Lost in the Movies: July 2018

Patreon update #31: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 12 (+ Billy Liar, The Great Movie Ride & more) and description of Laura character study, pt. IV


After two long episodes (especially last week), this one's a nice little digestible nugget - it comes in at almost exactly an hour. There's no film of focus; however, for the first time the Opening the Archive section emphasizes a particular title as I read aloud my review of Billy Liar from 2010 (part of a longer essay which I'll conclude next week with a review of This Sporting Life). My Return rewatch reaches Part 12, widely considered a disappointment at the time although I found it really rich to explore on this viewing. I also read some feedback on Part 9 and talk about Disney World's late Great Movie Ride which I was compelled to bring up for some reason. For my biweekly preview, the Laura character structure finally reaches the most interesting section, in which I organize the scenes that feature her "spirit" in one way or another.

Incidentally, this weekend I saw Sorry to Bother You, a major new release that will definitely be featured as a film in focus in August. This will probably be the week after next week so I have more time to read some other takes on it and dialogue with them. Quick take is I thought it was funny, fascinating, and flawed, and that it offered an extraordinarily and unusually deep well to draw from.




Line-up for Episode 31

INTRO

 WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: comments from limbo, fixed Wire images

 WEEKLY UPDATE/Patreon: 2nd tier biweekly - Laura Palmer character study structure Pt. IV ("Spirit")

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress: the full archive

 TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 12
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Jerry/Sarah/Fat Trout/Hit and run/Richard's father/Ben & Beverly/Jacoby/Roadhouse/Audrey's world
FBI in South Dakota - Yankton/Buckhorn
Las Vegas - Dougie at home/Jade & the key
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

 OTHER TOPICS: The Great Movie Ride in Disney World

 LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 9 feedback including the Search for the Zone site and the Hornes & the waterfall

 OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (2 of 3): Billy Liar

 OUTRO

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Freed from comment limbo!


I thought I was checking in on Disqus pretty regularly (certainly at least once or twice within the past few months), but apparently I wasn't so a dozen or so comments stretching back to the spring were hidden from view until now, waiting to be approved. There are so many in fact that I decided to devote a whole post to the ones that were lost in limbo (aside from any that were just questions in a thread), since they're being approved too late to appear on my sidebar. Is there a place, by the way, where readers can check out all of the various comments on my site on one page, not just limited to the individual pieces being commented upon? Like the same way my sidebar widget works, but without a numerical limit? Considering the variety of posts (some quite old) that receive comments, this seems like it would be a plus.

I promise to do a better job of keeping track of this going forward, and am delighted to see the responses I was getting unbeknownst to myself... (By the way, side note: I'm still working on the archive pages, and they should be up hopefully within a week if not a day or two.)

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Patreon update #30: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 11 (+ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the British New Wave, Twin Peaks as a meditation on art and creativity, podcast recommendations & more)


This ended up being a surprisingly long podcast (as well as a surprisingly late one - I got the actual episode up within an hour of its schedule, but the show note links, this cross-post, and other details took a bit longer). The Return rewatch, which resumes this week with an exciting, acclaimed episode, isn't much longer than usual and there's no film in focus, so I guess it was mostly the "other topics" section (with a little bit of help from some in-depth listener feedback) that stretched things out. This was my first opportunity to discuss the lightning-fast rise of Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - I address the success of her campaign, the differences between democratic socialism and social democracy, some of the left's criticisms of her recent statements, the unsurprising but still amusingly frantic reaction of both the right and the center, and more. As if that wasn't already enough, I also round up a number of podcast episodes (including several that address Ocasio-Cortez's win) plus a few videos, shows, and films that I've watched since June - so all in all, this section is about as long as it's ever been.

Afterwards, I feature some feedback on my Part 8 episode from listeners/patrons, including a long comment from Jake and an even more extended analysis of how Twin Peaks relates to art and creativity as indirect subjects, from Laurence. Finally I kick off a new era on "Opening the Archive" - from now on it will be a sort of reading series, in which I share older pieces from this site. Longer essays will be divided over several episodes, as is the case here; in anticipation of my Billy Liar and This Sporting Life reviews in the next two weeks, I lay out the history of the British New Wave and the cultural context of 1963, when both films were released.


Line-up for Episode 30

INTRO (including recent visit to Twin Peaks locations)

WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts - correction of previous podcast, cross-posted 25 Years Later, "Greeting from Twin Peaks" photos

WEEKLY UPDATE/works in progress - videos of locations for Journey series

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 11
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Hit and run/Becky/RR Franchise/Steven & Gersten/Shelly & Red/Ed & Norma/standalone scenes/mood of the town
FBI in South Dakota - Buckhorn
Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Debt/Assassination/Mitchums
Spirit World - Red Room (glimpse)/Convenience Store/Zone Spiral 
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS, Pt. 1: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (her victory, definitions of social democracy vs. democratic socialism, left-wing criticism of her Israel statements, right-wing and centrist attacks)

OTHER TOPICS, Pt. 2: podcast recommendations (including some about left electoralism & Ocasio-Cortez), John Oliver on Venezuela (& the debunking video), Eric Andre, High Maintenance, Sweetie, North Shore

LISTENER FEEDBACK: Pt. 8 feedback including a lengthy passage on Twin Peaks, art, and creativity

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: British New Wave (1 of 3): 1963 & "Whaddya got?"

OUTRO

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Greetings from Twin Peaks (pictures & a small status update)


Last week I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Snoqualmie, North Bend, and Fall City, Washington for the first time. My cousin and I visited the following locations: James' overlook, Ronette's bridge, the Twin Peaks sign area, the sheriff's station, the mill, the Double R Diner, the Great Northern and the waterfall, and the Roadhouse exterior (later, in Seattle, I was able to glimpse the Roadhouse interior). It was a great trip, with lots of photos and videos taken. Most of the videos will be saved for later use (as a complement to the way I ended the original Journey Through Twin Peaks videos, with still shots I found online), but here are a few pictures to commemorate the journey.

