Tag: Portland

Checking out Ole Bolle with Sara

You will recall that my mother and I visited the Ole Bolle last September. Sara and I visited so she could see the marvel.

There was a private event at Nordic Northwest, but it didn’t specify that the private event was by the troll, so we headed over. The event appeared to be a wedding not far from the troll, but it hadn’t started yet, so we scurried by.

Sara compares foot size.

I take a picture of his face. He’s a bit more weathered than last year, as is expected.

Sara posing with Ole Bolle.

At the table in the cabin was some white wine and an envelope. I wondered if the envelope might hold the marriage license. We scurried away. Though another group was headed to the troll as we were leaving, so we weren’t the only ones taking a chance that day.

Hollywood Babylon at the Hollywood Theatre

Sara and I took in the pre-Code film Jewel Robbery, which was part of the Hollywood Babylon series. Before the film, this helpful graphic was displayed.

You can see the picture includes all of the “shalt nots.”

We counted quite a few shalt-nots in our movie. Jewel Robbery was fun, though a very brief 68 minutes that has me wishing the tickets were slightly discounted.

Somewhere in our travels, I came across this much appreciated sign in a gender neutral bathroom.

I’m completely for gender neutral bathrooms, especially when the bathroom has just one toilet and one sink. However, my experience has been that it’s quite common to walk in and have to kick the seat down. Drives me crazy.

Bliss House Museum

Sara has come to visit and we are headed to the Bliss House Museum.

Here it is peeking above the shrubbery.

And here we are at the gate. The museum is Betsy Warren’s private collection of thousands of women’s clothing and accessories from the 1920s to the 1980s.

First off, the brides’ room. It included this fantastic over-the-top wedding dress that appeared at the Bins (Goodwill’s last-chance stop before items head to the trash.) It’s an incredible dress, and I’m guessing something didn’t go well with the marriage for it to be discarded as it was. The curator is hoping to eventually find out more about this dress.

Upstairs, I enjoyed this busty item of furniture.

A favorite dress. The info card reads: Suzy Perette (1950s) Wasn’t the name of anyone, but the name of a dress manufacturing company that made affordable versions of Parisian designs in the 1950s.

Two more great black dresses. The one on the right is Cheryle Kaye and is from the 1980s. The one on the left is Carlyle, based in Illinois from the 1950s.

I liked this display of gloves, hats, and purses.

All three of these dresses are quite fun! The strawberry one would be especially fun for a summer party.

Both Sara and I were surprised that the bubble skirt was popular before the 80s, but there were a few dresses on display that proved that to be true, like this one.

We posed in front of the swimming costumes.

And in a mirror.

This was a fun tour, and if you like fashion, it’s well worth your time to make reservations.

Quixote Nuevo at Portland Center Stage

Matt and I took in PCS’s Quixote Nuevo, and had a great evening of theater. The story transports Don Quixote to La Plancha, Texas, where a retired English professor with dementia heads off on a journey for his long-lost love.

Among the great performances and great songs there was also great puppetry. The cast of nine was kept busy with multiple roles, and the story was compelling.

Also, this was a co-production and traveled from the South Cost Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California, to the Seattle Repertory Theater and then ended its run in Portland. The set was designed to fit all three stages, and the actors worked for longer because of it. In a time when arts organizations are struggling, this seems like a brilliant plan.

Ruth Carter at the Tomorrow Theater

Famous costume designer Ruth Carter was scheduled to come to Portland in January, and I neglected to get a ticket and was sad. But it turned out that her visit coincided with the ice storm and didn’t happen, so she was rescheduled to March, and I did buy a ticket.

After finding my assigned seat (instead of the random seat I grabbed because I didn’t pick up on the fact there were assigned seats, even though I had picked my seat hen ordering the ticket (the Disney trip really overloaded me, and I had trouble navigating spaces for a few days after our return)) Ruth Carter appeared and was interviewed.

It was a great interview, and I learned a lot about her many Oscar nominations (she said that Black Panther was the first time she was favored to win and that the interview requests scaled up to match that favored status, so much so that she was exhausted by the time of the ceremony. Also that when they were making Black Panther, no one knew it was going to be as successful as it was, so midway through she lost half of her team to a different movie (that was a flop).

She also talked about working with Spike Lee and their long collaboration.

For those of you not able to see Carter in person, you can check out her book, The Art of Ruth E. Carter.

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.

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.

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.