Cuttin' a Rug

Phew. Long night tonight! I've been preparing for tomorrow's 'Martinis and Manicures' event at Beauty Bar all night! I'm super excited (but a tad nervous too!!). Today's manicure was inspired by a rug pattern I saw a while back. I loved the color combination, and the graphic nature of it, so I thought I'd try it as a manicure. Sorry for the middle finger's roughness, still patched that one.

From The Daily Nail

I used American Apparel California Trooper as a base, with Color Club High Society for the lines, Essie Mink Muffs for the darker brown, and a mixture of Essie Vermillionaire and Essie Tart Deco for the corally color. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Wish me luck tomorrow night!! :)

Kitty Glitter

I'm running out of animal prints to do in glitter! :-P I totally love this manicure, and it's one that I kinda want to keep for more than a day... I may, I may not. :-D Nubar makes the best glitters out of any polish brand I've used, They're freaking awesome, and glitter packed!

I used Nubar Petunia Sparkle as a base, with Nubar Violet Sparkle for the spots, outlined in American Apparel Hassid. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

RAWR!!

Study of a Single Film: Forbidden Planet (in memory of Leslie Nielsen)

Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis star in Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)

Film Studies For Free was sad to hear that the king of deadpan movie humour, actor Leslie Nielsen, has died at the age of 84. Of all the films he starred in, the one that has most often been the subject of scholarly studies was the hugely influential science fiction movie Forbidden Planet, a film in which Nielsen played a sincerely serious role.

In (metonymic) memory of Nielsen's wonderful career (the straight part standing for the mostly comic whole), FSFF has assembled a list of links to openly accessible academic studies of this 1956 film. With its groundbreaking electronic music score by Louis and Bebe Barron, its highly personable robot character, its loose adaptation of a high culture text (Shakespeare's The Tempest), and its well elaborated allusions to classical (and post-classical) mythology, as well as to Freud (the Id monster), Forbidden Planet will probably keep film academics in business for quite some time. But, FSFF hopes some will also turn their attention to Nielsen's comic performances, before too long.

Shirley, they merit that, at the very least.

• Martin Stig Andersen, 'Audiovisual Correspondences', CEC: eContact! 12.4 — Perspectives on the Electroacoustic Work / Perspectives sur l'œuvre électroacoustique (August 2010)
• Simone Caroti, "Science Fiction, Forbidden Planet, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest"    page 2 of 12 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004)
• David Cooper, '[Review of] James Wierzbicki: Louis and Bebe Barron’s Forbidden Planet: A Film Score Guide', The Journal of Film Music, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2007
• Ted Friedman, 'Jung and Lost', FlowTV, May 1, 2009
• Robert M. Geraci, 'Robots and the Sacred in Science and Science Fiction: Theological Implications of Artificial Intelligence', Zygon, vol. 42, no. 4 (December 2007)
• Miguel Angel González Campos, 'Shakespeare in Outer Space: Forbidden Planet as Adaptation of The Tempest', Sederi 9 (1998)
• Greg Grewell, 'Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future', Rocky Mountain Review, Fall 2001
• Laurie Johnson, 'Felix and Gilles's tempestuous, monstrous machine', M/C Journal: Journal of Media and Culture, 2 (6) 1999 
• David A. Kirby, 'The Devil in Our DNA: A Brief History of Eugenics in Science Fiction Films', Literature and Medicine 26, no. 1 (Spring 2007)
• T.J. Matheson, 'Marcuse, Ellul, and the Science-Fiction Film: Negative Responses to Technology', Science Fiction Studies, #58, Volume 19, Part 3, November 1992
• Anthony Miller, '"In this last tempest": Modernising Shakespeare’s Tempest on Film', Sydney Studies in English, Vol 23 (1997)
• Roy Schwartzman, '“Engenderneered Machines in Science Fiction Film.” Studies in Popular Culture 22.1 (October 1999): 75-87
• Rachel Weissbrod, 'Inter-Semiotic Translation: Shakespeare on Screen', Journal of Specialised Translation, Issue 5, January 2006

Beauty Bar Ladies Night Manicure Event! :)

I've had so many people asking about the event Wednesday night that it was hard to respond to everyone in a timely manner, so here is the info you've been waiting for!!

Come get your nails painted by me! :) (I really want a ginormous turnout!!)

Wednesday Ladies Night

Where: Beauty Bar Las Vegas,

              517 Fremont St # 150

              Las Vegas, NV 89101

When: December 1, 2010, Doors open at 9pm

What: Open Bar for ladies 9pm - 10pm

DJ Stabb

$1 wells / $2 call drinks for ladies 'til midnight

Nail Polish changes and nail art by Melissa Osburn of The Daily Nail

Free!

Wide Screen Journal on Film Production Studies

Javier Casanova in Vainilla Chip (Erik Knudsen, 2009) Watch this film here (or here) and read Knudsen's article on his work

Set in the small Cuban town of San Antonio de los Baños, just outside Havana, Vainilla Chip tells the story of an ordinary day for an elderly ice cream maker, Javier Rodriguez Casanova. An ordinary day which, like all the other ordinary days, has become painfully pierced by an acute sense of longing for his deceased wife.
     This film is an intimate portrait of a hard working man in a contemporary Cuba far removed from clichés of The Revolution and romanticised memories of Cuban music. Vainilla Chip brings the musicality of one ordinary man’s life to the fore to reveal a universal struggle affecting many people across cultural and political divides. [Erik Knudsen]

We often hear that the power of films lays in their emotional impact. In recent years, some corners of film studies have been preoccupied with the investigation of the senses and the body, which could be related to the view of films in terms of emotions and affect. Much of the filmmaking process rests on creating and communicating this emotional power of the films. Instead of thinking, like Powdermaker did, that the film workers are collectively involved in story-telling, or like Bordwell, Thompson and Staiger, that they are preoccupied with the generation of a particular style of filmmaking, we would like to argue that films are collectively involved in generating, assembling and crafting the emotion of the film. [Graham Roberts and Dorota Ostrowska]

Film Studies For Free is very happy to pass on news that a special issue of the online, Open Access film journal Wide Screen has just been published on "Production Studies". The issue was edited by Graham Roberts and Dorota Ostrowska. The Table of Contents is given below.


Essays

• 'Magic, Emotions And Film Producers: Unlocking The “Black-Box” Of Film Production' by Dorota Ostrowska Abstract PDF HTML

• 'The Film Producer as a Creative Force' by Alejandro Pardo Abstract PDF HTML

• 'Housekeeper of Hong Kong cinema: The role of producer in the system of Hong Kong film industry' by Cindy Chan Abstract PDF HTML

• 'Close Encounters?: Contemporary Turkish Television And Cinema' by Melis Behlil Abstract PDF HTML

• 'Anthology Film. The Future Is Now: Film Producer As Creative Director' by Shekhar Deshpande Abstract PDF HTML

• 'Cinema Of Poverty: Independence And Simplicity In An Age Of Abundance And Complexity' by Erik Knudsen Abstract PDF HTML

• 'Understanding Orlova: Youtube producers, Hot for Words, and some pitfalls of production studies' by Patrick Vonderau Abstract PDF HTML

Disco Animal

Getting so excited, I started painting nail wheels tonight in preparation for the event Wednesday at Beauty Bar! Tonight I wanted to use a polish that I've had since April, but haven't used yet- a Nubar Glitter that is super sparkly and pretty!

I used Nubar Green Silver Glitter as a base, with MAC Deep, Dark, Delicious for the zebra stripes. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Also, if you follow me on twitter, I mentioned being excited for an amazing 6-course meal that was upcoming. Today, I have the pics from the photoshoot! The food was created by Chef Frank Otte, an AMAZING chef who creates Haute Cuisine. Saturday night, he prepared the absolute best meal that has ever passed my lips. I don't say this lightly, he was so amazing at his craft that he managed to take items that I generally will NOT eat, (beets, brussel sprouts, peas) and transformed them into something that created nothing short of an 'o' face. He introduced me to foods I've never tried before (swordfish, juniper oil, creamy sauerkraut), which I will forever be grateful for. Seriously, how did I LIVE before creamy sauerkraut? Really? Anyway. Check out his website, Chef Frank Otte - Haute Cuisine, you won't regret it. (well, after seeing the photos you may, they're drool-inducing)

To the menu!

Course 1: Salad of micro greens, roasted beets, avocado, pear with toasted walnuts, shower of goat cheese, and balsamic beet reduction.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Course 2: Celery root soup with petit brioche croutons and scallion oil.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Course 3: Tar tar of wild Scottish salmon with basil and coriander, Persion cucumber carpaccio, Greek yogurt, dill oil, and avocado mousse.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Course 4: Sage and prosciutto wrapped Atlantic Swordfish "saltimbocca", with creamy sauerkraut, thyme roasted apple, and fingerling potatoes in Juniper oil.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Course 5: Roasted crepinette of game hen breast with herbs, cauliflower ragout, brussel sprouts, and pomegranate gastrique.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Course 6: Cabernet braised short ribs with handmade carrot gnocchi, English peas and gorgonzola sauce.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

Dessert: Caramelized puff pastry "mille fuille" with chestnut pureé, fresh clementines, pomegranate syrup, and vanilla sauce.

Photo Credit-Chris Sneddon used by permission

I ate everything except one piece of the crepinette of game hen (not because I didn't like it, but because I was to the gills at that point! lol), and most of the peas. I was sooooo full I was in pain, but it was a good pain. lol My favorite dish was the Swordfish, it was beyond incredible. *yum*

Sparkle Sparkle

Today's manicure is simple, still recovering from yesterday I think, but I'm totally worn down and just blah in general. I did a different take on a sponged gradient, sponging at the cuticle edge instead of the tip edge.

I used Essie Vermillionaire as a base for the orange nails, Zoya Yummy for the ring finger, with Absolutely Alice sponged on the blue nail, and Extravaganza! on the orange nails. Topped all nails off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

See you tomorrow!

Right on Target!

Midnight in Las Vegas, 27°F, a long-sleeved t-shirt, hoodie, zippered fleece jacket, ankle-length 'bag lady' plaid jacket, hand-crocheted slouchy hat, skull scarf, borrowed magic stretch gloves, shearling lined suede VANS, knee socks, jeans, double layered blanket. Yep, that was me...outside of TARGET. I'm one of the crazies that LOVES Black Friday. LOVE it. By nature I'm a deal hunter, and rarely pay full price for anything, but Black Friday is the high holy day of shoppers... myself included. Four of us went together, my roommate, Maris, two friends, Dallas and Greta, and of course, me. We had our divide and conquer plan all figured out... Dallas is the tallest and strongest, her job was to get the 40" HD 1080P flatscreen for $298. (she did) Greta and I were to go to Electronics and get the camera, hard drive, digital picture keychains, iTunes Gift Cards, and video games. (we did) Maris was to get the DVDs, housewares, etc. (she did). We left poor and happy, and saved over $1,000 between us. We also were approached to be on the local news, which was doing live coverage of the crazies like us. (Was anyone awake at 6:30 am to see it? <---Channel 13, Las Vegas.

 Anyway, since Target was the main stop of our shopping morning (yes, we went to the mall after that!!), I decided to do Black Friday Target nails! :)

 I used Nubar Sexy Red as a base for the red nails, American Apparel Hassid for the ring finger, and Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the white. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

What deals did YOU get?

Also, sorry for the 2-day hiatus... I was preparing a HUGE Thanksgiving day dinner for 8 people!

This was a difficult Thanksgiving for me, it was the first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my family in my 29 years. Because of this, I decided to host a Thanksgiving for my 'orphan' (because of distance) friends that live out here that are also from Michigan...

I brined my turkey for the first time ever and it was incredible. It looked like Martha Stewart herself made it, and I've never tasted white meat that was so juicy! I made pumpkin pie and muffins from scratch (read: actual pumpkins, no canned here!!), mashed potatoes, sausage stuffing, I baked rolls, made homemade vanilla bean ice cream, corn, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and a ton of other stuff. It was amazing, AMAZING. lol I love Thanksgiving SO much!!  I hope that your Thanksgiving was incredible!! :)

New Screening the Past

Image from The Portraitist/Portrecista (Ireneusz Dobrowolski, 2005),  Read Frances Guerin's essay on this film.

The developments of new digital technologies and representational forms have revived interest between photography and cinema, an interest that is both creative and critical. Independent filmmakers are availing themselves of alternative exhibition formats and spaces for their work, and moving image experimentation is now commonplace in the fields of contemporary fine art, design, music, and theatre.
     For this Special Issue of Screening the Past, guest editors Des O’Rawe and Sam Rohdie bring together a collection of original articles on the aesthetic and institutional relations between film, photography, and the visual arts, in particular writing that is attentive to cinematic forms and their recon­figuration within the contemporary visual arts.

 
As always, Film Studies For Free's little beating heart almost leapt out of its digital body at the news that a new issue of the Screening the Past journal had hit the e-stands. It's a special issue, the theme of which is Cinema/Photography: Beyond Representation (Issue 29, 2010). Below is the table of contents:

• George Kouvaros: He’s Not There: Robert Frank’s Me and My Brother.
• Lara Thompson: Monochrome Now: Digital Black and White Cinema and the Photographic Past.
• Sarinah Masukor: The Album of Everyday Life: The Photograph in the Films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
• Sam Rohdie: Profils Paysans.
• Des O’Rawe: Cinema Lucida: Johan van der Keuken and the Meaning of Loss.
• Rebecca Sheehan: The Time of Sculpture: Film, Photography and Auguste Rodin.
• Frances Guerin: Film as an Archive for Photography: The Portraitist as Witness to the Holocaust.
• Ji-hoon Kim: David Claerbout’s Digital Pensive Images.

First Release

• Wheeler Winston Dixon: Beyond Characterization: Performance in 1960s Experimental Cinema.
• George Kouvaros: Our Place in the World.
• Kathy Drayton: Inspiration and Girl in a Mirror.
• Gabrielle Murray: Fact and Fiction: The Iraq War Film in Absence.

Classics and Re-runs

• Adrian Martin: Bill Henson and the Devil, Probably.
• John Conomos: Bill Henson and the Cinematic.

Rise and Shine!

This morning I was up bright and early, 5 a.m. to be exact! :-D Mind you, I'm not up that early usually, but this morning I got a call from Pakistan!! A while back, VJ Sehrish, a lovely woman who hosts a show on Pakistani TV network ARY Musik, called 'Girls Rupublic', contacted me about being a guest (via phone) on her show. Of COURSE I said yes, I mean, how cool is that?! It still amazes me that people from so far away follow my blog...and like it! :-P So anyway, in honor of my phone chat with VJ Sehrish on her show, I did Girls Republic nails! On the Thumb is the Girls Republic logo, on the index and pinky finger I did super glittery pink nails, on the middle finger nail, is (obviously) the American flag (to represent me), and the flag of Pakistan on the ring finger (to represent Sehrish!) :).

