As a life long Twin Peaks fan, I am more accustomed to waiting and hoping than I am to receiving. I mean think of it. I have loved Twin Peaks since 1990. That means that since the show went off the air in June 1991, I have had only 3 releases spread over 26 years.
- Fire Walk With Me in 1992.
- The Twin Peaks Music Archives in 2011. (Only had to wait 20 years for those bad boys.)
- The Deleted Scenes in 2014.
That is about it. Now, you are telling me that in a few short weeks I am going to see NEW TWIN PEAKS. I don’t know how to process that. Big Ed and I are used to being in the doghouse. We are not accustomed to living it up in a Great Northern suite.
I was one of those that never believed that Lynch/Frost would ever return to Twin Peaks. I have never been happier to be wrong. I think to us long term-ers this release has to be viewed through the prism of Star Wars. We all expected so much from Episode 1. We were given Jar Jar Binks. Then when Episode 7 came out and they gave us pure nostalgia; everyone rejoiced. I don’t think either of those options are viable to Lynch. He is incapable of giving us Jar Jar and he has never made any art that is pure nostalgia. So then what will we get? We will get David Lynch.
I have no expectations about new Twin Peaks on Showtime May 21st. What I do know is that I have loved every Lynch movie. (I don’t count Dune and Inland Empire, so I can say that sentence.) Lynch challenges a viewer. I love that. That is what drew me in back in the summer of 1990 when I watched the pilot episode with my girlfriend and her mom on their sunken couch. It played on one of those old television sets that was an actual piece of furniture. The couch I sat upon was referred to as a “davenport” and it rested on shag carpeting. Everything was old in that room but Twin Peaks. It seemed so fresh it practically warped the wood panelling that encased the screen. It inspired me as a college student. It spoke to me in a way that I can’t explain to my children 27 years later. “Dad, why do you like this old show?”
Only a few months later I had the Rolling Stone cover hanging in my room. There has never been a day since, that some piece of Twin Peaks art hasn’t hung on my wall. There isn’t a week that has gone by when I didn’t listen to Angelo’s music. I have travelled the world visiting filming locations and debuting movies I made about the show. I have done hours of podcasting on the series and have promoted a magazine that I co-created. There isn’t a day that I don’t text, tweet or Facebook another Twin Peaks fan. Sometimes I wonder if I am Leland and the series is Bob. Does it inhabit me or do I inhabit it?
So, I will spend these last few days of living in a time when Twin Peaks was only 29 episodes and a movie. Soon it will be more and so much more. Somehow, I have gone from that old rec-room to being in the position to cover the new series in a magazine, The Blue Rose. Somehow I have gone from a reader of Wrapped in Plastic, to working side by side with John Thorne. Somehow I have gone from looking at Sherilyn Fenn on my wall, to talking to her on the phone. You know, I know Charlotte Stewart. We talk. We email. How did this happen? Trust me, I have never taken the show or my good fortune for granted. I just love the series and all the people I have met.
So strap in folks. We have no idea what will come, but we know it will be wonderful and strange. And what is even more exciting is soon, we will have new phrases like that to use to end blogs and articles. Aren’t we all sick of trying to work them into our stuff?
I’m ready to sit down on a couch from any era. I am ready for new Twin Peaks, new phrases, new obsessions and new art for my wall.
SCOTT RYAN IS THE AUTHOR OF THIRTYSOMETHING AT THIRTY:AN ORAL HISTORY and THE MANAGING EDITOR OF THE BLUE ROSE MAGAZINE. FOR MORE INFORMATION from Scott Ryan Productions CLICK HERE.
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