Before Midnight (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #3)

First Vienna, then Paris, now a Grecian island. First nineties, then zeroes, now the teens. First twentysomething, then thirtysomething, now fortysomething. And first meeting, then reuniting, then struggling to stay together. The Before trilogy comes to a close as I review the third and (so far?) final film in Richard Linklater's series, part of a longer overview of Ethan Hawke I'm publishing this year. At the end of this podcast I preview my first "Left of the Movies" entry (eventually to be spun off into its own program) covering Medium Cool which captured another tumultuous summer's Democratic presidential convention back in 1968.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

LINKS FOR EPISODE 3

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

Episode 69: Twin Peaks cinema - The FBI Story (+ remembering Michael Brooks, Twin Peaks Reflections: Louie, Jonathan, Double R Diner, Hap's Diner, Lucy's pregnancy/Part 4, Fire in the Sky, The Double Life of Veronique & more)

July 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #18 - Season 2 Episode 10 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #69 - Twin Peaks cinema: The FBI Story (+ remembering Michael Brooks, Twin Peaks Reflections: Louie, Jonathan, Double R Diner, Hap's Diner, Lucy's pregnancy/Part 4, Fire in the Sky, The Double Life of Veronique & more)

For the first time, an entire "Twin Peaks cinema" segment is devoted to a film I'd never seen before. The idea of covering The FBI Story in relation to Agent Cooper (and his associates) came to me when titling my upcoming Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter on the South Dakota sequences of season 3 - a video I, foolishly it seems, thought would be coming out this month. Aside from its general perpetuation of the Official Federal Bureau of Investigation Mythos (complete with an onscreen cameo by J. Edgar himself), the film also has fascinating connections to Peaks motifs like small town murder investigations, the American landscape, South America as a point of intrigue, and the family as a crucial hinge of the social order. Meanwhile, Twin Peaks Reflections focuses on some minor characters, one of the more trivial subplots (sorry, Wally), and one big location (plus its evil doppelganger), while my archive readings/clips catch up with my earlier work on two "Twin Peaks cinema" entries from last year. Finally, while I didn't have time to finally offer more film capsules, listener feedback, or political coverage (hopefully in August or September), I did want to offer one podcast recommendation in tribute to the recently passed left-wing commentator Michael Brooks, whose work I've recommended in many past episodes. (That four-hour tribute from The Majority Report, which he co-hosted, is worth watching in full.)

Episode 69: Twin Peaks cinema - The FBI Story (+ remembering Michael Brooks, Twin Peaks Reflections: Louie, Jonathan, Double R Diner, Hap's Diner, Lucy's pregnancy/Part 4, Fire in the Sky, The Double Life of Veronique & more)

My Lost in Twin Peaks podcast enters the ominous waters of mid-season two and, for a not-very-great episode of TV, this was a whole lot of fun to discuss. Subjects include extended reflections - including many from series creators - on the Audrey/Cooper relationship (or lack thereof), what stories could replace "Who killed Laura Palmer?" as a central focus, and even the end of Margaret Thatcher's decade as Prime Minister...

Lost in Twin Peaks #18: S2E10 (Dispute Between Brothers/"Episode 17")

And Todd Holland's flamboyant direction of episode 11 is the subject of the older Lost in Twin Peaks episode I just shared with $1/month patrons.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #12 ("Episode 11") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for:

Before Sunset (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #2)

My public podcast continues its three-part Before trilogy and seven-part Ethan Hawke coverage with Before Sunset, Richard Linklater's sequel to the mid-nineties which finds how now-thirtysomethings rediscovering one another and perhaps rekindling their romance against the backdrop of Bush-era international tensions. What are the characters keeping from one another? What does it mean when the "end of history"...ends? I explore the macro and micro aspects of this ever-evolving narrative in this discussion, alongside an update on my work elsewhere and, as always, an invitation to...

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

In two weeks, the Before focus will wrap with Before Midnight although the general Hawke coverage will continue (with some interruptions) through his fiftieth birthday in November.

LINKS FOR EPISODE 2

The era of Before Sunset

My original Patreon coverage of this film was part of a podcast episode that discussed a retrospective documentary on the 2000s decade as well

+ read my 2008 polemic on the pop culture of Bush's America

New on YouTube

Update: Journey Through Twin Peaks, my new podcast & more

New guest appearance

Twin Peaks Unwrapped 225: Season Three Madness

New on Patreon

(for $5/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #18: S2E10 (Dispute Between Brothers/"Episode 17")

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - Season 3 Madness (w/ Josh Minton)

Last year, I joined Ben, Bryon, and rotating guests on the Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast to undertake a ridiculous (and ridiculously enjoyable) attempt to "rank" David Lynch films, as well as the episodes of Twin Peaks seasons one and two, using a "March Madness" style bracket system (see below). Now they are tackling season three, and the results may surprise you; as I put it on Twitter, "I voted correctly...but did everyone else??" This time Peaks commentator Josh Minton - who has written extensively about the Showtime season in his book Skeleton Key to Twin Peaks - is on the panel, often providing the decisive vote after much discussion. You can watch the whole Zoom call above (apologies for my distant gaze, I couldn't find the eyeline on my phone's screen and didn't realize I was visible when I wasn't talking...) or listen to the audio version from iTunes or pretty much anywhere else you download podcasts.

Thanks to the pandemic, the Unwrapped schedule for 2020 has been thrown into disarray. They originally intended to conclude their half-decade run at the end of the year, following months of community rewatches, "Madness" rankings, and other frequent episodes but now they've committed to extend themselves into 2021, the rewatch episodes are delayed (I've already recorded a killer's reveal discussion which is still several steps back in the backlog), and after initially offering a new contest every calendar season, the "Madness" is now finally reaching its last entry. Well, almost its last entry; the final four will get their own face-off with a massive line-up of all the former participants making the call. That should be fun! The contestants, based on previous victors, will be Lost Highway, episode two, episode fourteen, and....well, you'll have to listen to the above conversation to find out.

Before Sunrise (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #1)

I originally planned to provide a podcast update once a month - patron, public, everything - but instead I've decided to create individual episode posts. My first official episode reviews Before Sunrise (originally recorded in 2018, although I cleaned them up a bit for public re-issue), kicking off both a one-month Before trilogy review and a four-month Ethan Hawke retrospective. This cross-post also marks the 12th anniversary of this website which first published on July 16, 2008. Here's to another dozen years! (If you'd like to learn more about my work in that time, check out the 10th anniversary podcast episode I released publicly a couple years ago.) Please offer your own thoughts on the episode if you have any, and I'll share them on the next episode. Most importantly, if you like what I'm doing please...

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

In two weeks, I'll continue the theme with Richard Linklater's follow-up Before Sunset in which the Sunrise characters meet up again after nine years.

LINKS FOR EPISODE 1

Before Sunrise

Amy Lehrhaupt: The Girl Who Inspired Linklater's "Before Sunrise" (video by Jeff Rowan)

Restored on YouTube

Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter 36: The Return

New on the site

Four Worlds in Pinocchio: a visual tribute

New on Patreon

(for $1/month)

Episode 68: Twin Peaks cinema - Peyton Place (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Nancy, Harold, Harold's house, the woods, Harold and the diary/The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, La Dolce Vita & more)

(for $5/month)

Lost in Twin Peaks #17A: S2E9 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16"), Part 1 & #17B: Part 2

Four Worlds in Pinocchio: a visual tribute

Images from the shop, the town, Pleasure Island, and the sea

Launching a public podcast - introductory episode

Update: The podcast is now available on iTunes. Please rate/review here if you've enjoyed my previous audio work - it helps others find it!

