Less than half a year before I hope to finish all of my ongoing projects, they stand in varying degrees of limbo. Some are close to conclusion, others are stuck somewhere in the middle, and at least one - the big one, my Journey Through Twin Peaks video essay series - is scheduled for behind-the-scenes resumption any day now (another status update next week will offer more details). Here's what I'm up to and expecting for the other projects, beginning with the one that was supposed to be published a week ago but wasn't ready...
Lost in Twin Peaks - Last year, my episode-by-episode podcast skipped over season two to cover Fire Walk With Me and season three. With the season three finale and all of that second season still remaining - twenty-three weeks worth of coverage - it's clear that I can no longer finish the public release in time to wrap up by late October if I continue with the weekly/daily approach (a week per TV episode, with a different category of discussion presented each day - there simply aren't enough weeks and days left). This leaves me three options. First, I can change the weekly/daily schedule in order to dump many episodes all at once, as long as I can pick up the pace and get them ready in time. Second, I can just give up on my hard deadline of late October, which I'd rather not do, in order to finish the podcast at a more leisurely pace...but I would probably only do that if it's part of a much larger failure to complete my work on the desired schedule. Third, I can give up on modifying these episodes - I've split the other episodes into smaller bits and fixed many audio frustrations - and just leave them in their original form, either behind a paywall on Patreon or made public in unedited form. This would be a big bummer for me, as it disrupts their uniform presentation (although I would probably still seek to create screenshot-illustrated companions for all of season two, as I have for the rest of the public releases).
The TWIN PEAKS Character Series - I've reached the top thirty characters for these written studies. The remaining entries will include some that are already completely written (or need only a little revision), but also many that don't even have images selected yet. And some of these will be mammoth - like the Cooper, Laura, and revised Spirits entries - requiring much more work than lower-ranking characters. Still, I have a lot more breathing room on this than Lost in Twin Peaks. If I want to stick with the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule I used in early 2023, I can wait until August to resume and still be done by late October. If I publish an entry a day I could even wait until October itself to resume publication, and of course, even beyond that, I could dump many at once as I hope to do with the podcasts. Despite that flexibility, some of the constraints are tight. This project is - like Lost in Twin Peaks - a lower priority than the Journey videos and I'll only work on it during "off-hours" already reserved for Journey (or other commitments).
Twin Peaks Conversations - I originally planned to keep publishing these YouTube/Patreon guest discussions through September, but this spring I ran into a lot of trouble reaching potential guests and fell behind schedule. As a result, I'm only committed to two more guests - likely repeat visitors John Thorne and Scott Ryan (who have both been contacted and agreed to come on in June when their own schedule allows). While others may appear in bonus episodes, the official series will end there.
Final Patreon podcast - Since Episode 100 of my longest-running podcast was shifted to a freefloating bonus reward status in February, I haven't managed to record responses to all of the movies I watched for it. (I have recorded reviews of Avatar: The Way of Water and The Fabelmans, but not yet Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Toni Erdmann, The Turin Horse, Amour, and Moonlight, all of which I viewed over the past several months.) I had plans to include other 2010s films as well as top titles from the 2022 Sight & Sound poll but this has dragged on so long that I may just leave it at the seven already mentioned.
Final public podcasts - The June episodes of Lost in the Movies and Twin Peaks Cinema, on Southland Tales and Baraboo respectively, are already ready to publish. After that, these podcasts will be put on hiatus and effectively considered complete. I'll share previews of Patreon work on their feeds in the near future but, in a rare achievement, this is one project I'm actually ready to put behind me.
Other possibilities - Obviously I have my plate full with the above. However, since I want to draw a curtain on most of my online activity before year's end, I may make room for some other written reviews or at least capsule collections for random viewings. Plus with Netflix DVD sadly coming to an end this fall, this will be my last chance to check on and react to a number of discs that have long been on my watchlist. I'm also planning to interview friend and fellow traveler Sam Juliano of Wonders in the Dark about a couple books he's written later this summer, and have been planning a guest appearance on a Southland Tales podcast. And I have an experimental video essay idea that's been brewing for over a decade which I'd still love tackle (sadly, though, the Citizen Kane video series I began seven years ago seems to be dead in the water along with the "Unseen" essays and various TV viewing diaries I initiated with season one write-ups but never continued). I'm sure other detours will pop up along the way but for the most part, the next five months with be occupied by the paths outlined above and hopefully dominated by the one I've discussed the least thus far: Journey Through Twin Peaks.
