Tour:Smart: And Break the Band

Tour:Smart is a comprehensive, 562 page guidebook providing nuts and bolts advice for independent musicians who want to succeed at performing on the road. Author Martin Atkins is a veteran of the alternative music business, having performed with bands like Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface and Killing Joke.

With the advent of digital music and the lessening importance of being signed to major record labels, performing and touring is more essential than ever for musicians trying to make a living. Atkins explains touring can lead to improved record store placement, more reviews, and better website traffic.

He details factors to consider when planning a tour like geography, climate, and distances. He further discusses the pros and cons of various forms of transportation, what to pack, and whether to bring scenery and stage decoration. He also gives pointers on how to interact with law enforcement while on the road.

Atkins explains how to work with promoters to get booked and whether to hire agent or go it alone. He further goes into information about contracts, choose an opening act, and selling merchandise. Touring provides a great opportunity to promote oneself. Tour:Smart gives practical information on how to get press coverage and how to handle oneself during interviews.

On a very practical level he gives warnings about sex, drugs and alcohol, and also provides health and eating tips while on the road. For women musicians there is also a chapter entitled "Being a grrrl on the road." Finally there are a few chapters on touring internationally.

The Library offers a few copies of Tour:Smart that can be borrowed as well as a copy for reference that is always available whenever you visit the Library.


Tour:Smart: And Break the Band by Martin Atkins (Smart Books, 2007).

Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities

"Peach to Polypheme" from the Pictorial Webster's website

At first glance it's not readily apparent what to make of what the Pictorial Webster's actually is. At one level, it is simply, as the author writes, a collection of "fascinating little images." In some part it is an artist's book (it was originally published in this manner), but it is also a powerful visual reference and source of inspiration.

The Pictorial Webster's consists of illustratory images accompanying definitions in a number of nineteenth-century editions of dictionaries published by Merriam Webster such as the 1859 American Dictionary of the English Language or the later Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language. This was an era when the photograph had been invented but was not commonly or conveniently available in printed references. The original images were engraved on blocks smaller than an inch square and are very detailed with delicate lines and have an iconic quality.

This resource provides the reader with small, clean, simple images of all manner of miscellania. The author, John M. Carrera, describes the process of bringing the images together as one of discovery, assembly, cryptography, and archeology. His aim is for the reader to experience a “personal resonance” with the images.

Although the book has a largely alphabetic arrangement, the author has tried to arrange the images so the reader will try to form their own story. The result at times is almost reminiscent of dadaist collage.

At the end of the volume, Carrera has written a history of Merriam Webster dictionaries and their illustrations, and a section about the printing process. A small number of color photographs of the actual wooden blocks used to engrave the images in the book.

Pictorial Webster's can be used as a practical visual resource or a clip-art book. It is also a look back into history, a musing into the nature of image and story-telling, and a work of art in itself.

Mr. Carrera has a personal website that describes this project in some depth.


Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities with additional dissertation by John M. Carrera (Chronicle Books, 2009).

The Rediscovery of Artist Fang Rending [方人定]

Returning from a Hunt, 1932 by Fang Rending

Internationally known in his lifetime, Chinese-born artist Fang Rending (方人定 - 1901-1975, sometimes know as Fan Jen-Ting or Fong Yan-Ting) contributed to the modernization of Chinese painting through published writings, teachings and international art shows beginning in the mid-1920s.

Throughout the Twenties and Thirties, his painting met acclaim as he exhibited in China, Japan, France, Brussels, Germany, Britain, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Living in the United States from 1939-1941, Fang added solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco to his growing list of international shows, and participated in both the Golden Gate International Exhibition and the New York World’s Fair. Most significant to local art historians, in 1939 Fang was the first Chinese artist to receive a one-man exhibit at SFMOMA. (At the time both he and the museum were working under different names; he, Fong Yan-Ting, while the museum was named the San Francisco Museum of Art).

Stepping on Snow, 1931 by Fang Rending

Today few people in the United States are familiar with the name Fang Rending. While auction prices for his work are in the thousands, collectors in Hong Kong and China remain his primary audience.

Join us on January 15th, for the rare opportunity to learn about the life of the artist, directly from his granddaughter, Tanya Fang. In addition to showing a selection of his finest paintings, she will discuss his beginnings as a law student, his artistic development and philosophies, and the effect of his ‘re-education’ during China’s Cultural Revolution.

The Rediscovery of Fang Rending will be presented Saturday, January 15, 2011 from 3:30-4:30 PM at the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room at the Main Library's Lower Level. This program is co-presented by the Chinese Center and is free and open to the public.

On a Leisure Day, 1931 by Fang Rending

There are two-length books in the Library's collections written in Chinese:

方人定评传 [Fang Rending ping zhuan] = Biography and appraisal of Fang Rending by Li Rulun 李汝伦 (花城出版社 [Hua cheng chu ban she], 2001.

方人定 [Fang Rending] by 郎绍君 [Lang Shaojun] and [云雪梅] Yun Xuemei (河北敎育出版社 [Hebei jiao yu chu ban she], 2003).

The Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, volume 34 (K.G. Saur) provides a single-column German language overview of his life and works as well as a short bibliography.

Modern Chinese Artists: A Biographical Dictionary by Michael Sullivan (University of California Press, 2006) provides a short biography. The Benezit Dictionary of artists (Gründ, 2006) includes a short biography and some auction information.

Fang Rending is also listed in An Index-Dictionary of Chinese Artists, Collectors, and Connoisseurs with Character Identification by Modified Stroke Count by Nancy N. Seymour (Scarecrow Press, 1988). An Index to Reproductions of Paintings by Twentieth Century Chinese Artists by Ellen Johnston Laing (University of Oregon, 1984) provides citation to reproductions of Fang's work in Chinese language sources.

Art and Revolution in Modern China: The Lingnan (Cantonese) School of Painting, 1906-1951 by Ralph Croizier (University of California Press, c1988) includes a couple of black and white reproductions of Fang Rending's work as well as a discussion of his important to the Lingnan School of Painting [嶺南畫派的繪畫藝術].

Paper in Three Dimensions

Paper is one of the most economical and versatile of mediums. We handle this material every day, using it in its 2 dimensional form. However, with a few basic tools and some time set aside one can create an amazing array of 3 dimensional crafts.

The San Francisco Public Library has a good selection of books on the subject of paper work. Paper in Three Dimensions by Diane Maurer-Mathison gives an idea of the breadth of possible projects. The author writes: "Sheets …can be folded, twisted, bent and curled, woven, slit, stitched, layered, collaged, wrapped, embossed, and manipulated in myriad ways to create fine craft and artworks." Even more possibilities are presented when you make your own paper…

Each the chapters in the book describes a different type of paper craft. At the beginning of each chapter, there is an introduction giving some history of the technique and the properties that this method lends to the paper. The next section gives a list of supplies needed and goes over basic skills that are used during this process. This is followed by instructions for more in-depth projects, some with step by step photographs. The last feature of each chapter is a "Gallery Tour," consisting of paper artists’ work.

Pennsylvania Woodlands II by Nancy Lenore Cook

The back matter of the book includes contact information for manufacturers and wholesale distributors, as well as for the featured artists. A bibliography and index round out the last section.


Paper in Three Dimensions: Origami, Pop-ups, Sculpture, Baskets, Boxes, and More by Diane Maurer-Mathison (Watson-Guptill, 2006).

Do Museums Still Need Objects?

One of San Francisco's great attractions is its museums. Over the past couple of decades a number of new museums have opened, or established institutions have moved into new buildings. This is happening as museums as an institution are going through a period of re-definition.

Do Museums Need Objects is a deeply thought out reconsideration of museums and their collections. Author Steven Conn argues that originally, for museums, the classification of the object was thought sufficient to convey its meaning, but now the public has “lost faith in the ability of objects alone to tell stories and convey knowledge.” Furthermore museums have come to collect objects of many different types and functions and make use of these objects in a variety of new ways.

Today museums must find a balance between being a public and a corporate institution, and being a place for education and entertainment. Conn notes that the museum originally came into existence as a warehouse for objects but today the museum also treats itself as an object. The museum today has a “civic and social function” that goes beyond the exhibit. Museums go beyond the display of objects to include events like concerts, film screenings and social functions.

Another way that Conn takes up objects is according to their cultural value and genealogy. He looks at the controversial topic of repatriating objects that have been removed from their cultures or countries of origin.

Do Museum Still Need Objects is a serious, scholarly look at role and meaning of museums today. Other recent titles that also consider this topic include Museums in a Troubled World by Robert R. Janes and Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience by John H. Falk.


Do Museums Still Need Objects? by Steven Conn (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010).

Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience by John H. Falk (Left Coast Press, 2009).

Museums in a Troubled World: Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse? by Robert R. Janes (Routledge, 2009).

Holiday Song Collections

Every holiday season we move a selection of our Christmas-themed song collections to the Art, Music & Recreation Center reference desk for quick and easy access.

Our two most paged Christmas songbooks are both fake books -- The Real Christmas Book and the Ultimate Christmas Fake Book. Both of these collections provide stripped down arrangements of the songs with only their melody, chord progression and lyrics.

The Christmas Hits Sheet Music Playlist is our best circulating songbook. (But, of course all our copies are borrowed already since it's so close to the holidays). Frosty the Snow Man and Other Christmas Songs is also very popular every year.


Frosty The Snow Man and Other Christmas Songs (Big 3 Music Corp., 1970?).

Christmas Hits Sheet Music Playlist (Alfred Pub. Co., 2008).

The Real Christmas Book for C instruments (Hal Leonard, 2008).

The Ultimate Christmas Fake Book (Hal Leonard, 1992).


Related entries:

Holiday Music For the Beginning Pianist (December 2, 2008).

May Your Holidays Be Filled With Music (December 5, 2007).

The Fake Book Collection and Index (July 30, 2007).

Architecture: A World History

Architecture: A World History is a thick pocket-sized book presenting the broad sweep of architecture through the ages. Arranged chronologically from the earliest prehistoric structures, this book presents medium’s evolution up through some of the more innovative works of the early 21st century. Its 512 pages include more than 600 color illustrations of buildings from throughout the world.

The book is divided into 10 sections, each encompassing an historical epoch -- “Pre- and Early History,” “Antiquity and Early Christianity,” Romanesque,” “Gothic,” Renaissance,” Baroque,” “Neoclassicism,” “19th Century,” “20th Century 1900 to 1945,” and “Architecture after 1945.” Each section begins with a time line and consists of a series of two to four page chapters on the various styles, movements, regions or architects deemed most significant during that period. The earliest named architects appear in the Renaissance; the following sections are all dominated by the notable creators in the field. These entries include brief biographies and note each architect's major works, usually including a color photograph.

There are sections including non-Western buildings such as East Asian Religious Architecture, Ancient Pueblos, Southeast Asia (limited to the 11th to 15th centuries), the Mughal Empire, etc... However, the greatest attention is given to monumental works of the West. There are also chapters on Urban Planning (in Paris) and on Building Techniques (most of the sections include such a chapter).

The book includes a helpful and detailed index. Individual buildings are indexed under the heading of the country where they are located. Architect and architectural styles are also indexed. Terms defined in the course of the text are included here, in italics.

Architecture: A World History is a visually exciting, information-packed introduction to architecture and buildings through the ages. It is an excellent resource for the autodidact wishing to master the fundamentals of the subject, or for someone interested in skimming the rich variety of structures created by human-kind across the millennia.


Architecture: A World History by Daniel Borden Jerzy Elźanowski, Cornelia Lawrenz, Daniel Miller, Adele Smith and Joni Taylor (Abrams,2008).