October 9, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Trans Bay has a new meaning

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ARTS

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A Masked Ball

Erasure's new 'Flame'

The

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

Bill Wilson

Plaintiffs and attorneys in the Nevada marriage case stood outside the federal court after oral arguments last month.

Vol. 44 • No. 41 • October 9-15, 2014

Woman hit with bottle recovering

Indian summer fun at Castro fair

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

More marriage bans fall

by Lisa Keen

A

unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday struck down state bans against marriage for same-sex couples in Nevada and Idaho, and the ruling will – if not appealed – affect three 9th Circuit states with similar bans: Alaska, Arizona, and Montana.

The result of the 9th Circuit decision, while widely expected, came just one day after the See page 9 >>

Jane Philomen Cleland

H

ot weather led to brisk beverage sales at the 41st annual Castro Street Fair Sunday, October 5, as fairgoers like Ty

Campos, Chiu joust during SF Assembly race forum

by Matthew S. Bajko

N

ine months after their first feisty debate, the two San Francisco supervisors locked in a heated battle for a state Assembly seat jousted again during one of their last face-to-face meetings ahead of the November 4 election.

The jabs lobbed by gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, who represents District 3, during the San Francisco League of Women Voters’ candidate forum October 2 mirrored those fired off by the pair during a January exchange hosted by the San Francisco Young Democrats.

Their argument to voters for why they should be sent to Sacramento boils down to which of the two has been more productive at City Hall and who will best build consensus in the state Legislature.

“The real challenge is who can work with others to get things done,” said Chiu. “Only one of us has been the most effective to get things done.”

Said Campos, “If you want results, I have proven results can be attained.”

The Democratic board colleagues are competing for the city’s 17th Assembly District seat, currently held by gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). Due to term limits, Ammiano is barred from running again after having served three two-year terms in the Assembly. He is backing Campos in the race to succeed him.

The city’s housing crisis, transit funding, and

Sheppard took in the sunshine and the sights.

The fair included a pie-throwing for politicians and entertainment on several stages.

David Campos, left, makes a point during an October 2 debate with David Chiu at UCSF Mission Bay.

education issues dominated last week’s forum, with the more moderate Chiu and the more progressive Campos both claiming they had done more to address each concern.

Mere minutes into the forum, Chiu was first to criticize his opponent after Campos said the city’s affordability crisis was his “number one issue” and pointed to a relocation assistance law for tenants that he passed in April at the board and is being challenged in court by landlords.

Chiu, however, countered, the city’s high housing costs “is a topic he has really only worked on this year. I have been fighting for six years” on the issue.

See page 10 >>

See page 4 >>

B.A.R. election endorsements SAN FRANCISCO RACES State Assembly Dist. 17: David Chiu Dist. 19: Phil Ting Board of Supervisors Dist. 2: Mark Farrell Dist. 4: Katy Tang Dist. 6: Jane Kim Dist. 8: Scott Wiener Dist. 10: Malia Cohen

Jane Philomen Cleland

lesbian who was hit in the head with a gin bottle, leaving her hospitalized with numerous cuts to her face and neck, is continuing to recover, the woman’s mother said, as the man who allegedly hit her faces charges of Courtesy SFPD attempted murder and Tanrence Joe Owens other counts.

Tanrence Joe Owens, 30, has been accused of trying to kill the victim during an apparent dispute over money. The woman’s mother gave permission to identify her daughter by her first name, Earina, who is better known as “Ray Ray.” “She’s blessed, she is blessed,” Sandra Bacon, 50, said of her daughter Tuesday. “She’s still not ready to talk and see anybody, but they removed the stitches.”

Earina had been at San Francisco General Hos-

SF School Board Mark Murphy Jamie Rafaela Wolfe Emily Murase SF Community College Board Two-Year Term William Walker BART Board, Dist. 8: James Fang Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu Public Defender Jeff Adachi Judges SF Superior Court Office 20: Daniel Flores

OTHER BAY AREA RACES Oakland Mayor: Jean Quan Oakland City Council, Dist. 2: Abel Guillen Berkeley City Council, Dist. 7: Kriss Worthington Berkeley City Council, Dist. 8: Lori Droste Emeryville City Council: John Bauters El Cerrito City Council: Gabriel Quinto Peralta Community College, Area 7: Richard Fuentes East Bay Municipal Utility Dist., Ward 3: Marguerite Young East Bay Municipal Utility Dist., Ward 4: Andy Katz Richmond City Council: Jovanka Beckles San Mateo County Harbor Commission: Robert Bernardo CALIFORNIA GENERAL ELECTION Governor: Jerry Brown Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom Attorney General: Kamala Harris Secretary of State: Alex Padilla Treasurer: John Chiang

Controller: Betty Yee Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson Board of Equalization District 2: Fiona Ma State Assembly (Bay Area) Dist. 15: Elizabeth Echols Dist. 18: Rob Bonta Dist. 24: Rich Gordon Dist. 28: Evan Low Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 10: Michael Eggman Dist. 11: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 15: Eric Swalwell Dist. 17: Mike Honda Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren CALIFORNIA PROPS Yes on Props 1, 2, 45, 46, 47, 48 SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Yes on Props A, C, D, E, F, I, J K, No on Props B, G, H, L

Remember to vote on November 4!

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

PAWS gets new leader

by Seth Hemmelgarn

cisco, declined to provide his salary information. The nonprofit’s tax filing for 2013 lists Kosik’s reportable compensation from PAWS as $79,400. Chandler said his salary differs from that figure.

A

San Francisco nonprofit that helps low-income people who have disabling HIV/AIDS and other illnesses with their pets has a new executive director.

Aaron Chandler officially took over the top job at Pets Are Wonderful Support this summer.

“I am so excited to join PAWS as the organization closes in on 30 years of enabling vulnerable lowincome San Franciscans to continue their invaluable and life-saving connections with their companion animals,” Chandler said in a statement from the nonprofit.

Chandler, 30, began in March, and overlapped with former President and CEO Kevin Kosik through June 30. Kosik is now the executive director of the American Lung Association in California for the Greater Bay Area.

PAWS provides pet food, veterinarian care, dog walking, and other services to almost 800 clients.

Chandler stated that as “nonprofits everywhere adjust to the quicklychanging landscape of social services, I’m looking forward to ensuring the organization remains nimble, sustainable, and able to grow its capacity to serve” clients.

In a phone interview, he said he plans to restart a client education and advocacy program at the nonprofit, where a staffer will help clients facing situations like landlords who won’t allow pets.

He also hopes “to do more culturally competent client outreach,” noting that the agency is located in the Mission district, which is “very heavily Latino” and where Spanish

t

Longtime client

Courtesy Aaron Chandler

PAWS Executive Director Aaron Chandler

is many people’s first language.

“There’s not a set timeline to that, but it’s a goal of mine for us to really do more in the next year to two years,” Chandler said.

The additional work would take more funding and staff, but he indicated finances aren’t a big problem.

“Like all nonprofits, we don’t rake in money hand over fist,” Chandler said. “I wouldn’t describe [funding] as a challenge, but funding is always an ongoing need.”

The agency, which has seven paid staff and 590 volunteers, has a budget this year of $993,000.

“Our fundraising goal is the budget,” Chandler said. PAWS has raised three quarters of that figure and has three months to bring in the rest, he said.

The nonprofit’s main funding sources include foundations and corporations, individuals, and events such as the Folsom Street Fair.

Chandler, who lives in San Fran-

One longtime PAWS client isn’t happy with at least one change that’s occurred at the organization.

Phoenix Blackhawk, 54, a queer San Francisco man who’s living with HIV, has been a PAWS client since 1998 and has volunteered for the group, which has helped him with his 9-year-old terrier mix, Dusty.

Blackhawk complained that PAWS has prohibited clients from also serving as volunteers after someone “accidentally” saw “confidential information” on a computer.

“They just passed a blanket new policy that no clients can be volunteers,” Blackhawk said. “Does that make sense to you?” He doesn’t remember exactly when the policy was changed but said it was around when Chandler joined the agency in March.

Asked about the volunteer policy, Chandler said, “PAWS is dedicated to preserving a positive experience for both clients and volunteers, which led the decision to keep the volunteer experience separate from the client experience.” He said Kosik implemented the change.

Chandler declined to state his sexual orientation, but said, “I’ve been involved almost solely in LGBT organizations on the board and staff of LGBT organizations, so you can probably infer one way or the other.”

For more information about PAWS, visit www.pawssf.org.t

More victims in fake cop sex case

by Seth Hemmelgarn

ebar.com

ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS TERRY MURPHY 760-832-3758

oral copulation, impersonating a public officer, and extortion. SevSan Francisco man eral of the charges carry who allegedly preallegations that Bugai tended to be a police used a handgun to comofficer and kidnapped mit the crimes. The new other men for sex is faccharges were included in ing new charges involva complaint filed Seping additional victims. tember 29. The alleged Jeffrey Bugai, 35, was incidents occurred from originally charged in July January 2008 through with five counts involving March 2014, according Courtesy SFPD two victims, including atto the filling. tempted sodomy by use Jeffrey Bugai, a.k.a.

Bugai has pleaded not of force and assault with Jeffrey Thomas guilty to all counts. He has intent to commit a felony. been in custody since his He now faces 39 counts involving July arrest, and his bail is $3 million. seven victims, including sodomy by Police have said Bugai targeted use of force, sodomy by anesthesia Central American immigrants with or a controlled substance, forcible “limited English speaking” skills

A

who had recently arrived in the United States.

Deputy Public Defender Phoenix Streets said this week the charges “are not true, and we’re going to be able to prove they’re not true.”

Bugai is “very distraught,” Streets said. “He’s puzzled as to why this is happening to him.”

In an affidavit, San Francisco police Sergeant Sean Perdomo wrote that in a June interview, Bugai said he “believed ‘Hispanic people are perverts.’”

Perdomo wrote that Bugai also told him “he is gay, but does not want to be gay,” and “that he sets himself up for failure by liking heterosexual males.” He also “confirmed” that the See page 8 >>

Ex-Twitter exec pleads to DV

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

CA BRE# 01346949

former transgender Twitter executive pleaded guilty to domestic violence this week and was sentenced to three years of probation after agreeing to a plea deal.

Dana Contreras, 33, pleaded to misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and domestic violence Tuesday, October 7 in San Francisco Superior Court, according to Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s office. Besides probation, her sentence also includes a 52-week batterer intervention course, community service, a stay away order, and other terms, Bastian said. Prosecutors had originally charged Contreras with three counts of spousal rape in addition to the other counts.

A preliminary hearing in the case had been set for next week.

In a phone interview Tuesday, the victim, 48, who didn’t want her name published, said she was disappointed that the sexual assault charges were dropped, but she said, “I want [Contreras] to get the help she needs, and

I want her to be accountdidn’t include details of able for what she did, and I the actions behind the don’t want this to happen charges, but in the records, again.” the woman wrote, “the The woman declined third time she gouged her to say exactly what had nails and fingers into my happened during the inback in a sort of bear hug cident. She also said she to hold me in place. I was didn’t want the focus to crying, but did not want be on Contreras being Courtesy YouTube user Github to be too loud, because of transgender, but on do- Dana Contreras my children. ... After the mestic violence and subthird assault, I was able to stance abuse. Contreras, struggle away, she rolled whose name is also listed in court over and passed out.” documents as Dana McCallum, The documents include a copy of a is also supposed to get substance photo of the victim’s back that shows abuse counseling, she said. what appear to be several welts.

The Bay Area Reporter wasn’t able The couple married in 2007 to reach Contreras for comment. In and separated in 2013, according response to an email Tuesday, Nanci to court records. The victim said Clarence, her attorney, said, “Neither Tuesday that she and Contreras are I, nor my client, has any comment.” getting divorced, but it hasn’t been In a request for a domestic viofinalized. Contreras left Twitter in lence restraining order filed after September, according to Jim Prosser, the incident earlier this year, the vica spokesman for the company. tim said it started after her teenage News of the case was first reportchildren saw Contreras “stumble in ed by the San Francisco Examiner drunk” at 3 a.m. one morning. in April. Contreras was arrested in The file reviewed by the B.A.R. January, the paper said.t

RE-ELECT SUPERVISOR

Wiener Scott

Improving & Investing In Our Transit System

A daily Muni rider himself, Scott Wiener consistently advocates for increased investment in Muni.

Scott successfully fought to add 50 new hybrid buses to Muni’s fleet and spearheaded legislation approving the purchase of new Light Rail Vehicles, which will increase the number of 3 and 4 car trains in the subway to ease overcrowding.

Scott is working to ensure our Transit First City provides people with choices that are safe and reliable, including public transit, car sharing, safe bike access, improved taxi and ride sharing service, and a safe walkable neighborhood.

Taking On Our Housing Crisis

Scott Wiener is working to address our housing affordability crisis through a number of measures including successful legislation allowing for the addition of new in-law units, and giving developers an incentive to add new affordable units in their projects. Scott is a staunch supporter of rent control and authored legislation that allows for the creation of new rent-controlled units.

Castro Street Improvements

Working with the community, Scott obtained funding to widen the Castro Street sidewalks. The new sidewalks, lighting, and street trees, as well as an improved Jane Warner Plaza, will improve an already incredible street.

Creating The Noe Valley Town Square

When it looked as though the site of the Noe Valley Farmers’ Market was going to be lost to development, Scott teamed with the community to save this public space, and he authored legislation to purchase the site as a permanent town square. Thanks to tremendous community effort the site is almost ready for conversion to a beautiful plaza for the farmers market and other community uses.

LGBT Senior & Youth Services and HIV Funding

Scott is an unwavering advocate for HIV services in San Francisco and has consistently and successfully fought to keep full funding in the City’s budget despite massive federal HIV cuts.

Scott co-authored legislation to create the LGBT Senior Task Force, which recently issued it recommendations showing a significant need for senior housing, as well as ensuring senior facilities are LGBT-friendly. Scott is now drafting legislation to implement those recommendations.

Scott is working to ensure LGBT youth have access to housing, job training, healthcare, and other services to help them succeed in our community. Scott has repeatedly secured funding specifically for the needs of LGBT at-risk youth in our neighborhood.

For more information visit www.scottwiener.com

Paid for by Re-elect Supervisor Scott Wiener 2014.

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<< Politics

4 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

t

Gay men seek SF college board seats

by Matthew S. Bajko

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s City College of San Francisco continues to fight a decision to yank its accreditation, a pair of out candidates is seeking seats this fall on the board that is supposed to oversee the local community college system.

Yet the elected board of trustees has not met for months, having been suspended when the California Community Colleges Board of Governors appointed a special trustee to take over the troubled system. That action was in response to the decision in 2012 by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges to terminate CCSF’s accreditation.

The college remains open, however, as city leaders and campus officials continue to fight the commission’s decision. The matter is now tied up in the state court system, with a trial set to begin October 27 before a San Francisco Superior Court judge.

Two gay men currently serve on the board: Rafael Mandelman, elected two years ago, and Lawrence Wong, who opted not to seek re-election this year. Despite the neutering of the college’s elected board, two gay men are vying for seats on the oversight body in the November 4 election.

Gay activist Dan Choi is one of seven people running in the race for three four-year seats on the college board. Two incumbents, John Rizzo, the board’s president, and Anita Grier, its vice president, are seeking re-election, while the other challengers are Haight neighborhood leader Thea Selby, former college board member Rodrigo Santos, Brigitte Davila, and Wendy Aragon.

In the race for a two-year term on the college board, to fill a vacancy created when former trustee Chris Jackson resigned, the leading candidates are former gay student college board trustee William Walker and Amy Bacharach. Thomas Moyer is also seeking the seat.

Walker, 35, works as a counseling service specialist at Foothill Community College on the Peninsula. He would be the city’s only out African American to currently hold an elected office if he were to win the seat.

“Being an alum of the school, I have got a lot of insight. The other people running for this office won’t have that insight and won’t know who to call at the different departments on the ground to say how will this impact the education we have been providing in San Francisco. I have that insight on how the college has been operating,” said Walker.

Endorsed last week by the Bay Area Reporter, Walker said he is “feeling really good” about his electoral chances this fall. He said he learned valuable lessons from when he ran for a seat on the board in 2012 and came up short.

<<

Woman hit

From page 1

pital but she’s been moved to a medical rehabilitation center, Bacon said.

(Earina has asked through Bacon that her last name not be published.)

Owens pleaded not guilty Monday, September 30 to charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and battery with serious bodily injury, according to Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. Owens’s next court date is October 22 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.

According to the police report, at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, September 26, Owens approached the victim while she was asleep and started asking for money she allegedly owed him.

He allegedly poured water on her and told her he’d count to seven.

Courtesy William Walker

City College board candidate William Walker

This time around he is trying to raise more money to pay for camp a i g n signs and literature to hand out to voters. He reported this week having a little more than $2,000 in the bank for his campaign, falling just shy of his goal of having $2,500.

“My last campaign I raised about $400 and $50 came from a donor, the rest of it was me. It got me 50,000 votes, so I was not too sad about my performance last time as someone who did not really raise money and was a full-time student,” recalled Walker. “I had never run a campaign before.”

His ideas for improving CCSF include offering better workforce-related courses and building a better connection to employers in the region, particularly in the high-tech sector.

Asked about the lack of power the current board has, Walker countered there is “still a lot” the college’s elected trustees can be doing.

“Every board member elected has a responsibility to be attending the meetings that are happening and the hearings and communicating that to the world,” said Walker.

Choi, 33, a former Army lieutenant and Arabic linguist, gained national attention in 2009 for fighting his discharge under the military’s now repealed anti-gay policy that was known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Choi came out publicly during a cable news interview and became a vocal critic of DADT; he has also been forthcoming about his alcohol abuse, mental health struggles and being suicidal.

“I am now vegan and completely sober,” Choi said during an editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. Born to South Korean immigrants and raised near Los Angeles, he moved to San Francisco this summer and makes a living as a public speaker. He is also enrolled at City College as a vocal music student.

Choi argues it is important for the college, opened in 1935 and long a place for veterans to seek higher eduShe eventually pushed him, and he struck her once with a gin bottle, which broke and cut Earina.

