I'm Gassy

Or Gas MASKY at least. :-D Chris, the 'lovely dude' (<--he liked being called that the other day on the blog) who I speak of on occasion here on the blog, turns a whopping 40 years old today. Seriously ancient. (just him, this doesn't apply to any other 40+ year olds) In honor of his getting older, I decided to paint the logo that he paints on EVERYYYYYTHING, his gas mask. :-D

I used OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow as a base, with L.A Colors Striper in White (I didn't use the brush, just the polish). Topped everything off with Essie Matte About You.

On another note, my silicone nub finally fell off my f key, so now I have to press really hard. lol

The Art of Fugue: on Marguerite Duras's Film Aesthetics

Excerpt from the opening sequence of India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)

The repetition of situations, events, memories, and words abounds in Duras's texts. This repetition seems to emphasize the changing, unstable aspect of memory and language and move the reader to question his or her own memory and examine the dynamics of forgetting. . . . memory is seen as volatile and impossible. [...] It is a remembering that destroys memory and leads to a new memory, which can replace the last only fleetingly and without substance [...]. [Carol Hoffman, Forgetting and Marguerite Duras (University of Colorado Press, 1991): 35-6] 

Impossible de parler de HIROSHIMA. Tout ce qu’on peut faire c’est de parler de l’impossibilité de parler de HIROSHIMA. / It is impossible to speak about Hiroshima. All one can do is to speak of the impossibility of speaking of Hiroshima [Marguerite Duras, Script of Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1960)]

Marguerite Duras s'avère savoir sans moi ce que j'enseigne / Marguerite Duras turns out to know what I teach without me [Jacques Lacan, "Hommage fait à Marguerite Duras du ravissement de Lol v. Stein," Ornicar? 34, Paris: Navarin, 1985]

The cinema of Marguerite Duras is characterized by the notion that a film is nothing but a highly complex mental construct, a universe where memories and senses are reorganized under subjective orders. In contrast to other filmmakers who probably share the same notion (Alain Resnais, for instance), Duras relies heavily on the power of sound and particularly the suggestive power of the human voice to provoke and promote an active participation of the spectator’s imaginative process.
[Dong Liang, 'Marguerite Duras's Aural World: A study of the mise-en-son of India Song', Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, Volume 1, Issue 2, Autumn 2007, pp. 123-139]

Duras’s spectators must play an essentially active and creative role and question the concepts of listening and looking, as well as the relationship between the two. [Wendy Everett, 'An Art of Fugue? The Polyphonic Cinema of Marguerite Duras', in Williams, J. (ed.), Revisioning Duras: Film, Race, Sex (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000), pp. 21-36,  33]

[W]e are perpetually forced to recognize that changing rhythms and contextual juxtapositions [in Duras's cinema] do not fulfill a narrative function, at least not in the accepted notion, but exist to create internal patterns or variations that themselves express the film’s themes, and gradually develop its potential meanings
[Wendy Everett, ‘Director as Composer: Marguerite Duras and the Music Analogy’, Literature Film Quarterly,  Vol. 26, no. 2, 1998, 124–129: 127]

Film Studies For Free has been pondering the films of Marguerite Duras a lot recently. This happens fairly often, its true (FSFF's author first alighted on and fell in love with Planète Duras during a year abroad in France at the tender age of 20).

But, this week its ponderings have particularly been provoked by catching up with an experimental feature-length film -- cinematically complex and ambitious on a Durasian scale, and with some notably similar fugue techniques and themes -- made by a former colleague and friend, which is about to begin a two week run at London's ICA (there's a Q and A with the director and others on September 1). Do catch it if you can.

Perestroika -- written, directed, edited and produced by film artist (and academic) Sarah Turner -- has already been shown at a number of key film festivals, and will also very shortly be making a critical splash as the chosen "Film of the Month" in Sight and Sound's October issue, with a long review by Chris Darke. In the meantime you can read a lot more about it here and at FSFF's little sister site Filmanalytical, too, where you can watch a short excerpt.

Today's links list may be relatively small, but it is perfectly formed with some extremely high quality and, delightfully, freely accessible studies of Duras's film aesthetics.

• Colin Davis and Elizabeth Fallaize, 'The Story of Her Life: Marguerite Duras's L'Amant (1984)', French Fiction in the Mitterrand Years: Memory, Narrative, Desire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)

• Rosamund Davies, 'Screenwriting strategies in Marguerite Duras’s script for Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1960)', Journal of Screenwriting, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010

• Sarah French, 'From History to Memory: Alain Resnais’ and Marguerite Duras’ Hiroshima mon amour', Melbourne Art Journal, Issue 3, 2008

• Barbara Halpern Martineau, 'Woman of the Ganges /  La Femme du Gange or as the French say, Who‘s Marguerite Duras?', from Jump Cut, no. 5, 1975, pp. 13-15

• Sirkka Knuuttila, 'Fictionalising Trauma: The Aesthetics of Marguerite Duras’s India Cycle', PhD Thesis, University of Helsinki, 2009

