Friday, December 10, 2021

The Other Two - S01 (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes
The Other Two - S01 (TV 2019): Boy becomes pop star. Jealous older brother and sister's careers struggle. Ambitious mom exploits her son's success. All snobs. Sitcom that isn't funny, doesn't go anywhere, and is a struggle to finish S01. No interest in S02. C-

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Richardson City Council 2021-23 Tactics

"City Council Tactics". That's the title of the presentation made by City staff to the Richardson City Council. But they aren't tactics for the City Council. They are tactics for City staff, who developed them themselves. There are a lot of them, 73 by my count. Much of the list reads like things that were probably on the City staff's to-do list for months or years, just like the goals and strategies they are based on are mostly recycled from previous years. I suspect City staff was careful to avoid making them too ambitious, risky, or binding (or, for that matter, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based — you know S.M.A.R.T.). It's entirely understandable for employees to not want to promise their bosses too much. So words like "Explore," "Review," "Evaluate" are commonly used. One tactic starts with "Develop a strategy to...", not "Just Do It." I thought the Council had delegated the tactics to staff, not the job of developing more strategies.

Let's look at what's still missing, and then assess the City Council's own participation in the process of developing and shaping these tactics, maybe awarding some medals in the process.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

RISD: Night of the Long Knives, Part II

Word

Monday evening, the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees had a special called meeting with a single item on the agenda: a closed meeting for "Superintendent's Evaluation."

Long story short, we still don't know the end of this story. The school board met in closed session for over five hours and adjourned without returning to open session, taking any votes, or making any announcements. But don't let that stop me from speculation.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020): Adaptation of Dickens. Not melodrama, but is it a comedy? Everyone has loads of fun, with just enough earnestness to keep from collapsing into camp. Colorblind casting makes Victorian England the most diverse place in history. B-

Monday, December 6, 2021

The Curse of Von Dutch (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes
The Curse of Von Dutch (TV 2021): Documentary of a clothing brand that became wildly popular in the early 2000s, then flamed out. The people behind it were an odd assortment of losers, crazies, double-crossers, and even a killer or two. All get to tell their side here. C-