Portland207

Fantastic movie with unknown Canadian actress Ellen Page, Michael Cera [the kid from Superbad and Arrested Development (who is also from the nation to our North)], Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, JK Simmons (Peter Parker's boss in the Spiderman movies), and Allison Janney.  The film somehow managed to make teen pregnancy hilarious.  Not an easy feat.  Picture Superbad meets Rushmore.  It certainly had the same type of plucky music that serves as the backdrop to Rushmore or most any of Wes Anderson's movies.  Juno's director, Jason Reitman, is a directorial fawn, but it does not show in this movie or his first feature, Thank You for Smoking.  His prowess could be the result of being born the son of Ivan Reitman, producer of Animal House and director of such fine films as Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Dave.  Seriously, those are all late 80s and early 90s classics.  My only complaint is that the writer, Diablo Cody, uses a pen name.  And calling yourself Devil?  She is already known as the stripper-blogger (or blogger-stripper).  Isn't that quirky enough?

In a town that claims the most ultimate frisbee leagues per capita of any place in the US (at least according to Outside Magazine), it seems that bowling has taken over as the sport of choice.  Perhaps it's the weather.  I spent a couple of hours at Yankee Lanes last night and can attest to this fact.  The place was packed.  The lanes were filled with awkward high school kids and old league night guys alike.  My group was squarely in the middle of it all.  The best thing about this place is that they slap a florescent wristband on you once it has been deemed that you are old enough to drink.  It lends a night-club aspect to the whole affair.  The waitress informed us that on Friday and Saturday nights, the black lights fire up and the strobe lights start spinning for disco bowling.  Dear God, let that be true.

Ah, the first snow of the season.  The clean, white precipitation covering the dirt and filth of the city...and all that nonsense.  It was a great first storm and a recent glance out the window tells me that it is still going on.  It is nice living in a city with an efficient and effective snowplow strategy.  They were out there as soon as the first flake it the ground.  Huge double-blade plows and little bobcat plows alike.  Being in Boston during a snow storm was always frustrating, due to the fact that the city would wait until all the snow had fallen from the sky before attending to the smaller streets and sidewalks.  Weary office workers and retail shopkeepers would have to trudge through narrow, but well worn paths down the sidewalks.  Like ants marching in a row. 

Enough snow speak.  A Monday night trip to The Stadium taught me a couple important lessons. 1, They have $4 Miller Lite pitchers on Mondays before 9 or so.   These are not so much pitchers, as they are huge Miller bottles.  The novelty of the huge bottles is almost enough to draw my patronage, but the $4 price tag will keep me coming back for a longtime to come.  2, The pheasant shoot in Big Buck Hunter is by far the hardest part of the game.  Those things are quick.  3, The food is pretty good.  4, it is nothing like Hooters.  I read an article a while back about how the city would not permit the owner of The Stadium open a Hooters franchise, so in defiance, he created a Hooters-like eatery, complete with scantily clad sexy waitresses.  Nope.  They are clad quite normally, and I think our waitress even had braces.  

The inaugural Portland207.com post and it seems fitting that we discuss the snow.  That should be a frequent topic of convo for the next 5 or so months.  I love the fact that there seem to be parking bans in effect in every town in Maine except Portland.  Looks like we are in for 5 to 8 inches of snow turning to the classic ‘wintery mix’ a bit later tomorrow.  Bring it on.  There should be some kinda first snow ceremony in this city.  Maybe I will try and rally that before the Pats game tomorrow night.