Flavel House

Scott's wonderful pictures:

, originally uploaded by sweber4507.
Flavel House - Eastern Exposure-Vertical, originally uploaded by sweber4507.	Flavel House Sitting Room, originally uploaded by sweber4507.
Flavel House Family Room, originally uploaded by sweber4507.
Flavel House Music Room 2, originally uploaded by sweber4507.
, originally uploaded by sweber4507.	, originally uploaded by sweber4507.

On Sunday, ma, Sheena, Scott and I took a day trip to Astoria. In addition to seeing The Goonies house and Lewis & Clark's Fort Clatsop (boring), we saw the Flavel House Museum. The 1885 house was very impressive - especially considering that it was completed merely 79 years after Lewis & Clark left Fort Clatsop. It was interesting to learn that the Victorian style house also maintained Victorian etiquette in what still had to have been a young pioneer town. As new homeowners, Scott and I learned that we really should set a day each week to accept callers and keep a silver platter out to collect calling cards.

Julie & Julia: B

Meryl Streep as Julia Child, originally uploaded by eatwellguide.

Scott, ma, and I saw Julie & Julia on Saturday at the Moreland Theatre in Sellwood. The Moreland is the first movie theater I remember going to. Mom took me there to see Bambi and Snow White. All I remember of the theater then was that it had red heart-shaped love seats at the back of the theater. The love seats are gone now, but the little theater still has the painted ceilings and fixtures.

Anyways, I finally got to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child. She was terrific! Stanley Tucci returns as Streep's sidekick and Jane Lynch continues her scene stealing (as Newsweek notes). The Julia Child portion of the movie was great, but the Amy Adams / Julie Powell portion of the movie was annoyingly long. Let's be honest, Streep as Child is the major draw of the movie and no one really wants to see a movie about blogging. That said, the Powell portion does make a point about its overly idealized portrayal of Julia Child that no person could live-up to (Joe.My.God. reminds us that Child has been accused of being very homophobic).

Overall, a good movie with great performances, but it was a little long and the less interesting Powell story should have been edited-down. Sheena, who refused to see the movie, summed it up well as a chick-flick about a woman who finds meaning in cooking.

BTW, for a movie about people who cook, I was surprised that the movie didn't make me hungry. The duck scene was the only appetizing scene (Scott actually "Oooooh"ed the cooked duck). The irrelevant way the movie handled food, the movie could have been about auto repair, woodworking, or knitting. It seems the movie missed an opportunity to use food to entice viewers and could have taken cinematography lessons from any Food Network cooking show.