A White Christmas in Richardson (2012)

From 2012 12 Christmas

More Christmas photos after the jump.

Merry TubaChristmas - Dallas 2012

From 2012 12 TubaChristmas

TubaChristmas was celebrated in Thanksgiving Square in downtown Dallas at noon on Christmas Eve, the 35th annual performance of over 200 tubas, sousaphones, euphoniums and baritones. One musician has attended all 35 annual concerts. Another began playing only this September. After a two year absence (in China), John returned for his tenth TubaChristmas. Oh, the joyful sound!

This year's concert was dedicated to Alex Burton, long time Dallas and Ft. Worth TubaChristmas Master of Ceremonies, who passed away in 2012.

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: Bangkok's Grand Palace

Bangkok, Thailand
February 12-20, 1977

We took a hot and crowded three hour bus ride to the Burmese Embassy only to find we were an hour late to apply for a visa and must return tomorrow.

We took a long walk along the river warehouses and finally caught a river taxi back to our hotel.

We make another attempt at the Burmese Embassy.

I spend four hours retrieving my passport from the Burmese Embassy and securing a visa from the Nepalese Embassy (3:45 on buses, 0:15 at embassies).

I toured the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo -- an eye-popping compound.

Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 02 11 Thailand

My first couple of days in Bangkok were spent working on visas. My plan was to travel next to Burma, then on to Nepal. Getting visas in Bangkok was a hassle. Big city. Crowded buses. Finally done, we were free to do some sightseeing. The Grand Palace complex, home to Thai kings from 1782 to 1925, is today still used for state occasions, but is mostly a tourist attraction, a theme park of magical architecture and amazing treasures. Disneyland without the rides. I couldn't help thinking of Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, in "The King and I," singing and dancing their way into movie legend.

More photos after the jump.

Newtown

What would have prevented the tragedy?

After the jump, considering the usual remedies and an unorthodox one.

Review: The City & The City

Amazon

From The City & The City, by China Miéville:

I could not see the street or much of the estate. We were enclosed by dirt-coloured blocks, from windows out of which leaned vested men and women with morning hair and mugs of drink, eating breakfast and watching us. This open ground between the buildings had once been sculpted. It pitched like a golf course -- a child’s mimicking of geography. Maybe they had been going to wood it and put in a pond. There was a copse but the saplings were dead. The grass was weedy, threaded with paths footwalked between rubbish, rutted by wheel tracks. There were police at various tasks."

After the jump, my review.

"Great News !!!"

"Great News !!!" That was the subject of an email blast from the Richardson Coalition PAC that I received on the heels of my less than enthusiastic review of Richardson City Council's rezoning of the land surrounding the PGBT DART station to accommodate the construction of big, corporate campuses.

After the jump, parsing the Richardson Coalition's "Great News."

The Last, Best Hope of Richardson

At the December 10, 2012, Richardson city council meeting, the council approved zoning changes for the vacant land around the President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT) DART station. This property, because of size and location, is potentially much more promising than anything previously done at the Spring Valley or Arapaho DART stations and, if done right, can improve upon the mistakes made around Galatyn DART station.

Source: City of Richardson.

The diagram above is the new zoning for the property just to the east of the PGBT DART station platform. See that undifferentiated big block labeled "TOD Core"? In the old zoning, there was a network of streets there. Now a slide says, "The proposed development includes: Significant new corporate campus (1.5 million sf)."

In subsequent news, it appears that the tenant for that corporate campus will be State Farm Insurance. After the jump, why it's likely that State Farm being there won't make for a good neighbor.