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Patreon update #29: 10th Anniversary Episode - Top 30 David Lynch/Twin Peaks pieces & Top 12 Video Essays (plus: the future of Lost in the Movies, plans for new Journey Through Twin Peaks & more) and description of Laura character study, pt. III


SEPTEMBER UPDATE: This podcast is now public (and in illustrated video form) - more details here.

Today is the day. Ten years ago, probably around the time I'm writing this, I established my Blogger account, clicked "Create a New Blog," and chose the title "thedancingimage" to go with the "blogspot" domain. The name change to Lost in the Movies would come further down the line, along with many other transformations but that's where it all began.

I'm still working on my full archive page, which may or may not be divided into individual chapter posts (illustrated directories for thirty different "eras" of the site) to be shared over the coming month - particularly if that's something readers are interested in exploring that way (let me know). For now, the commemoration is in the form of this post, including a public list of my "top" David Lynch/Twin Peaks pieces and (non-Lynch) video essays from the past ten years. On the podcast for patrons (a great day to join if you've been thinking about it!) I offer my perspective on this work, providing background or explanations for each selection and also narrating a broad overview of the past decade on the site itself and in the big picture/background that informed my evolution as an author.

Finally, I share some plans for the future, including a lot of ideas for different projects and series, and a detailed breakdown of the chapters I'm planning for the new Journey Through Twin Peaks (as well as a list of "unseen" popular films that I might cover for another series). Considering the inquiries I've received about upcoming Journey videos, I'm guessing this will probably be the most intriguing part of the podcast for many listeners. However, there's a lot of other material to check out here as well, including shout-outs to the fellow travelers: guests or hosts of my work, as well as bloggers and other creators whose invidual paths crossed mine.




I also continued my recent biweekly preview format, outlining my approach to an upcoming character study, in this case Laura Palmer again. Laura's timeline has proved lengthier than I expected, so this is the third of four previews (after her, I'll delve into Cooper).

The podcast's Return rewatch will resume next week (on schedule for the one-year anniversary of Part 11), and I'm not sure yet what will be going on for Lost in the Movies itself in the coming days and weeks. I may post individual chapters of the archive each day or I may just publish links to them as pages in one single post. Either way, I hope you continue to enjoy exploring the archive, as well as reading, viewing, or listening to my future work...
THE PUBLIC LIST OF TOP LYNCH/PEAKS PIECES & VIDEO ESSAYS:
(follow links to visit the selections, listen to the podcast to hear me discuss each one)

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Rewatching Parts 5-8 of Twin Peaks season 3: a conversation w/ Lindsay Stamhuis on 25 Years Later


In anticipation of my 10th anniversary tomorrow, I originally intended to publish my full archive page today. It's an illustrated chronological catalog of everything I've posted on the site, organized into thirty chapters. Unfortunately it isn't ready yet and is also a bit much to take in at a single glance. Instead, starting on Tuesday, I will share each chapter as an individual post in addition to eventually publishing the full page.

 For now I wanted to share some work that was recently published elsewhere but couldn't be featured on this site until now because of all the viewing diaries. This is my 1380th post and as such it concludes the #10YearsOfLostInTheMovies archive tweet series begun on February 28. Thanks for following!

This summer is the first anniversary of Twin Peaks' third season (or The Return, or the limited series, call it what you will). For many fans, this was our first time watching Twin Peaks week to week, and it was certainly our first time sharing that experience collectively. As such, there's a hunger to mark the occasion and a number of individuals and outlets have been conducting rewatches (including, of course, myself). At 25 Years Later, Lindsay Stamhuis has been conducting conversations on different sections of the show as those particular anniversaries roll around. John Thorne joined her to discuss Parts 1-4 and a few weeks ago I was invited to talk about the next four episodes. In comparison to the series' bold opening and close, Parts 5-7 can seem pretty laid back. (Part 8, of course, is another story).

However, I'm really fascinated by Parts 5-7, which each have their own distinct flavor. Because the first four were released all at once, it wasn't until Part 5 that we really got a flavor of the series as an ongoing week-to-week show, a concept that episode was particularly well-suited to deliver with its multitude of storylines and its re-emphasis on the town of Twin Peaks. These three episodes also introduce or develop a number of fascinating characters and storylines which Lindsay and I were eager to discuss. That said, the obvious "big one" here - indeed, the most notorious and astonishing episode of the whole season (some would argue even the whole series) - is Part 8. A good chunk of our conversation dwells on the questions raised by that unforgettable hour of television, and I think both of us found ourselves surprised by some of the conclusions - and new questions - we began to develop in the midst of this very exchange.

The full conversation is exclusive to 25 Years Later for now, but I'll share an opening sample here alongside the link. You can also check out my conversation with Lindsay from nine months ago, when the end of the series was still fresh in our minds. And make sure to visit her great podcast Bickering Peaks, in which she and husband/co-host Aidan are currently exploring the entire Lynch/Frost catalog, alternating between the Peaks auteurs' works in chronological order and including even some of their most obscure efforts. As a fan not only of Lynch and Frost but of chronological cataloging in general (as today's preamble demonstrated), I applaud their efforts!

Onto Parts 5-8. Here's how we begin...