I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base for the thumb and middle fingers, butter LONDON Rosie Lee as a base for the index and pinky fingers, and CND Green Scene for the ring finger. For the crescent and star on the ring finger, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud, for the American flag, I used Nubar Sexy Red for the stripes, ALDO Sea You in Ibiza for the blue. For the Girls Republic logo, I used American Apparel Berry for the darker berry color, and Sally Hansen Vavoom Violet Creme for the hot pink. For the darker pink glitter on the tips of the index and pinky, I used Nubar Petunia Sparkle. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Thank you VJ Sehrish!!

Stop Being So Controlling!

A while back, reader Dave R. suggested that I do an old school Nintendo controller, and what could I say? It was a bad ass idea, so I had to do it!! I'm not too proud to admit that I'm still a proud owner of an original NES in working order, with controllers, games, Duck Hunt gun, AND NES Advantage joystick. Yeah, I said it. (I even still play it!! I will SO kick anyone's ass in Dr. Mario :-P) Today's nails make me wanna play, and how freakin' rad would it be to hold the controller with THESE nails?! :-P I'm such a dork.

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with a mixture of Orly Mirror, Mirror and American Apparel California Trooper for the light grey plastic, essence Pointbreak for the darker grey, a mixture of Nubar Sexy Red and CND Electric Orange for the red buttons, shaded with that mixture and American Apparel Hassid, highlighted with that mixture and American Apparel Cotton. I also used a dab of American Apparel Cotton on the 'edge' of the button for a reflection. Topped off the matte parts with Essie Matte About You and the shiny parts with Seche Vite top coat.

Who wants to play?

Study of a Single Film: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

 

Finding Equilibrium in Hitchcock's Vertigo 

Roundtable discussion at the Philoctetes Center, New York, on November 6, 2010, with Richard Allen, John Belton, Joe McElhaney, Edward Neresessian, and Brigitte Peucker

Vertigo (1958) is the Hitchcock film in which the confusion of ontological registers—of reality with illusion—takes center stage. Indeed, it’s a case study of someone for whom this confusion is nearly pathological. The James Stewart character, Scottie, is duped by a performance with criminal intent, as he falls for a woman he believes to be Madeleine, but who in reality is a woman named Judy (played by Kim Novak) perpetrating a masquerade. Around this “false” Madeleine, a narrative is created that's designed to ensnare Scottie. The film concerns a mysterious case of “possession”—a staged fascination with death—played out in a series of silent tableaux, each of which aestheticizes and eroticizes the Madeleine figure. The film's narrative structure is circular and repetitive; it's been suggested that the film itself represents a distinct form of madness. "Vertigo is just a movie," writes Stanley Cavell in The World Viewed, "but no other movie I know so purely conveys the sealing of a mind within a scorching fantasy." What is the role of psychoanalysis in Hitchcock's work? Is psychoanalysis merely one "surface feature" of Hitchcock's work, as Richard Allen has suggested, subject to irony like all the others? What draws psychoanalytic critics to Hitchcock's work, and how, if at all, is this phenomenon related to its modernism? [Philoctetes Center]

Film Studies For Free brings you one of its regular link-fests pertaining to the study of a single film: today, it's the turn of Alfred Hitchcock's truly magical thriller Vertigo (1958). 

The below list of openly-accessible resources was very much inspired by the recent posting of a hugely entertaining, and vertiginously brilliant, discussion on this film between some of the most able Film Studies academics and writers of their generation (see above). The discussion was hosted by the wonderful people at the Philoctetes Center in New York City. Thanks so much to them for making this video available for all to watch and learn from.

