POTD: Strolling Under a Norwegian Star

From 2018 01 19 Norwegian Star

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the deck of the Norwegian Star as it heads to the western Caribbean out of Miami.

Game Night (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Game Night (2018): Murder mystery party goes awry when real kidnappers show up. Expect to be guessing what twists are real and what's part of the game right up until the end. Right balance of plausibility and absurdity. Pop some corn. B-

Repeat Tweets: No Wardrobe Malfunction

Repeat tweets from February, 2018:

• Feb 4 2018: Justin Timberlake's backup dancer is wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck with suspenders. Making sure that there's no wardrobe malfunction this year?
• Feb 4 2018: My unpopular opinion? 58 points through three quarters are better on a basketball court than a football field.
• Feb 4 2018: Bad, bad, bad clock management by the Eagles. It could cost them a Super Bowl.
• Feb 4 2018: Never mind.
• Feb 4 2018: Football glory is fleeting. Nick Foles is Super Bowl MVP today. Tomorrow he wakes up #2 QB on the Eagles 2018 depth chart.
• Feb 5 2018: Fact-check. This is *not* the Philadelphia Eagles' first NFL championship.
• Feb 5 2018: First Philadelphia Eagles' championship since 1960 when they beat the Packers, the last playoff game Vince Lombardi ever lost, going on to win five championships in the next seven years.

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

POTD: Counting the Cars on the MacArthur Causeway

From 2018 01 19 Norwegian Star

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the deck of the Norwegian Star as it sails from Miami. The traffic is on the MacArthur Causeway headed to Miami Beach for the evening or the weekend.

"Counting the cars on the MacArthur Causeway.
They've all come to look for America.
All come to look for America.
All come to look for America."
— with apologies to Paul Simon.

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures

The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday evening. This will be the second time in history that I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture before the Oscar is awarded. That means my opinion means something. Right?

2017 had a diverse set of movies, as did the choices in 2016. Unlike last year, there is no runaway favorite for Best Picture, but last year's "La La Land" didn't end up winning, so how much do pre-award rankings mean, anyway? Besides, my personal favorite this year, "Mudbound," wasn't even nominated.

• Mudbound (2017): White farm family in Mississippi in 1940s facing poverty, floods, illness. Black family with same burdens. Plus racism. Script shows same events from different perspectives. Quiet but strong performances. Lessons for today. A-

Strong Island (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Strong Island (2017): Filmmaker tells of brother's 1992 murder. White killer. Black victim. White grand jury declines to indict. The crime story and justice system story are all too common. The personal family story before and after is powerful, tragic and sad. B+

Last Men in Aleppo (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Last Men in Aleppo (2017): Documentary of Syrian war and "White Helmets" first responders. Life in a bombed out city as the bombings continue. No narration, no politics. Just raw, brutal, heart-breaking scene after scene. A-

Icarus (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Icarus (2017): Documentary on state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics. That Russia isn't banned is indictment of all international athletics. But movie fails to explain basic things. How did Fogel think his original sting would work? Why did Rodchenkov get involved? C+

POTD: Miami Sunset

From 2018 01 19 Norwegian Star

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the deck of the Norwegian Star as it sails from Miami headed for Los Angeles on a cruise through the Panama Canal. The sun didn't quite cooperate as hoped. As they say, a First World problem — we are very grateful that we can take this vacation at all.

Mindhunter (TV)

Rotten Tomatoes

Mindhunter (TV): 1970s FBI agents interview serial killers to learn what makes them tick. Real life crime stories that focus less on the crime, more on the psychology of criminals. Not whodunit, but whydunit. That and great character development of the FBI agents. B+

YIMBYism can be a Problem, Too

I'm in favor of spreading subsidized housing throughout our communities. Yes, that means building subsidized housing in our rich neighborhoods (read, white), not just in our poor neighborhoods (read, black and brown). I used to think that opposition to that proposal came from the rich neighborhoods. That's not false, but that's not the whole story, either.

POTD: Miami Skyline

From 2018 01 19 Norwegian Star

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the deck of the Norwegian Star as it sails from Miami headed for Los Angeles on a cruise through the Panama Canal. A good time was had by all.

POTD: Here's to Health

From 2018 01 19 Norwegian Star

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the deck of the Norwegian Star as it sails the western Caribbean Sea on a cruise celebrating good health! Don't ever take it for granted.

Mapping RISD's Racial Diversity

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He wants RISD to change to single-member-districts, in an effort to elect more minorities to the school board. The success or failure of this approach depends largely on the distribution of minorities in RISD as a whole.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He wants RISD to change to single-member-districts, with at least one district being majority African-American, centered in Hamilton Park, a historically African-American neighborhood in RISD.

