Month: March 2020

Battleground Lake

Matt and I took a drive to check out Battleground Lake, which a coworker had recommended as a potential summer swimming hole.

After a pleasant drive we found a small little lake with some nice hiking trails.

We walked around the inner hiking path and then longer the longer path that doesn’t have lakeside views.

The lake didn’t seem to have a lot of places to hang out when not swimming, but did seem like a fun place to swim, once swimming season happens. Until then, these birds reign supreme.

It was a fun excursion and I look forward to coming back when it’s swimming weather.

The Wood is a Very Late-90s Film

The Wood

The review:

Rick Famuyiwa’s The Wood goes in a different direction that a slew of 90s “hood” movies, instead showing the close relationship of three friends in two different time periods.* This movie has a view of women that is very much of its time** and it excels in its portrayal of living in the hood, but being the guys who are not in gangs. It’s funny, and sweet and has some really great scenes.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: Free!
Where watched: 5th Avenue Cinema (alumni get in free, as do students!)

Consider also watching:

  • Love & Basketball (The main charcters are both in the Wood!)
  • Love Jones
  • Waiting to Exhale

Further sentences:

*The movie is double cast with Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones and Taye Diggs playing the older friends, while Sean Nelson, Duane Finley and Trent Cameron play their junior high and high school counterparts.
**It wasn’t going to win any feminism award in 1999 and most of the boy/girl interaction has not aged well.
***I think having a tough gang member named Stacey is one of the jokes and De’aundre Bonds was great in that role.

Questions:

  • What’s your approach to movies with humor/plots that don’t work with today’s understanding?
  • What are you favorite friendship movies?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

While writing his screenplay, Rick Famuyiwa worked full time at the Beverly Hills branch of Niketown.

The Wood

Alder Food Carts Space Big Hole

As last reported in June, 2019, the Alder Food Carts have been scattered to the winds. The luxury hotel is digging down before it builds up.

We are able to see what’s happening, thanks to this mesh barrier.

And what we can see is there is a big hole being dug. This is where the parking for the luxury hotel and condominium will be.

The street looks very different with the food carts gone. On the other side of 10th Street, where there were a few more food carts, there is another tall building being constructed. We’ve gone from not-quite-one-story structures, to very tall structures on both sides of the street.