Lead Me Home (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Lead Me Home (2021): Oscar-nominated documentary short. Portrait of homelessness on West Coast. Lets the people and encampments do the talking. It's a big problem now and it's just getting bigger as it's swept under the rug. B+

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My ranking of the five nominees:

• Lead Me Home: B+
• Three Songs for Benazir: Life in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. Focus is on Shaista and his wife Benazir, two normal kids in a world that's messed up. B+
• Audible: Follows a high school football team of deaf players. Doesn't heroize or exploit. The kids have the dreams and tragedies of everyone. B-
• The Queen of Basketball: Portrait of “Lucie” Harris, the first women's basketball superstar. Great subject, mostly her talking. B-
• When We Were Bullies: Not available. Grade TBD.
  (Update: May 20, 2022: Film maker relives an instance of him bullying another kid in his childhood and interviews old classmates about what they remember. Tactless bullying the kid all over again, in adulthood. C-)

Turning Red (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Turning Red (2022): Pixar. Adolescent girl's anxieties strain her relationship with mother. Outbreaks turn her into a giant red panda. She works through it. It's all part of growing up. 13-year-old girls should like it. Mothers, maybe not. Boys? Dunno. Lost on younger kids. B-

Robin Robin (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Robin Robin (2021): 32 minute Oscar-nominated animated short. Orphaned robin is raised by a family of mice who sneak into houses for crumbs. Nothing special here, but executed well. Sweet, funny, uplifting, family-friendly. B+

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My ranking of the five nominees:

• Robin Robin (UK): B+
• Boxballet (Russia): Beat-up boxer falls in love with a beautiful ballerina. Opposites attract. B+
• The Windshield Wiper (US, Spain): Asks "What is Love?" and answers in vignettes that show a lack of connection. B-
• Affairs of the Art (Canada): Pickled animals. Stuffed pets. Macabre art. One strange and creepy family. B-
• Bestia (Chile): Ceramic doll with a bullet hole in her head recreates atrocities of the Pinochet regime. Jarring. B-

How Does RISD Measure Success?

Source: RISD.

Graduation. Then What?

The RISD Board of Trustees passed a motion, 5-0 (with District 1 trustee Megan Timme absent and the District 5 seat vacant), to partner with "Engage 2 Learn" in the development of an "RISD Graduate Profile." My first reaction was, "What? Don't we already know that?"

Sign of a Thaw in RISD Board Room?

Every month, the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees holds a regular meeting, as well as a worksession, and sometimes a special called meeting. The public can attend. Agendas are published. Video is available. It's all very transparent. Except for those pesky agenda items labeled "Enter Closed Meeting." The Texas Open Meetings Act allows secret meetings on a narrow range of subjects. The board agenda only needs to state what the subject of a secret meeting is. No detail is required, no minutes, no video. That leads to a cottage industry of speculation of what's going on behind closed doors. This month's RISD board meeting was different in one significant way. It's time to speculate about what it means.

TIL: Who Deserves Rights is Evolving

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Source: Declaration of Independence.

All men? Self-evident? 246 years ago, those unalienable rights didn't extend to women and even less so to Blacks. Try to predict what will be considered "self-evident" rights 246 years from now. It's hard. The only thing I'm sure of is that the notions of "common sense" will appear much different to our descendants than they do to us today.

Ala Kachuu (2021)

IMDB

Ala Kachuu (2021): Oscar-nominated live-action short. Kyrgyz girl who dreams of higher education is kidnapped and forced to marry. A cultural practice there openly accepted as proper, we see as barbaric. Depressing. Well-acted. Beautiful cinematography. Best of 5 nominees. A-

 

 

 

 

 

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My ranking of the five nominees:

• Ala Kachuu - Take and Run (Switzerland/Kyrgyzstan): A-
• The Dress (Poland): Portrait of a lonely hotel maid with dwarfism. A-
• On My Mind (Denmark): Portrait of a man who uses karaoke to deal with loss. B+
• Please Hold (US): Man is unjustly incarcerated in an automated, robotic prison. B+
• The Long Goodbye (UK): Wedding in immigrant household is interrupted by a raid. B+

The Courier (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Courier (2021): Cold War spy movie. Benedict Cumberbatch is a businessman recruited to smuggle secrets out of USSR. Game gets riskier as his friendship with a Russian spy grows. Not a James Bond action movie. Instead it's based on real life, meaning the stakes are real. B+