That led Carol Toler, in the Lake Highlands Advocate, to write about how the desegregation order in 1970 resulted in closure of the segregated school in Hamilton Park and the assignment of black students there to three different RISD high schools. That created diversity in those schools. RISD still benefits from that diversity today.

RISD's Reaction to Tyson's Lawsuit

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was the RISD's official response.

"The Board understands that our stakeholders have interest in this case," said Justin Bono, President of the RISD Board of Trustees. "It is a complex matter, and the Board will work diligently to fully understand the details of the case and ultimately make decisions on the best course of action for the District. As this is a pending court case, we hope the community understands that our responses and remarks have to be within the context of the appropriate legal settings moving forward."

Source: RISD.

I have my own reaction to that. Two, actually...

David Tyson's Complaint

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thanks to the reader who forwarded to me David Tyson, Jr.'s legal complaint against the Richardson ISD, I now have a better understanding of Tyson's case. It also affects my thinking about whether single member districts or cumulative voting is a better and/or more likely change to address Tyson's complaint.

Cumulative Voting Coming to RISD

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There are two ways this lawsuit could play out. One, the RISD could engage in a long and expensive fight in court and win, leaving the status quo in place. Or two, the RISD could lose the lawsuit and have to adopt a court-imposed solution. (There's a third outcome, a negotiated out-of-court agreement, but that is more or less equivalent to outcome two, losing the lawsuit.) There's no betting line on this, but if there were, I suspect outcome two would be the betting favorite.

Lady Macbeth (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lady Macbeth (2017): Starts as a sexist bodice-ripper, turns steadily darker. A character study of innocent victim turned evil ogress. Brush up on your Shakespeare, but this movie feels more like bleak Russian literature than the bard's tragedy. C+

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Call Me by Your Name (2017): Sensitive, coming-of-age love story. Forbidden love. Beautiful Italian settings and scenery. But come on, the subject matter is child molestation, even if consensual, dragging down grade a lot. That and the fruit porn. C-

Review: Sing, Unburied, Sing

Amazon

From Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward:

They perch like birds, but look as people. They speak with their eyes: He raped me and suffocated me until I died I put my hands up and he shot me eight times she locked me in the shed and starved me to death while I listened to my babies playing with her in the yard they came in my cell in the middle of the night and they hung me they found I could read and they dragged me out to the barn and gouged my eyes before they beat me still I was sick and he said I was an abomination and Jesus say suffer little children so let her go and he put me under the water and I couldn’t breathe."

Jesmyn Ward is the winner of two National Book Awards for Fiction: Salvage the Bones (2011, also reviewed here) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017). This latest novel is a heart-wrenching story that starts in a bad place, takes us steadily to darker places, and then ends in a kind a truce with death.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Phantom Thread (2017): A study in codependency. He's a dress designer, a standoffish fussy genius. She's his model, hopelessly in love. They're cuckoo for each other. Or maybe just cuckoo. Very slow. Very arty. B+

Single Member Districts Coming to RISD

Former Richardson ISD school board trustee David Tyson, Jr., wants to change the RISD's at-large election system. He wants it enough that he has sued the RISD, alleging its at-large election system is a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One possible solution (not the only one) is for RISD to adopt single member districts.

POTD: Steampunk the Dickens out of Galveston

From 2017 12 01 Galveston

Today's photo-of-the-day is from December's "Dickens on the Strand" festival in Galveston, Texas. Three clothing styles dominate the Strand during the festival: Victorian fashion, pirate costumes, and steampunk fashion. Oddly, they don't clash; they compliment each other.

Repeat Tweets: Here Lies Mark

Repeat tweets from January, 2018:

• Jan 1 2018: RT @azalben: "How about we use predictive text to write our own epitaphs? Write 'Here lies [YOUR NAME]. [preferred pronoun] was...' and let your phone finish the rest."
  Here lies Mark. He was going to be so awkward.
• Jan 1 2018: RT @EmilyRCWilson: "My Odyssey translation is ... $3.99 RIGHT NOW ON KINDLE."
  If your New Year resolutions involve supporting scholarship in the humanities, this is a no-brainer (and they should, d'oh).
• Jan 1 2018: RT @jaketapper: "Trump's first 2018 tweet: Pakistan has 'given us nothing but lies & deceit'".
  Trump is a textbook case of psychological projection.

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

POTD: Ice Bar

From 2017 12 01 Galveston

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Ice Bar in Ice Land at Moody Gardens in Galveston. The temperature is kept at 9 degrees Fahrenheit. The tables and chairs are made of ice. Cold hands. Warm heart.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Personal Shopper (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes

Personal Shopper (2017): Three movies in one. Ghost story that doesn't go anywhere. Crime thriller that comes and goes quickly. And a study in grief that maybe explains all the rest (or not). Kristen Stewart's portrayal of grief is the best thing here. D+