LS: First off, something easy and general: Do you feel that rewatching the series with some distance from the original airing enhances your understanding or does it have some other effect on you?
JB: I don’t know if it enhances my understanding but it does provide a fresh context. I’m able to see it more as a cohesive if enigmatic whole.
LS: What was your gut impression when you saw the black box in Argentina? Do you have different feelings about it now?
JB: I think I assumed it was some new form of Jeffries, given David Bowie’s death, plus how David Lynch had turned Michael J. Anderson (the Little Man From Another Place) into a talking tree. Later, of course, we see him as the infamous “tea kettle” so maybe this box is something else after all, like a communication device. If anything, I’m even less sure what’s going on in Argentina than I was while watching. I suppose it’s possible the box doesn’t actually house or facilitate contact with Jeffries at all. We know Mr. C was in South America too, so maybe it’s something for his use. Given its visual links to other communication devices (we see the box right after Lorraine types on her blackberry and Mr. C does the trick with the telephone), perhaps this has something to do with getting in touch with Mr. C while he’s in lock-up, without anyone being able to trace the call? He could have set the device up long ago, in case of an emergency like this. In that sense, maybe the box is Lynch’s outlandish, highly visual version of an answering machine – Lorraine leaves a message, and Mr. C picks it up and then “deletes” the message (maybe “the cow jumps over the moon” triggers erasure) – hence the crumpling up.
LS: I like this idea a lot, that it was simply a highly stylized answering machine. Feels very “Lynch” in a way. There was so much talk about transfiguration and alchemy, with Argentina being highly suggestive of argent/silver, and the black device shrinking down to an apparently silver ball. If Lynch is drawn to gold as a metaphorical colour/substance, what do you think silver represents?
JB: I’m trying to think if there are other examples of silver in Twin Peaks, either verbally or visually. I do think Lynch is interested in different metal textures, for example that very tactile old bank vault in the Season 2 finale.
LS: Yes! Great observation. Now, the line: “You’re still with me. That’s good.” The whole idea that Cooper split into two halves has been explored in depth in the past, but there was always the other debate (going back to Leland vs BOB) about how involved BOB was in all of this. Seeing him emerge in the mirror in Part 5 seems to lend credence to the idea that BOB was possessing Cooper to some extent, which might invalidate the split theory. How do you view that whole situation?

See you tomorrow for a special Patreon podcast episode on the ten years of Lost in the Movies.

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The Wire - "Sentencing" (season 1, episode 13)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on September 8, 2002/written by David Simon & Ed Burns, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Tim Van Patten): Greggs is awake, but she can only do so much for the overeager homicide detectives. She won't identify Wee-Bey as the second shooter because she couldn't see him through the windshield; "Sometimes things just gotta play hard," she tells a disappointed Bunk. But she can play it soft too, sending McNulty to (finally) deliver the promised cash to Bubbles. It's too late: he's clearly using again and McNulty can only nod in understanding when Bubbles gently requests, "Don't tell Kima." These are only two of many disappointments in a roller-coaster denouement for the season. D'Angelo decides to turn state's witness, shocking McNulty and Pearlman (who celebrate by screwing in the parking garage), but then changes his mind when his mother Brianna (Michael Hyatt) pressures him. It probably doesn't help that he hadn't been placed in a witness protection program yet, due to the FBI's unwillingness to take the Baltimore Police Department's case. They're only interested in going after terrorists, big suppliers, and corrupt politicians. The Barksdale investigation could potentially provide that third target, but the Feds want to provide protection for Stringer and Avon if they turn in bigger fish and neither McNulty nor Daniels wants to let the butchers of Baltimore off the hook that easy.

So the case goes forward with mixed results, better than might have been expected but much smaller than seemed possible when the FBI and D'Angelo were in the offing. Instead, D'Angelo takes the big fall for the drug charge (a maximum sentence of twenty years for possession with intent to distribute) while Wee-Bey avoids the death penalty for one murder by helping the BPD clear out their backlog, pleading guilty to multiple slayings (including some he didn't actually pull the trigger on). Over a dozen Barksdale men take plea deals and are sentenced to about five years each while Avon himself is sent away for seven - all of them charged for narcotics activity rather than violence (only Wee-Bey gits pinned for homicide). Everyone's congratulating McNulty: Stringer as he walks away scott-free, Judge Phelan as he attempts to skirt his own utter abandonment, and Rawls as he facilitates McNulty's reassignment (to the marine unit, where a chuckling Bunk and Freamon toss him a drink as his speedboat pulls out of the harbor). McNulty's work doesn't seem to be worth much, but he also may view his treatment as a necessary penance. During his visit to Greggs he apologizes, observing that it's always the black officers who have to go undercover in cases like this, tacitly acknowledging that he could afford to treat it as a game while others couldn't.

Other characters face diminished returns too: Daniels loses his shot at promotion, Greggs remains in the hospital, and Bubbles is back to hustling. Some are moving up in the world, to varying degrees - Herc plays cerebral mentor to fresh young recruits, Freamon is restored to the high-profile homicide work he richly deserves (he's also enjoying Shardene's company more than professional duty requires), and Carver is promoted to sergeant - although Daniels' stern warning rings in his ears, about the responsibilities of this position and the values necessary to become a good leader (after Daniels discovered Carver was the one passing information to Burrel). On the street side, Stringer is now running a tight ship out of a back room in a sober funeral home rather than the sleazy strip club, Bodie has been promoted to the high rise, and Poot has taken over the pit. And the traffic goes on, and on, and on, the episode's closing montage confirming that the hard work and sacrifices of the Daniels detail made absolutely no actual dent in Baltimore's drug trade or its human cost. The product is even traced up to New York where Omar whistles "Farmer in the Dell," holds up a dealer, and laughs, "All in the game."

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The Wire - "Cleaning Up" (season 1, episode 12)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on September 1, 2002/written by George Pelecanos, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clement Virgo): The troubling reality of this case is sinking in for everyone on both sides of the war. Some come out ahead of others, but nobody really feels like a victor. Detective Leandor Sydnor (Corey Parker Robinson), a quiet but steady presence on the investigation (so quiet, in fact, that I haven't mentioned him until now), articulates this sense explicitly. Gazing at the corkboard, where Avon's photo has been tagged with an "Arrested" note while many other faces and names remain untouched, Sydnor sighs, "It's the best work I ever did. I never did a case like this. It's not enough. I gotta go back to auto tomorrow and just feel like...this just ain't finished."