• David Melville, 'The Ghosts of Parties Past: Exorcising India Song', Senses of Cinema, Issue 51, 2009

• Karen Piper, 'The Signifying Corpse: Re-Reading Kristeva on Marguerite Duras', Cultural Critique, No. 31, The Politics of Systems and Environments, Part II. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 159-177

• Judith Marie Plessis, Femininity and Authorship: Deren, Duras and Von Trotta, PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1995 

• Raylene Ramsay, 'Autobiographical Fictions: Duras, Sarraute, Simon, Robbe-Grillet: Re-writing History, Story, Self, The International Fiction Review 18.1 (1991) 

• Tytti Rantanen, 'Gazing me, gazing you: Narrativity, visuality and the questions of power and desire in Marguerite Duras' Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein and India Song', Hortus Semioticus, No. 3, 2008

• Marie-Claire Ropars, 'On Filmic Rewriting: Contamination of the Arts or Destruction of Art’s Identity?', Rouge, 11, 2007

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, 'Sound and Vision (Films by Marguerite Duras)', from Chicago Reader, September 15, 1995

• Donato Totaro, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', Offscreen Journal, August 31, 2003

• William VanWert, John Hess, and Barbara Halpern Martineau, 'Critical dialogue: Woman of the Ganges', from Jump Cut, no. 5, 1975, pp. 15-18

Full Length Feature Films Free Online via BFI and Daily Motion

A Personal Journey with Scorsese

Uploaded by BFIfilms. - Check out other Film and TV videos.

Film Studies For Free can't believe its eyes!!

The British Film Institute has entered into a partnership with the advertising-supported, video-streaming site Daily Motion to provide access to some of the incredible wealth of films that the BFI has funded and distributed over many years.

Currently, as of today, the new channel is hosting 47 films of varying lengths, from amazing silents to rare poetic documentaries (like Chris Petit's Radio On), as well as some incredibly important live action and animated fiction films, including a number of otherwise hard to see works by Terrence Davies and Lotte Reininger.

A must-visit site and a hugely laudable resource. Thank you BFI.

Making a Splash

Since yesterday's nails were so, well...GREY, I thought today I'd make some colorful ones!! I tried a technique of using a crumpled paper towel to apply the colors other than the base color. I I think (if you squint) it looks sort of like the shadow on the bottom of a pool of the ripples on the surface of the water. Perfect for a day like today, which was absolutely gorgeous. (uncharacteristic for a Vegas summer- it never even hit 90°!)

I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos as a base, with Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Bone Chilling White, and Orly Bailamos sponged over it. I also used Orly Bailamos for the 'moon', then edged it with aqua colored crystals. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Tonight was the last night of bowling league *sad face*, but here is a picture of my team- we took 10th place (out of 18). GO TEAM (Our name was 'I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter') Gotta love that not just one, but TWO of my other bowling buddies chose ME to give bunny ears. What kind of crap is that?! :-P

Team 'I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter' (Alicia, Bill, Joanna, and Me)

Grey Matters

Recently, I was putting polishes away in my Helmer cabinets, and noticed how many greys I have. I don't know, there is something about greys that I really love, and today, I thought that I'd do a monochromatic nail design utilizing a few of them.

I used butter LONDON Billy No Mates as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white stripe, Orly Mirror, Mirror for the miedium grey stripe, Essence Pointbreak for the darker grey stripe, and American Apparel Hassid for the thin black stripe. I topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I was recently asked if I ever use a base coat, and the answer to that is YES! I always have. I guess I just never list it because it changes between a few. I have used Nubar, Essie, Seche, Seche Ridge-filling, Seche Natural, Barielle, and I think that might be it. Since I don't wear polish long enough to worry about chipping and tip wear, I don't feel right recommending a basecoat that might or might not be good, because I don't fully test their limits. I feel OK with mentioning the Seche Vite top coat because it makes my project possible, if I didn't have it, I would 99% of the time post pictures of lumpy smudged and dented nails. :-D Hope this answers any questions or concerns. :) If not, let me know, I'd be happy to answer you!

And the cross-stitch project I was working on a couple of weeks ago, I finally got back around to finishing the stitching. :) I got the pattern from Skull-a-Day–Day 258, it was designed by Noah Scalin.

Oh, How Fon-dant!

Today was my friend Gelly's baby shower, and somehow, yet again, I managed to get everything done on time. I think that I thrive on last minute pressure, since it seems to be the only time I can really focus on a project and get things done. As I mentioned yesterday, I made the cake for the shower, and also my gift for her, which I finished at 1:07 p.m. today. (I had to be to the party at 3, which was 45 min away, in North Vegas, and I still hadn't gotten ready yet!) The cake was a hit, as was the gift (a hand-crocheted baby afghan in the colors she wanted for her nursery), plus I had fun eating and hanging out with the girls. Plus, as it happens, I am a master of baby shower games, which I find funny, since I know nothing of babies. (They come from the stork, right?) Today's nail design was based on the cake that I did for the shower, incorporating the multi-colored dots of the bottom tier, and the graphic flowers of the top tier.

The inspiration:

The nails:

I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with OPI Parlez Vous OPI? for the purple, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green for the green, and Milani Teddy Bare for the brown. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The afghan that I made as a gift:

Completely off-topic, but I need a new laptop (mine is 7 years old), or at the very least, a new keyboard for mine, as mine is missing the 'f' key, which makes it difficult to type, since there is just the silicone nub that goes under the key for me to press. One day. :-D

I'm off to clean up Hurricane Buttercream/Fondant in my kitchen, and Tropical Storm Yarn in my living room. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get to the sewing table/area.

Surfer Stripe

Today has been craaaaaazy. I've spent the entire day trying to finish my gift for my friend Gelly's baby shower tomorrow. (I've been working on the darn thing for 2 weeks), I'll post the picture tomorrow just in case she reads this post, I don't want to ruin the surprise! I've also been baking the cake for the shower tomorrow, and after I post this, I'm off to make some buttercream, and get the decoration party started. :-D I'm SO exhausted, I was up 'til 5 am working on the gift last night, and I've been goin' all day! lol I need a nap! Anyway, to the nails. A while back, I told you all about a brand called Island Girl, and did a post with their color changing polishes. Well, today I decided to use some of their regular polishes to make a design.

I used Essence The World's Coolest from the Surferama collection as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud on the tip end. Over Essence The World's Coolest, I used Island Girl Island Volcano (a glitter polish with iridescent glitter, and iridescent mylar flakes suspended in a sheer aqua base), and then I used Island Girl Hawaiian Magic to paint the stripes. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Concentric Centric

Today's nail design is simpler than the last two days of designs, but I still really like it. The other day, I used my ULTA rewards to get Essie Sew Psyched and Essie Little Brown Dress, and I really wanted to use them. I also picked up Essence The World's Coolest from the Surfer Babe collection, and wanted to use THAT too, and thought it was an interesting combination with the sage and the brown, so I went with it.

I used Essie Sew Psyched as a base for all fingers except the ring finger, where I used essence The World's Coolest. For the design, I used Essie Little Brown Dress, then topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

What a Bunch of Nerds!

They're sour, they're sweet, they might break your teeth. Who hasn't loved Nerds at one point in their life (youth or otherwise)? I LOVE some Nerds, every flavor is delicious, from Watermelon to Wild Cherry, Lemonade, Grape, Strawberry, I'll take them all!! I remember opening both sides of the box and pouring them into my mouth when I was a kid... SO yummy. Today's nail design is dedicated my favorite nickname for people, and the candy that I love and my teeth hates...NERDS!

I used

Thumb: Nerds logo

OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, then mixed with China Glaze Flyin' High for the background swoops. For the logo, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud outlined in China Glaze Flyin' High, then outlined in American Apparel Hassid, then outlined in Pure Ice Wild Thing.

Index: Grape/Strawberry

Color Club Yachty, Yachty, Yadda as a base, with Sally Hansen Vavoom Violet Creme sponged on top for the 'Strawberry' side. For the grape side, I used a mixture of Orly Snowcone and Barielle Grape Escape to make the shade of purple I wanted. I also used that combination to make the Nerd character, highlighted with American Apparel Esprit, outlined in American Apparel Hassid, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes.

Middle: Apple Coated Watermelon/Lemonade coated Wild Cherry

China Glaze Happy Go-Lucky as a base, with Eyeko Coral Polish for Resort Nails for the left side. I used American Apparel Summer Peach as a base for the Nerd character with Eyeko Coral Polish for Resort Nails over it, outlined in American Apparel Hassid, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes.

Ring: Wildberry/Watermelon & Punch

Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green as a base, with a mixture of Barielle Grape Escape and Orly Snowcone for the wildberry side. For the Nerds character, I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green, highlighted with a mixture of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud, which I also used for the eyes, then I used American Apparel Hassid to outline.

Pinky: Watermelon/Wild Cherry

Eyeko Coral Polish for Resort Nails as a base, with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Spring Green for the left side. For the Nerds character, I used a base of American Apparel Summer Peach with Eyeko Coral Polish for Resort Nails over it and American Apparel Hassid to outline, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes.

I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to make everything candy-coated. :-D

YUM.

You bunch of Nerds. ;) (which is a compliment to me)

Dreaming Movies: RIP Satoshi Kon (1963-2010)

Image from Ohayo/Good Morning (part of Ani*Kuri15) (Satoshi Kon, 2008) See the video embedded below

[...] Kon fully takes advantage of what makes animated films unique. [His film Paprika (2006)] is ultimately a dream about movies, as well as a movie about dreams. The way characters jump in and out of settings first made me think of Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., perhaps the original virtual reality movie. One can also easily link Paprika to such films as David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. In another moment that may be a nod to Cronenberg, two of the characters jump into a television screen. Because this is a truly animated film, Kon creates a universe where a long office hallway and walls suddenly undulate with the solidity of a half-filled waterbed, characters in advertisements leap out into other billboards or out into the streets, and giant toy dolls threaten the planet.

