December 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - 2024 American Generations Reflections + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast

In months when I'm not covering a particular film or TV show for the $5/month tier, I tend to use a group shot of Twin Peaks characters as my top image for a public round-up. These represent the $1/month tier advance entry from my TWIN PEAKS Character Series without giving away which particular character I've written about (since the ranking is supposed to be a surprise until the eventual public reveal). I go this route even when there's another $5/month reward to highlight, usually because that reward is a Twin Peaks Conversations episode which I've already highlighted in a separate cross-post. That was certainly the case this month when I spoke with John Thorne again, this time for his Devious Dreams book on Mulholland Drive; while part two is linked below I already promoted this discussion on this site a few weeks ago. However, there also happens to be a bonus $5/month reward this month: a long written piece in which I explore the year 2024 through several different generations as part of an ongoing project which will hopefully lead to a video essay in the distant future (this is the second year I've offered this bonus, as the video will span 2023 - 31 and I want to prepare the ground with contemporaneous assessments). Why not use an image associated with this subject atop December's round-up?

Well, frankly, I found most of those potential images to be less than enticing both aesthetically and politically. If I'm trying to get people excited for my Patreon work, it's probably best not to frontload either a generic demographic chart (whose generational definitions I probably don't even use myself) or some photo of Trump smirking with eighties celebrities and/or grifting YouTubers (then again, politics always makes for the best clickbait so maybe I've shot my SEO in the foot). None of this is to say the piece isn't worth reading. It was certainly satisfying to write everything down, and hopefully others find my musings insightful and relatable, and not too heavy on generalizations...pardon the quasi-pun. Still, I figured we'd all be better off with a perplexed Gordon Cole and the gang leading the way this time.

What are the December rewards?

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast on Mulholland Drive premieres tonight w/ Devious Dreams author John Thorne (YouTube & extended PATREON)

For John Thorne, Mulholland Drive has not only been a vital experience in its own right but also -forgive the expression - a key to David Lynch's other work, particularly Twin Peaks. Many of John's theories and interpretations of Peaks borrow from a structure Lynch most notably deployed to tie two worlds together: the characters and stories conceived for an ABC TV pilot (the first two-thirds of Mulholland Drive, with some subtle but significant changes) and the more time-constrained but also thematically and stylistically grander possibilities of a theatrically-released feature film (sealed by the final third of Mulholland Drive, shot a year and a half after the other material). Not only does Mulholland inform John's notions of dreaming and identity shifts in Peaks, it also feeds his fascination with process - the outside conditions that, well, condition Lynch's creative responses. We began to dwell on this subject in our previous discussion (itself following Twin Peaks Conversations episodes in 2021 and 2022). Since then, John wrote and published the absorbing and deeply compelling Devious Dreams: Reimagining David Lynch's Twin Peaks (which includes history of the production, analysis of the pilot and film, and original interviews with the central cast). Naturally, we had to schedule a reunion to focus on this new book.

The resulting episode premieres exactly twelve hours from this announcement and runs nearly four hours in total, with about an hour and a half public on YouTube and the remaining two and half hours for the $5/month tier on Patreon. We explore many rabbit holes, including what a Mulholland Drive series might have looked like (and how that phenomenon would compare to Twin Peaks), what was in the closed ending Lynch shot for the pilot even before expanding it into a film, the significance of the man behind Winkie's Diner, how John's exposure to a version of the pilot before the 2001 Mulholland Drive premiere shaped his perspective, and the way that the film's release (nearly a decade into Wrapped in Plastic's run) changed John's work on the magazine. And that's just in the first part of the conversation!

PART 1 on YouTube premieres at 8pm EST

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

(also premieres at 8pm EST)

November 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #6: Trenque Lauquen + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

In the docket since January, the film Trenque Lauquen was finally chosen by patrons as the subject for my Films in Focus podcast in November for the $5/month tier. A fusion of historical romance, whimsical sci-fi, missing person mystery, and contemplative landscape cinema, this four-hour, twelve-chapter 2022 work from the Argentine director Laura Citarella (and the collaborative collective she's a part of, El Pompero Cine) tells the many stories of botanist Laura (Laura Paredes), who disappears without explanation in the sleepy provincial town of Trenque Lauquen. Two men who were romantically involved with her, Ezequiel "Chico" (Ezequiel Pierro) and Rafa (Rafael Spregelburd), search for her across the countryside. Eventually we learn about the two personal investigations she was absorbed in: the first a series of romantic letters exchanged via books between a school official and a wealthy landowner, and the second a creature/person/alligator (?) discovered on the banks of the town pond and cared for by Dr. Elisa Esperanza (Elisa Carricajo), whose lifestyle Laura becomes slowly absorbed into. A body found on the edge of a body of water? A mysterious woman named Laura whom many love but no one quite understands? A community which, depending on who observes it, seems like a small town, rural outpost, or small city? Obviously Twin Peaks is a major reference point here. Additionally, the film is also a portrait of older millennials entering middle age without having quite settled on their identity or purpose in life and maybe even an inadvertent prediction of the cinematic and cultural erasure unleashed by the chaotic near-future president Javier Milei. There is much to discuss and I had a great time diving in...

