The Body Fat Setpoint, Part IV: Changing the Setpoint

Prevention is Easier than Cure

Experiments in animals have confirmed what common sense suggests: it's easier to prevent health problems than to reverse them. Still, many health conditions can be improved, and in some cases reversed, through lifestyle interventions. It's important to have realistic expectations and to be kind to oneself. Cultivating a drill sergeant mentality will not improve quality of life, and isn't likely to be sustainable.

Fat Loss: a New Approach

If there's one thing that's consistent in the medical literature, it's that telling people to eat fewer calories isn't a very effective fat loss strategy, despite the fact that it works if strictly adhered to. Many people who use this strategy see transient fat loss, followed by fat regain and a feeling of defeat. There's a simple reason for it: the body doesn't want to lose weight. It can be difficult to fight the fat mass setpoint, and the body will use every tool it has to maintain its preferred level of fat: hunger, increased interest in food, reduced body temperature, higher muscle efficiency (i.e., less energy is expended for the same movement), lethargy, lowered immune function, et cetera.

Therefore, what we need for sustainable fat loss is not starvation; we need a treatment that lowers the fat mass setpoint. There are several criteria that this treatment will have to meet to qualify:

1. It must cause fat loss
2. It must not involve deliberate calorie restriction
3. It must maintain fat loss over a long period of time
4. It must not be harmful to overall health

I also prefer strategies that make sense from the perspective of human evolution.

Strategies: Diet Pattern

One treatment that fits my criteria is low-carbohydrate dieting. Overweight people eating low-carbohydrate diets generally lose some fat and spontaneously reduce their calorie intake. In fact, in several diet studies, investigators compared an all-you-can-eat low-carbohydrate diet with a calorie-restricted low-fat diet. The low-carbohydrate dieters generally reduced their calorie intake and body fat to a similar or greater degree than the low-fat dieters, despite the fact that they ate all the calories they wanted (1). This may suggest that their fat mass setpoint had changed. At this point, I think moderate carbohydrate restriction may be preferable to strict carbohydrate restriction for some people, due to the increasing number of reports I've read of people doing poorly in the long run on extremely low-carbohydrate diets.  Furthermore, controlled trials of low-carb diets show that the long-term weight loss, despite being greater than low-fat diets, is not that impressive for the "average person".  Some people find it highly effective, while most people find it moderately effective or even ineffective.

Another strategy that appears preferable is the "paleolithic" diet. In Dr. Staffan Lindeberg's 2007 diet study, overweight volunteers with heart disease lost fat and reduced their calorie intake to a remarkable degree while eating a diet consistent with our hunter-gatherer heritage (3). This result is consistent with another diet trial of the paleolithic diet in diabetics (4). In post hoc analysis, Dr. Lindeberg's group showed that the reduction in weight was apparently independent of changes in carbohydrate intake*. This suggests that the paleolithic diet has health benefits that are independent of carbohydrate intake.

Strategies: Gastrointestinal Health

Since the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is so intimately involved in body fat metabolism and overall health (see the former post), the next strategy is to improve GI health. There are a number of ways to do this, but they all center around four things:

1. Don't eat food that encourages the growth of harmful bacteria
2. Eat food that encourages the growth of good bacteria
3. Don't eat food that impairs gut barrier function
4. Eat food that promotes gut barrier health

The first one is pretty easy in theory: avoid fermentable substances of which you're intolerant.  This can include lactose (milk) and certain polysaccharides, and a number of other FODMAPs.  For the second and fourth points, make sure to eat fermentable fiber. In one trial, oligofructose supplements led to sustained fat loss, without any other changes in diet (5). This is consistent with experiments in rodents showing improvements in gut bacteria profile, gut barrier health, glucose tolerance and body fat mass with oligofructose supplementation (6, 7, 8).  However, oligofructose is a FODMAP and therefore will be poorly tolerated by a subset of people.

The colon is packed with symbiotic bacteria, and is the site of most intestinal fermentation. The small intestine contains fewer bacteria, but gut barrier function there is critical as well. The small intestine is where the GI doctor will take a biopsy to look for celiac disease. Celiac disease is a degeneration of the small intestinal lining due to an autoimmune reaction caused by gluten (in wheat, barley and rye). This brings us to one of the most important elements of maintaining gut barrier health: avoiding food sensitivities. Gluten and casein (in dairy protein) are the two most common offenders. Gluten sensitivity is more common than most people realize; just under 1% of young adults and the prevalence increases with age.

Eating raw fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and half-sour pickles also helps maintain the integrity of the upper GI tract. I doubt these have any effect on the colon, given the huge number of bacteria already present.

