David Lynch Has Another New Hobby: Nightclub Design
David Lynch has carved out a niche as one of modern film's least predictable, most unnerving directors, but when it comes to the art of self-promotion, the Eraserhead director adheres to the old motto: always be selling. As a result, we weren't surprised to learn that Lynch is designing a Paris nightclub based on (and named after) the fictional Club Silencio from his 2001 film Mulholland Dr. In the film, the club was a Los Angeles dive bar that represented limbo or possibly the human subconscious (Naomi Watts's in particular), according to the film's devout community of online followers. The real-life club will be more sensible. In addition to a bar featuring furniture designed by Lynch (like the piece picture below), it will also house a concert hall, theater and art gallery when it opens on the Rue Montmarte in September.
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It's unclear if Lynch has any financial stake in the private club or if his involvement is just an exercise in brand-building. (If it's the latter, it's working--the unopened venue already has a Facebook page.) Here are some other side ventures that Lynch has (theoretically) profited from over the years:
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Electronic music
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In 2010, Lynch released his first dance single, "Good Day Baby," which is embedded below. Last month at the International Music Summit in Ibiza, Lynch announced he's completed work on a whole album on dance music, slated for release later this year. In March, he relaunched davidlynch.com as the web home of the David Lynch Music Company. In a press release, Lynch promised the new site would be “immersive digital music store and experience" and also "a secret room filled with music."
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Good Day Today by threeminutesthirtyseconds
Self-branded coffee
Before the rebranding, Lynch used his personal website to sell merchandise, including self-branded organic coffee. Wholesaler Java Distribution still lists three varieties of David Lynch Signature Blends, including House Blend (A light roast with crisp and bright notes of cocoa and hazelnuts), Espresso Roast ("An ideal base for the perfect cafe latte"), and Organic Decaf French Roast ("Sweet, smoky, and smooth, this coffee is just as flavorful as regular coffee.)
Comics
Lynch's comic strip "The Angriest Dog in the World" ran in LA Weekly from 1983 through 1992. Comics blogger Don Markstein of Toonpedia described it as "without a doubt, the easiest all-time comic strip to draw. Each episode, over and over, consisted of four iterations of the same black-and-white drawing. The only variation was that the final one took place at night and was shaded accordingly" Only the captions changed on a week-to-week basis. The basic template:
The fine arts
Lynch's paintings, photographs, and sculptures were the subject of a month-long retrospective at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in 2007. "As a painter," observed The Quietus illustrator David Moats in 2008, "Lynch seems to draw heavily on the iconography of late-period Francis Bacon but he also seems to be tapping into the dark side of hippy psychedelia." The BBC detailed some notable pieces from the Paris exhibit, including
"[A] mixed oil collage features a nude woman with half her torso torn off and leaking with what looks like yellow viscous blood."
A sculpture of "a child-sized zebra-striped sofa and cactuses around the edges.
Photographs of " naked female bodies, many with odd protrusions or vital parts missing.
Below, an untitled, undated marker drawing:
