covid-19 I’m bored, what can I do now?

[Former Member]

Many libraries offer much more than just physical items to check out. Especially larger library systems offer a wide selection of downloadable or streaming services. Check your local library's website to see what they offer.

Typical services offer ebooks, magazines, newspapers, music, and movies. But some libraries offer even more with San Francisco offering comic books! And check similar services to see if one offers something interesting that the other(s) doesn’t. If you have more than one library card, check to see if the selection is different – even if they use the same service, they might have made different choices that mean the offerings differ.

As an example, my little city library system (for some reason it’s not part of the larger county library system like the wealthy communities) offers OverDrive (ebooks & audio books), Libby (ebooks), Enki (ebooks), the NY Times, and online research links.

The Oakland library site mentions that any California resident can get a card, but doesn’t say if they offer temporary cards during the pandemic.

The Berkeley library also offers cards to any California resident and they do offer temporary cards. They offer a much larger selection of resources online than my little local library.
 

PCWorld has an article that goes into more details.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Former Member

[Guest]

KRON4, an independent TV station that used to be a powerhouse NBC affiliate owned by the San Francisco Chronicle (thus the call letters), was once profitable enough to create its own documentaries. On Sunday evenings, they’ve been substituting one of their documentaries for their usual hour-long sports program. Tonight, the documentary was about the early history of San Francisco and was narrated by Peter Coyote (‘Keys’ from the movie ET the Extraterrestrial)!

Their website allows you to view any of their 31 documentaries. While a few of them won’t be of much interest outside the Bay Area, many of them will be. And they’re all commercial-free. It’s ironic that they even made a documentary about the man behind their newspaper owner’s arch-rival, William Randolph Hearst*.
 

* The Hearst Corporation used to own the crosstown rival, the SF Examiner. In 2000, Hearst Communications bought the Chronicle. KRON was sold that same year and lost its NBC affiliation in 2002. Chronicle Books was founded by the then-publisher of the SF Chronicle, but was purchased in 1999 by a great-grandson of the founder of the newspaper from other relatives who were selling off company assets. Hearst was forced to sell the Examiner after attempting to merge the two newspapers, the Examiner is now a free tabloid with a very limited distribution. The Chronicle is now the only daily Bay Area newspaper not owned by Digital First Media (aka MediaNews) and the Bay Area is poorer for it.

[Guest]

Frameline (the organization that presents San Francisco’s annual international LGBTQ+ film festival) has a free YouTube channel with LGBTQ+ movies and documentaries that focus on youth and marginalized segments of our community. They also feature festival trailers and content related to those festivals. There are clips and trailers from a sampling of the movies and documentaries that have played during previous Frameline festivals too, so you can get ideas on LGBTQ+ movies you might want to seek out.

Edited April 13, 2020 by droughtquake

[Guest]

The University of California at San Francisco has some resources to support your mental health.

[Guest]

KTVU/2 had a story about people baking bread during the quarantine.

Disney is blogging about recipes from their parks and cruise lines, including Disney Churro Bites.

[Lyssa]

3 hours ago, droughtquake said:

KTVU/2 had a story about people baking bread during the quarantine.

Disney is blogging about recipes from their parks and cruise lines, including Disney Churro Bites.

Speaking of baking:

On easter Sunday my husband baked 40 rolls to provide the family and neighbours with fresh still warm rolls for a traditional easter breakfast.

 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Lyssa said:

On easter Sunday my husband baked 40 rolls to provide the family and neighbours with fresh still warm rolls for a traditional easter breakfast.

Does he have a Gay older brother or Uncle who’d like to move to the Bay Area?
;–)

[Lyssa]

2 hours ago, droughtquake said:

Does he have a Gay older brother or Uncle who’d like to move to the Bay Area?
;–)

lol sorry but no. Also he is the only one in his family with a baking talent. Hugs

[Guest]

Many people think I’m curious.  ;–)

Edited April 22, 2020 by droughtquake

[Mikiesboy]

35 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

Many people think I’m curious.

I've always thought you curious ... OH, you don't mean THAT way....

[JayR]

I think I've read much more books during this time than ever before 

Edited May 20, 2020 by JayR

[Guest]

Films About and By Black Voices Streaming for Free on The Criterion Channel

Redacted, The Criterion Channel is making a series of films about and by Black voices available for free. Films from Maya Angelou, Julie Dash, William Greaves, Kathleen Collins, Cheryl Dunye, Charles Burnett, and more, are available in front of the paywall for the streaming service. Criterion is also “establishing an employee-guided fund with a $25,000 initial contribution and an ongoing $5,000 monthly commitment to support organizations fighting racism in America.”

Today, the Criterion Channel sent out the following announcement:

Redacted sections

Today we are establishing an employee-guided fund with a $25,000 initial contribution and an ongoing $5,000 monthly commitment to support organizations fighting racism in America, including bail funds, community organizations, legal defense funds, and advocacy groups that address police reform. If you follow us on Twitter or Instagram, we’ll keep you informed of the organizations we’re supporting.

We are also using our streaming platform, the Criterion Channel, to highlight films that focus on Black Lives, including works by early pioneers of African American Cinema such as Oscar Micheaux; classics by Maya Angelou, Julie Dash, William Greaves, Kathleen Collins, Cheryl Dunye, and Charles Burnett; contemporary work by Khalik Allah and Leilah Weinraub; and documentary portraits of black experience by white filmmakers Les Blank and Shirley Clarke. We’ve taken down the paywall on as many of these titles as we can, so even if you aren’t a subscriber you can watch them for free.

Films available include:

• And When I Die I Won’t Stay Dead directed by Billy Woodberry
• Black Mother directed by Khalik Allah 
• Black Panthers directed by Agnes Varda
• Body and Soul directed by Oscar Micheaux
• Cane River directed by Horace Jenkins 
• Daughters of the Dust directed by Julie Dash
• Down in the Delta directed by Maya Angelou
• Losing Ground directed by Kathleen Collins 
• My Brother’s Wedding directed by Charles Burnett
• Portrait of Jason directed by Shirley Clarke
• The Scar of Shame directed by Frank Perugini
• Shakedown directed by Leilah Weintraub 
• Suzanne, Suzanne directed by Camille Billops and James Hatch
• Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One directed by William Graves 
• The Watermelon Woman directed by Cheryl Dune
• A Well-Spent Life directed by Les Blank

Magnolia Pictures and Shudder Make Black Documentaries Like
‘I Am Not Your Negro’ and ‘Horror Noire’ Available for Free

As protests continue to march across the United States (and even the entire globe) in support of Black Lives Matter, movie distributors are amplifying the voices of black filmmakers in an effort to not just show solidarity, but educate the general public on why these protests are so necessary.

Following The Criterion Channel making a selection of movies from black filmmakers available for free, Magnolia Pictures is teaming with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and O Cinema to release three extremely relevant documentaries for free, each focusing on Civil Rights leaders, black writers, and the issues of social injustice. Get the details below.

UPDATE: Shudder has also made the documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror available for free through their website and streaming app.

Here are the trailers and synopses for the three documentaries Magnolia Pictures is making available for free:

• I Am Not Your Negro

 

In his new film, director Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished – a radical narration about race in America, using the writer’s original words. He draws upon James Baldwin’s notes on the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. to explore and bring a fresh and radical perspective to the current racial narrative in America.

• Whose Streets?

 

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy.

Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance.

Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they are the story. Whose Streets? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.

• Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

 

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am offers an artful and intimate meditation on the life and works of the acclaimed novelist. From her childhood in the steel town of Lorain, Ohio to ‘70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali, from the front lines with Angela Davis to her own riverfront writing room, Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers, critics and colleagues on an exploration of race, America, history and the human condition as seen through the prism of her own literature.