When police arrived, the report says, they found Owens in a closet.

The incident occurred in the unit block of Dakota Street, in the Potrero Hill neighborhood.

Owens is in custody on $350,000 bail. Just before he made a brief court appearance last Friday, Bacon shared photos of Earina in the hospital. There were several cuts on her face and what appeared to be a large gash along her neck.

Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien said after Friday’s hearing that it was “conceivable” the injuries had resulted from a single strike with a bottle, as a witness stated. Lilien hadn’t yet seen the photos of Earina or medical records.

Owens seems “very alarmed

Steven Underhill

City College candidate Dan Choi

cation, to have a former military person serving as a trustee. He pledged to leverage his celebrity and national contacts to rally support for City College with various stakeholders.

“As a veteran they listen to me,” said Choi, who lists LGBT celebrities Margaret Cho, George Takei, Lance Bass, and Wilson Cruz among his endorsers.

Some of his ideas for improving CCSF include creating an alumni association and tapping its members to re-invest in the campus, upgrading the school’s antiquated computer systems, and turning to the local business community to create job opportunities for graduates.

He has raised $7,154 for his campaign with a little less than $5,000 remaining in his account, according to the most recent campaign finance reports released Monday, October 6.

Due to his lack of ties to the city’s political establishment, he has been less successful in attracting support from Democratic clubs, local unions, and LGBT groups.

“I have the experience whether I get the endorsements of organizations or not,” said Choi. “It is not about endorsements; it is about enrollments.”

He lost a bid this term for a seat on the student senate at CCSF, joking he had “already lost” his first political race. Nonetheless, Choi said he is undeterred in his bid for a seat on the college’s board of trustees.

And even if he losses this year, he pledged, “I will run again. I am not going to be a one-timer. I don’t just stop.”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 the divergence of HIV stats in SF and the U.S. 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.

about the extent of the injuries and very concerned about [Earina’s] well-being,” he said.

Bacon said Tuesday Earina hasn’t yet spoken with police.

“She’s not strong enough,” she said. “I’m not going to force my daughter” to talk and authorities “have more than enough” information to prosecute the case, she said.

Lilien said Owens has a criminal history that includes drug-related charges, but it doesn’t appear he has been charged in violent incidents.

He also said Owens and Earina had been “on decent terms. They were friendly.”

Earina had once been the girlfriend of the mother of Owens’s 2-year-old son, according to Earina’s ex-girlfriend’s mother, who asked See page 10 >>

SmArT, eFFeCTive LeADerSHiP Vote with pride By noVeMBer 4

daVid Chiu

SCott wiener▼

ASSembly, DISTrIcT 17

SuPervISOr, DISTrIcT 8

Mark Farrell SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 2

katy tang

SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 4

Malia Cohen

Mark Murphy ▼ BoArD oF eDuCATion

SuPerviSor, DiSTriCT 10

CarMen Chu

ASSeSSor-reCorDer

niCk JoSeFowitz BArT BoArD

Carol kingSley

SuPerior CourT JuDGe

propoStion e CreATinG A HeALTHy SAn FrAnCiSCo

aMy BaCharaCh CiTy CoLLeGe

rodrigo SantoS CiTy CoLLeGe

thea SelBy

CiTy CoLLeGe

USe the FUll alice endorSementS below when yoU vote San FranciSco candidateS Assessor-Recorder: Carmen Chu

board oF edUcation

Supervisor, District 2: Mark Farrell

city college board oF trUSteeS Amy Bacharach, 2-year seat Rodrigo Santos, 4-year seat

Supervisor, District 4: Katy Tang Supervisor, District 8: Scott Wiener▼ Supervisor, District 10: Malia Cohen Superior Court Judge, Office 20: Carol Kingsley BART Board, District 8: Nick Josefowitz

Mark Murphy▼

Thea Selby, 4-year seat aSSembly candidateS State Assembly, District 17:

State candidateS Governor: Jerry Brown

local ballot meaSUreS

State ballot meaSUreS

YES

PROP A: Transportation Bond

YES

PROP 1: Water Bond

YES

PROP B: Muni Funding

YES

PROP 2: Rainy Day Fund

YES

PROP C: Children’s Programs

YES

YES

PROP D: Retirement Benefits

PROP 45: Make Health Insurers Justify Rates

Treasurer: John Chiang

YES

PROP E: Creating a Healthy SF!

NO POSITION

PROP 46: No Position

Attorney General: Kamala Harris

YES

PROP F: Pier 70 Redevelopment

YES

PROP 47: Reform Sentencing

NO POSITION

PROP G: No Position

YES

NO

PROP H: Against Playgrounds

PROP 48: Approve Tribal Gaming Compromise

YES

PROP I: For Playgrounds

YES

PROP J: Raise Minimum Wage

YES

PROP K: Affordable Housing

NO

PROP L: Outdated Transit Policies

Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom Secretary of State: Alex Padilla Controller: Betty Yee

Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones

David Chiu

Board of Equalization, District 2: Fiona Ma

State Assembly, District 19: Phil Ting

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

Volume 44, Number 41 October 9-15, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Race Bannon • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Brent Calderwood Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Belo Cipriani • Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Peter Hernandez Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy Joshua Klipp • David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Elliot Owen • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.861.5019 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Lance Roberts NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

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

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

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Quan for Oakland mayor

T

here are several qualified candidates running for Oakland mayor, but after reviewing the questionnaires we supplied and conducting interviews with three of them, we find ourselves surprised that in the end, we endorse Mayor Jean Quan for a second term.

The rap on Quan is that she’s been ineffective, but a look at her record shows that on balance Oakland is headed in the right direction. The city’s restaurant and nightlife scenes are bustling; housing projects are in progress, and new residents are moving to the city, due in part to the high cost of living in San Francisco.

Quan has been successful in securing federal funds for new police officers and money to redevelop the Oakland Army Base.

During our editorial board meeting Quan offered an assertive defense of her tenure, which has been beset at times with inaccurate statements about crime statistics and a revolving door of city administrators and police chiefs. But it’s precisely at times like this, when one’s on defense, that some politicians find an inner strength. In fact, we wish she would display more of the charisma and confidence that she did in our meeting in her day-to-day running of the city.

In recent months, Oakland has experienced a dip in crime – there was a six-week stretch this summer without a murder. Oakland has, for the past couple of years, become a destination of its own, apart from being overshadowed by San Francisco. Just last week the American Planning Association named Oakland’s Uptown district one of the 10 best neighborhoods in the country.

Quan is aware of the problems facing Oakland, especially its police department, which is understaffed and under federal oversight. But the mayor said the situation is getting better and is committed to fully regaining the department.

“Oakland police have not drawn a gun and shot anyone in 15 months,” she told us. Police officers are being actively recruited and academies

t

are being provided with training on County Board of Education.

LGBT issues. This is crucial because Among her many accomplishthere are active cases police are invesments on LGBT issues are: first mayor tigating that involve the LGBT comto support the Transgender Day of munity, such as the 2012 murder of Remembrance ceremony; working trans woman Brandy Martell, with the council to award $1.3 million which remains unsolved. in funding for LGBT youth programs; Should she be reand appointing a record number of elected, Quan plans to LGBTQ commissioners to the planmove the city forward ning and port commissions. in a second term past Jean Quan Regarding Oakland Pride, Quan the distractions and said she’s raised about $20,000 a year mistakes. She said that for the event. Kaplan told us she’s she spent the first two years in ofmade sure there’s some money set aside in the fice “responding to disasters,” and city’s budget for the annual festival. Both are ticked off several of them: the right; Quan’s a reliable ally and Kaplan is part of demise of redevelopment agenthe community. cies, budget shortfalls, and the fact Quan’s darkest moment as mayor came that her predecessor was mostly three years ago this month, when Oakland was absent. She said she led the fight among the Big ground zero for the local Occupy movement.

10 mayors to secure federal funding for transitShe was seen as indecisive. But the mayor told us that she has “no regrets” about how Occupy oriented development. She’s fighting hard for Oakland was handled in general. There were a Oakland’s fair share of regional funding for lot of poor and mentally ill people who filled public transportation and other projects.

Frank Ogawa Plaza at the time, and then one Quan is also working on the Oakland Army of the mentally ill people was hit over the head.

Base redevelopment project and Brooklyn Basin, “I don’t regret trying to close it down,” Quan a large housing project. Many employees on said. “I do regret not specifically saying to the those jobs, she noted, would get union cards. [police] chief, ‘Don’t close it till I get back from Measure Z funding and Operation Ceasefire, a Washington.’” crime prevention initiative, have started to pay In the aftermath of Occupy, the police departoff in that young men, many African American, ment has changed its training and over 40 officers are getting GED certificates so they can better were disciplined. Out of 51 reform items, Quan qualify for jobs. Credit for these initiatives has said, the department has only five left to complete. been lost among the constant drumbeat of crime Quan said she thinks her biggest stamp on headlines, which only perpetuates Oakland’s the city is that according to recent polls, people image as a gritty city out of control. It’s not. think Oakland is going in the right direction.

Critically, Quan is not giving up on the LGBT “It’s the first time since Elihu,” Quan said, vote despite her major challenger being lesbian referring to former Mayor Elihu Harris, who City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who leads held office from 1991-99. “There’s a little bit of the mayor in a trio of recent polls. But Quan said optimism.” her own polling shows a more competitive race.

Optimism, of course, won’t put the city back “I actually think I’m splitting the LGBT on track. But Quan, who’s seen four balanced vote,” Quan said, noting that she’s been enbudgets passed and has presided over a city that dorsed by gay outgoing Assemblyman Tom is often overlooked, is the best person to continue Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and Joaquin that trajectory.t Rivera, a gay man who sits on the Alameda

B.A.R. picks in SF, regional races S

an Francisco isn’t the only city where LGBT candidates are seeking local office. In fact, this year a bevy of out candidates is running for positions in city council, college board, and municipal districts in the East Bay and San Mateo County.

San Francisco races

First though, recommendations in a few more San Francisco races.

For San Francisco Superior Court, we endorsed attorney Daniel Flores in the June primary. Flores is a straight ally who stands out to us because of his experience on the civil and criminal sides of the legal profession. More than 20 judges have endorsed his candidacy and he would be an asset to the bench.

For assessor-recorder we endorse incumbent Carmen Chu, who has been effective in running the office. Chu, a straight ally, is unopposed.

For public defender, we endorse incumbent Jeff Adachi. He has recruited top attorneys who represent some of the city’s most vulnerable defendants. A straight ally, Adachi is unopposed.

Now on to our recommendations for regional races.

Oakland City Council

Berkeley City Council

In District 7, we endorse longtime incumbent Kriss Worthington. A gay man who is a 17-year veteran of the council, Worthington has led on issues affecting UC Berkeley students, tenants, and others, including LGBTs. On affordable housing, according to his website, Worthington successfully sponsored a ballot measure to protect seniors and disabled tenants. On diversity, Worthington appointed students, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, and women commissioners.

He also helped small businesses by sponsoring a diversity study to encourage more such shops, as well as local work and minority-owned contracting opportunities. Worthington is an effective councilman and deserves another term.

In District 8, we recommend Lori Droste, a lesbian mom who told us the council lacks the perspective of someone with a young family. She is also concerned with housing affordability, and safety issues, from safe streets for pedestrians to sexual assaults. Droste has been active in the city of Berkeley for years. She is the chair of the city’s Commission on the Status of Women and vice chair of the Alameda County Human Relations Commission, so she has local government experience.

The district includes the Elmwood neighborhood.

For District 2 on the Oakland City Council we recommend Abel Guillen, a former Peralta Community College trustee. District 2 includes Lake Merritt, Grand Lake, Emeryville City Council Crocker Highlands, Cleveland Emeryville, which borders OakHeights, and Gold Coast. Pat Kerland, has a competitive race for nighan of District 2 and the curits City Council and we recomrent council president has endorsed mend John Bauters. A two-year him. Public safety is his top priority resident of the city, Bauters, a Jane Philomen Cleland and he wants to expand walking, gay man, is a policy director for beat, and bike police patrols, smart Oakland City a nonprofit housing agency. His moves in a district with a lot of pub- Council candidate top priorities, he told us, include lic space and merchant corridors. Abel Guillen affordable housing for families, According to his website, he will particularly city staff, and the also work on citywide efforts to crecity’s schools. Long known for its ate more affordable housing options commercial corridors and big box linked to public transit. Guillen, who identifies retailers, young families are moving to the as two-spirit, would be an important voice on area. Bauters has the support of lesbian City the council for LGBTQ youth funding, a critiCouncilwoman Ruth Atkin and gay Berkeley cal issue this year.

City Councilman Darryl Moore.

El Cerrito City Council

Voters in El Cerrito have an opportunity to elect a gay man who has deep experience in city government: City Council candidate Gabriel Quinto. He serves on the city’s Human Relations Commission and Committee on Aging. Quinto is also concerned about affordable housing, particularly near the city’s two BART stations. Quinto told us that he realizes the importance of being one of the few elected officials living with HIV, should he win. But it’s a sense of community – he’s a 17-year city resident – that drove Quinto to seek a council seat. And he would tackle the basics – ensuring adequate funding for public safety and first responders – if he’s successful in his race. He would be a good fit for the council.

Peralta Community College Board

The Peralta Community College District includes campuses in Berkeley, Oakland, and the city of Alameda. In the race for Area 7 we recommend Richard Fuentes, a gay man who came up short in his bid for an Oakland school board seat two years ago. This time around, Fuentes has better organization, some name identification, and the support of numerous elected officials, including Assemblymen Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), Richard Gordon (DMenlo Park), and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). If elected, Fuentes would succeed the aforementioned Guillen in the seat. Fuentes has been involved in education issues for many years. He stated on his website that he is committed to ensuring that students have access to community colleges and that the schools have the programs that will meet students’ needs in this new economy.

East Bay Municipal Utility District

In the race for EBMUD Ward 3, we endorse Marguerite Young, who is keenly aware of the significant challenges ahead given the drought and its effects on the East Bay’s primary water board. Young is a lesbian who is a third generation Californian and a 24-year Oakland resident. The agency’s ability to deliver reliable and adequate supplies of clean water also depends on infrastructure, Young says on her website; effective response to fires and earthquakes also See page 10 >>

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Letters >>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

District 8 resident supports Wiener

As a resident and businessperson in the Castro for over 40 years, I enthusiastically endorse Scott Wiener for re-election for supervisor in District 8. He has done an excellent job representing District 8.

Robbie Robinson San Francisco

SF Pride prez says ‘thanks’

This week marks one year since I was elected to the board of directors and as president of San Francisco Pride. It was clear last year that the community and membership wanted changes in how SF Pride was managed. I’m proud to say many people worked hard to make those changes happen, and to deliver a successful parade and celebration in June.

Evidence of this includes: the hiring of a very competent executive director in George Ridgely; a fair and transparent grand marshal selection process; diverse honorees who represented the most pressing local, national, and international issues in our LGBT community; correcting election procedures at the annual general meeting; a distinctive theme logo created by Via Media and new merchandise partnership with Hard Rock Cafe that generated $10,000 in net revenue; surpassing income goals for sponsors, exhibitor fees, parade entry fees, and grandstand ticket sales; expanding the board size to address diversity and skill set deficits; improving the annual media event with pro bono support from Wendy Norris Communications; an improved VIP party at City Hall; securing new, pro bono legal counsel from Sheppard Mullin; and launching the Society of Supporters donor club.

We reversed a three-year downward trend in gate donations and exceeded beverage sales projections, which

allowed us to distribute $164,608 to 68 community partners in the past year.

We prudently secured a $50,000 bridge loan in March to address expected cash flow challenges. A $14,000 budget surplus was projected by September 30, but we closed our fiscal year with more than $190,000. Our IRS Form 990 and meeting minutes are now posted online in reasonable time, 2013 taxes have been filed, and our 2013 audit is in process.

Our budget exceeded $2 million for the first time in our 44-year history, and we are meeting new challenges of a 29 percent increase in office rent; new email server, phone and alarm systems; computer upgrades; and needed website improvements.

With the member-chosen theme, “Equality Without Exception,” our 45th anniversary parade and celebration in 2015 will focus on the flawed use of religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws and the Affordable Care Act that, in principle, should be applicable to all.

In the coming year, SF Pride stakeholders will embark on long-term strategic planning to address the changing nature of our event, maximizing our social mission, economic stability and diversifying revenue, proper governance, membership engagement, and more.

On behalf of the 2013-2014 board of directors and SF Pride team, I thank everyone who volunteered or partnered with us to deliver a socially relevant, safe and successful event. We invite your fresh ideas and enthusiasm as we prepare for a 45th anniversary that fulfills our mission to educate the world, commemorate our heritage, celebrate our culture, and liberate our people.

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

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

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

Gary Virginia, President San Francisco Pride

Latina group to distribute scholarships compiled by Cynthia Laird

Day of the Dead opening event

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he Chicana Latina Foundation will distribute 30 merit-based scholarships at its annual awards dinner Friday, October 10 at 6 p.m. at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel, 55 Fourth Street. An after-party and dance starts at 10.

The foundation has been selectively giving the $1,500 scholarships to well-deserving college bound Latinas since 1977. Over 500 scholarships have been awarded totaling over $1 million. Typically, those receiving scholarships are low-income, first generation in the family to go to college. Thirty-one percent are undocumented, and 50 percent come from immigrant families.

The foundation’s executive director is lesbian Olga Talamante, a longtime community and youth advocate. Talamante was a San Francisco Pride grand marshal in 2012 and is a former board co-chair of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

At this year’s gala, the foundation will also acknowledge the important role that music has played in social justice movements. It will present its Legacy Award to musician Sheila E. and its Emerging Leader Award to Diane Gameros.

Tickets are $175-$250 for the gala and afterparty or $30 for the afterparty only. To purchase tickets, visit www.chicanalatina.org/scholarshipawards. html.

Free jewelry appraisal

D and H Sustainable Jewelers will offer free appraisals for precious gems and jewels Friday, October 10 from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, October 11 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at its showroom, 2323 Market Street in San Francisco.

The appraisals include approximate retail value and recommendations for insurance appraisal. Repair specialists will also be on hand to get jewelry back to wearable condition.