However, it is finished for several characters. Avon spends the whole episode, well, cleaning up - which means several more dead bodies. Security guard Nakeesha Lyles (Ingrid Cornell), whom we met way back in the second scene of the series when she changed her story on the stand (freeing D'Angelo) is not saved by her failure to testify. On the tacit recommendation of Avon's respectable lawyer, the civilian is executed for fear she may change her mind again. The other victim is Wallace; Stringer meets with young Bodie and hints at what he wants done. Bodie acts tough, sneering at Wallace behind his back and later to his face when he has a gun pulled on him. But he hesitates before killing his friend, just long enough for Wallace to realize what's going to happen (all the children are gone from his new squat, a chilling prelude to the end of his brief life). As Wallace cries, Poot shouts for Bodie to do it and ends up finishing the job himself. The police, who lost track of the boy after Greggs was shot, discover his body the next day: yet another individual snuffed out as a result of their interference. Earlier in "Cleaning Up," Avon and Stringer called D'Angelo into their office, asking him to send Wallace their way, but D'Angelo refused ("Let Wallace be," he told his uncle with a steely determination that has been building up all season). With Wallace gone, D'Angelo has had enough. He only finds out about the boy's death from McNulty, after getting arrested for possession (thanks to a new wire that leads to Avon's arrest as well). When Stringer and Levy show up at the jail to speak with D'Angelo, he declares that he'll be hiring his own lawyer and angrily confronts Stringer with a question he can't answer: "Where's Wallace at? Where the fuck is Wallace? Where's Wallace, String?" It's unclear if D'Angelo will flip on Avon (I doubt it), but a break has been made.

With Shardene's help, Freamon bugs the strip club from an adjoining building, circumventing the need for a warrant but despite Avon's resultant arrest, the Daniels detail is glum. McNulty is particularly devastated by Greggs' comatose condition, declaring that the case is meaningless - and that for him it was never about stopping the brutality of the Barksdale organization but just about boosting his own ego. Daniels doesn't want to hear it. The job matters now, precisely because Greggs went down. Now the roles are flipped, with McNulty dragging his feet and Daniels taking a hard line; in fact, the lieutenant is finally able to tell off Burrell too - another long-term culmination, much like D'Angelo's explosion. After Daniels' investigation into the state senator and other politicians brings heat to the department, the deputy commissioner order Daniels to close shop and threatens to expose the old FBI investigation if he doesn't. But Daniels calls Burrell's bluff, noting that the last thing his boss wants is bad publicity so, if necessary, he'll put it all on the line for this case. Later, to punish the lieutenant, Burrell orders back a number of officers but tells Daniels he can keep his two weakest links: the old pawn shop cop Freamon and the incompetent young buffoon Prez. Daniels smirks, knowing that these are possibly his two most talented cops (Freamon has become the shining star of the detail, while Prez has developed an unexpected flair for analyzing and digging up the paper trail). He's also realizing that Burrell is a paper tiger who doesn't know as much as he'd like to think he does.

Speaking of paper tigers - on both sides - a SWAT team gathers outside Orlando's and revs up for a big raid on the drug kingpin as Daniels and McNulty roll their eyes. Protected only by basic bullet-proof vests, they brush past the jacked-up squad to arrest Avon themselves, leaving Stringer - to his surprise - untouched. McNulty allows Daniels to exit the building with Avon alone, a kind of penance for his earlier, destructive hubris. This, it seems, is how the Avon Barksdale investigation ends - with an arrest, yes, but more of a whimper than a bang.

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The Wire - "The Hunt" (season 1, episode 11)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 18, 2002/written by Joy Lusco, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Steve Shill): Greggs is alive, but in critical condition. A furious but contained Rawls quickly dominates the bustling scene, insisting that everyone not under the direct command of a homicide detective - Narcotics, DEA, state cops, and others - clear the location immediately. He also memorably chews out an agonized McNulty at the hospital, shortly after playing the audiotape of Greggs' last moments of consciousness. "You, McNulty, are a gaping asshole," he growls. "...But fuck if I'm going to stand here and say you did a single fucking thing to get a police shot. You did not do this, you fucking hear me? This is not on you." It's the memorable cap to a tour-de-force extended opening sequence, balances out the negative portrait of Rawls that The Wire has been delivering all season (though I suspect we'll tilt back soon enough).

Daniels' detail is forced to bust up the main stash house so the department can stage a photo op with lots of captured narcotics; with the police so busy this episode, the street perspective takes a back seat. What we do witness is a growing panic: Stringer in particular seems broken, while Little Man (Micaiah Jones) - the shooter - is now marked for death and Wee-Bey is shaken by his own role in the incident (the show finally unveils that infamous Wee-Bey reaction shot, as he realizes Greggs was a cop). The core of the gang scatters to the wind, fleeing to Philadelphia or hiding out locally until the storm blows over (if it's going to). Savino surrenders himself after McNulty pressures the Barksdale lawyer Maurice Levy (Michael Kostroff), but he cops only to a small charge of trying to defraud Orlando rather than to any role in the shooting. He'll get three years which is extremely frustrating to McNulty but there's an even more anxious question hovering in the background. Is this all he and the others who've invested so much in this operation are going to accomplish?

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The Wire - "The Cost" (season 1, episode 10)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 11, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Brad Anderson): Despite Avon's beating and warning a few episodes ago, Orlando carries on with his planned score. But as he gets into the car and exchanges cash for cocaine, something is off. Is Orlando about to be robbed? Is the product he's receiving far worse than expected? Was this a fatal set-up by Avon to test his loyalty? None of the above, as it turns out, though the long-term consequences of this indiscretion will be dire, and widespread. The dealer, Troy Wiggins (Neko Parham), is an undercover state cop. Orlando lands in jail and quickly snitches on Avon, leading Wiggins to the Daniels detail and his old friend and colleague Greggs. It's unclear how much Orlando can really provide the investigation - they've just achieved more important progress in determining the location of the quiet stash house in the suburbs that supplies the low-rises and high-rises in the inner city. However, an impatient Burrell pressures the reluctant detectives to conduct a buy bust. Greggs will go undercover as one of Orlando's squeezes, ostensibly fronting half the money for a major purchase that could expose a higher-up in the organization.