Strategies: Miscellaneous

Anecdotally, many people have had success using intermittent fasting (IF) for fat loss. There's some evidence in the scientific literature that IF and related approaches may be helpful (14). There are different approaches to IF, but a common and effective method is to do two complete 24-hour fasts per week. It's important to note that IF isn't about restricting calories, it's about resetting the fat mass setpoint. After a fast, allow yourself to eat quality food until you're no longer hungry.

Insufficient sleep has been strongly and repeatedly linked to obesity. Whether it's a cause or consequence of obesity I can't say for sure, but in any case it's important for health to sleep until you feel rested. If your sleep quality is poor due to psychological stress, meditating before bedtime may help. I find that meditation has a remarkable effect on my sleep quality. Due to the poor development of oral and nasal structures in industrial nations, many people do not breathe effectively and may suffer from conditions such as sleep apnea that reduce sleep quality. Overweight also contributes to these problems.


* Since reducing carbohydrate intake wasn't part of the intervention, this result is observational.

More about → The Body Fat Setpoint, Part IV: Changing the Setpoint

RICE PUDDING

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics is fast approaching, and the weather is not exactly cooperating.  It’s so mild you can walk outside in a t–shirt!

However, during the evening, it’s still quite nippy…enough to warrant a warming comfort food my daughters simply love.  They get all excited over puddings.  Warm rice pudding is their absolute favourite. 

I rummaged around my “rice bin”, which is simply a drawer filled with close to 100 pounds of practically 20 different varieties of rice.  I’ve got black rice, red rice, wild rice, Jasmine, Basmati, Brown, Semi-brown, glutinous, sushi rice and the list goes on. 

I thought how pretty it would be to make red rice pudding.  Or black rice pudding.  Then I reminded myself that for my 6 year old and 3 year old, refined white rice would probably be much more appreciated.  I know, I know.  Bad mommy.  I should be thinking of their fibre intake and all the extra nutrients in the other rices.  Perhaps another day. 

This Rice Pudding is pretty traditional and straight forward.  No egg yolks, no separate custard or pastry cream to mix into the concoction.  All the ingredients will be in your pantry.

We prefer to eat our Rice Pudding slightly warm because cold rice is just yucky in texture. It’s kind of crunchy if it’s too cold.  So we just nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds before serving and if it’s too thick, we thin it with some milk. 

For my serving of pudding, I added cardamom pods.  They would inevitably say “Mommy, what’s that green stuff in the pudding? is it a vegetable?” 

Horrors. 

So I always split my desserts before serving and add the neat-o flavour enhancers to my portions.  Everybody’s happy.

RICE PUDDING

• 1/2 cup short-grain or medium-grain white rice ( I used Kokuho brand sushi rice)
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 3 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup organic evaporated cane sugar
• 5 cardamom pods, split (optional)

1. Rinse the rice under water 3 times until clear.  Place rice in a large heavy saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.  Remove from the heat and drain with a sieve.
2. Return the rice to the pan.  Add milk, cream and cardamom pods, if using.
3. Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally with a heat-proof rubber spatula to prevent rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. Stir in vanilla extract.  Stir in sugar and simmer for 10 more minutes.  Pour the rice pudding into a small serving container, discarding cardamom pods (if used).
5. Serve warm or refrigerate for later.   If you need to warm up the pudding,  spoon out individual portions and microwave for a few seconds to warm through.  Stir in a little milk if it’s too thick.

More about → RICE PUDDING

Seeing through Avatar: Film Allegory 101

Links updated February 17

Two wounded men: an image of some of Avatar's polysemic screen layers...

"[F]or an allegory to be effective, there must remain some sense that it is actually an allegory" Jeffrey Sconce, Ludic Despair, January 3, 2010

"I'm analogizing race and species here because Cameron's space fable encourages me to do so with all the subtlety of a fry pan upside my head" Scott Eric Kaufman, Acephalous, December 20, 2009

Like/unlike (delete as appropriate) rather a lot of other spectators, Film Studies For Free's author very much enjoyed her recent absorbing encounter with James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar in 3D.

In fact, her immersion in the story-world of this film served to remind her -- in this, the age of more permanent film 'possession' (DVDs, downloads) -- that what we have always been purchasing with our cinema ticket, especially as regards a first-time film viewing, is a one-off and unrepeatable experience. 

Just as in the good old days of old-fashioned cinematic spectatorship, Avatar really has created the space for a thrilling, phenomenological ride. Thanks for the sense-memories, Mr Cameron. 

As for Avatar's plot, however, it is not so much absolutely fabulous as overwhelmingly fabular... Indeed, coming away from the cinema, it's very easy to understand the utter fascination, bordering on obsession, in reviews and discussions of Avatar, with the notion of the 'messages', 'allusions', 'analogies', 'parallels', and, especially, 'allegories' seemingly conveyed by Cameron's film. 

Here's a list, in a nice Na'vi blue, of ten of the 'allegories' most frequently detected by the reviews, together with direct links to an example or two (note: many more, online, allegory-reading reviews are listed further down the post): 

• A rainforest destruction allegory (e.g. Morningmayan, 'Pandora Lives in Us - The Allegory of Avatar' YouTube video essay) 

• A more general, "slash-and-burn extractive industries"/Neo-colonialist allegory (e.g. Neely, 'Avatar: an allegory of the West?'; 'Calder Williams, 'Mining the Unobtainable')  

• An even broader Gaia-hypothesis allegory (e.g. Rundkvist, 'Avatar and the Gaia Hypothesis'; North, 'Gaia and Dolls: James Cameron’s Avatar') 

• An allegory of the genocide and continued oppression of indigenous peoples (A) in the Americas by European/'post-European' colonialism (e.g. Monbiot, 'The Holocaust We Will Not See'; Andrew Patrick Nelson, 'Cowboys and avatars',) and (B) in Africa under the multinational slave trade (e.g. Free Republic comments thread)

• A White Messiah allegory (Huang, 'Avatar Review'; Brooks, 'The Messiah Complex'; Newitz, 'When will white people stop making movies like "Avatar"?'. But also see Bill the Lizard, 'What Does Avatar Tell Us About Masculinity and Disability?' for the opposite view) 

• A Postcolonial allegory (Tiso, 'Postcolonialicious') 

• An Iraq War/War on Terror allegory (Hoyle, 'War on Terror backdrop to James Cameron's Avatar'; Lafleur, 'Avatar: A Critical Assessment'; Nolte, ' ...Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Is a Big, Dull, America-Hating, PC Revenge Fantasy'; Fisher, 'They killed their mother: Avatar as ideological symptom',) 

• A more general American foreign-policy allegory (e.g. Sconce, 'Avatard', Gardiner, 'Avatar: the most expensive piece'...'; Nolte, ' ...Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Is a Big, Dull, America-Hating, PC Revenge Fantasy') 

• An allegory of the cinema (e.g. Sconce, 'Avatard')

• A related allegory to the latter: of cultural understanding through total immersion (e.g. Cohen, 'Next-Generation 3-D Medium of ‘Avatar’ Underscores Its Message')
  

The reviews are frequently (if by no means always) characterized by a sense that the above allegories are 'inherent' and obvious. Evidently, such critical moves obviate the need for much, if any, detailed discussion as to how we read, or do not read, particular allegories in particular films.

This is absolutely fine, of course, for journalistic, or, indeed, any "instant impression" reviews, based as they invariably are on just one viewing of the film. Taking on complex questions, such as how Avatar's subtexts might have found their expression through their particular "patterns of metaphorical substitution" (Jeff Smith, p. 1 [pdf]), is not their usual purpose - Jeffrey Sconce's hilarious demolition of some of these fabular processes in his own rapid response to the film notwithstanding ('Before racing the hare, the tortoise does not stop to opine, “By participating in this unlikely contest, I hope to teach you some important lessons about hubris, determination, complacency and the work ethic."').

But, being an earnestly scholarly blog, Film Studies For Free is not happy with any dearth of understanding on this earth. So, as heroic Jake Sully might also say, it's 'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more', as FSFF humbly proffers the following notes on film allegory, together with a handy and extensive listing of online and openly accessible resources on Avatar and allegory, and also of (generally, more scholarly ones) on allegory in film.

The evidence base for allegorical interpretation?

"Allegory -- from the Greek, allos, "other" and agoreuein, "to speak in public" -- figuratively unites two orders, one of which is shown and the other of which is kept out of view, establishing relationships of resemblance between them such that the reader or spectator may construe meaning over and above the literal. Allegory stages the relationship between personal and political, private and public, which is often central to the production of political meaning in art." Joanna Page, Crisis and Capitalism in Contemporary Argentine Cinema (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009), p. 182

Film allegory paradoxically requires spectators to take up a particular vantage point from which a story "kept out of view" (to use Page's words) can clearly be seen. As Ismail Xavier writes in Allegories of Underdevelopment, in the case of allegory, it's a particular 'narrative texture [that] places the spectator in [this] analytical posture' (FSFF's emphasis).

This 'texture' -- including repeated or repetitious story-elements, such as, sometimes, seemingly gratuitous features of characterization, dialogue (e.g. "shock and awe"), etc. -- eventually provokes in the spectator the question "why are you telling me that when you are supposed to be (necessarily and literally) telling me this (direct) story?"

The salience of the elements and their patterning, together with their hermeneutic journey from 'unnecessary' to 'necessary', are essential in the triggering of "our operations of decoding". This latter phrase comes from cultural theorist Fredric Jameson. In his many discussions of allegory, Jameson makes clear that allegorical reading is a kind of pattern recognition, involving our imaginative capacities.

For Jameson, political and historical facts and realities external to films find themselves

inscribed within the internal intrinsic experience of the film in what Sartre in a suggestive and too-little known concept in his Psychology of Imagination calls the analogon: that structural nexus in our reading or viewing experience, in our operations of decoding or aesthetic reception, which can then do double duty and stand as the substitute and the representative within the aesthetic object of a phenomenon on the outside which cannot in the very nature of things be 'rendered' directly. [Fredric Jameson, 'Class and Allegory in Contemporary Mass Culture: Dog Day Afternoon as a Political Film', College English, Vol. 38, No. 8, Mass Culture, Political Consciousness and English Studies (Apr., 1977), pp. 843-859, p. 858(pdf) (hyperlinks added by FSFF)]

Allegorical recognition works best when a film's patterns of allusiveness (Jameson's 'structural nexus') offer ‘clear configurations for the essential pieces of its game'; when there's a 'graphic isolation of the [allegorical] elements put into relation’, as Xavier again puts it (p. 20): 'The greater the pedagogic impulse of the allegory, the more unmistakable is [the signalling]' (Xavier, p. 16).
 
This is probably why Avatar, with what many critics of the film have noted are its 'cardboard cutout' characters and at times 'clunky dialogue', has provoked so much discussion about its allegoricalness: the excessive signalling of its 'other stories' is, indeed, completely unmistakable. 
 
But that doesn't explain the proliferation of these stories, or why there is complete lack of agreement on what the film's 'principal allegory' is, other than Avatar's own Unobtainium, perhaps.
 
As Joanna Page continues in her theoretical exploration of allegory, it

marks a gap between representation and referent, the essential otherness of two planes of signification that is precisely the quality that permits them to be aligned in the production of meaning. Reflexivity, on the other hand, enacts a conflation of the two and a collapse of possible distinctions between them. Joanna Page, Crisis and Capitalism in Contemporary Argentine Cinema (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009), p. 182, 189

A polysemic text par excellence, as befits one designed to draw in the largest possible global audience, Avatar literally cannot afford to convey only one allegory, to provide only two vantage-points for its stories, because it is a reflexive film -- not an especially complex one, but a reflexive one nonetheless.

As such, it chooses to conflate and collapse many of the distinctions between its literal stories and its 'hidden' ones. In other words, nothing much is really hidden, everything is seen through: indeed, Avatar veritably lets it all hang out. 

In one of the best critical assessments of Cameron's film so far, Jörg Heiser writes

Avatar is an amalgam, as if in a strange dream, of many of these kinds of allusions and associations, and you can look at it being very clever[ly] calculated to capture the widest possible audience globally, playing many cards at once; but by way of the very same strategy, it also could be seen as capturing the widest possible 3-D panorama shot of collective anxieties about the future (ecology, war, loss of social love and security etc.). And in the same contradictory way, it is this all-encompassing ambition that is interesting about it, but also what is off-putting." Jörg Heiser, Editor's Blog, Frieze Magazine, January 26, 2010

On Avatar and Allegory: 

• Bill the Lizard, 'What Does Avatar Tell Us About Masculinity and Disability?', Open Salon,December 23, 2009 
• David Brooks, 'The Messiah Complex', New York Times, January 8, 2010
• Evan Calder Williams, 'Mining the Unobtainable', Socialism and/or Barbarism,January 24, 2010
  
• Adam Cohen, 'Next-Generation 3-D Medium of ‘Avatar’ Underscores Its Message', New York Times, December 25, 2009 
• Ross Douthat, 'Heaven and Nature', New York Times, December 21, 2009 
• Gregg Egan, 'Avatar Review', GreggEgan.net, December 20, 2009 
• Thomas Eddlem, 'Avatar: A Visually Stunning and Perfect Historical Allegory' The new American, December 21, 2009 
• Jim Emerson, 'Avatar, the French New Wave and the morality of deep-focus (in 3-D)', Scanners, February 10, 2010
• Blake Eskin, David Denby and Richard Brody, 'Review of Avatar', New Yorker: Out Loud, January 4, 2010, Podcast (Mp3) 
• Mark Fisher, 'They killed their mother: Avatar as ideological symptom', k-punk, January 6, 2010 
• Nile Gardiner, 'Avatar: the most expensive piece of anti-American propaganda ever made', The Telegraph, December 25, 2009 
• Jörg Heiser, 'Extraterrestrial Irish Pub Type', Editor's Blog, Frieze Magazine, January 26, 2010 
• Ben Hoyle, 'War on Terror backdrop to James Cameron's Avatar', The Australian, December 11, 2009
• Adrian Ivakhiv, 'Avatar: Panthea v. the Capitalist War Machine', immanence blog, December 21, 2009 
  
