Saturday, July 25th

Kage Baker & Madeleine Robins

Cash bar and doors open at 6:00 pm, Readings begin at 7:00 pm. Followed by Q & A from the audience, with Rick Kleffel lending a hand as our moderator.

$5 suggested donation goes straight to Variety Childrens’ Charity – drop some cash in the donation box, or buy a beer! Books for sale at event, courtesy of Borderlands Books. Readings, schmoozing, question & answers, and booksigning.

The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg. 1st Floor
582 Market Street at 2nd & Montgomery
San Francisco

We are delighted to announce that Madeleine Robins will be joining Kage Baker at our July 25th Reading.

The Variety Preview Room, 582 Market St. @ Montgomery, 1st floor of The Hobart Bldg., San Francisco.

Doors Open 6:00pm, Readings start 7:00pm.

Cash Bar.

Unfortunately Ray Garton is no longer able to attend our July reading. We are actively seeking a replacement and will post here as soon as we have someone.

Meanwhile, don’t forget tonight’s Miyazake movies.

July 18-21, Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco

Further details are available from their web site.

Entirely by coincidence, our July movie night is also Miyazake-themed. On Wednesday, July 15 we will be showing two classic Miyazake films. They will be preceded by a short talk from anime scholar, Michael Andre-Driussi. Our program is as follows:

Princess Mononoke – 134 mins. – 1997 (English language adaptation by Neil Gaiman)

Kiki’s Delivery Service – 103 mins. – 1989

Doors and cash bar open at 6:00 PM
Films begin at 7:00 PM

$5 suggested donation helps raise money for Variety Children’s Charity – leave a fiver at the door, or buy a drink!

Variety Preview Theatre, The Hobart Building, 582 Market Street, San Francisco. Entrance is between Quizno’s and Citibank. Seating is limited – First come, first seated.

July has a graphic novel emphasis so far:

Thursday, July 9 – 4:00 PM
Inked Books: The Graphic Novel Book Club discusses Top 10 Book 1 by Alan Moore at Books Inc. in Palo Alto, 855 El Camino Real #74, Palo Alto.

Sunday, July 12 – 4:00 PM
The Speculative Fiction Book Club discusses The Watchmen by Alan Moore at Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park.

Acclaimed film director, Hayao Miyazaki, has been awarded the 2009 Berkeley Japan Prize, which honors individuals from all disciplines and professions who have, over a lifetime influenced the world’s understanding of Japan. To celebrate this various events are planned for July.

Movie Tribute Series

The Pacific Film Archive Theater is running a series of four special screenings showcasing the work Hayao Miyazaki, presented in collaboration with the Center for Japanese Studies at UC Berkeley.

Sunday, July 12, 4:00 PM: My Neighbor Totoro.

Tuesday, July 14, 7:00 PM: Porco Rosso.

Sunday, July 19, 2:30 PM: Castle in the Sky.

Tuesday, July 21, 7:00 PM: Princess Mononoke.

Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley.

Miyazaki World Premiere

On Friday, July 24 at 6:00 PM the Pacific Film Archive Theater will present the first public showing of Hayao Miyazaki’s new film, Ponyo, which is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Little Mermaid. The film will not open in cinemas in the US until August 14. Sadly the event sold out before we got to hear about it, but keep an eye open on eBay, you might get lucky.

The Man Himself

And finally, Mr. Miyazaki will be appearing in person for a conversation with Roland Kelts (Tokyo University lecturer and author of Japanamerica) on July 25 at the Zellerbach Auditorium. Unsurprisingly this even is also sold out.

Public Symposium

On Saturday, July 25 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor conference room leading scholars of Japanese popular culture, literature, and film will discuss Hayao Miyazaki’s work and his international influence in a roundtable panel discussion. This event is billed as free and open to the public. Details (along with all of the other events) here.

This is what we have coming up in the Bay Area for early July:

Thursday, July 9, 7:00 PM
Gregory Benford – Beyond Human: Living with Robots & Cyborgs at Clayton Books, 5433 D Clayton Road, Clayton.

Friday, July 10, 7:00 PM
S. G. Browne – Breathers (zombies!) at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco.

Saturday, July 11, 3:00 PM
Ray Garton – Bestial – the sequel to Ravenous at Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco.

Sunday, July 12, 2:00 PM
Rudy Rucker – Hylozoic, sequel to PostSingular at Dark Carnival, 3086 Claremont Avenue, Berkeley.

Wednesday, July 15, 7:00 PM
Joe Lansdale – Vanilla Ride at M is For Mystery, 86 E. Third Avenue, San Mateo.

Tuesday, June 30, 7:00 PM

Victoria Theater, 2961 16th Street, San Francisco

San Francisco’s fourth annual Can’t Stop the Serenity charity movie screening of Serenity and for the first time on the big screen in San Francisco, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. As usual proceeds go to Equality Now.

Sunday, June 21, 6:00 PM
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club discusses Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. The book for July 19th is A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. At Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco.

Wednesday, June 24, 6:00 PM
Graphic Content Book Group discusses Black Jack V.2 by Osamu Tezuka at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco.

Wednesday, June 24, 6:30 PM
Other Realms Fantasy and Science Book Club discusses The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt at Books Inc., 1375 Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame.

Wednesday, June 24, 7:30 PM
Desert Island Book Club discusses Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami at Books Inc., 1344 Park Street, Alameda.