The Iron Lady

Coming in early 2012, The Iron Lady, a biopic on Margaret Thatcher. Meryl Streep plays the former British Prime Minister.

Top 10 Reasons I'm Glad The Rapture Didn't Happen

Protestant preacher of heresy Harold Camping claimed The Rapture would happen at 6 P.M. this evening, but it didn't. While I was waiting for the hour to come, I drafted my Top 10 list of why I'm glad it didn't happen:

10. I want to see Zoe Saldana in Colombiana.

9. I don't want the world to come to an end having never married. (I still hope to meet a good African-American woman out on the buses.)

8. I want to see what challenges the Demonrats mount for General Assembly seats in Virginia Beach in 2011.

7. I want to hear the warped "logic" the Virginia Beach City Council espouses in defending the obscene at-large voting system. (I don't know whether I'll laugh or scoff more.)

6. I want to see an agreement for building an entertainment venue at the Dome site and read its details.

5. I didn't want the world to come to an end with the UFL's Virginia Destroyers having never played a game.

4. I want to see the tantrums VBTAers throw when John Moss isn't appointed to Rita Sweet Bellitto's vacant City Council seat.

3. I want to find out exactly which Virginia Beach City Councilman Virginia News Source is accusing of sexual misconduct.

2. I'm having too much fun laughing at the joke that is Protestantism. After this red herring, maybe more people will see it for what it is.

1. I want to ride Norfolk's light rail starter line before the world comes to an end.

A New Zoe Saldana Movie

I went to see Jumping The Broom on Thursday afternoon, which was a pretty good movie. However, the highlight was that I saw the trailer for a new Zoe Saldana movie. Zoe is my favorite actress, and I've been smitten with her since watching Guess Who. Her new film is Colombiana, which is scheduled to be released on September 2. I embed the trailer below. Enjoy!

Kudos To WAT

Yesterday I made my third trip to Williamsburg via mass transit. I went out to New Town to see a matinee showing of The Town, a great movie. Like my previous off-season trip. service on Williamsburg Area Transport (WAT) left me gushing.

The Summer tourist season strains WAT. However, riding WAT in the off-season versus riding Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) is effectively the difference between flying First Class (WAT) and Coach (HRT). I hope that HRT doesn't absorb WAT through some merger in the name of Regionalism. That would destroy the better culture.

Michael Ragsdale of HR Transit Ideas once told me the only time in his life he was sad to see a HRT bus was when the 121 arrived at the Williamsburg Transportation Center (WTC) for the express run out. (Route 121 is a weekdays rush hour only express bus between WTC and the Newport News Transportation Center via Patrick Henry Mall.) WAT had pampered him so much he knew it would be a letdown to get back on HRT again.

Phillip Shucet will probably leave HRT next year, with a CEO search committee already having been formed and held it's first meeting. I certainly hope the TDCHR takes a close look at WAT's Mark Rickards as the potential replacement.

Transit Notes September 9, 2010

1. I took this picture of MacArthur Station in downtown Norfolk this morning. Construction is putting up the station itself. Note the crew powwow going on, partially caught in the lower left corner.

With the day free, I went downtown for a haircut & beard trim, lunch, and a movie. The Other Guys was quite hilarious at points.

2. TMD is here and is starting work on the Efficiencies Study for Hampton Roads Transit (HRT). They arrived today and had an all-day work session with HRT's Planning Department.

I found out by chance: leaving downtown, I ran into them being given their introduction to the Cedar Grove Transfer Center. They managed to finish before the Outbound 23 (to my beloved Walmart on Military Highway) arrived.

Zoe Saldana's Official Website

My favorite actress has revamped her official website. It was probably done with Zoe Saldana having new movies coming out each of the next two weekends: Death At A Funeral (April 16) and The Losers (April 23). Naturally enough, the website is at http://www.zoesaldana.com

Zoe has two more films scheduled for later in 2010: The Takers (tentative for August 20) and Burning Palms. Also, she's signed to do a Star Trek sequel.

"Aal Izz Well" In Suffolk

On Tuesday I watched 3 Idiots, an awesome Indian-made comedy. After it and Kurbaan, I'm starting to agree with the person who told me Bollywood makes better movies than we do.