Orlando is one of a growing web of informants in The Wire. This episode alone is thick with them. Wallace is picked up and McNulty easily flips him on Stringer and Wee-Bey, although the boy is hesitant to say anything bad about D'Angelo (outright denying his culpability for the Deidre Kresson case). Daniels drives Wallace, undergoing withdrawal, out to a relative in the countryside where the city kid is perplexed by the sound of crickets. Omar is also going away (to New York City), having established a fragile truce with the Barksdale crew. He wears a wire for a very public parlay in a mall with Stringer (who won't acknowledge his boss' name) and flees after his demand for $5,000 is accepted - at that point he knows they're just trying to lure him into being killed. Shardene attempts to spy for Freamon (in a sly moment after she ignores D'Angelo, he kicks over a stool and a pigeon flies across the screen). And a newly sober Bubbles asks for help from Greggs. The wry detective jokes that a clean informant isn't much use to her but agrees to get him some money.

As it turns out, Bubbles is one of many who will feel the aftermath of what happens that night. The set-up collapes when Avon's enforcer Savino Bartton (Chris Clanton) drives Orlando and Greggs to an unexpected area of town. They are left alone in the parked car and then sprayed with gunfire. By the time Greggs' desperate peers reach the crime scene, Orlando is long dead and a bloodied Greggs is dragged from the car, with McNulty trying to resuscitate her limp body amidst the ensuing chaos.

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The Wire - "Game Day" (season 1, episode 9)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on August 4, 2002/written by David H. Melnick & Shamit Choksey, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Milčo Mančevski): After several episodes in which The Wire's scope broadened, "Game Day" is tight and focused. The central event is a basketball game between Eastside and Westside, with the suit-clad Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew) representing the east's Avon equivalent. The game - literal for once - provides Daniels' detail the opportunity to physically identify and follow Avon (who mocks their efforts, hiding his car between streets to lure Daniels out and then driving past the lieutenant while dramatically wagging his finger). This plot device also introduces Proposition Joe, who will help Omar out by the end of the episode, exchanging a stash of free drugs for information that lures Avon out of the strip club and nearly leads to his death (as Omar emerges from the shadows near the club, only Wee-Bey's out-of-the-blue intervention saves Avon).

The club is the locus of another subplot, as Freamon and Greggs pick up Shardene and find out she's as compliant and sensitive as they hoped. When they show her Keisha's body and describe how she was found - rolled up inside a rug in a dumpster - Shardene breaks, acknowledging she is D'Angelo's girlfriend and listening (but not yet, it seems, agreeing) to the detectives' request for collaboration. She bonds with Freamon, admiring his dollhouse furniture and even keeping one of the pieces (of a little baby), a sentimental gesture that may hurt her if anyone who has been inside the detail's cavern spots the connection. Herc and Carver, meanwhile, seize another bag of cash, leading Daniels to suspect they're holding out (Herc considered this option at one point, but the missing cash was actually lost inside the trunk of their car). All of the cops' action takes place close to the street; there are no scenes at the police headquarters and interdepartmental drama is mostly offscreen.

Indeed, Bubbles' storyline is the only one to exist entirely outside of the Barksdale investigation or Omar's quest for vengeance. After literally fishing a baggie of heroin (actually baking soda) for himself and Johnny, Bubbles begins to crack. He's already seen Walon down in the pit watching out for a family member and his NA vow is looking more and more enticing. So finally the scraggly user shows up at his skeptical sister's (Eisa Davis') door. She allows him to stay in her basement and try to go clean. Along with D'Angelo, Shardene, and Wallace (who is looking toward drugs rather than away from them), Bubbles is considering a way out of his current life. Some of these characters will undoubtedly be more successful than others but at least Bubbles has a potential mentor in Walon, someone who could actually have his own best interests at heart. I'm not sure we can say that about the others.

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Patreon update #28: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 10 (+ Chilean Revolution, my spring viewing diaries & more)


As we take a break from films in focus the episodes are getting shorter again. This one is particularly slim, just over an hour, which suits its central subject: Part 10 was a surprisingly light "hour" that actually ran only about fifty-four minutes (excluding the longest musical number of the series, the nearly seven-minute "No Stars") . I mean "light" primarily in terms of runtime of course; while this episode does indulge the more comic side of the Mitchums, and effectively introduce the delightfully daffy Candie, Part 10 is a very dark affair - indulging in shocking violence, meditating on loss, grief, and trauma, and taking place largely at night. Suiting that mood, my "Other Topics" section uses a recent Revolutionary Left Radio podcast as a springboard to discuss the Chilean revolution of the early seventies, which ended in a brutal U.S.-backed coup. To close the episode, I finish my twenty-eight-part "Opening the Archive" series which has surveyed my work over ten years (in the future this section will focus on a single piece at a time, usually reading the full text of a written piece or playing the audio track from a video essays that work on those terms as well).




The catching-up of the Archive series to the present brings us to the reason that, for the second week in a row, the rewatch series is taking advantage of 2017's two-week break between Parts 9 and 10 to present an episode a week ahead of when it aired. (The break will be observed next week instead, so that when the rewatch resumes with Part 11 July 23 we will be in sync again.)

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The Wire - "Lessons" (season 1, episode 8)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 28, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Gloria Muzio): Orlando's (Clayton Le Boeuf's) strip club - which is, of course, Orlando's in name only - figures heavily in "Lessons." Orlando's offer to D'Angelo, to do a little dealing on the side, comes back to haunt him when Avon finds out, beating and threatening the owner of his legitimate front business for threatening to taint it with crime. Some of Orlando's employees suffer (or are poised to suffer) even more - one stripper, Keisha (Shaneera Lawson-Smith), overdoses at a party to celebrate Stinkum's (Brandon Price's) promotion; the only one who seems to care is D'Angelo. Later, when his own stripper girlfriend Shardene (Wendy Grantham) worries about Keisha's absence, D'Angelo wonders aloud if this life is really for him. Between Brandon's beating, Keisha's death, and the everyday dishonesty and brutality he's witnessing around him, the game is starting to feel like a trap. Unbeknownst to either of them, Shardene may soon be caught in this trap herself; Freamon and Greggs identify her as the best bet for a future informant based on their impression of her photographic portrait.

