Beasts of No Nation (2015)

IMDB

Beasts of No Nation (2015): African child soldier. Violent, brutal, dehumanizing, heartbreaking. Powerful film-making. Why no Oscar nom? A+

POTD: Belly Flop

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas. It's self-explanatory. Well, maybe one thing needs explanation. That's not me in the photo or anyone else I know.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

IMDB

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): One long desert car chase with crashes, explosions and grunts. Mind-numbing. Cartoonish. Sexist. "Mediocre." D+

POTD: Come Back to Jamaica

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas sailing from the port of Falmouth, Jamaica. Cheers and a fond farewell.

Come Back to Jamaica
Come back to Jamaica.
What's old is what's new.
We want you to join us.
We made it for you.
So make it Jamaica.
Make it your own.
Make it Jamaica.
Your new island home.

Review: Thomas Becket

Amazon

From Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, by John Guy

The truly remarkable sequence of events that would allow a middle-class Londoner to rise to a position where he would become the equal of barons and knights, converse regularly with kings and popes, and one day come to defy a king was yet to begin."

That middle-class Londoner was Thomas Becket. This biography lays out that sequence of events from nine centuries ago. As John Guy promises, they truly were remarkable.

After the jump, my review.

Tangerine (2015)

IMDB

Tangerine (2015): Christmas Eve on LA streets with trans prostitutes. Gritty, explicit and alien to this old straight guy. Great acting. A-

OTBR: Gun Club in Nevada

Latitude: N 35° 57.324
Longitude: W 114° 54.396


A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

POTD: Jamaican Tam

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Previously, I gave a vacation rule of thumb: your comfort level wearing local fashion is inversely proportional to your distance from your vacation destination. That goes double for hair styles. I never could pull it off, but dreadlocks or not, this unknown gentleman looks kick-ass in a Jamaican tam.

Repeat Tweets: Can You Say "Pander"?

Repeat tweets from January, 2016:

• Jan 1 2016: RT @CarlyFiorina: "Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today. #RoseBowl" Can you say "pander?"
  
• Jan 2 2016: RT @GroverNorquist: "To understand what Obama wants in our future...Watch the Star Wars movies and imagine that only the storm troopers have guns." Did he just equate the US military and American police to Star Wars storm troopers? Despicable.
  
• Jan 2 2016: RT @justinc: "Idea: never go for two." Neither team went for two without being required to. Oregon should have gone for two to win but didn't and lost.
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Decoherence and Disharmony

In October, I mused on an essay by Brookings scholar Philip A. Wallach on the subject of "decoherence", the notion that American governance is coming apart at the seams. Some evidence on the left is in President Obama's use of executive orders to get anything done in the face of an obstructionist Congress. And on the right it's in the curious admiration many Republicans express for Russian President Putin for his defiance of international law to further Russian interests.

Today's musing is on a related article that connects today's mood in America with a recurring phenomenon in American politics identified by Samuel Huntington in a 1981 book, "American Politics: Promise of Disharmony." Again, Lee Drutman of Vox Media reviews it.

Kiss Me Kate at LHHS

From 2016 00 00 Miscellaneous

Kiss Me Kate at LHHS: Couple fight and woo onstage and off. Shakespeare, laughs, and such talented voices top to bottom.

Grease at BHS

From 2016 00 00 Miscellaneous

Grease at BHS: 2016 kids in '80s musical about '50s rock and roll. Spirited production. Great singing and dancing (and sax solo).

Singin' in the Rain at PHS

From 2016 00 00 Miscellaneous

Singin' in the Rain at PHS: Great singing, dancing, acting, costumes, set, lighting and sound. All-around hit.

POTD: Off the Rack

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Jamaica, where the local vendors are ready to help out in case you forgot to pack appropriate clothing. A vacation rule of thumb: your comfort level wearing local fashion is inversely proportional to your distance from your vacation destination.

Spy (2015)

IMDB

Spy (2015): 007 parody that's surprisingly more fun than original franchise. Maybe too many vulgarities but they serve a purpose. B-

POTD: It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the beach at Montego Bay, Jamaica, where it's always five o'clock at Margaritaville.

What's Up with the RISD Bond?

The RISD is facing a February deadline to put a bond proposition on the ballot in the May election. What's the sticking point in finalizing what will go into the bond package?

It doesn't appear to be the size of the bond package or the need to raise the tax rate. The size is projected to be $417 million, with a likely tax rate increase of eight cents per $100 dollars. Most of the public commotion is not over these numbers, but seems to be over what's in the bond package, not how much it costs.

