Month: March 2013

Three sentence movie reviews: The Master

I think I’ve figured out that watching a Paul Thomas Anderson movie is not like watching a typical verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus-type movie.  I was entranced the entire film because the acting is tremendous and yet I felt like nothing had really happened when the movie was over.  Instead of watching a story, it seemed like I was on a journey with the characters.

Where watched:  Laurlhurst Theater
Cost:  $4.00

Potatoes. Sometimes, they are what’s for dinner.


I remembered that I never finished harvesting the German Butterball potatoes last fall and dug up a pound of them.  They were in great shape, just muddier than if I had pulled them out of the ground last September.  I roasted them up and, man, were they good.  They were so good, I just had a double helping and called that dinner.

Postcards from Japan and the Ukraine

Guess which post card is from which country.

Did you guess that this is from Japan?  I love the red, it’s even more vibrant in real life.  Plus, on the back side, the woman put decorative tape and stickers along with her message.  It was very pretty all around.
 

Isn’t this nice?  The quote on the back was from Nietzsche:  “That which does not kills us makes us stronger.”
 

Transcendent Donut Experience

I head about this donut shop, something about quality ingredients, good donut, etc.  I like a good donut, so I wandered over.
The interior was industrial, spare and hip.
 
A statement.
 
More hipness.

Here’s the donut in question.

The verdict.  A-mazing.  Here’s how it usually works with me and donuts.  “I wish I had a donut.” I say to myself.  Then, being gainfully employed and mobile, I get myself one.  Sometimes I get them from the grocery store bakery case, sometimes from an official donut shop.  I eat the donut and it leaves me feeling a bit empty.  It was okay in the moment, but the moment has passed, leaving me with a bit of grease and a few coins shorter in my wallet.

Here’s what happened with this donut.  I paid my money, sat down and bit into it.  And it was chewy and substantial and burst with flavor.  The donut was a substance in and of itself, not just a carrier for the toppings. And the toppings!  The chocolate was rich, the coconut was toasted perfectly.  The whole experience was exactly what I’m looking for when I’m in the mood for a donut.  At $2.50, this donut wasn’t cheap, but I’ll take one of these over three of the standard donut, any day.

Books read in February 2013

I’ve joined a new book group which is going to send my month totals higher than they have been lately.  It’s a book group consisting mostly of people who are Youth Librarians at the Multnomah County Library.  Every month or so they circulate a list of picture/children’s/young adult books and then they get together and discuss them.  My favorite librarian friend mentioned I might enjoy this.  Would I?  You betcha’!  So my total this month is back up to eight, but three of those were picture books and went by quickly.

Read
I, too, am America
Langston Hughes
Illustrated by Bryan Collier
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
I enjoyed the illustrations of this poem, and even more so when I read the note from the illustrator afterward.

Ellen’s Broom
Kelly Starling Lyons
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
One of the things I loved about being a history major was finding out little details from the past.  The author seems to have the same enjoyment because this book is based on a little bit of history she found: a list of former slave couples who were finally able to really marry once they were free.  In this book, Ellen tells the story of her parents who were first married by jumping the broom, but after freedom were able to walk to the courthouse and make it official.  Illustrated with lovely woodcut illustrations.

Dodger
Terry Pratchett
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
I loved this tale of the Artful Dodger as a teenager.  The book was lush with Victorian London details.  There was also fun slang and interesting characters, some taken from history, some taken from fiction.  Overall, it was a delight.

Love’s Winning Plays
Inman Majors
My library branch (the most excellent Kenton Library) had a “blind date with a book” display and I took this one home mostly because the two hearts on it said “Romance” and “College Football.” Intrigued, I tore open the wrapping and dove into a very funny tale of a Graduate Assistant Football Coach at a big football-centric state school in the South.  It did indeed provide me with both romance and college football and also enough laughs that I disturbed the boyfriend while he was taking a GRE practice test.

10 Little Indians
Sherman Alexie
Read for Kenton Book Group
Enjoyable stories about many different kinds of Indians.  This was the 2013 Everybody Reads selection of the Multnomah County Library and I found it (refreshingly) racier than the usual choices.  The stories were funny in places and sad in places and I greatly enjoyed reading them. 

The Leftovers
Tom Perrotta
A ticket-seller at Portland Center Stage gave this an “okay” review and thus I took my time getting around to read it.  I think he was spot on.  It was interesting to examine how different people deal with a good chunk of the population just disappearing, poof, into thin air. But it was not incredibly gripping.  A solid book, “good effort” is the rating I give.

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog
Kitty Burns Floey
A short book full of the author’s love for diagramming sentences. As a child, I cried through most of my sentence diagramming units, but as an adult I want to have enjoyed the process.

Electric Ben
Robert Byrd
Read for Youth Librarian Book Group
History of Ben Franklin with each two-page spread covering a different period of his life.  Ben Franklin’s quotes are sprinkled throughout the book and also included on both inside covers.  It was interesting to realize how many of our sayings come from Mr. Franklin.

Art Building


I’ve sensed a pattern.  Outside supports start to go up and the exterior of the next story is finished a day or so later.  Light shines through the windows of the newest floor.  Then the next level’s ceiling/floor must appear and block the light, as it has with the second floor.  After that, the process repeats itself.  The building is going up fast now, and I suspect that after they hit the final floor, it will seem like a lot of nothing is happening, because I won’t be able to see most of what’s going on.


Yesterday, when I took the picture, the flagger said, “Hey! Take a picture of me!”  So today I did.  He’s quite nice and will usually stop traffic when we cross the street for recess.  He’s like our own crossing guard.