I believe I have found another of the classy graffiti artist’s work. It’s the phrase “Do you believe life is fair? No. that is why we must work to make it so.” The words were superimposed around a curb cut in Northwest Portland. I stood in the middle and turned in a circle to capture every side.
As I walked away, I noticed that it had also be stenciled leading up to that cub cut, though most of the lines had faded.
I still haven’t seen a name to go with the art and Googling the phrase didn’t get me anything.
This movie was very pretty to look at, from both a scenery and actor perspective, plus it took place in Singapore, which is an area I’m not at all familiar with, even cinematically. However, the pacing of this film was very slow, which made for not quite the enjoyable movie going experience I was looking for. Awkwafina perked up whatever scene she was in, but otherwise this was a little bit of a slog.*
Cost: $5.55 Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12 with S. North, who fell asleep.
*Also, by the time a person has been in a relationship for a year, the time has long passed for them to disclose any things about their family that might matter to the other person in the relationship. The lack of such disclosure bugged me and made it hard to root for the couple.
As an adolescent who wrote and then did not send letters to boys I liked, this movie was right up my alley. Aside from the fun not-relationship setup, we also got family life and some less fun social media harassment issues. While this movie has a few flaws,* it’s been a very good summer for romantic comedies (mostly due to Netflix) and I’m happy to add this to the list of solid rom-coms.
Cost: Netflix monthly subscription fee ($7.99) Where watched: at home, and it was exactly what I needed on this particular Sunday evening.
*If they are lounging on their couches, why do they watch media on a laptop and not some sort of TV device? Don’t tell me they don’t have a TV, because they must. Also, when one gets into a hot tub in one’s nightgown, one does not then get to walk in a dry nightgown back to their room.
Matt’s mother is in town to look for a condo. I went along because I love looking at houses. Here are two pictures from the day.
From the fifth floor roof garden of a place in Goose Hollow. This deck looks over the Alliance Francaise, which is housed in a grand old building.
In a complex in the Pearl, I found that Amazon delivery drivers are ignoring the stated rules, just like they do at my work. The bank of mailboxes in the stairwell is not “the mailroom” so stop treating it as if it is!
We viewed about 12 properties over two days and Linda found one to make an offer on.
Sara went on vacation and these three postcards arrived in my mailbox. Two were from Canada and dated 8/3, the third was posted in the US and was dated 8/14. International mail takes a very long time.
Here’s another example of my favorite style of postcard wherein the letters of the name have pictures of things that makes the place famous.Sara reports that they experienced the things depicted in the B, the N, and the F personally, though the N was viewed from a distance.
I’ve been to Banff and I believe I also experienced the N.
Sara reports that this was not their view from the Rimrock. Instead, it was a car park. Sara and Shawn enjoyed the beauty and reports that it was chilly, but that was welcome after hot Montana.
This was on Sara’s Minnesota oversized wonder bucket list. She also likes this old school Paul and is wondering about a Bunyun-based US tour. This article lists about 15 locations of statues (and lists the Portland, Oregon statue as the most famous. Take that, Minnesota!)
While Antares mostly hides while cleaning is going on, Sentinel likes to keep track of what we’re up to. He found a new place to observe what we were doing during this cleaning session.
This was not such a good movie to watch while giving myself a pedicure as there is not very much dialogue and a lot of action. However, Matt Damon as a confused assassin was a bit win for me and I easily got caught up in this film, to the detriment of my pedicure.* I look forward to seeing if the next two movies can carry on the engrossing nature of the story.**
Cost: free from library Where watched: at home, in preparation for 2019 Filmspotting Madness
*Which is really no big deal. It’s my favorite thing about pedicures. When you get nail polish on your toes and not the nail, it comes off the next day in the shower. **When I first moved to Portland and was living with my aunt, I used to ride my bike to the Burlingame Fred Meyer on Sunday mornings, then take the bus downtown to church. I always had some time to kill, so would read the magazines while I waited. I have a clear memory of standing in Fred Meyer and reading an article about Matt Damon’s upcoming movie, which was this movie. It was to be his first action film and there was speculation if he could carry his winning streak to the action genre. I remember being very nervous for him to do well in this movie. I need not to have worried.
I haven’t seen a ton of Spike Lee movies* but the ones I have seen drag a little, and this one was no exception. Aside from that, it was well worth watching and provided tense moments, moments of relief through humor, great acting** and really awesome costumes. And the ending was frigging amazing.
Cost: $8.00 Where watched: McMenamins Baghdad Theater with Matt. It was the first showing and a nice August day, so the theater was mostly empty, which was the opposite of what I would have wanted for this particular film.
*Need to rectify that **John David Washington is very, very good. Of note. I’ve found a good site for movies such as this: History vs Hollywood. It drills down to the details of “based on a true story.”
The Portland Streetcar put on a scavenger hunt and we participated. There were clues (that rhymed!) and they led us to different spots along the Portland Streetcar line. When we found them, we took a picture, posted it on Instagram and received the next clue. Here are all the places we went. Of note: I learned that I have no selfie skills. None. I’m usually laughing in these photos due to my sub-par skills. I take self portraits all the time with my camera, but it’s much easier to do than using a phone.
