Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Raymond" chapter (video)

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 6 on YouTube:

Raymond the butler's flashback is brief and to the point, a single scene offering a key to Kane's dying words. Nonetheless, the sequence contains riches worth exploring in this chapter devoted to the final narrator, contrasting with earlier Thatcher and Susan material and suggesting a Xanadu similar to the "human zoo" in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Raymond's constant obsession with what everything is worth pays off in the end when he casually and cluelessly orders the destruction of the clue to the mystery he and everyone else have been pondering.

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, Leland, and Susan. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay).

Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Susan" chapter (video)

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 5 on YouTube:

My summer of Kane continues with the only female narrator of Kane's story - although at one point in pre-production, the screenwriters considered having his first wife share her perspective before deciding to kill her off earlier in life. Susan was in many ways the closest person to Kane, yet she also feels among the furthest away: very much his victim and too busy struggling for survival in his shadow to remember him as much else than a fairy tale monster keeping her locked up. (Though these details don't make it into the video, when we approach the Rosebud sled atop a pile of possessions in the film's finale, a nearby box contains a toy monkey holding tightly to the doll we already saw in Susan's room; indeed, when Kane seems most like Kong terrorizing Fay Wray - during the tropical picnic before Susan decides to leave him - the background "jungle" projection happens to include footage from fellow RKO feature Son of Kong, complete with pterodactyls.)

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, Bernstein, and Leland (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.

Mirrors of Kane continues w/ "Leland" chapter (video)

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 4 on YouTube:

Jedediah Leland is Kane's close friend and eventually his bitter enemy. Writing about the narrators of Kane's life in an essay fifteen years ago, I had a very jaundiced view of Leland's own jaundiced view; at this point, for whatever reason, I am a bit more sympathetic even as I still think his sense of betrayal says as much about him as Kane. Leland's section of the movie is one of the most unusual and fascinating. These flashbacks, which hardly feature Leland at all, contain much of the most essential material, extend far longer than other flashbacks, and offer an ambivalent view of the protagonist in which the narrator's own open hostility in his spoken dialogue contrasts with a surprisingly nuanced portrait of the subject onscreen.

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane, Thatcher, and Bernstein (the series is based on this essay). The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist.

Citizen Kane at 85 (video): Returning to conclude Mirrors of Kane this summer, beginning w/ "Bernstein" chapter (+ announcements on YouTube & podcasts including Lost in Twin Peaks)

Ten years ago - exactly, to the day - I celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of Citizen Kane by announcing a video essay series on the movie, focused around the five narrators of Charles Foster Kane's story. I did not expect a decade to pass before I finally wrapped this project up, but here we are. After releasing a first chapter in 2016 and a second chapter in 2021, I spent much of the past winter editing the remaining chapters so that they're all ready to share this summer. I'll publish one a month starting with a chapter devoted to Bernstein, Kane's loyal business manager who presents a rosier picture of the young man than others will offer of Kane at different stages of his life.

Watch Mirrors of Kane Chapter 3 on YouTube:

This chapter is also available on Vimeo:

Additionally, I've published an update on my mostly-dormant Lost in the Movies podcast feed promoting this series:

And last week I offered a YouTube announcement of this series which included some other updates on my work:

Watch the trailer and earlier chapters: Meeting Kane and Thatcher. The whole series is available all together in a YouTube playlist (the series is based on this essay).

Finally, although unrelated, this is the first opportunity to share an announcement I published on the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast feed about resuming work on that project:

Spring 2026 Project Update: Mirrors of Kane complete, Journey Through Twin Peaks "Americana" chapter underway (+ new Patreon welcome video)

Every turn-of-the-season (this one is publishing at the exact minute of the vernal equinox), I'm offering readers of this website an update on my four major unfinished projects: the Journey Through Twin Peaks video series (begun in 2014), the written TWIN PEAKS Character Series (begun in 2016), the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast (begun in 2018), and the Mirrors of Kane video series (begun in 2016 but based on an essay written in 2011). In December, I stopped offering exclusive podcasts and reviews on Patreon so that I could focus as much attention as possible as these long-term goals, and I'm pleased to announce that progress has been made. I've entirely concluded my work on the Mirrors of Kane series; new chapters will be published on YouTube and Vimeo on Citizen Kane's eighty-fifth anniversary, May 1. I'm also chipping away at a particularly complex Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter on Twin Peaks' connections to American history and iconography. This should be finished within a week or two.