Other Orlando's-related photos will cause trouble for the detail. While visiting the police again, Omar spies a snapshot of the business on their corkboard and realizes it must be a front for Avon. When we see him waiting outside the club as Orlando locks up, we can probably guess what he has in mind (actually, there are a few strong options). Omar's already caused immense havoc this episode, killing Stinkum and maiming Wee-Bey before whistling "The Farmer in the Dell" and shouting out from the shadows "Come at the king, you best not miss." When the detail realizes Omar's behind the shooting, McNulty forces Bunk to lie to other homicide detectives, letting them know that the narcotics squad has recorded evidence of who killed Stinkum and will offer it once the investigation is over (they have no intention of doing so). All of the officers involved are slightly uncomfortable with this dynamic: is Omar their informant or an off-the-books assassin? Granted, Stinkum's death actually complicates their case rather than simplifying it (since he was one of their best potential weak links to Avon) but the way they all cover him doesn't quite sit will with any of them. "Are we still cops?" McNulty half-jokingly asks, and when he and Bunk go out to drown their sorrows in booze, Bunk ends up going home with a random woman and forcing McNulty to lie to his wife as a quid pro quo. Later that night, McNulty finds Bunk in a pink bathrobe, burning "the evidence" in a bathtub so that he won't go home smelling like another woman.

In the midst of this other personal and professional drama, the investigation almost comes undone when Greggs and Carver pick up a well-dressed bagman in the projects. Turns out this is the state senator's personal driver whom Daniels met at the party in the previous episode; orders come from the higher-ups to let him go immediately and Daniels is warned that the investigation has a few days to wrap it up and bring whatever charges they can against Avon. Phelan comes to their rescue, warning Deputy Commissioner of Operations Ervin Burrell (Frankie Faison) that he'll be held in contempt of court if he attempts to prematurely close down the wiretaps. McNulty doesn't just have powerful judges on his side in "Lessons"; his own sons assist him early on by tailing Stringer when he randomly walks into a grocery store they're shopping inside. McNulty uses the information they acquire (Stringer's license plate) to tail Avon's right-hand man, although the only thing he discovers is that Stringer is taking macroeconomics courses at a community college. In an episode where Herc and Carver study for the sergeant's exam and McNulty quizzes his kids on police terminology, this proves that the titular lessons aren't just for the police side of the equation...although how much longer Stringer will be able to pursue and apply this knowledge is far more open to question.

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The Wire - "One Arrest" (season 1, episode 7)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 21, 2002/written by Rafael Alvarez, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Joe Chappelle): "One Arrest" has a knack for playing characters off of one another in interesting ways. The pathetic Prez and professorial Freamon unexpectedly bond over their shared enthusiasm for codebreaking. Bubbles, accompanying Johnny to an NA meeting for laughs, finds himself profoundly moved by a talk given by Walon (country icon Steve Earle) to the point where he pledges his determination to live (even though he's high at the moment and will shoot up again later in the day). McNulty is eager to impress Judge Phelan with the case he's making, only for Phelan to humiliate him with a grammatical lesson on the difference between "then" and "than" while hitting on Rhonda Pearlman (Deirdre Lovejoy), the legal liaison for the Daniels detail (although it's McNulty who ends up getting invited into her home at episode's end - potentially the second time they've hooked up since he asked her how to clone a beeper in "The Buys"). Daniels accompanies his wife to a tony party where he feels out of place, eventually settling in with the chauffeurs who are watching a baseball game in the kitchen. One of them, Damien "Day-Day" Price (Donnell Rawlings) entertains the police lieutenant by describing how he'd rip off the entire place in great detail before Daniels reveals his actual occupation. Near the end of the episode, one of the most unusual and productive pairings occurs between Omar and Bunk; the thief recognizes the cop as a lacrosse player a few years ahead of him in school. In the midst of this repartee, Omar helps solve yet another cold case.

Omar is in the station because he's already fingered Bird for Gant's killing; Bird, defiant even when confronted with the prospect of capital punishment (the ballistics match on his weapon) is beaten by several officers. A succession of police actions - including the arrest of recent police brutality victim Kevin Johnston (making for an awkward moment with Prez and a failed intervention attempt by Daniels) - has the whole Barksdale gang spooked. Stringer correctly deduces the issue after one too many arrests, and he has the low-rise crew tear all the pay phones out of place and implement a new approach to making calls from now on. That is to say, most of the low-rise crew does this: Wallace is pointedly absent, getting high in his home as he gazes at the spot where Brandon was found. His life seems to be falling to pieces (and this in an episode where Omar has gone out of his way to remind us that Avon strictly prohibits users as dealers). There have essentially been two crucial inciting incidents this season, from which almost everything else has rippled: first, D'Angelo's offscreen slaying that led to his demotion, the killing of Gant and recent arrest of Bird, and of course the whole narcotics detail itself; and second, Omar's robbery of the stash which may have created an even more serious long-term threat for the Barksdale organization than the police themselves. These events initiate but can hardly contain the subsequent blowback. The Wire has been called Dickensian and Shakespearean but its delight in arranging and rearranging many moving pieces, and its enthusiasm for intricate tactical detail alongside its taste for the drama of humanity, also recall War and Peace.

