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An eminent film writer looks behind the curtain of the California dream It hardly needs to be argued: nothing has contributed more to the mythology of California than the movies. Fed by the film industry, the California dream is instantly recognizable to people everywhere yet remains evasive for nearly everyone, including Californians themselves. That paradox is the subject of longtime San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle¿s first book in nine years. The opposite of a dry historical primer, California in the Movies is a freewheeling journey through several dozen big-screen visions of the Golden State, with LaSalle¿s unmistakable contrarian humor as the guide. His writing, unerringly perceptive and resistant to cliché, brings clarity to the haze of Hollywood reverie. He leaps effortlessly between genres and generations, moving with ease from Double Indemnity to the first two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Boyz N the Hood to Booksmart. There are natural disasters, heinous crimes, dubious utopias, dangerous romances, and unforgettable nights. Equally entertaining and unsettling, this book is a bold dissection of the California dream and its hypnotizing effect on the modern world.
Heirloom Fruits of America features 100 full-color illustrations selected from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection, an archive of 7,584 paintings, lithographs, and line drawings created from 1886 to 1942 by about sixty-five commissioned artists. These images served as de facto trademarks in the highly competitive and fraud-plagued American fruit industry in a time before patent protection extended to living organisms. They are also meticulously and beautifully rendered, uncovering a cache of botanical diversity in turn-of-the-century American agriculture. Yale historian Daniel J. Kevles's introduction deepens viewers' appreciation of these plates by placing these images in their historical context.
How to confront the climate crisis without losing heartIt¿s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of global climate breakdown. So how might we develop the inner resolve to confront it? Full Ecology, a collaboration between social-cultural psychologist Mary M. Clare and longtime science writer Gary Ferguson, suggests a path forward. Breaking the modern impulse to see humans as separate from nature, Clare and Ferguson encourage us to learn from the “supremely methodical and highly improvisational” natural systems that touch our lives. True change, they argue, begins with us stopping and questioning assumptions about our place in the world. From this process of reflection, they offer us an alternative blueprint for acting in ecologically healthy ways, and for inspiring others to do the same. Rather than proposing a ten-step plan to save the earth, this book encourages a more elemental rethinking of our connections to nature, and of how such connections might be strengthened for the common good. Practical and poetic, scientific and spiritual, Full Ecology presents a strong, nourishing foundation for climate action.
After a search through private collections and public museums throughout the country, over sixty stunning examples of California Indian basketry were assembled for this book-some almost two hundred years old, some made within the last few decades. Commenting upon each basket are native basket weavers, California Indian artists in other media, and scholars. Together they provide exciting and intimate insights into this world of subtle yet intense beauty.
In an age of big box stores and media conglomerates, how can an independent publishing house survive—and even thrive? Kim Bancroft takes us into Heyday, a small press that for forty years has spotlighted California's best stories. Drawing from the words of founder Malcolm Margolin, this compelling portrait recounts the making of Heyday, from its roots in the do-it-yourself/change-the-world clime of 1970s Berkeley to its present-day status as the "cultural linchpin for the state" (Northern California Book Booksellers Association). A chorus of friends, including Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Hass, and Kevin Starr, enriches our understanding of a vibrant literary community and its one-of-a-kind leader. Funny and provocative, The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin reveals the workings of a courageously unconventional enterprise run on beauty, passion, friendship, and joy.
At the intersection of plants and politics, Trees in Paradise is an examination of ecological mythmaking and conquest. The first Americans who looked out over California saw arid grasslands and chaparral, and over the course of generations, they remade those landscapes according to the aesthetic values and economic interests of settlers, urban planners, and boosters. In the San Fernando Valley, entrepreneurs amassed fortunes from vast citrus groves; in the Bay Area, gum trees planted to beautify neighborhoods fed wildfires; and across the state, the palm came to stand for the ease and luxury of the rapidly expanding suburbs. Meanwhile, thousands of native redwoods and sequoias were logged to satisfy the insatiable urbanizing impulse. Revealing differing visions of what California should and could be, this natural and unnatural history unravels the network of forces that shape our most fundamental sense of place.
In 1855 an ex-miner lamented that nineteenth-century California "can and does furnish the best bad things," including "purer liquors...finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtezans [sic]" than anywhere else in America. Lured by boons of gold and other exploitable resources, California's settler population mushroomed under Mexican and early American control, and this period of rapid transformation gave rise to a freewheeling culture best epitomized by its entertainments. Hellacious California tours the rambunctious and occasionally appalling amusements of the Golden State: gambling, gun duels, knife fights, gracious dining and gluttony, prostitution, fandangos, cigars, con artistry, and the demon drink. Historian Gary Noy unearths myriad primary sources, many of which have never before been published, to spin his true tall tales that are by turns humorous and horrifying. Whether detailing the exploits of an inebriated stallion, gambling parlors as a reinforcement and subversion of racial norms, armed skirmishes over eggs, or the ins and outs of the "Spirit Lover" scam, Noy expertly situates these stories in the context of a live-for-the-moment society characterized by audacity, bigotry, and risk.Published in collaboration with Sierra College Press.
From sprawling fields of showy hillside poppies, lupines, and paintbrushes in the foothills to orchids, lilies, and primroses in the higher meadows of our national parks, the Sierra Nevada is one of the premier wildflower destinations in California. Naturalist John Muir Laws has adapted his painted-from-life flower illustrations from The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada into a lightweight yet durable guidebook to the area's florae. Sierra Wildflowers includes the most common species that you will encounter, with fully updated common and scientific names. Flowers are organized by color and shape, making identification easy for flower enthusiasts of all experience levels.
A world-renowned printmaker, Tom Killion's books and note card sets are consistently among Heyday's bestsellersCalifornia's Wild Coast Note Card Box, composed of images taken from this book, is Heyday's bestselling note card setCalifornia's Wild Coast includes poems by Jane Hirshfeld, Czeslaw Milosz, Gary Snyder, Jaime de Angulo and many othersIncludes a section on "Making a Woodblock Print," illustrating Killion's processIncludes over 90 reproductions of Killion's gorgeous California coast prints
In California's Central Valley, two thousand miles away from country music's hit machine, the hard edge of the Bakersfield Sound transformed American music in the latter half of the twentieth century. It turned displaced Oklahomans like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard into household names, and it aggressively pushed style, instrumentation, and attitude that countered the orchestral country pop churned out from Nashville. In this compelling book, Robert E. Price traces the Sound's roots from the Dust Bowl and World War II migrations through the heyday of Owens, Haggard, and Hee Haw, and into the twenty-first century. Outlaw country demands good storytelling, and Price obliges: to fully understand the Sound and its musicians we dip into honky-tonks, dives, and radio stations playing the songs of sun-parched days spent on oil rigs and in cotton fields, the melodies of hardship and kinship, a soundtrack for dancing and brawling. In other words, The Bakersfield Sound immerses us in the unique cultural convergence that gave rise to a visceral and distinctly California country music.
Lake Tahoe transformed America, and not just once but many times over-from the earliest Ice Age civilizations to the mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe. It even played a hidden role in the American conquest of California, the launch of the Republican Party, and the birth of John Steinbeck's first novel. Along the way, Lake Tahoe found the time to invent the ski industry, spark the sexual revolution, and win countless Academy Awards. Tahoe beneath the Surface brings this hidden history of America's largest mountain lake to life through the stories of its most celebrated residents and visitors over the last ten thousand years. It mixes local Washoe Indian legends with tales of murderous Mafia dons, and Rat Pack tunes with Steinbeck novels. It establishes Tahoe as one of America's literary hot spots by tracing the steps of more than a dozen authors including Bertrand Russell, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Michael Ondaatje. Tahoe beneath the Surface reveals how the lake transformed the lives of conservationists like John Muir, humorists like Mark Twain, and Hollywood icons like Frank Sinatra. It even touches upon some of the darker aspects of American history, including anti-Chinese racism and the Kennedy assassination.Despite the impact Lake Tahoe has had on America, environmental threats loom large, and Tahoe Blue-a term that Lankford uses to encompass the whole range of life, beauty, and meaning the lake represents-grows increasingly vulnerable. In Tahoe beneath the Surface, human history and natural history combine in a most engaging way, one that will both inform and inspire all who would keep Tahoe blue.
While reading Island of the Blue Dolphins at school and learning about the real woman stranded on San Nicolás Island, ten-year-old Tíshmal begins writing emails to "Miss Karana" in hopes of talking to her spirit. When she arrived on the mainland of Southern California, Miss Karana spoke a language that no one could understand even back then, and all that remains is a recording of the song she sang when she was found on the island. Tíshmal realizes that some of the words sound very similar to Chamtéela (Luiseño), the language spoken on her reservation. As she writes to Miss Karana, Tíshmal becomes more and more resolved to understand the lone woman's song. The only person able to help her is a grouchy great uncle, Wéh Powéeya ("two tongues"), the last living person fluent in the language of their ancestors from the belly button of the ocean: the islands including San Nicolás. Together, Tíshmal and Wéh Powéeya must discover what the lone woman said long ago in order to help her spirit finish the journey West.First written in Chamtéela and developed in accordance with fourth grade Common Core State Standards, Dear Miss Karana tells a compelling story of family, determination, and cultural perseverance.
