Thursday, March 31, 2022

Presentation: David Bowie

 A talk and slide show with Richie Unterberger


Author and rock historian Richie Unterberger shows and discusses vintage performance clips of David Bowie. These will span the prime of his career, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. During this time Bowie evolved through a series of surprising styles, from the folk-rock/psychedelia of "Space Oddity" and his rise to glam superstardom in the Ziggy Stardust era to his exploration of blue-eyed soul and electronic rock.


Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His next book, to be published by Taschen in 2022, is San Francisco: Portrait of a City.


This virtual program is offered as a one-time event only by agreement with the presenter. This program will not be recorded.

Wednesday, April 13th
12pm - 1:30pm

Register HERE


This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library


Wednesday, March 16, 2022

New German Cinema, Alexander Kluge, and Yesterday Girl

Often over-shadowed by two neighboring schools of cinema - Italian Neorealism and French New Wave - Neuer Deutscher Film (New German Cinema) made significant contributions to the artistic and intellectual development of world cinema. Cinephiles are familiar with the names such as Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder for their famous German films, but not many have heard of the director of the 1966 film Yesterday Girl (Abschied von Gestern).

While browsing through our film collection, I made a series of discoveries about a film I had heard of but never felt curious enough to either watch or read up on. Yesterday Girl was directed by Alexander Kluge. Intrigued finally, I learned that Kluge, though not as well-known as Herzog, Wenders or Fassbinder or even Margaretha von Trotta, was central to the emergence of New German Cinema. Apart from being a pioneering filmmaker to the New German Cinema, Kluge is a respected philosopher and writer of fiction.

 To cut a long story short, after the World War II, a group of people felt that current German cinema had failed to reflect the reality of its people’s postwar struggles and aspirations. Kluge, with other like-minded filmmakers and intellectuals, put forth the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962 which declared the death of the old German cinema with a belief in its rebirth. Adapted from his own short story, Anita G, Yesterday Girl depicts the economic and psychological struggles of a young woman of Jewish origin who moves to West Germany from East Germany. 

Yesterday Girl was the first German film to win a major international award bagging the Silver Lion at Venice in 1966. Mr. Kluge would repeat this feat with his next film Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed two years later. 

We have the DVD of the wonderful Yesterday Girl as well as Kluge's later film Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave.  

Films on DVD:

Abschied von Gestern (Anita G.) = Yesterday Girl; written and directed by Alexander Kluge (Facets Video, [2008]) (88 min.) black and white.

Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin = Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave; written and directed by Alexander Kluge (Facets Video, 2008) (91 min.) black and white.

Reading List:

European Cinema, edited by Elizabeth Ezra (Oxford University Press, 2004).

The German Cinema Book, edited by Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter, Deniz Göktürk, Claudia Sandberg, Second edition (British Film Institute, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020).

The New German Cinema by John Sandford (Barnes & Noble, 1980).

New German Cinema: A History by Thomas Elsaesser (Rutgers University Press, 1989).

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Top Fifteen Most Requested Books in the Art, Music and Recreation Center, March 2022


Often rock memoirs top these lists of titles most in demand (think of books like Just Kids by Patty Smith, Life by Keith Richards, or Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon). With by far the longest waiting list of any of our books, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is not only a rock music memoir as an Asian-American's poignant tale of coming of age through adversity. 

There are a number of other memoirs among current titles including 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by artist Ai Weiwei, All About Me! by writer and director Mel Brooks, The Chiffon Trenches by fashion journalist André Leon Talley, Will by actor Will Smith, Putting The Rabbit in the Hat by actor Brian Cox, Enough Already by actress Valerie Bertinelli.

Worn is an wide-ranging socio-cultural history of clothing. The Method traces the history and influence of this school of acting. The mystery behind a posthumously famous photographer is revealed in Vivian Maier Developed. Camera Man focuses on actor and director Buster Keaton to examine societal and technological developments in the early 20th century.  Dilla Time provides both a biography and musical analysis of the late hip hop producer J Dilla.

Two sports and recreation books complete the list. Blood In The Garden tells the tale of the NBA's rugged New York Knicks of the early 1990s.  Seven Games traces the history of the enduringly popular, but less than rugged, games of checkers, backgammon, chess, go, poker, scrabble, and bridge.


1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Alfred A. Knopf, 2021).

2. 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei, translated by Allan H. Barr (Crown, 2021).

3. All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks (Ballantine Books, 2021).

4. The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley (Ballantine Books, 2020).

5. Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser (Pantheon Books, 2022).

6. The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned To Act by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).

7. Will by Will Smith with Mark Manson (Penguin Press, 2021).

8. Putting The Rabbit In The Hat: A Memoir by Brian Cox (Grand Central Publishing, 2022).

11. The Beatles: Get Back by the Beatles featuring photography by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, edited by John Harris from transcripts of the original sound recordings. (Apple New York, 2021).

12. Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli (Mariner Books, 2022).

13. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife Of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas with musical analysis by Jeff Peretz (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

15. Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022).

See also: