In celebration of her new book, River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, renowned Bay Area author Rebecca Solnit (As Eve Said to the Serpent, Wanderlust) will give a copiously illustrated talk linking Muybridge’s work as a photographer-his fascination with serial and sequential images, with freezing and exploring time-to the technological involvements of his patron Leland Stanford, builder of the transcontinental railroad and founder of the university that gestated Silicon Valley. Citing a scandalous, previously unpublished first-person account, Solnit suggests that the breakthrough leading to cinema took place in San Francisco itself (as did Muybridge’s first public screening of his animated photographic images). “This book,” Solnit says, “is a genesis story for Hollywood and Silicon Valley, for the way that California has generated the forces that changed the world.” Following her lecture, Solnit will sign copies of her book (available for purchase this evening) and join us for an informal reception. (Irina Leimbacher)