Bridge of Spies (2015)

IMDB

Bridge of Spies (2015): Cold War prisoner exchange. Well-done, paint-by-numbers movie. Tom Hanks in what used to be a Gregory Peck role. B-

Vote YES on the RISD Bond

It seems like it took forever, but the Richardson ISD school board finally approved a bond package to go to the voters in the May 7 election. Public engagement began way back in November with a series of meetings in a so-called listening tour.

I was originally skeptical. There were gaps, there were frills, there were areas not thought out yet. But the RISD administrators were up front with the public. They said they deliberately asked for public feedback early in the process to give the public maximum opportunity to shape the final package. And it looks like that's just what happened. The "listening tour" was, in fact, really truly, a listening tour. The RISD listened and adapted the bond package accordingly. Kudos to the RISD.

The End of the Tour (2015)

IMDB

The End of the Tour (2015): Five days with David Foster Wallace, brilliant, self-conscious, troubled author. All talk. Shallow. Flat. C+

The Propaganda Game (2015)

IMDB

The Propaganda Game (2015): Look inside North Korea and its brainwashed people. Can't help wondering if I'm not a little brainwashed too. B-

POTD: Above the Treetops

From 2015 11 13 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from deep in the forests and swampland on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It's of the archaeological ruins of Dzibanche, an abandoned major Mayan city. It's still relatively off the beaten path, so I'm torn between feeling glad to have seen it before the path gets beaten and feeling sad for beating my own path there.