Dallas' Weed Garden

Highway to hell -- Picture by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
North Central Expressway is a main traffic artery in Dallas, Texas. It connects downtown Dallas to downtown McKinney. It was conceived by Dallas city planner (and visionary) George Kessler as far back as 1911 and officially proposed in 1924 -- the idea was to repurpose the Houston-Texas Central Railroad tracks as a new expressway for cars. The proposal met with political opposition from various interest groups but finally came to fruition; the grand new expressway opened in 1950. The cramped 4-lane highway with tiny on-ramps and egresses was pathetically inadequate for midcentury traffic when it opened.

It didn't extend thru Richardson until 1956, and commuters had to contend with the short-comings of North Central "Distressway" for another 30 years, until a 600 million dollar renovation plan was hatched in the early 1980's. The ambitious plan called for North Central to be replaced with a long trench, using cantilevered access roads to compensate for the still-narrow right-of-way for any new construction. The widening of Central from LBJ northward to Legacy took place from 1986 thru 1990. The widening of Central southward from LBJ to Woodall Rogers took place from 1992 thru 1999 -- on time and within budget.

The completed highway won national kudos for being a distinctive and cutting-edge example of modern highway architecture. North Central was beautiful -- a concrete sculpture of air columns dancing amid articulated earth-toned walls, and clean, sweeping expanses of underpasses accented with beautiful, drought-tolerant Texas landscaping. When the last part was opened in 1999, people would drive on the new expressway just to "ooh" and "aah" at Dallas' classiest new piece of infrastructure. If the highway weren't enough, the expanded overpasses were also "whomped" up with modern sculptures, paver stones, and additional beautiful landscaping -- notably on Caruth, Mockingbird, Monticello and Knox Streets.

Now let us flash forward to today, 2010. If you are driving, as I do, from Monticello southward to the Central entrance ramp, you will be surely aghast at what you see. Here's a tire and a bit of a car bumper. Yonder way is a light pole that was smashed and inadequately replaced -- crumbling cement and tire marks to tell the tale of an intoxicated driver. All along the way, weeds peer thru cracks, seams and crevices -- little botanical pests that could surely be dispatched with a single squirt of Round-up weed killer. Here's a Bud Lite bottle and there is a to-go box from Pei Wei. Along the entire route, you wonder if Dallas drives drunk much of the time. Collision streaks and blackened wall patches belie any concept of a tranquil city.

Drive across the many bridges and you see where someone threw in the maintenance towel. Sculpture balls are smashed and stay in ruins. Landscape (e.g, ground cover vines) were first allowed to grow frenetically past their planter box boundaries, then parched to death in the searing Texas heat. If you look now, the only plant life that survives at all are extremely hardy creatures of the heat and defiant weeds. Some portions of the Expressway look post-apocalyptic -- you might wonder if a neutron bomb went off somewhere and the inhabitants left the area for a safe room somewhere.

This blog author must confess ignorance -- I'm not at all certain which level of city, county or state governance controls the appearance and maintenance of this highway. I'd think that TxDOT has a hand in it. The overpasses have some personalization and influence of the Park Cities, e.g. municipal banners flying -- I'd think cities have some say. The Dallas Morning News ran an article in the last year in which the North Central landscaping was described as a first casualty of Dallas' tax collection shortfall. Such a shame. Here are blogSpotter's recommendation's to overcome our civic shame:

o Remove all debris from vehicular accidents
o Remove all trash
o Repair crumbled sculptures and concrete walls
o Repaint large and near-continuous patches of blackened wall
o Weed-kill the many million weeds
o Remove dead plants. If there is no intention of watering, pave over else replace the dead plants.

Do all of these things on a regular basis, not just when it becomes a public embarrassment and people start asking about it.

When the 2011 Super Bowl comes to the DFW area in February '11, the whole world will be tuning in to our metroplex. Every part of town will be on national, even international TV cameras. Do we want people asking what kind of Trailer Trash mentality has begat North Central? Do we want to rehatch stereotypes of southern cities as tax-and-civic deprived enclaves of arrogance and myopia? blogSpotter suspects not. Let's beautify North Central while there is still time.

© 2010 blogSpotter

The History of Porn

Selling sex -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Don’t worry, the title is just a teaser – no intentions of giving you a long history of anything. I’m too lazy. But I will talk about pornography (we all know it when we see it) and some of its historical underpinnings. Porn joins capital punishment and meat-eating as a disturbingly gray subject for me. I usually like to give black-and-white pronouncements and some matters defy that. With capital punishment, I wonder if we too often kill an innocent man -- are we killing to show that killing is wrong? In my final analysis, I’m OK with it if there’s overwhelming evidence of a first degree murder. We might even be doing the killer a favor, delivering him from a private Hell of violent, confused thoughts. With our carnivorism, I wonder if the animals don’t suffer diminished lives and horrid slaughterhouse deaths. At the end of the day, I’m a “flexitarian” who eats meat (mostly fish and poultry) along with lots of fruits and vegetables. To assuage my guilt, I give to animal charities and have even given to PETA.

Now as to pornography – it encompasses every shade of gray. Pornography is as old as civilization; some rock art and cave paintings have been interpreted as early porn. It seems our minds have always been in the gutter. Up until the 19th century though, pornography was centered more in the domain of “erotic art” and was enjoyed by privileged groups (e.g., clergy and nobility). Telegraph and railroad trains of the 1800’s brought about mass-marketing where books and magazines became inexpensive and generally available to the public. Photography emerged in this same time, and the world of smut was upon us.

Pornography wasn’t even coined as a word until the mid 19th century. The English Parliament rushed to protect the masses with the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. Victorian archaeologists of the 1860’s were so shocked by the lude Roman artifacts discovered at Pompeii, they were locked away in the “Secret Museum” of Naples, only to be unveiled years later. Many new layers of legal definitions and complexity have been piled on in decades since the 1850’s. If anything, we are probably even more confused as a people regarding things like legal age or what constitutes a sex act or pornography itself.

Pornography did have staying power, and it survived the Victorian instincts to stifle its nature. It could be argued that the stifling engendered more of porn’s popularity – the phenomenon of the forbidden fruit. A federal study of 1970 showed that pornography was a $10 million industry. Similar studies in 2001 put the figure at $4 billion. A more recent study by the Forrester group puts the number at $8-10 billion annually. Porn has ridden every technology wave, starting with the printing press and photography in the distant past. In recent years, pornography has been an industry leader in technical innovation. It was a deciding factor in the VHS-Betamax battle as well as the BluRay-HD DVD battle. Porn has been an active player, not just a sideline observer in all the recent developments: satellite TV, DVD, Internet and wireless communication.

So what can we make of all this -- is pornography friend or foe? Pornography has some entrenched enemies. Politics makes strange bed fellows because the most strident opponents to porn are militant feminists and religious conservatives. Feminists focus on the “subjugation of women” when it fact porn is an equal opportunity offender – it subjugates men, women, animals, sometimes children and even inanimate objects depending on the genre. We can draw lines obviously against bestiality, kiddy porn and snuff movies. But at the other extreme we can throw canvas covers over the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe or the naked Venus de Milo. Somewhere in that murky middle is where the porn-loving populace dwells. They derive tawdry thrills from (generally) young adults who don’t mind doing private things publicly.

As with capital punishment, I see both sides of the issue. Can’t help but think that misguided youths are trashing a future career as President or CIO when they frolic though these videos or photo spreads. On the other hand, I can’t claim to be innocent of seeing these exhibitions at length. There is no black or white delineation – just gray, gray, gray. It’s difficult to assume one strident side of these issues without alternately being seen as insensitive, intolerant, hypocritical, fanatical or unrealistic.

Thus I’ll continue eating poultry, contributing to PETA, feeling safer when an avowed killer is removed from our presence, and viewing or reading adult subject matter if it’s in my face and hard to ignore. A college roommate once said, “If they’re willing to show it, I’m willing to look”. There are too many people who feel that way (unfortunately including me :-)).

© 2010 blogSpotter

Leap Vacation

A vacation to remember -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
PERSONAL JOURNAL

I'm on the last day of an extremely fun family vacation. We had a family reunion in Corpus Christi, Texas and I may finally get the names straight for my many cousins and second cousins. We had a boat ride through Corpus Christi Bay -- it was very invigorating (and slightly bruising). We also had a couple of cookouts and lots of reminiscing.

My trusty iPad kept me current with all my email. In fact, the iPad did something no other device has done -- it invited an accusation from a relative: "You'd rather sit with your iPad than visit the old neighborhood!". My iPad has become that much of a distraction. We're back in Round Rock tonight, looking at available videos on demand. That brings me to our blog topic ...

MOVIE STUFF

In days of old, I used to read TV Guide, where I'd enjoy the wit of movie critics Judith Crist and Cleveland Amory. I remember Crist in particular described one movie as an enjoyable "trash wallow". She went on further to elaborate that movies do not have to justify themselves...

Paraphrasing Crist, movies do not have to educate or edify. They don't have to send a message or inspire noble thoughts. They certainly don't have to win awards. Trashy movies that immediately spring to mind are "Valley of the Dolls" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space". These movies are entertaining more than anything else -- they've helped forge a new category of movie, one so bad that it's good.

If the movie stimulates belly laughs or provokes any kind of curiosity it has done its main thing -- take the viewer out of humdrum existence and transport him to a new place. Think of it as a virtual, two hour vacation. I love cult movies ("Rocky Horror") and silly movies ("Step Brothers"). It's also hard to go wrong with any of the Ace Ventura movies floating around. Sometimes silly will surprise you with some wisdom or life lessons you didn't expect (sort of like Cocoa Puffs with vitamins added). "Step Brothers" actually had a good message about misplaced priorities.

For the last part of the vacation, my brother and I visited my mother in Round Rock, Texas. We watched two movies -- "Leap Year" and "Hot Tub Time Machine". "Hot Tub Time Machine" was purely juvenile and maybe no redeeming qualities. That being said, it's worth the rental fee if you like a comedic twist on time travel laced with the F word. "Leap Year" is a romantic chick flick which matches a tightly wound, American priss (Amy Adams) against a laid back Irish pub owner (Matthew Goode). Their car trip to Dublin is an odyssey fraught with cows on the loose, car problems, highway robbery, missed trains and other mishaps. All is set against the beautiful backdrop of Ireland -- a green, hilly utopia that I need to visit some day. The movie is a classic formula, served up with terrific nuance and originality. You know how it will end, but enjoy the ride nonetheless.

I feel the need to apologize for not being more current with the blog. I'll be back in Dallas shortly, and have burned through all my vacation -- should be good for a steadier blog schedule as soon as I get back.

© 2010 blogSpotter