After that, I will focus on completing the public presentation of Lost in Twin Peaks' second season, followed by the top nine entries (based on screentime) for the TWIN PEAKS Character Series. I hope to wait until after those two projects are complete to focus exclusively on Journey Through Twin Peaks, but depending how bogged down I get on Lost in Twin Peaks this summer I may pause that work to research, outline, and write the narration for remaining Journey chapters. We'll see how it goes.

Here is a status update with more details, as well as a reminder of what's been published or finished behind-the-scenes, for each project (more specific daily progress can be tracked on this constantly updated page):

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast premieres tonight on Jane Austen's 250th birthday w/ Manners & Madness hosts Maya Adkins & Christian Cabrera (YouTube & extended PATREON)

An eccentric pairing has recently gained uncanny relevance for me - as well as for others. When I first heard of the Jane Austen/David Lynch podcast Manners & Madness, I found it to be a delightful conceit but did not rush to listen because I hadn't yet read any of Austen's novels nor even seen a movie based on one of those novels. However, once my girlfriend introduced me to Austen via Pride and Prejudice (the novel as well as the nineties BBC and zeroes cinematic adaptations), at the same time that I was initiating her into the Lynchverse, this odd combination of disparate artists suddenly piqued my interest. And, for reasons both salutary and sorrowful, the union of Lynch and Austen has now become more au courant than ever; both of them, one for her birth and the other for his death, are "having a moment" in 2025 pop culture. With Austen turning a ripe quarter-millennium today, this felt like the right time to chat with Maya Adkins and Christian Cabrera, the hosts of Manners & Madness for the past six years. There was so much to dig into with the filmmaker and novelist: the connections between the most famous characters in their works; the difference between Maya's longtime experience with Lynch and Austen vs. Christian's fresh-faced exploration of both; the distinctions between various Austen adaptations; the ways in which Lynch challengers viewers (and Austen challenges readers); and the favorite Lynch films, Austen novels, Austen adaptations, and Twin Peaks sections of both hosts - some of this explored, alongside deep dives into the recent miniseries Miss Austen and my first foray into Northanger Abbey, in the longer back section of the podcast on Patreon's $5/month tier.

PART 1 on YouTube premieres at 8pm EST

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

(also premieres at 8pm EST)

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS bonus podcast premieres tonight w/ David Lynch's American Dreamscape author Mike Miley (YouTube & extended PATREON)

Early this year when I stumbled across a YouTube trailer for an upcoming book titled David Lynch's American Dreamscape, full of clips that exhibited Lynch's keen eye for postwar American iconography and landscapes, I was intrigued. I already had my own plans to tackle Lynchian Americana in a Journey Through Twin Peaks video essay (which I will begin exploring in depth behind the scenes this month, having already outlined my ideas for this chapter), so this seemed right up my alley - and as soon as I discovered more about the book being promoted, the project felt even more resonant. Mike Miley, a New Orleans teacher who has previously analyzed game shows, developed this book from an initial series of essays comparing individual Lynch works to various novels and musical movements; intrigued by the ways this film director linked up with other forms of media, he subtitled the resultant study Music, Literature, Cinema. I'm always keen on drawing connections and Mike's efforts are some of the more imaginative I've encountered: Eraserhead and Fire Walk With Me with Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar; Blue Velvet with Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are; Mulholland Drive with The Day of the Locust and other Nathaniel West fiction; the third season of Twin Peaks, particularly Part 8, with Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing; Wild at Heart with the rise of rock 'n' roll as theorized by Greil Marcus; all of Twin Peaks with the teen tragedy ballad; Lost Highway with cover songs; The Straight Story with The Anthology of American Folk Music and Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes; and Inland Empire with mixtapes. Drawing together the three threads, a coda parallels Lynch with David Foster Wallace and Lana Del Rey.

