David Lynch: Fix Your Hearts Or Die – a discussion with Mike Miley

Explicit content warning

01/28/25 • 85 min

David Lynch is a generational talent whose work has come to symbolize – well, so many things to so many people. It's simultaneously almost immediately recognizable while somehow remaining largely undefinable. To very loosely paraphrase one of the contributing voices in this episode, it's as if he leaves room for his audience to collaborate in an ongoing moment of creation that is open-ended and truly never finished, but perhaps the clearest thing about his work is that the open-ended undefinable nature of the work is largely the point.

In this episode, Jeremiah is joined by Mike Miley, author of the new book, 'David Lynch's American Dreamscape: Music, Literature, Cinema,' set for release on February 6th by Bloomsbury Academic. The book asks the question:

How are David Lynch's films as much in dialogue with literary and musical traditions as they are cinematic ones?

Mike answers the question by "calling for a new approach to Lynch's films that goes beyond cinema and visual art to explore how Lynch's work engages with literary and musical works that have shaped the American imagination.As much as Lynch stands as a singular artistic voice, his work arises from and taps into the cultural zeitgeist in a way that illuminates not only his approach to creativity but also the way works interact with each other in an age of mass media."

Together, Jeremiah and Mike discuss Lynch's tremendous legacy and impact on cinema, television, and art, and the ways in which his work has touched each of them personally. Along the way, we also hear messages from friends of the show: Matt Tyson, Andréa DeFelice, and Michelle Brundige, who share their own thoughts and experiences of Lynch's work.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - Jeremiah Lee McVay

Guest - Mike Miley

Contributors - Matt Tyson, Andréa DeFelice, Michelle Brundige

Produced by Stereoactive Media

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https://www.mikemiley.com/

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/david-lynchs-american-dreamscape-9798765102893/

https://www.tysonfilm.com/

https://www.andreadefelice.com/

How are David Lynch's films as much in dialogue with literary and musical traditions as they are cinematic ones?

===

Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - Jeremiah Lee McVay

Guest - Mike Miley

Contributors - Matt Tyson, Andréa DeFelice, Michelle Brundige

Produced by Stereoactive Media

===

https://www.mikemiley.com/

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/david-lynchs-american-dreamscape-9798765102893/

https://www.tysonfilm.com/

https://www.andreadefelice.com/

Previous Episode

USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 3: ‘When the Clock Broke,’ ‘Unclear & Present Danger,’ ‘Mahashmashana,’ and ‘Abortion, Every Day’

Welcome to the third installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we discuss topics of interest, broken into two categories. USELESS covers topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. – and the term “useless” is used lovingly, hearkening back to the DIY Brooklyn venue Fort Useless and the community around that. USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, and social issues that we want to draw attention to. We’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode...

USELESS ITEM ONE: ‘When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s,’ is a book by John Ganz that I’ve been reading. I’m only a third of the way through it, but I already consider it a valuable decoder ring for both the 1990s and today. Early on, it gets into the rise of David Duke to a quasi-mainstream perch in the GOP as he tried to move past his KKK and Nazi past – or at least framed it that way. And eventually it gets to the even further mainstreaming of some of what Duke stood for that occurred when Pat Buchanana ran his insurgent 1992 primary campaign against incumbent President George H.W. Bush. It’s impossible to read either of these sections and not recognize the clear parallels with the more recent rise of the Donald Trump era, which we’re currently living through. Really, though, I guess it’s more that Trump is indebted to Duke and Buchanan for widening the so-called Overton Window enough for him to slither through. The book is much more wide ranging than just those two important stories, though, and best of all, it’s a really smooth read that manages to thread a lot of needles in a seemingly effortless way.

USELESS ITEM TWO: ‘Unclear & Present Danger,’ a podcast hosted by both John Ganz and Jamelle Bouie. This is a show that combines often trashy (but fun) pop culture with rather high brow, insightful takes on, again, the 1990s – often related, again to our current day. I started listening to this show because I was a fan of Jamelle Bouie, both for his incredibly sharp writing about current events and his appearances on podcasts I enjoy – namely Blank Check, Doughboys, and We Hate Movies, though now that I think about it, I believe I first came to know of him through his appearances on a different type of podcast: Slate’s Political Gabfest. ‘Unclear & Present Danger’ focuses on action movies that came out after the Cold War. Their first episode covered 1990’s ‘The Hunt for Red October,’ and they’ve moved chronologically from there, with their most recent episode covering 1997’s ‘The Saint.’ My favorite part of the show tends to be when they look at the front page of the NY Times for the day of a film’s release and pick out some stories that might offer a bit of context for something in the movie or related to today. And their takes on the films themselves tend to delve into the politics either on or under the surface of the narrative and how that may or may not connect with the politics of the time. To my mind, the show is a really perfect amalgamation of high and low brow – and both extremely entertaining and informative. When I first started listening, I’d heard of John Ganz, but didn’t really know much about him, but I really came to enjoy listening to him and Jamelle Bouie talk. And over the course of the show, I heard him talking about the book he was writing that really tied well into the theme of the show, so it was really great to finally go out and buy ‘When the Clock Broke’ once it was out.

