Recent rain storms caught many a Bay Arean totally off guard. We will not let it happen again.
With these recently released movies, TV shows, podcasts, and books all set in San Francisco, Oakland and Silicon Valley, we can explore all we want without ever pulling on a pair of rubber boots.
So snuggle up and dig in, whatever the weather.
Movies in and About the Bay Area
(Courtesy of @a24_movies_art_gallery)
Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Third generation Black San Franciscan Jimmie Fails (Jimmie Fails) confronts the gentrification that has disenfranchised his family as he attempts to reclaim his grandfather’s Victorian. // hulu.com
Blindspotting(2018)
In this dramedy, parolee Colin Hoskins (Daveed Diggs) has to grapple with the aftermath of witnessing a police shooting three days before his sentence is up. The script, written by Diggs and Rafael Casal back in 2000, is a portrait of race, class, and a quickly gentrifying Oakland. // amazon.com
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Cassius Green (LaKeith Stanfield) finds that speaking in a white accent at his telemarketing job is a way to get ahead. But corporate success turns out to be a moral quagmire where he’ll have to choose between profit and his activist friends. // netflix.com
The Diary of a Teenage Girl(2015)
This film take on the graphic novel of the same name is the awkward, amusing, and relatable story of Minnie (Bel Powley), a 15-year-old girl on a quest to lose her virginity to her mother’s boyfriend (Alexander Skarsgard) in 1976 San Francisco. It also stars Kristen Wiig. //amazon.com
PS: Gen Xers will also appreciate 10 local classics from the 1990s.
TV Series Based in the Bay Area
(Courtesy of @scriptmagazine)
Woke (2020-2022)
This comedy set in San Francisco follows Keef Knight (Lamorne Morris), a Black cartoonist who starts to see and hear things after being racially profiled by an aggressive cop. Now that he’s “woke,” Knight has to learn how to navigate the microaggressions and racism he once tried to ignore. // hulu.com
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (2021-2022)
Zoey Clarke (Jane Levy) discovers that she has the ability to hear the thoughts and desires of friends and strangers in musical song-and-dance numbers. // peacocktv.com
Tales of the City(2019)
Based on the book series by Armistead Maupin, the Tales of the City series revolves around an apartment complex run by transgender Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis), and the eccentric cast of characters who live there. It also stars Laura Linney and Elliot Page. //netflix.com
Silicon Valley(2014-2019)
This send up to the ridiculous inner workings of Silicon Valley tech startups seen through the eyes of a programmer and his rag-tag buddies was written by Mike Judge of Office Space fame. //hbomax.comBay Area Podcasts
Ear Hustle hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods.
(Courtesy of @earhustlesq)
Ear Hustle
A partnership between San Quentin inmates Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, and artist Nigel Poor, Ear Hustle shares stories about the notorious prison, and what happens to those who’ve gone through the system. // earhustlesq.com
Rightnowish
Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw digs into Bay Area arts and culture with a focus on undertold stories from POC communities from Richmond to Bayview. // kqed.org
California Foodways
This podcast explores the culture, history, and economics of California through the food it grows, eats, and discards every day. // californiafoodways.com
Bay Curious
Ever wondered where Karl got his name or how the Transamerica Pyramid was built? This podcast has the answer to those and other mysterious and quirky questions about the Bay Area. //kqed.org
Fiction Books Set in the Bay Area
(Courtesy of @jainareadsbooks)
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
This brutally beautiful story of survival in East Oakland follows Kiara, a young woman who turns to the streets to keep a roof over her head. It's based on the underage sex scandal that rocked the Oakland P.D. in 2016. //greenapplebooks.com
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Set in 1954, this coming-of-age story about a “good Chinese girl” who begins to frequent the queer Telegraph Club explores identity and racism in mid-20th century SF Chinatown. // greenapplebooks.com
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
When two girls think they witness a terrible act in Sea Cliff and one of them suddenly disappears, the other is left to make sense of what’s happened. It’s a suspenseful, poignant mystery that draws a parallel between the uncertainty of life as a teenager and a transforming San Francisco. // greenapplebooks.com
There There by Tommy Orange
There There travels alongside a dozen Indigenous characters from their native communities to the Big Oakland Powwow. The devastating, wondrous novel explores the question of belonging in a post-colonial America. // greenapplebooks.comBay Area Non-Fiction Books
(Courtesy of @aliavolzzz)
Who Killed Jane Stanford? A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University by Richard White
After a decade of steering Stanford University into public controversy following the death of husband Leland, Jane Stanford was murdered by strychnine poisoning. White sorts through the evidence of the coverup that followed, revealing a heated story of power, wealth, and corruption in the early 20th century Bay Area. // greenapplebooks.com
Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco by Alia Volz
This amusing memoir-cum-love letter explores the relationship between Volz and her mother, who ran Sticky Fingers Bakery and distributed cannabis brownies to SF AIDS patients in the ‘80s, and the edibles industry. // greenapplebooks.com
Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream by Conor Dougherty
NYT journalist Conor Daughtry dives deep into one of the Bay Area’s biggest issues: the housing crisis. Analyzing historical and economic forces, he attempts to explain how we got to this point, and how the Bay Area’s experience may soon be reflected across the country. // greenapplebooks.com
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
This memoir by tech newbie Anna Viener takes readers inside the Silicon Valley startup world, laying bare its delirious, outrageous, and sometimes reckless culture. // greenapplebooks.com
PS: Find lots more books by local authors and on Bay Area topic on 7x7.com.
