Month: March 2015

Dennis Lehane at Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing

Thanks to Kelly, we rambled out to Cedar Hills Crossing to see Mr. Lehane, author of the Kenzie/Gennaro P.I. murder mysteries, Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day and its two sequels.  I took several photos of Mr. Lehane, none of them great.  He’s a good storyteller, he is and while reading from the first chapter of his new book, you can see how he drew these people in.

I learned that he misses Boston terribly, (he lives in Santa Monica), he’s a Boston Celebrity (Lahane, you’re a treas-ah!), the Wire was only renewed for five seasons because HBO didn’t have anything else, and no, he still hasn’t found his dog.  I hope Portland showed him an okay St. Patrick’s Day.

Coming home the Rose Garden was lit up for the holiday.

Three sentence movie reviews: Austenland

Overall, this isn’t the best romantic comedy, but it scores points for originality (Live in the world of Jane Austen!) and for being funny throughout (Jennifer Coolege’s inexpertly applied Cockney accent and random British phrases never got old).  It also wins points for having Brett McKensie as a plausible romantic lead (hurrah the small, skinny, hairy guys) and for fooling me in its plotting.  So all in all, it was a good way to spend two hours.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2013/austenland.html

On their way to Italian Style?

Heidi and I were on our way to the Portland Art Museum’s Italian Style show.  We stopped at the Picnic House for a bite to eat first.

There was an entire table of ladies in fancy dresses and hats and I wondered if they were headed to the same exhibit we were. 

The Italian Style exhibit was quite nice and I loved looking at all the detail of the clothing.  I only wish they had postcards of the items at the end, so I could send a few to my regular postcard friends.  But alas, no!

Three sentence movie reviews: Funny Face

While there were some delightful moments (the beatnik dance scene, the fashion shoots, the song and dance by Hepburn/Kay Thompson) I spent most of the film being annoyed by the creepy May/December romance, and the fact that Audrey Hepburn does not have a funny face, she’s a female beauty icon.  Also, I hate when Fred Astaire sings and Audry Hepburn, while she does have her moments, has a lot of “eh” signing in this film.  I spent most of the movie waiting for Kay Thompson to reappear, because she was the triple threat of this particular motion picture.*

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*Don’t get me wrong, Hepburn and Astaire are fabulous double threats.  They just aren’t the best singers.

Part of the Ruby Oliver Film Festival

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1957/funny_face.html

Not a part of my world.

This picture is taking up the entire side of a store that sells fancy athletic gear.  You know, the kind of guys who put on their “nice” athletic shoes when it’s time to go out.  I walked around the corner one morning and was confronted by these gentlemen and thought, “I am not a part of this culture.”  They look like nice young men, though.

Long walk to librarian book group.

We begin along the waterfront where someone has graffitied this number into something that amuses me.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom.  It’s not surprising, because it’s been so warm, but I realized the other day that the year we bought the house, we moved in on April 17 and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom that day.  So we are quite ahead of the curve.

The Peace Garden (plantings in the shape of a giant peace sign) needs a little work.

More building going on in the area between the Rose Quarter and the Lloyd Center.  This block has closed a Max station while many units are built.  I always thought that Max stop was a waste of time, because there was nothing there, but now I see there were plans all along.  I still think it’s too close to the Convention Center/Lloyd Center stops, but no one asked me.

This sign seems a bit ambitious. 

Looking back on what I think of as the “used to be only” condo place in this area.  I’m guessing there are more condos I’m not focused on, but this is the building that sticks in my mind because when I moved here in 2001 they had units for $84,000.

I plotted out my walk on Google Maps because I like to get a general idea of a route and then do with that what I will.  I was amused that the route had me cut through Lloyd Center.  It was the straightest path.

The “random” in this sign always amuses me.  Not just bicycle patrols, but random ones.  Don’t try to figure out their schedule.  Note:  I’ve never seen a single bicycle patrol at Lloyd Center.  Not that I go there very often.

I like the lines on this building.  It has those great upper windows, which are probably drafty, and that fabulous octagonal corner.

I take a turn onto the “fancy houses” street.  This B&B is a spectacular specimen.

It deserves a second photo.  What’s behind that window?

The worst example of 70s-era infill.  This is a 4-plex placed perpendicular to the street.  Matt lived in a place like this off of Stark Street.

You know how in some of the John Hughes movies from the 80s we would see a lot of fancy houses as we made our way through the neighborhood?  This house reminds me of those houses.  Also, there’s  woman in the driveway taking a package off her bike.  Right after I took the picture she opened the front door and walked in.  The front door wasn’t locked!

This is a pretty orange house.  Most of the houses on this street look like they have yard services.

The planting of bulbs in what once was a walkway to the street, struck me as rather unwelcoming.

I was interested in this edifice.  The address block makes me want to think this was once a main viewpoint for the house.  But the fence tells a different story.  Maybe the fence was installed by subsequent owners?

If you keep walking on the street, the houses eventually become more “laborer’s cottage” than “Lord of the Manor.”  But I’m willing to bet this house costs close to $300,000 if it went on the market today.

I was very interested in this flyer because 1) It’s totally old school.  Phone for more information? Enclose a SASE?  Also 2) It says the lessons take place in the Kenton Neighborhood Studio and we are nowhere near Kenton.  I live in Kenton and I’ve never seen this flyer.

I should have taken the picture from the other angle, but this house is completely jacked up and receiving a new underneath.

I love how “edifice”al this house looks.  It seems like it could be a mini-diplomats house.

Fancy Tudor-style house.

With a 70s Lounge Lizard living room.

I needed some bean and pea inoculate and was happy to realize I was in the direct path of Garden Fever.  Not only did I get my inoculate, I also saw some pretty blooms.

The “good bark” kick continues.

But this just isn’t any bark, this is Portland Heritage Tree Bark.

Big old infill. 2909 NE Fremont St. I just looked it up on Zillow.  It’s a foreclosure, built in 2010. 3 bedrooms 3 bathrooms 2800 square feet.  $649,900.  Cheaper than I thought.

Here’s the house next door.  I wonder if they were sad when the new house blocked their evening sun?

And here we are at Wilshire Park.  I was early for my book group, so I sat and played around with my phone.  Both softball and t-ball practice was happening.

Classic view in a Portland park.  Picnic table sprouting green from the rain, tall trees keeping the grass from growing.

For my regular amusement.

We have a student this year who needs some special attention.  He was in the office one day with me because he didn’t want to do something and while I was trying to calm him down/let him wind down, he threw a notebook at me, hit me several times, tried to pull off my watch and flipped up my dress a few times.  Luckily he’s a quite-small kindergartener and wasn’t too effective in his wrath.  

The Speech Pathologist happened to be in the building that day and after he calmed down, she worked with him to make a poster about what he COULD do when he felt upset.  Everyone who comes in contact with him got a poster of their own.

So the day came when he was in the office again.  He was upset, so one of the Educational Assistants handed me the poster.  I set it down on the chair next to him and started to remind him of what it said. 

“I don’t want this,” he said, and crumpled it into a ball, which he then threw into the garbage can.  I chuckled.  When he calmed down, he pulled it out of the garbage can and we smoothed it out so it could continue to hang on my bulletin board, mostly so I could see it and think:

I don’t want this.