belated December 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #23 - Season 2 Episode 15 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #74 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Rashomon (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Leland, Albert, Donna, Twin Peaks & Deer Meadow sheriff stations, One-Armed Man/Season 3 Part 17 & more)

UPDATE 1/2: The "Twin Peaks Cinema: RASHOMON" episode of Lost in the Movies was just published.

As the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast reaches the infamous Diane Keaton episode, there's a lot to discuss both onscreen (many people, including myself, have much to say about Keaton's unusual approach to the series) and off. The height of the Gulf War leads to one of my longer "historical context" sections taking a detour not just through 1991's war on the Arabian peninsula but also America's ambivalent relationship to the conflict between the Provisional IRA and the British government. That's for the top tier; for $1/month patrons, six months behind, I'm finally unveiling my coverage of the episode where Laura's killer is captured. That podcast is split into two parts and was opened up on the first day of the month, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the episode's airing in 1990. On the other end of the month, my main monthly episode of Lost in the Movies (patron edition) is not quite ready for New Year's Eve though it should be available sometime this weekend; watch this space...

There's been a diverse array of "Twin Peaks Cinema" selections this year, and this month is no exception, switching gears from a surreal Robert Altman slice of New Hollywood to a blockbuster time travel comedy to an anime art/exploitation musical to, now, an iconic classic of world art cinema. On the other hand there's some continuity between last month's and this month's films: both Belladonna of Sadness and Rashomon are conceptually bold Japanese films set in medieval times, depicting sexual violence with a tinge of the supernatural (one of several commonalities with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in particular). Akira Kurosawa's international breakthrough is most famous for presenting multiple viewpoints on the same event, and in that sense it also anticipates the work of David Lynch; in an archive reading of a review from nearly a decade ago, I lay out how its scenario may be less "who's to say" than its reputation generally holds. Elsewhere in the podcast I cover characters, locations, and storylines tied to the conclusion of Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer arc; the long-promised film capsules, podcast recommendations, political reflections, and feedback readings will have to wait until January since my work on the most ambitious Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter yet has taken me right up to this month's deadline (and a bit past, in the case of this main podcast). See you in 2021.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #17 - S2E9 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

Lost in Twin Peaks #23: S2E15 (Slaves and Masters/"Episode 22")

Lost in the Movies patron edition #74: Twin Peaks Cinema - Rashomon (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Leland, Albert, Donna, Twin Peaks & Deer Meadow sheriff stations, One Armed Man/Season 3 Part 17 & more)

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Images from a return to Twin Peaks (1 of 2): The In-Between Years and a Detour into Lynchland

The second collection, to be published here in March, will feature many other screenshots from Part 5

Here are screenshots of all the juxtapositions, superimpositions, titles, collage-like mosaics or other visual manipulations from the first half of my video essay series Journey Through Twin Peaks Part 5 - "Over the Mountain Pass". I included (far fewer) image highlights with the cross-posts for Parts 1, 2, and 3; for Part 4 I needed a whole separate post full of screenshots and now I obviously need double that for Part 5! I'll share the second half in a week or two (update: postponed by several months), depending on when I finish the last of these videos. You can see these images in their original video context in my cross-posts for chapters 29, 30, and 31-33. However, these images aren't simply teasers for the videos - I hope in this format, where they can be lingered over, they fuel new contemplation and enjoyment.

Though most of this line-up appears in the order of the videos, it begins with one of the most fun passages to create, in which I juxtapose Lynch's stylistic evolution over the course of his film career from 1977 to 2006 with the six Twin Peaks episodes he directed in 1990 and 1991. It's amazing how they serve as a microcosm of that larger pattern.