What are the November rewards?

belated October 2024 Patreon round-up including TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast

Finally, another character entry has been advanced on Patreon. I missed the monthly cutoff for a number of reasons include an initial mistake about who should be next on the list, unnecessary absorption in a future archival round-up, birthday gatherings and other offline plans, and of course the culmination of a presidential election which landed with a thudding sense of deja vu (not only did Trump win again, I was in the same place during the same span of hours, and had even been working on the same project eight years apart). As in 2020, I'll limit my commentary to a link; here's what I had to say over the course of Election Night and the next morning (click on a given tweet for any replies, including my own follow-ups; I could not figure out how to link to retweets this time). Anyway, the $5/month tier exclusive has already been prominently featured on this site since it was part of a Twin Peaks Conversations episode; elsewhere on Patreon I ran a poll and a runoff to select the next podcast topic, coming soon.

There, at least, the voting was productive.

What are the October rewards?

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast w/ John Thorne: the "lost episode" (YouTube & extended PATREON)

In the spring of 2023, as I was wrapping up my regular monthly Twin Peaks Conversations schedule, I recorded a "bonus" that I planned to use later, maybe as the last episode in this podcast, with my most recurring guest: John Thorne, publisher of Wrapped in Plastic in the nineties and zeroes and later a blogger, podcaster, editor of a new Twin Peaks magazine, and eventually author of several books. In our previous Twin Peaks Conversations we first touched base on Halloween 2021 (coincidentally, three years to the day before this latest episode) as he was writing a new book about Twin Peaks' third season and then we spoke again after he published that book as Ominous Whoosh in 2022. This discussion was supposed to be something of an epilogue in that trilogy, reflecting on the passage of years since Twin Peaks: The Return in light of a David Lynch retrospective John attended in Dallas. And while the two-part episode (a half hour on YouTube, another hour-plus for the $5/month tier on Patreon) does serve that purpose, it was also unknowingly a gateway into a whole new project for John. In the year and a half since we recorded this chat, he's written and published a book on Mulholland Drive called Devious Dreams, and Lynch's 2001 film is already a focus in the Patreon part of this episode, hinting at the book to come. This past winter, I thought I'd lost this whole recording but fortunately I was able to restore it months ago and now I can present this "lost episode" not just as a worthwhile piece in its own right but also a teaser for the next Twin Peaks Conversations episode, scheduled for December, in which John and I will discuss the book Devious Dreams in great detail.

PART 1 on YouTube

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

Like my December conversation with Rob King and my April/May conversation with Cameron Cloutier and Josh Eisenstadt, this is a bonus episode of the Twin Peaks Conversations podcast, which ended its monthly run halfway through 2023. Bonuses will continue at least as long as I'm working on the three big Twin Peaks projects (Journey Through Twin Peaks videos, the written character series, and the second season of the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast) over the next few years.

Purchase John's new book Devious Dreams: Reimagining David Lynch's Mulholland Drive

Purchase John's earlier books Ominous Whoosh: A Wandering Mind Returns to Twin Peaks & The Essential Wrapped in Plastic: Pathways to Twin Peaks

Prior to our Twin Peaks Conversations episodes, I spoke to John over three print interviews in 2014 (about Wrapped in Plastic, The Missing Pieces, and the announcement of The Return), again when he published his 2016 book, and then over four Patreon podcasts in 2019 (first, second, third, and fourth).

Listen to his podcast In Our House Now

Check out back issues of his more recent magazine The Blue Rose

Haunted by Seriality: The Formal Uncanny of Mulholland Drive by Jason Mittell (Just TV)

My SEVEN AMERICAN GENERATIONS presentation

Images come from Devious Dreams is John Thorne's New Book About Mulholland Drive by Steven Miller (Twin Peaks Blog)

Gadgets and Symbols in Twin Peaks (and our lives) • group discussion on objects & much more w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (+ guests Colin, Alison Ivy, Heather Jones, Tommy Jones, Steven Miller & Josh Minton)

Sometimes Anthony, the host of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel, provides an ornate, intense structure for our discussions and sometimes he takes a looser approach to see what bubbles up. This conversation heads in the latter direction - providing some visual reminders of various objects through three seasons and a film but letting the conversation flow where we want to go: not just toward analysis of tokens like the Owl Cave ring but also the process of tracking down props, the ways in which the show's iconography brings fans together, theories of who dreams this narrative, and how this may or may not relate to Carl Jung. Following quickly on the heels of the last group chat just a few weeks ago, this recording includes several of the same participants - Alison, Tommy, myself - along with some new or returning guests. Twin Peaks Blog author and location/prop hunter extraordinaire Steven offers insight into the real-life objects of the show and Dreamer's Diary podcast host Tommy is joined by his wife and co-host Heather. Colin returns to rep the Creamed Corn and the Universe podcast, where I've had several exchanges with him alongside appearances on this channel and my own podcast; likewise Josh and I have spoken across a couple different podcasts. Like last time, I joined late but on this occasion I stuck around until the end for some more deep dives down various rabbit holes with both Anthony and Tommy. (At which point I reference my montage integrating Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern in Blue Velvet and The Return, as well as the film/book A Dangerous Method - here's my review of that one.)

