City of Roses. Wooden awnings.

I liked how this awning hadn’t been cut off flush yet. These seem to be a design feature very much of the current era. My own house (built in 2007) has them.

Another Five Years, another journal filled.

Another five years have gone by and I’ve filled a second Daily Reminder. Even crazier, I’ve been writing this blog long enough to have talked about finishing the first one on this very blog.

This version (unlike the first) had the days of the week printed with each day. I found this to be a negative after the first year, because the days of the week did not match up. However, it seems I will be dealing with this for another five years, as the new journal is exactly the same.

I went to town with books/movies in the last five years.

I actually ran out of space for books by the end of September, 2014 and ended up adding lined post-it notes to keep track of the books for the rest of the year. We shall see if that’s still a problem at the end of 2019.

Three sentence movie reviews: Dear White People

http://www.impawards.com/2014/dear_white_people_ver2.html

Oh Lionel–whose hair is like a black hole for white fingers–how much did I love you in this movie? Just a little bit more than I loved Justin Dobies confession of love to Tessa Thompson and her response that came later in the movie. Almost as I loved seeing this for a second time in less than a week.

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: Academy Theater with Matt.

And the phone gets faster.

On the right, my Samsung Galaxy Reverb, which was both my first cell phone and my first smartphone. On the left is my Samsung Galaxy S III which is my second cell phone and MUCH faster than my first one. It’s like being in an entirely different cell phone world. I was worried about switching phones, but it was a very smooth process. Once I activated the new phone, it downloaded almost everything from my old to my new phone. And they sent me an envelope to return the old phone for recycling.

Retro Sign, forgotten.

On a walk to the car repair shop, I noticed this sign, which is almost completely obscured by trees and such. It’s super 1970s in style. Cool, eh? The building is now occupied by American Barricades Service.

Three sentence movie reviews: Stuck in Love

http://www.impawards.com/2013/stuck_in_love.html

Time passes quickly in this story of a family of writers. Everyone struggles with something or other and there are problems, but nothing that feels like it can’t be solved. While that seems like a criticism, I found it rather enjoyable.

Cost: Free, rented through Hoopla, the library’s streaming service.
Where watched: at home, sitting in front of my computer. (This was a huge downside to the Hoopla viewing experience. Also, the subtitles were terrible. They would flash on the screen and disappear before the character spoke.)

Three sentence movie reviews: Foxcatcher

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/foxcatcher.html

Much like Force Majeure, this movie gives ample time to examine all quadrants of the movie screen in each scene. Unlike Force Majuere, this was a slow and interesting film, most probably because a lot of the screen was taking up with Mr. Channing Tatum. I knew how the story ended (because I remember when it happened) and yet I still found myself wrapped up in the conclusion.

Cost: Free due to gift card
Where watched: Regal Foxtower

City of Roses Motel gets woodier.

Workers have been busy framing up the site.

Patricia Awards 2014: Movies

I counted the number of movies I watched and it was a lot. But I’ve forgotten that number. So, without further ado:

Best way to feel high (or possibly bored) without ingesting substances:

To the Wonder

Best too-dark and mumble-y film with four strong male leads:

Out of the Furnace

Paul Walker Memorial Viewing that didn’t hold up:

She’s All That

Best Ending:
and
Best Prison Scene

The Italian Job (1964)

Best way to spend 13 hours (excluding a trip home to feed the cats) :

Lord of the Rings Extended Version Trilogy

Best not-talking western with a female lead:

Meek’s Cutoff

Best boy molestation drama that’s hard to watch but worth it for the acting:

Mysterious Skin

Best movie to pull the boyfriend in:

Pitch Perfect

Best Canadian TV show about a Shakespeare Company:
and
Best theme songs:

Slings & Arrows Seasons 1, 2 & 3

Best Chris Pine Elizabeth Banks movie with a twist I didn’t see coming:

People Like Us

Worst movie I watched populated with people who don’t share my values:

Spring Breakers

Best movie about painting lines on roads:
and
Movie that proves movies that feature men can be about the most boring things on the planet

Prince Avalanche

Worst Downton Abbey Season:

Downton Abbey Season 4

Best movie with song that will get stuck in your head that you don’t mind:
and
Best movie with Channing Tatum’s voice:

The Lego Movie

Best movie I put off seeing because I thought it would be schmatlzy, but instead it was tremendous and really, you should totally watch it:

About Time

Best scene with a bird containing an actress who really is afraid of birds:

I Give it A Year

Best movie about a flawed female character I loved:
and
Horrible movie poster that made me not want to watch this movie:

Young Adult

Best movie about grownups who aren’t quite grown:
and
Best facial hair on an actor:

Drinking Buddies

Best anticipated Kickstarter Movie:

Veronica Mars

Most over-rated movie I almost fell asleep (multiple times) while watching:

Her

Only commentary track I listened to
(which told me way more than I ever needed to know about a former high school classmate):

The To Do List

Best overlooked ensemble cast movie:

10 Years

Wes Anderson Movie that has lept to the top of many people’s list of favorite Wes Anderson Movies, but which I had trouble staying awake:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best surprise reveal as well as best use of vending machine:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Best movie about women’s friendship I’ve seen in a very long time:

Brokedown Palace

Best movie that still is so damn intense:

The Departed

Best use of a Jim Croche Song in a movie EVER!:

X-Men Days of Future Past

Best family drama that makes one happy one is not a member of the film family:
and
Really great title that just rolls around in my mouth:

August Osage County

Stupid movie I liked just because I enjoy the leads so much:

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Best Movie of the Decade
(though if you haven’t seen it, tamp down those expectations because it’s best for a few reasons and I don’t want you to go in expecting it to be something it’s not):

Boyhood

Best HBO series with a lot of nudity and great plot:

Girls Seasons 1 & 2

Hideous, horrible movie I only watched because of Anna Faris and it wasn’t really worth it:

Just Friends

Best movie not from this year that I watched this year:

What’s Your Number

Best movie that was packaged just so I would love it:
and
Movie where I finally crossed over to the side of not being supremely annoyed by talking animals:

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Best overlooked and incredibly sweet zombie love story:

Warm Bodies

Best movie about people who don’t share my values that was actually watchable

The Bling Ring

Best movie with a forgettable title that introduced me to Zoe Kazan:
and
Best movie that lets a short man be short:

What If

Best movie set on a train:
and
Best movie featuring Tilda Swinton and a great set of false teeth:

Snowpiercer

Best movie I had low expectations of and thus enjoyed greatly:

If I Stay

Best movie I watched this year:
and
Best movie to look for the “quotes” from the original Sleeping Beauty movie:

Maleficent

Worst movie for treating women as objects:
and
A movie that has not aged well at all:

Revenge of the Nerds

Movie that was not at all graphic, but totally disturbing:

Never Let Me Go

Best comedy movie with a female as the main character:

In A World

Best book-to-movie adaptation of the year:
(but you should read the book anyway)

Gone Girl

Second best movie in which Channing Tatum’s voice appears:

The Book of Life

Movie that desperately longed to be cut by a good 30 minutes, but alas meandered on for much longer than necessary just like this award title:

Intersteller

Best hair (worn by President Coin):

Mockingjay Part I

Best Girls as Punk Rockers (although only because I haven’t yet seen We Are the Best:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains

Best movie that lived up to the elementary school hype:

Frozen

Best revisiting of a Gus Van Sant film:

Mala Noche

Movie that didn’t really have a good understanding of its main character AT ALL:

The Homesman

Best Paul Rudd film:

Wet Hot American Summer

Best long journey that is actually interesting as opposed to a slog for the viewer who isn’t actually doing all that hiking:

Wild

Best BBC Series 1 watched this year:

Sherlock

Best use of soundtrack:
and
Two (TWO) characters who were also in Veronica Mars
(which has nothing to do with the actual film, which was also quite good):

Dear White People.

Do join us in comments and give out your own awards.

The Patricia Awards 2014: Books

Goodreads tells me I read 165 books this year. I believe that qualifies me to give out the following awards.

Best book to combine Shakespeare, baseball and poetry:

Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs
Ron Roertge

Best book I read and greatly enjoyed, only to find when I posted my review that I had already read it:

A History of Love
Nicole Krauss

Best book of suddenly orphaned girl:

The Beginning of After
Jennifer Castle

Prettiest book with also interesting plot:

Wintertown
Stephen Emond

Best book set firmly in the Midwest that also includes twins:

Sisterland
Curtis Sittenfeld

Best title that might repel people as much as draw them in (and they should be drawn in, it’s a fabulous book):

Sex and Violence
Carre Mesrobian

Best book narrated by a chorus of gay men (trust me, it works):

Two Boys Kissing:
David Levithan

Best title, hands down:

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Meg Medina

Best book that covers, among other things, a Supreme Court Justice buying underwear:

My Beloved World
Sonia Sotomayer

Title I just liked to say:

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
Evan Roskos

Book I mistakenly thought was set in Maine and thus was confused for most of the book:
and
Mock Printz winner I was incredibly unimpressed with, but which has stuck with me, so perhaps that was just sour grapes:

Midwinter Blood
Marcus Sewick

Best book to handily combine many plot points into one engrossing story:

The Living
Matt de la Pena

I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures, but this is one:

Divergent
Veronica Roth

The sequel falls apart award:

Insurgent
Veronica Roth

Best book written by someone I talk to regularly:
and
Best book to have a harrowing opening scene:

Rules for Becoming a Legend
Timothy S. Lane

Book that made me laugh like a crazy person:

Hyperbole and a Half
Allie Brosh

Longest book I read this year (so says Goodreads):
and
Most fascinating book I read this year:

The Warmth of Other Suns
Isabel Wilkerson

Best book with a princess who has to deal with all the really boring princess stuff:

Handbook for Dragonslayers
Merrie Haskell

Best nonfiction I read this year:
and
Best insight into transgender youth I’ve read:

Beyond Magenta
Susan Kuklin

Funniest YA that I got tired of halfway through (but am still recommending because of the great boy humor):

Grasshopper Jungle
Andrew Smith

Book of essays I enjoyed so much I bought it for my mother:

Lessons From the Borderland
Bette Lynch Hustead

Best book about book creation and artist process:

The Scraps Book
Lois Ehlert

Quiet, beautifully written (and short!)

The Story of a Marriage
Andrew Sean Greer

Best coming of age without “boyfriend” as the prize:

This Song Will Save Your Life
Leila Sales

Best middle reader with poetry that really tells a story:

The Crossover
Kwame Alexander

Best Veronica Mars novel:

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Thomas/Graham

Best best friends growing apart:

Mostly Good Girls
Leila Sales

Best cover that beckons and holds a great middle reader:

The Nightingale’s Nest
Nikki Loftin

Best book to not plan on doing anything after you finish:
and
Best book to not read about, just read:

We Were Liars
E. Lockheart

Best “Romeo & Juliet” with the Berlin Wall as the thing that keeps them apart:

Going Over
Beth Kephart

Best “bully” book, from the point of view of the bully:

Tease
Amanda Maciel

Best book about an elephant seal:

Elizabeth, Queen of the Sea
Cox/Floca

Best series to get me hooked (that is already finished, so I could just tear through them):

The Boyfriend List/The Boy Book/The Treasure Map of Boys/Real Life Boyfriends
E. Lockheart

Picture book that had me laughing the loudest:

Sparky!
Offill/Appelhans

Best title, pranks, and feminist book:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks
E. Lockheart

Other best title
and
Bonus Cambridge, Mass. setting

Mister Posterior & the Genius Child
Emily Jenkins

Best author to get me to read nearly ALL her books in the span of two months:

E. Lockheart/Emily Jenkins

Picture book that made me laugh until I cried:

Here Comes the Easter Cat
Underwood/Rueda

Title I thought completely wasted on this middle reader (it’s much better for a YA book):

Stay Where You Are and Then Leave
John Boyne

Middle reader I thought was the second in a series, but it turns out was just written that way:

The Great Greene Heist
Varian Johnson

Book that made this feminist spitting mad/dispirited:

The Bookseller of Kabul
Asne Seierstand

Best book about so much more than hiking:

Wild
Cheryl Strayed

YA title that sounded inappropriate, but was very vanilla:

Sloppy Firsts
Megan McCafferty

Rainbow Rowell book that was published this year that I loved (because RR is awesome):

Landlines
Rainbow Rowell

Book that is incredibly awesome for 66% of its pages and then sucks it up for the last 33:

Say What You Will
Cammie McGovern

Best book about the Russian Revolution:
and
Best reminder that it’s never a good idea to have a disinterested Czar/King:

The Family Romanov
Candice Fleming

Craziest Premise:

Noggin
John Corey Whaley

Second best series to get me hooked:

Megan McCafferty’s Sloppy Firsts/Second Helpings/Charmed Thirds/Fourth Comings/Perfect Fifths
Megan McCafferty

Best Memoir:

Chronology of Water
Lidia Yuknavitch

Best re-read before a movie:

If I Stay
Gayle Forman

Best historical fiction mixed with Norwegian Folk Tales:

West of the Moon
Margi Preus

Best book I couldn’t put down:

Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn

Best Graphic Novel set in Canada:

This One Summer
Tamaki/Tamaki

Best essays by a woman who Tweets more than anyone I follow and has a Channing Tatum fixation similar to mine:

Bad Feminist
Roxane Gay

Forgettable title hiding a fabulous Hurricane Katrina story:

Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere
Julie T. Lamana

Best graphic novel with a deaf main character:

El Deafo
Cece Bell

One of the few poetry-telling-story books that actually worked (and I read a lot of them):

Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson

Best book I love, that most people in the Kenton Library Book Group did not like:

American Wife
Curtis Sittenfeld

Best book about a Montana mining town:

Work Song
Ivan Doing

Best book with dragons set in Canada:
and
Best purposely misleading title:

The Story of Owen
E. K. Johnston

Best book of photos from the 1970s:

In the American West
Richard Avedon

Best stuck-with-a-sibling book:

Sisters
Raina Talgemeier

Book that needs an editor STAT:

Egg & Spoon
Gregory Maguire

Picture book I loved, even though it got a song from Oklahoma! stuck in my head:

The Farmer and the Clown
Marla Frazee

Solid ending to the trilogy:

Isla & the Happily Ever After
Stephanie Perkins

Best book with supernatural stuff set in Maine:
and
Third book this year to get me to read EVERYTHING the author has written:

Firebug
List McBride

Best feminist graduating from high school:
and
Best title:
(If I’ve already given that award, it’s best title with an apostrophe)

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future
A.S. King

Book I didn’t want to read, but loved:

Girls Like Us
Gail Giles

Best first half of a book:
(I assume the rest of the story is contained in its sequel?)

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28