October 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN THE TWIN PEAKS #21 - Season 2 Episode 13 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #72 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Back to the Future Part II (+ Laura Palmer & other Twin Peaks Reflections: The Singer, Maddy, Palmer house, Roadhouse, Palmer family breakdown/Season 3 Part 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, other Robert Zemeckis films & more)

update: links to podcasts have been fixed & ep. 14 coverage has now been opened to $1/month patrons

October features a few timely themes on my patron podcasts. I will be opening up my coverage of Twin Peaks' killer's reveal episode to all patrons on Halloween (not only an appropriately haunting holiday but also Frank Silva's and Michael J. Anderson's birthdays, and the day Fire Walk With Me's production concluded...). And that episode provides the springboard, on my other podcast, for a "Twin Peaks Reflections" discussion of some of the show's most compelling storylines, locations, and characters - including Laura Palmer herself. Also on my main monthly podcast, I'm celebrating - albeit a week later - the fifth anniversary of the "future" date in Back to the Future Part II: October 21, 2015. Even more prescient, that film includes a very Trumpian evolution for its prime villain which seems relevant less than a week before we learn the re-election prospects of President Biff Tannen. Of course, this wildly fun and clever eighties sequel is under discussion primarily as a surprising Twin Peaks tie-in. Before season three, the relationship was extremely tangential (though there are still a few points of contact to mention). After the final episodes aired, the two works seemed shockingly akin. Meanwhile, for top-tier patrons our voyage into the interdimensional travel and drug sting operations of mid-season two continues - as does the historical context of the Gulf War (and, for that matter, the Civil War) - in my latest episode of Lost in Twin Peaks...

Lost in Twin Peaks #21: S2E13 (Checkmate/"Episode 20")

Episode 72: Twin Peaks Cinema - Back to the Future Part II (+ Laura Palmer & other Twin Peaks Reflections: The Singer, Maddy, Palmer house, Roadhouse, Palmer family breakdown/Season 3 Part 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, other Robert Zemeckis films & more)

NOW AVAILABLE:

Lost in Twin Peaks #15 - Killer's Reveal/S2E7

(Lonely Souls/"Episode 14")

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Dead Poets Society (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #8)

Update 10/24: The podcast has been published and the Pinecast link has been updated (twice, since the first update was still incorrect!)

Autumn is always the perfect time to revisit Dead Poets Society, although its New England prep school seasons extend into winter (both literally and figuratively). Is the movie a sensitive evocation of a time and place, a thoughtful reflection on the restlessness of the human soul, or a shallow celebration of unquestioned self-indulgence? How does its late fifties setting both anticipate, onscreen, and reflect, offscreen, the social changes which would follow? Is it true that the world is too complicated to be reduced to good versus evil, or is that supposedly wise view itself naïve? And how does David Lynch link up to all of this? My Ethan Hawke series continues with one of his earliest roles, and this time I have some additional listener feedback and bonus material to incorporate. Apologies for the slightly late release (see the original introduction below) but hopefully you enjoy these reflections now that they are up.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 8

Dead Poets Society by Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)

New on my site

New Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

Episode 71: Twin Peaks cinema - 3 Women (+ Archive reading on Robert Altman: The Long Goodbye, Gosford Park, Tanner '88, Twin Peaks Reflections: Leo, Shelly, Ben, Johnson house, Town hall, Cooper and Audrey/Wild at Heart & more) & Lost in Twin Peaks #14: S2E6 (Demons/"Episode 13") 

(for $5/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #20: S2E12 (The Black Widow/"Episode 19") & Lost in Twin Peaks #21: S2E13 (Checkmate/"Episode 20")

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Although it's important for me to establish a routine by publishing a new podcast every couple weeks, right now it's even more important to follow the path I laid out for Journey Through Twin Peaks and contemporaneous projects over the next few months...even if that temporarily pushes back some deadlines. Right now that means a focus on putting the finishing touches on one of this month's patron podcasts before assembling my Dead Poets Society episode for the public show, even though the latter would be much easier to put together. I don't want to fall back into the quicksand of multiple ongoing commitments at once; I chose a certain order and I'm going to stick to it.

So for now, watch this space...the episode will be up soon, probably by Friday at the latest and this cross-post will be updated to reflect that.