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The Wire - "The Wire" (season 1, episode 6)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on July 7, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Ed Bianchi): Six episodes in, the series embraces its title, bugging the pay phones on the low-rise apartment buildings near the pit. However, the police need to ensure that the conversations they're listening to are pertinent to the investigation, requiring constant visual surveillance on the rooftops. Right away, they - and particularly Freamon, who is proving himself the brains behind the whole operation - are able to piece together some crucial information from this eavesdropping. They are able to link pager numbers and call times to the time and location of Brandon's murder, or at least the kidnapping that led to his brutal torture and eventual execution. They also have a new informant, willing to testify as a witness against Bird (Fredro Starr) for an earlier shooting as revenge for the Barksdale enforcer's role in killing Brandon. Omar is devastated not just by his boyfriend's demise, but the condition he's found in: an eye gouged out, cigarette burns and knife wounds all over his body, sprawled out over a car in a particularly squalid neighborhood. But he's not frightened by his own potential victimhood ("Omar don't scare") as much as he is determined to fight fire with fire.

The thief's role as a potential thorn in Barksdale's side is so important that McNulty (who has the kids on this particular night, after much frustration in not being able to see them) drives into Omar's area with his sons in tow and makes them wait in the police station as Omar identifies Brandon's body. Omar wails so loudly that the startling sound interrupts one of the boys' chirping handheld video game. It's clear now that this will be Omar's place in the narrative, at least for the time being. Will Bubbles become less necessary to the cops? If so, a diminished role comes at a very bad time for him - he could really use some help for Johnny, who is arrested while scoring more heroin with money earned from a stolen copper wire sale. If the effect of Brandon's death is rippling across many different areas outside of the Barksdale business, it has also created an impact within the gang. This is particularly true for Wallace, who not only placed the call that led to Brandon's capture but was also among the first to see his body outside the apartment where Wallace, Poot, and a whole bunch of early-school-age children are squatting. Wallace is greatly disturbed by the sight of his own action's consequences. D'Angelo tells him to put this out of his mind, but also shows sympathy for the shaken teen.

Even as, unbeknownst to himself, an old killing is attracting growing police attention, D'Angelo remains a calm at the center of the storm. He reassigns pawns rather than allow them to get beaten for some mild thieving on the side, and he even explains the withholding-pay scheme to Wallace, to whom he's becoming something of an impromptu mentor. Opening the season as a rash, foolish young man in over his head, whose savvy uncle intervened to protect him, D'Angelo now looks like the more shrewd, patient, and responsive leader while Avon descends into paranoia and showiness, sauntering into the pit to make an impression but too far removed from the action himself to really get what's going on inside.

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The Wire - "The Pager" (season 1, episode 5)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 30, 2002/written by Ed Burns, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clark Johnson): Prez - of all people - cracks the pager code, which involves diagonal/cross-numbers on pay phone keypads. Nonetheless, even if they can now recognize the numbers calling in, the cops still can't hear the actual messages. Freamon stresses this point: without wiretaps on the payphones they're not going to get anywhere. Indeed, as the episode ends Brandon is about to get hit (Bailey already has been) and the police have no way of knowing, even as the computers dutifully log every number and call time. Meanwhile, with Avon's crew taking down the thieves one by one, Omar's position becomes more untenable. Brandon's death in particular is going to sting - he's not just a partner but a lover. How will Omar react? Earlier in the episode, we see McNulty and Greggs gently confront Omar, trying to woo him into becoming a snitch, but he declines as a point of honor - although he drops the name of the witness' killer from the first episode, so that honor may not extend so far. Now that his back's against the wall and he's been hit in a personal way, will he change his mind even further? Since he's not directly part of the drug business, I've wondered what Omar's role would be. Perhaps this will be it: someone not only on the street, but also the police side. While Omar considers his options, Carver and Herc arrest Bodie, beating, threatening, and attempting to bribe him to no avail. By the end of the night, they're all playing pool - they mock the prisoner for thinking he could hustle them...but in a way he already has, hasn't he?

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The Wire - "Old Cases" (season 1, episode 4)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 23, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clement Virgo): "Old Cases" is full of surprises. Avon and his closest associates are taken aback to find out that Omar is a gay man, even doubling the bounty on him when they learn this information. (A few scenes earlier, we were already shown Omar and Brandon, played by Michael Kevin Darnell, cuddling on a stoop.) McNulty is unexpectedly impressed by the innovative police work of Freamon, one of the quietest members of his crew, who has tracked down D'Angelo's pager, concocted a pager surveillance program, and thus set up a new phase of the operation. Taking Freamon out for drinks, McNulty learns his history as a homicide detective reassigned to pawn shop duty when he overstepped his bounds (he forced the son of an influential newspaper publisher to testify in a murder case fourteen years earlier). Bodie Broadus (J.D. Williams), the kid who just beat up the cop (and was beaten in turn), disappoints the policemen arriving to interrogate him at a juvenile detention center by sneaking away before they even arrive (disguised as a janitor, he makes an easy escape and then steals a car to drive back to Baltimore; Carver and Herc, meanwhile, raid his grandmother's house while only Herc lingers behind to apologize and make a brief connection with the older woman).

Bodie catches D'Angelo's eye when he arrives back in the projects, boastful about his escape, and then the older, more experienced D'Angelo cuts him down to size by recounting a previously untold hit on one of his uncle's too-talkative girlfriends a few years ago. McNulty and Bunk are shocked when a dog of an old case, the unsolved shooting of Deidre Kresson (actress unknown), yields new evidence, including a bullethole in the window, previously assumed to be an exit from an interior execution but, in fact, an entry from an exterior shooting. The detectives communicate their weariness, curiosity, and eventual excitement with multiple variations of "fuck," a verbal tic as iconic in its own way as any visual flourish. The biggest surprise of all is ours: the circumstances of this woman's murder match the killing that D'Angelo has just described - something we already suspected as soon as he began to talk but which the crime scene apparently confirms.

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The Wire - "The Buys" (season 1, episode 3)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 16, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Peter Medak): The Avon Barksdale investigation hits another low point when the crew is ordered to make a bust, undercutting their larger mission and - as it turns out - yielding nothing (the stash was moved a day or two earlier). Disgusted by this decision, McNulty refuses to participate but it's unclear whether he or Daniels will come out of this situation with the upper hand. As it turns out, the brash renegade cop may have dirt on his superior; an FBI pal tells him that Daniels was once investigated for potential financial improprieties. Nobody in the department comes out well in this episode, as the hangover of the Prez beatdown continues to haunt them (Prez himself barely appears, showing up only to man the shoddy office with McNulty as unexpected company while their peers, even Herc, go on the raid).

