Aside from directing standout cinematic moments of our time, David Lynch has a knack for putting together benefit shows you want to see. Maybe it's the mix of acts, or the fact that you know he's not promoting a cause just because it's en vogue. Lynch has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for 40 years.
This time the eclectic lineup for the David Lynch Foundation benefit show includes Spacehog, Sean Lennon and Liv Tyler. They'll be live from a NYC rooftop and you'll be in the comfort of your home. Pay what you can on Stageit for the LIVE ON EARTH concert experience directed by Marc Scrivo. It's October 16th, so you can purchase tickets up until then.
Liv Tyler and Sean Lennon have collaborated for causes in the past, with an anti-fracking music video, "Don't Frack My Mother." Spacehog's frontman Royston Langdon has a history with Liv Tyler as well; they were once married. In the meantime Spacehog has gotten older, but they still rock out, as any CMJ concert-goer could attest at last year's packed Rockwood Music Hall show. This spring they released their fourth album, As It Is On Earth. Charlotte Kemp Muhl of GOASTT (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) will play with Sean Lennon, and there's talk of a mystery act (or two!) who will join the roster.
Top donors who step up the charitable game will receive prizes: Attending The First-Responders Gala in NYC on December 3rd, meeting Lynch himself. Second prize, meditation training with Spacehog. And a more tangible (yet just as pricessless) prize: a Gibson Les Paul Guitar. Not just any guitar, it's signed by Lynch and artists from the "Change Begins Within" concert at Radio City Music Hall: Eddie Vedder, Moby, Sheryl Crow, Donovan and Ben Harper. Other donors can even get Lynch's signature coffee, because of course he has his own line of organic coffee beans (and hand-drawn t-shirts!).
David Lynch has raised TM awareness appearing in Beyond The Noise: My Transcendental Meditation Journey, a documentary directed by Dana Farley, who has Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia. It's fitting that Lynch uses music as a platform for TM awareness. He is a musician himself and has combined his talents in directing the "Came Back Haunted" music video for Nine Inch Nail's 2013 album.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of one-pointed meditation that includes focusing attention on one thing, such as repeating a word (mantra). In studies it's been shown to reduce anxiety, depression and blood pressure. In addition to funding this research, the Lynch Foundation's "First-Responders Initiative" implements TM in at-risk populations for traumatic stress, which can otherwise bring on a host of physical ailments. In the past, the Foundation has provided meditation training scholarships for students, parents, and teachers in the United States, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The David Lynch Foundation will continue using art to shed light on the science: Transcendental Meditation can heal the body.
The hashtag for the live concert experience LIVE ON EARTH is #spacewithin, will you be following along?
