David Lynch's Crazy Clown Time

David Lynch debuted the music video for his song, "Crazy Clown Time" this Monday, which has forced me to question: Is David Lynch at all relevant anymore? The music video, which he directed, plays out the narrative of his song. "Suzy, she ripped her shirt off completely." A big-breasted blonde thing (Suzy?), rips her shirt off. "Then he poured the beer all over Sally." A meat headed man pours a beer on a passed out lady (Could she be Sally?). "Buddy screamed so loud, he spit." A man (we can assume Buddy) screams and spits. And so on and so forth. Making this the white meth head version of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," without the kitsch, the twists or the beautiful vocals of that goddamned R and B lyricist. Lynch is not exactly known for his rich baritone of a voice, but rather his off putting shrill soprano, which rollicks away in a falsetto screech. While the music video is eerie, I'd hardly say there's much flourish to the styling of it. Lynch describes it as "a psychotic backyard craziness, fueled by beer." Eloquent. Now, if you put cult suburban icons (football player, punk, red necks) in any vocation, turn the lights down low and have them act like Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant," it will produce a fucked up video. It doesn't matter if the director is David Lynch or that art grad student that sells you coffee every morning. You'll feel weird. But does this appear to be the work of a director, who some would argue is one of the greatest auteurs of weirdness? The man who can take a shot of a person standing still, shade over their face and zoom in on a roaming eyeball, to portray that feeling of anxiety we get right before the chicken gets his head ripped off? NO. This looks like a better produced Insane Clown Posse video. Have you seen any of their videos? THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT. David Lynch on Clowns What the hell has David Lynch been doing with his time? He's produced a number of lo-fi Youtube videos. In 2010 he gave us weather reports. He brewed some coffee and made a 46 second spot, which is just a bunch of flash shots of the bag of coffee, a woman drinking it and the words "Oh Yeah," displayed in neon letters. He's commented on the iPhone. He released some ridiculous attempt at a trailer for a possible Duran Duran documentary (sorry Bret Easton Ellis, Lynch beat you to the punch). And he did a Moby music video. Yeah, Moby, the dude with the cue dome and big glasses. His imdb filmography notes a bunch of short films he's done in the last year, but the last feature he directed, "Inland Empire" came out in 2006? and kind of sucked. There seem to be a series of actors, directors, writers, etc. who have become so enwrapped with the idea of social media and the sort of cultish aspect of it, that they think they're somehow re-enforcing a vision they've upheld for many years, when all they're actually doing is killing their own legacy. Lynch. Take a step back. Work on a screenplay. A movie. Return to your roots. Or at least stay away from the recording studio.