(Total: 7 movies, 1 TV show)
A gentle documentary.
Come for the rapping, stay for the plot.
Still holds up.
Canadian. Funny.
Does what it should.
One of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Does what it sets out to do.
Mark Steven Johnson’s When in Rome* is a perfectly competent entry into the second-tier rom-com cannon. It leans heavily on the comedy part of the equation—Dax Shepard, Jon Heder, Will Arnett and Danny DeVito all play enchanted suitors—and the comedy would perhaps be enhanced by having drunk a few adult beverages before watching. This is a movie that isn’t bad, but also is barely holding on to its Good rating.**
Cost: $3.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home
*True story: I was jonesing for some Kristen Bell—I had just read a Vanity Fair article with interviews with the cast of Veronica Mars—and remembered that this movie was the genesis of the Kristen Bell/Dax Shepard relationship. Then, I mistakenly assumed that he was the lead and was initially confused as to why Josh Duhamel was taking up so much screen time.
**Perhaps due to the above confusion, I wasn’t fully rooting for the couple. But Kristen Bell’s friends are fun, it’s an interesting premise, and Rome looks good.
After her return from Rome, Beth receives a phone call from Joan informing her that she is front page news due to her climbing into the Fountain of Love. A cutaway shows a newspaper with the headline “Stupidissima.” This translates not simply as “stupid,” but rather as “the pinnacle of stupidity.”
One of my YA-zeitgeist books is on this list. Check out Dig, by A.S. King.
Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies
Jorge & Megan Lacera
Read for Librarian Book Group
A funny book about a zombie kid who prefers eating vegetables to eating humans; it also doubles as a nice coming out narrative.
I am Hermes
Mordicai Gerstein
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book has illustrations that pair perfectly with the text. It makes for a whimsical illustration of the life of Hermes.
Vamos, Let’s Go to the Market
Raul Gonzalez III
Read for Librarian Book Group
The pages are packed with a ton of things to look at, appealing to those kids who like to really study their picture books. There’s a great English/Spanish mix of words and the journey through the market is interesting.
Where are you from?
Yamile Saied Mendez, Jamie Kim
Read for Librarian Book Group
A long (and beautifully illustrated) answer to a question we* should probably be more aware of what we’re saying when we ask it.
*we=white people
Other Words for Home
Jasmine Wanga
Read for Librarian Book Group
A slimmer novel in verse that shows us Jude’s life in Syria and then how her life changes when she comes to America.
I would have liked more details, but I enjoyed the verse. I also couldn’t remember anything about this book when it came up in book group discussion until I looked at the cover.
Dig
A.S. King
Read for Librarian Book Group
“Am I really up for A.S. King’s weirdness?” I asked myself as I picked up the book.
Turns out: yep! I was. It’s best to carve out a larger segment of time to get started with this book. There are many characters and many things aren’t clear as the book begins. But stick with it, and soon it will be hard to stop reading.
Most A.S. King books are uncomfortable. She seems to tap into the parts of this modern world that just aren’t right. But being uncomfortable and adrift is not an uncommon feeling in life, so perhaps A.S. King has her fingers on the pulse.
If you are a white person ages 15–107, this is your 2019 zeitgeist book.
Again, but Better
Christine Riccio
At first, I thought this book was aggressively mediocre, but I kept reading because the mild social panic was described so well. I also liked the idea of a college student realizing she’s done a terrible job making friends and trying her best to start fresh during her study abroad program.
Then the story changed and I was hooked. Overall, I found it to be a somewhat brilliant book.
Not to mention, it’s YA fiction with a 20-year-old protagonist. I’ll have to add it to my list of YA-in-college books. (Take that, agent who told me I wasn’t writing YA!)
The Afterward
E.K. Johnston
Read for Librarian Book Group
E.K. Johnston builds us a world where a group of knights, a mage and a thief have successfully completed a quest and now it’s back to the everyday. But the everyday is tough. Some of them have battle trauma, some of them have to do things to survive that become increasingly hard. Some of them are in love, and can’t be together for various reasons.
This book constantly challenged my mental pictures, and I love it for that. It’s also a fantasy book that doesn’t take place today that I was still interested in reading. Big wins! Hopefully it will get a better cover in the future.
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg
A thorough examining of how habits rule our lives, not just on an individual level, but in companies, and in social movements.
This is more of an informational text than a self-help book. I would have liked more of a how-to on how to change habits. But I’m sure there’s a book out there for me. In the meantime, this was interesting and informative.
Nolo’s Guide to Single-Member LLCs
David M. Steingold
This is a handy guide of things to know if you are thinking about starting a single-member LLC. The information is clear, it breaks down details and there are links to free forms.
Nisha Ganatra gives us a rare object in Late Night: the grown up comedy. Aside from a great cast* it’s also an interesting look at how those past-your-bedtime** comedy shows get created. It’s got some laugh-out-loud moments, and many chuckles and I found myself thoroughly charmed.
Cost: $6.00
Where watched: the Laurelhurst Theater
*Emma Thompson of course, and Mindy Kaling. And all those writers in the writers room were fun to watch and I enjoyed seeing Paul Walter Hauser, who was so good as the not-so-smart buddy Shawn in I, Tonya
**It occurs to me that probably no one thinks of these shows this way any longer. I’m asleep by 10, but still see bits from late-night comedy shows because they are available on YouTube
A poster for director Nisha Ganatra’s first feature, Chutney Popcorn, can be seen on the wall of Molly’s room.
For Matt’s birthday we visited Han Oak and partook of their very delicious tasting menu.
For appetizers we had the kimchi plate, curried potato salad and the seaweed and greens. We picked the chicken wings and the onomiyaki for the snack and had dumplings. Also the smoked hanger stake and the pork bo ssam. Plus the dessert.
While we didn’t love the dessert (we reestablished that neither of us like mochi, or meringue) the rest was incredibly delicious.
Plus, they were playing hair metal ballads the entire time, much to my delight.
Marc Lawrence’s The Rewrite is a movie that seems to have time traveled from the 90s, landing squarely in 2014 and carrying on as if nothing has changed. Hugh Grant is a screenwriter who has slid so far in Hollywood he takes a job teaching screenwriting at a college in upstate New York* where he chooses his students by checking online to see what they look like** and then tries his best to avoid teaching them anything.*** Allison Janney is a frigid Jane Austin scholar who thwarts him at every turn**** until he has a realization and everything comes up roses for him.*****
Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home, (and I now pledge to look up some reviews before putting a five-year-old movie I’ve never heard of into my DVD player)
*It happens to be the same college one of my former roommates attended.
**He ends up with eight very attractive young women and two very nerdy guys. Marisa Tomei argues her way into class, and I found myself wishing we could shuffle Hugh Grant off camera and just have a movie about her character.
***Except for one person. And, to no one’s surprise, that person is not one of the nine attractive women. Grant decides that one of the nerdy guys has a brilliant script and mentors him into a movie deal. Those ladies, though, they are still window dressing. No reason to see if they can write. No reason to mentor them.
****Strangely, we are supposed to see her as the villain here, rather than as a person making some good points.
*****At that point I was hoping for more of a Leaving Las Vegas-style ending.
Portions of the film were shot in and around Binghamton, NY and the nearby Binghamton University. This is because director Marc Lawrence is a graduate of the university, and has expressed a great love for the school and his experience there.
William Bindley captures the Last Summer (the one after high school and before college) in this pleasant ensemble movie that is as breezy as the wind off Lake Michigan.* Maia Mitchell and K.J. Apa** are the main twosome, playing an aspiring filmmaker and musician, but there’s also Sosie Bacon*** as a girl hoping to get into her fourth-choice college, and Halston Sage**** who has a meet-cute with a baseball player during a Cubs game.***** It’s not an earth shattering movie, but that summer after high school is, in some ways, the last gasp before real life starts and I appreciate having a 2019-era chronicle of it.
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99)
Where watched: at home
*I’ve not actually been to Chicago and so I have no idea if there is wind off of Lake Michigan in the summer, but that sentence needed an ending, so there it is.
**His face is so symmetrical that I have trouble looking away from it.
***I also enjoy Sosie Bacon. I think it has to do partially with her genetic material (mother is Kyra Sedgwick who imprinted on me in Singles, father is Kevin Bacon, of well, every movie, to at least the sixth degree) and partially because she’s got a laid-back frowny vibe which I enjoy.
****So very good in Before I Fall and Paper Towns
*****There are a few other plots involving boys—most memorably two nerdy guys who accidentally pass themselves off as stock traders so they can drink in a bar—but I only have three sentences and we’re already at fifth-level asterisks.
Both K.J. Apa and Maia Mitchell are not orginally from the United States. Apa is from New Zealand and Mitchell from Australia.
Another first-of-two postcard that arrived first!
Sara grabbed this when they ate here for their anniversary dinner. She had a comment about the food that she told me not to put on the blog so I won’t.
The dinner was there courses with wine pairing and she reports that it was nice to visit a place they’ve been wanting to go to for a special occasion.
We turn to the housing development down the street to see how it progresses. We illustrate the progress with blurry pictures (sorry).
This house used to have a full driveway. It now has a skinny sidewalk. As I am concerned about how this development will affect parking in front of my house (which does not have a driveway because I am also part of the problem) this isn’t great news. I assume the house is staying (but perhaps not?) and eventually those two units will be occupied again and will need parking, just like all the new units will.
And when I say “units will be occupied” I mean by rent-paying people. The squatters who have been living in it don’t come with cars. You can see where the trash has been emptied from the house. Again.
A view from the opposite corner. I can’t remember how high this development will go, but it is probable that eventually the house will not be visible.
This one arrived a little worse for wear. See: that schmutz in the corner. But it’s fancy. It changes when you move it in the light.
She found this while packing up her office. It originally came from Virginia, but has made its way to me. She hopes that I’m enjoying that packing and moving is NOT part of my summer.
And her hopes are not in vain. I always enjoy when packing and moving are not parts of any season of my life.