It is the dense and detailed imagery that makes Paprika stand out. Frames are crowded with giant marching frogs, large appliances and living dolls. The goofy spirit of the film is close to the self-refererential work of the Fleischer Brothers' earlier work with Koko the Clown and Betty Boop. The story loops around itself like a mobius strip, with dreams and dreams within dreams.

Paprika, the character, dreams of a street where there are old fashion movie theaters, one of which shows Roman Holiday. Kon even has a character going to a multiplex that is showing nothing but Kon's previous features on each of the screens. Movies have informed Kon's films, so that Perfect Blue is an anime thriller that has reminders of Hitchcock, De Palma and Argento. Tokyo Godfathers, with both its plot about an abandoned baby and Christmas setting could well have been inspired by John Ford's Three Godfathers. While Kon has not cited specific films as influences on Paprika, he did agree with the observation that his new film was "like a collision of Hello Kitty and Philip K.Dick." [Peter Nellhaus, 'Aurora (Colorado) Asian Film Festival, Part 3', Coffee coffee and more coffee, June 3, 2007]

Film Studies For Free was very sad to hear of the untimely death at the age of 46 of Japanese  anime auteur Satoshi Kon. Paprika, the film Peter Nellhaus is referring to above, a complex and densely entertaining oneiric thriller, was one of FSFF's author's favourite animated films of recent years.

Kon directed his first film, Perfect Blue, in 1997, followed by Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, and the television series Paranoia Agent. A fifth film, The Dream Machine, is still in production at the time of his death.

Some great memorial linkage about Kon has been posted in the last few days by David Hudson. But there are not too many online scholarly studies of Kon's work yet, sadly, though FSFF is sure that will change. For now, then, here are some links to the very worthwhile resources and discussions that have been made freely accessible.

• Brendon Bouzard, John Lichman, and Keith Uhlich, '"He's the Internet": A Conversation on Satoshi Kon', The House Next Door Online,  June 27, 2008

• Grady Hendrix, 'Satoshi Kon's Theory of Animation', The New York Sun,June 27, 2008

• Noel Kirkpatrick, '“Then I’ll show you that starry, starry sky, like I promised I would.”', Media Milieus, August 24, 2010

• Alexander Kirst, 'Anchors Aweigh: The Aesthetic of Surface in the Films of Kon Satoshi', Honours Thesis, Wesleyan University, 2008

• Martin Lewis, 'Two Tastes of Paprika: Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel (trans. Andrew Driver), and Satoshi Kon's anime', Strange Horizons, July 2009 

• Meg Rickards , 'Screening Interiority: Drawing on the Animated Dreams of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue', IM 2: 2006

• Jasper Sharp, 'Beyond Anime: A Brief Guide to Japanese Experimental Animation", Midnight Eye, 2003

Other Good Anime Resources:

• Thomas Lamarre, 'Platonic Sex: Perversion and Shôjo Anime (Part One)',  Animation 2006; 1; 45
• Annie Manion, 'Discovering Japan: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture', A Master's Thesis Submitted to the East Asian Studies Center, USC
• Caroline Ruddell, 'Breaking Boundaries The Representation of Split Identity in Anime', Animation Studies – Vol.2, 2007 
• Mickey Mouse and Animation Links, Film Studies For Free, November 18, 2008 
• On Japanese Cinema, Film Studies For Free, July 27, 2010 
• 'Imaginary and Fantastic': Hayao Miyazaki Studies, Film Studies For Free, November 23, 2009

Urban Decay Sale at Hautelook!! :)

Woot! Urban Decay Cosmetics sale at Hautelook today!! The last few have been AWESOME, so I'm excited!! The sale starts at 8 am PST, so get on there early, so stuff isn't sold out!! :)

Urban Decay Sale at Hautelook

I Know You Are, But What am I?!

Any kid that grew up in the 80s knows (and probably loves) Pee Wee Herman. From his adventures under the Big Top to his dancing on bar tops, Pee Wee has been a cultural icon for as long as I can remember! I remember watching his show all the time when I was a kid, and I remember watching his movies at the babysitter when I was younger. To this day, I still can't hear the Champs' "Tequila" without mentally doing 'the' dance that Pee wee is so well known for. Today's design suggestion was from my friend Kristin when we talking last night at bowling. :-D Speaking of bowling, that is why my right hand thumbnail is so short. It kept breaking at bowling, and I didn't really want to cut all my nails to nubs for the entire length of league, so I just kept that one short. Today's manicure includes Clocky, Chairry, Penny, Pee Wee, one of the flowers, Globey, an ant from the ant farm, Magic Screen, Jambi, and Mr. Window. :)

Today's secret word is.....NAILS! You all remember what to do whenever anybody says the secret word right?!