In addition to that video, Anthony also posted this episode in audio form on the Artists Love Twin Peaks feed.

Journey Through Twin Peaks update: 10th anniversary & working on chapter 37 now

A decade ago today on October 1, 2014, not long after midnight, I uploaded my first Journey Through Twin Peaks video essay to Vimeo: the half-hour Part 1 (composed of five chapters) titled "Harmony of the Dark Woods". The narration was rough, and in fact I soon re-uploaded a whole new audio track, recorded by listening to the original on headphones while repeating its words at a less peak-y volume (no pun intended). The following day on October 2, 2014, I uploaded each of those first five chapters separately to YouTube. And then just one day after that, on October 3, 2014, David Lynch and Mark Frost simultaneously tweeted "That gum you like is going to come back in style..." fueling speculation which Showtime promptly confirmed. Twin Peaks would return to TV with new episodes. Unknowingly, I'd thrown myself deeper into Peaks than ever before at the exact moment its relevance was being renewed.

Even after that exciting revelation, I could never suspect that I'd still be working on new Journey Through Twin Peaks ten years later. The limited event series eventually came and went in 2017 and, having finished the initial run of Journey videos within several months of that first one, I vowed to continue my own series and eventually released a two-hour Part 5 in 2020-21 (largely exploring the "in-between" years of the nineties, zeroes, and early teens alongside a broad strokes analysis of The Return). Year after year, I kept promising a final batch of chapters to be gathered in a Part 6 focused on dissecting the third season (largely by story section) but I became swamped in other projects - Peaks and otherwise - so here we are, ten years down the road with a conclusion still distant on the horizon. The bad news is that this process keeps stretching out and getting kicked down the road, but that's a long familiar phenomenon at this point. On the other hand...

The good news is a fresh development I can now confirm: over this past month I have resumed work on my video series for the first time since March 2021, cutting a "memoriam" montage which will close chapter 37, drafting the narration, and exploring videos to illustrate my subject - in this case, the years since the last pieces of Twin Peaks material, an era swirling with rumors, theories, abandoned projects, and unfortunate passings. The opening of Part 6 was actually already completed five years ago and published in 2020 before Part 5, as "Dark Dreams on the Radio". Continuing that theme, the full chapter will be titled "Fading Signals" in reference to Lynch's comment at a 2018 Q&A about how the Carrie Page character and the final scene of season three were "calling" to him but there were disturbances in that signal. There is obviously a meta quality to all of this, as after this passage of time I am reflecting on a passage of time following a show which is itself about the passage of time.

And how much more time will pass before it's public? Initially I harbored some hope of posting the chapter on this very anniversary but its format proved too complicated for imminent release. As such, even after the video is complete I'll probably wait to publish chapter 37 in 2025, closer to when subsequent chapters will also be ready. Ultimately, I would like - emphasis on like (no more promises, never again!) - to unveil the remaining chapters in three groups: the first eight around the spring of 2025, a couple more in 2026, and the final two during significant anniversaries around the end of summer in 2027. I also want to share the public version of the Lost in Twin Peaks second season podcast and the top thirty of my TWIN PEAKS Character Series during this broad timespan, along with some non-Peaks video essay projects. As always, you can follow the progress of these projects here; the big new development is that I'm no longer waiting to complete the others before resuming Journey Through Twin Peaks. Instead, I will be working on and sharing these videos alongside everything else.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you continue to enjoy the ride.

Here is where it all began on October 1, 2014...

September 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #5: Safe + Advanced Script for Journey Through Twin Peaks narration

In July, my $5/month tier patrons chose a podcast subject which echoed the previous episode in May: two Jonathan Glazer films back-to-back. Now the bimonthly poll has chosen to bookend that directorial double feature with another auteurist pair. Following March's selection of Todd Haynes' latest film May December, the September episode rolls back three decades for Haynes' second film Safe (also starring Julianne Moore as a fragile housewife, albeit a more sympathetic character in this case). The portrait of Southern Californian woman collapsing under the weight of environmental illness, struggling to forge her own identity only to be sucked into a manipulative self-help cult, the movie was marketed inaccurately as some kind of sci-fi thriller, has been characterized unusually but not inaccurately as a horror movie, and resonates even more strongly in an age grappling with the aftermath of Covid-19 and the uneasy anticipation of a chemically induced apocalypse. From its first half delivered in Kubrickian wide shots of modernist interiors to its second half absorbed in loneliness- and desperation-inducing western exteriors, Safe provides a fascinating challenge to viewers. How much of this ailment is in Carol White's surroundings, and how much is in her own head? Along with this question, I explore the nineties film's relationship to the eighties it depicts, the influence of Douglas Sirk's fifties melodramas, the correspondences and differences with Jeanne Dielman, and several connections to Lynch works (although, surprisingly in retrospect, I don't mention Lost Highway which was shot the year Safe came out and also depicts a character's disintegration in two very distinct halves, one involving a modernist L.A. home while the other features a breakdown in the desert).

