Friday, December 8, 2023

Bodies (TV 2023)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Bodies (TV 2023): A sci-fi/mystery/thriller. A dead body appears in 4 eras (2023, 1941, 1893, and 2053), the very same dead body. As the season wears on, the stories come together, leading to a time-traveling, doomsday cult. Too many gaping plot holes and inconsistencies to recommend it, more than most time travel stories. D+

Thursday, December 7, 2023

The Killer (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

The Killer (2023): David Fincher thriller. A hired assassin botches the kill. Now the race is on for him to kill those coming after him before they kill him. More than an action movie, it's a good character study, with Michael Fassbender playing the icy, analytical, emotionless killer. B-

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Gaza Comes to Richardson

Source: City of Richardson

The visitors' section was full. There was an overflow crowd. For ninety minutes Monday night, speaker after speaker came to the podium and made heartfelt pleas for the Richardson City Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and to take measures to address the rise of Islamophobia in America.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Holdovers (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

The Holdovers (2023): Paul Giamatti as a cranky, unliked teacher thrown together with an unlikable student. Eventually, they bond. A nice, old-fashioned movie, literally. Set in 1970, made to look like it was made in 1970, it was inspired by a movie from the 1930s. It felt like I saw this movie before, maybe several times. Not that there's anything wrong with that. C+

Monday, December 4, 2023

How Parks are Named in Dallas

Source: DMN
Proposed Trinity River Park

Recently, the Richardson City Council got into what passes for a contentious exchange over the question of naming parks (or, at least, naming of bridges in parks). What it boils down to is that the lack of any policies in Richardson results in naming by whim — i.e., when someone on City Council gets a notion to name something after someone, and just mentions it at a Council meeting, and others on the Council agree it's a good idea, it happens. Just like that. I called it government by whim.

Our big neighbor to the south has a different practice.