This was a busy time, but also an orderly one. My regular Twin Peaks posts, weekly episode guides, and occasional Fandor essays were now supplemented by a renewed Favorites series, recurring podcast appearances, and a slate of biweekly YouTube video series (short narrated review, side-by-side comparison, abstractly illustrated poem, music-driven montage). I published at least three times a week, a routine anchored both literally and figuratively by Neon Genesis Evangelion as I dug into the most interesting episodes of that series and eventually devoted an entire week to The End of Evangelion (a focus that dovetailed perfectly with my video and Favorites commitments).
Subjects include that infamous "day in the future" of Back to the Future Part II, a podcast tribute to the Log Lady, the debut of my Tumblr companion blog, assessments of both seasons of True Detective, and ranking/reviewing every Twin Peaks episode.
Joining together my two primary interests at this time, my highlight of this period is the video essay Side by Side - Neon Genesis Evangelion & Twin Peaks, at once an analysis of storytelling shape, a collage of visual rhymes, and a cheerfully counterintuitive mash-up.
AUGUST
Launching a full week of activity to conclude some projects and renew or initiate others
Schedule for fall/winter 2015-16...a new video (in one of five formats) every five weeks
Taking in two seasons of True Detective, dissecting the flaws and strengths of both
A quiet episode feels like one of the series' most important, kicking off a really strong run straight through the finale (and film) (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
.png)
Making my first of many appearances on this Twin Peaks podcast to cover the first eight episodes with a veteran viewer and a newbie
Six days shy of a quarter-decade after it stopped, the Favorites series resumes with typewriter keys sounding the death knell of a presidency
A video I created to help me envision the structure of an anthology film. Though I never pursued the project, I liked the juxtaposition of clips, images, and music so I ended up sharing it a year later
My first YouTube video essay since the end of Journey Through Twin Peaks offered a much quicker take on another TV show
Where Evangelion goes off the rails - in the best sense possible (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
An experimental short from the interwar years belongs to the distant past, the glimpsed future, and the eternal present
Joining Tumblr as another expansion after additional Blogger sites, YouTube, Twitter, and Vimeo
SEPTEMBER
Who will be the new Evangelion pilot? (includes conversation with Bob Clark)
F.W. Murnau brilliantly shifts tones between horror, adventure, romance, and farce in his devil-made-me-do-it Expressionist masterpiece
Delaying a big video for at least a week
When a crisis hits, who controls the Eva? (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
Ana Torrent provides one of the best child performances of all time in a film about the death of an oppressive father
"Neon Genesis Evangelion ... is a robot saga the same way Twin Peaks was a cop show." - Comic Buyers Guide (starting with that sentiment, I created one of my favorite videos for the site)
Going berserker (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
A concert film with a subtle narrative
Pairing Tennyson's poem with a montage of manipulated film clips
Shinji deep-dives inside the Eva - and his own subconscious... (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
Louis Malle turns the "man in the street" interview into a work of art
By coincidence, two Malle tributes back-to-back, this one a comparison of the 1978 and 1985 sections of his PBS farmland opus
Paying tribute to Catherine Coulson on the day she passed away
One of my favorite episodes of Evangelion, full of flashbacks and revelations (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
OCTOBER
The transformation of China in the eighties, conveyed through long takes and subtle but eventually dizzying transformations
Richards/Taylor and Haxan/Hellraiser, a pair of devilish duos
Asuka's apocalyptic mind-battle (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
Little-seen Slovakian slice of the sixties, rich with poetic ambiguity and a surrealist bent expressed through camerawork more than editing or script
In which I rank and and review every episode of Twin Peaks' first run, from least-favorite to favorite (a fun away to rewatch the series)
And now Rei reaches her apocalyptic moment (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
Steven Spielberg's ambitious and flawed, acclaimed and controversial approach mixes raw realism with Hollywood stylization and collective history with individual narrative
My side-by-side video essay compares all the different versions of Hill Valley in the Back to the Future trilogy, released on the actual date Marty arrived in the "future" (for one brief moment, on October 21, 2015, that meme was finally true)
Hello, Kaworu (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
Largely sustained by fierce, focused intensity but the moments of grace and grandeur suggest a much wider world on the periphery of the protagonist's blinkered vision
How the character of Laura Palmer evolved from input both casual and impassioned
The Neon Genesis Evangelion finale can stand alongside the finales of Twin Peaks and The Prisoner as a bold departure from an already-bold show (includes conversation with Bob Clark and Murderous Ink)
The juxtaposition of city and country: how environment affects perception and re-directs narrative (among many other rich aspects of this film)
NOVEMBER
Seven days straight devoted to The End of Evangelion, starting with this introduction
A brief video essay reviewing the Evangelion film on its own
My extended review of the Evangelion film and its relationship to the series
Bob Clark and I begin our Evangelion conversation and Murderous Ink shares some media commentary from the late nineties
Bob Clark concludes his contribution to the Evangelion series as we examine the sprawling ensemble of the show and film, one by one
Exploring End of Evangelion as a standalone feature, cinema rather than TV, for my Favorites series
A visual tribute to Asuka's final stand closes my "End of Evangelion Week"
I was one of several guests for my second appearance on this podcast, each of us discussing David Lynch's film (and its relationship to Twin Peaks) in turn
The first Evangelion rebuild film doesn't vary too much from the series
Ken Burns bridges the gap between history as journalistic/scholarly excavation and history as folk mythology
Converting my 2011 essay comparing and contrasting these two works into a 2015 video essay
The second Evangelion rebuild film begins to depart from the series in significant ways
A timeless swashbuckler, yet also very much of its time
A new reading of the Twin Peaks finale occurred to me in light of my favored Fire Walk With Me interpretation
The third Evangelion rebuild film makes a radical shift into left field
One of my longer Favorites pieces, on a film that can be viewed through so many different prisms (including, yes, that one on the Pink Floyd album cover)
Emily Dickinson paired with Yasujiro Ozu (after a transitional introduction evoking a recent dream)
DECEMBER
After three years - mostly spent on a long break - my Neon Genesis Evangelion episode guide concludes with the full line-up in one place
In any given scene during Noriko's glacial transition from daughter to bride, we may notice writing on the wall, yet the moment on hand proceeds
Joining the introcast's coverage of episode 14 to analyze the implications and find out how the first-time viewer reacted
(I covered this period on Episode 22 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: Paris, Portmeirion, and Other Planets (December 2015 - April 2016)
(in which Jacques Rivette, The Prisoner, Star Wars, and video essays recur during a busy schedule)
•
Previous: Genesis of a Video Detective (March - August 2015)
(in which Jacques Rivette, The Prisoner, Star Wars, and video essays recur during a busy schedule)
•
Previous: Genesis of a Video Detective (March - August 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment