Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: What year is this?

Even with the greatest will and effort in the world, some things just can not be fixed, and some people can not be saved. It will all end in failure, despair and confusion, with a never-ceasing scream of terror echoing through the end. Twin Peaks could not have ended any better.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: My concerns are global.

Oh, Albert.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: Good night, and thank you Margaret.

You can know the shape of the universe, and see it for all its tragedy and beauty, but it's also okay to be a bit scared at the end of all things. It's really okay.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: Fuck Gene Kelly, you motherfucker!

One of the first things I did when I got back to the big city was go see Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on the big screen, because I'd never seen it like that before. Still, I almost didn't go because I'm still a bit traumatized by the one time I saw Blue Velvet at a theatre, and the entire experience was ruined by a small part of the audience who couldn't deal with the naked earnestness of the film and made sure everyone knew how much smarter they were by laughing out loud at all the wrong times, but then there was only one punter at the Fire Walk With Me screening who laughed very loudly at all the intentionally daffy bits in the first half, but shut the fuck up for the rest of the movie, so all was right with the world.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: Fix your hearts or die!

It's so easy to state the obvious sometimes.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: It is happening again.

Bad things happen in this world, and sometimes all good people can do is bear witness. Cooper can barely stand it, and later attempts to stop the inevitable will end in total failure.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: People are under a lot of stress.

In years to come, when my kids ask me what the fuck was going on with the United States in the early years of the 21st cnetury, I think I'll just show them these three clips, which sum up the situation far better than anything I could ever artciulate.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: I'm not going to talk about Judy.

I've seen several very convincing theories about this scene in Fire Walk With Me, and how it's a key that unlocks all the meaning of the metaphysical war between light and darkness that underpins the entire series. I don't know about any of that, and have no interest in going too deep down those rabbit holes. I just think the way Cooper lingers in the eye of the video camera is neat. And so is Bowie's accent.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: This brings back some memories.

Real grief and pain never goes away, it's always there, waiting to come to the surface without warning. And when it comes with its very own theme music, poor Bobby never stood a chance.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: I love you with all my heart and I can't stop now.

After all the pain, and all the waiting, a few more seconds won't matter. Just close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and all good things shall come.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: Here comes Bob.

Nowhere is safe from the extradimensional beings who come into our reality to fuck with us for shits and giggles. They're coming right for you in your home, climbing over the dubious defenses of the sofa and coming right for your face. Don't look away.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: Drink full and descend.

We might be mud that sat up in wonder and awe at the universe around us, and finds love in the most unexpected places, but we're still mud. Don't ever forget that you're nothing but a meat sack, with a fragile skull that can be crushed without hesitation, and an even more delicate consciousness that can be turned right off with a few chosen words of enormous portent.

Thirteen days in Twin Peaks: All things are like the void and cloudless sky.

He's killed his own daughter, but at the end of all things, Leland Palmer has the best possible guide into the next world in the great existential detective Dale Cooper. No judgement, no fear, Cooper knows that Leland might be the biggest victim of them all, and for all his crimes, he deserves some peace in his final breaths.

I really wanted to post this video when the news came through that Lynch had died, but it was so crass and obvious, so went for something equally ideologically pure. It was easy. Twin Peaks is full of that kind of thing, man. 

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #13: The Arm

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #12: The Wish

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #11: Earth's Birthday

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #10: The Bore

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #9: The Cave

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #8: Frozen

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #7: Life Bomb

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #6: Coming Soon: Emptiness

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #5: The Maiden of Crete

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #4: The Dictator's Dream

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #3: Jack O'Fingers

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #2: The Ugly Boy

Paul Chadwick's 100 Horrors #1: The Lyle Committee

Things are impossibly busy behind the scenes here at the Tearoom - we're technically homeless at the moment, so that's something we need to sort out sharpish - so it's another couple of weeks of low content mode, I'm afraid. Luckily, we can fill in the time with the thoroughly excellent 100 Horrors by the wonderful writer/artist Paul Chadwick.

They only got up to 13, as far as I can tell, but they are 13 absolute gems. They are mean and funny and whimsical and beautiful, and Chadwick would have killed it doing stories for House of Secrets or Plop!.

If you've never read Chadwick's comics, go and find them, they're all great. I've heard he is working on new Concrete, and that is something most definitely worth looking forward to.

And apologies for the monochrome, I couldn't find my copies of things like my much-read Concrete Eclectica comics to get the original scans, and could only find these black and white versions from the complete Concrete set of books. (Except for #8, my personal favourite, which I had saved on my hard drive.) They're still beautiful in black and white - you can really get an appreciation for Chadiwck's line and texturing - but the original colours by Elizabeth Chadwick and Chris Chalenor were really superb. The way you could see the insides of the people and animals cut in half by the death ray in horror number six was particularly gruesome.

See you later in the month!

This is a film about how conspiracy theories work

This is a film about how all of us have become Richard Nixon