August 21, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Grand marshals for Oakland Pride

ARTS

5

13

25

Help is on the Way

Dusty Queers

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 44 • No. 34 • August 21-27, 2014

Probe of SF man’s death continues Rick Gerharter

Newly sworn-in justice of the California Court of Appeal Therese Stewart is enrobed by her wife, Carole Scagnetti, following her investiture and swearingin ceremony August 15.

Stewart joins CA appellate bench

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

host of California appellate justices, as well as a state Supreme Court nominee, joined LGBT community leaders and San Francisco’s legal establishment to witness the swearing-in of the Golden State’s first lesbian appeals court justice.

More than 150 people gathered in the auditorium of the State Office Building in San Francisco’s Civic Center Friday, August 15 to see Therese M. Stewart take her oath of office to a seat on Division Two of the First District Court of Appeal. J. Anthony Kline, who has long been friends with Stewart and is the acting presiding justice for Division Two, administered the oath.

A clearly nervous Stewart flubbed the second and third lines of the oath, and after she correctly repeated the fourth, Kline joked to her, “Good.”

Stewart’s wife, Carole Scagnetti, herself an attorney, then enrobed her.

“Her choices will be energized by her passion for justice and rooted in her deep generosity of spirit,” said Scagnetti, adding that, “I am so proud of you today and so proud of us as a family.”

Formerly City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s chief deputy, Stewart is best known for litigating the state’s marriage equality lawsuits that secured marriage rights for same-sex couples, first at the state level in 2008 and then, in 2013, as part of the federal litigation.

She applied for a judicial appointment with Governor Jerry Brown last fall and was notified two days before this year’s Pride parade in late June of her nomination to a vacancy on the appellate court. Hailed for her legal advocacy skills, Stewart said she had bequeathed her role as an advocate to her former colleagues in the city attorney’s office now that she has to be an impartial justice.

See page 9 >>

by Seth Hemmelgarn Mourners place flowers on an altar in Duboce Park August 13 to memorialize Bryan “Feather” Higgins, a Faerie who was severely injured and taken off life support during the vigil.

P

olice are continuing their investigation into the death of a gay San Francisco man who was found injured in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood last week.

Bryan Higgins, 31, was found on the

ground at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, August 10 near Church Street and Duboce Avenue.

He died three days later in San Francisco General Hospital after his family took him off life support.

Friends and family are recalling their love See page 10 >> Rick Gerharter

Sarria’s activism recalled a year after death

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco’s Openhouse agency organized a panel to remember and honor gay community leader Jose Sarria on the first anniversary of his death. On the panel, Gerard Koskovich, left, from the GLBT Historical Society, tells of how Sarria’s role has been overlooked by historians. Others on the panel, from left, are Galilea, friend and Absolute Empress XLI; friend Robbie Robinson; Juliet Demeter, project archivist at the GLBT Historical Society and archivist for the Jose Sarria Papers; Marlena, Absolute Empress XXV; and moderator Donna Sachet, Absolute Empress XXX.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

L

ong before queer activists marched and chanted down the streets of San Francisco, Jose Sarria lived his life as an out, proud gay man.

On the one-year anniversary of his death last August 19 at the age of 90, LGBT leaders and others paid tribute to Sarria as a packed crowd

filled the second floor auditorium of San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center for “Honoring Our Hero, Remembering Jose Julio Sarria.”

It was standing room only, with many members of the Imperial Court System, for which he laid the groundwork, appearing in full regalia. Co-founding the Imperial Court System was another of Sarria’s many accomplish-

ments. The Imperial Court is now a goodwill ambassador for the community and has raised much-needed funds for HIV related causes.

Sarria was a trailblazer. During the 1950s, he was a popular drag performer at the Black Cat, a North Beach gay bar that closed in 1964. In addition to addressing serious issues through See page 3 >>

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

S av e f o r yo u r l i t t l e o n e w i t h t h e f u r ry f u n d.

Set up a dedicated savings account to cover pet expenses so you’re always prepared.

Plus, with a $100 deposit, we’ll give you a certificate for a free pet microchip, provided by the San Francisco SPCA.* SanFranciscoFCU.com | 415.775.5377 Federally Insured by NCUA

*San Francisco FCU has the right to cancel promotion at any time. Must join San Francisco Federal Credit Union to be eligible for this offer. Individuals who live, work, worship or go to school in San Francisco or San Mateo Counties or immediate relatives of current San Francisco FCU members may join. $5.00 minimum deposit to a regular share savings account is required for membership. Member must open a secondary savings account with a minimum of $100 initial deposit to receive the free microchip at the San Francisco SPCA (SF SPCA). If the member’s pet is new to the SF SPCA, a wellness exam may be required prior to the microchipping. The cost of the wellness exam is the responsibility of the member. A certificate for the microchip will be emailed to the member within 45 days of account opening. If the member’s pet is already microchipped, or if the member does not redeem the microchip within 90 days of receiving the certificate, San Francisco FCU will donate $25 to the SF SPCA in lieu of the microchip.

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

t

CA Senate panel tables condoms in porn bill

by David-Elijah Nahmod

G

ay porn producers and models alike are relieved that they will continue to chart their own sexual destinies without government interference after a state Senate committee failed to “vote out” a bill that would have required condom use for commercially filmed sexual acts in California.

Assembly Bill 1576, authored by Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Los Angeles), would have required mandatory condom use on all porn sets.

In a statement, Hall, who said he was “disappointed” by the Senate’s August 14 action, reiterated that condoms are already required on film sets.

“While I am disappointed with today’s outcome, one thing is and has always been clear on this issue: existing state and federal blood borne pathogen laws already require the use of a condom or a barrier devise when producing an adult film anywhere in California and the United States,” Hall said. “AB 1576 wouldn’t have changed existing law, but it would have helped increase industry compliance in protecting its workers.”

Many in the gay adult film business campaigned vigorously against AB 1576, citing regular HIV testing and on-set condom availability as among the reasons the government didn’t need to get involved.

The bill was strongly supported by

A bill to require condom use for commercially filmed sexual acts in California was shelved by a state Senate committee last week.

Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which feels that porn models, gay and straight alike, were at risk for regular HIV exposure and transmission due to the regularity of sexual encounters with multiple partners that comes with the job.

AHF was also a major sponsor of a similar law that Los Angeles County voters passed in 2012.

At the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s, many gay porn models succumbed to complications from AIDS. There have been several HIV scares on the straight side of the adult film business, but these incidents have been far less frequent.

Hall framed his bill as an attempt to protect actors while they are at work, but some disagreed with that.

“AB 1576 was a classic example of politicians and institutions leg-

islating against (they say ‘on behalf of ’) communities they know nothing about and didn’t bother to consult,” said Conner Habib, a gay adult model and author. “The bill was an enormous amount of money wasted on a generally safe and healthy population. The money could have gone to people in real need of care and education related to STDs. “The legislators and organizers behind it used sex-phobia, HIV stigma, and shame-induced antiporn sentiment as the fuel to get it as far as it did,” he added.

City resident Blue Bailey generated a great deal of controversy regarding his participation and support for barebacking, or sex without condoms. Bailey, who’s HIV-positive, is now studying at Hastings School of Law. He plans to become

an entertainment lawyer.

“The failure of the bill to pass is a great victory for First Amendment rights for the porn community and is in line with up-to-date HIV prevention strategies,” Bailey told the Bay Area Reporter. “This should be a wake-up call to Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare that he cannot force-feed his condom-only approach to the masses. We are in the age of PrEP, and research is starting to suggest that undetectable persons with HIV are non-transmittable.”

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP, is the use of antiretroviral drugs, namely Truvada, as an HIV prevention tool. As previously reported, the international iPrEx trial found that daily use of Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection for gay and bisexual men and transgender women by 42 percent overall, rising to more than 90 percent among participants with blood drug levels indicating regular daily use.

Local porn company Kink.com said it’s tried for years to work with Weinstein and Hall.

“It doesn’t have to be a battle,” said Michael Stabile, spokesman for Kink.com. “For the past three years we have offered to work with Michael Weinstein and Assemblyman Hall to craft regulations that would both protect performers and work to make sets even safer. But they seem to want a fight. This was a bill that

was opposed by LGBT groups, HIV outreach organizations, sex worker rights, and the performers themselves. We will continue to work with performers to make sets safer.”

Weinstein, president of AHF, remains steadfast that a condoms in porn law is needed because existing law isn’t always followed.

“Regardless of whether or not AB 1576 becomes law this year, condom use already is, and has been, the law in California under existing Cal/ OSHA authority,” he said in a statement emailed to the B.A.R. “The porn industry has simply chosen to ignore these laws with few if any repercussions for the producers.”

Weinstein said the bill will be reintroduced next year and Hall alluded to the same in his statement.

“We will reintroduce the bill next year and are proud of the fact that we moved this legislation farther along in this session than in any previous year,” Weinstein said. “By way of comparison, it took over a decade to get a needle exchange bill passed on a statewide level. We are prepared for a long haul, if that’s what it takes.”

Hall said that his commitment to “protect the health and safety of California workers has only been strengthened by my work on this issue.”

“That commitment will continue through my legislative efforts in the years to come,” Hall added.t

Verdict soon in park death trial

by Seth Hemmelgarn

J

urors were expected to announce their verdict this week in the trial of a man charged with intentionally choking to death another man during a sexual encounter in San Francisco’s Buena Vista Park in 2011.

David Munoz Diaz, 25, is charged with murder, arson, mutilating human remains, and destroying evidence in the death of Freddy CanulArguello, 23, whose burned, mostly naked body was found in the park just before 5 a.m. June 10, 2011. The medical examiner’s office listed the cause of death as asphyxia due to strangulation.

Jurors got the case Monday, August 18, three weeks after attorneys in the case made their opening statements. The jurors’ options include convicting Diaz of involuntary manslaughter.

In her closing arguments Monday, Assistant District Attorney Danielle Douglas said that Canul-Arguello “did something that caused the defendant to go into a rage.”

Douglas pointed to a 911 call Diaz had made just after he killed Canul-Arguello. In the call, which Douglas has suggested was an effort to throw off authorities, he’d used the phrase “fucking faggots.”

“Something happened that night

that made him feel like a fucking faggot, and that sent him into a rage,” she said. Douglas said Diaz had “brutally” and “violently” strangled Canul-Arguello.

Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien said the prosecution was “not required to prove the defendant had a motive,” but he noted Douglas hadn’t presented a clear one during the trial, and he said during her closing arguments she’d offered “speculation” that “in some fit of self-loathing rage, [Diaz] killed Freddy. There’s nothing to support that.”

Ever since shortly after Diaz’s arrest in July 2011, Lilien has said Canul-Arguello’s death was “a ter-

rible accident,” and Monday he said there’s “no evidence David intended to kill Freddy. None.”

Diaz, who’s been in custody since his arrest, testified through a Spanish interpreter last week that he and Canul-Arguello had met up in the Castro just hours before the death, decided to have sex, and walked to the park.

They performed oral sex and other acts on each other, and Canul-Arguello asked to be choked, Diaz said.

He said he eventually agreed, then noticed at some point that CanulArguello had stopped moving. He See page 6 >>

Courtesy Canul-Arguello family

Victim Freddy Canul-Arguello in an undated photo

GSA Network head quits after sabbatical

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he executive director of the San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network is leaving, 16 years after she founded the organization.

Carolyn Laub, 39, who’s been on paid sabbatical since June, shared what she called “a bittersweet decision” in a statement this week. She said she would leave the nonprofit, which helps LGBTQ students and their allies organize GSA clubs focused on creating safer schools, at the end of August.

Laub stated the break had given her a chance “to reflect” on her time with the nonprofit, which has a budget of $2.5 million, “as well as contemplate my future professional trajectory.”

She added, “The time is right” for her departure, “making space for new leadership in the organization, and allowing me to take on new challenges in my professional life.”

Ben Wong will serve as interim executive director. In a statement provided by GSA Network spokeswoman Jill Marcellus, Wong said, “GSA Network is in an exciting period of transition, and we are focusing in on how best to serve our critical mission of empowering LGBTQ and ally youth. ... We believe young people in GSAs will lead the fight for racial, economic, and educational justice for LGBTQ youth.”

Neither Laub nor Marcellus would say exactly why Laub is departing.

Laub said her statement answered all of the Bay Area Reporter’s questions on why she’s leaving.

In response to emailed questions, Marcellus said the organization “is now a national youth empowerment organization with different challenges and opportunities,” and Courtesy GSA Network that Laub had “decided that both Carolyn Laub Ben Wong she and the organization were ready for the next phase.”

She also said, “Obviously, there are Francisco) authored. Governor Jerry personnel matters that wouldn’t be Brown signed the bill into law in 2011. discussed in any context, so I’ve anThe law requires that schools teach swered as fully as I’m able.” about the historical contributions of Laub, who identifies as queer and LGBTs, such as Harvey Milk, the forlives in San Francisco, said in an email mer San Francisco supervisor who exchange, “I haven’t announced what became one of the country’s first I’ll be doing next,” but her family openly gay elected officials before he plans to stay in the Bay Area. was assassinated in 1978.

In her statement, Laub said she’s Leno praised Laub’s leadership. been honored to have “the opportu“Carolyn is a major unsung hero,” nity to help create and bear witness Leno said in a statement. “Under her to the transformation of the lives of dedicated leadership, the GSA Netthousands of LGBTQ and straight ally work has been instrumental in advoyoung people in the GSA movement.” cating for significant changes to state She said the organization has grown law that have positively impacted from 40 clubs in California to a netLGBT youth across California. Most work that includes more than 900. notably, Carolyn’s work was critical Among other achievements, Laub in helping our office pass landmark touted the nonprofit’s work suplegislation known as the FAIR Eduporting the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, cation Act that requires school inand Respectful Education Act, which structional materials to include the gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San contributions of LGBT people.”

Board Chair Andrew Uehling said in a statement, “Carolyn Laub’s vision and strategic leadership has created a powerful national LGBT youth empowerment organization that changes lives, laws, and the very idea of what’s possible for queer youth in schools. GSA Network’s board, staff, and youth leaders ... are proud to carry forward GSA Network’s essential mission of developing LGBTQ and ally youth leaders ready to challenge all forms of oppression.”

Ruhi Bhalla, 18, a youth board member with GSA Network, said in a brief interview that Laub is “an amazing leader” and the nonprofit “is an amazing organization that has definitely transformed my life and has empowered me to create change in my school.”

Bhalla, who identifies as queer, recently graduated from high school in Santa Monica, California.

The nonprofit’s board appointed Wong as interim director when Laub started her sabbatical. She said she’s working with Wong and the board this month “to ensure a smooth transition.”

The board’s “starting the process of engaging search firms,” Marcellus said, and Wong will keep the interim post as the board searches for Laub’s replacement.

“The board is looking at a spring

2015 timeline for hiring a new executive director, wanting to take full advantage of the time to re-engage stakeholders, reflect, and plan our future,” she said. There’s no intention of making Wong the permanent director, she said.

The organization has a staff of 18, including new hires for program directors and other positions.

In response to an email requesting his age, compensation, and sexual orientation, Wong said, “Your questions are not particularly pertinent to the effectiveness of running and serving the organization. However, what is important in terms of my role at GSA Network is my years of nonprofit management experience, commitment to social justice, and deep experience in community organizing and youth development.”

Neither Laub nor Marcellus would disclose Laub’s current compensation.

“We don’t disclose salary information,” Marcellus said.

GSA Network’s tax filing for fiscal year 2012-13 lists Laub’s reportable compensation from the organization as $109,207.

Marcellus said, “[W]e feel great about where we are as an organization and tremendously excited for this next phase of our work.”

For more information, visit www. gsanetwork.org.t

t

Community News>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

South Bay celebrated a little Pride

by Heather Cassell

L

GBTs from the South Bay and beyond came out to celebrate a revamped Silicon Valley Pride and attendees noticed the difference.

This August 17 festival was themed “Honoring Our Past and Securing Our Future.” The sun was out and people were having a good time at the 39th annual event.

“We wanted to change it up and give it a new feel and a new vibe to it and hopefully we did that,” said Thaddeus Campbell, interim president of Silicon Valley Pride, formerly San Jose Pride.

The final attendance figures aren’t in yet, but early estimates indicate that about 4,000 people attended the festival throughout the day, said Campbell.

He added that while the accounting isn’t completed and won’t be until the end of this week, it appears that financial figures will only be slightly off their financial target of $152,000, Campbell said. It even looked like Pride might be able to pay off a little bit of its debt, he added.

Campbell praised the SVP board, which had little experience producing a festival, for pulling it off.

“I think that it went extremely well,” he said. “We actually put a new

<<

Sarria recalled

From page 1

humor, Sarria warned his audience to be wary of police raids and harassment. The Black Cat became a safe haven for many young gay men at a time when being gay was considered a sickness and a crime. Sarria mentored many of them, instilling in them a sense of pride. He taught them to embrace who they were. Sarria closed his shows with his signature song, “God Save Us Nelly Queens.”

In 1961 Sarria kicked down another closet door when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was the first openly gay political candidate in United States history. Though he didn’t win, he received thousands of votes, proving that an LGBT person could be a viable candidate.

Eve Vol Lution, a royal crown princess and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter regarding her admiration for Sarria.

“He was a trailblazer and quite a character,” she said. “If my life could be half as rich as the experiences he had, I’d be a wealthy person.”

Other attendees were also moved by the tribute.

“I’m interested in all the people who made sacrifices for people like me,” said Jake Roberts, 35. “My life would not be as easy as it is were it not for people like Jose Sarria.”

Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos said he drew inspiration from Sarria’s legacy.

“As a gay Latino man Jose has a special place in my heart,” Campos said as he addressed the crowd.

“Here you had this Latino gay man who in 1961 had the courage to challenge the establishment.”

Proclamations honoring Sarria posthumously were awarded from gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener.

“You can’t have enough love at City Hall for Jose,” Wiener said.

“Can you believe that the San Francisco police escorted Jose at her funeral? We will never forget her.”

The evening’s tribute also served as a benefit for Openhouse, an organization for LGBT seniors. After a short video tribute to Sarria, B.A.R. society columnist and Empress XXX Donna Sachet moderated an onstage panel discussion.

“Before Ellen, before Harvey, there was Jose,” Sachet said, referring to daytime TV talk show host

Jo-Lynn Otto

Headliner Kristine W entertained the crowd at Silicon Valley Pride in San Jose August 17.

face on the festival, which I thought was great.”

Headliners Cazwell, a gay rapper, and dance divas Kristine W and Deepa Soul rocked the crowd that danced around the stage while others relaxed in the shade, enjoyed food and drinks, and perused the booths.

Attendees took surveys to win trips, enjoyed watching nearly naked men play Twister at the Steamworks Bathhouse booth, and connected with a variety of community organizations, especially at the health pavilion.

Ellen DeGeneres and slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.

“Icon is a great word for him.”

Seated across the podium were panelists Robbie Robinson, Empress XXV Marlena, Empress XLI Galilea, historian Gerard Koskovich, and Juliet Demeter.

Robinson recalled arriving in San Francisco in 1957. He was 21 years old.

“You couldn’t be gay, you couldn’t have sex, but at the Black Cat you felt like a human being,” he said. “It brings a tear to remember how this little man made me feel like a human being. In 1957 it meant a great deal.”

Marlena spoke of the 1964 formation of the Tavern Guild. It was started to help the community fend of the police raids, which were common in gay bars at that time. Sarria was a Tavern Guild co-founder.

“We need to stand tall, to fight for our rights, but to do it with dignity and class,” Marlena said. “Jose taught us who we are. Everyone on this stage and all of you are here because of him.”

Demeter, an archivist with the GLBT Historical Society, spoke of the many artifacts that the society obtained from Sarria’s life. She said that they had 130 boxes, filled with biographical materials, articles and interviews, costumes, a little bit of film footage, and more. Some of these artifacts are now on display at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 18 Street, in the Castro.

Koskovich emphasized the importance of teaching younger LGBT people the life stories which preceded their own.

“If you tell a good story and provide a good tidbit, people are interested,” he said. “We have to get these stories passed on to the next generation. The Imperial Court System was the first sign of a visible gay movement, but it’s been invisible to the larger gay movement, and unjustly so.”

Also known as Empress I, The Widow Norton, Sarria, a World War II veteran, was buried in Colma last year with full military honors. His gravestone stands near that of Joshua Norton, a colorful San Francisco character who in 1859 declared himself Emperor of These United States and Protector of Mexico. During her reign with the Imperial Court, Sarria’s title was Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, Jose I. The discussion concluded as the panel and audience stood up and sang “God Save Us Nelly Queens” amidst laughter, tears and hugs.t

Many people who spoke with the Bay Area Reporter expressed disappointment in the size of the festival, having it cut back to one day, and the lack of a parade, but overall they were pleased by many of the chang-

es and the entertainment.

There were also many people returning to the festival after several years not attending and people who traveled from Monterey and Salinas to show their pride in the South Bay. People particularly liked the flow of the traffic between the stages and the booths and the addition of the food trucks to the festival.

David Castro, a 42-year-old San Jose native, who described himself as the “queerest of the queer,” hadn’t attended SVP in a decade, preferring to work in his garden.

But on Sunday, he decided to get out of his garden and come out to support the community, enjoy the sun and reconnect in search of volunteer opportunities, he said.

“I love it,” he said. “I’m getting older and I hardly go out anymore.

I wanted to get more involved and still be part of the gay community.”

Nora Flores, 44, a lesbian who is also a San Jose native, liked some of the changes, but was sad that the family day, usually held on the Sat-

urday prior to the festival, was cut this year. She’s attended the festival ever since she can remember and was there with her sisters’ wife and two children.

She was pleased that the event was mellow for the kids and was enjoying the day, particularly the music and the food, she said.

“Overall, it was a pleasant experience,” said Flores, who hopes the festival grows.

Campbell and the board aren’t resting. The board is already in progress planning the 40th Silicon Valley Pride in 2015.

He hopes the board will be able to “craft and build a festival that will be more envisioned and more exciting and bring in more people,” for the milestone year, including bringing back the pride parade, he said.

“We need a parade and we want it to be a great parade, especially for the 40th anniversary,” said Campbell. “What a great way to celebrate the 40th by having a parade back again.”t

7 studio and one-bedroom “Below Market Rate” rental units available: Wilson Building, 973 Market Street, San Francisco 7 below market rate (BMR) units available in this new 67 unit building. All 7 BMR units will rent and qualify at 55% of Area Median Income. Renter households must earn no more than the income levels listed below A one person household can make no more than $37,350 A two person household can make no more than $42,750 A three person household can make no more than $48,050 A four person household can make no more than $53,400 A five person household can make no more than $57,650 (Households must be at least as many people as bedrooms in the unit) Lottery Applications due by 5pm on Monday, September 8, 2014 to Wilson Building/BMR 973 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103, Attn: BMR Specialist Three ways to obtain an application for Wilson Building BMR units; 7 studio and one-bedroom “Below Market Rate” rental units available:

Wilson Building, Market Street, San Francisco ONLY 9:00 AM(1) Applications can be picked up/dropped off 973 in person Monday-Friday 7 below market rate (BMR) units available in this new 67 unit building. All 7 BMR units will rent and qualify at 55% of Area Median 6:00 PM from August 11, 2014 – September 8, 2014 at 973 Market San Francisco, Income. Renter households must earn no more than the income Street levels listed below CA 94103. The entrance for the BMR Leasing Office is located on Stevenson Street, right A one person household can make no more than $37,350 behind Market A two person household can make no more than $42,750 A three person household can make no more than $48,050 (2) Applications can be downloaded from the following until September A four person household can make no website more than $53,400 www.bmr-wilsonbuilding.comA five person household can make no more than $57,650

8, 2014:

(Households must be at least as many people as bedrooms in the unit)

(3) Applications are available for pick up only at the Information Session on, 8/19/14

Lottery Applications due by 5pm on Monday, September 8, 2014 to Wilson Building/BMR 973 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103, Attn: BMR Specialist

(1)

Please contact for moreforinformation!

Three ways to obtainus an application Wilson Building BMR units; 415.755.5937 Applications can be picked up/dropped off in person Monday-Friday ONLY 9:00 AM- 6:00 PM from August 11, 2014 – bmr.thewilsonsf@riverstoneres.com September 8, 2014 at 973 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94103. The entrance for the BMR Leasing Office is http://www.bmr-wilsonbuilding.com located on Stevenson Street, right behind Market (2) Applications can be downloaded from the following website until September 8, 2014: www.bmr-wilsonbuilding.com

Information Session Tuesday, August 19th 6:00 PM

(3) Applications are available for pick up only at the Information Session on, 8/19/14

Location: Koret Auditorium 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Please contact us for more information!

415.755.5937 bmr.thewilsonsf@riverstoneres.com http://www.bmr-wilsonbuilding.com

Open House Dates

Saturday, August 16th 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM Wednesday, August 20th, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Information Session Monday August 25th, 6:00 PM-8:00PM PM th Tuesday, August 19 6:00 PM

Location: 973 Market Street.

Location: Koret Auditorium 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco,on CA Stevenson 94102 The entrance for the BMR Leasing Office is located Street, right behind Market.

Open House Dates th Saturday, August 16 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

th Lottery September 19th202014, PM, Wednesday, August , 6:00 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM th

Monday August 25 , 6:00 PM-8:00PM PM Location: 973 Market Street. The entrance for the BMR Leasing Office is located on Stevenson Street, right behind Market.

th SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin19 Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Lottery September 2014, 12:00 PM,

SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

All applicants are encouraged to apply. Lottery preference will be given to San Francisco All applicants are encouraged to apply.

Lottery preference be given to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Certificate of Preference holders* and Redevelopment Agency Certificate of will Preference holders* and households that live or households that live or work in San Francisco work in San Francisco BMR Units

Bedroom Count

Bath Count

Square Feet

5 2

Studio 1

1 1

429 531

Wilson Building Unit Information Rent Maximum Minimum Household Monthly Income Household Allowed Income Required $899 55% of AMI $2247.50 $1022 55% of AMI $2555.00

Minimum Household Size

Deposit Required

1 Persons 1 Persons

$899 $1022

Units are monitored the SanOffice Francisco Office of Housing and areVisit subject Units are monitored through thethrough San Francisco Mayor’s of Housing Mayor’s and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. www.sf-moh.org for program information. and Post lottery credit, rental history, criminal and additional income verification willinformation. take place. Lottery Post winners will be to monitoring other restrictions.

Visitbackground www.sf-moh.org for program contacted in rank order for further processing and move-in approval. lottery credit, rental history, criminal background and additional income verification will th APPLICATIONS DUE BY 5 PM on September 8 , 2014. Postmarked applications that arrive after the deadline will be considered late and NOT eligible take for theplace. lottery. Lottery winners will be contacted in rank order for further processing and move-in approval. APPLICATIONS DUE BY 5 PM on September 8th, 2014. Postmarked applications that arrive after the deadline will be considered late and NOT eligible for the lottery.

<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

Volume 44, Number 34 August 21-27, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Race Bannon • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Brent Calderwood Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

Bay Area Reporter 44 Gough Street, Suite 204 San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com A division of BAR Media, Inc. © 2014 President: Michael M. Yamashita Chairman: Thomas E. Horn VP and CFO: Patrick G. Brown Secretary: Todd A. Vogt

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.

Advertising rates available upon request.

Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Tension-filled August

W

e’ve been reading and seeing news accounts about the events in Ferguson, Missouri with growing unease and concern. The police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, sparked violent protests that have been mishandled by the authorities who kept changing their course of action, needlessly withholding the officer’s name for days, and rewriting the rules without respect for the First Amendment rights of residents and the news media. Reporters and photographers have been arrested and pushed around for doing their jobs. The arrival this week of National Guard troops has not restored order; instead it has generated more tension.

Actually, it’s more like a war zone than an American city. Until recently, armored vehicles were in the streets accompanying officers in full riot gear. The skies above Ferguson are still subjected to a no-fly zone by the federal government.

And who can forget the TV images of smoke from tear gas canisters and the sounds of police firing rubber bullets? It makes the ugliest Occupy Oakland demonstrations of three years ago tame by comparison. And that’s saying something.

But watching events unfold from 2,000 miles away, one thing is clear: Ferguson’s response to days of anger sets a bad precedent.

The American Civil Liberties Union and state authorities agreed last week that journalists and members of the public are within their rights to record on-duty police officers. Yet just days later that agreement was disregarded as Getty photographer Scott Olson was arrested and CNN reporter Don Lemon, who is gay and African American, was shoved by police while covering the protests.

But Ferguson is more than journalists being arrested while on the job. As Vox founder Ezra Klein tweeted Monday after a Getty photographer was arrested, “If police in Ferguson treat journalists like this imagine how they treat residents.”

Indeed.

The use of tear gas and rubber bullets by police clad in full riot gear supported by surplus military vehicles and other equipment is not acceptable in our society. This isn’t the first time that riots have broken out in an American city, and it probably won’t be the last. Authorities in Ferguson, however, apparently haven’t studied or learned from such incidents, because if they had, we think their response would not have been as disastrous.

At the core of the problem is race relations. Almost 40 years ago, following the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Bayard Rustin, a gay African American man who helped organize the March on Washington, wrote a compelling rebuttal to two reports, one of which was the product of a commission created by then-

t

Governor Edward P. Brown. Reading through his lengthy analysis, it’s clear that in almost four decades, the underlying economic and social problems – and the de facto segregation – that contributed to Watts were glossed over in the reports.

Watching buildings burn and people choking on tear gas in Ferguson is to see that very little has changed in 40 years. According to reports, only three of Ferguson’s 53 police officers are African American, a city in which two-thirds of the population is black. Ferguson should be a wake-up call for all of us; in a society where government surveillance is the norm thanks to the National Security Administration, a free society and free press are more important than ever. City leaders here and elsewhere should also be paying attention – Ferguson offers a textbook case of what not to do when people exercise their right to protest.t

The Mission is so gay – let’s keep it that way

by Sue Englander

T

he LGBT community has been able to call many neighborhoods in San Francisco “home,” and a prominent site of gay life has been the Mission. Those of us who call the Mission our neighborhood, once the Castro became pricey beginning in the mid-1980s, have reveled in its diversity, its great inexpensive food, and its numerous LGBT clubs, restaurants, bars, and shops.

We are part of the mix here. The city’s only LGBT synagogue, Sha’ar Zahav, is in the Mission. We hang out at the Lexington bar, Virgil’s Sea Room, and El Rio; sun in Dolores Park; go to events at the Women’s Building; shop at Community Thrift and Good Vibrations; and patronize Rick Gerharter Photography in the Redstone Building. El-La, the Latino Transgender Community Center, moved to the Redstone about five years ago. The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club proudly meets in the Women’s Building. We have a legacy of LGBT political representation by Supervisor David Campos and by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). The Mission is so gay.

We like the fact that, for many years, it has been a refuge for those of us who needed an affordable and vital city environment. We loved and do love the Mission for what it is – a place where low-income people from the homeless to single-room occupancy hotel residents to renters to homeowners can live and prosper in relative comfort.

For the last 10 years, we have watched as our friends, neighbors, nonprofits, and small businesses have been evicted, priced out, displaced, and shunted aside as rents climbed, as developers moved in, and as the area became a desirable place for those relying on tech buses to whisk them down the Peninsula to their Google, eBay, and Facebook offices. The ongoing threatened evictions of women such as 98-year-old Mary Phillips and her caregiver Sarah Brant from their apartments on Dolores Street point to the risk for vulnerable seniors and the disabled to their now-stable living situation. Vanguard Properties is Ellis Act-evict-

ing Benito Santiago, a 64-year-old disabled Filipino, a teacher with the school district, from another building on Dolores Street. He was born and raised in San Francisco, and is an artist. He has lived at his home for 37 years.

He has nowhere else to go should the eviction go through.

Just recently, Vintage Idol has left 16th Street, and my special-occasion restaurant Woodward Gardens announced it was closing due to a prohibitively high rent. Valencia 16 Market was recently shuttered. We are still smarting from the relocation of Adobe Books (now on 24th Street after 25 years on 16th). Esta Noche on 16th will soon become a bar for a more upscale crowd. Theatre Rhinoceros was forced to leave its stage in the Redstone Building due to financial problems. While nonprofits like the Gray Panthers have moved to the Mission when it was evicted from its Market Street office, can the next wave of nonprofit evictions from the Mission be far behind?

Now developer Maximus Real Estate Partners has announced its intention to build a 350-unit project of market-rate condominiums for the site at 1979 Mission (southeast corner of 16th and Mission), which is in close proximity to the 16th Street BART station and currently contains a Walgreens and a plaza. It is used by SRO residents as the closest thing to their living room. Its benches provide a bit of respite when walking up Mission from downtown or shopping at the many fruit and vegetable stands in the area. This condo complex is the largest market-rate development in the history of the Mission district.

Aside from the fact that this “Monster in the Mission” would dwarf the now-defeated 134-unit “Wall on the Waterfront” due to its massive footprint, it is another example of the zero planning philosophy of San Francisco’s developers and the planning commission.

Instead of investigating an area’s needs and those of its residents, the advocates of these behemoths assume that the city services, bus

and light rail ridership, and need for parking spaces will merely adapt once the high rises are built and the tenants move in. Communities should have the opportunity to work cooperatively with the city to manage space, services, issues of capacity and affordability, and long-term environmental and cultural effects.

Certainly this particular complex is not being built to serve the current Mission residents.

Most LGBT people do not typically have the income to even dream of paying $1 million for these luxury units, much less $3-$4 million.

We insist that the development of the Mission proceed on the Mission’s terms as a whole community of which we are a part.

To add insult to injury, Robert Romania, the notorious CEO of Maximus Real Estate Partners, and his wife Ruth, are big donors to Republican Thom Tillis, whose current run for the Senate in North Carolina against incumbent Kay Hagan (D) is essential in the Republicans’ attempt to take control of the Senate. Tillis was a big supporter of North Carolina’s constitutional amendment to ban samesex marriages that passed in 2012.

The Harvey Milk club believes in equitable development that creates healthy, vibrant, communities of opportunity and of cultural development on the terms of those who live there. We believe this requires thoughtful, intentional, and community-based strategies to ensure that low-income communities and communities of color participate in and benefit from the decisions that shape our neighborhoods and transit-orientated development.

We, along with District 8 Democratic Club, San Francisco Latino Democratic Club, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, SEIU Local 1021, CARECEN, Causa Justa-Just Cause, Codepink SF, Eviction Free San Francisco, Instituto Familiar de La Raza, Mission Economic Development Agency, Mission Small Business Association, PODER, See page 9 >>

t

Letters >>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

It’s called unsubscribe

Why would I want to vote for someone for supervisor (Michael Petrelis) who isn’t smart enough to figure out how to stop getting Supervisor Scott Wiener’s email monthly newsletters [Mailstrom, August 14]?

Let me help you out Mr. Petrelis: Scroll down to the end of the newsletter and click on “unsubscribe.”

I also won’t be voting for someone who thinks I’m not smart enough to see through their little ruse.

Dirty politics is only used by people who can’t run on their own merits.

Joe Mac San Francisco

A Tenderloin treasure

I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Flanagan’s article on Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in the Tenderloin [“Aunt Charlie’s Lounge,” BARtab, August 7]. As a regular patron for the past nine years I’m there almost daily for cocktails, to meet other neighborhood regulars, and have a good time. It’s a very friendly bar and the regulars get to meet visitors from many U.S. cities and other countries who come to see the drag shows or to dance on DJ nights, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I particularly appreciated Flanagan’s integration of the history of the surrounding Tenderloin bar scene going back so many years. I’ve lived in San Francisco since 1965 and there were some facts I was not aware of about the TL. Good research, Mr. Flanagan – thanks.

Eddie (Hola) Bellber San Francisco

Strong bias toward Israel

This is in response to the August 7 letter about Gaza: the Geneva Conventions, of which Israel is a signatory, state that no country has a right to target civilians even under attack, that goes for Hamas and Israel. The scripted 2009 line

by Israel that every mosque, school, hospital, UN building holding refugees Hamas is hiding weapons has been disproved. The leader of a UN building that was bombed, killed many refugees, said Hamas was not hiding weapons there. Human Rights Watch said that there is evidence that an Israeli soldier fired on and killed civilians waving white flags. When Israel dropped leaflets warning people of fire, where are they to go? The borders are closed. Because a Hamas militant is in a house with 18 family members, under international law Israel does not have the right to shell the house.

The Egyptian government, which helped broker a ceasefire, is fascist, does not allow dissent, and hates Hamas. Three journalists from Al Jazeera were kidnapped and put on trial there. The country is in the pocket of the U.S. and Israel. The Arab League represents the dictators and monarchies supported by the U.S. Most of the people in the region do not support Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

CNN is biased in Israel’s favor. Wolf Blitzer once wrote for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and covered American politics for the Jerusalem Post.

Israel removed the settlers from Gaza and put them in the illegal settlements of the West Bank. But the blockade of Gaza remains. All land is surrounded by military installations, the airspace is controlled by helicopters and jets. Some medicines are let in and only some foodstuffs.

They are not allowed to export goods, and imports from Israel are limited. People from Gaza have not seen their

relatives in the West Bank since 2006; no freedom of movement. The water supply is undrinkable. There are constant power outages.

Bishop Desmond Tutu said what he witnessed in the West Bank was worse than apartheid. And Nelson Mandala said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

Francis Collins San Francisco

More on Gaza

I can’t believe you printed this screed straight from the Israeli/APAIC propaganda machine [Mailstorm, August 7]. If you look at progressive news websites such as Truthdig you will find the exact same talking points in the comments section placed there by the ever-vigilant Israeli planted trolls. (I’ve read the Israel government recruits university students for the task) The Bay Area has its own pro-Israel propaganda outlet at the website Flame.

You will find the exact same pabulum there. Google the East Bay Express and the Berkeley Daily Planet for Dan Spitzer, Jim Sinkinsin, John Gertz, all spewers of propaganda and who waged a bullying campaign against local small businesses that advertised with the Daily Planet.

I’m so irritated I feel compelled to respond to each point, which have been more eloquently refuted in the past few weeks by others.

“Israel under attack” ... “Hamas started to wage this war ...” The latest conflict started when Israel, unhappy with an alliance of Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization forming a new government, used the pretense of three kidnapped boys who they knew were already dead to start bombing and shelling Gaza. Isn’t it just wonderful that they give residents a three to five minute warning that they’re about to attack. Where are the Palestinians to flee to? They have no bomb shelters and the UN shelters are targets as well as hospitals.

And whether Israel is the defender or upholding its siege in its occupied territories is a mute point. It is still violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilian structures.

“Gaza is not occupied. ... Israel left ...” When all ingress and egress by land, sea, and air is controlled by Israel, including goods and services, it is occupied. Israel by calorie count lets in just the right amount of food to avoid starving the Gazans and lets in very little medicine, not the basics.

“Rejected the ceasefire ...” Yes the ceasefire proposed by Israel and Hamas-hating Egyptian government was rejected. Hamas was not consulted on the terms. Benjamin Netanyahu then trumpeted the rejection and announced that gave him the legitimacy for a ground invasion. Of note is that with every past ceasefire Israel has said it will end the blockade but does not keep its word.

“But the world media and UN still do not blame Hamas, the instigator...” Israel is the occupier in the Palestinian Territories. It is the 1,000 pound gorilla holding the occupants captive in an open air prison, yet they expect the hostages to quietly and passively accept their conditions. Its weapons are thousands of times more deadly. Israel continues to falsely cry victim, which it is clearly not. As of July 14, 3,700 Gazan civilians have been killed while 27 Israeli civilians were killed. We can expect more of the same since it is Israeli policy to “mow the lawn” every few years.

Judi Sierra Oakland, California

Oakland Pride grand marshals named compiled by Cynthia Laird

O

akland Pride officials have announced three grand marshals for the event’s first-ever parade later this month.

Singer Sheila E., the headliner at the Oakland Pride festival, was named celebrity grand marshal. Longtime community leader Joe Hawkins was named legacy grand marshal and Lirio Zepeda will serve as the youth grand marshal, said Oakland Pride spokesman Carlos Uribe.

The Pride parade and festival take place Sunday, August 31. The parade, which is free to view, steps off at 10:30 a.m. at Broadway and 14th Street. The festival, which costs $10, runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Broadway and 20th Street in the Uptown neighborhood.

In an email, Hawkins, who was named legacy grand marshal, said he was thrilled with the news. An orga-

nizational consultant, Hawkins previously served on the Oakland Pride board and was one of the founders of the event, which started in 2010 after a hiatus of several years.

“I am humbled and honored to have been selected as a legacy grand marshal in Oakland’s first-ever LGBTQ Pride parade,” Hawkins said. “I remember when we first started Oakland Pride five years ago, very few people thought that we could pull a successful Pride event off, especially since we were in the midst of both the Oscar Grant and Occupy Oakland riots.”

Hawkins was referring to the protests that took place in the aftermath of a former BART police officer killing Oscar Grant, a young African American man and the frequent demonstrations held by Occupy Oakland.

He added that right from the start, Oakland Pride “was a huge hit.”

Courtesy Joe Hawkins

Joe Hawkins is one of three Oakland Pride grand marshals for the upcoming parade.

“The ongoing support of Oakland Pride proves that the LGBTQ community here in the East Bay, and all over the Bay Area, really want this Pride celebration to succeed,” Hawkins said. “We have all learned how to better appreciate the unique diversity that only Oakland brings See page 10 >>

<< Commentary

t Motherly wisdom: Lessons in love and acceptance 6 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

by Belo Cipriani

B

efore I was blind and a writer, I was a boy with many questions.

Every other sentence began with a why, who or what, which drove my family mad.

Like many siblings, my two older teenage sisters would ignore my questions, instead swaying their puffy hairdos to Duran Duran. My younger sister would shrug and look away even before I finished my sentence. Dad, who was usually sitting on the brown sofa, would nod or shake his head faintly, making the TV screen that was reflected in his glasses dance. The only person who put up with my inquisitive nature was my mother.

One school morning, a few days before my ninth birthday, I woke up to my eldest sister making breakfast.

Alarmed, I asked her where mom was.

“She’s resting,” she shared, pulling milk out of the fridge. “The baby in her belly kept her up last night.”

I had watched my mom’s stomach grow and grow, and the idea of another brother or sister worried me. If it’s a girl, will she become the family favorite? And if it’s a boy, will he replace me? Quickly, I ate my cereal, rinsed my bowl in the sink, and darted to my parent’s bedroom.

With a few pillows supporting her back, I found my mom watching the Spanish channel from the bed. She had a calm expression on her face.

“Where’s your book bag?” she piped up, smiling. “You can’t be late.

It’s your last week of school.”

I nodded, making my way around the bed and sitting close to her. She scanned my face and ran her warm hand through my hair. As though she read my mind, she continued,

“This baby will not replace you. And for your birthday, we’ll get you your favorite chocolate cake.”

My older sister popped her head into the room, demanding I hurry to the car. There was a slight hint of annoyance in her tone.

“He’s gonna stay home with me,” mom interjected, her voice authoritative. “He’s going to help me today.”

Over my shoulder, I watched my sister nod, casting her eyes downward as she quietly disappeared into the dim hallway.

My mom squeezed my hand and asked me to reach for a box in the closet. Wondering why my mom had broken her “no missing school unless you are really sick rule,” I grabbed the velvety maroon case from a shelf.

She slowly opened the box and we both stared at the bronze tree inside – our family’s Menorah.

“People are like trees,” she began, running her pale fingers over the metal bark. “And each person they love becomes one of their branches.

You are one of my branches, and without you, I would be a smaller tree. I love all of you differently and I won’t love you more or less when the baby arrives.”

Although her words comforted me, this was a lesson she would continue to bring up throughout my life – especially when I started to date guys.

In my late teens, I began to have boyfriends, and I always claimed to love the current guy more than the previous.

“Don’t compare your relationships,” she warned. “It’s not fair to them. Besides, they were all put in your path for a reason.”

On occasion, my mom’s beliefs would frustrate me when I was sighted; but as a blind man, they brought me comfort. Each unique way of tak-

ing in the world helped me deal with the assault and the group of friends that beat me. Most importantly, she encouraged me to focus less on the betrayal and more on my rehabilitation. I continued with the questions and she with the answers.

“Will I be able to find work as a blind man?” I asked, practicing my Braille alphabet on the dining room table.

“Yes,” she replied, squeezing my shoulder. “In losing your sight you have learned to adapt – a skill any business would want.”

“Will I ever find love?” I inquired, holding on to her elbow as I tapped my cane over the wet pavement.

“You’ll find many loves and grow many branches – just give it time,” she sighed.

My mother was right. A few months after losing my sight, I began to date again. When I had vision, I was a sucker for men with dark features. Middle Eastern, Asian, black – I liked them all. As a blind man, I developed a thing for men with squared jawlines and rugged hands. I built a new system for getting to know men and eventually began to have boyfriends.

Blindness also brought about a new kind of love – a bond I never imagined existed, the affection of a guide dog. Madge was 43 pounds of lab energy. And even though we had a rough start, as I struggled to manage my first dog, she didn’t wait to show me how much she cared.

Within the first six months of our partnership, she saved me from being hit by a car twice. Both times I felt her body push me back as the car ran the light and honked. Fearless, she positioned herself between the moving vehicle and me.

Madge became more than my eyes – she was my biggest confidant.

She came everywhere with me and was the favorite guest at every party.

One chilly morning, I was brushing her teeth when my mom came into

Courtesy Belo Cipriani

Belo Cipriani and his guide dog, Oslo.

my room and asked, “Why are you two getting ready? I thought you didn’t work on Fridays.”

“I have a date with Owen. He took the day off to hang out,” I replied.

“Aha, he loves you,” she cheered.

“Or at least he’s starting to. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have broken the rules.”

“Break the rules?” I chuckled.

“What do you mean? He took time off. Everyone gets to take vacation time.”

“He broke his routine for you, Belo,” she blurted. “That’s what people do when they care.”

Not fully appreciating her words, I reached for Madge’s harness and slipped it on. I gave my mom a hug and let Madge guide me out of my apartment.

Seven years later, my second guide dog, Oslo, and I waited for the BART train late one evening. Reflecting on my mom’s recent passing and Madge’s retirement, I once again felt my brain ignite with questions. I reached for Oslo’s head and began to caress it.

“Oslo,” I whispered, “do you think I’ll get engaged again?”

He perked up and began to

lick my face. I think that’s a yes, I thought, laughing.

I felt my phone vibrate and I asked Oslo to settle down. As Siri read the text, I sensed confusion arise. The message was from a guy named Ray, someone who I had met at a bar a few weeks prior. However, our hectic schedules had kept us from having a real date. In the message, he proposed we both take a half-day on Friday to hang out.

He’s nuts, I thought, shaking my head at the idea. After all, I barely knew the guy.

Suddenly, I heard a few guy’s murmur, “Check out his phone. It’s one of the new ones.”

I heard footsteps draw closer and felt Oslo’s head lift from my leg and turn to face the strangers. As the men got closer, I heard Oslo growl, then bark.

“That dog looks crazy,” the man said. “Let’s just go.”

Guide dogs are not trained to bark or guard. Yet, Oslo had broken his training for a reason. I quickly shoved my phone in my pocket and felt his tongue on my hand. Unsure if I should call the police, I praised him.

We made it back into our apartment and I kneeled down to hold Oslo tight. For the first time in a while, I didn’t have questions, but answers. I finally understood what my mom had tried to tell me my whole life. I loved Oslo and Madge equally and they each showed me their affection in different ways. So, maybe I wouldn’t marry Ray. Still, I would never find out by hiding behind my writer schedule. I pulled out my phone and agreed to meet him that Friday.t Belo Cipriani is the writer-in-residence at Holy Names University, a spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind, the “Get to Work” columnist for SFGate.com, and the author of Blind: A Memoir. Learn more at BeloCipriani.com.

Where we cross

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

S

everal months ago I found myself speaking at a Transgender Day of Remembrance event in northern California. As the event was breaking up and folks started to head for their cars, a member of the local Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence came up to me.

He – as he was male identified – was nearly my height, with a mustache and goatee, wearing the traditional makeup, habit, and wimple one might expect from a sister.

We had a lovely discussion, but one thing stuck with me and has been gestating deep in my brain now for nearly a year. We discussed awareness of transgender people within the larger LGBT community, specifically among gay males – and

<<

Park death trial

From page 2

unsuccessfully tried to revive him, he said.

“I was frightened,” Diaz testified. “... I didn’t know what to do. I was really nervous.”

He said he moved a recycling bin close to Canul-Arguello’s body and lit a fire in it to signal for help.

During her questioning of Diaz, Douglas had repeatedly gotten him to acknowledge that he’d lied to police and others between the time of Canul-Arguello’s death and his arrest six weeks later.

Lilien said Monday that Diaz was “not on trial for making misrepresentations, for lying to the police.”

In her closing arguments, Douglas referred to Diaz’s testimony that

he discussed his own ignorance of transgender people. Not that they exist, mind you, but more a “101” or who we are, why we are, and how our issues fit into the LGBT community as a whole.

Over the last year, too, we’ve seen some bitter, painful discussions about drag, about trans-exclusive radical feminists, and about the word “tranny.” These same discussions continue, and frankly show little chance of slowing down.

I think a lot of this is born out of some of that same ignorance, though I also know a lot of it veers into deep-seated prejudices and hatred. Frankly, a lot of folks won’t listen to any discussion on transgender people – let alone leave a conversation with some food for thought.

Canul-Arguello had had a dildo just before he died. She said the sex toy’s never been found “because it doesn’t exist.”

Lilien showed a slide bearing a phallic-shaped figure dressed in red and white stripes and wearing glasses, akin to the character in “Where’s Waldo?”

The slide said, “Where’s Dildo?”

Douglas’s references to the dildo were “a red herring,” Lilien said.

Based on the testimony of witness Erika Stearns during the trial, he suggested another person may have taken items from the scene. Douglas indicated she didn’t find Stearns credible.

Lilien has called Diaz “a sweet kid,” and he said, “from what I can tell” Canul-Arguello was “a sweet guy.” He said Sunday, August 17 would have been Canul-Arguello’s 27th birthday.t

This column won’t change their minds in the slightest.

Yet I know there are some out there who may indeed wish to understand transgender people a little better, and may want to grasp just how transgender people fit into the larger community.

They may even be willing to listen to a couple of the ways we differ. For those who wish to learn, I dedicate this particular column.

Transgender people – by and large – do not entirely feel comfortable in the gender they were assigned at birth, and may seek to transcend that gender in a number of ways. Some may opt to present in a way more closely associated with a gender other than their birth gender, some may opt to carve their own gender identity outside of the expected binary, and others still might choose to live their life without a “typical” gender identity.

Any of these people might identify as transgender – which serves as an umbrella term – while others may opt for other terms they feel better fits their gender identity or expression. For some, that term might change over time, as their feelings grow.

A number of transgender people might simply adopt the clothing of another gender. Some might even adopt a name that is “traditionally” of a gender different from that assigned at their birth. Some may take hormones to feminize or masculin-

ize their appearance. Some may opt for various forms of surgery to enlarge or reduce bust lines, to change their facial appearance, or to alter their genitals to match their gender identity. Not all feel such a need.

For most, changes to their gender identity are hard won. Many lose their families and friends over this. For some, marriages are dissolved. We risk our jobs, our livelihoods, and even the most basics of necessities over our gender identity.

Some transgender people may identify as lesbians, or gay men, or bisexuals, or even straight. Who we’re attracted to does not necessarily have a lot to do with our gender identity. That said, we can be affected by homo- and biphobia, even if we happen to be straight-identified. This is one of those places where we all intersect.

I identify as bisexual. When I am with my spouse, we might be read as two lesbians. Or some who opt to ignore my transition might read me as a gay male. My spouse might also be read as a male from time to time as well. Any of these could lead to homophobia being directed at either of us.

Indeed, when I am seen as transgender, it is far more likely that I will be called an anti-gay epithet than catcalled with some trans specific term.

The same holds true for many of my friends who are not transgender identified, but may be gay or lesbi-

an. While they, too, might be called some anti-gay term, the reason for such may not be so much because they are with a same-sex partner, but because their gender identity is not seen as being rigidly male or female.

Look at the stereotypes that gay and lesbian people have faced over the decades. Gay males as limpwristed hairdressers and speak with lisps and wear flamboyant, feminine attire, or “mannish” lesbians who sport crew cuts and wear denim and jeans while riding their motorcycles.

These have very little to do with who one opts to sleep with, but have everything to do with expected gender norms.

This is one of the big places we cross over: we all have a stake in the fight for gender rights, and we all seek to gain.

As I mentioned before, there are places where we are divided. While many transgender people come up via the drag community, there are also huge divisions right now between some who perform in drag and others who are trans identified. There are some in the lesbian community who have decided that breaking down gender norms for themselves means also reinforcing them for transgender people.

Make no mistake, though: now is not the time to let ignorance reign, not while so many others would seek to keep us all down. We can, and we should stand in kinship.t Gwen Smith identifies as a blue spruce. You can find her at http:// www.gwensmith.com.

t

Politics>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

SF LGBT Democratic clubs endorse candidates, eschew debates in fall races

by Matthew S. Bajko

O

ne sign of this fall’s low-wattage election season in San Francisco is the lack of forums or debates with candidates for local offices.

Unlike in years past, when both sponsored candidate debates or forums, neither of the city’s two main LGBT Democratic clubs, Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk, are planning to do so this year.

“I don’t know there were any races where we felt it was necessary,” Tom Temprano, co-president of the more progressive Milk club, told the Bay Area Reporter. “To be honest, I have heard about very few forums with the candidates.”

Zoe Dunning, cochair of the more moderate Alice, told the B.A.R. that the club’s board has not discussed holding any candidate forums this fall.

“I think most of the supervisor races are fairly non-controversial,” said Dunning, noting that several candidates have no opponent. “We have some unopposed incumbents.

But school board is going to be a competitive race, as well as community college board and some of the ballot propositions.”

Asked if Alice would sponsor a forum with the candidates for the educational oversight bodies, Dunning did not rule it out.

“We don’t know yet,” she said.

As for Milk, Temprano said that the club hasn’t “traditionally done forums for either of those offices,” meaning the seats on the school and community college boards.

To date, Temprano said, “There is seemingly not a whole lot of interest” in this year’s elections.

One race that has sparked enough interest to merit candidate forums, apparently, is the District 6 supervisor seat, where the incumbent, Supervisor Jane Kim, is seeking reelection to a four-year term. Running against her are three men: gay Rincon Hill resident Jamie Whitaker; neighborhood activist Michael Nulty, who told the B.A.R. he identifies as homosexual; and David Carlos Salaverry, a Republican who placed third in the June primary for the 17th Assembly District seat.

Whitaker told the B.A.R. this week that the South Beach Democratic Club is hosting a candidate forum for the three Democrats in the race at 7 p.m. September 3 at the South Beach Harbor service building located at Pier 40 near AT&T Park.

The League of Women Voters of San Francisco, added Whitaker, also has a District 6 forum scheduled at 6 p.m. Friday, September 19 at Golden Gate University, Room 2201, 536 Mission Street.

The league, which did not return a call seeking comment this week, has yet to list any candidate forums on its website other than one for the state Assembly District 17 seat, where Supervisors David Chiu and David Campos are running against each other to succeed termed out gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco).

Its schedule lists the debate as taking place from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, October 2; a location has yet to be given.

Alice, Milk endorse in local races

This week the two LGBT political clubs did decide their endorsements in the local races for political offices

and ballot initiatives. Unsurprisingly, the members of Alice and Milk took different positions in a number of races. (See the Monday, August 25 Political Notes online column for a report on the club’s ballot initiative endorsements.)

Of the five even-numbered incumbent supervisors seeking reelection this year, Alice has endorsed all but one, Kim in District 6. The club opted for no endorsement in that race this year.

District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell, District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang, and District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen this week all won Alice’s backing in their re-election campaigns. Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener had already won an early endorsement from the club in February.

In an email to the B.A.R., Alice Co-Chair Ron Flynn explained the snub of Kim was largely due to her vote not to oust San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from a dispute he had with his wife in late 2013 that left her arm bruised.

“Alice considered the full record of Supervisor Kim, who is an ally on many issues. We remain, however, committed to standing with victims of domestic violence and the workers that support them,” wrote Flynn.

“Taking it all into consideration, we did not endorse any candidate.”

The Milk club took a nearly polar opposite position in the supervisor races. It endorsed Kim and took no endorsement stances in Farrell, Tang, and Wiener’s races. Tang is running unopposed and Farrell has one opponent, Juan-Antonio Carballo.

The moderate Tang, said Temprano, “doesn’t reflect our values as a club.” While Farrell, who is also a moderate, has reached out to the club on several issues, Temprano said that, “A majority of the club wasn’t pleased enough with his record to vote for the endorsement.”

Wiener faces four protest candidates: nude activist George Davis; gay blogger and LGBT global rights activist Michael Petrelis; Tom Wayne Basso, whose family owned a now-closed Noe Valley eatery; and community activist John Nulty, who, like his twin brother Michael, also told the B.A.R. that he identifies as homosexual.

“There wasn’t any indication on my end that any one of the candidates had particularly strong support among the club members,” said Temprano. “The strongest sentiment was just disappointment there wasn’t a more viable challenger to Supervisor Wiener.”

In the District 10 race, Milk snubbed the incumbent and gave a first choice endorsement to Tony Kelly, who nearly won the seat in 2010, and a second choice endorsement to Ed Donaldson. Under the city’s ranked-choice voting, voters can rank up to three candidates on their ballot.

“I think the club feels very strongly it is time for a change in D10 and to have a new voice on the Board of Supervisors,” Temprano said.

Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who are both running unopposed for four-year terms in November, ended up with polar opposite endorsements from Alice and Milk.

Chu won Alice’s support but not Milk’s; Adachi garnered Milk’s backing but not Alice’s.

Rick Gerharter

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim received the Milk club’s endorsement but did not get backing from the Alice club.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan was the first choice of the Milk club in her bid to unseat Mayor Jean Quan.

Courtesy Kelly for Supervisor campaign

District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen was endorsed by the Alice club.

District 10 challenger Tony Kelly was endorsed by the Milk club.

The clubs also differed in the races for seats on the city’s two educational oversight bodies.

In the race for three open seats on the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education, Alice snubbed the two incumbents in the race, Emily Murase and Hydra Mendoza. It endorsed one candidate: gay communications and marketing consultant Mark Murphy.

Milk also snubbed the incumbents and instead endorsed Stevon Cook and Jamie Rafaela Wolfe, a transgender woman who works at a nonprofit school for children with emotional and developmental issues.

In the race for three four-year seats on the Community College Board of Trustees, which oversees City College of San Francisco, once again the two incumbents, John Rizzo, the board’s president, and Anita Grier, its vice president, failed to secure support from either Alice or Milk. Gay activist Dan Choi, best known for getting arrested in front of the White House for opposing the military’s former ban against out service members, was also snubbed by the two clubs as he makes his first bid for political office.

Alice endorsed Haight neighborhood leader Thea Selby and former college board member Rodrigo Santos, who filed after the initial deadline had been extended due to gay board member Lawrence Wong’s decision to not seek reelection. Santos lost his bid for a full term on the board in 2012.

The Milk club also endorsed Selby as well as Wendy Aragon and Brigitte Davila. In the race for a two-year term on the college board, to fill a vacancy created when Chris Jackson resigned, Milk is backing former gay student trustee William Walker. Alice, however, endorsed

Amy Bacharach.

In the race for the District 8 BART Board of Directors seat, which covers the city’s western neighborhoods, Democrat Nicholas Josefowitz, a solar energy company founder, won Alice’s backing in his bid to oust the incumbent, James Fang, the lone Republican to hold public office in the city. The Milk club voted for no endorsement in the race.

Because it is a nonpartisan race, Temprano said the Milk club could have endorsed Fang in the race despite his being a member of the GOP. Due to his siding with BART workers during their recent strikes, Fang has attracted labor and progressive support in his re-election bid.

Nonetheless, Fang could not meet the club’s threshold of 50 percent plus one vote to nab an endorsement from Milk.

“There was no consensus around the best candidate for the race,” explained Temprano.

Also this week the Alice club swung its support to Carol Kingsley in the judicial race for the open Office 20 seat on the San Francisco Superior Court. The club earlier this year had backed Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Toney Williams in the race, but she did not survive the primary. Milk had endorsed criminal defense attorney Daniel A. Flores, who placed first in the primary and is now running against Kingsley on the November ballot.

East Bay races update

The Milk club this week voted to endorse lesbian Oakland At-Large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan as its first choice in the Oakland mayor’s race and civil rights attorney Dan Siegel as its second

choice. Like San Francisco, Oakland has ranked-choice voting for its mayoral elections.

Kaplan, whom the club had endorsed when she ran for re-election in 2012, had sought out Milk’s endorsement in the mayoral race. A number of club members then suggested Milk also consider supporting Siegel.

“Really, it is unorthodox for us to endorse an Oakland candidate, period, obviously,” said Temprano.

“Though, interestingly, an increasing number of our members have to live in Oakland now.”

Oakland City Councilwoman Pat Kernighan, who holds the District 2 seat, has given her sole endorsement in the race to succeed her to Abel Guillen, who identifies as Two Spirit and currently serves on the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees.

“Abel Guillen is the right person to tackle the challenges we face in Oakland. As a municipal finance adviser and community college trustee, he knows what it means to balance a budget while protecting essential services for residents,” stated Kernighan in an email Guillen’s campaign sent August 15 announcing her endorsement decision. “I enthusiastically support Abel to continue my work on behalf of District 2.”

Guillen, who lost a bid for a state Assembly seat in 2012, faces four challengers in the race, including former news anchor Dana King and Kevin Blackburn, the assistant vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.

Also running are Ken Maxey and Andrew Park, a Baptist minister who works at UC Berkeley.

In El Cerrito, gay City Council candidate Gabriel Quinto, who is HIV-positive and Filipino American, is now facing a competitive race due to the late entrance of community activist Nick Arzio.

Quinto, a local Democratic Party activist, and the city’s current mayor, Janet Abelson, had filed to run by the August 8 deadline. Because incumbent Councilwoman Rebecca Benassini opted not to seek re-election, the filing deadline was extended allowing for Arzio to enter the race.

According to the West County Times, it marks the first time the city, which is in Contra Costa County and not in Alameda County, as last week’s Political Notebook mistakenly reported, has had a contested council race since 2008.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on California lawmakers designating June 11 as a special day honoring LGBT veterans.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail mailto:m.bajko@ ebar.com.

Correction In the August 7 article, ACA access issues remain for LGBTs,” it was incorrectly reported that Anand Kalra, program administrator at the Transgender Law Center, used to work at the Center for American Progress. The online version has been corrected.

<< Obituaries

8 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

t

Former AIDS grove director Thom Weyand dies

by Cynthia Laird

T

hom Weyand, the longtime former executive director of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, died August 12 in the comfort of his home in Albany, California. He was 63.

The cause of death was acute leukemia, which manifested as a “secondary cancer” 14 years after he contracted Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, said his husband, Terry Huwe. Mr. Weyand received high dose chemotherapy and an autologous bone marrow transplant at the City of Hope National Cancer Center in 2001.

Following a stint with the San Francisco Ballet in the 1970s, Mr. Weyand returned to San Francisco in 1990 after meeting Huwe. After working briefly at the California College of the Arts, he became director of development at the National AIDS Memorial Quilt. He played a leading role in raising $10 million, which enabled the entire quilt to be placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1996.

President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the quilt during that display. He also raised funds for the High School Quilt Program, which brought quilt panels into high school as a vehicle for teaching HIV awareness.

Mike Smith, executive director of the AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds, was involved in the 1996 quilt display.

“Thom guided the development department of the Names Project through two of the agency’s largest and most successful initiatives: the 1996 display of the entire quilt on the National Mall in D.C., and the

Courtesy Terry Huwe

Thom Weyand

monumental task of digitizing and preserving images of each panel,” Smith said in an email. “He was an extraordinarily selfless leader, and a kind and gentle soul. In a quiet and unassuming way he helped others find capacity they do not think they had and mentored and nurtured them to find their full potential.

Our community could benefit from many more Thom Weyands. Unfortunately, he was one of a kind.”

In 1997, Mr. Weyand was appointed executive director of the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

He worked closely with the community of grove volunteers, helped increase its endowment, and welcomed the San Francisco Flaggers into the space as regular celebrants.

Throughout his life he was a strong voice for all people living with HIV and was frequently interviewed by the local media while serving as executive director. Mr. Weyand went on permanent disability in 2001, Huwe said. Since 2003, he had

served as a trustee of the grove.

Political leaders and others mourned the loss of Mr. Weyand.

“Thom Weyand helped make the National AIDS Memorial Grove what it is today: a place for respite, reflection, and remembrance,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in an emailed statement to the Bay Area Reporter. “Thom was a behindthe-scenes activist who was always there to get the job done, and always building bridges to new communities. We shared many volunteer workdays together planting, weeding, and tending to the grove. I hope it is a comfort to his husband, Terry, and his family and friends that so many share in their loss – and that his memory lives on through the grove.”

In 1996, Pelosi wrote the National AIDS Memorial Grove Act, elevating the grove as a national memorial. She attends grove workdays, often with her grandchildren, and last year was honored by the grove for her leadership on HIV/AIDS funding and access to HIV/AIDS services.

Actress and longtime HIV/AIDS advocate Judith Light recalled Mr. Weyand’s “powerful force.”

“Thom was a gentle and powerful force in my and my family’s life,” Light said in an email. “The devotion and commitment he brought to everything he did inspired and empowered us all. He introduced us to the AIDS Memorial Grove, which has a special place in our hearts, as Thom does. His spirit will be with us forever.”

John Cunningham, the grove’s current executive director, recalled Mr. Weyand with fondness.

“Thom left his mark on every

aspect of the grove, which is a living memory for those we have lost to HIV as well as their loved ones,” Cunningham said in an email. “He will be sorely missed by his friends, grove volunteers, and his fellow trustees.”

Cunningham added, “He will live on not only in our hearts but in the grove itself, which is a haven for all who enter it.”

Huwe noted that Mr. Weyand had a far-reaching vision for the grove.

“When Thom was appointed, he quickly saw two opportunities at the grove,” Huwe said in an email.

“First and foremost, he made its community of volunteers feel welcomed and valued. And as he did that, the grove’s endowment grew.

But just as important, he was aware that the grove itself is an instrument for teaching people about HIV, love, loss, and regeneration.

“Since his time the grove has embraced and extended those values further than ever before,” Huwe added.

Huwe and Mr. Weyand were married at San Francisco City Hall on October 3, 2013. Alice Russell-Shapiro officiated.

Mr. Weyand was born on March 16, 1951 in Buffalo, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University in 1973. He served as editor of the Clarence Bee in Clarence, New York after graduating from Syracuse. Never one to miss out on all the fun, he moved to San Francisco in 1976. While living in the city, he worked at the San Francisco Ballet with Richard LeBlond.

In 1979 he moved to India to study yoga in Pondicherry, before settling on Maui where he was a 13-year resident. He was executive director

of the Maui Philharmonic Society, and was instrumental in raising its stature as an arts-presenting agency.

He also served as director of development and executive director of the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, a highly acclaimed multi-purpose facility that includes proscenium and experimental “black box” theaters, a state of the art gallery space, and an outdoor concert amphitheater that seats several thousand. He was a strong advocate for native Hawaiian culture and helped launch the art center’s vibrant Hawaiian cultural mission, including the consecration of the “pa hula” outdoor performance area, a sacred space.

Mr. Weyand will be remembered for his love and compassion, his ability to create peace among competing interests, his humor, his courage, and his steadfastness, Huwe said. All who met him came to appreciate his many gifts. He will be remembered and loved by hundreds of friends.

In addition to Huwe, Mr. Weyand is survived by Sharon Weyand of Buffalo, New York; Mike, Cheryl, and Taylor Weyand of Boston, New York; Marjorie McCarthy, Mike Anderson, Brian Donohue, Gary Sauer, and Sandy Sauer of Angola, New York; Jennifer Warnes, Jillian Warnes, and Tracy Hirsch of Colden, New York; Mike Kalisz and Jackie Zimmerman of Buffalo, New York; and Christy and Jason Stanislaw of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A service will be held in western New York in mid-September.

A memorial service and celebration of Mr. Weyand’s life will be held at the National AIDS Memorial Grove Saturday, September 27 at 1 p.m. More information is available at www.aidsmemorial.org.t

Kenya’s ‘Stone the Gays’ bill rejected

by Heather Cassell

A

bill in Kenya that was quickly dubbed the “Stone the Gays” when it was introduced late last week was reportedly quickly rejected by parliament’s legal affairs committee.

The bill prohibits all forms of same-sex relations and called for “public stoning” of LGBT foreigners and life imprisonment of LGBT Kenyans. Homosexuality is already

criminalized in the country’s penal code that carries sentences between five and 14 years in prison.

The Bay Area Reporter attempted to confirm the status of the bill, but not even Kenyan LGBT activists who were gathering for a strategy meeting last week could confirm the reports.

The draft bill was introduced by the Republican Liberty Party’s legal secretary Edward Onwong’a Nyakeriga in the name of protecting

DISPLAY OBITUARIES & IN MEMORIAMS

The Bay Area Reporter can help members of the community reach more than 120,000 LGBT area residents each week with their display of Obituary* & In Memoriam messages.

RATES: DEADLINES: TO PLACE:

$21.20 per column inch (black & white) $29.15 per column inch (full color) Friday 12noon for space reservations Monday 12noon for copy & images Call 415-829-8937 or email advertising@ebar.com

* Non-display Obituaries of 200-words or less are FREE to place.

Please email obituaries@ebar.com for more information.

44 Gough Street, Suite 204, San Francisco, CA 94103

children. He said that the bill would also protect “the cherished culture of the people of Kenya,” against the “attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Kenya,” he said in a statement when introducing the bill.

LGBT Kenyan activists have been anticipating this bill since the beginning of the year after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed that country’s anti-gay bill into law. That law was recently struck down on a technicality by Uganda’s constitutional court.

Uganda’s attorney general threatened to take the issue to the Supreme Court, but has since dropped the appeal, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Following the introduction of the bill in Kenya, Eric Gitari, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission there, threatened to file a lawsuit, catch-

ing many Kenyan LGBT activists off guard, reported BuzzFeed.

All Africa reported that Kenya’s parliament recently formed an anti-gay caucus. The purpose of the caucus is to fight against the “gay lifestyle” and would “seek measures to deal with it,” such as introducing new laws against homosexuality, according to media reports.

Yet, due to the stoning clause in the bill, the antigay caucus has attempted to distance itself from Nyakeriga’s proposed bill, according to media reports.

Valentine Njoroge was critical of the bill in an editorial in All Africa. He called upon Nyakeriga to know the laws before proposing new ones. He pointed out that there is already a law protecting children from pedophiles.

Denis Nzioka, a Kenya gay rights activist, called the draft bill and the anti-gay caucus a “wake up call” for the East African country’s LGBT community, reported Gay Star News.

Courtesy of Diaspora Messenger

Edward Onwong’a Nyakeriga introduced Kenya’s so-called Stone the Gays bill.

At one time he thought that Kenya was one of the safest countries for LGBTs outside of South Africa, but now he’s not so sure.

There’s growing anti-gay sentiment in Kenya.

“We have seen a lot of anti-gay sentiment being brought out by people, politicians, [and] religious leaders,” said Nzioka. “People want to go the Ugandan way, Nigerian way.”

He warned that while the latest law was rejected this time, it doesn’t mean See page 9 >>

Obituaries >> Vicente Marquez July 19, 1960 – August 12, 2014

With sadness and fondness we announce the passing of Vicente Marquez.

Mr. Marquez was born in San Rafael, Veracruz, Mexico and moved to the Bay Area 30 years ago, settling in San Francisco.

A very unique human being, his laugh, kindness, and generosity will forever be missed. He worked many years in customer service at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Club and was a strong advocate of medicinal cannabis.

His family and friends will miss his beautiful, caring spirit.

Robert Ward Raeburn February 15, 1932 – July 31, 2014

Robert Ward Raeburn died peacefully on July 31 in the loving care of Maitri Hospice. He was born to Gordon and Harriet Raeburn February 15, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. He served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War and ended up spending 30 years in and around Hollywood, California. In the early 1980s he settled in San Francis-

co where he pursued his lifelong passions; antiques and art. He received a degree in art education from California State University, Sacramento, owned an antique shop, taught art at Laguna Honda Hospital and Shanti, and managed an apartment building.

He ran for supervisor in District 6 and was the unofficial mayor of the “Tendernob.”

He is survived by his sister Ruth George and a large community of friends who will deeply miss his caring, generous spirit and sharp wit. A potluck celebration of Robert will be held Sunday, August 24 from 3 to 6 p.m. at 735 Geary Street. In lieu of flowers, donations are encouraged to both Shanti and Maitri Residential Hospice.

t

Sports>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Closing notes on an incredible Gay Games

by Roger Brigham

N

otes on a Gay Games scorecard, after a week of athletic frivolity on the shores of Lake Erie: • You didn’t need to be a Cher impersonator during the closing ceremonies of Gay Games 9 to trigger celebrity alerts, as some famous and not-so-famous folks rubbed shoulders with those of us lesser mortals. Spotted in the crowd: gay College World Series umpire Billy Van Raaphorst winning a gold medal in golf; wedding planner Zavion Kotze, a former contestant on South Africa’s version of the TV series Survivor, winning a dozen medals in track and field; and Olympic speed skater Blake Skjellerup of New Zealand racing to gold in men’s cycling after having participated in the opening ceremonies torch run.

• Gotta have faith: The United Church of Christ donated $50,000 to Gay Games 9, making it the first faith organization to be a sponsor of the games. A symbolic return on the investment came when the Reverend Mike Schuenemeyer, who helped organize an interfaith service at Trinity Cathedral during the games, also medaled in the men’s swimming competition and competed in golf.

<<

Stewart

From page 1

As for her passion, particularly for the country’s democratic principles and legal system, Stewart will maintain it on the bench.

“It is something I can still be passionate about and still be a judge,” said Stewart, 57, who wore a charcoal gray suit and an open-collared pink oxford with white stripes. “I embark on this new career without bequeathing my passion to anyone.

I am comfortable I can still be me and do this job.”

Among those in the audience were members of the federal Prop 8 litigation legal team, including attorneys Ted Olson, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., and Bobbie Wilson, a lesbian recently named to the city’s Board of Appeals. Also present was one of the plaintiffs, Sandra Stier, who said she and her wife, Kris Perry, were proud of Stewart, who they “are so fortunate” to call a friend.

<<

Guest Opinion

From page 4

Redstone Labor Temple Association, San Francisco Lowrider Council, and the Western Regional Advocacy Project have joined the Plaza16 Coalition to resist this affront to the Mission and to its LGBT residents.

What can you do? Come to the next community-wide Plaza16 meeting on Thursday, August 28 at

<<

Out in the World

From page 8

that political leaders won’t attempt to introduce a new anti-gay bill.

South African lesbian found brutally raped and murdered

Gift (Disebo) Makau was found raped and strangled to death in the northwest province of Ventersdorp in South Africa on August 15.

A 24-year-old man was arrested in connection with the murder and was scheduled to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court this week, according to media reports.

Makau’s body was discovered in the Tshing location with a running

• Making headlines: This may have been the smallest Gay Games in decades, but the daily coverage the event got in local mainstream media was unprecedented. The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon Journal ran special advance sections, daily event coverage and features, and local television and radio stations provided frequent updates. International coverage wasn’t bad, either, with features appearing in such publications as the Guardian and Sports on Earth.

• Half-naked halfmarathon: You finish 180th out of 235 runners in a half-marathon and you need a little something to help you stand out in the crowd. Runner Shayna Kramer, 35, did just that, running the final 10 minutes of the race topless, her breasts adorned by just two wellpositioned pasties “It’s the Gay Games,” she told the Beacon Journal. “You have to be fabulous. Thank goodness I didn’t get arrested.”

More conventionally attired was overall winner Benjamin Cowan, 36, who finished the course in 1 hour, 17 minutes and 38 seconds. Amanda Gosselin, 24, was the top women’s finisher and 25th overall with a time of 1:32:17. Gabriel Gunnink, 23, was

the overall marathon winner with a time of 2:37:52. Ulrike Hellmich, 38, was the top women’s finisher with a time of 3:23:51, 12th overall.

• Visual imagery: If you weren’t able to attend the Gay Games, you can still enjoy some of the visuals.

Four professional northeast photographers shot Gay Games athletes and uploaded their images to a special exhibit at www.prideinthemomentgg9cle.com. The exhibit was created by the Akron Area Arts Alliance with funding from the Gay Community Endowment of the Akron Community

Boutrous joked that his experience working with Stewart on the case taught him that, “Justice Stewart is always right.”

Herrera, in his prepared remarks, told the audience that the prospect of losing Stewart, his first hire 13 years ago after being elected city attorney, while “inevitable” has nonetheless been “especially emotional” for him.

“Not a day has gone by where Terry Stewart was not by my side as a trusted deputy and the dearest of friends,” said Herrera, adding that he will miss “her fun, her spunk, and her spirit.”

Also in attendance were the state’s first openly gay presiding justice of an appellate court division, James M. Humes, who oversees the First District Court of Appeal’s Division One, and Stanford law professor Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, whom Brown recently named to a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.

Gay state Senator Mark Leno

(D-San Francisco) called Stewart “a dear friend” and said he “had to be” present for her investiture ceremony.

“I am thoroughly confident Terry will be a remarkable justice for this reason. No one understands justice better than someone who has been denied it, fought for it, and regained it,” said Leno. “Everyone will be fortunate to be before her bench.”

Well known lesbian journalist Helen Zia, who testified on behalf of the plaintiffs in the federal Prop 8 trial, also was in attendance last week to see Stewart take her oath of office.

“Terry has just been such a persistent and determined voice for our LGBT community and for all people, all Californians, and all Americans,” said Zia, who was accompanied by her wife, Lia Shigemura, to the ceremony. “We are happy for her and wanted to be here to celebrate with her.”t

St. John’s Episcopal Church, at Julian and 15th streets at 6 p.m. The Harvey Milk club is an endorser of the Plaza16 Coalition, and also welcomes you to join us. Come to our next political action committee meeting on Tuesday, September 9 at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street at 7 p.m. and our next general meeting on Tuesday, September 16 at the San Francisco Women’s Building, 3453 18th Street, near Valencia.

We are the Mission. Viva la Mission.t

hose shoved down her throat and into her stomach, reported Mambagirl.com. She was allegedly raped and then strangled with a shoelace and a wire that was found around her neck.

There were conflicting accounts of her age, which ranged from 18 to 24.

Phumzile Van Damme, the Democratic Alliance’s national spokesperson, announced that when the Parliament reconvenes this week, the party will request a debate about protecting and strengthening LGBT rights in response to Makau’s murder.

Makau is the latest in a growing list of so-called corrective rapes that end in murders of lesbians in South Africa. The term refers to people who are raped because of their perceived

Courtesy FGG

Kurt Dahl of Chicago was re-elected as president of the Federation of Gay Games

Foundation. Video of competition was also streamed online at www. ccesportsnetwork.com and some of those videos have been reposted on youtube.com.

• Team efforts: West Hollywood edged San Francisco Tsunami 9-6 for gold in men’s water polo. San Francisco’s Rockdogs beat Brothas United 41-34 in A Division basketball; the SF Spikes shut out United FC 1-0 in soccer’s D2 championship. More results are being posted as they become available at www. gg9cle.com.

• The votes are in: After the conclusion of Gay Games 9, the Federation of Gay Games held its annual general assembly meeting and officer elections, with some newcomers joining the board and a few longtime members standing down.

Kurt Dahl of Chicago was reelected to another two-year term as male co-president, after having first been named in 2009. In a significant move at the top, Marc Naimark of Paris, who had been the vice president for external affairs, had his social media activities suspended prior to the meeting and was not elected to any office. He is succeeded as vice president of external affairs by bowler Les Johnson of Washington, D.C. Kelly Stevens of Seattle had served as the director of communications since 2007 but stepped down and is succeeded by volleyball player R. Tony Smith

of Denver. San Francisco’s Martha Ehrenfeld was re-elected as female sports officer; Ken Hundreiser of Chicago returns as secretary; former Gay Games Cologne volunteer Armin Lohrmann was named vice president of host relations, to work with Paris 2018; Michael Myers of Michigan returns as treasurer; and Carl Schultz of Cologne returns as technology officer.

Wrestler Carlin Yetts of Columbus, Ohio, who joined the board a year ago as an at-large officer, was elected officer of development; Anthony Alston of Cheer SF was elected officer of culture; and Leviathen Hendricks of London was elected officer of international development. Joining the board for the first time in at-large positions are John James Hickey of Ireland, who had been part of the Limerick bid for 2018; and wrestler Tony Galluzzo of Team Sydney.

• So really, what was Gay Games 9 like? Well, you really had to be there.

