Tag: Portland

Baghdad Refurbished.


Before seeing a free showing of My Own Private Idaho, I heard the end of the lecture on the history of the Baghdad Theater.  I arrived for the lecture during the period when the Baghdad was going through a transformation to a “multiplex” which meant walling off the balcony for a separate theater and shoehorning a third theater, called the Back Door Theater, behind the main theater space.  All McMenamin’s movie screens show slide shows before their movies begin, and interspersed with the slides for the many McMenamin’s products are historic pictures.  I have been seeing the picture of the Back Door Theater for years and wondered about it.  Now I know.

This picture was a poster for a premiere that happened at the Baghdad:  They Live.  Among other things, this  forgettable movie had the involvement of the man who invented the propeller beanie.  Thus the explanation of the strange juxtaposition of these two pictures.

The history of the theater was quite interesting and I was sorry I didn’t prioritize listening to the entire lecture.

Snow in November. Or: How I learned that film people are annoying.

Across the street from my school, prop cars were parked in the lot and by the end of the day it looked as if snow had drifted all around.  It was pretty cool.  At recess that day, a guy with an earpiece came over and asked when the children would be outside and we told him the schedule.  “Okay,” he said, “We’ll try to work around that, but we really need to make this movie.”  Maureen and I shrugged.  It didn’t make a difference to us whether or not the movie got made.

The next morning the cars and the snow were still there.  But now they were intermittently making it snow.
 

I caught several pictures of the massive amount of standing around that is movie making.
 
Though it’s pretty cool to see the snow.
 
The trouble started at morning movement, when the phone rang and some guy from the production company explained that they were making a movie and could the children not have recess today.
Nope.
What about if we give a donation?
That would have been something to talk about before today.  Today is happening.  Schedules are set.
Can’t you just push back the recess?
Nope.
 
A man appeared at the door.
What if we donated $500.00 to the school?
At this point, I turned it over to my boss, who ran around to see if people would be okay with that.
Nope.  One teacher was hugely insulted by the offer.  And one class wasn’t there to say, either way.
So 4/5 recess was indoors, but 2/3 and K/1 gleefully ran about, while people with earpieces held their index finger over their lips and looked vaguely disgruntled.
 
The thing I find hard to believe is that they could plan ahead to take down the Absolute Vodka advertisements that are usually in the windows of the bar across the street, but missed the fact that a school and a playground were 20 feet away from their location. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve had the industry within a stone’s throw of our school.  Television films down here all the time and, aside from poaching all the parking spaces, they aren’t much trouble.

So if you see the movie Wild and come across a scene where Reese Witherspoon is shoveling “snow,” know that it was a lovely November day, where not 20 feet away children were having recess.

End of City Center 12?

When looking up movies I was given the message that “no data exists.”  Does that mean they are closing?  Lately, I’ve been wondering how much longer they can go on, as they never seem to have a crowd there.  But is this the end?
Update from the future.  No!  On 11/15, you will check and they will have movies listed.  The City Center Stadium 12 lives on!  Phew!

Graffiti mocking TBA on a Sherlock Holmes/OMSI ad.

As a person with a minor in Art History, I should gleefully embrace the Time-Based Arts Festival.  But I don’t.  The whole thing makes me hold my breath in annoyance.  It seem so damn pretentious.  I am, however, a huge fan of witty/pointed graffiti, so I was happy to see the following addition to this billboard.

TBA: THE VICTORY OF THEORY OVER CRAFT.

You tell them, graffiti artist.

Worry.


I’ve had my eye on this corner since I moved to Kenton.  I love the uber-tiny house on the left and all that space just ready for a fabulous yard.  But the large tree that was on the lot has been removed.  And I’m worried that that large yard space will soon be gobbled up by a large house much like the green guy next door.  Who once upon was a much smaller house with a larger yard.

Oh infill, will there be any tiny houses with big yards left by the time I’m ready to move?