High on the Hog (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

High on the Hog (TV 2021): How African-American cuisine transformed America. It's a food show, but it's also a history show. From Benin to South Carolina to Philadelphia to Texas, our nation's menu was created by Blacks. Stephen Satterfield finds the culture behind the menu. B+

TIL: I'm on Team Smart America

I'm generally leery of analyses that divide people into two types, or four, or whatever. Clickbait headlines like "Which Avengers Hero Are You?" never get my clicks. Even tests popular in corporate America like Myers-Briggs, tests that are uncanny enough in their analyses that they seem to have been spying on me, earn my respect only grudgingly. Imagine my surprise when I found a political analysis that neatly divides America up into four factions that I think captures not just the red/blue divide, but the divides within those different camps as well.

Paved A Way: Little Mexico

Amazon For decades, I've known about the El Fenix restaurant on the north side of Woodall Rodgers Freeway in downtown Dallas. To me, it always seemed like a bad location for a restaurant, cut off from downtown as it was. I shamefully admit that, until reading Collin Yarbough's book, I wasn't even aware of Dallas's "Little Mexico." Now I know why El Fenix was built where it was. I'm reading "Paved A Way: Infrastructure, Policy and Racism in an American City" by Collin Yarbrough. The city is Dallas, Texas. I'm blogging as I go, using whatever parts of the book catch my attention. Today, we look at how infrastructure development destroyed "El Barrio."

Fosse/Verdon (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Fosse/Verdon (TV 2019): Why are so many artistic geniuses such jerks? Good look behind the curtain of musical theater. In this biopic, Gwen Verdon is the more interesting character. She endures Bob Fosse's mistreatment of her and all around him because of her own ambition. B+

#VeryTardyReview

Paved A Way: Deep Ellum

Amazon In past installments of this book report, we've seen how Central Expressway cut through the African-American community of North Dallas, or Freedman's Town, in the 1940s. But before it was Central Expressway, a 1912 Dallas master plan called for a Central Boulevard. And before that, it was the Central Track, or the Houston and Texas Central Railway, which was laid on the eastern edge of downtown Dallas and up through North Dallas and beyond. Dallas's huge cotton market needed workers, lots of manual labor, which attracted a large African-American community along the tracks, creating what came to be called Deep Ellum. But what infrastructure creates, it also destroys. I'm reading "Paved A Way: Infrastructure, Policy and Racism in an American City" by Collin Yarbrough. The city is Dallas, Texas. I'm blogging as I go, using whatever parts of the book catch my attention. Today, we look at how infrastructure development both built and then destroyed Deep Ellum.

Summer of Soul (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

Summer of Soul (2021): Concert series in Harlem in summer of '69. After years of tragedy, the decade ends with joy, community pride, and Black power. Questlove's documentary covers all that, but especially the music. Blues, soul, R&B, gospel, jazz. I never felt so white. B+

The Mandalorian - Season 1 (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Mandalorian - Season 1 (TV 2019): Bounty hunter becomes guardian of a baby Yoda, who a galaxy bad guy wants badly. Fight after fight, our Mandalorian and his asset escape. Not so for countless storm troopers. Repetitious. It's hard to act wearing a helmet all the time. C+

#VeryTardyReview

No Sudden Move (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

No Sudden Move (2021): A heist movie set in Detroit in 1954. The object is engineering drawings. Or a mobster's code book. It doesn't matter. Neither do the plot twists. Just try to figure out who the bad guys are. The film noir feel more than makes up for a convoluted plot. B+

Paved A Way: Freedman's Cemetery

Amazon I first became aware of Freedman's Cemetery in the early 1990s when the project to expand Central Expressway uncovered a cemetery in its path. Did that stop them? Of course not. But it did delay them for several years while they dug up bodies and reinterred them elsewhere. RIP? Not in Dallas. I'm reading "Paved A Way: Infrastructure, Policy and Racism in an American City" by Collin Yarbrough. The city is Dallas, Texas. I'm blogging as I go, using whatever parts of the book catch my attention. Today, we look at how infrastructure development finds a way to harm you, even if you're dead.

Random Thoughts: Failings of Just in Time Manufacturing

Tweets from June, 2021:

• 2021-06-01: "Global Shortages During Coronavirus Reveal Failings of Just in Time Manufacturing." The business revolution of the 20th Century came by concentrating risk in supply chains. We've reached the natural end state: "It all cascades. It's just a mess."
• 2021-06-02: Mare of Easttown (TV 2021): Outstanding whodunit. Plenty of suspects, all kept in the game until the last episode. But more, it's a story of unresolved grief that comes between Mare (Kate Winslet) and her ex-husband, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and her job. Emmy worthy. A-
• 2021-06-02: I care less about where donations come from than who they come from. That a non-profit for developing leaders in education equity thinks highly enough of Amanda Clair to donate just affirms my decision to support her. Chris Poteet attacking her for it is disappointing.
• 2021-06-03: I am proud of Lake Highlands valedictorian Paxton Smith speaking up for women's rights, and proud of RISD for allowing her the freedom to speak.

After the jump, more random thoughts.