January 20

David Keith Lynch's Birthday
 

 

There’s just something about film directors who are named David. They’re all really, really weird. While we're sure there are at least a few who buck the trend, three names really stick out as directors who push the boundaries of film and are also named David: Cronenberg, Fincher, and Lynch. Of the three, Lynch is definitely the strangest (and when you’re being compared to David “Videodrome” Cronenberg, that’s saying something).

David Keith Lynch was born on January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana. Although the young Lynch did poorly in school, he showed great promise in visual art. Eventually, while attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Lynch became interested in animating some of his paintings, so he turned to short film. His early projects predicted the surreal and sometimes macabre themes of his later output, but he had found his medium. 

Moving to the American Film Institute’s Conservatory in Los Angeles, Lynch began work on what would be his first major film. Despite numerous setbacks and a five-year filming arc, Eraserhead (1976) finally emerged. Lynch called it “my Philadelphia story,” reflecting the fear and oppression he felt while living in the poorer quarters of the city. It is a truly nightmarish film, full of body horror and grotesque imagery. We highly recommend watching it only in the company of others and preferably while the sun is still up. Eraserhead gained popularity in the midnight movie circuit in the late seventies, gaining such notable fans as George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick and Mel Brooks. The latter asked Lynch to direct his project The Elephant Man (1980), which became Lynch’s first great success and a landmark film. 

Lynch’s next projects included two films for Dino de Laurentiis, Dune (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986). Dune, based upon Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic, would be derided by both theatergoers and critics as largely incomprehensible, especially to those who had not read the much meatier book upon which it was based. Although Universal Studios eventually released a much longer “extended cut,” Lynch was not a fan of the revisions and struck his name from the project. This version of the film is known as the “Alan Smithee” version, for the pseudonym directors traditionally use when they wish to disown a project. 

Blue Velvet fared much better. Critically acclaimed, it featured what were becoming known as “Lynchian” features such as macabre themes and oblique references to the supernatural.  Lynch would continue his career with further movies like Mulholland Drive (2001)and the short-lived but highly-regarded television series Twin Peaks (1990-1991). To celebrate the long, storied and strange career of David Lynch on his birthday, what could be more appropriate than Blue Velvet Cake- a blue  “Lynchian” cake that it almost as weird as David but as tasty as his films?
 

Blue Velvet Cake

 

Ingredients

 
4 cups self-rising or cake flour
3 cups sugar
1&1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups water
4 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup softened butter
8 TB blue food coloring
4 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup each chopped pecans and almonds
2 pkgs instant vanilla pudding
 

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine first seven ingredients. Slowly add food coloring. Mix at high speed.
  2. For filling (pudding), follow instructions as written on the box.
  3. Oil and slightly flour two 8" or 9" baking pans.
  4. Halfway fill each pan with batter, then add filling, and fill pan with batter.
  5. Bake for at least 45-60 minutes. Insert toothpick in center of cake. If toothpick comes out clean, then it is done.
  6. Cool, then frost.
  7. Cover each layer with chopped walnuts, pecans and almonds.
  8. Then cover frosted cake with remainder of chopped nuts

Serves 8-10

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes