Sigh of Relief

A Change of Cartoon Pace

Normally, I post something obnoxious and poorly-drawn from Toothpaste for Dinner. Today, for a change, I post something from Natalie Dee, who happens to be the wife of the guy who draws Toothpaste. I post this particular one because, according to my wife, I have a huge noggin.


nataliedee.com

How It's Gone So Far

It's about ten p.m. on Sunday night. Suzanne, exhausted after a long weekend, is asleep. Parker is in her bassinet, snorting and grunting, trying to decide whether or not she's going to join Suzanne in dreamland. (I'm betting not - but that's okay. She's pretty adorable when I get to pick her up and walk her around in the night. She just looks up at me, her eyes bugged out because of the dark.)

We got back from Detroit last night around nine. Between rainy weather most of the way and the various delays and challenges related to traveling with an infant, by the time we got home, we were whipped. If it were any other Sunday, we probably would have stayed home from church this morning but the whole reason we came back from Michigan as early as we did was so the girls could participate in the Primary program in the ward. Plus, Suzanne and I both had to teach lessons during the third hour.

Anyway, our time in Michigan was short but rewarding. We got to see Suzanne's parents, Ben and Erin Griswold and their kids, Amy Day and her kids. There was plenty of laughing and good food. (We went to Pine-Land in Farmington Hills with Ben and Erin for dinner on Friday and lo, it was awesome.)I dropped by YDB for a quick visit and we even got to stop at The Peaceable Kingdom and The Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor.



The exam? Well, that went okay too. I arrived in Detroit at about 8:30 on Friday morning and it was raining like crazy. Fortunately, no one wants to do much that early in the city so there was a free (!) parking space right next to my building. I parked, unloaded my fifty pound rolling suitcase of books, and headed to the 9th floor. The grad dept. secretary took me to a conference room, gave me a department laptop and a list of eight questions and basically said, "See you in four hours."

There were four questions focused on Classical Hollywood Cinema and four on Film Noir. I had to choose one from each category and then I got to pick whichever for the third one. I averaged about 1,600 words and an hour and a half per essay. The first two I feel pretty confident about and the third one was hopefully good enough. It wasn't awful but it wasn't the greatest thing I've ever written either.



The questions I wrote on were:

- Outline the history of the Production Code, and discuss its influence upon filmmaking in classic Hollywood. What changed between pre-code films and films made under the code? What changed when the Code began to break down in the 1950s? How did the Code affect, not just filmmakers' actual depictions of violence and/or sexuality, but in the ways in which they thematized violence and/or sexuality?

- Many film noirs deal with themes of alienation, social disaffection, or anxiety, what Georges Sadoul succinctly described in his review of The Big Sleep, as "fundamentally opaque, like a nightmare or the ramblings of a drunk," with characters as much entrapped in psychological malaise as in a criminal underworld. With detailed references to at least 2 noirs, assess the usefulness of this framework for understanding noir.

- After the debates of the seventies and eighties exhausted themselves over whether film noir could be considered a movement, a cycle, or a historical period, different theoretical approaches emerged to challenge then dominant readings of noir. Some of these approaches turned to the homme fatale, or looked at generically hybrid or "problem" noirs, or examined the structuring role of race or gender. With reference to at least two theorists, and at least one film noir, outline some of these methodological approaches and assess how they have challenged and reframed what we might understand as "film noir."

That last one was the question that, even as I write it now, I feel the least confident about. I hope to hear back from my committee chair this week and get a sense for whether or not my work was acceptable.

This coming Friday is the real nail-biter though. It's one thing to sit in a room by myself and pick and choose the questions I answered and be able to consult my books and notes. It's a whole other ball of frightening wax to sit in a room with three very knowledgeable professors and have to answer every question they ask with no notes or books to fall back on. I'm kind of freaked out.

I do appreciate the good wishes, prayers, Buddist incense, and good vibes that have come my way. Please keep it coming. I can use it now more than ever.

Parker's Book Club

toothpastefordinner.com

The Best of the Best of the Best. . . With Honors!

So, Mark, you've watched ninety movies from the classical Hollywood period. Got any recommendations?

Why, yes, yes I do.

White Heat
Mildred Pierce
Detour
Stella Dallas
3:10 to Yuma
Double Indemnity
Sunset Boulevard
The Killing
The Big Heat
The Big Combo
Ball of Fire
Kiss Me Deadly
On The Waterfront
A Star Is Born
Roman Holiday
A Face in the Crowd
Magnificent Obsession
On the Beach
The Woman in the Window
Brute Force
This Gun for Hire
Pickup on South Street

These are the essentials, my friends. Add to your Netflix queue accordingly.

P.S. A shiny prize goes to the first person who can name the movie referenced in the title of this post.

Closer Still

It's been so long since I've updated, the "New Post" button almost didn't work for me. Ah well, I'm back now. Three days until the first part of the big test, according to my little widget to the right. I'm not as nervous as I was - not because I've been a whirlwind of studying and comprehension in the last ten days (although I've tried) but because I either know the material by now or I don't. Stressing out about it won't make anything better. So Thursday afternoon, we'll all pile in the the van and point ourselves east to the land of cider mills, the blue and maize, and 28% unemployment. We'll stay at Paul and Linda's and, first thing in the morning, I'll head to Wayne State to take the written portion of the test. We'll see how it goes.

