POTD: Irresistible Selfie

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. It shows a couple of unidentified tourists taking an irresistible selfie.

POTD: Contemplating Infinity

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. It shows a small boy sitting on a big ledge contemplating infinity. Or so that's how I like to see it.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Dreamcatchers

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. It shows some dreamcatchers offered for sale at craft stands in the valley.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Raise Hell (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Raise Hell (2019): Documentary of Molly Ivins, the journalist who reveled in holding in contempt and ridicule powerful politicians. Lots of clips from interviews and speeches. If you remember her fondly, you'll like this movie. If you're MAGA, you won't. It's that simple. B-

POTD: Bumpy Ride

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border. The rock formations are the famous "mittens." But don't overlook the tiny cars threading their way through the valley. The best thing about Monument Valley is the drive. It's bumpy. It's dusty. It's slow. It's hard on cars. But it offers great views. Bumping along, you can even imagine John Wayne in a stagecoach.

Dark (TV 2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Dark (TV 2018): Missing children, dead birds, a cave in the woods, a nuclear power plant, and secrets from 33 years ago, all make this a compelling time travel mystery. Plan to keep detailed notes of the timelines and a list of characters. Or just go along for the wild ride. B+

Hustlers (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Hustlers (2019): Ex-strippers move on to seducing, drugging, then separating men from their money. First half is trashy (you might be tempted to walk), second half is melodrama, the whole barely gets a thumbs-up, I guess because it shows women taking charge of their lives?? C+

Review: Fleishman is in Trouble

Amazon

From Fleishman is in Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner:

Rachel was gone now, and her goneness was so incongruous to what had been his plan. It wasn’t that he still wanted her—he absolutely did not want her. He absolutely did not wish she were still with him. It was that he had spent so long waiting out the fumes of the marriage and busying himself with the paperwork necessary to extricate himself from it—telling the kids, moving out, telling his colleagues—that he had not considered what life might be like on the other side of it."

A novel that captures the unhappy state of a marriage as believably as the most talented writer can. Not bad for a debut novel.

The Goldfinch (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Goldfinch (2019): Museum explosion. Missing painting. Traumatized boy. A coming of age tale that is worthy of the Pulitzer Prize novel. The famous painting is the hook, which eventually is at the heart of a thriller plot. But mostly this is a character study of young Theo. B+

Compare to my review of the novel by Donna Tartt. Spoiler: I liked the movie, but I liked the novel even more.

POTD: Monument Valley Happy Hour

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Arizona's Monument Valley. Monument Valley likely conjures up old Westerns like John Ford's "Stagecoach," but modern day tourists can enjoy it at leisure from the deck of a hotel and visitors center that offers as spectacular a view of the Old West as you can find anywhere.

POTD: Geronimo

From 2018 09 20 Monument Valley

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Monument Valley along the Arizona/Utah border. This was the location used by Hollywood director John Ford for several classic Westerns, including the 1939 movie that made John Wayne a star, "Stagecoach." In the movie, a U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant warns the stagecoach passengers that "Geronimo and his Apaches are on the warpath." (Yeah, old movies were racist.) It was John Ford movies like Stagecoach that stamped Monument Valley in generations of movie-goers minds as what they think of when they think of the American West.

A Conversation with Jeff Bradford

This article was originally published in "Richardson Living" magazine. Read it on that website or read it here. Or read it in print. In mail boxes now.

A Conversation with Jeff Bradford
Executive Director of Fine Arts, Richardson ISD

In 2019, for the eighth straight year, Richardson ISD was named one of the best communities in the nation for music education by the California-based National Association of Music Merchants. That is just one of many awards for RISD just in music. RISD also offers education in theatre, dance, and the visual arts. Over the years, the RISD has had some illustrious leaders in fine arts. Former directors went on to lead the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), the Texas UIL Music organization, the Texas Bandmasters Association, and the University of Oklahoma's "Pride of Oklahoma" marching band. Today, their big shoes are filled by Jeff Bradford as Executive Director of Fine Arts for the Richardson ISD. Richardson Living spoke with Jeff about the state of fine arts in RISD. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Elections Have Consequences, Lesson #214

The Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze is a rabble-rouser. Sometimes his rants are spot on. Sometimes not. But he's always worth reading. Dallas needs him. And if you read him with the right squint in your eyes, you could say Richardson needs him, too. His latest report on a vote by the Dallas City Council on a big zoning case at Northwest Highway and the Dallas North Tollway is a case in point.

POTD: A Sugary Confection in Stone

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. No story today. The image says it all.

Derry Girls (TV 2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Derry Girls (TV 2018): Set in a Catholic girls' school in Northern Ireland during the religious Troubles. Fast, sassy, irreverent, and sometimes touching. Always hilarious. It's rare for a TV comedy to get me to laugh out loud, but this one does every episode. A-

POTD: Plate Spinning

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. Remember the old variety show act of plate spinning? Ed Sullivan would feature someone who would try to spin a half dozen plates on top of slender poles to the ever-increasing tempo of "Sabre Dance"? I was reminded of that by this rock formation in Bryce Canyon. Yeah, I'm old.

POTD: Switchbacks Up

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. It shows the switchbacks of the trail up from the bottom of the canyon to the rim. An escalator would be nice.

After the jump, even tighter switchbacks.

The Boys (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Boys (TV 2019): A world full of superheroes, all co-opted by an evil corporation for profit. Interesting concept. Cardboard characters. No nuance. No humor. Middle episodes are better as focus shifts to "the boys" who resist. Ending resolves little, leaves many questions. C+

POTD: And a Tree Falls

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. It shows that a tree can be as beautiful in death as in life, still providing us with a place to sit a spell and rest and enjoy the world.

A bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. For reasons clear to anyone who's read the novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I thought of it when I saw this indomitable tree deep in Bryce Canyon.

POTD: Tight Squeeze Ahead

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. It shows a tight squeeze on the Navajo Loop Trail that takes you from the rim all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and back up another way.

POTD: Down Into the Canyon

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. It shows the early part of the Navajo Loop Trail, a 1.3 mile round trip that takes you from the rim all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and back up another way. A strenuous walk (for an old guy), well worth the time.

POTD: At the Rim

From 2018 09 19 Bryce Canyon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Utah's Bryce Canyon. If you've never been there, like I hadn't, try to fix that.

POTD: The Bluest Lake

From 2018 09 17 Crater Lake

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Oregon's Crater Lake. Crater Lake is the bluest lake in the world. Change my mind.

Idle Thoughts: Rare Sweltering Summer

Tweets from August, 2019:

• 2019-08-01: DMN headline: "Rare sweltering summer grips Alaska."
  "Rare." I guess when each summer is hotter than the last, you could say each one is technically "rare."
• 2019-08-01: @RepLanceGooden, how many heart-wrenching stories of children separated from their parents and put in cages have you heard and still stood by without doing anything?
• 2019-08-01: @JimSchutze, Silly Jim. The reason the News didn't first have that "basic, Journalism 101, garden variety conversation" you identified is because the News is not a product of the journalism school. It's a product of the business school.

After the jump, more idle thoughts.

POTD: Deboning a Boat

From 2018 09 14 Portland

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Portland, Oregon's Willamette River.

Vacant Office Buildings in Richardson

Community Impact has a detailed story on empty office buildings in Richardson. 85.2% of the square feet of office buildings in Richardson is leased. Eleven buildings comprising 1.4 million square feet are totally vacant. Is that good or bad? Community Impact doesn't really say.