He's Aidan...She's Lindsay
Together we are The Bicks, and we're here to take you through all our pop culture favourites. Join us as we train our literary lenses on the stories that shape us.
Together we are The Bicks, and we're here to take you through all our pop culture favourites. Join us as we train our literary lenses on the stories that shape us.
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
After The Return to Twin Peaks, we've returned to Fire Walk With Me for another look at the David Lynch film, with an eye on the big picture. What connections are there between the film and the 2017 TV series? What new theories and ideas did it spark? And where does it rank in the list of Twin Peaks filmed projects? Join us for a discussion and a look both forward and back as the lynchpin of Twin Peaks comes back for further study.
Starring: Sheryl Lee, Kyle MacLachlanDirected by: David LynchWritten by: David Lynch, Mark EngelsProduced by: David Lynch, Mark Frost
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Tuesday May 22, 2018
Fasten your seatbelts, we're goin' for a ride!
1990s Wild at Heart is an adaptation, yes, but it's filled with Lynchian quirkiness and oddities and the unshakable sensation that nothing you see is quite as it seems. While neither of us can call this our favourite Lynch film, we tried our best to see past the goofy madness and over-the-top qualities to get to the (wild) heart of it all...
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem DafoeDirected by: David LynchWritten by: Barry Gifford (novel), David Lynch (screenplay)Produced by: Michael Kuhn
Notes:
Auteur Theory: 'Wild at Heart' Deleted Scenes Somewhere Over The Rainbow – How Lynch made Wild At Heart his own Deleted Scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f-sESAtq5o&app=desktop
Tuesday May 08, 2018
Tuesday May 08, 2018
Tuesday May 08, 2018
Let's take it back.
Way back.
It's the Summer of 1992. The viewing public had long since learned the answer to the question of "Who Killed Laura Palmer?"; Twin Peaks had been off the air for a year, and all hope for a revival and answers to the plethora of questions raised by the Season 2 finale had been thoroughly and hopelessly dashed (or piqued even further) by Fire Walk With Me.
For some bewildering reason, the suits at ABC entrusted Lynch and Frost to come up with another TV show. A sitcom. Based on the mid-century variety shows that had long gone out of favour, and the hilarious hijinks going on backstage at the fictional Zoblotnick Broadcasting Company. Predating 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip by a good dozen or more years, On the Air was a baffling collection of 7 episodes (3 of which aired between late June/early July on ABC before the show was cancelled).
It's surreal. It's bizarre. It's utterly weirdly fantastic. And it's the subject of this week's Bickering Peaks. (Recorded in early 2017, re-released with a new intro. We hope you enjoy!)
Tuesday Apr 24, 2018
Tuesday Apr 24, 2018
Tuesday Apr 24, 2018
The Bicks had the golden opportunity to sit down with Andrew Grevas to celebrate the first birthday of Andrew's legendary Twin Peaks site, 25 Years Later...and we couldn't pass it up!
So here, in the space we'd normally talk about Twin Peaks in the chronological cataloguing of the Lynch/Frost professional oeuvre, permit us a moment to talk shop with our partner in publishing! Whether discussing the first time he entered the town of Twin Peaks or extolling the virtues of the amazing team of people who make the site what it is or lapsing into interview mode and asking US questions instead of the other way around, Andrew was a tremendous good sport and we had a lovely chat.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!
Happy Birthday, 25YL!!!
25YL Site25YL Site on Twitter25YL Site on Facebook
Tuesday Apr 10, 2018
Tuesday Apr 10, 2018
Tuesday Apr 10, 2018
Like you, we were a little surprised to find this gem in the memory banks at Lynch/Frost HQ. The second Lynch/Frost production to actually be produced, this short-lived slice of Americana: Documented, is a treat. We talk about the nouveau approach to documentary filmmaking on display, the breadth and tone of the topics discussed, and how it fits in with Twin Peaks, and the larger canon of Lynch and Frost works. This Mark Frost created project is a unique one, so don't miss out on our discussion, or the chance to watch it yourself.
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss (narrator)Directed by: Mark FrostWritten by: Mark Frost, Robin L. Sestero, Produced by: Mark Frost, Lynch/Frost Productions
Notes:
Pilot (Farewell to the Flesh)Manhattan After DarkSemper FiCircus and Truck Stop
Tuesday Mar 27, 2018
Tuesday Mar 27, 2018
Tuesday Mar 27, 2018
The elevator pitch for this film would have included: a secret government installation; a small town in Kansas; a cast of wacky characters; and an errant laser beam.
It is baffling to imagine this film having actually been greenlit and even though it was never actually made, here we are 30 years on reading the screenplay of the first Lynch/Frost production. Come with us as we meet proto-Dougie and explore some of the early themes from Twin Peaks: The Return! We've brought enough Beefy Cheese Louises for all!
Notes
The screenplay - http://www.lynchnet.com/osbscript.html
How a lost David Lynch script explains the divisive Dougie
Deconstructing David Lynch's One Saliva Bubble (Part 1)
Wednesday Mar 14, 2018
Wednesday Mar 14, 2018
Wednesday Mar 14, 2018
1987 was the time when David Lynch & Mark Frost first met and started to collaborate - so what exactly was Mark Frost up to right before that time?
Two semi-psychological thrillers that shared enough similarities we're discussing them as one.
"African" mysticism, single parents, curses, psychiatry, and a dash of 80s moral concern come up in both Scared Stiff and The Believers. We comb through these similarities to try and pick apart what interests, thoughts, and concerns were bubbling with Mark Frost as he and David Lynch began their collaboration on a number of projects that would culminate in Twin Peaks. We also finally take a stand and support what David Lynch has been saying for years: that Lynch/Frost productions really do have more than a healthy dose of Frostianism to them, a statement we feel comfortable making after working through Frost's pre-Peaks works.
Scared StiffStarring: Andrew Stevens, Mary Page KellerDirected by: Richard FriedmanWritten by: Mark Frost, Daniel F. Bacaner, Richard FriedmanProduced by: Daniel F. Bacaner, Charles S. Carroll
The BelieversStarring: Martin Sheen, Helen ShaverDirected by: John SchlesingerWritten by: Nicholas Conde (novel), Mark Frost (screenplay)Produced by: Edward Teets
Notes
Scared Stiff is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eiy06dregg
Another similarity we forgot to mention in the podcast: both films feature children who have another pseudo-spiritual facsimile from another culture - a lamp and a doll, both with somewhat racially insensitive markings.
Aidan was right regarding the "anthropological work" described in The Believers - it was in Sudan, in East Africa, over 3,000 km from the Ivory Coast.
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
A young man, a severed ear, and a dark mystery in the heart of small-town America. One of David Lynch's most iconic films is also one of his most accessible, and most beloved. We talk the imagery, themes, and Lynchian elements embedded throughout the film, as well as the way they pave the path towards Twin Peaks.
Also! David Foster Wallace makes (another) appearance. We talk the deleted scenes from this film. And we decide that Heineken is clearly the superior beer (not really PBR fans, don't worry).
Hope you join us for another jump into David Lynch's world of odd and beautiful Americana with Blue Velvet.
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura DernDirected by: David LynchWritten by: David LynchProduced by: Fred Caruso, Richard A. Roth, Dino De Laurentiis (uncredited)
Notes:
Wallace on Blue Velvet
Deleted Scenes
Lindsay is a writer and junior high school English teacher based in Edmonton, Alberta. In addition to loving Twin Peaks and Shakespeare, she is a big fan of her husband, Aidan, her three cats (Neko, Cooper, and Audrey), teaching, reading and writing, and traveling.
And coffee...you can't forget coffee.
Aidan is a writer and communications professional also based in Edmonton, Alberta. His work has been featured in several different publications, periodicals, and books. When he isn't writing or podcasting, he can usually be found attending to his second love: gaming, with a cat or two at his side.
We met when we were 18. We supported each other through university. We moved in together at and then we got married. We live in the coolest neighbourhood in Edmonton. And we record our podcast in our home office overlooking the North Saskatchewan River Valley.
Our podcast came to life in late 2016 as Bickering Peaks: A Twin Peaks Podcast. In those early days, we spent our time rewatching Twin Peaks and analysing the series in Season One of the podcast.
In Season Two of our show, we applied that same rigour to Twin Peaks: The Return.
Season Three saw us tackle the larger question of series co-creators' David Lynch's and Mark Frost's creative oeuvre.
We decided to take our podcast into vastly different territory for Season Four when we dove headfirst into the works of William Shakespeare.
Our slightly truncated Season Five boldly went where no Bicks have gone before...and we promise we will finish our look at the Star Trek universe soon.
Season Six is our soft reboot — a return to form and hopefully a more regular release schedule. We hope you'll continue to follow along as we tackle the pop culture stuff that strikes our fancy.
You can contact us at thebickspod[at]gmail[dot]com.