p e n g u i n d e v i l

Well, newswise today was an exciting day!

A much needed informational release… And to those of you who snub the wisdoms in this here collection of ramblings… A sad, yet refreshing, bit of news has finally hit the mainstream after 70 years of being snubbed:

“The National Academy of Sciences released a report finding that fluoride is less safe than previously thought, and that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit on fluoride in water should be lowered. Specifically, it said that levels of the cavity-fighting substance currently allowed under federal water-safety rules cause a harmful variety of dental fluorosis, a mottling of the tooth that in its more severe form actually can cause cavities.

Moreover, it found persuasive evidence that fluoride in water increases bone fractures as well as stiffness in the joints of the elderly, and that it also may be related to Alzheimer’s disease, marginally reduce IQ in children and alter the endocrine and hormonal levels that control most of the functions of the human body – with unknown effects. The chemical may even cause bone cancer, said the NAS – although the evidence is “tentative and mixed.” Thankfully, of course, we live in the only unpoisoned major city in the country!

Read More Here!.

And if you have missed the reading hint I gave you back in the early new year right here, here is my recommendation of a book to read, just so that you know that none of this is new news, it dates back to the early 20th century, when the dental association actually opposed the use of fluoride… The Fluoride Deception!

Hopefully, it won’t take them so many years to come clean about Cell phones and other RF poisoning… Or there will be a lot of bad brains out there, and not the good Bad Brains… Of course, the cancer clinics will certainly prosper…

I know, it’s been a long time coming, but as a bonus, I’m putting in the best photo yet from the mainstream news sites.

Anyway, well, back at last. I have been having a harder and harder time finding movie time. But I have again snuck in a few. In more exciting news, today Mabel’s was on good-day Oregon! I had to tape it to catch it but it was a great segment! Speaking of recording things. I’ve been wasting many a bandwidth with youtube.com. Martin showed me some cool AC/DC video on it and now I have become fixated on downloading black metal videos from there. I still haven’t mastered the technique of converting them to play with sound in QT, but VLC works so I’m still downloading away! Anyway, I think it’s a pretty fun site, one that I’ll waste many an hour at… Accumulating more video material that I’ll probably never watch. But Immortal’s video for Blashyrkh must be seen to believe!

let’s talk about Rock… Blashyrkh

So Matt and I sat down for Three Extremes. I am surprised as to how long it took me to get around to watching this, I am also surprised as to how not-extreme they seemed. They were good though, and entertaining. Dumplings has some scenes that are a bit hard to watch, but it was probably my least favorite of the three…And though Box was the Miike portion, it wasn’t my favorite… Though it was quite squeamish at times, it was too quiet and a bit slow moving. I liked Cut the best it. It certainly held my attention. It looked very good and the storyline was quite fun with some interesting twists, and, once again, a visual treat.. Anyway, I would highly recommend the whole movie. Pleasing to look at, nicely shot with nice colors, fairly intriguing stories, though maybe not to deep, but then who needs that for something like this.

I also sat down for Branded to Kill! Surely Seijun Suzuki was a Japanese master of the French new wave for this one. At some point, that’s surely what crosses my mind when I watch some of these old Japanese movies. I really appreciate the blending of European style crime with Japanese sensibilities, they make a good blend. Though I must say that everyone is such a terrible shot it is distracting and how they lived through the biggest ambush since Lone Wolf McQuade, I can’t figure out. And also how one gas can turned a whole concrete bunker into a bbq, I don’t quite get. But still it’s a entertaining flick, fun to watch and arms, heads, leaps and bounds better then his more recent Pistol Opera, one of the worst films I have ever had the misfortune of viewing (in a theater, no less)!

No matter what anyone says, it hard to beat old President Chuck for classic social sci-fi movies. Probably the weakest of the three that come to mind, I watched Soylent Green for the first time in many many years. It didn’t seem as good as I remember it, I know, I say that too much. But I still found it quite enjoyable. His melodrama was high the sets were good and its classic story seems to gain credibility with time.

Suprisingly having nothing to do with Kevin Bacon we watched Six Degrees of Separation. It seems to have its hit and miss moments, but I thought that it was pretty entertaining. You definitely spend time wondering what’s going on and then, once you figure it out, being proved wrong. Not in a lame lynchian way where he just changes the story, but it a more “details makes it all clear” way. I thought that cast was very surprising and everyone did a good job, though with how chaotic some of the scenes were, it was a bit hard to tell at times. But I would recommend it, it ends up being worthwhile viewing.

Now, The House of Clocks. I’ve tried and I’ve tried (dating back 15 years to using the Gore Score as a rental guide), to get into these Italian horror movies… But, damn, they’re all soo bad. I can’t bear the giallo movies at all, and while the cannibal movies can have some good parts, they are for the most part boring with frequently unforgivable effects. I have tried again though. The House of Clocks, with it’s Lovecraftian title, nice packaging and crystal clear and bright screen shots on the case drew me into it’s web. Fortunately, it’s web wasn’t very sticky. There must be a good Fulci movie out there, but I haven’t found one yet. This one was better then most… Yes, it had the standard bad dubbing, terrible acting, irritating music (Goblin be damned!) and sure, some of the effects we alright, better than most and with a “not as boring as normal” story-line but still… It’s going straight to the “sell” stack…

the house of clocks 13:42

Take that!

Well it’s been a long odd while. Watched some movies but not much time or inclination to scribble anything here due to repeated trips to the hospital. Parents aging is a tough pill to swallow, one that doesn’t leave much urge for anything as frivolous as this little pastime. Well, anyway. Fresh home after two days at Edgefield, which were good but not very restful. I feel the urge to catch this list up…

Out of some dim memory of my youth, we rented and watched The Out of Towners. I recall a fondness for it from when I was young, and I probably gained most of what knowledge I had about NYC when I was a kid from it. Now? It didn’t really do it for me. Though I am very fond of Jack Lemmon, his “run around freaking out” thing in this I didn’t find as engaging as his freaking out role in Glengarry Glenross. Maybe that was a sequel? Anyway, it was entertaining and fun, but it seemed a bit too repetitive… Also, I really didn’t like Sandy Dennis. She may have been perfect for her role, but I found her very unpleasent. And, of course, the couples behavior was ridiculous. It is hard to imagine someone reacting in those terrible ways to what was going on. I do like Jack Lemmon though, and I guess it was good to see the movie again and get it out of my mind, but I’m probably not going to need to visit it again.

Touchez pas au grisbi is a nice French noir. Well, it’s not quite Delon and Melville but I did find Jean Gabin to play a compelling character and I like the quiet pace of the film. The plot proceeded at such an easy going pace that it was just pleasent to watch and there are some good twists. Also, some very nice pajamas were in evidence and I liked the whole scene around that, but the movie didn’t really stand out. Worth watching for Gabin’s nice role and the attractive quiet tone of the film.

We also watched some of The Twilight Zone. I don’t know how they picked those episodes. Disc 1 features three episodes, one would assume numbers 1, 2 and 3… No, more like 47, 51 and 81. The first two were pretty bad, especially the second. I just don’t know. Those “spacemen”, too much and not enough all at once… In that soo bad it’s good vein, episode 51 might be worth watching just to see it and think: “Did they really? Is this a joke?” The last episode might have been better, I just couldn’t watch anymore.

And now, the PBS showing of the new Bleak House. Though I’ve only seen a bit of the older BBC production and though this one featured Gillian Anderson with some impressive cheek action going on, I must admit that I find the older one more to my taste. This newer version features a more more pleasent Esther in the form of Anna Maxwell Martin and some other good casting choices and, of course, the story is very good, engaging with lots of tension. But some aspects of it I found to be unfortunately distracting, primarily the cinematography. I found it seemed silly: modern fast edits, shooting scenes from the next room with the door eclipsing the scene and other contrivences… They just seemed showy yet pointless. So a good production, but sullied a bit with annoying camera work.

Onto a classic that has shown why it is a classic. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. A sickly exciting, wonderful, horrible entrancing film. One of the best discoveries of the last year or so, right up there with Sunset Boulevard in the, “Ah, now that’s film!” Sandy Dennis, again, being irritating and unpleasant but Burton and Taylor were both outstanding and the cinematography was very good and it was just a tight, at your throat movie all the way through. I also like George Segal who we don’t seem to see appear in much since the good old days, he does a nice job in this. But I just can’t say enough about the Burtons. Riviting.

who’s afraid of virginia woolf? 1:11:40

So last year or so we watched Kingdom Hospital. It was bad. In just about all of the ways that something could be bad. But there was something about it, some silly sense it had, that made me not really feel too strongly about my dislike. The occasional memories that I have of it prompted us to rent the original. Um… The Kingdom. maybe it’s better than the american remake, but it was too boring for us to get far enough into it to find out. Really boring.

Beat That my Heart Skipped. A very nice movie with nice music, not only the piano but also the “electro” coming through the headphones. Though I did like the movie alot, my interest did start to wane after the midpoint or so. But I still thought it was good. The lead was a good combination between likable and dislikeable. I hear it may have been a remake of Fingers, which I didn’t like. But back to this, a good looking movie and again, the soundtrack. Of course, I have learned that it is only available as a french 2 cd set, generally only from overseas sources, so I don’t know if I am up for the 25 smackers or so it would cost. Too bad it didn’t come with a soundtrack cd like Slow fade did.

And our newest viewing club feature? Le Corbeau. Well, it was just as described. Not quite as intriguing as I had expected, but honestly, I find that alot with films that old, but there were some good actors and good characters and some good biting dialogue. I like the story, though they really wanted to line up the suspects for us, it was a clever little plot. Also, some of the shots were really nice, good things with shadows.

Then, to finish this off, the most successful film of all. Gone with the Wind. It was pretty good. I was suprised as to it’s length and the nastiness of the Scarlett character, there were not really any sympathetic characters in the film. Rhett was the only really interesting character, I found. The plot was much fuller than I had imagined, but again, I was shocked as to the nature of ol’ Scarlett and I was a bit suprised with how sympathetic it seemed towards the confederate culture, one which I have never had the most positive feelings about. One thing that must be mentioned is the quality of the DVD. The picture looked soo good it was shocking clear, bright and clean.