The past week was really crazy; David Lynch started his book
tour in New York, which means that I spent two very long days with him and his
“posse.” The people who work for David are mostly or all TM folks, and one is
nicer than the other. David is just plain amazing, and I’m afraid I’m a little
in love with him, but I think everyone around him is. Even the straight men
have sort of straight-man crushes on him. He and I did get to talk quite a bit
and to know each other some, and we certainly liked each other.
I will refrain from telling you all of my David stories right
now, but I’ll mention that during the two days he was here, I met Donovan,
Gloria Vanderbilt, and Justin Theroux (I say!). I am now spoiled for working
with all other authors since David’s reading at Barnes & Noble (Union
Square, the flagship store) drew 1,000 people, with 100 or so more turned away.
Some of the folks at B&N said they hadn’t seen a crowd like that for a
reading since Barrack Obama! Sales are strong so far and I’m counting on the
tour to get him on some bestseller charts. Joel, the publisher of Tarcher, is
REALLY happy with me…I’m starting to get a bit of a reputation around Penguin
for bringing a lot of energy into Tarcher, and because the books I’m
enthusiastic about tend to sell way beyond expectations.
I still don’t have a new boss but they let us have a temp for
three months after Ben left, because our workload was so huge. We went through
two bad temps before we finally got a good one. So I’m temporarily saved from
having to file and to paste up clips, though I still have to process all
department invoices (which I really hate doing).
My health is holding pretty steady, tho last week was really
stressful. I started off okay with the gym but have been kind of beat since the
holidays so I have to get back to it. My resolution for this year is to lose 50
pounds. I’m down about 5 so far. It also looks like I’m going to get a freebie
on TM training, and I do believe that it can relieve stress and help in a lot of
other ways. If it does for me what it’s done for the people I’ve met, that
would be great. Even Barry seems to be interested in it, and I think it could
do him a lot of good. I’ve tried meditation before without much success; one of
the reasons that TM has a good rep is apparently their training is very
effective. David said in his book that he totally got it the first time, and I
know I never got anywhere close to what he described.
Anyway, I’m off tomorrow, and hope to take care of some chores
and such. I am almost done knitting Leo the most beautiful scarf, and then
I’m gonna start one for me to go with my red dress coat. I have a couple of
balls of a chenille that feels like suede in maroon, and some maroon braided
yarn, and a couple of multicolored novelty yarns that have some maroons, and I
think I’m just gonna stripe them up unevenly, and maybe do some patterns in the
smoother yarns. I’m thinking about Fibonacci stripes — apparently some
knitters used stripes based on Fibonacci numbers, not in sequence, but the
number of rows in any stripe has to be a Fib number (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…).
The one I’m making for Leo alternates two slightly bumpy
patterns and is in a very lovely self-striping Japanese yarn (45 silk, 45
mohair, 10 lambswool) in cool colors. This is to wean him
from one I made many years ago which is unraveling embarassingly (at least to me
– he doesn’t mind!).
Knitting takes too long, and I can’t do it when the weather’s
too hot, but I’m determined to get better at it because I really do want to be
able to make myself some tops. I may need a lesson or two, or to go to a
knitting circle, since I suspect I am a fairly lousy knitter and need some
coaching. I like the imperfect charm of handmade things, but I’m not as in
control of the look of my knitting as I am of my jewelry.
Sorry to go on so long…I think I have Girl Talk
Need.
———————-
The above is from an e-mail I sent Laurel last night, tho I refrained from going on and on and on about David, which is kind of hard.
He’s something of a rock star, but also not that different from Will in certain ways. He loves old design and we again enjoyed pointing out interesting buildings to each other as we drove from event to event. I also talked to him about my bottlecap collection on Thursday, and he seemed so interested that I brought some for him to see on Fiday, and he very much got it.
I basically stayed with him for most of the day Thursday and Friday, accompanying him (along with his inner posse, his assistant and the ever-charming Bobby). I met up with them Friday morning in their hotel lobby, and they all three hugged and kissed me, which was a little new and very sweet. David and I hugged and kissed (cheek, tho he got close to my lips the very last time) enough times over the two days that I lost count, and had time to talk here and there, in the car and in various green rooms.
He picked up a little silver-toned doodad on the sidewalk, a link of cheap chain, and kept it for me in case I wanted to use t in jewelry. I confess I bought him an early birthday present, since he’ll turn 61 on tour: a fossilized ammonite (ancient snail shell) which he adored.
But I think the best thing he said to me was this: we were looking at a koi pond built into the floor at the Bloomberg TV offices, and I asked if he’d ever been to the Japanese garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. (His grandparents lived in Park Slpe when he was a kid and he visited often, so it was a reasonable question.) He said he hadn’t, and I told him a little about it, how you walk on a winding path around a lake with koi and turtles. He then said, “I want to see it, and I want you to be the person to show it to me, since you were the one who told me about it.” Y’know, you could just melt into a little puddle. David is a very magical kind of guy. He’s also someone highly in demand and with little free time, so every moment he focused on me seemed like a gift.
I am also pleased to say that he introduced me to Donovan, who was my huge musical crush before Will, when I was 11, 12, 13. He was darling and took my hands in his when I told him about seeing him in 1971. Those TM folks — one is sweeter than the next!
The TM folks want me to be one of them, and it looks as if I’m going to get the free training after the tour is over. The posse seemed to be trying me on for size.
There was a possibility of my going on to Washington DC after they were done in New York; Bobby had said he thought the Foundation could swing train fare and a hotel room, and that “David wants you to come.” But it turned out the Foundation had overspent in New York and they couldn’t swing it, so I said goodbye to all of them on Friday.
I have a home address where I can write to him and send things (I sent a selection of Tarcher books a month or so ago), but not an e-mail or phone number for David. (He carries a “crackberry.”) But my feeling is that he’ll want to meet up in six month or a year to see what TM has done for me.
And I’m sure doing a lot from working on this tour. The B&N reading was unbelievable. (In contrast, we were jazzed when 45 people showed up to hear Pinchie read some months back.) The Tully Hall event was amazing. The book is selling, hovering around #300 at Amazon. I am a beeg star at Tarcher.
These few books — 2012, Power of Kindness, Catching the Big Fish — are making my career. The department should take good care of me when my year rolls around.
