Archive for March 23rd, 2010

Sensei.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

When I was a teenager in the suburbs of Houston, there were three people who, more than anyone else (except my parents, who I’m excluding from this list), influenced the development of my taste in movies:

  • Jeff Millar, the long-time movie critic and columnist for the Houston Chronicle (and the guy who writes “Tank McNamara“). The HouChron hasn’t had a better critic since he retired; Mr. Millar, if you’re out there somewhere, I hope you’re having a wonderful life.
  • the late Gene Siskel.
  • and Roger Ebert.

This was in the days long before the Internet. Actually, it was mostly in the days before I had a personal computer. My exposure to Rog and Gene was from “Sneak Previews” on our local PBS station (and, later on, “At the Movies” in syndication).

This was also in the days before home video changed everything. We had VHS tapes, but access to foreign and obscure stuff was iffy; that kind of thing wasn’t well stocked in our local video stores, and NetFlix didn’t exist yet. Rog and Gene were pretty good about including those movies on their show (and my mother used to gripe every time they did) but the art film theaters in Houston were a good drive away.

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I hear that train a’ coming, it’s rollin’ round the bend…

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Capital Metro rail service from Leander to downtown Austin started yesterday.

How’s the ridership?

Day 1:

Capital Metro first said the morning boardings were 672, then later updated that (without explanation) to 716, based on an eyeball count rather than the electronic counters in the train car doors.

Day 2:

Capital Metro reports morning boardings on its nine MetroRail runs today was 547, down from 716 on opening day Monday.

Note that these are just the morning boardings; the Statesman writer comments that afternoon ridership “tripled” yesterday.

Posted in Clippings, Trains | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 23, 2010.

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Wolfgang Wagner, former director of the Bayreuth Music Festival, and grandson of Richard Wagner. The NYT obit gives a good overview of the bizarre world of Bayreuth:

In 2008, Bayreuth announced the appointment of Eva and Katharina — half-sisters more than three decades apart in age — as the festival’s co-directors. In keeping with longstanding family tradition, they had not spoken to each other in many years.

Also among the dead: Robert M. White, former X-15 pilot:

On July 17, 1962, he flew the rocket-powered X-15 plane to an altitude of 314,750 feet, or 59.6 miles, almost 10 miles above Earth’s atmosphere.

(Edited to add 2: Better obit from the LAT.)

Edited to add: Sort of an obit, anyway: The Hump, aka “that place that served whale sushi“, closed on Saturday. Their website makes this sound like something they did voluntarily; I am not convinced of this. The Hump was a tenant at Santa Monica Airport, which is owned by the city. The city was apparently looking into pulling The Hump’s lease. Plus there’s the whole thing about the fine for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the possible prison time. Plus there’s the whole question of whether people want to eat at a place that buys meat from a Mercedes parked behind the restaurant, instead of a legitimate restaurant supply house. (Hattip: LA Observed.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Music, Obits, Planes | Comments Closed