• Adrian Ivakhiv, 'Avatar's global affects', immanence blog, February 15, 2010
• Huang Zhangjin (黄章晋) - Avatar review cited by Andy Yee, 'China: Bloggers' Reviews of Avatar' Global Voices Online, January 11, 2010 
• Dave Itzkoff, 'You Saw What in ‘Avatar’? Pass Those Glasses!', New York Times,January 20, 2010 
• Henry Jenkins, 'Five Ways to Read Avatar', Confessions of an Aca-Fan, February 1, 2010
• Boris Johnson, 'Stop pining for life on Pandora and come back to planet Earth', The Telegraph, January 25, 2010 
• Shaun Joseph, 'A look at Avatar's Achilles' heel', SocialistWorker.org, January 12, 2010 
• Daniel Kasman, 'Avatarcraft', The Auteurs: Notebook, January 17, 2010 
• Scott Eric Kaufman, 'Intentions be damned, Avatar is racist (as is praying for and/or to "JaMarcus Manning")', Acephalous, December 20, 2009 
• Roz Kaveney, 'Avatar', Strange Horizons, January 6, 2010 
• Glenn Kenny, 'James Cameron's "Avatar"', The Auteurs: Notebook, December 11, 2009 
• Steve Lafleur, 'Avatar: A Critical Assessment', Lafleur's Film Blog, December, 2009
• 
China Miéville,'Why the Na’vi Are Making Me Blue', Speakeasy, January 13, 2010 
• George Monbiot, 'The Holocaust we will not see', The Guardian, January 11, 2010 
• Nicholas Neely, 'Avatar: an allegory of the West?', The Goat Blog, January 12, 2010 
• Andrew Patrick Nelson, 'Cowboys and avatars', AP at the Movies, January 3, 2010
• Annalee Newitz, 'When will white people stop making movies like "Avatar"?', IO9, December 18, 2009 
• Annalee Newitz, 'Is Avatar Too Realistic For Its Own Good', IO9, January 21, 2010 
• John Nolte, ' REVIEW: Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Is a Big, Dull, America-Hating, PC Revenge Fantasy', Andrew Breibart Presents Big Hollywood, December 11, 2009 
• Dan North, 'Gaia and Dolls: James Cameron’s Avatar', Spectacular Attractions, December 23, 2009 
• Dan North, ''Digesting Avatar', Spectacular Attractions, January 6, 2010
• Bert Olivier, 'The ecopolitics of Avatar', Thought Leader, January 25, 2010 
• Bert Olivier, 'Avatar (Take Two)', Thought Leader, February 8, 2010
• Jo Piazza, 'Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues', CNN Entertainment, January 11, 2010 
• John Podhoretz, 'Avatarocious', WeeklyStandard.com, December 28, 2009 
• Andrew Price, 'Does Avatar's Political Agenda Matter?', GOOD Blog, January 16, 2010 
• Bob Rehak, 'Watching Avatar', Graphic Engine, December 30, 2009 
• Richard Roeper, ''Avatar' is no 'Star Wars' -- or leftist allegory', Chicago Sun-Times, January 7, 2010 
• Martin Rundkvist, 'Avatar and the Gaia Hypothesis', Aardvarchaeology, January 16, 2010 
• Jeffrey Sconce, 'Avatard', Ludic Despair, January 3, 2010
• Mayank Shekhar, 'D’ya really need this review?', Hindustan Times, December 18, 2009 
• Giovanni Tiso, 'Postcolonialicious', Bat, Bean, Beam, January 25, 2010 
• Chuck Tryon, 'Avatar', The Chutry Experiment, January 17, 2010 
• Jeffrey Weiss, 'Politics and Religion on Pandora: Why 'Avatar' is Crummy Allegory', Politics Daily, December 21, 2009 
• Armond White, 'Blue In the Face: James Cameron delivers dumb escapism with his expensive special effects in "Avatar"', New York Press, December 15, 2009
• Evan Calder Williams, 'Mining the Unobtainable', Socialism and/or Barbarism,January 24, 2010
• Andy Yee, 'China: Bloggers' Reviews of Avatar' Global Voices Online, January 11, 2010 
• Leela Yellesetty, 'Avatar is a great starting point', SocialistWorker.org, January 15, 2010 
• Steven Zeitchik, ''Avatar': Red-state politics + blue aliens = box-office green', January 5, 2010