On Wednesday I went to Suffolk to ride their bus system again. I had been previously to see it after it was reintegrated into Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) this Spring (Riding HRT In Suffolk,
May 11, 2009) and just after HRT made changes to standardize service there this Summer (Change Begins In Suffolk, August 19, 2009). It appears that the best case scenario has happened: not only did I hear zero serious bus service complaints, but ridership looked the best of any of my three trips there. The only problems I encountered were a couple operational issues not related to the changes. That was after riding all four Suffolk routes.

After what HRT has been through the past few weeks, great to have some good news for a change. It had me thinking of the main song from 3 Idiots, Aal Izz Well.

Predictions for 2010

I go out on the limb and make some predictions for 2010. (Okay, some of them were no-brainers.)

1. Bob O'Connor will oppose each and every Virginia Beach City Council initiative.

2. City Council enters a public-private partnership for an entertainment complex at the Dome site. Redevelopment of the Dome site had been the top Resort Area priority since 2005.

3. Governor Bob McDonnell's transportation plan is killed in the state Senate.

4. Robert Dean is recognized as a master ventriloquist after Bill DeSteph manages to make it through his (losing) City Council reelection campaign without anyone seeing Dean's lips moving.

5. Governor McDonnell pressures SPSA to finally sell it's operation and privatize, ending Hampton Roads' best political soap opera.

6. In The Shock Heard 'Round The World, the USA beats England in the World Cup Finals opener for both teams.

7. The Virginia Beach Transit Extension Alternatives Analysis (AA) comes out. However, people are so preoccupied with Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) management issues that it isn't half the event that people expected.

8. In the November Federal elections, Republicans take control of the House of Representatives and pickup seats in the Senate.

9. Wally Erb's light rail referendum drive finishes short of the necessary number of legal signatures to put a question on the ballot in November.

10. I Can Do Bad All By Myself wins the Oscar for Best Picture of 2009.

11. After no VBTA City Council challenger gets over 12% of the vote, John Moss resigns as VBTA Chairman. Vice Chairman Reid Greenmun moves up to Chair. In turn, Reid names his friend Harvey the new Vice Chair.

12. Al Wallace runs for the Bayside District City Council seat, making for the biggest electoral farce since...uh...well, Al ran for Mayor in 2004.

13. As City Council neither can de jure order a stop nor defund it, the Virginia Beach Transit Extension Study continues despite frosty relations between the Municipal Center and Victoria Boulevard.

14. In another cost-cutting move by The Virginian-Pravda, Kerry Dougherty is given the pink slip. Kerry then becomes a blogger for Virginia News Source.

15. The VBTA churns out another investigative report/White Paper/whatever they want to call it this time claiming a City economic development initiative is a net drain for taxpayers. Rational residents roll their eyes at the piece of garbage.

Kurbaan

As a rule I don't post trailers from currently running movies, as I don't want to be accused of acting in self-interest. However, this afternoon I watched a movie that most of you probably had no intention of seeing, Kurbaan. It's an Indian-made film which has at it's center an Islamic terrorist cell.

A young female Indian psychology professor who teaches in New York goes home for a semester to be with her father, who is recovering from a stroke. At the school where she's temporarily teaching in India, she meets a new young male faculty member. He aggressively pursues her, and she falls in love with him. Her father first hesitates at them marrying: they're a Hindu family, while he's Muslim. They get married, and he returns to New York with her.

After awhile there, she learns he's part of an Islamic terrorist cell. (Most members live in the same cul-de-sac.) He had known she was going back to New York and had a U.S. passport, making it easier for him to enter the country. She becomes their prisoner as they go to carry out their strikes. First they bomb a plane taking an UN delegation to Iraq. In the movie's climatic scene, they try to carry out virtually simultaneous bombings throughout Manhattan's subway system.

The film is multilingual (including English), and subtitled in English. Given some of the cheesy American-made stuff in the wake of 9/11, I had to love this Indian film.

Invictus

On my day off yesterday, I went to MacArthur Center to see 2012. It was pretty good.

However, what really got my attention was one of the trailers shown before the main feature: Invictus. Starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and having Clint Eastwood as Director, Invictus is based on the true story of how President Mandela wanted to unify South Africa by winning the rugby World Cup. Conventional wisdom was that it was impossible.

Well, Morgan Freeman has played the President of the United States (Deep Impact), not to mention God Himself (Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty), so Nelson Mandela isn't a stretch.

Transit Notes October 16, 2009

Today's full itinerary (a medical appointment, lunch & matinee, and a couple errands) made for an 11 bus day. Some notes from it all:

1. It was the first time I had rode the first Outbound Route 20 of the morning, which goes through Pembroke East at 5:45 A.M. We fluctuated around a dozen passengers. It was a tight group, as the regulars and the Operator knew each other and chatted as friends.

2. Taking Route 29, I stumbled onto an alarming occurrence: the bus stop at Lynnhaven Mall has temporarily been moved to the rear, with Mall access via the backdoors to the Food Court. (I hadn't seen a HRT Passenger Alert on it.) The huge problem: Route 29 already runs regularly late, so the additional few minutes to loop behind the Mall is a disaster. Even in the quiet of the morning, we were late arriving at the TCC - Virginia Beach Transfer Center.

Route 26 and 29 passengers should cushion their riding itineraries to handle possible late buses. (Routes 26 and 29 are presently serviced with the same three buses, with them flipping routes at TCC.)

3. I took the MAX into downtown Norfolk. With it's schedule being reduced in the off-season, it was the last day of midday Route 960 service until May. If only this had happened earlier: 11 passengers were on our trip. (Decent midday loads could have saved the 960.)

4. Preparing to leave downtown Norfolk, I had to grin when I saw the bus approaching on Route 310. It was Bus 511, the same vehicle I rode on that early Outbound 20 trip.

Today's movie was Capitalism: A Love Story. I liked it better than either of the two previous Michael Moore films I had seen: it has neither the flimsy and transparent propaganda of Fahrenheit 9/11 nor was over-the-top like Sicko. Even where I disagreed with Moore on government policy, I enjoyed the humor he aimed at his targets. In this movie, Moore is fairly open about his political goal: cooperative socialism. (For those on the fringe right who love to throw around the word "socialism" to attack any spending you oppose, there's a clear difference between cooperative socialism, state socialism, and traditional American liberalism.) Regardless of your politics, if you opposed the recent Federal bailouts, you'll like Moore's skewering of them.

Community On The 23

One of my axioms is that there is no stronger bond of community in Hampton Roads than on a Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) bus. With the day off today, I followed a regular template: bus into Norfolk, daily Mass at St. Mary's Basilica, lunch, a matinee at MacArthur Center, then back home by bus. This morning I made the leg from Military Circle to Cedar Grove on Route 23. It was case in point:

1. A lady was having trouble trying to get Social Security disability. It turned out that 3 of us were receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), so she got plenty of firsthand advice, stories, etc.

2. A newbie rider didn't know how to get from Cedar Grove into downtown Norfolk. A lady told him: Route 310 (Downtown Shuttle). Since I was taking the 310 downtown, I told him to follow me. Got him on the bus, stop directions, and times for buses home.

Today's movie was I Can Do Bad All By Myself, the best movie by far that I've seen in 2009. First, the funniest scene was where Madea was trying to tell an unchurched 16 year old girl the story of Peter walking out onto the water to Jesus. (She butchered it badly, having Noah sail up in the arch of St. Louis, and even threw Jaws in.) Second, this movie - like many - has outtakes during the closing credits. As great as this movie was, most aren't as good, but stay since they saved the best for last.

Bruno

On Friday I saw this trailer for the first time, and thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Sacha Baron Cohen, best known for his Borat character, now plays Bruno, a gay Austrian male model.

Connectivity In Downtown Norfolk

I don't like to do back-to-back mass transit stories on my blog, but this one struck me this morning. Coming to downtown Norfolk to see The Taking Of Pelham 123 (a very good movie), I had to transfer buses at the Cedar Grove Transfer Center, on the northeast periphery of downtown. Waiting on the Downtown Shuttle (Route 310), a recurring issue hit me.

Norfolk's light rail Starter Line is on the other side of downtown from Cedar Grove. Therefore, you don't start to have connectivity between the overwhelming majority of buses and the rail system. With light rail going operational next year, what's being done? At the light rail Groundbreaking Ceremony at Harbor Park, Mayor Paul Fraim spoke of a multimodal center at Harbor Park that would handle light rail, Higher Speed Rail, and buses. What is in the pipes to bring that to fruition?

Unless buses and light rail connect, Norfolk's Starter Line will never begin to live up to it's potential. However, senior Norfolk city Staff seem to have the notion that they can have mass transit without mass transit passengers. First they banished us to Cedar Grove, then wanted to hide us on Salter Street. If this glaring hole in Norfolk's system isn't tackled prior to light rail going online, City Manager Regina Williams and Assistant City Manager Ann Odell should go.

Kelly's Backstage Tavern

Arriving in downtown Norfolk in late morning to see the movie Madea Goes To Jail (very good), I stopped in Kelly's Backstage Tavern for an early lunch. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't.

When I entered, two employees were there but neither greeted me. After having to find my own way to a table, it was nearly 15 minutes before I got a waiter. (I considered walking out.) He had an "I don't really care" attitude. It then took nearly 30 minutes before my lunch arrived.

My French Dip had tough meat. The cheese was melted largely to one side of the sandwich. The french fries were undercooked and some stuck together.

While I've had mostly good experiences with Kelly's Tavern at Pembroke Mall, avoid their Granby Street location.

Transit Notes October 3, 2008

1. There are people at Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) that do listen. Going into downtown Norfolk this morning, HRT had Bus 1226 on Route 310 (Downtown Shuttle). The 1226 is an undersized former Pentran bus, too small for the 310. Sure enough, the 9:30 A.M. run out of Cedar Grove was standing room only.

My fourth stop downtown was the Kirn Library, where I used one of the computers to e-mail HRT about the 1226 (and a couple other operational issues). I pointed out the situation would be even worse using it at rush hour. I then went to MacArthur Center to see The Miracle at St. Anna (pretty good).

Afterwards I had lunch and then headed for HRT's offices on Monticello Avenue. Passing me as I walked up: Bus 1226 heading for the garage.

2. Reid Greenmun's favorite group of "subversives", MoveOn, had a voter registration table at Cedar Grove this afternoon. They're the fourth group I've seen registering voters at bus transfer centers this year.

An American Carol

This evening I went to see Death Race, an average action movie.

However, I saw the trailer for An American Carol. It's a comedy that attacks "Michael Malone", the most hated filmmaker in America. The Michael Moore lookalike gets taught valuable lessons.

The Best Improvement At Cedar Grove Yet

Having the day off, I went into downtown Norfolk to catch the 12:10 matinee showing of The Love Guru. Mal Vincent panned it, but I thought it was enjoyable if you could get past the tasteless genital humor.

That meant transferring buses at the Cedar Grove Transfer Center. There was a pleasant surprise: there's now a hot dog cart operating at Cedar Grove. Across from where the buses pull in, you have to go across the bus lane and a jersey barrier to get to it. It was doing a slow but steady business today, including one bus driver that I saw.

With the heat last week, a couple mercenaries were out selling drinks for $2 each. When riders protested the prices, they were told they were "paying for the convenience." Now we have a professional operator in.

Now if the City of Norfolk would only put portajohns at CGTC, the place might be a nice visit.

Swing Vote

Today I saw What Happens In Vegas on my day off (not bad). However, what struck me was a trailer I saw, Swing Vote.

Kevin Costner stars as an unemployed man who doesn't care about politics. His young daughter registered him to vote by mail, then pushes him to go to the polls. The machine malfunctions, but he's told he'll be allowed to later cast his vote.

What happens is that everything else ties for President, and it comes down to his lone vote to decide the Presidential election. Both campaigns pull out all the stops to get his vote.

The website is at http://www.swingvote-themovie.com We political junkies should love it!

An Invitation To Ride

Over on HR Transit Ideas, Michael has posted an invitation for any officials to come out and ride the mainline trolleys. He wants to make the point that the mainline routes should draw the hybrids before Route 30 (Atlantic Avenue).

That reminds me of an offer I've twice made to the Virginia Beach City Council, and that no Councilperson has taken me up on yet. I'll publicly do it this time, not only for them but any civic leaders or candidates. (We have a Council election in November in Virginia Beach.) If you want to see bus service here, I'll take you out riding. In my last offer to Council, I mentioned I had three possible treks in mind. They are:

1. Rush Hour Triangle - Routes 36, 25, and the Cutback Route 20. A circle at rush hour largely through Virginia Beach. (You do cross into Norfolk.)

2. The Reba Special - Mrs. McClanan mentioned at a Council Retreat that she occasionally will ride into Norfolk to see how service is running. We can.

3. The Henry Special - this is what I often do on a day off: take the bus into downtown Norfolk for lunch and a matinee at MacArthur Center.

Given movie pass regulations, I have to do it on a free day that I have off work. (I'm ineligible for passes on a requested day off work.) I normally get my work schedule on Tuesday for the following Friday-Thursday, so we can schedule by Tuesday evening for the following week.

Anyone who is interested, let me know.