Announcement: Lost in Twin Peaks Season 3 Finale delayed again

Almost a week ago, I optimistically published the illustrated companion for an upcoming week of Lost in Twin Peaks podcasts on Season 3 Parts 17 & 18 - coverage of the finale to the limited series aired on Showtime in 2017. The first part of my coverage went up that day; the next was due on Sunday but still, five days later, isn't complete. Keep in mind, virtually all of this material was long ago recorded and published for patrons, and all I need to do is tweak the audio and re-arrange the subjects to fit my public format. But as I've been painfully learning for the past two years, this supposedly simple task is the most draining, time-consuming work I've ever done online. Especially with things I recorded back in 2018, I end up adjusting the levels and/or snipping out problem areas every second or so, and with three hours of original content in this case you can imagine how long that takes.

As a result, I've taken down the companion and that first episode and will only re-publish both when I've completely finished re-editing all of the Parts 17 & 18 coverage. Apologies for the delay; I put this announcement up on my feed this morning (embedded below) and expect the work will be ready in a week or two although I don't want to make any more promises given how the others have been going. You can probably expect a status update next Friday to keep abreast of not just this but several other key projects hanging on the precipice of indeterminate postponement, unless I can somehow figure out how to pick up the pace...

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #22 w/ Lost Highway: The Fist of Love author Scott Ryan (YouTube & extended PATREON)

The same week that I published my belated April episode, a discussion with the hosts of Twin Peaks Peeks, (and before I posted or was even able to mention the long-delayed Lost in Twin Peaks season three finale coverage yesterday) I caught up with the episode that should have been released in May. Aside from John Thorne (who will make another appearance eventually, wrapping up this podcast run with a bonus), Scott is the first return guest on Twin Peaks Conversations. He's already written another book after his late 2021 appearance (which was to promote Your Laura Disappeared, his study of Fire Walk With Me). This time, the subject is David Lynch's own Twin Peaks follow-up, Lost Highway. Like the previous book, Scott's The Fist of Love offers the author's own experience with the film, picks apart the musical soundtrack, and engages with numerous cast and crew members in lively interviews. In this case, the interviews compose the vast majority of the book because Scott was a relative newbie to the film, engaging deeply with it for the first time unlike with Twin Peaks (which he'd been immersed in since its 1990 debut). Our conversation touches on this surreal introduction, as a middle-aged post-Return viewer in the twenty-first century, to a world that represents his Gen X nineties youth onscreen. The first part of the interview, public on YouTube as always, focuses on his own work...

PART 1 on YouTube

And on the $5/month Patreon tier, another hour and twenty minutes of dialogue (and disagreement!), we continue to debate the pertinence of Twin Peaks to Lost Highway, the flaws of season three, and how younger generations engage with Lynch and the culture in general.

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

While this is "officially" the end of Twin Peaks Conversations (I'm no longer promising the back halves as monthly patron rewards from June onward), I have several bonus episodes in various stages of planning. I've already recorded the first part of that John Thorne conversation, been in talks with Rob King to discuss his "Lynch and the West" book, exchanged messages with other potential guests, and kept in mind some people I'd like to reach out to when Journey Through Twin Peaks is more fully underway or even near conclusion. So, you'll be happy to know, we aren't quite out of those particular woods yet.

Purchase Scott's book Lost Highway: The Fist of Love 

Lost Highway Cast Panel (Natasha Gregson Wagner, Balthazar Getty with Host Scott Ryan) 2023 (video)

Listen to Scott on The Red Room Podcast & subscribe to The Blue Rose Magazine

Scott's appearance on the Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast to discuss The Fist of Love

Mary Sweeney's Baraboo as Twin Peaks Cinema #26 - Long Road Home (podcast)

UPDATE (2:50pm): Links have now been fixed.

Following her divorce and the end of her creative partnership with David Lynch, the only director she'd ever edited, produced, and written for, Mary Sweeney decided to direct a feature film. In certain ways, Baraboo - chronicling the mellow daily life of a single mom running a campground in Wisconsin - is far from the Lynchverse that Sweeney had been immersed in. There are no double identities, surreal setpieces, or absurdist hijinks, just a quiet communal character study shot on a shoestring. Nonetheless, the film's interest in small town life, positive and negative across generations, is reminiscent of Twin Peaks. Perhaps most surprisingly, the film has more in common with the not-yet-produced, post-Sweeney season three than the original series on which she cut her teeth. In contrast to seasons one and two, both Baraboo and The Return are more rural than suburban, both hint at broader social issues like war, both skirt closer to precarity than middle-class comfort, and both linger longer over middle-aged regret than youthful restlessness. Of course, Baraboo also overlaps significantly with Sweeney's involvement in The Straight Story (which she authored and Lynch directed, covered as last month's entry), which brings us to the theme of the past three episodes including this one.

