violetismycolor

Feast of Love...

John and I went out to the movies last night, which we do ALOT...most Saturday nights, in fact.  We saw the film, Feast of Love, which stars Doug Kinnear, Morgan Freeman, Jane Alexander, and the City of Portland.  It made Portland look REALLY good. 

The funny thing was that they filmed at Reed College but called it Portland State.  They photoshopped in a football stadium behind one of the main Reed buildings.  They filmed Mt. Tabor as being in the N. Mississippi neighborhood.  It was all very weird.

John remarked that it could be funny if someone saw "Portland State" and might be really upset to find out that PSU looks nothing like what it did in the movie.

The movie was supposed to be about love and so I was ready for all the romance/broken love affairs but not for some of the other sadness, having to do with death.  I did enjoy the movie, though, and think it is well worth seeing.

It helped me get my mind off the embarrassing 40-14 loss of my dear OSU Beavs in the game against UCLA.  I mean, when we left for the movie, they were in the 4th quarter and just barely hanging on to their 14-12 lead.  With only 9 minutes remaining, how could they have so totally melted down?

ever heard of a google twin?

I was listening to NPR yesterday and heard, for the first time, the term "Google Twin".

When you google your own name, you may or may not come up with info on someone else with the same name...your google twin or google-ganger. 

Though there are several other Diane Calhoun's...one a 2nd assistant director on the TV show, Heroes, and one an administrator at a junior college in Kentucky among the ones who have the most google hits.  I also have a sister-in-law with the same name. 

I would identify more strongly, though, with someone who shares my birth name, Diane Smoorenburg or Diane van Smoorenburg.  My birth name was Smoorenburg but my dad registered me in school, when we moved to Oregon when I was 16, as 'van Smoorenburg'.  So, I was a Smoorenburg for 16 years, then a van Smoorenburg for another 10 years, when I got married and took the Calhoun name.  I don't know which one I identify with the most...

But there doesn't seem to be another Diane Smoorenburg or Diane van Smoorenburg out there.  I am probably the ONLY one in the world!  How cool does THAT feel?  Incredibly cool.

Who is your google-ganger?

back to school...

We took Ross back to school on Sunday.  He was so excited about it.  It took loading up both cars but we got his things all there.  Ross rode with me and Veronica rode with John on the was to Corvallis.  We moved Ross in with amazing speed and then took Veronica on a tour of the campus.  She said, "It's just like in American movies!" 

It's alot quieter in the house...

the betty boop that I remember...

I saw an old Betty Boop cartoon the other day.  It was from 1934, and entitled "Poor Cinderella".  It made me realize why I loved these cartoons.  It was the sheer outrageousness of it all.

The prince looked just like Errol Flynn.  His palace was a gorgeous medieval ediface, and her carriage was a fantasy of color and shape...the mice/horses were well decked out and tapped their paws/hooves to the background music.  Betty Boop/Cinderella was at first dressed in rags, but .she was still wearing really hot-looking heels.

The ugly step-sisters were a more unattractive version of Olive Oyl, but there was not a wicked step-mother to be found in this story. 

I have to admit that when Betty was dressed by her fairy godmother, she looked halfway between a cancan girl and a hooker...but the prince seemed to love it!  I noticed that he didn't have any pesky parents nearby to disapprove of his new girlfriend...hmmm...

Here's what a website devoted to The Boopster had to say about this cartoon (which YOU can watch on YouTube):

The Betty Boop cartoons were all done in glorious black-and-white, with one notable exception. In the mid-1930s, Fleischer Studios launched a new series in color called, appropriately enough, Color Classics. The first cartoon in the series featured Betty as the namesake heroine in "Poor Cinderella." This was her only appearance in color, and in it she and the Prince are serenaded by none other than Rudy Vallee at the ball. Here we see her and the Prince tripping the light fantastic as her two evil stepsisters fairly boil in their own jealous juices. Notice how the artists even kept the familiar garter in Cinderella's fancy ball attire. 

entertaining myself...

I love all forms of story:  books, television, and movies...

So, much to my joy, there are all sorts of new entertainments just waiting for me around the bend.  Around the bend of the new fall season:  the new-fall-shows-tv season, the leading-up-Christmas movie season, and the continuation of my year-round book group.

There's some exciting stuff on the horizon. 

In the new tv season, besides being so ready for Grey's Anatomy to come back, there are a couple of shows that should be really good.  First is Journeyman, about a man who starts time-traveling, much to the upset of his wife and boss and well, everyone.  Also, Pushing Daisies, about a man who has the power to bring people back to life with his touch.  The problem there is:  one more touch from him and the person is dead again...problematic when you bring your mom back from a stroke or the love of your life back from being murdered (both plot points of the show). 

In the movie game, my push is for August Rush, which has been shown in previews.   About a musical prodigy looking for his parents, who are played by Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.  Looks magical.

As for books, I have updated my 'what is she reading?' typelist.  Included are:  Annie Dillard's The Maytrees, Booker-shortlisted The Secret River by Kate Grenville, and Claire Messud's The Last Life. 

So much great entertainment to choose from!

paper frenzy...

Lots of paper is going to be leaving my house in the next couple of days. 

Some to the landfill.  Like all the wallpaper/backing/paste that I have been pulling off my downstairs-powder-room-wall.  (Oh, how I hate that job when it comes to the 'paste' part!...but it will save me $150 to have done the taking-down-part myself.) Which will then be replaced by new wallpaper/backing/paste.

Then, this is the new faucet set I ordered.  I found it here in Portland first but it was $405!!!  So, I went on the web and found it for half of that...yay for the internet!  I love the shape of this faucet; it is called a teapot faucet.  It does indeed have that sweet shape.

Some other paper is going to shredder-heaven...like all the boxes and boxes of paper from John's old companies that we no longer need to store in our basement, thank God.  And, which will NOT be replaced.

cooking catastrophe...

Bonnie called to find out how to carmelize onions yesterday.  Apparently, she then proceeded to cook said onions while we went on to talk of other things:

Bonnie:  *various swear words*

Me:  What's wrong?

Bonnie:  Some of the oil came out of the pan and hit the heating element.  It's on fire.

Me:  What?

Bonnie:  Where's the +*$%'ing flour?...I know that water will make it worse.

Me:  Is it out?

Bonnie: *more swearing*  Now the fire alarm for the whole apartment building is going off.

In the background:  Sounds of girls running into her kitchen, asking what is going on...

Bonnie:  I'd better call the fire department before they send a truck out here.  Call you back, mom...

Disconcerting....

amazed...

I must say that I am amazed that John could laugh (LAUGH!!!) when he heard that:

Since I had my hands full when going out to the car this morning, I dropped my cell phone, which hit the ground, opened up, bounced, and landed with one end in the cat's water dish.  Now, it is incredibly hard to hear when someone is speaking, unless one turns on the speaker phone...the speaker part being in the bottom end of the phone that was NOT submerged in kitty water. 

I either have to always use my speakerphone, now, which could be extremely rude in certain circumstances and certainly annoying all the time...or...I have to get a new phone, which I don't want to do, either. 

Drat.