5 Broken Cameras (2012)

IMDB

5 Broken Cameras (2012): Documentary of Palestinian village resisting Israeli settlements. Important history. Not compelling filmmaking. C+

North Central Expressway: Feed Me

Feed me, Seymour
Feed me all night long.
That's right, boy!
You can do it!
Feed me, Seymour
Feed me all night long.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Cause if you feed me, Seymour
I can grow up big and strong.

Source: Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors.

Richardson has its own giant man-eating plant that demands to be fed so it can grow ever bigger: North Central Expressway. Like any good movie monster, it hides in wait before eventually attacking despite all the good intentions of our protagonists.

Recently, in a blog post titled, "Punching Through Central at Palisades," I was encouraged in my quest to tame North Central Expressway for the benefit of neighborhoods on both sides. The vision for development of the Palisades business park was a sight for sore eyes. Besides mixed-use architecture, the developer envisions a pedestrian bridge across North Central Expressway to the Galatyn DART station.

I was further encouraged by talk from Richardson City Council members. They are saying that "East/west, intra-city permeability through the US 75 Corridor must be meaningfully improved by providing for safer, more attractive and comfortable pedestrian and bicycle mobility." And they plan on telling TxDOT that very thing, in no uncertain terms, right?

The City Council on Monday [April 1, 2013] discussed updates to a vision statement draft for the US-75 corridor to present to the Texas Department of Transportation as it conducts a study on the corridor from I-635 to SH 121. The study is expected to be complete in September 2015, with several major milestones in 2014.

Source: City of Richardson.

TxDOT gets it, right? After the jump, a look to our north and what TxDOT is up to there.

S2L77: Golden Temple of Amritsar

From 1977 03 02 India

It is Amritsar that I mark as the start of my route through the lands of troubles to come, troubles that affect the region and the world to this day. Fortunately for me, my travels were in 1977, before there was a hint (at least to this naive Western traveler) that storms were just over the horizon. During my visit to Amritsar, the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, built in 1604, was resplendent, open to all, and peaceful. The peace was not to last.

In 1983, [Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale] and his militant followers headquartered themselves in the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, and started accumulating weapons. After several futile negotiations, Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian army to enter the Golden temple in order to subdue Bhindranwale and his followers. In the resulting Operation Blue Star, the shrine was damaged and many civilians were killed. The State of Punjab was closed to international media, its phone and communication lines shut. To this day the events remain controversial with a disputed number of victims; Sikhs seeing the attack as unjustified and Bhindrawale being declared the greatest Sikh martyr of the 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia.

One of a continuing series.
Start: Around the World in 800 Days
Previous: Delhi
Next: Srinigar, Kashmir Valley

OTBR: A Field of Snapdragons in California

Latitude: N 34° 39.288
Longitude: W 120° 26.160

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

"Full-Fledged, Boot-Licking, Lackeydom"

Offered without comment.

Kevin Chumney, husband of the candidate for Place 4 on the Richardson ISD board of trustees, Rachel Chumney, in a public comment elsewhere on this blog:

Mark: thank you for being so brave in standing up for these poor, defenseless politicians. How dare these parents and kids fight for their legal rights and question their elected officials. It's downright un-American! I have always chalked up your nonsense to the fact that your not very bright, but you've now crossed over to full-fledged, boot-licking, lackeydom.

Source: Kevin Chumney.