This is a great guide for people who are often active outdoors, and who are usually curious about birds that they encounter, but are not always dedicated birdwatchers
Winner of the 2015 California Historical Society Book Award In 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by the moniker Alice Smith. "A Voice from the Underworld" detailed Alice's humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work, and candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering "the life." While prostitute narratives had been published before, never had they been as frank in their discussion of the underworld, including topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. Throughout the series, Alice strongly criticized the society that failed her and so many other women, but, just as acutely, she longed to be welcomed back from the margins. The response to Alice's story was unprecedented: four thousand letters poured into the Bulletin, many of which were written by other prostitutes ready to share their own stories; and it inspired what may have been the first sex worker rights protest in modern history. For the first time in print since 1913, Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute presents the memoirs of Alice Smith and a selection of letters responding to her story. An introduction contextualizes "A Voice from the Underworld" amid Progressive Era sensationalistic journalism and shifting ideas of gender roles, and reveals themes in Alice's story that extend to issues facing sex workers today.
Adorned with new covers by artist Lisel Jane Ashlock, these two classic texts show off famed naturalist John Muir's writing at its finest. My First Summer in the Sierra presents Muir's journal entries from his first long-term adventure in Yosemite and the surrounding area, when he helped drive a flock of sheep through the foothills toward the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers. The Mountains of California takes us on a tour of the Sierra Nevada (with occasional forays into the Coast Ranges and the Central Valley) that captures the grandeur of the region's topography, forests, glaciers, weather, and wildlife in eloquent prose. In both books, Muir's vivid descriptions of nature are infused with his characteristic wonder at the magnificence of wilderness, from a single lily whose beauty "puts the roughest mountaineer on his best behavior" to a vista of the luminous Range of Light.
California is home to over sixteen hundred species of undomesticated bees most of them native that populate and pollinate our gardens, fields, and urban green spaces. In this absorbing guidebook, some of the state's preeminent bee and botany experts introduce us to this diverse population. California Bees and Blooms holds a magnifying glass up to the twenty-two most common genera (and six species of cuckoo bees), describing each one's distinctive behaviors, social structures, flight season, preferred flowers, and enemies. Enhancing these descriptions are photographs of bees so finely detailed they capture pollen scattered across gauzy wings and iridescent exoskeletons. Drawing from years of research at the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, California Bees and Blooms presents an authoritative look at these creatures, emphasizing their vital relationship with flowers. In addition to opening our eyes to the beautiful array of wild bees in our midst, this book provides information on fifty-three bee-friendly plants and how to grow them. Just a few square feet of poppies, sage, and phacelia are enough to sustain a healthy population of wild bees, transforming an urban or suburban garden into a world that hums and buzzes with life.
In museums across the world, Richard Nagler stationed himself in front of a piece of art he had chosen, waiting for someone to come along to photograph and complete his composition
Old buildings in our midst call to the imagination, evoking a time just out of reach. Each structure in Here Tomorrow holds a story of California's rich past in its wainscoting, adobe brick, or Art Deco chandelier. The Temple of Kwan Tai on the fog-wreathed Mendocino coast contains the history of a once-vibrant seaside Chinatown. A garden of honeysuckle, roses, and tulips once tended by prisoners flourishes on the dry and windy island of Alcatraz. Colorful mosaics, glasswork zodiacs, and historic murals grace the walls of the Los Angeles Public Library, a structure conceived as a great melding of cultures and lore that reflect the diverse spirit of California. Such structures represent a significant cultural legacy, and as they deteriorate with age and the world around them changes, they also represent a significant economic and cultural challenge. For thirty years, the California Preservation Foundation has bestowed design awards on those who have excelled in restoration and creative reuse. From these awards, the Heyday editorial team selected fifty sites we feel best represent the multifaceted and complex art of restoration. They represent California in all its variety, its culture and commerce, geography, history, and creative style.
Winner of the 2012 James D. Houston Award, Keenan Norris's first novel is a beautiful, gritty, coming-of-age tale about two young African Americans in the San Bernardino Valley--a story of exceptional power, lyricism, and depth. Erycha and Touissant live only a few miles apart in the city of Highland, but their worlds are starkly separated by the lines of class, violence, and history. In alternating chapters that touch and intertwine only briefly, Brother and the Dancer follows their adolescence and young adulthood on two sides of the city, the luminous San Bernardino range casting its hot shade over their separate tales in an unflinching vision of black life in Southern California.
