Month: November 2014

Three sentence movie reviews: Hunger Games: Mockingjay part I

I’ve read/heard a lot of reviews saying that nothing happens in this movie, but I heartily disagree.  There are decisions to be made by Katniss and other sundry people in the Panem world, and the players spend this movie making them.  That means there’s not a lot of shooting, but a ton of good acting* and political maneuvering, which I was down for.**

Cost:  $10.00
Where watched: With Kelly at the  Baghdad Theater.  We went to the 8pm night-before-it-was-released showing celebrating one year of the renovated theater. There were themed cocktails and promises of cake.  Though no actual cake.  Was that a commentary on the Hunger Games movie?

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/hunger_games_mockingjay__part_one.html

*Peeta has greatly improved.  He’s quite good.  Jennifer Lawrence is, of course, phenomenal.
**I know what’s coming in the next movie, we can take our time getting there.

New ironing board. Also, completed shrug.

The old model. Not shown:  how it would shriek while setting it up, causing Antares to flee in horror.  Also not shown:  how it would fall down unexpectedly, sometimes right in the middle of me pressing something.
Our new ironing board friend? Looks cheery. Is manufactured in a way so it will not fall down unexpectedly.  Also has the same kind of legs as the old one, so I can still use the same closet hangers.
Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my completed shrug.  If I make this again I will size up one size (to accommodate my large arms) and extend the front pieces so they meet.  Still, this is fine.  And its very cozy.

Grabbing a photo of this house while I can.

I’ve always liked this cheery little house on Interstate, one block north of Killingsworth.  I’m a fan of houses that have most of their yard in front of them. However the “zoned RH-D” sign in the front yard tells me this fellow is not long for this world.  The shadow encroaching on the house is a multi-story mixed-use building of condos that went in a few years ago. Which means someone is going to want to put three or more townhouses on this lot.

Three sentence movie reviews: Interstellar

This was a very long movie and it really could have been much shorter, say two hours instead of 2h50m.*  I very much enjoyed the acting and was never really bored, but overall, there was just too much movie.  It’s always nice to see Wes Bently and his facial hair.

Cost: $10.00
Where watched:  McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Burt, Laurie and Matt.  (And yes, we DID get stamps for our passports.)

*Don’t want to sit through nearly three hours of movie? I’ll sum it up here:
(you should stop reading now if you don’t want SPOILERS)
(Really, now’s the time to stop.  SPOILERS ahead.)

  • Establishing earth story, with different feelings of family members, mostly anger and despair.
  • Endless unintelligible space science talk that sounded plausible to me, but what do I know really?**
  • Surprise cameo by a very famous actor!!!!
  • A bunch of rocket talk, PLUS added bonus annoying sexist thing that happens a lot in movies where the guy “makes the sacrifice” without talking it over ahead of time with the woman because you know men are really in charge and there’s no need to come to a solution TOGETHER.  I mean, really! In general, women are good problem solvers and collaborative people, so guess what lead male actor?  You probably didn’t need to do that thing you think you need to do.
  • Crazy fifth dimension thing that probably will blow your mind if your high hasn’t worn off yet.
  • Chatty family wrap up.

**Pretty much nothing.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/interstellar.html

Requiem: Chain wallet.

I was 17 when I bought this wallet from a kiosk in the mall.  For years it reminded me of boyfriend #3 because he had one too, though it was bigger than mine. Then it just became my wallet. I bought it because it was bad-assed, and I liked hooking my keys to my wallet.  I was probably in my 20s the last time I had the wallet in the pocket and the chain attached to my belt loop.  Now I appreciate the chain because I can hold the wallet and wrap the chain around my wrist, keeping my wallet and keys handily together.

Once upon a time the front had an embossed leather Harley Davidson symbol, but it fell off sometime in my 30s.

Aside from the leather giving out on one of the snaps, I’ve spent the last year or so worried that the pockets are too loose to hold the cards in anymore.  So it was time to shop for a new one.

Thanks to a birthday amazon.com gift card (!!) I paid $0.38 for this wallet.

Things I like:  the amount of pockets it has to hold cards, plus the bigger bill holder part (made for larger Euros, as you can see by the “money” that came with it).
Things I don’t like?  The chain.  It’s too thin, too long and I don’t like the clip that holds my keys.  I’m going to see if a jewelry shop can swap out the old chain for the new one.
Thanks Jan! If I keep this wallet as long as I had the last one I will be 63 before I need a replacement.