Yesterday I finally created a public podcast. Throughout 2020 it will open up episodes created for my Patreon show of two and a half years, with an emphasis on Ethan Hawke vehicles (beginning with the Before series and ending with First Reformed around his fiftieth birthday in November). I also plan to release a few preliminary episodes of "Left of the Movies" (covering political cinema) and "Twin Peaks Cinema" (connecting Twin Peaks to various films) - eventually to be spun off with their own feeds - before the year is out. I discuss all of this and more in my short introductory episode. I don't have an embeddable version of the podcast yet (most of the platforms are still processing my submission), but it's available on the hosting site Pinecast as well as the Spotify directory if you click on the following links:

Listen to "Welcome to Lost in the Movies"

(or Spotify)

When a player is available I will embed the episode here. From now, on my monthly podcast updates/cross-posts will include not only my Patreon episodes but also my public ones. When it's up on iTunes, please consider downloading, rating, and reviewing so that others will be exposed to it as well!

June 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #17 - Season 2 Episode 9 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #68 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Peyton Place (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Harold, Nancy, Harold's house, the woods, Harold and the diary/The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, La Dolce Vita & more)

No film is as deeply related to Twin Peaks' origins as the fifties melodrama Peyton Place, part of the pitch made to (rather than by) David Lynch and Mark Frost when their mutual agent suggested they write a nighttime soap opera together. When they screened the film - although their agent may have had in mind the later spin-off TV series - they didn't find it particularly illuminating. However, my return visit this month for the main podcast's "Twin Peaks cinema" coverage yielded many interesting connections (and contrasts; sometimes those differences-within-similarities are the most fascinating elements of all). The overlap seemed especially sharp given this month's Twin Peaks Reflections focus on Harold for character, location, and storyline - there's a somewhat Harold-like character in Peyton Place although, ironically, he's played by a young Russ Tamblyn (i.e. Dr. Jacoby)! A brief clip of Tamblyn's dialogue plays in my Opening the Archive section (I used it to kick off Journey Through Twin Peaks years ago) but most of the podcast's back half is taken up by previous work on La Dolce Vita, which I was unable to highlight when I covered that Fellini film on my October podcast.

Episode 68: Twin Peaks cinema - Peyton Place (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Harold, Nancy, Harold's house, the woods, Harold and the diary/The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, La Dolce Vita & more)

My Lost in Twin Peaks podcast reaches a milestone by concluding the Laura Palmer investigation, which calls for another two-parter. The first part introduces us to the production, television, historical, media, and fan context of episode 16...

Lost in Twin Peaks #17A: S2E9, Part 1 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

...while the second part dives into the story itself while teasing out the ambiguities and complexities of Twin Peaks' race to the finish. Please let me know your own thoughts on this complicated, frustrating, and fascinating episode; I look forward to sharing them as future listener feedback.

Lost in Twin Peaks #17B: S2E9, Part 2 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

Finally, while the full mystery-resolution arc is available to my $5/month tier, I'm opening another earlier episode up to all patrons: the first non-Lynch entry of season two.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #11 ("Episode 10") open to all patrons

I'm hoping to introduce a public podcast in July (if things go as planned, which - given how this month has gone - means you should probably expect the debut in August or September if we're lucky). This will be composed, at least throughout 2020, of previously recorded material sliced into much smaller episodes built around a single film at a time. I have further ambitions for this project but for now, of course, it's time to get back to Journey Through Twin Peaks. Hopefully I'll have something ready on that front soon.

Podcast Line-Ups for:

End of Spring update (including new schedule, works in progress & Journey Through Twin Peaks on Vimeo)

As a few projects take longer than expected, now seemed like a good moment to pause for a status update - and the requisite random Anna Karina picture that always goes with these posts. Early June was supposed to be reserved for some behind-the-scenes work before kicking off Part 6 of Journey, but not only is Part 5 unfinished, my side work hit unforeseen snags too. Mad Men was removed from Netflix literally the day before I planned to resume my viewing diary with season four, so I'm now awaiting physical discs in the mail. This is necessarily a slower process (yes, the site still offers that service; God help us when they don't). I'll now be working on these alongside my video essays instead of beforehand - so expect the first one in a few weeks rather than right away.

So where do we go from here? I mentioned this while cross-posting my Twin Peaks Unwrapped appearance last week, but I will be taking a new approach to my weekly schedule going forward, hopefully for years to come (with some exceptions in 2021, as noted below). Every week I'll publish at least one new entry - even if it's a simple announcement like this one - and, on rare occasions, I'll even publish as many as five between Monday and Friday. But different days will be reserved for different types of entries, with 8am the standard time. Here's what I have in mind  (click on images for past examples):

MONDAY

any TV viewing diary entry (*or Twin Peaks character series in January - May 2021) reserved for Monday

TUESDAY

latest round-up for any of my video essays published on YouTube or Vimeo reserved for Tuesday

WEDNESDAY

any written film review or general essay (*or Twin Peaks character series throughout all of 2021) reserved for Wednesday

THURSDAY

monthly, maybe eventually weekly, round-up of my own podcast (Patreon and coming-soon public episodes), plus guest appearances on other podcasts when applicable, reserved for Thursday

FRIDAY

RANDOM/BONUS entry (*including Twin Peaks character series in January - May 2021) reserved for Friday

You can check in on a given day depending on your interest or, as always, follow my "blogroll" page to keep track of my latest work of any type. Again, months could go by without, say, a particular TV viewing diary entry or video essay; for the most part, I won't be posting five times a week - more usually, I'll be sticking to one or two ongoing projects at a time. But keeping these days reserved for a particular type will keep these projects from bumping into each other and ideally offer readers some sense of routine to my ongoing work.

As the schedule indicates, I've been tinkering behind the scenes on my long-paused "TWIN PEAKS Character Series" (whose original incarnation was published in early 2017, and forced to halt because I couldn't reach the top twenty before the Showtime premiere). The new series will include entries for new characters, extend entries on old ones who reappeared, and update the ranking based on season three - as indicated, the plan is currently for it to run between the first and last week of 2021, with three entries almost every week through the end of May, and a single entry for each of the top thirty from June onward.

Of course, before I get there I need to focus on Journey Through Twin Peaks throughout 2020. As soon as I finish this month's Lost in Twin Peaks rewatch podcast episode for Patreon (covering the big climax of the Laura Palmer investigation), I'll be back to work on the two "missing" chapters - 34 and 35 - from that video series. One video will survey the broad sweep of collaborators like Harley Peyton, Bob Engels, and the various episode directors of the original series. The other video, which will probably be one of my longest chapters of all, will explore the work of Mark Frost and how it relates to Twin Peaks old and new.

Because I wanted to get some season three material up for the third anniversary on May 21, I raced ahead to chapter 36 - and ran straight into the brick wall of YouTube copyright police. The song "Wicked Game" was flagged at the end of the video, which was blocked for two days. It was restored after that (as the dispute remained pending), gathering views, likes, and great comments, and was then blocked again, forcing me to appeal and wait even longer for the situation to be resolved - probably mid-July at the earliest.

I've covered those snags here and here but at the moment, the most important update is that I've uploaded chapter 36 on Vimeo, the site I usually save for complete "Parts" (given that chapter 36, at nearly half an hour, is as long as chapters 1 - 5 combined, it's a worthy exception). You can watch and share it from here:

And now Vimeo also includes a compilation of chapters 31 - 33, my trilogy of videos on the evolving aesthetic of David Lynch and the nature of his collaboration with editor/partner Mary Sweeney, into a single standalone presentation titled "Dream Souls." (Due to repeated technical difficulties, I had to replace the initial video file but the correct version is now available.)

Thanks and see you with some fresh videos soon - hopefully by the end of the month.

Twin Peaks Unwrapped - 5th anniversary celebration

image by Robert Farkas

This week, the Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast celebrates its fifth anniversary. When Ben and Bryon kicked off their endeavor in 2015, they used an introcast format with veteran Ben guiding novice Bryon through the series for the first time (and desperately trying to keep him from skipping too far ahead). Since then, they've expanded their approach to include segments on a variety of subjects, community rewatches of the original episodes, year-end round-ups, and even a book collecting old and new work alike. And of course, one of their specialties has been conversations with cast/crew and fellow fans - my own first appearance was very early, just after they'd spoken to Catherine Coulson (a humbling precedent) in what I believe was her last interview. Since then I've made numerous guest appearances, and now I've joined them again, just in the nick of time near the end of an hour-plus Zoom meet-up in which they discussed the series and laid out their own plans (the coronavirus disrupted their commitment to conclude the podcast in 2020). There were many guests beforehand, whom I'm looking forward to hearing myself. When I popped in, we talked about my Journey Through Twin Peaks videos (and behind-the-scenes character series work), our meet-up last fall, and the prospect of more Twin Peaks. I'm also psyched to join them soon for some key rewatches and (perhaps most of all) for another glorious/ridiculous "Twin Peaks madness" bracket game - this time for season three.

You can watch/listen here:

By the way, from now on rather than posting every Wednesday I will post on whatever day of the week my given entry aligns with. Monday, as was the case last fall, will be reserved for Mad Men viewing diaries (I'm just kicking off season four now); my latest video essay(s) will be shared on Tuesday; any random review will publish on Wednesday; and a podcast episode, including my monthly Patreon round-up, will be cross-posted on Thursday. I'll reserve Friday for anything else. Usually there will only be one, maybe two entries going up in a week - but there will always be at least one. And I'll schedule these for 8am most days but today I wasn't sure what time the Unwrapped video would go up, so this may be timed a little later.

May 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #16 - Season 2 Episode 8 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #67 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Vertigo (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Emory, Jerry, Lucy, Tremond house, Dream corridor, Shelly & Bobby & Leo/Part 11, Journey Through Twin Peaks update & more)

While the overall podcast is shorter this month, the Twin Peaks Cinema section has never been longer. And no wonder: Vertigo is a goldmine for Peaks correlation, especially after season three. The acclaimed Hitchcock thriller - and one of my personal favorite films - is discussed for fifty minutes, before the last hour of the podcast is taken up by a further deep dive into my previous work on Vertigo (the subject may have come up more often than almost any other - save for Twin Peaks itself). And I'm sure the conversation will continue in listener feedback going forward; please share any of your own thoughts on this rich cinematic/televisual shared universe...

Episode 67: Twin Peaks cinema - Vertigo (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Emory, Jerry, Lucy, Tremonds' house, Dream corridor, Shelly & Bobby & Leo/Part 11, Journey Through Twin Peaks update & more)

In addition to the main podcast's "Reflections" coverage of beloved characters, intriguing locations, and storyline connections across the years (as well as a rundown of my recent Journey activity and ongoing plans), I'm also plunging into a very interesting section of Twin Peaks on my Lost in Twin Peaks rundown. For the $5/month patrons, we're now post-reveal with all that has to offer...

Lost in Twin Peaks #16: S2E8 (Drive With a Dead Girl/"Episode 15")

All patrons meanwhile now have access to the second episode of the season, the Lynch-directed gem which expands the supernatural iconography significantly...

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #10 ("Episode 9") open to all patrons

Podcast Line-Ups for:

Three Comrades

We begin at the end of the Great War, as it was still known at the time - how could there be a "I" if there wasn't yet a "II" - as a German officer speaks to soldiers weary from years of war and relieved to be returning home. His words are not draped in glory, honor, and nationalism but relief and generosity toward the "enemy"; indeed, while Germany would be punished rather severely at the Treaty of Versailles (several months later), in this moment there is no sense of victors and losers, only survivors. When nationalism does emerge as a force to be reckoned with, it's an explicit blight upon the city that most of Three Comrades unfolds within (apparently designed around Berlin in the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, although the metropolis onscreen seems quieter, more like a bustling but provincial town, and therefore all the more ominous). Dr. Becker, leader of a leftist group - quite likely Communist, but as unnamed as the likely National Socialist thugs who wreak intermittent havoc throughout the film - argues for reason even as a torch-wielding parade descends on his beleaguered audience.