Twin Peaks status update: My work on Journey Through Twin Peaks resumes tonight on the 35th anniversary of the pilot, along w/ the long final phases of Lost in Twin Peaks & The TWIN PEAKS Character Series

"In DARKNESS the sound of a meadowlark's song."

- opening line of the script for the Twin Peaks pilot

Between 9pm and 11pm on April 8, 1990, ABC first aired the pilot of Twin Peaks. In tribute, tonight during that same two-hour timespan I'm going to finally initiate behind-the-scenes work on new and ultimately conclusive stretches of my TWIN PEAKS Character Series, my Lost in Twin Peaks podcast, and last but not least my Journey Through Twin Peaks video essays. In the first case, I'll be cracking into the top ten characters by looking at the pilot script and beginning to fill out the "offscreen mentions" and "deleted scenes" categories for all of those characters at once. In the second case, I'll begin to re-edit my Patreon episodes for the second season premiere while adding a new introduction and other elements necessary for the eventual public release. And in the third case, well, mysteries are a good thing...so I'm not sure yet sure if I'll return to a draft of the narration I wrote last fall and tighten it up, or if I'll begin picking David Lynch weather reports to include as quick clips in chapter 37 (about the poignant years after the third season). Only now does it occur to me that the order I plan to work on these projects reflects the trajectory of the series itself, from pilot to post-Return - a fitting tribute indeed! Obviously these efforts will only represent a few footsteps onto a much larger terrain. Nonetheless, I wanted to share this progress with readers, listeners, and/or viewers after so many delays and detours. Speaking of which, in the midst of this work in the next couple hours I'll also probably take a moment to watch some Twin Peaks itself (not the pilot, actually, but the opening sequence of the second season premiere), part of a longer rewatch I began Monday night. May the Giant be with me...

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...

"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.

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...

Reaching the Finish Line for Public Film Writing/Podcasts

Early next week, I will share three or four new public pieces - an essay, a podcast, a conversation, perhaps a video montage - alongside some other announcements or teasers. These will serve as a farewell to the era of non-Twin Peaks (and perhaps non-Citizen Kane) public film/TV commentary on this website...

For over three years, I've been following a very particular schedule on this site, presenting written film analyses on Wednesdays, weekly or monthly public podcasts on Thursdays, status updates or other random posts on Fridays, Lost in Twin Peaks illustrated companions on Saturdays, Patreon cross-posts on Sundays, TV viewing diaries on Mondays, and video essays on Tuesdays. Out of necessity, I am abandoning this approach in the final days of October because the posts I hoped would be up this past Wednesday and Thursday didn't make it in time and I don't want to drag this process into November. I believe I can have the major holdouts - a conversation with blogger/author Sam Juliano, a written review of the documentary 63 Up, and my final Sight & Sound miniseries podcast episode on Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker - ready by October 31. I also want to record a YouTube message about the Journey videos and other work (essentially reiterating what I'm laying out here but for the platform where the most people find and follow me).

For a long time, I've seen my November 1 birthday as a threshold for my online work, a deadline to wrap things up and shift toward a new approach. Initially I thought this would include concluding my three major Twin Peaks projects: the public presentation of my Lost in Twin Peaks podcast; the last thirty entries of my TWIN PEAKS Character Series; and of course Part 6 of my video series Journey Through Twin Peaks. I finally realized a few months ago that even if I devoted every possible hour to them I wouldn't come anywhere close to finishing them in October. So my goal narrowed to ending my public film commentary after fifteen years (future reviews and most other reflections will be reserved for patrons) so that from November onward, I could focus on finishing those Peaks projects before moving on to other ambitions. However, even this more limited goal may be slightly compromised since the remaining chapters of the Mirrors of Kane video series should be shared with the public too, fulfilling the promise I made back in 2016; like those Peaks projects, Mirrors has been years in the works.

By the end of October, I would also love to tackle a long-brewing avant-garde video montage idea involving Watership Down and Brideshead Revisited or, if that doesn't gel, maybe another Mirrors of Kane chapter involving Bernstein; wouldn't his wistful ferry speech provide a wonderful note on which to end this period? Unfortunately, this goal seems unlikely to be reached given my busy on- and offline schedule this weekend and early next week, especially, and unexpectedly if beneficially in other ways, the offline schedule. Meanwhile on Patreon, the Episode 100 finale of my patron podcast (composed of a dozen films in focus which have already been previewed for a higher tier) has long been completed but I've been waiting to release it until everything else has been published for the month. Additionally, I'd like to offer a couple more rewards just for patrons: a character study for the $1/month tier and an exclusive film review for the $5/month tier. Going forward, those will probably be the regular monthly rewards for those tiers (with back halves of bonus Twin Peaks Conversations sometimes replacing the film review for $5/month patrons) and I'll record a new Patreon welcome video reflecting this as well.

So far nothing has really worked out as expected, but maybe I can finally hit the target with these last offerings. Thanks for hanging in there and I hope you enjoy the end of October with me.

October status update: what's left for public film/TV commentary

A month ago, I observed that I could either continue to try and finish my big Twin Peaks projects as soon as possible (alongside a grab bag of non-Twin Peaks pieces) - understanding that none of it would be done before my original October 31 deadline - or I could just put all my eggs in the film commentary basket and try to wrap that up that work before November (letting the Twin Peaks projects end whenever they end, hopefully at some point in 2024). Obviously at this point I've chosen the latter path although I do hope to get a few TWIN PEAKS Character Series patron advances and one Lost in Twin Peaks week of episodes up this month, concluding my coverage of season three. Those aside, October will be the month of concluding my original and longstanding focus for this website: written, audio, and (hopefully) video pieces on particular movies. In the future, I plan to reserve that type of work for Patreon, using my public platform to conclude the Peaks podcast and character studies as well as the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series before shifting my focus to less cinema- or television-specific video projects, and maybe even embarking on some filmmaking endeavors.

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.

TWIN PEAKS Character Series pause (& accidental post) + upcoming podcasts & more (Late Summer status update)

As you may have noticed, the TWIN PEAKS Character Series paused a week ago with the Musicians of the Road House entry, an omnibus round-up on the cusp of the top thirty which seemed like a good place to take a break. However, as you likely also noticed, the series then (quite accidentally) resumed - and skipped an entry! - on Wednesday, with a high-profile character ranked #29. That post was supposed to have been re-scheduled to early October but somehow slipped through the cracks and received significant traffic after its accidental publication, despite not being featured on the home page, linked on my blogroll, or promoted on Twitter. Since #30 had been skipped, I obviously couln't leave #29 in place once I realized the mistake. I've reverted it to draft mode and scheduled the replacement for early October. Apologies to those who bookmarked or didn't finish reading it yet but the entry will be back (with a different URL).

As for other site business, I've been hard at work on upcoming podcasts, most of which have been advanced already for $5/month tier patrons (on Sunday I'll link all these previews as part of my monthly Patreon round-up): film reviews which will, in the fall, either be shared with the lower tier or go public. These include my long-delayed Episode 100 of the Patreon podcast as well as a bonus public miniseries for my Lost in the Movies feed (which I presumed to conclude in June). The public Lost in the Movies episodes will feature the most highly-ranked titles not yet covered by me on the 2022 Sight & Sound "Greatest Films of All Time" list. And depending how this work goes in the next few days, I can hopefully start work on Journey Through Twin Peaks soon. Look for another status update in a week (maybe a couple weeks) with more details, and thanks for hanging in there.

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...

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 scheduled 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.

Status update heading into summer

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.

Spring update for the big Twin Peaks projects & more (status update)

(from VHSGirlShop t-shirt design)

For the first time since resuming my TWIN PEAKS Character Series in January, I've paused the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. This make sense for a couple reasons. Firstly, I want patrons to remain a month ahead of the public releases, and I was just beginning to scrape up against that month's distance with my backlog (I hit a snag with #31, initially scheduled for May 19 but now postponed along with the rest of the entries). I could resume the thrice-a-week schedule anytime before the third week of August and still comfortably finish the series in time for my late October deadline, although I hope it will return sooner than that. As revealed in the last entry before the pause, the Log Lady is next - a perfect place to pick up again when the time comes. Secondly, while I have lots of breathing room for the character series, my public release of the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast is approaching a tighter squeeze. If I want to publish a podcast per day, with a week of coverage on each episode of season two plus the season three finale, I need to start doing so by Saturday, May 22 in order to meet that same late October deadline for completion.

