I'm still processing some of what happened on our little trip to the Maharishi University (see last two posts). Here are some random notes:
1. I'm so in line with David Lynch, his approach, the way he talks about his creative process, his intuitive method. I was glad to learn that he's still a smoker. I know, like me, eventhough he is searching for enlightenment, he is strangely attracted to the darkness. I asked him a question about this subject, but he kind of ju jitsu-ed me. Probably a good strategy in an open forum intended to encourage people to try TM.
2. I've always thought that it's the wrestling with the dark angel that leads to my best work. Watching "Blue Velvet," you can't help but think that Lynch intuitively knows this too. I'm sure he sees some of himself in Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth and that's where his creative genius lies. "Mommy!"
3. Donovan's told us that he get his inspiration from the Goddess. He also implied that he's in touch with the Greek Poetess Sappho. Really? What a load of shite! During his performance I saw the ghost of John Belushi in "Animal House," straining to grab Donovan's guitar and smash it to bits. During "Jennifer, Juniper" I couldn't help hearing Joey Ramone singing, "beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh yeah!"
4. Our first Maharishi meal in the gymnasium on Friday night might have put me off health food for a very, very long time. Not sure how you can make food taste so cheap and tasteless. It was one of those meals where in order to get through it (I was so damn hungry!), I had to keep telling myself, "this is so good for me."
5. I need to set up an opposition between Lynch and Donovan to figure things out for myself. I could see a real difference between the two men, and their approaches to the art and how they talked about it. Lynch's style totally resonated with me, Donovan's repelled me, but still, when Donovan sang for us, there were moments when you were amazed how good one voice, one guitar can sound. When Donovan sang "Hurdy Gurdy Man," he had the audience in the palm of his hand.
6. At the same time, he told a story about how George Harrison (Donovan had to keep reminding us that he used to hang out with the Beatles!) gave him a line for "Hurdy Gurdy Man," but it didn't make the recording, and well, even that story annoyed the shit out of me, I mean, FUCKING GEORGE HARRISON gives you a line for a song and you don't use it?! Donovan did sing it for us that night and well, it was a quite nice lyric after all.
7. I do think Transcendental Meditation is a great tool. My moments of bliss and enlightenment have been fleeting at best, but hell, no one promised me a rose garden.