Three sentence movie reviews: Hot Tub Time Machine


Four separate times during the movie Matt leaned over and said, “Remember, you were the one who chose this movie.” And indeed there was a lot–from a feminist perspective alone–to quibble with during the show. However, I thought they had a particularly brilliant way of showing the 40-ish actors as 20-year-olds and there were some laugh-out-loud funny parts.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/hot_tub_time_machine.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Serenity


It’s still a tragedy this show was canceled so early on. The characters still are fabulous, lovable and funny. As good as this movie is, it doesn’t make up for the fact that we never got even a full season of the series Firefly.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2005/serenity.html

I can’t look away.

This photo doesn’t accurately capture the object of my fascination and for this you should thank me. This gentleman, who I sat behind on the train, clearly had trouble shaving all the hair from his head. The hair caught in the fat rolls was rather long, and you could see how the clippers and razor missed them. As he would turn his head, different hairy patches were exposed. I tried hard to concentrate on the newspaper, but I kept getting distracted.

Three sentence movie reviews: Frank Lloyd Wright


I’ve just finished T.C. Boyle’s book the Women and had to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. Who better to show me than Ken Burns? Very nicely done documentary with a insight into FLW’s life.

poster from: http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1402646

Three sentence movie reviews: Mama Mia


Kinda slow and mostly vapid and you would be better off seeing it as live theater where you can hear so many people sing along. That said, it does have Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried who are always delightful to watch. And Pierce Brosnan’s singing wasn’t nearly as bad as I was led to believe.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2008/mamma_mia.html

Last day of school

Just like the other days of our cold and rainy spring, the last day of school arrived with children bundled up in winter coats, feet in solid, warm shoes. I spent the last recess of the 2009-2010 school year bundled up against the cold and wearing a wool hat. It started to pour about ten minutes before the last recess ended, which was also the end of the school day. Because the trees in the North Park blocks had leafed out, most of the children didn’t notice how hard it was raining. But just as I was about to blow the whistle to end the recess, lightning flashed and thunder cracked nearby. We ended our soggy, rainy spring and our soggy rainy school year by escorting a bunch of cold but excited 2/3 students inside.

“Why do we have to come inside just because of a little lightening?” asked more than one child. They are such Portlanders. They think hail is snow and because lightening rarely strikes the Portland metro area, they don’t know to be afraid of it.

Three sentence movie reviews: She’s Having a Baby


I enjoyed watching this movie about a couple just starting out, though I disagreed with many of their choices. Kevin Bacon was great, as were the rest of the actors. Watching it, I could tell that this was heavily drawn from John Hughes life, which probably had me overlooking any flaws.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1988/shes_having_a_baby.html

Portland Roses

A Master Gardener once told me that Portland, Oregon is a dumb place to grow roses. Apparently, they enjoy the desert-type climates of California much better than our dark, cold and rainy days.

And yet, Portland is well known as the City of Roses. We have a Rose Festival, for goodness sake and everyone seems to want to go to the Washington Park Rose Garden when they visit. If they are so darn hard to maintain here, why do we Portlanders insist on growing them?
I realized today, on yet another cold and gray spring day, that our hearty pioneer ancestors most likely grew up in climates much sunnier than ours in the winter. They probably grew roses because if anything is cheering against yet another day of gray skies, it is a profusion of colorful roses. Thank goodness there is a neighborhood rose garden on my walk to the train.