POTD: Umbrella Factory

From 2025 03 23 Chiang Mai

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at an umbrella factory in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Beautiful. That is all.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Among the Elephants

From 2025 03 23 Chiang Mai

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at an Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Think of it as a retirement home for elephants who age out of being worked in the logging industry, in circuses, in zoos. Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Camp 6 is an internationally accredited elephant camp with recognized welfare standards. It falls into the category of ethical tourism-funded sanctuaries. Tourists still interact with the elephants, feeding them, petting them, bathing them. It's probably a good middle ground that generates income for animal welfare. Anyway, that's our story and we're sticking with it.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Book Review: Lost Enlightenment

From "Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane", by S. Frederick Starr:

Amazon

"This was truly an Age of Enlightenment, several centuries of cultural flowering during which Central Asia was the intellectual hub of the world. India, China, the Middle East, and Europe all boasted rich traditions in the realm of ideas, but during the four or five centuries around AD 1000 it was Central Asia, the one world region that touched all these other centers, that surged to the fore. It bridged time as well as geography, in the process becoming the great link between antiquity and the modern world. To a far greater extent than today’s Europeans, Chinese, Indians, or Middle Easterners realize, they are all the heirs of the remarkable cultural and intellectual effervescence in Central Asia that peaked in the era of Ibn Sina and Biruni."

The Roses (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Roses (2025): Remake of the 1989 classic black comedy. Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star as the couple in a love/hate marriage. Best scenes are when the two trade barbed insults and admire each other for it. Nothing really fresh here. These actors are wasted in these roles. C+

Hulu

Last Samurai Standing (TV 2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

Last Samurai Standing (TV 2025): Japanese. Part Shōgun. Part Squid Game. Violent action thriller set at the end of the era of samurai. Figuring out who is behind the 100 billion yen contest in which samurai are pitted against each other adds mystery. Bad ending, like they had an eight episode story but filmed only six episodes. C+

Netflix

Whereto Arapaho Station?

Source: Richardson Convention & Visitors Center.

The 1% of CityLine that makes all the brochures

We all know where you can get to from Arapaho Station: wherever DART goes. What I want to know is where the City of Richardson will get to with the redevelopment of Arapaho Station. Is CityLine an exemplar of how it should be done or a cautionary tale?

POTD: Wat Rong Khun (White Temple)

From 2025 03 22 Chiang Rai

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken at the Wat Rong Khun Temple (White Temple) in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. According to Wikipedia, "The White Temple was created by master Chalermchai Kositpipat, the national artist who designed, constructed, and opened it to visitors in 1997."

Contrast it with the newer Blue Temple, also in Chiang Rai.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Trinidad meets Thailand

From 2025 03 22 Chiang Rai

Today's photo-of-the-day was taken in an Akha village near Chiang Rai, Thailand. These two people speak languages without a word in common, yet without a word, both could share a dance game that originated in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Laughter is a universal language.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Nouvelle Vague (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes

Nouvelle Vague (2025): French. Richard Linklater's tribute to Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 classic New Wave movie "Breathless", matching its style perfectly. This movie's subject is Godard making the original movie, all the while explaining to his actors what he is after. Nouvelle Vague is must-see for film students. A-

Netflix

Breathless (1960)

Rotten Tomatoes

Breathless (1960): French. Jean-Luc Godard's classic New Wave cinema. Story of a charming but self-destructive anti-hero and the independent young American woman who falls in with him. Godard makes his small budget work for him—jump cuts, hand-held cameras, shooting on the streets of Paris. A+

HBO Max

#VeryTardyReview