This last - for now, but probably for good - miniseries/season of the public Twin Peaks Cinema feed, "Long Road Home" has a literal as well as figurative meaning. Starting with Lost Highway, we've observed Sweeney's growing role in the filmmaking process, from editor/producer to editor/producer/writer to editor/producer/writer/director. But the road itself is also a visual touchstone. Lost Highway raced back and forth across its double yellow line into the desert night. The Straight Story slowed its travel to a crawl while still advancing on a journey across the heartland. And Baraboo grinds to a halt along a country highway which characters gaze across while planting their feet firmly in the home that Fred could never root himself in, Alvin wanted to re-establish with his brother, and Jane - for better or worse - is surrounded and supported by.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

(and most places podcasts are found)

This podcast goes on hiatus for now and, as already mentioned, I don't have plans for its revival (though I will publish further teasers, round-ups, and announcements on the feed over the summer and fall). In general, I'm slowing down and shifting my output near the end of this year, concluding a number of projects that have been many years in the making and probably reserving most new work for patrons from now on - although the next few months should be among the busiest this site has ever seen. Thanks for accompanying me on this journey, and I hope you've enjoyed the experience. Feel free to return and re-listen whenever you want; despite what they say, you can - sometimes - go home again.

LINKS FOR EPISODE 26

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #21 w/ Twin Peaks Peeks hosts Ashley Brandt and Mat Olson (YouTube & extended PATREON) premieres tonight

It's been two and a half months since the last Twin Peaks Conversations episode with Andrew Grevas, a rare lapse which will be corrected this week, as I finally publish the belated rewards for April and May patrons. (From June onward, the reward structure has been re-arranged.) As I near the end of this podcast run - although several bonus episodes are already in the works - I wanted to catch up with Peaks commentators I haven't spoken to in a while, and/or who hadn't offered much new work since The Return, to glean their perspective on the series six years later. In the summer of 2017, I was invited on to Twin Peaks Peeks to discuss Part 14 of the third season shortly after it aired. Several weeks later, the hosts Ashley Brandt and Mat Olson ended their coverage - which began two years earlier (when Ashley had yet to see the back half of season two or Fire Walk With Me) - on a note of disappointment with the finale. Since then, they've re-considered some of their objections while sharpening others, and we spend a good deal of time in the back part of this discussion digging into Parts 17 and 18. Bringing subjects like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Andrei Tarkovsky into the fold (partly to be sampled on their own feed with my encouragement), and reflecting on the passage of time since they began discussing Twin Peaks as relatively new and unusually young viewers, Ashley and Mat have a lot to say about The Return and its relationship to the prequel film and original series. Before we get to that, however, the public part of this episode dwells on their own origins in the Peaks fandom, the formation of their podcast, and initial impressions of the season they covered week to week.

Premieres at 8pm tonight, Sunday, June 18, 2023:

PART 1 on YouTube

On the $5/month Patreon tier, the exchange really soars, transforming at times into a reunion episode for master riffers who haven't gotten to riff together on mic for a while. In addition to Evangelion, the accessibility of Mulholland Drive and the importance of Laura Palmer are explored at length. This is definitely the underwater bulk of the iceberg, which you won't want to miss.

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

Listen to Twin Peaks Peeks

My video essay Neon Genesis Evangelion & Twin Peaks (Side by Side)

Strike! by George R.R. Martin (Not a Blog)

Follow Mat on Twitter / Ashley on Letterboxd & Serializd / Ashley's cats on Instagram

Status update: To Sleep With Anger on Wonders in the Dark + catching up w/ conversations & more

In the "Allan Fish Online Film Festival", I contributed a review I wrote for my own site several years ago. Charles Burnett's early nineties film To Sleep With Anger features a dazzling performance by Danny Glover as a Southern trickster re-located to Los Angeles where he can wreak havoc on the family of an old friend. I may have erred in choosing it for the festival, since the conditions encourage free online availability and To Sleep With Anger is not yet open to the public. Fortunately, however, it's schedule to pop up on Tubi - hopefully without cost - just five days from now, so stay tuned. For now, you can read my thoughts on this unique clash of cultures on the website Wonders in the Dark (where its curator Sam Juliano has also offered a pitch-perfect tribute to the late Fish himself, alongside a survey of the recent Sight & Sound list):