It doesn't appear to be those multipurpose facilities (aka, indoor practice fields). The scope of those has been cut down from $80 million to $60 million ($15 million each for four high schools). Now that the sticker shock has been addressed and the price is more in line with the dozens other such facilities already built by other school districts in north Texas, this issue seems to have moved to the back burner. Whether it's still simmering away, ready to boil over at the ballot box, is an open question.

It doesn't appear to be how to break up the bond items into separate bond propositions for voters to decide on. The Community Bond Advisory Committee recommends a single proposition. All or nothing. Not what I would recommend. There are too many angles to attack this bond proposition to feel comfortable that an all-or-nothing proposition will pass. But it's likely the school board will go along.

So, what's the sticking point? It's what to do about enrollment growth, especially in Lake Highlands.

Frida (2002)

IMDB

Frida (2002): Mexico in the 1920s. Biopic of Frida Kahlo. Art, politics, and volatile marriage to Diego Rivera. Leaves you wanting more. A-

POTD: A Helping Hand

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the cruise ship Liberty of the Seas. The photo shows an unknown passenger learning to ride the onboard FlowRider® surf simulator with help from an attentive crew member. Everything is better when someone's got your back.

Ex Machina (2015)

IMDB

Ex Machina (2015): SciFi. Explores what it means to be human. Creepy rich eccentric builds an AI robot. Is it conscious or itself creepy? B-

POTD: Idle Oil Rigs

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Galveston, Texas. It shows idle oil rigs in the Galveston Channel. Now I don't know anything about the oil industry, but I know that gasoline prices are below $2/gallon, the lowest they've been in a decade. That can't be good for the oil industry. I wouldn't be surprised if these rigs stand idle for a while longer.

The Sad State of Suburban Office Parks

In a story titled, "The Sad State of Suburban Office Parks", CityLab sounds a warning that ought to resonate in Richardson.

So-called Class A office space is in transit-oriented areas that are at least close to highways. These offices don't need to be in walkable, urban neighborhoods -- though that's ideal. At the very least, today's workers want to get lunch or maybe even a workout without firing up an engine.
...
There are models that developers are using to transform older office parks throughout the country, to measured success. They mostly involve turning definitely-suburban office parks into urban-like, albeit still isolated, office “cities.” (It is worth noting that many of these projects involve extensive rezoning efforts.)

Source: CityLab.

Winter on Fire (2015)

IMDB

Winter on Fire (2015): Documentary of Ukraine revolution. Can't praise these people enough for their courage & determination. Stunning. A+

POTD: "World's Only Corn Palace"

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Architects call them the "Big Three" -- the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, and the Corn Palace. Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the "World's Only Corn Palace." A bonus in the photo is the 1959 Pontiac Bonneville, Motor Trend Magazine's "Car of the Year" for that year. It's fitting that it's in the photo, given that my only previous visit to the Corn Palace was in the late 1950s, when many similar vintage cars filled the streets.

Big Eyes (2014)

IMDB

Big Eyes (2014): Biopic of Margaret Keane. Art or kitsch? Innocent fib or fraud? Trapped or complicit? Portrait of a bad marriage. B+

POTD: Classic Road Picture

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park. It's the South Dakota version of the classic road picture. The original classic road picture, from Monument Valley on the border of Utah and Arizona, is after the jump.

George Clayton is Running for School Board

George Clayton says he is running for RISD school board. You remember him, right? He's a one-term Republican member of the State Board of Education. He lost his re-election bid in the GOP primary. Then, as a Democrat, he lost his race for Texas State Representative to Linda Koop. Currently, he says he's the co-chair of the Trump for President Campaign for Congressional District 32. And now he says he'll be running for Richardson ISD board of trustees.

POTD: The Badlands are Amazing

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The Great Plains stretch forever, endless grasslands from Canada to Texas and from the Rockies to the Mississippi. South Dakota is in the middle of all that nothingness. You drive for hundreds of miles on I-90 through flat grasslands, then turn off the interstate and within a few short miles you are faced with the scene in this photo. The Badlands are amazing.

Even More About Enrollment Growth

I had three takeaways from the Richardson ISD's 2016 Bond "listening tour."

• Those multipurpose facilities (MPFs) seemed expensive. Comparisons with similar facilities in other school districts were lacking.
• There wasn't enough in the bond to address anticipated enrollment growth over the next five years.
  
• There appeared to be no way to avoid a tax rate increase, even if only maintenance and construction for enrollment growth were addressed.
  

The RISD school board addressed the first two of my takeaways at their December 7th meeting. What I said then:

It's too bad that the scheduled enrollment growth study couldn't have been accelerated so its results could have been presented to the public on this "listening tour." It's too bad that a placeholder for additional expansion wasn't included in the 2016 bond proposal so the public would know that the school board is aware of the need. But that's water under the bridge. I'm confident that by the time the school board signs off on any bond package that projected enrollment growth will be comprehended in it.

Source: The Wheel.

Now at their January 5th meeting, the school board took further steps to address my second takeaway, and in the process, my first takeaway as well. I consider those steps to be steps back in the right direction.

OTBR: Trail of the Tough in Estonia

Latitude: N 58° 28.584
Longitude: E 022° 12.060

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Repeat Tweets: #txhshoops is baaack!

Repeat tweets from December, 2015:

• 1 Dec 2015: Final: Naaman Forest 64, Berkner 52. #txhshoops is baaack!
• 2 Dec 2015: RT @SenTedCruz: "Scientific conclusions should be based on the evidence & data, not the wishes of liberal global warming alarmists." @SenTedCruz is trolling us.
• 2 Dec 2015: What's the difference between the KKK and the Irving anti-Islamists? One is a group of racist bigots and the other wears hoods.
• 3 Dec 2015: MT @cressman: "When you live outside the US you think Americans are nuts regarding guns." Inside the US you *know*.

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Tree the (rest of the) Town

Remember "Tree the Town"? You know, the program with a goal "to plant 50,000 trees in Richardson during the next 10 years on private and public property." What's up with that?

Dallas Arboretum's 12 Days of Christmas

From 2015 12 30 Dallas Arboretum

The Twelve Days of Christmas, the second most annoying Christmas song ever, celebrates the twelve days between the birth of Christ (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, January 6). The Dallas Arboretum celebrates the twelve days of Christmas from November 27 - January 3 (yeah, that's 38 days; I don't think they care). Scattered around the arboretum grounds are twelve Victorian gazebos each filled with animals and characters from the song. The DeGolyer house itself is filled with nativity sets. All in all, the best thing to ever happen to the song.

All photos from our visit to the Dallas Arboretum can be seen in Google Photos.

POTD: Black-Eyed Susan Photo Bombs the Badlands

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The geology here takes center stage. But when a single black-eyed susan sticks its head up how can a photographer resist letting it upstage the multi-colored layers of rocks in the eroded hillsides?

Do I Sound Gay? (2014)

IMDB

Do I Sound Gay? (2014): Is there such a thing? Can it be changed? Does it matter? Surprisingly informative look at a cultural stereotype. B-

POTD: Lincoln's Craggy Face

From 2015 08 15 South Dakota

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It's a close-up of the face of Abraham Lincoln. According to a BBC story ("Abraham Lincoln: The enduring images"), Lincoln was the first president of the photographic era. Lincoln himself credited an iconic Matthew Brady photograph taken in early 1860 with making him president. It shows a clean-shaven, "sober, respectable, powerful intellectual who could become president." Four years later, another photograph tells a different story. "The Civil War was coming to an end and the enormous toll taken by four years of conflict is etched into the lines of Lincoln's craggy face." The granite of Mount Rushmore is the perfect medium to capture that Lincoln.

Yelp Reviews Get a New Useful Feature

You may like a Richardson restaurant for its food, but what do you know about its health inspection rating? Probably nothing. Not because Richardson doesn't conduct health inspections of restaurants, but because the city doesn't do much to make the ratings easily accessible to diners. That may be changing.

It's been a pet peeve of mine for years that Richardson promotes local restaurants with its "Dine Smart Dine Local" program, and Richardson publishes restaurant health inspection scores, but the city made no effort to tie the two together. The Wheel complained about it two years ago, and even pointed to a third party solution that promised to be cheaper and more useful than some in-house development by the city's IT department. That was two years ago. Nothing changed.

POTD: Go Tell It on the Mountain

From 2015 08 13 Mount Evans

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Mt. Evans. At 14,271-feet, it's one of Colorado's 53 "fourteeners." You can drive to the summit on the highest paved road in North America. Well, not actually the summit. To get to the tippy-top, you have to scramble up another boulder field.

Mr. Nobody (2009)

IMDB

Mr. Nobody (2009): 117-yr-old man looks back at his 9-yr-old self's big (in)decision in life. What choice did he make? Quirky sci-fi. B-

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)

IMDB

Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies (2014): Over the top telling of a children's story. Jackson does CGI great, but Tolkien's charm is lost. C+

POTD: Bristlecone Pine

From 2015 08 13 Mount Evans

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Mt Goliath Natural Area on Colorado's Mt Evans Scenic Byway. "The bristlecone of Mt Goliath are found in large quantities because of conducive conditions on dry, south-facing slopes over 11,000'. They include some of the oldest trees in Colorado, ranging from 1600 to 2500 years old." They also make some pretty nice abstract art.

