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Vol. 46 • No. 9 • March 3-9, 2016

PrEP failure case shocks at confab

Gays coalescing behind Clinton, Rubio

by Lisa Keen

by Liz Highleyman

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n the wake of the biggest week so far in the 2016 presidential contest, anecdotal evidence suggests that LGBT Democrats Courtesy Yahoo.com are coalescing behind former Secretary of Hillary Clinton State Hillary Clinton, and LGBT Republicans behind Senator Marco Rubio.

Clinton’s march to the Democratic presidential nomination was strengthened by Southern state primaries. Rubio’s prospects for winning the Republican nomination appeared to be slipping away quickly. Meanwhile, the battle for the GOP nomination has turned into an ugly war of insults that threatens to tear the party apart.

Clinton emerged the victor in South Carolina last Saturday and in seven out of 11 Democratic contests March 1, as she trounced Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Clinton won Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, and – the only non-Southern state – Massachusetts.

Sanders won in Oklahoma and in three non-Southern states: Vermont, Colorado, and Minnesota.

In the five-man Republican field, real estate mogul Donald Trump won seven of 11 contests, Senator Ted Cruz won three, and Rubio won one.

LGBT Democrats appeared to be solidly behind Clinton in all nine of the Southern states and split in the other states. While there was no exit poll data available regarding the LGBT vote, the positions of LGBT community and Democratic leaders showed a pattern similar to that in South Carolina: solidly for Clinton.

In South Carolina, all the visible support in the LGBT community was behind Clinton, a phenomenon similar to that of the African American vote (84 percent of which went to Clinton).

The South Carolina Equality Coalition endorsed Clinton, and about 200 people attended its fundraiser for her February 25. SCEC also organized a door-to-door canvas to get out the vote on primary day and urged LGBT people to show their support for Clinton outside CNN’s Democratic town hall February 23. Clinton gave the keynote address at the SCEC’s annual dinner last November.

Coalition Chair Malissa Burnette, one of the attorneys for plaintiffs in South Carolina’s marriage equality case, said she supported Clinton because Clinton really understands LGBT issues and has “concrete plans” to address them.

Burnette said she saw no organized LGBT support for Sanders, and this reporter found only one activist to say that, if he were See page 9 >>

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Leather icon laid to rest M Rick Gerharter

embers of San Francisco’s leather community joined the Imperial Council of San Francisco in honoring Marcus Hernandez, Emperor I A.N., as his ashes were interred next to Empress I Jose, the Widow Norton, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma during a ceremony Sunday, February 28. Hernandez, who as Mister Marcus penned his leather column in

the Bay Area Reporter for over 35 years, died October 8, 2009 at the age of 77. The interment ceremony was held in conjunction with the annual pilgrimage to Emperor Norton’s grave, which is part of the Imperial Council’s Coronation weekend. The night before, newly elected Empress Emma Peel and Emperor Salvador Tovar were crowned and began their yearlong reign.

rEP dominated the news at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections last week in Boston, including the report of a rare failure to prevent HIV in a man taking daily Truvada (tenofovir/ emtricitabine).

Other sessions discussed PrEP-related challenges such as kidney and bone side effects and high rates of sexually transmitted infections.

According to the best estimates based on data from Truvada manufacturer Gilead Sciences and large PrEP programs – which admittedly are not very precise – some 40,000 to 50,000 people in the U.S. are now taking PrEP, the majority of them gay men. Last week, Canada and Israel approved tenofovir/emtricitabine for PrEP, joining France, South Africa, and Kenya.

“The uptake of PrEP has been similar to other technologies,” Dr. Brad Hare, director of HIV care at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, said at the conference. “Early adopters are like the people who wait outside the Apple store.

The next wave comes from culture change – people’s friends and neighbors use it and they

Sullivan brothers set to close iconic funeral home

See page 5 >>

by Sari Staver

grandfather founded Beck’s Motor Lodge, said, “The Sullivans he 92-year-old familywill really be missed. They have owned Sullivan’s Funeral been wonderful neighbors.”

Home will soon close, In a telephone interview with after the next generation decided the Bay Area Reporter, Beck, who they didn’t want to go into the owns the motel, said she “loved dying business. the story” her father told about the Sometime before June 1, brothday he was on a tall ladder in front ers James and Arthur Sullivan – of the motel, making a repair. “Jim the third generation – will turn the Sullivan came along and said, ‘Hey, keys to 2254 Market Street over to be careful up there or you’re going the Prado Group, which is buildto need our services,’” Beck said. ing a mixed-use development The Market Street funeral with 45 apartments, underground home was built by the Sullivans’ parking, and retail space. grandfather, Arthur P. Sullivan, in Kelly Sullivan “It has been a tremendous 1924 and expanded in the 1940s. honor to serve the neighborhood,” Arthur Sullivan, left, sits with his brother, James Sullivan, in a room James and Arthur Sullivan took said James Sullivan, 73, who took at Sullivan’s Funeral Home, which will close soon. over in 1970. over the business with his brother Arthur Sullivan had started in Arthur, 76, when their father died the business 10 years earlier, at “Sullivan’s is one of our neighborhood’s ansuddenly. “But our children all first washing cars and vacuuming chor institutions and has played a significant while he was still in school. James Sullivan had have their own careers and busy lives, so we derole in our community’s history. As a neighbor cided the time was right” to sell the property. gone to college and after he returned from the and as a member of the Board of Supervisors, I “We have really enjoyed being in this beautimilitary, “I visited the family business one day ... want to honor Sullivan’s and thank the family ful neighborhood,” added Arthur Sullivan. and never left,” he said.

The brothers are to be honored Thursday for its long service to our residents and to so Both graduated from a two-year mortuary many families who lost loved ones during the college and completed a two-year apprenticeship (March 3) with a presentation on behalf of the citizens of San Francisco presented by the Cas- worst of the epidemic,” Wiener said in an email, under their father’s supervision. Once they took tro Merchants business group and gay District referring to the years of the AIDS crisis. over the business, the brothers said they each had Next door neighbor Brittney Beck, whose 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener.

See page 9 >>

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Report: Theater director died from mix of drugs

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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he death last fall of a widely praised director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater was the result of an accidental drug overdose, the medical examiner’s office has ruled.

Mark Rucker, 56, who was an associate artistic director at the theater, died from “combined toxicity of opioids and benzodiazepines,” according to the agency’s report, which it released last week.

Rucker was found dead August 25 at his home in the 600 block of 41st Avenue, in the city’s Outer Richmond neighborhood.

The specific drugs listed as causing Rucker’s death were the painkillers oxymorphone and oxycodone, along with diazepam and alprazolam, which can be used to treat anxiety and other issues.

Danny Scheie, of San Francisco, who said Rucker was “my best friend,” said of the findings, “This is what we suspected, I think, a mixture of prescription drugs and alcohol.”

Scheie declined to elaborate on why he had suspected that, but the medical examiner’s office says, “There was evidence of alcohol containers” in Rucker’s in-law unit, and

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he “reportedly used to specific symptoms.” abuse alcohol.” The report Rucker and his exlists ethanol among the partner had broken up drugs found in his system, around February, and the but it doesn’t indicate it ex-partner indicated to contributed to his death. authorities that Rucker Vickie Wise, 69, of had been depressed, but Post Falls, Idaho, Rucker’s had “never expressed suiaunt, said of the medical cidal ideation and had no Courtesy ACT examiner’s ruling, “I don’t history of past attempts.” know anything about that. Mark Rucker The public version of the All we were told was that it report doesn’t list the exwas an accidental death.” partner’s name.

Asked about whether she’d After a co-worker told him that known anything about him using Rucker had missed a rehearsal that drugs, Wise said, “Absolutely not. day, the ex-partner went to check on Nothing ever.” him. He found Rucker in his bed, Like many people, she recalled “unresponsive.” Paramedics tried Rucker’s kindness and generosity. unsuccessfully to resuscitate him, “He was just the nicest human and he was pronounced dead at being that I’ve ever met in my entire 4:44 p.m. life,” Wise said. “That includes my Among other items, investigaown children and grandchildren. ... tors found two bottles that weren’t He touched everyone he ever met. labeled and contained pills that were He touched them.” eventually identified as ibuprofen, Before his death, Rucker had rediazepam, and other drugs. cently directed ACT productions There was “no obvious external of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play; trauma,” and no notes were found Maple and Vine, and other plays, as at the scene, the report says. Besides well as many of the theater’s Masters its other findings, the medical exof Fine Arts program productions. aminer’s office also noted heart and The medical examiner’s office says liver trouble. that for the week before he was found, Wise, Rucker’s aunt, said, “He’s Rucker had called in sick to work, loved and missed every day. Every but he’d reportedly “mentioned no day, he is so missed.”t

Review released in gay man’s fatal hit-and-run

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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ore than three months after he was fatally struck by a car while riding his scooter, police have not provided any updates in the death of gay San Francisco resident Dennis Nix. Police have described the November incident that killed the popular certified financial planner as a hit-andrun. In a report released this week, the medical examiner’s office adds that the car that hit Nix, which sustained damage from the accident, was still at the scene when investigators arrived.

Shortly after the incident, Officer Grace Gatpandan, a police spokeswoman, said the car was “a light-colored sedan,” but no other information has ever been released about the vehicle.

The medical examiner’s office

Gay man’s death ruled accidental overdose

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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says the cause of death near the Monterey Avenue was “multiple blunt force exit. The other vehicle kept injuries,” including skull going but finally stopped fractures, fractured ribs, near San Jose and Ocean and his left lower leg being avenues, more than half a nearly amputated. Nix’s mile away. death was an accident, the Other motorists who report says. arrived at the scene found Nix, 60, whom friends Nix “unresponsive in the remembered as a gregariroadway and called emerous, well-traveled com- Dennis Nix gency services.” He was munity fundraiser, was declared dead at 2:20 a.m. also a member of various LGBT When medical examiner’s invessports clubs. He had just attended tigators arrived after 3, Nix was still the FrontRunners annual holiday lying in the road, covered by an emerdinner before the accident, which gency blanket. His scooter was nearby, occurred near his home in the Sunwith “significant damage” to the rear. nyside neighborhood.

The helmet that Nix had reportedly According to the medical examinworn was also near the scene. er’s office, Nix was riding his scooter The vehicle that had “reportedly south on San Jose Avenue at about 2 struck” Nix had “significant dama.m. November 22 when another veSee page 3 >> hicle going the same way struck him

gay San Francisco man whose death the medical examiner’s office had deemed “suspicious” died of an accidental drug overdose, the agency recently ruled.

Peter Huerta, 51, was found dead last fall in his Sanchez Street apartment in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood.

At the time, Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman, said the medical examiner’s office ruled Huerta’s death was suspicious because his Tshirt had been torn and he was lying face down in his bed when a friend found him September 23.

But in its report, released last week, the medical examiner’s office says Huerta died from acute mixed drug intoxication. Methamphetamine and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, better known as GHB, are

listed as the drugs.

Will Nickerson, 52, Huerta’s partner of 14 years, told the Bay Area Reporter that Huerta “was a wonderful, wonderful person who was extremely giving. ... He was out to help a lot of people, even those people who are on the street.”

According to the medical examiner’s office, Nickerson, who didn’t live with Huerta and isn’t mentioned by name in the report, had been away on a business trip and told officials that Huerta “had been depressed” after his mother’s recent death, but there hadn’t been any other problems.

Huerta “was last reliably seen alive by a neighbor” at about 3 p.m.

September 21, the report says.

Nickerson became worried after he called Huerta September 23 and didn’t get an answer. He asked a mutual friend to check on him, and

when the friend and Huerta’s building manager entered his apartment, they found him “unresponsive on the bed.”

They called emergency medical services, who pronounced Huerta dead at 1:10 p.m.

A friend of Huerta’s approached police at Huerta’s apartment and said he and Huerta had gone there and used meth and GHB, the medical examiner’s report says.

They were having sex when Huerta “became unresponsive,” the friend reported. He stopped having sex with Huerta and, worried that Huerta’s “shirt may restrict his breathing,” he “tore the shirt,” left the apartment without getting help, “and locked the door.”

Two glass pipes were at the scene, along with “a vial and plastic bags conSee page 10 >>

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Community News>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Ex-SF accounting prof pleads to toilet videos

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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former San Francisco accounting professor has been sentenced to probation after pleading to charges that he secretly recorded videos of several people, including men, in the bathroom of his Castro district home in 2013.

Mark Jennings Landis, 39, pleaded no contest Wednesday, February 24 in San Francisco Superior Court to 15 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy, according to Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

Landis is to serve three years of formal adult probation. He received credit for a brief stint in custody and won’t serve more jail time in the case

unless he violates his probation. It he does, he could be sentenced to up to 14 and a half years in jail, according to prosecutors.

Judge Loretta Giorgi didn’t order Landis to register as a sex offender, but he’s been told not to contact the victims or come within 150 yards of them, under a criminal protective order that’s valid for three years.

A warrantless search condition has been issued, meaning any officer may search Landis, his home, computers, and other devices at any time while he’s on probation, according to the DA’s office.

Landis’ probation terms also include a requirement that he undergo two years of mental health treatment with a therapist or psychiatrist, and

he’s supposed to perform recordings dated back to 150 hours of community March 2013. Police had service. also retrieved a “last will Bastian said in an inand testament – suicide terview that prosecutors note,” San Francisco po“respectfully disagree with lice Sergeant Chahmal the judge’s terms. We beKerow wrote in a 2013 lieve that any disposition probable cause stateof the case should have ment. Documents indiincluded a requirement to cate at least one of the 15 register as a sex offender.” Former professor victims is female.

Mark Landis Attorney Thanh Ngo, The accusations against who represented LanLandis came after a man dis, didn’t respond to a request for and his friends went to Landis’ apartcomment. Landis didn’t reply to a ment in the 4000 block of 17th Street Facebook message, and there was one night in November 2013 for a no answer at a phone number listed celebration. At the time, Landis was for him. a professor at San Francisco State According to court records, LanUniversity and the University of San dis made at least 180 videos, and his Francisco, and his victims were all

former or current students.

At one point, the man was using the bathroom and, after reaching for a tissue from a box on top of the toilet, noticed a blinking light coming from the box. He quickly “realized that the box was a hidden camera,” Kerow wrote in his statement.

The next day, the man and three other victims confronted Landis, who apologized, according to Kerow. Three days later, some of the victims filed a police report.

Landis was arrested in July 2014 and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on $100,000 bail shortly after being taken into custody.

Spokeswomen for SFSU and USF have said he no longer works for the schools.t

Couple sentenced in trans attack

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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San Francisco couple who pleaded guilty in the attack of a transgender woman were sentenced this week to several months in jail after a judge denied their motions to withdraw their pleas.

Dewayne Kemp, 37, pleaded guilty in December to assault and admitted to a hate crime allegation, and his wife, Rebecca Westover, 43, pleaded guilty to battery and admitted to a hate crime allegation, which enhanced her crime to a felony. As part of the plea deal, other charges in the case were dismissed. A sentence of probation was expected.

But the two eventually changed their minds.

Kemp claimed he’d agreed to the deal because he wanted to be released from custody and spend time with his family. Westover maintained that she hadn’t understood the consequences of admitting to the hate crime allegation.

Both defendants, who had been released from custody after several weeks but were later remanded as part of their plea deal, asked through attorneys for their pleas to be withdrawn.

After hearing attorneys’ arguments Tuesday, March 1, Superior Court Judge Harry Dorfman rejected their attempts to withdraw their pleas, telling them they “have experience in the criminal justice system.

You are not frightened youth before a criminal court.”

Dorfman sentenced Kemp to nine months in jail, with credit for time

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Hit-and-run

From page 2

age” to the lower front passenger side. The windshield and roof were also damaged, and the airbags “had been deployed,” according to the medical examiner’s office.

“What appeared to be blood was located on the outside of the windshield, as well as the roof of the vehicle,” the report says.

Amphetamine and the antidepressant citalopram were found in Nix’s blood and urine, and methamphetamine was present in his urine.

Shortly after Nix’s death, Michael D’Arata, 62, his best friend and power of attorney, described Nix as community-oriented and said, “Those were the values that were instilled in him, to be involved in the community, to participate, to contribute, to not take, but to give as much as you can.”

Nix’s brother Richard Nix, 52, of Staten Island, New York, said, “All the nieces and nephews, they really looked up to him.” He recalled his brother could discuss a variety of topics, “whether it was politics, money, or advice for college. He was wise. He would speak his mind, but in a nice way. ... The stories will live on.”t

served, along with three years of probation, among other terms. Westover’s sentence includes six months in jail, with credit for time served, and two years of probation. Assistant District Attorney Blair McGregor had asked that she serve three years.

Kemp and Westover attacked Samantha Hulsey, 25, near the Holiday

Inn at 50 Eighth Street November 15. The defendants have said the incident started after Hulsey intentionally bumped into them and called Kemp the N-word. Hulsey has denied barging past the couple and using the racial slur.

McGregor told the court Tuesday that Hulsey, who wasn’t in court and

is moving to England, opted not to make a statement, saying, “She finds thinking about the incident distressing and wants it to be completely over.”

Kemp told the court the case “had nothing to do with me hating someone because of their sexual orientation,” and he’d been defending Westover against an attack from Hulsey.t

Dewayne Kemp, left, and Rebecca Westover in a Facebook photo.

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Volume 46, Number 9 March 3-9, 2016 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 • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • 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 • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Sam Smith needs schoolin’ in gay history

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am Smith, the gay 23-year-old who picked up an Oscar Sunday night for best original song, blew it during his acceptance speech when he speculated that he was the first openly gay person to win an Academy Award. The error shows that Smith, like many other young queer people, needs to learn his history. Smith and his writing partner, Jimmy Napes, won for “The Writing’s on the Wall” from the James Bond movie Spectre, “I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar,” Smith said in front of 34 million viewers and the hundreds gathered at the Dolby Theatre. “If this is the case ... even if it isn’t the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community, all around the world. I stand here, tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals some day.”

It was laudable that Smith dedicated his win to the LGBT community and said he’s a “proud gay man.” And although he included his disclaimer, “even if it’s not the case,” his gaffe sparked a backlash on social media that was further compounded by an attempt t o dismiss his previous mistake. “Second openly gay man to win an oscar or third or fourth or 100th, It wasn’t my point,” Smith tweeted on Monday. The problem is that was exactly Smith’s point Sunday night, and he was wrong.

Smith was apparently referring to a piece in the Guardian in which McKellen said that no openly gay male actor has ever won a best actor Oscar, even though he and The Crying Game’s Jaye Davidson were nominated in the past.

That, of course, does not take into account all the other gays and lesbians who have won Oscars in various categories in the show’s 88-year history.

Shortly after the Oscars ended, People magazine posted, “Is Sam Smith the first openly gay man to win an Oscar? Not exactly.” It went on to note that Sir Elton John won best original song in 1994 for the song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from Disney’s The Lion King.

More recently, Dustin Lance Black took home the award for best original screenplay in 2009 for Milk. Gay composer Stephen Sondheim won best original song in 1991 for “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man),” which Madonna sang in Dick Tracy. Alan Ball, a gay

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Oscar winner Sam Smith wrongly claimed he was the first openly gay man to win.

man, won best original screenplay in 2000 for American Beauty. Rob Epstein won an Oscar in 1984 for The Times of Harvey Milk and thanked his partner. You get the idea.

And let’s not forget the lesbians. Melissa Etheridge won an Oscar for best original song in 2007 for “I Need to Wake Up” from Al Gore’s climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Nearly 25 years ago, in 1992, Debra Chasnoff won an Oscar for her documentary short about General Electric and the nuclear weapons industry. She thanked her “life partner” from the podium, making her the first lesbian to do so at the ceremony, according to Brian Moylan’s article on the Smith dustup in Time magazine.

Also complicating Smith’s claim are Oscars awarded to people who came out after they won, like Jodie Foster (best actress twice), and Joel Gray, who won best supporting actor in 1972 but didn’t come out until last year. And on and on.

Smith needs a crash course in LGBT Hollywood history, or gay history in general, before he spouts off inaccuracies about his achievement. Keeping our history alive and relevant is all of our responsibility. Seeing the movie Milk would be a good starting point, or touring the

GLBT History Museum in the Castro, where we’re sure that the helpful folks at the GLBT Historical Society would welcome you. It’s not enough for young LGBT people to learn their history; it’s also up to us to teach them.

Rock knows his history

Oscar host Chris Rock, on the other hand, knew his history and nailed his monologue, which called attention to Hollywood’s diversity problem. For the second year in a row, all of the nominees in the acting categories were white, and Rock brilliantly skewered the industry. But he also wondered why this year’s Oscars were so controversial. Since the Academy Awards have been handed out for 88 years, “that means that this whole black-nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times,” he said, adding that black people didn’t protest the all-white list of nominees in the 1950s and 1960s because “we were too busy being raped or lynched.”

“When your grandmother is swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best cinematography short,” he quipped.

Jokes aside, however, Rock was able to shine a bright light on the problem that the writers, producers, and others don’t hire black people. We could add that Hollywood doesn’t hire many LGBT people either, or Latinos or Asians. Hollywood is mostly male, white, and straight. Until that changes, the makeup of nominees won’t change much.t

Coming out (again) in my 40s

by Dara Papo

nity that sees only the challenges in Israel, the trip couldn’t be coming n many places it is still hard being at a better time. The intersectionalLGBT. In the Bay Area, it has been ity that puts Zionism in the same easy for me to come out as a lesbian. category as racism, sexism, and What has been difficult is coming homophobia – and that dismisses out as Jewish in my progressive any positive statement about Israel, LGBT circles. including its thriving LGBTQ comIt wasn’t long ago that in a casual munities, as “pinkwashing” – is conversation with a group of queer distressing. I am disheartened when friends, some of them Jewish, they I read news reports about the antiDara Papo learned that I, too, am Jewish. “Oh, Israel protesters who blocked but of course you’re not a Zionist,” an event featuring memresponded one. At other times, people who bers of the Israeli LGBTQ group learn I’m Jewish have said to me, “Oh, but Open House during the recent you don’t support Israel, do you?” Underlying Creating Change conference. those comments is the implication that belief Instead of listening to people’s that the state of Israel has a right to exist means day-to-day experiences in Isthat I am siding with an oppressive country rael, people tried to shut down that is violating human rights. the event.

Yes, I support Israel. No, I don’t agree with The politics of the LGBTQ all of its policies. I would not have voted for movement has moved to the exBenjamin Netanyahu, nor have I ever voted treme on Israel in such a way that for any of the Republicans in this country who effective dialogue has been lost. It is no fairer have been elected to office. I believe the state of for people to judge Israel based only on its treatIsrael has a right to exist. I also believe in a safe ment of Palestinians than it is for people to judge and secure Jewish state living next to a safe and America based only on the introduction of stable Palestinian state and that it is imperative anti-gay or anti-immigrant legislation, or police Israel work toward that resolution. shootings of unarmed African Americans. Such Despite growing up in a family highly innarrow-minded assessments lead to one-sided volved in the Jewish community, I am the only conclusions that leave no room for nuanced unmember of my immediate family who hasn’t derstanding and dialogue of a complex situation visited Israel. that has evolved over many decades.

