Thoughts on Being Ph.(inishe)D.

On Monday night (April 16th), in the midst of watching the latest episode of Mad Men, I received an e-mail from Prof. Janet Bergstrom, one of the members of my Fantastic Four dissertation committee (which was rounded out by Profs. John Caldwell, Denise Mann, and Henry Jenkins).  She had just finished reading the second draft of my dissertation and offered up a few general comments, some copy editing notes, and a flattering congratulations:  "Looking forward to calling you Dr. Drew!!"

There weren't any trumpets or parties (UCLA does not have a dissertation defense; we are asked to spend a year drafting a lengthy dissertation prospectus that is reviewed both by the Cinema and Media Studies faculty and our dissertation committees before becoming ABD).  I scooped out some ice cream and celebrated my newly acquired Doctorhood with my wife.  After ten years of work from B.A. to Ph.D., the whole process ended in a pleasant whisper.

Now, I'm not necessarily lamenting the closure I was given Monday night, just reflecting on it.  I'm not sure what I expected when I finished but - as John told me - the lack of a formal defense does make it a quiet affair.  In terms of timeline, here's how it went down:

I turned in a first draft of my dissertation early last summer to my co-chairs John and Denise.

The project, which focuses on the interlinking industries and styles of the American comic book industry and the Hollywood studio system, had been a hobby of mine since 2007 as a student in Janet's course on visual essays so I found that my love of it and my already established knowledge of the field made for a fairly smooth research and writing process.

I got back some notes in May (this was after spending a year working out a finely tuned prospectus, so most of the major issues had already been addressed, expediting the revision process), spent the summer revising, and got their blessing to go ahead and send out the second draft to Henry and Janet in January.  Henry finished up about a month ago and then Janet finished up this week.  The four committee members were pleased and while suggestions were made, they were all made on the hopeful assumption that this would one day become a book.    

C'est tout.

In the meantime, I've been getting a lot of questions about jobs and new projects.  Unfortunately, I do not have a tenure-track job lined up.  I'm currently an adjunct at California State University, Los Angeles and I'm really enjoying my time there teaching American Film History.  The job market could be a whole other post in itself but I'll just note that it's the most humbling gauntlet I've ever run and I believe that has done wonders for my character (there's some truth to tearing something down only to build it back up).  Yet, I'm looking at the bright side of that.  My 9-5 is low-impact, which has opened the door to new projects.  I'm looking forward to working through Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 - refining my Photoshop skills and working on some visual essays with Matthias Stork and Ben Sampson - and turning my dissertation into an article and a book proposal.  The horizon is full of possibilities and while I am not typically a mind who handles uncertainty without anxiety, I realize I am beginning to get there.

In the meantime, I just want to thank a few people for making this possible.  First off, my wife Nicole for all of her support and patience during the past ten years.  Secondly, to my stellar, caring, critically constructive, committee.  Working with John, Denise, Janet, and Henry was a tremendous experience and I still can't wait to learn more from the four of them.  Third, my classmates at UCLA.  David, Jen, Cliff, Julia, and Maya:  I owe much of this accomplishment to you for honing my prospectus in.  Also, a hearty thanks is due to Nick Browne, Steve Mamber, and Vivian Sobchack for pushing me to refine that very same document in their research design courses.  Finally, I owe this to my friends and family.  Mom, Dad, Tyler, Neal, the community of Comics Studies folks (Mike, Matt, Scott, Andrei, Jim, Suzanne).  Thank you all so much.  I look forward to making you all proud as my life path takes on new directions.

Edit:  I guess I can finally claim ownership of the blog title now.  

New Directions

It feels like just yesterday when I posted the "Declaration of Principles" here at The Cinema Doctor.    Yet, it was four and a half months ago and I have now had enough time to evaluate the endeavor.  I left my good friends at Pajiba in mid-July out of dissatisfaction.  This had nothing to do with Dustin, Dan, or Brian and everything to do with me.  I wanted to review more new releases, as I felt like I was getting pigeon holed with the film retrospectives, and yet the site had too many smart, funny, and amazing writers with seniority to make that dream a possibility.  


I thought that starting my own site and putting more of an emphasis on media at large from a more academic standpoint would prove fulfilling but dream of turning what is essentially a personal blog into a widely read site for criticism just was not feasible.  Between a 9-5 job, dissertation revisions, academic job hunting, and a personal life, I was lucky to post one or two articles a week.  I watched as web traffic gradually declined on a monthly basis because I simply could not keep interest in the blog single-handedly.  For every early review like Hugo (2011), which spiked traffic immensely thanks to the embargo-free sneak preview I attended, I found myself with ten reviews that I had put a lot of time into and only a few people read.  I slowly resigned myself to that outcome.  There just aren't enough hours in a day...  


Yet, I found out last week that I had been slightly underestimating myself.  I was contacted by some old college friends from UW-Milwaukee who were starting a new web publication.  They had followed my work since my undergrad days of writing for the UWM Post and asked me if I might have time to serve as the chief film critic for Cultural Transmogrifier.  I agreed and started producing content for the site, which launches this week.  I am thrilled to be a part of a loving family of writers again and I hope that this new project can fulfill both my desires to produce the content I want and to reach a proper audience.  Some of my fondest memories at Pajiba came out of our dynamic as a team, supporting one another when commenters went crazy and ribbing one another when we disagreed about the latest Tarantino film.  I look forward to working with my old friends and you can follow us over at www.ctzine.com.  The site is still in the design phase, but we'll be launching this week.  


As for The Cinema Doctor, I'll be shutting up shop for the most part.  I may run the occasional piece of Comics Studies or Video Game criticism or post a course syllabus once in a while, but the bulk of my work will now be running at Cultural Transmogrifier.  I just want to take a moment to thank a few people for their support over the past couple months.  First, to Pajiban Mswas at BGW Designs for the wonderful logo.  Secondly, to Dustin, Dan, Joanna, and Brian at Pajiba for the support.  Third, to my wife Nicole who had the patience to let me sit out a couple adventures to write up reviews.  Another thank you to Grae Drake at Popcorn Mafia for inviting me onto her podcast.  Finally, a big thank you to the readers who migrated over from Pajiba and the friends who kept the faith.  

The Best Media of 2011 (Version .80)

Another month, another revision...  This time with the beginnings of a ranking and links to my reviews!  

The Black Keys-El Camino (2011)

I was more than a little skeptical when I heard that The Black Keys's Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney had been able to record another album in just over a year after their phenomenal Brothers (2010).  Sure, The Beatles were able to harness that kind of energy in the 1960s and both The Roots and Kanye West have been able to produce quality work in a short period of time.  However, for every group that is able to pull off that manic work pace, there is a Mars Volta that seems to miss the target more and more with each hastily prepared album.  Thankfully, and this has been a damn strong year for music, Auerbach and Carney fall into the former category and their seventh record, El Camino (2011), is a hell of a ride.  

A Dangerous Method (2011)

A brief disclaimer is in order before I follow through here.  I haven't picked up much psychology reading in quite a while.  I read Sigmund Freud as an undergraduate in literary theory courses but we never read Carl Jung.  I took a couple classes in psychology as a sophomore in college.  The bulk of the psychoanalysis I've encountered in the past six years has been in the form of film theory and, never being much of a devotee to such approaches to spectatorship, my understanding is crudely general.  Essentially, if you're looking for a scholarly analysis of David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method (2011) from such a context, I am unable to provide it.  

The Artist (2011)

The midst of the annual awards season has given cinephiles two tremendous treats in Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011) and Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist (2011).  While Hugo attempts to redeem the overlooked - outside of introduction to film courses at least - career of film pioneer Georges Méliès, The Artist takes willing viewers back to late 1920s Hollywood as the industry was transitioning from silent film production to early talkies.  Hugo is one of the best films of the year thanks to Scorsese's potent mixture of heartfelt redemption, film history lecture, adventurous dissection of three dimensional space, and support of film preservation.  The Artist, a heartwarming and nostalgic dollop of cinematic whipping cream, never goes beyond the superficial.  

The Tree of Life (2011)

I feel incredibly conflicted over Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011). It is, without question, one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. The theatrical release poster, showcasing a barrage of images from the film, is a fitting marketing tool, as the film's raison d'être is not the story nor the performances by Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, and the children.  The film's being stems from Malick's work with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (who also shot Children of Men) and production designer Jack Fisk (and, in a few sequences, with special effects guru Douglas Trumbull, who designed some of the effects for Tree of Life's formal ancestor, 2001:  A Space Odyssey).  Each shot in the film aims for the sublime (and the film has a lot of shots...I'd love to see a shot by shot analysis, but someone would need to have a lot of time on their hands to put that together) and the formal achievements of the film should not be underestimated.  On the other hand, the vague impressions of plot that Malick attempts to tie the images together with simply does not provide enough narrative momentum to justify the 140 minute running time.