Existentialism, Horror, Creepy Folk Songs, and David Lynch’s Guitar
Every day, the internet overflows with a steady stream of new “content.” More and more lately it’s just AI slop. I don’t get excited about much of it anymore, and I don’t think most other people do, either. We just keep scrolling.
But sometimes I stumble upon something that’s well done, thought-provoking, inspiring, or just hits a certain corner of my brain just right that I keep thinking about it.
These eight Youtube videos I watched recently have done just that.
They keep rattling around in my head, so I decided to share my thoughts on them.
1. David Lynch’s Parker Fly
When the David Lynch auction was announced last year after his death, I daydreamed about owning even one small item that belonged to him. To shoot something for VOYD, for example, on one of David Lynch’s tripods…would be amazing. To make strange music on David Lynch’s Parker Fly, which I primarily associate with guitarist Reeves Gabrels and 90s-era Bowie…now that would be exquisite. The next best thing is getting to see, hear and learn about the instrument, making this video a small gift to humanity. I wish everyone who bought even the most mundane item from the auction would do this. I’d watch every one, like David Lynch’s weird coffee maker below.
2. Sleep Awake Album Assembly
A brief look at how Robin Finck worked with Charlie Clouser to turn the music cues Finck created for the recently released game Sleep Awake into a soundtrack album. It’s just a glimpse into the process, but it’s fascinating. Not to mention Clouser, who composed the music for all the Saw films, has a cool studio filled with great gear. There are other videos of him working in his studio and showing his process that are also worth a watch.
3. Understanding The End
It shames me to admit I didn’t like The Doors until I saw (experienced?) Oliver Stone’s film and understood what they were about. Then, I actually listened to the music and appreciated them. “The End,” of course, is an epic song, and the way it’s used in the film played a large part in making me love it. This video dives into the philosophical ideas Jim Morrison wove into the song. The standout part for me is the description of Morrison’s vision: humanity riding on the back of the ouroboros (“ride the snake“) through the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.
4. David Lynch’s Weird Coffee Maker
If you’re a David Lynch fan with a Youtube channel dedicated to coffee, then buying the weird coffee maker from the auction to make a video demonstrating how it works is a brilliant excuse to buy the coffee maker. I saw this one before the guitar video, and was ecstatic that someone was showing off something they bought from the auction.
5. The Long History of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”
Tracing the lineage and evolution of old folk songs and murder ballads is always fascinating. Going down a particular rabbit hole one day lead me to the 1959 Lefty Frizzell song “Long Black Veil,” which I really need to hear playing from the juke box in a diner scene of some dark road movie.
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is, of course, the best song from Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance. But the song has a long history. The part of this video that still rattles around in my brain is the mention of an alternative version of this song about “the longest train I ever saw,” which some interpret to be symbolic of a train carrying the departed into the afterlife.
In the first episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, the ghost train from a long-ago derailment collides through a house built where the tracks once ran to pick up the old man who survived the wreck as a child. I saw that episode when it aired in fall of 1985, and it has haunted me ever since. There were at least several years of my childhood spent fearful that a ghost train would suddenly smash through my room in the dead of night.
6. The Substance Making-Of Featurette
The production design, the composition, the practical effects – every element of The Substance came together to make it a stylish and original body horror masterpiece. This insight into how the shots were composed, the grotesque practical effects, the camera rigs designed to get some of those shots, etc. is well worth the watch.
7. House Filming Locations
I’ve been watching the Grimm Life Collective channel for years. They do what I like to do, though time and money limit me to doing it only in Wisconsin. When I was in California for my friend’s wedding in 2019, I had the homes used in the filming of House and House II – my absolute favorite films that I watched repeatedly as a child – on a list of places I needed to see that included Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and notorious murder houses. I didn’t realize I’d actually need one day per location due to the time it takes to get around LA, so the best I did was the La Brea tar pits and almost getting recruited into Scientology.
I dug into the history of the Mills View Mansion and the Stimson House years ago for Cult of Weird. I attribute my lifelong unease of closets and crawlspaces to these films, subconsciously expecting a horrific creature, prehistoric jungle, or sacrificial Aztec temple to be lurking inside. I was also obsessed with the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull for years in my childhood because of House II, until I researched it and learned that, like nearly all fantastic things, the crystal skull was a hoax.
8. Are Werewolves and Witches Really Terrorizing Rural Wisconsin?
I was thrilled to see my photos and research into the bizarre legends of Whitewater, Wisconsin sourced in this video. I follow the channel, so when it came up in my feed I was naturally curious to see what it had to say. Turns out, I’m pretty familiar with it.
Get future posts by email:
