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

Very quiet these days. Another light viewing week. We’ve got plenty too watch, maybe too much even… But the time just doesn’t seem to be there. We did find some extra time… to run to frye’s at the last minute and pick up an iBook. Who knows what we were thinking, but it seems to be a good idea to have one. So yes, I’m fiddling about on it just now. I like it. It’s the first laptop I’ve had about aside from the 5300cs I’ve had hanging around for the last seven or eight years.

I’ll start things of with an old favorite, Sixteen Candles. I got a bunch of the Hughes/Ringwald movies and this was our first to view. I didn’t really recall it but, on seeing, it became quite familiar. I feel like this was the first of the “series” and though it’s not my favorite of the bunch, it seems like a good place to start. Pop/teen/romance masterpieces, all of them. Though I was the right age at the time for this, it never really spoke to me. It is fun though.

We also watched Brothers Keeper. Another one of those sad lonely documentaries which has taken me years to get around to watching. It’s good and it really makes you wonder, like any good mystery. Personally, I think that they did do away with their senior brother and I felt like I had to question their motives a bit behind doing this movie. But I could see their position and understand why they did what they did. The darker motive that some law officers started flinging about seemed much less likely then just a plain ol’ mercy killing, however odd these fella’s situation might have been. But it’s a good movie, interesting in a number of ways. The boys are rather mysterious in their own way, a bit more savvy then they let on. Of course, I did avert mine eyes at the “pig slaughter” scene and some of the scenes with Lyman Ward (was he the shy one?) were a bit much in the sad way. I almost had to avert my eyes when he was on the stand.

Then The Tin Drum. I think it’s a great Lit movie. I hadn’t seen the movie for many years or read the book for quite a while either, but it still seems a satisfying rendition of the story. Of course, it looked really good (Criterion and all) well beyond the VHS experience of my past. The horsehead scene handily beats the Godfather’s horsehead scene for disturbing grossness (it was a natural for a picture here, but I just couldn’t do it… Opting for a more family friendly image) and there are lots more great scenes. Really just a strong movie all around. Very well acted, well produced, the boy looked just creepy enough, yet not really, to make the age and size issues seem not too unbelievable and a great story! I would suggest though reading the book and watching the movie.

the tin drum 44:30
We also watched Romper Stomper again. Back when, it was my first experience with Crowe and I thought, “wow, he sure is an ass.” Of course, now I realize that he wasn’t acting that part. But he does make a good ol ignorant fascist. Australians finding commonality with the Nazi’s seems a bit daft, but I think that adds to the character of the movie. The whole time I can’t help thinking, “Are you guys kidding? You’re in Melbourne”. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the interest to sit through an hour and a half of skinhead action and talk and nazi-worship. Keep in mind that nothing positive really occurs anywhere in the film but it’s got good tragedy, alot of action and the soundtrack is really good. Not just good Oi but the rest of the mood music is nicely foreboding.And on a lighter note, we watched Houseboat. I felt unsure as to if I had even seen a Sofia Loren movie before, so that was good and interesting, she’d be quite a catch for a ol’ stodger like Cary Grant… Speaking of Cary… I found his character an odd love interest for Loren and I’ve never liked him (strangely though, I think I’ve seen 6 of his films in the last year or so) or most of the characters he plays. This one was no different. In fact, I didn’t really like any of the characters, even the kids were annoying. It was enticing to see Werner Klemperer show up in the cast, but his role was very light, almost as if a bunch had been cut out. Regardless though, it was, of course, completely predictable and there were my issues with the cast, but it was a finely enjoyable old romantic comedy. And it had Sofia Loren!

Newflash! In my constant efforts to warn folks of the impending doom of all of our electro-magnetic emissions we’re soaking ourselves in, read this little tidbit about a college rejecting wi-fi for health concerns, here. How many of these kinds of results will it take before people really start to question the long term impact of sending wi-fi & cell phones signals though our heads, on top of all of the other crap we force our bodies to put up with. For a more indepth look, read here. I think this part best sums up my thinking on the matter “The associations observed are weak, however; the strong consistency of slightly positive effects has a very low probability of being explained by chance alone”

Some fun quotes:
9.3.1 STATEMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL REVIEWERS
Reviewer 1 (DelPizzo)
Degree of Certainty: The evidence regarding this endpoint has attributes very similar to those of childhood leukemia, with the dose-response relationship being less clear, but the consistency of results being even stronger and the plausibility being increased by having already established a high degree of certainty for the childhood leukemia risk. This reviewer is “prone to believe” that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree.
IARC classification: “Possible Human Carcinogen, 2B.”

Reviewer 2 (Neutra)
Degree of Certainty:
…This reviewer is “close to the dividing line between believing and not believing” that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree… In fact, it looks similar to the evidence for adult lymphocytic leukemia… This warrants a Possible (2B) carcinogen IARC classification, “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans…”

Reviewer 3 (Lee) 31
Degree of Certainty: The meta-analysis for the occupational brain cancer studies
indicates a slightly higher risk for electrical workers. As a result…relative risk … is considerably increased… by the positive association of EMF with childhood and adult leukemia. Hence, this reviewer is “close to the dividing line between believing and not believing’ that EMFs increase the risk of adult brain cancer to some degree. IARC Classification: …The associations observed are weak, however; the strong consistency of slightly positive effects has a very low probability of being explained by chance alone… classification, “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

If you missed my earlier, enticing warnings before, please enjoy this long rant, here.