First Reformed (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #12)

My Ethan Hawke retrospective ends here after eight films - and this is both the most recent and easily my favorite of the bunch. The wintry, spare nature of Paul Schrader's vision might suggest this is a minimalist movie but that description doesn't nearly suffice for a work of art so achingly bursting with ideas, moods, and strange yet familiar associations. Most of that will have to be saved for later analyses; I can only barely scratch the surface in a short podcast review. This is essentially a preliminary reaction to an extraordinary movie...First Reformed, the vivid, crazy, gorgeous 2017 story of a Protestant pastor's crisis of faith (in the world rather than his religion) is a subject I hope to write, create videos, and otherwise talk about for years to come. But I wanted to record my first reaction, a few months after a single viewing. Listeners wrote in when I originally shared this on my patron podcast, and I've included their feedback at the end of this public episode. I see this as the beginning of a discussion, and hope anyone reading this who has thoughts and feelings about this film - and how could you not? - will send them my way. Let's keep that discussion going.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

This will probably be the last public podcast of the year although I may, but probably won't, produce a bonus episode around New Year's. A new season beginning on January 13 - to be collected from random reviews rather than a thematic grouping (I'll save another of those for next fall).

November 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #22 - Season 2 Episode 14 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #73 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Belladonna of Sadness (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Norma, Vivian, Ernie, Red Diamond City Motel, Golf course, MT Wentz/The Final Dossier, The Devil's Bride & more)

In a radical departure from the cheeky, if at times apocalyptic, fun of Back to the Future Part II last month, November's "Twin Peaks Cinema" hones in on the dark psychological and avant-garde experimental aspects of Twin Peaks. When I selected it based purely on the Turner Classic Movies description, I was completely unfamiliar with Belladonna of Sadness, an explicit Japanenese mytho-psychodrama anime from the early seventies. The film tells the tragic story of a young peasant woman in France who survives a traumatic gang rape at the lord's castle, and the subsequent demonic visitations of a phallic creature who may be her own Id or Satan himself, in order to become a witch with healing powers. Full of psychedelic imagery and music evoking both earlier and later productions like Faust, Yellow Submarine, End of Evangelion, and The Witch, the film's biggest tie-in to Twin Peaks turned out to be literary, evoking Laura's struggles with BOB on the pages of Jennifer Lynch's Secret Diary.

Although I use the witch theme to connect to the archive reading of my Devil's Bride review, elsewhere the podcast tackles some relatively lighter fare - Norma Jennings' fraught relationship with her stepfather and (step?)mother, as well as how Mark Frost's later books further complicate this dynamic. In the Twin Peaks Reflections location studies, Twin Peaks' golf course and the Red Diamond City Motel (although I forgot to include that enticing "city" in the recording!) provide dual lens through which to view Leland's troubled consciousness, a theme I explore more deeply in another of this month's podcasts - my episode 15 coverage for Lost in Twin Peaks, opened to all patrons on the thirtieth anniversary of its airing. Meanwhile, the spear's tip of that rewatch (for $5/month patrons) advances to episode 21, which includes reflections not just on the troubled midseason material but also random tangents such as the American public's reaction to the ongoing Gulf War, a German left-wing terrorist group's idiomatic influence, and an abandoned cop show starring Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura. It's always fun to see where a particular episode leads us...

Lost in the Movies patron edition #73: Twin Peaks Cinema - Belladonna of Sadness (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Norma, Vivian, Ernie, Red Diamond City Motel, Golf course, MT Wentz/The Final Dossier, The Devil's Bride & more)

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

Lost in Twin Peaks #22: S2E14 (Double Play/"Episode 21")

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Mark Frost's Storyville (TWIN PEAKS CINEMA podcast #2/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #11)

