By JONATHAN CURIEL, San Francisco Chronicle

The history of cinema is the history of men gazing at women. Male movie critics (most notably Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss) and female academics (such as feminist professor Judith Mayne) have made this point, saying women are constantly viewed from male-oriented angles, scripts and directions.

One of the most indelible moments in banjo history took place in the 1972 movie "Deliverance," when an odd-looking teen played the instrument from an old wooden porch.

Doug Beretta, who runs an organic dairy farm in Santa Rosa, Calif., always welcomes the spring arrival of daylight-saving time. His cows, on the other hand, have a bigger problem with the switchover, which this year starts on Sunday.

The Cow Palace has hosted some of the biggest musical acts in the past half-century, from the Beatles in 1964 to Metallica in 2004, and it was there that John F. Kennedy gave his 1960 speech that first outlined his idea for the Peace Corps.