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Rice University's first Coursera class is taught by computer scientists ScottRixner, from left, Stephen Wong, Joe Warren and John Greiner. The teamdemonstrates here "Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock," the first game thatstudents will program in the class.Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University -
Warren demonstrates how students will use CodeSkulptor, a new tool created atRice, to write code for fun games like "Asteroids" in his introductory computerprogramming class on the education website Coursera.Photo courtesy of Rice University
Given Houston's seemingly never-ending stray animal issue, our local shelter is stepping up to help.
BARC, the City of Houston's shelter/adoption center is once again holding its Empty the Shelters Campaign and waiving adoption fees for one week.
The adoption fee waivers run from October 1-October 8 at BARC’s Adoption Center at 3300 Carr St. Thus far, 386 Houston pets have been adopted through the Bissell Pet Foundation’s summer 2022 Empty the Shelters Campaign.
Locals can visit BARC's adoption center from noon to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday or visit the BARC website to meet lovable, adoptable pets.
"It has been a challenging year for our nation's animal shelters," said Cathy Bissell, founder of Bissell Pet Foundation, in a statement. "The devastating increase in owner surrenders has left thousands of socialized, house-trained and leash-trained pets desperate to find a home. Our fall 'Empty the Shelters' will support the adoption of thousands of pets across the country, helping shelters in this critical time. Opening your home to a shelter pet saves a life and creates space to give another pet a chance."
Just how effective is the campaign? Since 2016, nearly 118,000 pets find homes. The campaign partners with 541 animal welfare organizations in 47 states and Canada to reduce adoption fees.
For more information, visit the official BARC site or visit the BARC adoption center (3300 Carr St.) from noon to 5 pm Tuesdays through Sundays.
Photo courtesy of BARC
Kenya (ID A1840195) is all smiles.
Houston's East End is in the midst of a renaissance, as evidenced by booming residential development, new restaurants and retail, and quality-of-life initiatives such as hiking and bike trials in near downtown such as the East Downtown Trail.
This East End renaissance, to that end, goes hand in hand with Buffalo Bayou. Now, an ambitious master plan is closer to being realized, thanks to a game-changing new gift from Houston's biggest benefactors, Rich and Nancy Kinder, who've just donated $100 million to its completion.
Just days off a $50 million donation to their eponymous Rice University Kinder Institute, the Kinders have gifted a colossal $100 million to help expand Buffalo Bayou Park eastward, as part of the ambitious Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan.
A historic gift
The Kinders' $100 million will help Buffalo Bayou Partnership leverage the additional $210 million of public and private investments it will require to realize the first 10 years of the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan, per the organization.
Plans call for new bayou parks, trails, housing, cultural destinations, and infrastructure improvements into the Greater East End and Fifth Ward neighborhoods. The plan moves to consideration at Harris County Commissioners Court and Houston City Council on Tuesday, September 27 and Wednesday, September 28, respectively, according to a Buffalo Bayou Park Partnership (BBP) press release.
By the numbers, the Kinder Foundation’s $100 million gift is the largest single donation in Houston parks history. The gift, combined with approximately $37 million already raised by BBP, helped secure $83.5 million of public funds from the City of Houston; $24 million from Harris County; and $14 million in federal housing tax credits. Civic leaders such as Mayor Sylvester Turner, Commissioner Adrian Garcia, and Commissioner Rodney Ellis have been vocal in their support.
BBP adds in press materials that it will continue to raise the remaining $46 million in private funds needed to complete the 10-Year Plan by 2031.
Parks, waterfront fun, and more
With a push for green spaces for all residents, the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan envisions new and improved waterfront trails, expanded and enhanced parks and open spaces, new bridges and boat landings, the transformation of existing industrial relics into community event spaces, a mixed-income housing project, and infrastructure enhancements.
Visitors can expect trails and bridges, community waterfront gathering spaces, a sweeping gateway, and more.
Tony Marron Park, a 19-acre City of Houston park on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou, will be expanded into nearly 40 acres and will include improved sports fields, a boat launch, an expansive nature play area, wildflower meadows, bayou lawns, a barbecue plaza, and spaces for community events.
Japhet Creek, a tributary stretching into the Fifth Ward, will see improved trails, interpretive signage, site furnishings, and wildflower and native grass plantings. Two new pedestrian bridges will link Fifth Ward to the trail system.
In an adaptive reuse initiative, a former barge terminal on a historic oxbow known as Turkey Bend, will become a waterfront recreational and cultural hub. Its large wharf, large, covered warehouse, and 50,000-square-foot building will host performances, public art, and boating activities.
Linking the city
Civically, the plan will reunite the Greater East End and Fifth Ward neighborhoods, which have been long separated from the bayou and each other. More connections to Houston’s regional trail network are also in store.
“Buffalo Bayou Partnership is honored that the Kinder Foundation is entrusting our organization to steward this extraordinary gift,” said Anne Olson, Buffalo Bayou Partnership president. “This plan is not only about parks and trails — it is a comprehensive community development plan for a part of town that has not seen this level of investment before. The cultural destinations, infrastructure improvements, and connectivity in Buffalo Bayou East came directly from the input we received from the East End and Fifth Ward communities. We are grateful to the Kinder Foundation as well as the City and County for joining together with us to make the communities’ vision a reality.”
Rich Kinder, Kinder Foundation chairman, responded in a statement: “There is a rich history and a valued culture along Buffalo Bayou east of downtown, and Buffalo Bayou Partnership is to be commended on the decades spent in the community laying the groundwork for this plan. The 10-Year Plan is in good hands under the direction of Buffalo Bayou Partnership.”
For those keeping score: The Kinders have broken their own record with this new gift. In 2018, as CultureMap reported, the Kinders gifted the largest amount ever to a Houston Park (at the time) with the $70 million infusion to the Memorial Park Master Plan.
Rendering courtesy of MVVA
The sweeping downtown gateway in the new plan.
American celebrities are simultaneously some of the most admired people in the world and the most scrutinized, both simply because they are in the public eye a lot. Some people seek that attention and some people thrive in it once they get it, but there are others for whom fame is toxic, something that makes their life immeasurably worse.
The new epic-length Netflix film Blonde is far from the first time that it’s been said that Marilyn Monroe was exploited in her relatively short life and career, but it does seem to revel in that misery more than most. Close to a cradle-to-grave story, the film follows Norma Jeane Baker (Ana de Armas) from her traumatic childhood with a mentally unstable mother (Julianne Nicholson), to burgeoning stardom full of lascivious studio heads and producers, to icon status as Marilyn Monroe, featuring marriages to Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody), as well as one very high-profile affair.
Bobby Cannavale and Ana de Armas in Blonde
Photo courtesy of Netflix
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, the film is among the most depressing movies about a celebrity one could imagine. Dominik, adapting his story from the 2000 fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates, seems to posit that Norma Jeane/Marilyn’s life had close to zero happiness in it, and even when she did experience fleeting moments of joy, they were tinged by other people taking advantage of her or expecting something more from her than she could give.
More than anything else, it depicts Marilyn as someone forever scarred by her childhood and unable to adequately function on her own as an adult. Every man who comes into her life is looked at by her as some sort of replacement for her absent father, especially DiMaggio and Miller, both of whom she literally calls “Daddy.” If there’s a moment where she felt some sort of power or control over her own life, it’s not depicted in the film.
The film is striking visually because Dominik constantly shifts between video aspect ratios and going back-and-forth from color to black-and-white. The visual choices are likely not as haphazard as they can seem, but there are only a few instances where an aspect ratio or color choice makes an impact on the actual story.
Also notable is the fact that it's rated NC-17, a rarity for any film released in the U.S. There is a good amount of nudity, but the rating likely stems from one highly suggestive sex scene that seems to explicitly depict an act that it doesn’t actually show. It’s difficult to reconcile the way Norma Jeane/Marilyn is treated by the other characters in the film and how the film seems to linger on her nakedness and vulnerability; the exploitation can often seem equal.
Adrien Brody and Ana de Armas in Blonde
Photo courtesy of Netflix
For all of the discomfort the film causes, de Armas’ performance is fantastic. She embodies Marilyn in many ways, but it’s the eyes – the way she makes them big and darts them back and forth, as if unsure of herself – where she fully becomes her. At no point does the fact that de Armas is of Cuban/Spanish heritage detract from her depiction, helped by her portrayal and the cinematography.
Blonde can often be difficult to watch, both for the material it contains and because it has a nearly three-hour running time. It may or may not add to the mythos of Marilyn Monroe, but it has found an actor in de Armas who knows exactly how to bring her life one more time.
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Blonde debuts on Netflix on September 28.
