Lost in the Movies gets a new address, background, and commenting format (with old comments finally restored) - plus updated directories/galleries, Twin Peaks news, the situation with Fandor, video shares, and political notes (including another call-in to Ben Dixon & my tweets on the subject of "divorcing the Democratic Party")
You've probably noticed that some things have changed around here. First there's the background - a change both subtle and easy to sense right away. The sides of the blog are now enveloped in dark red curtains (and a peek at a chevron floor depending on the size of your screen). A Twin Peaks focus is well under way, with new character studies every day as we count down the months (just over three), weeks (exactly thirteen) and days (ninety-two) until the new series premieres on Showtime. The character pieces have proved popular so far; you can navigate the series through this directory.
I've been popping up here and there on Twin Peaks Unwrapped lately, and will link below, but first I want to share my most recent official "Lost in Twin Peaks" segment (the others were quicker excerpts and/or repeated highlights). In their first podcast of the new year, Ben and Bryon dipped into a conversation we had in the fall - which had not been published yet - about two memorable Twin Peaks documentaries on the blu-ray set: Secrets From Another Place, about the series, and Moving Through Time, about the film Fire Walk With Me. I talk about what they reveal and why I like them, as well as detouring into other subjects, like Windom Earle. Elsewhere in the episode, the hosts discuss the cast list and a trailer for the upcoming Showtime series, listener feedback, and speculation for 2017.
Other Twin Peaks Unwrapped Appearances
Back in December, Twin Peaks Unwrapped featured a quicker clip from that same conversation, this time about Between Two Worlds, the blu-ray feature in which Lynch interviews the actors who played the Palmer family - in character! (I've also discussed this subject with John Thorne.) And at the end of 2016, guest host Scott Ryan highlighted one of my previous conversations with Ben and Bryon. If you've never listened to Twin Peaks Unwrapped before (but are somehow reading this), this "best of" reel might be a good way to get acquainted with all of their work.
Other Twin Peaks News
Meanwhile, a quick heads-up on the week to come, which should be a big one for me and all Twin Peaks fans. On Monday, January 9, Showtime is expected to make an announcement at the Television Critics Association (TCAs) about their lineup for 2017. With many Twin Peaks actors scheduled to appear, it is assumed that the premiere date of the new series will be revealed. Already, there have been clues: the website Welcome to Twin Peaks has highlighted a Showtime calendar in which May is devoted to a Twin Peaks theme, suggesting an airdate on or soon after Sunday, April 30. By the way, speaking of Welcome to Twin Peaks, a loooong-awaited guest post of mine may finally be going up there - but Pieter Dom, the tireless administrator of the site has a lot on his plate so if you want to see it please retweet or reply to this tweet (so far it seems to have worked in moving things along - hope it can go up before the TCA news takes over!).
Once the premiere date of new Twin Peaks is clear, I will schedule my character study series, possibly with the introduction as early as that very day. There are to be eighty-two individual entries, plus two prefaces that cover the most minor characters, and the aforementioned intro. Depending how much time I have, the scheduling could range from one entry each weekday to a more compressed format beginning with several entries every day until we get to the big names (the series will begin with the characters who have the least screentime - while still speaking in at least three scenes - and end with those who have the most a day or two before the new premiere). I also have a few straggling Twin Peaks posts which have been hanging around for years in some cases - the Sheryl Lee filmography, the aforementioned Welcome to Twin Peaks cross-post, a conversation with John Thorne about The Secret History of Twin Peaks. I suppose some of those may have to wait until the new series has already begun, to supplement my episode coverage.
Aside from the occasional video essay, Twin Peaks is going to pretty much take over Lost in the Movies this year. Only when this first season ends - presuming they've divided into two seasons as many suspect - will I begin post other material again.
The Benjamin Dixon Show
Finally, one more cross-post...I called into The Benjamin Dixon Show, one of my favorite political programs, again the other night. You can jump right to my comment/question - about the recent smear campaign against Black Lives Matters and conservative perception of the left/liberal divide - or you can listen to the whole episode, which is definitely worthwhile:
Other Projects
While Twin Peaks will be at the forefront of 2017, beneath the surface I will be working on many other projects. This includes viewing diaries for other shows. I have a few episodes for the following already in my backlog, though I won't share any till the entire series is completed: The Kingdom, The X-Files, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Star Trek, Veronica Mars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Wire, and Clone Wars. I hope to keep writing on film in some capacity, maybe a weekly entry called "Monday is for Movies" even as "Lost in the Movies" slowly comes to mean "Lost in Audiovisual Media (primarily Television)."
I also plan to finally resume/finish my Citizen Kane video series and do a few more entries for my various suspended video essay series on YouTube/Vimeo, so that I end up with five total in each category (3 1/2 Minute Review, Side by Side, Cinepoem, and Montage) - I have three for most so far. This will hopefully begin with an ambitious, probably multi-part study of The Big Chill and The Return of the Secaucus 7 in the larger context of sixties/baby boomer history and pop mythology - a subject that has only become more relevant as the aging generation, once a font of left-wing revolution, has elected authoritarian right-wingers across the board. And yes, I also plan to continue my own personal political journey in the coming year, reading, discussing, and hopefully finding ways to actively engage with the forces shaping society now and in the past.
In addition to all this, I am trying to make time for my own creative writing. I haven't made a short film since Class of 2002 three years ago (and that was my first such project in about six years), or even - truth be told - written a single usable page of a screenplay. That's not for lack of trying; I've spent countless hours filling journals with fragments of ideas, general story premises, character explorations, etc. But my energy just hasn't seemed to channel towards that type of totally original content for, well, over a decade much as I've wanted it too. You can't really force these things or, at any rate, you shouldn't. At the same time, I do wonder what role film - meaning film-(and TV-)watching, writing/posting about, and making - will play in my future.
In fact, rather than complete my thoughts here I realized the next few paragraphs deserve their own space. I'll publish them separately, following this, as a standalone status update, a moment of calm before the deluge of the coming weeks and months.
my new Twitter header and all-around favorite picture at the moment
With the election behind us (but oh, not really) and Christmas on the horizon, this seems like a good moment to pause, take stock, and look both forward and backward. I have some big projects coming up and others that I've just completed, which I'll get to in a moment.
First of all, now that they've been bumped off the front page, let me take one more opportunity to point you toward my Favorites series that wrapped up in early November (a great way to share it is to retweet my tweet-storm thread featuring a picture, link, and line for each one). It began way back in 2012 and hadn't even reached the halfway point this fall but I resolved to finally plow through it by posting an entry every day beginning in mid-September. The end result is a hundred entries on the films that move me, approached in as personal, casual, yet thoughtful a manner as I could manage. Hopefully, they encourage you to check out some the great films they cover. I've also posted a couple Fandor videos on older films (Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property and Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) related to the new releases The Birth of a Nation and La La Land (and if you like them, please share them - the Boston one in particular has gotten a disappointing number of views, unfortunately). Incidentally, Fandor has adopted a cool new format which displays my previous work quite nicely. In November I also posted my first political commentary on this blog in years (mostly in the form of Election Night tweets) and shared a series of podcasts I've appeared on.
So what's upcoming? Having resumed my Favorites series and Fandor video essays after abandoning them in the spring, two endeavors remain. The first, my numerous YouTube/Vimeo series (including both my Citizen Kane study and the various ongoing series) will have to wait until 2017 to resume - I'm not ready to jump back in yet (although I did post one stray video there last month which I worked very hard on, for Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl). The second, my weekly TV coverage, is ready to return but in a slightly different format for the moment. Several months ago, I finished watching Jane Campion's short mystery series Top of the Lake, writing long reviews of each episode along the way (it's a viewing diary covering my reaction as it unfolds, unaware of what will happen next - just as with The Prisoner - whose concluding entry I'll also be posting soon - and True Detective). The introductory entry will go up on Wednesday, and then entries will go up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, wrapping up inside December. Aside from Showtime's 2017 Twin Peaks, this will be the last time I cover individual episodes of a TV show in such depth. From now on, I intend to write shorter capsules, similar to the format of my Favorite series, as I'll be covering series with dozens, even hundreds of episodes in the coming years. I've already begun some of that work, but won't publish any given series until all the episodes have been completed. No more getting ahead of myself!
And before I get to the final item, just wanted to insert a little teaser: stay tuned for lots of Twin Peaks material in the new year. That kind of goes without saying, given the new episodes but even before that I am going to share a massive series of character studies I've been preparing for months, plus - hopefully - an episode guide I can publish concurrently with any rerun Showtime decides to air before the new premiere. As early as New Year's Day, I may be in a position to promise nonstop Twin Peaks content every single day as we count down to that relaunch.
Finally, some other business to take care of with this entry: I always like to link up to whatever else I'm doing online, including appearances on podcasts. Usually this is something Twin Peaks- or occasionally film-related, but last month I actually called into a YouTube political podcast for a change. This political season I've become a big fan of The Benjamin Dixon Show, a left-wing live talk show (which I usually download to listen to on my phone as a podcast) that invites listeners to call in with the "name, comment, and/or question." Ben's commentary is fantastic because he takes clear stands without falling into the "can't criticize my own side" trap. With that in mind, I called in to mention something that had been bugging me - the tendency of a handful of leftists to dismiss protests of Donald Trump by employing right-wing talking points. This ended up launching Ben into a great discussion of his own, about conspiracy theories (especially those involving George Soros) and the need to balance between having standards and taking available opportunities. Hopefully I can call again at some point - if anything, I'm only going to have more to say about politics in the coming months and years though I don't suspect a whole lot of it will find its way onto this blog (tune in on Twitter if that's your thing).
Here's the full show (if you want to jump to my comment at 33:13, follow this link)
Buckle up, and let's extract what relief - and contemplation, and action - we can in 2017, in all areas.