We started at the Spirit of 77, where we checked in and got a brochure with all the clues. This was handy as our last few posts got lost in the shuffle and we didn’t get our clues via Instagram.
Also, it was the rare summer rainy day! Here we are just outside our first destination The clue “Working out this clue/Gave us quite a fit/Mostly because/Nothing rhymes with it.” Matt knew it was “Orange something,” and a bit of googling showed us the location.
“For this basilisk vessel/Look above, not below/It’s hanging in a place where/You attend a conference or a show.” This one was tough. We had to figure out with basilisk meant (lizard). I guessed the location was the Convention Center and downloaded a brochure of public art that alerted me to the dragon boat. Then it was a matter of walking there. Matt wishes to point out that a dragon isn’t a lizard and thus, this was a sub-par clue.
“Dame says get your fun on/and be witty!/Be the “i” in the sign of / “__ __ __ __ __ __ __” We had to ask for a clue for this one. Luckily Instagram direct messenger made it easy. “Damian Lillard” was the clue and that meant that it was something over at the Rose Garden. I took a picture of Matt by this fountain because I’ve always liked this fountain. To solve the clue we took our picture in front of a clothing store that wasn’t open and it was pronounced good enough. Apparently there was a big “Rip City” sign out front and you could take a picture with yourself as the I. However, the sign wasn’t out on this particular day, much to the organizers annoyance.
“Be it dark, white, or milk/Design your own, smooth as silk.” Googling told us there were two options of chocolate stores, one on the west side of the river and one on the east side, where we were. I DM’d to see if we should cross the river yet, and the answer was that it wasn’t quite time yet. So Creo Chocolate it was.
We both got chocolate drinks as the rain had gone away and it had become a sunny day. They were chocolate, milk and club soda, I found mine funny tasting (I don’t love bubbly water, so I’m not sure why I ordered it) but very refreshing.
As we had done nothing but walk thus far, we had planned to take the streetcar across the bridge and into the Pearl. But the next car was not coming for 18 minutes and so we walked some more. I groused about it, but we did see some fun things like a group of guys playing around on the electric scooters.
From the Broadway Bridge. West side of the river:
East side of the river.
Union Station always looks so pretty.
Some graffiti
“Head to the Pearl for your/Next treat/”Eat it! Don’t Bake it”/This dessert is sweet!” We discussed what kind of dessert place they might be talking about, but I remembered the Cookie Dough Cafe, where you can buy cookie dough to eat. “That’s right by my work!” I said, happy to have solved the clue. “We can stop by and use the bathrooms. And so we did.
We were told to go inside on this one and were rewarded with some cookie dough to go. Thanks Cookie Dough Cafe!
“This place is also/Swell, nifty, groovy, and cool/Find it and take a photo inside the ‘Better Takes Action’ tool.” While Matt stood in line for our cookie dough prize, I googled “better takes action” and was told about the shoe company Keen’s campaign. We headed down the street to Keen for this photo.
Keen had benches outside, so we rested while we worked out the next clue. Across the street Filson (of the overpriced flannel fame) was doing something with chainsaws.
“This awning is great/for a night or a bite/Find the sculpture inside/Of birds taking flight” We knew it had to be a hotel with a restaurant, but there are many, many hotels in that area. Matt googled “awning hotel portland” and it came back with Canopy which is a new hotel by Hilton. In fact, I have chronicled the block after the previous building was taken down, but before they had made much progress building it.
In other news, though I walk past this hotel regularly, I had never noticed this grand sculpture of the swifts!
“Public art in a park sure is neat/These make streetcar poles more/discrete.” Matt knew exactly what the clue was talking about. I had never noticed them, even though the bank where I deposit work checks is right across the street from these totem poles/streetcar pole camouflage.
People who spend time downtown know the signs of something being filmed nearby. RV, Penske rental truck, No Parking signs. Somewhere in the vicinity filming is happening. Strangely, they were spread out over three or four blocks. It appeared to be some sort of athletic gear ad.
We found our final place, the Tea Bar, and headed for the last clue, “You’re done!/Come celebrate and say YAY/At the brick home of/The original IPA!” That was Bridgeport Brewing. Matt got a burger and I got a hummus plate while we waited to hear the results of the raffle.
And Matt won! A basketball signed by last year’s Blazers. Thanks, Portland Streetcar!
On the way to take the streetcar back to the starting point we had a very rare summer downpour. That was fun!
Finally, we use our free streetcar fare!
This was a very fun way to spend the afternoon. Thanks, Portland Streetcar!
I was only mildly interested in this movie because I don’t tend to prioritize movies where I have to spend a lot of time watching the antics of chauvinist pigs (especially lately–I get more than enough of that in the news.) But this movie did a great job of making everyone–even the chauvinist pigs–three dimensional and it turned out to be very much worth watching. Emma Stone as Billie Jean King did a great job of balancing the tennis pressure with the might-be-a-lesbian pressure and the movie never got bogged down in too much of anything.*
Cost: free from library Where watched: at home with Matt. (When I bring home a movie with Emma Stone, it’s a sure thing that Matt will suggest watching it.)
*Our DVD copy had a short interview with Billie Jean King that was wonderful to watch. She remains realistic about the situation of women’s equality, but reminds people “you have to start somewhere.”