I originally planned to conclude my Ethan Hawke retrospective this week with a podcast on First Reformed. However, I've decided to postpone this until mid-December (it will be the next episode, in two weeks) because the timing of my upcoming video essay on Mark Frost provided a better tie-in for this moment. Storyville is a political thriller set in New Orleans and depicting the young scion of a grand political dynasty whose troubled Congressional campaign leads him into murder, blackmail, sexual trafficking, corruption, and his own dark family history. Starring James Spader, Joanne Whalley-Killmer, Jason Robards, Charles Haid, Michael Warren, and Twin Peaks alumni like Piper Laurie and Michael Parks, this was Frost's first - and only - cinematic feature film as a director and it's an absorbing tale that never got its due at the time due to behind-the-scenes shenanigans. As the second entry in my public "Twin Peaks Cinema" series (the first covered four films by Peaks episode directors), this episode discusses Storyville's relationship to the show Frost created, from characters to storylines to cast and crew to its role in Frost's own career trajectory. That last topic, by the way, will be explored visually as well as aurally within the next week or two so stay tuned. The final "missing" chapter of Journey Through Twin Peaks Part 5 is underway right now.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 11

PODCAST: Bickering Peaks - Mark Frost - Storyville

"Actress: Grace Zabriskie" bio featured in my Sarah Palmer character study

New guest appearance

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - Episode 14 Community Rewatch, part 2 (w/ John Thorne & Josh Minton)

follow-up to

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - Episode 14 Community Rewatch, part 1 (w/ John Thorne & Josh Minton)

(from a few weeks ago)

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #17: S2E9 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16"), part 1 & part 2

Moving near the edge at night... • discussing the killer's reveal episode w/ Twin Peaks Unwrapped (+ John Thorne & Josh Minton)

A year after my last visit to the Twin Peaks Unwrapped community rewatch series (for the first season finale), I'm back to mark another milestone: the killer's reveal in episode 14. I've discussed this arc with hosts Ben and Bryon before, but this time we hone in on the particular episode, joined by fellow guests John Thorne and Josh Minton - who have recently launched their own freeform Twin Peaks podcast, In Our House Now. The discussion is divided into two parts, interspersed with Schäffer the Darklord's re-enactments of the original teleplay (with some intriguing differences from the broadcast version). Topics include Lynch's bold aesthetic transgressions of TV style, whether or not Leland (not Bob) has a motive to kill his niece, the missing "Ben killed Maddy" footage, critics who avoided and confronted the reveal's troubling nature, the appropriateness of "dead Laura" merchandise, and how all of us responded to the shocking climactic moment on our first viewing. It was a great conversation on an iconic moment of television that just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

References: the "Laura Palmer Funko Pop doll" Twitter thread by findom earle (@coherentstates) • excerpts in my Gone Fishin' media round-up: scroll down to December 21, 1990 for the "Incest for the Millions" essay & September 6, 1992 for Jeff Simon's Fire Walk With Me review • my "Dream Souls" video essay on David Lynch & Mary Sweeney • my Patreon coverage of episode 14 (now available for all tiers of patrons)

PART 1

PART 2

Class violence in 4 films: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman, Joker, Parasite (LEFT OF THE MOVIES podcast #2/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #10)

For the second time (I previously covered Medium Cool in August, in light of the Democratic convention), I am turning my public platform over to Left of the Movies, my nascent political cinema podcast. The episode offers five-to-ten minute capsules of some of the most hyped films of 2019: Quentin Tarantino's reimagining-Manson late sixties dream Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Martin Scorsese's possibly apocryphal Hoffa portrait The Irishman, Todd Phillips' controversial DC-meets-gritty-seventies-crime-film reboot of Joker, and Bong Joon-ho's Best Picture-winning architectural horror portrait of inequality Parasite. All four films climax with violence that can be viewed through a class-based lens - destruction as an almost ritualistic way to either destablize or reinforce the social order. My discussion focuses on how these climaxes express their respective films' political visions.