On Film Allegory:

• Stephanie Baric, 'Yugoslav War Cinema: Shooting A Nation Which No Longer Exists', MA Thesis, Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 2001
• Felicity Collins, 'History, Myth and Allegory in Australian Cinema', Trames, 2008, 12(62/57), 3, 276–286  
• Felicity Collins, 'Historical fiction and the allegorical truth of colonial violence in The Proposition', Cultural Studies Review, March 2008  
• Felicity Collins, 'Michelle Langford, Allegorical Images: Tableau, Time and Gesture in the Cinema of Werner Schroeter, Bristol: Intellect Books, 2006', Screening the Past, Issue 23, 2008 
• Sérgio Dias Branco,"Dead Inside: Allegory and Subjectivity in Abel Ferrara's The Addiction", originally published in Renegade Visions: Films and Filmmakers that Defy Popular Cinema, ed. Matthew Edwards. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010 
• Catherine Grant, 'Questions of national and transnational film aesthetics, ethics, and politics in Costa Gavras's Missing (1982)', Paper at Study day on 'The National/Transnational in Hispanic and Latin American Film and the Telenovela' , Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London, November 17, 2007
  
• Catherine Grant, 'Still Moving Images: Photographs of the Disappeared in Film about the "Dirty War" in Argentina', in: Phototextualities: Intersections of Photography and Narrative, eds. Alex Hughes and Andrea Noble (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003), pp. 63-86 
• Catherine Grant, 'Giving up Ghosts: Eliseo Subiela's Hombre mirando al sudeste and No te mueras sin decirme a dónde vas', Changing Reels: Latin American Cinema against the Odds, ed. Rob Rix and Roberto Rodríguez-Saona (Leeds: Leeds Iberian Papers - Trinity and All Saints/University of Leeds, 1997), pp. 89-120  
• Mike Ingham, 'History in the Making: Allegory, history, fiction and Chow Yun-fat in the 1980s Hong Kong films Hong Kong 1941 (Dir. Po Chieh-leong) and Love in a Fallen City (Dir. Ann Hui)', Screening the Past, Issue 24, 2009  
• Fredric Jameson, 'Class and Allegory in Contemporary Mass Culture: Dog Day Afternoon as a Political Film', College English, Vol. 38, No. 8, Mass Culture, Political Consciousness and English Studies (Apr., 1977), pp. 843-859  
• Michelle Langford, 'Displaced Allegories: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema by Negar Mottahedeh', Senses of Cinema, Issue 52, 2009 
• Ryan Lizardi, 'Repelling the Invasion of the "Other": Post-Apocalyptic Alien Shooter Videogames Addressing Contemporary Cultural Attitudes', Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture. 2009; 3 (2), p. 295-308 
• Bernhard Malkmus and Ian Cooper, 'Introduction: "The Third" and Modernity', in Third Agents: Secret Protagonists of the Modern Imagination, Edited by Ian Cooper, Ekkehard Knörer and Bernhard Malkmus (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008)  
• Lúcia Nagib,'Reframing Utopia: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema at the Turn of the Century', P: Portuguese Cultural Studies 0 Winter 2006   
• M.A. Ouellette, 'I Hope You Never See Another Day Like This': Pedagogy & Allegory in 'Post 9/11' Video Games. Game Studies 8.1, 2008  
• Daniel Serravalle de Sá, 'State of Horror: the Films of José Mojica Marins and the Brazilian Dictatorship', Tropical Gothi: Latin American Gothic Manifestations, March 9, 2009  
• Jeff Smith, 'Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Christian?: The Strange History of The Robe As Political Allegory', Film Studies, Issue 7, Winter 2005  
• Øyvind Vågnes, 'Inside the Zapruder Museum',‘Show/Tell: Relationships between Text, Narrative and Image’ Working Papers on Design 2 (2007)  
• Maurizio Viano, 'Life is Beautiful: Reception, Allegory, and Holocaust Laughter', Jewish Social Studies 5.3 (1999) 47-66 
• Ester Võsu, Ene Kõresaar, Kristin Kuutma, 'Mediation of Memory: Towards Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Current Memory Studies - Preface to the special issue of Trames', Trames, 2008, 12(62/57), 3, 243–263 

Follow Film Studies For Free on Twitter

More about → Seeing through Avatar: Film Allegory 101

Deli - cious

Missy over at Sweet Crumbs made herself an awesome SPAM sandwich for her dinner. I was so inspired that I made it almost right away!