In the projects, D'Angelo dispenses and receives wisdom, teaching chess to his young associates by comparing the pieces to members of their organization ("the king stay the king," he informs them when they naively suggest the pawn's ambitions) but also receiving some schooling from them about the disposability of their captive customer base. Stringer chuckles about how the worse their product is, the better it sells, and even Bodie and Poot (Tray Chaney) express contempt for a junkie when he shows up too early. The biggest turn of events may arrive with a player outside of both arenas; Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) is a thief who cases the area for several days before breaking into the safe house one night and robbing the dealers at gunpoint (they, and we, learn his name when an associate stupidly blurts it out). It's a brief but memorable appearance and, circumstances and outside knowledge reveal, far from his last.

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Patreon update #27: Twin Peaks season 3 rewatch - Part 9 (+ Bob Dylan's Pretty Saro music video & more) and description of Laura character study, pt. II


This week's mellow, meditative episode pairs my analysis of the quiet Part 9, a surprisingly low-key return to Twin Peaks after the revolutionary Part 8, and my reflections on a Bob Dylan music video I discovered on Twitter a while ago. "Pretty Saro" was a Dylan cut so deep it never even appeared as a bootleg (it was recorded for, but excluded from, his 1970 album Self-Portrait). Created for a special release five years ago by the filmmaker Jennifer Lebeau, and tweeted again recently to celebrate the singer's seventy-seventh birthday (which is how I found it), the video uses many midcentury snapshots and home movies from the Library of Congress to paint a powerful portrait of a time just recent enough to feel like part of the collective memory, yet just old enough to feel like a dream that has mostly slipped away. I dissect the history of the song itself, the context of the recording, and the reasons why these images resonate. For reference (and the enjoyment of readers, including those who are not patrons), I've embedded the video beneath the following line-up. If you have comments or impressions you'd like to share, please do and I'll present them on the podcast. For whatever reason, this very random piece struck a chord with me and also gelled with a particularly subdued, vaguely melancholy Twin Peaks episode.

Finally, now that I'm cross-posting on Mondays, biweekly previews will be linked in odd-numbered Patreon updates going forward. This edition continues to outline how I'm approaching Laura's narrative in my future character study, in this case organizing scenes from the first season when she is either mentioned by other characters or present as a corpse or disembodied voice. As these outlines are longer than initially expected, the next preview should conclude this format (an overview of how I'm organizing Cooper's story will follow afterwards).




INTRO

WEEKLY UPDATE/mostly Patreon: main site cross-posts now go up on Monday (brief X-Files/Wire mention, no work in progress)

TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS Return Rewatch Pt. 8 
The feel & structure of the episode
Twin Peaks - Cooper investigation/Hit and run/Jerry/Ben & Beverly/Beverly's marriage/Roadhouse/standalone scenes
FBI in South Dakota - Yankton/Buckhorn
Mr. C
Las Vegas - Dougie at work/Dougie at home/Assassination plot
Spirit World - Zone (mentioned)
Character introductions & re-introductions/screentime rankings/timeline of events
Coffee, pie, and donuts (and cigarettes!)
Lodge lore
Laura Palmer

OTHER TOPICS: Pretty Saro - Bob Dylan music video

OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Podcasting for Patreon" (January - April 2018), this week's highlight: Patreon podcast, episode 11: Connecting Eraserhead & Inland Empire (+ Blue Velvet)

OUTRO


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The Wire - "The Detail" (season 1, episode 2)


Welcome to my viewing diary for The Wire. Every day, except Saturday, I will offer a short review of another episode until I finish the first season. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on June 9, 2002/written by David Simon, story by David Simon & Ed Burns; directed by Clark Johnson): The whole crew assembles...and it isn't pretty. When Lt. Daniels gathers his detail together in the bleak basement room of some peripheral police-owned building (a solitary phone hilariously rings in the middle of the floor), he is surrounded by embarassments. Augustus Polk (Nat Benchley) and Patrick Mahon (Tom Quinn) are washed-up detectives known more for their boozing than their policing. Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) is an anonymous veteran whose beat is more typically pawn shops than drug dens. And "Prez" (Jim True-Frost), well...what can't you say about the gawky, inordinately-too-confident Roland Pryzbyelewski? You certainly can't say he's good at job. Nor could you claim he knows his own limitations. We first get acquainted with Prez when he accidentally discharges his weapon in the cavernous cellar HQ, and we soon learn that he was nearly fired for shooting at his own car (family connections keep him working in the department, even as various officers try to pass him off onto other ones).

By the end of the episode, Prez has done much worse than that: encouraging a raid that had no reason to occur, beating the teenage Kevin Johnston (Jimmie Jelani Manners) until he's blinded in one eye, and provoking an attack on the police that makes headlines the following morning. The detective is an absolute disaster, although Herc and Ellis are no help either, enthusiastically accompanying him on his mission of brutalization. This is the central thread of "The Detail", but there are other important elements too. McNulty discovers the murdered witness, and manipulates his favorite/least favorite judge to pressure Baltimore PD into allowing him to investigate. Greggs leads a clever undercover op, utilizing Reginald "Bubbles"Cousins (Andre Royo) to identify leading members of the Barksdale gang. And D'Angelo gets played by the cops when they claim to show him a picture of dead witness Gant's kids (Moreland later chuckles, "those were my kids") and cajole him into writing a sympathy letter that stops just this side of being a confession. D'Angelo also takes his girlfriend Donette (Shamyl Brown) to meet his uncle Avon (Wood Harris), the leader of the entire crime syndicate, looking entirely innocuous as he hosts a family gathering for the neighborhood.

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