Day: October 21, 2016

Three sentence movie reviews: Summer Magic

summer_magic

Apparently Hoopla, Multnomah County Library’s streaming service, has a lot of Haley Mills movies available, so I watched this film, which I had not seen since I was a tween.*  I discovered that Haley Mills, who I adored as a child, was quite good at acting like Haley Mills in that her character in this movie was not ostensibly different than Sharon & Susan in the Parent Trap**  I did appreciate the fact they let the child actors be mediocre singers*** as they sing along with Burl Ives.****

Cost: free from the aforementioend Hoopla
Where watched: at home, while sick

*Not that tweens existed when I was tween-aged.
**I have a feeling that I would not find her character much different in any of her movies, but I don’t have the time to invest in the research.
***There is a song in this movie called “Femininity” which is good fodder for many topics of discussion.  The lyrics follow below.
****That said, I loved Michael J. Pollard as Digby Popham.  He attempted a Maine accent and wasn’t bad in the acting department.

Femininity
You must walk feminine
Talk feminine
Smile and beguile feminine
Utilize your femininity
That’s what every girl should know, if she wants to catch a beau
Dance feminine
Glance feminine
Act shy and sigh feminine
Compliment his masculinity
That’s what every girl should know, if she wants to catch a beau
Let him do the talking
Men adore good listeners
Laugh, but not too loudly (Haha)
If he should choose to tell a joke
Be radiant, but delicate
Memorize the rules of etiquette
Be demure, sweet and pure
Hide the real you
You must look feminine
Dress feminine
You’re at your best feminine
Emphasize your femininity
That’s what every girl should know
Femininity, femininity
That’s the way to catch a beau

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1963/summer_magic.html
This poster does not get across at all what the movie is about.  It suggests a love story for Haley Mills, but that is not the case.  The dress is also not from the movie and that dog did not have a prominent role.

McMenamins Anderson School

We are cashing in two of our six free hotel nights.  Thanks McMenamins Passport!  (McMenamins Passport replies: Thank you for spending all that money at McMenamins while completing your passport.)

We’re staying at Anderson School, which is the newest hotel in the chain.  I’m glad to use our free nights at this hotel, as it’s more expensive than some of the others.

Why is is more expensive than some of the hotels?  A bathroom! In the room!  While I don’t mind at all the shared bathroom situation at many of the hotels (and am happy to trade off the bathroom for a lower-cost room) it was nice to have our very own bathroom.  There was also a TV.  Very un-McMenamins-like!

It did have the same awesome artwork throughout.  We stayed in a room named after a local Bothell resident who became an astronomer. 

I didn’t take pictures of the soaking pool, but it was an interesting experience. (You can see a picture in this blog post, or by googling) When we walked into the pool area, it seemed to be very cold and the lifeguards were bundled up in sweats and blankets.  We got in the water and kept as much of our bodies as possible in the warmth.  It was night, so it took a while, but eventually I wondered if the skylights not skylights but openings in the roof.  They were indeed openings.  And the huge windows on one wall were not windows, but also openings.  It’s an indoor/outdoor pool.  Apparently, it was built that way, when Anderson School was a school.  McMenamins kept it the same way.

“What happens when it rains?” I asked the lifeguard.

“It rains through the skylight,” was his nonplussed answer.

“What happens when it snows?”

“It snows through the skylight,” he said with a shrug.

Because of the unique indoor/outdoor pool experience, at times the pool is closed due to fog.

On Saturday we ate at the Tavern on the Square (actually we also ate there on Friday night, [McMenamins says: Thanks for spending money onsite while staying in the room for free] but these pictures came from Saturday morning)

This set of stained glass windows is David Schlicker’s interpretation of Mike McMenamin’s most favorite Grateful Dead song “Scarlet Begonias”

The lyrics to the verse are carved around the bar.