Homevoters versus Growth Machine

Ahh, another "there are two types of people in the world" story, this time divided by what people think is wrong with America's housing policy.

There are two big theories about who controls the pace of development in American cities and suburbs.

One is the "growth machine." In this telling, developed by academics like Harvey Molotch in the 1970s, urban elected officials and zoning boards are highly influenced by coalitions of business and civic leaders interested mainly in economic growth and maximizing the price of the land they own.

The other, developed later by the economist William Fischel, is the "homevoter hypothesis." Fischel argues that real power -- at least in the small to moderately-sized municipalities in which the majority of Americans live -- is held by homeowners, who are also interested primarily in maximizing the value of their property: their homes.

Source: City Observatory.

Let's apply this model of the world to our own moderately-sized community, Richardson, Texas.

POTD: King on the Mountain

From 2015 08 11 Manitou Springs

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Pike's Peak. At 14,115 feet, it's one of Colorado's 54 "fourteeners" (or 53, depending on who's counting). Impressively tall, yet you can drive to the summit, where there's a visitor center with a gift shop and a restaurant. But that's not at the absolute summit. To reach the tippy-top, you have to scramble up a boulder field. That's only for sticklers for accuracy (aka anal retentive personalities). Note that this photo was taken with the camera pointed up.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

IMDB

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002): Whites' inhumanity to blacks, Australian aborigine edition. Girls win out, sort of. More sad than uplifting. C+

POTD: 1952 Hudson Hornet

From 2015 08 11 Manitou Springs

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Garden of the Gods, a public park and National Natural Landmark located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Naturally, the photo includes a car built for the gods, a 1952 Hudson Hornet four-door sedan. The editors of Consumer Guide praise the car, saying, "The Hornet proved near-invincible in stock-car racing." To me, the Hudson seems right at home in the vacation snapshot, given that my only previous visit to the Garden of the Gods was in the late 1950s, when many similar vintage cars filled the park.

More about Enrollment Growth

I had three takeaways from the Richardson ISD's 2016 Bond "listening tour."

• Those multipurpose facilities (MPFs) seemed expensive. Comparisons with similar facilities in other school districts were lacking.
• There wasn't enough in the bond to address anticipated enrollment growth over the next five years.
  
• There appeared to be no way to avoid a tax rate increase, even if only maintenance and construction for enrollment growth were addressed.
  

The RISD school board addressed the first two of my takeaways at their December 7th meeting. Here, I want to cover the board's actions on enrollment growth.

More about those Multipurpose Facilities

I had three takeaways from the Richardson ISD's 2016 Bond "listening tour."

• Those multipurpose facilities (MPFs) seemed expensive. Comparisons with similar facilities in other school districts were lacking.
• There wasn't enough in the bond to address anticipated enrollment growth over the next five years.
  
• There appeared to be no way to avoid a tax rate increase, even if only maintenance and construction for enrollment growth were addressed.
  

The RISD school board addressed the first two of my takeaways at their December 7th meeting. Here, I want to cover the board's actions on those MPFs.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge at RHS

From 2015 00 00 Miscellaneous

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge at RHS: Absurd Christmas Carol with an inept ghost. Don't know what the moral is, but I laughed.

Review: A Thousand Acres

Amazon

From A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

Because the intersection was on this tiny rise, you could see our buildings, a mile distant, at the southern edge of the farm. A mile to the east, you could see three silos that marked the northeastern corner, and if you raked your gaze from the silos to the house and barn, then back again, you would take in the immensity of the piece of land my father owned, six hundred forty acres, a whole section, paid for, no encumbrances, as flat and fertile, black, friable, and exposed as any piece of land on the face of the earth."

Recently I read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a retelling of Hamlet set in 20th century rural Wisconsin. Coincidentally I just finished reading A Thousand Acres, a retelling of King Lear set in 20th century rural Iowa.

After the jump, my review.

POTD: Ship Wreck Ranch

From 2015 08 09 TX and OK Panhandles

Today's photo-of-the-day is from southeastern Colorado. The natural beauty of the Great Plains as as impressive in its own way as any other natural wonder in America. This area is also ground zero for the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s. Driving north through the Texas and Oklahoma pandhandles into southeastern Colorado, try to imagine the black dusters of those years. As you drive, read "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan, the story of people like Ike Osteen, who recalls how even "the simplest thing in life -- taking a breath -- was a threat."