Inspired to write because no one took a “little black girl” seriously, Morrison reflects on her lifelong deconstruction of the master narrative. Woven together with a rich collection of art, history, literature and personality, the film includes discussions about her many critically acclaimed works, including novels “The Bluest Eye,” “Sula” and “Song of Solomon,” her role as an editor of iconic African-American literature and her time teaching at Princeton University.

Each of the above films will be made available for screenings through community partners in these eight cities:

• Akron, Ohio
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Detroit, Michigan
• Macon, Georgia
• Miami, Florida
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• San Jose, California
• St. Paul, Minnesota

Don’t worry if you don’t live in any of those cities, because each title will also be made available to rent for free online each Sunday for a 24-hour period. Magnolia, Knight Foundation, and O Cinema will provide more information to their mailing lists soon on how to access these movies online. There will also soon be a landing page to help people watch, but in order to see them, viewers will have to register in advance to receive a secure link and password to watch each movie.

I Am Not Your Negro will be the first film available on June 7, Whose Streets? will follow on June 14, and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am will wrap things up on June 21. On the following Monday after each film’s debut, there will be a community based virtual conversation that will help people learn about ways to support social justice reforms and anti-racism initiatives in their communities.

Alberto Ibarguen, president of Knight Foundation, said in a statement (via Variety):

Informed, equitable, inclusive and participatory communities are as essential to a strong democracy as an informed citizenry. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis is a terrible affront to that ideal – and this weekend is a reminder of how tough it will be to rise to the moment. But our democracy depends on our willingness to try.”

O Cinema co-founders Kareem Tabsch and Vivian Marthell added:

“We believe films have the power to educate, entertain and inspire — they can change communities and can change lives. As artists and arts organizations we have the responsibility to speak out against injustice and oppression. These three remarkable films speak directly to issues that have plagued our country for far too long. We hope they can spark real dialogue and a plan of action to address inequities.”

Also, don’t forget that Magnolia Pictures has the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble coming in July:

 

Now is the time to listen to black creators and voices who are calling attention to the injustices brought upon black people every single day. These movies provide an insight into the prejudice that has oppressed them for far too long, and they also contain thoughtful and provocative perspectives from some of the most revered figures in black culture. Please, take the time to educate yourself and hear what you can do to help support this important movement.

UPDATE: Shudder is making their documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror available for free too.

 

Delving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, Horror Noire traces the untold history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre. Adapting Robin Means Coleman’s seminal book, HORROR NOIRE will present the living and the dead, using new and archival interviews from scholars and creators; the voices who survived the genre’s past trends, to those shaping its future.

The film features talking heads such as Jordan Peele, Tananarive Due, Tony Todd, Ken Foree, and many more with insights into the depiction of black people in horror and the black films and filmmakers that black culture to the genre. Watch the movie right here.
 

I believe those eight cities are where the late lamented Knight Ridder used to publish newspapers (including the Pulitzer Prize winning San Jose Mercury).

[Ashi]

On 4/13/2020 at 12:36 AM, droughtquake said:

KRON4, an independent TV station that used to be a powerhouse NBC affiliate owned by the San Francisco Chronicle (thus the call letters), was once profitable enough to create its own documentaries. On Sunday evenings, they’ve been substituting one of their documentaries for their usual hour-long sports program. Tonight, the documentary was about the early history of San Francisco and was narrated by Peter Coyote (‘Keys’ from the movie ET the Extraterrestrial)!

Their website allows you to view any of their 31 documentaries. While a few of them won’t be of much interest outside the Bay Area, many of them will be. And they’re all commercial-free. It’s ironic that they even made a documentary about the man behind their newspaper owner’s arch-rival, William Randolph Hearst*.

Thank you for this link.  The documentary about Milk and Moscone is something I would be using in my current story.  I remember viewing a clip of the White Night Riot in San Francisco Hall long times ago on YouTube as the aftermath of assassination and police raid of gay bars, which is a very important part of Gay History (not just for us locals!).  I was just looking into that and boom, you gave me the link to the source.  😄  Now I just need to integrate that into the story.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Ashi