Research

Upcoming Conference Presentations

I am presenting two papers at conferences in the fall of 2009. Both are culled from chapters of my doctoral dissertation. In October, I will be presenting a paper titled “‘Marty, Let’s Work Together as Agents’: Rescuing the Reputation of Ishtar (1987)” at the Northeast Popular Culture Association conference in Queens, NY. In November, I will be presenting a paper titled: “Deriving ‘Authenticity’ from Obscure Fiction: Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains (1981) as Prototype for the Riot Grrrl Movement” at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association conference in Boston. In the months that follow, I will be reworking both papers/chapters into stand-alone articles in hopes of submitting them as proposed journal articles.

Spring 2010 conference presentations are currently being developed and thought-about.

Use and Influence of the Amateur Musician Narrative in Film, 1981-2001 (PhD Dissertation)

This dissertation is an analytical survey of four amateur musician narratives created between 1981 and 2001. Unlike purportedly true, marketing-driven uses of amateur narratives, the four narratives chosen for this project are unabashed total fictions. Despite this, the films achieve levels of perceived “authenticity” by way of cultural value and influence. None of the narratives deal with amateur musicianship as a stage or step in an inherent progression towards professionalism, as seems a prerequisite for the recollections of the now professional. But all include narratives of amateur musicians struggling to make it against “insurmountable commercial odds” resulting from an artist’s gender, talent, ability, or identity. Despite this, none treat hegemonically dictated concepts of commercial success, wealth, fame, and stardom as the ultimate and/or desired goal of amateurism or semiprofessionalism. The films all present concepts of accomplishment in challenge of hegemonic notions of professional dominance and commercial success as markers of success. The four films, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981), Ishtar (1987), Half-Cocked (1995), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), are culturally representative of their respective eras, but have experienced lasting cultural influence in both filmmaking and music making. The films exist as prototypical examples of amateur musicians narratives, performance, and media common to the 20th Century “rise of the amateur” as found on the Internet, in realty programming, and marketing tragedies.

PDF of full dissertation is available from OhioLink.

Watson (a documentary film) (colinhelb.com/research/watson)

Watson Kintner was not an anthropologist, archaeologist, or ethnographer. He had no cultural or geographically-specific area of study or interest. He had no formal or even informal training in ethnographic research, photography, or film. He was not photographer or filmmaker. He seemingly spoke no other language than English. He was, for all intents and purposes, a chemical engineer. He worked in the standardization of vacuum tube production which afforded him the ability to purchase an early motion picture camera and travel extensively. The only children Kintner left behind when he passed away in 1979 were over 400 rarely seen films of Mexico in the 30s; Guatemala, Ecuador and present day Guyana in the 40s; Morocco, Nigeria, and East Africa: Pakistan, Indonesia, Kashmir, Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia in the 50s; and Australia and the South Pacific, Iran, Japan, Afghanistan, Chad, Turkey, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Istanbul in the 60s.

Vimeo Page

The Watson Kintner film collection at the Internet Archive

Published Book Reviews

Book Review, Straightedge: Complexity and Contradictions of a Subculture (Robert T. Wood. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2006) Popular Music and Society. New York: Routledge, July 2009.

Book Review, Straight Edge: Clean Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change (Ross Haenfler. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2006) Journal of Popular Culture. New York: Blackwell, April 2007.

Amateur Musician Narratives in Film

The basis for the original intention of including an attempt at a comprehensive list of films featuring amateur musician narratives.

John Greco’s Holy Land USA

Article titled ““Working on a Building: John Greco’s Holy Land USA” written while a student at Temple University. I believe some form of this article was used as a writing sample for many of my PhD program applications.

A video was also made (crudely made on Windows Movie Maker)

And a photo set (many of the images are used in the video)