Rabu, 30 Juni 2010

Total Eclipse of the Heart


The first question one encounters when mentioning the Twilight Saga (after the barrage of taunting and insults) is this: Team Edward or Team Jacob?! Personally, I have to say I'm both, I am totally Team Edward in the books, but very Team Jacob in the movies. Noooo, it's not because of Taylor Lautner's 8-pack (though it certainly doesn't hurt), it's because Edward is too brooding and angsty for me in the films, and Jacob has a charismatic quality, sense of humor, and playfulness about him that definitely doesn't show up in the books. While Lautner's acting skills are not, shall we say, 'Oscar-worthy', he does bring a great personality to the screen, and honestly, they shouldn't bother with shirts for him, they're totally unnecessary. (I can say this now that he is technically 'legal' :-P)

Today's nails were much requested, and obviously had to be done. I had a few people request the very same thing... a Jacob vs. Edward manicure, so Libby P. Maria Clara, and Nikki, I hope you approve! :) (but please ignore the cuticles on my right hand- bowling and sewing are tearing them up!!)

Team Edward:


Team Jacob:


I used American Apparel Hassid as a base on all nails but the ring finger on each hand, then applied Nubar Stronghold with Bundle Monster plate BM20. For the edward nails (left hand ring finger), I used topped Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud with one coat of Zoya Alluria. I shaded with a mix of Nubar Stronghold and Zoya Alluria, used a mix of American Apparel Hassid and A Beautiful Life Poison for the lips, a mixture of American Apparel Manila, Zoya Jancyn and MAC Showy for the eyes, and a mixture of MAC Showy and American Apparel Hassid for the brow. Topped off the entire face with CND Sugar Sparkle, because I live in Las Vegas, land of sun, so Edward would look like a damn disco ball. :-D For the Jacob nail, I used Zoya Flowie as a base, Zoya Dea to shade a little for the bicep, and American Apparel Hassid for the tattoo of the wolf pack members. (or at least the best I could do on such a small canvas!! :-P) Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. :)

Go Team everyone!!! :) (except Victoria...and Riley... and well...you get the point.)

Selasa, 29 Juni 2010

Everything Isn't Just Black & White


...but these are.:-D

Today's nails are a geometric black & white pattern. I actually painted this on part of my dorm fridge in college! :) (that fridge currently keeps my beverages chilly in the garage!) :)


I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the black. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

OK- I'm off to go wait in line to see Twilight: Eclipse. Yeah, that's right I'm a nerd. lol

Go Team Undecided!!!

Australian national cinema studies


Film Studies For Free presents its whopping and interdisciplinary list of scholarly links to online and openly accessible studies of one of its favourite national cinemas, that of Australia. A passable effort for a Pom website, it hopes you agree.

There are some veritably beaut resources here, but FSFF would especially like to flag up one great, but time-limited, free download opportunity: Ben Goldsmith and Geoff Lealand (eds.), Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2010)

Senin, 28 Juni 2010

Remember to Eat Your 5 a Day!


Taco Bell has lettuce, so that counts...right?

I've had the idea for this manicure for a while now, I figured that since the recommended daily consumption of fruits & vegetables is 5, and I have 5 fingers on each hand, that it worked out perfectly. :) I, of course, don't eat vegetables... unless you're my mom that is reading this, which in that case, I eat 10 servings a day– probably more! :) (but only if Taco Bell lettuce counts...or ketchup on burgers?)


I used:

Thumb: Asparagus (this I actually DO eat, and really like)

ULTA Banana Rum in the Sun as a base, with a mixture of CND Green Scene and ULTA Limelight for the stalks, and added American Apparel Hassid to that for the spear end, with small touches of straight CND Green Scene on top.

Index: Carrots (again, I enjoy these, and used to gnaw on them all the time with my dad as a kid)

CND Electric Orange as a base, then mixed with China Glaze Salsa for the shading, and Zoya Jancyn for the highlight. For the blue background, I used Zoya Robyn and for the carrot top, I used CND Green Scene.

Middle: Green Apple (love these if they're Granny Smith)

American Apparel Butter as a base, with a mix of that and ULTA Limelight for the inner core line, ULTA Limelight for the peel, MAC Showy for the seeds and stem, and CND Green Scene for the background.

