 two great movies
posted by Christopher on 3.28.2004 - 7:31 pm
i've been ranting quite a bit about movies lately. mostly it's because they are one of my preferred forms of entertainment. i despise tv, and there's only so much i can say about the latest gameboy game.
anyway, i saw two movies this weekend, both of which ruled.
first off is The Ladykillers. i love the coen brothers. when i saw previews for this one, i wanted to cry... marlon wayans? tom hanks? these aren't people that belong in a coen brothers movie! boy was i wrong. they both did a great job and fit the roles that they were cast in perfectly. the story was entertaining, the lines were witty and well executed, and the cinematography was beautiful - on par for one of theirs.
secondly, i finally got around to seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Charlie Kaufman is my hero. this guy was the screenwriter for Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine. every last one of those were awesome. Typically, movies are too short and rushed to have much real character development and exploration. not the case for those written by Charlie. He is able to portray more depth in his characters than most novellists i've encountered. There's just the right amount of humor, sadness and quirks to make me really believe they are real. i can't say enough good about the guy.
aside from that, kate winslet did a good job. kate winslet! most of the movies i've seen her in would have benefitted from replacing her with a cardboard cutout. and yet, somehow, michael gondry was able to bring out actual character and feeling in her... it was impressive. jim carrey also did a great job. my respect level for him went way up after seeing Man on the Moon and The Truman Show, so i wasn't that taken aback, but kate winslet... damn.
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 Cretins attacking Quorn
posted by Dante on 3.28.2004 - 8:37 pm
A 'consumer interest' group has recently decided to turn its sights on Quorn. Their comments have sunk to referring to the product as a'vomit burger'? Well, that wasn't a shameless grab for a sound bite was it? Here, let's try another attempt at a quotable quip that can be launched the other way ... intellectually bankrupt jackass. That's how I would refer to this leader of this group-a person who seems to lack the basic understanding of the workings of the world. The same understanding that allows most people to function normally. The workings I refer to are people's right to choose, and to make the informed decisions necessary to perpetuate their own lives.
Let's look at his concerns, some people are offended by the product, and have even gotten sick as a result of eating it. Wow, and that's never happened before has it? Someone put something in their mouth and got sick as a result of it. I've put some alcohol into my body before and wound up vomiting. Do you think I could get his organization to start launching a misguided slander campaign against Budweiser?
Maybe you disagree with my comparison, since the abuse of alcohol can cause illness. Okay, let's look at something more benign, peanuts. Some people are so violently allergic to peanuts that the smallest quantity of it could produce a fatal anaphylactic reaction. That's why every single Hershey bar includes a warning that it 'might contain' some minute quantity of peanuts. However, that miniscule risk of a deadly reaction isn't enough to force this man to try to take my chocolate bar away. Of course not. We trust the people who have food allergies to self-regulate on some level and be responsible for their own well-being. Why the special outcry against this product when your chocolate bar could contain trace amounts of this potentially deadly 'peanut'?
But chocolate is tasty, and comes from naturally occuring stuff - milk and cocoa beans being a couple of them. Quorn is some kind of unholy substance derived from a mold or fungus though. Who would want to put a mold derivative into their body? Obviously that person would have to be deranged or seriously misled, right? Oh wait, but then there's penicillin. A miraculous drug that can eradicate infections from the body and save lives. That comes from a mold too. We don't see a huge outcry from that organization to pull penicillin out of hospitals. There are plenty of people out there allergic to penicillin too, so the allergy and source arguments could be levied against it.
I personally like Quorn. I have tried a number of the fake meat options on the market as I try to shift my diet in healthier directions. I imagine some of you have tasted things like garden burgers or bocca burgers. Maybe it was on a dare, maybe by choice. Quorn is by far and away the most realistic imitation of chicken I have ever tried. The texture is remarkably close, and they have flavored it to be equally similar.
My preference for Quorn over the other fake meats is only a tangental argument though. I believe in people's freedom to make their own decisions. If Quorn doesn't taste right to you, or eating it makes you sick, stop buying it. Don't keep eating it and making yourself sick, otherwise you give morons like this guy something to complain about. If the nation could just collectively get a little smarter, then maybe this guy would have to find something else to do with his afternoons.
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