September 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #20 - Season 2 Episode 12 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #71 - Twin Peaks Cinema: 3 Women (+ Archive reading on Robert Altman: The Long Goodbye, Gosford Park, Tanner '88, Twin Peaks Reflections: Leo, Shelly, Ben, Johnson house, Town hall, Cooper and Audrey/Wild at Heart & more)

update 10/16: the Lost in Twin Peaks episode has been published

For the first and hopefully only time, I needed to postpone my monthly patron rewards. For four months, I'd been promising a new Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter only to run into obstacles and obligations and in mid-September it was time to finally make that video an absolute priority. Several weeks later, I debuted Chapter 34: A Candle in Every Window (about the original series collaborators) and could at last catch up with these new podcasts. One is up and the other will be soon, as I continue my trek into mid-second season of Twin Peaks and have a surprisingly fun time applying my fairly rigorous format to its silliness. I also spent a little longer than usual on "Twin Peaks Reflections" in my main podcast, unsurprising given the importance of the three characters under discussion this month. And speaking of three...

Robert Altman's 3 Women, released just weeks after Eraserhead, initially came to mind as a possible "Twin Peaks Cinema" entry mostly on the basis of its title, which I've humored stealing for an upcoming Journey chapter on Sarah, Diane, and "Judy" (or perhaps Audrey or Carrie, among other characters). I'd noticed that season three is, for both Lynch and Twin Peaks more generally, an unusually male-centric narrative...the most notable female characters almost appear to inhabit some parallel story we only glimpse sideways throughout. That gendered aspect is present in Altman's strange seventies surrealist tale as well (although there the title characters are very much at the forefront). And other elements rise into view as I consider 3 Women in light of Peaks old and new. After my observations on that particular movie, I read over an hour of Altman material previously included on this site, including essays on three favorites. One of those re-readings has already inspired me to dive deeper into Altman's most explicitly political work when (if?) this current election season ends.

Lost in Twin Peaks #20: S2E12 (The Black Widow/"Episode 19")

Episode 71: Twin Peaks Cinema - 3 Women (+ Archive reading on Robert Altman: The Long Goodbye, Gosford Park, Tanner '88, Twin Peaks Reflections: Leo, Shelly, Ben, Johnson house, Town hall, Cooper and Audrey/Wild at Heart & more)

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #14 ("Episode 13") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Gattaca (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #7)

When I decided to re-watch several Ethan Hawke films for my podcast, I don't think Gattaca was originally on my radar. However, hearing fans rave about it on another show reminded me of how I'd enjoyed it as a teenager back in the late nineties/early zeroes; I gave it another viewing and I'm glad I did. The sci-fi film presents future dystopia in a fashion I often find the most compelling (consider it the Brave New World rather than 1984 approach): as a sleek, functional, in many ways highly appealing society which nonetheless entrenches fundamental injustice. At the same time, has the movie's essentially meritocratic message aged as well as its critique of genetic elitism? All that and more are discussed in my latest episode.

Subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 7

Filmspotting #696: Ethan Hawke Interview / Top 5 Hawke Moments (podcast)

New on YouTube

Journey Through Twin Peaks - Chapter 34 (seasons 1 & 2 collaborators)

New on this site

(forgot to mention in the intro)

New Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks

New on Patreon

($1/month)

(also forgot to mention in the intro)

Lost in Twin Peaks #14: S236 (Demons/"Episode 13")

New path through Journey Through Twin Peaks

This schedule is NO LONGER ACTIVE and has been replaced by

"The Path back to Journey Through Twin Peaks"

as of May 2021

INTRODUCTION

So far, I've outlined two schedules to help me create new Journey Through Twin Peaks video essays - and to make the process transparent for curious followers. The first "path," which took me right up to the first new video in five years, was more successful than the second; intended to carry me to the last video, this summer's schedule was abandoned when steps fell completely out of order and I passed initial deadlines by months. For this third phase, I've tried to hew closer to that first approach, as I chart a nine-month outline that can guide me through the remaining thirteen or so videos as well as my obligations to patrons (monthly reward podcasts) and my desire to keep the site active while I focus on new videos that may not appear for months. The key is to create a backlog of work ahead of time, prioritizing time-sensitive obligations, so that once I return to the world of Journey Through Twin Peaks I can stay there as long as possible.

To pull this off, the new "path" has four parts: "catch-up" (unfinished work I fell behind on), "new runway" (creating an extensive backlog to keep up my public and patron routine through June 2021 - I have now decided to create a backlog through September instead), "video prep" (previously one step but now broken into several to reflect different components of my research), and finally "video focus." I also make note of possible, hopefully brief, interruptions along the way as well as a general timeframe I'd like to keep these steps within.

As before, I will continuously update this page to track my progress. This Twitter thread will follow along in even closer detail as I complete different components of each step.

THE STEPS ON THE PATH