RISD TRE Information Meeting #1

The Richardson ISD held the first of many information meetings about the upcoming Tax Ratification Election. The meeting was held at the Richardson YMCA. I was there live-tweeting the show. What follows are my tweets, with only the most cursory proofreading. If I heard wrong or garbled what I heard, that's on me. Don't blame the RISD without checking your own sources first. Here, you get what you pay for.

The Most Unknown (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Most Unknown (2018): Documentary of scientists in diverse fields talking to each other about their work. Good to inspire kids about the cool places science is done (caves, oceans, mountains, etc.) but doesn't explain the science (dark matter, time, consciousness, etc.) C-

POTD: Melbourne's St Kilda Beach

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the St Kilda beach. One doesn't usually think of Melbourne as being an ocean town. It's located at the head of enormous Port Phillip Bay, with its business center located a few miles up the Yarra River even from that bay. But take a short tram ride from the center of the city to St Kilda and, there it is — a beach, an historic pier, a classic amusement park, an historic yacht club, and an esplanade that hosts a popular weekend market.

Bonus photo after the jump.

Repeat Tweets: Car chases, Fist fights, Shootouts

Repeat tweets from August, 2018:

• Aug 2 2018: Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018): Much better stunts than script. The mission is to recover stolen plutonium. The "plan" constantly goes wrong and needs improvisation: car chases, fist fights, shootouts and everybody changing sides. Tom Cruise shows his age. C-
• Aug 3 2018: Warlight: A coming-of-age novel set in London after WWII, where a boy is left by his parents "in the care of two men who may have been criminals". Why leads to a life-long quest of self-discovery. Along the way, some great adventures. B+
• Aug 3 2018: What's new? A foreign country inflicted upon our election system systematic violations of democratic norms, and not only did we *not* consider it an act of war, our government can't stop praising the hostile foreign country responsible. Where's the outrage?

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Review: This is How You Lose Her

Amazon

From This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz:

Your girl catches you cheating. (Well, actually she’s your fiancée, but hey, in a bit it so won’t matter.) She could have caught you with one sucia, she could have caught you with two, but as you’re a totally batshit cuero who didn’t ever empty his e­mail trash can, she caught you with fifty! Sure, over a six­-year period, but still. Fifty fucking girls? Goddamn. Maybe if you’d been engaged to a super open-minded blanquita you could have survived it—but you’re not engaged to a super open­minded blanquita. Your girl is a bad­ass salcedeña who doesn’t believe in open anything; in fact the one thing she warned you about, that she swore she would never forgive, was cheating. I’ll put a machete in you, she promised. And of course you swore you wouldn’t do it. You swore you wouldn’t. You swore you wouldn’t. And you did."

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

BlacKkKlansman (2018): Undercover cops infiltrate Klan in 1970s. A broad satiric look at America's dark history, but Spike Lee slips in a word or scene now and then to show he's more interested in today than the 1970s. And he connects with a gut punch by the end. B+

POTD: Hosier Lane

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, Hosier Lane, one of the lanes and arcades of central Melbourne that make it such a fun city to walk. "The graffiti-covered walls and art-installations have become a popular backdrop for fashion and wedding photography."

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Melbourne's Lanes and Arcades

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Centre Place

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, one of the many lanes and arcades that make the central business district so walkable.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Queen Victoria Market

From 2018 03 15 Melbourne

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specifically, the Queen Victoria Market, the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere. It has been operating since the 1860s.

POTD: The Americans in Moscow

Spoiler alert: if you haven't seen the series finale of the television series "The Americans" you might want to stop reading here. Spoiler follows.

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Moscow, Russia, and was taken on Sparrow Hills, "a hill on the right bank of the Moskva River and one of the highest points in Moscow." But that's not what makes this photo special. Sparrow Hills is the place where the final scene of "The Americans" was set. Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings had returned to the USSR in 1987 after two decades working as undercover spies in the USA. Upon arriving in Moscow, Sparrow Hills is where they asked their driver to stop so they could get out of the car and gaze over the city they had left long ago. Ellen stands where viewers last saw Phillip and Elizabeth stand in 1987.

A screen shot from the series' final scene follows the jump.