I was just talking about Old New York yesterday, which I guess is Old New York today. Trippy. One of the things I love about the New York of yesteryear is the filth and the grime (not that I’m going around trying to get a rise out of Iron Eyes Cody or anything). Trash is a part of New York City’s history. It’s one of the first things people who hate New York cite as a reason for why they’d never live here and it’s one of the last things people who live here seem to give a shit about (until they’re buried in it), which guides the mood of the video above. We Care About New York is a David Lynch-directed public service announcement from 1991, ostensibly created to draw attention to NYC’s rat problem.
I go out of my way to avoid using the term “Lynchian,” but I guess that’s what you’d have to call this. It’s certainly what’s allowed so much buzz to be generated around it all of a sudden. But all in all, David Lynch directing a commercial is no different than Salvador Dalí opening a deli, Matthew Barney giving kayaking lessons, or J.J. Abrams creating Felicity — oh shit, that last one actually happened?
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Because we think of David Lynch as a “weird guy,” who’s into “weird stuff,” we’re caught off guard and weirded out when he does something kind of normal. Our expectation of him as an artist is what informs our attempt at taking him seriously, which renders us defenseless to the subversiveness his work. And, while the kind of people who go around dubbing things “Lynchian” are trying to dissect the meaning behind everything he’s created, Lynch himself is making paper and, yeah, I presume, laughing all the way to the bank. That’s what “Lynchian” means if you ask me.
Look at We Care About New York. Who do you think the “we” is that Lynch is referring to? The subjects of the video, of course: rats and litterbugs. They are New York City. The message is as un-ironic as Dale Cooper’s love for cherry pie. The ominous title card with the nameless phone number, suspended over a cross dissolved skyline of the city and a scampering assembly of rats is way more Twilight Zone than Department of Sanitation, which serves as a reminder of Lynch’s playful imagination. It’s like he’s winking and whispering, “a PSA about the rat problem in New York City? Seriously?”
At any rate, Lynch has made dozens of commercials, all appropriately “Lynchian” in their own way. You should check them out and admire them and Lynch for what they truly exhibit: the work of someone who has been canonized by his ability to get away with being “weird” for money. Lucky bastard. To make your life easier, you can watch nearly all of them after the jump. Oh, and If you can find Lynch’s Alka Seltzer commercial (in addition to any other lesser-known Lynch films), hit me up on Twitter @Yeatons or email me: sean@motherboard.tv.
