September Mini Courses   

**This class will be taught In-Person**

Futurism was a politically charged art movement starting in the early 20th Century. It was a group of (mostly)men who looked to speed, technology, and action to create wonderful art. Unfortunately, they were also fascists, war-mongers, and misogynists who thought of war as a way to cleanse society of its past. Burn the museums! Burn the libraries! These were the mottos of Filippo Marinetti, who led the group. Not a nice bunch of folks, but if art museums were only filled with nice people, they'd be empty. Let's look at this controversial group together and see what artistic movements led to their creation.

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

English, like all other languages, changes over time and varies according to place and social setting. The way a person sounds—such as with the “southern drawl” or dropping their “r”s—immediately conjures up a sense of the place where they come from. But the way we speak is influenced by many factors: not only our geographical roots, but our social and educational background, our working environment, our friends, our own sense of identity, and even our political views all affect how we sound.

In this course, we will examine English dialects and accents around the world, and how they changed over time. We will wonder what Shakespeare really sounded like, and how we can know that. We will observe how English speakers can manipulate the way they speak to emphasize their identity. We will contemplate how Bostonians and New Yorkers, posh and working-class Londoners, Scots and Irishmen, Canadians and Australians speak. Led by an expert on linguistics and history Asya Pereltsvaig, Ph.D., this course will open your eyes - and your ears! - to the great diversity of Englishes around the world.

 

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

This two-hour PowerPoint lecture and discussion, including production  stills and film clips, revisits Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952), a Western classic  that reflects its historical moment during the Hollywood blacklist while raising a  timeless question: where do we draw the line between being brave and being foolish?  Using Aristotle’s “golden mean,” we examine courage as a balance between cowardice  and recklessness, and explore how the film’s divided community, its female  characters, and its lone marshal reveal a spectrum of moral choice. Registrants are  expected to view the film in advance via a streaming service or library of their  choosing.

**This class will be taught In-Person**

In postwar San Francisco both Abstract Expressionism and Figurative painting had powerful presences. Over time, the two points of view competed and co-mingled. The result was a hybrid style: BAY AREA FIGURATION.

**This class will be taught In-Person, (One class in the classroom and one walking. There are two walking tour dates and you will choose only one. A link to choose will be sent to you. The two dates are: Thursday, September 17, 1:30 - 3:30 and Friday, September 18, 1:30 - 3:30.)**

San Francisco's Lower Nob Hill was obliterated by the 1906 earthquake and fires, to be rebuilt as a masonry apartment and hotel district consisting almost entirely of 3 to 7 story multi-unit residential buildings which fill their entire front lot lines and share a single stylistic orientation. The vast majority were designed by the city's most prominent architects and constructed between 1906 and 1925. This two-session class will consist of an in-class session presenting a visual overview of the built environment, and a second session walk of the district's two main east-west streets, Bush and Sutter. 

**This class will be taught In-Person**

Public transit is in the news. In San Francisco, two ballot measures will be decided in November.  This course will provide background in the history and operations of Bay Area transit systems  (with focus on BART and Muni) in the first two hour session. The second session will be devoted  to the on-going financial woes of public transit and to an analysis of the measures on the San  Francisco ballot.