For those so inclined, you can also  read my article The Eloquence of the Cinematic Moustache by clicking here. And here are some photos charting the month’s progress!

1st Movember

10th Movember

15th Movember

25th Movember

When I started growing this month, I was aiming for the full Sam Elliott:

Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski

I haven’t quite achieved the lustrousness of Sam’s face fungus, but I’m happy enough:

Nicolas Pillai in The Big Lebowski

30th Movember

Here’s that link again: please donate!

As well as this teaching, I’ve continued working as a web editor for the Wolfson Research Exchange, which has been taking up a lot of time. Our Research Match scheme has been a fantastic success (which has translated into lots of uploading of profiles by yours truly), and later in the year, I’ll be acting as an online tutor for the Library’s 23 Things for the Digital Professional course.

The best news I’ve had this week has been the offer from Warwick’s German Department to teach a film segment for their Culture and Politics in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich module. I’m really thrilled to be renewing my acquaintance with this academic department, who were so welcoming and attentive when I was an undergraduate. The films I’m lecturing on are good’uns too – Metropolis, The Blue Angel and M!

While my PhD thesis on Hollywood marriage is out of my hands and in those of the examiners, the Thin Man films continue to be a part of my life. I’m very proud to have had an article on that loveable pooch Asta published in Mystery Reader’s Journal 27: 3. You can subscribe or buy the pdf here.

I also recently addressed the Institute of Advanced Study’s Drinking Studies Network on the subject of social drinking in the Thin Man cycle. Deborah Toner’s account of the symposium is here, in which she describes the content of my paper and the Q&A that followed.

My association with online publisher Silkworms Ink continues, and we on the editorial team are very excited about our new-look website. There will be all sorts of great content posted in the coming months. Sam Kinchin-Smith’s edited collection on Nick Cave will be published soon, in which I have an essay on Cave and hard-boiled literature. I’m really thrilled to be sharing space on the contents page with my dear friend Tom Steward on this one, too.

Last but not least, Roisin and I are counting down the days until the BFI’s 30th anniversary celebration of Cagney & Lacey. We’ve been rewatching episodes recently in preparation for a larger study of female detectives and I’ve been really struck by the achievement and importance of this programme. It’s a crime that there is no complete DVD release yet, but perhaps the interest generated by this event will give MGM a kick up the arse. Regardless, it’ll be an enormous thrill to be in the same room as Sharon Gless, Tyne Daly and executive producer Barney Rosenzweig. In the past few weeks, we’ve been in contact with Barney’s webteam and we hope to interview him sometime after the event. I’ll also be writing an event report for Screen.

Right, I think that’s everything! Expect updates sooner rather than later…

Swans at Dungannon Park

Waterfall at Dungannon Park

Paddy says goodbye

The Mourne Mountains

Roisin and Molly Malone

Muldoons and me

Irish Film Institute

A cute puppy

Powerscourt

I’ve written a short piece on Nick Cave for a forthcoming edited collection, have other essays on Doctor Who and The X-Files in the works and I’m currently trying to chop my thesis up into two articles and a book proposal. Also, I’m still trying to get my radio play finished and I’m working four part-time jobs.

But I do feel guilty for not updating my blog more often. I’ll try to get better at shorter, more frequent posts over the next few weeks. To get started, here’s something I’ve written about The Batman Adventures that The Comics Grid published this week. I hope you enjoy it!

As a reward, Roisin and I took a weekend off at my parents’ house by the sea in Sandgate. The weather was perfect and the annual Sea and Food Festival was taking place. On Saturday night we sat on the seafront and watched a beautiful firework display. Each shower of sparks was reflected on the choppy waves. I felt perfectly happy.

Here’s a rather belated write-up of my visit to Newcastle for the Alien Nation conference. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I’d been feeling quite nervous about presenting my thoughts on Doctor Who to an audience of experts. By Tuesday, as I got on my train, I was a bit more confident.

I was on a panel with Tom Steward, Claire Jenkins and Julian Chambliss, who had travelled over from Orlando, Florida (naturally, it rained all of the time he was here). My co-panellists were all great and I was reasonably happy with how my presentation went. Unfortunately, we’d been asked at short notice to reduce our papers to 15 minutes, and I had to skip over a lot of my carefully constructed prose! Luckily, two academics I respect greatly, David Butler and Andrew O’Day, spoke to me enthusiastically afterwards and asked me to send my paper to them. That was particularly encouraging and it was great to talk to them.

It was excellent too to meet a number of people who I’ve enjoyed chatting to on Twitter. John Williams, Ian Greaves, Frank Collins and Dave Rolinson were nice enough to invite me along to dinner with them on Wednesday night and I had fantastic time of talking over much-loved television programmes and toasting Frank Marker!

The next day, I decided to do some sight-seeing before I got on my train home. Newcastle is a very beautiful place, reminiscent of Edinburgh in some ways but without the sinister aspect of that city. As I walked around in the sunshine,I decided this was somewhere I needed to come back to for a holiday. Everyone I met was friendly and I especially fell in love with the quayside area. I even got time to stop at the Literary and Philosophical Library and I spent a happy hour in there reading Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter. The Lit & Phil is a fantastic archive, with a specialist music library. I hope to do some resarch there in the not too distant future!

The programme of speakers is great, and I’m looking forward to meeting some academics face-to-face who I’ve previously only chatted to on Twitter! If you’re interested in science-fiction and telefantasy, Cathode Ray Tube is live blogging the event.

My friend Paul very kindly did some screen captures for me yesterday, and I’m so pleased with them I thought I would reproduce a few here. Think of it as a trailer for my paper!

Inferno

The Curse of Peladon

The Green Death

The first of these seems to give us our first glimpse of Jared Harris as Professor Moriarty. I’m rather pleased they’ve gone for the bearded George Zucco look – if this film manages to conjure half the fun of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, they’ll be doing alright.

Apparently, Paul McGann’s in one of the later episodes in this season as well. I wonder if there’ll be any more Doctor Who connections?