As is rightly the case, many people are likely having a flashback to another “hits me hard” celebrity death that happened in early January: David Bowie’s in 2016. Yes, another unforgettable David apart from Lynch. What’s more, Bowie also happened to die before Donald Trump would end up “winning” the 2016 election. So while his death didn’t happen right before the inauguration like David Lynch’s, it happened right before the impending sense of doom that the Orange One casts over everything. That Lynch was more in touch with that kind of “harbinger effect” than Bowie speaks to part of the reason why he had the pointed sense to die five days before the inauguration and his birthday. Yes, that’s right, January 20th would have marked Lynch’s seventy-ninth year.
In another eerie shared coincidence between Bowie and Lynch’s deaths, Bowie, too, had a birthday right near his death day. Born January 8, 1947, the former David Jones just barely made it to his next year in age: sixty-nine. Getting to enjoy that extra bit of wisdom for all of two days before dying on January 10th. Lynch wouldn’t partake of any such luxury, remaining stuck in Bowie’s Capricorn period before he could make it to the zodiac transition into Aquarius that occurs on the 20th (though, depending on who you ask, some will staunchly insist that Lynch is a Capricorn like Bowie).
In any case, it was no wonder that two such “aliens” (read: artists) collaborated together within, of all only-too-appropriate things, the Twin Peaks universe. And, although Bowie’s role as Phillip Jeffries was technically “minimal” in 1992’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, it cast a huge shadow over the continuing plot of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. What’s more, by beginning (pre-)production on the series in 2015, Lynch was among the first people to perhaps suspect that something was “off” with Bowie when his lawyer pushed back on the request to participate in the third season of Twin Peaks.
However, despite his imminent demise (due to live cancer), Bowie clearly still had the urge to be a part of the project in some way. That is, with the now widely-circulated caveat that, in order to concede to letting Lynch use archival footage of Jeffries, he wanted someone with an authentic Louisiana accent to dub over Bowie’s voice with theirs. As for realizing the reason why Bowie declined the request to participate more, let’s say, corporeally, Lynch commented to Pitchfork in 2017, “I never even talked to him, but I talked to his lawyer, and they weren’t telling me why he said he couldn’t do it. But then, of course, later on we knew.” This in addition to lamenting, “He was unique, like Elvis was unique. There’s something about him that’s so different from everybody else. I only met him during the time I worked with him and just a couple of other times, but he was such a good guy, so easy to talk to and regular. I just wish he was still around and that I could work with him again.” At present, many a person can say the same about Lynch.
In contrast to Bowie, Lynch didn’t follow the same pattern by any means when it came to being open about his illness. So it was that announced to his devoted fan base (via Sight and Sound magazine) in August of 2024, “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not. I can’t go out. And I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.” The declaration was met with many a rightful outcry, prompting Lynch to, in turn, assure his acolytes, “I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire. I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern. Love, David.”
Lynch being genuinely touched by the enduring care of his fans might have, indeed, been enough to compel him to keep creating (even though he was never one for pandering to anybody—and obviously not someone who “churned out” work for the sake of money). But, unfortunately, thanks to the Sunset Fire that attacked the Hollywood Hills on January 8th (no less than David Bowie’s birthday), Lynch’s oxygen supply was no doubt compromised as he, and tens of thousands of other Hollywood Hills residents, complied with evacuation orders. That Lynch lived in the very area that was the center of his most lauded film, Mulholland Drive, was also a kind of poetry not lost on anyone who appreciated Lynch’s love (however complicated) of Los Angeles.
Alas, Lynch’s final images of L.A., the city he called home since the 1970s (when he first arrived to study at the AFI Conservatory) were of it burning. Watching it go up in flames all around him. This in and of itself serving as a “sign o’ the times” kind of image to go with the impending apocalypse of a second Trump presidency. One that will only continue to fuel the literal fires of this world thanks to a capitalist-on-steroids becoming the president at a time when the Earth has never been in greater need of a so-called “peacenik hippie.”
Thus, in addition to the irony of a liberal state like California bursting into flames just as Trump is set to take over again and the inauguration falling on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, there is also the elegiac timing of Lynch’s death. Lynch who was a staunch believer in the golden rule and that a man always reaps what he sows (a.k.a. “karma’s a bitch”). Even if, more often than not, Lynch’s political views might have come across as a flip-flopping, whirlwind rollercoaster to most. After all, this is a man who went from voting for Ronald Reagan to a man who voted for Barack Obama. A man who toed the line between liberal and Libertarian, a man who was quoted as saying a very controversial, misinterpretable comment about Donald Trump in 2018. Specifically, “He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way… Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.”
Shown “all this” by being perhaps the biggest toddler of all. And, like many a spoiled child, managing to get his way in the end, with American voters acting as the overly tolerant and forgiving “parents” who seem to genuinely believe their “little baby” can do no wrong. Naturally, however, many took Lynch’s comment to mean he was in support of the Orange Monstrosity, particularly when considering the auteur’s conservative leanings of the past. And yet, like everything about Lynch (most especially his work), there was no way to pin him down, to pigeonhole him into any one box.
In the end, it was always as Lynch said in the same interview with The Guardian, “I am not really a political person, but I really like the freedom to do what you want to do.” Try as Trump and the Republican party might to make the (dull-minded) masses believe that’s what they’re “about,” the reality is that they pride themselves on oppression, exclusion and hate—all hallmarks of fascism. And all things that Lynch stood in direct opposition to. His philosophy was, in contrast, in keeping with the “tenets” (or “vibes,” if you prefer) of Transcendental Meditation—which focuses primarily on achieving a higher state of consciousness. If any public figure in the past century has represented the antithesis of that, it’s Trump (and his goon squad).
Which is why it’s so significant that, on the same day that Trump is officially sworn in, Lynch’s children have urged fans of their father’s work to join in a “worldwide group meditation” intended to beam out thoughts of light and positivity into the world at a time when it is in desperate need of that. Hence, Lynch’s progeny wrote: “David Lynch, our beloved dad, was a guiding light of creativity, love and peace. On Monday, January 20th—what would have been his 79th birthday—we invite you all to join us in a worldwide group meditation at 12:00pm NOON PST for 10 minutes. Let us come together, wherever we are, to honor his legacy by spreading peace and love across the world. Please take this time to meditate, reflect and send positivity into the universe. Thank you for being part of this celebration of his life.”
Needless to say, one would like to believe that Lynch’s seventy-ninth birthday and a holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (which, in another eerie coincidence, happens to be Lynch’s death day: January 15th) could combine to cancel out all the “bad juju” of this year’s inauguration. But, in effect, there’s not enough proverbial sage in the world to cleanse what’s about to happen.
