, he\u2019s always been one to keep many irons in many fires, and his eclecticism is hardly something to be shunned. But those extracurricular interests were always pursued alongside, rather than instead of, his work as a feature-film director; this is the longest he\u2019s ever gone without a major release. And yet he\u2019s already captured the youth vote. Brooklyn Vegan called the night a \u201cfreewheeling gabfest<\/a>\u201d\u2014as if it hadn\u2019t been filled with ponderous silences.<\/p>\n

Is it too cynical to declare that all this is more calculated than it seems\u2014and less artful? Lynch may be able to utter a believable \u201cshucks!\u201d, but he\u2019s much too canny in his self-presentation to be a true eccentric. In other words: he may well be a weirdo, but he knows exactly what he\u2019s doing. The Lynch brand sometimes seems to extend straight to his shock of white hair\u2014coifed and\/or pompadoured specifically so that we of the media might call it a shock<\/em>, because that\u2019s what our eccentrics must have: shocks<\/em> of white hair<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why is such a brilliant filmmaker so insistently branding himself? It undermines the singular strength of his movies\u2014the movies he has no interest in talking about, but plenty of interest in kind of<\/em> talking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s treacherous talking with you,\u201d Holdengr\u00e4ber said at one point. Lynch responded with surprising candor. \u201cThe words, they\u2019re not really necessary,\u201d he told the crowd\u2014all two thousand of us\u2014who had paid at least twenty-five dollars to hear him speak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The filmmaker comes to BAM. What, in retrospect, did we hope to hear from David Lynch last night? In \u201ca rare public appearance,\u201d the filmmaker appeared in conversation with Paul\u00a0Holdengr\u00e4ber at BAM, to a sold-out crowd. The people were there. Lynch was there. And so \u2026 now what? It wasn\u2019t as if we expected to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1684,13748,1961,2633,13747,1132,10112],"class_list":["post-70586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-bam","tag-blue-velvet","tag-brooklyn-academy-of-music","tag-david-lynch","tag-eraserhead","tag-interviews","tag-paul-holdengraber"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDavid Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring on filmmaker David Lynch\u2019s appearance at BAM last night.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 30, 2014 \u2013 The filmmaker comes to BAM. What, in retrospect, did we hope to hear from David Lynch last night? In \u201ca rare public appearance,\u201d the filmmaker appeared in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\"},\"wordCount\":1829,\"commentCount\":24,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"BAM\",\"Blue Velvet\",\"Brooklyn Academy of Music\",\"David Lynch\",\"Eraserhead\",\"interviews\",\"Paul Holdengr\u00e4ber\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\",\"name\":\"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"Dan Piepenbring on filmmaker David Lynch\u2019s appearance at BAM last night.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\",\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Piepenbring\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight","description":"Dan Piepenbring on filmmaker David Lynch\u2019s appearance at BAM last night.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight by Dan Piepenbring","og_description":"April 30, 2014 \u2013 The filmmaker comes to BAM. What, in retrospect, did we hope to hear from David Lynch last night? In \u201ca rare public appearance,\u201d the filmmaker appeared in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":681,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dan Piepenbring","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Piepenbring","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan Piepenbring","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8"},"headline":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight","datePublished":"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/"},"wordCount":1829,"commentCount":24,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg","keywords":["BAM","Blue Velvet","Brooklyn Academy of Music","David Lynch","Eraserhead","interviews","Paul Holdengr\u00e4ber"],"articleSection":["Events"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/","name":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-30T23:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-01T16:01:17+00:00","description":"Dan Piepenbring on filmmaker David Lynch\u2019s appearance at BAM last night.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/david_lynch_-microphone_-10aug2007.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/30\/david-lynch-hiding-in-plain-sight\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David Lynch, Hiding in Plain Sight"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8","name":"Dan Piepenbring","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Piepenbring"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70586"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70621,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70586\/revisions\/70621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}