I used

Left thumb: Clocky

http://images.broadwayworld.com/upload2/98206/tn-500_pee4.jpeg as a base, with American Apparel Manila for the yellow, Nubar Sexy Red for the red grid, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes and mouth, and American Apparel Hassid to shade, outline, and for the clock hands.

Left Index: Chairry

OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, then mixed with Orly Snowcone to shade for the arms, etc. For the mouth, I used A Beautiful Life Poison, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the teeth, as well as the eyes. For the eyelashes and pupils, I used American Apparel Hassid.

Left Middle: Penny

OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, with American Apparel Summer Peach for her face and neck, then mixed with American Apparel Rose Bowl and Essie Mink Muffs to shade, American Apparel Manila for the hair, then mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shade the hair. For the hair ties, I used Nubar Sexy Red, For the eyes, I used China Glaze Poetic, American Apparel Hassid for the pupils and smile, then Nubar Forest with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the collar.

Left Ring: Pee Wee's iconic suit

Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base, with Orly Mirror, Mirror for the suit, then American Apparel Factory Grey to outline the suit lapels, and also mixed with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the buttons. For the bowtie, I used Nubar Sexy Red with A Beautiful Life Poison to shade.

Left Pinky: Flower

OPI What's With the Cattitude? as a base, with American Apparel Manila for the petals, then mixed with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the center of the flower. For the smile, I used Essie Foot Loose, then Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eys, with American Apparel Hassid for the centers. For the stem, I used Nubar Forest.


Right Thumb: Globey

Orly Snowcone as a base, then mixed with Nox Twilight Talon for the shading on the nose and chin. For the lattitude/longitude lines, I used American Apparel Hassid, for the eyebrows, I used Nubar Forest, and for the eyes, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud, with American Apparel Hassid for the centers.

Right Index: Ant from the Ant Farm

CND Electric Orange as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the ant and music notes.

Right Middle: Magic Screen

American Apparel Esprit as a base, with Nubar Forest, L.A. Girl Army Green, and Pure Ice Wild Thing for the screen, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the mouth and eyes, and American Apparel Hassid for the knobs and eye pupils.

Right Ring: Jambi

American Apparel Hassid as a base, then mixed with Orly Gumdrop for the 'mist' behind Jambi's head. Orly Gumdropfor Jambi's skin, shaded with China Glaze Flyin' High, American Apparel Hassid to outline the eyes and for the eybrows. For the eyeshadow, I used American Apparel Esprit mixed with Barielle Grape Escape. For the turban, I used A Beautiful Life Poison, with China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection for the trim.

Right Pinky: Mr. Window

Eyeko Lilac Polish for Lovely Nails as a base, with OPI What's With the Cattitude? for the window, American Apparel Manila for the window panes and windowsill, Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes and American Apparel Hassid for the eye pupils.

I topped off everything with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Mekka Lekka Hi-Mekka Hiney Ho!

Immaturity Abides! On Teen, "Gross Out" and Dumbass Comedy

Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad (Greg Mottola, 2007)

Film Studies For Free is two years old today. You go, blog!

In honour of its tentative entry into digital post-toddlerdom (and hopefully not the terrible twos), it wanted to celebrate online and openly accessible studies of what FSFF likes to think of (in its über-scholarly way) as those liminal film genres and cycles of comic immaturity, awkwardness, stupidity, and tastelessness -- that is to say, all varieties of the teen (or arrested development) comedy (including the "teen sex comedy", the "gross-out" comedy, comic "dude flicks" and "bromances"), as well as studies of related issues.

Today's scattershot links list is partly an offshoot of FSFF's recent entry on the romantic comedy, and partly its first experiment in "crowdsourcing" via its blossoming Facebook page. Thanks so much to those who suggested items there.

If anyone else has any bright ideas for further additions, do please 'fess up. FSFF earnestly promises that you won't be ritually humiliated, or mercilessly laughed at, at all  :o)

• Joseph Aisenberg, 'Here Come the Bromides: Living in the Era of the Bromantic Comedy', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 65, August 2009

• Peter Alilunas, 'Male Masculinity as the Celebration of Failure: the Frat Pack, Women, and the Trauma of "Victimization" in the "Dude Flick"', Mediascape,  Spring 2008/Fall 2009

• Steven W. Bender, 'Knocked Down Again: An East L.A. Story on the Geography of Color and Colors', Harvard Latino Law Review, Vol. 12, 2009

• Nick Burns, 'Heathers: Scent of dominance', from Jump Cut, no. 36, May 1991, pp. 32-36

• Zachary Campbell, ‘"Sorry About All the Gravity!" Anna Faris, Serious Respect for the Unserious', Rouge, 13, 2009

• Isabel Sterling Clark, 'The Challenge of Being Yourself: Adaptation, Adolescence, and Disguise in Teenage Romantic Comedy Films of the Late 1990s and Early 2000s', Senior Thesis, Haverford College, 2009