Despite the ticking clock, I'm continuing to limit work on both projects to "after hours" outside of the usual time I reserve for online work, as discussed in my end of 2022 update. This way I can prioritize finishing the monthly podcast feeds up through their June hiatus; organizing, preparing for, and ultimately recording Twin Peaks Conversations through September; finally wrapping up the multipart Patreon episode 100; and, with those obligations finally met, shift my focus to Journey Through Twin Peaks, hopefully by early May. I may also publish some written reviews of random films I see along the way (at least as long as the character series is paused), but clearing the way for Journey is the target of all my other work.

For updates on that endeavor, as well as advanced entries of the character series, back halves of conversations, and five years of archive material, I invite you as always to...

2023 on Lost in the Movies: Finally the Characters, Pausing the Podcasts, and the Final Journey (status update)

Journey Through Twin Peaks will conclude in 2023 with the Part 6 video essays.

The TWIN PEAKS Character Series will finally resume next week (but may not conclude).

As for the season two episodes of the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast, well...

I'm approaching a crescendo for my online work after nine years of Twin Peaks and fifteen years more broadly. Where do things stand at the end of this year?

The Many Faces of Sarah Palmer • discussion w/ the Creamed Corn and the Universe podcast (+ status update: Lost in Twin Peaks returns)

Visit/download the episode on Apple Podcasts

Perhaps no Twin Peaks character presents more paradoxes and possibilities than Sarah Palmer. When Colin, the host of Creamed Corn and the Universe, asked me to choose a subject for this episode, Sarah was an easy pick. Colin's format focuses on (for the most part) a different character each week, tracing their journey chronologically within the text(s). Her breadth has few rivals. Sarah appears across a half-dozen pieces of Peaks media - the two original seasons and the belated third, the film and deleted seasons, Jennifer Lynch's novel The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer and Mark Frost's novel The Final Dossier. She even shows up in Between Two Worlds, Lynch's interview with the Palmer actors - in character - which was released on The Entire Mystery blu-ray set before The Return was announced. If you accept that she is indeed the "New Mexico Girl" of Part 8 (as Frost unambiguously asserts) then we may see more of her lifespan than any other character - not just in Frost's written backstory but illustrated in the aforementioned variety of media. And when Sarah calls to her daughter in the pilot, she becomes the first person to introduce us to Laura as a person (not just an icon, as she is initially presented); much later, Sarah's offscreen voice will speak the last words we hear in all of Twin Peaks - the very same ones (indeed, the exact same clip) that accompanied her first appearance in 1990.

Despite all of that, and despite her presence at crucial junctures throughout - shouting at Leland at the funeral, lying on the floor as Maddy is murdered, delivering a message to Major Briggs when Cooper is in the Lodge, and smashing Laura's portrait when Cooper tries to take her "home" - Sarah's presence in Twin Peaks is surprisingly fleeting and sporadic. Her memorable guest spots are sprinkled sparingly throughout the TV show and while The Return hints at a more central role in its mythos she remains on the margins. So who is Sarah Palmer? An evil demon? An innocent victim? Something more complicated? Colin and I had a great, expansive discussion on the topic, resulting in one of his longest episodes (after which I invited him as a guest on my own Twin Peaks Conversations, an episode released around the same time). I hope you find this as illuminating as I did in the process of recording, realizing or crystallizing concepts for the first time myself as we went back and forth.

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Meanwhile, this week I accidentally published an advance episode of Lost in Twin Peaks, digging into the characters and event order of The Return's Part 11. This was quickly deleted and re-scheduled, but I thought I should offer a clarification so I uploaded the following announcement; my daily/weekly episode-by-episode podcast will be back tomorrow, running exactly through the end of the year by concluding on New Year's Eve (the plan for season two to go public, however, is deeply in doubt). Listen to the details here:

While I haven't yet properly cross-posted many of my other recent podcasts with introductions and illustrations (I'm saving those for successive Sundays from now on), they have been going up on Patreon and I might as well mention them here - a belated and much-belated two-part "September" episode on seventies, eighties, and nineties films; three more advance character studies; a Halloween special focused on a Coppola classic; and the second part of the aforementioned follow-up conversation with Colin. I also finally updated all of my directories to reflect the busy past couple weeks.

What's that noise in Windom's Cabin? (livestream panel)

Update 2024: This post was initially labeled as a "podcast panel" but I've relabeled it as "livestream panel" to reflect the fact that this was really a one-time event with little to no access to an archive recording afterwards. As such, consider the purpose of this post to be a description of something that happened at the time rather than an introduction that links to the panel itself.

This past Sunday, I participated in "Windom's Cabin," an online conference gathering Twin Peaks-related podcasters, artists, actors - included those from Peaks itself - and other content creators to discuss the show, the film, and its multimedia universe for a paying audience (the proceeds went to several charities selected, I believe, by the organizer Warren Friedrich). Dozens of panels were scheduled throughout the afternoon on topics like the production of the series itself, fan tributes to the work, and more. Although the live aspect of the event is over, the material remains archived and available to those who donate $35 for a ticket here...

My particular panel focused on podcasts and lasted about an hour, during which we discussed our approaches to the subject, the nuts and bolts of the process, and other podcasts that explored the nooks and crannies of Peaks. Alongside myself and Lost in Twin Peaks, the panel featured hosts of an eclectic, idiosyncratic array of shows: Creamed Corn and the Universe, Damn Fine TV, Blue Rose Task Force, Diane..., and The Twin Peaks Tattoo Podcast, as well as the website 25 Years Later.... Several of these individuals and programs I've been engaging with for years; others I was encountering for the first time. It was a great discussion opening up many more avenues to pursue - and that's just one small fragment of the vast web Warren wove on this day. To hear more about this project, you can listen to his recent interview on Cameron Cloutier's recent "'Twin Peaks' Thought of the Day" video.

I myself appeared on Cameron's show for the first time in years a week ago, and earlier this month I was welcomed to the Uncut Gems podcast for a group chat on Fire Walk With Me. So it's been a busy month for guest appearances! It's also going to be a busy weekend coming up for my patrons as I catch up with July rewards like the advance character entries, the monthly podcast, and a Twin Peaks Conversations episode with podcasters whom I mentioned near the end of the "Windom's Cabin" panel. On the flip side, I'm slowing down my public approach as I pause Lost in Twin Peaks till around November (discussed in a rare Monday status update earlier this week in case you missed it). Hopefully this will allow more time to pursue multiple projects in the second half of 2022.

(P.S. In case you're wondering, that all-too-appropriate flute music that interrupted our discussion at one point, courtesy of a Twitter video I was uploading at the time, can be found in context here.)

Pausing Lost in Twin Peaks again (+ my plans going forward)

Status updates are generally reserved for Fridays but this one (like the last announcement of a Lost in Twin Peaks pause, back in November) couldn't wait. My weekly/daily podcast has been a struggle to maintain all summer, despite working with long-ago previously recorded material. I kept going as long as I did in order to hit the fifth anniversaries of each season three episode but I've finally reached my limit. More details are in the announcement I uploaded to my podcast feed:

This means the pressure is off a bit, but I still have a pace to maintain if I want to resume the podcast this fall and then continue not just to the end of The Return but also through the entirety of the second season (which I skipped over this spring in order to cover Fire Walk With Me for its own big anniversary). I also want to get a grip on my character series, releasing advance entries for patrons and building up some steam so that it can premiere in 2023, as well as experiment with the "Generations" video idea that I discussed recently. All in all, while I'll be shifting my focus toward building a backlog rather than maintaining a public pace, I'll still be pretty busy. As always, you can keep tabs on my progress on various projects here.

By the way, you may have noticed that yesterday I published a belated Patreon round-up for June. That was an accidentally scheduled draft which I've taken down and postponed till next week because two of the character study advances still weren't ready. Another good thing about this change in schedule is that it allows more time to catch up and keep up with patron rewards; thank you all for your patience!

Announcement: Considering the "Generations" video essay (& series) for the end of 2022

UPDATE 2023: The project has now been delayed until later in the 2020s, once Journey Through Twin Peaks is complete. The rest of this post is the original write-up from 2022...

Yesterday I significantly updated my "Plan for Journey Through Twin Peaks" & more tracking page to reflect a new goal for 2022-23. The "Generations" video is something I've been discussing for months without quite formally announcing. Here's the description for that project:

Use found footage, popular music, and my own scripted narration to produce a video essay, ideally 10-15 minutes but hopefully no more than half an hour, surveying the "MAGA Meltdown" era (2015 - 22) through the eyes of each generation living through this period: the unnamed "future" generation (born in or after 2014), the zoomers (born 1997 - 2013), the millennials (born 1980 - 96), generation X (born 1963 - 79), the boomers (born 1946 - 62), the silent generation (born 1929 - 45), the greatest generation (born 1912 - 28), and the lost generation (born in or before 1911). The concept is based on my "Seven American Generations" post from several years ago, and would continue as a series in future years covering past seven- or eight-year eras through these same generations, at younger ages, alongside earlier generations.

Read on for more details (plus a status update on other work).

Status update: "Remembering the Class of 2002" & getting ahead on Lost in Twin Peaks

Before I get to an update on my schedule, I've taken the opportunity of another anniversary - the twentieth for the high school class of 2002 - to re-share my short film from 2013, a "fictional documentary" titled Class of 2002. Due to technical issues back then, I never actually published the full, finished video on my Lost in the Movies YouTube channel; I only shared it in installments (prior to a few final revisions) at the time. Since I'm also having trouble accessing that other channel behind the scenes, this seems like a good moment to finally place that movie on the main feed. I've embedded it below.

As for the rest?

This will hopefully be the last time I need to provide a status update until at least July. Five of the last seven Fridays required such an update, often at least in part because I had some work I wanted to share (as with today) but more often because I needed to keep tabs on a schedule that getting out of hand (also as with today, although fortunately it's good news this time). Having gotten over the hump of the belated monthly Patreon podcast, the first couple weeks of Lost in Twin Peaks season three coverage, and other online and offline matters demanding my attention, I can now finally declare that I'm ahead of schedule again. After weeks of barely keeping up with the daily podcasts and falling behind on other work, I'm now two days ahead at the time of writing (Thursday morning) and ideally a bit more than that by the time you're reading this. My Part 5 podcast coverage is complete; once again, I'm posting the episodes early each morning (rather than the tail end of each day).

It's a slight head start but a welcome one, and you can keep tabs on my progress, as always, here. My goal is to be a month ahead on Lost in Twin Peaks by the end of June which will allow me to spread my wings and dabble in some other projects too (while still keeping at least a couple weeks ahead on the Peaks podcast). One of those projects may be the "Generations" video I spoke of quite a bit on my recent patron podcast. As a particular era designated in my "Seven American Generations" post draws to a close, I can't seem to escape this particular theme. Speaking of which...

Watch Class of 2002:

 

Status update: The House is Black on Wonders in the Dark, barely keeping up w/ public podcasts, Patreon delay

As June kicks off, I'm offering a quick update on my work that's been shared elsewhere, what's hopefully upcoming, and where I currently stand in my efforts to maintain some semblance of my planned summer schedule (already half-abandoned in the case of the TWIN PEAKS Character Series).

First of all, I've once again shared an older piece from my site on Wonders in the Dark as part of their annual "online film festival" - in this case, on the beautiful docu-poem The House is Black:

Sixth Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival, Day 2: Iran's "The House is Black"

For more reading, you can explore the other films discussed as part of my Favorites series, for which this essay was originally written (the list was composed back in 2011, although most of the full reviews weren't composed until 2016). You can also check out my previous contributions to the Wonders festival: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised last year and Son of Man several years before that. And of course, the late Allan Fish's piece on The House is Black is what initially spurred me to see the movie and eventually make it my festival entry this year.

As for my present work, I have a lot on my plate today. Over the past week, social obligations around the holiday, offline work (with unusually long travel times), and the coincidence of several online deadlines have kept me struggling against a headwind to make progress. I'm three days behind schedule on the Patreon reward podcast, no days ahead on my daily Lost in Twin Peaks episode (as has been the case all week), and just a day ahead on the illustrated companion for Parts 3 & 4. In other words: "Not good, BOB!" (to mix TV references). Still, I'm going to try to keep up and eventually get ahead. The fifth anniversary of season three is too good to forgo (especially when it comes to discussion of then-current events in these podcasts) and I just don't feel ready to turn toward an entirely backlog-focused approach. A few more weeks of this may change my tune, though; we'll see.

For now: I have today and the weekend off so I will prioritize today's final episode on Parts 3 & 4, then the illustrated companion for tomorrow, and then the Patreon updates podcast which is already late (discussing what I've been watching, listening to, or working on for the past few months). When those are finally complete, I'll update my directories, figure out some logistics (and possibly do some work) on the next Twin Peaks Conversations episode for June, and begin work on the week of Part 5 episodes for Lost in Twin Peaks, hopefully getting ahead this time to the point where maybe before this weekend is over I can already be preparing that illustrated companion for next weekend. Anyway, in the meantime stay tuned for the publication of my round-up for Parts 3 & 4 episodes tomorrow (hopefully in the morning, but with a "watch this space" notice at 8am if it's not ready yet) and a cross-post for the belated May Patreon podcast, or else May's character series Patreon previews, on Sunday.

Here's to June being the month I finally get ahead on the Lost in Twin Peaks backlog...and maybe even some other projects too.

Summer schedule: Lost in Twin Peaks season 3 begins tomorrow, TWIN PEAKS Character Series postponed & the next conversation

It's been an intense couple weeks in which I barely kept up with my schedule - or, ok, failed entirely to keep up with it (though I caught up eventually). At this point, I don't really have any business continuing any of it; I should declare that from now no projects will be published until they are entirely done and focus on building a backlog while keeping up with a couple patron and a couple public monthly podcast commitments. However, the siren call of season three's fifth anniversary is too strong so I will carry on straight from tonight's final Fire Walk With Me podcasts into Parts 1 & 2 of The Return tomorrow. I can't guarantee that I'll finish this work on schedule (with the finale coverage going up during the first full week of September). If the recent past is any indication, I won't. But I've got to try.

On the plus side, the fact that I recorded the first week of season three podcasts back in March means I have a modest head start on this whole endeavor. As a matter of practicality, I'm also going to temporarily change the illustrated companion schedule (since it's the only part of the Parts 1 & 2 coverage I haven't finished - or even begun - yet). These screenshot lineups for each week of episodes will start publishing the Saturday after my coverage has concluded rather than before (so, for example, I'll run the Parts 1 & 2 podcasts from May 21 - 28 and then the companion will post on May 29, the day that Parts 3 & 4 coverage begins). When I reach the off-week of July 2 - 8 (when no episode ran in 2017), I'll switch back to publishing companions at the beginning of each week.

As for the character series, as always it gets the shaft. It turns out I couldn't do both projects this season (hell, I may not even be able to just do one), so six years after I conceived it I've got to punt once again. That said, I will continue to share advance entries with patrons - fewer, but at least three a month - which will keep me working on the series amidst other, higher priorities. One last matter: I accidentally announced my next Twin Peaks Conversations podcast this past Sunday, as if it would be going up this week. Obviously, it didn't. When I caught this mistake, I put the post back into draft mode but in case you caught it too and are wondering what's up: I'll be sharing my conversation with Andreas Halskov next week, probably Tuesday. It's already edited and just waiting for an opportune moment when I can share my usual monthly updates as part of the podcast, with the knowledge of not just of what's going on but what's coming up. We've finally reached that point.