Ring: Red Pepper (key ingredient in Sunshine stirfry- which Jacquie will remember)

Zoya Robyn for the background, China Glaze Salsa for the base color of the pepper, then mixed with Zoya Jancyn to highlight and American Apparel Hassid to shade. For the stem, I used CND Green Scene.

Pinky: Corn (I miss fresh from the farm corn on the cob!!)

American Apparel Manila as a base, then with Zoya Jancyn for shading next to the husk and between kernels, then a mix of American Apparel Manila and American Apparel Butter for the highlight on the kernels. For the husk, I used CND Green Scene, then mixed with American Apparel Butter for the husk highlights.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Now that you've got your dose of fruits and vegetables for the day, you're free to eat something a bit tastier- like chocolate, or maybe steak.

Minggu, 27 Juni 2010

Twigs & Berries


:-D Sounds like a much more 'interesting' post than it probably will be. ;) Camping kicked my ass, I napped pretty much as soon as I stepped out of the shower after getting home today. I fulfilled my S'mores and toasted marshmallow craving (for now), with a 5 s'mores, and 7 toasted marshmallows (2 of which I ate with breakfast). :-D I also cooked 'tin foil' dinners, which I made by slicing potatoes, onions, chopping garlic, sliced smoked sausage, butter, salt, and pepper and putting it in a tin foil 'pouch' and placing them on the grate over the fire. I also cooked baked potatoes by wrapping them in tin foil an dputting them IN the fire for an hour- they were amazing.

Today's nails are a simple design that kind of remind me of nature- twigs & berries to be specific. :-D


I used MAC In the Buff as a base with Bundle Monster plate BM06 used to apply A Beautiful Life Poison. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The potatoes right after they were out of the coals/fire:


My potato! (butter, salt & pepper)


And my latest iPhone case creation, thinking of selling them on etsy, thoughts? (it even has a pocket for credit cards!)

Sabtu, 26 Juni 2010

I'll Have S'more!!


Ooey, Gooey, Melty, Chocolatey, Sugary, crunchy goodness. Yes, this is one of the only reasons I go camping...for the s'mores. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love hanging around the campfire, and fishing when there is water, and all that jazz, but I really truly love s'mores, hot dogs, and baked potatoes cooked in the fire. Since I'm going camping tonight up on Mt. Charleston, I decided to do S'mores nails!!! :) A few years ago, I was introduced to the double chocolate method, go ahead, try it, it'll rock your world. I'm seriously so excited for roasted marshmallows, and how I painted it is how they're perfectly cooked... though if my mom were camping with us, they'd be flaming balls of charred sugar, never could understand why she likes them burnt. *gag*


I used:

Thumb & pinky: Graham crackers

Some mix of MAC Showy, Zoya Dea, Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme, American Apparel Cotton and American Apparel Palm Springs.

Index & Ring: Chocolate *drool*

Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme as a base, with MAC Showy to shade, and Zoya Dea to highlight.

Middle: toasted Marshmallowy goodness

American Apparel Cotton as a base, with MAC Abalone Shell, American Apparel Palm Springs, Zoya Dea, MAC Showy, and OPI for Sephora What's a Tire Jack? Matte sponged on lightly in layers. I love how the tip edge looks like it was singed. :-P

Topped the chocolate nails off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, no top coat for the marshmallow nail, and for the graham cracker nails, I sponged on Essie Matte About You so it wouldn't give a smooth matte finish, but a rough one. :-D

Ok, I'm off to head up the mountain!! :) Have a fun day/night!! :)

Michael Haneke Studies: videos, podcasts and article links

Dedicated to the memory of Peter Brunette, 1943-2010

The above is a new video essay produced for Film Studies For Free's baby sister site Filmanalytical. It explores some of the obvious, as well as the more obscure, similarities between two films: Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) and Code inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages/Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys (Michael Haneke, 2000). Like all mash-ups it's best enjoyed and/or most effective if you know the original films. Read an explanation of the context of this work here.
 
Thomas Elsaesser on Michael Haneke (excerpt) And see Elsaesser's book chapter on this work here (pdf -details below)

 


 Film Studies For Free created a big Michael Haneke links list in October last year to coincide with the flood of online material on this filmmaker as a consequence of the cinematic release of Das Weisse Band/The White Ribbon. The flood shows no sign of abating, however, and so here's a new and updated list of material. For ease of use, FSFF has listed at the top items that weren't included in the October entry.