The company’s professional design team can also help with re-purpos-

ing unused jewelry and diamonds into something you will wear.

For more information, see the “Free Appraisal Event” on Facebook.

Now in its 15th year, the Day of the Dead exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center offers a visually diverse and stimulating environment of elaborate, traditional altars and multi-dimensional art installations where creativity leads the way to meaningful reflection.

The opening event takes place Friday, October 10 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the center, 934 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Admission is $12$15, sliding scale.

The unveiling will feature live music

by Rupa of Rupa and the Fishes, San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia, and an artist market.

The exhibition itself, under the theme “Visions at Twilight: Dia De Los Muertos,” opens October 11 and runs through November 8, with free admission during gallery hours, which are Tuesday-Friday, noon to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Half Moon Bay pumpkin festival coming up

Cannabis and elder care workshop

Bridgid Skiba

Chicana Latina Foundation Executive Director Olga Talamante

Charlie Brown may still be searching for the Great Pumpkin, but lots of the special gourds associated with Halloween will be featured at the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival October 18-19.

The famous pumpkin weigh-off will take place in advance of the festival, Monday, October 13 from 7 to 11 a.m. Organizers are offering a $30,000 prize for the winner (current record stands at 2,032 pounds, set in 2013), and the mega-gourd will be displayed at the festival. Other cash prizes will also be distributed, including for the biggest California pumpkin, the biggest coastside pumpkin, and most beautiful pumpkin.

The weigh-in, sponsored by Safeway, takes place at IDES Grounds, 735 Main Street.

The festival takes place along Main Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Admission is free.

For more information, visit http://pumpkinfest.miramarevents. com/.

The Apothecarium is offering an education and advocacy session titled “Aging with Compassion: Cannabis and Elder Care” Monday, October 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

The session will focus on up-to-date research and case studies about cannabis as a treatment for symptoms of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other agerelated health conditions; preferred strains, dosage, and delivery systems; and advocacy for the use of cannabis as a treatment for family members and loved ones with health professionals and in residential care facilities.

Those who plan to attend are asked to fill out a quick online survey at https://docs.google.com/ forms/d/19uIJ-JdjKvVEN5t_BQBv_ Cuv - z F E I 3 A 7 E r Ho m - C C 9 5 8 / viewform.

ALRP fall reception

The AIDS Legal Referral Panel will hold its From the Heart 31st annual reception and auction Wednesday, October 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at See page 9 >>

head over HEALDSBURG YOU’LL FALL

In the famed Sonoma County wine country.

Local hospitality meets San Francisco chic.

Bakeries, bistros, tasting rooms and 5-star restaurants.

Stylish boutiques, art galleries and antique shops.

Picnic baskets brimming with local farmers’ market delicacies.

Taste the wine country the way Northern Californians do.

And like everyone who visits, you’ll fall head over Healdsburg.

www.healdsburg.com

<< Business News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

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Trans entrepreneur banks her future on Treasure Island

by Matthew S. Bajko

M

ost days Tammy Powers wakes up at 4 a.m. in order to have her coffee cart set up by 6 a.m. just beyond the guardhouse on Treasure Island, the man-made site of the 1939 World’s Fair that sits in the middle of San Francisco Bay. She serves a selection of Peet’s coffee and baked goods to residents and workers on the island east of San Francisco. Used for decades as a U.S. Navy base, city officials have plans to redevelop the island into a new high-rise neighborhood with up to 8,000 housing units connected to the mainland by ferry.

Sensing an opportunity to establish a business on the island ahead of its building and residential boom, Powers two years ago approached the Treasure Island Redevelopment Agency about opening up a bicycle repair and rental shop. A transgender woman, she dubbed her business A Tran’s Bay Bike Shop, playing off her gender identity and the transbay transportation moniker.

“I said to them you have a huge problem coming your way. You are

going to want to have a bike shop really bad,” said Powers. “They almost bent over backwards to show me spaces. But nothing worked, and then they said, ‘We have a basement space.’ There were no windows; it was dark and dingy. I said, ‘I will take it.’”

She officially opened her doors in January 2013. This August she followed up with the coffee cart, which Powers said has helped boost visibility for her bike shop.

The business should really boom, predicted Powers, with the opening of a ramp connecting Treasure Island to the pedestrian and bike pathway attached to the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, expected to be completed sometime in 2016.

“One thousand people a day will be coming off that bridge. I am in; I saw it,” said Powers, 48, adding that the delay in seeing the final segment of the pathway open, “thank God, gives me time to grow. Hopefully, I will be ready by then.”

The bike shop is located in the basement of the island’s iconic Building 1, an old airport hangar that was briefly featured in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie. The en-

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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trance can be found on the right side of the building behind the Treasure Island Bar and Grill.

Powers planted a succulent garden outside and had artists paint a series of murals inside in the hallway and on the walls of her shop. Currently, she has nine bikes available for rent at a cost of $10 for two hours. She sees between 10 and 15 people a week, mostly tourists, coming in to rent bikes.

Three months ago she had saved up enough money and secured a $5,000 loan from Working Solutions to expand the bike shop to include a service area where she now repairs bikes for her customers. In August Powers also secured a zeropercent interest $2,500 loan through the crowdfunding site Kiva.

A registered Fuji dealer, she has several of the company’s bikes for sale priced at $450. She also fixes up and sells used bikes, particularly Schwinn models like the Hollywood or Wasp, with prices ranging from $200 up to $1,000.

A sign on the door promises, “This sole proprietorship refuses the right to reserve service to anyone.”

“It’s fun; such a challenge running two distinct businesses,” she said. “It is still hand to mouth right now.”

Her father, a New York City cop, moved the family near San Jose when he retired and she was 13 years old. After graduating high school, Powers joined the Navy. In 1992, while biking across the U.S. solo, she fell in love with Colorado and decided to move to Boulder.

There she had also owned a bike shop, “when I was a dude,” Powers recalled.

She struggled for years to accept her gender identity, eventually deciding in her 40s it was time to live her life as a woman. She transitioned four years ago and relocated once again to the Bay Area.

“I was working part-time at Warm Planet Bikes,” said Powers. “I was sleeping on a park bench and saving every penny and nickel.”

Once she had saved up enough money to launch her own bike shop, she approached officials on Treasure Island after visiting a friend who lived there. Her next goal is to open a bike shop and cafe near the Oakland entrance to the Bay Bridge pedestrian and bike pathway.

“I am not looking for a business partner but I do think someone might show up one day who will want to invest,” said Powers, who is still “bouncing around homes” but one day, “when the redevelopment is done, I would love to live on this island.”

Powers’s coffee cart is open 6 to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays.

The bike shop is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends. It is located at 1 Avenue of the Palms #021.

For more information, call (415) 678-5323 or visit http://www.transbaybikes.com.

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Fake cop

From page 2

victim from the original case struck him because he’d made an unwanted advance, according to the document.

Bugai “stated that incidents like this where he made advances rejected by heterosexual males striking him happened 40 to 50 more times,” the affidavit says.

Streets said Bugai “wasn’t in his right mind” when he spoke with police and “doesn’t even remember making the statement.”

Bugai “is not a physically healthy individual” and “takes quite a few medications for a number of different ailments,” Streets said. He said he couldn’t disclose what the medications were for without talking to him.

Streets suggested people have come forward claiming to be victims in exchange for visas to stay in the U.S.

Rick Gerharter

Tammy Powers stands with a bike at her work station at A Tran’s Bay Bike Shop on Treasure Island.

Chicago designer Borris Powell will be in San Francisco later this month for Project Inform’s Evening of Hope.

Gay Chicago fashion designer heads west

Later this month, gay Chicago designer Borris Powell will once again be in San Francisco to take part in his fourth Evening of Hope – A Night of Lifesaving Fashion, a yearly fundraiser for Project Inform that features condom couture.

Powell, 39, has his own eponymous fashion label based in the Windy City with annual sales of up to $130,000. He specializes in custom wear for both men and women, and last year, he launched a readyto-wear line. Through a partnership with a nanotechnology firm, he also now offers stain-proofed garments.

His men’s suits start around $1,250 and are priced up to $2,450, while women’s custom dresses range between $550 and $4,800. He also has his own line of handbags, men’s wallets, and recently debuted lipsticks.

“I am in three local boutiques here. Getting into more stores now is the next avenue I am traveling,” said Powell, adding that the bulk of his business comes from a base of private clients.

During his upcoming trip to town Powell plans to speak with buyers at a variety of local stores, including in the Castro, about carrying his clothes. His goal is to reach $250,000 in sales by 2016 and be in as many as 40 stores.

According to the affidavit, one of the victims listed when the original charges were filed told police that he met Bugai in November 2008 at El Trebol bar, 3149 22nd Street, in the Mission district, which he was visiting with a friend whose full name he didn’t know. Public court documents in the case don’t list the full names of any of the victims.

Bugai, who was dressed like a police officer, told the victim he was a cop and that “he was going to arrest him,” the document says. The man, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, and his friend were taken to a home where Bugai allegedly forced the victim to drink Captain Morgan rum, placed him and his friend in headlocks, and made them watch gay pornography, according to the affidavit.

Eventually, Bugai allegedly threw the victim to the floor, wrapped his legs around him, and told him “that

“In the immediate future, yes, I want to try to get into some of the stores out there,” Powell said during a phone interview in late September.

In the meantime, Powell is focused on creating his gown for the Project Inform event. He ordered 800 condoms, 500 of which he expects will be turned into fabric for the dress.

“We make condom inspired garments, basically,” he said of the designers who volunteer to take part in the show. “I am going to do something with red; it is my signature color.”

Over the years Powell said he has become more adept at working with the condoms. His first year he made the mistake of ordering lubricated prophylactics, a decision he has not repeated.

“I had no idea what I was doing. I ordered them based on color,” he recalled. “They show up and we can’t use them. We had to wash them out in the sink. We had over 500 condoms and my interns wanted to quit and kill me. It was awful.”

The trick, he said, is to sew the condoms together with thread so they become a workable fabric.

“It is an amazing charity event that is based on what I do and what I love, which is fashion,” said Powell.

The fundraiser takes places from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, October 25 at City View at Metreon, 135 Fourth Street in San Francisco.

Tickets start at $200 per person and can be purchased online at http:// support.projectinform.org/site/ Calendar?id=100201&view=Detail.

Honor roll

To celebrate its seventh anniversary, the Lookout is hosting a free buffet for its patrons from 6 to 8 p.m. and offering drink specials all day Friday, October 10. In a Facebook post owner Chris Hastings wrote that the Castro gay bar has raised more than $600,000 for community groups since it opened. The Lookout is located at 3600 16th Street at Market Street.t Got a tip on LGBT business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

he wanted to suck [the victim’s] penis” and that they were going to have sex.

The man soon hit Bugai in the back of the head with a wrench and fled.

The document says the man didn’t “report the incident immediately because he did not think he had enough information to identify the suspect.” He reported Bugai to police after seeing him near a bank in November 2013.

In June, police searched Bugai’s residence in the 1500 block of Kirkwood Avenue and found what resembled a police officer’s clothing, a bullet proof vest, a Taser, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two loaded firearms, and handcuffs, according to the affidavit, which says there were also pills including methadone and oxycodone, liquid morphine, and other drugs.

According to court records, Bugai changed his name in 2011 to Jeffrey Thomas.t

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LGBT History Month>>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Tenderloin’s LGBT story survives

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

an Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood has a colorful history and was once the center of gay life in San Francisco. Grittier than the Castro, which in the late 1970s overtook “The TL,” as it’s sometimes called, as the city’s gay hub, the neighborhood just blocks away from City Hall also has a well-worn reputation for drug dealing, robbery, and other crimes.

It’s home to some of the city’s poorest residents, many of whom are living with HIV and stay in the district’s single-room occupancy hotels.

The neighborhood is bounded by the historic Beaux-Arts City Hall on one side and Union Square’s upscale hotels and shops on the other. Most of the gay bars, theaters, and bookstores that once filled the Tenderloin are gone, but a handful have survived, and many LGBTs still express fondness for the area.

One business that’s held on since the 1970s is the Tea Room Theatre, 145 Eddy Street. The tiny lobby has pictures of movies with titles like Cum Smack 2, and a sign warns, “J/O [jacking off] only is allowed in the theater.”

Inside the small, dark auditorium on a recent Friday afternoon, it would have been impossible to see without the light from the porn being projected onto the screen.

In a couple of seats at the front, one man on either side of the aisle was giving head to his seatmate, disobeying the sign in the lobby.

During an interview in which he spent the first several minutes standing behind the metal gate that separates his office from the lobby, Steve Angeles, 50, praised the Tenderloin, the neighborhood he calls home. The area is “very friendly,” he said, and it’s “the real San Francisco.”

Angeles, who’s worked at the theater for five years, said, “I really don’t know” why the business has survived, but it’s “probably” because it’s a short walk from two BART transit stations. Plus, “we show all the brand new movies every week, and we are friendly,” he said.

Business appears to be brisk. Customers include men from out of town

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News Briefs

From page 7

the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchants Exchange Building, 465 California Street in San Francisco.

The event, ALRP’s biggest fundraiser of the year, will recognize longtime board member and panel attorney James M. Wood with the Clint Hockenberry Leadership Award for his many years of service on behalf of people living with HIV/ AIDS. ALRP Executive Director Bill Hirsh said that Mary Catherine Wiederhold will receive the Attorney of the Year Award, while the law firm Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius LLP will receive the 2014 Firm of the Year Award.

The wine and food reception will include a silent and live auction. An African safari and a stay at an LGBT resort on Maui, Hawaii are among the live auction items, along with Bay Area restaurant and winery packages and use of a luxury suite at AT&T Park for a 2015 Giants game.

Tickets start at $100. For more

<<

Marriage bans

From page 1

surprise action of the U.S. Supreme Court to refuse review of appeals involving state bans in five other states across three other federal appeals circuits. That move alone meant the marriage equality state count would go from 19 to 24 and probably 30 (assuming no state with a ban inside those three circuits attempts a longshot effort to press its case to keep

and regulars from the neighborhood.

“When they retire, they have nothing to do, just relax,” Angeles said of patrons. “... People feel at home here.”

At 35, Marc Woodworth is likely one of the Tea Room’s younger fans.

Woodworth, who lives in Europe but is in San Francisco six months at a time, comes to the theater once or twice a month. There’s “no other place to go” in San Francisco, he said.

Angeles, who doesn’t identify with a specific orientation but said, “They call me Mama Steve,” said the current lease is up in 2015.

“Hopefully,” he said, the building’s owners will give the theater “another few years.”

About a block away from the Tea Room, soul music played inside Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk Street, as Louie Lopez, 74, and Paul Lee, 73, stood outside.

The gay men listed the bars that used to be nearby, like the Blue and Gold and the Landmark, and the people they used to see there.

“There was always something going on,” said Lopez, who lives in the neighborhood and started coming to Aunt Charlie’s almost 30 years ago when it was still Queen Mary’s Pub. Lee said the neighborhood “was like a candy store” when he first came in 1976. “It was so much fun.”

However, he said, “There was a lot of prejudice against people from the Tenderloin,” and there still is.

“If you just tell someone you used to hang out here, they say, ‘But you don’t go there anymore, do you?’”

Lee said.

Inside Aunt Charlie’s, the narrow walkway between the bar and some tables and benches frequently doubles as a runway for drag performers as they lip-sync to songs and collect tips.

Joe Mattheisen, 65, a gay Tenderloin resident, has worked at the bar for “about 16 years.”

Mattheisen said one reason the business has outlived many others is it’s not “the sole source of income” for its owner, unlike other establishments. Over the years, the bar’s also added drag shows and DJs.

Seth Hemmelgarn

Paul Lee, left, and Louie Lopez stand outside Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, one of the last gay bars in the Tenderloin.

Queens and hustlers

The block where Aunt Charlie’s sits was recently named Vicki Mar Lane, after Vicki Marlane, a transgender woman who performed there for years before she died in 2011 at the age of 76 of AIDS-related complications.

Felicia Elizondo, 68, a close friend of Marlane’s, first visited the Tenderloin in the early 1960s, and she hasn’t noticed much change in the neighborhood since then. Elizondo, a transgender woman who lives in another neighborhood now, recalled the area being packed with “queens” and “hustlers.” People made money by “selling drugs and selling themselves,” she said, and the district was “very dangerous.” (Elizondo said she didn’t deal drugs but she did work as a prostitute.)

Someone could get “thrown in jail for obstructing the sidewalk” and people would get “beat, murdered, or raped” by “tricks or people that just didn’t like gay people,” she said.

Elizondo remembered a woman named Rhonda who died after “one of her tricks cut her breast out.” She didn’t know Rhonda’s last name.

“When you came to San Francisco, you came to San Francisco to

Seth Hemmelgarn

Aja Monet has lived in the Tenderloin for several years.

start a new life,” she said.

“You weren’t nosey,” she said. “ ...

Most people wanted to forget the past.”

Elizondo also recalled Compton’s Cafeteria. The 24-hour cafe at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets was the site of an August 1966 riot where transgender patrons stood up against police, who had been called to quell a disturbance. The exact date of the riot has been lost to history.

A ceremony in June 2006 featured the unveiling of a commemorative sidewalk plaque at the former Compton’s location, which was timed with the 40th anniversary of the riots, which predated by three years the more famous Stonewall rebellion in New York City The riots are widely viewed as the beginning of the LGBT rights movement in San Francisco, but Elizondo said that at the time, it didn’t have a noticeable impact.

“Everything went back to the same old way,” she said.

Almost 50 years later, though, some things have changed.

In the lobby of the Tenderloin police station, about a block away from the Compton’s site, a sign assures visitors that the space is an “LGBT safe zone.”

Captain Jason Cherniss, 44,

who’s straight and heads the station, wasn’t familiar with the details of the Compton’s riot, but he expressed support for the LGBT community and enthusiastically spoke of how, when he was in college, he examined the Castro’s evolution as a gay mecca.

The San Francisco native’s biggest public safety concern in the Tenderloin is drug dealing. Anyone who’s walked through the neighborhood probably has stories of being approached by dealers, and the station’s newsletter regularly lists arrests for sales of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs.