The King's Man (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The King's Man (2021): A prequel no one needed. WWI fan fiction. British aristocratic spy puts himself in the center of every important event of WWI. Really bad history. Over the top, but not in a knowing, wink-wink way. Probably baffling to many. A waste of time. C-

TIL: Why Sea Level Rise is not the Same Everywhere

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Years ago, I saw a photo of a buoy in a harbor somewhere, with a caption saying the sea level was the same as it was 100 years ago. "Proof" was provided in a photo of the same buoy from 100 years ago. The sea level was indeed the same in the two photos. The photos were offered as proof that global warming and sea level rise were all a great hoax. What gives, I thought?

That was years ago, but that "proof" always bothered me more than it ever seemed to bother climatologists. This month, Wired magazine published an article that answers the question that's bothered me all these years. What gives? Read on.

Thank a Poll Worker Today

The life of a democratic republic hangs in the balance. No, I'm not speaking of Ukraine. I'm speaking about American democracy. Our democracy rests on a foundation of free and fair elections. Those are becoming more difficult to run. Even before the 2020 election, a majority of Americans didn't trust elections. The 2020 election only made things worse. The loser refused to concede. 147 members of Congress voted to overturn the election results. A mob of insurrectionists invaded the US Capitol to force the matter. Election "workers became the target of vote-rigging conspiracy theories that put them in physical danger and threatened their livelihoods." Nineteen states enacted new voting regulations in 2021, increasing the red tape not just for voters but for election workers as well in an effort to eliminate suspected voter fraud. Some want laws that would enact jail time and/or big fines for election workers who make innocent mistakes.

Is it any wonder that getting people to work at polling places on election day is getting harder and harder? Like a vicious circle, accusations of fraud lead to fewer people willing to accept the risk, which in turn leads to understaffing at polling places, which leads to more mistakes, which ends with accusations of fraud multiplying.

Random Thoughts: Tom Brady's Retirement

Tweets from February, 2022:

• 2022-02-01: Local New York City TV station news announces Tom Brady's retirement. How a news story can be true but still slanted at the same time.
• 2022-02-01: One of my several daily emails from Donald Trump: "I have something important to tell you but you CANNOT share this with anyone." DON'T tell TFG, but I'm going to share. I can buy a lottery ticket for a lunch at Mar-a-Lago. Do any of these lotteries ever award anything to anyone?
• 2022-02-01: Gov. Abbott in nice weather and Gov. Abbott staring at a winter storm. Different stories then and now.
• 2022-02-02: Munich: The Edge of War (2022): Dramatization of Munich Conference on eve of WWII. Fictional characters and events turn it into a thriller and add suspense. Neville Chamberlain gets an overdue sympathetic treatment. Hitler is still a monster. Good acting throughout. B+
• 2022-02-02: Fact check: Quote tweeted by GOP congressman came from neo-Nazi convicted for child porn, not Voltaire. Uh oh. Pro-tip: If a quote from a famous historical figure sounds like it's perfect to make your point, it's probably fake.

After the jump, more random thoughts.

Girls5Eva (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Girls5Eva (TV 2021): 4 members of a '90s girls group reunite to give fame another try. A TV sit-com where the 4 characters never jell. There's no reason to believe they were ever friends. The wit is forced, like jokes picked up from the rejects on the floor of a writers' room. C-

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021): Skewers Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell as frauds who care more about money and power than Jesus. Jessica Chastain's Tammy Faye is treated more sympathetically, more willing dupe who does care about people. She deserves Best Actress nom. B-

"Affordable" Housing Coming to Plano

There are different definitions of "affordable housing." One apartment project in Plano is described in The Dallas Morning News: "The development would include 128 units set aside for households at or below 60% of the area’s median income. The remaining units would have no income restrictions. The median income for the city is approximately $95,000 a year."

More important than the exact definition (for me) is that at least Plano has some developments with a target for affordability. Any project that comes before Richardson's CPC or City Council seeking a zoning change should be required to meet a target as well.

TIL: The Return of Great Power Rivalries

Source: Diplomacy.