Meanwhile I shared with all patrons the script for my narration of an upcoming Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter. Tomorrow I'll discuss my shifting approach to this project (something I hinted at back in July, in this Patreon update I forgot to include in that month's cross-post, though I've gone back to add it now). For now, from the $1/month tier up, you can read a draft covering the post-Return period in all of its melancholically hopeful and disappointed flavor.

What are the September rewards?

What happened in Room 315? • group discussion on the opening of Twin Peaks season 2 premiere w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (+ guests John Bernardy, Andrew Cook, Alison Ivy, Tommy Jones, Patrick Mahan & afterwards Brian Liddicoat)

The slow waiter, the giant (or fireman?), the missing ring, the owls who aren't what they seem...the first scene of Twin Peaks' second season in 1990 is full of mysteries and in this group discussion led by Anthony of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel, we dig into many of them. My time was limited, but I was able to join for an hour of the sprawling two and a half hour episode. The previous conversation, on the end of Part 18, followed a rigorous structure; this one by contrast is more freewheeling, dipping into the media personae of the actors onscreen, the question of whether this scene is a dream (and if so, whose?), and what relationship this slice of mythology bears to others in the larger Twin Peaks saga. This was my first time speaking with Dreamer's Diary podcast host Tommy, while Alison and Talking Backwards podcast host Patrick had participated in previous group chats (another guest, Brian, joined after I left). In addition to these collective discussions, I spoke to John about his podcast Blue Rose Task Force several years ago, and I've had many exchanges with Andrew. Together we wander and wonder in this Lynchian/Frostian terrain; to paraphrase the guiding spirit of this scene: where have we gone?

In addition to that video, Anthony is also posting this episode in audio form on the Artists Love Twin Peaks feed.

August 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Conversation on Killers of the Flower Moon w/ Tyler MacDonald

Having already covered four of the big films of 2023 on Patreon, I'm finally catching up with the fifth and final title in that line-up. Barbie and Oppenheimer as well as The Boy and the Heron and Godzilla Minus One were discussed in pairs, but Killers of the Flower Moon receives undivided attention in August's reward for the $5/month tier (all patron tiers were also presented with an advance work-in-progress this month). In this quasi-western from Martin Scorsese, returning World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) marries Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) while taking direction from William Hale (Robert DeNiro), an apparently benevolent but in fact deeply sinister Oklahoma rancher with murderous designs on the oil-driven fortunes of the local Osage tribe - including Ernest's own wife. As with the Japanese subjects discussed a couple months ago, I've conducted (and transcribed) a conversation, in this case with my cousin Tyler MacDonald (a first-time guest, though his brother Riley joined me to cover The Lighthouse last year). Together, we dig into the rich story, style, and history of Killers, including its origin as a nonfiction book (adapted for the screen to focus more on the romantic relationship of a murderer and his would-be victim), its place in Scorsese's gangland- and religion-focused filmography, parallels between the film's portrait of a vicious backwater social ecosystem and the political realities of the present, questions about the intricate and often elliptical conspiracy at the center of the plot, and the film's relationship to American mythologies (especially those that Scorsese grew up with, as someone born just a decade and a half after the film's events but making this movie nearly a century later). Having explored Scorsese's work extensively in the past (all Scorsese-labeled posts including this one are gathered here) further links are included on Patreon), I looked forward to catching up with the octogenarian auteur's latest output, and Killers of the Flower Moon did not disappoint.

What are the exclusive August rewards?

belated July 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #4: Birth + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Following my episode on The Zone of Interest a couple months ago, patrons chose Jonathan Glazer's earlier Birth as a follow-up. A film whose key moments unfold in close-ups, Birth is as intimate as Zone is distanced. The unusual storytelling mastery exhibited by Glazer in his later work (including Under the Skin, which I've also covered on a past podcast) hadn't quite taken hold yet in his second movie. The tale of a widow (Nicole Kidman) who's told by an intense ten-year-old (Cameron Bright) - a decade after her husband's death - that he is the reincarnation of her lost love, Birth struggles to strike a balance between its troubling premise and the more poetic, allegorical realm it often seeks to inhabit. The strongest moments in the narrative are those that subvert this abstraction with down-to-earth specificity, but I found it hard to get past the discomfort engendered by that central creative choice. This is the first time in a while that I've dug into a work that, by and large, didn't work for me (even as it completely held my interest), which makes for a fascinating as well as frustrating engagement. Given that its reputation really rebounded after a controversial premiere, I'm keen to hear what others think of Birth and its place in Glazer's body of work (including his debut Sexy Beast, which I've not yet seen). As Walker White - the patron who initially suggested this topic - put it in his comment following my coverage, "I agree that the potential for a really successful movie is in here, but it's muddled. Either way, kind of more fun to think about after than to watch. Funny, with Sexy Beast I feel it's the opposite: fun to watch but not as much to go back over later."

