June 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #17 - Season 2 Episode 9 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #68 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Peyton Place (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Harold, Nancy, Harold's house, the woods, Harold and the diary/The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, La Dolce Vita & more)

No film is as deeply related to Twin Peaks' origins as the fifties melodrama Peyton Place, part of the pitch made to (rather than by) David Lynch and Mark Frost when their mutual agent suggested they write a nighttime soap opera together. When they screened the film - although their agent may have had in mind the later spin-off TV series - they didn't find it particularly illuminating. However, my return visit this month for the main podcast's "Twin Peaks cinema" coverage yielded many interesting connections (and contrasts; sometimes those differences-within-similarities are the most fascinating elements of all). The overlap seemed especially sharp given this month's Twin Peaks Reflections focus on Harold for character, location, and storyline - there's a somewhat Harold-like character in Peyton Place although, ironically, he's played by a young Russ Tamblyn (i.e. Dr. Jacoby)! A brief clip of Tamblyn's dialogue plays in my Opening the Archive section (I used it to kick off Journey Through Twin Peaks years ago) but most of the podcast's back half is taken up by previous work on La Dolce Vita, which I was unable to highlight when I covered that Fellini film on my October podcast.

Episode 68: Twin Peaks cinema - Peyton Place (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Harold, Nancy, Harold's house, the woods, Harold and the diary/The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, La Dolce Vita & more)

My Lost in Twin Peaks podcast reaches a milestone by concluding the Laura Palmer investigation, which calls for another two-parter. The first part introduces us to the production, television, historical, media, and fan context of episode 16...

Lost in Twin Peaks #17A: S2E9, Part 1 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

...while the second part dives into the story itself while teasing out the ambiguities and complexities of Twin Peaks' race to the finish. Please let me know your own thoughts on this complicated, frustrating, and fascinating episode; I look forward to sharing them as future listener feedback.

Lost in Twin Peaks #17B: S2E9, Part 2 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

Finally, while the full mystery-resolution arc is available to my $5/month tier, I'm opening another earlier episode up to all patrons: the first non-Lynch entry of season two.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #11 ("Episode 10") open to all patrons

I'm hoping to introduce a public podcast in July (if things go as planned, which - given how this month has gone - means you should probably expect the debut in August or September if we're lucky). This will be composed, at least throughout 2020, of previously recorded material sliced into much smaller episodes built around a single film at a time. I have further ambitions for this project but for now, of course, it's time to get back to Journey Through Twin Peaks. Hopefully I'll have something ready on that front soon.

Podcast Line-Ups for:

End of Spring update (including new schedule, works in progress & Journey Through Twin Peaks on Vimeo)

As a few projects take longer than expected, now seemed like a good moment to pause for a status update - and the requisite random Anna Karina picture that always goes with these posts. Early June was supposed to be reserved for some behind-the-scenes work before kicking off Part 6 of Journey, but not only is Part 5 unfinished, my side work hit unforeseen snags too. Mad Men was removed from Netflix literally the day before I planned to resume my viewing diary with season four, so I'm now awaiting physical discs in the mail. This is necessarily a slower process (yes, the site still offers that service; God help us when they don't). I'll now be working on these alongside my video essays instead of beforehand - so expect the first one in a few weeks rather than right away.

So where do we go from here? I mentioned this while cross-posting my Twin Peaks Unwrapped appearance last week, but I will be taking a new approach to my weekly schedule going forward, hopefully for years to come (with some exceptions in 2021, as noted below). Every week I'll publish at least one new entry - even if it's a simple announcement like this one - and, on rare occasions, I'll even publish as many as five between Monday and Friday. But different days will be reserved for different types of entries, with 8am the standard time. Here's what I have in mind  (click on images for past examples):

MONDAY

any TV viewing diary entry (*or Twin Peaks character series in January - May 2021) reserved for Monday

TUESDAY

latest round-up for any of my video essays published on YouTube or Vimeo reserved for Tuesday

WEDNESDAY

any written film review or general essay (*or Twin Peaks character series throughout all of 2021) reserved for Wednesday

THURSDAY

monthly, maybe eventually weekly, round-up of my own podcast (Patreon and coming-soon public episodes), plus guest appearances on other podcasts when applicable, reserved for Thursday

FRIDAY

RANDOM/BONUS entry (*including Twin Peaks character series in January - May 2021) reserved for Friday

You can check in on a given day depending on your interest or, as always, follow my "blogroll" page to keep track of my latest work of any type. Again, months could go by without, say, a particular TV viewing diary entry or video essay; for the most part, I won't be posting five times a week - more usually, I'll be sticking to one or two ongoing projects at a time. But keeping these days reserved for a particular type will keep these projects from bumping into each other and ideally offer readers some sense of routine to my ongoing work.

As the schedule indicates, I've been tinkering behind the scenes on my long-paused "TWIN PEAKS Character Series" (whose original incarnation was published in early 2017, and forced to halt because I couldn't reach the top twenty before the Showtime premiere). The new series will include entries for new characters, extend entries on old ones who reappeared, and update the ranking based on season three - as indicated, the plan is currently for it to run between the first and last week of 2021, with three entries almost every week through the end of May, and a single entry for each of the top thirty from June onward.

