The Daily Dad — Jan 17, 2025

  • Kyle MacLachlan Pens Tribute to David Lynch: ‘I Owe My Career to Him’
    ❝ Kyle MacLachlan has paid tribute to David Lynch, the visionary filmmaker known for ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Twin Peaks,’ who died at the age of 78.
    💬 Lynch’s decades-long collaboration with MacLachlan is up there with Scorsese/Deniro or Wes Anderson/Bill Murray… a pairing where very different people wielding very different artistic tools kept coming together to create magic.
  • AITA For Ruining Boyfriend With Autism’s Safe Food
    ❝ “He says I don’t understand his brain; I say he doesn’t understand our budget.”
    💬 No sweetie, I’m the asshole. ‘Cause I’m sorry, but I don’t care about his problems: no one should be paying $47 for soup on a regular basis. Let’s just pretend it’s 1985 and tell the little fucker to pull up his big-boy pants and get over it.
  • The crypto scam behind those weird text messages
    ❝ In the last couple of years, I’m sure you’ve received texts that start with something like, “Hi! It’s [random name], remember me? How are you?” and try to engage you…
    💬 To quote the poet Bobby Hill: “I don’t know you! Let go of my purse!”
  • Man Caught With Pants Down at Bikini Beans Coffee, Fatally Shoots Himself
    ❝ A despondent man fatally shot himself after he was caught with his pants down — literally — driving his car at a coffee shop in Arizona, authorities said.
    💬 He did a shitty, potentially scary thing. They should have gotten his tags, called the cops, and turned over the evidence they collected. Done and dusted. Instead, some dumb fuck decided to go mob-rule on his ass, now he’s dead, and everyone involved is either going to (a) feel shitty for the rest of their lives or (b) grow increasingly defensive and toxic as the reality of it all eats away at their souls.
  • Gamers Suspect Elon Musk Is a Charlatan
    ❝ The X owner is facing accusations of “fraudmaxing” — faking his way to elite status in video games.
    💬 It’s not an “accusation”. It’s an obvious fact lacking any reasonable, alternative explanation. Also, c’mon… dude is snorting way too many drugs to focus on a single game long enough to be good at it.
  • FDA Just Banned Red Dye No. 3 Due to Cancer Risk—See Which Drinks and Snacks Will Be Affected
    ❝ The ban on Red Dye No. 3 in food goes into effect in January 2027.
This character is even more sinister… considering…
  • David Lynch’s Box Office History: Biggest Flops Were His Biggest Hits
    ❝ David Lynch at the box office: The filmmaker’s ‘The Elephant Man’ and ‘Dune’ were his biggest hits before he became a legend.
  • Comics distributor Diamond is filing for bankruptcy
    ❝ The world’s biggest English language comics distributor is selling off assets and scaling its business back in order to survive.
  • Multiple women add detail to Neil Gaiman sexual assault allegations
    ❝ Multiple women add detail to Neil Gaiman sexual assault allegations
    💬 The truth is always complicated and I’m gonna keep watching The Sandman whatever the case, but I must admit… dude’s ego is so huge that he stupidly assumed he could go from ‘hi, I’m Neil’ to ‘let’s play rape and I’m your master now’ in a half-hour. I mean… wow. Forget Alan Moore— Gaiman clearly thinks he’s a fucking magician. With that said, it also kinda sounds like Amanda had been procuring for him for quite some time, and his spiteful, entitled ass couldn’t imagine that she might send some poor girl over who hadn’t been groomed for the bath-and-bondage treatment.
  • Tyler Perry Calls Out Insurance Companies For Canceling Policies Before L.A. Fires
    ❝ Tyler Perry’s sick to his stomach watching coverage of the L.A. fires … and, he finds insurance companies ability to cancel policies on a whim “appalling.”
  • Florida’s Manatees Are Relative Newcomers, According to Historical Research
    ❝ These beloved sea cows were barely recorded in the area before the seas warmed in the late 1700s. Now their habitats are at risk.
  • Aligning Automattic’s Sponsored Contributions to WordPress —
    ❝ Automattic has always been deeply committed to the success of WordPress, dedicating significant resources and talent to its development for almost two decades. However, we’ve observed an imbalance …
    💬 Matt Mullenweg destroyed the marketplace for paid blogging tools by incessantly pitching a free and open WordPress to the world, only to turn around and use his monopoly position to enrich himself and punish anyone who pisses him off. (It goes without saying that Tumblr has become worse since he acquired it.) He’s a typical startup asshole, in other words.
  • Why does Trump hate this tiny fish so much?
    ❝ As Los Angeles burns, President-elect Donald Trump is yelling at a fish.
    💬 Why ask such a stupid question? He doesn’t know anything about the fish, and doesn’t care about it in any way. But he knows that someone he likes hates it, and someone he hates wants to protect it, so… fuck that fish!
  • Former MoviePass CEO, who gave moviegoers the best summer ever, pleads guilty to fraud
    ❝ Former MoviePass CEO, who gave moviegoers the best summer ever, pleads guilty to fraud

David Lynch — 1946-2025

I am crushed.

After he announced his emphysema diagnosis, I didn’t hold out much hope for further movie/TV output from Lynch… I was content to consider him retired. But I hoped we’d have at least a few more years with him.

David Lynch was the most influential person I never met. He changed how I viewed the world and art and the creative process. His work is built into the foundations of mine, and my life is a little more empty in his absence.

The Elephant Man

My first Lynch film was only partially a Lynch film: The Elephant Man is well-suited to his style and interests, but not nearly as opaque as his more personal work.

Dune

I’ve watched Lynch’s Dune at least ten times over the decades, and prefer it to anything Villeneuve’s meandering version has to offer. There was nothing relatable and plenty horrifying about Lynch’s vision of Herbert’s universe, which is exactly the antidote to Star Wars that I needed back in 1984.

Twin Peaks

I didn’t see much more of Lynch’s stuff until years later, when Twin Peaks debuted on ABC. Like everyone else, I‘d read the reviews and heard the hype, so I jumped in… and was hypnotized. This was television unlike anything I’d ever seen, and the first time I was able to clearly see cinema —even when squeezed into a 4:3 NTSC frame— as an art form. It blew me away with everything it said, and everything it very carefully chose to not say.

With a single act of creative genius —that pilot is amazing— my eyes were opened. I turned into one of those annoying cinephile kids who watched everything he could find on VHS at the local video store, and plowed through copies of American Cinematographer like they were sustenance for a starving soul. Almost as importantly, for a brief time, Twin Peaks gave me a passion to share with my otherwise utterly disconnected dad… we watched every episode of that first season together, and he listened to Angelo Badalementi’s soundtrack almost as much as I did. We’d never shared anything like that before, and never would again.

From TP, I went back to watch DL’s other work.

Eraserhead

One of only two Lynchian efforts that I could respect but never love, Eraserhead was something I needed to see but didn’t enjoy. Perhaps I’d feel differently, seeing it now as a middle-aged adult, but as a teen, it was too weird for me to fully embrace.

Blue Velvet

If Twin Peaks was a match that ignited something inside me, then Blue Velvet was a gallon of gasoline thrown on the fire. It wasn’t as fun or funny as TP, but it was deeper, darker, and more focused. And that opening sequence is still one of the best openings of any film, ever.

Wild At Heart

Just as the buzz around Twin Peaks was fading —the general viewing public only cared about Laura Palmer’s death— Lynch got everyone excited again with his Palm d’Or and an unhinged Nicholas Cage in 1990’s Wild At Heart. I’ve seen it a half-dozen times over the years —most recently, a year ago— and while it doesn’t stand beside the best of his work, it was a visual and stylistic marvel.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

The only one of Lynch’s films that I saw in a theater, FWWM was a movie I couldn’t fully appreciate at the time. Heavy on Laura Palmer and light on Dale Cooper, it wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to see… but as I’ve rewatched it —and its radically re-edited companion, The Missing Pieces— I’ve fallen in love with it and everything it brings to the tragedy and insanity of Laura’s short life.

Lost Highway

Easily the creepiest thing David ever made, and difficult to follow even for the initiated, Lost Highway was still distinctive and fascinating. And say what you will about Robert Blake… he spooked the fuck out of everyone in the audience long before he (allegedly) killed his wife in real life.

Mulholland Dr.

Originally intended to be his network TV follow-up to Twin Peaks, Lynch reworked Mulholland Dr. into a cinematic fever dream that would go on to be generally regarded as his best work, and an opportunity for a young Naomi Watts to establish herself as one of the great talents of her generation.

The Straight Story

There’s one of his films I’ve never watched at all, and this is it. Which is funny when I think about it, since it’s easily the most “normal” thing he ever made.

I’ll be tracking down a copy of The Straight Story and watching it this weekend.

Inland Empire

2006’s Inland Empire was his last feature film, and to be honest, I’ve started it twice and never finished it. Part of that is because it was an early experiment with shooting on digital video, and Lynch never fully found a look that was as satisfying as that of his celluloid-shot work.

And part of it is because I knew on some level that there would never be another feature film from David, and I wanted to preserve it in my mind, more perfect than his limited tools at the time could make it.

I’ll finish it now. It deserves viewing.

Twin Peaks: The Return

Quite simply: 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return —otherwise knows as Season 3– is the best single season of television ever made. There’s not even any competition; neither The Wire nor Deadwood can hold a flickering candle to it. It’s funny, scary, bewildering, exciting, sentimental, bold, and completely uncompromising. I saw things I had never seen before, and will probably never see again.

I will miss you, Mr. Lynch. You were a hero to me.