USELESS ITEM THREE: ‘Mahashmashana’ is the latest album from Father John Misty and I’m enjoying it immensely. I have to admit that, for quite a while after I first became aware of him, I was resistant to his whole thing. In retrospect, I admittedly mistook for hipster schtick what was actually satirical observation. For whatever reason, though, sometime in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, I had one of his songs on and the tone of it just hit me perfectly and I locked in to his particular lyrical bent – a mix of tones that tends to weave back and forth between sardonic and what I can best describe as a fleeting sense of sorta-maybe-sincere-but-please-don’t-hold-me-to-it. Not quite sure what it could have been about that moment in time that made that tone connect with me... Anyway, it also doesn’t hurt that everything about his recordings is completely in the pocket, from the interplay of melody and harmony to instrumentation and production. I mean, even if I wasn’t a convert to his work, I’d have to admit it sounds immaculate in a casual kind of way that is disarming. So, yeah, ‘Mahashmashana’ continues that trend while expanding on it and I highly recommend it.

USEFUL ITEM: If you’re like me and a lot of people I know, Election night and the days since have been incredibly disappointing – to put it lightly. Where I am, in Florida, we were really hoping ...

Next Episode

USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 4: Marisa Kabas & ‘The Handbasket,’ ‘I’m Still Here,’ and ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Welcome to the fourth installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we discuss topics of interest, broken into two categories. USELESS covers topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. – and the term “useless” is used lovingly, hearkening back to the DIY Brooklyn venue Fort Useless and the community around that. USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, social issues, and other things that we want to encourage you to consider supporting. And we’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode...

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USELESS ITEM ONE: I’m Still Here is the new film by Brazilian director Walter Salles. If you’re unsure of who Salles is or what the film is, here are a couple of things to know:

Salles is a director who’s filmography stretches back nearly 4 decades and this is not the first time one of his feature films has broken through in some way to an American audience. He’s probably best known for his 1998 film, Central Station, as well as his 2004 adaptation of Che Guevera’s memoir, The Motorcycle Diaries, which starred Gael García Bernal as Guevera. Both films received international acclaim and won or were nominated for several awards – including at the Oscars.
I’m Still Here has itself been nominated for three Oscars at the upcoming Academy Awards. It’s nomination for Best International Feature was not all that surprising. And after her win at the Golden Globes last month, star Fernanda Torres’ nomination for Best Actress was also not all that surprising. But the film’s nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars was pretty surprising. By the way, Torres is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, who herself was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars in Salles’ Central Station 26 years ago.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if the movie would open here in Tallahassee, but it did and I was glad to not have to wait on it hitting streaming services before I could see it. It stars Torres as a Brazilian family woman in 1970, six years into the nation’s military dictatorship. She is married to a former congressman and raising 5 kids in what appears to be a near perfect life – as we see play out in a rather extended sequence that does a great job of setting up the family dynamics and making sure we know what’s at stake.

But it’s clear from the beginning that no matter how great their shared life may be, the world around them is becoming more overtly hostile and, eventually, Torres’ character (Eunice) as well as her husband and one of their eldest daughters are taken by members of the army for questioning about potential ties to left-leaning revolutionaries.

I’ll refrain from explaining the plot or premise more than that, but ultimately, for those of us living through the current Trump-Musk political takeover of the United States, the film serves as an unfortunately apt reminder that just because your life may be idyllic, that doesn't mean the destructive gears of an authoritarian regime aren't just waiting to start grinding in your direction, too. And no matter how aware you may be of their general state of looming around the edges of life, once they take an interest in you, they can come on quick and change everything forever.

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USELESS ITEM TWO: I first became a fan of comic book writer Tom King’s work after reading his 12-issue Mister Miracle limited series sometime during the pandemic. At this point, I’ve re-read the series at least twice and I’ve also read his run on Omega Men and a lot of his work on Batman.

But what I’m recommending now is his 8-issue miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which I recently got around to reading and really enjoyed a lot. It’s a mix of sci-fi and fantasy that does a great job of really planting the character on her own two feet, separate from Superman. And the structure of it, all told in flashback by an old woman from another planet who traveled with Supergirl across the galaxy when she was young, does a great job of layering in a narrative distance that makes it all seem like the story of a legendary hero.

As good as the story was, though, I have to admit the thing that put the experience of reading it over the top had nothing to do with anything on the page, but instead had to do with sharing it with my three year old daughter, who I read much of it too. It’s the first time I’ve read a comic book story to her and I had no idea if she’d enjoy it or not, but she listened, looked at the pictures, and has started pretending to be Supergirl, calling our dog Krypto, and pretending she has a flying horse named Comet. She even asked me if Supergirl has a pet bear because she wanted to name my in-laws’ dog, who we jokingly refer to as “Slow Bear” after it, so I told her that she has a bear called Argo.

Also FYI, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is ...