IN THIS ISSUE

1. Editorial note
   
2. Dumbland – the new Lynch project
   
3. What else is new?
   
4. What happened to Mike Dunn's LynchNet?

I. Editorial Note

Hello, everybody.

First of all I want to apologize that it took me so long to send out the new issue of the LynchLetter. Unfortunately I had to neglect The City of Absurdity and this newsletter a bit. I'm currently in the middle of my exams for a master's degree at the University of Freiburg. I'm also in the process of moving from Freiburg/Germany to Philadelphia, PA (yes, the "most sick, twisted, fear-ridden, decaying place in the world" ;-)
I'll move there in June to live with my wonderful fiancée and I'm going to get married to her on September 1. Due to all these changes in my life there won't be much time left to update The City of Absurdity for a while. As soon as I'm relocated to Philly things will be better. Promised.

Again I want to thank you all for the interest. I never expected so much feedback. I'm sorry that I can't answer all your requests and questions -- there are just way to many emails in my inbox every day. But I read them all and it's very much appreciated. All your hints and suggestions help me to improve the site. Thank you.

II. Dumbland – the new Lynch project

David Lynch announced last Wednesday at the Yahoo Internet Life Online Film Festival a new project: he's going to make cartoons for the Internet. Lynch will create a series for Shockwave.com, called "Dumbland", an absurd look at dysfunctional characters in an urban environment. He said "it's like an experiment. It's very exciting."

Lynch said, "it's very dumb, and it's very bad quality. It's going to be very crude, but sophisticatedly crude." The series will be a collection of jewel-like fragments – not unlike the modularity of "Twin Peaks." He said that one of the appealing things about the Internet would be that it embraces that approach. "It's like, chunks of funk is the Net right now. Maybe I just think that way. Fragments can be very mysterious." He added that "if something doesn't work you can switch very rapidly."

Lynch won't build in a lot of interactivity or audience decisions, though. He said "you want a story to go a certain way. That's part of the beauty of storytelling" When asked what genre the series might fit into Lynch answered, "Everything."

It's not clear yet if visitors will have to pay to see Lynch's work. Lynch said he expected his approach to be a hodgepodge. "I'm finding my way." he said. And although he's willing to make some things available for free, he'll have to find a way to be compensated for the time spent developing a new series.
"Right now there's kind of an unwritten law (on the Internet) that people should give away things for free," Lynch said. "(But) people who provide content have to get paid for it."

Lynch will try to do all the work on "Dumbland" himself from his home in Los Angeles. He expects to do about 15 three-minute-long episodes, with the first to appear around June.

You can read the whole article at: http://www.mercurycenter.com

III. What else is new?

• Mullholland Drive will air on ABC on April 10 at 8pm (EST) in the US. ABC will air the version of which David Lynch says "Having that butchered version go out... it's like an accident. Some people love to see a sad, bad traffic accident, and that's what they'll see on ABC. I hope no one watches."
  He also says that "it won't be a satisfactory experience because it was meant to go on and on and on. It's almost absurd to air it as a one-off thing." And that "it's not a finished body. It's a body with a wart on top of the neck."

• Richard Farnsworth was nominated as best actor for an Academy Award for his role as Alvin Straight in The Straight Story. (Unfortunately) the Oscar went to Kevin Spacey who did a beautiful job in American Beauty.

• David Lynch's website www.davidlynch.com will most likely open in June.

IV. What happened to Mike Dunn's LynchNet?

I still receive frequently emails as to what happened to Mike Dunn's website. Here's a little note he wrote before he closed down his wonderful site:

"Hi all,

It is with much sadness and after a lot of consideration that I must report that LynchNet will be closing at the end of the year. I've given it a lot of thought, but in the end I just can't justify spending the money to run the site. It costs me $350 a month to run LynchNet.
Unfortunately, since I'm using copyrighted material on the site I can't sell advertising on it, otherwise I would run the risk of lawsuit by the copyright holders. If anyone out there has about 350 megs of web space, can handle over 15 gigs of bandwidth a month and would be willing to let me use it, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be closing down the site at the first of the year.

I might put up a limited version of the site (most of the text minus pictures) at http://members.xoom.com/dugpa/ Also, I have moved the Discussion board to http://wwwboard.net/bbs1/ mikedunn/wwwboard.sht so the Lynch (and other) discussion can continue freely.

Don't forget, coming in 2000 will be www.davidlynch.com which will feature original content from the man himself. Also, be sure to check out the lynchnet links page while you still can for a host of other good Lynch sites out there on the web.
After January 1, if you want to contact me please use the email address mikedunn@alltel.net. I'm sorry to have to do this. It was a very hard decision to close the site, trust me. I've had a lot of fun years running the site and meeting fellow Lynch fans. I look forward to seeing you all out there on the net.

Mike Dunn
LynchNet"

V. Oh, I almost forgot...

"It all started for me in Philadelphia because it's old enough, and it's got enough things in the air to really work on itself. It's decaying but it's fantastically beautiful, filled with violence, hate and filth."
(David Lynch)

LynchLetter - The City of Absurdity Newsletter
#5, March 27, 2000, Mike Hartmann