I was glad that I did not just bookmark her recipe and put it aside, otherwise I wouldn't believe that I could actually create a deli-style sandwich at home :)

No, I didn't make the bread, just like Missy, I bought a loaf of Gardenia focaccia, which happens to me my favourite bread before I started baking bread at home.

I really like her idea of pairing luncheon meat with mushrooms. Even though we all know that we should cut down on processed food, I just can't resist the temptation of a SPAM sandwich. I believe as long as we eat everything in moderation, we should be fine...and it is not as though we have luncheon meat every other week, I couldn't even remember when was the last time we had luncheon meat in our meals, it must be many moons ago. And, I bought SPAM Lite, which claims to contain less fat and less sodium (well, it still taste loaded with sodium!) Yes, yes, I am trying hard to justify that I am not a bad mom because I feed my kids with junk food ;')

I sliced the loaf into half, spread some butter on the cut-side, arranged slices of cheese on one side of the loaf and toasted them in the oven for a couple of minutes. This step does wonder to the bread, the crust is slightly crisp and the bread tasted freshly braked. I then layered it with lettuce, tomatoes, sauteed fresh button mushrooms (seasoned with some pepper) and pan-fried-till-golden SPAM slices.

I have never been a good cook, but I was so proud to be able to put together a foot-long sandwich. During the preparation, I felt as though I was a sandwich artist ^_^"

So here's another quick-fix meal, the kids were all bright eyed and bushy tailed when they saw their yummy 'deli-style' lunch.

Thanks Missy for sharing such a great meal idea!

More about → Deli - cious

Tune in to Antenna

[Film Studies For Free will be sorry to say goodbye to Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker/Spider-Man...]

Film Studies For Free wanted to let its readers know about Antenna, a very stimulating blog from graduate students and faculty in the Media and Cultural Studies area of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Here's what this relatively new site says about itself:

Antenna is a collectively authored media and cultural studies blog committed to timely yet careful analysis of texts, news, and events from across the popular culture spectrum. The site regularly responds to new works and developments in television, film, music, gaming, digital video, the Internet, print, and the media industries.

Antenna is intended to address a broad public inside and outside the university walls. Within those walls, though, it further intends to bridge the gap between scholarly journals, which remain the paradigm for scholarly discourse but too often lack the ability to reply to issues and events in media with any immediacy, and single-author media scholar blogs, which support swift commentary but are limited in their reliance upon the effort and perspectives of individuals. Coordinated by a group of writers who draw on a variety of approaches and methodologies, Antenna, therefore, exists as a means to analyze media news and texts, both as they happen and from multiple perspectives.

Antenna is currently operated and edited by graduate students and faculty in the Media and Cultural Studies area of the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Although, while in its current stage, the content published on the site is written largely by members of that program, Antenna is currently in the process of expanding our author team, and we hope eventually to include contributions and comments from a diverse collection of writers.

Antenna’s goal is to create a forum in which readers and contributors participate in active, open, and thoughtful debate about media and culture.

Antenna is designed to respond quickly to events, and thus rather than be published on a set, periodic schedule, Antenna updates its content continually. Because Antenna is interested in timely responses, we encourage short entries. Extensive presentation of evidence is not required, though supplementary links are encouraged.

With its extremely lively house style, and wide-ranging topics, FSFF thinks Antenna has a great future ahead of it. For examples of some good film-related posts, it recommends you check out the following to start with:  

• 'Smells Like an Ethnically Divided Teen Star System' by Mary Beltrán  

• 'THWIP!+CTRL+DEL (on the rebooting of the Spider-Man franchise)' by Derek Johnson    

• 'Egregious Product Placement: The Invention of Lying' By Erin Copple Smith

You can also follow Antenna's updates on Twitter.

More about → Tune in to Antenna

Rhianna Ford - The Da Vinci Letter

Travel to Rome with Rhianna Ford, and confirm the authenticity of a still sealed letter allegedly written by Da Vinci! Cornelius Blake has demanded that Rhianna pack her things and head across the Atlantic to test the ancient letter. Use our helpful Strategy Guide to help Rhianna discover the truth about the letter, and keep her job! Explore beautiful Italy in Rhianna Ford and the Letter from Da Vinci!

Game Size 181MB

More about → Rhianna Ford - The Da Vinci Letter

Rasputins Curse

Help Lora unravel the secrets of her family’s history in Rasputin’s Curse, a mind-bending Hidden Object game! When Lora and Mark’s marriage reaches a breaking point, she sets out on a journey to St. Petersburg, Russia, a city that has mysteriously fascinated her throughout her life. Not only will her trip to St. Petersburg, the birthplace of her great-grandmother, give her the opportunity to research her heritage, it will also give her a much-needed break from things at home!

