This morning, I literally almost threw Sparky, the laptop, against the wall. None of this was Sparky's fault, of course. I think that I had him closed and clasped in both my hands before I realized what I was contemplating doing. The source of my extreme frustration was a fruitless search for two films by Grigorii Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg: The Devil's Wheel (Chertovo koleso) and The Overcoat (Shinel'). There's some silent film documentary that features clips of The Devil's Wheel and there's a professor at Stanford who teaches a class on FEKS, who has personal copies of both of these films. I suppose that I'll e-mail her and see if she can help me find copies. Is that kosher?

Other than that? I'm up the proverbial shit creek without a paddle. Sometimes I hate my topic. Actually, I think that only this chapter is going to kill me.

In far happier news, the defense has been scheduled-ish. The diss will be done in the spring so that my committee members have the summer to read it and the defense will be at the very beginning of September so that I can avoid paying fees. And then? Then? Lord only knows what will happen then.