Rainland

On New Year’s Eve, Tom and I saw Hollywoodland, about George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on TV, who apparently committed suicide. Many didn’t want to believe Superman could kill himself, and the movie features Adrien Brody undertaking an inconclusive murder investigation, with three possible scenarios offered. Ben Affleck does a very nice job of playing Reeves.

At midnight, we did the same thing Lisa and David did in Seattle, as it turned out: went onto the roof of our building and watched the fireworks. The night was clear and the display, at the Ferry Building, plus a couple of smaller efforts here and there, was impressive.

After that, I saw Stick It, which you will enjoy if you like watching very fit young ladies do gymnastics to the strains of hard rock (as who does not?). I showed Tom the highlights a day later. There’s a captivating scene where a diminutive Asian athlete does an offbeat and saucy routine to a freestyle song (whatever that is; that’s what Amazon says it is) that you’ll have to watch at least twice.

I also saw the last Harry Potter movie (i.e., of the fifth book) and December Boys, about four Australian orphans who take a holiday at the shore—this movie is gorgeous—and meet a couple who may or may not adopt one of them.

The oldest boy is played by Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, who, though it pains me to say it, is not a very good actor. Later I realized, why, that thing that happened to Daniel Radcliffe’s character would be very sad and upsetting, but I didn’t get that from his portrayal, which partly depended on untucking one of his shirttails and otherwise on lurching around as if suddenly demented (like I do at work, but I’m trying to convey that I’m not available for special assignments rather than that young love can end in heartbreak). Ah, what Ryan Gosling could have done with it.

After I finished the final Harry Potter book, I read Wheels, Arthur Hailey’s novel about the Big Three automakers in Detroit. It takes place in the late 1960s, when my father was working in that industry; in fact, the thing my father helped invent (anti-lock brakes) is mentioned on page 67. My father wrote the algorithm that tells the computer what to do.

I found Wheels very engrossing, spinning a good yarn via many different vantage points: assembly plant workers and foremen, managers, top executives, designers, dealers and advertising people, and it takes a hard look at race relations throughout.

Before the end of page two, it mentions an "arch critic" of the auto industry, who is pressing for the development of alternatives to gas-powered vehicles, such as steam-powered and electric cars. This was written more than 35 years ago! To think we’re still stewing about the exact same issues.

After that I read Kate Atkinson’s detective novel One Good Turn, which is excellent. She’s a very good writer.

Last Friday there was a very windy rainstorm here. I thought it would be an adventure to ride my bike to work, and it was. Plus I had the streets nearly to myself, bicycle-wise. Near Fourth and Market, the large plate glass window on the second floor of a store was shattering onto the sidewalk; firepersons had closed the area. At moments, it was so windy I was no longer moving forward, despite my best efforts, and I got concerned that I was going to be blown in front of a moving car, so I got off my bike and walked the rest of the way. At Third and Market, the street was blocked off and the buses had been rerouted for fear that a loose scaffolding was going to crash into the street.

Mark my words: One of the big problems as climate change increases is going to be the wind. What if it was so windy that it was impossible to step outside without being blown over or even carried off? Would airplanes be able to fly? Cars navigate safely? Will the thing known as a “window” become obsolete? Is a window made out of steel useful for checking to see if it’s raining out?

Last year I took BART to work anytime it looked even remotely damp, but this year I haven’t taken BART once, regardless of the weather. I think I have solved the glasses problem! It turns out the issue isn’t so much the water as steamed-up lenses. The way to avoid that is to breathe through my nose instead of my mouth. It’s slightly inconvenient (we’ll get into my sinus issues later), but makes riding in the rain quite doable, though I still avoid doing it at night.

I guess this is a good time to mention LotsaWater, the beautiful screen saver that makes it look as if whatever is on your desktop is underneath undulating crystal-clear water. There is a version for Windows, but when I tried it on Tom’s PC, the result was extremely unsatisfactory. On the iMac, it’s swooningly gorgeous.