I know a lot of people thought the FGG was nuts when it decided to go to Ohio for 2014 and skip the bigger tourist draws of Boston and Washington, D.C. But the local people were incredibly friendly everywhere we went, the venues were world class, the transportation system was efficient and the athletic vibe was incredible. In short, a wonderful success and a great act for Paris to try to top.t

Full disclosure: Virgil’s Sea Room is co-owned by Milk club Co-President Tom Temprano; Rick Gerharter Photography is a longtime freelancer for the Bay Area Reporter.

Sue Englander is a member of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.

sexual orientation or gender identity.

Duduzile Zozo, 26, was found dead in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg with a toilet brush rammed up her vagina in July 2013. Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian activist, was found allegedly raped and murdered with her face seriously disfigured in the Kwa-Thema township in Gauteng in 2011. Lesbian footballer Eudy Simelane, 31, was found in a creek in a park in KwaThema township in Gauteng on the outskirts of Johannesburg in 2008.

She had been gang-raped, beaten and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs. Zoliswa Nkonyana, 18, was gang-raped by an estimated 20 young men and murdered close See page 10 >>

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

<<

News Briefs

From page 5

to the Bay Area table of equality.”

Hawkins, 50, was one of the first gay black men to appear on national television, when he was on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1989, defending his right to parent his then 6-year-old son. He’s a military veteran and his community work has been recognized by three mayors and three California governors.

In addition to co-founding Oakland Pride, Hawkins is a founding organizer of the East Bay AIDS Walk and creator of Oakland’s first black LGBT film festival. He is also the producer of California’s longest-running LGBT hip-hop event, which will celebrate its 20th year in 2015 at the Bench and Bar nightclub.

Look for more about Sheila E. in next week’s BARtab. Contact information for Zepeda wasn’t provided by press time.

<<

SF man’s death

For more information, visit www. oaklandpride.org.

Compton’s Cafeteria riot remembered

While the exact date is unknown, people are invited to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot Saturday, August 23 from 3 to 4 p.m. at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

Felicia Elizondo, also known as Felicia Flames, will provide remarks and there will be a “Screaming Queens” cake.

The riot took place at the cafeteria, owned by Gene Compton, in August 1966. Transgender people and drag queens, tired of police harassment, fought back. This protest predated by three years the more famous Stonewall riots in New York City.

A film about the Compton’s Cafeteria riot, Screaming Queens,

for Higgins, while some indicated he had been troubled in the days before he died.

Officer Albie Esparza, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, has said Higgins’s injuries were initially investigated as an attempted homicide and assault with a deadly weapon, but since Higgins was taken off life support, the police homicide unit is investigating the case.

Esparza has described the suspect in Higgins’s death as a white male in his 20s or 30s wearing a gray hoodie, based on video surveillance footage. As of Tuesday, August 19, police weren’t releasing photos of the suspect, and no arrests had been announced.

It’s likely to be several months before the medical examiner’s office releases the cause and manner of Higgins’s death.

he didn’t care what other people thought,” he said. “That was his way.” But he was also “forgiving” and “nonjudgmental,” Higgins said.

Higgins, who was originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, “loved San Francisco,” but in their last conversation, he said he missed his family and wished “we could all be close together,” Michael Higgins said.

Police are “really not saying much” about Bryan Higgins’s death, his brother said.

Brian Hagerty, Bryan Higgins’s husband, told a reporter who came to the couple’s Noe Street apartment this week, “I’m not ready to talk yet.”

The location where Higgins was found is near a Muni train line and a 24-hour Safeway.

Kenny King, 49, lives near the scene and said the area can be rough.

“I do my fair share” of calling the police for “quality of life issues,” such as “loud screaming and arguing,” he said.

Vigil

Last days

From page 1

At 3:30 p.m. last Wednesday, August 13, around the time Higgins was being removed from life support, about 200 people held hands and formed a circle at Duboce Park as burning incense drifted through the air and Muni trains ground along in the background.

Near one edge of the circle, an altar with flowers, candles, and glittery cloths sat on top of a large rainbow flag. Toward the end, a man called for several minutes of silence.

At about 3:38 p.m. he said, “Our brother is now at peace.”

Michael Higgins, 34, last spoke with his brother Bryan the Friday before he died.

“I don’t feel like it’s real,” Higgins, who lives in Galveston, Texas, said in a phone interview. “I don’t want to believe the last time I talked to my brother on the phone, that was it.”

He said Higgins was “full of energy” and “very spiritual.” Whenever he visited his brother, “he was always giving me his stuff,” including his bedroom. “He always put me first,” he said.

Higgins described his brother as a “trendsetter.”

“He did things Bryan’s way, and

<<

Out in the World

From page 9

to her home in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape in 2006.

To date, Nkonyana and Simelane are the only two murders whose assailants were sentenced.

Makau’s family is devastated. She was out to them and they believe that she was killed because she’s a lesbian.

“She was a cool girl who was never violent. She enjoyed playing and refereeing soccer games in the neighborhood,” her cousin Lucky

Brian Busta, 50, was a neighbor and close friend of Bryan Higgins’s.

“He was just really super freespirited” and “creative,” said Busta.

“He was really a joy to be around.”

Higgins was a member of the Faerie community, and Busta said that Higgins’s Faerie name, Feather Lynn, fit him, since he was “flighty like a feather” and would “bop around.”

But like others who saw Higgins in the days before he died, Busta suggested Higgins had been troubled.

The last time Busta saw Higgins was just hours before he was found.

“I was taking care of him on Saturday night,” Busta, who’d known Higgins for six years, said. He said Higgins had been dealing with “medical issues.”

Saturday, Higgins had been “getting too out of hand, running around like a cat in a cage,” Busta said.

“We were trying to get the police here so we could get Feather into General [Hospital],” he said.

The first time police came, around 8 p.m., Higgins “took off out the back,” and the officers left, Busta said. He and others “calmed Gaorongwe told Times Livesthat.

Two men hanged in Iran for alleged ‘consensual sodomy’

Abdullah Ghavami Chahzanjiru and Salman Ghanbari Chahzanjiri were hanged August 6 in southern Iran, allegedly for “consensual sodomy.”

It is unclear if the men were hanged because they were gay. Reports about the execution are vague and only state that they were hanged for their “immoral villains,” reported the Daily Beast.

Iran has instituted a wave of ex-

features Elizondo and other trans women. It was co-directed by Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker.

Gay grape stomp in Healdsburg

It’s nearing grape harvest time in Sonoma County and, to help kick off the season, Viszlay Vineyards in Healdsburg will host “Stompcapades,” a gay grape stomp Saturday, August 30. Abby Viszlay said the event takes place 5 to 8 p.m., with the grape stomp competition beginning at 6:30.

In addition to wine, the event will feature live music, a food truck, and costume contest, with prizes awarded to the top three entries. A grand prize will be awarded to whoever stomps the most juice in two minutes.

Tickets are $20 in advance or $35 at the door. Viszlay Vineyards is located at 851 Limerick Lane. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (707) 481-1514 or visit www.viszlayvineyards.com and click on “Events.”t

[Higgins] down,” but police were called back at about midnight, he said. Higgins had settled down again, though, he said.

The police said unless Higgins was a danger to himself or others, they couldn’t do anything, Busta said. The Department of Emergency Management hasn’t yet confirmed the calls for service.

Higgins eventually became “really mellow,” Busta said. Friends assume he went to the park, where he liked to visit, at about 7 a.m. Sunday, just before he was found, Busta said, although he didn’t see Higgins get up and go to the park.

“He was in and out so much in the last couple of days, it was hard to keep track of him,” he said.

Busta said his friend hadn’t seemed dangerous. “If anything, he was being super-crazy spiritual,” he said, and “doing little ritual things” like “playing with feathers.”

Higgins had been helping out at Rosenberg Deli, near his home. Issa Kort, 54, the shop’s co-owner, said he thought of Higgins like a son.

“He was a great guy, and everybody loves him,” Kort said. They used to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes together in the morning, and Higgins mentored Kort’s son on a high school graduation project.

But two or three weeks before Higgins died, Kort noticed he was acting differently.

Sometimes he’d be “normal,” but “other times he acted so strange,” Kort said. He’d be “talking nonsense,” he said, discussing things like the brain and spirits without connecting his thoughts.

“I just stood and listened to him ... I didn’t want to hurt his feelings,” Kort said.

Asked if it had seemed like his brother had been having any trouble, Michael Higgins said, “No, not really.”

People interested in helping Higgins’s family with funeral, medical, and other expenses may go to http:// www.gofundme.com/d2snac.

Anyone with information in the case may call the police department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to 847411 and type SFPD, then the message. The incident number is 140 665 807.t ecutions this year. There have been more than 400 executions during the first half of 2014 alone, according to Iran Human Rights.

Iran’s human rights record, particular in regard to LGBT rights, is dismal.

Homosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment, or execution in Iran.t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-2213541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035954600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035952700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HTFJ INTERNATIONAL, 165 SAN FELIPE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARNOLD HUBERT PON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/22/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLO2GO, 411 SPRUCE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BLO2GO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035955700

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035953200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GBWORKS, 1444 15TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GARY M, BERNARD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/22/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035959300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DELI 23, 2449 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OSCAR LOPEZIRIARTE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/24/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035959400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAJANI IMMIGRATION, 85 JOSIAH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FAYAZ RAJANI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/24/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/24/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035968200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SENIOR CARE ASSISTANCE, 1354 POWELL ST #314, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SENIOR CARE ASSISTANCE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/29/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035953000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NANO CAFE, 564 S VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ALATORRE BRUCE ENTERPRISES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/19/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033625400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DELI 23, 2449 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ISA J. MUHAWIEH. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/11.

JULY 31, AUG 07, 14, 21, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035970300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THOMAS DOHERTY CONSTRUCTION, 51 EAST GATE DR, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOMAS DOHERTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035979000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIGHT’S LES CLOS, 234 TOWNSEND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRIGHT WINE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032530900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GOLDEN GATE VIDEO; MOVIE MAVEN; 1799 10TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by CRAFTY CANINES LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/10.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 PUBLIC SALE OF PROPERTY

Personal property described as: shoes, clothes, furniture, tables, bed, linen, shelves, lamps, kitchen glassware, silverware, dvds, tube TV, pictures, books, miscellaneous household items left at 855 Folsom St. #522, San Francisco. Public auction will meet in front of property at 4pm on 08/27/14. Auctioneer will only accept cash.

AUG 14, 21, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550500 In the matter of the application of: JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ, is requesting that the name JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN MARK RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN MARK RODRIGUEZ, be changed to BEN SALVADOR TREVINO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 2nd of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550505 In the matter of the application of: LE LE DO for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LE LE DO is requesting that the name LE LE DO be changed to EDWARD LUY DO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 9th of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035984300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TODD WANERMAN EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING, 234 19TH AVE #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TODD MOORE WANERMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/14.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035973000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PINK ZEBRA SF, 3515 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSE L. KOIDE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WOODENMICE, 1369 HYDE ST #23, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JERRY BRECHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/31/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035967200

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035992200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TAVO CONSTRUCTION, 2820 25TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GUSTAVO MENDONCA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/29/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOAL VAULTING, 1420 ALABAMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NIFER KILAKILA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/25/13 The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/12/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014

▼

Classifieds

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550497 In the matter of the application of: SAMANTA GURUNG for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SAMANTA GURUNG is requesting that the name SAMANTA GURUNG be changed to SAMUEL TILAK GURUNG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514, Rm. 514 on the 7th of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

The

Gaylesta2x2_0610CN Gaylesta2x2_0610CN

Counseling>>

Legal Services>>

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035983800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FTN GLOBAL, 1800 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CYBERNET ENTERTAINMENT LLC (NY). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/14.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035970400

Confidential referrals made to licensed psychotherapists who understand our community.

Referrals are available to LGBTQ therapists on all insurance plans. Visit www.Gaylesta.org and click on “Find a Therapist.” Or email us at contact@gaylesta.org

Visit our website to view profiles of over 150 therapists.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIGHT-FRAME CONSTRUCTION INC, 1325 B EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LIGHT-FRAME CONSTRUCTION INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/14.

MACINTOSH HELP

PC Support Ralph Doore 415-867-4657

Professional 30+ years exp.

Virus removal PC speedup New PC setup Data recovery Network & wireless setup Discreet

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035917000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEW HIVE DESIGNS, 642 WOODMONT ST, BERKELEY, CA 94708. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL PATRICK BENNETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/14.

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035978200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: APPLIED PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS, INC, 1072 14TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed APPLIED PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/08. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/14.

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036002000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AGESONG AT UNIVERSITY, 350 UNIVERSITY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AGESONG GENESIS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/18/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/18/14.

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014

Will do SF, Marin & San Mateo County. Albert 650-992-6065

HAULING 24/7 –

(415) 441-1054 Large Truck

Real Estate>> BEAUTIFUL WATERFRONT NAPA CO PROPERTY FOR SALE.

2350stagecoachcanyonroad.com 707.227.2122

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KIKI THREADS, 1901-B 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YAILIN MONTIEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TR CONCEPTS & CONSULTING, 444 WOODROW AVE, VALLEJO, CA 94591. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TRACY ROGERS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/18/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/18/14.

PET SITTER –

Hauling >>

 Yelp reviews

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035956800

AUG 21, 28, SEPT 04, 11, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036001300

Personal property described as: shoes, clothes, furniture, tables, bed, linen, shelves, lamps, kitchen glassware, silverware, dvds, tube TV, pictures, books, miscellaneous household items left at 855 Folsom St. #522, San Francisco.

Public auction will meet in front of property at 4pm on 08/27/14.

Auctioneer will only accept cash.

R i c k 41 5 . 8 2 1 . 1 7 92

Movers>>

Pet Services>>

PUBLIC SALE OF ABANDONED PROPERTY –

* home or office * 23 years exp * sfmacman.com

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE +A-035993100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIKES UNION AUTO REPAIR, 1311 7TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed XIAOLIN LIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/12/14.

Notices>>

Tech Support>>

Our readers make excellent customers.

ebar.com

To advertise, call Scott Wazlowski, Vice President, Advertising at 415-861-5019 or email advertising@ebar.com

BAYB A AR R The

Household Services>>

Fax to: Fax to: REA REA EPORTER AY EPORTER

Classified Order Form

Deadline: NOON on MONDAY. Payment must accompany ad. No ads taken over the telephone.

If you have a question, call 415.861.5019. Display advertising rates available upon request.

CLEANING Indicate 395 Ninth S.F. CAS.F. CA 395 NinthType Street PROFESSIONAL – Street Style XBOLD and BOLD stop here Here 26 Years Exp. (415) 794-4411 PHONE 415.861.5019 FAX 861-8144 PHONE 415.861.5019 FAX 861-8144

Fax from: Fax from:

Roger Miller

HOUSECLEANING SINCE 1979 –

Many original clients. All supplies.

HEPA Vac. Richard 415-255-0389

All the news that’s fit to post.

RATES for Newspaper and website: First line, Regular 10.00 All subsequent lines 5.00 Web or e-mail hyperlink 5.00 CAPS double price BOLD double price X-BOLD triple price PAYMENT:

ebar.com

Cash

Personal Check

Contact Information Name Address Number of Issues

Mail with payment to: Bay Area Reporter 44 Gough St. #204 SF, CA 94103

Credit Card Payment Name Card Number Expiration Date Signature Money Order

City Classification

OR E-MAIL: BARLEGALS@GMAIL.COM

Visa

MasterCard

AmEx

Telephone State Amt. Enclosed

Zip

Brian had his HIV under control with medication. But smoking with HIV caused him to have serious health problems, including a stroke, a blood clot in his lungs and surgery on an artery in his neck. Smoking makes living with HIV much worse. You can quit.

Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

#CDCTips

HIV alone didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cause the clogged artery in my neck.

Smoking with HIV did.

Brian, age 45, California

16

To be Takei

Tough love

18

Out &About

Road show

16

O&A

15

The

Vol. 44 • No. 34 • August 21-27, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

From heartthrob to Hamlet to out

by Adam Sandel

I

n 1961, Dr. Kildare became the first of TV’s hit doctor shows, and its handsome 27-yearold star Richard Chamberlain became one of TV’s first great heartthrobs. He would go on to become an acclaimed classical actor, film and television’s go-to guy for classical and swashbuckling period fare, a musical theatre Broadway star, and TV’s King of the Miniseries. In his 2003 memoir, he came out as gay.

Still stunningly handsome at 80, Chamberlain is now coming to San Francisco to appear in the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation’s 20th anniversary Help is on the Way concert on Sun., Aug. 24, at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. In a recent interview, the warm and charming Chamberlain shared some memories of pivotal moments in his career, and the challenges of being a closeted star at a time when coming out was not an option.

His transition from pretty-boy heartthrob to serious actor was triggered at a party hosted by his Dr. Kildare co-star Raymond Massey. “Ray used to invite me to his house, where I’d listen to these great actors and their stories,” he says.

Actor Richard Chamberlain: “Being gay is part of the story.”

“[British actor] Cedric Hardwicke said to me, ‘It’s a shame you’re a star before you’ve learned how to act.’”

After Kildare ended, Chamberlain headed to England in 1967 to get some basic training.

“As soon as I got there, I was offered the BBC series The Portrait of a Lady, and then I was approached to do Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. At first I turned it down, then I woke up in the middle of the night sweating, saying, ‘I’ve gotta do it.’”

He negotiated with director Peter Dews to get some vocal and acting training to prepare him for the most demanding role in all of drama. “Dr. Kildare was a huge hit in England, and I heard that all the London reviewers were coming to rip this interloper to pieces. But we got very good reviews.”

This led to a decade’s worth of classical-period roles in films, including The Music Lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Slipper and the Rose, and The Man in the Iron Mask.

When the TV miniseries craze of the late 1970s and early 80s hit, Chamberlain cornered the See page 17 >>

Promiscuous pictures at Pier 24

by Sura Wood

I

nfiltrating and cutting across mediums, “found” imagery is all the rage in the fine art world. Perhaps this in-vogue phenomenon is a function of the onslaught of throwaway digital photos and the Internet, a behemoth engine that allows greater access to all manner of vintage pictures and millions of snapshots. But let’s face it: we’re a promiscuous picture-taking species, motivated by an obsessive desire to record moments for posterity, or to simply stop time.

Daniel Gordon, “Still Life with Lobster” (2012).

See page 23 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Courtesy the artist and Wallspace Gallery, New York

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

Classy people, classy art

by Roberto Friedman

W

hen you hear the phrase “the ladies who lunch,” do your thoughts automatically turn to Out There? No? Well, get a load of these boldface names: San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley, San Francisco Opera Guild President Karen J. Kubin, San Francisco Opera Ball 2014

Co-Chairmen Teresa Medearis and Cynthia L. Schreuder and Neiman Marcus General Manager Alan Morrell hosted “the extraordinary Bay Area Social Press Corps” for an elegant luncheon at the Rotunda of Neiman Marcus last week, and OT was there.

We were seated across the table from Gockley and stellar San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, along with a host of equally

17th annual california independent film festival

FRIday, September 12

Lifetime Achievement Awardee

VIP PARTY with a personal appearance by Julie Newmar 7:00 PM $75 Movie 9:00 PM $20

SATURDAY, September 13 VIP PARTY with the cast 8:00 PM $25 Movie 9:00 PM $12

SATURDAY, September 13 VIP PARTY with the cast 5:00 PM $25 Movie 6:00 PM $12 the castro theater 429 castro street san francisco california

To purchase tickets, please visit caiff.org/events.asp

BAReporter.2.indd 1

luminary bylines, including Miss Catherine Bigelow, Carolyne Zinko, San Francisco Examiner arts editor Leslie Katz, Chronicle arts editor Leba Hertz, and others. It was quite the gathering of ink-stained wretches, the fare included lobster and champagne, and we were honored to find ourselves included.

In his remarks Gockley gave us a taste of what’s in store for us over SF Opera’s opening weekend, just a few short weeks away.

Once again it will be a onetwo-three punch over those three days: first, the opening-night salvo of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma; then, the Saturday-night premiere of the season’s second production, Carlisle Floyd’s SuMarty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera sannah; and finally, Opera in the Park on Sunday, 1:30 American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky p.m., in Golden Gate Park’s will sing the title role in San Francisco Opera’s production of Norma.

Sharon Meadow.

We’re looking forward to what Gockley called the theme, given the period setting for “stunning bel canto tragic piece” Norma, and Benavides promised Norma, starring American soprano some surprise touches. We’re callSondra Radvanovsky. “It’s only ing every legionnaire and centurion two and a quarter hours, so we can in town that we know, and asking to all get back to the Ball,” he joked. borrow some armor.

He also whetted our appetite for the company premiere of Susannah, Big shoe “by a composer I have championed Out There was also in the house my entire career, Carlisle Floyd. for the opening of Shoerageous at The opera represented the U.S. in Creativity Explored last Thursday the Brussels World Fair in the midnight, a nonprofit visual arts cen1950s. To my mind, it’s among the ter where artists with developmentop five American operas – #1 being, tal disabilities create, exhibit and of course, Porgy and Bess – and it’s sell art. Works in various mediums as American as can be.” by over 20 artists celebrated the We also chatted with J. Riccardo “shoeness” – the very essence – of Benavides of Ideas Event Décor & footwear. It was a festive idea for Production, who is designing this a group show, and the jazz combo year’s Opera Ball, Passione. The Dance Ambience made the party party will have an ancient Roman musical by playing a lively set blend-

8/15/14 10:03 AM

t

Courtesy the artist and Creativity Explored

“Classy Women’s Shoes” (2014), ink and watercolor on paper, by artist Joseph “J.D.” Green, part of Shoerageous at Creativity Explored.

ing gypsy, swing and jazz on fiddle, clarinet, guitars and bass.

Curated by Creativity Explored artists Joseph “J.D.” Green and Gerald Wiggins with assistance from visual arts instructor Paul Moshammer, the show made us realize how iconic shoes are. But we enjoyed all of the art in the larger studio space beyond the show as well. These artists are creating work that makes up in exuberance and spirit what it might lack in subtlety or polish. (Through Oct. 1 at Creativity Explored, 3245 16th St., SF.) Coming attractions: Beginning next week in Arts & Culture are two issues of Fall arts previews. Our arts writers will be offering a few of the highlights they foresee on their beats, including in theatre, film, art museum shows and galleries, dance, opera and classical music in concert, and more. Counting down until the new season, we remain, your queer uncle Out There.t

t

Theatre>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Something wicked this way comes

by Richard Dodds

Aug. 27 arrival at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. And he ick Adams is seeing the U.S.A. has company on the road: his boyin a Wicked way. When the cofriend and fellow cast member Kyle star of Broadway’s Priscilla Queen of Brown, and their dog Baby. “It’s the Desert landed the male lead a pretty sweet deal,” he in the national tour of said.

Wicked, he bought There’s another a car – real Manhatsweet piece of the deal. tanites don’t have cars “I don’t have to wear – and he drives from high heels,” Adams said. city to city while most “I’m glad I’m now playof his fellow performers ing a prince instead of are flown or bused to a queen” – referring to the next tour stop. the three drag roles he “It’s been an advenhas had on Broadway, ture taking in the counin Chicago, La Cage try,” Adams said from Salt Lake City, aux Folles, and the aforementioned the city Wicked is playing before its Priscilla. “While Priscilla was running, most of the auditions I got were for drag queen roles.

It was like, is this all I’m ever going to do from now on?”

In Wicked, Adams is playing the studly party-boy Fiyero, a prince from Winkie Country and a new arrival at Shiz University in Oz. He woos and is wooed by the two co-eds who will go on to become good and wicked witches in this prequel to The Wizard of Oz. Adams first auditioned for Wicked in 2005, before he had actually seen the show, while he was a senior at the Boston Conservatory of Music. It was an open call for the Broadway company, and he flew to New York for the day. He didn’t get the job. “It’s great the way things work out,” Adams said, “because had I done the show then I probably would have been in the ensemble, so it was worth the wait.”

Broadway performers can be reluctant to tour because it pulls them out of the New York casting consciousness.

“But the timing now was perfect,” Adams said of hitting the road. “I was kind of ready to get a little time out of Manhattan after 10 years, and finanJoan Marcus cially it’s a great deal.”

And in addition to solving Nick Adams got to step out of the the long-distance relationensemble when he was cast as Adam/ ship he had been having with Felicia in the original Broadway company of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. his partner, it will soon offer him a three-month run in Los

N

Angeles to explore its casting world.

After all, he’ll have a car, an apartment, and a job that mostly requires night work. “Why not?” he said of TV and movie possibilities. “I have absolutely nothing to lose.”

Adams, 31, has been a professional actor for 15 years. He had earned his Actors Equity card before he was out of high school and had performed in more than 80 productions at the Erie Playhouse in his Pennsylvania hometown by the time he left for college. After getting a BFA in Boston, he headed straight for New York, and quickly and steadily found work, with six Broadway credits now under his belt.

In the first five of those shows, it was ensemble work, before getting his big break in 2011 playing Adam/ Felicia in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. “That show completely changed my life,” Adams said. “It opened up my career to so much more than what I had been doing. And I don’t know if I’ll ever top that experience.

The way the crowd reacted, we all felt like rock stars.”

As for Wicked, still running on Broadway after 11 years and supporting two national touring companies, Adams can only marvel at its ongoing popularity. “It’s crazy,” he said. “We’ve had people who have seen this show like 20 times, and they keep coming back. Any time we have a new under-

broadwaystagedoor.blogspot.com

Nick Adams found himself in the tabloids when Mario Lopez joined the cast of A Chorus Line in 2008 and costume rumors emerged.

Joan Marcus

Nick Adams plays Fiyero, and Emma Hunton is Elphaba in a touring production of Wicked arriving in San Jose on Aug. 27.

study go on for one of the witches, there’s immediately a video of it online somewhere. I don’t know how these people find out about these things, but it’s crazy wild.”

Adams himself has drawn some Twitter, Internet, and tabloid attention. There’s what Wikipedia refers to as “The Turtle Bay Incident,” in which Adams and his boyfriend were denied entry at a popular New York nightclub, presumably because they were holding hands. He posted a tweet that became a cause celebre on LGBT blogs that finally landed him an apology from the club. “Oh my God,” Adams said. “That’s on Wikipedia? That’s crazy. I didn’t intend it to spark this big thing.”

And there was the tabloid tanktop dustup when he was in A Chorus Line and TV celebrity Mario Lopez joined the cast. With his buff body, Adams was rumored to be recostumed in a less revealing top, presumably so as not to overshadow Lopez’s own impressive guns.

“We’ve always been very friendly, “

Adams said of Lopez, “and I even introduced him to his wife. We laughed about all of that stuff in the tabloids.” And the tabloid coverage did help land Adams a job as the signature model for 2xist Underwear.

In fact, if you go to Adams’ website and click on his Flickr photo stream, he’s shirt-free in many of the images, and you can see why Genre magazine declared that he had “the best bod on Broadway.” “I forgot that I have that on there,” he said of the photos.

“Most of that was from when I did a lot of underwear and fitness modeling, and made good money on top of doing Broadway. It was definitely a tool I used. Now I’m in my early 30s, and I don’t do that anymore. As Fiyero, I’m in suits most of the time. It’s nice to sing and dance and not take my shirt off.”t

nated in full at the Dallas State Fair, and for television was both painfully (yet, we feel, mercifully) cut, and cut-rate in its direction, look, and dress. No Mainbocher anywhere near this production. And if there’s momentarily the substance of de Mille’s dances, these are dubiously her steps (choreo by little-known Edmund Balin). Nine of the songs remain, with secondary characters almost uniformly having lost their

secondary comedy numbers. What a relief.