This year, thanks to the Jewish Federations This Pride mission will help give me tools of North America, I have found a trip that to try to improve that dialogue. While I look speaks to me: Jewish Federations’ May 26-June forward to visiting the typical tourism sites, I 2 “See Israel With Pride,” expected to be the particularly look forward to meeting people largest-ever LGBTQ trip to Israel. who can provide me a better understanding As I’ve reconnected with the organized Jewof Israel in general and its variety of comish world in recent years and struggled to find munities. As we visit with recipients of proways to discuss Israel in an LGBTQ commugrams supported by the Jewish Community

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BAY AREA REPORTER

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Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and its partner agencies, I’m excited that we will be meeting with Ethiopian immigrants, with beneficiaries of an employment program for Israeli Arab women, and with high school students from low-income communities who are enrolled in programs to become certified as computer and network technicians. We will be able to ask tough questions both when meeting with Israel’s policymakers and average citizens.

I’m eager for our meetings with members of Israel’s LGBTQ community, including those representing many of Israel’s political factions, among them an openly gay member of the Knesset. As we meet with activists from Israel’s leading LGBTQ organizations, including the Aguda and Jerusalem Open House and talk to those whose LGBTQ voices have had an impact on Israeli politics, arts, culture and media, I plan to ask questions about daily life in Israel, what kinds of strides they’ve seen, what changes they still hope for, and how they are working for peace.

I hope others from the Bay Area will participate with me on this trip. As the trip concludes and my (non-Jewish) girlfriend and I join the Tel Aviv Pride parade, I’m hoping that it helps integrate my queer and Jewish lives.t Dara Papo is a social worker who lives in San Francisco. She serves on the board of Keshet, an organization working for the full inclusion of LGBT Jews within the Jewish community.

For more information on the Jewish Federations’ trip, visit http://jewishfederations.org/see-israel-with-pride-2016.

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Letters >>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Congrats to former emperor, empress Congratulations and a big thank-you for a very successful reign to Kevin Lisle and Khmera Rouge, who just stepped down as emperor and empress of San Francisco.

Through their efforts and events they raised $120,000, which they distributed to several deserving and appreciative charities. Many thanks, also, to their contributors and spon-

sors, who helped them achieve this goal.

Lisle and Rouge’s success can only add to the relevance and importance of the San Francisco Imperial and Grand Ducal Councils, nonprofits that are committed community-involved organizations. Thanks again, guys!

Eddie (Hola) Bellber San Francisco

CA Democrats endorse out legislative candidates

by Matthew S. Bajko

into our schools, grow the middle class, and protect our most vulnerhe California Democratic Party able citizens. The endorsement of endorsed 10 out candidates the party will play a critical role in seeking state legislative seats this helping us consolidate support from year at its convention last weekend voters across the 60th District.” in San Jose.

Palm Springs resident Greg RoThe majority of those endriguez, a gay married dorsed were hardly father who is HIVa surprise, as they positive, also saw his had secured at least pre-endorsement be 70 percent of support confirmed. He is seekfrom their district’s ing to oust from office delegates at pre-confreshman Assemblyman vention endorsement Chad Mayes (R-Yucca caucuses held in late Valley) from his 42nd January. Their being Assembly District seat, endorsed by the party which covers most of was placed on the Riverside and San Berconsent calendar for nardino counties. simple ratification at the convenLesbian Assemblywoman Toni tion on Sunday, and rule changes Atkins (D-San Diego) also secured implemented this year made it difher party’s endorsement in her bid ficult for their opponents to try to for the Senate District 39 seat. And block the endorsements from going gay San Diego City Councilman forward.

Todd Gloria, who is Gay San Francisco Disrunning for Atkins’ Astrict 8 Supervisor Scott sembly District 78 seat, Wiener, who is seeking also secured the party’s the Senate District 11 endorsement. seat, walked away with Incumbents lesbian the party’s endorsement Assemblywoman Susan in his campaign against Talamantes Eggman District 6 Supervisor (D-Stockton), gay AsJane Kim. semblyman Evan Low “As a lifelong Demo- State Senate (D-Campbell), lesbian crat and former chair of candidate state Senator Cathleen the San Francisco Demo- Scott Wiener Galgiani (D-Stockton), cratic Party, I couldn’t and gay state Senator Ribe more honored to be the party’s cardo Lara (D-Los Angeles) all won officially endorsed candidate for the party’s endorsement in their restate Senate,” stated Wiener. “The election bids.

Democratic Party works tirelessly After falling just short of the perto protect our environment, expand centage needed to be pre-endorsed, affordable housing, ensure access to Bryan Urias, a gay man seeking the quality, affordable health care, fight 48th Assembly District seat located to improve our schools, and protect in the San Gabriel Valley, was able to a woman’s right to choose.” win the party’s endorsement at the Sabrina Cervantes, convention. He is runa lesbian who is seeking ning to succeed Assemto oust Assemblyman blyman Roger HernanEric Linder (R-Corona) dez (D-West Covina), from his 60th Assembly who is termed out of ofDistrict seat centered fice, and is in a tough race in northwestern Riveragainst teacher Blanca E. side County, also saw Rubio. her pre-endorsement be “I have been a lifelong confirmed.

Democrat,” stated Urias, “I am honored to Assembly “so I proudly accept the earn the official endorse- candidate endorsement and supment of the California Sabrina Cervantes port of the California Democratic Party, and I Democratic Party, and I am energized by the outpouring of welcome the opportunity to move support our campaign received this our state forward as a Democratic weekend,” stated Cervantes. “In the member of the State Assembly.”

Assembly, I will join my Democratic Lesbian Pasadena resident Kathcolleagues in fighting to advance erine Aguilar Perez-Estolano, who the policies that get more money is seeking the open 25th Senate

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<<

PrEP

From page 1

wonder if it’s right for them too.

The late adopters don’t know what an iPhone is.”

PrEP failure case

The top headline coming out of CROI was a report on the final day of the conference about a gay man in Canada who became infected with a drug-resistant strain of HIV despite good adherence to PrEP. “Becoming infected with a virus like this one with so much resistance is rare,” Dr. Albert Liu, from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, told the Bay Area Reporter.

“While it’s important to know that

these cases can happen, PrEP is still a very powerful tool that can help prevent new infections in our community.”

Dr. David Knox, a physician at the Maple Leaf Medical Clinic in Toronto, reported that the 43-yearold man – who had an HIV-positive partner with undetectable viral load as well as casual sexual contacts – had been on Truvada PrEP for two years. He attended the clinic and was tested for HIV every three months, as recommended. Pharmacy records show he refilled his Truvada prescription regularly.

In April 2015 the man began having symptoms including fever and abdominal pain. Around this time a regularly scheduled HIV test

District seat, came up short in her bid for her party’s backing. Instead, former Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) won the endorsement at the convention.

Meanwhile, none of the five Democrats, including gay former La Cañada Unified School District board member Andrew Blumenfeld, were able to secure the party’s endorsement in their bid for the open Assembly District 43 seat.

Party adds pro-trans stance to platform

The party over the weekend also added a new section to its platform that puts it on record as supporting transgender individuals using public facilities, such as restrooms, which correspond with their gender identity.

The exact language states: “Protect the right of all people to use facilities and participate in all aspects of society consistent with their true gender identity.”

“As transgender people across the nation face violence and attacks on our fundamental rights, the California Democratic Party’s actions this weekend are a welcome step forward,” stated Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. “We applaud this progress as we continue working to ensure all transgender people can live our lives safely, authentically, and free from discrimination in California and across the country.”

Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, added, “We are pleased to see the party affirm what we have long known: that transgender people are our family members, friends and neighbors, and a part of every community in California. Of course, transgender people deserve the same freedom to safely go about their lives as anyone in our state or in our country.”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 marriage equality activist Evan Wolfson’s Japan trip.

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) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

revealed acute, or very recent, HIV infection. The same blood sample showed adequate levels of the drugs in Truvada, as did a dried blood spot test used to estimate drug levels over the past several weeks.

Genetic sequencing showed that the man’s virus was completely resistant to emtricitabine and partially resistant to tenofovir. It also showed resistance to older nucleoside analogs, NNRTIs, and integrase inhibitors. Nevertheless, he was able to put together a regimen of antiretrovirals that still work, and he achieved undetectable viral load within a few weeks and is doing well, Knox reported.

See page 9 >>

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills www.SchneiderLawSF.com

415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

What’s at stake

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

E

lection season is upon us, and the primaries are in full swing.

In just a few months we’ll be offered the choice of two candidates – and a number of unlikely third-party options – and select one of them to be at the helm of our country for at least the next four years.

Now, I have to admit I’ve liked the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ve seen transgender rights expand greatly under President Barack Obama, from including transgender protections in housing and employment to revamping passport policies, including transgender needs within the Affordable Care Act to being the first president to even say “transgender” in a State of the Union address.

Arguably, one of the biggest – and most controversial – policy changes has come under Title IX, which has banned gender discrimination in education since its enactment in 1972. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education determined that the gender protections of Title IX also cover transgender students.

With this ruling, Title IX not only protects students from anti-trans bullying, but also means that transgender students are to be afforded the same rights as other members of their chosen gender – including, yes,

in restrooms and locker rooms.

This ruling – as well as state and local actions in line with the federal law – is at the heart of dozens of antitransgender bills across the country.

A report from the Human Rights Campaign has pointed to a total of 44 such bills across 16 states. That’s twice what we saw in all of 2015, and the year is still quite young.

Anti-marriage foes, still stinging from the loss, have latched onto transgender bathroom access as their next big battle.

The repeal of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in Texas, as well as the passage of an anti-transgender bathroom bill in South Dakota – currently on Governor Dennis Daugaard’s desk awaiting his possible signature – have only bolstered these forces. Late Tuesday, Daugaard vetoed the bill.

I should add, by the way, that the South Dakota bill – HB1008 – already had a rather insidious followup bill. HB 1209 would have made the birth certificate of a person the sole allowed identity paperwork for licensing, school registration, and even for kids to be part of genderappropriate sports programs.

Thankfully, this bill was tabled, though a number of other followup bills remain on the table in the Mount Rushmore State.

If you wondered how these battles would tie into the race for the

White House this year, you need only to look so far as a policy resolution released in February by the Republican National Committee.

You can find the whole thing online at https://goo.gl/IHdC7z.

The policy resolution starts simply enough. “Whereas, A person’s sex is defined as the physical condition of being male or female, which is determined at conception, identified at birth by a person’s anatomy, recorded on their official birth certificate, and can be confirmed by DNA testing” is where we start, a statement that falls apart the very moment that DNA testing is brought up. Such is not as conclusive as the RNC might hope, nor is one’s birth anatomy.

Meanwhile, does the mention of the birth certificate in this remind one of the attempt in South Dakota to make the birth certificate the final arbiter of one’s gender?

After the above statement and several others challenging the ruling on Title IX provided by the Department of Education – as well as making sure to name-check both Obama as well as former Secretary of State and current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton – the RNC makes the following threepoint resolution: “Resolved, The Republican National Committee calls on the Department of Education to rescind its interpretation of Title IX that wrongly includes facility use issues by transgender students;

Christine Smith

“Resolved, The Republican National Committee encourages state legislatures to recognize that these Obama gender identity policies are a federal governmental overreach, a misinterpretation of Title IX policies, and an infringement upon the majority of students’ Constitutional rights; and “Resolved, The Republican National Committee encourages state legislatures to enact laws that protect student privacy and limit the use of restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities to members of the sex to whom the facility is designated.”

The RNC’s argument is the same one we’ve heard before. It’s all about safety, of course, because creeps will simply use these protections to invade the privacy of students. This policy itself invades the privacy of transgender students who simply

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need a safe place to go to a restroom that is congruent with their own gender identity. Likewise, ignoring that this Title IX ruling does not strip away any allowance for facilities to be separated by gender.

Let this sink in. This is the national Republican Party’s official statement on “governmental overreach” on Title IX policies. This is a statement that every GOP politician – including, presumably, those currently running for the presidency – will accept as gospel.

In short, one of the two major political parties in this country has just said that transgender people do not deserve the same rights as those who are non-transgender, and should not be afforded basic, equal public accommodations.

This is what’s at stake this election for transgender people. We have indeed been fortunate to see a presidency that has, by and large, been very positive for transgender people – and certainly a lot better than a John McCain or Mitt Romney presidency may have been.

This can change in an instant, especially if some of the current possible GOP contenders make it into the Oval Office. I implore you to think of this when you cast your ballot – and please do not stay home this November.t Gwen Smith regrets that she has not gotten a chance to shake President Obama’s hand. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

Woods to receive Inspirational award compiled by Cynthia Laird

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transgender woman who is a longtime East Bay advocate for trans health care will be honored by a state assemblyman during a Women’s History Month event.

Tiffany Woods, the program manager for transgender services at TriCity Health Center in Fremont, will be one of 20 local women recognized at Assemblyman Kansen Chu’s (DSan Jose) Inspirational Women of the Year celebration Thursday, March 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Berryessa Community Center, 3050 Berryessa Road in San Jose.

Woods co-created TransVision at Tri-City Health in 2002 and it is now a nationally recognized program that links trans women of color into HIV services and helps with employment and mentorship opportunities. Additionally, Woods produces the East Bay’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance event in Oakland each November.

In addition to her work at TriCity Health, Woods serves as the transgender liaison and academy diversity trainer for the Oakland Police Department, where she works with potential officers on appropriate community interactions, responses, and policies. She is a member of the city of Oakland’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Tiffany Woods

of Children Task Force eliminating youth sex trafficking.

To RSVP for next week’s event, call (408) 262-2501.

Francisco Events, will allow visitors into the “Granite Lady,” as the Old Mint is known, as over 75 organizations offer pop-up museums throughout the building and its vaults. Those on hand include community historians, archivists, genealogists, archaeologists, researchers, educators, re-enactors, authors of history, filmmakers, and other history enthusiasts.

Mini-theaters will be set up in the ground floor vaults and will feature four views on various aspects of San Francisco’s past through moving pictures. Dozens of authors will be in attendance and there will be special meet-up tables for social media history geeks.

For more information, visit www. sfhistorydays.org or email info@

sfhistorydays.org. The Old Mint is located at 88 5th Street.

SF Pride to hold forum exploring 2016 theme

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee will hold the first in a series of forums exploring this year’s theme, “For Racial and Economic Justice” Wednesday, March 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the community room at the Excelsior branch library, 4400 Mission Street.

The forum, “African American Contributions for LGBTQI Culture in the American Experience” is designed to inform, educate, and entertain, while encouraging dialogue on crucial issues affecting people of color and the LGBT commu-

nity. Panelists will include keynote speaker Ken Monteiro, Ph.D., dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University; Micah Lubensky, Ph.D., co-chair of Generations Black History Experience; and John Weber, a philanthropic leader and member of the SF Pride board.

Entertainment will be provided by violinist Kippy Marks and drag personality Sable Jones.

The event is free and open to the public. The SF Pride board will hold its monthly membership meeting prior to the forum at 6 p.m., where members will vote on a community grand marshal.

Speier to hold Women’s History Month events for girls Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-

See page 9 >>

SF History Days at Old Mint

People who have always wanted to see San Francisco’s Old Mint will get their chance, as there will be a free community open house Saturday, March 5 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, March 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dubbed San Francisco History Days, the open house, hosted by the mayor’s office and Activate San

Surrogacy • Adoption • Prenuptial Agreements Divorce • Custody • Parentage Disputes

Rainbow crosswalk brightens San Jose

S

an Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo led South Bay residents and political leaders across the new rainbow crosswalk Sunday, February 28. The crosswalk was installed the night before by the city and is located near the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center at 938 The Alameda. “The rainbow crosswalk will help further

Jo-Lynn Otto

highlight the DeFrank center’s role as a hub for the LGBTQ community to share their experiences with our residents,” Liccardo said in an email. “I thank my fellow members of the City Council for supporting this crosswalk and for their commitment to the great diversity and inclusiveness that defines San Jose.”

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Community News>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Supes panel mulls consolidation of homeless programs

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“There are some things about Pier 80 that rightfully are intimidating. We can work on that, but a 15 foot fence and an eighth of a mile walk to a three-mile-long shed, it’s hard to soften that.”

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omeless advocates, those living on the streets, and representatives from city agencies discussed the idea of merging the various departments that provide homeless services at a recent Board of Supervisors hearing.

The February 25 hearing was held by District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim. Supervisors Aaron Peskin (D3), Norman Yee (D7), and London Breed (D5) also sat on the panel.

Many homeless people were in attendance after the Coalition on Homelessness put out a call in order to counterbalance what the coalition, in a news release, called “the vitriol being launched against our poorest residents.”

Currently more than 6,000 city residents are without a home, according to recent statistics.

The issue at hand was whether city agencies that provide homeless services should be consolidated under one roof. Many attendees pointed out that having various offices in different parts of the city providing different types of services had become a confusing labyrinth that left many homeless people unsure of where to go for help.

The homeless tent camp along Division Street in the South of Market neighborhood was brought up by a number of people. This week city officials began clearing the tents.

Representatives were on hand from the Mayor’s Office on Housing, Opportunity, Partnership and Engagement, the Department of Public Health, and the Human Services Agency. They spoke to the

–Sam Dodge, HOPE director

Jane Philomen Cleland

Supervisor Jane Kim, left, was joined by several of her colleagues at a recent hearing on homeless issues.

panel about progress already made and their thoughts of consolidating their departments and other issues.

Sam Dodge, director of HOPE, pointed out that the Homes for Heroes program, which seeks to end chronic homelessness among military veterans, had already housed 559 people.

Joyce Crum, director of housing and homeless programs for HSA, expressed concern regarding the lack of diversity among caseworkers.

“My problem with one door is that racial equality might not happen,” Crum, who is African-American, told Kim. “I see it every day.

The face of homelessness is rapidly changing. The average person living in a tent on Division Street is a 45-year-old white male. However, the chronic homeless look like me.

It needs to be addressed in a way that crosses all spectrums.”

Crum urged the panel to hire a workforce that mirrors the city’s diversity.

Trent Rohrer, director of HSA, said that he’d be supportive of consolidation “if it were done the right way.”

Rohrer felt that a lot of behind the scenes work needed to be done to ensure that no services were lost, and that the merged agencies’ new head had to be chosen with great care.

“We are on the right path,” Rohrer said. “Strategies have worked in other cities that we know of and haven’t implemented, partially because we are in different departments.”

Kim asked Kelly Hiramoto, director of placement, why the city’s homeless outreach team hadn’t produced better results. Launched in 2004, HOT operates with an $8 million annual budget. Hiramoto pointed out the program’s available rooms had dropped down to 65 from a high

of 330. These rooms, primarily in single-room-occupancy and tourist hotels, were called “stabilization rooms” and used to house people temporarily so they work with staff toward getting back on their feet.

Peskin asked why so many rooms had been lost. Hiramoto said that some of the buildings had fallen into states of extreme disrepair and were no longer habitable. Some of the tourist hotel owners were no longer willing to accept homeless guests, Hiramoto added.

The new shelter at Pier 80, where those in the tents along Division Street were urged to go for help, was part of the problem, according to several speakers.

“There are some things about Pier 80 that rightfully are intimidating,” said Dodge. “We can work on that, but a 15 foot fence and an eighth of a mile walk to a three-mile-long shed, it’s hard to soften that. We are trying to do what we can to make it more humane and reflect what we want to do.”

More than 100 people lined up to address the panel for the public comments portion of the hearing.

Hector Torres, a chronically

homeless man, yelled at the panel, underscoring the anguish that many homeless live with.

“I couldn’t take a shower this morning,” Torres said as he fought tears. “I couldn’t get a shelter bed on the day before Christmas.”

Devra Edleman, with the Hamilton Family Center, urged the panel to “end the criminalization. Send outreach workers to provide housing instead of police.”

After the hearing, Crum told the Bay Area Reporter that she thought the hearing went very well.

“The question is, what’s going to happen next,” she said. “Most likely continued dialogue as the new department comes on board.”

Crum reiterated the need for more diversity among service providers.

“The advocate community does not represent the client population they advocate for,” she said. “There are very few, if any, African-Americans or Hispanics in decision-making positions who can speak to the issues that confront our community. They always try to speak for us without reaching out to us for our opinions.”t

Gay reporter ushered in change at the New York Times

by Brian Bromberger

W

hen someone reads the New York Times today, they can see same-sex wedding announcements, editorials in favor of marriage equality, and in-depth coverage of LGBTQ issues. But it didn’t always used to be like that.

The seismic changes are relatively recent and due largely to the groundbreaking work of reporter Jeff Schmalz, who died of AIDSrelated complications in November 1993 at the age of 39. In a new book, Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz And How It Transformed The New York Times (CUNY Journalism Press), Samuel G. Freedman and co-author Kerry Donahue confirm Schmalz’s profound effect on American print media.

Freedman, 60, was in the Bay Area last week, where he spoke at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

It may seem strange that the Times, long known for being liberal on so many social issues, up until the last 20 years failed to embrace both AIDS and LGBTQ topics. The Times didn’t even allow the use of the word “gay” until 1987, preferring the pejorative “homosexual.”

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Freedman, a professor at Columbia University and the On Religion columnist for the Times, noted that “in liberal circles, prejudice against LGBTQ people was acceptable, that anti-gay jokes and stories featuring mincing stereotypes were OK, where an anti-black or anti-woman comment would not be tolerated, but specifically at the Times, you had an executive editor named Abe Rosenthal and a publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Sr., who discriminated against gays, promoting a homophobic atmosphere there. This attitude was typical in most newsrooms, but more damaging at the Times because of its huge footprint as the paper of record.”

Samuel G. Freedman

The late journalist Jeff Schmalz

Schmalz, who grew up in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, knew he was gay and wanted to be a journalist. Attending Columbia University, audaciously he wrote a letter to the Times saying that he was incredibly talented and that the paper should hire him, which it did. A rising star, he kept his gay identity hidden from his superiors to protect his career. He became the consummate dapperly dressed – complete with requisite bow tie – Times newspaperman, respected and feared for his editorial expertise and tough standards as well as his snarky, withering wit. Despite being the regional metropolitan editor, he didn’t openly push coverage of gay subjects or AIDS, because he didn’t want to draw attention to his own closeted sexual orientation.

But everything changed on December 21, 1990, when Schmalz collapsed with a seizure in the newsroom due to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, a progressive brain

infection. Shortly afterward he was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. “Jeff was my rabbi and mentor who watched out for me, as well as the first gay person I ever knew, and he played favorites, luckily for me,” observed Freedman, a straight man.

“But I did notice that the closet made Jeff bitter and once the closet doors were blasted away, not only could he openly report on the disease that was killing him and others, but he could give greater vent to his kindness and compassion more broadly.”

AIDS beat proposed

After seven months away from the newsroom, having survived pneumonia and brain surgery, Schmalz proposed an AIDS beat where he would cover the disease not from a medical, political, or public policy perspective, but as a human interest story. With the more enlightened and open environment promoted by executive editor Max Frankel and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Schmalz wrote long, in-depth profiles of people living with AIDS, including Larry Kramer; Magic Johnson; Mary Fisher; and Randy Shilts, who both at KQED and the San Francisco Chronicle preceded Schmalz on AIDS coverage.

He also wrote first person articles (“Covering AIDS and Living It: A Reporter’s Testimony”), a rarity then at the paper. His work set the standard for newsrooms throughout the country, with every major newspaper

“But I did notice that the closet made Jeff bitter and once the closet doors were blasted away, not only could he openly report on the disease that was killing him and others, but he could give greater vent to his kindness and compassion more broadly.”

–Samuel G. Freedman, author

Brian Bromberger

Author Samuel G. Freedman speaking at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

soon covering the AIDS beat.

Schmalz’s personal essays brought him unexpected, unsought celebrity as he was featured in TV shows, magazines, speeches, and photo shoots.

It was a spotlight that while violating his “longtime ethos of the story being paramount over the reporter, still allowed him to promote AIDS awareness and fuller acceptance of LGBTQ people,” Freedman said.

Stylistically, Schmalz pushed the limits of the third person point of view perspective, promoting a more literary or creative nonfiction-memoir approach so popular today. Freedman said that when Schmalz interviewed a PWA, he would tell them that he had the disease as well, both “in the hope the camaraderie would open them up, but also to let them know that someone with full-blown AIDS could carry on as a full-time reporter.”

Internally at the Times Schmalz became “a change agent by promoting a sense of inclusion and affirming an LGBTQ-friendly editorial policy and personnel decisions,” Freedman said. “Because Jeff was the quintessential Times man, when he got sick, anyone in the newsroom who was on the fence, had an ‘-ick’ factor, or was privately homophobic, could no longer stand those attitudes anymore because Jeff was so admired and be-

loved. It was as if the whole paper got AIDS. His fight for life and indomitable will to keep working, daily on public display, put AIDS and gay issues front and center.”

Schmalz’s last article, “Whatever Happened to AIDS,” about the disease falling off the front page, published three weeks after he died, was finished by two gay reporters Schmalz had mentored, Adam Moss and Adam Nagourney. Schmalz had deep remorse about his early lack of coverage of AIDS and gay topics, “chastising himself as a coward, wanting to use whatever time he had left to make up for this lack,” said Freedman.

ACT UP had previously been critical of Schmalz and the Times. Schmalz struggled to negotiate the tough line between being objective in his reporting and playing an activist role.

“In time, he came to feel that there was a dialectic between these two poles that contributed to the best work he could do,” said Freedman.

Freedman said that he was shocked to realize that Schmalz’s contributions were largely forgotten outside the Times, so he decided to rectify that situation by writing the book, “to make his work more permanent and get it into the canon by fitting it into his life and times, because newspaper articles start turning yellow the next day, with links buried five minutes after you read them.”

Today, Freedman said, one can look at the Times and see an openly LGBTQ person listed as an executive editor (Nancy Lee) and read a gay op-ed columnist (Frank Bruni), which would have been unthinkable 25 years ago, but, he added, it was because of the courageous trailblazing path set by Schmalz.t An accompanying radio documentary featuring interviews with leading journalists can be downloaded for free at the book’s website, www.dyingwordsproject.com.

<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

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here’s a new mutant in town and his name is Ramzi Fawaz. In his first book, The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics, the author writes about how superheroes have changed from defenders of truth and justice into mutant outcasts who are different from normal people.

According to a summary, Fawaz, a gay man, “draws upon queer theory (the study of desire from political and social angles) to tell the story of these monstrous fantasy figures and how they grapple with radical politics from Civil Rights and The New Left to Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements.”

The GLBT Historical Society presented a conversation that focused on Fawaz’s book February 18.

Fawaz sat down with queer comics artist and scholar Justin Hall for a talk about queerness, comics, and American culture, which was then followed by a question and answer session. Over 40 people attended the conversation. The Bay Area Reporter spoke to Fawaz about his book the day before the event at Reveille Coffee Company in the Castro.

“So the book really explores how the superhero became an icon of political radicalism after World War II and how it came to be that superhero comic books used fantasy and creative world-making to imagine different kinds of bonds, solidarities, [and] political commitments between social outcasts,” said Fawaz.

The book, which was released in January, got its name from literary critic Leslie Fiedler, who in 1964 made a speech that the youth counterculture of America began to rebel against the old guard of their an-

Courtesy Ramzi Fawaz

Author Ramzi Fawaz

cestors. Fiedler called these people “new mutants.” It was also named after The New Mutants, which was a spinoff of the X-Men comics.

Writing this book was something that was dear for Fawaz, 32, the son of Lebanese immigrant parents who grew up in Orange County. At the age of 13, Fawaz was out of the closet. The author said that he felt alone and that bullies picked on him.

During the talk at the GLBT History Museum, Fawaz told the audience that he stumbled onto a magazine advertisement for a two-part X-Men story that celebrated its 35th anniversary. Once he bought the story he “felt a complete and utter identification with those characters” and has loved comics since then.

When Fawaz bought X-Men #80 he “was totally bedazzled by the cover” (which featured Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and Marrow). Fawaz told the audience that his fantasy was to be “on the pedestal of a big

muscle dude surrounded by powerful women.”

Fawaz, who has a doctorate in American studies from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in English and American studies from UC Berkeley, is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

When Fawaz was asked to give a class lecture at Berkeley, his mentor asked him, “Why aren’t you studying comic books?” And then it hit him. Fawaz could write about comics from a scholarly perspective. The project started out as a dissertation and years later it grew into something bigger. Fawaz applied what he learned from various classes, including queer and feminist theory and post-colonialism, and brought it all together into The New Mutants.

Not only has Fawaz gained support from his mentors, his work on the project earned him a Social Science Research Council Fellowship in Visual Studies in 2007 and the 2012 Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Fellowship Award for outstanding first book project in LGBT Studies.

Fawaz later received a contract from NYU Press to write the book.

Future projects

Writing The New Mutants was not easy.

“Comic books can be a very elaborate, complicated world that is difficult to distill easily for people who don’t read comics,” Fawaz explained.

He said that one must “crystalize some of these stories for people who don’t know anything about comics.”

It took him 10 years to write the book.

See page 10 >>

Obituaries >> Keäl Gary Reese Ausbrooks December 8, 1945 – February 9, 2016 Native of Alameda, California, Keäl died in his Carmichael, Sacramento County home of lung and heart failure at the age of 70. Keäl was an Alameda High School graduate, and was the oldest of three children of Hubert and Rosa Lee Ausbrooks, originally both of Tennessee, who moved out here in mid-1940s. Keäl is survived by his sister, Anita Chaves, plus several first and second cousins, mostly in Sacramento and the Bay Area.

Keäl worked for Capwell’s and Emporium department stores in East Bay, Philadelphia’s Bellevue Stratford Hotel in 1960s, and Standard Brands in the Bay Area during the 1970s. Most of his last three decades, until recently, Keäl worked for KellyMoore Paints both in San Francisco and most recently, in Citrus Heights.

Keäl will be missed by his friends: Fran,

Bill, Charles and Jeannie in Bay Area; Don and Rob in Sacramento; and Percy, Chuck, Curt, and David who now live out of state.

His passions were gambling and bingo; baking superb cheesecake, shortbread, peanut butter cookies, and lemon bars; growing orchids that rarely bloomed, to his frustration; and painting in oils and acrylics, mostly modern, cubic paintings on canvass.

He loved reading science fiction novels and watching science fiction, action-adventure and horror-themed movies and television series. He often said looking back on his life, he enjoyed it and had few, if any regrets.

Keäl asked that there be no celebration of his life or funeral services.

Memorial set for Peter Greene

A memorial will be held Saturday, March 12 to celebrate the life of Peter Scott Greene, who died from complications of hepatitis B February 10 with the certain knowledge of how dearly he was loved

by his many friends.

Peter became a fixture in the Castro community when he and longtime friend, the late Jonathan Klein, channeled their shared love of adventure to create the iconic Now, Voyager Travel. Peter was a beautiful bear with a deep love for music and often sang with his friends at Martuni’s and Curry Boyz. Peter had a talent for overcoming adversity. When he was gentrified out of San Francisco, he came roaring back to rebuild Now, Voyager in a remarkable act of courage and perseverance.

Peter was extremely generous as a valued confidant. He was also an avid gardener, a formidable Scrabble opponent, and an enthusiastic travel partner. He will be missed by a large community of friends and family.

The memorial will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco (between Elizabeth and 23rd Street). He always said he would want a big party with lots of singing and piano playing. Any donations should be made to Maitri Compassionate Care (www. maitrisf.org) or the AIDS Emergency Fund (www.aef-sf.org).

t <<

Community News>>

Sullivan brothers

From page 1

different strengths and interests.

James Sullivan, the more gregarious of the two, handled most of the work with the bereaved who were planning the funeral. Arthur Sullivan usually prepared the remains for the funeral service, which involves “embalming, cosmetizing, and dressing” the remains, he said.

“I was good at it,” Arthur Sullivan said, “because I was taught by an expert, my father.”

The business grew as an increasing number of their competitors

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News Briefs

From page 6

San Mateo/San Francisco) will hold two events for girls between the ages of 8-15 in honor of Women’s History Month. Both events take place Saturday, March 19 and are free.

The events are themed “When I Grow Up” and are being held to show girls that they can be whatever they want, whether it be president of the United States, a congresswoman, journalist, rocket scientist, or law enforcement officer. Attendees will hear from women who have broken down barriers and made history in their fields.

The San Francisco event takes place from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Excelsior branch library, 4400 Mission Street.

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Clinton

From page 1

“pressed to pick,” he would “probably” support Sanders.

Warren Redman-Gress, executive director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, a nonprofit group working for LGBT equality, said the Human Rights Campaign “came into South Carolina with a huge effort to get out the LGBT vote for Clinton.”

“I haven’t seen any LGBT organizational endorsement or push for Sanders,” he said. The AFFA, as a 501(c)3, cannot make endorsements.

Linda Ketner, who made a strong bid for a congressional seat in South Carolina in 2008 and is a co-founder of AFFA and SCEC, said she thinks Clinton and Sanders are “equal in terms of support of and for our community.” But she added that Clinton “would have a better chance of moving pro-LGBT legislation through an obdurate Congress” than Sanders.

That pattern of solid LGBT support appeared to hold up in Georgia and Virginia, too. In Virginia, gay State Senator Adam Ebbin and longtime gay elected official Jay Fisette of Arlington said they were supporting Clinton.

“I have always liked Hillary.

She is strong, capable and experienced and I think she would be ex-

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PrEP

From page 5

This first documented case of apparent PrEP failure spurred much news coverage and discussion at the conference, with experts agreeing that it does not call into question the high effectiveness of PrEP. The international iPrEx trial found that daily Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection by 92 percent among gay men and transgender women with adequate drug levels, and no one who took Truvada at least four times a week in an openlabel extension of the study became infected. Large PrEP programs like those at Kaiser in San Francisco and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Strut center have also seen no new infections among people taking PrEP consistently.

“A virus like this was not seen in tens of thousands of people who took PrEP in clinical trials and every indication is that such viruses are extremely rare,” iPrEx researcher David Glidden, Ph.D., from UCSF

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

went out of business, explained James Sullivan. When they took over, there were 43 funeral homes in San Francisco, he said. Now there are eight.

Business at Sullivan’s has been steady over the years, said James Sullivan. At its peak, the company was doing 250 funerals a month.

Now they are doing about 10 percent fewer, he said.

One of the major changes in the business has been the increasing popularity of cremations.

“When we began, they were rare,” said James Sullivan. Now cremations account for almost half their business.

One thing that hasn’t changed, he said, is that people have always “price shopped” for funeral services.

“I don’t blame them a bit,” James Sullivan said. “Like everything else, the cost of funerals has increased over the years.”

During the height of the AIDS epidemic, there were rumors that some funeral homes would not accept patients who died of HIV-related illnesses, said Arthur Sullivan.

“But I don’t think that was really true,” said James Sullivan. “What we do know is that of course we welcomed anyone who needed our services.”

The Sullivans said that another brother, a gay man, died of AIDSrelated complications in 1985.

Ten years ago, Arthur Sullivan retired and James Sullivan added staff and continued to run the business himself.

But seven years ago, James Sullivan had triple bypass surgery after a heart attack and decided it was time to “slow down.” He approached a handful of his competitors about acquiring the business, settling on Duggan’s Serra Mortuary in Daly City, which agreed to allow him to manage the business.

At the same time, James Sullivan

listed the property for sale, a process that took six years to complete.

“We wanted to wait for the right price,” he said.

Although the Sullivans declined to reveal the sales price for the property, the website LoopNet indicates that it was offered for $8.5 million and was on the market for 1,709 days and is currently in escrow.

When Sullivan’s closes at the end of the month, James Sullivan will continue to work part time at Duggan’s.

“My wife is happy to have me leave the house every morning,” he noted.t

It will feature Speier, San Francisco Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, journalist Jan Yanehiro, and Kimberly Chambers, who set a world record by becoming the first woman to swim 30 miles from the Farallon Islands. To register, visit http://tinyurl.com/jfehb72.

The South San Francisco event takes place from 1 to 2 p.m. at the South San Francisco Public Library, 840 West Orange Avenue. It will feature Speier, San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer, NASA rocket scientist Natalie Batalha, and ABC7 news anchor Kristen Sze. To register, visit http://tinyurl.com/h9y5qbg.

organization founded by three drag queens to raise awareness about the differences between gender and identity and sexuality in high schools and universities, are organizing the inaugural Dolores Trading Post: Art Fair and Entertainment, which takes place Saturday, March 26 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the parking lot at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street.

The event is free for attendees although donations will be accepted.

Organizers said that the trading post will hold space for 100 local artists to display and sell their unique art and products.

Through donations and vendor fees, the trading post aims to become a successful, ongoing

social enterprise program, awarding grants to Mission High School organizations for sports equipment, beautification projects, teacher programs, and theater productions.

Artists are still being recruited.

The cost is $35 for a 10 foot by 10 foot space. A fee waiver application is available if artists have an issue with the cost.

For more information contact Darla Gayle at darla@queensofthecastro.com.

the 2016-2017 term.

The Youth Commission was created by San Francisco voters and is charged with standing up for the needs of all young people in the policy and legislative debates at City Hall. Whether it comes to Muni, housing, education, juvenile justice, or health and wellness, youth commissioners serve as authentic advisers on youth issues to the Board of Supervisors and the mayor’s office.

The panel holds discussions with other young people in the community, organizes events and hearings, and does research on policy.

To apply, visit http://sfbos. org/Modules/ShowDocument. aspx?documentid=55110.

The deadline is Sunday, April 24.t

Drag queens to organize art fair

Queens of the Castro, a nonprofit

cellent president and commander in chief,” said Fisette. “I do believe she’s been unfairly attacked in the past by Republicans who have attempted to preemptively damage her. Bernie has had an illustrious career and continues to make a difference, yet as an elected official, I also value pragmatism and comprise balanced with progressive values. That’s Hillary.”

In Georgia, a February 11 survey of nearly 700 readers of the LGBT newspaper Georgia Voice found 54 percent supported Clinton, 40.5 percent for Sanders, and 5.5 percent for others. The paper reported that state LGBT leaders supporting Clinton include state Representative Karla Drenner, Georgia Equality Chair Glen Paul Freedoman, and Georgia Stonewall Democrats Chair Colton Griffin.

In Texas, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker backed Clinton. So did LGBT state Representatives Mary Gonzalez and Celia Israel.

There was less information about communities in non-Southern states, but in Minnesota, gay state Representative Karen Clark (D) endorsed Sanders early on and introduced him to a rally in Minneapolis last May. And gay Representative Jared Polis (D) of Colorado endorsed Clinton, but Sanders took that state. told the B.A.R. “PrEP protection is extremely high, even if it is not 100 percent. Few technologies in medicine could live up to such a standard. PrEP remains the most powerful and rigorously tested HIV prevention tool ever developed.”

Others agreed.

“It seems like we are holding PrEP to a higher standard than we do for other methods of protection against diseases that don’t relate to sex – in particular sex among stigmatized people,” concurred David Evans of Project Inform. “While we need to reiterate to people when they are prescribed PrEP that it is not foolproof, we should not revert to overhyping Truvada’s weaknesses.”

Kidneys, bones, and STIs

CROI featured a poster discussion session looking at research on kidney problems and high rates of sexually transmitted infections among people taking PrEP. The tenofovir in Truvada has been used in HIV treatment for more than a decade and is gener-

SF Youth Commission seeks members

The San Francisco Youth Commission is accepting applications from city residents between the ages of 12-23 to serve on the panel for

Donald Trump, who was introduced by New Jersey Governor and former presidential candidate Chris Christie, speaks to supporters in Florida Tuesday, March 1.

Gay Republicans consider Rubio

LGBT Republicans appeared to be moving toward Rubio last week, but it’s unclear whether the Florida senator’s record – winning only one out of 15 contests during the past month – will sustain his bid for the nomination.

As president of the national Log Cabin Republicans group, Gregory Angelo declined to comment on what’s happening in the primaries.

“We have individual members supporting – and in many cases,

volunteering for – all of the candidates still in the race,” he said.

Former Log Cabin President Rich Tafel doesn’t claim to have “the pulse” of the LGBT Republican community, but he said he’s met “a few” who support Trump.

“My guess is there is deeper support for Trump among many who do not articulate it,” said Tafel. In fact, Angelo has, in a number of interviews with mainstream media, described Trump as “the most progay” candidate running for the Re-

Liz Highleyman

Martin Markowitz, left, from Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, joined Monica Gandhi from UCSF, Albert Liu from the San Francisco health department, Sarit Golub from Hunter College, and Darrell Wheeler from SUNY Albany on a PrEP panel at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

ally considered safe, but it can cause kidney injury and bone loss in some people. PrEP clinical trials – which excluded people with pre-existing kidney impairment – did not reveal any notable kidney problems, but sometimes uncommon side effects only show up after many more people are using a drug.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, from UCSF, presented findings from a study of kidney function changes in the iPrEx

trial. They found that creatinine clearance – a measure of the kidney’s filtering capacity – decreased by less than 3 percent on average after starting Truvada, but people with the highest levels of tenofovir and emtricitabine in their hair samples had a 6 percent decline. Older people were more likely to see a clinically significant decrease in creatinine clearance, but this seldom happened among participants under age 40, even with

publican presidential nomination.

But overall, Tafel said his “sense” of things is that “the establishment gays in D.C. have shifted to Rubio” since former Florida Governor Jeb Bush pulled out of the campaign after the February 20 South Carolina GOP primary.

Mimi Planas, president of Log Cabin in Miami, said she, too, believes “most gay Republicans are leaning towards Marco Rubio” now, though she said “a few” are leaning toward Trump.

And Paul Singer, the head of American United political action committee, which supports candidates who support marriage for same-sex couples, is reportedly set to be named Rubio’s national finance chairman.

Combat among the five Republican candidates intensified significantly following the South Carolina primary. First, they traded insults during a nationally televised debate on CNN – Trump deriding Rubio for having “problems with your credit cards;” Rubio calling Trump a “con artist” and accusing him of hiring illegal workers; and Cruz hammering home the point that Trump has given thousands of dollars to “open border politicians.”

The following day, in front of a campaign audience in Dallas, Rubio claimed that, backstage at the debate See page 10 >> daily dosing.

Liu’s team presented a similar analysis of kidney function among participants in the PrEP Demo Project, which enrolled more than 500 gay and bisexual men and transgender women at health centers in San Francisco, Miami, and Washington, D.C. Here, creatinine clearance decreased by about 3 percent during the first three months on Truvada, then remained stable through the end of the one-year study. Larger declines were associated with higher drug levels, older age, and reduced kidney function at study entry.

These studies show that Truvada PrEP is safe for most people, but impaired kidney function – usually mild or moderate – can occur in a small proportion, especially if they have other risk factors. The findings support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Truvada PrEP guidelines, which recommend that creatinine clearance should be monitored at least every six months.

See page 10 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

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Superheroes

From page 8

San Lorenzo resident Lei Mahi and San Francisco resident Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano enjoyed Fawaz’s presentation at the GLBT History Museum.

“I thought the discussion was very dynamic and I liked the interaction between the audience and the author,” said Mahi.

“I was curious about the topic and what a queer person of color would have to say about it,” said Lozano.

Now that his first book has been published, Fawaz isn’t planning on slowing down. He’s looking at starting a new research project that examines the reading experiences of San Francisco residents who encountered Armistead Maupin’s serialized gay fiction “Tales of the City” in its original format in the San Francisco Chronicle between 1978-1984.

Additionally, Fawaz will have a

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PrEP

From page 9

“Providers may want to consider additional monitoring for people who have lower kidney function before starting PrEP, particularly in older individuals,” Liu told the B.A.R. Conversely, Gandhi suggested at a CROI news conference that maybe less frequent monitoring could be considered for people under age 40 who have good kidney function when they start PrEP. Bone loss is the other potentially worrisome side effect of Truvada.

Researchers reported last year that young men in another PrEP demonstration project experienced a small amount of bone loss after starting Truvada. But Dr. Robert Grant from UCSF reported at CROI that in the iPrEx study spine and hip bone density recovered after stopping PrEP. Another common concern is the high rates of sexually transmitted infections seen among PrEP users.

There is little evidence that PrEP actually leads to an increase, but gay men at risk for HIV already have high STI rates, and PrEP users are likely already having, or wish to have, condomless sex.

Regular STI screening for people on PrEP encourages prompt diagnosis and treatment, which reduces on-

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Overdose

From page 2

taining a white crystalline substance.”

The friend said Huerta had “occasionally” brought people back to his apartment “for drugs and sex,” but the building manager reported that he’d been “on good terms” with staff and residents at the building, and “had never presented any problems,” the report says. (Huerta’s building is operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority and intended for low-income seniors

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Clinton

From page 9

the night before, Trump was having such a “meltdown” he needed a full-length mirror “maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet.” Trump, at his own event, splashed a bottle of water across the stage to demonstrate how Rubio “sweats ... like he had just jumped into a swimming pool with his clothes on.”

There was some talk of issues by Republicans.

Ohio Governor John Kasich set himself apart from the four other Republican presidential hopefuls during the February 25 debate in Houston. He was asked whether he would stand up for business vendors who cite their religious beliefs to justify refusing service to samesex couples. He reiterated that he does not “favor” same-sex marriage and believes religious institutions “should be able to practice the reli-

book reading at Modern Times Bookstore, 2919 24th Street in San Francisco Thursday, March 10 at 7 p.m.

Fawaz is also planning to write a sequel to his book. He said that six different college classes are planning on reading the book this semester.

“I hope that it will be a useful reference point for people who want to understand the role that fantasy plays in American political life and I tried to write the book specifically with a broad audience in mind so it’s not simply limited to academics,” he said. “So I hope that it will circulate widely.”t The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics is now available. In January the book was the #1 new release in American literature criticism on http://www.amazon.com.

To contact Fawaz about his Armistead Maupin project, email him at fawaz@wisc.edu.

ward transmission. The CDC’s PrEP guidelines recommend STI testing at least every six months, though people should be seen every three months for HIV testing and prescription renewal.

Sarit Golub, Ph.D., of Hunter College, presented findings from the SPARK PrEP demonstration project at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, where participants are tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis every three months.

At each follow-up visit between 11 and 21 percent of participants were diagnosed with STIs, and most did not have symptoms or a prior history that would have triggered screening if it were not done routinely on a schedule. Current CDC guidelines may miss a significant number of asymptomatic STIs among PrEP users, the researchers concluded, suggesting that STI screening may be warranted every three months.

Likewise, Liu’s PrEP Demo Project team reported that about 40 percent of chlamydia cases, 30 percent of gonorrhea cases, and 20 percent of syphilis cases detected during quarterly screening would have been missed with biannual screening.

“Folks who are deciding to take PrEP need it,” Golub stressed at the CROI news conference. “If there is an increase in STIs, it is outweighed

by HIV protection.”t and people with disabilities.)

Nickerson said Huerta “gave people a lot of money” and let people stay in his apartment.

“He tried to steer them in the right direction,” Nickerson said.

The medical examiner’s office reported that Huerta also had heart and liver problems. Besides meth and GHB, there was also evidence of Trazodone and Bupropion, which are commonly used as antidepressants, in his system.

The agency found “no acute fatal traumatic injuries.”t gion that they believe in.”

“But look, the court has ruled and I’ve moved on,” said Kasich. “And what I’ve said ... is – look, where does it end?” said Kasich. “If you’re in the business of selling things, if you’re not going to sell to somebody you don’t agree with – OK, ‘Today, I’m not going to sell to somebody who’s gay and tomorrow maybe I won’t sell to somebody who’s divorced.’

“If you’re in the business of commerce, conduct commerce,” said Kasich. “That’s my view. And if you don’t agree with their lifestyle, say a prayer for them when they leave [the shop] and hope they change their behavior.”

Those remarks, said Tafel, won over at least some LGBT Republicans.

The primary action moves now to five other states this weekend – Maine, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Nebraska. On Tuesday, March 8, voting takes place in Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, and Hawaii.t

t

Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF CHI CHIANG LI IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-16-299501

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of Chi Chiang Li. A Petition for Probate has been filed by Junji Suzuki in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that Junji Suzuki be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: March 09, 2016, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: Mr. Edward S. Miyauchi (SBN 230553), Marshall Suzuki Law Group LLP, 150 Spear St #725, San Francisco, CA 94105; Ph. (415) 618-0090

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036928400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KICKLINE PRODUCTIONS, 2658 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNIFER T. ROST. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/08/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036927900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: M. BENTON & CO., 31 THERESA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELISAVETTA ILYIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/08/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036902600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF KEBAB, 550 16TH ST #1660, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TEKIN FOOD & BEVERAGE INC (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 01/25/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036915200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MEE, 1737 POST ST #330, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PERFECT LADY COSMETIC & FASHION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036912600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 450-452 34TH AVE HOA, 450 34TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an unincorporated association other than a partnership, and is signed JEFFREY MICHAEL RAYMOND, CHARLES DAMIAN SHIELDS & HEATHER WARM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036919900

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551895

In the matter of the application of: RUO WU XU, 318 WILDE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RUO WU XU, is requesting that the name RUO WU XU, be changed to NICHOLAS R. XU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 19th of April 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036890300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PANERA BREAD, 2675 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PAN NORCAL LLC, (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036930000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PARKSIDE MAILBOXES, 945 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PARKSIDE MAILBOXES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/09/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036930100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAY YA PHOTOBOOTH, 945 TARAVAL ST #281, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SAY YA PHOTOBOOTH, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/09/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551878

In the matter of the application of: NICOLLE ELIZABETH MATTHEWS, 2125 BRYANT ST #110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NICOLLE ELIZABETH MATTHEWS, is requesting that the name NICOLLE ELIZABETH MATTHEWS, be changed to NICOLLE BUNNY ROSENBERG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 7th of April 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036924900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAKE IT MARIKO, 740 ANZA ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GINA MARIKO ALINEA ROSALES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036934700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAUREN RAUCH CONSULTING, 90 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAUREN RAUCH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/11/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036938900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KATY & COMPANY, 302 PRECITA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATY STEADMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036937400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036911400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ECO-GREEN OFFICE & IT PRODUCTS, 649 MISSION ST 5TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAI YUNG LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036894000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HILARY CHARLOTTE PHOTOGRAPHY, 431 ASHBURY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HILARY KNIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036926300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIKE’S CONCRETE PUMP, 815 MOUNT VERNON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL MAC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036930200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BMS HOTELS, 405 PARKER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed OM SHIV GANESH 1 LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036941200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DELTA HIGH END APPLIANCE REPAIR, 2391 16TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BORIS BOGACHECK, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036945200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRYSTAL STINGRAY LEATHER COMPANY, 1740 BANCROFT AVE #4508, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHI GUANG LI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/18/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/18/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036942200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLACK SERUM; BRUCIUS TATTOO; 377 GUERRERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRUCIUS VON XYLANDER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036948400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE MINDFUL CLEANER, 2306 MARKET ST #409, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOE R. ZAMORA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/19/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036910400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIGHTSOURCES, 5758 GEARY BLVD #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EUN JIN JEON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036938300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NU SWIM, 619A EUGENIA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GINA T. ESPOSITO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAIR DOKTORS, 3150 18TH ST #260, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANAYA CASEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/16.

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036922500

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036939700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JACKRABBIT, 302 BRODERICK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BOUNTIFUL FOODS 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 02/03/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMORE HAIR SALON, 1690 VALENCIA ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALICIA ARICELA ORELLANA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/04/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MYIGHTY, 459 FULTON ST #107, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHEAL NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/16.

FEB 11, 18, 25, MAR 03, 2016

FEB 18, 25, MAR 03, 10, 2016

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036930700

The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036953500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLACK MAGIC USA, 400 BAKER ST #104, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PETER DANZIG & JON CARR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/09/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUMAN VIDEO GAME LLC, 550 15TH ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HUMAN VIDEO GAME LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/23/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036941000

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036521100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: R&D CLEANING SERVICES LLC, 2911 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed R&D CLEANING SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/16/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036937300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PONTIAC HOTEL, 509 MINNA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 509 MINNA STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036941400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA BELLE, 3226 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FORTRINITY 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 02/16/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036942300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLACK SERUM, 377 GUERRERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed OPUS INK, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/16/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036942500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOODLEME, 333 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RANDY WATSON GROUP, 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 02/17/16.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Contractor Services to Provide Language Translation and Interpretation Services, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M5107, on or about February 27, 2016, with proposals due by 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, April 5, 2016.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED

The District is soliciting proposals from qualified contractors to provide in-person interpretation services and document translation services.

The objective of this solicitation is to provide continuously available services from an experienced and qualified firm. The Agreement will be for a base term of three (3) years, with options to renew for two (2) additional one-year periods, exercisable by the District at its sole discretion.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS

Prospective Proposers who are not currently registered on the BART Procurement Portal to do business with BART are required to register on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https:// suppliers.bart.gov in order to obtain Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued online and be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation. If a Prospective Proposer is a partnership or joint venture, such entity must register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s Tax Identification Number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an On-Line Planholder under the entity’s name, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SCIENCE INK, 377 GUERRERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ANGELO L.M. CADUTO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/15.

FEB 25, MAR 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036953200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MR. NICE WHEELS. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RASIKH WAZIRALI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/23/16.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANITA B:SPA. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANITAFACIAL, INC. (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 02/26/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036963100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAFE HOUSE. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KIRKHAM STREET SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/29/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 SUMMONS: FAMILY LAW, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: SANDRA BJORK RUDOLFSDOTTIR YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: KEVIN ANTHONY NASH CASE NO. D-559231

Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and petition are served on you to file a response (form FL-120) at this court and have a copy served on the petitioner.

A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), California Legal Services website (www. lawhelpca.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE: Restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court mat order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party.

The name and address of the court are SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, CENTRAL DIVISION, FAMILY COURT, 1555 6TH AVE., SAN DIEGO, CA 92101.

The name, address, and telephone number of the petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney, is:

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MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036961700

PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ON-LINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. A Pre-Proposal Conference and Networking Session will be held on Thursday, March 17, 2016. The meeting will convene promptly at 10 a.m. at the District’s Offices, in Conference Room No. 2200, 22nd Floor, at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program will be explained. All questions regarding DBE participation should be directed to Mr. Ron Granada, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-6103. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting.

Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a proposal shall constitute a firm offer to the District for One Hundred and Eighty (180) calendar days from date of proposal submission.

Dated at Oakland, California this 24th day of February, 2016. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 3/3/16 CNS-2850550# BAY AREA REPORTER

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March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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Vol. 46 • No. 9 • March 3-9, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Joel Grey’s life in the limelight

by Richard Dodds

T

o Joel Grey, the number 83 has no meaning. It happens to be his age, but he said, “I don’t think of it at all, except when other people bring it up. There’s nothing wrong with bringing it up, it’s just that I just operate on being interested in the new day.”

But when it came to writing his memoirs, the reality of his time on the Earth was unmistakable. “I do believe my age because the words are there to tell it,” he said from New York. “I talked about my life from the very beginning, and I’m still talking about it.”

See page 24 >>

Joel Grey, seen at an anniversary screening of Cabaret, will be at the Curran Theatre on March 7 for an onstage interview focusing on his newly released memoir Master of Ceremonies.

Jim Ruymen

Finding the humanity in his subjects

by Sura Wood

B

ruce Davidson may be the most influential photographer of the last 50 years you’ve never heard of. Highly regarded by aficionados, affiliated with a prominent New York gallery, and his monographs circulated among art school students, the photographer, known for winning the trust of outsiders and the marginalized, has yet to have a major museum show. Though by no means major, a small, intense exhibition now on view in a single gallery at the de Young Museum offers a taste of why he’s widely admired. The 43 black & white vintage prints, a selection from recent gifts to FAMSF’s collection, represent several series he produced early in his career between the 1950s and 1970s, a period that offers insight into a sensibility in its formative stages.

See page 15 >>

Bruce Davidson, “Untitled (Body Builder, Venice Beach)” from Los Angeles (1964), printed later. Gelatin Silver Print (11x14 in.) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Michael and Joyce Axelrod Collection.

Bruce Davidson/Howard Greenberg Gallery

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

“EXHILARATING . . . IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST!” Photos by Kevin Berne.

—San Francisco Chronicle

ACT-SF.ORG | 415.749.2228 A.C.T.’S STRAND THEATER

<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Solitary solidarity

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oneliness is not the same thing as merely being alone.

But it’s a state of being well worth examination, and now nonfiction author Olivia Laing, who wrote 2014’s well-received The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, gives loneliness the full-court treatment in her new book The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone (Picador).

Laing’s book is an interesting exploration of urban loneliness as seen in the lives of some rather iconic artists, and in the author’s own experience of moving to Manhattan and trying to stake out a life as a single person. She begins with a discussion of the empty urban spaces in the paintings of artist Edward Hopper. Hopper’s urban scenes, Laing writes, reproduce “one of the central experiences of being lonely: the way a feeling of separation, of being walled off or penned in, combines with a sense of near-unbearable exposure.” She sees Hopper’s work as a poetic reflection on the theme of urban alienation, the expression of a longing for connection. You could say it speaks to her.

The popular conception of artist Andy Warhol as social butterfly, Factory foreman and pre-eminent society portraitist comes in for needed revision in Laing’s view. Warhol’s early embraces of silkscreen use and mechanical reproduction prefigure our “age of automation: our rapturous, narcissistic fixation with screens; the enormous devolution of our emotional and practical lives to technological apparatuses and

contraptions.” In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, he wrote, “I need B because I can’t be alone. Except when I sleep. Then I can’t be with anyone.”

Laing’s most poignant observations come into play with her examination of the work of the late gay artist and writer David Wojnarowicz. She zeroes in on Wojnarowicz’s love of cruising the old Chelsea piers on Manhattan’s West Side, “a place that captured both his erotic and creative imagination.

On the one hand, the place was an outdoor whorehouse, reeking of piss and shit, where people were regularly murdered. On the other hand, it was a world without inhibitions, where people whose sexuality was elsewhere the subject of intense hostility could find an absolute freedom of encounter, and where moments of unexpected intimacy sometimes bloomed amongst the rubble.”

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About Wojnarowicz’s frank discussions of his footloose sexuality and premature mortality (he died of complications from AIDS), Laing writes, “His selfexposure was in itself a cure for loneliness, dissolving the sense of difference that comes when one believes one’s feelings or desires to be uniquely shameful.”

In a consideration of great American outsider artist Henry Darger Darger, Laing describes the over 300 paintings and thousands of pages of manuscript he left behind in his rented room after his death in 1972, the creation of a complete fantastical society, most of it “set in a coherent otherworld: the Realm of the Unreal, a place Darger inhabited far more dynamically and passionately than he did the everyday city of Chicago.” In this section, she describes fantasy and solipsism as understandable reactions against social isolation and disconnection.

Laing goes on to touch on the work and lives of such diverse artists as, ready? Alfred Hitchcock, Valerie Solanas, Nan Goldin, Klaus Nomi, Peter Hujar, Billie Holiday and Jean Michel Basquiat. Quite a list. That she does so with empathy and artistic understanding is impressive enough; that she interweaves a personal record of her own solitary period is masterful. This is a highly recommended read for all manner of urban loners, introverts and semi-loners.

“In Grand Hotel, Greta Garbo said she wanted to be alone, that famous line, but what the real Miss Garbo desired was to be left alone, a very different thing: as in unbothered, unwatched, unharried.” Garbo knew that to be left alone is not necessarily to be lonely, and Laing’s book is a powerful examination of the very real difference.▼

Magically delicious

by Jim Piechota All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders; TOR Books, $25.99 he speculative fiction genre of books received a welcome reinvigoration with last month’s publication of San Franciscobased genderqueer and trans woman writer Charlie Jane Anders’ debut science fiction novel All the Birds in the Sky. Her more mainstream coming-ofage novel Choir Boy, a Lambda Literary and Edmund White award winner, debuted in 2005 and was a hit among the YA crowd. It featured a 12-year-old boy named Berry who, as Anders did as a child growing up in New England, enjoys choral music and finds that performing such divine material brings much-needed joy to a life struggling with bickering parents.

Berry’s adolescent physical changes fire up a desperation in him to prevent his voice from changing, but the female hormones he begins to administer alter his universe both physically and socially.

Perhaps more impressive than Choir Boy is Anders’ new book, a literary work which ingeniously crosses several genres and follows teenaged misfit best friends Patricia Delfine and Lawrence Armstead, who each discover magical gifts in their youth.

These gifts – good witch Patricia can communicate with animals, and budding tech-whiz Lawrence invented a two-second time machine supercomputer – bond them when they are both sent away to a

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Dawn Harms, Music Director & Conductor Hadleigh Adams, Baritone Tickets & Info: http://BARS-SF.ORG

March 5, 2016 8pm

Everett Middle School 450 Church (between 16 & 17 St)

Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Jennifer Higdon Dooryard Bloom Hadliegh Adams, baritone Dvorak Symphony No. 7 The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is an orchestra that provides a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. A 501(c)3 org, BARS makes cultural, social, and educational contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high standard.

prison-esque private school.

The novel picks up an intensive amount of steam (and dark humor) when it becomes dystopian as both kids meet again as adults in their 20s at a dub step party in San Francisco, where they “infodump,” puff on an “elf-shaped bong” on the couch, and collectively panic and match magical wits over the decimation of the Earth due to climate alterations, disease, and global food shortages.

Against all odds, Patricia and Lawrence fall in love and combine their efforts to save the world: Patricia and her witchy cohorts bend wills and sway personalities, while Lawrence joins a geek squad called the Ten Percent Project, which is busy toiling away to open an access

wormhole to another planet to propel a 10th of the population into the interstellar environs as a rescue and revival effort.

With immense flair, it’s a fantastical vision of the near-future, where Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City still manages to make it into shoulder bags, and super-smart cellphones called Caddies run on interpersonal serendipity and aren’t just for “Mission hipsters” anymore.

As cerebral technology and magical forces intertwine and spark with some positive results, the problems surmount right alongside them. Anders strikes a mesmerizing blend of science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural fun, while incorporating social and mechanical wizardry and mismatched romance to boot.

Professionally, Anders is a very busy writer, serving as editor-inchief of science fiction and fantasy Gawker Media geek-tastic website io9.com, and as co-creator of Other magazine with her partner, the writer Annalee Newitz. She hosts the San Francisco monthly reading series Writers with Drinks, and boasts a highly interesting list of past works, including the crossdressing manual The Lazy Crossdresser (Greenery Press), which gives readers permission to properly and fearlessly crossdress. Anders has a two-book deal with her publisher TOR, so as this novel solidifies her place on the sci-fi map, fans will be eagerly awaiting what she comes up with next as a breakthrough San Francisco writer to watch.▼

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Theatre>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Out of Africa & into the playroom

by Richard Dodds

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he child has not yet arrived, a bundle of joy from some desperate part of Africa, but Annie and Peter have arrived at a name. When a friend points out that the child, who looks to be about age four in photos, will likely already come with a name, Annie bats the question aside. Emma Mercedes it will be, but thoughts of adopting an African child become heavier as concerns build for the emotional baggage that the future Emma Mercedes may be carrying from traumas unknown.

“You want a child from Africa,” says a sage neighbor from that continent, “but you do not want Africa.”

This is at the crux of The Call, Tanya Barfield’s thoughtful drama that Theatre Rhino is now presenting at the Eureka Theatre. Joy, worry, and sorrow are on a rotating playlist for Annie and Peter, but particularly for Annie, who has been treating the effects of futile fertility drugs with other drugs for depression. When a baby adoption from a still-pregnant woman in Arizona looks to be falling through, she suddenly pivots toward African orphans. She’d get a kid, do something good for humanity, and maybe, just a little bit, get to wear some imaginary medal of honor.

Barfield adds an intriguing dynamic to the story with a second couple, lesbian African-American newlyweds, who are among Annie and Peter’s best friends and have become a sounding board for the adoption journey. The play starts with their comic story of an African

David Wilson

Nkechi Emeruwa, foreground, recreates a scene from an African vacation she took with her partner, Alexaendrai Bond, left, for friends played by Melissa Keith and Hawlan Ng, before matters turn more serious in Theatre Rhino’s The Call.

vacation where they were startled to be considered white just like their fellow travelers, and then had a scary encounter with a lion on a safari-lite expedition. “Me, I’m happy with the Disney version of Africa,” says Rebecca, who first got to know Peter when he and her late brother were Peace Corps-type volunteers in Africa.

Although Rebecca and her more politically charged partner Drea

are culturally all-American, they do have an insight into the difficulties that both their friends and their incoming daughter will face. At first, their admonitions are lighthearted – the challenges of styling African hair, for example – before they become more forceful as Annie finds her commitment to the adoption falling apart. Not only will the African child come with the realities of Africa, but also possibly with

memories of a mother that she’ll always wish she knew better.

Director Jon Wai-keung Lowe’s production brings us gradually into the drama. The first act is mostly in the low-key tones of conventional dramatic setups, and it ends with a scene that merely dissipates rather than signaling the end of an act.

Intensities heighten in the second act as emotions grow rawer and unexpected revelations unfold. But the

play adds one or two unnecessary unexpected revelations, creating confrontations that temporarily pull us into a different drama.

The cast is certainly an agreeable bunch, with Melissa Keith convincingly suggesting Annie’s fragility if not transcending the character’s mopey state that can become a little annoying. As Peter, Hawlan Ng has the least vibrant role as a husband just trying to keep his wife happy, but Ng finally gets to rev up the performance with some of those second-act revelations. As Rebecca and Drea, longtime partners though only recently wed, Nkechi Emeruwa and Alexaendrai Bond engagingly bring to life their finish-each-other’s-sentence familiarity. But it is Darryl V. Jones, as Peter and Annie’s African neighbor, who finally puts all the pieces together with a powerful tale from the early days of the AIDS epidemic when his efforts to provide medical help unknowingly made matters worse.

Through it all, the playwright provides balance but also ideas that many in the audience may not have considered before. When Drea points out there are plenty of black kids in America who need homes, Annie is just not interested in that conversation. With Annie out of earshot, Drea suggests a reason for this reluctance to her partner. “Slavery,” says Drea. “It’s the original sin for white folks.”t The Call will run at Eureka Theatre through March 12. Tickets are $15-$35. Call (800) 838-3006 or go to therhino.org.

Bruce Davidson/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Bruce Davidson, “Untitled (Jet Aircraft Wing)” from Los Angeles (1964), printed later. Gelatin Silver Print (11x14 in.) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Michael and Joyce Axelrod Collection.

Bruce Davidson/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Bruce Davidson, “Untitled (Motorcycle and Rider)” from Los Angeles (1964), printed later. Gelatin Silver Print (14x11 in.) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Michael and Joyce Axelrod Collection.

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Bruce Davidson

From page 13

After growing up in Oak Park, Illinois, where his budding interest in the medium was nurtured by his mother, who built the 10-yearold Davidson a small darkroom in the basement of the family home, he graduated from Yale and soon discovered his métier as a member of the military press corps. While stationed at an army camp near Paris in 1956, he shot “Widow of Montmartre,” a somber portrait of the widow of Impressionist painter Leon Fauche, seated at a table in the upstairs of her Paris apartment, surrounded by her dead husband’s paintings. A solitary figure, lit in a room otherwise swathed in shadow,

her face resting on her hand, and dark drapes partially obscuring a large slanted window to the street, she’s awash in sorrow. The emotional image is emblematic of the future work of an artist who’s unafraid of feeling, bonds with his subjects, and finds humanity in scenes he photographs with a poignant simplicity.

