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Sheryl Lee Podcast Interview: Laura’s Ghost

Laura’s Ghost: Women Speak about Twin Peaks is the new book by Courtenay Stallings. She brings actress Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) to join her in the Red Room. Scott Ryan (Blue Rose Magazine, Red Room Podcast) interviews Stallings and Lee about the new book that covers the darker side of the Laura Palmer story from Twin Peaks. Stallings discusses her interviews with Sheryl Lee, Grace Zabriskie, Jennifer Lynch and many women in the Twin Peaks community.

Sheryl Lee, who wrote the foreword to the book, talks about Season 3, her journey with the character and her involvement in the book.

Press Play below to listen or head out to iTunes and download.

You can order the book Here.

Also be sure to subscribe to the Blue Rose Magazine Issue 14 for more Twin Peaks coverage.

More Twin Peaks interviews: Mark Frost, Sheryl Lee, Alicia Witt

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Podcast: Twin Peaks Event in Columbus

July 19-21, Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise came to Columbus, Ohio to attend 4 showings of Fire Walk With Me. Scott Ryan from The Blue Rose magazine was at all four showings and is here to tell you all about it. Josh Minton from Red Room and Skeleton Key was there as well. So Scott & Josh discuss the event.

Then Scott talks with Xan Sprouse from Ghostwood Podcast and Megan Long, a new Twin Peaks fan with an unpopular opinion, and Mike McGraner who planned the entire event. This is the longest podcast we have ever done, sorry about all that.

Click play to listen to the podcast or head out to iTunes:

Order The Women of Lynch Book:

Subscribe to The Blue Rose Magazine

Order Scott’s book The Last Days of Letterman

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#TwinPeaks Trends – A look back at Part 8

  

   When Laura and Leland Palmer were chased down by a camper in FWWM and driven off the road to Mo’s Motors, Laura looked at her father and said, “Just, just sit here for a moment.” She was rocked and shocked to her core. That is how viewers felt when Part 8 finished its premiere showing on Showtime, June 25, 2017. Everyone needed to sit for just a moment and catch their breath. In the original run there were plenty of moments that shocked viewers, but in the ’90s there was no place to look, besides the person sitting next to you, to discuss what just happened. In 2017 there is a place we can turn to —  Twitter. Tweets are now a commodity that networks use to supplement ratings. They want trends, retweets and followers.

      For the first time in its run #TwinPeaks trended worldwide at 10:01 p.m. that night. In fact, it exploded. See the graph below, supplied by Joshua Minton from The Red Room Podcast, to see the spike. Tweets about Twin Peaks went from around 500 to 9,000 almost in a moment. The world watched, and then the world wanted to talk about it.

   This give and take between friends and strangers is the kind of interest that Showtime had to be looking for when they gave Lynch free reign. The increased traffic proved that fans were intrigued. Some blasted the episode, and some praised it. That is what fans do. But what about the critics? Here’s a handful of quotes about Part 8 from a few television critics.

“Part 8 aims for maximum weirdness and succeeds. Wherever you land on it, there’s one thing that can’t be argued: You’ve never seen this before on television.”

Liz Shannon Miller – IndieWire

“There’s nothing to point to in the history of television that helps describe exactly what this episode attempts. Considered that way — as something to see and hear, and to react to on a primal level — this hour was phenomenal.”

Noel Murray – The New York Times

“David Lynch just unleashed what’s arguably television’s WTF-weirdest and most ambitious hour ever.”

Sean T. Collins – Rolling Stone

“There should be no doubt: the eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return will stand as one of the defining passages in David Lynch’s long career.”

Tom Huddleston – Sight and Sound

“The eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return is one of the greatest hours of television I’ve ever seen: horrifying, horrifyingly beautiful, thought-provoking and thought-annihilating; a work that owes as much to expressionistic and surreal painting, musical performance, and installation art as it does to narrative and experimental cinema.”

Matt Zoller Seitz – Vulture

   All of those quotes came out within 24 hours. Podcasts, tweets and Facebook reviews happen in a moment in our social media existence. There is so much to unlock in Part 8 and even more to feel and experience. I actually made sure not to re-watch the episode for a few days just so I couldn’t make sense of what I had watched. I was off kilter for at least a day after it aired. I wasn’t sure what I had seen, but I knew it affected me. That is my favorite thing about Lynch’s work. I don’t always know what it is, but I always feel it.

    I asked David Bushman, Television Curator at The Paley Center, about Part 8 and its place in history. He said, “At a time when so much programming is innovative and daring in its own way, David Lynch and Mark Frost created a transcendent hour of television that was visually stunning and narratively ingenious. The landscape has radically changed in the twenty-seven years since Twin Peaks premiered, but the show is as subversive as ever, and people will be pointing to Part 8 for decades to come as the epitome of its incandescence.”

The Back Cover of Issue 3. Order now at bluerosemag.com

    The following day there were many posts saying that television had been changed forever. The jury is still out on that one. One has to remember that Part 8 was not created from a television writer’s room. It wasn’t a script that was approved by a network chain of command. Lynch and Frost had a special deal where they could create what they wanted and it would be aired. Only Lynch could have created that mood and feeling. He is a singular artist and always has been. This was a moment where the deal they had with Showtime collided with a great idea and a brave artist. All these factors converged to create an avant-garde hour that caught even the most devoted Lynch student by surprise. No one was expecting that the story would detour into a 40-minute, black-and-white sequence with little dialogue. All anyone could do after experiencing it was to be just like Laura. To sit there and try to catch one’s breath for just a moment. Then pick up their phone and tweet, read and retweet. Anywhere from W.T.F. to L.O.L. to B.O.B. (Beware of Bob)  #TwinPeaks.

Written by Scott Ryan for The Blue Rose Issue #3 (Kindle version only)

Subscribe to the Blue Rose Magazine for coverage of Twin Peaks.

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We’ve Been Given A Green Butt Skunk

Some people give flowers, some a Starbucks gift card, some an edible fruit arrangement. All are pretty good gifts from a co-worker. But, when Harry S. Truman was tasked with getting a going away present for a two-and-half-week visitor to his town, he settled on something a little bit different. Harry gave Special Agent Dale Cooper a “Green Butt Skunk” fishing lure. He explained that when those fish are heading up stream they are thinking of only one thing: SEX. Nothing can break their concentration more than a Green Butt Skunk. This summer I feel like Mark Frost & David Lynch gave me a Green Butt Skunk, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

If there is one rule in 2017, it is to not get political with strangers. At any moment things can get ugly. You live in your bubble and I live in mine. Its the law. We try really hard not to burst any bubbles around here. I will not take a stand on politics, but I will say, no matter which side of the stream you were swimming on in May 2017, there was probably only one thing on your mind: The state of our country. Things were bad in May, they are worse in August. Again, no matter what side you are on, chances are, you think the other side is really, really wrong. What could possibly turn our segregated heads? A Green Butt Skunk.

Frost & Lynch dropped that lure into the waters of television and the school of television fans, starving for something new, changed direction and all swam together. Yes, even me, who had theories that contradicted with EVERYONE ELSE. (I still wanna believe that Richard Horne is from Johnny, but I doubt even the Red Room small gold ball can make that happen.) The distraction I was given this summer has been so much fun. So rewarding.

Every Sunday night, I was taken away to another world…and sometimes multiple worlds. Afterwards my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feed was filled with theories, pictures, quotes and Memes. It was nice to see us all wondering where the music was. Wondering where Big Ed was. Heck, just plain getting to wonder was a gift. Not knowing is fun, isn’t it? What’s the fun in knowing? You want to KNOW something, turn on the news. Was that fun?

That has always been my favorite part of Twin Peaks. As I write this, we are days away from the ending of Twin Peaks: The Return (TPR). I don’t know if we will get answers, but I am kind of hoping we don’t. Just dangle another lure in front of me and make me swim in another direction.

On September 4th, we will go back to a life without a sprawling mystery to wonder about. I will deeply miss my Sunday routine. I will miss my Monday morning, afternoon and evening calls with my Twin Peaks friends in different time zones. Arguing about gold orbs, if the Nine Inch Nails song was too long, or discussing a fake website that you could actually go to. How about the people that typed in the coordinates to find where Mr. C was going to? I love those people. It was all just so much fun. It was a television experience that will never be repeated because it can’t. No other show will wait 25 years to answer a question like Who’s Judy.  I think its The America girl, or the girl in 1945, or Diane or I think its Laura…no Sarah. (See what I mean. It is fun not knowing.)

So we will all go back to our lives, and will, of course, still talk about Twin Peaks. John Thorne, Courtenay Stallings, the Blue Rose Magazine staff and I are just getting started with our analysis of this 18 part fishing lure. There is line from the new series that took place in a scene that I will eventually dissect in an upcoming essay. It was from my favorite new characters in TPR, The Mitchum Brothers.

People are under a lot of stress. TPR relieved it for a moment, changed the story in my mind and gave me the most fun experience I ever had watching a piece of art on television. Will there be things to pick apart and argue about? Of course, it wouldn’t be Twin Peaks if there wasn’t. Some of it is supposed to please us, some of it is suppose to enrage us and some of it is just to distract us from our lives.

So to Mark Frost, David Lynch and Sabrina Sutherland I say, “Thank you so much for my gift. It worked. You caught me. Hook. Line and Green Butt Skunk Sinker.”

Scott Ryan is the managing Editor of the Twin Peaks Magazine, The Blue Rose. Order the Dougie Special to get all 4 issues. Follow on Twitter.


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Tribute to FWWM25

I wrote this for the 20th anniversary of Fire Walk With Me. I was going to update it, but decided it is more fun to see how much Twin Peaks has changed in only 5 years.  I have added new commentary in parenthesis. One thing that has not changed in 25 years, FWWM is my all time favorite Lynch movie and one of my top 5 films of all time. It is beautiful, moving and has the single best acting performance ever captured on film. Let’s find out if I said the same thing 5 years ago…

For this essay, I thought I would focus on FWWM’s legacy in the world of David Lynch.  This movie has been reviewed many times and 20 years later we are still trying to figure it out.  How cool is that? All of his movies are a bit of a head scratcher, but this one should be a breeze.  It is set BEFORE the series ever begins, so we already know the plot as back story.  Also, it is based on a character that an entire book was written about, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.  Still it was a shock and surprise to critics and Lynch fans back in 1992.  This year being the 20th year, there have been all kinds of revivals on the subject of Lynch films and characters.  I believe FWWM is the best David Lynch movie ever made.  It is his masterpiece.  It has everything a Lynch film needs.

1. Horror – BOB behind her dresser drawer is the scariest thing ever. (My sister called me after seeing this scene literally screaming and crying.)

2. Creepy characters – The old woman at Fat Trout Trailer Park makes her presence felt in less than 30 seconds of film.

3. Dreams – Laura’s dream where she ends up in the picture hanging on her wall haunts me to this day. (OK, how freaking cool is it that now we know she is actually inside the Convenience Store? I often thought it was the gateway to the Red Room, never considered she was above the Store. I don’t ever remember anyone else saying that either- SR 2017)

4. Split story structures – Lynch loves to drop us into a linear story and then rip us out with his bare hands.  The scene with David Bowie cuts together years of a story in a few moments.

5. Love – (Yes, all of his movies are about love.) When BOB leaves Leland for that brief moment before bed and he visits his daughter’s room to tell her that he loves her is a moment of the purist love of all.

If it is quintessential Lynch, then why is it not beloved like Blue Velvet or lauded with awards like Mulholland Drive?  Simple, movie watchers are dumb.  OK, maybe that is a little harsh. How about I say uneducated? (Again, look how things have changed. No critics or Twin Peaks fans say they don’t like FWWM. In just 5 years time that has totally been washed away. SR 2017)

The trick to FWWM is being very knowledgeable about Twin Peaks.  That is asking a lot of someone who just popped in a DVD to watch after the kids went to bed. (DVD? Streaming is the future, Scott – SR 2017) Critics who say Lynch just throws things up on the screen that make no sense have not paid close enough attention.  In a very early scene of the movie, FBI director Gordon Cole shows Agent Chet Desmond a dancing girl named Lil.

She dances in place with one hand in her pocket and shows her tailored dress off while wearing a blue rose. Chet looks at it and moves on. In the following scene his partner, Sam, asks him about the dancing girl. Chet goes on to explain each detail of the girl and how that pertains to the case. To me (and I admit, I didn’t get this the first time I watched the movie) this was Lynch telling us: Everything I show you matters and has a meaning. The dancing was referring to leg work.  The tailored dress referred to drugs.  The Blue Rose?  He can’t tell us about that.  (I can, in 2017 we know what the Blue Rose is. It is a magazine that…oh, it also is a Task force that Gordon was on the first case of. See, we know so much more in 5 years. SR 2017) Leaving the viewer intrigued.  The jaded viewer may say, that is dumb, why have that dancing girl? It is weird just to be weird, even if they explain it. Except, we know that Gordon Cole has a hearing problem and talks loud.  It makes sense for him to give his direction with code. Everything in a Lynch movie means something.

On a personal level, I have to admit an oddity.  I watched this movie every year on my birthday.  Creepy I know, but why?  The reason plain and simple is Sheryl Lee’s performance.

The story of Laura Palmer is really fascinating.  If Laura doesn’t die none of us meet her.  She had to die to bring Twin Peaks to life.  She had to die to escape a horrible existence.  The reason you watch most movies is to see the end, but this movie you know the end before you hit play.  She dies.  Come to think of it, why isn’t this movie the number one grossing movie of all time instead of Titanic?  Everyone knew the boat sank, everyone knew Laura Palmer dies.  It is inevitable.  It takes the idea of fatalism and the meaningless of life to levels that Kierkegaard never dreamed of.  I see all of that in Sheryl Lee’s performance.  I believe that her performance in this movie is the best female acting job ever put on film. (I had a feeling I thought this 5 years ago. SR 2017) Her huge cry when she goes to Donna’s house asking if Donna is her best friend.  Her amazing smile of innocence when she simmers an angry Bobby outside of the school.  Her abusive and scary behavior as she threatens Harold Smith.  Her losing all control as her father and the One Armed Man argue in the car.  Her seductive actions at the Roadhouse where she can even make the name BUCK seem sexy.  I can not think of another role for a woman that covered so many levels. And if you know Sheryl please tell her the Red Room is awaiting an interview about this acting job. (OK, this is just mean. 5 years later and still nothing. I feel like I am in a play called Waiting for Ga’Lee. SR 2017)

So why are we still obsessed with this movie 20 years later? (25 now) Simple.  It is art.  20 years means nothing to Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte.  20 years isn’t a drop in the bucket to Bach’s “Wachet Auf.”  I believe that FWWM is a moving painting.  It is a piece of art that needs to be looked at, studied, and is meant to horrify us.  It is a reflection of a society that hides its darkness under small town goodness.  I know that this movie still causes rifts in the Twin Peaks fan base; although over the last couple years it is not as controversial as before, but I will make a bold statement.  If you don’t love FWWM then you are not a Twin Peaks fan. (Wait till I find out that when Twin Peaks: The Return happens, it will actually all happen again. SR 2017) What you are is a television fan, and that is OK.  But when you truly have Twin Peaks in your blood, as in owls, scorched engine oil and Douglas Firs in your veins, then FWWM is just the cure you need to help wash away the dreck of movies that will be released this year. (And it gets so much worse once Hollywood only makes Comic book movies. SR 2017) Movies you will see, forget and never ask the question: why the hell did that monkey just say Judy?  I thought we weren’t gonna talk about Judy.

I have to admit, 5 years later, I stand behind that essay. There are only 3 hours left of TPR and I would still say FWWM is my favorite section of Twin Peaks. When TPR references FWWM I think the show comes alive. Probably by the time most of you read this, we knew who Judy was. I kind of like that 5 years ago, I didn’t even think there was a chance I would ever find out. Happy Birthday, FWWM. You don’t look a day over 20.

Scott Ryan is the managing Editor of the Twin Peaks Magazine, The Blue Rose. Order the Dougie Special to get all 4 issues. All Day August 28th The Blue Rose Facebook Page will post a picture an hour to celebrate #FWWM25

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New Podcast: Twin Peaks Part 14

Scott Ryan and Josh Minton discuss Part 14 of Twin Peaks: The Return. We talk about Andy the hero, Sarah the…??? and we talk a bit about fans who are hating on Twin Peaks. tsk, tsk. Those who are hating it all are missing out on a great ride.  Scott does wonder about the Freddie scene, but again pauses final judgement until the end of part 18. Listen to the podcast here or head out to iTunes.

PRESS PLAY TO LISTEN:

Download at iTunes

Subscribe to The Blue Rose. Read More.

Watch the new Video Promo filmed at an Actual Season 3 location.

Subscribe to The Blue Rose for a free Showtime Promo Card. Read More.

Listen to a talk about Parts 7 & 8 of Twin Peaks.

Pre-order the Music to the New Twin Peaks.

Follow Scott on Twitter @bluerosemag1

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Twin Peaks Parts 9-10

Courtenay Stallings of The Blue Rose Magazine joins Scott & Josh to discuss Parts 9 & 10 of Twin Peaks. Courtenay and Josh gang up on Scott when it comes to Richard Horne and his use in the series. We also talk about time in Twin Peaks, the three detectives and the Log Lady’s newest message to Hawk.

 

WARNING: There is a whistling that happened on Josh Minton’s Mic. It happens less after 30 minutes. Sorry. We blame Bob.

Listen here or download at iTunes

Subscribe to The Blue Rose for a free Showtime Promo Card. Read More.

Listen to a talk about Parts 7 & 8 of Twin Peaks.

Listen to a talk about Parts 5 & 6 of Twin Peaks.

Listen to a talk about Parts 1-4 of Twin Peaks.

Pre-order the Music to the New Twin Peaks.

Follow Scott on Twitter @bluerosemag1

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Twin Peaks Podcast

Scott & Josh talk about the first 4 parts of New Twin Peaks on Showtime. Spoilers abound so only listen if you have seen the first 4. Scott also talks about his trip out to Los Angeles and going to the red carpet event for the Twin Peaks Premiere. We break down the episodes as best as we can with such a quick turn around of time. For more coverage of the cast premiere party be sure to subscribe to The Blue Rose Magazine.

Listen here or head out to iTunes.

Subscribe to The Blue Rose for a free Showtime Promo Card. Read More.

Pre-order the Music to the New Twin Peaks.

Order Mark Frost’s Book The Secret History.

Pre-order The Sequel book: Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier

 

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Issue #2 Cover

We have been waiting to release our cover of Issue #2 and we finally can. The main focus on Issue #2 is The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer written by Jennifer Lynch. We have an interview with Jennifer Lynch, an article about Laura’s life and struggles with abuse and cover the history of the diary and the new Audible release. Sheryl Lee reads the diary, so it made sense to have Sheryl Lee on the cover. We were able to have Sheryl Lee pose for a picture and she approved it for us. We are beyond honored to display our cover designed by Becca Ryan

As if having the free Showtime giveaway wasn’t enough, we now have an original cover with Sheryl Lee. The best way to get Issue #2 is to subscribe to The Blue Rose Magazine. When you subscribe, you get a better price on each issue and  shipping. Issue #3 will come out 2 weeks after the new season ends. It will be a detailed episode guide of all 18 parts.

Issue #2 has an interview with Mark Frost conducted by Andreas Halskov, an essay about the Hazel Drew Case (the murder in Mark Frost’s home town) with new comments from Mark and Scott Frost, a recap of The Missing Pieces, a review of the new book about the Twin Peaks soundtrack, John Thorne’s thoughts on the return of Twin Peaks, an interview with Robert Engels about FWWM and coverage of the Laura Palmer Diary.

This Issue is more packed than the Roadhouse when Julee Cruise is performing.

You can order just Issue #2 here.

Order the Dougie Special.

Get the Audible version of The Laura Palmer Diary before you read about it.

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Twin Peaks Really Is Coming Back

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.

  1. Fire Walk With Me in 1992.
  2. The Twin Peaks Music Archives in 2011. (Only had to wait 20 years for those bad boys.)
  3. 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.

Order the only magazine dedicated to Twin Peaks. Click here.