Breaking the mold in the quest for the ultimate connected city

This is part 2 of a two-part series at Mobility Lab on how advocates can create connected cities. Part 1 examined public agencies reshaping their transportation priorities. 

Pinellas County, Fla., just west of Tampa Bay, is one of several local governments in the nation to essentially embed Uber and Lyft into the local transit system. Transit riders can get $5 back if they use those ride-hailing companies to connect to a bus stop.

Such a program from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority encourages a healthy public-private relationship and, more importantly, should make it easier for more people to not rely on private car ownership or be left in isolation because of their distance from transit.

Transportation should be viewed like a smartphone. It should allow everyone to be connected to opportunities throughout the rest of society, at reasonable and low cost. And this ride-hailing partnership with transit is a crucial example of how local governments can catch up and be responsive in a fast-moving world of technology-driven transportation options.

No longer should agencies partition buses and rail from all the newer private solutions. Simply put, shared services can be complements to transit. But this is just one way that cities can look beyond traditional thinking in their mission to better connect their transportation systems.

Public agencies must engage with private service providers

Like the auto companies that have begun aggressively investing in ride-hailing efforts, many transit agencies are ramping up efforts to form partnerships with providers like Uber and Lyft. Paratransit is one area ripe for cost savings and real-time service (rather than having to book rides days in advance) through transit agency use of private services like Lyft.

The major caveat here to work out is whether ride-hailing vehicles – with drivers who can spend lots of time driving in between fares – are actually making traffic in cities worse. The only place this has been measured, New York City – which has a unique, data-sharing contract with providers – shows that Uber and Lyft are worsening congestion. The research from the American Public Transportation Association, the University of California-Berkeley, and others have said the jury may still be out on the traffic impacts, but this is an area for local governments to concern themselves. Uber at least has taken steps to help the greater cause, having entered an agreement with Washington, D.C., and several other cities to share data with transportation planners in an effort to better manage traffic flows.

Once ride-hailing arrangements are smoothed out, the next great frontier is autonomous vehicles. In 2016, the U.S. government announced a $4 billion program for self-driving cars, and Pittsburgh took steps so Uber could use the city as an AV testing ground. How can other local governments feel comfortable and confident when considering to do what Pittsburgh has done? Or what Local Motors with its mini-bus Olli – formerly operating outside Washington, D.C. – is doing? For starters, cities need to map out all the pluses and minuses (especially financially) that AVs will bring. From there, they can implement regulations, policies, and plans to safely integrate in this mode of the future.

Don’t forget about transit

“The first thing we need to do is talk with our public institutions to try and make more partnerships, more connectivity, between the different modes, new and old,” said Paul Lewis, vice president of policy and finance at the Eno Center for Transportation, at a panel I moderated at this year’s TransportationCamp DC. “It’s not an easy task. Transit is one of the biggest areas we can do this.”

Indeed, the cities that create connections best will do so basing it off the existing core infrastructure of roads and mass transit. But we also can’t forget that to truly make this ultimate city work, people need to buy in to the concept of multimodalism. To help get there, companies like Ford  are leading the way toward one interactive pass or app that allows people to book, pay, and communicate with all travel options from anywhere. This seamlessness is key for the commute of the future.

Broadening the possibilities of the transit ride is also key. Where partnerships for transit might make the most sense is to have private companies “get people to transit from in-demand areas during off-peak hours,” according to Mobility Lab Director Howard Jennings, quoted in APTA’s Passenger Transport. This can reduce costs to transit agencies for pricey, low-ridership routes and bring in a wider customer base – a prospect that should be a more aggressive part of the mission for transit agencies. So-called “first-mile, last-mile” options are an area ripe for transit agencies to get involved, and some places are even going so far as to subsidize rides to and from transit. Orlando suburb Altamonte Springs, Fla., became the first city, about a year ago, to subsidize Uber rides to transit.

Another APTA report finds convincing evidence that on-demand modes, in many cases, complement – not replace – public transit. Transit consultant Jarrett Walker notes, “Many people who work inside of big companies [like Uber and Lyft] understand perfectly well how the profit motive conflicts with what you’d do if you were just trying to foster a better city, and many welcome regulation precisely to plug that gap.” As evidence appears that Uber may not be the answer to traffic dilemmas, the necessity for companies like it to work within a congestion-reducing framework grows even stronger.

And pricing itself will need to be worked out between all travel modes, which means car travel and parking prices need to reflect their true costs. When it’s cheaper to drive and park downtown than it is to take the bus or train or Uber, the multimodal, connected city goal will remain a fantasy. But there are signs of creativity to balance incentives: some European cities are paying residents to bike to work rather than drive.

Ideas for breaking molds

There are many directions cities could go to become “connected.” And while it could take larger cities with more staffing power to be able to do everything well, smaller cities could at least focus on a handful of these ideas, and do them well.

And as ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft get even more attractive as alternatives to transit, with dynamic in-ride app entertainment and cheaper casual-carpooling options, more and more transit agencies are examining how to use software like TransLoc that can make it easier to take services like Uber and Lyft to and from transit stations. Journalist Esther Dyson, who also spoke on my recent TransportationCamp panel, thinks this general idea can succeed far beyond city centers. “[Uber and Lyft] would have a real opportunity in small, less dense communities where there are people without jobs but with cars. They can dynamically schedule themselves,” she said, adding that hubs like hospitals and campuses could be ride-hailing hubs.

Parking is a ripe place for innovation, as it is generally overbuilt and underpriced. Santander, Spain, has become “the most connected city in Europe” because it’s focused on installing “smart” infrastructure such as sensors that monitor parking spaces. Sensor infrastructure can improve information about parking, and help people choose whether to drive or take other options.

Autonomous vehicles seem to be the elephant in the room. Cities want to prepare for them, but they don’t know how. Federal regulations and standards would certainly be a help in order to even the playing field, but there will likely be large shifts – more people might drive, parking and signage will need major reconfigurations, housing patterns will need to change – involved for the least-prepared places. A draft manifesto from several Cal Poly professors examines how AVs interact with pedestrians and people on bikes, but what about how AVs work with and complement mass transit? I’ve asked before: When cars can be summoned with a button and don’t require attention from humans, will it become even more difficult for transit to compete with the experience of autonomous vehicles? Grush Niles Associates have noted that planners should start mapping out various scenarios in which AVs could be linked into the existing transit foundations, including loops, small areas, large areas, cities, megaregions and routes where buses negate the need for AVs.

Biking, bikeshare (which increasingly see slight increases in travel share thanks to better bike parking and street infrastructure) and walking may soon have some company from electric additions: battery-powered people movers. Electric skateboards and hoverboards and electric bicycles could all soon close a lot of gaps in connecting people to transit options. It helps that 67 percent of those surveyed say they need a shower after a conventional bike trip, while 74 percent say they don’t after an e-bike trip, according to Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center.

And last but far from least, transportation demand management – which includes clear information about options – presents an inexpensive, effective path for forging and solidifying those connections. Arlington Transportation Partners in Virginia works with 221 local organizations in its Champions program to make sure residents and employees know about the many transportation options throughout the county. Places are also learning that their front-line transit information – maps – simply need to be clearer, because most of us don’t understand them. And, finally, to catch up with the allure of the personal car, TDM and marketers can promote these options to connect in more exciting ways that portray transit as the norm.

Having the freedom to walk from home to take bikeshare to the subway to get to work, then maybe take a Zipcar on the way home, should present an exciting opportunity for cities. Racing towards the ultimate connected city could allow for places to provide innumerable benefits like improved traffic, health, safety, environmental conditions, and overall quality of life for many more people.

Photo by Sam Kittner for Mobility Lab, www.kittner.com

Frank Oz of the Muppets highlights an awesome movie week at SXSW

Frank Oz of Muppets fame was interviewed by legendary movie critic Leonard Maltin on Tuesday at SXSW in Austin.

He briefly plugged his new movie, Muppet Guys Talking, with its accompanying website. His wife encouraged him to create the film because she thought the way the Muppet guys worked could be inspiring for leaders. There was obviously a full house for the guy who has played Ms. Piggy, Bert, Yoda and so many others.

"The reason people are touched by the Muppets is they represent your childhood," Oz told the full room at the Austin Convention Center. When he was 19, Jim Henson asked him to join. It appealed to him because Oz was shy and he liked puppetry as a safe way of expression.

He played Bert's rigid "vertical" to Henson's "horizontal," all-over-the-place character. And Oz said he and his boss's whole point of performing was to have fun, "joyous competition," and "to totally screw each other over."

Oz also discussed his work on the Muppet movies, including directing and appearing in The Muppets Take Manhattan, puppeteering the plant in Little Shop of Horrors, and how doing fewer closeups (with are "very powerful") makes them even more powerful.

To a question about which character and voice is his favorite, he said he loves Ms. Piggy's neuroticism and Monster's craziness, but his all-time favorites are Grover and Fozzie Bear. I agree about Grover - he was always my favorite.

The only thing missing from the talk was that Oz didn't do any of the voices.

Other movie highlights for me at SXSW included:

I attended the world premier of Hot Summer Nights, a dramedy that started strong. I laughed out loud continuously through the first 45 minutes, then it suddenly shifted to become a darker crime caper. At two hours, it ended up being too long and will likely succeed with larger audiences, but it suffers from a lack of focus on what story it's trying to tell. 4 out of 5 stars.

Going to Brazil also debuted at SXSW and is arguably better than Nights. It's a somewhat outrageous and light-hearted girls-against-the-world story. When three visiting French girls accidentally murder a man at a blow-out party in Brazil, they have to kick butt all the way through the country in order to escape it. The beautiful scenery is straight out of classics Blame It On Rio and Black Orpheus. 4 out of 5 stars.

The third movie I caught (there were lots more to see, but I was working and had to miss many, like top festival winner Baby Driver) was Pornocracy. This was an interesting short documentary that follows the trail of the embezzlers who have profited on monopolizing the global pornography business. 3 out of 5 stars.

Flaming Lips blow minds of "best fans in music" at 9:30 Club

All the Flaming Lips goodwill I have, and considering that the last album of theirs I consider to be one of their five classics came out in the last century, was running pretty thin by the time I walked into the 9:30 Club Sunday night in Washington D.C.

But it didn't take long to bring me back into Wayne Coyne and company's mind meld. As the wacko leader buttered us up with commentary such as how Lips' fans are the best on Earth because we stand there and smile every show. And for all the talk he gave about sadness, he noted that being at one of his shows is one of the best ways to get away from all that for a couple of hours.

As balloons and confetti exploded onto the crowd, so too did the band's music, opening with "Race for the Prize" off of that 1999 classic The Soft Bulletin and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Coyne disappeared before fittingly riding a unicorn around the floor of the club for "There Should Be Unicorns," off the new album Oczy Mlodi. That and "How??" both held their own as far as new music during the show.

It's ok with me if the Lips feel they are best suited for carrying on David Bowie's legacy, because it really felt like we were seeing Bowie in person for the "Space Oddity" cover (see above video, in which Coyne rides his bubble ball through the crowd).

With a setlist heavy on The Soft Bulletin, Steven Drozd's guitar shone on "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate." And "Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung" from At War With the Mystics was like witnessing Obscured by Clouds-era Pink Floyd.

What would have made the concert even better for me would have been for the Lips to delve back further into their catalog than 1999. That said, the final three songs would have been tough to beat even had they done so. "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton" and "Waiting' for a Superman," both from Bulletin, were transcendent. And closer "Do You Realize??" off of 2002's Yoshimi supplied a perfect ray of hope to send the crowd back out into these dark times.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Untangling the jumbled path towards the ultimate connected city

Here is my latest article for Mobility Lab. It's part one of a two-part series that is helping me contextualize in my head the panel I'm moderating in two weeks at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas called "How to Uber-ize Public Transit to Save It."

Smartphone owners feel connected much of the time, for better or worse. But shouldn’t that be the goal for physical movement as well, to be literally that connected – with a transportation system that could take one anywhere at any time?

That’s a big ask. But what’s exciting is how realistic the vision is for cities that dramatically alter outdated transportation planning. And this is not just about the New Yorks and San Franciscos; auto-oriented towns and cities can develop completely new blueprints for how people get around.

Many people and organizations have taken cracks at defining the connected city. Often these delve into the realm of Internet of Things-type technology. And beacons, smart traffic lights, and sensors are a big part of cities in the future.

But from Mobility Lab’s standpoint, we look at the connected city as more about access, and making sure people can get to jobs, shopping, family and friends, and healthcare as easy as possible. And that they can do this without owning a car if necessary. Affordable, efficient, easy access from anywhere, anytime is the heart of a “connected city.”

Finding new funding

Of course, the major elephant in the room is always funding, most of which still goes to highways and roads, which have both divided and connected our cities over the past century. The good news is that autonomous vehicles and an increasing focus on making places bikeable and walkable could offer avenues for bringing mass-transit funding up above its typical level of 20 percent of the overall transportation budget. The bad news is that it’s still unclear whether the growth of services like Uber and Lyft will compromise transit funding sources or expand their pool of possible riders.

“Fortunately, communities are increasingly willing to tax themselves” to fund transit expansions, says Darnell Grisby, director of policy development and research at the American Public Transportation Association, who spoke at an “Ultimate Connected City” panel I moderated at TransportationCamp DC in January. “There will be a whole new way that agencies are structured with new connectivity coming online.”

Public agencies must dramatically adjust their planning

The National League of Cities 2016 “Cities of the Future” report [PDF] made even clearer how cities are woefully prepared for new transportation technologies. Of the 68 metropolitan areas analyzed, only 3 percent considered the effects of app-based, on-demand companies like Uber and Lyft in their city plans. Only 6 percent considered the effects of driverless technology. Meanwhile, 50 percent have explicit plans for new highway construction.

The federal government has taken some recent steps in the right direction, with an Obama administration report [PDF: pages 34-35] recommending pilots, workforce training, company and city partnerships, and research into future transportation engineering for autonomous vehicles.

Some places are already making headway on these guidelines. In San Francisco, if new mobility providers meet the necessary requirements, the S.F. Office of Innovation’s new City Transportation Platform grants them access to public rights of way. On a smaller, short-term scale, Washington, D.C’s Metrorail has been aggressively asking customers how it can improve, notes that “competitors” are really partners in connecting the region, and has been implementing some customer suggestions. These are the kinds of elements that need to go into comprehensive, nimble, flexible local transportation plans.

New adhesives clarify for Metrorail riders where the end of six-car trains stop at the platform.

APTA’s Grisby adds, “We would need to re-invent government. How do we maintain social equity? How can we show we’re going to be responsible with taxpayer money while making these changes? All of these changes need capital, cash, and this requires trust. We need trust.”

Public agencies must see advantages to competing confidently

Despite some remaining hesitancy, city leaders are beginning to dabble in this space. Joshua Schank, LA Metro’s first chief innovation officer, says, “As long as we continue to run mass transit systems that are treated like social services, instead of treating them as if they’re trying to attract customers and they’re trying to compete, then you’re going to have real problems in terms of trying to get our capacity to be used more effectively.”

The vision statements in many of the U.S. DOT Smart City Challenge applications show the beginnings of lights turning on. But other local officials still have a long way to go to research and understand carsharing, ridesharing, new technologies, and the needs of their constituents. Getting all of this mobility right will be a significant competitive advantage for cities, according to a recent report from McKinsey and Bloomberg.

To make one or multiple connected cities happen, local governments – and perhaps the feds as well – will simply have to start jumping in the water more than they have so far. In Finland, a government bureau called Liikennelabra (Traffic Lab) works to bring inexpensive transit providers to cities. Part of the answer may be that simple – a more fluid array of public options.

“What an agency looks like today may look different 20 years from now. A transit agency might be a contract manager, partnering with all sorts of entities. The question is: can we encourage folks to try? To not be afraid of failure?” Grisby asks.

Many transit agencies are already on the right track, but often fail to communicate the true benefits of key transit service. Transit planner Jarrett Walker recently wrote:

“The most urgent thing transit agencies need to do, right now, is start talking more confidently about what their fixed-route, high-ridership transit service is achieving, so that they negotiate with the new players from a position of strength and confidence.”

One example: Seattle has consistently supported its bus and rail transit in recent years, drawing higher rates of transit ridership to its booming downtown in a time when bus ridership is dropping in most cities.

Seattle buses, which are given dedicated space in parts of the city’s downtown.

Educating and informing connective habits

It’s a bit surprising how successful transit projects are across the country. We’re still largely a drive-alone culture in which carpool rates have fallen consistently since the 1980s. To truly have a connected city, where people can move around seamlessly, people must be willing to share rides, and they must be aware of the availability of these options.

There is indeed hope that people are increasingly understanding that they have non-driving transportation options available. More than 30 percent of households do not own a car in six of the 30 largest U.S. cities. And people want these options, as seems apparent by the 77 cities that applied for the Smart City Challenge and the influx of younger residents to places with transit and walking options.

Connected cities must be woven into the fabric of people’s lives. There’s little doubt that Los Angeles is successfully experimenting with this concept. LA Metro is seeing a surge of new light rail riders to Rams football games because the Expo line offers a much-better deal than expensive parking at the stadium. Coordination around big events is a great way to help change people’s habits, and LA’s Olympic committee wants to further embed non-car culture into the city through its planning for the 2024 Games.

Consumer-oriented technology certainly has a big role to play in educating people, too. Apps, such as Metropia, which incentivizes people to drive or travel during off-peak hours, or like Mobidot, which helps people monitor and improve their travel behavior, offer new options. Education efforts like these might be key puzzle pieces for creating connected cities.

Next, a look into how cities are finding creative ways to enhance the connectivity of their transportation systems.

Photos, from top: D.C.’s Eastern Market, where Metro riders can connect to the DC Circulator or Capital Bikeshare (Sam Kittner for Mobility Lab, www.kittner.com). A six-car Metrorail sticker (WMATA). Buses in Seattle (BeyondDC, Flickr, Creative Commons).

Pop Week: Parquet Courts leads off a rock 'n' roll week

The definite highlight of my week was seeing Parquet Courts at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. It was such a rocking show that I think it actually made me sick for much of the latter half of the week.

That's the power of rock 'n' roll, and also presents the sad facts that I must be getting older and it's been way too long since I've been to a concert.

Regardless of how long it's been since I've seen a show, there was no denying how awesome this one was. Also, despite the fact that the Courts didn't play my very favorite song, "Stoned and Starving," it was far from any kind of let down. Here's their set list, and definite highlights were "Human Performance," "Dear Ramona," "Berlin Got Blurry," and "One Man No City," to somehow name a few.

Parquet Courts is my favorite contemporary rock band these days, alongside long-time titleholder Wilco and Foxygen, which I'm seeing next month. Stay tuned on that one. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

And if rock 'n' roll was the theme of the week, then this Archie Andrews thing is fitting right in. I can't get enough of Riverdale on the CW. So I took to the new era of Archie graphic novels as well, reading the final issue of Life with Archie, where he dies in highly dramatic fashion. The first half of the double commemorative issue leads up to Archie being shot at Jughead's restaurant during a fundraiser for political upstart and acclaimed gay Senator Kevin Keller. the storyline also makes us wonder who Archie has been married to for the past several years. Is it Betty or Veronica?. The second half, which I'm still reading, takes place a year later. Also stay tuned. Five out of five star

Despite all his problems in recent years, I still consider Woody Allen pretty rock 'n' roll. Although not among my favorite of his prime-era classics, 1982's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, received a rewatch this week, and it holds up relatively well as a Shakespearean take-off. It didn't make my top 21 Woody Allen films, and it's a little slow by today's movie standards, but it's somehow still 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Another classic I rewatched this week, since my son is now old enough to start watching some key film milestones, was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Little needs to be said about this 5-star flick that came in 17th on my list of all-time favorite movies.

The Age of Innocence, lastly, offered some rock 'n' roll via the classic novel. I still love the 1993 film version with Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder, but really, how could those actors mess up with a script this juicy? Newland Archer battles his whole life over cousins May and Ellen, in true Betty and Veronica love-triangle fashion. However, the "innocence" of the era's social structure makes it impossible for him to ever end up with his true love. This may sounds rom-com, but oh no, everyone should read this page turner before they die. 5 out of 5 stars.

Pop Week: How a big event like the Super Bowl is so rare these days

This is a new column I've promised myself each week, to tie all the random TV, movies, magazine articles, books, and more that I've ingested each week into a loosely-tied-together glimpse on what the world might mean at that very moment. Call it an experiment. Here goes ...

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The Super Bowl set up a pretty phenomenal pop-culture week, with its satisfying ending for anyone who loves high drama but its very unsatisfying ending for those who still retained a glimpse of hope that the Steelers would remain the greatest football franchise of all time instead of the Patriots.

It was the rare event that brings the nation together in a common conversation, like All in the Family and, to a lesser extent, Seinfeld, used to do.

My favorite magazine read of the week was "The Social Medium is the Message" in WIRED's special section of the 49 trends that will shape the very near future. It looked at how we need to seriously re-examine our Facebook and Twitter use. In a country still tragically lacking in media literacy (how we use and can understand media), Marshall McLuhan would have recognized Donald Trump's Twitter propaganda as eerily similar to how fascist leaders of the 1940s spoke to their citizens. Further, he would have recognized how our avalanche of information and misinformation (heavy thanks to social media) could foster fear and anger about the world.

Another example of how our society has gone from major to meta is Archie Andrews. Long ago, every kids read the comic-book in the newspaper or watched him on TV, but nowadays, he's just another of the many dozens of shows that premier each week. But man is Riverdale a good one, and it is my favorite TV show of the week. It takes Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and all the other players to deep, dark places in ways the comic books never did. It's like a new remake of 90210, but only much better than that recent semi-fiasco and much more suspenseful.

Ryan Reynolds continues to underwhelm me, after a promising early career. I know he's sort of like the Tom Brady of actors to many people and Deadpool is like the Superhero Super Bowl to some, and I appreciated it's yearning to be a different, more adult version of a superhero movie. But it's just too winking-nudge-nudge-hipster for my tastes. There are some fun scenes, but Deadpool is the most boring movie of the week. Cool-looking Spider Man-looking knock off though. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

For what very well may be the most boring (but important) article I wrote for the week, see
"New services are moving fast, and cities are looking to update procurement processes to keep up." It could definitely make the ears of government groupies pop up.

And finally, now that football is over, the world of college basketball is starting to seriously heat up. It continued to be a rough year using my season tickets to Georgetown games. In what often seems like a talented team with Coach John Thompson III not necessarily all there, the Hoyas at least had a little fight in losing at home in overtime to Seton Hall and then on the road to #2 Villanova. My teams completed the win-challenged week with North Carolina barely losing at Duke.