As for what to do about it, Cherniss said, “We’re not going to be able to arrest our way out” of the problem, but he keeps officers “visible” and encourages property owners not to leave locations “blighted.”

In his September newsletter, Cherniss featured gay Tenderloin resident Aja Monet, 44, as the Citizen of the Month.

Among other activities, Monet, who is HIV-negative, sits on the HIV Prevention Planning Council, an advisory group to the city’s health department that sets priorities for HIV prevention. He’s also hoping to have an LGBT Pride event in the Tenderloin next year.

Monet, who came to San Francisco in 1988, said that he used to smoke crack and work as a prostitute “off and on.”

Now, he’s been off drugs for five years, and he works on graffiti removal and other issues in the area.

The neighborhood hasn’t been as impacted by development as the Market Street corridor just a few blocks away, but he thinks more development is coming to the Tenderloin.

“They’re running out of places to build,” he said.

Monet didn’t show any interest in leaving the district, and he said he feels “very safe” there.

“I think somebody called me a motherfucking faggot” a few months ago, but “that was someone that didn’t know me,” he said.

“People in the neighborhood ... they don’t talk like that.”t

LGBTQ Connect event next week

The Marin AIDS Project is cel-

ebrating its 30th year with a benefit Thursday, October 16 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Marin Yacht Club, 24 Summit Avenue in San Rafael.

The Reverend Jane Spahr, a lesbian and founder of the AIDS project, will be the agency’s honored guest. Current and former board members, staff, volunteers, donors, and clients will also be attending, according to Executive Director Jennifer Malone.

The festive party will feature Cheer-San Francisco; a live dance band will provide ongoing entertainment.

The Marin AIDS Project is the only HIV/AIDS agency serving the residents of Marin County. Services include case management, benefits counseling, mental health, emergency and supportive services, prevention, testing, and education. It also runs the county’s only syringe exchange program and has a food pantry that operates daily.

Tickets for the anniversary party are $30 in advance or $40 at the door. To purchase tickets online, visit www.marinaidsproject.org.

The San Francisco Department

of Elections has begun training poll workers and people who are interested in working on November 4 can still apply. For one-day of service, poll workers receive a stipend that varies between $142 and $195, depending on the assignment.

Applicants must be registered voters in California or permanent residents of the U.S. and 18 years of age or older. Teens participating through the high school student poll worker program must be at least 16 years of age by Election Day and get permission from all teachers and parents or guardians.

Interested people must apply in person at the poll worker hiring office, which is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located in the Department of Elections, basement of City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. High school students are encouraged to apply through the student program.

For more information, visit www. sfelections.org/pollworker or call (415) 554-4395.t

the ban). The 9th Circuit’s decision adds five more.

But marriages in Idaho won’t begin right away. On Wednesday Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy granted a stay, preventing the 9th Circuit’s ruling from going into effect.

In the 34-page opinion released October 7, 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that the state bans violate the constitutional rights to equal protection and due process “because they deny lesbians

and gays who wish to marry persons of the same sex a right they afford to individuals who wish to marry persons of the opposite sex, and do not satisfy the heightened scrutiny standard we adopted in SmithKline.”

In the 34-page opinion released October 7, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that the state bans violate the constitutional rights to equal protection and due process “because they deny lesbians and gays who wish to marry persons of the same

sex a right they afford to individuals who wish to marry persons of the opposite sex, and do not satisfy the heightened scrutiny standard we adopted in SmithKline.”

In that case, GlaxoSmithKline v. Abbott Laboratories, the judges ruled that LGBTs couldn’t be excluded from federal juries based solely on their orientation or gender identity. “... The lessons of our constitutional history are clear: inclusion strengthens, rather than weakens,

our most important institutions,” wrote Reinhardt in the marriage decision. “When we integrated our schools, education improved. When we opened our juries to women, our democracy became more vital.

When we allowed lesbian and gay soldiers to serve openly in uniform, it enhanced unit cohesion. When same-sex couples are married, just as when opposite-sex couples are married, they serve as models of See page 10 >>

information, visit www.alrp.org or contact Jim McBride, director of development, at (415) 701-1200, ext.

301 or jim@alrp.org.

NCCD to honor Fruitvale Station director

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency will honor Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler at its Media for a Just Society Awards Wednesday, October 15 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at the San Francisco Jazz Center, 201 Franklin Street.

Coogler directed last year’s critically acclaimed film about the shooting of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale BART station in 2009.

Guests at the benefit will include Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black: A Year in a Women’s Prison, which has been adapted into a Netflix hit; and keynote speaker Sonja Sohn of HBO’s The Wire.

Tickets are $100-$150 and can be purchased online at www.nccdglobal.org.

Marin AIDS Project turns 30

San Francisco’s Project Homeless Connect will hold its second annual LGBTQ Connect Friday, October 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

LGBTQ Connect provides a safe space for individuals to access hundreds of city services in one afternoon. The first event last fall attracted hundreds of people.

It was held because the Homeless Point-in-Time Count released in June 2013 showed that 29 percent of homeless San Franciscans identify as LGBTQ. Officials said that providers at the event are chosen based on responsiveness to the specific health and safety needs of the LGBTQ homeless population. All community volunteers will receive sensitivity training prior to the event.

There is no cost to attend.

Elections department seeks poll workers

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

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Marriage bans

From page 9

loving commitment to all.”

Tara Borelli, senior attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund that represented plaintiffs in the Nevada case, Sevcik v. Sandoval, said her group is “delighted” with the result.

Serving with Reinhardt (an appointee of President Carter) on the panel were two other judges appointed by a Democratic president (Bill Clinton): Ronald Gould and Marsha Berzon.

Nevada state officials did not attempt to defend their law and are unlikely to seek an appeal from the full circuit. While Borelli said samesex couples in that state can expect to marry soon, she noted that the court “remanded Lambda Legal’s Nevada marriage equality case to the district court for the prompt issuance of an injunction permanently enjoining the state, its political subdivisions, and its officers, em-

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Editorial

From page 6

depends on this. Much of EBMUD’s 4,000 miles of pipelines are reaching the end of their lifespan and Young wants to be part of the change that is needed in the district. She is endorsed by key EBMUD board members (current and retired), and water officials from other agencies. She would bring a fresh perspective to the board.

In the Ward 4 seat, incumbent Andy Katz has our endorsement.

Katz is a bi man who was first elected in 2006. He’s a clean air attorney and public health advocate for Breathe California. He supports the district’s efforts to expand water conservation programs and double

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Woman hit

From page 4

that her name only be published as Kay. Bacon said she had “no idea” how Earina identified, but she said, “I guess” as a lesbian.

Bacon has said her daughter “can have her mood swings, but she has a big heart, and she’s a very outgoing, loving person.”

Kay, 52, who’s raising her grandson, said in a phone interview that

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Assembly race

From page 1

A short while later Campos responded, “I am trying to stay positive here while David attacks me.

When you are losing at the polls that is what you do.”

Held at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, the candidate forum drew less than 50 people, with a majority of the audience a group of elderly Asian Americans who came to support Chiu.

Moderator Cheryl Jennings, an ABC 7/KGO TV news anchor, repeatedly admonished the candidates “to not make personal attacks” throughout the 35-minute forum.

ployees and agents, from preventing same-sex couples from marrying or denying recognition to marriages entered outside of the state.”

“Same-sex couples will not be able to enforce their right to marry until that happens,” said Borelli, “but government officials in Nevada may allow same-sex couples to marry before then.”

There was no word at press time as to whether Idaho officials, which did attempt to defend their ban in Otter v. Latta, would seek such an appeal.

“This also paves the way for victories in Arizona, Alaska, and Montana,” noted Borelli, adding, however, that “further orders would need to be entered to bind the parties in those cases, but the law of the circuit is now clear.”

The opinion rejected “out of hand” an argument by defenders of the ban that allowing same-sex couples to marry would cause heterosexual couples with children to conclude that a father is unnecessary.

“This proposition reflects a crass and callous view of parental love and

the parental bond that is not worthy of response,” wrote Reinhardt.

In another dramatic section, Reinhardt blasts defenders for claiming to care about protection of children.

“If defendants really wished to ensure that as many children as possible had married parents,” he wrote, “they would do well to rescind the right to no-fault divorce, or to divorce altogether.” Neither state has done so, he noted. “... In extending the benefits of marriage only to people who have the capacity to procreate, while denying those same benefits to people who already have children, Idaho and Nevada materially harm and demean same-sex couples and their children.” “... Classifying some families, and especially their children, as of lesser value should be repugnant to all those in this nation who profess to believe in ‘family values,’” wrote Reinhardt. “In any event, Idaho and Nevada’s asserted preference for opposite-sex parents does not, under heightened scrutiny, come close to

justifying unequal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation.”

In a statement, attorney Deborah Ferguson, who represented the Idaho couples in their case, Latta v. Otter, along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, hailed the decision.

“The court’s ruling is a victory not only for the courageous couples who brought this case, but for our entire state and every state in the 9th Circuit,” Ferguson said. “The decision affirms the fundamental principles of equality and fairness for gay and lesbian couples. As the court recognized, these families are part of Idaho’s community, and our Constitution requires that they be given the same legal protections and respect as other families.”

A federal district court judge had upheld Nevada’s ban, but the district court in Idaho had struck that state’s ban down. Reinhardt noted that the Idaho court was influenced by the Ninth Circuit decision in SmithKline v. Abbott but that decision had not yet been issued when the Nevada court issued its decision.t

San Mateo County Harbor Commission

Recent media accounts have publicized the anti-gay verbal bullying that lesbian Richmond City Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles has endured since winning

her seat four years ago.

Now she is up for re-election and we strongly urge voters in the East Bay city to return her to office. In her first term, she initiated a minimum wage increase in the city, assisted in the creation of a workplace bullying policy, and improved police-community relations, according to her website. Beckles helped small business owners and supported efforts to bring more jobs to the Port of Richmond. She’s a strong progressive voice on the council who has worked effectively with residents and community leaders to improve the city.

she wasn’t at the apartment when Earina was hit.

She said when she’d left for the store just before the incident to get supplies for a barbeque, Earina was asleep.

Earina is “a sweet young lady” who “makes me laugh,” Kay said, adding, “I love Ray Ray.” Owens is “not a violent person,” she said. “I thought they were cool ... I don’t know what the hell happened.” Owens didn’t live in the

apartment but had stayed there “off and on,” she said.

A woman who answered the door at Kay’s home Monday afternoon said she hadn’t been there when Owens struck Earina, and nobody else was available to talk. The woman, who didn’t want her name published, was keeping an eye on an infant who appeared to be Owens’s son as she spoke. A sign on the front door publicized visiting hours for the unit.

In court Friday, Lilien said, “Most of the witnesses involved seem to have fairly extensive criminal histories.” Afterward, he said he didn’t yet know more specific information.

Lilien said that since the case is being charged as a premeditated attempted murder, it carries the possibility of a life sentence.

Bacon said she doesn’t want a “lengthy trial.”

“He tried to kill my daughter, and he’s going to pay,” she said.t

While Campos touted his championing free Muni rides for low- and middle-income students, Chiu countered that he “couldn’t get the funding.

I talked to Google and others; I got it done,” referring to the tech company’s $6.8 million gift in February to fund the program for two years.

Chiu’s retort was met with disbelief

by Campos, who said, “You can not rewrite facts. Anyone who worked on funding free Muni for youth would be shocked to hear Chiu say that. We got funding at the SFMTA.” The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board, in response to vocal lobbying by Campos and others, voted in 2012 to fund the pilot program, which launched

on March 1, 2013.

“I have fought to bring millions of transit funding to San Francisco,” said Campos, who represents the city on the Bay Area-wide Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “It is one thing to talk about something and another thing to actually do something.

I am going to be the best advocate for transit funding in Sacramento.”

Based on the latest campaign finance reports released Monday, October 6 by the secretary of state’s office, the two candidates raised similar amounts from donors over the summer.

Campos reported raising $369,821.26 between July 1 and the end of September. He listed having

ma, Washington. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Puget Sound and did doctoral work at Colorado University. Settling in San Francisco in 1968 he was on the science faculty of Balboa High School for several years and taught one of the first courses on ecology at Laney College in Oakland.

For 20 years, Craig’s home in an 18room Victorian on Broadway was the site for bridge and journal writing groups and festive – four operating fireplaces – holiday parties.

He is survived by relatives in Tacoma and local friends.

was 44 years old.

Tony was an artist, performer, and professional industrial designer; all these endeavors reflected his unique sensibility and often his outlandish humor. In his everyday life, Tony was constantly creating and highly prolific. He saw even the most routine tasks as an opportunity to make something exciting and beautiful. Tony’s influence is widespread and his creative energy will continue to be a source of inspiration for family, friends, and colleagues. He will truly be missed.

Tony is survived by his mother, Laurie; and his siblings, Karen, Korinne, Lisa, and John.

Friends and family are invited to attend the memorial service, which will be held on Monday, October 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Neptune Society of Northern California Columbarium, 1 Loraine Court, San Francisco.

Tony requested that memorial donations in his name be made to GLBT Historical Society, 657 Mission Street, Suite 300, San Francisco.

Tony has also requested that you “Do Your Thing!” Meow.

$230,624.86 in cash on hand.

But Chiu’s report shows him having a cash advantage headed into the final weeks of the campaign. He raised $376,910.66 post his first place finish in the June primary and reported having a cash balance of $543,710.15.

Further bolstering Chiu’s efforts to win the Assembly seat is an independent expenditure committee called San Franciscans to Hold David Campos Accountable. It reported raising $349,900 between July and September, with $207,666 remaining in the bank.

The committee’s only donors are venture capitalist Ron Conway and his wife, Gayle, and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who this year has given $500,000 toward the independent expenditure committee.

They paid for hit pieces in the spring that criticized Campos for voting to keep Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi in office despite his guilty plea on domestic violence charges stemming from an incident involving his wife in 2011.

The issue came up again at last week’s forum.

“We did not send the right signal when David and a couple of his cronies voted to keep the sheriff in office,” said Chiu.

Campos countered that Chiu had no qualms endorsing another member of the board who also voted against ousting the sheriff and that he recently saw Conway “hug this other board member.” He was referring to District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who is up for re-election this November.

“It is outrageous for David Chiu and his backers to politicize the issue of domestic violence,” said Campos.t

recycled water projects.

According to information on the EBMUD website, during his time on the board Katz initiated policies protecting tenants in apartment buildings from water service termination and expanded the district’s customer Jane Philomen Cleland assistance program for Richmond Vice low-income households. Mayor Jovanka

Richmond City Council

Beckles

Obituaries >> Craig T. (Calvin) Anderson September 19, 1941 – September 27, 2014 Known best as Calvin Anderson, the creator of Sierra Domino Studio, Craig T. Anderson, 73, died September 27, 2014; three years earlier a stroke seriously paralyzed him and left him speechless.

Craig was one of the earliest photographers of black males (1970s) producing photos, slides, a newsletter, magazines, and cocktail books (Rhapsody in Black, Janssen, 2002) for an international clientele. His lifelong hobby in trains led to his publication of one of the first books on Amtrak (1978), which is now, as much of his work in Sierra Domino, in the collector’s realm.

A true Renaissance man, Craig’s interests included early California painting, carnival glass, and having an antique store in the early 1980s.

Craig was born in Long Beach, California but lived much of his early life in Taco-

Anthony J. Meredith September 1, 1970 – September 28, 2104 Anthony J. Meredith passed away at his home in San Francisco, Sunday morning, September 28, 2014. He succumbed to complications due to motor neuron disease. He

For this municipal race, we recommend incumbent Robert Bernardo, a former South San Francisco planning commissioner. Bernardo, who is a gay man, works at the Port of Oakland but has long lived in San Mateo County. The harbor district oversees the operation of two public harbors, Oyster Point in South San Francisco and Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay. During his first term, according to information on the harbor commission website, Bernardo championed a budget to pay off the district’s $19.7 million debt a year ahead of schedule.

He has been an effective commissioner and will continue working for policies to enhance the harbors.t

t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036045500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNLEASHEDLEADERS, 177 HANCOCK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WAI POC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/16/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036034400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MUNDUS TECHNOLOGIES, 226 10TH AVE, # 1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLOS JALLES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/09/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/09/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036041200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BENT., 759 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAYLOR CUFFARO. 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 09/12/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036014200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KOROV CREATIONS, 380 MONTEREY BLVD, #209, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MADDIE SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/18/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/22/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036043800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAYA WERX, 74 NEW MONTGOMERY ST, #408, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIAN TABRIZI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/16/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036020200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIN CHERRY2, 2093 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARK TWYMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036039400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DACOMPANY; DA COMPANY TECH, 56 MOSS ST, #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WHITE SHELF, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036040100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPARKR, 680 MISSION ST., #41A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed OPEN DIALOGUES MENTORSHIP, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036037200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: P & S PROPERTIES, 2208 SUTTER ST, #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ANDREW G. STEWART, KARLA M. PETERSEN. 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 09/11/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036004300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMERICAN EAGLE OUTFITTERS, 49 STEVENSON ST, #800, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AE DIRECT CO. LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/22/13 The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/19/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036032800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRENDA’S MEAT & THREE, 919 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BISTRO AMERICAN, 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 09/08/14.

SEPT 18, 25, OCT 02, 09, 2014

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550643

In the matter of the application of: PATRICIA RAMOS, 334 NOE ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PATRICIA RAMOS is requesting that the name PATRICIA RAMOS, be changed to NINA RAMOS HARRISON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 11th of December, 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036037700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VARTAN, 1005 MARKET ST #301, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLY ANN ROSE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/31//14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/11/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036048300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ITMC SERVICES, 388 WILDE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL M. JOHNSON. 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 09/18/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036040300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ERIK ALMAS CELLARS, 1110 PAGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ERIK ALMAS PHOTOGRAPHY, 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 09/12/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036047000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BTL TRADE, INC., 71 APOLLO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BTL, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12//14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036047800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALING THE BODY AND SOUL, 501 CRESCENT WAY #5202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed MOJGAN DAVACHI & SEYED MIRARABSHAHI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036049200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ONYA CELLARS, 2455 THIRD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed J2 WINERY 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 09/18/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036065000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE STATE GARAGE, 818 LEAVENWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109 . This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALAIN ETCHEVERRY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036065600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEN BEAUTY SPA, 1734 LOMBARD ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BICH TNGOC HUYNH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036058000

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036058800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER SAVE SUPERMARKET, 4517 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AOE SUPERMARKET, 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 09/24/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036054200

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA CHIDA, 2948 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LA CHIDA 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 09/22/14.

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

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OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036059500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OZ; OZ PIZZA; 508 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KAYSEKI, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036051300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WISE CORPS, 6555 DANA CT, CASTRO VALLEY, CA 94552. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MODO CORPUS, LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036035600

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JDESIGNBUILD, 77 LEESE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUSTIN L. WALSH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/14.

_ OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014____ FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036062900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MPOWER CONSULTING, 1045 LAKE ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MELINDA LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/14.

Household Services>>

ebar.com

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036052800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 500 ENTERTAINMENT, 17 PROSPECT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036044500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BENT, 759 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAYLOR CUFFARO. 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 09/16/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036068000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAFFI’S JEWELRY, 888 BRANNAN ST, #2015 #126, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFFI KHATCHADOURIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/30/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036070600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PROCAM PRODUCTIONS, 222 MONCADA WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL ANDERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/99. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036073300

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036040500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO FARMERS MARKET, 4929 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DALY CITY MARKET (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KUMON OF BERNAL HEIGHTS, 3403 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DCCT SOLUTIONS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: F & S TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, 240 GRAFTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAM GUOCHENG YU & FENGLI MA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/24/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUNTIE LAN’S, 1031 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAN FONG ENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOG CITY MULTIMEDIA, 50 SAN GABRIEL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FOG CITY MULTIMEDIA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/30/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014

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20

Fabulous fun

California art

18

Out &About

Waltz steps

17

O&A

15

The

Vol. 44 • No. 41 • October 9-15, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Having a ball at the opera house T





by Philip Campbell

Dolora Zajick as Madame Arvidson in San Francisco Opera’s A Masked Ball.

here were many distractions last Saturday night in the city and the nation and the world as the San Francisco Opera presented its opening-night revival of the company’s “classic” production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball). The early-October heat wave had everyone moving a little slower (especially crosstown traffic), Yom Kippur was ending at sundown, and the Giants were still battling for their 18-inning, record-breaking playoffgame win. The opera community was also still buzzing about the ramifications of SFO General Director David Gockley’s announcement, on the previous morning, of his retirement in two years.

See page 23 >>

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

by Erin Blackwell

E

arth is experiencing its Sixth Extinction, the first caused by humans. Well, we weren’t around for the other five. The Fifth did in the dinosaurs, paving the way for mammals to rise up in the jungles 65 million years ago. At the top of the heap came homo sapiens, who are mere primates, not fearsome carnivores. Nonetheless, we have the ultimate weapon. The huge human brain, developed

to juggle complex social relations, has led us inch by inch to total dominion over our fellow creatures. One of the most uncanny expressions of our power is the practice of taxidermy. As part of Litquake, Robert Marbury’s Taxidermy Art (Artisan Books, $18.95) is being celebrated at Paxton Gate on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m.

See page 23 >>

Kate Clark, Rivalry, from Taxidermy Art by Robert Marbury (Artisan Books), copyright 2014.

Robert Marbury

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

www.castromerchants.com

facebook.com/castromerchants

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

A column named desire

by Roberto Friedman

E

rotic desires, aspiring dancers, ambitious theatre plans, and lipsyncing drag queens – it’s quite a full house in the old Out There column this week!

First up, the Center for Sex and Culture is presenting the group exhibition Dark Desires: The Erotic Lives of Black Women through Nov. 15, with an opening reception on Fri., Oct. 10, from 7-10 p.m. Gallery director Dorian Katz says the theme of the show is, “What is the role of desire in the lives of black women – cis, trans, and woman-identified? Dark Desires answers this question by exploring the history of the black erotic, broadly speaking, with a particular interest in black female-identified sexual subjectivities. Dark Desires features a selection of material from the Center’s library and archive.

“On Sat., Oct. 11, from 7-9 p.m., we will screen A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy, which we will follow with a Q&A of director, writer, producer Dennis Dortch and co-producer and Dark Desires artist Numa Perrier.” The show and screening take place at the Center for Sex and

Culture, 1349 Mission St., SF. More info is at sexandculture.org/gallery.

Stars of the future

It’s that time of year when the San Francisco Ballet School announces the deserving recipients of the Bob Ross (B.A.R. co-founder) Scholarship, the Keith White (B.A.R. dance writer) Memorial Scholarship, and the Eric Hellman (B.A.R. arts writer) Memorial Scholarship for the 2014-15 school year.

The Bob Ross Scholarship was awarded to 18-year-old Nathaniel Remez, from Washington, DC, who attended the SFBS 2013 and 2014 summer programs and 2014-15 school year. The Keith White Memorial Scholarship was given to 16-year-old Kamryn Baldwin, from Indianapolis, who attended the 2013 summer program and 2013-14 school year. And the recipient of the Eric Hellman Memorial Scholarship is 16-yearold Sarah Drake, who attended the 2013 and 2014 summer programs and 2014-15 school year.

Congratulation, young dancers!

Meanwhile, A.C.T. gave journalists a hard-hat tour of their renovation of the Strand Theater on

mid-Market St. last week, and Out There was in the house. The former grindhouse will make a spectacular showcase for the theater when it opens at the start of their 2014-15 season, with genius playwright Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, a play about our apparently boundless appetite for data – pretty appropriate for Twitterville, no?

The new Strand will keep the 95-year-old building’s historic façade and the feel of its architectural fabric, but add a double-story lobby with a glass wall overlooking Market, a gigantic LED screen that will function as a “community billboard,” and beautiful facilities. The neon letters from the old marquee will spell out STRAND on an interior wall. Watch for more to come on this game-changing project in these pages.

Queens for a day

Tranimation Studios stages so-called “Dragsical” productions, stage plays that pay homage to different film genres. A cast of drag celebrities performs fully lip-synced productions of titles such as The Next Element, Batman is Dead, Freeway and Heathers. This season’s Dragsical, Swan Queen, explores the perils of perfection in a tribute to all things dance. The fourth Thursday-night performance at the

t

Courtesy of the artist and the Center for Sex and Culture

“Blonde Ambition” by Michaela Pilar Brown, part of Dark Desires: The Erotic Lives of Black Women.

Supperclub in San Francisco happens tonight (Oct. 9). Drag queens will appear on pointe and up in the air: scary!

The cast includes Joshua Thake (Chastitiy Belle) of Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, as the Swan Queen; Suppositori Spelling as the Black Swan; Trixxie Carr as the Dying Swan; Raya Light as

the Queen; Rahni NothingMore as Veronica; Glamamore as the Mistress; Nic Candito as the Gentleman; Travis Rowland (Qween) as Fantasia; and Joseph Copley as the Prince. The playwright-producer-director is Jason Hannan, and costume design/artistic consultant is Mr. David. For tix, go to swanqueen.eventbrite.com.t

an intimate, almost voyeuristic feeling. The film trumpets its artistic influences from the East Village art scene of the 1980s, as well as being a homage to Andy Warhol. Clips from Warhol’s gay landmark movie Kiss (1963) are shown to underscore Krueckeberg’s debt. And the discoish soundtrack mirrors the plot’s emotional roller coaster as well as advancing the film.

Camp is a real-life go-go dancer, as well a successful artist, and his life (but not the relationship with Doc) is the inspiration for the film. Camp seems to spend 3/4 of the film in skimpy underwear (which he designs), in his “costumes” for dancing or in bed with Cohen. He radiates a natural sexual charisma along with an intelligent and sweet personality, being quite comfortable in front of the camera. He has a James Deanlike energy and is touching in drawing out Cohen’s character, who sees himself as a sexual misfit.

Cohen has an adorable quality and is probably a more skillful actor than Camp, but the film clearly belongs to Camp. There are some sexy love scenes that are hot and tender (especially the initial erotic seduction) with both actors naked, so

Doc gets to live out his fantasies. He discovers, however, that real life is different from Internet daydreaming. Go is not the perfect man he had envisioned, since he is narcissistic, emotionally needy, and not monogamous, which creates problems, as does the expose of Doc’s ruse to entrap his subject.

The film presents two themes.

One is Doc’s documentary thesis that “assimilation is the clear goal of the queer community if equality is ever to be won,” challenged

by Go’s assertion that “assimilation has castrated queer culture by denying humanity’s radical need for diversity.” This conflict is nicely played out in the dynamics of their personal relationship. The second theme is Krueckeberg’s implicit critique of gay men’s obsession with chat rooms and cyber sex, as being a barrier to forming relationships with real men possessing real bodies in real time. By the end of the film, Doc vows to be himself and give up cyberstalking, though viewers can decide how successful he will ultimately be.

The DVD comes with bonuses: still photos of Camp, and an insightful Q&A with Krueckeberg.t

Camp follower

by Brian Bromberger

M

atthew Camp’s gorgeous ass is a work of art! I refer to his anatomy because it is one of the star attractions in director Corey Krueckeberg’s effervescent yet edgy film Getting Go: The Go Doc Project, released last month on DVD by Wolfe Video.

Krueckeberg, at 40, is the Wunderkind of independent LGBT cinema, innovative in taking traditional genres like musicals and documentaries and turning them on their heads. He was the writer and producer of the enchanting Were the World Mine, a romantic screwballcomic satire musical inspired by Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which Timothy is trying to entice the seemingly unattainable Jonathon to fall in love with him via

a magic potion. Charming and bewitching are also fitting descriptions of Getting Go, which casts a spell over the audience in Krueckeberg’s directorial debut (he is the writer and editor as well). It stars Tanner Cohen and probable future sensation Matthew Camp.

Go is a hybrid between documentary and fiction film. It opens with a 20something, nerdy Columbia University student named Doc (Cohen), originally from Iowa, ready to graduate in three weeks, jerking off on a live webcam session to his latest online obsession, a go-go dancer named Go (Camp).

This is a story about what happens when lust turns into love. Too shy to follow through on his cyber crush, he concocts a hoax to shoot a documentary about the New York City nightlife scene with Go as his star

and muse. Doc drunk-posts Go to entice him to let him be filmed at work, home, and trekking throughout Manhattan (the movie is a love letter to the city, as it features various landmark locations, as well as Fire Island). With a few small requirements, Go allows himself to be Doc’s guinea pig, as he has never previously made a film. Eventually Doc becomes part of his own documentary as it begins to chronicle his developing summer fling with Go. Slowly, Go starts to turn the tables on Doc by asking him personally revealing questions.

The film concentrates almost completely on the two main characters, and they have a superb screen chemistry. The use of split screens and visual montages keeps the film moving. Many scenes are shot with a hand camera, which gives them

t

Theatre>>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Somewhere over the Grand Canal

by Richard Dodds

S

tephen Sondheim has written hits, misses, and succes d’estime.

By his own account, he has only one “Why?” musical to his credit.

That would be Do I Hear a Waltz?, a 1964 musical that had everything going for it except a genuine reason for existing in the first place. It was a condition that led to largely passionless results, but not necessarily unpleasant ones.

The pleasant is certainly present in 42nd Street Moon’s revival of the musical at the Eureka Theatre, a production that is also able to locate veins of passion thanks to Broadway veteran Emily Skinner’s estimable embrace of a not-always-lovable central character. Leona Samish is a woman with a distrust of happiness, a tourist in Venice who sings in her opening number that the beauty of the city was conjured just to make her cry.

Do I Hear a Waltz? was composer Richard Rodgers’ first collaboration with another lyricist following the death of Oscar Hammerstein II. Sondheim took the job, reluctantly because of his own determination

to be recognized as a composer as well as a lyricist, and found in Rodgers not so much a collaborator as a commandant whose status as Broadway royalty was enhanced by the fact that he was also the show’s producer and final artistic arbiter.

In the musical, adapted by Arthur Laurents from his play The Time of the Cuckoo, Leona travels with her own martini shaker as a lure to keep fellow travelers from leaving her behind at the hotel. But leave they do, and on one of Leona’s solo meanderings around Venice, she is easily wooed by a sweet-talking shopkeeper who, one suspects, has been down this canal before. When she finally hears the internal waltz she has long pined for, we also suspect that the music cannot last.

Skinner hits all the right notes as Leona, creating a character who both pushes and pulls at our sympathies. Unlike her character, Skinner finds easy rapport with her onstage colleagues and pitches her performance at a level that doesn’t overpower the cast of varying professional experience. Director Greg MacKellan has smoothly assembled the scaled-down pieces that also

include Dave Dobrosky’s musical direction and Brittany Danielle’s low-key choreography.

One might wish for a more robust vocal delivery from a too-young but suitably suave Tyler McKenna as Leona’s love interest. Michael Rhone, Lucinda Hitchcock Cone, David Naughton, and Abby Samons adeptly play fellow tourists, with the latter two getting a little more dramatic meat on their bones as a couple with its own mini-drama. Stephanie Rhoads brings expansive warmth to the role of the innkeeper, and Taylor Bartolucci adds a comic touch as an English-challenged servant. Jonah Broscow is an appealing youngster with a confident hold on his role as Leona’s informal guide to Venice.

It was rough sailing for the creators of Do I Hear a Waltz?, but the choppy waters are not apparent 50 years later. If this gondola is not sailing down the Grand Canal, it is at least aright in an inviting tributary.t Do I Hear a Waltz? will run through Oct. 19 at the Eureka Theatre. Tickets are $25- $75. Call 255-8207 or go to 42ndstmoon.org.

Patrick O’Connor

Emily Skinner plays a solo traveler in Venice who finds romance with a suave Italian played by Tyler McKenna in 42nd Street Moon’s Do I Hear a Waltz?

In search of lost translation

by Tim Pfaff

F

or generations of Anglophone readers, C.K. Scott Moncrieff ’s translation was the only inroad to Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust’s great, sprawling novel.

Controversial from the beginning, its free rendering of Proust’s singular prose was alternately considered its great strength or its damning weakness. But for every voice decrying the looseness of the translation – starting with its title, borrowed from a Shakespeare sonnet, as well as the sometimes cryptic new titles of most of the individual volumes; the overall title now is generally rendered more literally as In Search of Lost Time – there was a competing voice calling the translation an improvement on the original. A new biography of Moncrieff reveals that Virginia Woolf, who had previously resisted Proust, called reading the translation “akin to a sexual experience.”

Jean Findlay’s remarkable Chasing Lost Time: The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Soldier, Spy and Translator (Chatto & Windus, and now in an international edition) brings the man who was also her great-great uncle out of Proust’s shadow to reveal the multifaceted individual, born Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff on Sept. 25, 1889, who packed an enormous amount of living and writing into 41 years.

The book dispels the myths that, despite the dangers he faced and survived as a soldier on the front in WWI and a spy between the great wars, it was translating Proust that killed Moncrieff (whom she always calls Charles, helpful to the reader considering the family’s tangled genealogy, another of Charles’ lifelong pursuits) and that Proust objected to his Scottish translator’s rendering of his masterpiece.

Without making unjust claims about the quality of Moncrieff’s translation of Proust, while delving deeply into his painstaking translation methods, Findlay shows that the last indications were that Proust, who didn’t let his meager knowledge of English stop him from translating Ruskin, both approved of Moncrieff’s translation and recognized its value in the dissemination of his game-changing work of fiction. I got rid of Moncrieff’s “standard” translation in order to

Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff at 23: he gave this photo to gay war poet Wilfred Owen, among others.

turn to the putatively more faithful new Penguin translations (with a different translator for each of its six volumes). Findlay’s satisfyingly complete biography, made possible by her access to private family records (which she treats with scholarly integrity), has sent me scrambling back to used-book stores in search of the lost translation, and Moncrieff’s equally influential translations of Stendahl, Pirandello and others.

Proust and his first English translator, who as younger men nearly met but did not, crucially shared identities as homosexuals, the novelist more discreetly and less compulsively than his sexually active translator. To call either writer (Moncrieff was also a widely published poet, story-writer, and critic) “closeted” is misleading revisionism. Given the historical context, it’s hard to imagine another early-20th-century

wordsmith better qualified to translate Proust (or Petronius’ Satyricon), particularly the volume now known

by Proust’s own title, Sodom and Gomorrah. In circumstances recalling the censorship of James Joyce’s Ulysses (Joyce learned his Proust in Moncrieff’s translation), it was Moncrieff who saw that that volume could doom the larger novel to publishing oblivion, and called it instead Cities of the Plain.

“He was well aware that the active and promiscuous homosexual world described by Proust was offensive to most people, so in his translation he had tried to soften the blow by not being as direct as Proust could be in French, using euphemism and hidden innuendo where he could,” Findlay writes. “On the other hand this was the world in which he himself lived, but had always had to hide.”

The overall impression left by her biography is of a man who knew himself well, the good and the bad, the strengths and the weaknesses, even if the most personally crippling of the latter was his shame at his homosexual desires and the acts and relationships – and near- and missed relationships – they led him to. The author leads us to see the man’s innermost self in his poetry, liberally quoting it throughout the book. None of the verse is uninteresting – and the bawdy limericks are anything but – but it is from Moncrieff himself that we hear, truthfully, “I don’t write good poetry, and fortunately I know it.”

But he knew who did, and his trenchant advocacy of his fellow gay war poet Wilfred Owen – the real thing – despite the fact that Owen did not return Moncrieff ’s romantic attentions, is merely the most compelling of the many aspects of Moncrieff ’s bravery and strong leadership as a solider on the battlefield recounted here. If there’s less detail than one would like in the account of his work as a spy in Italy, that’s likely due to the clandestine nature of that work, which

precluded a detailed written record.

What’s inescapable in the narrative is what an indefatigably hard worker, in a daunting variety of ways, Moncrieff habitually was. Although disability (his left leg was severely wounded in the war, with amputation a lifelong specter thereafter) and illness (stomach cancer not detected until far too late) made him complain about being sidelined, the reader sees instead how tirelessly prolific and productive he was.