Shaped by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, Davidson in 1960 joined the celebrated Magnum photo agency, established by Robert Capa. That source of employment, and the first NEA grant ever awarded to a photographer, helped him sustain a combination of selfdirected, instinctive, go-where-my heart-and-interest-take-me projects, and commercial assignments for The Saturday Evening Post,

Esquire magazine and other publications. He even photographed Italian movie director Michelangelo Antonioni, on the set of Zabriskie Point in 1968.

The show starts with two seminal freelance projects where time and immersion played a key role.

He traveled with a circus for four months, and carried forward the chord of melancholy he captured in Montmartre to his picture of Jimmy Armstrong, a.k.a. “The Little Man,” a fellow with a deformed torso, regular-sized head and stunted legs who gazes out of an opening to his makeshift tent, isolated, wistful and resigned, his face in white greasepaint and exaggerated clown features (“Untitled (The Dwarf)” from Circus/Dwarf, 1958). Another photograph is a rear view of a pair of pachyderms whose enormous, leathery hindquarters are wedged together in a tent where, under a harsh light, these great animals endure the indentured servitude they’ve been consigned; a dwarf just outside lends scale and an aura of quiet tragedy.

Davidson developed rapport with a very different surrogate family in

the summer of 1959, when he went to Coney Island to hang with the “Jokers” street gang. He was 26 at the time, a decade older than the average age of the gang members, but they seem relaxed in his presence. Bored and restless, they wile away days on the beach, on and under the boardwalk, smoking, showing off for each other and their girls, playing out West Side Story by the sea. “Clenched Fists,” for instance, a picture of a tense young man watching the action in a dance hall, is reminiscent of the musical; another photograph landed on the cover of a 2009 Bob Dylan album. Davidson, too, fell in love with their rough street beauty. “It wasn’t about violence,” he recalled, discussing the series in a Thirteen/WNET City Arts program. “It was about feeling, a sense of deep depression, anxiety and fear, yet primal vitality.”

In a telling image, the group, spent and beat at the end of a languorous day, sits at the back of a bus; next to them but making no eye contact is a weary African-American man, his arms crossed protectively. The subtext suggests racial division and the coming storm that would erupt

in the 1960s.

Like many social justice photographers, Davidson was drawn to the civil rights movement in the South.

The understated drama of Time of Change speaks to escalating tensions in works such as “Voter Registration, Alabama” (1965), in which an older African-American woman sits at a table, exposed light bulbs overhead, while a menacing lawman, the epitome of a racist Southern sheriff chomping on a cigar, lurks in the doorway; and “Mississippi Freedom March,” where a group of young white toughs encircles a black protestor resting by the side of the road in the summer of 1963, the threat of violence in the air.

Now in his 80s, Davidson says he likes to walk city streets with his handheld camera, and then return to his dark room to make images from the impressions he gathered during the day. He eschews the usual professional labels, quipping that what he most wants is to be considered a “fine photographer,” a title he certainly deserves.t Through Sept. 11.

<< Theatre

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Off-kilter look at regicide

by Richard Dodds

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kevinberne.com

Conleth Hill and Frances McDormand play the scheming Macbeth and ambitious Lady Macbeth in Berkeley Rep’s production of the Shakespeare tragedy.

t’s a curious take on Macbeth, now at Berkeley Rep, a concept that takes two of the most celebrated characters in the Shakespeare canon and actually makes them smaller than life. And certainly smaller than the towering video projections looming about them with a visual cacophony that you might expect in a Star Wars movie. (Imagine Obi Wan Kenobi materializing on an IMAX screen to counsel Luke Skywalker.) Add in the booming sound effects and ominous music that literally shake the theater with sound and fury, and it seems figures scurrying about on stage look like miniaturized versions of actors.

That one of those actors is the brilliant Frances McDormand, the presumable raison d’etre for this production, makes director Dan Sullivan’s choices all the more curious. McDormand plays Lady Macbeth, a power-hungry schemer and one of Shakespeare’s choice female roles. Good on McDormand for showing no interest in doing a starturn, but the results are surprisingly drab, especially at the start of the show, where her muslin-smock costume, fair hair, wan appearance, and

washed-out lighting turn her into nearly a solid beige object that definitely does not command attention.

There is more grit as the play moves along, as she prods her husband into regicide, but the ambitious forces that propel her remain murky.

As Macbeth, Conleth Hill displays skill at delivering Shakespeare’s lines with adept use of the language, but languid then becomes a more overriding impression. Nevertheless, his ability to speak the dialogue with clear muscularity, which doesn’t necessarily mean posh affectation, is especially welcome given the extreme variations in the rest of the cast at conquering Shakespearean delivery. There are able performances among the large cast, but such key roles as Banquo (Christopher Invar) and most specifically Malcolm (Adam Magill), the ultimate victor for the throne, range from barely acceptable to unacceptably unseasoned.

There are, indeed, high-quality performances amidst the crowd.

James Carpenter does versatile triple duty as the doomed king, a comic turn as a porter, and an appearance as a doctor unable to cure Lady Macbeth’s night terrors. Carpenter knows how to clearly deliver

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his lines, suggest the period flavor, and create distinct characterizations within the confusing miasma of the other performances.

Acknowledgement is certainly due Alexander V. Nichols for his overpowering visual designs that replace the need for actual scenery, and to Dan Moses Schreier for his thunderous sound designs, that despite the spectacle they offer, in no way serve the diminished actors.

Director Dan Sullivan is an esteemed director who has worked across the country and won a Tony Award for Proof, but his concept for this Macbeth is seriously offkilter. It seems the actors are there to service the epic special effects rather than the other way around, with the performances taking center stage and any technical ornamentation a way to enhance the chemistry that the actors are trying to forge.

In the end, the enchanted potion that the witches conjure with eye of newt and other choice ingredients proves to be merely an overseasoned broth.t Macbeth will run at Berkeley Rep through April 10. Tickets are $55$135. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.

Highlights of a fortnight

by Philip Campbell

H

erbert Blomstedt returned to the podium at Davies Symphony Hall last week for the first week of concerts in his annual return visit to the Bay Area. Former Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995 and Conductor Laureate ever since, the distinguished maestro started his latest fortnight with a magnificent program featuring some problematic Bruckner (a specialty of his) and the belated SFS debut of Maria João Pires, performing the Beethoven

Piano Concerto No. 3.

Blomstedt’s enthralling take on the Austrian composer’s first thoughts on his endlessly revised Third Symphony filled two-thirds of the bill, and Pires gave no encore after her bravura performance at the keyboard. It was still a demanding night of music, but wonderfully refined and intelligent musicianship, combined with emotional warmth, kept it from being too much of a good thing.

Brucknerians are a hardy lot anyway, and the chance to hear Pires in person kept all but a few audience members thoroughly absorbed

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from start to finish. After years of listening to recordings and reading countless positive reviews about Maria João Pires, it seems odd it has taken so long for her to finally arrive here. The vital 72-year-old virtuoso certainly shows no signs of slowing down or cutting back on her extensive touring calendar. It may simply be time to work us into her long career and hectic schedule.

Pires’ assured and expressive reading of the Beethoven Concerto started with bold and aristocratic confidence, but she also showed a vivacious side. Unafraid of taking playful risks, with Blomstedt’s sympathetic support she essayed a highly characterful interpretation. It was well-worth waiting for.

The renowned conductor has said his life-long advocacy of Bruckner and his participation in historical debate on the significance of the composer’s canon of symphonies reflect a fascination with the workings of a “great mind.” Longevity has also helped him to understand Bruckner’s often-tortured creative process. From all accounts, he was a bit of a social basket case, more at ease expressing his heart from the organ bench than from a podium or lectern.

It didn’t help that Bruckner was an avowed Wagnerian when the Viennese musical establishment – especially the influential and sometimes vicious critic Eduard Hanslick – was hostile to non-traditionalists and what Wagner himself called the “Music of the Future.” The premiere of the Symphony No. 3 in D minor was a spectacular fiasco that left Bruckner emotionally scarred for life and prone to often-ineffective revisions of his works. There was also a lot of well-meaning tinkering by his supporters over the years.

One of the few stalwarts who stuck it out to the bitter end on that notorious opening night was the teenaged Gustav Mahler, who would champion the work and even arrange a two-piano transcription.

Numerous editions sought to fix Bruckner’s stubbornly awkward and typically discursive score, but it has always posed the most bewildering challenges in his massive orchestral oeuvre. Musicologists and critics will probably never agree, but that doesn’t stop the Third from being a potentially inspiring experience for concertgoers.

Felix Broede/Deutsche Grammophon

Pianist Maria João Pires made a belated San Francisco Symphony debut last week in Davies Symphony Hall.

With a mind like Blomstedt’s at work and his wise musical judgment directing traffic, the prospect of hearing the original 1873 version was too tantalizing to miss. The musicians onstage, many veterans from the Blomstedt decade, sat with divided strings and a mighty array of horns. They welcomed him with obvious respect and warmth. He always got a big sound from them in the past, and his endearingly precise gestures and magisterial stage presence still draw strong results.

When Bruckner’s pathways suddenly stopped for potentially clumsy gear-changes, Blomstedt made them

seem essential. Shimmering cascades of sound, weighty as a meteor shower, and the frequent allusions to Wagner and more subtly, Beethoven, helped to propel the journey.

There will probably never be a completely satisfactory performing edition of the Third, but all praise to Blomstedt for continuing on his quest, and also for daring to return to the infrequently heard 1873 Nowak edition. This week Blomstedt returns for an all-Mozart concert that features SFS Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik in the First Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 35, Haffner, and 41, Jupiter.t

Courtesy San Francisco Symphony

San Francisco Symphony Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt.

Asteroids‚ Comets‚ and the Hard-Hitting Stories of Our Cosmic Origins

Explore the past‚ present‚ and future of our Solar System in a new planetarium show‚ starting March 11.

Narrated by George Takei.

Get tickets at calacademy.org

<< Film

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

March, Castro Theatre style

by David Lamble

A

double dose of Jean Cocteau, a week of James Bond, singalong mermaids, the Asian American film fest, and a slew of Pre-Code Hollywood movies provide reasons for making the Castro Theatre your entertainment home in March.

Beauty and the Beast (1946) Jean Cocteau fashions the fable of Beauty (Josette Day) turning herself over to the Beast (Jean Marais) to save her Papa. The Castro rescues this treasure from the bowels of academia. (3/3) The Blood of a Poet (1930) Jean Cocteau called his avant-garde films “documentary scenes from another realm.” With his dazzling images flying by at the speed of light, Cocteau was a founding father of today’s image-obsessed society. Freud described his films as “like looking through a keyhole at a man undressing.” Vito Russo cautioned in The Celluloid Closet that the version you see of this great masterwork may have suffered from the censor’s knife. “In Room 23, there is held a desperate rendezvous of hermaphrodites.” Yikes! (3/3) Spotlight (2015) Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber and Mark Ruffalo star in this passionate docudrama. A determined band of Boston Globe reporters uncovers the tip of the iceberg of the 2001 child molestation scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in Boston, setting off a tidal wave of disclosures that would embarrass the Vatican and cost the Church millions in reparations and an inestimable decline of its moral stock in parishes across the planet. (3/7) All the President’s Men (1976) Robert Redford cut his indie spurs by producing and starring in this diabolical thriller about the unhorsing of the doggedly evil President Richard M. Nixon. Director Alan J. Pakula rides herd on a movie rock-star ensemble: Redford as Washington

Post reporter Bob Woodward, paired by circumstances with his temperamental opposite, the brash Carl Bernstein, another intuitive gem from late bloomer Dustin Hoffman.

With blustery Jason Robards as Post top editor Ben Bradlee (Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Hal Holbrook as the invaluable source “Deep Throat,” and a connect-the-dots script from William Goldman (another Oscar). This homage to courageous newshounds was hailed

by Vincent Canby in the Times as “the thinking-man’s Jaws.”

(3/7) The Big Short (2015) Based on author Michael Lewis’ bestselling account on how a savvy, ethically challenged generation of Wall Street Young Turks contributed to the Big Bust of 2008, Adam McKay gathers a glittering ensemble of film actor Young Turks (Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, Christian Bale) in a witty cautionary tale. (3/8) Wall Street (1987) Oliver Stone’s dad was a stockbroker, and here he distills the lessons of “the Street” to demonstrate how a callow young broker (Charlie Sheen) falls under the spell of wheeler-dealer Gordon Gekko (Oscar-winning, over-thetop Michael Douglas) to bring ruin to ordinary investors and a special pinch of shame to his hard-working dad (played by his actual pop, Martin Sheen). (3/8) Shanghai Express (1932) Josef von Sternberg gives a young Marlene Dietrich the role of the sultry Shanghai Lili during the turbulence of the Chinese Civil War. (3/9) Safe in Hell (1931) In this PreCode film, Dorothy Mackaill plays a prostitute who kills her john after he brutally rapes her. (3/9) CAAM Asian American film festival opening night: Tyrus (3/10).

This is Spinal Tap (1984) Rob Reiner’s droll satire about an aging

British rock band was so successful that it sparked a 1995 “revival” tour for the faux group. With Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean. (3/11) Stunt Rock (1978) Cult movie about the collaboration between an Australian film stuntman and a then-obscure LA-based heavy metal band, Sorcery. The film has slowly acquired a following through exposure on Turner Movie Classics (TCM). (3/11) Marc Huestis presents a tribute to David Bowie with co-star Candy Clark live, The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Directed by Nicolas Roeg, it has 29-year-old, androgynous Bowie as an alien who visits our wet planet in hopes of finding water for his very dry one. Proves to be the Bowie-film template: otherworldly creature inspires a perilous mix of lust, envy, S/M control issues. Benefits from the charisma of two character actors, Rip Torn and Buck Henry. Henry’s character gets married to another man who’s extremely nearsighted. Henry wondered out loud why his character was gay. (3/12) Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) French

New Wave director Francois Truffaut undertook a serious study of the master of suspense in a week of in-depth conversations with Hitchcock about the foundations of filmmaking. Kent Jones distills 60 hours of Truffaut/ Hitch chats into a complex 80-minute doc fleshed out with observations from Hitchcock disciples. (3/13) To Catch a Thief (1955) Hitch lite, this Cary Grant cat-burglar caper co-starring Grace Kelly derives much of its hold on our attention from the gorgeous French Riviera setting. (3/13) I Confess (1953) Montgomery Clift is a Catholic priest consciencestricken by a confession he’s dutybound not to reveal to police. The Quebec setting enhances this otherwise routine melodrama. (3/13) I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) Director Mervyn LeRoy’s hard-hitting drama about a man betrayed by the criminal justice system (Paul Muni). (3/16) Wild Boys on the Road (1933) Director William Wellman’s film is driven by the Depression itself.

(3/16) Dr. No (1962) The first episode of this James Bond series carried a

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White House seal of approval.

Jack Kennedy was addicted to the Ian Fleming books with their beautiful dames and hypervillains, seasoned by 007’s (Sean Connery) access to adult toys and fast cars. (3/17) From Russia with Love (1963) Bond #2 benefits from one of James’ toughest foes, deftly played by veteran stage star Lotte Lenya. (3/17) Goldfinger (1964) Bond faces taunting master criminal Gert Frobe and a dexterous assassin called Oddjob. (3/18) The Hill (1965) Sydney Lumet delivers a deliciously masculine prison drama that works best for those attuned to British working-class dialects.

With Connery, Harry Andrews, Michael Redgrave. (3/18) Thunderball (1965) Series starts to show its age in this Bond underwater adventure. (3/19) You Only Live Twice (1967) Bond faces deceptively mild-mannered Donald Pleasence as the head of an evildoer group out to set off WWIII. (3/19) Diamonds are Forever (1971) Above-average Bond caper is set on the Vegas Strip. (3/21) The Man Who Would Be King (1975) John Huston directs Connery and Michael Caine in a Far East adventure. Connery attempts to pass himself off as a god to an indigenous tribe guarding a treasure.

(3/21) Die Another Day (2002) Pierce Brosnan-era Bond has a Madonnapenned & performed theme song.

(3/22) The Matador (2005) Richard Shepard directs Brosnan and Greg Kinnear in an oddball buddy story.

Brosnan is a paid assassin who becomes pals with a dour American traveler while on assignment in Mexico. (3/22) See page 23 >>

Noam Chomsky speaks

by Erin Blackwell

I

ntellectuals are underappreciated in the United States of America.

They are despised, marginalized, and ignored. It’s not a job any mother raises her daughter or son for. Intelligence itself is generally mistrusted. Critical thinking is not taught, encouraged, or rewarded.

Edward Snowden is a lifelong pariah, as is Chelsea Manning, for having blown the whistle on despicable behaviors. The behaviors continue, and the critical thinkers are in exile and prison, respectively. They’re lucky they’re not dead. Why, then, is Noam Chomsky allowed to wander freely among us, meticulously parsing the evils of our system? He’s even got a new movie out. Requiem for the American Dream opens this Friday at the Roxie.

Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning both actually did something. They didn’t just think about how wrong things were, they noticed a particularly heinous behavior in their own neck of the woods, and broadcast its existence to the world. God bless them. We’re all the better for it. Chomsky, although reputed to be an activist, isn’t that kind of activist. Not the kind who changes the course of history by doing the right thing at risk and peril of his own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The world’s most famous professor of linguistics merely thinks about evil in high places, and writes and talks about it.

Requiem for the American Dream is 73 minutes of systems

The Film Collaborative

Bespectacled Noam Chomsky addresses the camera in Requiem for the American Dream.

analysis by an old man. The title refers to the myth that you can make good in the United States, raise yourself up by your bootstraps, move from working- to middleclass, buy a house, a car, find a dog and someone to bicker with for the rest of your life, and live happily ever after. In the 1950s and 1960s, what Chomsky repeatedly refers to as the Golden Age, this wasn’t myth but reality. The post-war boom continued right up to 1970 or so, before earning power started to tilt in the other direction, until we got to where we are now.

In order to understand how and why the American middle class is now as dead as the dodo, filmmakers Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott have carefully organized the old, age-spotted, bespectacled head’s address to the camera into 10 sections. Numbering sections is a terrible idea, since it creates in the viewer an inevitable dread of never getting to 10, no matter how short the film is, and 73 mins. seems short given the title’s portentousness, the finality of America’s fall.

But it’s worth sitting through to find out where all the money went.

An intertitle announces “10 Principles of the Concentration of Power,” and the first on the list is “Reduce Democracy.” Although Chomsky is a radical thinker, his delivery is far from fiery. He’s too focused on following his own train of thought to give over any energy to facial expressions or vocal modulations. He might be a dentist describing your upcoming root canal, and, like a dentist, what he describes lights a fine terror in your soul. To ease you through the process, music is applied, black-and-white archival footage is supplied, home movies,

lines on graphs wiggle up for the richest and down for everyone else.

For the curious, here are the other nine principles: Shape Ideology, Redesign the Economy (from manufacturing to financial services), Shift the Burden (tax the poor), Attack Solidarity (“You’re only supposed to care about yourself ”), Run the Regulators (let the banking industry regulate itself), Engineer Elections (establish the citizenship of the unbridled corporation), Keep the Rabble in Line (crush unions), Manufacture Consent (direct people to the superficial things in life, via advertising), and Marginalize the Population (by removing the influence of everyone but the affluent). The devil is in the details. Papa Chomsky lays them out slowly, carefully, inexorably, as he has faithfully for 50 years.

The film is less depressing than the reality he analyzes because Chomsky is alive, his brain still works, he’s enough of an optimist to keep talking. “I don’t think we’re smart enough to design a just society,” he says by way of conclusion.

He quotes social philosopher John Dewey: “Until all institutions – production, commerce, media – are under participatory democracy control, we won’t have a democratic society. Policy will be in the shadow cast by business over society.” In a now-frail voice, Chomsky encourages you to “dismantle illegitimate authority,” reminding us that “activists have created the rights we enjoy.”

Have at it, people. We have nothing to lose but our chains.t

2016 SEASON

Coppélia MAR 08 – 13

Balanchine’s fantastic story of a mysterious inventor, his life-sized doll, and the havoc they wreak on a young couple is all frothy fun—and this spun sugar, candy-colored production is perfect for the entire family. Set to an infectious score by Léo Delibes, Coppélia will bring your inner child out to play!

“Coppélia sparkles…”

Frances Chung // © Erik Tomasson

– San Francisco Examiner

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<< Out&About

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

O&A

Thu 10 Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zan Company @ YBCA

Air, Be & Be

by Jim Provenzano

N

o, we’re not talking about hotel-home rentals, and how it’s killing the rental market (it is), but how artists swiftly moving through space can change the very air audiences breathe. Authors exhale words and poetic visions, dancers swirl through motes of atmosphere, while the chords of departed composers still manage to give thrills and chills. Inhale, folks.

Paul B Goode

Thu 3 Angels in America: Perestroika @ Town Hall Theatre, Lafayette Tony Kushner’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning epic AIDS drama (Part II) gets an East Bay staging; in repertory with staged readings of Part I. $20-$32. Fri-Sun 8pm. Also Sun 2pm. Thru March 17. 3535 School St., Lafayette. www.townhalltheatre.com

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; now with new characters like Sia and Bernie Sanders. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Club Inferno @ Hypnodrome The glam rock musical, based on Dante’s Inferno, with songs by Peter Fogel and book by Kelly Kittell, returns, with the original 2015 cast. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru March 5. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Jim Downs @ Books Inc. The acclaimed historian and history professor discusses his book, Stand

By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation. 7pm. 2275 Market St. 8646777. www.booksinc.net

Mighty Real @ Brava Theatre The popular Sylvester musical, starring Anthony Wayne, returns, with new sets, songs and costumes; special benefit nights for various local nonprofits. $35-$100. Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 13. 8pm. 2781 24th St. www.brava.org www.fabuloussylvester.com

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Mar. 3: Cocteau classics Beauty and the Beast (7:40 restored print) and Blood of a Poet (6:30, 9:30). Mar. 5: Scary Cow Short Film festival (2pm-11pm). Mar. 6: Kurosawa’s Ran (2:30, 7pm) and A.K. (5:30). Mar. 7: Oscar winner Spotlight (2pm, 7pm) and All the President’s Men (4:20, 9:20). Mar. 8: Oscar-nominated The Big Short (2pm, 7pm) and Wall Street (4:25, 9:25). Mar. 9: pre-Code classics Shanghai Express (7:45) and Safe in Hell (6:15, 9:30). Mar. 10: CAAMFest opening night film Tyrus (7pm). $11$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Paula West @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The acclaimed jazz vocalist returns for another extended residency at the upscale intimate cabaret. $40-$60 ($20 food/drink min.) 8pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm (no show Feb 28). Thru March 6. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Swimmers @ Marin Theatre Company World premiere of Rachel Bonds’ contemporary play about the strange oddities of modern life. $10-$58.

Tue-Sun 7:30pm. Also some matinees.