At the top of this post is a new video essay made by FSFF's author for a new companion website to  this blog: Filmanalytical. The site will focus on video and written essays on films and will necessarily be more "occasional" than FSFF, but hopefully useful nonetheless for those of you who like your Film Studies to be online and freely accessible.

This entry, like two other FSFF posts here and here, is dedicated to the memory of Peter Brunette, the film critic and scholar who died last week. Peter's last book was on Michael Haneke, and below is a link to a wonderful podcast interview that he gave on the subject of this filmmaker.

Finally, there are some other great new English-language books on Michael Haneke -- to join Catherine Wheatley's 2008 Michael Haneke's Cinema: The Ethics of the Image -- some of which FSFF's author has been poring over. Here are links to limited previews or listings of each of them on Google Books:

New freely accessible items:
Full list of freely accessible items:


Aaron Hillis at Cinephiliac;Darren Hughes at Long Pauses; David Lowery at Drifting; Dennis Cozzalio at Sergio Leone & The Infield Fly Rule; .Dipanjan at Random Muses; Eric Henderson at When Canses Were Classeled; Filmbrain [Andrew Grant] at Like Anna Karina's Sweater; Matthew Clayfield at Esoteric Rabbit; Michael Guillen at The Evening Class; and Zach Campbell at Elusive Lucidity.

Jumat, 25 Juni 2010

It's Close to Midnight


and something evil's lurking in the dark...

Thriller is, and always will be, my favorite music video of all time. FAVORITE. When I was younger, we had the thing on BETA MAX tape. Yeah, that's how we roll. The damn video was pure genius, as was all of Michael Jackson's stuff. His life was marred with controversy, plastic surgery, criminal allegations, you name it, but dude defined the word 'entertainer'. One year ago today, the media was sent into a frenzy, and the world mourned one of its greatest known entertainers. You may not agree with him, like his music, or give a rat's ass about him, his life, or his death, but you have to admit, he changed the face of entertainment as we know it. Reader Geraldine E. requested today that I do Michael Jackson nails, and I thought and thought about what I could do- there are so many sides to him, but i decided to choose my all-time favorite to focus on– Thriller. I did the werewolf eyes from the end scene of the video, the zombie face/eye, the werewolf fur, the red leather jacket, and on the thumb, his iconic white sparkly glove (even though it wasn't part of Thriller, it is one of his signatures, so I had to include it). I love the zombie nail, it's my favorite! I wish I could keep it on for more than a day!! :/

RIP MJ.

I used:

Thumb: Iconic White Sparkly glove

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with Zoya Luna over it, and American Apparel Hassid for the black.

Index: Michael's face/eye from the last scene of the video, where his face is normal except his eyes

Zoya Dea mixed with MAC In the Buff as a base, Zoya Dea to shade, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid to do the darkest shading and the eyebrow, and then Zoya Dea mixed with MAC Abalone Shell to highlight. American Apparel Cotton for the base for the eye color, then CND Bicycle Yellow over it for the eye, topped with American Apparel Hassid for the pupil.

Middle: Michael's Zombie face/eye

Sally Hansen Trendy Creme as the base, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid and American Apparel Mount Royal to shade, and mixed with American Apparel Cotton to highlight. For the eye, I used American Apparel Cotton with black for the outline and the pupil/iris, and a few dots of American Apparel Cotton for the reflection.

Ring: Werewolf fur

Zoya Dea as a base, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid for some of the fur, and MAC In the Buff for some, and mixed with American Apparel Cotton for a few highlights.

Pinky: Michael's Jacket in the beginning when he is on his date

China Glaze Salsa as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the black diagonals, then mixed with China Glaze Salsa for the jacket seams and details, then American Apparel Cotton to highlight in places because the leather was kind of shiny.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
and rot inside a corpse's shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the Thriller.....

....aaahhahahhaahahahahHAaHAHAHahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHhAHAHAHAHAHHahhhAHAHHhhaaa.

Which reminds me, I also love Vincent Price, that part makes the whole damn song.

