Rooftop Cinema: Big Trouble In Little China

There are many, many cool things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course if you are a high-tech entrepreneur and are compelled to do startups for a living, driven by a passion to change the world, there’s nowhere like Silicon Valley (whatever the dreams of so many pretenders around the world).

One of the coolest new things, for me: A small gathering of movie enthusiasts on a North Beach 5th floor roof, with the panorama of the city spread out in front of us as the backdrop to a projection screen, on which we watch movies once a month. Kim was invited to the first showing, last month and kindly got me invited too. That was Blade Runner and I’ll post about it as a follow up to this.

23 & me, James Bond, Christopher Walken and a View To A Kill

In the Bond movie A View To A Kill Christopher Walken plays the psychotic product of a genetics experiment designed to produce a race of superhumans, with a penchant for airships and a plan to destroy Silicon Valley with the aim of profiting handsomely.

I guess it’s not surprising then, when I see the blimp belonging to “23 and me” a company that aims to decode your genome for you or something similar, hovering over Mountain View, I cannot help but feel a little bit creeped out by it.  It’s just all a little too View To A Kill for my liking.  I keep expecting Grace Jones to parachute past me.

Of course part of this may be that there’s only room for one Bond Villain in this town, and with my hideous facial disfiguration, that’s my role.