I had a great time juxtaposing images of these different works for the intro to the (otherwise mostly audio-only) video that resulted. It turns out that there are often visual as well as thematic rhymes between the works - or at least between their promotional materials, or the related images I found online to illustrate an idea. You can scroll down for screenshots of these as well as links to Mike's, my, and other's work which we ended up discussing alongside David Lynch's American Dreamscape. The first, public part of our discussion takes a broad view of Mike and his analysis: his first acquaintance with Lynch's filmography, his development of this project, and what he sees as its purpose. In the longer back section for the $5/month tier on Patreon, we dive into each of these sections in turn - with particular emphasis on those involving Fire Walk With Me - and I pose particular questions that occurred to me while reading. I was a great conversation and a fascinating book.

PART 1 on YouTube premieres at 8pm EST

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

(also premieres at 8pm EST)

The David Lynch Experience • group discussion w/ the Obnoxious and Anonymous podcast (& guests Joe Anthony, Ted Arn, Max Evry, Joey Pedras & Mandy Singleton)

(photo by Bonnie Schiffman)

Today would have been David Lynch's 79th birthday - the perfect time to share this tribute I recorded with fellow fans on Thursday night. After the sad news on January 16, I felt the need to talk to others - to articulate in common what we couldn't individually. Thankfully, Cameron Cloutier of Obnoxious and Anonymous, the channel that first hosted me over a decade ago, was able to oblige. He gathered several regulars and previous guests in addition to myself: collector Joe Anthony, festival aficionado Ted Arn, online commentators Joey Pedras and Mandy Singleton, and author Max Every (whose oral history of Dune I'd coincidentally discovered on a bookshelf a week ago). The last guest joined halfway through and brought with him lots of interesting anecdotes and questions about Lynch's most controversial film and its place in his larger body of work. Though we started off in a somber mood by the end of two hours we were all smiling, laughing, and leaning forward in our seats - buoyed by the memories and gratitude for these exciting years sharing the planet with David Lynch's dreams.

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)

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.

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

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.

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

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...

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.

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

Four Great Scenes to Enjoy • group discussion w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (w/ guests Colin, Andrew Cook & John Thorne)

A couple weeks ago, Anthony - the host of the "Twin Peaks Grammar" YouTube channel - suggested a "scene analysis idea". What if a group of commentators got together, each picking a different scene, and each focusing on a particular formal element (editing, cinematography, performance, and so on). The idea stuck with me after I listened and I encouraged Anthony to pursue the concept. And so he did, as a birthday present to himself, featuring not just both of us - for the fourth time after his guest appearance, mine, and another group discussion - but also Wrapped in Plastic publisher (and my own frequent guest) John Thorne, Creamed Corn and the Universe podcast host Colin (with whom I've previously discussed Sarah Palmer and Ronette's angel, in addition to his project more broadly), and film/TV commentator Andrew Cook (with whom I've previously discussed Eyes Wide Shut and Southland Tales).

With links to the discussion timecodes (the clips themselves can be watched here and here), John selected the Winkie's diner exchange and trip out back from Mulholland Drive, Andrew the Tremond's Meals on Wheels scene from the original series of Twin Peaks, myself the Mike in traffic/Teresa flashback sequence from the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Anthony the nighttime Cooper/statue passage from Twin Peaks: The Return (Colin joined last-minute and took part in the commentary without picking a scene himself). Before each clip, we'd choose our focus and begin with observations on that before expanding to a broader back and forth. This was a great conversation, and hopefully a format that will be pursued in the future with other guests, scenes, and even concepts (I'd love to see this applied to non-Peaks work as well, even to scenes from films the guests aren't familiar with and are watching for the first time).

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

Update 2026: The audio-only version is not currently available on Apple Podcasts, though it may be on other platforms.

