the library...

so the other day when I was kicking butt at court I had the chance to visit the main public library in San Francisco. It is located in the civic center near city hall and the federal court house. It is kind of ironic that the location of our civic resources and the main storehouse of knowledge is located in a ghetto. There are homeless people, defecation, and drug use all in plain sight. There are often foul smells emulating from the downstairs lobby in the library where there is free internet access, so I tend to avoid this area and head upstairs to the 4th floor where there are workstations and free wi-fi. It is sad really since I used to love going to the library as a kid to read but would probably be frightened to visit the main library back then. Sad.

While paying my fines on the first floor (oops!) I noticed the dvd section. They have all sorts of educational and foreign films. They may have blockbusters but I did not see any. I picked up a few documentaries:
-Golden Gate (doc about the building of the bridge)
-Hollywood: An empire of their own (the formation of la as a movie empire)
-Slasher (doc about a used car salesmen)
-The fantastic world of M.C. Escher (doc about his art and its meaning)
-What happened to Kerouac? (doc about how fame changed him)

I have watched the golden gate one which was interesting. Strauss, the designer was consumed by the building of the bridge. It was his masterpiece... and he died shortly after it was finished...

So check out your neighborhood public library... you never know what gems you can find...