I suppose La La Land leads the pack of recent movies I've seen

It's been a long time since I really wanted to go to movie theaters. Uncomfortable seats, sticky floors, crinkling wrappers, ridiculous prices, traffic, and heart-attack food selections.

But then I discovered the Wheaton AMC just up the road. Movies before noon are $5, seats are massive leather recliners, there's a bar (haven't hit that up yet), and there's a sweet Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich joint across the street.

A summary of some of the movies I've seen recently, some at Wheaton and some elsewhere:

• La La Land: I don't like a ton of movie musicals, so this was a tough one to take in some ways. There are a lot of things I liked about this multi-award winner. But Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are fantastic as the romantic leads. The plot is a little light and some of the songs aren't very good, but I like how the movie moralizes that life is usually not much like Hollywood. I don't think it is the best movie of the year, but it will probably win the Oscar in a few weeks. 4 out of 5 stars.
• As a footnote, the movie musicals I like most are, in no particular order: The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, anything with Travolta, This is Spinal Tap, South Park, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, what I know of Hamilton, Willy Wonka, Annie, I suppose the Julie Andrews stuff, and Sing Street.
• Sing Street: This is the best musical I've seen in a while. It's sort of the Irish version of School of Rock and features beautiful rock songs. 5 out of 5 stars.
• Hidden Figures: What a story. I may be secretly cheering for this on Oscar night. The unheralded (until now) African-American women who played such a crucial role in NASA's golden era of space travel is truly inspiring, especially in today's entirely uninspiring political climate. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Sing: This is like an actually good version of American Idol, with lovable, huggable animated animals playing the roles of stars of stage. Totally enjoyable for kids and adults. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
• Night of the Hunter: My new cable setup has some good old movies, so it was nice to finally see this Robert Mitchum classic. He plays a traveling preacher who specializes in serial killings and terrorizing young kids. Kind of ahead of its time and very creepy. 4 out of 5 stars.
• True Grit: I love a good Jeff Bridges flick, and this one has him playing bounty hunter Rooster Cogburn. I had completely forgotten that I'd seen it, but it's really really good. The cornpone Western dialogue is completely mesmerizing. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
• TV Bonus - Search Party: I also just finished watching season one of this TBS ... dramedy? It's a hard-to-classify weirdo hipster thing that is apparently the creation of Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development). It's not as great as TV's #1 comedy Baskets, but I'm hooked. 4 out of 5 stars.

My 40 favorite albums of an impressive 2016, plus odds and sods

Pity Sex

Updated May 3.

If this list doesn't prove what a typically exceptional year it was for music, then I don't know what could. That staple greats like Band of Horses, Wilco, and Parquet Courts got reduced several spots down in the top 10 by upstarts ought to be exhibit A.

Best Compilation: Whether you like The Grateful Dead or not, this expansive collection called Day of the Dead has something for everyone. Also, Say Yes! A Tribute to Elliot Smith, with likes of J Mascis and Juliana Hatfield, offers hard-to-compete great renditions.

Best Soundtrack: Sing Street is way deeper and funnier  that La La Land, and its songs blow them away. That's saying a lot too, because La La Land was pretty good.

Favorite Vinyl Purchase: Pure McCartney is great because I now have four albums worth of great post-Beatles tunes in one semi-quirky boxset.

Best Extras Release: R.E.M.'s 25th anniversary release of Out of Time has tons of great alternate versions of many of the band's most excellent songs.

Best Remaster: The Turtles are a criminally under-appreciated 1960s band, from their Monkees-like hits such as "Happy Together" to their weirdo tendencies fitting for a band that often backed Frank Zappa; "All the Singles" is a loving collection of great songs.

Most Unnecessary Release: The Rolling Stones are back with their first release, "Blue & Lonesome," in eons. And while it's not particularly bad, it is a huge bore and not nearly as good as the great blues records the Stones are trying to emulate.

Best EP: Snail Mail, which I know nothing about, released Habit, which is lo-fi but completely catchy and among the best overall releases of the year.

