S2, E4: Laura’s Secret Diary
Did you pack for rain? Things are getting very dark and turbulent in Twin Peaks for Season 2, Episode 4, “Laura’s Secret Diary”! As always, spoilers for this ep, so watch before listening!
This week, Jennifer sets us up for a discussion of the episode’s epic opening scene; Jonathan gets down and dirty with lies, deceptions, and Hank Jennings; Damon looks to the skies and confronts a very portentous story; and Colin tries to pin down a master genre for Twin Peaks and conjures something called Gothic Absurdism. For the Twist we recommend our favorite Lynchian TV, film, and music!
LISTEN:
BuzzSprout | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | and more!
S2, E4 NOTES:
Walter Olkewicz (1948-2021, Jacques Renault)
Jerry Stahl (episode writer)
Permanent Midnight: A Memoir (1995, 2005, book, by Jerry Stahl)
Permanent Midnight (1998, film, directed by David Veloz)
Todd Holland (episode director)
Chris Mulkey (Hank Jennings)
PalmPilot (1997, early PDA (personal digital assistant))
The Tempest (1611, play, by William Shakespeare)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1606, play, by William Shakespeare)
Zeus (king of the gods, player)
Emery Battis (1915-2011, American actor known for his Shakespeare roles)
Batis (genus of passerine birds)
Gothic fiction (literary genre)
Absurdism (philosophical perspective)
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757, treatise on aesthetics by Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke)
The Castle of Otranto (1757, novel, by Horace Walpole)
Dracula (1897, novel, by Bram Stoker)
Waiting for Godot (1953, play, by Samuel Beckett)
Bela Lugosi is Dead (1979, seminal post-punk single by UK band Bauhaus)
Randy Quaid (b. 1950, actor)
Mary Beth Hurt (b. 1946, actor)
Stephen King (b. 1947, author)
Joe King aka Joe Hill (b. 1972, author, son of Stephen King)
Coen Brothers (b. 1954, directing and producing twins)
Todd Haynes (b. 1961, director)
Julianne Moore (b. 1960, actor)
Atom Egoyan (b. 1960, director)
David Byrne (b. 1952, musician)
Cut-Up Technique (literary technique)
Otis Redding (1941-1967, musician)
Sam Cooke (1931-1964, musician)
Silence of the Lambs (1991, film, directed by Jonathan Demme)
Jonathan Demme (1944-2017, director)
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (b. 1952, actor)
This week in The Twist! Recommendations from the crew for Lynchian shows and music:
Jennifer
Riverdale (2017-present, CW TV series)
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2020, Netflix TV series)
Room 104 (2017-2020, HBO anthology series)
Parents (1989, film, directed by Bob Balaban)
Colin
WandaVision (2020, Disney+ TV series)
The Outsider (2020, HBO miniseries)
True Detective (2014, 2015, 2019, HBO anthology series)
Fargo (1996, film, written, produced, and directed by the Coen Brothers)
Fargo (2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, FX anthology series based on the Coen Brothers film)
A Serious Man (2009, film, written, produced, and directed by the Coen Brothers)
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987, experimental short film, directed by Todd Haynes)
Safe (1995, film, directed by Todd Haynes)
Exotica (1994, film, directed by Atom Egoyan)
Clarice (2021, CBS TV series, based on Demme’s “Silence of the Lambs”)
Jonathan
Talking Heads (1971-1991, rock band)
Fear of Music (1979, album, by Talking Heads)
Stop Making Sense (1984, Talking Heads concert film, directed by Jonathan Demme)
Something Wild (1986, film, directed by Jonathan Demme)
Damon
Guy Maddin (b. 1956, director, author)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003, film, directed by Guy Maddin)
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988, film, directed by Guy Maddin)
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006, film, directed by Guy Maddin)
Sleep No More (2011-present, immersive theater experience based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth)