Thanks! I've been investigating the disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine (late blight). There's a wild potato species in Mexico that is resistant to late blight, and that gene has been put into cultivated potato, like Russet Burbank. I've been looking at how this gene works, primarily in the tuber (the part we eat). I've had a vimeo request to talk about this, so expect something in the next month...

yay! resistance patterns and potato genetics! you stink of epidemiology and i love it. :D

agreed w Obar on the sideburns. i also expect there to be some epic footnotes and reference citations in this one. haha.

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Yeah, I'm ready for the battle to be over.

I think I had chops for a day or two...
You can kind of see them in one of these photos:
flickr.com/photos/benmillett/217133570/

wow i must say that is an impressive block of face hair. i think the beard is my favorite, but you pull them all off. :)

Thanks! I may be giving the beard another go in the near future. We'll see how my wife feels about it...

hahah, so awesome and hopefully your wife thinks it's a good idea! I love beards.

I have to admit, when it comes to action, there is no other thesis that can compete.

thanks.

Thanks!

Don't worry. It'll be time before you know it.

Woah. That would be way too epic for this movie. That would be epic epic. But that certainly would make thesis writing more exciting.

my best friend john listens to melodic deathmetal, and being around him is like having a 24/7 Battle of epic proportions.

Marching dinosaurs and Mastadons!

Thanks! It's nearing completion, so I'm happy.

That's a great idea. We'll see what I can pull together...

Sounds like you are ready to crank out that essay. What an interesting topic. What's an example of a piece of underground cinema?

Hmn... let's see, films by Jack Smith & Kenneth Anger etc.
A classic example would be 'Sleep' by Andy Warhol, which is more than 7 hours of someone sleeping, or 'Empire' also by Andy Warhol, which is an 8 hour shot of the Empire State building.

There are some underground/Avant-Garde films that are a little more bearable than those though. I'll probably choose someone like Maya Deren, one of her films in particular "Meshes of the Afternoon" is quite interesting, very different, but interesting. It's like a David Lynch movie in the 1940's... she was way ahead of her time.

That sounds interesting. I've added one of the only DVDs of Maya Deren's work to my Netflix queue. Is all of Lynch's work like his "Dune"? I didn't care for that one, as it was so different from the book. Just curious.

Actually "Dune" is quite different from most other Lynch films in-terms of it's theme, but within a 'theoretical-context' it is like every other Lynch film as it deals with storytelling methods that are quite obscure. The most typical Lynch film usually has a theme set around an 'Old-American' town, where on the outside everything is normal (in the most stereotypical sense), but there is always the sinister underworld that is always present. Examples of these films would be: "Blue Velvet", "Twin Peaks", "Lost Highway", "Mulholland Drive" and the more recent "Inland Empire". Some of these films (especially Inland Empire) are quite difficult to watch since you don't always understand what is happening at the first viewing, but they're worth a try as it's a break from the norm of 'everyday-films' where you just sit through for entertainment's sake. Now, as obscure and bizarre as Lynch films may be, it's always evident that he is more of an artist than he is a film-director, and it's good to take a note of that whilst watching, since some of the 'surreal set-designs' are his own artworks/paintings etc.

Thanks for all the info. I'll have to see about his stuff.