• Evan Elkins, 'Great Job?: Tim and Eric’s Comedy of Failure', FlowTV, August 8, 2008

• Caroline Haggod, 'Bruno and Bromances: Modern Masculinity Goes to the Movies', The Huffington Post, March 10, 2010

• Peter Hutchings , 'Welcome to Royston Vasey: Grotesque bodies and the horror of comedy in The League of Gentlemen', Intensities 4, December 2007

• Carmen Induráin Eraso, 'Riding on divergent but similar roads: Airbag or the Spanish experience of the American Road Movie', Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 2005, vol. 13, 107-121

• Ewan Kirkland, 'Romantic Comedy and the Construction of Heterosexuality', Scope, Portals Special Issue, Issue 13, 2008

• Barbara Klinger, 'Say It Again, Sam: Movie Quotation, Performance and Masculinity', Particip@tions Volume 5, Issue 2 (November 2008)

• Zachary Lamm, 'The Cinematic Shrews of Teen Comedy: Gendering Shakespeare in Twentieth-Century Film', Genders On-Line, Issue 49, 2009

• Christina Lee, Beyond the Pink: (Post) Youth Iconography in Cinema, PhD Thesis, Murdoch University, 2005

• Christian Lorentzen, 'Dicking Around', N1FR Issue 1, August 2010

• James MacDowell, 'Notes on Quirky', MOVIE: A Journal of Film Criticism, 1.1, 2010

• James MacDowell, 'Knocked Up', Alternate Takes, November 14, 2007

• Gabrielle Moss, ' From the Valley to the Hellmouth: “Buffy”’s Transition from Film to Television', Slayage: A journal of Buffy Studies, 1.2 [2], 2001 

• Joshua Louis Moss, 'Historiography of the World Part 1: The Jewish Body, Historical Crisis and The Comedic Farce', Mediascape,  Spring 2008/Fall 2009

• Scott Murray, '“Cameron Fry, this one’s for you.” Or: Why the Sausage King of Chicago Doesn’t Turn Up for Lunch at Chez Quis', Senses of Cinema, Issue 51, 2009

• Diane Negra, "Where The Boys Are: Postfeminism and the New Single Man", FlowTV April 14, 2006

• Jakob Isak Nielsen, 'There's something about comedy theory', P.O.V. No.26, 2008

• Sharyn Pearce, 'Sex and the cinema: What American pie teaches the young', Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning 6 (4) 2006: pp. 367-376

• Sina Rahmani, 'Hollywood and Diversity: Subversion, Apologetic, or Both? Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Dir. Danny Leiner. New Line Cinema, 2004', Colloquy, 9, 2005

• Michael Joshua Rowin, 'I Love You, Man and the Apatow Comedy Factory', Reverse Shot, Issue 24, 2009

• Philip Scepanski, 'Out of the Mouths of Babes: Animated Sitcoms and Political Incorrectness', Mediascape, Fall 2008

• Ethan de Seife, 'Gremlins in the Mix', 16:9, 6.25, 2008

• Carter Soles, Falling Out of the Closet: Kevin Smith, Queerness, and Contemporary Independent Film. PhD Thesis, University of Oregon, September 2008

• Carter Soles, 'A Stalker's Odyssey: Arrested Development, Gay Desire, and Queer Comedy in Chuck and Buck', Jump Cut 49, Spring 2007

• Lesley Speed, 'A World Ruled by Hilarity: Gender and Low Comedy in the Films of Amy Heckerling', Senses of Cinema, Vol. 22, 2002

• Scott F. Stoddart, 'Love and Death on Long Island (Dir. Richard Kwietniowski, 1998)', Scope, Portals Special Issue, Issue 13, 2008

• Donato Totaro, 'Screwballs: Teen Comedy Canadian Style', Offscreen Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 8, 2009

• Lisa Trahair, 'Comedy and Beyond: Geoff King's Film Comedy', Film-Philosophy, Vol. 8, No. 15, 2004
  

• Eric King Watts and Mark P. Orbe , 'The Spectacular Consumption of “True” African American Culture: “Whassup” with the Budweiser Guys?', Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2002, pp. 1–20

• Cynthia Weber, '"Oi, Dancing Boy!" Masculinity, Sexuality, and Youth in Billy Elliot', Gender 37, 2003

• Jessica Winter, 'Knocked Up', Cinemascope, 31, 2008

Video Essay on The Big Lebowski, Kevin. B. Lee with Karina Longworth, March 2010

Lovely Lotus

So, as a request from Chris, the lovely dude who brought me nail polishes back from India, today's nail art utilizes 2 of the Indian polishes!! :-D I wanted to do something abstract and decorative, and this is what I came up with. I think it's kind of a different twist on a moonicure.

I used Lotus Herbals Luscious Berry as a base, with Lotus Herbals Orchid Pearl for the design. I used Essie Matte About You over the tips to make them a tad more matte than the 'moon'.

Stila Cosmetics Sale on Hautelook!

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that there is a Stila Cosmetics sale on Hautelook!