• Richard Allen, 'Camera Movement in Vertigo', The MacGuffin, 2007
• Pilar Andrade, 'Cinema's Doubles, Their Meaning, and Literary Intertexts', CLC Web, Volume 10 Issue 4 (December 2008)
• Jonathan A. Austad, Hemingway and Hitchcock: An Examination of the Aesthetic Modernity, PhD Thesis, Florida State University, 2008 (see especially p. 36 onwards)
• Emanuel Berman, 'Hitchcock's Vertigo: the Collapse of a Rescue Phantasy', epff3: Film and Psychoanalysis, 2000
• Giorgio Biancorosso, 'Beginning Credits and Beyond: Music and the Cinematic Imagination', Echo, Volume 3 Issue 1 (Spring 2001) 
• John Conomos, 'The Vertigo of Time', Senses of Cinema, Issue 6, 2000
• Ben Dooley, 'Psychoanalysis in Bringing up Baby and Vertigo', Offscreen Journal, Volume 9, Issue 7, July 31, 2005
• Joyce Huntjens, 'Vertigo: A Vertiginous Gap in Reality and a Woman Who Doesn't Exist', Image [and] Narrative, Issue 5, January 2003
• John Locke, 'Last Laugh: Was Hitchcock's Masterpiece Vertigo a Private Joke?', Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 18, March 1997
• David George Menard, 'Form Inversion in Alfred Hitchcock, Part 1 ~ Hitchcock and Romantic Irony', Offscreen Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 9, Sept 30, 2008; and Page 2
• David George Menard, 'Form Inversion in Alfred Hitchcock, Part 2 ~ Hitchcockian Suspense', Offscreen Journal, Volume 12, Issue 9, Sept 30, 2008 and Page 2
• Ken Mogg, 'Alfred Hitchcock', Senses of Cinema, 2005
• Ken Mogg, 'The Fragments of the Mirror: Vertigo and its Sources', The MacGuffin, No. 25, 2000
• Ken Mogg, 'Some Notes on Vertigo (and Strangers on a Train), The MacGuffin, 2007
• Ornam Rotem, 'The World as One Whole: The Syntactic Role Of Colour in Film', Kinema, 2008
• Tom Schneller, '[Review of] David Cooper. Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook...', The Journal of Film Music, Volume 2, Number 1, Fall 2007 Pages 75–78
• George J. Stack, 'Vertigo as Existentialist Film', Philosophy Today, Fall 1986
• Anthony Stagliano, 'Disruptive excesses: gender economics, excesses, and the gaze in Marnie and Vertigo', MA Thesis, DePaul University, 2010
• David Sterritt, 'Introduction', The Films of Alfred Hitchcock [extended sample] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 
• Jack Sullivan, 'Overture', Hitchcock's Music (Yale University Press, 2006)
• Alanna Thain, 'Funny How Secrets Travel: DAvid Lynch's Lost Highway', Invisible Culture, Issue 8, 2004
• Jennifer Tyburczy, 'Crossing Borders and the Female Body: The Vampirization of the Female Characters in Hitchcock’s Vertigo', Text, Practice, Performance V (2003): 85-106
• Constantine Verevis, 'Remaking Film', Film Studies, Vol. 4, Summer 2004 (pp 87-103)
• Michael Walker, Hitchcock's Motifs (Amsterdam University Press, 2005)
• McKenzie Wark, 'Vectoral Cinema', Senses of Cinema, Issue 6, 2000 

 

Writing with Hitchcock: Plot vs. Story in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (also see here)

Costumed Coral

Today's nail art started out being a possible holiday nail art idea, but ended up being something totally different. I liked it after I added the gold, but felt like it needed more, so I mentally scanned my nail polish collection to find a polish that would compliment both colors, and I came upon my Lotus Herbals Orange Alert, which was a gift from Chris when he came back from India, and happens to be one of my favorite polishes (and most rationed) in my entire collection. I can't get a proper picture of it, but it is the precise color of papaya flesh- that coral/orange/red combination, and I adore it. After adding the Orange Alert, it took on a look of coral and gold costume jewelry, not the original holiday look I was intending to make when I started! I actually like it better this way I think!!

I used American Apparel Berry as a base, with China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection and Lotus Herbals Orange Alert for the dots. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Anyone else getting excited for Thanksgiving?!!?!??! I'm sooooo hungry! I want to brine my turkey this year (I've never tried it before), anyone have any good brining recipes or tips?

Also- lots of people have mentioned they loved the Harry Potter shirts- email me HERE if you want one! :)

-M

Shawn Sparkles

Not quite Robin Sparkles, or Jessica Glitter, but it'll have to do...

Today's manicure utilizes a polish that I was told (by Zoya herself) that I was not allowed to wear, since it clashes with my skin tone. :-P I love this polish too much to let something like skin tone get in the way of wearing it! I wanted something simple today, for more than one reason... I fell asleep on the couch last night, which ALWAYS gives me a horrible 'crick in the neck' that lasts for a week or more, and the second reason was that I was in a hurry to get across town. Sorry for no post yesterday, I passed out on the couch after work and woke up this morning- gotta love having to work the day after midnight movie showings. :-P I got 3 hours of sleep. AWESOME. Anyway, to the manicure, I used one of the new OPI Burlesque glitters, ack!! THey're so sparkly. This pic doesn't show any of the glitz! (even though I added a blurry pic to sort of show the sparkle!) Also, ignore the middle finger, I broke it, and I had to mend it, so it's wonky looking.

I used Zoya Shawn as a base, with OPI Glow Up Already sponged on the tip. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite Top Coat.

Let's go to the mall!

On Jean-Luc Godard's Sauve qui peut (la vie)

Film Studies For Free is delighted to pass on word of an excellent new website dedicated to the study of Jean-Luc Godard's 1980 film Sauve qui peut (la vie)/ Every Man for Himself / Slow Motion (co-scripted by Godard with Jean-Claude Carrière and Anne-Marie Miéville). The website joins existing, brilliant, online Godard resources, like Glen W. Norton's Cinema = Godard = Cinema, first established in 1996.

The new site is the Every Man For Himself Resource Archive that gathers links to (almost) every online item of note pertaining to this film in one, elegant, supremely useful space. This is a must-visit recommendation, especially given that this film has just been re-released in some cinemas (in a new 35mm print) in the USA.

Here are direct links to two articles on the film that EMFH doesn't yet list (but which FSFF is hopeful that it will add!)

