Michele and I went to Redwood City to see and listen to the speeches at our local Fight for our Lives. The speakers were children, committed, energized, articulate, children; doing a job that their elders should have done a long time ago. They were inspiring and they gave me more hope than I have had in a very long time.
Last week, we watched Mosaic by Steven Soderberg, a six part mini-series on HBO, and this week we rewatched it. I was ready to give up after the first episode, the first time around and, now, I have no idea why. Mosaic is about the murder and possible murderers of a beloved children’s author, Olivia Lake, played by Sharon Stone who is somewhat of a cougar. It did not get especially good reviews but I liked it a lot. Soderbergh is one of this generation’s best directors and, while he does mainstream movies like Ocean’s 11 – I think just to prove he can – he is often more experimental and, I keep reading, Mosaic is one of those experiments.
I also read that Mosaic is slow and the end is ambiguous, that was not my experience. It took us a while to get into it, but once we did, we blasted through all six episodes in three days. The acting is great; Sharon Stone plays a famous writer and she just exudes star but the center of the movie is held by Devin Ratray, an actor I didn’t know, who is superb as a small town police detective, Nate Henry. One of the things that Soderberg does well is how he handles regular people parts with affection and Nate Henry is one of those parts. He is not a Brad Pitt detective, Henry is just a regular guy trying to do a decent job. Mosaic is a good way to spend six hours – twelve in our case – and I heartily recommend it.
A couple of weeks ago, on a cold Saturday, Michele and I went down to Wolf Road in Cupertino to buy some pu’er tea. As an aside, Cupertino is pretty famous for being the home of Apple but, what is less known is that it is the home to a large Chinese population. Starting in the late 70s, Chinese immigrants started settling in Cupertino, drawn by its excellent schools. Now it is a haven for good Chinese restaurants. End aside. The turnoff on 280 to Cupertino at Wolf Road has now been enlarged to two lanes to accommodate the increased traffic to the new Apple Park, but that doesn’t mean that just anybody can get into the main building. It is impossible to get close enough to even walk around the outside (and I don’t think I know anyone who can get me in).
But, just from driving around, it is easy to see that the attention to detail is extraordinary. Look at the perimeter fence in the two lower pictures above, the pickets are steel tubes, close to ten feet high, cantilevered up from the ground. There is no top rail, each one stands on its own and has to be strong enough to stop a big guy if not a small car from getting through. They were probably prefabbed in a shop somewhere with cheap labor, but, still, that is an extraordinarily expensive fence.
A couple of weeks after the tea run, I went back to Wolf road to go to the Visitor Center to get a better look. 
The Visitor Center, as well as the main building, was designed by Foster + Partners, mostly Norman Foster, really, and it is exquisite. The design and the detailing, or lack of detailing, is perfect for Apple. It is a great monument to Apple, and that is the problem. 
I love architecture but, unfortunately, when a company builds a monument to itself it usually means that its best days are behind it. When General Motors built its magnificent Technical Center – designed by the great Eero Saarinen – in 1956, General Motors was the biggest, most profitable, company in the world with 51% of the total auto sales in the United States. When McLaren built its spectacular Technology Centre – designed by Foster, like the Apple Headquarters – in 2004, it had been the previous’ decade’s winningest Formula One Team, last year it was second to last only beating out a Swiss Team that is run, more or less, as a hobby. Maybe that is the good news, the world keeps moving, sliding into a veiled future. Apple, like Sony, and IBM before, that once imagined their way through that vail into that future and changed the world. Apple, like Sony, will still be a major technological and design force but their world-changing days are probably over and this is a monument to that wonderful past.
“The adults have failed us.” A student on a Facebook clip I can no longer find.
I’m thrilled and actually surprised, that, at long last, somebody is protesting the NRA and their program of guns and more guns for all no matter how many people get killed. I’m surprised and actually thrilled that it is the children that had to finally do it. That unknown student is right, our generation, my generation, have failed those who are following us in almost every way; Global Warming, Environmental Degradation, Income Inequality, Unsafe Schools – let alone good schools – Deteriorating Infrastructure, Perpetual war, to name a few ways.
Maybe it is always the young people who bring change but high school age children seem younger than usual to me. On the other hand, they are the ones who have to live in this brave new world. Hooray for them!