Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Motel California: an author's talk

Event detail

Saturday, April 7th, 1 - 2 p.m.
Latino/Hispanic Community Room
Lower Level, Main Library

San Francisco Bay Area-based cultural historian and freelance writer Heather M. David discusses her latest book MOTEL CALIFORNIA. It is the story of the rapid rise and subsequent decline of the individually owned mom-and-pop motel in The Golden State. It is an exploration of theme-based marketing and a documentation of American culture at what may be the most prosperous time in United States history.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Bob Marley: The Illustrated History - Presented by local music historian Richie Unterberger


Koret Auditorium, Main Library - 100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102

Thursday, March 29th 6:00pm-7:30pm



 
The Art, Music and Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library is pleased to host local music historian Richie Unterberger. Coinciding with the publication of his book, Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Ultimate Illustrated History, Richie Unterberger will show film clips, images from the book and host a presentation about Marley & the Wailers.

We would like to recommend the following titles from our book collection to learn more about Bob Marley & the Wailers.

Bob Marley: The Untold Story by Chris Salewicz (London: Harper Collins, c2009)

So Much Things to Say: The Oral history of Bob Marley by Roger Steffens (W.W. Norton & Company 2017)

Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White (St. Martin's Griffin c2006)

Marley Legend: An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley by James Henke (Chronicle Books c2006) 

Soul Rebel: An Intimate  Portrait of Bob Marley by David Burnett (Insight Editions, c2009)

Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae, 1975-1976 by Kim, Gottlieb-Walker (Titan Books, c2010)


Search the catalog for subject Reggae Music -- Jamaica to find CD's, LP's and streaming audio.


 

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Song and Dance Bollywood Style


The San Francisco Public Library is pleased to present Dhaval and Gunjan and friends who will rock the Koret Auditorium with their Bollywood singing, from the classics of Rafi, Lata, Kishore and Asha to great songs of the modern era, intermingled with a dance performance to get the groove going. Come sing along with the greatest melodies of all time at 3:00 PM, Saturday, March 3, 2018.

As such a recognizable word and global phenomenon, Bollywood is often incorrectly assumed to be synonymous with Indian cinema. The “Bolly” part of the term refers to Bombay film industry but only which is rooted in the Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani language, which is spoken and understood all across India and Pakistan, perhaps even some parts of Bangladesh. That’s a potential audience close to a billion and a half people, including generations of South Asians living in the global diaspora.

The actors and film playback singers of Bollywood are respected, loved, even revered by the masses. Due to language cross over between India and Pakistan, the Hindi cinema reminds both Indians and Pakistanis that there are things that bind them together culturally against the divisive rhetoric of the politicians. Even where linguistic and political tensions have threatened the unity of India, Hindi cinema, due to its language and magical, immortal songs, has acted as a glue that holds a nation together.


It's not clear who first coined the term Bollywood, but it came to prominence in the 1970s when Indian cinema over took Hollywood in terms of total movies produced each year. Today Bollywood movies are premiered in many western capitals due to the large South Asian populations living in those metropolitan centers. 

Those interested in checking out Indian films DVDs from our collection are welcome to browse our DVDs collection in the foreign language section or do an online catalog subject search  for:

Motion Pictures – Hindi; or
Feature Films – India.


We would like to recommend the following titles in our book collection for those who are interested in learning more about Hindi or Indian cinema.

Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema: A Selective Guide by Todd Stadtman (FAB Press, 2015).

Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen (British Film Institute, 1995).

Bollywood and Postmodernism: Popular Indian Cinema in the 21st Century by Neelam Sidhar Wright (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).

Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction by Ashish Rajadhyaksha (Oxford University Press, 2016).

King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema by Anupama Chopra (Warner Books, 2007). [also available as an ebook]
 
Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and The Iconic in Indian Cinema, edited by Vinay Lal and Ashis Nandy (Oxford University Press, 2006).
 
The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema by Madhu Jain (Penguin Group, 2005).

Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change by K. Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake (Sterling, 2004).