Drinking with Comics on... Preacher

The first in the new DwC "after hours" shorts.

We've had trouble drumming up views lately and of course this is, as so many people tell me, because the regular version of the show is too long. Okay, I get it; we always functioned better as an iTunes podcast anyway, as longer content often does. That said, I've always wanted to make Drinking with Comics more akin to a late night show, specifically Lettermen. But people don't really watch that kind of content on youtube, or at least not the audience we're most naturally speaking to. So what to do?

Well, Chris has an amazing home and as I think is proven by this video, his reading room makes a fantastic backdrop for soused discussion. So we thought, why not start shooting some shorter bits, putting them up and see what happens? So, here's the first one, wherein we discuss Preacher, both the comic and the AMC adaptation. You'll notice the sound and lights are quite there, but we felt the content was strong enough to go ahead and post. Next one of these should be considerably better in the production department, though I'm definitely not knocking Chris's skills in putting it together. I edit most everything else and it is both a pleasure and a relief to have someone so talented to back me up.

So raise a glass and let's talk about Preacher. If you agree, disagree, whatever, leave a comment on the video. And if you're into it, please subscribe to our channel - more goodness coming!

Evolution of the Arm - Twin Peaks: The Return Episode #6

What an episode! Here are my thoughts...

Johnny Jewel - Windswept

Buy of the goddamn century folks! Over at Italians Do It Better's Big Cartel Johnny Jewel has an album's worth of Twin Peaks related music up for download for $1.00.

One Dollar!

I snatched it earlier and along with that Trouble 45 it has made the wait between last week's episode five of Twin Peaks and this coming Sunday's somewhat more bearable.

Somewhat.

Here's one of the tracks, The Flame.

Trouble - Snake Eyes

Did you watch Twin Peaks: The Return episode #5 Sunday night? If you did you saw the creepy ass scene that introduced a scummy new lunatic the credits informed us was Richard Horne. This was the show-stopping wham-bang number that played through it with Trouble on the stage at the Roadhouse. Trouble - featuring long time David Lynch musical/audio collaborator Dean Hurley - has a bandcamp here where you can buy this and another track.

Here's a quote from the site that I believe perfectly encapsulates the vibe of the music Lynch often peppers his fictional drinking holes with:

"Snakes Eyes effectively harkens back to a time when noir R&B was the de-facto soundtrack to hard liquor violence."

Now if that's not poetry I don't know what is. I'd like for "Hard Liquor Violence to henceforth be know as a genre.

Evolution of the Arm - Twin Peaks: The Return Episode #5

Lighting mishap. Learning as I go. There's a lot to talk about in Episode 5 so let's get to it!!!

Evolution of the Arm: A Twin Peaks Discussion (Ep. 3 & 4)

Twin Peaks: The Return episodes #3 and 4 dropped for Showtime subscribers last night (as opposed to those of us viewing on the app who received all four last week). Now that everyone is caught up we can all suffer together week by week waiting for more. Which I think is a GOOD thing. I feel as though Lynch and Frost choosing to adhere to the old, an-episode-a-week schedule instead of the more prevalent "binge" itinerary (with this first batch being something of an initial compromise to hook folks) is perfect for the show and seems very much Lynch; as the artist it is his right to control the dissemination of his work - remember that initial Mulholland Drive DVD that had no chapter stops?

I LOVED that.

Having gotten used to devouring shows in single, protracted bites I feel like having to wait for every episode might act as something of an inoculation against the binge aesthetic. This is good. A couple of years ago I binged a large part of Breaking Bad in order to help a friend catch up for the finale. I'd already watched most of the show as it was released, and in seeing it again in rapid succession I realized what an unbelievably different experience it was seeing Walt's story in marathon stretches, how I perceived the characters - especially Walt's - in a very different light. Since that watch I've been wanting to change my viewing paradigm for visual, narrative fiction but, well, it's pretty freaking tough when most of what I see is in binge-friendly formats like Netflix, Hulu and DVD. Fargo would have been perfect... but I still ended up doing two a night most nights, three in one case. Twin Peaks will be a good exercise in increasing my ability to 'wait'.

The National - The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness

Brown sent me the link to this new track by The National a week or so ago but I'm just getting around to it today. It's hard to process it completely without the context of the entire album, which is titled Sleep Well Beast and available for pre-order here. I'm still fairly new to The National; I fell in love with High Violet about three years ago and since they've been one of those bands I hold my rabid esteem for the first album I love by them against everything else they've done. As usual once I find I need another sequence of songs I'll fall for another record, it's already happening a but with The Boxer. I'm hoping by the time this come out I'll be full hilt into it.