The bulk of this episode was originally recorded in January 2020 but in the wake of Donald Trump's contentious loss, the Black Lives Matters protests and left-right clashes in the street, the coronavirus pandemic and its unequal economic fallout, and the electoral defeat of Bernie Sanders' populist movement in the Democratic primaries, it seemed like a good idea to revisit these films again in the light of such a world-historic ten months. So I recorded an extra ten or so minutes extending the previous discussion, including Trump supporters' image of him (vis a vis Hoffa and the Mafia in The Irishman), the irony of "white male rage" Joker anticipating the BLM protests six months later, and especially the way that all of these films explore individual outbursts rather than collective action. There's still much to dig into, so I hope some of the listeners will offer feedback that I can further engage in upcoming episodes.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 10

Debunking Quentin Tarantino's 'Mockery' of Bruce Lee by Eugene S. Robinson (OZY)

'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood' Review: We Lost It at the Movies by A.O. Scott (New York Times)

SEVEN AMERICAN GENERATIONS: iGen, millennials, X, boomers, silent, greatest and lost by Joel Bocko (Lost in the Movies)

Boomer Reunion: The Big Chill vs Return of the Secaucus Seven (video) by Joel Bocko (Lost in the Movies)

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

Episode 73: Twin Peaks cinema - Belladonna of Sadness (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Norma, Vivian, Ernie, Red Diamond Motel, Golf course, MT Wentz/The Final Dossier, The Devil's Bride & more) & Lost in Twin Peaks #16: S2E8 (Drive With a Dead Girl/"Episode 15")

(for $5/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #17: S2E9 (Double Play/"Episode 21")

New on my site

(accidentally mentioned in previous episode too)

Post-election status update & explore the directory pages linked on my home page for new, sharp images on mobile

Training Day (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #9) ... + a quick election/Journey Through Twin Peaks status update

First, since this podcast was scheduled to go up last week, some housekeeping is in order. I've been trying to keep up with the new "Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks" schedule I created a month ago, even to the point where I fell behind on podcast deadlines, but eventually it became clear that between holiday travel and news distractions, November was going to set me pretty far back if I kept going that way. So the next Journey video chapter, on Mark Frost, will wait until December; in the mean time I'll be focusing on November and early December podcasts, be they for patrons or the public. I've updated the "Path" post and thread to reflect this.

Also, I obviously decided not to do the election night week tweet round-up that I was considering in last week's status update. If you're curious what I had to say about all of it, here are my tweets from those five days - scroll to the bottom to start on Election Day (here are my retweets from that period...and to go full circle, my last tweet on the day the race was decided was a reply to my last tweet from Election Night 2016).

Onto Training Day. Although covered as part of my ongoing Ethan Hawke survey (one more film remains for December, probably my favorite of the bunch), Denzel Washington is obviously the big draw here as the diabolically clever corrupt cop taking Hawke's rookie for a ride. Nonetheless, I found that more subdued character fascinating to tease out as well. To what extent are his reactions driven by morality vs. fear of getting into trouble? I love how the film plays with our conceptions of what is and is not acceptable based on social context. I also discuss how director Antoine Fuqua seems less interested in judgement than understanding even within the genre constraints he's operating under.

And as I mention in the episode itself, next week I will be discussing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite, Joker, and The Irishman - if you have thoughts on any of these, please send them my way via comment, tweet, DM, email or whatever form suits you. I’ll share any feedback on that episode itself if I receive it in the next few days.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 9

clip from Training Day in "The Millennial Mood", a chapter of my film clip series

+ inclusion of Alonzo/Denzel Washington in my favorite characters & alternate Oscars lists

New on my site

Post-election status update

New guest appearance

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - Episode 14 Community Rewatch, part 1 (w/ John Thorne & Josh Minton)

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

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) & Lost in Twin Peaks #15: S2E7 (Lonely Souls/"Episode 14"), part 1 & part 2

A Week on Hold: status update

For obvious reasons - the presidential election which is, as of this writing three days later, still ongoing - much of my activity has ground to a halt this week. Normally a new podcast would have gone up Wednesday, but I already knew that would be delayed due to the order of events in the new "Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks" I laid out a month ago, and have been sticking stubbornly to ever since, even though it leads to some of my normal deadlines falling by the wayside. That episode, on Training Day, will hopefully appear in about a week and a half but I have a whole video, among other priorities, to create in between so I won't be surprised if I end up having two overdue podcasts when November ends. A busier-than-usual work schedule and tentative travel plans for Thanksgiving are also pushing things back and back - it's another perfect storm of distractions like I experienced this summer. It's now patently obvious that I won't come anywhere close to reaching the "weeks/month for random online work before December 1" that I penciled in as long as I finished a six-months-ahead backlog of patron and public podcasts, viewing diary entries, and even a non-Twin Peaks video in a timely manner. That backlog probably won't be wrapped until December or even January or February at this point; I'm even wondering if I should extend this backlog through September 2021 rather than June, in order to buy myself even more time once I do begin work on the next phase of Journey videos. It's a bit of a dog chasing its own tail as I weigh short-term delay against long-term breathing room.

As for the election, I have plenty of thoughts - or, at any rate, tweets - that I may eventually share as I did four years ago. Since I probably won't have any other material to share next week, and since we'll hopefully see a final result by then (though it's looking increasingly plausible that Donald Trump finally received some form of - temporary? - comeuppance in a night that otherwise went terribly for Democrats), I'll probably collect and slightly expand on these reflections in seven days. Also pushing back my public podcasts, the desire to finally record an expanded political commentary on the patron podcast is something I've been hoping to do since May. Incidentally, the above image is not just a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the current disaster surrounding the occupancy of that building, nor just a visualization of my own cluttered schedule. I also recently caught up with the Independence Day sequel, which will be touched on in that upcoming patron episode, along with a half-year of other film capsules - including quite a few with at least tangentially political subjects. It's been a hell of a year, in all senses, and it's not over yet. But the online work I've enjoyed creating has been one of several silver linings for me. I look forward to continuing it in the days, weeks, and months to come. Thanks for riding along.

ELECTION UPDATE 11/12: I did not end up creating an additional post with embedded tweets but if you're curious what I had to say about all of it, here are my tweets from that period - scroll to the bottom to start on Election Day (here are my retweets from that period...and to go full circle, my last tweet on the day the race was decided was a reply to my last tweet from Election Night 2016).

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

Films by Twin Peaks episode directors - Halloweentown, Zelly & Me, Now and Then, The Escape Artist (TWIN PEAKS CINEMA podcast #1/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #6)

For over a year, I've been publishing "Twin Peaks Cinema" podcasts on my Patreon, and now it's time to begin sharing them publicly. I decided to start with capsules on four features by Twin Peaks season one directors Duwayne Dunham, Tina Rathborne, Lesli Linka Glatter, and Caleb Deschanel. Their work is discussed both on its own terms and in light of not just Twin Peaks more broadly but their own specific episodes of the series. Often, oddly enough, the greatest links are found not in their visual style (although there's some of that) but in the screenplays they didn't even write! As Cooper once said, "when two events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention."

This is an opportune moment for this episode since my long-planned Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter covering this particular topic should finally see the light of day in the next week or two - plus one of the films' holiday spirit is relevant as the weather changes, the leaves fall, and the last day of October approaches (though of course this isn't going to be much of a year for trick-or-treating). Although the films were grouped chronologically - based on the directors' first visits to Twin Peaks - they all share a common theme, centering children as their protagonists. For whatever reason, the world as seen by adolescents and preteens, in all its excitement, melancholy, and confusion, provided a great gateway into that small town in the woods.

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You can also listen on Pinecast  and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 6

UPDATE 4/28: My podcast covering four more films by Twin Peaks directors will go public on Wednesday, May 5

Listen to the rest of my Twin Peaks director coverage on Patreon:

Episode 63B: Twin Peaks Cinema - What Did Jack Do?/Wiseguy's Lynchboro arc & Twin Peaks directors' films (After Dark My Sweet, Code Name: Emerald, Losing Isaiah, Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher & more)

New on my site

JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS: Original series collaborators (video coming soon)

JOURNEY THROUGH TWIN PEAKS: Original series collaborators (video debuts this month)

update 10/7: The video is finally published

ORIGINAL INTRO & DAILY PROGRESS

Stay tuned and bookmark this post for more news and eventually, the next Journey Through Twin Peaks video chapter.