40. Iggy Pop: Post Pop Depression (not a huge Iggy fan, admittedly, but this weirdo collection is very compelling)
39. The Gotobeds: Blood // Sugar // Secs // Traffic (definitely the best album title of the year, and some pretty raucous Pittsburgh pop-punk to boot. Good recommendation from the Sound Opinions podcast)

Car Seat Headrest

38. Beach Slang: A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings (it's like the 80s college wave and 90s Archers of Loaf meet in this collage of soaring guitars)
37. The Strokes: Future Present Past (nothing as classic as the early Strokes, but it's still nice to have a little more in the collection from them, and they're still mighty NYC cool)
36. Drive-By Truckers: American Band (the new Lynyrd Skynyrd puts out another great collection, this one on the mellower side)
35. The Pooches: Heart Attack (the most pleasant chill-out pop EP of the year)
34. Lucius: Good Grief (a blend of songs you could have sworn you've already heard for years on the dance Top 40 radio stations, but this album is filled with earworms that are all brand new)
33. Lisa Prank: Adult Teen (Tacocat buddy Lisa Prank plays the kind of lo-fi tunes that fit right into a year when playing it low key sometimes is just that much more refreshing)
32. Santigold: 99 Cents (which features my favorite song of the year "Can't Get Enough of Myself")
31. Chance the Rapper: Coloring Book (this is such a spoil of riches of different beats and sounds that it took me halfway through 2017 to finally realize how brilliant it is)
30. Various: The Hamilton Mixtape (this is one musical whose songs I can't get enough of)
29. Lydia Loveless: Real (not as classic as her last release, but she's still making the best alt-country happening these days)
28. De La Soul: and the Anonymous Nobody ... (this is all over the place, kind of like the classic De La albums of old, and makes for fun repeated and deep listenings)
27. Sturgill Simpson: A Sailer's Guide to Earth (I wasn't really onboard the earlier craze, but this album is about a good as country pop gets right now)
26. Hudson Bell: Yerba Buena (indie rockers wait no more, go get this)
25. Ladyhawke: Wild Things (this is like the second disc if Tegan and Sara's album were a double album; can't get enough of this kind of not-dumb dance pop)
24. Drugdealer: The End of Comedy (this is a little like a lost George Harrison album if he had spent more time in Laurel Canyon in the 1970s)
23. The Jayhawks: Paging Mr. Proust (didn't think these Minneapolis 90s alt-country warriors could still have it in them, but this is great)
22. The Goon Sax: Up to Anything (falling somewhere between the mellow pleasures of Belle and Sebastian and the off-kilter Daniel Johnston, and what a name!)
21. A Tribe Called Quest: We Got It From Here (not much needs to be said, other than this was too long in waiting)
20. The Sandwich Police: Love Yourself (not quite sure where this obscure Evan Dando-involved EP came from, but it sure makes me happy)
19. Frankie Lee: American Dreamer (don't know much about this guy, but his album is officially the best country release of the year)
18. Twin Peaks: Down in Heaven (garage-rock Stones-like band that has been floating around awhile, they pull it all together with this release)
17. Alejandro Escovedo: Burn Something Beautiful (the Austin troubadour has always been really good on album and supposedly great in concert. He's great on this album)
16. The Lemon Twigs: On Hollywood (a weird little grower by some awkward kids who I somehow discovered on a network morning show, proving the concept of "popular sensation" makes no sense)
15. Childish Gambino: "Awaken, My Love!" (this is the best Funkadelic-like album since the 1970s and a major improvement from actor Donald Glover's earlier musical efforts)
14. ESP Ohio: Starting Point of the Royal Cyclopean + various EP releases (not even hardcore Guided By Voices fans necessarily even know these were released, but there are some early-2000s-like gems scattered throughout)
13. Teenage Fanclub: Here (has this band ever put out a bad song? Timeless power pop)
12. Parquet Courts: Human Performance (quickly becoming consistently my favorite contemporary band)
11. The Avalanches: Wildflower (this psychedelic mash-up of tons of popular tunes is insane and extremely catchy throughout, and a real surprise for the year)
10. Band of Horses: Why Are You OK (much like Parquet Courts, this band is just so consistently great, in a very gorgeous way with this one)
09. Ages and Ages: Something to Ruin (this may be the most upbeat thing I loved this year; as if Pavement merged with the Polyphonic Spree to create ridiculously happy slacker rock)
08. Free Cakes for Every Creature: Talking Quietly of Anything With You (this is almost painfully twee, but if you love their tune, "All You Gotta Be When You're 23," then you'll want all this album)
07. Wilco: Schmilco (mellow and gorgeous, it's almost unfair to everyone else who has to compare in the years that Wilco releases an album)
06. Tegan and Sara: Love You to Death (my kids' everyday addiction to "Boyfriend" may have destroyed that song forever, but there's no denying how perfect this album is)
05. Dinosaur Jr.: Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (J Mascis just keeps doing his thing, and if you love his thing, this release was hard for much anything else to beat this year)
04: Against Me!: Shape Shift With Me (heavy metal hasn't much been my thing since I had a major crush in high school, but this is so amazingly catchy that I'll still be listening to it in my 80s)
03. Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Denial (we've waited a long time for someone to do Guided By Voices as well as GBV, and this young dude may finally be the rocking, rollicking answer)
02. Pity Sex: White Hot Moon (this band made this ultra-hooky shoegazey and rocky ode to the 90s and then promptly broke up)
01. Scott & Charlene's Wedding: Mid Thirties Single Scene (these tales of Australian Outback-ness might have been the best thing of the year if it had been released in 1986)