While the $5/month tier contemplated Birth's protagonist, who dances between pitiable and predatory, I shared another TWIN PEAKS Character Series entry with all tiers, covering someone who very much does the same. This is one of the richest figures in the whole series and I'd long anticipated applying the prism of my uniform approach to the unique slipperiness of the character's spirit.

What are the July rewards?

belated June 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Conversation on The Boy and the Heron & Godzilla Minus One w/ Max Clark + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Two Japanese World War II-era fantasy films from 2023 involving dangerous creatures crown my $5/month tier rewards for June - and they're covered in an unusual way. At this point I'm leaving podcasts for patron's picks every other month and Twin Peaks topics more sporadically than that, so I when I spoke about Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron and Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One with my friend and previous guest Max Clark (who got me to see both of these films), I decided to edit and present our extensive, two-hour-plus discussion in text form. In addition to exploring how The Boy and the Heron both emerges and differs from previous Miyazaki films (in the past I've covered Spirited Away in prose and podcast), we learn how Studio Ghibli Park in Japan crystallizes the auteur's vision, tease out the film's most-likely-accidental but still intriguing reflections on AI, investigate how the fanciful story reflects the behind-the-scenes Ghibli personalities, and reflect on why the friendship between the characters Mahito and Himi is so affecting. For Godzilla Minus One, which I saw initially in its brief black-and-white cinematic presentation, we dig into the intricacies of the fluid creature design and compare this latest entry - and its monster - to Hideaki Anno's Shin Godzilla (which I've discussed alongside the original and Americanized fifties Gojira/Godzilla in capsule form before; elsewhere I recorded capsules on the 2014 Godzilla and the original King Kong vs. Godzilla). And we get into many other subjects in relation to both films, including Japan's experience in the war and postwar periods. For even more from Max and I, you can check out our podcast episode on Blade Runner 2049 several years ago.

And open to all patrons is an advance entry on another beloved Twin Peaks character, alongside a few quick updates on what else I have been or will be working on this summer...

What are the June rewards?

The Impossible Life of Robert Jacoby, 1927/31/40 - 1969/86? • discussion w/ Creamed Corn and the Universe podcast

Visit/download the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other platforms

My past two appearances on Creamed Corn and the Universe, at host Colin's suggestion, have covered two of the most obscure characters in the Twin Peaks universe in very different ways and for very different reasons. Yet both provide a rich field for discussion. Following my episode on Ronette's angel - who is about the most purely "David Lynch" that a character can be - I'm back to talk about Robert Jacoby, a quintessential Mark Frost creation. Robert is equally fascinating and frustrating for me. Given by obsession with chronology I can't help but be driven crazy by the inconsistencies exhibited by Dr. Lawrence Jacoby's brother, a reporter for the Twin Peaks Gazette (later the Twin Peaks Post), as featured in The Secret History of Twin Peaks. Within single articles, indeed within single paragraphs, the character himself completely contradicts his age and the order of events in his own life. Is this just sloppiness on the author's part, or is there some larger thematic thread to draw here? Can both be true? As Colin and I talked, we found ourselves more and more enmeshed in a reading which tied the character to a larger theme of avoidance and deception (self- and otherwise). This conversation is a great example of discovering a thesis in the process of hashing out the details. I hope you have as much fun listening to this as I did recording it.

"The European Version": 'The Twin Peaks Pilot's Alternate Ending podcast for Wonders in the Dark (+ new archive images & 6-month check-in on project progress)

In its eighth year of celebrating unusual works which can be found for free online, the Allan Fish Online Film Festival is featuring a re-presented bonus from my Lost in Twin Peaks podcast, discussing the "European version" alternate closed ending of the pilot for which Bob, Mike, the Red Room, and some other mythological elements were first invented. Right now, you can read my introduction, watch the ending itself, and take part in any further discussion all on Wonders in the Dark (unfortunately the podcast player won't work on WordPress so I couldn't include it alongside the intro - you have to either listen to it embedded above or follow the links to other platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Pinecast).

Eighth Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival, Day #9:
Twin Peaks Pilot Alternate Ending ("The European Version") - a podcast

This fifteen-minute survey of this material and its creation was originally featured in my coverage of S2E3 (i.e. "episode 2"), the episode in which this ending was re-cut as a dream sequence.

I've also done some maintenance on this site by tweaking a few images for my Archive, including the top one (another abstracted Agent Cooper portrait) as well as chapters 3, 15, and 16 to make them better pop and/or match the spirit of each chapter title. And finally, on Twitter I offered a subthread explaining why my progress on long-term projects can be simultaneously described as slow and promising.