The 20th Century dawned as a true multipolar world. The world in 1914 was dominated by Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, the Ottoman Empire. But when the sun set at the end of the 20th Century, we lived in a unipolar world, a Pax Americana.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has an opinion piece in the New York Times in which she updates us on what's happened in the first twenty years of the 21st Century.

Marry Me (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Marry Me (2022): Rom-com with regular guy Owen Wilson and worldwide celebrity Jennifer Lopez. Implausible opposites-attract premise but the leads sell it, making suspension of disbelief possible. Predictable, sure, but easy to watch. J.Lo gets several singing opportunities. B-

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Nightmare Alley (2021): Surprisingly, not a horror movie. A carnival grifter running a con as a mentalist sets his sights on richer marks until the stakes get deadly. The story arc is too pat, but the look and feel are superb. 1940s film noir just like the great movies of old. B+

First Impressions of RISD School Board Candidates

The Richardson ISD has called an election for school board trustees for May 7, 2022. Three of the seven seats on the board will be decided. The deadline for candidate filings has closed. We now know who will be on the ballot. Nine candidates have filed for the three seats. It's too early to make recommendations, but it's not too early to have first impressions. As they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Here are mine.

Explore the Core with the Mayor(s)

Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker led a walk today, accompanied by two former mayors (Gary Slagel and Steve Mitchell), the mayor pro tem (Janet DePuy), and about two dozen members of the public. We "explored the Core" as the mayor put it. We walked from the Lockwood District, across Belt Line Rd to the Heights Shopping Center, across Central Expressway to historic downtown Main Street and on to Greenville Ave., then south Polk Street, then back to the Lockwood Distilling Co. for drinks. We stopped frequently for the mayor to explain the history and ongoing and planned redevelopment.

For years, I've criticized parts of the City's redevelopment efforts, but I have to admit that the mayor makes the best spokesman for the City's efforts in this area. While I'm not ready to concede on all points, I'm also not saying categorically I was right and the City was wrong. If the City had waited until everyone was pleased, possibly nothing might have ever gotten done. As President Theodore Roosevelt said about the construction of the Panama Canal, "I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on the Canal does too." Richardson downtown redevelopment does, too.

Review: The Midnight Library

From The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

‘Between life and death there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’ "
	Amazon

That excerpt tells pretty much the whole story. Woman attempts suicide. Between life and death, she's given the chance to see all the lives she might have lived. Does she find the ideal life for her? Does she rekindle her will to live? She does learn an important life lesson. It's a straightforward story, not very deep.

Binge Watching the RISD School Board

After the sturm und drang of school politics in 2021, I was looking for things to settle down in 2022. So I thought it was time to check in on a Richardson ISD school board meeting. Here are my random observations of the first three hours of the February 15th meeting. Yeah, it was a long meeting. Watching it felt a little like binge-watching a not-particularly-compelling season of a TV show on Netflix.

Death on the Nile (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Death on the Nile (2022): Kenneth Branagh's homage to Agatha Christie. An old time whodunnit with no emotional stakes. Look elsewhere for an anti-colonialist message film. This is just a romp in 1937 Egypt with a bunch of rich foreigners played by a cast of rich celebrities. B+

The Book of Boba Fett (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Book of Boba Fett (TV 2021): Was a bounty hunter, now a crime boss on Tatooine, or maybe a frontier sheriff. We're never sure. Then we switch to the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda. Battle tactics are laughable. Plot is there to justify screen time for old Star Wars characters. C+

Drive My Car (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Drive My Car (2021): Japanese. Wife of stage actor/director dies suddenly. Husband deals with unanswered questions with help of a Chekhov play, fellow actors, and a young woman assigned to be his driver. The action is in their heads. Layers of symbolism. Sad. Wise. Powerful. A-

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): Too many monsters/villains. Too many battles where no one wins, no one dies. Best part is the banter, at times sounding like a parody. Electro: "There's gotta be a Black Spider-Man out there somewhere." Needs more banter. Needs Miles Morales? B-

POTD: Wall Carvings in the Tomb of Rameses III

From 2019 11 22 Valley of the Kings

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was taken inside the tomb of Rameses III. The tomb is richly decorated with wall carvings and paintings. "During his long tenure [1186 to 1155 BCE] in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the Late Bronze Age collapse, Egypt was beset by foreign invaders and experienced the beginnings of increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty."

Bonus photo after the jump.