you just got scheduled for brain surgery, what are you gonna do?

Just to clarify, I scheduled my ommaya port insertion for June 18th.  It should be much easier than my craniotomy in September, but I am going to get another hole drilled in my skull.

The picture is an all too subtle reference to the fact that Keith and I are off to Disney for the weekend.  There is a new ride associated with the Cars movies from Pixar and we're headed to a sneak peak.  It should be some silly fun!

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OOTD

All from Primark

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Mydamnstagrams: Solange Knowles on Instagram

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Watermelon Flavored Cake

My oldest daughter gave me the inspiration for this cake.

That girl seriously loves watermelon!
 

When I told her that I was decorating a cake to look like a watermelon,

she excitedly asked, "Will it taste like watermelon too?"

Umm...

could I make a cake that tastes like watermelon?
After some brainstorming and research, the answer is "Yes!".

Watermelon puree and Jell-O give this cake it's flavor, and it is fantastic!
And the frosting is SO good...I just want to eat it with a spoon!

Watermelon Cake 

adapted from Chaos in the Kitchen

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Ingredients

Watermelon Cake

• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 (3 oz.) box of watermelon Jell-O powder (reserve 2 teaspoons for frosting)
• 1/2 cup watermelon puree
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
• red food coloring

Watermelon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 5 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons watermelon puree
• 2 teaspoons watermelon Jell-O powder
• red and green food coloring

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of 2 eight inch round pans with wax paper, and spray the sides with cooking oil.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and Jell-O. Add water and oil; mix on medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add watermelon puree and beat until blended. Add red food coloring a little at a time, until you reach desired color. Place chocolate chips and a teaspoon of flour in a ziploc bag; shake to coat. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter. Pour into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together. Beat in watermelon puree. Gradually add sugar and Jell-O, beating until smooth. Color 1/3 of the frosting green, color the remaining 2/3 the same color as the cake.

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Things to Note:

• To make puree: Cut chunks from the center of a watermelon and remove any seeds. Put them in a blender and hit the puree button!
• The chocolate chips in my batter sunk to the bottom while baking, and didn't quite achieve the "seeds" look I was going for. After I posted this recipe, several astute readers gave me the solution to that problem: Coating the chocolate chips with a small amount of flour keeps them from sinking! But I think I will leave out the chocolate chips in the future.
• Trim the brown edges off the cake before frosting.
• Use pink frosting between the layers and on the top of the cake. Spread green frosting on the sides and outer edge of the top. Press mini chocolate chips on top for seeds.

 

Enjoy!

I link up at these fun weekly parties.

This post was featured!

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My First Public Health Book

In 1995, as a high school student, I read the first edition of Joan Ryan's book "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes".  I picked it up because I figure skated for many years (from age 2-14).  Little did I know that I was starting my first exploration into public health.

The book examined public health issues like eating disorders and sports injuries.  It argued for policies that would protect young figure skaters and gymnasts from injury and from exploitation by their coaches, families, and industry.  Ryan conducted intensive interviews for the book, which allowed her to highlight several cases like that of Christy Henrich.  Henrich was a talented and promising U.S. gymnast who died from anorexia at the age of twenty-two.

I thought of this book today when I read a beautiful and honest blog post by Jennifer Kirk called, "An Unrealized Dream".  Jennifer Kirk is a decorated, elite U.S. figure skater who retired from competitive skating in August 2005.  She retired in order to focus on her health and to recover from bulimia, alcoholism, and cutting.  Her post highlights the complexities of these health problems.  They were influenced by her sport, her family, her support system, her early independence, and the pressure that was put on her to have a successful career.

While some safeguards for elite skaters and gymnasts have been put in place since "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" (e.g., the hotly debated minimum age standards for competition), we still have improvements to make.  Jennifer talks about the strong influence of family and coaches regarding athlete safety and self esteem:

"A few months before I quit skating, my dad and coaches found out about my eating disorder, but nothing was done to get me the help I needed.  This reinforced my belief that skating and my career held paramount importance over other aspects of my life."  

Recently, much of the discussion of elite athlete safety has been focused on the National Football League (NFL), but the same questions are applicable here.  Are athletes putting themselves at risk by playing with injuries (e.g., concussions)?  What is the current organizational culture and does it support an intervention to protect athletes?  Do the coaches and trainers really have the athletes' best interests at heart or are they focused on winning and protecting their investment?

What do you think?  What more can we do to protect athletes at all levels (from recreational to elite)?

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hair trend: THE LOB

THE LONG BOB, KNOWN AS THE LOB, IS ONE OF 2012'S STANDOUT TRENDS...

Easy and quick to style, this do can be worn wavy and casual during the day or poker straight for night-time glam. 

Scroll to see how the celebs are wearing the 'lob'...

{Source: madison}

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Cake Pops

Summer in our family really means just one thing... baseball.

My boys are finally old enough to play this year, so when we had to bring treats for the baseball team, I had no choice but to conjure up something fun.
I'm still working out the kinks on the little ballplayer heads, so I will do a complete tutorial on those guys some time soon.
For now, the baseballs...

What You Need:
Any Cake, baked and cooled
1-2 cups Cream Cheese Frosting
White Candy Melts
Red Candy Melts
Vegetable Oil
Lollipop Sticks
Styrofoam
Optional:
Mini Squeeze Bottle
Coupler Ring
Decorating Tip #1
Click Here to Read More>>

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A Gorgeous Weekend and the Beginnings of a Plan

First, we had a great long weekend.  We kept it pretty lazy Saturday and did a couple things around the house.  On Sunday we took Red up to the hills for a hike at Sibley.  The wildflowers were really putting on a show.  I was feeling pretty good so we did the long loop.  Inspired by that hike we decided to head to Point Reyes the next day.  We don't go as often as we used to because there aren't many trails that allow dogs there.  So we took Red for a quick trot around the neighborhood and off we went.  It turned out to be a nice clear day at Point Reyes and we had another gorgeous hike.

That's me there, almost to the top...

Looking towards Chimney Rock.

On to the plan...My medical oncologist called today with the first step in my plan.  There is too much activity for radiation at this point, so that's out.  She is suggesting I do what is the "standard of care" in this situation which is intrathecal chemotherapy with methotrexate.  Before I start the chemo she wants me to get a lumbar puncture (Monday afternoon, woo hoo!) to see if they can detect the cancer cells in my spinal fluid.  Apparently this isn't the most reliable test, there are a lot of false negatives, but nonetheless I need to get it done as a baseline before starting anything.  After we get the results of the lumbar puncture I'll get more details on what comes next, but from the sound of it, at first they'll do another lumbar puncture to administer the chemo but eventually I'll have something called an ommaya reservoir put in by my neurosurgeon (it's like my portacath, but it'll dump the chemo into my central nervous system instead of my bloodstream).

I'll know more after the procedure on Monday.  The doctor doing it is the brain metastasis specialist and hopefully I'll get a chance to pick her brain about all this stuff.  Until then we carry on.  I've got to get this house vacuumed- it's shedding season and it's getting out of control here.

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Parisian Street Style By Afro Fly

Afro Fly!

Hi everyone, I'm Afro Fly, a young naturalista, born and raised in Paris, France. 

I love shopping a good deal online or at thrift stores. Yes I can spend a whole afternoon chilling at flea markets or on ebay.. shame on me!

I also enjoy hanging outside, camera in hand, being inspired by what the creativity and fashion sense from the streets can give me, that's how I've started taking streetstyle pictures, just for my own personal inspirational lookbook. So when I've heard Natural Belle was looking for a Paris reporter/naturalista, I just knew I had to submit my street style pics, and now it's official! I'll be bringing you street style with a naturalista twist from the streets of Paris exclusively for Ms Belle

 I can't leave you without telling that I love blogging My readers & followers are mainly french-speaking, but you can follow me on facebook and spread your love and support on my page. 

www.facebook.com/AfroFly

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How Bad is Fructose? David Despain Interviews Dr. John Sievenpiper

In my article "Is Sugar Fattening?", I discussed a recent review paper on fructose, by Dr. John Sievenpiper and colleagues (1).  It was the most recent of several review papers to conclude that fructose is probably not inherently fattening in humans, but that it can be fattening if it's consumed to excess, due to the added calories.  Dr. Sievenpiper and colleagues have also written other papers addressing the metabolic effects of fructose, which appear to be fairly minor unless it's consumed to excess (2, 3, 4, 5).  The senior author on these studies is Dr. David Jenkins at McMaster University.  David Despain, a science and health writer who publishes a nice blog called Evolving Health, recently interviewed Dr. Sievenpiper about his work.

It's an interesting interview and very timely, due to the recent attention paid to fructose in the popular media. This has mostly been driven by a couple of high-profile individuals-- an issue they discuss in the interview.  The interview, recent papers, and sessions at scientific conferences are part of an effort by researchers to push back against some of the less well founded claims that have received widespread attention lately.

Read more »

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Cinema, Experience, Vernacular Modernism: More on the Work of the late Miriam Bratu Hansen

Viewing (10:33): Miriam Bratu Hansen on her work, "Post-Cinema", and much else

"Miriam Bratu Hansen (1949–2011) was one of the great film scholars of our time.  She was also a friend and colleague to us at Critical Inquiry.  In celebration of the newly-published Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, we are proud to present this short film [above] by Miriam's student Christina Petersen, along with a dossier of five major articles from our archives." [From a note at the Critical Inquiry website to accompany its "Dossier Miriam Hansen"]

"Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno—affiliated through friendship, professional ties, and argument—developed an astute philosophical critique of modernity in which technological media played a key role. [Hansen's last book] explores in depth their reflections on cinema and photography from the Weimar period up to the 1960s. Miriam Bratu Hansen brings to life an impressive archive of known and, in the case of Kracauer, less known materials and reveals surprising perspectives on canonic texts, including Benjamin’s artwork essay. Her lucid analysis extrapolates from these writings the contours of a theory of cinema and experience that speaks to questions being posed anew as moving image culture evolves in response to digital technology." [Publisher's note on Miriam Hansen's Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, University of California Press, 2011]

On February 5, 2011, the hugely distinguished Film Studies scholar Miriam Bratu Hansen passed away. The next day Film Studies For Free published its appreciation of her career with links to other online tributes to her, and to examples of her work online. It is still this website's single most visited entry, a tiny sign of warm esteem in which she was held in our discipline.

Since the publication of her remarkable, final book Cinema and Experience, last year, three further, openly accessible items of great interest have appeared online.

Two of these are part of a Dossier on Hansen put together at the Critical Inquiry website: the above video about Hansen, and a collection of five major articles that Hansen published in that great journal. All are accessible at this webpage.

And you can also read the wonderful first chapter of Cinema and Experience -- on the work of Siegfried Krakauer --  at the University of California Press webpage. 

To further celebrate the above, FSFF has updated its links to useful online discussions or applications of Hansen's work, including, at the foot of this entry, a very recent video presentation.

• Chris Cagle, 'On Vernacular Modernism', Category D: A Film and Media Studies Blog, July 26, 2006
• Desley Deacon, 'World English? How an Australian Invented "Good American Speech"’, In Talking and Listening in the Age of Modernity: Essays on the History of Sound, edited by Damousi, Joy; Deacon, Desley. Canberra: ANU ePress, 2007 
• Desley Deacon, ‘Films as foreign offices’: transnationalism at Paramount in the twenties and early thirties', ‘Films as foreign offices: Transnationalism at Paramount in the twenties and earlythirties’. In Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective, edited by Curthoys, Ann; Lake, 2005
• Alexander Des Forges, 'Shanghai Alleys, Theatrical Practice, and Cinematic Spectatorship: From Street Angel (1937) to Fifth Generation Film', in: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 39, 4, 2010: 29-51
• Stephanie Hanson, '“Electrical wonders of the present age”: cinema-going on the Far South Coast of NSW and rural discourses of modernity', Screening the Past, Issue 24, 2009
• Adrian Martin, 'Balance and Linkage : Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon', Film Journal, Issue 11
• Allen Meek, 'Benjamin, the televisual and the "fascistic subject", Screening the Past, September 1998
• W.J.T. Mitchell, 'Medium Theory: Preface to the 2003 Critical Inquiry Symposium', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 30, No. 22004-5
• Andrew Nelson, 'Cinema from Attractions: Story and Synergy in Disney’s Theme Park Movies', Cinephile, Vol. 4, Summer 2008
• Justus Nieland, 'Modernism's Laughter', Modernist Cultures, Issue 4, 2009
• Justus Nieland, 'Archives of Modernist Cinephilia', MODERNISM/Modernity, 14(2), 347-355, 2007
• Kyoko Omori, Detecting Japanese Vernacular Modernism: Shinseinen Magazine and the Development of the Tantei Shosetsu Genre, 1920-1931, PhD Thesis, Ohio State University, 2003 
• Pooja Rangan, 'Transitions, Transactions: Bollywood As a Signifying Practice', Sarai Reader 2007: Frontiers 
• Tytti Soila, 'Passion at the threshold: Doctor Glas the flaneur in the films of Rune Carlstén and Mai Zetterling', Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, Vol. 1, 2010
• Kirsten Strayer, Ruins and Riots: Transnational Currents in Mexican Cinema, PhD Thesis, University of Pittsburgh 2009 
• Michael Syrimis , 'From Nestoroff To Garbo: Pirandellian Humour in its Cinematic Vernacular', Quaderni d'italianistica : revue officielle de la Société canadienne, Volume XXIX, No. 2, 2008, 29-52
• Mike Walsh, '[Review of] Zhang Zhen, An amorous history of the silver screen: Shanghai cinema, 1896-1937. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005', Screening the Past, 21, 2007
• Mark Wollaeger, 'Where and When is Modernism: Editing on a Global Scale', Kritika Kultura, 16, 2011 
• Chen Xiangyang, 'Technologizing the Vernacular: Cantonese Opera Films through The Legend of Purple Hairpin', David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies (LEWI), Working Paper Series, No. 67, September 2007

'Paranoid Hermeneutics as Queer Cinematic Vernacular' by Catherine Grant.
A film studies presentation prepared for the "Queer Cinema and the Politics of the Global" Workshop held at the University of Sussex, May 12, 2012. The Workshop was part of series of events held by the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research network GLOBAL QUEER CINEMA based at Sussex, led by Rosalind Galt.

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Usain Bolt & Joan Smalls For June Vogue

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