Three sentence movie reviews: Vanity Fair

vanity_fair

Bound by Reese Witherspoon’s steely performance and directed with flair by Mira Nair, this was an intensly enjoyable film.  Partially because I was waiting for the female character to get the smackdown, as 19th centrury female characters who do not hew to the strictures of society usually do. But maybe Thackeray was ahead of his time or the ending was tweaked,* and either way, I enjoyed it.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*And now I’ve read the synopsis and I see the ending was tweaked.  But to good effect, I think.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2004/vanity_fair.html

Song of the month October 2016: Cleopatra by the Lumineers

The Lumineers “Cleopatra”

I’m a sucker for a song that tells a story, and if it’s a thwarted love story, all the better.  With this song, I marvel at how so much story is stuffed into relatively few lines.

There’s something delightful about the way Westley Schultz spreads out the word Cleopatra.  And I like the urgency of the music, paired with the stripped down chorus.

Also, as opposed to last month’s, video, this is really well done.  One comment was something along the lines of “crying in the corner now.”

Also enjoyable this month is a song that was highlighted on Friend Jan’s blog in August. “Something More Than Free” Jason Isbell.  It tells a story, it makes me want to thank God for the work, though I actually don’t.  Jan writes good things about it, which you can read here.

Where the building exploded

A little past 9:30am on October 19, I heard a noise, which was loud enough to rattle the windows at work and cause some computer thing to beep as it reset itself.  It happened a second time and then there were many sirens.

My co-worker, always quick to find answers, found the news on the Fire Department’s twitter feed.  There had been a gas explosion in Northwest Portland.  Firefighters were on the scene and reporters were told where they should go for updates, and the best route to get there.

Though there were injuries, amazingly no one was killed.  You can see pictures and video by going here.

A week an a half later, we drove through the intersection, on the way to my Birthday dinner.  This the corner with the building that exploded, as well as the apartments next door.  

The plate glass blew out of the building across the street.

Saying goodbye to Videorama

When I moved to Kenton, Videorama took up 4/5 of this building, and the gym (also owned by the same people) was 1/5 of the building.  At some point, the two reversed themselves. 

And now, my last video store opportunity has gone.

I will miss having the opportunity to walk in, browse, rent new movies, find old movies.  I will miss the employee picks.  It was because of them I discovered All the Real Girls and other good movies.

It feels weird to realize that one of my jobs (video store clerk, Blockbuster Video) has completely disappeared. 

I cast my historic vote!

When I was 18, I cast my first vote ever in the US Presidential race for Bill Clinton and he won!  Growing up in a household of Democrats during the Reagan and Bush administrations, this was a very big deal.  I began my adulthood with a president I voted for.  I’m excited to be 42 and casting my vote for Hillary Clinton.  I never really had a guess as to when I would be able to vote for a woman for US President, because it always seemed so far away.  I’m happy to be casting this historic vote.

(I also voted for everything else too.  Running this country isn’t just about who is president.)

George R.R. Martin has been read aloud!

I know we were reading this book on the way home from Cindy’s wedding, because that was when we decided to stop the “read one character at a time” method and switch to a regular read-through. That was August of 2013.  We have been reading this book for a very long time.

(Note authentic Spartan Race scratches on Matt’s arm.)