Things at home are okay. Parker had a terrible time last night - great fussiness and unease combined with throwing up the contents of an entire bottle all over me at about 2:30 a.m. Kinda sucked. Actually, no kinda about it. She's not sick, I don't think. She just drank her bottle too fast and it was more than she could handle all at once. Consequently, I got a shirt and arm covered in warm Enfamil. It doesn't smell good, people.

We're looking forward to blessing Parker on the first Sunday of November and having my parents and Suzanne's parents here with us for it. My folks haven't had the chance to visit us yet so we're really excited to have them coming here.

Nearly There

The problem with trying to watch a cross section of Classical Hollywood films that's useful and broad enough is that once you've seen one, you find twelve others you've yet to see. Kind of a "The more I learn, the more I learn I know nothing" sort of situation. I've watched ninety movies made between 1930 and 1960 now and I am finding that it's hard to stop - partly because some of them are so good and partly because there are just so many that are "important" and I feel like I need to see them all.

But the time is coming to give it a rest. I just finished Robert Siodmak's excellent take on Hemmingway's short story The Killers and I have This Gun For Hire waiting next. After that, I have Fritz Lang's The Blue Gardenia, the notoriously violent Kiss of Death, and my girlfriend Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number. After that, it's over. No more watching movies for this test. One way or the other, I'll be finished with that particular part of the exam. I may even cancel my Netflix account.

It will be weird to not have movies waiting to be watched but it's probably time to get that feeling off my back. I'm sure Suzanne will be glad about it.

For the record, The Killers is an excellent example of pure noir. I recommend it.

It Tickles Me

superpoop.com

Sandwich Police

There is a town called Sandwich in our ward. We have friends who have probably been pulled over by the Sandwich Police.


superpoop.com

DO NOT make me use my grad student voice

It's a chilly, rainy day here in fair Illinois. Unfortunately for them, it's the day I picked to have my creative writing students walk around outside. So there was a crew of 26 damp, would-be poets wandering around downtown LaSalle this afternoon. I sat inside the local cafe, safe and dry, grading papers and trying to look professorial. It worked. No one came up and said, "Why aren't you out there getting soaked?" A beard and a sweater-vest go a long way.

Anyway, I need to update my loyal readers (all four of them) on what's happening.

Parker is now seven pounds. The doctor said she only wanted an ounce a day of weight gain and our little Porker has nearly doubled that. She's an eater for sure so we know she has at least a little of me in her. Most of you probably don't know my nickname when I was a baby was "Piglet." Yep.

Suzannne is recovering pretty well. She actually went downstairs yesterday which, I think, is the first time she's done that in about four months. She's getting around better and seems to be feeling less pain generally.

The semester is going well. The aforementioned creative writing class is a real kick. It's the biggest class I've ever taught - 26 students - but it's also one of the most fun. The students are enthusiastic, funny, and engaged. Not all of them are going to be poets, that's for sure. But they work hard and make the effort and they're a pleasure to teach. One of my students is actually an IVCC employee who works in the bookstore who also is a fellow Tonican and the mother of a boy who has a big ol' crush on Maryn. So it's a weird collision of worlds all wrapped up in one person - but it hasn't been too weird yet.


The thing on my mind right now is the fact that I'm three weeks away from beginning my Qualifying Exam. (I call it "the test that's so important they had to capitalize it!) My PhD program breaks down like this: you take about two years worth of classes with an emphasis in your chosen field. Once you're done with your coursework, you take the Qualifying Exam. This is a two-part test in which you demonstrate that you have expertise in an established field of academic inquiry and an area of emphasis within that field. In other words, that's where you show you know enough to speak and write intelligently about the stuff you've been studying.

Once you pass the QE, then you move on and take the translation exam, the prospectus exam, and then you write your dissertation. Once your diss is written and defended, you become DOCTOR! (I often tell people the only real reason I want this degree is so people will call me Doctor. Maryn and Avery have both agreed to address me as Doctor Dad once the time comes. If we start training her now, I'm sure Parker will be on board with that too.)

Anyway, the QE has two parts - the written and the oral. I've made a list of about a hundred films and about thirty texts (books mostly but a few essays too)and I'm responsible for all the info in those movies and books. For the written portion, my committee will give me eight questions - some on my field which is Classical Hollywood Cinema and some on my emphasis which is Film Noir. I'll have four hours to answer three of the eight questions. I can bring my books and notes and my brain and do my best in that little window of time. One week later, I sit down with my committee members for two hours and they get to ask me whatever questions they want about my field and emphasis. The oral part is meant to sort of fill in the gaps left open by the written. Because it's the gateway to everything else and because there's only one retake allowed, I'm kind of freaked out.

I feel like I know more about this stuff than your average joe - but do I know enough? Am I going to get there and read the questions and go all Sarah Palin? (Meaning a stammering, incoherent, trying-to-sound-smart-but-really-not hot mess.) I've watched the movies. I'm still in the process of finishing some of the bigger books. But I just don't know if it's been enough.

I have three weeks from this Friday to get it together. Wish me luck.