Playing Venus, Janis Paige is more I Dream of Jeannie than a goddess, and definitely not glamorous. The close-ups aren’t flattering. Russel Nype is serviceable in the male lead, and it’s nice to see a younger, handsome George Gaynes. Oh yes, seeing this will bring you closer to One Touch of Venus. It made me squirm.t

Wicked will run Aug. 27-Sept.

14 at San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $44$121.70. Call (800) 982-2787 or go to broadwaysanjose.com.

Twice touched by Venus

by John F. Karr

T

he near-simultaneous release of a complete recording on CD of One Touch of Venus, along with the arrival on DVD of an abridged 1955 television broadcast of the show, remind me of that old saw, be careful what you wish for (each lists for $29.95).

One Touch of Venus is a fabled show, with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash (does anyone remember when Writer of Light Verse was a viable occupation?), script by S.J. Perelman (remembered mostly for Marx Brothers movie scripts), direction by Elia Kazan, and choreography by Agnes de Mille. It cinched Mary Martin’s stardom, helped by her clutch of gowns by Mainbocher, in a very rare sighting of a couturier on Broadway. This estimable group’s much-heralded production was a party that opened in late 1943. It was almost late to the party, though, coming six months after Oklahoma!

That show represented The New, and, despite being dressed to the nines in a glam production, One Touch of Venus was decidedly The Old. State-of-the-art froth for its day (a commercial success, for sure), and despite its satirical shots at American suburbia, bohemia, and amour, it was actually a throwback to the

mindless but tuneful musicals of the 1920s and 30s. This has curtailed revivals, so few of us know much about the show.

After hearing Mary Martin’s incomparable performances (seductive, gossamer, witty) of her four numbers on an otherwise severely truncated original-cast recording, well, we were starved for more. A very dull 1948 film version didn’t help. It decimated the score and gave Martin’s role to Ava Gardner.

And aren’t those two gals always twinned in your mind? – peas in a pod, just like the Robeson twins, Paul and Flora.

What’s the show’s plot? A statue of the goddess Venus comes to life, and havoc dressed up as romantic hilarity ensues. Sexual situations gave it raciness, and love’s empowerment gave it some substance. A couple of recent, fully staged revivals have been frolics, but were sort of like watching Good News. You gotta get your mind into the period or it’ll close down, period. Mine’s kind of done that with both of these archeological excursions.

First up, the two-disc set with expansive booklet, from JAY Productions. It’s glossy all the way and darn nicely cast, with Melissa Errico as Venus, Brent Barrett as her inamorata, and the likes of Victoria Clark,

Judy Kaye, and Ron Raines filling secondary parts.

JAY gives us 103 minutes; Martin’s indispensable recording gave us a mere 31 minutes. We get Weill’s Overture, his complete music (not a dance arranger’s) for several of de Mille’s ballets, and 15 songs (compared to the eight on Martin’s recording). It’s a treat to hear Weill borrowing tasty riffs from his European works, particularly Happy End. But even though I’m a devoted fan, I think he comes a cropper in the half-dozen comedy songs, which are among his least substantial, and nearly irritating compositions.

He’s not helped by lyricist Nash, whose patented trick was extended lines that still arrived at a tricky rhyme. They make Weill jump through hoops; these sure are a bunch of ungainly, unmemorable tunes. And they have such tenuous connection to the plot. Errico is fine, and Clark’s performance is a treat, but the high range of Kaye’s number treats her voice rather cruelly. Raines is a little strangulated in his big ballad. Still, JAY provides the whole shebang; you just may need to hear it. Me, I’ll stick to Mary Martin.

I wish I could say kind things about VAI’s release of a 1955 blackand-white telecast. The show origi-

<< Film

16 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

To be gay, gifted & Takei

t

by David Lamble

I

n composing my rave review for To Be Takei, director Jennifer M. Kroot’s nuanced portrait of a brave new LGBT icon, the openly gay Japanese American TV/screen actor George Takei, I found myself ruminating about my own queer childhood. They were awkward years of early adulthood, trying to construct a radio personality without first grasping my own true personhood, gobs of junk TV imbibed before kicking the boob-tube habit in my college years, and my own prejudices: bits and pieces of the American pop universe that I casually rejected, often without much examination.

In the late 1960s, while helping to lead the fight to save my college radio station, Hofstra University’s WVHCFM, from draconian budget cuts, I had occasion to ride herd over a 24hour, student-staffed radio galaxy that included all kinds of newbie air hosts. One memorable young woman DJ produced a weekly country music show, although at that point C&W music fandom was as rare as albino leopards at the Central Park Zoo. This gal’s tastes included a hard-core addiction to the then-fledgling TV show Star Trek. Looking back, I can see that my quirky country DJ and I were queer kids looking for a path to be fully ourselves. At the time, I could only view her cowgirl garb, “low brow” music taste and Trekkie fanaticism as “uncool” tendencies, to be tolerated but certainly not embraced.

Had I been less closed off, I too might have become a fan of the Starship Enterprise crew: Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and that handsome ship’s pilot Hikaru Sulu, played by a thenboyishly cute George Takei getting his first shot at steady TV series work

Cinematographer Matt Bockelman

George Takei poses with a Mr. Sulu action figure at Midtown Comics, in a scene from director Jennifer M. Kroot’s To Be Takei.

after a nomadic career guesting on top-rated shows like Perry Mason, I Spy, My Three Sons, and most aptly, Mission: Impossible.

To Be Takei tells the seemingly fantastical story of a Japanese American kid suddenly uprooted from a “normal” US kidhood and consigned with his parents and siblings to a life inside shabby, makeshift wooden barracks, roped off from America at war by barbed-wire fencing and guard towers staffed by soldiers with loaded rifles. It’s good for progressives to recall that the sins of the WWII Japanese American internment program were carried out under the leadership of America’s otherwise almost saintly leader, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt.

One of the virtues of this odd survivor’s tale is how its still vigorous survivor, a now 76-year-old, happily married, still working actor, regards what to some might appear harrowing and embittering experiences as

useful and even, in retrospect, quite amusing stumbles that were necessary stations of the cross towards building the now rich and hectic life he enjoys with his husband of 25 years. That companion, Brad Altman Takei, is refreshingly his own man, sometimes making pronouncements about their shared life that are quite a bit less gruntled than George’s almost Zen-like one-liners.

An early clip in the film’s prologue reveals just how unsettling fame can be for the once “silent partner” whose life is now an uncomfortably open book for the film’s cameras.

With all its absurdist and tres cool insights into the rigors of living a normal life in the glare of 24/7 media, To Be Takei is at its best when George is free to riff on how he came to be who he is – for instance, his lovely story about discovering his homo feelings as a teen at summer camp.

“I was different from everybody else, nobody else felt like that. Then

Cinematographer Chris Million

George and Brad Takei enjoy the Fourth of July Parade in Show Low, Arizona, in a scene from director Jennifer M. Kroot’s To Be Takei.

you go to a summer camp, and there was a counselor who was, I thought, gorgeous. He was blonde, and one night I was in the cabin and he came in to visit, and he was very friendly.

And that was the first time, and it was both frightening and exciting and delicious and terrifying, a new sensation, very confusing – and then you start remembering the delicious part of it more, and start thinking, ‘Maybe that’s what I really like.’”

Nearly 77 years of a very busy life can feel awkwardly compressed if not altogether compacted when squeezed down to 91 minutes if the soul at the core of the story doesn’t bear up to withering close-ups, even an entire psychic undressing.

But George Takei is more than man enough. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the film features mad-moment encounters with ex-Starship Commander Captain Kirk, a pugnacious and apparently prejudiced William Shatner, who makes Donald Trump

seem like a beatific presence by comparison. It’s weird to hear bullyboy Shatner try to make a very lame excuse for not attending George and Brad’s wedding nuptials. By comparison, trash-talking radio host Howard Stern comes off as a real sweetheart, even a conscious partner in George’s crusade to bring LGBT marriage to all 50 states.

Curiously, George Takei’s longevity in the public sphere stems very much from his astonishing ability to adapt to the new communication skills bred by Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, one of the greatest accomplishments of this valentine to second and even third acts in American queer life is the case it makes for the digital world as being a great pathway to a degree of openness and acceptance not even dreamed about by earlier celestial cruisers.t Opens Fri., Aug. 22, at Sundance Kabuki in SF.

Meet the future of American boyhood

by David Lamble

I

f you’ve ever wondered what happens to those lucky so-and-sos who are singled out by the MacArthur Foundation for sudden riches, a quick peek at my candidate for best doc of the year is one answer. In Rich Hill, their terribly human, fitfully funny but always empathetic portrait of small-town America today, cousins Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo make what could have been an unbearably sad story unexpectedly hopeful. Out of a town population of 1,396 struggling souls, the filmmakers zero in on three boys whose intelligence, earthy humor and refusal to give up on themselves will give you something to chew on if you fear for the future of American boys.

One of the virtues of Rich Hill is its letting its subjects speak for themselves. First up is Andrew, an effervescent, high-achieving 14-year-old who refuses to be cowed or depressed by the implicit label of “poor white trash” that many pundits, right or left, would be eager to apply to him, his mom, twin sister and struggling dad. “People around town, they walk towards us or they look at us with their noses 50 miles in the air, acting like their shit don’t stink, acting like they’re better than us. And I don’t fall for that. We’re not trash, we’re good people.”

With his sunny disposition and high school varsity-football leadership skills, Andrew would be most filmgoers’ pick of this litter of three rural Missouri boys. But the filmmakers give us some reason to hope that there’s still time on the clock for the other two. Sexually abused by a nowabsent stepdad, 15-year-old Harley can appear to be a ticking teen timebomb, especially during his excursions to the local gun shop. “Anything

Courtesy Orchard Entertainment

Andrew, as seen in directors Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo’s Rich Hill.

can trigger me, the smallest, slightest thing that you’d figure wouldn’t trigger most people can trigger me.”

On the plus side, Harley, who’s seen talking by phone to his mom in state prison – she got there trying to kill the stepdad who abused her son – has his trusty grandma to fall back on. One deceptively casual scene finds Grandma chatting by phone with the school guidance counselor on strategies to keep the dark-haired Harley out of a state home for delinquent boys.

Our third contestant is perhaps Rich Hill’s most perplexing story.

When we meet him, Appachey is 13 years old and lights his cigarettes with a toaster, a bundle of hostile energy who at one poignant mo-

ment in the film is seen wearing a “It’s not my fault” T-shirt. “The thing is, people expect me to do good things and have a better future than I do right now. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

In an unexpected and delicious way, the filmmaking cousins offer us a small-town Missouri (Rich Hill hugs the “Show Me” state’s Western border with Kansas) that’s, on the one hand, racially monochromatic (nothing but white faces), yet still as full of surprises and possibilities as when Mark Twain was providing sneaky peeks at the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

Everything changes, and nothing changes: a strapping teen tests out newly acquired muscles in a week-

end evening arm-wrestling contest; a defiant, would-be truant kid sasses the school guidance counselor; while an even angrier boy heads closer to the edge of an adulthood robbed of hope. Rich Hill tugs at your heart without patronizing its plucky cast or insulting your intelligence, by demonstrating that America still has complex, intriguing stories to tell. My personal favorite is the one where Harley’s grandma explains how her daughter was demonized by the local prosecutor for attacking the stepdad who molested Harley. As Grandma speaks, the smoke from her grandson’s freshly lit cigarette slowly envelops her face until she disappears in a nicotine cloud. Grandma and Harley matter-

of-factly give their side of the story the local DA declined to pursue.

Grandma: “The prosecuting attorney, every time he opened his mouth up, said she was a danger to society, which she wasn’t. She’s always done everything that she can for the kids.”

Harley: “I was raped by my stepfather. The cops didn’t get called.

Nothing happened. It was best just to leave it alone.”

Grandma: “They didn’t even bring up charges against him.”

Harley: “They won’t.”

Grandma: “Because they said there wasn’t enough evidence.”

Harley: “Wasn’t enough evidence.”

Grandma: “She’s locked up for nothing, and he goes scot-free!”

Ultimately, Andrew becomes the film’s sage, dispenser of wisdom about what it’s like to be the good school-citizen kid caught up in the whirlwind of living with a feckless dad who pursues daydreams. “He does not like to hold a steady job.

He doesn’t like to hold a steady career. And that’s another reason why he isn’t a top dog. First he was into inventing stuff, and then singing, and then he went back to inventing. Now he’s wanting to go dig for gold or silver or something like that.

That’s my dad’s thing, it’s his life, and he has to live it.”

In its poetic meditation on the troubles of Middle America during the Obama years, the creators of Rich Hill have spun a nonfiction companion piece to this year’s best fiction epic on the dilemmas of growing up an American male kid, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.

Together, these compassionate, humane films are dual arguments for going out to the movies during the late-summer dog days.t

t

TV>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Going with the Flo

THE RICHMOND/ERMET AIDS FOUNDATION PRESENTS

by Adam Sandel

H

ere’s the story of a lovely lady,/ Who began in many shows upon the stage./She was the toast of talk shows such as Johnny Carson,/in TV’s Golden Age. “And then one day the lady got a series./And before her agent took another lunch,/She became an overnight sensation/Starring as the mother of The Brady Bunch.”

Florence Henderson is coming to San Francisco. The beloved TV star, who is still rocking it at 80, will appear in the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation’s 20th anniversary Help is on the Way gala and concert, on Sun., Aug. 24 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.

Despite years of starring in Broadway musicals, and on television talk shows, variety shows and game shows, she will forever be remembered as Carol Brady on ABC’s iconic family sitcom The Brady Bunch.

Although the show ran for only six seasons, from 1969-74, it has become both a touchstone of American pop culture and an international phenomenon. In a recent interview, Henderson shared some of the ways in which that show changed her life.

“It’s amazing the power of that little show, that has never been off the air,” she says. “It airs in 120 countries, and I still get fan mail from people in places like Russia and Germany and Asia.”

She agrees that the show’s initial impact was in how it spoke to children of divorce, which became widespread in the early 1970s. “We were the first blended family, the first couple to sleep in the same bed on TV, and it was the first show about parents discussing things to work them out, versus just telling the kids what to do.”

Those who knew Henderson from her many game show and talk show appearances prior to The Brady Bunch remember her irreverent, saucy personality and risqué

“

<<

Richard Chamberlain

From page 13

market on starring roles in Centennial, Shogun and The Thorn Birds.

In the 80s and 90s, he did numerous TV guest roles, and returned to the stage to star on Broadway in Blithe Spirit, My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music. But throughout 40 years of international stardom, Chamberlain was haunted by the constant fear that people would find out that he was gay.

“I knew I was gay at age 11 or 12, but I grew up in the 1930s and 40s, when being gay was not an option. I spent a lot of time trying to be someone else. My friends knew, but in Hollywood I was a romantic leading man, so I always lived in fear of being outed.

“When I started writing my book at age 65, I thought it would be a guide-to-life kind of thing, but my partner at the time and my publisher said, ‘You’ve got to make it personal, and being gay is part of the story.’

“While I was writing, it was almost as if an angel walked into the room and said, ‘Richard, it’s over.

All this fear, this self-loathing is just stupid.’ The message got right into my bones, and all the fear and selfloathing vanished.”

The book, Shattered Love, was published in 2003, and Chamberlain’s coming out was the headline of the day. “When I was promoting the book, all the press wanted to talk about, from Larry King to Bill O’Reilly, was me being gay, and I was totally fine with it.”

Chamberlain is still the best of friends with his former partner of

NorCal’s Largest Annual AIDS Benefit Concert & Gala

August 24, 7:30pm

Palace of Fine Arts Theater Florence Henderson Richard Chamberlain Alex Newell ★ Lisa Vroman Maureen McGovern Paula West ★ Carole Cook Valarie Pettiford Jake Simpson ★ Meg Mackay Cast of Motown: The Musical & MORE!

Director: David Galligan Musical Directors: Ben Prince & Cesar Cancino

HelpIsOnTheWay.org or 415.273.1620

TV star Florence Henderson: “You’ve gotta tell the truth.”

sense of humor. Compared to the actress herself, Carol Brady seemed downright dull.

“Carol Brady was a character I created within the context of the show,” she says. “The story is seen through the eyes of the child, so I created and played Carol as the mom I always wanted. I never expected to be my saucy, risqué self on-camera, but I sure was off-camera!”

The fact that people expect wholesome Ma Brady actually

32 years, actor and writer Martin Rabbett. When I ask if he’s dating anyone now, he replies, “Are you kidding? I’m 80, for Christ’s sake!”

To which I can’t help but reply, “But you’re Richard Chamberlain, for Christ’s sake!”

He’s very happy to see the changes in attitudes today, including that many gay actors are coming out. “It’s great that some very wellknown actors are out now, and it doesn’t seem to be a hindrance. And the recent strides in gay marriage are totally fabulous.”

Chamberlain raves about the new documentary The Case Against 8, which chronicles the lawsuit that led to the striking down of California’s Prop. 8. “It was one of the great events of my life to see those couples, and what amazing love, bravery, and intelligence it took for them to achieve what they did.”

I can’t help but ask Chamberlain about a memorable scene in the 1980 miniseries Shogun, in which he played British adventurer John Blackthorne, who’s stranded in 17th-century Japan. When a Japanese maiden offers herself to him and he rebuffs her, she says, “Oh, you want a boy?” This sends him into a furious tirade.

“There was a certain irony there,” he admits. “But that was the character and the time. But I was chuckling inside.”t Help is on the Way 20th anniversary gala and concert, Sun., Aug. 24, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, SF. VIP reception: 5 p.m. Gala reception: 6 p.m. Performance: 7:30 p.m.

Tickets ($65-$150) at (415) 282-5492 or reaf.org.

works in Henderson’s favor. “People perceive me in a certain way, so it becomes that much funnier when I let loose because they don’t expect it. I’d rather make people laugh than anything else.”

The number that she’ll do for

ebar.com

See page 20 >>

JASON BROCK September 3

LINDA LAVIN September 18 - 19

CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY September 20 -21

For tickets:www.feinsteinssf.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556

093341.01_HNSF_2014_Feinsteins_BAR_8-21_MECH ROUND #: MECH Trim: 5.75in x 7.625in

Bleed: none

Live: 5.75in x 7.625in

Color Space: CMYK

Fonts: Futura

<< Out&About

18 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

Crowd controls

O&A

Motown the Musical @ Orpheum Theatre Clifton Oliver and Allison Semmes costar in the first national tour of the musical treasure about the life and career of Berry Gordy, featuring dozens of performers singing and dancing to Motown classic hits. $45-$210. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7:30pm. Also Sat 2pm. Thru Sept.

28. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.motownthemusical.com www.shnsf.com

Out &About

by Jim Provenzano

H

owever you get there, get out and see stuff. That's what I say and that's my belief. Risk arrest, risk mob rule, risk threatening police tactics and long lines. Risk everything.

Music Moves Festival @ ODC Theater The impressive month-long dance festival continues with Namita Kapoor and Rueda con Ritmo (Aug. 22 & 23, 8pm). Antoine Hunter and Millissa Payne Bradley (Aug. 24, 6pm). 3153 17th St. www.odcdance.org

Thu 21

The Taming of the Shrew @ Memorial Park Ampitheater, Cupertino

The Warriors see New & Classic Films

Thu 21 Buyer & Cellar @ Curran Theatre Michael Urie ( Ugly Betty) stars in Jonathan Tolins’ comic play about an actor working in Barbra Streisand’s Malibu basement mall (yes, there is such a thing). $60-$80. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 31.

445 Geary St. (888) 746-1799. www.buyerandcellar.com www.shnsf.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Will Durst, Marga Gomez, Joe Nguyen, and Lisa Geduldig perform, along with The Bad Aunties improv group (Diane Amos, Debi Durst, and Judy Nihei). $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. (800) 8383006. www.ElRioSF.com

From Red to Black @ A.C.T. Costume Shop Rhett Rossi’s New York-set drama about a subway death explores racism. $15-$20. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 30. 1119 Market St. at 7th. Thru Aug. 30. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

I ♥ the 80s @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Turn back time as an ensemble of talented singers, including Tony Vincent (American Idiot, The Voice) and Jessica Phillips (Leap of Faith), who perform classic songs from the 1980s. $35-$50.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Aug. 21-24.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 6631063. ticketweb.com

Killing My Lobster @ Z Below The improv comic ensemble performs a live radio show, with sound effects, for an audience; with music opening acts. $10-$50. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 23. www.KillingMyLobster.com

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Aug. 21: Mr. X (6pm), Mauvais Sang (7:235) and Before Sunset (9:35).

Aug. 22: Streets of Fire (7:30) and The Warriors (9:20). Aug. 23: Peaches Christ presents Showgirls! (See Sat 23). Aug. 24: The Leopard (2:30, 7pm).

Aug. 26: The Dance of Reality (7pm) and Jodorosky’s Dune (9:30). Aug. 27: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (7pm) and Tempest (9pm). Aug. 28: The Lovers on the Bridge (7pm) and Before Midnight (9:20). $12. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

t

LGBT Talks @ Commonwealth Club

San Francisco Mime Troupe @ Various Venues

Hayes Valley Artists @ 580 Hayes

The political lecture hall’s gay-themed events continue. Aug. 21: Daniel Curzon and The Big Book of In-YourFace Gay Etiquette (6pm). Aug. 25: SF State prof. emeritus Bill Issel on The San Francisco LGBT Struggle for Freedom Revisited: Catholic Power and the Right to the City (6pm).

Aug. 25: Marriage, the Movement and More: A Political and Legal Understanding of What LGBT Families Are Facing (6pm). Aug. 26: How Did Marriage Equality Go Mainstream: Evolution or Revolution? (6pm). Aug. 27: Up Close with Marga Gomez (11:30am). Aug. 28: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: Deviance, Justice & Art (6pm). Also Aug. 28: Harnessing the Power of the LGBT Marketplace and Social Capital to Drive Positive Social Change. Aug. 29: Hollywood and the LGBT Journey with Donna Sachet (12pm). Each $7-$20.

595 Market St. 597-6712. www.commonwealthclub.org

Ripple Effect, the newest play produced by the politically-themed satirical theatre company, now celebrating its 55th season, takes on eviction, Google Glass-sporting hipster techies, and economic disparity in the Bay Area. Half-hour music set pre-show. Aug. 21: Mitchell Park, Palo Alto (7pm). Aug. 23 & 24: Ho Chi Minh Park, Berkeley (2pm).

Aug. 26: St. James Park, San Jose (7pm). Aug. 28: Troupe Studio Space, 7pm, 855 Treat Ave SF ($20). Indoor and outdoor locales thru Sept. 1. 2851717. www.sfmt.org

Opening reception for the second (and last) larger group exhibit of variedmedia works by local artists, including Gareth Gooch, Rhonel Roberts, Jose Guzman-Colon, Madline BehrensBrigham and many others. Partial proceeds benefit the Hayes Valley Art Coalition (which sponsors the Burning Man sculpture installations in Patricia’s Green, among other projects). Visit the loft space before it’s demolished to make more condos (seriously). 5pm-9pm. Reg hours TueSun 10am-6pm. Thru Sept 28. www.hayesvalleyartcoalition.org

Pichai Pongsasaovapark @ Misho Gallery

World premiere of Marissa Skudlarek’s play, based on the Greek myth of the seven sisters, reset in a Baby Boomer era of the 1970s, at the height of the feminist movement. $25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 30. 414 Mason St. #601. www.pleiadessf.wordpress.com

Queering the Gentrification Conversation @ Modern Times Bookstore Janetta Johnson from TGI Justice Project and Erin McElroy from Anti-Eviction Mapping Project lead a discussion on local evictions, gentrification and economic issues.

7pm. 2919 24th st. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Collage + Landscape = Collagescape, the local artist’s new exhibit of works in mixed media, collage and paintings, and a second group exhibit of mixed media work by a dozen artists from California, New Mexico, New York, Sweden, and Germany. Thru Sept. 28. www.tofuart.com www.glamarama.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Tue 26 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival @ Esplanade

Into the Woods @ San Francisco Playhouse

The months-long free performance series continues, with weekend outdoor dance, music and theatre concerts, on various days and evenings. Aug. 21: North African Rhythms (12:30) and Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca (6pm).

Shows thru Oct. Mission St. at 3rd. 5431718. ybgfestival.org

Local production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s acclaimed musical that takes an ‘after Happily Ever After’ look at fairy tales. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 6. 450 Post St., 2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel.

677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Fri 22 Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira’s compelling multi-character solo show about his life in the worlds of hip hop (he’s toured with Snoop Dogg Busta Rhymes and others) and law enforcement. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, thru Sept 13. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley.

282-3055. themarsh.org

Dance Concerts @ The Garage

From Red to Black

Tofu Art @ Glama-Rama Salon

Sat 23

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Thu 21

The acclaimed documentary about the gay actor ( Star Trek) and activist’s life, directed by Jennifer Kroot. $9.50$13.50. Various times. 1881 Post St. www.tobetakei.com www.sundancecinemas.com

Shotgun Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s romantic classic includes live music and a jaunty-sexy staging. $20-$35. Thru Aug. 24. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Michael Frayns’ hilarious theatre comedy of onstage and backstage pratfalls returns. $20-$438. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Oct. 25. 533 Sutter St. at Powell. (800) 838-3008. www.sheltontheater.org

Pleiades @ Phoenix Theatre

To Be Takei @ Sundance Kabuki Cinema

Twelfth Night @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Noises Off @ Shelton Theater

Opening reception for the Bangkokbased gay artist’s exhibit of abstract paintings. 6pm-9pm. Thru Sept. 20.

680 8th St. 655-1838. www.MishoGallery.com

San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s summer outdoor shows commence, with shows in Pleasanton, Redwood City, San Francisco and Cupertino Free. Mostly Sat & Sun 7:30pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Sept 21. www.sfshakes.org

Aug. 22 & 23: SF Neo-Futurists present untitled, with infinite divisibility of space and time (i); also new works by choreographers Aura Fischbeck and Natalie Marsh. $10$20. 8pm. 715 Bryant St. 518-1517. www.715bryant.org

The Klipptones @ The Terrace Room, Oakland Joshua Klipp and his talented jazz band perform hot tunes for listening and dancing. 7pm-10pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland. www.klipptones.com

Luscious Queer Music Festival @ Saratoga Springs Northern California’s first LGBTQ music festival features Justin Vivian Bond, Matt Alber, Mary Lambert, Cris Williamson, Jon Ginoli, MC Marga Gomez, DJ Page Hodel and many more. Single-day, overnight, or all-weekend passes are available.

Camping is encouraged; small cabins, hot tub, swimming pool, and other add-ons are available. $45-$1000.

Fri-Sun. 10243 Saratoga Springs Road. www.lusciousqueermusicfestival.org

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.).

421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Block Party @ 20th Street Noise Pop’s second annual music and food fest, with Rogue Wave, Cayucas, and other bands; food from Flour +Water, Trick Dog, Blowfish sushi and others. 12pm-6pm. www.20thstreetblockparty.com

Carving Through Borders @ Galeria de la Raza Exhibit of wood carving prints by undocumented artists in the Bay Area, LA, New York and Florida.

Also, Blooming in the Midst of Gentrification. Both thru Sept. 19.

Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm.

2857 24th St. 826-8009. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Derek Jarman, Visionary @ BAM/Pacific Film Archive Screenings of the works of the late gay filmmaker who defied trends and created his own unique cinematic style, most often with explicitly gay themes. Aug. 28: Blue, and Andy Kipton Nye’s short portrait, The Gospel According to St. Derek. 7pm. $4-$6.50. Screenings Thru Aug. 28.

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley.

(510) 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

t

Out&About>>

Dan Hoyle @ The Marsh The award-winning solo performer premieres his new show, Each and Every Thing, a multi-character play about the search for real community in a hyper-connected world. $20-$50.

Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 4. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st.

282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Disabled Pride/Pain @ Center for Sex & Culture Panel discussion with Lyric Seal, Carrie Wade and Corey Alexander about disability and kink sexuality. $7-$15.

6pm. 1349 Mission st. www.sexandculture.org

Frank Pietronigro @ Johnston Gallery Exhibit of gay-themed paintings (“Great American Patriots”) and “Documents,” an unusual installation that uses anti-gay words. Thru Sept.

2327 Market St. www.pietronigro.com www.johnstontaxgroup.com/art

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Sun 24 Help Is On the Way @ Palace of Fine Arts The 20th anniversary of the talentfilled concert AIDS fundraisers features Florence Henderson, Richard Chamberlain, Lucie Arnaz, Jason Brock, Alex Newell, David Engel, Paula West, Carole Cook, Maureen McGovern, Laurence Luckenbill, Roslyn Kind, Meg Mackay and Billy Philadelphia, cast members from Motown the Musical, and many others, plus a sumptuous array of wines, cocktails and desserts. $65, $150 and up. Gala reception 6pm, concert 7:30pm. dessert party 10pm.

3301 Lyon St. 273-1620. www.helpisontheway.org

An Ideal Husband, Romeo and Juliet @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael Marin Shakespeare Company continues its 25th anniversary summer series with William Shakespeare’s classic underage teen romantic tragedy; in repertory with Oscar Wilde’s witty comedy, An Ideal Husband. Ampitheatre open one hour prior to showtime for picnicking; Bring overwear; it gets chilly. $12$240 (season pass) and ‘pay as you like.’ Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru Sept 28. 499-4488. Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University of California, San Rafael. marinshakespeare.org

Judy Chicago @ Oakland Museum Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist’s 75th birthday; thru Nov. 30. Free/$15.

Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

The Habit of Art @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros presents Alan Bennet’s “very British Comedy” about theatre, poetry and life itself. $15-$25. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm.

Thru Aug. 23. 215 Jackson St. (800) 838-3006. www.TheRhino.org

The Pirates of Penzance @ Bankhead Theatre, Livermore Lamplighters’ production of the classic Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. $20-$59.

Aug. 23 & 24 at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore. 227-4797. www.lamplighters.org

Semi-Famous @ The Marsh, Berkeley Don Reed’s new solo show, SemiFamous: Hollywood Hell Tales From the Middle, includes tales of panicridden auditions and almost being shot by the Secret Service. $20-$100.

Sat 5pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Sept. 7 (moves to SF Marsh Sept 13-Oct. 19).

2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Porchlight @ The Chapel The Summer Soul Celebration includes music from Marc & The Casuals, West Coast Spiritual Conrinthians, Etienne De Rocher and severa other bands. $18-$20. 8pm. 777 Valencia St. www.thechapelsf.com

Showgirls @ Castro Theatre Peaches Christ’s 17th annual screening of the camp classic stripper flick includes drag lap dances galore (free with a large popcorn), a “Volcanic Goddess” drag pre-show, and a costume contest (so get out your best Ver-sayce!”). $25-$55.

8pm. 429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist.com www.castrotheatre.com

Motown the Musical Cast @ Yoshi’s Special concert fundraiser and meet & greet with the cast of the touring production of the musical about the life of Berry Gordy. Proceeds benefit Project Level and the SF Arts Education Project. $25-$40. Cocktails and food 5pm. Show 7:30pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. yoshis.com

Tue 26 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum Exhibit of photos, and an audiovisual installation, by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early ‘70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015.

Lines on the Horizon : Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Sat 23

Bay Area Now 7 @ YBCA Seventh annual exhibit of local and regional artists’ visual, performing, film and video art works. $12-$15 (free for members). Exhibit thru Oct. 5. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. ybca.org

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni’s

Tue 26 Michael Nava

Project Mah Jongg @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit about the popular Chinese game and Jewish culture’s affection for it. Thru Oct. 28.

Also, Designing Homes : Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Mon 25 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit focusing on San Francisco’s emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE magazine feature “Homosexuality in America.”

Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members).

4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Jason Mraz @ Davies Symphony Hall The popular vocalist with a sweet voice performs two concerts. Raining Jane opens. $35-$90. 8pm. Also Aug. 26. 201 Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.jasonmraz.com www.ticketmaster.com

Skulls @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth, including the new popular exhibit of animal and human skulls (thru Nov. 30). Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$30. MonSat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

mm

A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company’s music and variety show, includes raffles and tickits to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. circleoflifetheatre.org

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.”

Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday’s Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Michael Nava @ Magnet The award-winning gay author of the popular Henry Rios mystery series reads from his new very different work, The City of Palaces, set in historic pre-Revolutionary Mexico City. Free/books for sale; plus drinks and bocadillos. 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.michaelnavawriter.com www.magnetsf.org

An Ideal Husband

Tara Krebs @ Modern Eden Gallery Exhibit of the artists’s colorful fantastical nature imagery. Also the gallery’s reopening at a new location. Thru Sept.

6. Reg hours Tue-Sat 10am-6pm. 801 Greenwich St. moderneden.com

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles @ Cartoon Art Museum Retrospective of various artists’ drawings of the popular comic series; thru Sept. 14. Other exhibits and events.

Free-$8. Tue-Sun 11am-5pm. 655 Mission St. 227-8666. cartoonart.org

Wed 27 Andrew Ogus @ Magnet Exhibit of the artist’s many works on paper, each interpreting a homoerotic take on ancient myths and characters.

8pm-10pm. Exhibit thru August. 4122 18th St. 581-1600. andrew-ogus.artistwebsites.com www.magnetsf.org

City Singers @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko New weekly cabaret night, with various local singers performing at the elegant nightclub. $15. 7pm. Aug. 27: Clairdee. Sept. 17 Tom Reardon. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (855) 636-4556. www.ticketweb.com

Thu 28 Christopher Lowen Agee

Ted Hope @ Books Inc. Creator, editor and regular contributor to the popular blog Hope For Film discusses his industry tell-all Hope for Film: From the Frontline of the Independent Cinema Revolutions.

7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Wicked @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts The new touring company of the mega-hit Broadway musical (music

by Stephen Schwartz, based on the Gregory Maguire novel) returns to South Bay; with Emma Hunton as Elphaba and Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda. $44-$168. Tue-Thu 7:30pm.

Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Thu 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru Sept. 14. 255 South Almaden Blvd., San Jose. (800) 9822787. www.broadwaysanjose.com

Thu 28 Christopher Lowen Agee @ Alley Cat Books Talk and reading with the author of The Streets of San Francisco: Policing and the Creation of a Cosmopolitan Liberal Politics, 1950-1972, a history book that includes the “gayola” scandal between the gay and lesbian community and the SF Police in the 1960s. 7pm. 3036 24th St. 824-1761. www.alleycatbookshop.com

Funny Girl @ Hillbarn Theatre, Foster City The Jule Styne/Bob Merrill/Isobel Lennart musical about Vaudeville legend Fanny Brice (which made Barbra Streisand famous), gets a South Bay production. $23-$42. ThuSat 8pm. Sun 2pm. 1285 East Hillsdale Blvd., Foter City. (650) 349-6411. www.hillbarntheatre.org

Gorgeous @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit about 2,000 years of unconventional visualizations of beauty at the contemporary and historical museum. Thru Sept.14. Also, Enter the Mandala: Cosmic Centers and Mental Maps of Himalayan Buddhism (thru Oct. 26); Dual Natures in Ceramics: Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea (thru Feb 22, 2015).

Permanent exhibits as well. $15. Thru Sept. 14. 200 Larkin St. asianart.org

Out in the Bay @ 91.7FM Eric Jansen’s LGBT radio show features film director Ira Sachs, who discusses his new gay-themed drama Love is Strange, starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. 7pm. OutintheBay.org To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www. ebar.com/bartab

<< Books

20 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

t

Navigating the age of AIDS

by Brian Bromberger

Sally Field Can Play the Transsexual, or, I Was Cursed By Polly Holliday by Leslie L. Smith; PressLess, $18.50 ny gay man over 40 should look back with astonishment over the enormous social changes that have occurred over the last 35 years, from ostracism to a gay Holocaust to legal same-sex marriage. Sally Field Can Play the Transsexual charts this remarkable journey, though its heart lies in the AIDS era of the late 1980s to mid-90s. While written as a first-person narrative, it is really a memoir revealing how AIDS has permanently altered LGBT lives, sexuality, and culture during the last quarter-century. According to the press release, SFCPT is “the first novel to address the game-changing but controversial regimens of PrEP and PEP.” It also focuses on such relevant concerns as barebacking and rising HIV infections, and makes connections between grief, PTSD, and survivor’s guilt for those who outlasted AIDS, including the author himself, HIV+ at 20. The fact that Smith can mold all these issues into a lucid, heart-rending portrait is a testament to his narrative skills.

SFCPT is foremost a meditation on loss and mourning, and a redemptive trek towards emotional maturity. David Matthews is a gay male escort who escapes the horrors of small-town Arkansas at 16. He flees to New York City, where he encounters Robert Jeffers, a successful magazine publisher who becomes David’s mentor after profiling him in a sympathetic article, and later dies of AIDS. David begins a sevenyear grieving process, and copes with the small fortune, high-rise apartment, and luxury beach house left to him by Robert so he can start a new life free of hustling (though he continues to ply his trade). The inventive book title derives from

A

2pub-BBB_BAR_080714.pdf

1

7/28/14

8:27 PM

<<

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Florence Henderson

From page 17

Help is on the Way is sure to shock her Brady Bunch fans, but I dare not give away any surprises here.

A glance down the list of Henderson’s many credits reveals that in the majority of her projects, she’s played either Carol Brady or “Herself.” She admits that there have been drawbacks to being so closely associated with the iconic role.

“When you’re in such a phenomenal cult show, casting people find it difficult to see you in anything else.

But I’ve never let it stop me. My next goal is to be on Law & Order. I wanna be a killer, or somebody’s mother or girlfriend.”

The greatest benefit of her Brady Bunch fame is all of the affection she receives from fans. “People always ask me for a hug,” she says. “And I give good hug.”

Henderson shook up more than a few of those who think of her as

David, having few to no memories of his childhood, casting movie stars in his imagination to play key people who enter his life.

But the centerpiece of the novel is David’s return to his family home in Arkansas to visit his dying mother, his abusive father, and estranged younger sister Carol. David has a bizarre traveling companion, the garrulous ghost of Robert Jeffers (a gay version of a kinder, gentler Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol). While supportive of David, Robert confronts him on issues like love, intimacy, and risky sexual behavior. This trip will also lead David to understand why he became an escort, though the reason borders on a cliché. As he finds his role in the world, David encounters colorful characters, including a compassionate Christian transsexual nurse.

The book explores how to navigate sex in the age of HIV in a subdivided community that has seemingly lost the ability to care for each other. The sex in the novel, though graphic and candid, is often hilarious in a chilling vein. SFCPT deals with heavy subjects in a brave manner. Had the book ended with his reintegration into the land of the living, SFCPT would be a triumph. But Smith is determined to conclude the book with a cheerleading pep talk on the glories of PrEP. “All I could think was there was a drug that could prevent the spread of HIV. AIDS didn’t have to exist, but how do you tell a world that feels safe with its decadesold safe-sex guidelines that all of its assumptions are wrong? How do you do that without drowning people in data?” Putting aside the debate over whether this didactic tract belongs

here, the argument is one-sided. I couldn’t help but recall Aldous Huxley’s warning in his dystopian novel Brave New World of how drugs will regulate all our behaviors. In its denouement, SFCPT degenerates into a handbook on HIV preventative treatment options, which dilutes the humorous, transformative pilgrimage we have undertaken with David.

It’s a shame, because most of the book is an irresistible page-turner that’s inspirational without becoming treacly, while recalling that losses to AIDS still have no closure. I wish Smith had opted to write a separate nonfiction book on how the LGBT community has forgotten the lessons of the AIDS epidemic, and what the most effective preventative tools (pro and con) are, based on personal choice. However disappointing the last few pages, they do not derail this poignant exploration of the impulses of gay men treading the sometimes treacherous waters of AIDS, still casting its dark shadows over the way we live and love.t

Carol Brady with her 2011 memoir Life is Not a Stage, in which she detailed problems she faced while growing up in rural Indiana, a divorce, bouts with depression, and the death of her second husband.

“I had a lot of trepidation about writing the book, because I’m basically a private person, and I was concerned about reactions from my children and my grandchildren,” she says. “But you’ve gotta tell the truth, about both the tribulations and the successes. People have thanked me for it, saying it helped them get through some of their own problems, like divorce or depression.”

The book’s major bombshell was Henderson’s admission that in the late 60s she had an extramarital fling with then-New York City Mayor John Lindsey, who gave her crabs.

“When I was on The View, they asked me, ‘What did you learn from that experience?’ and I said, ‘Never go to bed with a politician!’”

Known for nearly 20 years as the commercial spokesperson for Wesson cooking oil, Henderson has written two cookbooks, and hosted cooking shows including Country Kitchen and the recent Who’s Cooking with Florence Henderson.

“Which is funny, because I don’t really like to cook,” she says. “But I was on the Food Network’s Rachel vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off competition, and I made it to the finals, so I guess I’m pretty good.”

Henderson is very happy to be part of the Help is on the Way benefit. “I’m a big supporter of AIDS research and charities. I was one of the first to do an AIDS benefit. Back when most celebrities wouldn’t do them, Debbie Reynolds and Rip Taylor and I got up at the Hollywood Bowl and did a benefit.” Her good friend and Brady Bunch husband Robert Reed had HIV when he died of cancer at age 59 in 1992.

So this Sunday, Help is on the Way – and so is Florence Henderson.t

Fundi’s

TROUBLE IN BLACK PARADISE: Catastrophic Legacy Worshiping the New World Politics of Saving Souls A Sizzling New Self-illustrated Novel: Standard Black Christian Anti Gay Rationale Debunked In A Daring Historical Exposé Available online: Amazon.com Books; Authorhouse.com Locally at: Books, Inc. (Upper Market St.), Crystal Way, Folio Books, Bound Together Books & The Green Arcade.

t

Music>>

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Where the gay boys are

by Gregg Shapiro

A

s loathsome as it is, American Idol can be commended for introducing us to talented finalists Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert. Playlist: The Very Best of Adam Lambert (19/RCA/Legacy) compiles 14 significant tracks from the openly gay Lambert’s career so far. The first three are previously unreleased American Idol performances, including Lambert’s stellar reading of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.” There are also a couple of soundtrack selections, from 2012 and Glee, as well as cuts from his studio albums For Your Entertainment and Trespassing. As these kinds of compilations go, this Playlist does a good job of providing a career overview, while also offering necessary material to completists.

Long before there was Adam Lambert, there was Patrick Cowley. Cowley, who died of AIDS complications in 1982 (the year Lambert was born), like Giorgio Moroder, was one of the true godfathers of disco (see Sylvester). His own recordings, pioneering works in electronic dance music, influence everything and everyone you dance to today. Cowley was a versatile musician, and School Daze (Dark Entries), 10 tracks of the music he composed for gay porn flicks, attests to that.

For Why Do the Heathen Rage?

(Thrill Jockey), his latest album under the Soft Pink Truth moni-

ker, Drew Daniel of Matmos moves in an unnerving direction. Still incorporating electronics but far removed from its house-music origins, the Soft Pink Truth goes down a hole of industrial death metal. Replacing the messages of doom with those of a more homoerotic nature on songs such as “Sadomasochistic Rites,” “Ready To Fuck” and “Grim and Frostbitten Gay Bar,” SPT effectively claims a queer perspective in much the same way that Rob Halford of Judas Priest did when he came out as gay.

Talk about a long gay history in music! Rick Berlin is now in his fifth decade as a recording artist, previously affiliated with Orchestra Luna, Berlin Airlift and others, as well as being a prolific solo artist. Berlin has teamed up with the Nickel & Dime Band before, and has done so again for When We Were Kids (Teenage Heart). It’s a good combo for all involved, especially on songs “Irish Goodbye” (with guest vocals by Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes), “Daddy’s Got a Girlfriend,” “Something Breaks My Heart,” “X-Wife from a Past Life,” and the title track (with guest vocals by Gary Cherone of Extreme).

Wait (tomgossmusic.com) by Tom Goss doesn’t contain “Bears,” the gay singer/songwriter’s popular 2013 dance anthem collaboration with Richard Morel of Blowoff fame. But it does have some of Goss’ most irresistible tunes, including “It

Only Takes One,” “I Think I,” the gorgeous “In Time,” “Breath and Sound” (featuring Matt Alber) and “Illuminate the Dark.”

Julian Fleisher, the son of legendary classical pianist Leon Fleisher, has released one of the coolest cabaret albums in recent memory. What makes Finally (Modern) special is the way Fleisher has combined original compositions, including standouts “Leaving the Leaving (to You)” and “All They Need To Know,” with unexpected cover tunes. For example, Fleisher’s reading of “When We Grow Up” (from Free To Be – You and Me) is sure to produce smiles on the faces of all who hear it. Equally

delightful is his rendition of Carly Simon’s “The Girl You Think You See.” Gay jazz: those are two words you don’t see together very often. But increasingly, there are more out jazz artists, including Terri Lyne Carrington, Andy Bey, Lea DeLaria, Gary Burton, and of course, Fred Hersch. We should be grateful to have a performer and composer as gifted as Hersch, known for his musical tributes to other gay folks (Billy Strayhorn and Walt Whitman). Floating (Palmetto), the latest album by the Fred Hersch Trio (John Hébert on bass, Eric McPherson on drums), features three covers, including a poignant version of

Lerner and Lowe’s “If Ever I Would Leave You,” and originals such as “West Virginia Rose,” “Far Away” and “Autumn Haze.”

Also out there (emphasis on out) are Chasing Down the Bedlam (Aural Fix) by gay rocker Corey Tut, the experimental and challenging Just Your Typical Gay Teen Newlyweds (markyandricky.com) by real-life couple Marky & Ricky, Stepping Out (Naïve) by gay crooner Anthony Strong, the soulful four-song EP We Need To Be Loved (anthonystarble.com) by Anthony Starble, and Lonesome Leash’s exceptional five-song EP One Foot in Front of the Other (lonesomeleash.com).t

Parsiphallic or Parsifallible?

by Tim Pfaff

A

lmost since it first “consecrated” the stage at the Bayreuth Festival in 1882, Wagner’s Parsifal has been thought by many to bear homosexual themes concealed in Christian trappings. Lawrence Dreyfus, the best and deepest commentator about eroticism in Wagner (and who argues from musical as well as literary evidence), traces the homosexual subculture drawn to the work from its early days, when one commentator called its view of sexual deviance “Parsiphallic.”

No one, least of all Dreyfus, is arguing that Wagner may have been gay. But in Wagner and the Erotic Impulse he writes, “However one judges the strange menagerie of literary themes that inhabit Parsifal, it is undeniable that Wagner is still portraying the intoxicating allure of sexual desire, while seeking a solution to the syndrome of exotic suffering.” Sound familiar?

Against all odds, there’s scarcely a whiff of same-sexuality in any of the three new DVD recordings of Parsifal, though two of them clearly get the sex deal. The thing to which they all attest is the degree to which the opera is, whatever transpires onstage, the supreme “conductor’s opera.”

The interest in Christian Thielemann’s 2013 Salzburg Easter Festival production (DG) is almost confined to the pit, where the conductor’s Staatskapelle Dresden faultlessly executes his increasingly mannered Parsifal, with moments of surpassing interest and beauty. But despite intriguing casting choices such as Michaela Schuster’s Kundry, the singing is undistinguished and the production, by Michael Schulz, almost unwatchable, with a straight face anyway. The Eurotrash fixation on environmental contamination (auteurs, look to yourselves) backs the piece into a sterile corner.

Francois Girard’s production for the Metropolitan Opera (Sony Classical) is hardly traditional, and runs with rivers of blood, much of it seemingly menstrual, but it’s

coherent and focuses on the very real human drama. Parsifal is such an elusive work that there hasn’t, until now, been a recording that’s satisfying front to back, top to bottom. But here’s a performance that rises to every aspect of the complex work, moves confidently and surely through the belief-confounding terrain, and richly rewards repeated viewings. Parsifal wants the spell cast in its astonishing prelude never to be broken, and here it is not.

With his Tristan still in the offing, it’s safe to say that Jonas Kaufmann’s Parsifal is his most complete realization of a role to date. Successful passage from pure fool to sex-scorched knight to supreme healer is granted to few tenors, but Kaufmann illuminates the role in all its dimensions and seems with his every move and breath to be exploring new, deeper ones. Amazingly, he’s cast with a Kundry of similar powers. Katarina Dalayman tirelessly and generously stretches her artistry, complete itself, as much and as superbly.

The cast, with Rene Pape magisterial as Guremanz, Peter Mattei a wrenching Amfortas, and Evgeny Nikitin as Klingsor, is the best that

could be assembled today, and all deliver as if theirs were the holiest of missions. Still, as this recording of the final performance (telecast internationally) attests, conductor Daniele Gatti stole the show.

To do that in a house where James Levine “owned” the score was an act of enormous daring triumphantly achieved. Over the run, four of whose performance were broadcast live, Gatti gradually yielded his finely chiseled reading of the score to the surpassing gifts of his cast and players. Even at its most masterful, I couldn’t help thinking his conducting – famously from memory – somewhat self-regarding.

The first thing I noticed in the 2011 Parsifal (Bel-Air Classiques) from Belgium’s Monnaie theater was the work of Harmut Haenschen, the most underrated conductor of German opera today. How a musician can shed so much new light on a score without once making you squint is a matter as mysterious as the opera itself, but Haenschen is completely individual without even passing eccentricities.

The second thing I noticed was the very large, very live, very real

snake winding its way Parsiphallically around a metal cross suspended over the stage. It, or one of its smaller cousins, returned to writhe around Kundry’s outstretched arm throughout much of her very demanding music in the second act. There are innumerable such glosses on the already confounding story in Romeo Castellucci’s busy production, many of them additions or distractions.

But that second act includes one of the most indelible moving images I’ve ever encountered on the opera stage, and I’ve gradually but completely surrendered to it. There’s no reason to doubt that Wagner would have hated it, and it in certain obvious ways it contradicts the music – chief of operatic sins in my book. But wait. The composer’s beloved Flower Maidens (of all his creations, the only ones he may have loved more than the Rhinemaidens, whose similarly radiant, sad music he is said to have played at the piano, despondently, the day he died) are no Bayreuth Rockettes, but neither are they the dramatic nullities they’re so often portrayed as.

Castellucci choreographs the Flower Maidens, sung offstage, on

contortionists and “Shibari bondage performers,” and their achingly slow, Butoh-like writhing while being bound and suspended by ropes is the most arresting depiction of sexual slavery I’ve seen. As you watch, breathless and in shared submission and agony, one of the women, totally naked, is raised on a white, rectangular column whose plinth is the entire stage, wraps her legs around the sides of the unforgiving platform and exposes her open vulva to the other players and, more, the audience for nearly a half-hour. If you’re not all Ew about lady parts, as I’m not, you’re drawn into a stage picture of what Dreyfus calls “erotic suffering” that’s entirely consistent with the psychic danger Wagner’s opera explores, and overpowering.

The cast is consistently decent and often more, led by another revelatory Kundry in Anna Larsson, she of Mahler symphony solo-music fame. When she intones “Dasein” in Kundry’s tortured narrative, you know she means “being” at its most primal. There are countless things wrong, very wrong, with this Parsifal, but it’s got something not to be missed.t

<< Books

22 • Bay Area Reporter • August 21-27, 2014

t

Submissive mistresses, military man-candy

by Jim Piechota

Slave Girls, edited by D.L. King; Active Duty, edited by Neil Plakcy; both Cleis Press, $15.95 he latest batch of erotic story collections from Berkeley’s ever-reliable Cleis Press includes one for the girls and one for the boys.

Ladies first, of course, as the tales collected in Slave Girls by New York City editor D.L. King are populated by the kind of women who love taking orders and obeying on-command directives.

In her introduction, Sacramento writer and producer Rose Caraway asks, “What would it be like to submit?” The 21 diverse and provocative stories in the book are preceded with thoughts about the nature of submission and the sensual gifts exchanged between partners in these types of give-and-take relationships.

The stories contained within are not for the faint of heart, as in prolific author Alison Tyler’s potent “Cubed,” where a woman begs for sweet torture and boundless sexual pleasure from her Master, who also happens to be a math teacher by day, or as in the exclusive private-club invite given to the horny birthday girl in Erzabet Bishop’s “The Red Envelope.”

Whether the women in Slave Girls are dominated by men or by other women, the situations play out against backdrops that become

T

wholly realized set-pieces, and these atmospheres almost become characters in themselves. The tattoo shop in Lydia Hill’s “My Master’s Mark.” the stiff business office in Deborah Castellano’s “Day Job,” the playroom in a midtown Manhattan apartment in the editor’s own “What’s Not to Love,” and the series of parties in Sommer Marsden’s “Breathe,” where a Master encourages his slave to exhale since it can be “the first thing an anxious person forgets to do” – there’s lots to admire here.

The only missteps in the volume occur when a story seems to have been formulated as more of a fantasy for the writer than a realitybased scenario for the reader. But as a collection, these stories deliver the transcendent ecstasy of bondage and submission for females on the receiving end of a word, a flourish, or a toy that they know can both make and break them.

The boys are up next with Active Duty, a military-themed collection edited by prolific South Florida author Neil Plakcy. The 14 stories contained in this volume concern a soldier’s same-sex love and the expression of that love in the midst of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and its subsequent repeal in 2011.

Among the best is Shane Allison’s “Weekend Leave,” which leads off the bunch with an erotic romance between well-hung soldiers Tareek

and Rashawn, initiated in a bar and ending with their dog tags slung over the bedposts. It’s soon followed by a break-up letter delivered to a brokenhearted Private in Jay Starre’s “Letter from Home,” a story with a surprisingly sexy (and happy) ending. Starre’s over-the-top, campy (and less impressive) second story, “The Rainbow Kerchief and the Full Moon,” concludes the compilation

with a surplus of exclamation points and cringe-worthy descriptions of dicks, asses, and cum shots.

Elsewhere throughout the collection are standouts including Bearmuffin’s take on the hyper-aggressive military authority figure in “Semper Fi Wrestlers”; Dirk Strong’s effective post-“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” yarn “Marine Guard”; and Michael Bracken’s love story “Soaring,”

which follows an Air Force captain and his beloved husband-to-be finally free to marry and realize their dream of forever-after.

These indulgent stories, packed full of horny GIs with excessive bravado, entertainingly salute “the new freedom of American soldiers to love whomever they choose while still serving their country proudly.”t

It was all a lie – or was it?

by David-Elijah Nahmod

I

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

n the opening scene of If These Walls Could Talk 2, a TV film produced for Showtime in 2000, Vanessa Redgrave and Marian Seldes play two women sitting together in a dark, nearly empty movie theater.

They stare up at the screen, wiping away their own tears as a weeping Shirley MacLaine tells a shocked Audrey Hepburn how much she loves her. As Redgrave and Seldes leave the theater, they’re careful to walk at least a foot apart, so as not to be “mistaken” for the long-term couple that they are. The year is 1961, and the film they’ve just seen is The Children’s Hour.

Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour opened on Broadway in 1934.

It was quite a controversial piece, an intense drama about two women, lifelong best friends, whose lives are destroyed when they’re falsely, and very publicly, accused of being lovers. The story is a harsh reminder of how LGBT people were forced to live in generations past. Many of us still live under the cloud of hate in other parts of the country and around the world.

But what if there was truth to the lie? What if Martha really did love an unsuspecting Karen “in that way?” These were the questions Hellman daringly posed to theatergoers 80 years ago.

When the Samuel Goldwyn Company filmed The Children’s Hour in 1936, the Hays Office, the censorship board that governed the film industry, would not allow any hint of homosexuality on screen. The film was released as These Three, and the accusation of lesbianism was changed to imply that one woman had had an affair with the other’s fiance.

Twenty-five years later, William Wyler, the director of These Three, filmed the play again. This time he kept Hellman’s original title, and didn’t alter or water down the lesbianism of Martha (Shirley MacLaine).

The Hays Office was no longer in business, and there were already hints, in various other films of the period, of the sexual freedom that would be coming in only a few short years. Even so, it was quite a daring move for MGM to release The Children’s Hour on Dec. 19, 1961. The film now comes to BluRay courtesy of Kino Lorber Classics.

MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn are superb as Martha and Karen, best friends who run an all-girls school in conservative New England. All is right in their world, even as Martha looks on jealously as Karen prepares to marry Joe (James Garner), a handsome doctor. Does Martha want Joe for herself?

Their world falls apart when Mary (Karen Balkin), a sociopathic student who bullies everyone around her, decides to get revenge on Karen and Martha after she’s punished for her behavior. She

tells her wealthy, influential Grandmother (Fay Bainter) that she saw the two women kissing. Fellow student Rosalie (Veronica Cartwright), a kleptomaniac, is blackmailed into backing the story up.

Almost overnight, Martha and Karen’s lives are destroyed. Parents pull their daughters out of the school, and Joe is fired from the local hospital because of his relationship with Karen. As the two women try to figure out how they can rebuild their lives, a stunned Karen listens to Martha’s then-shocking confession.

“What if it were true?” Martha asks. “I have loved you, Karen.”

MacLaine chews the scenery in a scene that must have shocked moviegoers as much as it left theater patrons gaping three decades earlier. Martha speaks of never having loved men, and pours her heart out about her deep, romantic feelings for Karen.

It was a courageous play for Hellman to write. It was equally courageous for MacLaine, then a top boxoffice star, to accept the role and dive into it with such gusto. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the film, and went on to become a very public supporter of LGBT rights, standing up for people with AIDS during the 1980s.

The Children’s Hour is a dark, riveting drama. It’s the kind of film that rarely gets made any longer, dialogueheavy, in which strong actors speak well-written lines in a thoughtprovoking story. LGBT viewers who watch it today might pause and remember those who came before us, many of whom suffered because they didn’t have a safe haven. The Children’s Hour is a stark portrait of where we came from.t

t <<

Fine Art>>

Pier 24

From page 13

Secondhand, an expansive, varied new show now at Pier 24, highlights the inventive forms appropriation and manipulation of found images can take in the hands of Larry Sultan, Matt Lipps, John Baldessari, Viktoria Binschtok and the Dutch art director, collector and curator of amateur photography Erik Kessels, who are among the 13 artists included here.

Kessels’ pointed installation 24 HRS in Photos (held over from the previous exhibition), of 350,000 of the 1 million pictures uploaded to Flicker during a 24-hour period, is a wry commentary on the perils of oversharing and compulsive shutterbugging. Piles of once-valued pics, banked on the sides of the gallery and reaching to the ceiling, coalesce into a metaphoric garbage dump. An intern is stationed at the entrance to prevent visitors from climbing around the dead snapshot playground and making a mess, I kid you not. What is the world coming to? Other series by Kessels, though none quite as affecting as 24 HRS, are also on view. A component of the in almost every picture series features light boxes depicting stunned deer at night in the snowy wild; they were caught in the headlights, so to speak, when they tripped wires that took their pictures. Kessels pulled the images from a hunting website.

Richard Prince’s “Untitled (Cowboy)” (1991-92), one of the artist’s numerous reappropriations of the Marlboro Man, the avatar of the high-end, 1960s cigarette ad campaign, hangs majestically behind the reception desk in the front gallery.

The rugged, chaps-wearing, lassotwirling, horseback-riding macho cowboy, galloping through Big Sky country, retains his virile allure and is as seductive as ever, even though the famous idealization of masculinity and the American West that promised viewers a chance to live the

August 21-27, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

mas of Norway, and the surmyth, if they’d only light face of the moon; a passenger up and inhale, served as atop an Asian elephant; a lone an effective tool in luring parachutist floating above people into addiction. In farmland; a paper lion costhis rendering, he looks a tume; Robert Frank’s shot of little like James Dean in cars parked on the beach near a white Stetson, cancer the breakers, displayed next warnings be damned. to a picture of a ship teem(Two of the Marlboro ing with immigrants. A pair Men models, who evenof Chinese acrobats, lying on tually died of lung cantheir backs outdoors, juggling cer, came forward and end-tables in the air, answers attacked Philip Morris the question of what to do the publicly for the advernext time you’re on the patio. tisements.) So when does From the old to the thrill of the act of appropriation the new: 34-year-old Daniel constitute theft? Prince Gordon combines pointillism, was working at Timea touch of the surreal, and the Life in the 1980s when he not readily identifiable with began re-photographing verve in tactile, collaged stillthe iconic ads, removing lifes. For his intricate sculpturtext and product referal constructions, which may ences, but the implicit represent his very own artcritique of the original form, Gordon gleans images images in his appropriafrom the Internet and magations was evidently too zines, prints them, sometimes subtle for some. He was altering and heightening the sued, though he ulticolors, before piecing together mately prevailed. One and arranging them in lifeof Prince’s “cowboys” sized, 3-D tableaux, which was reportedly the first he then re-photographs. And photograph to fetch over presto: entrancing strange$1 million; since then, ness materializes. Take “Still they’ve sold for more Life with Lobster” (2012), a than three times that picture of vases filled with figure. flowers or feathers, a congreArriving at Pier 24, gation of vegetable-dyed red after making one’s way and blue lobsters clamorthrough the throngs of ing for position, surrounded tourists on the Embarby a profusion of patterned cadero, is like entering cloths and backdrops. It’s a a hushed indoor oasis composition an inch short of where one can be virtutoo busy, but somehow not ally alone in the midst too much. While pondering of art. Unlike previous what’s real and what’s fabrishows at this splendid cated, and sorting fact from space, individual rooms Courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco fiction, imagine for a moment are dedicated mostly to what might have resulted if single artists and series Matt Lipps, “Untitled (Youth)” (2010), part of Secondhand at Pier 24.

Bonnard or Matisse had acthey’ve produced. Mixed cess to Google and an inkjet in are a few collections of seemingly infinite variety. One selections from treasure troves like printer.t of vernacular objects – can free-associate and ruminate on the Canada/UK-based Archive of postcards, rows of employee badges Modern Conflict, whose reserves the history of photography while – which aren’t particularly compelThrough May 31, 2015. Free, by total 4 million “lens-based” prints mulling over black & white panoraling in this context. There are also appt. online: pier24.org.

Asian Art Museum Through Sept 14 www.asianart.org #HelloGorgeous

Beautiful or bizarre? Ravishing or repulsive? When it comes to viewing art, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Artworks from the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art— appearing together for the first time—invite you to get personal and explore what “gorgeous” means to you. Come take a look, engage in some one-on-one with the objects, and see what happens.

This exhibition was organized by the Asian Art Museum in partnership with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Presentation at the Asian Art Museum is made possible with the generous support of Prospect Creek Foundation, Fred Eychaner, Helen and Charles R. Schwab, Doris Fisher, The Bernard Osher Foundation, United, The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, Jim Breyer, William Mathews Brooks, Eliza and Dean Cash, Sakurako and William Fisher, Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, Hiro and Betty Jean Ogawa, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, Jean and James E. Douglas, Jr., and an anonymous donor. Image: Strut, 2004–2005,

by Marilyn Minter (American, b. 1948). Enamel on metal. Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase: gift of Johanna and Thomas Baruch, Charles J. Betlach II, Shawn and Brook Byers, Nancy and Steven Oliver, and Prentice and Paul Sack, 2005.187. © Marilyn Minter. Courtesy of the artist, SFMOMA, and Salon 94, New York.

Media Sponsors:

gloss The Bay Area Reporterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual Folsom Street Fair edition will publish on Thursday, September 18.

To advertise call 415.829.8937 or email advertising@ebar.com

Proud sponsor of the 2014 Folsom Street Fair

28

29

BARchive

Kink connection

NIGHTLIFE FOOD

30

SPIRITS

SEX

On the Tab

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 34 • August 21-27, 2014

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Dusty Queers dispatches from burning man Timothy Schapker

by Max Leger aka Ultra

I

People enjoying “The Third Space,” an art installation at the 2012 Burning Man constructed out of 250,000 zip ties.

Gareth Gooch Photography 2014

n less than a week, over 70,000 people will converge on a dry lake bed in Northwestern Nevada to create Black Rock City, which hosts the festival known as Burning Man. Founded on the principle of radical self-expression, it’s natural that it would attract more than its share of folks who identify as queer. I am one of those people.

What has kept me coming back year after year since 2005 is that Burning Man makes me feel boring and pedestrian. Being a stereotypically flamboyant gay man, I was often the most “creative” or “out-there” person in family settings, at work, or in other social settings.

My first trip to the playa (the term used to refer to the dry lake bed) made me realize just how many other people had similar approaches to expressing themselves, many of whom had developed it to a much more sophisticated level than I had. It is comforting to have such a wealth of inspiration.

In this article I present the perspective of five other queer burners. I will be referring to people by their “playa name.” It is simply a snapshot, one of thousands that could be taken.

See page 26 >>

Cookie’s Monster Celebrate a drag decade

by David-Elijah Nahmod

C

ookie Dough, local drag performer extraordinaire, proudly celebrates ten years of The Monster Show, the weekly variety show which she’s been hosting, first at Harvey’s, and more recently at the Edge. Known for its wacky movie and pop culture themes, The Monster Show will hold its big tenth anniversary party on Saturday, August 23 at Beaux.

So who, we wondered, is Cookie Dough? It turns out that Cookie, aka Eddie Bell, is one of the nicest guys ever to don a dress. As she decides what to wear to her big soiree, Ms. Dough replied to questions about the anniversary, and the special recipe for Cookie’s dough.

See page 28 >>

Cookie Dough’s colorful ensemble lights up The Edge.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 21-27, 2014

<<

Dusty Queers

From page 25

Kitten

During Kitten’s first burn in 1998, a particularly violent storm scattered all his belongings, which were then cemented into the ground by a three-inch downpour of rain.

Desolute, he wandered the streets aimlessly until he stumbled upon a camp focused on providing mani/ pedicures.

“My hands and feet were all cracked, and through the process of cleaning, moisturizing and painting my nails I became much more hopeful. It made me appreciate the value a camp could bring to my fellow burners.”

After centering himself, he was able to focus on getting some action.

“A lot of my awkwardness before

Dot

Kitten hydrating: “Self-care is sexy!”

Serving the Castro since 1981

ST T M AR

KE

288 Noe Street, SF (415) 431-7210 lamednoe.com

15TH ST

NOE ST

Cafe | Restaurant | Catering

going to Burning Man was from trying to fit into other people’s parameters of hotness. I was shocked that I could get as much play as I did out there, from the type of guys who wouldn’t have been interested in me in the city.”

Although Black Rock City had a population just over 10,000 at that point, there were already a couple of camps that had a queer sexual vibe to them.

“Bianca’s Smut Shack looked like a typical suburban home, except for the pornography spread throughout the place. It wasn’t necessarily an orgy happening, but people of all persuasions would have sex there.

They also served grilled cheese sandwiches every night at 3 A.M. I heard about Jiffy Lube as the place to go for man-on-man action, but I couldn’t locate it until my second year.”

(Jiffy Lube, which started in 1995, sparked one of the greatest controversies at Burning Man in 2001 when a large mechanized illustrated sign of two men fucking was used to advertise their space. For the full story, visit www.pissclear.org/ Articles/2002/coverstory_Jiffy%20 Lube_1.html) These early experiences, plus a

16TH ST

CASTRO ST

La Mediterranee Noe @LaMedNoe

17TH ST

Timothy Schapker Dot

Just your typical craftsy neo-tribal glamour hunk.

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

Amanda Love, in living color

t

few years being a part of another theme camp, inspired Kitten to help found Comfort & Joy. “Our platform for success is to feed people well, and take care of their physical needs, so they’re able to do their art, whatever that may be,” said Kitten.

This philosophy helped grow the camp from 35 people in 2005 to 140 people by 2013. It features a large courtyard with several interactive art pieces, a large shade structure, a kitchen/commissary area, a gym area painted bright pink, two fire pits, a drag closet, an elaborate multiple head shower, and most famously, a 20’ x 50’ tent that hosts workshops, performances, nightly dance parties, and all manner of sexual expression.

The entire camp is highlighted by large neon flags, which are visible from half a mile away.

Says Kitten, “If you are just walking by the camp, there is nothing overtly gay about it, but the bright colors of the flags and the art draw you in.”

Over the past five years, many queer camps have been requesting to be situated next to Comfort & Joy, creating a “gayborhood” in Black Rock City. A previous incarnation of the gayborhood existed from 2000-2008, during which a collection of queer/queer-friendly camps assembled themselves into Avalon Village.

Kitten would like to extend the philosophy of Comfort & Joy to the outside world. The group holds several parties a year in San Francisco, holds educational workshops related to helping fellow queers, and is building a relationship with the Paiute Indians, on whose ancestral land Burning Man takes place.

“As a queer person, I sympathize with other oppressed peoples,” said Kitten. “The Paiutes have a rich tradition of honoring Two Spirits (people believed to possess both the masculine and feminine). Unfortunately, due to colonization of their tribe, the Two Spirits are considered

Dot

Ariel Pink Pants smooching Nico

courtesy BAAAHS/Alvaro Barrios

BAAAHS Art Car, serving all-night party to the playa.

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com For 23 years he has served the Castro at the Midnight Sun.

Now, let’s help

Dan Anderson

celebrate his birthday.

Join us for Happy Hour at the

courtesy Mucho

Friday, August 22 from 6pm-?

Mucho and his partner Matt, ready for an evening of shenanigans.

Timothy Schapker

Under-the-sea glamour, perhaps a reaction to the bone-dry environment.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Jared Mechaber

Ultra, along with fellow her fellow tranimals, raging at Distrikt, a daytime dance camp.

sinful by most other tribe members and most are closeted. Therefore, Comfort & Joy coordinates a food drive every year, where we encourage people leaving the burn to donate their leftover food at two sites marked by our neon flags. By identifying ourselves as Two Spirits while interacting with tribe members, we hope to change tribe members’ perceptions of Two Spirit individuals.”

Learn more about the food drive at: www.facebook.com/events/ 1446811415604268/

Amanda Love

For Amanda Love, who first attended in 2007, “It was a very magical and very intense year. I went with my boyfriend at the time who was there to spread the ashes of a loved one, while at the same time my brother was battling cancer.”

One of the ways he processed this was by visiting the Temple, the second largest structure at Burning Man. Designed to allow contemplation, people place all sorts of notes, photographs, and objects relating to their thoughts. The entire structure is burned on Sunday night, the day after the “Man” is burned.

Amanda has been burning on and off since then, always as a member of Comfort & Joy. “They allow me to be included in a group without having to conform to a set type,” he said. “No judgement happens, just open arms.”

As a hairdresser, one of the ways he likes to participate is by providing manscaping, a service which has proven quite popular.

“I’ve had a line of twenty guys, both gay and straight, waiting for me to groom them.”

One of the straight guys would become erect every time Amanda held his junk to shave something.

“Lines are very fuzzy out there,” said Love. “Sometimes guys are horny but they don’t really know where they’re going with it. I’m not going to be the one to shove them over that line, so I’m gentle about those things.”

What Amanda appreciates the most about Burning Man is the overall environment. “Burning Man creates so many different flavors of

spaces for people to explore their identity, all crammed right next to each other. It brings out the best in most people. The intention behind something is where you find the magic.”

Ariel Pink Pants

After driving from the East Coast in 2005 in a biofueled bus with two other people, Ariel Pink Pants and her pals named their first camp “Unifried.”

“My first year was about my own self-experience, but it developed into a desire to give people like me a place to shine,” said Ariel. “I was sitting on the playa with my friend when we realized there was no camp talking about trans issues.”

Inspired by her experiences at Comfort & Joy and Camp Beaverton (whose members are primarily queer women), Ariel helped create Gender Blender in 2009, “to give gender queer people a safe space, and to give cis-gendered people a place to explore.” Their first year was a bit rocky but instructive.

“We were placed on the Esplanade (the most heavily trafficked road) by the Placement Committee, because they liked what we were doing and wanted us to get lots of exposure. Our neighboring camp had a much larger budget than we did, and it showed. They were so put off by the scrappiness of our camp they put an orange net fence between us.

Since then, we have requested to be next to more sympathetic camps in the gayborhood.”

That experience gives Ariel pause about the supposed difference between Burning Man and what is often refered to as “default world.”

“Trans people do not have the same access to resources as the broader gay community does, or society in general. Most of our camp members are on low-income tickets and we run our camp on a shoestring budget. I would like to see a discussion within the Burning Man community about how this sort of work can receive more support, particularly in light of the phenomenon of ‘plug n’ play’ camps, where attendees spend tens of thousands of dollars to have everything as-

courtesy Ariel Pink Pants

Fire? Grrl, please. We look fabulous!

courtesy Adrian Roberts

Hysterica, dressed for the annual Romp of the Playa Hookers, on the cover of Piss Clear, a paper edited and published exclusively for Black Rock City from 1995-2007 by former B.A.R. staffer Adrian Roberts.

Armistead Maupin (left) with his partner Chris Turner in front of the 2012 Temple. His experiences at Burning Man inspired parts of The Days of Anna Madrigal.

sembled and taken apart for them, without really adding anything to the Burning Man experience.”

In spite of these difficulties, Ariel is excited about the opportunities she is providing people.

“At our play parties, we have trans people of all stripes; gay men, lesbians, and straight people. What we are doing is unique even for Burning Man.”

Hysterica

“My first year was 1996,” Hysterica recalls. “We arrived at the entrance and were told by the lady standing there to drive 4.6 miles straight ahead, then turn 90 degrees and drive 2.5 miles. All this through a blinding dust storm. Somehow at the end of it, the storm lifted and we were in Shangra La.” Hysterica camped next to Mascara, which featured legendary club promoter Ggreg Taylor (who would arrive on-playa fully decked out in evil clown make-up, sometimes dripping with lit candles on his shaved head), and drag artiste Phatima Rude, who was fond of lounging in a play pen.

One morning Hysterica and his playa boyfriend (term used to describe someone you meet and hang out with only at Burning Man) started a tradition that has lasted several years, The Romp of the Playa Hookers.

“We came up with the idea of being playa hookers,” he said. “We got all scantally dressed up and walked all over town, amusing people and causing mischief. The next year, we had 20 more people along with us.

I’ve tried to retire it several times but so many people would come up to me the next year asking to be a

Alaska Thunderfuck and Hysterica try out the Spank-O-Matic

part of it.”

He was and is thrilled by how friendly people are on the playa.

“Burning Man has a very bisexual energy,” said Hysterica. “People in general are very kind and flirtacious.

One Sunday night after Temple Burn, I was riding my bike around, looking for one last party. I struck up a conversation with a straight man, who then confided he would like to experiment with another man. So we went back to my tent and had a lovely time.”

Mucho

Mucho heard about Burning Man for almost a decade before finally attending with his partner Matt in 2010. “We felt very welcomed,” he said. “A lot of care was taken to make us feel a part of our camp and of Burning Man in general.”

He immediately sought out ways to participate in the wider Burning Man community, including joining the Rangers, the volunteer force of intermediaries between law enforcement and the burners.

“One year, I often worked alongside a straight ex-navy guy, who was very cool about me being gay, and felt comfortable telling me intimate things about himself. People out there are very open about things.

They break down barriers and share.”

Last year Mucho helped create the

art car dubbed BAAAHS (Big Ass Amazingly Awesome Homosexual Sheep), a school bus converted into a giant sheep/mobile sound system.

“I was a ‘rear-entry specialist,’ developing the chute through which people would enter BAAAHS. When we’d meet people driving around the playa, they’d get a big thrill out of sliding into its asshole.”

Burning Man inspired Mucho and Matt to relocate to San Francisco from New York to be closer to a larger concentration of burners.

“We’re not fond of circuit parties,” he said. “Burner parties have a much broader array of people who all comfortable around each other and are creating amazing spaces.”

Decompression

Because Burning Man is such a magical environment, many people get depressed when it is over and they have to return to the default world.

I used to feel this way, until I finally relocated to San Francisco last year after attending Burning Man for nine years. Just like Black Rock City, San Francisco can be very physically and emotionally challenging, but it’s also full of dynamic, creative people who gently push me to be a better person. Burning Man is the natural by-product of this city’s ability to foster all kinds of people, especially queer ones.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 21-27, 2014

BARchive: Rusty Nail and Geysers

by Jim Stewart

S

moke drifted past our table on the patio at the Rusty Nail. We downed drafts and waited for barbequed chicken. A shirtless waiter with a rolled cowboy hat and leather vest glided among the crowd of halfnaked men.

“When were you last at the Geysers?” I said.

“Back in my hippie days,” Luc said.

“There are no villas?” Michel said.

He was from France visiting Luc that summer of 1979.

“I said camping,” Luc said. Michel took another sip of his beer.

The Rusty Nail was owned by three lesbians, Pat, Toni, and Betty.

It was incorporated June, 1977. At 9117 River Road, tourists exiting the 101 at Fulton on their way to Guerneville, passed right by it. They stopped. It was a safe roadhouse.

Sonoma County deputies brought

Jim Stewart

Michel at Geysers in 1979.

<<

Cookie’s Monster

From page 25

David-Elijah Nahmod: Tell me more about Cookie Dough.

Cookie Dough: I am a local drag artist, a native San Franciscan. I do performances and fundraisers. My partner and I, DJ MC 2, have been together for 14 years. We co-created The Monster Show, which is a drag show party. It’s the longest running drag show in the Castro. DJ is the quiet behind the scenes type. I’m the loud, boisterous one with the mike.

What drew you to drag?

Since I was a kid I wanted to perform, to be an actor. I loved performing, but sometimes life sidetracks you. I was the sound and light person at Josie’s Cabaret and Juice Joint (which closed in 1999). After

working behind the scenes at Josie’s, it was time to try something different. I think part of it was to put on a costume and to be fearless and to get than instant gratification from an audience. I tried it once, and 14 years later…

Didn’t you also work with Marc Huestis at his Castro Theater celebrity shows?

Yes, Marc saw me do the lights for Lypsinka, and he hired me. I did shows for him for 13 years. After one show, Marc, Karen Black and I sat around talking for an hour.

Do you ever perform out of drag?

I try to take acting and vocal lessons. I’ve done some male parts at Rebel. It’s fun to get up and be a guy and act.

their latest squeeze there when stepping out on their wives.

We closed the bar, left after 2 p.m. and crawled into our sleeping bags at the Russian River Lodge, a mile down River Road. By ten the next morning we were headed to the Geysers.

“Sure you remember how to get to there?” I said. We were on the 101 headed north to Geyserville.

“There are signs,” Luc said. Michel sat silently between us watching the California countryside.

“There it is,” Luc said. “Left Turn Geyserville.”

We turned left. After more signs and more turns we reached ‘The Warm Springs of the West.’ I pulled into the parking lot. Besides Nelly Belle, my GMC pickup, there was one vehicle in the lot.

“Were is everyone?” Luc said. “It’s Saturday!”

We paid a small camping fee. Luc took us on a tour of the deserted buildings, told us of the orgies in the mud baths during his hippie days. We made our way on foot to the warm pool to setup camp.

I saw what had inspired AngloAmerican poet Thom Gunn to write, “Some rest and pass a joint, some climb the fall/ Tan black and pink, firm shining bodies, all…”

We stopped to rest and pass the joint. That’s when the jug of Gallo red slipped, hit the rocks, and slowly mingled like sangria with the warm waters of a small pool. One shining body, pink, in cutoffs, greeted us at the larger pool. We built a campfire, opened our rations, and spent the night fulfilling scouting fantasies.

Sunday morning we headed back.

Michel looked much relieved.

By noon we were back at the Rusty Nail enjoying bull-shots and eggs benedict. The bar was filled with city cowboys squeezing in ev-

t

Jim Stewart

Michel and Luc at Geysers in 1979.

ery minute of their Russian River weekend.

The shirtless waiter made his way across the crowded dance floor holding his tray of cocktails high above the dancers’ heads. As he came toward the patio his pointed boot caught the one step up. He recovered but not before all but one of the glasses on his tray had slid and crashed to the floor. Stunned, he pick up the remaining glass, my bull-shot, and dashed it to the floor.

He received a round of applause.

The last I saw the Rusty Nail, between Rio Dell Court and Champs de Elysses, it was deserted. A tangle of overgrown grapevines, once filched from a River Road vineyard, blocked its entrance.t © 2014 writerJimStewart@hotmail. com For further true gay adventures check out the award-winning Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco by Jim Stewart.

Jim Stewart

A “firm shining body” at Geysers in 1979.

As a cross-dressing performer, what are your thoughts on the T word controversy?

I feel that as things progress, how much power do we give to a word?

It’s the intent of words and how we use words and actions.

Do you think Trannyshack should change its name?

Heklina is not out to hurt anyone’s feelings. She’s not political.

You can’t take something that’s been around for eighteen years and change it. None of us wants our transgender brothers and sisters to be hurt. I’m a drag queen, that’s what I am.

What are some of the charities you like to support when you do benefit performances?

Megan Pixel

Cookie Dough’s buxom look.

© Gareth Gooch Photography 2014

Cookie Dough with several performers outside The Edge at a recent Goth night show.

I’m a big advocate for schools and for AIDS research. PAWS (Pets are Wonderful support) is a great organization. Also Wounded Warriors, a nonprofit for soldiers who come home with no limbs need help and funding.

they’re the nicest guys. Heklina will be co-hosting, and my husband, DJ MC2, will be there, along with Paul Goodyear, who’s a legendary awardwinning DJ. We’re the official afterparty of Peaches Christs’ Showgirls at the Castro that same night!t

And now the tenth anniversary of Monster Show is at hand. What can those who join you for the celebration expect?

We’ll be at Beaux on Saturday, instead of our usual Thursday night at The Edge. Beaux and Edge are owned by the same people, and

The Monster Show’s 10th Anniversary Party, starring Cookie Dough and Heklina, with DJs MC2 and Paul Goodyear, and many guest performers, will be held Saturday Aug. 23, at Beaux, 2344 Market Street at Castro. 9pm2am. $5 cover, $2 off with a Showgirls ticket stub. www.beauxsf.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Kink is about Connection

by Race Bannon

R

ecently I was scanning the Leather Archives & Museum (www.leatherarchives.org) Tumblr site and I stumbled upon one of their posts that listed Joseph Bean’s Rules of SM (meaning BDSM, to use a more common acronym). This list was originally published many years ago. Joseph Bean is a writer, author and former editor of the now defunct but iconic Drummer Magazine.

Drummer is generally considered to have been one of the most influential publications in the entire history of gay men’s leather and kink.

Joseph is also a friend who I have long admired.

Rich Stadtmiller

Porn actor Connor Maguire prepares for a performative flogging demonstration in front of the Kink.com booth at this year’s Up Your Alley street fair.

So, as I was reading Bean’s 10 rules of SM, each one a gem of wisdom, one in particular stood out for me because it reflects what I have often said about what it takes for the best BDSM experiences. His Rule Number 5 is, “If you’re not in love, don’t do the scene.” For those unfamiliar with the specifics of BDSM, a scene is what BDSMers call the actual session in which they engage in

a BDSM erotic encounter.

Bean then elaborates, “If desire and consent do not lead to a kind of love, the scene is probably not going to work. Love can take many forms, but the very ground from which it springs is the demand one places on oneself to please and do what is good for the other person.”

For me, among all the advice that’s doled out about how to do BDSM, this is by far the most important. Yet in classes, articles, books and presentations, it’s the aspect of BDSM that’s discussed the least. Yes, BDSM can be done by the numbers. It can look good. It might even elicit some fun in the absence of love, but I contend it is never as good as when some aspect of love is present.

As Bean mentioned, love can take many forms and be called different things. I’ve often said that the English language needs more words to describe the many variations and permutations of what we clumsily lump together under the single banner of the word love. We have the word like and we have the word love, but that’s not enough. Some kinksters use the word connection instead of love when describing the type of bond that’s necessary for the best BDSM (or any kink really).

Whatever word one uses, I agree with Bean that it’s a form of love that sparks our kind of sexuality into a higher realm of experience.

So why do I mention this? Because for many people, especially for outsiders or newcomers to the BDSM and kink styles of erotic play, their first encounters with such play is often outside of a private and intimate context. They might watch some porn that while hot and awesome in its own way, may be a less loving portrayal. Often our most extreme mental fantasies go beyond what we might want to do in real time. They might see a public demonstration of bondage or some form of BDSM or kink play that’s meant to be more entertaining than instructive. They might see various models of such play that do not appear to be what they really are.

I recall one time when I was strolling down the street during Folsom Street Fair and I overheard a group of people as they watched a flogging demonstration underway at one of the fair’s booths. Flogging is the striking of someone with a many-tailed whip, typically made of leather. To the uninitiated, it can

Rich Stadtmiller

A flogging display at this year’s Up Your Alley street fair.

look violent and severe. One of the clueless onlookers said something like, “I guess you just tie someone up and beat on them and that’s S&M.” Once at a local San Francisco bar when they were hosting a leather night at which BDSM entertainment was part of the offerings, the one taking place being a rather hard spanking, a number of people in the crowd started screaming, “Hit him harder, harder!”

I was horrified by these misconceptions and bad impressions being left upon such onlookers. That was the impression being given to these folks?

But think about it for a moment.

Barring any additional information, why would they not think that? Often someone’s fantasy may appear as something quite different to an outsider.

For example, what if you stumbled onto a movie set without no-

Rich Stadtmiller

A Kink.com BDSM rope demonstration at the 2014 Up Your Alley street fair.

Leather Events, August 23 – September 7 Sat 23

Wed 27

Mr. and Ms. Alameda County Leather Contest @ Veteran’s Hall

Leather/Gear Buddies @ Blow Buddies

Alameda County Leather Corps presents the 23rd annual contest in Hayward, CA, 6:30pm, see website for ticket information. www.aclcweb.org

The 15 Association Men’s Play Party @ SF Citadel A men’s BDSM play party. 181 Eddy St., 8pm. www.the15sf.org

Tue 26 GearGear @ Wicked Grounds Rubber Men of San Francisco game night, 289 8th St., 7:30pm. www.rmsf.org

Erotic fun for leather and gear guys, $15, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Thu 4 RubbDown 2015 Volunteer Committee Meet @ Bulldog Tattoo Rubber is for everyone and that’s why we are inviting anyone, male or female, who loves it to be part of the RubbDown event, 2275 Market St., 7:30pm. www.rmsf.org

Fri 5 SCCLA Bar Schmooz @ Renegades Bar Informal social where friends,

prospective members and anyone else who wants to relax, laugh, talk and hang out with like minded people, 501 W. Taylor St., San Jose, 9pm.

Sat 6 Flagging in the Park @ AIDS Memorial Grove Not specifically a leather/kink event, but lots of kinky folks attend, Golden Gate Park, 1pm. www. flaggercentral.com/tag/flagging-inthe-park

Sun 7 Naked Boys Reading @ Shelton Theater Five smart, sexy guys read great literature - naked! - to raise money for AIDS Emergency Fund, 533 Sutter St., 7:30pm. www. nakedboysreadingsf.wordpress.com

ticing any of the lights, cameras or crew? If you then saw two actors fighting angrily with fists flying, you would assume you had stumbled onto a real fight. You would have no way of knowing that the fight was not real and was carefully negotiated beforehand.

That’s the reaction those who are misinformed about BDSM might have when they hear about or see a BDSM or intense kink situation.

They immediately assume the supposed reality in front of them, not the actual fantasy and intimate connection it represents.

It’s important for kinksters to keep this in mind when they decide to display their kink publicly. Every effort should be made to mitigate these wrong impressions when possible. And if such mitigation isn’t possible, then perhaps the kink should remain a private affair and not be offered up as entertainment at all.

I am going to cop to the fact that many kinksters disagree with what I just wrote. Many in the leather, BDSM and kink worlds see nothing whatsoever wrong with BDSM, or any kink, even of the more intense kind, taking place in front of nonkinky or ill-informed folks. I don’t get how they can think that, but many do and I’m sure even among my friends there are those who would argue I’m wrong about this.

But I stand by my position.

If you’re reading this column and you’re not currently part of the kink world, or you’re a curious newcomer, please keep what I’ve written in mind. What you’re seeing might not be a true representation of what you might end up doing in private.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “There are all types of love in this world but never the same love twice.” Go forth and love, in whatever kinky way you decide to do so.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through the contact page on www.bannon.com.

<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 21-27, 2014

eON THE –TAB f August 21 28

★

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Quick Draw @ F8

Bad Girls @ The Lexington

Fri 22

W

hat are the chances? The chance of getting a lap dance at the Castro Theatre? The chance of enjoying drawings and drinks at the same time? The chance of hearing songs from several TV and Hollywood legends all in one night? Of dancing to a jazz band? Chances are your chances are pretty good!

Bay Area's Paint Pens Collective and Never Ending Radical Dude present a monthly live drink-and-draw event co-curated by Shayna Yasuhara and Jason Furie. Each month, ten artists are selected to come draw and sell their creations on an 'art wall' and a 'merch table” where artists sell swag such as prints, books, and original art. Credit cards accepted. Everyone is welcome to come and draw, so bring your sketchbooks. Great drink and food specials, too. This month's theme is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Music by CDCM. No cover. 6pm-9pm.

1192 Folsom St at 8th. www.paintpenscollective.tumblr.com

Thu 21

I ♥ the 80s @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Beats Reality @ Trax

Turn back time as an ensemble of talented singers perform classic songs from the 1980s. $35-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Aug. 21-24. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 12pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Jukebox @ Beatbox

Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Resident DJs Jim Hopkins and Justime welcome guest DJs and play groovy tunes. Weekly, 9pm-2am. 1437 Haight St. 864-4213.

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the gogo-tastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Interactive sexy fun with super-hung porn star Rafael Alencar (before his Fri & Sat night strip shows). $10. 9pm.

729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Will Durst, Marga Gomez, Joe Nguyen, and Lisa Geduldig perform, along with The Bad Aunties improv group (Diane Amos, Debi Durst, and Judy Nihei). $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. (800) 8383006. www.ElRioSF.com

The Crib @ 715 Dance night for the younger guys and gals. 9:30pm-2am. 715 Harrison St. www.thecribsf.com

Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge Felicia LaMar is the newest talent at the monthly drag show. cocktails/ dinner 7pm ($20 minimum); show at 8pm. 124 Ellis St. 421-8700. www.fauxgirls.com

La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted

by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. ThuSat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts.

10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge The intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night.

Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 22

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room

Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club

Thu 21

Quick Draw @ F8

The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The Klipptones @ The Terrace Room, Oakland Joshua Klipp and his talented jazz band perform hot tunes for listening and dancing. 7pm-10pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland. www.klipptones.com

Fri 22 Maya Jane Coles DJs As You Like It @ Public Works

As the summer heats up, EDGE gets hotter! Check out all the LGBT News, Entertainment and Hot photos today!

As You Like It @ Public Works The four-year anniversary of the DJ-centric dancetastic gathering includes Jason Kendig, Jackie House & Christina Chatfield, Maya Jane Coles, Rich Korach, Pplay, Bells & Whistles, MossMoss and others. $4-$25. 9pm4am. 161 Erie St. at Mission. www.ayli-sf.com

Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland

Heklina hosts this weekly '90s-themed video, dancing', drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox. Get down with your funky bunch and enjoy 90-cent drinks! '90s-themed attire and costume conest. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

t

Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland The Hip Hop, Top 40, and Latin music night, with gogo dancers and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $6 afterward. Dancing 9pm3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Luscious Queer Music Festival @ Saratoga Springs Northern California's first LGBTQ music festival features Justin Vivian Bond, Matt Alber, Mary Lambert, Cris Williamson, Jon Ginoli, MC Marga Gomez, DJ Page Hodel and many more. Single-day, overnight, or all-weekend passes are available.

Camping is encouraged; small cabins, hot tub, swimming pool, and other add-ons are available. $45-$1000.

Fri-Sun. 10243 Saratoga Springs Road. www.lusciousqueermusicfestival.org

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rafael Alencar @ Nob Hill Theatre The Brazilian super-hung porn stud strips and lap dances. $25. 8pm & 10pm. Also Aug. 23. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Steam @ Powerhouse Wet towel contest, glistening gogo guys, massages by Mark, Steamworks bath house passes, and Walter's birthday. $5 cover benefits Project Inform. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

t

On the Tab>>

Sat 23 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland Get groovin' at the weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

The Full Nelson @ Powerhouse Race Cooper's fundraiser for Magnet includes guys grappling, and music

by Guy Ruben. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

I Just Wanna F*ckin' Dance @ Beatbox Three-year anniversary of Locoya Hill's dance music night, with DJs Hector Fonseca, Philip Grasso, and a live act with Flava Artist, and a new triple-tier gogo guy stage. $15-$20.

10pm-4am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

The Monster Show 10th @ Beaux Cookie Dough's tenth anniversary drag show, with cohost Heklina, DJs MC2 and Paul Goodyear, with drag acts by Glitterella, Landa Lakes, Dina Isis, Sugah Betes, U-Phoria, Mutha Chucka, Dusty Moorehead, and several more talents. $5 ($2 off with Showgirls ticket stubs). 10pm-2am.

2344 Market St. cookievision.com www.beauxsf.com

Fri 22

Showgirls @ Castro Theatre

The Klipptones @ The Terrace Room, Oakland

Peaches Christ's 17th annual screening of the camp classic stripper flick includes drag lap dances galore (free with a large popcorn), a "Volcanic Goddess" drag pre-show, and a costume contest (so get out your best Ver-sayce!"). $25-$55. 8pm.

429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist. com www.castrotheatre.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Too Darn Hot @ Buck's River Mill Dinner Theater, Guerneville

Help Is On the Way @ Palace of Fine Arts

The campy drag comedy play about brothels and pole dancers stars Cockatielia, Kit Tapata, Mercedez Munro, Khmera Rouge, Tom Orr and others. $15-$40. 9:30pm. 16440 4th St. at Mill, Guerneville. (707) 869-3600. www.rivermilldinnertheatre.com

Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

The 20th anniversary of the talentfilled concert AIDS fundraisers features Florence Henderson, Richard Chamberlain, Lucie Arnaz, Jason Brock, Alex Newell, David Engel, Paula West, Carole Cook, Maureen McGovern, Laurence Luckenbill, Roslyn Kind, Meg Mackay and Billy Philadelphia, cast members from Motown the Musical, and many others, plus a sumptuous array of wines, cocktails and desserts. $65, $150 and up. Gala reception 6pm, concert 7:30pm. dessert party 10pm.

3301 Lyon St. 273-1620. www.helpisontheway.org

Husky @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Bears, beers and barbeques at the monthly event (4th Sundays), with hot dogs and more food; music by DJs Sir Ellis and Lifeline. Beer bust $10-$15.

No cover. 1pm-7pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Jock @ The Lookout

Sun 24 Roslyn Kind in Help Is On The Way @ Palace of Fine Arts

Sun 24 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ SF Mix The popular Castro bar hosts its weekly softball team beer bust fundraiser. 3pm-7pm. 4086 18th St. 431-8616. www.sfmixbar.com

Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Block Party @ 20th Street Noise Pop's second annual music and food fest, with Rogue Wave, Cayucas, and other bands; food from Flour +Water, Trick Dog, Blowfish sushi and others. 12pm-6pm. www.20thstreetblockparty.com

Brunch Sundays @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge Celebrate 11 years of the weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. Aug. 23: a special pre-Playa Burning Man Send-off party. $8$15. 9pm-3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF.com www.DNAlounge.com

Drag Revue @ The White Horse, Oakland Mahlae Balenciaga hosts the twicemonthly drag show (2nd and 4th Sundays). $6. Show at 9:30pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Sat 23 Showgirls @ Castro Theatre

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances.

No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Salsa Sundays @ El Rio Salsa dancing for LGBT folks and friends, with live merengue and cumbia bands; tapas and donations that support local causes. 2nd & 4th Sundays. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Mon 25 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night.

9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thestarryplough.com

Jason Mraz @ Davies Symphony Hall The popular vocalist with a sweet voice performs two concerts. Raining Jane opens. $35-$90. 8pm. Also Aug. 26. 201 Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.jasonmraz.com www.ticketmaster.com/ event/1C004CD2BA1763FB

Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping two-stepping and line-dancing. $5.

5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Mon 25 Maria Muldaur @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Sushi'Q @ Moshi Moshi Enjoy BBQ food and Country music at this most unusual benefit for SF Hearing Dog Program, with hostess Kit Tapata; with raffles, door prizes, a silent auction, and activities for dogs and people- and kids. 11am-4pm.

2092 3rd St. 861-8285. www.moshimoshisf.com

Trashy Vs. Klassy @ Midnight Sun This drag battle between the Trailer Trash Gurlz and the Klassy Ladies of Krewe de Kinque; beer bust, raffles, Jell-O shots and a live auction.

Proceeds benefit SF Night ministry.

Donations. 4pm-7pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Maria Muldaur @ Yoshi's Oakland The veteran chanteuse ("Midnight on the Oasis") performs with her band at the nightclub/restaurant. $19. 8pm.

510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night.

7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pmclosing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

See page 32 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 21-27, 2014

<<

On the Tab

From page 31

Name That Beat @ Toad Hall BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly musical trivia challenge and drag show. 8:30-11:30pm. 4146 18th St. at Castro. www.toadhallbar.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Sports Night @ The Eagle The legendary leather bar gets jock-ular, with beer buckets, games (including beer pong and corn-hole!), prizes, sports on the TVs, and more fun. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Piano Bar @ Beaux

Mon 25

Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at popular men's night. 9pm-2am.

440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Tue 26 Bingo Night @ Club OMG Michael Brandon hosts the game night and fundraiser for The Community Initiatiuve. 7pm-10pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Jason Mraz @ Davies Symphony Hall

Block Party @ Midnight Sun

Switch @ Q Bar

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room

Wed 27

A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company's music and variety show, includes raffles and tickets to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Friendfactor Awards @ Hyatt Regency The LGBT rights organization for straight friends, including a performance by Our Lady J. $75 and up. 6:30pm reception, 7:30pm dinner, awards and dancing. 5 Embarcadero Center. www.friendfactor.org/ awardsdinner

Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the "Godfather of Skate."

Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday's Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

DJ Kidd Sysko spins tunes for the bro-tastic midweek night, with $2 beer pitchers, beer pong, $1 shots served by undie-clad guys. It's like a frat house without the closet cases. 8:30-10pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

City Singers @ Feinstein's at the Nikko New weekly cabaret night, with various local singers performing at the elegant nightclub. $15. 7pm. Aug. 27: Clairdee. Sept. 17 Tom Reardon. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (855) 636-4556. www.ticketweb.com

Olga T and Shugga Shay's weekly queer women and men's R&B hip hop and soul night. No cover. 8pm-2am.

510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Mad Manhattans @ Starlight Room The new weekly event includes classic cocktails created by David Cruz, and inspired by the the show Mad Men, plus retro food classics like prawn cocktails and Oysters Rockefeller, all with a fantastic city view. 6pm-10pm.

21st, Sir Francis Drake Hotel. 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm.

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox Weekly Latin partner dance night. 8pm1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays.

JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440 Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Wrangler Wednesday @ Rainbow Cattle Company, Guerneville The Russian River bar's country music night attracts cowboys and those who like to ride 'em. 8pm-1am. 16220 Main St., Guerneville. (707) 869-0206. www.queersteer.com

La Femme @ Beaux

Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud

Underwear Party @ Powerhouse

The weekly themed wild variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7.

Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Kit Tapata hosts Sushi’Q @ Moshi Moshi

Thu 28

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Sun 24

Bromance @ Beaux

Good Times @ Bench and Bar, Oakland

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar.

9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

New weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, no cover, and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Dean Dawn’s Trashy vs.

Klassy @ Midnight Sun

Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops

Dare 2 Bare @ Club OMG

Sun 24

Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www.rainbowskate.net www.facebook.com/rainbowskating

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni's

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink

Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multi-purpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

t

Fri 22

Rafael Alencar @ Nob Hill Theatre

Strip down to your skivvies at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Toby’s Dicks

by John F. Karr

rotic filmmaker Toby Ross hasn’t gained the reclaim awarded to Joe Gage, Wakefield Poole, even Peter Berlin. I have no idea why. He was named to the GayVN Awards Hall of Fame in 2003, and received a Grabbys Life Achievement Award in 2008, but his name lacks the currency of his peers.

That doesn’t mean he’s not still busy.

He shifted away from hardcore, and in the last 20 years or so has made feature length comedies, crime thrillers and softcore flicks he calls “dark erotica.” He maintains Facebook and tumblr sites where you’ll find collections of his fave saucy photos of the young, hung and frequently redheaded. If you want to stream Ross’ hardcore, he’s got a membership site. And he’s got a rewarding blog that’s overflowing with stories and pics of the films that made him famous, back in the day.

That would be the early 1970s, when, as BijouWorld owner Steve Toushin rightly claims in a documentary film about Ross called,

in his performers? “White trash,” The movie consists mostly of and “big dick” are frequently heard Ross’ career narration. He takes descriptions. note of Fred Halsted, Arch Brown, The 90-minute Toby Ross & the Peter de Rome. He lionizes J. Brian, 70’s is certainly not a polished prodand gets nearly teary-eyed about uct. Director Josh Dolgin spends Wakefield Poole, who liked Ross’ too much time on himself, and films so much that he bought two none of the plentiful hardof them for distribution. Ross percore footage from Ross’ films has been digitally remastered.

But it’s still interesting, with Ross talking us through each of his major titles, with fact and gossipy anecdote.

Paralleling the movie is an e-book you can find at Amazon (it’s got the same title as the doc, but search for it with the subtitle, An Erotic Memoir). It’s badly in need of an editor, and as a writer, Ross will never be accused of being a stylist. But it is racier (at least, verbally) than the movie, and is more filled out—it’s a lot more dishy—than the time constraints the docuToby Ross & the 70’s. mentary allowed.

Toby Ross, as a performer in an early ‘70s film.

haps conveniently doesn’t mention his direct competitor in narrative porn at the time, Artie Bressan, who made more polished, coherent films, and employed more mainstream performers.

Story films were Ross’ trademark.

Another was the chiaroscuro effects he achieved through natural lighting. Like all pornographers, he’d been using harsh Tungsten lights (“they made things look like shit”).

He ditched them altogether one day when one failed, and he threw open the windows. “It gave a dreamy, soft look,” he says.

You have to listen kinda sidewise to discern Ross’ personal life. The demimondaine was his natural habitat—in a wide open time, “I was the party in San Francisco,” he says.

E

Toby Ross & the 70’s, (sic; punctuation’s never been a strongpoint of pornographers—it ought to be ‘70s), “He was one of the leading people to propel the industry to where it is today.”

You may recall the titles, which reflect Ross’ interest in younger men; lighter-hued fare like Reflections of Youth, School Mates, Cruisin’ 57, and darker-themed movies, Do Me Evil, White Trash, and my fave, Boys of the Slums.

“My films were considered, maybe, twinkish a little bit back then,” Ross says.

We didn’t know from twink in the ‘70s. The word back then was chicken; its underage connotation has made it a forbidden characterization. What else did Ross look for

Toby Ross today, narrating Toby Ross & the 70’s.

Or was it all of that in combination with changing times? His 1982 sexo, The Diary, was unknowingly prescient, saying “a goodbye to a fun past and hello to an uncertain future.”

One thing’s for sure; the prophecy about the future of porn that Ross makes in the documentary is most distinctly not being fulfilled.

“I think that the old in-and-out is going the way of VHS,” he says.

“People are bored to death with it.

You will see more clever movies with twists and plots, you will see more psychology and less physical sex, more tease, less please.”t Read John Karr’s reviews, with additional NSFW images, at www.karrnalknowledge.com

BUDDY-NIGHT TUESDAYS San Francisco’s 18+ Sex Club!

Open daily at 12pm

COME IN WITH A FRIENd and recieve $3 OFF each entry!

2051 Market St. at Church St. Info: 415-864-EROS (3767)

A screengrab of several decidedly non-twinkish Boys of the Slums

Typical Toby Ross boys; lithe, smooth, and young, with swathes of ‘70s hair.

He didn’t have to have roommates and parties “so raucous that the police came,” nor check into “the most notorious, debauched hotel” when filming in Los Angeles. He was an habitué of every all-night donut shop in town; his casual drug use can be imagined when he describes the after-effects of a three-day LSD bender; he found his performers by prowling the streets (Polk, in particular), and doing one-stop shopping for white trash and runaways at the Greyhound station.

What contributed to his withdrawal from the filmmaking that had secured his fame? Was it lifestyle, the uncommercial narrative plotting of his porn, or the muted look he preferred? Or the models?

“I liked the more fringe type,” he says. “A Falcon model wanted too much money, and really wasn’t our style—a little too commercial.”

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 21-27, 2014

Personals

▼

The

People>>

Massage>>

STRONG HANDS NEAR DOLORES PARK

6’3” 205# in-shape tattoo’d blond trim beard CMT masseur w/ strong hands & great technique near Dolores Park for 60/90/120mins.

Sensual, nude, excellent Swedish, Erotic, Prostate, Hypno massage for you $90-$200. Call Heron 415-706-9740 for info/appts.

See pics ebar.com classifieds.

San Francisco

415.430.1199

MEN TO MEN MASSAGE –

SEXY ASIAN $60 JIM 269-5707 MAN’S MASSAGE All Pro (415) 378-2195

“DR. BLISS” IS IN! –

I love touching men and it shows! Massage is my art form.

415.706.6549 http://bodymagicsf.blogspot.com

HAIRY IRISH/ PORTUGUESE MASSEUR –

Erotic Relaxing Full Body Massage by hairy Irish/Portuguese guy.

(510) 912-8812 late nights ok.

SENSUAL FULL BODY MASSAGE 415-350-0968

WARNING HOT GUYS!

I’m a Tall Latin Man in my late 40’s. If you’re looking, I’m the right guy for you. My rates are $80/hr & $120/90 min. My work hours are 10 a.m. to midnite everyday. 415-515-0594 Patrick call or text. See pics on ebar.com

Oakland

510.343.1122 San Jose

408.514.1111

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

FREE to listen and reply to ads!

High quality full body massage & soothing sensual ecstasy In/ $45 Hr. Oakland Near Bart Clean, Pvt., Shower, EZ Park Out/ $65 Hr. Entire Bay Area

FREE CODE: Reporter

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates

Call Shin 510-502-2660 Late Hours OK

For other local numbers call:

1-888-MegaMates

TM

24/7 Friendly Customer Care 1(888)634-2628 18+ ©2013 PC LLC MegaMatesMen.com

HOT LOCAL MEN – Browse & Reply FREE! SF - 415-430-1199 East Bay - 510-343-1122 Use FREE Code 2628, 18+

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

2586

ebar.com Personals

ebar.com Personals

— Lauren Bacall

The

Classified Order Form

Deadline: NOON on MONDAY. Payment must accompany ad. No ads taken over the telephone.

If you have a question, call 415.861.5019. Display advertising rates available upon request.

Indicate Type Style Here

PAYMENT:

Cash

Contact Information Name Address Number of Issues

Money Order

City Classification

HOT*CKSKR*24HRS – Edgy Escort for Extreme Clients Out * 860-5468 * $150/hr

9”+ In/Out $150 510-604-9421 OR chocboynow2000@att.net

Mail with payment to: Bay Area Reporter 44 Gough St. #204 SF, CA 94103

Credit Card Payment Name Card Number Expiration Date Signature

Personal Check

FUN 9X7 TOP

Vince 415-225-4310 $150

BLACK TOPS 4 YOU!

XBOLD and BOLD stop here

RATES for Newspaper and website: First line, Regular 10.00 All subsequent lines 5.00 Web or e-mail hyperlink 5.00 CAPS double price BOLD double price X-BOLD triple price

Model/Escorts>>

OR E-MAIL: BARLEGALS@GMAIL.COM

Visa

MasterCard

ebar.com

AmEx

Telephone State Amt. Enclosed

Personals

Zip

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

August 21-27, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

PHOTOS BY STEVEN UNDERHILL Toad Hall

W

ith fun events, big video screens, and a spacious back porch, Toad Hall has become a popular favorite since it opened. Their regular Wednesday night contest So You Think You Can Gogo? draws in fans of amateur dancers. Numerous LGBT softball and sports teams stop in after a game, and the clientele is diverse.

Toad Hall, 4146 18th St. 621-2811. www.toadhallbar.com See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com