conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a description for a book titled San Francisco about Chicago, Boston, Starr with the genre: History, Americas? Start with the sentence 'the author ( Chicago ; Boston ) shows us nothing unique in his picture-postcard panoramas of the city Starr compares to the ancient ports of Byblos and Alexandria'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author ( Chicago ; Boston ) shows us nothing unique in his picture-postcard panoramas of the city Starr compares to the ancient ports of Byblos and Alexandria. Focusing on familiar landmarks, the author offers photographic cliches: the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge (on clear days and fog-bound), a crowded view of Ghirardelli Square, closeups of architectural decorations in Chinatown. Among interiors glimpsed are Melvin Belli's law office, chockablock with books and mementos, and the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel. the author is best at capturing design elements, such as the details on the facade of a Victorian house, or the pattern of waves rolling across Ocean Beach at sunset. With few shots of people, and with the city's spectacular natural setting included only incidentally, this photographic essay, intended as tribute to San Francisco's striking diversity, instead drains it of vitality. <BR>Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a description for a book titled San Francisco about San, Francisco, Master with the genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author, an avid lover of books and story, has a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature. She spent her childhood in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993. Marian lives in Glen Ellen, California, with her husband, daughter, a golden-haired Chow-Chow, and a little black cat. San Francisco is her first novel.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: San Francisco is her first novel.. Marian lives in Glen Ellen, California, with her husband, daughter, a golden-haired Chow-Chow, and a little black cat. She spent her childhood in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993.the author, an avid lover of books and story, has a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book titled San Francisco?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: San Francisco (1936 film): The film opens with two men in boxing gloves and trunks sparring vigorously.\nThey conclude their session and get dressed.\nOne dons a natty suit, the other a priest\'s collar.\nThe first man is "Blackie" Norton (Clark Gable), a saloonkeeper and gambler.\nHe owns the Paradise Club on Pacific Street in the notorious Barbary Coast.\nThe other is Blackie\'s childhood friend, Father Tim Mullen (Spencer Tracy), a Roman Catholic priest.\nBlackie hires Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), a promising, but impoverished, classically trained singer from Benson, Colorado.\nShe becomes a star attraction at the Paradise, especially for singing "San Francisco" (a song composed for the movie, which became the city\'s unofficial anthem).\nThe club piano player, "The Professor" (Al Shean), can tell Mary has a professionally trained voice.\nMat (Ted Healy), Blackie\'s good friend at the Paradise, wisely predicts that Mary is not going to stay on the "Coast".\nFather Tim makes several attempts to reform Blackie, while the other nightclub owners urge him to run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in order to protect their crooked interests.\nEncouraged by Father Tim, who believes Blackie can use the supervisor position to implement reform, Blackie decides to run for office.\nHowever, despite Father Tim\'s best efforts, Blackie remains a jaunty Barbary Coast atheist, although Blackie secretly paid for the new organ in Father Tim\'s church.\nBlackie\'s feelings for Mary intensify, but complications arise when she is offered an opportunity to sing in the opera.\nAlthough she initially refuses to break her contract with Blackie, she later leaves the Paradise Club due to the overtly sexual manifestation of Blackie\'s feelings for her.\nMary is hired by the Tivoli Opera House on Market Street.\nThere she becomes involved with Nob Hill scion Jack Burley (Jack Holt).\nBlackie wants to stop Mary singing at the Tivoli, and although he arrives the night of her premiere with a process server to shut down the show, when he hears her sing he decides not to stop the opera.\nAfter her performance, Blackie visits Mary in her dressing room.\nRealizing she still loves him, Mary asks him to marry her.\nBlackie agrees, but their reunion is soon interrupted by Burley, who had earlier proclaimed his love for Mary and proposed to her.\nBlackie, seeing Burley as competition for Mary\'s affections, is happy to tell him of their intent to marry.\nHowever, as Blackie gloatingly tells Burley of their plans, it becomes clear that Blackie intends to take Mary away from the Tivoli and put her back on stage at the Paradise.\nBurley appeals to Mary, but Blackie presents Mary with an ultimatum by asking if she wants to marry him or stay at the Tivoli.\nMary\'s choice is to return to the Paradise.\nBackstage, before the opening night of her return performance, she asks Blackie if they can set the date for their wedding.\nBlackie agrees, but wants to postpone getting married until after the election.\nFather Tim drops in, and is angered by Mary\'s skimpy stage costume.\nHe defies Blackie to put her on the stage in front of the rowdy Paradise audience.\nMary observes Blackie\'s reaction to Father Tim\'s statements, and decides to leave with the priest after Blackie strikes him in the face.\nMary goes back to Burley and eventually meets his mother (Jessie Ralph) at her Nob Hill mansion.\nShe tells Mary that she started out in 1850 as Massie, the washerwoman in Portsmouth Square, and that although she also once had a "Blackie" in her life, she chose to marry the elder Burley.\nThis cements Mary\'s decision to accept Burley\'s proposal of marriage.\nOn April 17, 1906, by order of Burley, the San Francisco Police Department closes the Paradise.\nBlackie, distraught about the future of his club, ends up at the city\'s annual Chickens Ball.\nMary and Burley are in attendance.\nMary, after learning of the club\'s closing, enters the Chickens Ball competition for the Paradise, sings "San Francisco", and wins.\nBlackie angrily refuses the prize money, stating that Mary had no right to sing on behalf of his club.\nEmbarrassed, Mary is about to leave the ball with Burley.\nThen, at 5:13\xa0am.\nApril 18, 1906, the earthquake hits the city.\nThe city id devastated: buildings collapse, fires rage out of control, and hundreds are killed.\nFiremen can\'t stop the fires due to broken water mains.\nAs Blackie wanders the city searching for Mary, he comes upon Mat, who was injured at the destroyed Hall of Justice on Washington Street.\nA nurse tells Blackie that Mat is dying.\nBefore he dies, Mat tells Blackie he was wrong about his feelings toward Mary.\nBlackie then walks to Nob Hill, where he sees mrs Burley, who senses her son has died.\n(Blackie did indeed see the dead Burley) She leaves the area as US Army troops from the Presidio prepare to blow up her mansion to make a firebreak.\nBlackie later meets Father Tim, who takes him to Golden Gate Park, where there is a tent camp for the homeless.\nThere Blackie hears Mary\'s voice lifted in song with those in mourning.\nAfter seeing Mary, Blackie falls to his knees to thank God for sparing Mary\'s life.\nMary sees Blackie praying, and as she walks toward him, word spreads through the camp that "The fire\'s out.\n" As people shout about building a new San Francisco, Blackie and Mary join the crowd (a surprisingly multi-racial group, given the era of the film) as they leave the park marching arm-in-arm, singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".\nThe film ends with a dissolve from the smoldering ruins into the "modern" San Francisco of the mid-1930s.\n(When the film is shown near April 18 by Bay Area television stations, the scenes of the 1930s city are replaced with stock news footage of the city in the modern era).