There is lots of good stuff, eyeshadow palettes, lipglosses, you name it!! WOO!!

Check it out!! Stila sale at Hautelook!

*goes over to Hautelook.com to go shopping* :-D

Bullseye!

I was watching TV today and though I don't recall what show/movie it was in, I remember seeing a dartboard, and I thought to myself, "Self, that would make a fun nail design!". So there you have it, dartboard nails! Who here wants to challenge me to a game of Cricket?!

I used American Apparel California Trooper as a base, with Nubar Forest for the green sections, Nubar Sexy Red for the red sections, American Apparel Hassid for the black sections, and China Glaze Millennium as the metal separating the sections. No room for the numbers, sorry. :-D Last, I topped everything off with a coat of Essie Matte About You.

Weird thing is, I play better darts when I'm drinking than when I'm sober. What's up with that?!

Tip the Scales

Today when I sat down to do my nails, I had NO idea what I was going to do. (like most days) This is what happened, I think it kind of looks like very graphic fish scales. :-D

I used Essie Sag Harbor as a base, with NOX Twilight Talon for the 'scales'. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Tonight was AWESOMEEEEEEEEEE. I was lucky enough to get tickets to 2 concerts. Not one, TWO! :-P (FREE) I got to go to Cyndi Lauper at the House of Blues, and Michael Franti and Spearhead at Mandalay Bay Beach. Cyndi Lauper was INCREDIBLE. She sang a ton of blues songs, and then sang her well-known hits. (and you bet your ass I wore my MAC Viva Glam Cyndi. :-D) Michael Franti was also really amazing, I love how his music is so happy and uplifting, he's definitely a gifted artist! :-D

This is me after tonight (no, not red, smeary, and round-faced...HAPPY! Don't mind the zillions of freckles...I'm cursed)

Tangled Talons

When I was younger I would often doodle the same thing. I would draw a series of dots to comprised the outside of a circle, then I would connect those dots with lines, lots and lots of lines. Today's manicure is my interpretation of those doodles so many years ago. It kind of looks like tangled string to me a bit. :)

I used butter LONDON Billy No Mates as a base, with Essie Matte About You on top of it, then I used American Apparel Hassid and CND Anchor Blue to paint the line art.

The Results Are In!

After what seems like a zillion hours or counting and deliberating, I've got the contest results. One person in the competition was unfortunately disqualified to do two reasons, one being that she doctored her nail design in Photoshop (or other photo manipulation program), which was the main reason, but to add insult to injury, she was 'buying' votes by offering extra entries to her giveaway. I have to say that next time I will actually OPEN the photos before posting them next time, because the photo manipulating was quite obvious. Sorry to that entrant, but you should have known better.

This was TOTALLY not in the spirit of the blog or the contest, and to say I'm disappointed and irritated is a serious understatement. Giveaways on blogs (especially with this many entries) are a HUGE undertaking, and the time and money spent getting them up and running is considerable. The next giveaway will not utilize ANY voting by peers of entrants/readers due to the experience of this contest.

Sorry to be a party pooper with all that. On to the results!

The only votes that were counted (as stated in a later post) were votes from registered Google or OpenID accounts.

The winners!

First and second place are divided by just 2 VOTES!!

First place goes to....

THIFA!!

Second place goes to...

LINDSEY!!

Third Place goes to...

NALUMA!!

Thank you all for the great entries!!

Winners, please email me your mailing information to thedailynail@gmail.com!!

NOX Twilight Nail Polish Review

Check out the Daily Nail: Reviews site, I just posted swatches and review for 6 of the 12 polishes in the NOX Twilight nail polish collection!

For those of you who haven't visited that site, my reviews are based on how well a polish applies, how unique the color is, and how well it works for Konad and other nail art. :)

Lots of Film Studies PhD Theses Online

Masculine 'musculinity' (almost) all grown up -  Sylvester Stallone, in The Expendables ( Stallone, 2010). (See Yvonne Tasker's PhD on masculinity and action movies)

It was time for one of Film Studies For Free's regular visits to a research repository search-engine to see which PhD theses have been made openly accessible online since this blog last took a look.

A few of the below PDF files have been linked to before by FSFF but the vast majority have not come up in earlier searches. And there are some fabulous items here: such as Yvonne Tasker's paradigm shifting thesis on gender and action cinema, and Donato Totaro on time and the long take in the cinema. And what a truly astounding variety of topics!

