The Smart Bird

Obsessed, But In A Good Way

Halloween Week on The Smart Bird, Day 2:

If, like me, you were a huge fan of Twin Peaks, then you'll probably dig the (slightly obsessive compulsive) genius of the blog In Twin Peaks.  Charles has, over the years, traveled to Washington state and taken photographs in locations from the show's pilot at the exact same angle in which scenes were originally filmed, but now it's 19 years later.  Here are a couple of my favorites, including the exact same branch that the meadowlark sat on in the opening credits!  The branch is thicker, but it's been 19 years so I think he could be right.  (Any botanists out there who know how much a pine tree branch would have grown during that length of time?) 








Oh, and if you too are really, genuinely, truly obsessed, then you'll also want to visit his other blog, More In Twin Peaks, WA.  This one has previously unpublished stills, interviews with cast members, and a lot of information about how popular Twin Peaks was in Japan.  Being a Japanophile, that makes me very happy of course.  But it also takes a bit of the scariness away from Bob, because having lived in Japan, I know that his name spoken in English would sound like "Keeddah Bob-u."  Kinds of takes the sting out of it, don't you think?




 

Dragnet

I was tickled to wake up to this clever Etsy front page this morning.  It reminded me of a time when my goal in life was to be a detective.  I was about 8 years old, and my dad took me to see Buster Keaton's "Sherlock, Jr.", in which Keaton plays a man who is studying to be a detective.  I guess it made quite an impression on me, because for about three years after that I was obsessed.

I started by writing my own manual, "How To Be A Detective."  I even typed it up, to make it look really official and all (unfortunately, the "binding" consisted of the edge of the typewriter paper I folded in half.  I obviously hadn't heard of Pinball).  Next, I found a Time Life book called, I think, "Detectives."  It was hardcover, about 75 pages or so, and detailed not only how you become a detective (start low on the ladder, work your way up), but also what kinds of things you might do as a detective.  I watched Get Smart reruns and Batman and 3-2-1 Contact religiously.

At some point my uncle, who took pity on me, bought me a Detectolab kit (which, because of and odd trick of the font that made the 't' look like an 'f', my family took great delight in calling the "DeFectolab"; it looks like they've changed the font, and the contents of the kit, since then.).  I was dusting for fingerprints, subjecting everybody I knew to the C-battery powered lie detector, taking notes on "suspicious" activities.  I was thorough. 

True story: one day, my best friend and I decided to do some "surveillance."  This would consist of identifying a target, and following him around the streets of Greenwich Village for awhile.  I realized I needed a suitcase in which to hold the "surveillance papers."  I searched our small apartment desperately for anything that might work, and came up empty-handed.  At some point, my eyes alighted on a Ronco Best of Elvis album I had begged my parents to buy from a television ad.  The weight of the album cover was perfect for my purposes, but the bright photograph of Elvis wasn't exactly...stealth.  So I cut it open, turned it inside out, and taped it back together.  Then I cut off a strip along the top, to make it rectangular (like a real briefcase), and made a pair of handles.  It hurt me to do it, because I loved Elvis so, but I really, really needed a suitcase right then.  I got my papers in order, and Gabriel and I went out to find a target.  We spotted a man in a suit and followed him for about 10 blocks. Clearly he was up to no good. We then came back home and wrote up our surveillance reports.  All in a day's work, when you're an 8-year-old detective working the mean streets of Manhattan.

Thank you, Momerath, for the memories.

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