Month: July 2009

Discovery while errand running

Today I went to the Whole 9 Yards to pick up the material for the curtains in the bedroom.

The bus route is not it’s normal route and so I ended up taking a short detour. This was a great detour because I tripped across this space:

Some depaving becomes stairs.

A sign asking for appropriate behavior.

A shady place to rest.

A not-good picture of a tire swing.

A lovely garden.
This little paradise was carved out of a boring empty lot. Thanks unknown person who did that.

Three sentence movie reviews–Away We Go

Matt and I took each other to see this (he used his movie coupons, I suggested) and watching this a second time I observed that what I liked about this movie was the fact that it was the rare depiction of couples finding their place as a couple in the world. Most movies are about the couple meeting and coming together or the couple breaking up, or dealing with strife, so this seems a treat. Matt agreed that the main character was much like him, though he pointed out that I’d never stapled his itinerary to his coat.*

Bechdel score. Two women. Still nope. Hmm. Wait a second here! I’m remembering that the sisters talk to each other about their parents. So let me do this again.

Two women: yes. Who talk to each other: yes. About something besides a man: Yes!

*I pointed out that it was only because I hadn’t thought of it and wouldn’t he actually benefit from that?

Three sentence movie reviews–Moon


This movie gets props for un-ironically including the use of not only the clapper, but also the flowbee in the first ten minutes. This was a perfect movie: I was confused and intrigued by the plot twist; when it became clear what was going on I was horrified. Sam Rockwell, usually a dependable character actor, had me engrossed in this commentary on what it means to be human.

Bechdel score. Two women: nope.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/moon_ver2.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Across the Universe


I wanted to see the film when it came out, but for various reasons I didn’t. This could have gone very badly, but I greatly enjoyed the integration of the Beatles songs with the visuals and the story (simple on the surface) was engrossing. Very well done and highly recommended.

Bechdel score. Two women: Yes! That talk to each other: Yes! About something besides a man: I’m giving it a YES! Amazing!!!!!!!!!! Is this the first one of the year?

ps: I watched it twice in a weekend and showed my favorite parts to Matt. Then I put all the other Julie Taymor movies on hold at the library. You should really watch this film. Really.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2007/across_the_universe.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Harry Potter and the Book 6


I’m not a huge fan of these movies, though I think they do the best they can to bring the books to the screen. This one was “fine,” although I don’t understand why they eliminated the huge battle at the end and the big death scene was wrong, wrong wrong! The young love parts were very well done, which made me happy as the contrast between adolescent yearning and the increasing drumbeat of war are what makes this my favorite book the series.

Bechdel review. Two women: nope.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/harry_potter_and_the_half_blood_prince_ver19.html

Three sentence movie reviews–Last Chance Harvey


It didn’t come with the best personal review from a person I actually know: “I fell asleep during that, but I had been walking around all day, and I still want to see how it ends.” Indeed, it was a snoozer. There was so little chemistry between the main characters, Kelly and I spent the last 20 minutes listing movie couples with good chemistry.

Bechdel review. Two women: nope.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2008/last_chance_harvey.html

Mixer

I inadvertently burned out the motor of my superfabulous Kitchen Aid mixer last winter and have yet to get it repaired. I needed to make a cheesecake for a Bat Mitzvah gift and so I ended up buying a small hand mixer. It came with all sorts of things:

The usual beaters

A whisk

Some dough kneaders which I will never use.

A drink mixer, which I also will never use.

And, inexplicably, cookie cutters.

It even says right there on the label that it includes cookie cutters. Amused, I showed it to Matt who looked at the box and suggested that the cookie cutters could be used to make the decorations that were shown on the box. I guess so, but really? I was just in it for the basic mixer.

A few surprises

I had errands to run after work today. I hate running errands after work. At the end of the day, even a short three hour workday like today, I only want to quickly get myself from work to home. But this day’s errands brought some fun surprises.

I had to stop by Kaiser to pick up a prescription. On the way to the pharmacy I was waylaid by this display case. It was filled with the wood turning work of Mr. Agne Pearson.
The sign with the works explains that Mr. Pearson was born in 1922 in Sweden and brought to the US by his parents when he was an infant. He has lived in his house, where he has a wood shop, for 57 years. He likes to cut down the trees and cure them himself and then creates things.

His work was beautiful and I loved his handmade sign.
Buoyed by the beauty of unexpected art, I picked up my prescription and continued on my way. I took a winding route to my next stop, the Goodwill, and ended up crossing over my favorite pedestrian overpass in Portland.
I love how secret this overpass feels. Today though, I happened to glance up.
Locks! Many locks! They were in various stages of rust, and so many styles. This was almost as much fun as Mr. Pearson’s works.
Goodwill didn’t have what I needed, but my two surprises on the way home were good enough finds.

11 July 2008. A picture from the Hungary/Romania trip.

This was a very dark picture and I had to resort to harsh photo editing to make myself visible. At the airport, I unpacked all the alcohol I had carried home for the youth. Several of them bought alcohol as gifts for their parents and were surprised that they couldn’t bring it back to the states themselves. People who spend time with teenagers may be suspicious of this story, but I know that their parents did actually receive the alcohol because I handed it to them directly.

I waited for the last youth to be reunited with her mother and then I took a long Max ride back home. It was early or mid afternoon. How to stay awake until my bedtime? After I took this picture, I took a very long shower, grabbed that book you see on the table and got back on the Max. I took the yellow line to the streetcar and rode it all the way to the Spaghetti Factory where I had my favorite meal. This was the first meal I had eaten alone in two weeks. It was nice, but I missed the chatter. I realized on this trip that I don’t like the number of meals I eat alone.

Meal done, I reversed my commute, successfully killing several hours. I’m not sure what happened after that, but I’m guessing I started in on the photos. I didn’t manage to stay up for my normal bedtime, but I made it much longer than I would have if I had stayed home.

Coming home on a Friday was great. I had the better part of three days before returning to work and by that time most of my jet lag was gone and I had a good start on the photos and scrapbook.

So ended my trip.