Check out the iPhone case I sewed this morning for my new iPhone 4, its fleece-lined, canvas duck exterior with a elastic hairtie/button closure. Hell yes for good old-fashioned ingenuity! (and cheapness) :-P



Kamis, 24 Juni 2010

There's an App For That


For those of you not in the 'know', today was the release of the amazingtastical iPhone 4G from Apple. Thousands of crazy people around the country (like myself) waited in line for hours and hours and hours with the hopes of being one of the lucky ones to place our hands around the holy grail of smart phones. Personally, I showed up with my roommate, Maris, at approximately 1 a.m., to sit on a filthy Las Vegas sidewalk for 5 hours, only to be moved indoors into the Caesar's Forum Shops where we again, sat on the ground for 6 more hours by the time all was said and done. I have to say it though, it was so worth it. Scratch from our memories the argument coming near blows over line jumpers, people selling their spot in line for $400 and $500 dollars. I even facilitated such an exchange, picking a man who looked like he had money to burn out of the stragglers, yet no finders fee. *sigh* :-D Devin, the charming iPhone angel who bestowed upon us our shiny new iPhones, was a welcome change from the cranky restlessness of the crowd, with an easy smile and the ability to endure a certain amount of slap happiness on my part. Then there were the people we stood shoulder to shoulder with for hours on end, sharing sarcasm, irritation, and laughs. Finally, the line jumpers, if you're somehow reading this, learn to share, act civilized, and not be assholes, we managed to maintain our shit, I'm sure you can too. (though this redheaded blogger was shaking with fury, and the job of keeping her little mouth shut)

Today's nails are dedicated to us, the crazy ones. (and Lenny, of course)

I used:


Left hand:

Thumb: YouTube

Sally Hansen Trendy Creme as a base, with a mixture of American Apparel Manila, American Apparel Cotton, and Zoya Dea for the yellow part of the television, Zoya Dea for the outline, then Zoya Dea mixed with the outer outline. For the knobs, I used a mix of American Apparel Hassid and American Apparel Cotton, with American Apparel Hassid to shade, I also used American Apparel Hassid for the vertical speaker slots. For the shadow around the edge of the screen, I used a mix of American Apparel Hassid and Sally Hansen Trendy Creme, and for the highlght on the screen, I used Sally Hansen Trendy Creme mixed with American Apparel Cotton.

Index: Weather

Zoya Robyn as a base, with OPI What's With the Cattitude? brushed around the edges towards the middle. For the sun, I used American Apparel Manila with Zoya Jancyn to shade, as well as for the minute sunbursts. For the temperature, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Middle: Maps

Zoya Harley as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white road lines, as well as for a base on the interstate sign. For the orange highway line, I used Zoya Jancyn, and for the yellow, I used American Apparel Manila. For the interstate sign, I used China Glaze Salsa for the red and Pure Ice French Kiss for the blue.

Ring: Calendar

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with China Glaze Salsa for the red, American Apparel Hassid for the black, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the THU.

Pinky: iTunes Store

Color Club Pucci-licious as a base, with American Apparel Esprit lightly brushed outward on the bottom half of the nail, and China Glaze Grape Pop brushed out from the center on the top half for the burst. For the music note symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.


Right Hand:

Thumb: Calculator

American Apparel Hassid as a base, with a mix of American Apparel Hassid and China Glaze Lemon Fizz for the grey buttons, and Zoya Jancyn for the orange button, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the +, -, X, and = symbols.

Index: Notes

China Glaze Lemon Fizz as a base, with a mixture of Zoya Dea and Sally Hansen Trendy Creme for the brown binding at the top, American Apparel Mount Royal for the blue lines, and China Glaze Salsa for the red lines.

Middle: Phone

Claire's MOOD Polish in happy/earthly as a base, with CND Green Scene sponged lightly on the top half. For the phone symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Ring: Facebook

A mixture of American Apparel Mount Royal and American Apparel Esprit as a base, with American Apparel Esprit for the bottom line, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the f.

Pinky: iPod

CND Electric Orange as a base, with Zoya Jancyn sponged lightly over the tip edge. For the iPod symbol, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud.

Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat for the fresh from the Apple store shine. :-D

P.S. Forum Apple staff: Did you know that Blaine made cookies?! :-P haha!

