After thoroughly enjoying Daredevil we have begun watching Hannibal (imdb | rotten tomatoes) on Netflix. It’s been good so far, but if buzz and the Tomatometer are to be believed, it gets great in season 2. I’m psyched.
As long as we don’t accidentally watch it whilst eating we should be just fine.
.:.
Cover photo by Frank Grießhammer, used under Creative Commons license
Brother #2 was in town this weekend. Just left, actually, wending his way across Toronto streets in the throes of multiple disruptions — rides, parades, torch runs, the like.
We had a busy weekend though: a pint and then pizzas at Libretto Friday night; Fahrenheit, then the Market on Saturday morning followed by some camera shopping and an afternoon spent at Volo sampling their beer and watching the rain beat down, and then to Yonge Dundas Square to see Mad Max: Fury Road (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was a ton of fun. We weren’t sure if we’d make it there dry; in the hours we spent sitting on Volo’s patio we watched a pretty severe rainstorm go through.
We made dinner last night: shrimp and calamari and grilled rack of lamb, and bottles of Five Rows 2014 Pinot Gris Le Vieux Pin 2011 Syrah. Maybe a little whisky for dessert. This morning we had more Fahrenheit before the brother and I made bacon and eggs and watched old episodes of Deadwood. He’s gone now, packed up and headed south.
Stop by anytime, bro.
What he said.
Before we began the day’s wine tastings we decided to expore another of the area’s features: caves. We drove to the southern end (more or less) of the region and booked in at Lake Cave. We had a little time to kill before getting started so we tried zooming down the road to Eagle Vale, but they weren’t open.
The cave itself was better than I expected. It wasn’t cheesy and, as the name suggests, featured a small lake on the floor of the cave. We had an interesting tour, saw some beautiful underground sights, even spent a few moments in complete darkness. It was a worthwhile visit, even though we had to climb some 300+ steps on the way out.
Our first winery of the day wound up being Redgate, which was okay. They were sold out of the Cab Franc that we’d wanted to try, but we picked up a very nice Chenin.
By this time our rummies were tumbling, so we stopped in the actual town of Margaret River for lunch at Must. It was very good — the brother claimed his burger was one of the best he’d ever had — but it took a long time. Not that we were on a tight timeline or anything, though, so we didn’t particularly care.
We hit four wineries in quick succession after lunch:
It was late afternoon by this point, and we decided we needed more of that fresh bread. We returned to the bakery and saw people literally hugging their bread as they walked to their car. One gentleman was so hungry he began biting chunks off the bread cradled in his arms while walking to his car. After we picked up our loaves, Nellie took a page from his book and ripped into the white bread just as he had done. The bread would not be denied.
We were a little too tired for a giant meal, and the first place we called was booked up anyway, so we visited a nearby wine bar and had tapas. Decent food, and blessedly small. The weather turned foul on the way home — lightning and heavy rain — so there was naught to do but hunker down and plan the next day’s visits.
Anytime you can start a festival with a Werner Herzog documentary, you should start a festival with a Werner Herzog documentary. So we started our 2011 fest with Into The Abyss (imdb | tiff) on Thursday night, the first real screening of the fest.
The documentary sprung from footage gathered for a short TV series about death row inmates, but one particular story had enough depth for a feature. That story was of two Texas men, one serving a life sentence and the other on death row, as well as their family and the family of their victims. Herzog makes it clear from the beginning that he is against the death penalty but doesn’t spend time on making that case, instead focusing on the damage done to everyone surrounding a murder. The most interesting and compelling interview subject was a former captain of the ‘death squad’ at Huntsville. I won’t say more than that; you need to watch it for yourself. In classic Herzog style an incredible mix of drama, truth, humour and fascinating subjects bubble to the top and create a lasting impression.
Herzog and his editor took to the stage after the film, and talked extensively. I won’t be able to describe how he wrapped up the Q&A perfectly, echoing the final scene of the documentary, but he did. He was funny and insightful and so much more excited than the last time we saw him at the festival — understandably so; he’d just lost his adoptive mother. It was a classic Herzog moment. And a classic film festival moment too.
8/10
As readers of this blog would know, I’ve been trying over the last couple of years to gain a better understanding of the two world wars. While I often marvel at the spectacle of war, the notion of it makes me sick…old men sending young men to die for ridiculous ends, equating war-making with jingoistic patriotism, etc. My attempt to understand it has already given me a better sense of how and why these wars unfolded, but what I’ve read has been a historical look back. I had little appreciation for what it must have felt like to a soldier. I count myself very fortunate that I’ve never been in or in any way near a war zone.
Our recent trip to France helped me get some of that perspective. The ground at Vimy still torn up from shelling. The long, exposed run at Juno Beach with nothing between you and a German bunker but luck and prayer. The trenches at Beaumont-Hamel, with enemies almost impossibly close together. In each of these places I stopped, tried to put myself in the place of a soldier, and each time felt nervous, even frightened. I actually got physically tense. I tried to imagine myself running up that beach or climbing the firing steps, and I’d get a lump in my throat. I kept thinking to myself, how could anyone do this? How could someone charge with shells exploding around and tracers whizzing past? Just typing this now the memory is still vivid, and the lump has come back.
Whatever atrocities are committed by front-line soldiers — and those atrocities are many — it’s not their choice to be there. The tragic, unfair, unholy situation in which they find themselves spurs some to evil, some to heroism, but most simply — incredibly — to bravery. Those are who we saw buried by the thousands in the valley of the Somme this summer, and whose names were etched on the side of the Vimy memorial. Those are who we remember today.
For over a year now my brother’s been writing on his blog about the after-effects, ten years on, of faulty a 1998 study linking childhood vaccinations to autism. From his first post on the topic:
In 1998 UK doctor Andrew Wakefield had a study published that claimed there was a link between autism, a new type of bowel disease, and the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccination jab given to children. This scary proposition – that something that almost all children were getting might cause autism – led to a massive amount of media coverage of the study. And that, of course, led to massive dropoffs in the rates of MMR immunisation of children in the UK.
It quickly became clear, even back in 1998, that Wakefield’s results were suspect. Ten of the thirteen authors of the paper summarizing the study removed their names from the conclusions drawn. It’s been a sordid saga since then. Newspapers have re-ignited the scare. Wakefield has been charged with professional misconduct. The publication that carried the original study has since denounced the study as flawed. Although Wakefield continues his work, there are very few medical professionals who believe there is a connection.
Today the BBC reported disturbing (if not surprising) news: a measles outbreak in Wales.
Health chiefs in Wales are dealing with a “massive” measles outbreak, with numbers already four times the highest figure recorded over the past 13 years. Four nursery school children were treated in hospital as part of 127 cases across mid and west Wales, while there are another 35 cases in Conwy.
The National Public Health Service (NPHS) in Wales saw 39 cases last year. Its highest figure in 2003 was 44.
Officials appealed for parents to take up the MMR vaccine.
“Parents are taking a conscious decision not to get the MMR jab. We think that is down to the concerns that were raised when the research came out.
“The newspapers have admitted the research was wrong, but it is still hard to convince people of the truth.”
That’s the real crux of the problem. The news went out, it was a hot story and blared from newspaper headlines, but retractions rarely have the same zazz and so most people don’t absorb the news. Also, Oprah deserves some blame.
Seriously. Oprah, who undoubtedly influences the opinions of millions of parents, has thrown in with Jenny McCarthy and other vaccine skeptics. And if you’re a new parent — exhausted, stressed and fairly freaked out — maybe you don’t have time to thoroughly research these things. Maybe you trust your friend who heard it on Oprah, or your family member who read it in the newspaper years ago.
Here’s the thing: ten years ago a scientist yelled “Fire!” in a crowded theatre, and the media started yelling along with him. When some people looked around and realized there was no fire, they pointed it out to the media. The media, for the most part, realized they’d been fooled and told people it was safe to come back in, but the people were already out on the street and no longer paying attention. Worse yet, there are now people standing in the doorway saying the theatre is still on fire even though there’s neither smoke nor heat.
Look, no scientist would claim that it’s impossible for there to be a link between vaccinations and autism. It’s just that there’s been no substantive proof of one to date. If there were no consequences to this, no one would care. But there are consequences, and they’re serious indeed. Kids die from the measles.
Doctors everywhere are begging parents to get kids vaccinated before the problem gets worse. We happily listened to doctors about washing our hands to avoid H1N1, and all that was on the line there was the flu. Why would we ignore their advice about how to save our children?
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 