May 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #3: The Zone of Interest + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

I hoped and suspected that The Zone of Interest would be the next film patrons picked for me to cover following its prominence at the Academy Awards in March, where it won much-deserved prizes for Best Sound and Best International Film, as well as the backlash to and praise for director Jonathan Glazer's acceptance speech drawn directly from the film's own themes. The title had appeared in an earlier poll, spurred by last year's podcast on Glazer's earlier Under the Skin; while I missed most of the press around it in 2023 I'd been anticipating this coverage for several months. Nonetheless, I wasn't really prepared for the power of this film, the purity of its aesthetic and especially the emotional devastation of its conclusion. Responding to a post about how the film "must most importantly be 'felt', rather than be 'understood'", I recently commented on Twitter that "The 'felt' and 'understood' were more intertwined than in most films I can think of. So much of its impact relies on what you know rather than see/hear yet it's so visceral. The power of the ending rests in an intellectual concept but [is] as emotional as any ending I've experienced." The Zone of Interest follows several months in the life of the Auschwitz commandant, told entirely on one side of the concentration camp wall - the side on which Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) live in their tidy, well-manicured villa. This episode discusses the film's aggressive, intricate soundtrack, surveillance-style shooting strategy, and differences from the novel Glazer very loosely used as inspiration; I also explore the history of the real Höss, the prisoner-written song "Sunbeam" featured in the film, connections to other famous Nazi- or genocide-themed works like Schindler's List, The Act of Killing, and Dr. Strangelove, what marks the time period as both distinct and resonant, and much more, in one of my longest reviews of a single film.

In addition to that $5/tier feature, for all patrons I've advanced another TWIN PEAKS Character Series entry, in this case one of the most complicated, fascinating characters of the third season (and, in some ways, before that too).

What are the May rewards?

Teresa With a T fan film added alongside Black Rose project (TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS update)

Josh Eisenstadt has decided to go forward with his fan film Teresa With a T, which we initially discussed (alongside some related Fire Walk With Me analysis) while recording Twin Peaks Conversations with him and Cameron Cloutier. I cut that material out of the episode since the project was in limbo but now that it's back on track, I've uploaded the "missing pieces" as their own audio-only video on YouTube. Although I just revised the master cross-post for the whole discussion (which includes the extra patron exclusive running nearly two hours), I also wanted to let readers of this site know this is out there through this standalone update. So here you go...

belated April 2024 Patreon round-up including TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & Twin Peaks Conversations podcast (w/ revised patron introduction + Lost in Twin Peaks public status update)

For the first time since 2012, a calendar month passed without any posts on this main site. I couldn't publish this round-up until early May because one of the April rewards was delayed: part two of the bonus Twin Peaks Conversations episode with Cameron Cloutier and Josh Eisenstadt about an upcoming fan film (Josh's potential project is in flux and was ultimately cut out of the discussion). Nonetheless, other content did pop up on Patreon over the past month, in particular the usual advance character entry as we continue our dive into the final twenty. I also polled patrons about their pick for May's Films in Focus podcast. After an initial logjam of individual votes, I put out the call for more participation and got a clear response for a film which I'm looking forward to covering soon.

Meanwhile, I updated my "Welcome to Patreon" video (mostly recorded in December) to include the patron polls which were added to my reward structure in January...

What are the April rewards?

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast w/ Black Rose director Cameron Cloutier + Teresa With a T director Josh Eisenstadt (YouTube & extended PATREON)

Two years after his last guest appearance to promote the epic four-hour fan film Queen of Hearts, Cameron Cloutier is back on Twin Peaks Conversations with a new project that's just getting going (a fundraising campaign begins on May 14). Black Rose will combine a look behind the red curtains at One Eyed Jack's with a continuation of Annie Blackburn's story from the previous movie. We discuss this project and also spend time chatting with Cameron's collaborator Josh Eisenstadt who is considering a fan film of his own which would share sets, actors, and other resources with Cameron. Since Josh's concept is in flux at the time of this podcast, I didn't include any material about his specific movie*; instead, we discuss his history with Twin Peaks and its cast as a fan and friend - including his connection to Pamela Gidley who played Teresa Banks in Fire Walk With Me. Especially in the $5/month tier Patreon back half (actually nearly four times as long as the public YouTube portion) we dig into many different questions about the show, its creation, and its legacy, of which Josh has a wealth of knowledge. And Cameron sticks around after Josh has to go, talking Mulholland Drive, more details on his own upcoming production, and of course our favorite subject: will there be more Twin Peaks from David Lynch and/or Mark Frost?

PART 1 on YouTube

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

*Update 5/9

A week later, Josh ended up going forward with his project Teresa With a T, so I published the previously excised parts of our discussion on YouTube:

Like my December conversation with Rob King, this is a bonus episode of the Twin Peaks Conversations podcast, which ended its monthly run halfway through 2023. This won't be the last such episode.

Watch Queen of Hearts: A Twin Peaks Fan Film on the YouTube channel "Annie Blackburn"

Cameron's main YouTube channel is Obnoxious & Anonymous - subscribe for updates on the upcoming May 14 campaign for Black Rose & possibly Josh's film as well

You can follow Cameron on Bluesky & Twitter as Obnoxious & Anonymous or Queen of Hearts & Facebook in Twin Peaks Worldwide

The Four Placements of FIRE WALK WITH ME by Julius Kassendorf (The Solute)

My video essay Dream Souls: David Lynch & Mary Sweeney

Appreciating the Ending of Twin Peaks • group discussion w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (w/ guests Andrew Cook, Alison Ivy, Patrick Mahan, Courtenay Stallings & John Thorne)

Following up on his last group discussion three and a half months ago - in which four guests offered formal analysis of four David Lynch scenes - Anthony of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel has both narrowed our focus and expanded our range. I joined him as one of six guests this time, focusing on a single scene: the conclusion of Part 18 in The Return. I particularly honed in on sound, while others addressed other aspects of the filmmaking, and together we all explored the larger context of this passage (especially in comparison to Part 17's climax). This was my first time speaking with Talking Backwards podcast host Patrick, while Alison had participated in the previous group chat. I spoke to Courtenay about her book Laura's Ghost several years ago, and I've had many exchanges with John (before and after season three) and Andrew. Together we pondered what significance this scene has for both Cooper and Laura/Carrie, considered what Lynch and Mark Frost brought to its creation, remembered how we first encountered the visit to the Palmer (or rather Tremond) house in 2017 and wondered "...what year is this?"

In addition to that video, Anthony has also posted this episode in audio form on the Artists Love Twin Peaks feed.

March 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #2: May December + ADVANCE - TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Although as you read this the ceremony is now several weeks in the past, at the time of writing I've just watched the Academy Awards last night. Though my awards season viewing got off to a strong start last summer with the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, I didn't catch up with most of the other Oscar nominees - neither seeing nor (obviously therefore) covering the bulk of the list. Killers of the Flower Moon I've been anticipating, but awaiting a forthcoming conversation on Patreon before I dive into that. (Speaking of Patreon conversations, I did see and plan on soon discussing two of the delightful Japanese winners of the night - The Boy and the Heron for animated feature and Godzilla Minus One for visual effects, whose toy-wielding win genre icon John Carpenter himself celebrated on Twitter.) No Poor Things, no The Holdovers, no Anatomy of a Fall, no Zone of Interest (also a contender among March's patron requests, with my interest further piqued after last night's win for International Film and much-praised Sound - as well as Jonathan Glazer's undeservedly controversial acceptance speech). With all that said, I did manage to catch the film that Anatomy of a Fall beat for Best Original Screenplay. A couple months after first requesting it, patron Walker White's suggestion of May December made it to a runoff and then ran away with the follow-up poll to become my March selection.

That the film, directed by veteran Todd Haynes and written by newcomer Samy Burch, didn't garner as much nomination glory as expected (especially for the actors) is both surprising and maybe, some writers have suggested, revealing. Although set in Georgia, the story of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman who spent years in prison for having sex with then-thirteen, now-grown (and married to her, with three kids) Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) is filtered through the lens of actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who has arrived in town to study and perhaps interfere with the family's life as she researches an upcoming role. I was struck by both the film's revelations and its unknowns - the long in-between years, the ambiguous truths and falsehoods characters tell themselves and one another - and I appreciated the opportunity to dig into these and other questions. Alongside this podcast, the second in my every-other-month Films in Focus series exclusive to the top tier, I also shared another advance Twin Peaks character study with all patrons...

What are the March rewards?

belated February 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - True Detective: Night Country viewing diary (second part) + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

Although I offered a couple standalone sci-fi episodes last fall, True Detective: Night Country is my first (but probably not my last) patron-exclusive TV season viewing diary. It's also my first episodic write-up since 2022 (my Mad Men coverage concluded two years ago as of Thursday), and my first coverage of a brand new series since 2019 (when I wrapped the Veronica Mars revival). This also allowed me to have complete coverage of the whole True Detective run after discussing the beloved first season a year after it aired and the more controversial second and third seasons in real time, offering responses in the weeks between episodes just as I did with this (also controversial) fourth season. Set in Alaska, starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, and involving the mysteries surrounding a vanished group of scientists and a murdered indigenous activist, Night Country is a visual delight, cultivating a rich atmosphere from its nocturnal, wintry setting. This is my favorite element of the season although I (eventually) encountered more difficulties with the plot and particularly the finale - which is frankly a True Detective tradition at this point. Whether or not you're reading this as a patron who can access my full reviews, I'd love to hear your own thoughts on Night Country. Apparently the new showrunner Issa López has been signed for another season and I'm very curious to see where the show goes next.

The second half of the series was covered for $5/month patrons in February and is linked below (for a round-up of all Night Country entries, including January's, see this cross-post). This month I also solicited requests, conducted a poll, and then narrowed the selection down to a run-off for the film I'll cover in March's $5/month tier podcast. And, a bit late for reasons that (as I explain in its intro) won't happen again, I finally cracked the top twenty Twin Peaks characters with an advance entry accessible to all patrons. This makes eleven entries on Patreon since I paused the public series at #30 last year; as I won't be resuming that public presentation until at least the fall, this is a great time to join. For $1/month (or up), you can take a dive deep into the world of Twin Peaks through the eyes of its townspeople or the occasional visitor.

