David Lynch glows. The white shirt and hair (such great hair) help. But there’s something else going on. He might put it down to his daily Transcendental Meditation practice. But I reckon there’s some serious charisma radiating off the guy. I shake his hand, my face split in half thanks to an ear to ear smile. I am meeting one of my heroes. I’m pumped. And it’s to be more than just a passing meeting. I will soon have an hour of his precious time to interview him. I will then spend the next week traveling around the west coast of the US videoing his lecture tour. Life doesn’t get much better. But first, I’m allowed to have a look around his art studio. So many amazing works hanging off the walls. One in particular captures my imagination. It is a mixed media piece of a figure in a streetscape. But his head is an explosion of pink, red and white. The scrawled title below solves the mystery: “This man was shot .07589 seconds ago.” Perfect. So Lynchian. Unlike his plan to raise seven billion dollars to bring about world peace by introducing TM into American schools. Say what? It’s this super sized ambition that has brought me across from the other side of the planet. Initially I had hoped to produce an international current affairs story but when that fell through, I decided to self finance the trip in order to do a doco. His TM people agreed to give me access – so here I am. Still feels unreal. I’m allowed to record our interview in his sound studio. I walk in and see that there’s an area with a red velvet curtain. Twin Peaks. Love it. I also spot an old fashioned microphone. I’m told by his sound engineer that I can use it to record the interview. I think about it but decide I’d rather put it behind Lynch, purely as a prop. When he comes in and I nervously put a radio mike on him, he’s curious as to why I’m not using his microphone, no doubt worth thousands of dollars. I explain that I thought it would look good behind him but that if he thinks we should put it in front and use it, I’m more than happy to do so. “No, it’s your show. You put it wherever you want. If you feel like that’s a good look, go for it.” Wow. David Lynch has just told me to go for it! I feel elated. Then nervous. What if it looks stupid? I decide to trust my instinct. Looking at the footage later, this was the right call. Phew.