Consider this post both an announcement and a placeholder for the next, long-delayed "missing chapter" of my Twin Peaks video series - about the collaborators on the original series, it's provisionally titled "A Candle in Every Window" (playing on my memory of a quote from the Mark Frost introduction to the re-published Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, the I can't find the actual passage at present). I will update this post with my progress as I go (which I will also be keeping track of on Twitter) and I will cross-post the video here when I'm done.

Though I'm hesitant to proclaim deadlines given how often they get postponed, in this case I can make a commitment as well. All of my available "online project" free time will be devoted to this video from now on - I won't even tackle my monthly patron commitments until the video is uploaded on YouTube (another incentive to get it done by the last week of September if not sooner). [revision 9/18: unfortunately, I quickly discovered that I need to finish a Mark Frost book, thanks to a hard library due date, and complete one more public podcast which I overlooked, but after THAT, no distractions!] Updates begin, hopefully, as soon as tonight...

UPDATES ON THE PROGRESS OF CHAPTER 34:

* * *

September 18: re-wrote the narration after losing the file I recorded in July (this version is shorter, although still too long, and will require less cutting as I tighten the chapter during editing)

September 21: re-recorded the narration, catching up to where I was mid-summer

September 23: although not directly related to this video, I published a tie-in public podcast on films by Twin Peaks episode directors (listen to it here) - this was also the last obstacle in my path to focusing entirely on chapter 34 during my "online work" time

September 26: finally began editing the video - I will now use this post to track, day-by-day, how far this process has progressed so stay tuned and keep checking in

September 27: narration is cut down (some material may be saved for an eventual standalone video) and I've begun choosing clips for the introduction

September 28: continued choosing clips for the introduction - a montage of house/lights footage from different films by episode directors

September 29: finished intro montage and began designing "editors" mosaic sequence (displaying a clip from every original series episode on the same screen)

September 30: continued designing "editors" mosaic sequence (chose clips for each episode and began creating titles/freeze-frames etc

October 1: completed the "editors" mosaic sequence; here is a screenshot:

October 2: created opening of "directors" sequence with clips of directors' credits and juxtapositions with their Mad Men episodes

October 3: continued "directors" sequence with Mad Men episodes and some of their feature films

October 4: finished "directors" sequence including side-by-side montage of episodes and feature films (this was by far my longest day)

October 5: created quick "production designer/cinematographers/composer" sequence and began "writers" sequence - now all that remains is the Harley Peyton/Robert Engels part, which is about half the chapter but much less visually complex than other sequences, and I'll have all day today to work on it

October 6: created the majority of the Harley Peyton/Robert Engels writers sequence (although I spent too much time trying to figure out what clips had been used in past chapters through a more in-the-weeds approach than necessary) and I stopped working at the point where I would cross-reference other Engels work; also, worth noting there will be one coda after Engels is finished, addressing Frost in a way that transitions into the following chapter

Boyhood (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #5)

Is 2014 only or already six years ago? Boyhood chronicles a coming-of-age unfolding over a decade, leading up to the tail end of the Obama era (when the last of the millennials entered college). Given everything that's happened since then, the film's hopeful ending feels like a time capsule. When I recorded this review in 2019 I decided to combine my earlier essay, written when Boyhood was brand new, with further reflections as the movie's present receded into the past. This episode also continues my Ethan Hawke podcast series; although he's a supporting player in the movie, this role rhymes with his work in the Before trilogy (likewise directed by Richard Linklater), which also chronicles a character's journey in real time.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 5

Seven American Generations: iGen, millennials, X, boomers, silent, greatest and lost by Joel Bocko (Lost in the Movies)

Growing Up is Hard to Do: Boyhood, The Giver, fragments of memory, and notes on the "death of adulthood" by Joel Bocko (Lost in the Movies)

Black 'Boyhood' Is Always Black First, Boy Later by Teo Bugbee (Daily Beast)

New on Patreon

(for $1/ month)