What are the February rewards?

10 Years in Twin Peaks

On February 26, 2014, the (in-world) twenty-fifth anniversary of Agent Cooper's Red Room dream, I casually picked up a book and began to read it while taking the train to work. At the time I did not know it was the silver jubilee of the events in Twin Peaks (which took place in 1989, over a year before the pilot aired). Nor did I know that a blu-ray release of the series was a scheduled for that summer, and neither I nor the general public had any confirmation that the long-awaited deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me would be on that collection. And certainly no one aside from the original creators themselves had any clue that David Lynch and Mark Frost were already hard at work on a script for a new limited series season, which would be announced that autumn. The year 2014 was destined to be the biggest year for Twin Peaks since 1990, but my own decade of Peaks enthrallment was sparked independently of all those other unknown and/or forthcoming factors. I'd finished another book the day before and decided it was finally time to pick the used copy of the Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks which had been sitting on my desk for several months. Having sat in an online cart since my first - and much briefer - burst of enthusiasm for the series in 2008, I'd finally ordered it as an afterthought, to round out a gift card purchase. When I cracked open its moonlit cover, I had no idea where this modest path would lead me.

Flash forward to today, February 26, 2024, the (in-world) thirty-fifth anniversary of Agent Cooper's Red Room dream - and the tenth anniversary of my own awakening. The Return has come and long gone, various expressions of fandom have waxed and waned, and I've spent nearly two-thirds of this site's history primarily writing, podcasting, and creating videos about Twin Peaks. I'm both grateful for what this world has given me and slightly weary of my inability to move on from it; while I wouldn't take back any of the hundreds of entries logged on every aspect of Peaks, my coverage - especially the three biggest (and still ongoing) projects - carried on far longer than I expected and have, as a result, delayed other endeavors at a time I thought they'd have long ago begun. This focus also swallowed up almost everything else; a few months ago, I felt compelled to halt all non-Peaks public writing and podcasting. There's something wryly apropos about all of this, isn't there? (Especially since my journey began on the anniversary of the Peaks hero's first glimpse of his own eventual trap in the Black Lodge.) Anyway, I've written in more detail about my personal odyssey in the first, second, and third parts of a behind-the-scenes reflection on the creation of my video series. Eventually there will be a fourth. For now, I'm deep in the weeds of my prose TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016) - currently a month into grabbing screenshots for the top twenty. The public release of my audio Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2019) finally capped off season three, but I still need to rewind and present season two. And the conclusion of my video Journey Through Twin Peaks (begun in 2014) still hovers on the horizon. These stories will have an ending, however slow the process of getting there.

There are satisfying pleasures and deep joys to be found by getting lost in these woods - funny and melancholy, cosmic and earthy, profound and trivial. Even if we sometimes wonder how we'll ever find a way out...

January 2024 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #1: The Red Shoes, True Detective: Night Country viewing diary (first part) & 2023 American Generations Reflections + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance

January 2024 was the busiest month on my Patreon in five years - maybe ever. Not only did I offer the usual Twin Peaks character study for all patrons, kick off a new film podcast, and initiate a new reward system involving patron selections (including ten different polls or updates), I also offered bonus features for the $5/month tier: an ongoing viewing diary for the series True Detective: Night Country (the fourth season of the show whose every episode I covered in the past) and an essay reflecting on the past year in culture and politics through a generational lens. The crown jewel, however, was a podcast on Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's Technicolor ballet masterpiece The Red Shoes - a film I'd never covered and barely if ever even mentioned in my previous work. Suggested by longtime patron Laurence Figgis, the popular pick cleared two rounds of voting including a run-off against Punch Drunk Love, with which it was tied after the first round. Watching this movie for the first time in decades, I was struck by the complexities of the art vs. romance, passion vs. comfort menage a trois trapping rising ballerina Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) between composer/lover Julian Craster (Marius Goring) and impresario/mentor Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook)...

What are the January rewards?

Now on Patreon: True Detective: Night Country viewing diary through February 25

Although pieces of it will be shared in the January and February round-ups (and the larger True Detective directory will be updated as each part is written, as will this post), I wanted to create a separate public announcement for a bonus feature on my $5/month tier. In addition to this month's official reward - currently being decided between Punch Drunk Love and The Red Shoes in this poll (ends tomorrow at noon) - every week I am going to publish a response to the new episodes of True Detective: Night Country, the fourth season of the HBO show I've covered extensively in the past. This time, the series stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis, is written and directed by Issa Lopez rather than the show's creator Nic Pizzolatto, and follows a couple investigations in a remote corner of Alaska where the sun disappears for months at a time in the winter. My format will be slightly different than those older entries, adopting the summary/response approach I used for Mad Men and other viewing diaries, and I'm hoping these reviews will be relatively short although I did not succeed in that effort when discussing last week's premiere. Here is that entry, published yesterday, with more to come following tonight's Part 2 and Parts 3 - 6 in the coming weeks.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6