POTD: Regensburg's Stadtamhof

From 2022 07 13 Regensburg

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Regensburg, Germany. It was taken on the island of Stadtamhof, which was once a separate village, but now serves as a entry point to the old walled city of Regensburg.

The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures

Source: DALL-E.

The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday, March 12, 2023. I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture. That means my opinion means something. Right?

I've ranked the movies in order of my preference for "Best Picture." The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science uses proportional ranked choice voting (RCV) to ensure that the winner has broad support throughout the Academy members. I wish US political elections used a similar system (or perhaps some form of proportional voting system). But that's for another post.

My personal ranked choice of the Oscar nominees is based on the grades I gave the movies immediately after seeing them. In case of ties, I ordered them by my judgment today. Note this is not my prediction of which movie will win, but how I would vote, had I a vote.

The envelope please. The winner of "The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures" goes to...

How Much is a Big Orange Box Worth?

The City of Richardson has called for a bond election to raise $46 million to go toward replacing the Richardson City Hall, which has been vacant since it was damaged by fire in August, 2022. Using the numbers provided by the City, I put pencil to paper to see if I could get the City's figures to add up. Follow along with me.

Your Place or Mine (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes

Your Place or Mine (2023)): Best friends for 20 years get mad at each other. Is it the trigger for long-denied love? It's a rom-com, so you guess. Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher star in this formulaic fluff. The separate NY/LA story lines keep any chemical reaction from happening. C+

POTD: Nuremberg's Hangman's Bridge

From 2022 07 12 Nuremberg

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Nuremberg, Germany. It shows the Hangman's Bridge (Henkersteg) over the river Regnitz. Built in 1595, the wooden bridge connects the city to an island where the executioner for the city lived. It's strange how picturesque scenes can have gruesome history.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Nuremberg, My Ancestral Homeland

From 2022 07 12 Nuremberg

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Nuremberg, Germany, a thousand-year-old city in Bavaria. With that history, it has many notable events to fill its Wikipedia page, but the one most personal to me is that my great grandfather lived in a town near Nuremberg before his emigration to America in 1892. I've told that story before ("Roots"). Now, I finally managed to get back to my ancestral roots.

M3GAN (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes

M3GAN (2023): Toy company rushes a robotic young girl to market before its programming is ready, and it's only a matter of time before the killing starts. More sci-fi than horror, it's safe for young teens, but there's nothing original for adults. Frankenstein did it better. C+

Random Thoughts: As Officers Beat Tyre Nichols...

2023-02-01: Irony: "As Officers Beat Tyre Nichols, a Crime-Prevention Camera Watched Over Them."

2023-02-01: "If football fans are far and away the most TV-destructive sports fans, then Cowboy fans are far and away the most TV-destructive football fans. In a way, this makes sense: No team has combined a sense of entitlement to victory with a consistent failure to achieve it in quite the way Dallas has over the past 25 years."

He's not wrong.

2023-02-01: The best of neighborhood Facebook:
"I did see several kids sliding down hills on the golf course. They have been reported to Oncor. Thanks!"
(posted on a snow day that closed schools in Texas)

2023-02-03: Judging by when I saw the announcements, Richardson ISD led Dallas ISD and Plano ISD in calling off school on Friday due to several factors related to this week's ice storm. RISD, always a step ahead!

Book Review: The 1619 Project

From The 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones:

Amazon

  Why hadn’t any teacher or textbook, in telling the story of Jamestown, taught us the story of 1619? No history can ever be complete, of course. Millions of moments, thousands of dates weave the tapestry of a country’s past. But I knew immediately, viscerally, that this was not an innocuous omission. The year white Virginians first purchased enslaved Africans, the start of American slavery, an institution so influential and corrosive that it both helped create the nation and nearly led to its demise, is indisputably a foundational historical date. And yet I’d never heard of it before."

Book Review: The 1619 Project: American history as it's rarely told, with the true story of what's been done by and to Blacks. With separate authors on chapters on democracy, capitalism, politics, citizenship, religion, music, healthcare, and more, its power builds relentlessly to a call for action at the end.

After the jump, my full review.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Triangle of Sadness (2022): Satire of social class on a cruise for ultra rich. Catastrophe strikes, roles are reversed and the real makers and takers are revealed. The satire is too blunt. The ambiguous ending is a cop out. Overall, it's too shallow to be great. But it's fun. B-