The product of six years of reflection and documentation, Vital Signs takes us on a walk through one of California's largest cities: San Bernardino--generally presented in the media as a center of urban blight and high crime. In this passionate collaboration, poet Juan Delgado and photographer Thomas McGovern celebrate the working-class Latino communities of the Inland Empire and the intensity of their stories. Pairing Delgado's piercing poems with McGovern's photos of hand-painted signs and murals, Vital Signs preserves the narrative and visual culture of the urban landscape and reveals a community rich in emotion and vernacular art.
"The environmental movement as we know it was forged in the fight against Hetch Hetchy Dam. No previous debate over the American landscape had so engaged and enraged the American public. The Sierra Club and other opponents helped stir this sentiment and their campaign to preserve Hetch Hetchy became the prototypical environmental campaign." From Hetch Hetchy: Undoing a Great American Mistake In the 1920's the thirsty city of San Francisco reached deep into Yosemite National Park to build the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River, diverting one-third of the river's water and flooding the Hetch Hetchy Valley, said at the time to be as magnificent as Yosemite Valley itself. The water that flows through tunnels and pipelines into the households of San Francisco is steeped in the resulting heated debates, which began over a century ago and burn to this day. Examining the stunning engineering feat that the dam represented to some when it was constructed, as well as the heartbreak of others, such as John Muir, over the loss of a valley as radiant as any in Yosemite National Park, award-winning nature writer Kenneth Brower's Hetch Hetchy: Undoing a Great American Mistake is a tribute to the men and women whose lives were shaped by those waters, and the wild landscape that still exists beneath them. Alongside A State of Change artist and historical ecologist Laura Cunningham's pictorial reimagining of a drained Hetch Hetchy landscape over the course of two, ten, a hundered years, Brower envisages the species-by-species reclamation of the valley by its native flora and fauna as wildness flourishes again. Offering viable alternatives for restoration, Brower's Hetch Hetchy is both an exploration of the pitched battle over an environmental tragedy and an inspiring reverie of a possible future.
Lela Rhoades has a voice so sharp, so funny, warm, and honest, that the stories of her life and the traditions of her parents will barely sit still on the page. As told to Molly Curtis in the 1970's, this memoir takes us back into a world where men chased mother grizzlies out of their dens for their meat, where manzanita berries were ground up into sugar and houses built with the door right in the middle of the roof. It was an intricate, complex life that was unknown to the strangers that would take over the land. For all of her recollections, old recipes, and legends, this is also a story of transition for Lela Rhoades, her Achumawi people, and for Native California in general. Here, Rhoades walks the line between tradition and change, watching the land and hunting rights of her people vanish, telling creation stories that blend both Coyote and Jesus, and recounting her marriage to a white rancher. Come, sit down at the feet of Lela Rhoades, and listen to the strength and beauty of her world. "There was an aristocratic presence, an aristocratic aura about the heavy, elder lady, Lela Grant Rhoades, slowly rocking in her chair as she quietly embroidered a delicate pattern, silver needles flashing in the fading evening light, black-rimmed glasses resting on her nose a mysterious aristocratic something, like she knew many secrets or something more necessary than life. I thought of Grandmother Spider creating her web with great confidence." From the Foreword by Darryl Babe Wilson
Many Worlds provides young people with an engaging and informative window into the California Indian world. By using stickers, colored pencils, and their imagination, children can explore the richness of California In-dian life along the Anza Trail.
Our second annual selection of Californias writers seeking to bring new work to a wider audience
A documentary look at the critical problems of the most productive farmland in America and the people who work on it by an award-winning team. With an introduction by Thomas Steinbeck .
A retrospective including essays by different authors about Sonya Rapoport's art career. Rapoport was continuously on the cutting edge of American art as she moved from abstract expressionism to more conceptual and digital art. Editor Terri Cohn (who is also a co-curator of the two upcoming retrospective shows) calls Rapoport a "systems conceptual artist"; Rapoport's work involves botanical, scientific, technological, feminist, Jewish, and sociopolitical themes.
An unfinished novel about the last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani. and her attempt to prevent annexation of her homeland by the United States. A forgotten bit of history and the choices she made.
At a time when common opinion perceives California to be in a state of decline, there grows out of this dire situation something that can only be described as amazingly hopeful. What seem to be falling apart, along with everything else, are old clich?'s and stale certainties. One senses a willingness to question, to probe, to invent new ways of seeing things, and to create new dreams. Stimulated by what we see on the horizon, Heyday issued an open call for the freshest and most thought-provoking submissions, to be included in a new annual series. Publishers, small presses, literary magazines, specialty journals, and bloggers eagerly responded. Sifting through this response, we discovered articles, fiction, poetry, and even excerpts from memoirs. The variety of voices is dazzling, the range of topics broad, but they all have one thing in common: they all address the California experience with courage, vitality, and intelligence.
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