Planning Oscar Nominated Shorts

When the Oscar nominations were announced this year, I was very pleased that I had already watched all the films in many categories: Picture (all 10!), Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Actress, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Costume Design, Editing, and Production Design.

But then I needed to catch up with the animated shorts. It took some planning, but I fit all three programs into one weekend. Here were my favorites.

Favorite overall program: documentary short (as per usual).

Favorite documentary short: The Last Repair Shop (one of the best shorts I’ve seen in years.)

Favorite live-action short: tie: Red, White and Blue, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

Favorite animated short: Our Uniform

It was a good weekend of moviegoing.

Portland Winter Light Festival

I have been meaning to go to the Portland Winter Light Festival for many years. This year, Matt and I finally made it to a downtown location. The festival is spread throughout the city.

Here we are in Pioneer Square.

Pioneer Square had all the fire. You can see one example on the far left. The tentacles framing Matt’s head also opened and emitted fire. I hadn’t pictured fire as part of the celebration. But of course there would be fire. The original winter light.

Fire also came from these flowers intermittently.

Down by the World Trade Center we found a lot of different kinds of light. This demonstration let children play with the streamers. The adults did better at really making them flow, though.

A tesseract of light!

Another view of Pioneer Square with the strongman game showing the fire exploding.

Books Read in January 2024

*Read for Librarian Book Group. Favorites are bolded.

Picture Books

*A Walk in the Woods by Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney, Brian Pinkney
*Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom and Bridget George
*The Truth About Dragons by Julie Leung and Hanna Cha
*The Artivist by Nikkolas Smith
*Afikomen by Tziporah Cohen and Yaara Eshet

Chapter Books

*The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo and Julie Morstad

Young Adult Fiction


Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

One of my reading quirks is that I find song lyrics rendered in novels incredibly cringey. I usually skip them, though I couldn’t do that for this story because there is a lot of singing that advances the plot.

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

Sometimes an overly anxious main character makes for an overly anxious reading experience. Kenwood is great at constructing awkward and funny scenes that kept me chortling.

Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima

This book has been the best part of my January. I could have used an ending that was an ending (even if another book is coming) but otherwise this was an adventure of the best sort. The world building was just right, and I loved Reigann’s practicality throughout.

This Town is On Fire by Pamela Harris

Harris captured that point in friendship where the friendship has died, but the residual feelings are still swirling around.

And now, because I’m me, the following things didn’t work for me. I didn’t understand the band/dance team setup. Is the band not a marching band? Wouldn’t they do a halftime marching band show at the football game? Also, it seems weird to start the halftime dance routine in the stands because the home team audience can’t see what’s going on in the stands next to them very well. Then the dancers and the band transition to the field to finish the routine. But again, this isn’t marching band?

Also, perhaps in rural Virginia bowling is still popular, but anywhere else, the bowling alley owners seem to do their best to stay in business, rather than roll in the dough.

This Winter by Alice Oseman

I’ll Tell You No Lies by Amanda McCrena

*Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest

Grownup Fiction

One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe

A furious torrent of words. I understood why her stepdaughter covered her ears upon first meeting. Like enjoying tea with a very chatty and long winded companion.

Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald
Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley

It’s a book about the girlfriend and friend of a band that had a record deal once upon a time, and it is entirely uninterested in the music of the band or anything to do with the recording industry. The kind of detailed writing about the minutia of life that I love. Plus a double homicide.

A great Little Free Library find!

Young Nonfiction

*How Old is a Whale?: Animal Life Spans from the Mayfly to the Immortal Jellyfish by Lily Murray and Jesse Hodgson
*Good Books for Bad Children: The Genius of Ursula Nordstrom by Beth Kephart and Chloe Bristol
*Hidden Hope: How a Toy and a Hero Saved Lives During the Holocaust by Elisa Boxer and Amy June Bates

Grownup Nonfiction

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

January 22, 2024:
“Typical First Year Professor” is still a great essay. Gay spent a lot of time laminating the state of women’s access to birth control and abortion. Things are much worse now.

The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland by Alex Wright and the Imagineers

I Escape to Downtown

I had movies I needed to see, so on Saturday, I got my hiking shoes and hiking poles out and walked to the Max stop. It was pretty slippery. The Max easily took me downtown where it was less slippery, and I hiked over to the Living Room Theater to catch up with All of Us Strangers.

On Sunday, I repeated the trip, but this time sans poles. I saw the Zone of Interest at Cinema 21. When I came back to the Max stop, someone had made this cute snow sculpture.

Birthday Present Embroidering

I bought eight different handkerchiefs from Etsy. They all had different designs, but all were of the flower variety.

With that starting point, I monogrammed each one a little differently. This was my favorite.

The lines reminded me of guidelines on paper when we were learning cursive.

This was a late birthday present, but it turned out well. Though I should have ponied up a bit more money for the handkerchiefs. They were scratchy, overall.

Beginning to Thaw

The path I scraped out on our sidewalk has enlarged, so it’s slowly warming up.

It really does help things to melt when sidewalks are shoveled. Something Portlanders don’t do because “the snow will be gone tomorrow.” Perhaps that feeling is ready for a climate change update.

The car is covered in ice, though it isn’t as thick as it was earlier in the week. Driving out of that ice slick is also keeping us from using the car.

And the Ice Continues to Storm

Rain and light freezing rain? That means more ice.

It was at this point in our multi-day storm that I felt trapped and went and shoveled the ice away from the sidewalk and the front step. I slipped and fell on that front step, so both that and cabin fever motivated me. Ice is still covering the car and the garbage can. We only have trash pickup every 4 weeks, so we were willing to wait for them to catch back up.

Meanwhile, in Southwest Portland…

My mom’s very tall oak tree quietly set itself down in the back yard.

Southwest Portland had a ton of trees go down, and this was one.

It did a pretty good job not hitting things, though. The gray shed took the brunt of it.

All family members living in Southwest Portland were without power for varying amounts of time. I felt very snug and warm in my North Portland home.