I finally had the opportunity to see Children of Men yesterday, a film I’ve been anticipating for quite some time. It was brilliant. The movie depicts a dystopian future in which humanity has, for reasons unknown, lost the ability to bear offspring and much of the world has collapsed into violence, save for the UK, which is a a grim and xenophobic police state. Clive Owen portrays an everyman who is not particularly brave or heroic, but still tries to do the right thing despite his deeply cynical view of the world. The film works because it doesn’t wave its arms at the audience and scream, “Look! Look! It’s the future!” The world is familiar but disquietingly foreign at the same time. Director Alfonso Cuaron makes seamless shifts between the intimate and the sweeping. The last third of the movie was particularly astonishing in its scope. The cast is uniformly strong, but Owen and Michael Caine in particular give compelling and nuanced performances. Even the soundtrack is great.

Can you tell I like this movie? I wish more intelligent, adult science fiction like this was being produced. However, I’m guessing that it will be lucky to break even at the box office. But if I have to settle for scraps, at least this one was worth the wait.

I’ve had my share of teachers and professors who were clueless when it came to dealing with a student with a disability in their class, but at least none of them ever called me a cripple (not to my face, anyway). I’m not surprised that this word still has currency as an insult. What does surprise me is that a teacher–a British teacher!–would get caught flinging this word at a student. Aren’t all British teachers crusty but lovable souls who are in a constant state of mild annoyance caused by their students’ failure to grasp the conjugation of irregular Latin verbs?

I finally broke down last week and order the LCD monitor I’ve been coveting the last few months: the Samsung 204BW 20″ widescreen. I’m not easily impressed, but this thing is gorgeous. The images are bright and crisp; I had forgotten that the color white isn’t supposed to look jaundiced. I watched a bit of a Lost episode I had downloaded and I’m not ashamed to admit that I began to silently weep. And who knew I had this much desk space? Best of all, I can’t find a single dead pixel (always a risk when buying a LCD).

I’m a bit mystified as to what to do with my old 19″ CRT. It’s not worth anything, but perhaps a school or a non-profit can make use of it. After all, it most likely has another 5-10 years of life remaining.

If you randomly surveyed ten Americans and asked whether they were pessimistic or optimistic about the future, I’m willing to bet a month’s salary that at least 60% would say pessimistic. The specific reasons for that pessimism would vary. Our schools are crumbling. Our morals are disintegrating. People want to kill us. Indeed, a quick scan of the daily news offers ample persuasion for staying in bed and watching endless reruns of Good Times.

While we may have plenty to feel glum about, the deep thinkers at the Edge Foundation want to remind everyone it’s okay to have a little hope. It asked dozens of scientists, academicians, writers, and policy wonks to name one thing about which they are optimistic. Their answers span the range of human knowledge and endeavor. An emerging boom in the development of green technology. Falling levels of global violence. The decline of religious fanaticism. Whether you agree with the answers or not, these mini-essays provide fascinating reading.

As for me, I’m optimistic that we’ll have universal health care in the next two decades, and it will likely be single-payer. Big corporations are starting to realize that our current patchwork health care system is a drag on both their profitability and the economy. Eventually, the political will necessary to break the chokehold of the insurance companies will push lawmakers to a comprehensive and lasting solution.

You didn’t think I was going to let this year come to a close without some sort of retrospective and completely subjective list, did you?

Best Movie I Saw: United 93  Paul Greengrass has enough artistic maturity to get out of the way and let the events of the hijacking unfold without embellishment or gauzy revisionism. An important film both for its historical accuracy and intellectual honesty.

Best Book I Read: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson  I really like Kate Atkinson’s dry wit–you Brits do dry and witty with so much more style than we Americans. The book isn’t a great mystery, but it’s a great character study.

Best Song I Heard: “Stars above Us” by Saint Etienne. This song got my groove on for much of the past summer. It makes you smile, but not in a dopey sort of way. It makes you want to throw your own roof party and invite all your hip, urbane friends. I still can’t figure out how this band flew under my radar for so long.

Best Album I Purchased in its Entirety: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case  Gorgeous voice. Gorgeous arrangements. Neko’s work with the New Pornographers is impressive, but this album conclusively demonstrates that she is more than a power-pop chanteuse. Country music couldn’t figure her out, but so much better for the rest of us.

Best TV Show I Watched: The Wire  I enjoyed both Battlestar Galactica and The Office, but this season’s run of The Wire was stunning. Its devastating tale of Baltimore’s barely functioning civic institutions (schools, city hall, and the police), told by a cast of bureaucrats, cops, assassins, and politicos, was as compelling as any well-written novel.

So there you have it. 2006 as seen through my personal pop culture lens.

My hopes for the new year remain the same. Still need to finish the book. Still need to kiss a pretty girl. But mostly, I’m just waiting to see what one more spin around the sun will bring.

It’s snowing pretty heavily as I write this. I hope 2007 brings you something grand. Thanks for putting up with me.