Findlay speculates that his being stationed in Pisa, during one of the geographically most stable periods in his life, may have owed to Italy’s more relaxed attitudes about homosexuality. To his closest friend and confidant he wrote, credibly, “I have wild adventures every night under the leaning tower.” The only thing that might lead one to question that is this record of his work, his personal generosity and his tireless extending of himself, against his own personal reticence, into society – which for him included some of the most prominent people in the cultural world of his day, and a host of regular folks it was his natural inclination to help.t

<< Film

16 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

October treats at the Castro Theatre

by David Lamble

F

rom Vito Russo’s monumental The Celluloid Closet: “One of the last commercial films to have homosexuality removed from its script before the Code was changed was Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960). Dalton Trumbo’s screenplay contained a scene between Crassius (Laurence Olivier) and his young slave Antoninus (Tony Curtis), in which the older man subtly establishes his taste for both men and women.” Russo proceeds to quote the succulent scene, excised from the release print, in which the men weigh in on preferences for oysters vs. snails, one of the tastiest discussions of the queer/straight divide. With this scene missing, the only reason to catch this cinema trollop is to indulge a taste for men in bed sheets and loose-fitting sandals. The feast extends for 196 mins., plus intermission. Bon appetit! (10/11, 1 p.m.)

Sunrise (1927) The evening show is a poetic, hypnotic example of the pinnacle of silent cinema. The 8 p.m. screening will feature Warren Lubich on the mighty Wurlitzer.

(10/11) Key Largo (1948) Arguably the best of the Humphrey Bogart/ Lauren Bacall vehicles. John Huston directs, script by Huston and hardboiled auteur Richard Brooks. This 101-min. melodrama is based on a Maxwell Anderson play unfolding in a tacky seaside Florida hotel. The menu was tasty enough to earn a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for co-star Claire Trevor.

Harper (1966) First of two adventures by private dick Lew Harper.

Paul Newman sleepwalks throughout, but at least it’s top-grade hetero camp, with amusing self-caricatures from Bacall, Shelley Winters and Julie Harris. Newman would reprise the Ross Macdonald-created character in The Drowning Pool (1975).

Don’t come late, because the wittiest scene is Newman’s opening-credits battle with his Mr. Coffee machine. (both 10/12) Vertigo (1958) Of all Hitchcock’s top-drawer material, this chilly,

SF-lensed thriller is the hardest to sassy up to. Jimmy Stewart is a retired cop who becomes obsessed with an old pal’s estranged wife (Kim Novak). The retro shots of Stewart cruising around Nob Hill are matched only by Bernard Herrmann’s addictive score. (10/13, 14) Rome Open City (1945) Roberto Rossellini prowls through a newly liberated Rome, uncovering the still-open wounds left from the Nazi era. First of a war trilogy; the others were Paisan and Germany Year Zero.

The Fugitive Kind (1960) Provocative film treatment of Tennessee Williams’ Southern gothic play Orpheus Descending, powered by the appearance of a drifter (Marlon Brando) in a sultry redneck town. This Sidney Lumet film will divide the choir depending on your reaction to a cast headed up by Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton. (both 10/15) Magic in the Moonlight (2014) “While his gypsy-like family hopscotched between a dozen Brooklyn apartments, Allen Stuart Konigsberg amused his childhood friends with Magic 101.” Woody’s 1920s-era romantic comedy features a confidence-scheme plot straight out of a 40s Preston Sturges screwball classic like The Lady Eve. A bonus is the beauty of its pastoral South-of-France setting. (10/16) Midnight for Maniacs This ongoing series features two great B-flicks: The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan’s instant comicbook classic will be remembered for the late Heath Ledger’s Best Supporting Oscar turn as The Joker.

Reign of Fire (2002) Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale and Gerard Butler give us a big-titty great monster film for our time. (both 10/17) Bertolucci Series Get set for a four-film, 12-hour marathon with Parma, Italy’s modern master. With this quartet, Bertolucci demonstrates his worthiness for the great Italian-cinema crown.

The Conformist (1970) Several

Kirk Douglas as the revolting slave in Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus.

generations of film students can recite the major beats in this intense replication of Fascist Italy by heart. Great chameleon screenactor Jean-Louis Trintignant seems capable of surreal levels of betrayal.

Notable for a nasty third-act queer subplot.

The Sheltering Sky (1990) Bertolucci weaves a modern film classic out of queer novelist Paul Bowles’ claustrophobic tale of a trio of Americans going slowly mad in a very strange land.

The Last Emperor in 3D (1987) This nine-Oscar winner depicts the tragic fate of China’s last hereditary imperial ruler, crowned at three and overthrown during the 1949 revolution. With a great ensemble: John Lone, Joan Chen and Peter O’Toole.

Last Tango in Paris (1976) Marlon Brando shed all traces of Don Corleone with a career high as an American grieving his wife’s suicide who makes a fateful carnal bond with a younger European (Maria Schneider) in one of those great, dusty Parisian apartments.

Jean-Pierre Leaud pulls off an engaging supporting turn as a bratty young French filmmaker. (all 10/18) Lauren Bacall Tribute: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) Hollywood wordsmith Nunnally Johnson adapted two plays for three gals. Bacall has to beat back the screen-stealing antics of Marilyn

Monroe and Betty Grable as her bachelor-girl roommates in an early CinemaScope comedy from Fox. Written on the Wind (1956) Fifties kitschmeister Douglas Sirk makes nymphomania a thematic lynchpin in this Rock Hudson romcom showcase. (both 10/19) Alphaville (1965) Only devoted followers of French New Wave god Jean-Luc Godard can sit through this detective-caper send-up. With Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina and Sturges regular Akim Tamiroff.

Orpheus (1950) Jean Cocteau mixes visual and verbal poetry in this mythical tale whose original French version topped out at 112 mins., but which can be caught here at a slimmed-down 95. (both 10/21) A Most Wanted Man (2014) One of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last starring roles provides an excellent reason not to miss Anton Corbijn’s Hamburg-set thriller, adapted from John le Carre’s pulp fiction.

The Pawnbroker (1964) Sidney Lumet leaned heavily on his young editor Ralph Rosenblum to slice and dice disturbing images in this Holocaust-themed moral tale that follows a broken soul (Rod Steiger) from a shabby Harlem pawnshop back to the Nazi death camps. One scene that’s worth the ticket price has a miserable Steiger hallucinating on an uptown train as Lumet thrusts us back into the man’s past

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in a boxcar headed for the Nazi death camps. Fans of this masterpiece should consult Rosenblum’s deft description of its breakthrough editing tricks in his memoir When the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins (1979). (both 10/22) The Black Cat (1934) Dewy-eyed honeymooners make the mistake of tangling with ghouls (the delicious duo of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) in a haunted mansion dripping with atmosphere. The legendary Edgar G. Ulmer directs this early Universal Studio fright-fest.

The Raven (1935) Lugosi and Karloff return with murder and revenge on their minds in this 61-min.

Universal-backlot cheapie. (both 10/23) Ghostbusters (1984) Aykroyd, Murray and Ramis are frightfully young-looking in this big box-office smash “paranormal” comedy-action fest, the epitome of Reagan-era Hollywood.

Innerspace (1987) After a dastardly experiment, Dennis Quaid finds himself inside the bloodstream of a fearful supermarket checkout clerk (Martin Short). Joe Dante draws out all the wacky possibilities in this SFshot sci-fi farce. (both 10/24) Double bills (10/26, 27), both days: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Kubrick rewrote the rules for space opera in this awesome adaptation of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. The Tree of Life (2011) This Terrence Malick family epic took the top prize at Cannes. Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn excel in the elegiac tale of a son tracing his complicated relationship with a difficult father back to its 1950s Texas roots. (10/26 co-feature) Halloween (1978) John Carpenter’s original cheapie chillfest has survived numerous bad sequels. Here, Jamie Lee Curtis debuts as a sister fending off her lunatic brother’s blood lust.

Strange Behavior (1981) Openly gay screenwriter Bill Condon penned this small-town Midwestern nightmare and proudly B-movie fare.

With an unusually good cast featuring Michael Murphy and Louise Fletcher. (10/29)t

Elusive peace-making

by David Lamble

I

n the intimate new dramatic documentary The Green Prince, a young Palestinian man is recruited by his people’s enemies while serving a term in an Israeli prison.

Mosab Hassan Yousef would soon find himself living in a disorienting, upside-down world, as curious in its own way as the one Alice discovered after falling down the rabbit hole.

The son of a prominent Hamas leader whose fiery anti-Israeli speeches were recruiting ads for suicide bombers, the teenage Mosab was appalled by the human cost of his dad’s beliefs. Based on Mosab’s memoir Son of Hamas, the film explores the curious bond that develops between the young Palestinian and his gregarious Shin Bet (Israeli Internal Security Forces) handler Gonen Ben Yitzhak.

Back when I was a teenager, like Mosab in jail, my bombastic British dad would hector me with his “world view,” which took a dim view of Jews, Italians and everything else about America that had undermined and replaced his beloved British Empire. For me, the odd path past my dad’s prejudices and into my new identity as an honorary Jewish kid came from an introduction to Jewish writers, especially the early novels of Philip Roth. But in the spring of 1960, topic A was

a full-submersion baptism into the Leon Uris novel Exodus, and subsequently, the big-screen movie from director Otto Preminger, a version that downplayed Uris’ fervent Zionism in favor of the Hollywood treatment, with a virile Paul Newman and the seductively boyish (and, at the time, closeted) Sal Mineo as an impassioned Israeli boy freedom-fighter. Half-a-century later, The Green Prince affirms the seductive allure of “sleeping with (my dad’s) enemy.”

Framed by shots of an Israeli prison and videogame-like images of cars moving slowly across a green screen-tinged game board, director Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince is essentially a two-hander, almost a non-fiction play, where Mosab and Gonen alternate with their versions of how the kid was brought on board and gradually became aware of Israeli plans to assassinate his dad. It’s both thrilling and unsettling to hear how Mosab let his dad know of the threat to his life, all the while becoming more and more embedded with his dad’s blood foes.

We glimpse two Mosabs: one, a slightly chubby teen who handled his dad’s public appearances; and two, today’s version, a movie-starhandsome adult who’s amazed at his own perilous journey, from the life of a West Bank-residing “traitor to the cause,” to a bestselling author

enjoying an American lifestyle in sunbelt locales like San Diego.

Equally curious is the Israeli agent’s efforts to make sure his “kid” got asylum in the U.S., a goal seemingly undermined by the determination of Homeland Security officials to deport Mosab back to the Middle East, where a bad fate seemed inevitable.

What are the virtues and pitfalls of this non-fiction film form that can undermine our normal propaganda detectors? First off, it’s good to see once-deadly foes renounce the dog-and-pony dogma of each side and come to a more human understanding of how people can live side-by-side peacefully despite possessing once-irreconcilably opposing views. The Green Prince also eschews the melodramatic devices of even art-house fiction fare, devices that insist on some kind of bloody showdown, or a perilous series of cliffhanging betrayals.

There have been several moments in the past two decades, especially during the Clinton era, when I mistakenly thought “peace was at hand.”

One such peace bubble was brutally burst by the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; then, around the end of Bill Clinton’s White House term, I remember talking with a Palestinian buddy about how “this time,” a lasting settlement was surely at hand. If

Courtesy Sundance Film Festival

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the title subject of director Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince.

nothing else, The Green Prince reaffirms the sad truth that real peace can remain elusive, despite how fervently real people desire it, and despite feel-good stories like that of Mosab and Gonen. The film also reminds us of how the needs and lives of real people are held hostage to and endangered by the inertia and cowardice of national leaders.

For me, going to school with

Jewish kids and developing crushes on Jewish boys was a liberating experience that, in an odd way, may have better prepared me for my big leap into queer life. Like Exodus was for me, The Green Prince could be a vehicle for young people today, realizing how much they have at stake in seeing that someday a journey from the West Bank to San Diego is truly no big deal.t

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Theatre>>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

It’s AbFab, sweetie darling!

Jon Bauer

(Left to right:) Dene Larson as Saffy, Annie Larson as Gran, Terry McLaughlin as Edina, Raya Light as Bubble, and ZsaZsa Lufthansa as Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous Live.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

S

ince 1992, the on-again, offagain BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous has kept audiences bowled over with laughter at the outrageous escapades of Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), a perpetually drunk, substance-abusing PR agent who’ll do just about anything in a vain attempt to remain “hip.” Edina is tame in comparison to her outrageous enabler of a best bud, Patsy (Joanna Lumley).

The ladies use their considerable financial resources in order to engage in the vices they indulged in during the “swinging, Mod London”

Edina is the center of gravity for the core characters. Besides Patsy, there are Edina’s daughter Saffy, her mother Gran, and her secretary Bubbles. Edina and Patsy totter through their London lives with a strong sense of high fashion, health fads, lots of meaningless sex, too many drugs and way too much booze. The sober and judgmental Saffy counterbalances her immature mum by being a great student, a virgin, and not prone to anything her mom likes. Gran meanders her way through the episodes irritating her daughter with stinging one-liners.

And Bubble assists/doesn’t help Edina in bizarre, high-fashion ways.

“Which drag queen or gay actor wouldn’t want to play Edina or Patsy?

They offer an incredible acting opportunity to misbehave in outrageous ways while dressing to the nines.”

– M. Christian Heppinstall

of decades ago. They are often rescued from themselves and each other by Edina’s embittered, cynical daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha).

Their side-splitting antics have attracted quite a following, including a few real-life celebs. Over the years, names such as Debbie Harry, Elton John, and Whoopi Goldberg have appeared on AbFab, as Edina/Patsy devotees call the series.

The AbFab cult continues to grow. Now you can get up-close and personal with Patsy and Edina as Absolutely Fabulous Live comes to Stage Werx in the Mission.

The B.A.R. spoke to M. Christian Heppinstall, Live’s producer and director. Heppinstall’s alter-ego ZsaZsa Lufthansa co-stars as Patsy.

David-Elijah Nahmod: Can you describe in greater detail what AbFab is, for newbies?

M. Christian Heppinstall: Absolutely Fabulous is the hit British sitcom from the last 20-plus years that spins around the lives of two badly behaved best friends, Edina and Patsy. The wealthy and spoiled

AbFab has built up quite a large gay following. Why is that, do you think?

Quite simply, which drag queen or gay actor wouldn’t want to play Edina or Patsy? They offer an incredible acting opportunity to misbehave in outrageous ways while dressing to the nines. I find that gay audiences have always loved the camp work I have directed, from my Rocky Horror Show to my camp satire set in an SF porn emporium, Midnight Soapscum. I think gays love camp and are attracted to comedies full of rapier wit, stinging barbs, indulgent lifestyles, and lots of sex, booze, drugs, clothes, make-up, wigs and accessories. In American TV, we saw the huge followings of shows running concurrently to AbFab, like Will & Grace or Sex and the City.

What does doing AbFab mean to you personally?

The chance to play such fun, naughty characters in a huge hit show with a global following. Jennifer Saunders scripts are

well-written, but don’t always zing along. Often there are quite meaningful dialogues about real problems, and then the jokes follow to lighten things up. The Edina-Saffy mother-daughter relationship is what the show spins around, and there are some pretty heart-wrenching moments between them. And of course, we watched Saffy grow up from 16, and eventually marry and have children. And then we finally meet the long-missing son, Serge.

Lots of meaningful character development, plots and themes to work with as an actor/director.

How did you approach your own development of the characters?

I didn’t want my actors to attempt to imitate the original actors. I cannot step into Joanna Lumley’s fabulous heels. We are not impersonators, we are actors bringing these characters to life with our love for them, but also with our acting craft.

Actors were directed to reach down deep and not to imitate outright.

Might this show appeal to a straight audience as well?

Yes. The cast isn’t fully in drag.

We saw a large straight audience for the recent productions of Sex & the City, Friends, and Shit & Champagne. This being San Francisco, the straight audience is used to seeing this, but they are also quite supportive because they see how fun it is. So our AbFab fits right in with this. We are presenting the scripts of season one, so you’ll see on stage pretty much what went on the telly, save for minor edits.t Absolutely Fabulous Live is now performing at Stage Werx, 446 Valencia St., SF (Thurs. at 8 p.m., Fri. at 11 p.m., through Dec. 12). For ticket & episode information, visit eventbrite.com/e/absolutely-fabulous-abfab-tickets-12641718721.

<< Out&About

18 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

Rhymes with Orange

by Jim Provenzano

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O&A

Fri 10

Out &About

Thu 9 Absolutely Fabulous @ Stage Werx Live stage versions of three episodes (one each night) of Jennifer Saunder’s BBC comedy show. $15-$25. Thu 8pm.

Fri 11pm. Oct. 9 & 10. Nov. 6 & 7, 13 & 14. Dec. 4 & 5, 11 & 12. 446 Valencia St. www.stagewerx.org

Aerial Dance Festival @ Zaccho Studio Inaugural festival of the best aerial performers and companies, plsy classes, including Bandaloop, Flyaway Productions, Zaccho Dance Theatre, with new works by Karl Gillick, Shannon Gray, Sandia Langlois and Chelsea O Riley. $15-$25 shows (Oct. 9-12, 8pm). $28-$100 classes (Oct. 5-11, various times). Thru Oct. 12. 1777 Yoesmite Ave. at Lane. zaccho.org

Kegan Marling

Brian Copeland @ The Marsh

Do I Hear a Waltz? @ Eureka Theatre

The prolific solo performer retrns with two of his shows in repertory: Not a Genuine Black Man (thu & Fri 8pm) and The Waiting Period (Sat 5pm). $30-$100. Thru Nov. 22. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.com

42nd Street Moon’s production of the rarely seen Rodgers-SondheimLaurents musical, about a lonely tourist in Venice, stars Tony nominee Emily Skinner. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. 42ndStMoon.org

Die, Mommy, Die! @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Flamenco Festival @ La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley

J. Conrad Frank (Katya SmirnoffSkyy) stars in the local production of Charles Busch’s campy comic play about a Hollywood family’s tragicomic exploits. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 2. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

9th annual concert of flamenco dance and music, with Jose Mendez, Mari Peña and Antonio Moya. $30-$50.