• James Roy MacBean, 'Sauve qui peut (la vie): An Open Letter to Godard', Jump Cut, no. 31, March 1986, pp. 7-12 
• Richard Morris, '"To Realise the Ideal": Miscellaneous Remarks on Godard's Conceptual Processes Apropos of Sauve qui peut (la vie)', Film Studies, Vol. 5 (Winter 2004), (pp 1-7)

There is also a really interesting discussion by David Bordwell of studies of Godard's film online here:

• David Bordwell, 'Historical Poetics of Cinema', in The Cinematic Text: Methods and Approaches, ed. R. Barton Palmer ((New York: AMS Press, 1989) [scroll to p. 383]

There are also numerous references to Godard's film in the following online book (just search "Sauve" in your browser's "Find [on page]" facility: 

• Robert Philip Kolker, The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema (1983)

Below are all the excellent scholarly essays that EMFH links to so far. These links take you to the relevant page of their website where you will be referred on to the items themselves:

• Thomas Albrecht, “Sauve qui peut (l’image): Reading for a Double Life,” Cinema Journal 30:2, Winter 1991. 
• Raymond Bellour, “I am an Image,” Camera Obscura 8/9/10, Fall 1982. 
• Alain Bergala and Leos Carax, “Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie): Une Journée de Tournage,” Cahiers du Cinéma 306 December 1979.   (French) 
• Janet Bergstrom, “Violence and Enunciation,” Camera Obscura 8/9/10, Fall 1982.
• Harmut Bitomsky, “Desperation Spawns Courage,” Filmkritik V. 25.9, 1981.  (German)
• Catherine Grant, "Home Movies: The Curious Cinematic Collaboration of Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard," [pre-print draft] in Forever Gordard, ed. Temple, Williams and Witt, Black Dog Publishing, 2004.
• Peter Harcourt, “Le Nouveau Godard: An Exploration of Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie),” Film Quarterly V. 35.2 (Winter 1981/2).
• Elizabeth Lyon, “La Passion, c’est pas ca,” Camera Obscura 8/9/10, Fall 1982. 
• Colin MacCabe, “Slow Motion,” Screen 21.3, 1981. 
• Contance Penley, “Pornography Eroticism,” Camera Obscura 8/9/10, Fall 1982. 
• Robert Stam, “Jean-Luc Godard’s Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie),” Millennium Film Journal, Fall 1981/2, 10/11. 
• Hanns Zischler, “Godard’s Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) – Report on the Director’s Press Conference, Zurich, Jan 19, 1981,” Filmkritik V.25.9, 1981. (German)

I Feel so 'Hallow' Inside

Yes, I am one of those dorks that waits in line for the midnight showings of the Harry Potter movies... and books. :-D In fact, tonight we're going to go get in line at 9 pm!! I'm soooo excited. I even screen printed t-shirts!! On the front, they have a drawing of Harry's infamous round spectacles, and on the back, it says 'In Memoriam' with a list of all the good guys that were killed over the course of the books, I even included Richard Harris, the original Dumbledore, who died after making the second movie. (he counts!) Under the list, there is a skull and crossed wands, for which I used Voldemort's wand, and Harry's wand to make the 'crossbones'. I'm so beyond excited for tonight's showing, and hope that it's better and truer to the book than the last one.

I have had a Harry Potter manicure on the list since the very beginning of the blog, but couldn't bring myself to do it until now- when the movie is a mere 4.5 hours away!! I did the HP logo on the thumb, the icon of the Deathly Hallows on the index finger, the golden snitch is flying across my middle finger, and the ring and pinky feature Harry's hand and Quidditch robe sleeve reaching to catch it! (yes, I know that Harry doesn't play Quidditch in the last book/movie, but I felt that it was important over the course of the books, so I added it!)

Don't forget to check out my blog sale! :)

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection for the HP logo, the Deathly Hallows icon, and golden snitch. For the hand, I used American Apparel California Trooper as a base, with a mixture of American Apparel Palm Springs and Zoya Alluria for the flesh tone, shaded with the flesh mixture mixed with MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious, and highlighted with the flesh mixture mixed with American Apparel Cotton. For the robe, I used a mix of Nubar Sexy Red mixed with MAC Rich, Dark, Delicious, then American Apparel Manila for the stripes. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

The shirts:

Finite incantatem!

BLOG SALE!!

The nail polish collection is getting out of control, and there are so many colors that I don't use, have never used, some HTF colors, and some I bought duplicates of, so I'm having a blog sale!! There are also going to be other things, like purses, jeans, some LE MAC items, and other random things that will be added periodically, so check back! The sale will always be listed on a separate page which can be reached by clicking the 'The Daily Nail: Sales!" link that is located directly under the logo header! :)

You can also reach it by going HERE.

Thanks!! ;)

Who You Gonna Call?

Growing up in the 80s, I was destined to love the movie Ghostbusters. (is it possible to NOT love this movie?!) It has everything...ghosts, laughs, Bill Murray?! I'll be honest though, since I was born just 3 years before it came out, I'm far more familiar with Ghostbusters II, with Vigo as the bad guy! Can't forget Slimer or the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man either! :) Anyway, at the recommendation of Chris, I did Ghostbuster nails today!!

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud as a base for the logo, Nubar Sexy Red for the 'no' circle, and OPI Who the Shrek Are You? for the slime that Slimer left behind on the ring finger. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat!

