Gladiator II (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Gladiator II (2024): Ignore history and forget that you've seen this movie before. If you go just for an epic account about reclaiming liberty, filled with action and gore and some silliness (e.g., sharks in the Colosseum), you won't be disappointed. B+

In theaters

My Old Ass (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

My Old Ass (2024): A teen celebrates her 18th birthday with a mushroom trip and meets her 39 year-old self, who offers her a problematic warning about her future. A light-hearted drama that packs a wallop, a lesson not only for the teen, but for her older self as well. B-

Prime

Replanting Richardson on the Down-Low

Someone informed me of some landscaping changes on Main Street in downtown Richardson. The trees in the median were reportedly ripped out and replaced by shrubs. Someone said it's the second time. That can't be, I thought. The trees were just planted. The Main Street redevelopment project was just celebrated in October, 2021. Sad to say, the news appears to be true, as the photo above shows.

POTD: The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia

"Mosques stand side by side.
Minarets pierce clouds with grace.
Blue domes kiss the sky."

— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 05 06 Istanbul

Today's photo-of-the-day is of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The Blue Mosque was completed in 1616. It was designed as an imperial show of strength. If you think the Blue Mosque is old, look next door at the Hagia Sophia, completed over a thousand years earlier in 537 CE. Hagia Sophia was a Christian church until 1453, when it was converted to a mosque. It was the world's largest building for nearly a thousand years.

A photo of Hagia Sophia is after the jump.

POTD: First Stop, Istanbul

"East and West embrace,
bridging time and continents.
Istanbul welcomes."

— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 05 06 Istanbul

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Istanbul, Turkey, one of the world's great cities for 2,000 years. It's the gateway between Europe and Asia, between East and West, between modernity and history. Travel there from the West and it feels exotic. Arrive from the East and it feels like you are back in familiar surroundings. It's chaotic and wonderful at once.

A bonus photo is after the jump.

Two Days, Two Presidents, Two Value Systems

Two social media posts in two days.

One President with some Girl Scouts, pitching a documentary about our oceans.

One pitching guitars for $1,500 (or, if autographed by the Grifter-in-Chief himself, for $10,000).

I miss one of these guys.

Book Review: The Cartographers

From The Cartographers, by Peng Shepherd:

Amazon

"It was an open-and-shut case, they’d determined. Dr. Young had been alone—the security cameras in the Map Division didn’t turn on until the last employee in the department had clocked out, but they had already been running in the lobby since closing time the night before. The only reported movement was from the security guard on patrol, who had been the one to find him when he’d peeked in on his last loop around the library, sometime in the early hours of dawn."

Emilia Pérez (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Emilia Pérez (2024): Spanish. Head of a Mexican drug cartel wants to transition into a woman. The existence of a wife and children pose a problem. If that premise isn't implausible enough, the movie is a musical. But somehow Jacques Audiard pulls it off. A-

Netflix

Family Pack (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

Family Pack (2024): French. Family game night causes a whole family to be transported back to the Middle Ages where they have to slay four werewolves in order to return to the 21st century. A comedy/adventure/fantasy that is mediocre at all of them. Maybe for kids. C-

Netflix

It's What's Inside (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes

It's What's Inside (2024): Group of friends play a game of mind/body swapping with a sci-fi device. It's all fun and games until it isn't. Too many characters to keep straight, and keeping them straight is critical to following the consequences of the body swaps. The directorial style is novel, but doesn't quite work. C+

Netflix