It is tough to go to a polo match without preconceived notions. My GPS eventually returned a result for Prestonwood Country Club, located off of Yacht Club Drive (that’s literally the street-name). I instantly had a sinking feeling that I was underdressed and I should stop somewhere to top the car off with premium gasoline. However, at $10 per car, the price of admission is the same as it is for many of our Texas lake front public parks — so far so good.
In fact, the Prestonwood polo grounds don’t have an ostentatious feel at all. The parquet flooring in the Ralph Lauren section of Macy’s is more exclusive. Continue reading →
The Dallas Rugby Football Club (The Reds) clinched a spot in the 2012 Emirates Airline USA Rugby Men’s Division I Club Playoffs with a 43-10 win over the Denver Highlanders on Saturday.
The Reds put in a championship-worthy effort with an exciting mix of raw physicality and lethal passing. Continue reading →
A little piece of France was on display in the gymnasium of the International School of Dallas on Saturday. Official polling locations for the French Presidential Election were open from 8A.M. to 6 P.M. in Plano, Austin, and Houston. In Plano, Deputy Consul General, Carl Poirier, administered the poll in compliance with French law — right down to making sure the officially sanctioned election posters appeared in the designated order.
Unlike American citizens living overseas, French citizens aren’t permitted to vote by absentee ballot. Instead, official polling stations are set up all over the world to give French expatriates the opportunity to vote.
Poll officials reported that of the approximately 1,800 French Citizens eligible to vote at the Plano location 512 votes were recorded. These voters from Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma cast 70% of their ballots for the conservative candidate Nicholas Sarkozy.
Themes that might resonate with US voters emerged in an exit poll including, anxiety about taxes, morality, and partisan politics (framed as left vs. right). Concerns about the effect of the election ranged from its impact on “global dynamics” as expressed by Douchka Lecot of Dallas to “increasing the number of consular staff” reported by Marie Jones of Denton.
There was a pervasive attitude of citizenship and connection with country that would make the heart of a civics teacher swoon. After a long pause, Viviane Ajarrista said, “Voting is so important that we don’t even consider why it is so important.” Indeed, Viviane and her husband drove 10 hours round trip from Little Rock, AR to vote. Some were compelled to polls by an even stronger instinct: maternal guilt. Several young women admitted that lobbying from maman in France was their motivation for voting.
On a quiet residential street shared with private schools and churches, conspicuously dressed citoeyennes expressed a bond with their country; and in some cases with their mamans.
A politician’s rise to the highest office coincides with the end of his marriage — it is a story that just begs to be told. The film, “Conquest” chronicles the machinations that delivered Nicholas Sarkozy juggernaut the French presidency, but the film’s lack of ambition makes it a reenactment. To my eye, it doesn’t attempt to reinterpret Sarkozy or add much to our understanding of him (or his {now ex} wife, Cecilia, for that matter). The events grabbing the biggest headlines in French current events pass by almost in the periphery, as Sarko remains singlemindedly focused on maneuvering his way to the Presidency. The fleeting depiction of French riot crisis (and Sarkozy exacerbating the crisis by calling the rioters “scum”) paints Sarko as being in a bubble that never intersects with the lives of ordinary French citizens.
Five years later, we are in the midst of another French Presidential election. The two candidates are Sarkozy, whose sobriquet is “President bling-bling”, vs Francois Hollande whose moniker is “Mr. Normal”. Although I wasn’t a fan of “Conquest”, I think a sequel of the still undecided 2012 campaign might be incredibly interesting.
Since the 2007 election, the French President has become a crucial figure on the world stage along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (branded together as Merkozy) as they have worked together to stave off disaster during the still unresolved European Financial Crisis. Now Sarkozy’s best chance of re-election is to contort his substantial International and European accomplishments to win over the Euro-skeptic extreme right-wing Front Nationale voters.
From a human perspective, I think a sequel could also be very rich. Sarkozy has been controversial (as a public figure) is for his ostentatious ambition and style; not to mention his unabashedly pro-capitalist policies. Cecila who helped engineer his career has been replaced with Carla Bruni. It is impossible for Bruni, the world famous pop singer and ex-model, to be in the background, but politically speaking she seems that is exactly her place.
Picasso would develop a new style as he would take on a new muse/mistress, a sequel to conquest would flesh out how Bruni’s larger-than-life personality has influenced the President.
As the St. Louis Art Museum’s prepared to break ground on the David Chipperfield designed expansion, it closed or repurposed the galleries whose stability was impacted by the construction. When that happened, the art on display was reduced to “highlights of the collection.”
But construction on the exterior of the new East Building is drawing to a close; and in the iconic Cass Gilbert building, 275 paintings have recently been reinstalled in 18 galleries. More than a step toward returning to business as usual, these art-works represent what is being called “the new vision.” Continue reading →
I was running late, but there was nothing new in that. My hope was that my four year old, Alex and I would get to Finn Inn by 11:30. I got a recommendation on Twitter that Finn Inn is worth the 45 minute trip. There are enormous aquariums throughout the place, so you can eat with an aquarium view. Usually the drive into Alton on 67 is a fast escape into the wild, but with no leaves on the trees and brown winter grass it just looked barren.
Alton’s cultivated image makes it fun place for a fork in the road, but the drive on the Great River Road through Grafton was even more picturesque and interesting. We arrived to Finn Inn at 11:30. Already there was a 15 minute wait. When we were finally seated, we were able to dine with a small sun fish, a cat fish and what looked like several large carps. Although not elegant by any means, our unusual dining companions were very engaging. With the arrival of our food, I realized the fish were spending so much time at the glass to pity us – not that the greedy bastards bothered to offer us any fish food.
Alex’s chicken nuggets and French fries were, even less appetizing than those we get from the grocery store. I thought buffalo fish would be slathered in a spicy Tabasco sauce. As I found out, buffalo fish is a river fish native to the area – when cooked it has more of a sandy texture than flaky – YUM! No matter, the food wasn’t the most memorable part of the experience.
We drove north from Grafton to the free Brussels Ferry operated by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Once the ferry got underway, doors opened up and there were kids everywhere taking in the unusual experience. I got the sense that the ferry operators really enjoy this excitement. The experience was over in a flash. Now we were on this isolated peninsula that ends with the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. On a map the peninsula, is in Calhoun County, Illinois — directly above St. Charles, MO.
It seemed like the remote area was composed of nothing but swamp, lake, and forest nature preserves. We stopped in at the headquarters office just outside of Brussels, IL. The highlight was a large pile of gravel for Alex to climb.
Brussels is absolutely amazing. It is one of many rural towns that look like they may have been passed by the 21st century – Brussels looks like it was only moderately impacted by the 20th century. Its claim to fame is the hotel from 1847 that is now a family style restaurant. The town of just 150 has a couple of pretty rough but fun looking bars in town. The houses are completely from a different era – not like those modest houses along I-70 from the 1920’s – these houses go way, way back. Even more heartbreaking than the small minority of beautiful but shuttered houses is the dilapidated St. Mary’s Church. It burned down in a fire last year. It is a shame that there is absolutely no reason to go to Brussels, because it is just unlike anything I have seen before.
As we made our way over to the other side of the peninsula to take yet another ferry back to Missouri, the landscape just became more and more beautiful. As we went further inland, it became increasingly hilly and increasingly farmland – two things you wouldn’t normally put together. There started to be extremely steep ravines. There would be these forgotten, overgrown patches of brush and trees sometimes obscuring an abandoned house.
We drove the few miles on a subdivision style street to the Golden Eagle Ferry. The $8 passage on the Golden Eagle Ferry felt very much like a business trip. There were only a few kids getting out of their cars, even though the ride was probably 3 times as long. We drove off the ferry onto a gravel road, and drove until we approached an intersection, with no signage about how to get back to civilization. So I just sat there. When a car finally pulled on the road, I rolled down my window and asked which way to 370? Alex shouted in the background, hey where is my house? We made a left onto Route B and after a few miles, there could be no doubt that we saw New City off to our left in the distance – sure enough, New City Drive was the next exit.
Our driving tour of New City was not what I was expecting. Despite the meticulously planned, community concept, it didn’t really have a stepfordian feel. What it felt like was a community association on steroids. The rows of townhouses all tastefully done in different styles looked too much like a community, not enough like a place where people actually lived. Alex wanted to play at the playground for a little while. So he played for a little while and arrived at home at 4pm.
Single Wide, a video installation at the St. Louis Art Museum, tells the story of a lone character. The camera makes three sweeping, circular rotations around the set where the story takes place. The variations in the camera’s path train the viewer’s focus on different details in the scene; Continue reading →
1. “Moorise Kingdom” Wes Andeson has a ceertain spunk and verve when it comes to appreciating his movies. “Moonrise Kingdom” was no different. Fun, albiet quirky and very dry and witty, this tale involved an AWOL Khaki Scout and his love for a young redheaded girl.
2. “Marvel’s The Avengers” Everyting a comic book movie should be and more, writer-director Joss Whedon managed to squeeze a plethora of actors into an enjoyable, fun yarn — especially since the majority of characters were in their own seperate storylines. He blended the action sequences flawlessly with plenty of time for the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansen), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).
3. “Thin Ice” The art of the con was full on in this tale of an everyman, an insurance adjuster (Greg Kinnear) who stumbles onto an elderly man (Alan Arkin) who also owns a pricless violin. Enter in Billy Crudup as a jack-of-all trades whose involvment thows a monkey wrench into his plans.
4. “Battleship” Although this one arrived d.o.a. at the box office, director Peter Berg (“The Rundown,” “The Kingdom”) threw in an outlandish story that resulted in smiles aplenty by film’s end. What is cool is that it had a disabled vet as one of the heroes in the movie.
5. “Safe House” Ryan Reynolds owed me a good one from last year, considering his two summer spectacles with the lifeless “Green Lantern” and the mess tht was the buddy-buddy body switching comedy “The Change-Up,” resulted in just a mish mash of ideas that might have looked great on paper, with a dull thud on delivery. In this one, Reynolds stars as CIA operative Matt Weston, who has a thankless job working as a peon at that safe house incape Town. Denzel Washington costars asTobin Frost, a former villain with a checkered past in the agency.
Also worthy of mentiom are “The Hunger Games,” “Prometheus,” “The Raid: Redemption” and “Contraband”
“The movie guru” Ricky Miller is a professional Film Critic in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex. His website is http://movieguru.bravehost.com
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