Song of Philadelphia

Peggy Reavey married David Lynch in 1968. She is a painter and the mother of Jennifer Lynch. As she recalls her final years with Lynch in Philadelphia and their young family's move to California, a new image of the filmmaker and of his creative process comes into focus. "It was his thing, Reavey says, but I knew what it was." Listening to Reavey reflect on her contributions to The Grandmother, Lynch's third short film, and about how she was replaced by "a whole staff" as he started working on Eraserhead, we understand that each film comes from a bundle of dreams, experiences, people, and places that could not be ascribed to a single individual: the person known as the author always contains multitudes. How much of Lynch's life went into his films? What kind of agency did his loved ones hold as the original idea was sculpted into motion pictures and sounds? Why was the presence, the emotional support of a trusted partner so critical to the filmmaker's authorship, as he translated his vision into cinematic language? The episode art is a portrait of David Lynch by Peggy Reavey, c. 1970.

David Lynch often identified Philadelphia as his greatest influence, and Philadelphia has nothing but love for David Lynch. What are the Lynchian places and happenings in the city? In this episode, Eric Bresler talks about bringing the Lady in the Radiator and Sherilyn Fenn to PhilaMOCA. Dennis McNett explains how he created the Lynch mural-memorial on Buttonwood Street. Josh Hitchens, the last Philadelphian who ever interviewed David Lynch, recalls his feelings before, during, and after the phone call. Jack Fisk remembers searching for filming locations across the city with Lynch fifteen years ago and his friend's disappointment as Lynch realized the Philadelphia he'd experienced from 1965 to 1970 no longer existed.

Philadelphia, 1966. In his studio at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, David Lynch is experimenting with ideas, forms, materials, shapes. He is looking for something exciting. One night, he sees movement in the painting he is working on and starts thinking about film. Feeding on the effervescence of the local artistic scene, with the help of his best friend and roommate, fellow PAFA student Jack Fisk, Lynch is going to make three films in two years, while getting married and becoming a father. In this episode, Julien Suaudeau continues to weave the memories of Lynch's early years with soundscapes from his cinematic work (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks: The Return) and examines the micro-events that encouraged a young creative mind to pursue the art life. With Jack Fisk, Bruce Samuelson, Bob Bruhin, and Josh Hitchens. The portrait of David Lynch used as artwork for this episode was taken in 1967 by C.K Williams in the Father, Son, Holy Ghost house on Aspen Street.

This season: how David Lynch invented his cinematic language of fear and strangeness in Philadelphia. Julien Suaudeau walks around the Eraserhood and explores other Lynchian places in the city, tracking the impressions of Philly in Lynch's work, from the Twin Peaks universe to Mulholland Drive, and wondering how Lynch's art is the product of what he experienced in the city from 1965 to 1970.

At 83, Larry Robin sees a lot of ghosts in Philadelphia. In the first part of this season's finale, the legendary bookstore owner, arts-oriented educator and anchor of the city's poetry scene drives around the neighborhoods of his life with Julien Suaudeau. As the two get lost and find their way time and time again, unsure of what they are looking for, Larry's personal and Intellectual foundations come into focus, woven into the urban fabric: a Society Hill block where a lumberyard used to sit next to a luncheonette, the row home that houses the only remaining synagogue in South Philly, a boarded up textile mill on Lehigh Avenue. Back on 13th and Sansom, the longtime headquarters of Robin's Books and Moonstone Arts Center, Larry reflects on aging, loss, political disillusions, love and death, and explains how self-sufficiency has been the driving force of his extraordinary journey.

With the dilapidated building of Joe Frazier's Gym and the voices of Cambria Street in the background, former light heavyweight Kevin Dublin takes Julien Suaudeau through his old neighborhood and tells him how he met "Smoke" one night in the early 1980's. Story after story, the other side of the world champion comes into focus, what happens in the ring reverberates in a young fighter's life, and much-stereotyped North Philly emerges in a new light.

In the season 2 opener, Julien Suaudeau takes a walk across Chinatown with his former Bryn Mawr College student, young activist and Ginger Arts founder Kaia Chau. Kaia talks about her formative years in the neighborhood, what is still there and what's gone, personal overlaps between Chinatown and South Philly, the commodification of Asian culture, and the relentless targeting of low-income and immigrant communities in the name of urban renewal. At home, the political and the personal merge as Kaia chats over breakfast with her mom, Debbie Wei, who co-founded the FACTS charter school and Asian Americans United.

In the season one bonus episode, Julien Suaudeau moves Song of Philadelphia to Paris and opens the portals between the two cities. It's time to get personal – and Frenched. Author's note: This episode contains interviews of Parisians I bumped into on the street or the subway. Huge thanks to Bruno the cat, Mama Bijou, Ninon, Nourou, and to everyone at Pharmacie Vavin for giving me their time and talking with me.

Chanelle Wilson talks about the joys of a West Philly childhood, growing up in a Black city, conflicting versions of Philadelphia, the utopia of equitable real estate, and finding peace by the river.

How much remembering and forgetting happens in our city every day? Can you hear the past humming through the present on the streets of Philadelphia? Julien Suaudeau came over from Paris in 2006 and started to hunt for sounds and stories. Now you can listen to his audio archive, Song of Philadelphia, an exclusive podcast from Hidden City.