Game Size 160MB

More about → Rasputins Curse

Million Dollar Quest

Sandra never had a lot of money. Early on in life she was in a horrible car accident that resulted in her losing her memory and landed her in an orphanage. Now, as an adult, she has decided to answer an invitation to participate in a Million Dollar Quest! It seems exciting at first, involving trips all around the world, but it begins to get a little freaky as numerous Hidden Object clues in the competition seem linked to her amnesia and lost childhood memories.

Game Size 168MB

More about → Million Dollar Quest

On Avatar & Boss-zilla: a new issue of FlowTV

Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate in The Proposal (Anne Fletcher, 2009). See '“Attack of Boss-zilla!” – Female Conflict and Generational Discord…' by Hannah Hamad

Film Studies For Free brings you glad tidings of the new issue of ever wonderful online journal Flow: A Critical Forum on Television and Media Culture. In this latest offering there are some great film related items: Charles R. Acland on Avatar and the media language of revolutionary change; and Hannah Hamad on the film and media popularity of female characters as terrorizing figures. Links to all articles are given below:

• Amanda Ann Klein ,"Window Dressing: Spectactular Costuming in MTV's The City" (An examination of how costume trumps narrative in MTV's The City)
  

• Zoe Druick, "A Married Couple: Reality TV's Progenitor Turns 40"  (A re-examination of A Married Couple in light of the current proliferation of reality-based TV)
  

• James Bennett, "The BBC Presenter Pay Scandal: The Political Economy of Television Fame"  (A look at the recent pay scandal surrounding BBC?s Jonathan Ross ? and what it tells us about the economics of fame today)
  

• Hannah Hamad, "'Attack of Boss-zilla!' ? Female Conflict and Generational Discord in Postfeminism?s New Monstrous Feminine" (An examination of film and TV series? treatment of postfeminist identities, especially the popularity of women as terrorizing forces, or '-zillas.')
  

• Nina B. Huntemann, "Irreconcilable Differences: Gender and Labor in the Video Game Workplace"  (A look at the labor politics of the game industry )
  

• Charles R. Acland, "Avatar as Technological Tentpole" (Is James Cameron's Avatar a "game-changer," or business as usual?)
  

• Vanessa Au, "Twitter Revolution" (A consideration of the Iranian elections and the potentially revolutionary aspects of social media)

More about → On Avatar & Boss-zilla: a new issue of FlowTV

CYPRUS SALT-CRUSTED CRISPY OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

Sometimes a little more salt is not a good thing.

Ordinarily, I'm all over Salty Caramel and Salty Chocolate (and even more so if the salt in question is Fleur de Sel).  One cookie in which I like a salty-sweet combination is a Chocolate Chip Cookie with salty almonds.  But nuts are supposed to be salty.  So it works for me.

Since experimenting with sprinkling some Cyprus Salt on my Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies, I am not so convinced they belong on this traditional cookie.  They were definitely not bad, but they weren't "wow, that was amazing!"  So in the interests of my family's blood pressure and my own (though my bp is low) I think I'll pass on the sprinkle of salt on these cookies. 

I used Superstore's President's Choice Cyprus Mediterranean Salt. Pretty, isn't it?

The additional flavour and texture simply isn't worth the health problems that will ensue.  Besides, I indulge in salt in so many other ways; this is a place it's not needed.  I'd rather have this as a finishing salt on a roasted chunk of meat or on roasted veggies. 

When I offered the cookies to my colleagues at work, they all steered their hands towards the ones without the little flecks of salt.  The only person who appreciated it was Asian.  He likes a little salt in his sweets.   I'm not averse to it, but...meh.  It's not that great.  I'm a traditionalist when it comes to oatmeal cookies.

More about → CYPRUS SALT-CRUSTED CRISPY OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

Chocolate Delight

You will need:

Crust:
3 C finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
½ C white sugar
¾ C {1 ½ sticks} melted butter
½ t cinnamon {heaping tsp}

Filling:
1 {8 ounce} package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cold milk
1 (12 ounce) tub whipped topping, thawed, divided or heavy whipped cream {recipe
below}
3 1/4 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello Chocolate Instant Pudding
1 dark chocolate candy bar for garnish

Crush graham crackers. I put them in a ziplock and rolled over with my rolling pin.

Mix graham cracker crumbs with 1/2 c. sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter.

Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes. Cool completely.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and 2 Tbsp. milk in medium bowl well blended. Stir in 1 & 1/4
cups of the whipped topping.

Spread over cooled crust.

Mix pudding and milk according to package.

Spread over cream cheese layer. Let stand about 5 minutes or until thickened.

Top with remaining whipped topping. Garnish with chocolate shavings.

Serve and enjoy!

Yum!

More about → Chocolate Delight