I am the keymaster.

Want to Get Your Nails Painted by Me?

Want to get your nails painted by me?

Will you be in Las Vegas on December 1?

Let me know! I'll be doing a night of manicures at a local hotspot! We need to get the word out so it's jam-packed busy, because if it is, this won't just be a one-time thing!! :) There will be super-cheap drink specials for the ladies, a DJ, and polish changes by me! (and yes, that includes nail art!)

Send me an email at thedailynail@gmail.com if you're interested in coming, and I'll make sure you get the details first about when, where, and what time! :)

XOXO
-M

If You Got the Bullets, I Got the Time

If you've read the blog for any length of time, you've probably gotten the idea that I am a nerd, and I love nerd manicures... Today's manicure features a bad guy from the Nintendo arsenal of villains, Bullet Bill! I remember many an afternoon spent with these dudes in front of my TV with my NES Advantage Joystick and ginormous box of Goldfish crackers. *sigh* Those were the days...

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with a mixture of American Apparel Hassid and Orly Mirror, Mirror to highlight, then another layer of just Orly Mirror, Mirror to highlight even more. I also used Orly Mirror, Mirror around the arms, and to shade the arms. I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the eyes and for the arms, and American Apparel Hassid for the pupils. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I love the fishes, 'cause they're sooooo delicious! Gone goldfishin'!

Go With the Flow-er

Man, I feel like I've lost my mojo. I hate 90% of the designs I've done lately, and that makes me SO sad. I'm not saying this to solicit sympathy, I'm saying it because I'm genuinely worried. lol  Designs that should be/usually are easy end up taking forever and looking like crapola. Anyway, today's nail art is simple, and was inspired by the cover of the journal/notebook that I write ideas and jot down my wish list, amongst other things.

I used Nubar Sexy Red as a base, with a mix of Orly Mirror, Mirror and American Apparel Hassid for the dark grey, and Orly Gumdrop for the flower's aqua center. For the white lines, I used Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

American Apparel launches 12 new colors!! PREVIEW

I've made no secret of my love for American Apparel's polish line. I use some of their colors almost daily, and I love their consistency, colors, and opacity. Imagine my excitement to read my email today and see this:

Yep, seriously dying over here. I cannot wait to get my hands on these. 

From American Apparel:

LOS ANGELES -- American Apparel (Amex: APP), the vertically integrated clothing manufacturer based in downtown Los Angeles, is announcing the addition of twelve new colors to its successful line of nail polish.


The company's Made in the USA nail lacquer is now available in 48 colors. The 12 new shades take inspiration from simple and straightforward elements of both Angeleno and global culture, reflecting the ubiquitous nature of the T-shirt on which American Apparel built its brand. Echo Park, a new shade of concrete grey, and MacArthur Park, a muted mossy yellow, both reference neighborhoods where the company first opened stores and where many of its employees live. Others, like Trenchcoat and Army Jacket, are nods to iconic garments and their evocative, eponymous tones.


"Nail polish is our favorite category for exploring color. We planned on releasing only six new shades, but we felt so strongly about all of these that we decided to release a full dozen. Its difficult to pick a favorite--they all compliment wardrobes in different ways. We can't wait to see the looks people create with them," said Marsha Brady, a creative director for American Apparel.


American Apparel Nail Lacquer has become one of the company's fastest-moving products. The two previous launches of colors quickly sold out worldwide. The consistency and quality of the polish has been universally noted in the reviews of the product and the company diligently oversaw the production process to ensure this standard again.


American Apparel Nail Lacquer is priced at $6 per bottle and is available in a 3-pack for $15 and 7-pack for $32. It is sold at American Apparel stores worldwide as well as online. The nail polish is DBP, toluene and formaldehyde-free. For a full view of color range, ingredients, swatches and photographs, please visit our online store.

Blinged Out Bursts

As you make-up diehards may know, Nov 11-15, Sephora gave a 20% discount to their VIB customers. I went to the first night of the 'sale' for their shopping event. I'll be honest, since I'm broke, it was mostly to get the freebies, but when I saw this polish, I totally couldn't resist it, and at 20% off, what better time?! The color I'm talking about is part of their Holiday collection, and it's called 212 Sephora, which is a soft black with iridescent glitter, as well as gold glitter, and copper flakies!! It's seriously AMAZING. For today's design, I really wanted to use it, but I didn't want to cover it up, so I chose to do a simple burst in an olive color in the upper corner of the nail.

A different angle to show off the glitter better

I used OPI for Sephora 212 Sephora as a base, with Rescue Beauty No More War for the burst. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

No, this isn't a Christmas manicure... and if it were, it'd be a totally morbid holiday manicure! Oh, wait, I DID do a skully christmas manicure last year. Oops. :-D Today's nail art is in honor of Robert Louis Stevenson's 160th birthday, which is today! :) As you may know, one of his famous works of literature is 'Treasure Island', a tale of pirates and buried gold. In reference to that, I chose to do Jolly Roger nail art today! (as if I needed a reason to do pirate nails :-P)

I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with Sally Hansen Professional Lavender Cloud for the skull and crossbones. Topped it off with my still-fresh and amazingly well applying Seche Vite top coat. lol

YARRRRR!