The Daily Dad — Jan 7, 2025

New Haven pizza is the best, even if the water ain’t worth $30

The Daily Dad — Dec 31, 2024

Brown’s Team17 made some of the most influential games of my generation
NOTE: Life is Strange: Double Exposure did not make the top 15 list. Because the list is wrong

The Daily Dad — Dec 23, 2024

RIP, you batshit-crazy bastard

The Daily Dad — Dec 13, 2024

The most interesting thing about Arrh-Arrh’s work is that he hypothesizes that all human behavior —good or bad— is inevitably corrupted by circumstance. EXAMPLE: Ned is both the best man in Westeros, and the guy who personally, stubbornly started a war.
If they can get McGinley to come back, maybe I’ll watch. Maybe.
She’s cute, I’ll give her that.
So many jokes in the ZAZ films —especially Top Secret— are entirely visual and receive no comment in the script. I wonder how they play to blind audiences?

The Daily Dad — Dec 12, 2024

The Daily Dad — Nov 22, 2024

I still think the movie should have been called The Good, The Bad, and Eli Wallach Needs A Bath
ba-WOOSH!
  • Flush Toilet Finder | jRustonApps
    ❝ Flush Toilet Finder is the quickest, simplest way of finding a public bathroom or restroom.
    💬 Fuck Yelp… this is the hyper-local, user-generated recommendation database we need. We all need a personal George Costanza, directing us to the best toilet in our cities.
  • Trust in scientists hasn’t recovered from COVID. Some humility could help.
    ❝ Intellectual humility could win back much-needed trust in science…
  • Max tries its hand at procedural in first teaser for medical drama The Pitt
    ❝ Max tries its hand at procedural in first teaser for medical drama The Pitt
    💬 Such is my sentimental love for the first half of ER’s run that I will absolutely give this show a chance. And even if it starts off weak, the show’s structural conceit —all 15 episodes are set during a single hospital shift— is novel enough to keep me hanging around for a bit beyond the pilot.
  • Former comedian Russell Brand ended up selling “magical amulets” for “EMF protection”
    ❝ I’ve watched with fascination and disgust as Russell Brand has transformed over the years from actor, to spiritual guru and conspirituality grifter (which includes hawking cryptocurrency), to—immediately following rape allegations—right-wing Jesus loving Christian MAGA darling…
    💬 The frustrating thing about Brand is that he’s legitimately talented and smart. Most MAGA figures are knuckle-dragging know- and do-nothings, but Russell can produce everything from the filthiest comedy to melodious recitations of Shakespeare without batting an eye. Which almost makes his turn worse, because it’s so clearly cynical and defensive… he’s hiding among the dipshits and morons to protect himself from the repercussions of a couple decades of substance-addled sex-addiction. And it’s working.
  • DNA shows Pompeii’s dead aren’t who we thought they were
    ❝ Integrating genetic data with historic and archaeological data can enrich or correct popular narratives.
We wouldn’t want anyone thinking she’s sexy, now would we?
  • Sexual Scene At Sabrina Carpenter’s Show Stirs Debates
    ❝ “She has such a young fan base and to traumatize them like that is so sad.”
    💬 Screw every single one of these haters in the orifice of their choice. I’m hardly a fan of Carpenter’s music, but get over yourselves, you entitled, whining little bitchlets… all the pop and rock music ever made had —and always will have— a young fan base, and who gives a flying, flipping, fantastical fuck? Tipper Gore would love you neo-Puritanical freaks, and that ain’t a compliment.
  • What you actually got from those comic book ads
    ❝ X-Ray Specs? Amazing fighting techniques? Magic tricks? A monkey? These videos show off what actually arrived when you ordered something from a comic ad.
    💬 As a former kid who spent untold hours staring with wide-eyed curiosity at those ads, I appreciate that someone finally answered all of my unspoken questions.
  • Tripping on magic mushrooms to treat anorexia nervosa
    ❝ In another promising study on the medical use of psilocybin, the hallucinogen in magic mushrooms, researchers have shown that psychedelic therapy can help with treatment-resistant eating disorders.
  • Site collects “Title Drops”—when someone says the name of the film, in the film
    ❝ The analysis plowed through 73,921 movies released in the last 80 years. Scouring the data for matches was not as easy as you might assume.
  • Want to make a website look like Windows 98? You’ll be needing 98.css
    ❝ If you would like to make a website look and feel exactly like Microsoft Windows 98—and whyever not?—you could do far worse than to use Jordan Scales’ 98.css. It’s not…
  • 23 Wild Porn Sex Acts That Don’t Work
    ❝ “Stopping and changing positions every three minutes is a good experience.”
    💬 Porn is indeed a bad example of good sex. But the people crying the loudest about porn being a bad example are the kind of people no one would ever want to have sex with. Unclutch your pearls, you tedious vanilla dumbasses.