Thru March 27. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Three’s Company Live @ Oasis The wacky sitcom about ‘70s roommates gets the local drag parody treatment, with Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin, Adam Roy, Sara Moore and Laurie Bushman. $ Thru March 5. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

The Unfortunates @ Strand Theatre The amazing must-see darkly comic blues-gospel-hip hop musical tells of Big Joe, a tough-talking soldier cursed with giant hands, who must face his dead friends and battle a plague in the Underworld. $35-$95. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Wed, Sat Sun 2pm. Thru April 10. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Vanishing Ice @ David Brower Center, Berkeley Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art 1775-2012, a historic group exhibit of old and contemporary images. 6:30-8:30pm.

Curator lecture 7pm. Mon-Fri 9am5pm. Thru May 11. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.browercenter.org

Fri 4 Aubergine @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Tony Taccone directs Julia Cho’s acclaimed drama about an estranged Asian family. $48-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sun 2pm.

Thru March 20. 2025 Addison St. (510) 647–2949. berkeleyrep.org

Word for Word, the company that performs great short fiction, takes on Emma Donaghue and Colm Tóibín stories. $20-$55. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru April 3. 470 Florida St. (866) 811-4111. www.zspace.org

Bridges @ Berkeley Playhouse

Stop Kiss @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley

Concept Series 18 @ War Memorial Green Room

World premiere of Cheryl L. Davis and Douglas J. Cohen’s new musical about different eras of the civil rights struggle. $17-$60. Thu-Sun various times thru March 6. 2640 College Ave. Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Theatre First’s production of Diana Son’s 1998 play about a love story gone off the rails. $10-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 12. 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 9818150. www.theatrefirst.com

Brittsense @ Betti Ono Gallery, Oakland

Sat 5

RAWdance presents innovative post-modern dances (by Katharine Hawthorne, Manuelito Biag, Gregory Dawson, The Move Messengers, Angela Dice Nguyen,and Facing East Dance) in the beautiful reception hall at the Opera House. Pay-what-youcan. 8pm. Also March 6, 3pm & 8pm.

401 Van Ness Ave. rawdance.org

Forgotten Cities: The Power of Melanin, an exhibit of powerful photo portraits of Black Americans. Thru April 16. 1427 Broadway, Oakland. www.bettiono.com

Curtain Call @ Hotel Rex Pianist Barry Lloyd and host Bill Cooper welcome guest singers at the cabaret lounge. $20. 7pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Dazié Grego-Sykes @ SF Public Library

The music group performs Jennifer Higdon’s Dooryard Bloom, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor. $10-$25. 8pm. 450 Church St. (800) 595-4TIX. www.bars-sf.org

Hidden Gold @ Asian Art Museum Hidden Gold : Mining its Meaning in Asian Art, thru May 8. Also, China at the Center: Rare Ricci and Verbiest World Maps; Extracted: a Trilogy of Ranu Mukherjee (thru Aug. 14); Chinese Laquerware (thru July 31); Elephants Without Number (thru June 26), and more. Free-$25. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm.

200 Larkin St. 581-3500. asianart.org

I am t LGBT

The rockin’ Celtic violinist performs with her band. $25-$60. 8pm. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael.

473-6800. Part of the 13th Annual Irish-American Crossroads Festival, thru April 3: www.irishamericancrossroads.org www.marincenter.org

Feminists to Feministas @ GLBT History Museum Opening reception for Feminists to Feministas : Women of Color in Prints and Posters, a new exhibit of illustrations depicting LBT women of color from the 1970s to today. $5.

7pm-9pm. Thru July 4. Reg, hours Mon, Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm5pm. 4127 18th St. glbthistory.org

Hotel Burlesque @ Exit Theatre Red Velvet and Amanda Ortmayer’s new play about unlikely characters banding together to solve a murder mystery, becfore they too become ghosts. $15-$25. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru April 2. 156 Eddy St. www.theexit.org

Macbeth @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre “The Scottish play,” Shakespeare’s classic tragedy about a murderous royal couple, stars Conleth Hill and Frances McDormand. $45-$145. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru April 10. Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St. berkeleyrep.org

Mothers and Sons @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Regional premiere of Tony-winning gay playwright Terence McNally’s about the mother of a deceased gay man who visits his surviving partner, who now has a family. $25-$45. WedSat 8pm. Sun 2pm. thru April 3. 25 Van Ness ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

The person depicte

The Nether @ SF Playhouse Jennifer Haley’s unusual plays turns a fantasy world into a dark scifi thriller. $15-$45. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Mar. 5. 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Ondine @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theater’s world premiere of Katherine Sherman’s haunting take on The Little Mermaid, Pelleas and Mellisande myths in a transformational love story. $10-$50.

Thu 7pm, Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun pm.

Thru Mar. 6. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

New innovative dances by Todd Eckert, Nol Simonse, Tanya Bello’s Project B, and Reach BC Dance Company. $20. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru March 6. 3316 24th St. www.sharedspacesf.org

Thu 10

Bay Area Rainbow Symphony @ Everett Middle School

Eileen Ivers @ Marin Auditorium, San Rafael

Shared Space 8 @ Dance Mission Theatre

Night Vision, Silence @ Z Below

t

Shotgun Blast Festival @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Variety of plays, drag shows, dance, theatre and comedy. $15-$20. Thru March. 1901 Ashby Ave. www. shotgunplayers.org/Online/blastival

Bill Bowers @ Glama-Rama Salon New exhibit of the veteran gay local collage artist, whose Funk-and-Flash wearable art has been donned by rock stars and supermodels. Thru March 20. 304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.glamarama.com

The Call @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhino’s new production of Tanya Barfield’s dramedy about a lesbian couple, their adoption plans, and a controversy that tests their marriage. $15-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sat & Wed 3pm. Thru March 12. 215 Jackson St. (800) 838-3006. www.therhino.org

The Colored Museum @ Buriel Clay Theatre George C. Wolfe’s deft satire of contemporary Black lives gets a local production by African American Shakespeare Company. $15-$34. Sat. (3pm & 8pm) and Sun. (3pm) thru March 6. 762 Fulton St. 762-2071. www.african-americanshakes.org

Hair @ Victoria Theatre Bay Area Musicals performs their new production of MacDermot, Ragni and Rado’s classic 1960s musical about Vietnam-era youths, hippies, hair, peace and love. $10-$20. Thru March 12. 2961 16th St. www.bamsf.org

Inked Kenny @ Mr. S Leather Photo exhibit of images of tattooed and masculine men. Thru April 30.

Mon-Sun 11am-8pm. 385 8th St. InkedKenny.com Mr-S-Leather.com

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens See beautiful floral and foliage displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region. Daily walking tours and more. Free-$15. Tours, lectures, classes and more. Open daily, 7:30am-sunset. Golden Gate Park. 6611316. sfbotanicalgarden.org

Other Cinema @ ATA Gallery Weekly screenings of unusual, rare and strange short films and videos.

March 5: Kraftwork’s Pop Art and other music films. $8. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. 648-0654. www.othercinema.com

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Out&About>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Garden Railway @ Conservatory of Flowers New exhibit of floral displays inspired by the centennial anniversary of the 1915 Pan-Pacific World’s Expo, with SF scenes in miniature train and architectural installations with hundreds of dwarf plants. Thru April 10. Also, permanent floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. Tue-Sun 10am-4pm. $2$8. Free for SF residents. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. conservatoryofflowers.org

Maureen McVerry @ Oasis

Fri 4

Shared Space 8 @ Dance Mission Theatre

The classy local musical theatre and cabaret singer presents her new show, Love Will Kick Your Ass, performed with a three-piece jazz band. $20$25. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 9 Ghosts/Ships @ MOAD Cheryl Patrice Derricote’s new exhibit of works visualizing the global slave trade. Also, Alison Saar’s Bearing, the acclaimed artist’s sculptures of Black women as a centerpiece. Free-$10.

Thru April 3. Museum of the African Diaspora, 635 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Echo Brown’s hit solo show about desire and doubt moves to the company’s East Bay theatre. $20$100. Thu 8pm Sat 8:30pm. Thru April 23. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley.

282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Reading and discussion with the performer’s I Am a Man, his work about being gay and Black. 6pm.

James C. Hormel G&L Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin st. www.sfpl.org

Eliza Leoni and Sharon Rietkerk recreate the classic 1962, 1971 and 1989 TV specials featuring Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews. $27.50.

7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

OutLook Video @ Channel 29

the future of the T community.

I’m 26 and transitioning.

I have a lot going on - I don’t need to be mocked, misgendered, or marginalized, and I don’t have time to hunt out news that matters to me.

That’s why I read EDGE on my Android tablet. I’m being true to my future and that’s where it will be.

The weekly LGBT TV show, with updates on current events. 9:30pm. www.outlookvideo.org

Mon 7 Calamus Series @ Bound Together Bookstore Faggot Sensibility, second lecture and discussion in a series. Joey Cain discusses In Through The Out Window: Walt Whitman, HomoSex and Queer/Gay Men’s Consciousness.

Shared drinks and snacks welcome.

7pm. 1369 Haight St. www.calamusfellowship.org

Courtney Love, Todd Almond @ Curran Theatre San Francisco Sessions and Groundbreakers present the Hole band leader and actress in discussion with her collaborator; Kevin Sessums moderates. $25. 7pm. 445 Geary St. www.curransf.com

Scott Welsh, Jason Mecier @ Strut SF You Pink Too Much, the local gay artist’s portraits and nudes; and Man Candy, Mecier’s amazing candy art includes images of male movie hunks (Channing Tatum, Joe Mangianello, Burt Reynolds) at the gay men’s healthspace. Thru Feb. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

ed here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

The Salt & Sugar of Love @ Liminal, Oakland Three award-winning poets – Jan Steckel, Danusha Laméris and Bonnie Wai-Lee – read from their works about the varying sensations of romance. 3037 38th Ave., Oakland. www.theliminalcenter.com

Second Time Around @ The Marsh Charlie Varon and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud perform Varon’s storytheatre work about seeking human connection in a high tech world. $35$45. Sat. 8:30pm Sun 2pm. Thru April 17. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Totem and Taboo @ Berkeley City Club Central Works’ production of David Weisberg’s wacky comedy about a pill-popping stay-at-home husband, whose hallucinations include The Honeymooners as cannibals. $15-$30.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 20. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Sun 6 Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Enjoy weekly same-sex tango dancing and a potluck, with lessons early in the day. $7-$15. 3:30-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 8455352. www.finnishhall.com

Architecture of Life @ Berkeley Art Museum/ Pacific Film Archive New art and film museum, designed

by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with more than 200 new and ancient works dating back 2,000 years. Free-$12.

Thru May 29. 2625 Durant Ave., Berkeley. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Diego Gomez @ Mission Comics & Art The prolific painter, illustrator and drag performer’s new works transform Disney princesses into X-Men. Thru Feb. Daily 12pm-8pm (Sat til 6pm).

2250 Mission St. www.designnurd.blogspot.com www.missioncomicsandart.com

Tue 8 Jeffrey Toobin, Jan Mayer @ Nourse Theatre Author of The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, in discussion with Mayer, author of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. $29. 7:30pm. 275 Hayes St. 392-4400. www.cityarts.net www.booksinc.net

Joel Grey @ Curran Theatre The Broadway acting legend discusses his new memoir Master of Ceremonies, with editor Kevin Sessums, and sings a few songs. $25. 7pm. 445 Geary St. www.curransf.com

Roman Vishniac Rediscovered @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit of photos from the prolific documenter of Jewish life in eastern Europe. Thru May 29. Other exhibits about Jewish culture as well.

Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed).

736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Dazié Grego-Sykes @ SF Public Library

Judith Butler, Ken Corbett @ Books Inc. The author of Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly in discussion with Ken Corbett, author of A Murder Over a Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

The Last Decade in Transgender Activism @ GLBT History Museum

SF Hiking Club @ UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens Join GLBT hikers for a five-mile hike through Berkeley to a leisurely exploration of the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens. Bring water, snacks, hat, layers, comfortable shoes, $10 admission fee for the gardens. Meet 9:30am at Downtown Berkeley BART station. (530) 3305524. www.sfhiking.com

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh Berkeley

Thu 10

Nikolai Lugansky, SF Symphony @ Davies Hall

Mel Shaw: An Animator on Horseback @ Walt Disney Family Museum New exhibition showcases 120 artworks and designs by the prominent Disney animator, whose own life was full of adventures. Free (members)-$20. Thru Sept. 12. 104 Montgomery St., The Presidio. 3456800. www.waltdisney.org

Passages on the Lake 22 @ The Terrace Room, Oakland The literary showcase presents Steve Arnston, Jan Steckel, Juba Kalamka, editor Jeff Chon, artist Alison Moncrieff and John Panzer. 7pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland. www.theterraceroom.com

Thu 10 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online & cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week.

Check for times on Facebook. www.ComcastHometown.com

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zan Company @ YBCA West Coast premiere of Analogy/ Dora: Tramontane, Jones’ new dance-theatre work explores the story of his French-Jewish mother-inlaw’s survival during World War II. $ Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Mar. 13.

Yerba Buena Center for the arts, 700 Howard St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Talk and book launch for the new edition of Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. glbthistory.org

The New Mutants @ Modern Times Bookstore Ramzi Fawaz discusses the queer theory correlations in new sicence fiction and comics culture in his book The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics. 7pm.

2919 24th St. 282-9246. mtbs.com

Nikolai Lugansky, SF Symphony @ Davies Hall The amazing pianist performs –with the Symphony– music by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Fauré and Stravinsky. $15-$162. 10am open rehearsal, 8pm concert. Also Mar. 11 & 12 8pm, Mar. 13, 2pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.sfsymphony.org

The Realistic Joneses @ Geary Theater American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Will Eno’s Broadway hit comedy about neighbors whose language collapses as they struggle to know each other. $25-$105. Special nights thru the run. Thru April 3. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

San Francisco in Ruins @ Tenderloin Museum Exhibit of paintings by local artist Jacinto Castillo depicting old San Francisco.

March 10: screening of the film 25-Cent Preview, a 2007 locally-filmed drama. $10. 7pm. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm, $6-$10 ($15 includes walking tour). 398 Eddy St. 351-1912. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Steve Tyrell @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Grammy Award-winning vocalist returns with his Frank Sinatra tribute show, One More for the Road. $75-$95.

Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm, Sun 3pm. Thru March 13. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Sat 5

Concept Series 18 @ War Memorial Green Room

<< Music

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Her name is Barbara

by Tim Pfaff

F

asten your chastity belts, culture vultures, the Shakespeare 400th is upon us. That would be the death anniversary of the greatest playwright and poet in English. (This remains undisputed.) D-Day is April 23 (the same, memorably, as his birthday in 1564), but how long can it be until the fur starts flying over the perennial question, Was Will Gay? Meanwhile, enterprising concert organizations are mining the rich vein of Shakespeare in music, which almost helpfully limits the perspective on this allencompassing presence.

If nothing greater than Hans Abrahamsen’s let me tell you comes of the Shakespeare Year on the musical front, it will be enough. To say what it is – “solo cantata for soprano and orchestra sound off by one cantaty” – it’s easiest to say that its nearest antecedent is Benjamin Britten’s Phaedra, composed for (and with) Janet Baker, to a story set free from the constraints of narrative yielding both a great, sustained, ecstatic outburst of sound and, not incidentally, one of the greatest vocal recordings of all time.

Danish composer Abrahamsen’s work, given its premiere by the Berlin Philharmonic under Andris

Nelsons in December 2013, was written for, and with the high participation of, soprano Barbara Hannigan, one of the keenest musicians among us, and a soprano whose stratospheric range calls her to artistic heights. This is the woman who sang the title role in a staged performance of Berg’s Lulu in which the focus was on Lulu the dancer, performing some of the character’s most torturously difficult music in a tutu and en pointe. Her. Hannigan commissioned the piece from Abrahamsen before he had written any other vocal music, and her part of the compositional process was letting him know what the voice – hers, anyway – could do, including a four-hour “singing lesson” of music from the Renaissance to 12-tone. (Lest this seem self-serving, “occasioning” a piece only she

could sing, I can think of a number of other sopranos, and Lulus, who, if they are wise, and they are, are letting this score trash their lives at this moment.) The text, by critic, contemporary music commentator and author Paul Griffiths, is distilled from his 2008 novel, which was written using only the 481 words Shakespeare gives Ophelia in Hamlet. Here they are hammered into seven insinuatingly potent poems, the second of which is called “O but memory is not one but many.”

Words and music have rarely met so transfixingly since Shakespeare.

The playwright’s Ophelia

famously gets less direct, unambiguous interest from Hamlet than your average “love interest,” and she’s tragic leaning toward pathetic, in the nicest sense of the word, and drowns.

The creature who sings let me tell you (actually her first words) both is and, mostly, isn’t Ophelia, and if she isn’t the desperate recessive creature Shakespeare made her, she’s strong largely in the indelible memory her haunting music leaves. She’s a sister of Lulu, and Debussy’s Melisande and Wagner’s Kundry, who comes from a place outside of time as we think of it and fills space like a galaxy of stars of varying intensities.

Tellingly, the first of the “extended” vocal techniques employed goes back, if not quite to the Elizabethan, then to the dawn of opera: the so-called Monteverdi trill, the ululating repetition of a single pitch. But everything about the ravishing, exalted vocal line is extended, and it cascades over the listener in the same way it showers over the magical music for instruments, featuring celeste and other naturally high-pitched instruments taken to the limits of what they can do. If delicacy can rightly be said to be extreme, it is here.

No one, least of all Hannigan, would call this easy music. But it goes down on first hearing, and audiences have consistently greeted the end of

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its half-hour of otherworldliness with prolonged silence. To my knowledge, only Hannigan has sung it so far, but she has, since the premiere – and against all odds for such a taxing orchestral score – “toured” it with nearly a dozen orchestras, Nelsons’ Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest among them. A new recording (Winter and Winter CD) of it alone is taken from live performances at the beginning of last July, with Munich’s Bavaria Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nelsons. It’s all you need. That said, the broadcast from Boston just weeks ago shows that these astonishing musicians continue to go deeper and deeper with this unfathomable, transporting music.

If it’s news to you that Hannigan also conducts, sometimes while also singing, go directly to the Barbara Hannigan Concert Documentary (Accentus), a DVD of her concert conducting and singing with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival in August 2014, plus a wholly absorbing documentary about this singular musician.

A lot of the attention has gone to the fact that she appeared in latex to sing the “Mysteries of the Macabre” by Gyorgy Ligeti, but really, the entire concert – which begins with Mozart concert arias – and documentary are pretty jaw-dropping.t

Wipeout!

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Ane Dahl Torp and Jonas Hoff Oftebro in director Roar Uthaug’s The Wave.

by David Lamble

I

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t’s hard to imagine two spots on the planet with more to fear from Mother Nature than Northern California and the amazingly beautiful slice of Norwegian mountains and fjords that is the setting for The Wave, the intimate natural-disaster film from director Roar Uthaug, scripted by John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg. The story kicks off with a goingaway party for middle-aged geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner), who’s packing his little family – wife, small daughter and restless teenage son – for the stimulating culture of Oslo. The only fault to be found with this special-effects-laden drama, Norway’s official Oscar Foreign-Language entry – it didn’t make the cut – is how slowly Uthaug gets to his main story. Once the dam bursts, so to speak, we’re off to the races, and only the most subtitleresistent could possibly object to the truly suspenseful drama. Especially concerning the fate of the son, who

disappears for too long a stretch in the early second-act chaos.

This is a film with a sound geological underpinning. The trouble begins when a large rock-mass falls into a fjord, creating a monster 300foot tsunami, giving the scattered residents of the tiny fishing village of Geiranger only a few precious moments to flee. According to the film’s production notes, disasters like this occur roughly every halfcentury or so. The Wave specifically draws on the details of a rockslide-caused tsunami incident that destroyed a small village in 1934, leaving 40 dead.

Unlike early-1950s disaster flicks from abroad in American driveins and on 12-inch TVs, The Wave doesn’t insult our intelligence by constructing an orgy of destruction around an American B-movie actor.

In the infamous if campy-fun Japanese Godzilla: King of the Monsters, a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr was dropped into Tokyo-on-fire as if he were a space alien. American viewers of The Wave may find that

the geologist and his family are a bit stolid, refusing to hit the panic-now style of hysterical acting favored by our version of the genre. The hero Kristian is, in truth, a man whose vast knowledge of his field has left him rather emotionally unprepared when the threat becomes all too real.

Part of one’s enjoyment of this film is its makers’ refusal to bow to some trumped-up supernatural or religious reason for a world suddenly coming apart. But in truth, much of the pleasure does derive from the same element that propelled the vastly more expensive 2004 “end of the world” spectacle The Day After Tomorrow – namely, will they save the “cute kid,” Tomorrow’s Jake Gyllenhaal or The Wave’s Jonas Hoff Oftebro as Sondre? The Wave doesn’t seek to justify its 100 minutes of screen time with environmental boogeymen tactics. Its makers are content to say you never know what lies around the corner, and it’s all good clean fun – as long as it’s happening to another overcivilized tribe, half-a-world away.t

t

DVDs>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Coming out ’80s

by Brian Bromberger

S

ome movies actually improve with age, often because you can appreciate their virtues in hindsight.

Edge of Seventeen, first released in 1998 and now remastered and rereleased, after being out of print, as a new director-approved HD restoration in Blu-ray (Strand Releasing), is such a film. Edge of Seventeen (EoS) may be the best gay teen coming-out film ever made. It still feels fresh and original with depth and sincerity almost 20 years later despite the coming-out genre having long become a yawn-inducing cliche.

In the summer of 1984 in Sandusky, Ohio (near Lake Erie), 17-year-old gawky Eric Hunter (Chris Stafford) has a job at the local amusement park working in the Grub Wagon fast-food restaurant under boss Angie (Lea DeLaria) along with his best (girl) friend Maggie (Tina Holmes). He meets openly gay co-worker and slightly older Rod (Anderson Gabrych), an Ohio State University student who sets out to seduce the willing Eric.

EoS is as much about Eric evolving into his true self as it is about his sexual awakening, though his David Bowie and Boy George haircut/ coloring metamorphoses and New Wave fashions are hysterical. Eric does have sex with Rod in explicitfor-their-time yet hot scenes, and develops a crush on him, but Rod sees Eric only as a sexual conquest.

Realizing he is gay, Eric discovers the Fruit and Nut bar also managed by the brassy-but-caring Angie, who becomes his friend, mentor, and fairy godmother. Disillusioned by a quickie sex experience with a bar patron in the backseat of a car in the parking lot, he eventually comes out to Maggie, yet panics by saying he

<<

Castro Theatre

From page 18

The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) Frank Capra presents a young Barbara Stanwyck in a moody affair with a powerful Chinese warlord. Now seems dated for having white actors play Asian characters. (3/23) Downstairs (1932) Director Monta Bell gives onetime silent star John Gilbert a chance to shine as a playboy who seduces upper-class women and their downstairs servants. (3/23) Disney’s The Little Mermaid Sing-Along (3/24-29).

Island of Lost Souls (1932) Director Eric Kenton gives us Charles Laughton as a mad scientist on a

loves her and wants a relationship.

Despite knowing better, she fools herself and regrettably complies in a cringeworthy-awkward and doomed-to-failure heterosexual bed-romp. Throughout his senior year at high school, Eric has to decide whether to attend Ohio State to be near a discouraging Rod, or leave home and study music (he composes New Age ditties on his Moog synthesizer) at New York University.

Eric has a close relationship with his mother (Northern California stage actress Stephanie McVay), who gave up her pianist career to marry and have a family. She suspects he is gay, but Eric denies it. How Eric gradually and unevenly learns to accept himself as gay and negotiates all these thorny relationships is what makes EoS so touching.

Shot in 16mm to give that slightly dated period look, EoS brilliantly recreates the 1980s not only with costumes and hairstyles, but principally with the retro synch music of the period (Bronski Beat, the Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, Flock of Seagulls), which not only instantly connects you back to the distinctive tone of that era, but also advances the plot.

Whether it’s 1984 or 2016, coming out is often not easy, and each person has to do it his or her own way. It can be a struggle, with much soul-searching. Nor does coming out mean your life is instantly better.

Eric’s future, while hopeful, is unclear, and some of his relationships, especially with Maggie, are resolved ambiguously at best. His desire for a boyfriend over meaningless sex also rings true, as does the film’s subtle critique of gay subcultural behaviors, though outside of a quick reference to condoms, there is no mention of AIDS.t remote island who creates half-human/half-animal creatures. Adapted from an H.G. Wells novel. (3/30) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931) This first sound-era version of the transformation tale gives young Fredric March a vehicle for some creepy moments. (3/30) Freaks (1932) Horror film master Tod Browning pushes the envelope with his sympathetic treatment of so-called carnival sideshow freaks, deformed humans who survived by allowing themselves to be exploited for public curiosity. (3/30) City of Women (1980) Federico Fellini showcases his favorite male star, Marcello Mastroianni, as a man who dreams he has found an allfemale society. (3/31)t

JULIE & CAROL

TOM REARDON

LESLI MARGHERITA

March 9

March 18 - 19

March 25 - 26

For tickets:www.feinsteinsSF.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street | 855-322-2738

<< Books

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Colorful gay mysteries reissued

by Tavo Amador

L

ong before TV’s Will Truman and Grace Adler made America aware of the intense bond some gay men form with straight women, Nathan Aldyne wrote about such a relationship in four entertaining murder mysteries featuring amateur sleuths Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace. Aldyne was a pseudonym for writing partners Michael McEachem McDowell and Dennis Schuetz. Vermillion (1980), Cobalt (1982), Slate (1984), and Canary (1986) have all been reprinted in handsome editions by Felony & Mayhem ($14.95).

The young, handsome, masculine bartender Daniel is openly and proudly gay, a welcome rarity in the 1980s.

(Joseph Hansen’s hard-boiled novels of the 1970s, featuring openly gay insurance investigator David Brandstetter, paved the way for Aldyne, but were much darker, more Chandleresque.) Daniel’s best pal, Clarisse, is a real estate agent.

They trade Nick and Nora Charleslike quips and have a deep, platonic love for each other. They even have a dog: Veronica Lake.

Vermillion is set in an edgy part of Boston. Daniel is a very popular bartender at a thriving gay bar. Clarisse likes going there because the discodancing is great, and she knows her fabulous dresses, shoes, and looks will get lots of well-deserved attention. Daniel happily fends off many,

but not all, advances from the hot young men who fill the place up.

Before the last call, however, a young hustler is found dead. Clarisse insists on discovering what happened, and compels the distracted Daniel to join her. What they learn about the victim’s past is far from pretty, and puts the pair at risk.

Cobalt is the color of handsome Jeff ’s riveting eyes, which blaze out at Daniel and other hunks in Provincetown, Mass., during its thriving gay summertime scene. Lots of activity takes place on the warm, sandy beach, not just during the day, but also when the sun goes down.

When gorgeous Jeff ’s body is found

along the seashore, a pall falls over the once carefree, hedonistic crowd.

Daniel and Clarisse investigate.

They know the gay scene in a way that the poorly motivated straight cops will never understand. Besides, how many gay men back then would willingly talk to the cops? But their knowledge also endangers them.

After all, having murdered once, the killer is not afraid to strike again.

The pair are back in Boston for Slate. Daniel now owns the hottest disco in Beantown, and often tends bar. He knows all too well that many hot gay men lust after hunky bartenders. It’s another benefit of being his own boss. Clarisse has enrolled in

law school, but a girl can’t study for the Bar all day and all night, so she goes to another kind of bar, where her best pal welcomes her warmly.

The dancers, their ripped bodies writhing to the music, keep raising the temperature. It doesn’t take long for things to get really steamy. Then a body is found. How did he die?

The answer, quelle surprise, is not from natural causes. This is not the kind of publicity Daniel wants for his establishment. Patrons could understandably become afraid to return.

Plus, the murderer must be brought to justice. Who better than he and Clarisse to find out what happened?

Canary also takes place in Boston.

Joel Grey, now 83, publicly came out as gay last year, and writes about his secret struggles in his new memoir.

Courtesy Cleveland Play House

Joel Grey began as a child performer at the Cleveland Play House, including this performance in Grandmother Slyboots in 1946.

<<

Joel Grey

From page 13

Master of Ceremonies, published this month, starts with a preface on how his breakthrough performance as the emcee in Cabaret came to be.

The story then moves back to his birth in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1932.

His father was a musician and future Borscht Belt star Mickey Katz, a genial sort in contrast to Grey’s withholding, status-seeking mother Grace. In the book, Grey not only reviews the strange trajectory of his career from child performer to Tony- and Oscar-winning actor, but his concurrent personal life with its emotional rollercoasters. Throughout it all, there is the struggle between his gay instincts and occasional behavior and the marriedwith-children life he publically lived and thought he wanted.

Grey is headed for San Francisco to talk about his book and career, and sing a few songs, for the Curran Theatre’s Under Construction series

that has audiences and performers onstage together. Grey will be at the Curran on March 8 for a oneon-one conversation with Kevin Sessums, the Curran’s editor-atlarge, in an event billed as Joel Grey: Drawing Back the Curtain. (Rock star Courtney Love and composer Todd Almond will precede Grey with a March 7 conversation with Sessums that includes performances from their musical theater piece Kansas City Choir Boy. Ticket info at sfcurran.com.)

Grey first spoke openly of being gay in a 2015 interview with People magazine. But it wasn’t a surprise to those close to Grey. “All my friends and family have known since I left the marriage [in 1982]. But as far as the public was concerned, I was just used to not dealing with that because it was a no-no, a career-killer in my youth.

And then I just decided that this is

no longer appropriate, and I wanted to stand there with a lot of joyous, proud people, and be one of them.”

In the book, Grey writes about several gay encounters he had as a youth, including with the elevator operator in his family’s building and with the cantor at their synagogue. When the latter affair threatened to become public, he told his parents about it, with differing results. His father had a relatively easygoing reaction, while his mother said, according to Grey in the book, “Don’t ever touch me again. You disgust me.”

A wary detente eventually developed between mother and son, especially as Grey’s career began heating up. “At the end, I really understood her, what her struggle was,” Grey said, “even if it didn’t make it any easier for me when I was growing up.”

Years later, after nearly two decades of marriage, Grey’s decision to open up to his wife, Jo Wilder, brought the union to a painful halt.

“I had hoped she’d come to me after she had time to process what I had told her,” Grey writes. “But she never did.”

Despite its intimate details, Grey said his book was not a tell-all. “Oh, no, no, no,” he stressed, suggesting there was a lot more that could be told. “I did not have any interest in being angry or negative about people or any of that,” he said.

“Whatever situations that were difficult, they’re not today, and I was not about to write that way about other people. I was finally able to write the book when I had almost no axes to grind.”

Master of Ceremonies includes plenty of the backstage stories of how a career was built. Starting as a child performer at the Cleveland Play House, he began working with his father in Yiddish-flavored revues. He was trying to distance himself from the image of nightclub performer and move to full-out acting roles when the break of a lifetime actually first made his heart sink. Offered the role of the emcee in Cabaret, the first thing he noticed was that he had no scenes outside of his routines at the Kit Kat Klub of Berlin.

“Performing the nightclubs all those years, I was learning all the

t

Clarisse and Daniel are now partners in his gay bar. But the murder that the pair solved in Slate has not been good for business.

Quite the opposite. When another body turns up at the disco, even Donna Summer’s music may not be enough to bring patrons back.

The cops are indifferent: who cares what happened to another faggot?

So once again, Daniel and Clarisse plunge into an investigation, and once again, they find the killer.

The series was set in the preAIDS era and captures that period’s young gay male scene well.

The prose is light-hearted. The banter is swift and sharp. The friendship between Daniel and Clarisse feels authentic, and their respective romantic interludes are welcome. The stories are cleverly plotted, and the authors play fair with readers.

McDowell (1950-99), using different nommes de plume, authored several other novels. Writing as Axel Young, he penned two thrillers, Blood Rubies (1982) and The Wicked Stepmother (1984). In that same decade, he wrote the “Jack and Susan” murder mystery series, featuring an updated version of Nick and Nora Charles.

He also authored the screenplays for Clue (1985) and Beetlejuice (1987), and collaborated on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). He wrote scripts for several television shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Tales from the Dark Side. Additionally, he taught writing at Boston University and Tufts. He died from AIDS-related complications.t stuff for the emcee, but of course I didn’t know that when I was miserable in those nightclubs,” he said. One night early in Cabaret rehearsals, he had a dream about a repulsive, homophobic comic he had seen years before. At the next rehearsal, he channeled that comic for the leering, lecherous emcee. “Hal just said, simply, ‘That’s it,’ when he saw what I was doing,” said Grey, referring to director Harold Prince.

In the memoir, Grey also reveals that Bob Fosse, who directed the movie Cabaret, wanted nothing to do with him, and even uttered an ultimatum. “It’s either Joel Grey or me,” Fosse said to the producing team. When the producers decided they’d rather have Grey than Fosse, Fosse backed down, although a chill remained between them – perhaps assuaged when both won Oscars for their work.

Grey has no performing plans at the present, and once he is finished promoting the memoir, he will return to getting his latest collection of photographs ready for publication. “It’s about the interior lives of flowers,” he said. “I photograph them in very intimate ways, so it’s very much the same thing as the book, which is about my interior life and its effect and power over me.”

No long-term relationships have stuck in the years since his divorce.

“I turned out to be a much better family man than a gay man,” he writes in the book, and on the phone, added, “Yeah, I didn’t have a lot of practice.”

When he played the role of Ned Weeks in The Normal Heart, the character that playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer based on himself, during the original New York run in 1985, Grey had seen a lot of friends die, and the role became part of the impetus that let Grey become open about his sexuality. “I belong to a culture,” the character says at the start of the play, going on to cite from the enormous pool of gay people who have made contributions to society throughout the ages.

“It’s a pretty good culture to belong to,” Grey said, “and I wanted a place in it.”t

t

Music>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Women up in front of the band

by Gregg Shapiro

I

f you haven’t gotten a dose of Dengue Fever yet, what are you waiting for? Lead vocalist Chhom Nimol might just be the most exotic diva out there today. The songs on The Deepest Lake (Tuk Tuk), Dengue Fever’s fifth full-length studio album, continue to develop the band’s SoCal-by-way-of-Cambodia sound, while increasing its musical palette. Opener “Tokay” is a perfect example of the way the band makes unexplored territory inviting to listeners. “Rom Say Sok” goes for a more traditional retro-rock sound. “Cardboard Castle” is worth a visit, “Still Waters Run Deep” makes a splash and “Golden Flute” is lustrous.

Building on the momentum of their dazzling 2012 debut album, 2016 Grammy winners Alabama Shakes vibrate on an even more thrilling frequency with Sound & Color (ATO). Brittany Howard’s roof-raising vocals are still frontand-center, as they deserve to be.

Howard’s chill-inducing wail is the best thing since Adele. Musically, Alabama Shakes still sounds like kissing cousins to the Black Keys, but the presence of Howard takes these modern blues/punk numbers up to

another level. Soul-stirring songs “Future People,” “Gimme All Your Love,” “The Greatest” and “Over My Head” could almost qualify as life-changing experiences.

How up-front is Kopecky singer Kelsey Kopecky? Does having the band named for her count? How generous is Kelsey Kopecky? Does sharing lead vocal duties with Gabe Simon carry any weight? Drug for the Modern Age (ATO), the second album by Kopecky, is an addictive dancepop narcotic. Like fellow Nashville band Coin, Kopecky trashes the twang in favor of catchy electro-propelled tunes “My Love,” “Vancouver” and “Die Young.”

These songs manage to sound familiar and new at the same time.

The drug wears off a bit on slower tunes, although “Better Luck Next Time” and “Closed Doors” have a not-unpleasant effect.

Nearly 20 years after cello-powered chamber-goth trio Rasputina released its major-label debut, frontwoman Melora Creager returns, as Rasputina, with the deeply personal album Unknown (MeloraCreager. space). The 14 songs are about trauma and healing. As challenging as curative, some of the songs are more accessible than others. But

given the inspiration for the project, it’s understandable how songs such as “Unicorn Horn Mounted,” “Taken Scary” and “Curse Tablet” might take a little longer to penetrate.

Much has changed for You Say Party in the years since the release of their acclaimed XXXX disc. While on tour in support of that album, the band’s drummer died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Following that tragedy, the band, formerly known as You Say Party! We Say Die!, tastefully shortened its name. The band’s new eponymous album on Paper Bag also presents a sonic change.

The mood is gloomier (think Joy Division/early New Order) but no less compelling, thanks to the haunting vocals of Becky Nonkovic. Rhythmic tracks “Ignorance” and “Underside” are particularly alluring.

Fans of Washed Out, How To Dress Well and the xx are sure to find something appealing about Don’t You (Columbia), the debut album by electro trio Wet. With an emphasis on mood and atmosphere rather than beats, Wet splashes listeners with a mist of achingly beautiful tunes alternately romantic and

heartbreaking. In other words, the wetness may come from tears, initiated by “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl,” “These Days” and “It’s All in Vain.”

Sky-Pony takes rock to the theatrical stage with its debut album Beautiful Monster (Knitting Factory). Co-founded by Obiewinning writer Kyle Jarrow and his Drama Desk Award-winning and Tony-nominated wife Lauren Worsham, Sky-Pony use their theatrical backgrounds to give songs that extra blast of emotion, power and drama. Standout numbers include “Regret it in the Morning,” “Seems So Strange” and “Doctor.”

Keep these other albums in mind; a side/solo project for Laura Burhenn of Georgie James fame, Lovers Know (Saddle Creek), the third disc by The Mynabirds is quite enjoyable, and in spite of its “breakup” theme, exhilarating. Yuck (Ivy League/Votiv) is kind of a misnomer for the second full-length release by Alpine, because it’s not yucky at all. Sing it All Away (Columbia) by Walk Off the Earth features Sarah Blackwood on the jammy songs, as well as a pleasing electro collaboration with Steve Aoki on “Home We’ll Go (Take My Hand).”t

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45 America’s LGBT newspaper celebrates our historic 45th Anniversary this April and announces our 6th annual readers choice awards.

BESTIES The 2016 LGBT Best of the Bay

The Bay Area Reporter has been the undisputed newspaper of record for the Bay Area’s vibrant LGBT community since 1971. We’re now the longest continuously-published and highest audited-circulation LGBT newspaper in the United States of America.

Combining a retrospective on some of the impactful stories we’ve covered over the past four and a half decades with our 6th annual readers’ poll, our April 7 issue will prove to be one of the largest and most widely-read editions in our long, colorful history. Be part of it!

READERS: RSVP for our 45th Anniversary Party at www.facebook.com/LGBTsf ADVERTISERS: Call (415) 829-8927 or email advertising@ebar.com to learn more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities associated with our historic 45th anniversary and 2016 BESTIES awards celebration.

30

32

On the Tab

NIGHTLIFE

DINING

35

Karrnal Knowledge

SPIRITS

Shooting Stars

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 46 • No. 9 • March 3-9, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Gina Yashere

The bold Brit brings her comic stylings to Punch Line

by Ronn Vigh

B

eyond her bold British accent, London-born and New York-based comedian Gina Yashere has a voice that exudes confidence and fearlessness. She broke into the American comedy scene when she appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing See page 28 >>

Gina Yashere

Connecting through Kink Mentoring in the Leather BDSM community

by Race Bannon

Rich Stadtmiller

W Contestants at last year’s Mr. San Francisco Leather contest.

Trevor Black (far right) won to become Mr. SF Leather 2015.

ith the Leather Alliance Weekend and Mr. SF Leather contest happening this coming weekend, we’ll see on display plenty of leatherfolk of all stripes and persuasions. Whenever I see such big gatherings of kinksters, I always remember that many of them have come to where they are in our scene by benefiting from some form of mentoring. Many contemporary newcomers could also certainly benefit from mentoring. I believe leather/kink mentoring, in its many forms, is lacking today.

See page 33 >>

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DRIVE WITH UBER. Sign up now and receive an additional $100 after your first trip T.UBER.COM/BAYAREAREPORTER

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

On the flip side, what do you hope would just go away?

All things Kardashian. In this era, people who have no discernable skills can now make celebrity status. I wish that –and they– would go away.

Do you have any plans for your time in San Francisco when you’re not performing?

Well, I have a couple of ex-girlfriends from Oakland. So, I’ll see them. I love San Francisco. I loved going there when I lived in L.A. Gina Yashere onstage at the O2 Academy in Brixton last year.

<<

Gina Yashere

From page 27

and then moved to the states shortly after while continuing to make numerous TV appearances. Since then, Yashere has performed around the world, back in the UK, as well as South America and Asian cities.

I recently spoke on the phone with Gina about her upcoming shows at Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco as part of a month-long series featuring women in comedy.

Many comics tend to answer questions in one-word replies or can only talk in punchlines.

Gina is not one of them. Despite a scratchy connection, I could easily hear the intense passion she has for her craft in her voice within every sentence she spoke.

Ronn Vigh: Why did you decide to do stand-up comedy?

Gina Yashere Gina Yashere: I was an engineer, so that’s why I did it. There is a lot of redundancy in that job but I had the summer off. The first thing I wrote wasn’t actually comedy. I wrote what I thought was a play and people laughed their asses off.

I would imagine that the engineering field is like stand-up comedy, and dominated by men?

Exactly! I was the first female engineer that Otis in the UK ever had.

I was the only woman out of 3,000 men and I went through the baptism of fire. They were sexist, racist… compared to that, comedy is a cakewalk for me!

I refer to myself as a comic who

happens to be gay. You’re black, female, and a lesbian. To me, comedy is bringing your most authentic self to stage. But as soon as you do that, people want to label you.

How do you do that but avoid people pigeonholing you as a black or gay comic?

As you said, I’m already female and black. Those two I couldn’t avoid. And, then I’m from London.

So, in the beginning I tried to make my comedy as broad as possible, not relying on any one thing. I wanted to establish myself as a good comic first and not be labeled as a lesbian. Now, that I’m established, I can start to talk about my sexuality onstage more.

You show a great deal of confidence onstage. Does that come naturally?

I’m an Aries; we’re naturally confident and cocky! But the audience can also smell fear. They can all decide at the same moment to turn against you and you have to be confident, especially as a female comedian, as we already have a horrible reputation. And, it also comes from doing this for over 20 years. I know I’m good at this and got hours of material.

America I realized that I have a very strong Cockney accent and some people didn’t understand me so I had to work on flattening it out.

You’re headlining at Punch Line in San Francisco, which is having a month of all-female comics as a part of Women’s History Month.

Male or female, who were your biggest influences in comedy?

You know, I didn’t have any. I never watched comedy, unlike many comedians who have an encyclopedic knowledge of comedy from 1920 to the present day. It was just never a thing I watched growing up.

My mom was a teacher and I came from a very academic family. It’s the same now. I can’t say I have an influence rather than I like being in the clubs and watching my peers work.

When you’re not performing, what are you currently really into?

I love being in bed and watching Netflix. I just watched the entire season of The Man in The High Castle. Binge-watching Netflix, HBO, Showtime... that’s my thing, because when you’re out working as a comic that’s when your partying. You’re giving out your energy to people, and people are feeding off of it, and then all you want to do is relax when you get home.

Oh, you lived in L.A. before New York?

I was in L.A. for seven years and I loved the weather and lifestyle there, but felt very unfulfilled. My true love is comedy, and that’s more accessible in New York City. L.A., there’s a lot of acting but I’m really a comic.

▼

If I made ten million doing standup, I would gladly never set forth in an audition room again. I just love stand-up and I recently taped a sold out special at the O2 Academy in Brixton. I only ever want to tape my specials in London or San Francisco.

Both cities have the best audiences.

This one’s called Ticking Boxes.

Did you say ticking?

Oh, yes. I’m female. Black. Lesbian..... Ticking in England is like saying ‘checking’ in America. So, like checking boxes, but ticking.

Gina Yashere performs at Punch Line Comedy Club, 444 Battery St. March 9-11, 8pm. March 11 also 10pm. March 12 at 7:30pm & 9:30pm. $16.50-$22.50. All shows are 18 /over with valid photo ID. 397-7573. www.Punchlinecomedyclub.com

A few of Gina Yashere’s own photos from the Montreal comedy festival in July 2015.

Performing on different coasts is tough for some comics, but you regularly perform internationally.

Is it hard to adjust to audiences of different cultures?

Not really. I travel so much that I got a lot of material for whereever I go; Singapore, China and so on. Plus, I’m British and living in America, so you have to learn from that. When I first started coming to

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

The Monster Show @ The Edge 415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Photo by Gareth Gooch

M

ore than a year after the passing of beloved drag host Cookie Dough, her weekly drag night, The Monster Show, continues to roll out hilarious and bawdy performances at The Edge (4149 18th St. www.edgesf.com).

Along with his regular nightlife coverage, photographer Gareth Gooch frequently gathers the talented queens for whimsical tableaux outside the bar. Enjoy more of his work at www.garethgoochphotography.com More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.

<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

On the Tab

Manimal @ Beaux

Mother @ Oasis

Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. March 5: Freak Show theme. $15. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Midnight Show @ Divas Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com

March 3-10

Polyglamorous @ Oasis DJs John O’Brien and M*J*R, aka the BAAAHS crew, and guest Vicki Powell, spin groovy tunes for a cubsexy crowd. $7-$10. 9pm-3am. 298 11th st. www.sfoasis.com

We know sicians, comics and more. pring into live acts with mu step! our in ing spr we’ve got a it’s officially still winter, but

S

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux. $10. 7pm-10pm.

314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Thu 3

Some Thing @ The Stud

Guantanamo Baywatch @ Bottom of the Hill

Fri 4

Adult parties at the interactive science museum. March 3: Extended Cinemas, 6pm-10pm. March 10: Mushrooms and more. Cocktail cash bar. $10-$15.

Pier 15 at Embarcadero. www.exploratorium.edu

Gus Presents’ weekly dance night, with DJ Kid Sysko, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

After Dark @ Exploratorium

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the fun sexy night. $100 cash prize for best bulge. $5-$10 benefits Groundswell Institute, the queer retreat camp. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Guantanamo Baywatch @ Bottom of the Hill Surfer pop band performs at the fun punk club. The Gooch Palms and Meat Market also play. $10$12. 9pm. 1233 17th St. www. guantanamobaywatch.bandcamp.com www.bottomofthehill.com

Kingdom of Sodom @ Nob Hill Theatre The very interactive sex and strip party returns. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Mazel Top @ Oasis The monthly Jewish gay guys (and their friends and admirers) social event, with DJs Mo Tech and Goy Toy. $7. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

Paula West @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The acclaimed jazz vocalist returns for another extended residency at the upscale intimate cabaret. $40-$60 ($20 food/drink min.) 8pm. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Sun 3pm (no show Feb 28). Thru March 6. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire Valerie Branch’s weekly comedy night, where she embodies her faux queen character Pia Messing for some offbeat wit, along with guest performers. $5. 8pm-10pm. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Curtain Call @ Hotel Rex Pianist Barry Lloyd and host Bill Cooper welcome guest singers at the cabaret lounge. $20. 7pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Penny & Sparrow @ The Chapel Acoustic singing duo perform at the popular Mission club. The Whistles & The Bells open. $16-$18. 9pm. 777 Valencia St. www.thechapelsf.com

Saturgay @ Qbar Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the intimate Castro dance bar. $3. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Ships in the Night @ The New Parish, Oakland The monthly queer women and pals’ hip hop night, with DJs Durt. Breezy EZ, Lady Ryan, Ponyboy and others. $5. 9pm-2am. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 371-1631. www.thenewparish.com

The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sat 5

Hard Fridays @ Qbar

DJ Paul Goodyear headlines the ursine funfest, with a special (optional) underwear and jock strap dress code. $10. 10pm-3am. 314 11th St. bearracuda.com www.beatboxsf.com

Soul Delicious @ Lookout

Cabaret Showcase @ Hotel Rex

Sugar @ The Cafe

DH Haute Toddy’s weekly electro-pop night with hotty gogos. $3. 9pm-2am (happy hour 4pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Bearrucuda @ Beatbox

Brunch, booze, sass and grooves, with the Mom DJs, Motown sounds, and soul food. 11am-4pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sat 5 Bearrucuda @ Beatbox

The folk/indie-rock quartet performs new music. Caitlin Canty opens. $18$20. 8pm. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. www.darlingside.com www.thefreight.org

Dengue Fever @ The New Parish, Oakland The Cambodian rock-pop band returns along their new world tour. $15-$18.

9pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland.

371-1631. www.denguefevermusic.com www.thenewparish.com

Eileen Ivers @ Marin Auditorium, San Rafael The rockin’ Celtic violinist performs with her band. $25-$60. 8pm. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 473-6800.

Part of the 13th Annual Irish-American Crossroads Festival, thru April 3: www.irishamericancrossroads.org www.marincenter.org

Gary Virginia Roast @ Beatbox Tribute-roast to the SF Pride president and 1996 Mr. SF Leather; kick-off for Bay Area Leather Alliance Weekend events. $20. 7pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 7pm2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Three’s Company Live @ Oasis

Ladies of San Francisco @ Club OMG Galilea hosts the weekly “old school drag show” with guest performers and DJ Jack Rojo. $4. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Enjoy Latin, hip hop and electro, plus hot gogos galore, and a big dance floor. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

G. Scott Lacy welcomes new cabaret singers. $20. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night.

8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Go Bang! @ The Stud Resident DJs supreme Steve Fabus, Sergio Fedasz and Prince Wolf welcome guest Allen Craig at the popular monthly disco dance party. $10 (free before 10pm).

9pm-3am.

399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Hard French @ El Rio

The wacky sitcom about ‘70s roommates gets the local drag parody treatment, with Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin, Adam Roy, Sara Moore and Laurie Bushman. $25, $25 and $225 VIP tables. Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru March 5.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. 10pm-2am.

133 Turk St. at Taylor. www. auntcharlieslounge.com

Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know and Jorge T. $4.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Darlingside @ Freight & Salvage, Berkeley

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. $7.

10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux

Steven Underhill

Thu 3

▼

Fri 4 Dengue Fever @ The New Parish

The groovy soul party turns 6; celebrate with DJs Carnita, Brown Amy, plus guests Wam Bam Ashleyanne, Larsupreme, and Paul Paul; free BBQ till it’s gone. $10. 2pm-8pm.

3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sun 6

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis.

7pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Femme, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm.

2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

▼

On the Tab>>

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland Vicky Jimenez’ drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4.

10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 9 Bedlam @ Beaux

New weekly event with DJs Haute Toddy, Guy Ruben, Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Sat 5 Penny & Sparrow @ The Chapel

Bone @ Powerhouse GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Underwear Night @ 440

Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Maureen McVerry @ Oasis

Tue 8

The classy local musical theatre and cabaret singer presents her new show, Love Will Kick Your Ass, performed with a three-piece jazz band. $20$25. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Shade @ Powerhouse DJs Justime, One A and guest Claudio Boser serve up shady grooves. $5.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

New weekly punk-alternative music night hosted by Uel Renteria and Johnny Rockitt. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location.

No cover. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Mon 7

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko host RuPaul’s Drag Race viewings at 9pm, followed by drag and dancing, 2014’s last of the year. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany hosts RuPaul’s Drag Race viewings at 9pm, followed by a drag and musical talent show. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.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

Opulence @ Beaux Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.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

Man Francisco @ Oasis The sexy, funny weekly male burlesque show returns; choreographed by Christopher James Dunn; Mr Pam MCs. $20. 2-drink min.

9:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

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

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch and vote as newbie strippers compete for $350 in cash prizes. $20.

Show 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Thu 10

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire

Comic Aiden Park headlines a comedy show and benefit for the A&PI Wellness Center; with Heather Turman and hostess Tita Aida. $25-$75. 7pm.

298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s 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

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar Queer dance party at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud The weekly themed 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

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers also take it all off. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Classic drag show (2nd & 4th Wed) with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. No cover. 9:3011:15pm. 133 Turk St. 441-2922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room 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

Picante @ The Cafe Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol.

8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Steve Tyrell @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm-10pm.

No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Porn actor Ryan Cummings leads the very interactive downstairs sex fun (before his March 11 & 12 stage shows). $10.

9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www. thenobhilltheatre.com

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.

QbarSF.com

Weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland.

(510) 268-9425. www. club21oakland.com

Cock Tales @ Oasis

The weekly drag show with themed nights, gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

The Grammy Award-winning vocalist returns with his Frank Sinatra tribute show, One More for the Road. $75$95. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm, Sun 3pm. Thru March 13. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www. ticketweb.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade

Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www. lookoutsf.com

Maureen McVerry @ Oasis

Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Hysteria @ Martuni’s

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Sun 6

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night includes big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm.

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Floor 21 @ Starlight Room Juanita More! presents a new weekly scenic happy hour event, with host Rudy Valdez, DJs Vin Sol and Rolo. No cover, and a fantastic panoramic city view. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Gina Yashere @ Punch Line Comedy Club The hilarious British stand-up comic (and out lesbian) performs her new show, Ticking Boxes (see feature in this issue). $16.50-$22.50. March 9-11, 8pm. March 11 also 10pm.

March 12 at 7:30pm and 9:30pm.

18 & over with valid photo ID. 444 Battery St. 397-7573. www.Punchlinecomedyclub.com

Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Eliza Leoni and Sharon Rietkerk recreate the classic 1962, 1971 and 1989 TV specials featuring Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews. $27.50.

7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Tue 8 Aiden Park at Cock Tales @ Oasis

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

Erection Year

by John F. Karr

▼

Ramzi, playing a little rough, adores the meaty itan Media has found a clever morsel of Adams’ cock (as way of being au courant, by do I), and things are pretty telling in Cauke for President the exciting when it’s helicopstory of a closeted senator’s camtering all about as Adams paign for the presidency. energetically pumps It’s too bad the movie’s up and down while four generously long straddling 45-minute scenes deRamzi’s dark ploy the most hoary dagger. porn tropes.

Playing the First, the candiblackmailer, date is surreptitiously newcomer filmed by a hook-up, Tex Davidson initiated by the guys has a rough prosaically texting each other: “I wanlook (it’s those Marlborna fuck you,” and “C’mon over.” Ah, ough Man laugh lines), the mellifluous poetry of seduction. with full lips and a half Then, after being emphatically sleeve of tattoos liberally charged to “Do whatever it takes,” sketched along one arm. a precinct walker gets down on his And, oh, he’s got an imknees to earn a vote for his candipressive cock. His scene with Titan Men date. Also getting down on his knees David Benja min abounds Matthew Bosch, happier on the box cover is the campaign manager, with the in forced sex and verbal than anywhere in the movie Cauke for hope of getting a blackmailer to abuse. Davidson grunts, President. squelch the incriminating video.

Benjamin groans and curses, The plea he offers is, “I’ll do anyand there’s a rousing and Helmet Head thing you want.” scenic Reverse Cowboy, plus a climax Dallas Steele is also a major draw Oh, my, I’ve never heard such clevin which Benjamin eagerly gulps Dain several other TitanMen features. er set-ups as these three. And I think vidson’s surprisingly heavy load. BenIn Blue Collar Ballers, he’s paired sucking a guy’s cock is setting the bar jamin certainly knows how to curry a with the redoubtable Dirk Caber. awfully low as far as being willing to blackmailer’s favor.

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Cauke for President. Bottom: Nick Prescott hooks Diesel Washington.

But his performance up with Matthew Bosch, in Cauke for President.

I’ve read that it takes apdoesn’t impress me much; proximately 20 square feet his cocksucking lacks art, of skin to cover a human he’s an overly passive bottom, and Titan has always been a staunch body. Both Steele and Washington he’s inconsistently hard. He may purveyor of safer sex. Not to worry, need at least a yard more. They’re blossom in subsequent features; he’s they’re still deploying condoms. big boys. Steele is 6’3”, and Washa Titan Exclusive. In this first outing, But in Cauke for President they’ve ington is some inches taller. Pound he’s not much of a foil for two preembraced a pair of oral cum shots, for pound, these are the impressive viously excellent and hardworking a practice some folks still question. sort of titans that are a TitanMen partners.

One of the OCS is satisfactory, and mandate. It’s too bad Icons isn’t Nick Prescott builds up a onethe other is a copious, creamy and out in time for the Leather Allisided head of steam as he exerts much relished doozy. The presence ance Weekend. When you brought himself over Bosch’s ass, and in of such OCS will draw me back to home the new friends you met comparison to his other Titan Titan features, in the hopes of more. at LAW, it would have been perscenes, Dallas Steele seems toned When I’m elected President, there’ll fect screening for your Getting down in partnering Bosch. be manseed for every mouth.

Acquainted Evening.

Steele’s so very much a traditional Titan Man; a Rix Trix very big and solid daddy.

Finally, here’s a tip you His steely cock looks so fine should act on. From March stabbing out of his pleated 24 through 26, my friend dress pants. It’s even finer Jallen Rix will perform his when Bosch sits on it, and one-man show, Stake in rumples his bodacious butthe Ground, at Oasis nighttocks all around it. Subseclub. I was invited to a prequently, Steele pounds that view performance a couple porthole quite well. While months ago, and was exBosch remains sorta grimcited by Jallen’s vibrant faced, Steele is his usual theatricality and empowerpersonable self, smiling and ing adventures in sexuality. even laughing.

He may not grease up the In between Bosch’s two pole before your eyes, but scenes, we get luscious Luke Titan Media there’s some flesh baring Adams with intense Adam along the way. It’s a journey Ramzi, dependable per- Director Jasun Mark films Dallas Steele and into self-pleasuring that I Diesel Washington in Icons.

Don’t worry.

The formers who deliver a pasfound pretty pleasurable. helmets come off quick. sionate scene that threatens www.sfoasis.com▼ to boil over several times.

T

▼ <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Leather

My own coming out into leather was ushered in by some amazing men I met at the iconic leather bar in Chicago, the Gold Coast. Later in life, men like Tony DeBlase, Guy Baldwin, the men of Avatar Club Los Angeles and others served as mentors and sounding boards as I learned yet more about the BDSM and kink world I love so much.

Before I proceed any further, let me state that I am not someone who believes the internet killed leather, and therefore also killed mentoring opportunities. I hear that all the time, especially from kinksters of my age.

Erik Will, Chairman of San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion Group (LDG), mentioned to me his thoughts on this topic.

“The internet did not kill the scene. Like any modern, pervasive, and powerful tool, it shifted things… This lazy idea

that the scene has changed because of the internet has given some folks, both younger and older, a sense of inevitability that things are dying.”

In general usage, a mentor is Erik went on to tell me that someone who teaches or gives help while our scene isn’t dying, it is and advice to a less experienced continuing to move from relativeperson. The concept of mentors ly accessible public venues where has been an integral part of the we have historically learned and scene since the beginning incarnagrown as a bonded community, tions of modern leather. In the early and found our mentors, into pridays, mentoring was essentially the vate spaces, behind closed doors, only option for learning about and being practiced by people who are navigating the leather world. Men, often ignorant of, or deliberately and sometimes women as their orchoose to ignore, what healthy ganized scene also grew, who were BDSM and kink looks like. new to leather would often orThose learning and menganically connect with someone of toring venues are quickly more experience who assisted them disappearing and it’s with entrance into our then mostly incumbent upon us to underground and somewhat clanadapt and foster other destine sexual subculture. avenues of learning.

Today, it seems we have too often Figuring out how to defaulted to classroom-style educarevive the mentoring tion sessions to provide such leather, process is one good way BDSM and kink insight, informato do that. tion and skill. While such education As I look around today, can be good, perI see fewer opportunities for haps we’ve started to mentoring bonds to form. Others rely a bit too much have acknowledged the same obon it to the detriservation and have decided to do ment of newcomers. something about it. While there I don’t think there’s is so much I could write about any comparable rethe topic of mentoring, for this placement for true column I’d like to focus on how mentoring within three local organizations have the classroom parabegun to formally foster the mendigm of learning. toring experience in the hopes The one-to-one rethat we can all learn from their lationship provides efforts to better create mentoring learning and supopportunities everywhere. port in a way no The San Francisco Bay Area, class can. being the awesome kinky place In 2009, the that it is, now has three formal Community-Acaleather/kink mentoring programs demic Consortium of which I’m aware. I chatted with for Research on some of the people involved in Alternative Sexuthose programs to shed some alities (CARAS), light on how they feel about menconducted a BDSM toring and how their mentoring Community Educaprograms provide value. tion Needs AssessLDG, Queer Sphere and Sociment survey. More ety of Janus all now have formalthan 1600 people ized mentoring programs. These participated in the organizations cater to a gay male, survey. One of the queer-identified, and key findings was pansexual constituthe importance of ency, respectively. I mentoring. chatted with repreWhen people were asked in sentatives from each the survey what sources of eduprogram to get their cation and training about BDSM take on mentoring were important to them, a high and why such propercentage of respondents said grams are needed. I mentoring from a friend, comcan only offer here munity member or sexual partthe tip of the iceberg ner was desired. While classes of wisdom and inwere highly valued, mentoring sight they gave me. trumped books, national conferI hope to expand on ences and websites as learning their mountain of sources. Mentoring is clearly valinput in a lengthier ued, and we need more of it. article elsewhere The trick is, how do you cresomeday. ate mentoring opportunities that I asked Anton previously occurred more natuFulmen, Mentoring rally as part of the flow of initial Director for the Soexplorations when one entered ciety of Janus, why leather? he thinks mentoring is important, and why an official mentoring program can be beneficial.

“An organized program can help by vetting ethical and qualified mentors, and also providing permission both to mentor and to seek mentoring. Many people feel pretty awkward walking up to someone and saying ‘will you be my mentor,’ or putting themselves forward to mentor someone.

An official program and a little bit of structure can embolden people to step into those roles.”

Indeed, in spite of the hyperconnected nature All photos: Rich Stadtmiller of leather and kink today, Top: Erik Will (right), Chairman of San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion finding mentors can be Group, and Patrick Mulcahey (left), co-creator with Richard Sprott of the LDG more challenging than mentor program. Middle: Christy Ford (left) and Randi Wolford (right), coever. Having a program founders of Queer Sphere. Bottom: Leo Iriarte (middle) and Esteban Bartolo that properly vets qualified (right), who are on the panel for one of the education sessions at Leather Allimentors and oversees how ance Weekend, with their friend, José Ponce (left). mentors and mentees are matched up is a vital conFrom page 27

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

tribution all three organizations are providing local kinksters.

Patrick Mulcahey, one of the original founders along with Richard Sprott of the LDG mentoring program, offered this about the current challenges regarding mentoring.

“Honestly? I think the biggest challenge is a wrong idea of what mentoring is. Collectively we are so focused on the technical ‘curriculum’ – most of which is much simpler than we let on – and neglect the big things. Kink education is like a high school that teaches only math.”

Each organization’s mentoring program is structured slightly differently, but all three seem to follow a somewhat similar model. Christy Ford and Randi Wolford, co-founders of Queer Sphere, described their program’s structure and it’s echoed in the other programs as well.

“This is a structured six-month program designed to support mentees with specific goals. Mentees complete the questionnaire to start the process. Mentors attend an orientation. Mentees and mentors meet at an informal mixer. They are matched and commit to meeting twice per

month for the six-month project to work on the mentee’s goals. At the end of the six-month period the structured program will end. Mentors and mentees can choose to continue on their own terms.”

While the Bay Area is lucky to have these three programs available, my hope is that by highlighting these programs here other locales will consider creating similar programs in their own areas. You can find information about each organization’s mentoring program at the following locations.

San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion Group: www.sfldg.org/ mentoring Queer Sphere: www.queersphere. net/mentoring-details Society of Janus: www.soj.org/ mentoring▼ Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com.

For Leather Event Listings,

see page 34 >>

Mar. 9

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34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 3-9, 2016

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Leather Events, March 4-18, 2016 Fri 4 Mr SF. Leather Meet and Greet @ Mr. S Leather Join the Mr. San Francisco Leather 2016 contestants, judges, MCs, contest staff, and Leather Alliance for a mingler. 385 8th St., 5-7pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Community Roast/Tribute of Gary Virginia @ BeatBox Come celebrate a lifelong career of community service as we commemorate Gary’s 20th Anniversary as Mr. SF Leather and all he has done. Hosted by Ray Tilton and Donna Sachet. 314 11th St., 7pm-9:30pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Men’s Play Party hosted

by The 15 Association @ Alchemy SF Want to get it on with an out of town visitor here for the contest, or a local legend? Join us at Alchemy SF. 8pm-1am. www.the15association.org

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men.

442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Sat 5

Sun 6

Thu 10

Mon 14

Payasos: Leather, Laughter, and Latino in L.A. @ Center for Sex and Culture

SF Leather Community Awards @ Oasis

Red Hanky Nite @ Powerhouse

Ride Mondays @ Eros

Join the Mr. SF Leather 2016 contestants and the SF leather community for brunch/The SF Leather Community Awards. 11am-2pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Bar night for men into fisting. 1347 Folsom St., 7-9pm. hellholesf.com

Mr. SF Leather 2016 Beerbust @ The SF Eagle

BLUFsf In Gear Bar Night @ Twin Peaks Tavern

A Making the Connection education session produced by SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group.

1349 Mission St., 11am-1pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

The Story of You: Giving and Getting a Great Oral History @ Center for Sex and Culture A Making the Connection education session produced by SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group.

1349 Mission St., 1:30pm-3:30pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Mr. SF Leather 2016 Contest @ Hotel Whitcomb Come see hot men compete for the title of Mr. San Francisco Leather 2016. 1231 Market St., 7pm-10pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

GearUp Men’s Play Party @ Alchemy SF Sponsored by Joe’s Barbershop.

Looking for something to do after the Mr. SF Leather contest? Come to this hot and fun men only play party.

1060 Folsom St., $20, 9pm-1am. www.gearupweekend.com

Mr. SF Leather 2016 Victory Party Help the new Mr. SF Leather 2016 celebrate. Will be held at the winner’s bar or Powerhouse. 10pm-2am. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Join Mr. San Francisco Leather 2016, his brothers, judges, MCs and the rest for our traditional Sunday Beerbust at the historic SF Eagle. Funds from this beerbust will support the Mr. SF Leather Travel Fund. 398 12th St., 3-6pm. www.leatherallianceweekend.org

Mon 7 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Wed 9 Golden Shower Buddies @ Blow Buddies A men’s water sports night, Golden Shower Buddies, $15 with membership, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Fri 11 Throw on your gear and come out for a one-off bar night at the Twin Peaks Tavern. 401 Castro St., 9pm-2am.

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma Gear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men.

442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

Sat 12 Leather Pride Contingent Meeting @ SF Eagle Please join the SF Leather Pride Contingent for our monthly meeting.

We will update you on the current status of the Pride Parade planning and we will open up Grand Marshal nominations. 398 8th St., 2-3:30pm.

A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Clips, Clamps, & Clothespins with Tapemaster Bob & CastroKink @ Eros A discussion, demonstration, and hands-on practice session covering pain play using various types of clips. 2051 Market St., 7:30-9:30pm. www.sfring.org

Fri 18 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Gear Party @ 442 Natoma SGear play party (leather, rubber, harnesses, etc.) for gay men. 442 Natoma St., $15 (requires $5 membership), 10pm. www.442parties.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 3-9, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

Shooting Stars Steven Underhill photos by

Academy of Friends @ SF Design Center

T

he 88th annual Academy Awards broadcast, with all its controversies and pageantry, served as the screen-viewing centerpiece at the 36th annual Academy of Friends gala on February 28 at the SF Design Center. Dubbed “A Gathering of Royals,” guests showed up festive and formal attire, occasionally adorned with crowns, and enjoyed champagne, wines, food and raffles galore (including vacation packages and more), with the help of many volunteers, including the hunky gold living Oscars. Thousands of dollars were raised for local AIDS/HIV nonprofits at the glamorous benefit, where freshly crowned and veteran Imperial Court notables added to the royal mix. www.academyoffriends.org More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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