Episode 70: Twin Peaks cinema - Sunset Boulvard (+ new schedule for Journey Through Twin Peaks/other projects, Twin Peaks Reflections: Lodwick, Sternwood, One Eyed Jack's, Partyland, Hank's criminal activities/Part 10 & more) & Lost in Twin Peaks #13: S2E13 (The Orchid's Curse/"Episode 12")

(for $5/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #19: S2E11 (Masked Ball/"Episode 18")

August 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #19 - Season 2 Episode 11 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #70 - Twin Peaks cinema: Sunset Boulevard (+ new schedule for Journey Through Twin Peaks/other projects, Twin Peaks Reflections: Lodwick, Sternwood, One Eyed Jack's, Partyland, Hank's criminal activities/Part 10 & more)

I originally planned to cover the surreal Robert Altman film 3 Women on my patron podcast this month, but at the last minute I was reminded that August 2020 is the seventieth anniversary of Sunset Boulevard's premiere. So I switched gears and drove into the heart of the midcentury American film industry. The Billy Wilder classic has some surface (and deeper) ties to Twin Peaks as well as other David Lynch films and I enjoyed digging into it for the first time in twelve years. My 2008 review of the film as part of a Hollywood-on-Hollywood series, one of my favorite essays, is also incorporated into the Opening the Archive reading series. I also cover several characters, locations and storylines on both sides of the law, and spend a lot of time laying out my plans for the fall, winter, and spring with an emphasis on how I hope to get back into the rhythm of Journey Through Twin Peaks after a summer of delays. And my Lost in Twin Peaks rewatch dives into the thick of mid-season two, dissecting where the show went right and wrong...

Lost in Twin Peaks #19: S2E11 (Masked Ball/"Episode 18")

Episode 70: Twin Peaks cinema - Sunset Boulevard (+ new schedule for Journey Through Twin Peaks/other projects, Twin Peaks Reflections: Lodwick, Sternwood, One Eyed Jack's, Partyland, Hank's criminal activities/Part 10 & more)

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #13 ("Episode 12") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Medium Cool (LEFT OF THE MOVIES podcast #1/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #4)

A week after the Democratic Party's presidential convention (and the week of the Republican event) seemed like a good time to kick off my Left of the Movies podcast with Medium Cool. Haskell Wexler's fiction/nonfiction hybrid stars Robert Forster and documents the notorious 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. What a contrast with the locked-down, frequently prerecorded virtual gathering which aired last week, although in other ways - particularly the violent protester/police confrontation in the streets outside the hall - the film's events resonate quite well with 2020. For now, this side project, a study of political movies from the past century-plus of cinema, is still a part of the Lost in the Movies feed but some time in 2021 it will get its own listing and move to a monthly rather than every-other-month schedule).

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 4

New on this site

Last Summer Update: Journey Through Twin Peaks & more

Updated on this site

Top Posts

The Picture Gallery

Late Summer Update: Journey Through Twin Peaks + updates to Top Posts and the picture gallery

The short version is that hopefully I can finally publish the two missing chapters for my video essay series Journey Through Twin Peaks in September (I would love to have chapter 34 up by September 3, the third anniversary of Twin Peaks' third season finale, but that seems unlikely). After that, I am going to make a new "Path through Journey Through Twin Peaks" schedule which will be tighter and stricter and the Part 6 videos will probably premiere throughout the winter and maybe even next spring.

In other words, I'll finally focus on finishing Part 5 (the lead-up to season 3) as soon as my August Patreon posts are up, followed by a few months building a backlog of non-Journey content to keep this site active through the fall and winter, followed by an exclusive focus on Part 6 (different story areas of season 3) with plenty of breathing room to build up some momentum and a regular pace of publication.

Meanwhile, I want to let readers know that I've just updated a couple key pages on this site for the first time in a year and a half. Both are enjoyable ways to explore my work and, in the gallery's case, to linger over many striking images:

TOP POSTS

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Here's the longer version what's been going on and where I'm headed...