Great e-Books on British and American cinema, and film theory and history

Image from Pleasantville (Gary Ross, 1998) [Read Paul Grainge's wonderful essay 'Colouring the past: Pleasantville and the textuality of media memory' linked to below]

Film Studies For Free today sings the praises of the very marvellous Manchester University Press. MUP has an excellent record in Open Access publishing, and especially in Film Studies OA journal publishing, as previously reported by FSFF. But it is also in the process of making some of its full-length film books freely accessible.

So far, there are two books available, one on British cinema and one on memory and popular cinema. Direct links to the PDF files of both books and full tables of their contents and contributors are given below. These links have also been added to FSFF's  permanent, and frequently updated, listing of Open Access film and moving image studies e-books, which now links to 90 free, scholarly tomes.

• Paul Grainge (ed.), Memory and Popular Film (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003)

'Memory and popular film' uses memory as a specific framework for the cultural study of film. Taking Hollywood as its focus, this timely book provides a sustained, interdisciplinary perspective on memory and film from early cinema to the present. Considering the relationship between official and popular memory, the politics of memory, and the technological and representational shifts that have come to effect memory's contemporary mediation, the book contributes to the growing debate on the status and function of the past in cultural life and discourse. By gathering key critics from film studies, American studies and cultural studies, 'Memory and popular film' establishes a framework for discussing issues of memory IN film and of film AS memory. Together with essays on the remembered past in early film marketing, within popular reminiscence, and at film festivals, the book considers memory films such as Forrest Gump, Lone Star, Pleasantville, Rosewood and Jackie Brown. 'Memory and popular film' provides a wide-ranging analysis that will benefit both students and critics of popular culture, film studies and the past. [Rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/]

Table of Contents:

• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 'Introduction: memory and popular film' by Paul Grainge

Part 1: Public history, popular memory

• 'A white man’s country: Yale’s Chronicles of America' by Roberta E. Pearson
• 'Civic pageantry and public memory in the silent era commemorative film: The Pony Express at the Diamond Jubilee' by Heidi Kenaga
• ‘Look behind you!’: memories of cinema-going in the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood' by Sarah Stubbings
• 'Raiding the archive: film festivals and the revival of Classic Hollywood' by Julian Stringer

Part 2: The politics of memory

• 'The articulation of memory and desire: from Vietnam to the war in the Persian Gulf' by John Storey
• 'The movie-made Movement: civil rites of passage' by Sharon Monteith
• 'Prosthetic memory: the ethics and politics of memory in an age of mass culture' by Alison Landsberg
• ‘"Forget the Alamo": history, legend and memory in John Sayles’ Lone Star' by Neil Campbell    

Part 3: 'Mediating memory

• '‘Mortgaged to music’: new retro movies in 1990s Hollywood cinema' by Philip Drake
• 'Colouring the past: Pleasantville and the textuality of media memory' by Paul Grainge
• 'Memory, history and digital imagery in contemporary film' by Robert Burgoyne
• 'Postcinema/Postmemory' by Jeffrey Pence

• Ian MacKillop and Neil Sinyard (eds), British Cinema in the 1950s: A celebration (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003)

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgements 
• A 1950s timeline
• 'Celebrating British cinema of the 1950s' by Ian MacKillop and Neil Sinyard

Critics 

• 'Raymond Durgnat and A Mirror for England' by Robert Murphy
• 'Lindsay Anderson: Sequence and the rise of auteurism in 1950s Britain' by Erik Hedling

Mirroring England

• 'National snapshots: fixing the past in English war films' by Fred Inglis
• 'Film and the Festival of Britain' by Sarah Easen
• 'The national health: Pat Jackson’s White Corridors' by Charles Barr
• 'The long shadow: Robert Hamer after Ealing' by Philip Kemp
• ‘"If they want culture, they pay": consumerism and alienation in 1950s comedies' by Dave Rolinson
• 'Boys, ballet and begonias: The Spanish Gardener and its analogues' by Alison Platt
• 'Intimate stranger: the early British films of Joseph Losey' by Neil Sinyard

Painfully squalid?

• 'Women of Twilight' by Kerry Kidd
• 'Yield to the Night' by Melanie Williams
• 'From script to screen: Serious Charge and film censorship' by Tony Aldgate
• 'Housewife’s choice: Woman in a Dressing Gown' by Melanie Williams

Adaptability

• 'Too theatrical by half? The Admirable Crichton and Look Back in Anger' by Stephen Lacey
• 'A Tale of Two Cities and the Cold War' by Robert Giddings
• 'Value for money: Baker and Berman, and Tempean Films' by Brian McFarlane
• 'Adaptable Terence Rattigan: Separate Tables, separate entities?' by Dominic Shellard

Personal views

• 'Archiving the 1950s' by Bryony Dixon
• 'Being a film reviewer in the 1950s' by Isabel Quigly
• 'Michael Redgrave and The Mountebank’s Tale' by Corin Redgrave