8pm. 3105 Shattuck Ave. (510) 8492568. www.lapena.org

Serving the Castro since 1981

ST T KE M AR

16TH ST CASTRO ST

La Mediterranee Noe @LaMedNoe

15TH ST NOE ST

Cafe | Restaurant | Catering 288 Noe Street, SF (415) 431-7210 lamednoe.com

ould that I’d list these in verse, descriptions wouldn’t be so terse. So please go see the art that’s listed, otherwise they’ll get evicted.

17TH ST

Imelda May @ The Fillmore The gorgeous UK pop rockabilly singer performs music from her new album Tribal. $25-$35. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. 346-6000. www.imeldamay. co.uk www.thefillmore.com

Jessica Merchant @ Books Inc. Food writer and blogger discusses Seriously Delish, her new recipe book.

7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Lest We Forget @ YBCA Remembering Radical San Francisco, a films series of documentaries thru Oct. 26. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Queer Events @ SF State University Professor Tina Takemoto discusses Performing Queer Failure: From Orientalism to Incarceration, artwork and performance that explore tissues of race queer identiy and sexuality against the history of Japanese American WWII internment camps.

12:30pm-2pm. Room 108, Humanities Bldg. Queer Shorts, a screening of several LGBT-themed short films.

5pm-7pm. Fine Arts Bldg. Both free.

1600 Holloway Ave. www.lca.sfsu. edu/events/

Yeast Nation @ Victoria Theatre Ray of Light Theatre company’s West Coast premiere of Tony Award winners Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman ( Urinetown ) lively new comic rock musical, set three billion years ago, about yeasts. Yup, yeasts. $25-$36.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Nov. 1.

2961 16th St. at Mission. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Fri 10 An Audience With Meow Meow @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Musical comedy features songs, sequins, satire and star Meow Meow. $29-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 19. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.BerkeleyRep.org

Arab Film Festival @ Various Cinemas Screenings of feature, short and documentary films about several Arab cultures. Opening night at the Castro Theatre. $10-$12. Thru Oct. 23. www.arabfilmfestival.org

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Ideation @ SF Playhouse Aaron Loeb’s darkly comic play about corporate consultants undergoing a dubious project. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 8. 450 Post St. 6779596. www.SFplayhouse.org

Joey Arias @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran cabaret, Cirque do Soleil and Billie Holiday-channeling music performer returns for a solo show, with pianist Matt Ray. $25-$40 ($20 food/bev. Min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Kegan Marling @ CounterPulse Jump Ship Mid-way, Marling and Mica Sigourney’s cabaret performance of drunk boys, Freddie Mercury and lots of glitter. $15-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 9pm. Thru Oct.19. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

The Late Wedding @ Thick House Crowded Fire Theater’s world premiere production of Christopher Chen’s theatrical rumination on multiple ritualistic interpretations of weddings (gay, straight, etc.), inspired by the writings of Italian fabulist Italo Calvino. $15-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Oct. 11. 1695 18th St. at Carolina.

746-9238. www.crowdedfire.org

Litquake @ Multiple Venues 15th annual large-scale nine-day literary festival of readings, panels, and special events with local and award-winning authors. Opening night at Z Space. Oct. 18 closing night Lit Crawl includes multiple venue readings along Valencia St and nearby. www.litquake.org

Thu 16

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Oct. 10: Arab Film Festival. Oct. 11: Spartacus (1pm) and Sunrise (8pm).

Oct. 12: Lauren Bacall in Key Largo (2:45, 7pm) and Paul Newman in Harper (4:445, 8:55). Oct. 13 & 14: a restored print of Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

Oct. 15: Rome: Open City (2:45, 7pm) and The Fugitive Kind (4:40, 8:55).

Oct. 16: Magic in the Moonlight (5pm, 7pm, 9pm). $12. 429 Castro St. 6216120. www.castrotheatre.com

Noises Off @ Shelton Theater Michael Frayns’ hilarious theatre comedy of onstage and backstage pratfalls. $20-$48. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Oct. 25. 533 Sutter St. at Powell.

(800) 838-3008. www.sheltontheater.org

Pastorella @ Exit Theatre Stuart Bousel’s comic intrigue play about actors (gay and straight) wrapped up in backstage romances and obsessions. $20. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Oct. 25. 156 Eddy St. theexit.org

Queers, Redevelopment and Racial Displacement @ GLBT History Museum Marcia Ochoa (University of California, Santa Cruz), Mia Tu Mutch (LYRIC) and Robbie Clark (Causa Justa) discuss genrification from an LGBT & race/class perspective. 7pm.

Oct. 16: screenings of Take This Hammer and Viva 16. 7pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Shocktoberfest @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ 15th annual Halloween season shock theatre presents the new horror, song and puppet-filled show, The Bloody Denutante, Isabel’s Zombie Holocaust and other acts. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. (special Tue & Wed shows Oct. 28 & 29). Thru Nov. 22. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Gerald Casel Dance Beau Sanders

Classic Films @ BAM/PFA Screening of cinematic classics; Stanley Kubrick films thru Oct. 31, avante-garde cinema (Wed thru Oct. 29), Activate Yourself: Free Speech Movement (Tue & Thu thru Oct. 30). $7. Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. bampfa.berkeley.edu

Cock @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Michael Bartlett’s controversial play about a gay couple, one of whom falls in love with a woman, gets a West Coast premiere. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 12. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh, Berkeley Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira’s compelling multi-character solo show about his life in the worlds of hip hop (he’s toured with Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and others) and law enforcement. $20$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 19. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Glass Pumpkin Patch @ Cohn-Stone Studios, Richmond 25th annual exhibit and sale of beautiful gourd-shaped glass sculptures will be the last, ending a quarter century of pumpkiny decorative beauty. Harvest your faves Fri. & Sat., 10am-4pm thru Oct. 26.

560 South 31st Street, Richmond.

(510) 234-9690. www.cohnstone.com

Lovebirds @ The Marsh, Berkeley Marga Gomez’ hit solo show, about the various lives of nightclub patrons as told by an ageless photographer, returns, now at the Marsh’s Berkeley stage. $20-$100. Fridays 8pm; Saturday 8:30pm. Thru Oct. 18. 2120 Alston Way, Berkeley. themarsh.org

Old Hats @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents Bill Irwin and David Shiner’s clownish two-man comedy, with music written and performed by Shaina Taub and her band. $20-$120.

Tue-Sat 8pm (some Tue 7pm). Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Oct. 12.

Geary Theatre, 415 Geary St. 7492228. www.act-sf.org

Pippin @ Golden Gate Theatre The touring company of the awardwinning Broadway revival of Stephen Schwarz’s classic musical about a young prince’s death-defying quest to find meaning in his life, with a talented cast of singers, dancers and acrobats. $45-$210. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 19. 1 Taylor St. at Market. (888) 746-1799. shnsf.com

Sara Farizan @ Books Inc. Author of the Lambda Literary Award winner If You Could Be Mine reads from and discusses her new queer teen book Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

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Out&About>>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Peter Berlin @ Magnet

Smack Dab @ Magnet

Exhibit of photographs and autoportraits by the reclusive ‘70s art porn model; curated by Eric Smith and Mark Garrett.

Thru Oct. 31. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Poet Brent Calderwood ( The God of Longing) is the featured reader at the monthly eclectic open mic, cohosted

by Larry-bob Roberts and Dana Hopkins. 7:30-9pm. 4122 18th St. www.brentcalderwood.com www.magnetsf.org

Steven J. Levin @ John Pence Gallery

Wed 15 Smuin Ballet @ Palace of Fine Arts Theatre 21st season of the local modern ballet company includes the West Coast premiere of Garrett Ammon’s Serenade for Strings, Amy Seiwert’s Objects of Curiosity, and Smuin’s Frankie & Johnny. $24-$67. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 11. 3301 Lyon St. 912-1899. www.smuinballet.org

Welcome, Foolish Mortals @ Glamarama, Oakland Fun and spooky group exhibit of artwork inspired by Disney’s Haunted Mansions, curated by Flyyn DeMarco.

6pm-9pm. Exhibit thru Nov. 3. 6399 Telegraph Ave. (510) 655-4526. www.glamarama.com

Sat 11 The Addams Family @ Contra Costa Civic Theatre Bay Area premiere of the Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice and Andrew Lippa Broadway musical based on the spooky offbeat Charles Addams comics. $15-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 19. 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. www.ccct.org

Among Dreams @ LGBT Center Chelsea Rae Klein’s multimedia exhibit of works that interpret the once-closeted lives of LGBT military members, and the anniversary of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. An online archive of the exhibit includes bios, photos and multimedia. Thru Nov. 11. 1800 Market St. www.amongdreams.com www.sfcenter.org

Author Events @ Modern Times Bookstore Oct. 11: Steven Hermann, author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward discusses “spiritual poets” like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson. 3pm. Oct. 12: Modern Times’ 43rd birthday reading and rally, with Genny Lim, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Ocean Capewell and Dee Allen. Oct. 16: Carmen de Monteflores on Jibara!, her essays on Puerto Rican culture and history. 3pm-5pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Company @ Town Hall Theatre, Lafayette Town Hall Theatre Company’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s classic 1960s urban musical about a single man facing pressures from his married friends on the brink of his 35th birthday. $15-$29. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 12. 3535 School St., Lafayette. (925) 283-1557. www.townhalltheatre.com

New Moons @ 4th Steeet Fine Art, Berkeley Group exhibit of paintings, sculpture and fine art jewelry by five women artists: Suzanne Beaubrun, Anne Marie Hodrick, Erin McGarry, Nuchada Prypiroonrojn and Valeria Sobel. Thru Nov. 7. Fri-Mon 11am-6pm. 2000 4th St., Berkeley. www.4thstreetfineart.com

Flourish Oakland @ Classic Cars West Gallery Art auction and party for the monthly Art Murmur. $75. 6pm-10pm. 411 26th St. www.oaklandartmurmur.org

Reel Abilities Film Fest

Exhibit of landscape, still life and touching figure studies by the talented realist painter.

Thru Nov. 1. Mon-Fri 10pm6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

Semi-Famous @ The Marsh Don Reed’s new solo show, SemiFamous: Hollywood Hell Tales From the Middle, includes tales of panicridden auditions and almost being shot by the Secret Service. $20-$100.

Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Oct. 19.

1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

SF Hiking Club @ Montara Mountain Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike from San Pedro Park in Pacifica over Montara Mountain to McNee Ranch State Park. Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 7409888. www.sfhiking.com

Sun 12 Cheesecake & Demerol @ Stage Werx Theatre Gene Gore’s one-woman autobiographical show about pregnancy, women’s health issues, all told from her true-life experiences. $15. Sundays, 3pm. Thru Oct. 19. 446 Valencia St. www.genegore.com

Enter the Mandala @ Asian Art Museum Enter the Mandala: Cosmic Centers and Mental Maps of Himalayan Buddhism (thru Oct. 26); Dual Natures in Ceramics: Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea (thru Feb. 22, 2015). Other exhibits as well. $15.

Thru Sept. 14. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales @ Walt Disney Museum Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales: The Art of Marc Davis, including original drawings of Cruella DeVille, Tinkerbell and other iconic characters; thru Nov. 4. 104 Montgomery St. www.waltdisney.org

Mon 13 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry interviews local and visiting community members of note.

11:30am & 10:30pm. Also Sat & Sun, 10:30pm. Channel 104.

1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit focusing on San Francisco’s emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE magazine feature “Homosexuality in America.”

Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members).

4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

At Large: Ai Weiwei @ Alcatraz Island The internationally acclaimed Chinese sculpture’s exhibit of seven sitespecific multimedia installations; the largest art exhibit ever hosted by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. $18-$30. Daily except major holidays thru April 26, 2015. www.AiWeiWeiAlcatraz.org

Butch @ Austin Gallery Butch: Not Like Other Girls, the local installation of Los Angeles-based SD Holman’s touring photo exhibit of butch women. By appointment thru Nov. 18. 799 Castro St. 282-4511. www.austinlawgroup.com

Tue 14 Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni’s A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company’s music and variety show, includes raffles and tickets to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Terry Furry @ Loakal Art Gallery, Oakland Vulnerable Gods, an exhibit of the gay artist’s Greco-Roman myth-themed paintings. Mon-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 560 2nd St., Oakland. www.terryfurry.com ebxloakal.com

Thu 16 Gerald Casel Dance @ Joe Goode Annex Visiter, a new dance, is performed by Casel’s company, with live music by Tim Russell. $20. Thu-Sat 8pm. 401 Alabama St. www.geraldcasel.com www.visiter.brownpapertickets.com

Marin AIDS Project Gala @ Marin Yacht Club Fundraiser and party for the Marin AIDS nonprofit’s 30th anniversary, with honored guest Rev. Jane Spahr, board members and staff, volunteers, and Cheer SF, and a live band. $30$40. 5:30pm-8pm. 24 Summit Ave., San Rafael. 457-2487. www.MarinAIDSproject.org

Tony DeSare @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented vocalist performs classic songs by Ellington, Cole Porter, even Willie Nelson. $40-$55 ($20 food/bev.

Min.). 8pm. Also Oct. 17. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

David Johnson @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Retrospective exhibit of the accomplished local photographer, who was Ansel Adams’ first African American student. Tue-Thu 4pm8pm. Sat & Sun 12pm-4:30pm.

Thru Oct. 19. 50 Scott St. www. harveymilkphotocenter.org

Hell in the Armory @ SF Armory Kink.com presents an adults-only Halloween-themed haunted house tour in their basement, Thru Nov. 1. $45. Various times. 1800 Mission St. www.HellintheArmory.com

Jason Mecier @ Glamarama The prolific mosaic artist’s new exhibit of selected celebrity portraits (many seen on TV and in films) must be seen up close to be truly appreciated. Thru Nov. 9. 304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.jasonmecier.com www.glamarama.com

Wed 15 Art/Act: Maya Lin @ David Brower Center Exhibit of new works by the sculptor/ designer (Vietnam Memorial). Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Sun 10am-1pm. Thru Feb 4, 2015. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. BAR 3.75x5 online appointment ad v3.indd www.browercenter.org

Ego, Insufficiency @ Z Space Director Andy Jorden stages two plays

by Dr. Carl Djerassi, accomplished author, playwright, and scientist (inventor of the birth control pill), on the anniversary of the playwright’s 90th birthday. $20-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Nov. 7. 470 Florida St. (866) 8114111. www.zspace.org

Linda Kosut @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Cabaret singer performs music from her new CD, Easy Come, Easy Go-The Music of Johnny Green. $15. 7pm.

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

Radical Women @ SFSU Library Biweekly talks on issues from a Socialist feminist perspective. This time, LGBT rights. 864-1278. www.radicalwomen.org

ReelAbilities Film Festival @ Various Venues The annual festival of films by and about people with disabilities includes screenings of films and discussions about several subjects. Free-$10-$25.

Various times. Thru Oct. 19. Creative Growth Center, Oakland; de Young Museum, SF; New People Cinema, SF; New Parkway Theatre, Oakland. www.bayareareelabilities.org

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8/15/14 10:17 AM

<< Fine Art

20 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

t

Social networking among California artists

Estate of Roy De Forest/Licensed by VAGA, New York

Country Dog Gentlemen (1972), polymer on canvas by Roy De Forest, Collection of SFMOMA, part of Fertile Ground, now at the Oakland Museum.

Ben Blackwell

Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931), oil on canvas by Frida Kahlo, Collection of SFMOMA, part of Fertile Ground.

by Sura Wood

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here’s no drought in Oakland, at least not from the looks of Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, an ambitious new exhibition now at the Oakland Museum. The show of over 200 works by 120 artists represents the latest and most successful collaboration between SFMOMA and a local venue to date. Rather than a contrived premise that seems like an afterthought secondary to the goal of getting SFMOMA’s fine collections out of storage and in front of the public during its prolonged closure, this particular outing, which surveys four important communities of artists in the Golden State from the 1930s through the present, feels organic to the OMCA’s historical, California-centric mission.

Regular visitors to both museums will find much of the work familiar, but the contributions are integrated and in service of a compelling, overriding concept that emphasizes the networks of personal relationships that linked many of these creative people, who socialized, romanced,

fed off and reacted to one another, and liked to paint and photograph each other, too. Though the interconnections are graphed on gallery walls, more anecdotes elucidating the sometimes tricky, often competitive and mutually beneficial relationships would have added extra spice.

For this writer, the areas covering the earlier time periods are the most engrossing. The opening section, for instance, Patronage, Public Art and Allegory of California, focuses on the Great Depression, when Frida Kahlo was in San Francisco with her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, who was working on the great fresco (his first in the U.S.) at the Pacific Stock Exchange, now the centerpiece of the City Club of San Francisco. Of interest are Rivera’s preliminary sketches, which include sensual nudes of the woman who embodied California and was the central figure of the mural. The model, Olympian and celebrity tennis champion Helen Wills Moody, was Rivera’s mistress, one of his many conquests. The affair was public knowledge and humiliating

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for Kahlo who, the same year, painted the well-known 1931 portrait in which she appears as a diminutive figure standing beside her rotund, roving partner, whose smiling face had been captured by Edward Weston in a 1924 photograph.

The power couple mingled with other socially conscious artists such as Dorothea Lange, who, like Kahlo, suffered from childhood polio and was married to a philandering artist; and Sargent Johnson, one of the first African-American, Californiabased artists to achieve national stature. Johnson, a painter, sculptor, ceramicist and long-time member of the Communist Party, created a bas relief mural – a sketch for it on a roll of white paper is on view – that’s still at George Washington High School’s football field in the city. A WPA commission, the imagery portraying a parade of rowers, tennis, baseball and football players and other fine athletic specimens recalls Classical Greek friezes, Nazi “master race” propaganda and Soviet social realism.

Packed with goodies, the section on the California School of Fine Arts (now SFAI) during the 1940s and 50s illustrates what a hopping place it was to be for the artistically inclined. Among other things, it was one of the first institutions to establish a fine arts photography program, a development no doubt aided by the presence of Ansel Adams on the faculty along with Minor White, Lange and Imogen Cunningham, whose photograph “Unmade Bed” (1957), with its tacit backstory of “what happened last night,” is a pleasure to see.

