Vincent: A Life In Color

From 200905 Chicago

The things you learn via Twitter. Idly following suggestions, I came across this tweet:

jwag John Waggenspack
@EbertChicago 's best documentaries of 2010. I have only seen part of the Joan Rivers one. http://bit.ly/gtptlL

I followed the link and discovered I had seen five documentaries on Roger Ebert's list, including "the Joan Rivers one." And a couple more were already in my Netflix queue. That's cool. But what really caught my attention was Ebert's recommendation of "Vincent: A Life In Color."

"You have never heard of Vincent P. Falk, but if you’ve been near Marina City, you may have seen him. He’s the smiling, middle-aged man with a limitless variety of spectacular suits. He stands on the Michigan or Wabash avenue bridges, showing off his latest stupefying suit. He flashes the flamboyant lining, takes the coat off, spins it in great circles above his head, and then does his “spin move,” pivoting first left, then right, while whirling the coat in the air. Then he puts it on again and waves to the tourists on the boat, by now passing under the bridge."

What stopped me in my tracks was the photograph from the movie that accompanied the review. Hey, I thought, I've seen that man. I've taken his picture myself. Sure enough, reviewing my tourist snapshots from a trip to Chicago, I found him, standing on the Michigan Avenue bridge as my tour boat goes under. My photo is above. Serendipity.

Now if I can only get Netflix to carry the documentary so I can order it and watch.

Of Balanced Budgets and Bankruptcies

This was Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in December, extolling the fiscal responsibility of the states in comparison to the federal government:

"A balanced budget amendment is a good idea, but certainly not a new one. All but one of the 50 states already have some form of a balanced budget amendment in their state constitutions, and we can draw from the experience of the states in drafting an amendment appropriate for the federal government."
-- Senator John Cornyn, December 1, 2010

This was Senator Cornyn this week, explaining what he thinks is needed to rescue those same states:

"Senate Republican leaders said on Tuesday they were considering introducing legislation to allow financially stressed U.S. states to declare bankruptcy ... 'We're exploring that as a responsible option,' Senator John Cornyn, who sits on both the Budget and Finance committees, told reporters."
-- Reuters

After the jump, tying Cornyn's ideas together.

Giving Children a Chance at an Education Costs Money

"If we take these steps -- if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they're born until the last job they take ... America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."
-- President Barack Obama, January 25, 2011

Texas will be lucky if we don't dash expectations for every child over the next two years. The state legislature has proposed a budget that slashes expenditures on pre-kindergarten, elementary, secondary and college education. The impact on the Richardson school district (RISD) alone could be as high as $54 million.

Despite the gloomy news from Austin, locally the RISD is doing what it can to continue to provide the superior education that the RISD has been known for. That means, despite the pressure on funding for continuing operations coming from the state, the RISD is planning to continue investing in capital projects.

After the jump, news about the upcoming RISD bond election.

SOTU: Breaking the Back of this Recession

"These steps we've taken over the last two years may have broken the back of this recession, but to win the future, we'll need to take on challenges that have been decades in the making."
-- President Barack Obama, January 25, 2011

What "breaking the back of this recession" looks like in graphic form:

Brick Row Hits Brick Wall

Brick Row

 

"I will admit: it is fun to watch a city council rake a developer over the coals"
-- RT @imccanntx on Twitter

The city council is Richardson's. The developer is David Gleeson, representative for Richardson's Brick Row development. The fun is, perhaps, a guilty pleasure that Richardson may pay for later.

The city council turned down a request by the developers to change the mix of residential units in Brick Row, eliminating condos that won't sell and increasing the number of apartments that have a better chance of attracting tenants. Ian McCann has the details in The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog.

After the jump, looking at this from different angles.