Seventh Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival, Day #3: "To Sleep With Anger"

Meanwhile, I've been slowly making progress on my much-belated Patreon rewards and bonuses. I recorded Twin Peaks Conversations episodes with Mat Olson and Ashley Brandt, the hosts of the podcast Twin Peaks Peeks, as well as repeat guest Scott Ryan, on his new Lost Highway book. (Plus, I spoke to John Thorne for the third time on this podcast, though the episode will wait until we record a follow-up in several months.) I also finally recorded my responses to the five most acclaimed films of the 2010s that I hadn't seen before (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Toni Erdmann, The Turin Horse, Amour, and Moonlight) and a sixth (The Act of Killing) elevated when the list was updated earlier this year. I haven't made much progress on Lost in Twin Peaks since the last update - and none on the character series - and while I hoped to have broken ground on new Journey Through Twin Peaks videos by now, that goal remains just over the horizon.

Southland Tales w/ guest Andrew Cook (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #54) + appearance by Vera Drew & capsules on Donnie Darko/The Box

For the finale of the Lost in the Movies podcast (at least for now, I don't plan to return from the scheduled summer/fall hiatus), I'm offering up a doozy. This second guest conversation with Andrew Cook - who covered Eyes Wide Shut with me years ago - is the longest episode on this feed, an hour-plus discussion of the wild, sprawling Richard Kelly opus Southland Tales, which I've supplemented with numerous bonus sections including a couple feedback readings, an exchange with previous Twin Peaks Conversations guest (and The People's Joker director) Vera Drew about this film, and a couple capsule reviews of Kelly's other movies: Donnie Darko and The Box. At the center of this coverage, Andrew and I dig into the complicated place of Southland in the decade it was made which also features as its half-imagined subject. As I said when cross-posting the Patreon episode which originally contained this material (a sprawling survey of zeroes cinema and culture), "Set in an alternate version of 2008 but shot in 2006, it imagines an America whose War of Terror tremors have caught up with a culture that just wanted to go shopping - transforming the country into a manic police state with an active resistance and wild sci-fi developments emerging virtually overnight." Both of us are fascinated with how Kelly holds a funhouse mirror up to the film's own time as well as, inadvertently, the Trump era which followed a decade later (and may be ongoing today). Meanwhile, there are currently plans for me to make a guest appearance on the Southland Tales-focused Have a Nice Apodcalypse podcast for further discussion dwelling on the connections between Richard Kelly and David Lynch, so stay tuned...

While this concludes my public release of "film in focus" podcasts, there are still many movies I covered only on Patreon. In coming months, I'll share previews of these on the Lost in the Movies feed but if you want to jump into this backlog right now, check out this directory (scroll down for Patreon exclusives) and become a patron.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

(and most places podcasts are found)

May 2023 Patreon round-up including TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & update to rewards

For a variety of reasons, May was the quietest month I've ever had, and likely ever will have, on my Patreon. Rewards were delayed and the tiers were modified, with only one piece making it up in the month itself - aside from a detailed update on these conditions. To reiterate briefly here, I ran into major and completely unexpected roadblocks finding guests for Twin Peaks Conversations. When I finally did make contact, the recordings were scheduled for June based on their availability so I will be catching up with both April and May $5/month tier rewards this month. Fortunately, there will also be a bonus conversation since other guests got back to me recently, and we set up a recording for mid-June as well. Speaking of bonuses, I at last recorded responses to five of the six acclaimed 2010s films I've watched since February and a sixth will be recorded soon. These, possibly along with several other films I haven't watched yet (though I don't want to drag this out much further) are destined for the final $1/month Patreon podcast that has long been on the horizon. Additionally, as I shift away from conversations, conclude the podcasts, and pause the character advances, I'm going to be offering advance work on other projects to the top tier as well. Last month, I mistakenly said May would make up for April and it didn't. But based on what's already done or in the docket, it looks like June will make up for both.

Meanwhile, the one character study I released (taking me right up to the brink of the top thirty) is another omnibus encompassing a broad ensemble exclusive to the third season...