• SooJeong Ahn, The Pusan International Film Festival 1996-2005: South Korean cinema in local, regional, and global context, PhD Thesis,  University of Nottingham, 2008

• Steven William Allen, A pleasure in pain: contemporary mainstream cinema's fascination with the aestheticized spectacle of the controlled body, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2003

• Noor Al-Qasimi, The codes of modesty: reconfiguring the Muslim female subject, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007

• Tom Brown, From intimate pleasures to spectacular vistas: musicality and historicity in French and American 'classical' cinema of the 1930s, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007

• Felicia Chan, In Search of a Comparative Poetics: Cultural Translatability in Transnational Chinese Cinemas, PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2007

• Brigid S. G. Cherry, The female horror film audience : viewing pleasures and fan practices, PhD Thesis, University of Stirling, 1999

• Marisa Farrugia, The plight of women in Egyptian cinema (1940s 1960s), PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 2002

• Dongning  Feng, Text, politics and society : literature as political philosophy in post-Mao China, PhD Thesis,  University of Stirling, 1997

• Michael Flanagan, True sons of Erin: catholic/nationalist ideology and the politics of adventure in Our Boys 1914-32, PhD Thesis, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2006

• Mary Gillan, In the shadow of the church: Irish and Quebec cinema, PhD Thesis, Dublin City University, 2009

• Leighton Grist, Authorship and context: the films of Martin Scorsese 1963-1977, PhD Thesis,      University of Warwick, 1996

• Henrik Gustafsson, Out of Site: Landscape and Cultural Reflexivity in New Hollywood Cinema 1969-1974, PhD Thesis, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2007 and errata

• Eirik Frisvold Hanssen, Early Discourses on Colour and Cinema : Origins, Functions, Meanings, PhD Thesis,  Stockholm University, Sweden, 2006

• Timothy John Hollins, The presentation of politics : the place of party publicity, broadcasting and film in British politics, 1918-1939, PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 1981, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

• Christopher James Homewood, From Baader to Prada The Representation of Urban Terrorism in German-Language Film, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2008

• Claire Jenkins, Family entertainment: representations of the American family in contemporary Hollywood cinema,   PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2009

• Krzysztof Jozajtis, Religion and film in American culture: the birth of a nation, PhD Thesis, University of Stirling, 2001

• Abdelrhaffar Bourkiba Larbi, Parody and ideology: The case of Othello, PhD Thesis, Universitat de València, 2005

• Barbara Lehin, Cinema and society: Thatcher's Britain and Mitterand's France, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2003

• Elaine Lennon, The screenplays of Robert Towne 1960-2000, PhD Thesis, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2009

• Maasilta Mari, African Carmen. Transnational Cinema as an Arena for Cultural Contradictions, PhD Thesis, University of Tampere, 2007

• Laurent Marie, The French Communist Party and French cinema 1944-1999, PhD Thesis,  University of Warwick, 2000

• Sara Martin Alegre, More human than human: aspects of monstrosity in the films and novels in english of the 1980s and 1990s, PhD Thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1996, (chapters are: 1 Fascinating Bodies: The New Iconography of Monstrosity; 2 Old Monsters, New Monsters: Vision and Re-Vision From Screen Adaptation to Novelization; 3 Nostalgia for the Monster: Mythical Monsters and Freaks; 4 Evil and Monstrosity: The Moral Monster, 5 The Politics of Monstrosity: The Monsters of Power; 6: Frankenstein's Capitalist Heirs: The Uses of Making Monsters; 7 Gendered Monstrosity: The Monstrous-Feminine and the New Woman Saviour and 8 Little Monsters?: Children and Monsters)

• Anthony T.  McKenna, Joseph E. Levine: showmanship, reputation and industrial practice 1945-1977, PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2008

• Christopher Meir,  Underwriting national sovereignty?: policy, the market and Scottish cinema, 1982- present, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007

• Douglas Morrey, Jean-Luc Godard and the other history of cinema, PhD Thesis,  University of Warwick, 2002

• Fabio Parasecoli, Food and men in cinema: an exploration of gender in blockbuster movies, Universität Hohenheim, 2009

• Louise Ann Parsons, An analysis of 'The Gold Diggers' (1983) by Sally Potter: feminist film, Julia Kristeva and revolutionary poetics, PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 1994, Vol. 1 and Vol 2

• Martin Luther Patrick, The myth of the Black male beast in postclassical American cinema: ‘Forging’ stereotypes and discovering Black masculinities, PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009

• Anna Sofia Rossholm, Reproducing Languages, Translating Bodies : Approaches to Speech, Translation and Cultural Identity in Early European Sound Film, PhD Thesis, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2006

• Trevor Ryan, Labour and the media in Britain 1929-1939: a study of the attitudes of the Labour movement towards the new media, film and radio, and of its attempts to use them for political purposes,  PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 1986, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

• Alice Stanley, Representations of sexuality in the films of Francois Ozon, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2009

• Yvonne Tasker, Spectacular bodies: gender, genre and the action cinema, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 1995

• Gewain Francis Henry Tickell, Homelands and the representation of cultural and political identity in selected South-Asian texts, 1857 to the present, PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 1998

• Donato Totaro, Time and the long take in The Magnificent Ambersons, Ugetsu and Stalker, PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001

• Louise Ann Williams, Masculinity on the run: history, nation and subjectivity in contemporary mainland Chinese cinema, PhD Thesis, University of Leeds, 2004

• Leila Wimmer, The French reception of British cinema, PhD Thesis,  University of Warwick, 2006