Honorable Mentions: 

• Honeyblood: Babes Never Die
• Dr. Dog: The Psychedelic Swamp
• Dream Wife: EP01
• Supermoon: Playland
• The Growlers: City Club
• Plastic Ants: Imperial Phase
• Kings of Leon: Walls
• Charles Bradley: Changes
• Animal Collective: Painting With
• Empire of the Sun: Two Vines
• The Jazz Butcher: Last of the Gentleman Adventurers
• Oscar: Cut and Paste
• SWMRS: Drive North
• Beverly: The Blue Swell
• Close Lobsters: Design and Signs
• Rogue Wave: Delusions of Grand Fur
• Adam Olenius: Looking Forward to the New Me
• Winterpills: Love Songs
• Crying: Beyond the Fleeting Gales
• Honeyblood: Babes Never Die
• Field Mouse: Episodic
• Lunch Duchess: My Mom Says I Have Rich Inner Life
• Metallica: Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct
• M.I.A.: AIM
• Kanye West: The Life of Pablo
• The Monkees: Good Times!
• Pinegrove: Cardinal
• Beach Slang: A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
• Frankie Cosmos: Next Thing
• The Monochrome Set: Cosmonaut
• Pete Yorn: Arranging Time
• JEFF the Brotherhood: Zone
• Weezer: White Album

Biking with Ivanka Trump and Barrack Obama on a cold D.C. morning

I'm working at a Transportation Techies event tonight, so I took the opportunity for a rare casual, roundabout bike ride to work in frigid 20-degree weather this morning.

My usual route never takes me to Washington D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood. And, in fact, not many routes to work of mere commoners goes through Kalorama by design. It's a neighborhood of mansions and embassies nestled between Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown. But none of the streets are all that easy to pass through. So despite being practically smack-dab in the center of D.C.'s action, it has very little traffic.

That might change a little bit soon, as two new neighbors are sure to bring gawkers like me. Barrack Obama and family will soon move in to this lovely red-brick home overlooking Rock Creek Park at 2446 Belmont Road NW. Lots of workers were there getting it ready, as were a few people taking photos like me.

And just a block-and-a-half away, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are moving into this more fortress-like abode at 2449 Tracy Place NW. I imagine the gold-plated interior walls will soon be installed. For now, there was an on-camera interview of some kind happening on the street in front of the house (and just above my thumb's-down sign).

We demonize Muslims because we never got a chance to understand them from the beginning

Strange how so many in the U.S. demonize Muslims and Islam. Then again, it's not surprising that we don't much understand that approach to the world, since we are taught very little beyond Western Civilization in school.

That's precisely why it's so important that we all read Tamim Ansary's Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Academic Eyes. 

In the book, as noted in past reviews, he tells "the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe - a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized - had somehow hijacked destiny."

Ansary himself says the book is "like what I’d tell you if we met in a coffeehouse and you said, 'What’s all this about a parallel world history?'"

I'm going to buy this to keep reading, but some snippets from early in the book that show why I love the way Ansary explains things so well include:

• One key geographical feature sets Mesopotamia apart from some of the other early hotbeds of culture. Its two defining rivers flow through flat, habitable plains and can be approached from any direction.
• Settled farmers would build irrigation systems supporting prosperous villages and towns. Eventually some tough guy, some well-organized priest, or some alliance of the two would bring a number of these urban centers under the rule of a single power, thereby forging a larger political unit - a confederation, a kingdom, an empire. Then a tribe of hardy nomads would come along, conquer the monarch of the moment, seize all his holdings, and in the process expand their empire. Eventually the hardy nomads would become soft, luxury-loving city dwellers, exactly the sort of people they had conquered, at which point another tribe of hardy nomads would come along, conquer them, and take over their empire.
• Later, the Persian Empire stands out for several reasons. First, the Persians were the counter-Assyrians. They developed a completely opposite idea of how to rule a vast realm. Instead of uprooting whole nations, they resettled them. They set the Hebrews free from captivity and helped them get back to Canaan. The Persian emperors pursued a multicultural, many-people-under-one-big-tent strategy. They controlled their enormous realm by letting all the different constituent people live their own lives according to their own folkways and mores, under the rule of their own leaders, provided they paid their taxes. The Muslims later picked up on this idea, and it persisted through Ottoman times.