Two Paths Forward in the Fall (status update)

As always, my progress through various projects is taking longer than expected - but progress is being made. That said, it seems almost impossible to wrap up my three big projects in late October as I'd originally hoped. Those projects are Journey Through Twin Peaks (which I haven't even resumed work on since the winter of 2021), the revised TWIN PEAKS Character Series (with twenty-plus entries still to be written - many from scratch, including some massive ones), and the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (whose entire second season I need to re-edit and re-present). Even if I miraculously had all day every day available to me for the next sixty days there might literally not be enough hours in those days to complete all three - never mind offline work, social obligations, or, you know, sleep.

So what is upcoming in the near future? My "Barbenheimer" follow-up will be published for patrons next week. I've also finished - and shared with my top tier ahead of time - many podcasts on individual films which will be expanded to either all patrons or the public later this fall (you can join for $5/month to listen to them all now). These include a comparison of The Tree of Life to Twin Peaks; guest discussions on The Lighthouse and Jeanne Dielman; and my responses to Avatar: The Way of Water, The Fabelmans, The Master, The Florida Project, Beau Travail, Close-Up, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Amour, The Turin Horse, The Act of Killing, Toni Erdmann, and Moonlight. Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece Stalker, the last of this bunch, is coming soon and feels like a good note to end this endeavor on.

Tomorrow, I may finally begin publishing the Lost in Twin Peaks coverage of the season three finale - in time for Sunday's sixth anniversary of Parts 17 and 18. Back in June, I began sharing this coverage but had to cancel and postpone because the rollout was taking too long. I'm going to dive back into re-editing those lengthy episodes tonight, so the coming week's schedule will depend on how that goes. And beyond that? Unless some miracle delivers a hyper-productive September and October or I decide to give up completely on long-promised projects (which I have no intention of doing), there appear to be two options going forward - or at least some combination/version of these two.

First Path: Keep Up/Pick Up the Pace and Finish by February

Aside from a handful of other obligations - essentially, upcoming conversations already committed to - I would put all my energy into the three big projects, still trying to finish as much as possible in late October but letting the remainder spill into the late fall and winter. My more realistic goal at this point would be to finish everything by late February, the tenth anniversary of my 2014 re-immersion in Twin Peaks (as well as the thirty-fifth anniversary of the events of the series).

Second Path: Wrap Up All Other Commentary First, Then Take My Time with the Big Three

On the other hand, I could continue my summer method while still treating late October as a sort of hard deadline (just not for the three Peaks projects). Get everything else out of the way: record those last conversations, create a long-simmering video mashup on Watership Down and Brideshead Revisited, present some old material I never published, maybe offer a couple more "Unseen" reviews to end that series at an appropriate juncture, and write about some films I've long wanted to tackle like 63 Up. Do not introduce any new ideas to the mix and when all of that is done in September or October, maybe review one other movie - a curtain call for my film commentary - and from then on, focus exclusively (but without a deadline) on what remains of Lost in Twin Peaks, the TWIN PEAKS Character Series, and Journey Through Twin Peaks, probably in that order and probably not published until complete in each case. No (online) distractions.

Most likely, I'll use the second path but maybe after a few weeks of clinging to the first. Either way, when those projects are finished (including a limited epilogue of reflection and discussion on Journey), I will finally and belatedly turn the page to whatever I want as my focus going forward. This will likely be patron-exclusive film/TV commentary while sharing only big, non-commentary media projects with the public. I have some ideas, but am weary of making promises at this point.

I also have thoughts on the meaning of all these goals, schedules, and failures for me personally, but I'll save those for another time.