OK, seriously, I'm on hour 36 with 1 hour of sleep somewhere around 1 pm this afternoon. I need shuteye in a bad way. I'll see you folks tomorrow. :-D

Making the meaning affective: Peter Brunette's film studies

Still image from the final shot of L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)

 Luxuriating in the view over the Sicilian coast, the Mt. Etna volcano, and the Mediterranean sea here at the Taormina Film Festival. Oh yeah, and seeing some good films too!
Peter Brunette,  June 15, 2010

Rather than viewing the narrative content of Antonioni's films as symbolic, as representations of an absent meaning, [Peter] Brunette calls for an appreciation of the visual in and for itself, as meaning 'is made affective, through line, shape, and form' (60). Meaning emerges from the image, it is 'made affective'. Searching for authorial intent behind seemingly obvious symbols -- Brunette shows through the discrepancy between Antonioni's own suggestions and the contrasting critical reception of his films -- will inevitably say more about the critical frame employed, than the film itself. What Brunette is claiming is the loss of referent for the sign, the loss of signification. This links nicely to his deconstructive concern, which is itself indicative of the flaws in the existentialist debate. The absences that characteristically mark Antonioni's films (witness the vanishing Anna (Massari) in L'avventura) points not to a transcendental absence, but rather indicates the way out of the Platonic illusion of the coexisting Ideal and (vs) real. 'David Martin-Jones, '[Review of Brunette's book on Antonioni', Film-Philosophy, Volume 3 Number 50, December 1999
Katherine's exclamation [in Viaggio in Italia, Roberto Rossellini, 1954] is also emblematic of the death theme that permeates the film, and that culminates in the sequence so aptly described by Brunette in the following passage: "The parts begin to form themselves into a man and a woman; death has caught them making love, or at least wrapped tightly in each other's arms. Suddenly, the museum, the catacombs, and the Cumaean Sybil all come together in one startling image: the physicality and rawness of the ancient world, the ubiquity of death in life, and love, however inadequate and flawed, as the only possible solution". Asbjørn Grønstad, "The Gaze of Tiresias: Joyce, Rossellini and the Iconology of "The Dead"", Nordic Journal of English Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002, citing Peter Brunette, Roberto Rossellini, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, 1996)
In Peter Brunette and David Wills's much under-valued Screen/Play: Derrida and Film Theory [Princeton University Press, 1989] they discuss the form that a deconstructive mode of analysis might take. They write: 'From a deconstructive stand-point, analysis would no longer seek the supposed center of meaning but instead turn its attentions to the margins, where the supports of meaning are disclosed, to reading in and out of the text, examining the other texts onto which it opens itself out or from which it closes itself off'. [...] [I]t strikes me that a serious discussion of Brunette and Wills's book would be essential to any work purporting to discuss cinema and deconstructive politics.[...]  David Sorfa, Film-Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 23, 1998
A number of the tributes to film critic and scholar Peter Brunette, who died last week at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy,  conveyed very movingly their opinion that he left this world while doing what he loved.

Those of us who followed Peter's activities and travels, at least from the vantage point of his social media network, certainly loved his updates on them, like his final Facebook posting above. His death was a huge shock, and a great loss, notably to the two spheres -- film scholarship and theory, and film criticism -- that he managed to join up, much more successfully than most, through his own prolific practice (he gave an account of some of the issues at stake in this choice in an interview here, and Gerald Peary's obituary beautifully refers to his unusual trajectory, for an academic, here).

FSFF's author's acquaintance with Peter Brunette began with his 'director books' (listed with his other work in his CV here), and in particular with his marvellous study of the films of Roberto Rossellini, now one of the best freely accessible e-books online, thanks to Peter and his publishers. Peter was a fan and an important supporter of freely accessible culture and ideas on the Web, as this article he wrote in 2000 testifies.

Fortunately, a very good selection of other articles and chapters (and a substantial podcast) by him may be experienced at the click of a mouse, quite aside from the virtual reams of online movie criticism under his byline. That means that the following list of links to the former work - to Peter Brunette's formal film studies - is, then, the most fitting tribute that FSFF can give to a scholar who gave so much and influenced so many in his too short (or just long enough) life.





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