'Twin Peaks' cafe's mysterious incident
Billie
By LEWIS KAMB
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
NORTH BEND -- Perhaps it's a case of life imitating art.
After all, the diner immortalized in the quirky TV series "Twin Peaks" served
up a host of eccentric characters, whose peculiar and sometimes
incomprehensible actions were motivated by mysterious compulsions known only to
them.
There was Margaret the log lady, a dancing dwarf, a one-armed man and Killer
Bob -- unforgettable on-screen oddballs who helped garner the darkly comic
mystery cult status, though it was canceled in 1991 after only two seasons.
Now, to hear the accounts of locals and police here, another player has cast
himself at Twede's Cafe -- the current name of the real-life stand-in for the
show's Double-R Diner -- in a role that may rival any scripted by "Twin Peaks"
creator David Lynch.
Call him the Rogue Painter.
On at least four occasions in the past month, police and the cafe's owners say,
a man has bicycled and bused from his Issaquah home to the "Twin Peaks Cafe,"
paint buckets and brushes in hand.
Without permission, and for reasons known only to him, the 36-year-old man
allegedly painted the cafe's exterior a hodgepodge of gray and cream.
Locals first thought the uncommissioned painter was one of the construction
workers who have been restoring the old cafe since it was gutted by arson in
July.
Then the painter's odd demeanor and work habits made them think otherwise.
"He was out here, tongue wagging, painting like a madman," said Trevor Crow, a
cafe cook and maintenance man since 1987.
Over the course of two days last month, he painted over most of the cafe's
outside walls, sparing little from the quick flicks of his rollers and brushes.
He painted over the brick facade. He painted over a wooden awning that was to
be restored to a natural finish.
He even painted over a professionally crafted mural on the back of the
building, hiding the famous Twin Peaks -- Mount Si, in real life -- in a
neutral blizzard.
He didn't seem to know or care that the government must approve any alteration
to the exterior of the registered landmark.
"Finally, I asked the guy, 'Who are you?'" Crow said. "He just ran away,
climbed over the fence and hid. That's when I called Kyle and told him: 'Look,
this guy's crazy. He's painting over the bricks and everything.'"
Alerted to the bizarre incident, Kyle Twede, who leases and operates the cafe,
called the building's owners. Local deputies also were informed.
"I ran into the guy, and said, 'Listen, bud, they're going to call the police
unless you stop this,'" Twede said. "He said he'd stop, and took off with his
paint bucket. It just didn't make any sense."
After the encounter, Twede called Doris Wade, one of three sisters acting as
trustees for their mother, building owner Olive Tjersland.
Wade hurried to the cafe, followed the man to a nearby bus stop and tried to
get some answers.
They might as well have asked him how the fish got in the percolator.
"He just looked wide-eyed and answered me right away," Wade said. "He told me
his name and where he lived. I asked him why he was doing it, and he said that
the managers told him to."
But "managers" weren't the only ones who ordered the mysterious man to paint.
He told Twede and Crow that "the insurance company" hired him.
He told police that "people call him and tell him to paint the buildings."
He also said, "Ann-Margret told him to do it," said Donna Sams, Wade's sister.
And even though everyone told him to scram and not come back, he did. This
time, bearing a gift: a door with the words "New Lincoln" painted on it.
He propped it up against the front of the cafe, sat beside it and began
chanting, Crow said.
"I guess he thought we needed a new door," Wade said.
When the man showed up for a fourth time last week carrying a 5-gallon paint
bucket and brushes, a King County sheriff's deputy made an arrest.
The rogue painter, a slight man with hazel eyes and receding brown hair, spent
the night in the King County Jail.
He was released the next day, but vandalism and malicious-mischief charges are
pending.
Neither he nor Ann-Margret could be reached for comment yesterday.
"We didn't want to put him in jail," Wade said. "We just wanted him to leave us
alone. But for whatever reason, he seems to have a fixation on the place."
Cafe owners are still scratching their heads.
"Maybe he had a higher calling," Twede said.
"I think he was possessed by ancient shaman spirits," offered Crow.
But sisters Wade and Sams believe the matter is just the latest in the
ever-growing history of bizarre events at the cafe their father built in 1941.
Over the years, the cafe has stood as a local favorite, despite changing owners
and changing names, they said. (It was formerly known as the Mar-T Cafe.)
As a television icon, it still draws legions of tourists from as far away as
Japan and Australia.
And, the sisters said, when the cafe is restored and reopened within the next
three months, it will still offer the same "damn fine coffee" and cherry pie
made world-famous by its on-screen alter ego -- no matter what's painted
outside.
"Our other sister suggested we ought to call the 'Twin Peaks' people and tell
them we have a new plot for them," Wade said.
~~You're just jellus because the voices are talking to me and not you!~
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China Kate Sunflower
>He also said, "Ann-Margret told him to do it," said Donna Sams, Wade's sister.
...
>Neither he nor Ann-Margret could be reached for comment yesterday.
I think this is my favorite part of the article.
K.
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