Three sentence movie reviews--Zach and Miri Make a Porno

I think that, in between his hugely successful movies, Kevin Smith has a lot of free time on his hands and there is much sitting around thinking thoughts like, "What if I made a romantic comedy about two friends making porn?" Illegal substances may be involved, though Smith strikes me as someone a little too uptight to indulge. This was middle of the road Kevin Smith fare, with a lot of raunch, a few disgusting scenes and more evidence that under all his adolescent humor, he is really a squishy romantic at heart.

Three sentence movie reviews--Paranoid Park

Filmed in Portland with a lot of scenes near my work! The first twenty minutes of this movie have more dialog than Van Sant's three previous movies combined. Much arty filming of skateborders, who remain youth that I have a soft spot for.

Note: a few years ago I decided to watch all of Gus Van Sant's movies in order. This brings me up to date as of last year, now I have to see Milk. I split Van Sant's movies into three categories: Early Portland, Commercial/Independent fare, and the "No Talking" Trilogy. With Paranoid Park and Milk, I seem to need a new category. In the meantime, my favorites from the current categories:

• Early Portland: Drugstore Cowboy (probably a top 20 movie for me, beautifully filmed)
• Commercial/Independent: To Die For (Nicole Kidman is good, but Matt Dillon and Joaquin Pheonix truly sparkle. Also, Illeana Douglas and Allison Foland are fabulous.)
• No Talking: Gerry. (How could two guys walking around in the desert not talking be so mesmerizing?)

SNOW!

So far it has turned our Holiday Party/Overnight into just a Holiday Party (for this I am thankful.) It has canceled our church service and Sunday school at 11:15. It has kept people from the Nutcracker, ensuring me the best seat I will probably ever have at the ballet. What will it do next?

It doesn't look like a lot, but for Portlanders, any snow is too much snow. Sometimes even a forecast for snow is too much snow.

The pioneers have even more struggle. They are covered in snow!

City Hall looks picturesque.

White Elephant Theme: Summer.

Each year for the youth group holiday party we have a white elephant gift exchange. This year we decided to go with a theme: summer. Here Sam models some of the gifts. From the top: A lovely red hat, which now is named Fernando. A fabulous sword. A quite nice swimsuit that Deborah was happy to grab for someone, but first Sam had to model it. And some lovely flip flops, sadly obscured by the couch.

Hmmm. My current interest is naturally fermented foods...

...could my family be getting homemade sauerkraut for Christmas?

EEeeeeeee!

From the Goodreads Dennis Lehane interview:

GoodReads: Do you have any plans to return to Kenzie and Gennaro? What's next?

Dennis Lehane: What's next is the sixth Kenzie-Gennaro book. Really.

Okay Dennis. Let's do it. A new Kenzie-Gennaro book in 2010! Or perhaps 2011. Take your time. I want it to be good.

Until you have lived in Portland you can't really appreciate...

...red leaves against a gray sky.