Of course, before I get there I need to focus on Journey Through Twin Peaks throughout 2020. As soon as I finish this month's Lost in Twin Peaks rewatch podcast episode for Patreon (covering the big climax of the Laura Palmer investigation), I'll be back to work on the two "missing" chapters - 34 and 35 - from that video series. One video will survey the broad sweep of collaborators like Harley Peyton, Bob Engels, and the various episode directors of the original series. The other video, which will probably be one of my longest chapters of all, will explore the work of Mark Frost and how it relates to Twin Peaks old and new.

Because I wanted to get some season three material up for the third anniversary on May 21, I raced ahead to chapter 36 - and ran straight into the brick wall of YouTube copyright police. The song "Wicked Game" was flagged at the end of the video, which was blocked for two days. It was restored after that (as the dispute remained pending), gathering views, likes, and great comments, and was then blocked again, forcing me to appeal and wait even longer for the situation to be resolved - probably mid-July at the earliest.

I've covered those snags here and here but at the moment, the most important update is that I've uploaded chapter 36 on Vimeo, the site I usually save for complete "Parts" (given that chapter 36, at nearly half an hour, is as long as chapters 1 - 5 combined, it's a worthy exception). You can watch and share it from here:

And now Vimeo also includes a compilation of chapters 31 - 33, my trilogy of videos on the evolving aesthetic of David Lynch and the nature of his collaboration with editor/partner Mary Sweeney, into a single standalone presentation titled "Dream Souls." (Due to repeated technical difficulties, I had to replace the initial video file but the correct version is now available.)

Thanks and see you with some fresh videos soon - hopefully by the end of the month.

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - 5th anniversary celebration

image by Robert Farkas

This week, the Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast celebrates its fifth anniversary. When Ben and Bryon kicked off their endeavor in 2015, they used an introcast format with veteran Ben guiding novice Bryon through the series for the first time (and desperately trying to keep him from skipping too far ahead). Since then, they've expanded their approach to include segments on a variety of subjects, community rewatches of the original episodes, year-end round-ups, and even a book collecting old and new work alike. And of course, one of their specialties has been conversations with cast/crew and fellow fans - my own first appearance was very early, just after they'd spoken to Catherine Coulson (a humbling precedent) in what I believe was her last interview. Since then I've made numerous guest appearances, and now I've joined them again, just in the nick of time near the end of an hour-plus Zoom meet-up in which they discussed the series and laid out their own plans (the coronavirus disrupted their commitment to conclude the podcast in 2020). There were many guests beforehand, whom I'm looking forward to hearing myself. When I popped in, we talked about my Journey Through Twin Peaks videos (and behind-the-scenes character series work), our meet-up last fall, and the prospect of more Twin Peaks. I'm also psyched to join them soon for some key rewatches and (perhaps most of all) for another glorious/ridiculous "Twin Peaks madness" bracket game - this time for season three.

You can watch/listen here:

By the way, from now on rather than posting every Wednesday I will post on whatever day of the week my given entry aligns with. Monday, as was the case last fall, will be reserved for Mad Men viewing diaries (I'm just kicking off season four now); my latest video essay(s) will be shared on Tuesday; any random review will publish on Wednesday; and a podcast episode, including my monthly Patreon round-up, will be cross-posted on Thursday. I'll reserve Friday for anything else. Usually there will only be one, maybe two entries going up in a week - but there will always be at least one. And I'll schedule these for 8am most days but today I wasn't sure what time the Unwrapped video would go up, so this may be timed a little later.

May 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #16 - Season 2 Episode 8 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #67 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Vertigo (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Emory, Jerry, Lucy, Tremond house, Dream corridor, Shelly & Bobby & Leo/Part 11, Journey Through Twin Peaks update & more)

While the overall podcast is shorter this month, the Twin Peaks Cinema section has never been longer. And no wonder: Vertigo is a goldmine for Peaks correlation, especially after season three. The acclaimed Hitchcock thriller - and one of my personal favorite films - is discussed for fifty minutes, before the last hour of the podcast is taken up by a further deep dive into my previous work on Vertigo (the subject may have come up more often than almost any other - save for Twin Peaks itself). And I'm sure the conversation will continue in listener feedback going forward; please share any of your own thoughts on this rich cinematic/televisual shared universe...

Episode 67: Twin Peaks cinema - Vertigo (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Emory, Jerry, Lucy, Tremonds' house, Dream corridor, Shelly & Bobby & Leo/Part 11, Journey Through Twin Peaks update & more)

In addition to the main podcast's "Reflections" coverage of beloved characters, intriguing locations, and storyline connections across the years (as well as a rundown of my recent Journey activity and ongoing plans), I'm also plunging into a very interesting section of Twin Peaks on my Lost in Twin Peaks rundown. For the $5/month patrons, we're now post-reveal with all that has to offer...

Lost in Twin Peaks #16: S2E8 (Drive With a Dead Girl/"Episode 15")

All patrons meanwhile now have access to the second episode of the season, the Lynch-directed gem which expands the supernatural iconography significantly...

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #10 ("Episode 9") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for: