Three sentence movie reviews: Glee, the 3-D Concert Movie (in 2-D)

So this movie was not so engrossing as to pull me away from many various thoughts and wonderings* while watching, but for the ending of a stressful day when I forgot to take a full breath the entire time I was at work, this was perfect.  I loved seeing the actors perform (as opposed to acting like they are performing, which is what we see on the show,) like the moment when the actor who plays Blane finished singing and gave a short laugh of delight at the crowd’s reaction.  I also thought the stories told by the featured Glee fans were quite good.

*Examples of various thoughts and wonderings would be:

  • Has Brittany had implants?  It might be the top, but her breasts look rather big for her frame.
  • Do they Auto-Tune Quinn?
  • Do they 
    Auto-Tune  Santana?
  • I’m pretty sure they don’t 
    Auto-Tune  Rachel, and if they 
    Auto-Tune  Mercedes, I would be incredibly disappointed.
  • Are they really singing during this concert?  Really?  Maybe just the lead singer, the ones they don’t 
    Auto-Tune ?  Maybe the rest are lip syncing?
  • Man, if anyone won the “Glee lottery” it’s Finn: he’s old, he can’t really sing, he has amazingly normal looks and we all know he can’t dance that well.  Yet still, he’s a star and people love him, myself included.
  • What must their rehearsal and preparation schedule look like?  It’s probably pretty intense.
  • I could watch a whole movie of Brittany and Mike Chang dancing.
  • It’s over already? If I payed 3-D prices for this movie I would be annoyed that this is only an hour and 13 minutes total.

ps.  The name of this movie in the library catalogue is:  Glee, the 3-D Concert Movie.  And when you scroll down on the page it says, “2-D version”  So I delighted in telling people I saw Glee, the 3-D Concert Movie in 2-D

Three sentence movie reviews: Snow White and the Huntsman

I took advantage of a nice day to sit in a dark theater and contemplate my Chris Hemsworth thing.  This was not a “good” movie, but I greatly enjoyed it, including the costumes, the special effects, the very sullen Snow White and a wonderful, scene-chewing (in the best way possible) Charlize Theron as the evil Queen.  Oh yes, and a grimy Huntsman.

Let’s have a bonus poster, just for fun:

Bike ride.

I took the long way to St. Johns because it was such a nice day.  I got extra time to contemplate the nice day while I waited for the train to pass.  I came upon the train midway through and still counted over one hundred cars.
 
A view of the slough. (It rhymes!)
 
Don’t go here on the bike path.  Happily, I’m almost to my destination.
 
Yep.  The Willamette and Columbia are still confluence-ing here, at Kelly Point Park.  I like to go and check on them every once in awhile, just to make sure.
 
Blue skies and power lines just past Kelly Point Park.  Soon after that I took a wrong turn and made my ride longer than it needed to be.  But it was such a nice day, I was happy.
 

Three sentence movie reviews: Crocodile Dundee

I mentioned in passing to Matt that I had never seen this film and it soon after arrived from the library.  The film being over 20 years old, I was a bit leery that we would get some good racist humor, but it was a surprisingly progressive film and also was pretty funny, even after all these years. Now that I’ve seen it, clearly my life is complete.

Rose Festival Parade 2012

Saving seats for the Rose Festival Parade.  I’m from the blue chair to the end of the blanket.
 
After much time saving seats, Mom and her friend Tanya arrived.  Then Rick arrived with S & K.  Kids at parades are much fun so there are many pictures of S & K and none of Mom and Tanya.
 
Trying to get both kids to look at the camera.
 
There’s a parade going on, but who needs parades when you have rocks behind you?
 
Because then you can take the rocks…
 
…and put them in the bike helmet!
 
Attempt at self-portrait with myself and K.  It captures neither of us, but does get a bit of my mother.
 
This weird yellow guy hung about, trying to excite the crowds.  He was a bit creepy and eventually moved on.  He seemed to not be actually affiliated with the parade, just a random all yellow guy looking to motivate people to cheer.
 
K had the eating thing down. 
 
S took a break from rock-moving to have a snack.
 
They lasted a long time, but eventually it was time to go.
 
In case you missed the Rose Festival Parade, here it is, in less than three minutes.

Making pita bread/chips

I’m off to the Rose Festival Parade tomorrow, and I’m bringing along Hummus and Pita Bread. I’m making my own pita bread from my new favorite cookbook Make the Bread, Buy the Butter.    It’s so exciting!

Pita balls ready to roll.
 

Pita balls rolled and ready for the very hot pizza stone (pita stone?)

Finished pitas.  I think my stone was hot enough that I needn’t have baked them for very long.  In the recipe, she recommends eight minutes.  My first batch, baked for that long, were nearly burnt. I  kept reducing the time baked, but they all went from dough, passed quickly through bread and into chip form.  The author mentions she can’t get hers to puff, but all of mine did. I’ll try again next time with very little cooking time and see what results they give.  These were very, very good.

Three sentence movie reviews: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

This was a much better movie than the previews led me to believe (although the previews did that annoying thing of harvesting the best jokes, so said jokes weren’t funny by the time I saw them in context) and it was chock full of women!  I thought there were flaws, but not deal-breaking ones and all the actors are the kind of actors that make acting look so easy.  I also enjoyed the persistant positive speech by the hotel owner, no matter how bad things were.

Essay: My favorite time of year.

It’s my favorite time of year and it is because of the
light. When I was growing up, summer was my favorite time of the year.  It was hot and sunny and I got to swim every
day and turned a nice brown color.  Now I
live in a place where summers are mostly sunny, but rarely hot and often I
don’t even bother to own a pair of shorts because the weather does not require
them.

Also now too, I’m an adult and don’t get to swim every day
even if it was warm enough to compel me to. 
I still like summer, even the “bring a sweatshirt” variety that is
Portland, Oregon, but now my allegiance has switched to late spring.
Sometime in late April or May it begins to get light very
early.  When I am a steady exerciser, I
am a morning exerciser.  I also seem to
gravitate to paid employment that begins early. 
This means that I get up very early to exercise which, for the past six
years, has meant being out the door by 5:00am.
Let me tell you that for most of the year, 5:00am is
DARK.  I wear a reflective vest, I peer
through the dark of night and I’m going to have to eventually wear some sort of
light on my head to better see the many things that can trip me up.  Most of the year, it is hard to get up at
5:00am.  It is dark, and cold, and rainy
and I just want to sleep for a little bit longer.
However, sometime in late April, the light shifts and I just
start waking up.  First at five o’clock,
then earlier and earlier until my eyes pop open at 4:30 with no trouble at
all.  I also need less sleep.  During the dark months I fall asleep by 9:30,
and battle every morning to drag myself out of bed.  When it gets light early, I’m up until 10:00
easily and my eyes automatically open at 4:30.  I
also have more energy.
I attribute this surge to my left over agrarian
genes—telling me to get up, get out and till the fields—get the corn planted,
the chickens fed, the gardens weeded and watered.  It makes me wonder if I’d be happier shifting
my sleep pattern to follow the sunrise, sleeping in later in the winter,
getting up earlier in the late spring and early summer.  This will probably not be a thing I will ever
get to experiment with until my retirement as the jobs I seek have firm start
times.
It’s a brief period, this magic time of light.  By mid-July the morning runs begin their
slide into complete darkness and I am left to enjoy the (comparatively) warm
and (comparatively) dry mornings for the rest of the summer.  Then the rains come and it is another long wait for my favorite
time of year.

One of my favorite “Hidden in plain sight, Portland.”

Every spring I’m delighted to walk by this parking lot at the corner of Burnside and SW 6th Ave.  At some point, someone planted these yellow roses around the perimeter of the lot.  Despite the fact that no one cares for them and they are surrounded by a busy street, a transit mall and asphalt as far as the eye can see, they bloom every year and smell fantastic.
 
Cars surround them, both moving and unmoving.
 
I’ve never taken cuttings of any plant to propagate, but these roses might just make me learn how to do that.