On a side note (mentioned at the end of the episode), this week I've been conducting a poll on Patreon for the $5/month tier to determine what film I'll cover for this month's reward. Based on suggestions from patrons, so far The Red Shoes is in the lead but others include Brick, City of Pirates, May December, Punch Drunk Love, Ruthless, and Trenque Lauquen. Make sure to jump in if you're interested, as the poll closes at noon on Friday.

belated December 2023 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Twin Peaks Conversations podcast w/ Rob King, editor of David Lynch and the American West (including public teaser) + TWIN PEAKS Character Series advance & new introduction to patrons (w/ public status update/32 Days of Movies video revision)

David Lynch's work is often connected to specific locations like sunny suburbs, industrial cities, and the backlots and bungalows of Hollywood, as well as to genres like noir, horror, and melodrama. The broad Western landscape, and the Western genre, are less frequently associated with Lynch (aside from Lynch's short film The Cowboy and the Frenchman and his cameo as none other than John Ford in The Fabelmans). In his recent anthology of commissioned essays, David Lynch and the American West, Rob King gathers a number of perspectives particularly focused on how Lynch's works play with the history and mythology of the actual region. The terrain stretches from the parched deserts of the Southwest to the foggy forests of the Pacific Northwest, the timespan from ancient indigenous civilizations to the modern highways running across this landscape today. I spoke with King a couple months ago; technical difficulties unfortunately cut our discussion short and we were unable to resume, but for a half hour we dug into how he and other scholars approach this material. Because this is a shorter Twin Peaks Conversations episode than usual, most of it has been reserved for $5/month tier patrons. I published a brief teaser on YouTube, rather than the much longer public "first half" I normally share.

I'm also previewing another character entry for the $1/month tier - in this case, very interesting revisions to someone featured in the earlier series. And I've officially updated my tier structure, as explained in the following video:

+ read the public announcement:

Updated tiers, new intro & new directories (+ December update)

For more details and other updates, check out the above public post, shared in mid-December. As mentioned in there, I've recently added some new pages to this site's directories so that now you can navigate patron rewards without having to scroll past public material. The directories are as follows:

All Available rewards (by Topic) // EXCLUSIVE Films in Focus // Twin Peaks // EXCLUSIVE Film Capsules // Political Topics on Podcasts // Random Topics on Podcasts // All Available rewards (by Entry/Episode) // Essays

What are the December rewards?

Wonders of the Past and Present: Conversation w/ Wonders in the Dark's Sam Juliano, author of Paradise Atop the Hudson & Irish Jesus of Fairview (podcast)

(Watch directly on YouTube)

The history of Sam Juliano's film (and wider arts) website Wonders in the Dark dovetails almost perfectly with my own. I launched The Dancing Image (the original incarnation of Lost in the Movies) in July 2008 while Wonders kicked off two months later in September. But Sam's appreciation of and engagement with the cinema began much earlier. In this conversation, we begin by discussing Sam's seventies and eighties cinephilia as well as his connection with his British complementary opposite Allan Fish whose decades countdowns launched a fruitful collaboration. (Sadly, an extended chat about Allan's persona and approach got lost in the midst of Zoom technical difficulties.) From there, we explore Sam's new novels Paradise Atop the Hudson and Irish Jesus of Fairview, which mix slice-of-life memoiristic details, melodramatic explorations of violent bullying, and eccentric navigations of cultural dynamics and gender presentations. Finally, we wrap up with a look at this current year and the recent era anchored by Sam's recent viewings and Oscar predictions. As I conclude my public film discussions on this site, this conversation provided a great opportunity to bring things full circle.

LINKS

Visit Wonders in the Dark

Purchase Paradise Atop the Hudson & Irish Jesus of Fairview

Participate in the latest music poll for 1971

(future polls appear under weekly Monday Morning Diaries)

Directory of Allan Fish's Decades Countdowns

(& list of "Fish Obscuros")

Catching Big Fish in Twin Peaks • group discussion w/ the "Twin Peaks Grammar" Artists Love Twin Peaks podcast (w/ guests Colin, Alison Ivy, Josh Minton, John Thorne)

Four months after my last guest appearance on the YouTube channel "Twin Peaks Grammar", host Anthony invited me back - this time for a lively, three-hour group chat. Most of the participants I'd spoken with before (either on their shows or others) but never in this particular configuration, and the result was a wide-ranging consideration of topics including Cooper's experiences in the Red Room; the Fireman's role in this universe; the confused identities of Phillip Gerard, Mike, the Arm, and the Evolution of the Arm; and of course, that perpetual inquiry: "What year is it?" These questions are just a small sample (I'll list the full line-up below) but the answers, non-answers, and further questions were all fun to consider.

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

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

PART 1 on YouTube

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

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

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

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

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

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

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