RIP: The California
Oct. 25th, 2021 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI've been wondering how much Berkeley is going to have been changed by the pandemic, how much will be different we return to visit friends and family this Christmas. Apparently one loss was the California Theatre.
I used to have an office at the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics, a joint UCB/NASA project, that was right across the street and above the California. On any afternoon, I could look out and see how popular that week's movies were. Occasionally, the lines would snake out into the street and around the parking lot right next door. (The parking lot is long gone now too, replaced by an underground garage and actual businesses.)
Never again will anyone be able to sit in that office, with the tiny windows swung open, and listen to people across the street loudly speculating about whether Captain Kirk will survive the new Star Trek movie. (It was Generations, i suspect, based on the dates, but maybe no one even speculates even more, given the spoiler-driven internet.)
I wonder if the Shattuck is still scheduled to be rebuilt, which will result in the temporary, and quite likely permanent closure of that theatre too, leaving Berkeley with just the UA.
The day of the theatre is, I believe, passed, hastened to the grave by the pandemic and HBOMax.
I used to have an office at the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics, a joint UCB/NASA project, that was right across the street and above the California. On any afternoon, I could look out and see how popular that week's movies were. Occasionally, the lines would snake out into the street and around the parking lot right next door. (The parking lot is long gone now too, replaced by an underground garage and actual businesses.)
Never again will anyone be able to sit in that office, with the tiny windows swung open, and listen to people across the street loudly speculating about whether Captain Kirk will survive the new Star Trek movie. (It was Generations, i suspect, based on the dates, but maybe no one even speculates even more, given the spoiler-driven internet.)
I wonder if the Shattuck is still scheduled to be rebuilt, which will result in the temporary, and quite likely permanent closure of that theatre too, leaving Berkeley with just the UA.
The day of the theatre is, I believe, passed, hastened to the grave by the pandemic and HBOMax.