The influence of Jazz and the Beats is expressed in James Weeks’ lively painting of jamming musicians. Nearby hangs David Park’s “Rehearsal” (1949-50), painted with a view from behind of the Studio 13 Jazz Band, whose members included Elmer Bischoff on coronet and Park himself on piano. A touch screen in the gallery elicits audio tracks of their performance, but boy, where was a videocamera when it was needed most? The work is one of Park’s early flirtations with figuration as he began to veer away from the reigning cult of Abstract Expressionism; it was a bold move at a time when dabbling in figuration was considered a betrayal of the cause. The raging debate that ended some friendships once again

Estate of David Park

Rehearsal (c. 1949-50), oil on canvas by David Park, Collection of the Oakland Museum of California, part of Fertile Ground.

demonstrates how tyrannical and dogmatic free spirits can be. Park was so on fire about the issue he loaded all of his abstract paintings into the back of his car and took them to the Berkeley dump.

Traveling through the 1960s and 70s and the founding of the new art department at UC Davis, home to pop, funk, good-humored play and an all-star teaching staff that included Wayne Thiebaud, the king of cakes and pies; Roy De Forest; and Robert Arneson, who produced a prodigious number of self-portraits, the show concludes with the Mission Scene, a movement which took off during the boom-boom 1990s in San Francisco. That it’s the weakest section may be a function of the fact that art of and from the streets rarely translates in a museum setting.

The late Margaret Kilgallen, wife of the pied piper of San Francisco street art Barry McGee; and Ruby Neri, daughter of sculptor Manuel Neri, are among those featured.

McGee’s untitled installation, a

large wood construction that bulges away from the wall and is plastered with framed images of his recurring motifs – patterns, cartoons of winos and bottles – resembles the side of a bus rumbling through a city of Blade Runner vintage.

The artists put a premium on community, and their anti-materialist/capitalism stance seems prescient given the displacement happening in the Mission District lately. “Where Are We Going Now?,” Chris Johanson’s vibrant, newly commissioned collage, is an especially timely commentary evincing memories of the old neighborhood.

Thick, impossibly blue impasto sky formations float above a landscape of scribbled messages, tacky apartment buildings, bodegas, colorful beleaguered residents and an outof-place man in a suit excitedly talking on his cell phone. Johanson, like many of the featured Mission artists, no longer lives there.t

www.ebar.com (Through April 12.)

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Books>>

October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

History of hustlers

by Jim Piechota

Male Sex Work and Society, edited by Victor Minichiello and John Scott; Harrington Park Press, paperback, $50 he grand relaunching of Harrington Park Press blasts off this month with Male Sex Work and Society, the publisher’s intriguing title about the history and cultural and sociological significance of male sex work. Co-authors Minichiello and Scott, both Ph.D.s and scholars in public health and social science, respectively, have amassed an impressive collection of essays by a wide variety of educators, health professionals, and researchers.

Steeped in study and intellectual analysis, the book’s four sections scrutinize the sociohistoric context of male prostitution, its public promotion, social issues, and its global impact on far-reaching areas of the world. A general lack of understanding coupled with a limited number of regional and international scholars researching this subject only added to the authors’ challenge. Their collective goal was to create a distinct, comprehensive tome of structured research material, educative insights,

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and thought-provoking perspectives on this taboo subject.

The opening sections, written by researcher and Lambda Literary Award finalist Mack Friedman and Kerwin Kaye, braid a rich, historic tapestry of sex work with its inherent cultural disgrace, and in concise prose, drive home the point that even in today’s digital society, the hustler remains “scorned, stigmatized, and unprotected, and though not a slave or servant, he is not too far removed from that status.”

Kaye’s essay concludes with a contemporary update citing an uptick in “nonmonetary homosexual sex,” yet notes the ever-expanding gap between US states where gays can marry and states that have legalized sex work. Throughout history, much has changed in this field of study, but both authors agree that many aspects of male sex work remain unchanged due to ignorance, shame, and the widespread dissemination of misinformation.

The marketing of sex work moves the contributors’ research into more modern times, with scrutiny of magazine and newspaper advertising of hustling through the online revolution of hyper-sexualized

escort services and massage practices, as explored by Trevon Logan, an Ohio State University Associate Economics Professor.

Most intriguing is Australian professor Thomas Crofts’ study of the sex industry’s criminalization and regulation, and the impact on matters of public health regarding HIV transmission and preventative care, both for the customer and for the sex workers themselves.

In other sections, all of them thoughtfully communicated, the book mines the mental health of workers, the future directions of the industry and its research, and the state of the culture within Africa, China, post-Soviet Russia, Latin America, Germany, and Ireland.

The lack of quality material available on this largely proscribed subject comes as no surprise. But these pieces have grasp and inclusiveness, and show expansive work done by academics who seem to have embraced the nature and nuances of male sex work. Using charts, graphs, still photography, and the obligatory (and unfailingly desirable) muscled male torso, Minichiello and Scott have produced an exploratory project celebrating the male sex worker.t

Blasts from the past

by Gregg Shapiro

A

fter launching like a rocket with her 1996 major-label debut album Trailer Park, Beth Orton’s electronic folk hybrid helped pave the way for artists such as Dido.

Its follow-up Central Reservation (3 Loop Music), newly reissued in an expanded double-disc edition with liner notes by gay poet T. Cole Rachel, was even better.

Refining the trip-hop elements into a more sophisticated sound, Central Reservation flows gracefully from the rev of “Stolen Car” to the lush ballad “Sweetest Decline” and the programmed funk of “Couldn’t Cause Me Harm.” The subtle country of “Pass in Time” and the tape loop of “Stars All Seem To Weep” bracket the exquisite title cut. The second CD of the set includes eight Sessions at West 54th Street selections, four B-sides, and four demos and rough mixes. This one’s a

keeper!

If you dance to what is now being called EDM (electronic dance music), do yourself a favor and take a listen to Cabaret Voltaire. Without Cabaret Voltaire and other pioneers in the genre, this popular genre of music wouldn’t be what it is today.

Think of the 19-track compilation #7885 Electropunk to Technopop (Mute) as a valuable musical history lesson full of cool and educational tunes. On “Big Funk,” you can hear its influence on Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and other industrial acts.

New Jersey was a punchline long before Snooki, The Situation and JWoww, a fact made real by hairband champions Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi’s pop/metal hybrid came about at the right time, an all-American response to the perceived British scourge of new wave and disco-influenced (read: gay) electronic dance music. The irony was that some of the biggest hits on Bon Jovi’s disc

New Jersey (Mercury/UMe), newly reissued in an expanded doubledisc deluxe edition, were co-written by gay singer/songwriter Desmond Child, a purveyor of dance music in his own right. New Jersey was one of Bon Jovi’s biggest successes, and holds up well more than 25 years later. Dolly Parton even covered a version of album opener “Lay Your Hands on Me” on her new album.

The reissue includes three bonus tracks, as well as a second disc, New Jersey: The Sons of Beaches demos, 13 unreleased tracks.

In 1988, Seattle band The Posies released Failure (Omnivore), now available in an expanded reissue featuring eight bonus tracks (demos, instrumental and live recordings).

If hair bands were a reaction to new wave, then the poppy pre-grunge band The Posies was a response to the corporate metal of bands such as Bon Jovi. Self-released on cassette before being scooped up by an indie record label, Failure has the intimate atmosphere of a homespun project.

One of the original Jersey Boys, Bob Gaudio wrote or cowrote some of the biggest hits by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll,” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” all of which are included on the two-CD set Audio With a G: The Music of Bob Gaudio (Rhino).

Subtitled Sounds of a Jersey Boy, the 36-track compilation includes covers of Gaudio compositions by Lene Lovich (“The Night”), Cher (“The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine”), Nina Simone (“For a While”), Diana Ross (“I Heard a Love Song”), Roberta Flack (“When Someone Tears Your Heart in Two”) and gay disco act Boys Town Gang (“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”).

Emo act My Chemical Romance, which disbanded in 2013, has released the 19-track retrospective May Death Never Stop You: The Greatest Hits 2001-2013 (Reprise).

Even though it opens with an unreleased cut indicative of the band’s evolution from screamo to pop, the remainder of the tunes trace the band’s roots to the present day.

Highlights include “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “The Kids from Yesterday.” The disc closes with three demos.

Reggae music and its Jamaica

birthplace have a long history of being unwelcome territory for LGBT folks. But the late Bob Marley, the most famous reggae musician of all time, was a true man of peace who died young in 1981, before we really had a chance to know where he stands on the subject (although there is some speculation). There’s nothing homophobic on the 30th anniversary expanded edition reissue of Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers (Tuff Gong/ Island/UMe). It includes “I Shot the Sheriff ” (a huge hit for Eric Clapton), “Stir It Up” (a hit for Johnny Nash), “Wait in Vain” (covered by Annie Lennox), “Is This Love?” (covered by Carly Simon), “No Woman No Cry” (covered by Joan Baez), “Could You Be Loved,” “Get Up Stand Up,” “Buffalo Soliers”

and “Jamming.” The second Blu-ray disc contains the album (with some alternate versions) presented in 5.1 Surround Sound.

Spread out over two discs, the 40 tracks on Kiss’ 40 Years: Decades of Decibels (Mercury/UMe) feature live and studio tracks performed by original members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, as well as those who joined the band in the years that followed.

Beginning in 1974, Kiss perfected the faux-glam (make-up, highheeled boots and studded leather duds) metal look and sound. This compilation includes songs from the four founding members’ solo discs, its brilliant ballad “Beth,” its disco hit “I Was Made for Loving You” and one song from each album the band recorded through 2012.t

<< TV

22 • Bay Area Reporter • October 9-15, 2014

LGBT characters on TV, by the numbers

by Victoria A. Brownworth

I

t’s that time of year again: the very full month of October. Yes, it will end with the official gay holiday of Halloween, but we have to get there.

Pink ribbons flutter everywhere in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Lavender ribbons also flutter for Domestic Violence Awareness month. Just like Black History got the shortest month, the two most pressing issues for women’s health got shoved into the same month. Nice. Oh, and while we’re shoving the marginalized together, October is also Hispanic Heritage Month and LGBT history month.

National Coming Out Day is Oct. 11.

October is also the month GLAAD releases their annual report on LGBT characters on TV. The report was released Oct. 1 and is, as usual, more glowing than we can comprehend, since we always think we watch and monitor way more TV than anyone who works at GLAAD. According to GLAAD, in the 2014-15 season, 3.9% of 813 characters regularly seen on primetime network scripted series are lesbian, gay or bisexual. That’s a total of 32 characters. The percentage is up slightly over last year, which was 3.3%, but it’s down from 2012’s 4.4%.

GLAAD says the networks and cable must do better on transgender characters, as the only scripted series with recurring trans characters, both trans women, are Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and Amazon’s new series Transparent.

There is also a trans character on ABC Family’s The Fosters.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people comprise between eight and 11% of the U.S. population, according to most studies, which also state there are nearly 700,000 trans persons in the U.S. There are more bisexuals than lesbians or gay men, and more bisexual women than bisexual men.

Of course, those percentages are people declaring their LGBT status.

So the numbers are likely higher.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, as of Oct. 2, 2014, the U.S. population was 318,838,000. So, given there are 813 recurring characters on the tube, we’re pretty sure there should be more than 32 LGB characters on TV, just going by basic math. And while trans persons are a minority within a minority, two characters on two series, neither of which are on network or cable, are clearly not enough. (India actually has a trans woman news anchor, Padmini Prakash.) GLAAD categorizes LGBT visibility on TV with the broadest possible brush. Many years GLAAD has counted animated characters, yet has never counted reality TV personalities. Go figure.

Diversity on TV has been a problem for, well, ever. Women are underrepresented. Only 40% of characters are female, yet women are 52% of the population. Racial diversity is not equal to the population either. Several new series spotlight women of color, notably How to Get Away with Murder, State of Affairs, Cristela, blackish, Jane the Virgin, Forever and Gotham. Nearly 40% of the U.S. is non-white. Yet when blackish debuted on ABC, Twitter was all atwitter with questions about where the shows with white families were.

TV execs often create two-forone characters, with a person of color also being a show’s LGB or in the case of Orange Is the New Black, T character. We don’t want to slam OITNB, as it’s one of the most diverse shows, but it is true that their

one transgender character is also black.

TV needs to get less male, less white, less straight. We haven’t even gone to less ageist. (Not all men in their 50s are married to women in their 30s, just like not all men are George Clooney.) TV needs to look more like America: there have to be more people of color and way more of them have to be Hispanic, since that’s our largest ethnic minority.

The recent outrage over New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley’s racist and tone-deaf piece reducing power exec Shonda Rhimes to a cultural stereotype of the Angry Black Woman and referencing black women actresses on TV as “not classically beautiful” should have raised consciousness among TV execs.

It certainly raised the attention of Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor at the NYT, when black women all over America started cancelling their subscriptions. But what about us? We rarely even get bad press, let alone good press, unless some reality TV bigot like Phil Johnson on Duck Dynasty says something crazy.

LGBT people have GLAAD to speak out on our behalf about how and how often we are represented.

Sara Kate Ellis became the new president of GLAAD last November.

While we were thrilled to see a lesbian heading GLAAD, we still haven’t seen much change in how GLAAD operates. SF activist Michael Petrelis called GLAAD “a leech upon the queer body politic.” But in a May 29, 2014 interview with B.A.R. reporter Chuck Colbert, Ellis was unequivocal about the role of GLAAD: “We are the voice for LGBT equality,” she declared. Leech on or voice for LGBT people? You be the judge, but we’re stunned by how few new LGBT characters there are on the tube.

We’re happy with a lot of the long-time LGB characters on the tube, notably those on Rhimes’ super-diverse shows. The pairing of doctors Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres on Grey’s Anatomy has not always run smoothly, but the two have stayed together, got married, are raising a daughter, and are discussing having a second child.

Seeing them return on Sept. 25 in the premiere episode of GA’s 11th season was like seeing old friends.

Old lesbian friends.

The same was true of seeing Jeff Perry as presidential chief of staff Cyrus Beene on Scandal, which began its fourth season Sept. 25. Last season Scandal killed off Cyrus’ husband, James. James was played by gay actor Dan Bucatinsky, who plays one of two gay dads on the new NBC sitcom Marry Me, debuting Oct. 14.

The dads are both named Kevin are also both not white. Bucatinsky is Latino Jewish, and the other dad is played by African-American SNL alum Tim Meadows. So yes, the two gay characters are also the people of color.

Rhimes also exec produces How to Get Away with Murder, the third in the Thank God It’s Thursday lineup, a first for anyone in TV history.

The show, which debuted Sept. 25, was created by openly gay TV writer Peter Nowalk, who has worked on both Grey’s and Scandal. We must have LGBT people behind the camera to get more in front of the camera. Nowalk proved that in the first episode of HTGAWM, which had steamy gay-male sex scenes to equal those between the show’s star, Tony winner Viola Davis (playing law professor and defense attorney Annalise Keating), and her character’s lover and husband. Oh, and she

Power TV executive producer Shonda Rhimes.

also had a mild flirtation with one of her prettiest male students. Yet the gay sex equaled all of that.

Jack Falahee plays Connor Walsh, one of Keating’s top students and interns. He manages to get information other students can’t because he’s hooked up with a hot computer hacker, Oliver (Conrad Ricamora).

(Oliver is, just to keep hammering home our point, Asian.) In both the season opener and the second episode, Connor has super-hot, tear-each-other’s-shirts-off-ourripped-bodies sex. And this is network, folks, not cable. In a Sept. 25 interview for E! with Kristin Dos Santos, Nowalk said there would be “lots of same-sex sex scenes” on the show, because “it’s part of life.”

Yes. But outside of Rhimes’ shows, we haven’t seen much of that on the tube. The door tends to close on gay-male sex especially.

Nowalk told Dos Santos, “I knew I wanted to push the envelope, especially with the gay sex. And to me, writing some real gay sex into a network show is to right the wrong of all of the straight sex that you see on TV. Because I didn’t see that growing up, and the more people get used to two men kissing, the less weird it will be for people.”

One of the new characters on Grey’s this season is Dr. Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary), who also played lesbian doctor Tyra Dupre on the CW’s short-lived 2012 series Emily Owens, M.D. We’re hoping that McCreary is playing a lesbian on Grey’s as well, but so far her sexual orientation is a secret.

Rhimes and now Nowalk, with her exec-producer support, have created a different TV landscape from what we are used to seeing. That landscape is equally white and nonwhite, and gay people are always part of it. Women are strong and vibrant and in positions of relative power. And interracial relationships are not taboo, they are a commonplace. We need more of this.

One of our other favorite showrunners, out-there-gay Ryan Murphy, is back. The incomparable American Horror Story returned for its fourth season Oct. 8 on FX with what is bound to be the most controversial season yet. Set in 1952 Jupiter, Florida, telling the story of one of the last remaining freak shows in America and their struggle

for survival, Freak Show pushes every envelope. Freak Show will focus on the conflicts between the freaks and the “evil forces” who do not understand them, like Twisty, the deranged clown. Returning cast members from previous seasons include Emmy winner Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Denis O’Hare, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Jamie Brewer, Emma Roberts, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett and Gabourey Sidibe. Guest-starring in a dramatic and non-singing role is Patti LaBelle. Michael Chiklis also joins the cast.

Murphy said he wanted to explore how a group of people who were hounded for who they are and who had endured centuries of abuse had finally started to stand up for themselves and for their own civil rights. (Sound metaphoric, does it?) This is the most expensive season of AHS – Murphy had to build an entire town to create the 60-year time difference – and the sets are magnificent. Freak Show may also be the most tragic season of AHS. But since each season has been more brilliant than the previous one, expect yet more brilliance. No doubt there will be some push-back about Murphy’s portrayal of the so-called freaks. But Jessica Lange’s Elsa is a savior figure this season, rescuing people locked away in hospitals and asylums and bringing them out into the open. Whether one views her as benevolent or manipulatively voyeuristic remains to be seen, but Freak Show is a must-see.

Another must-see if you are not already watching is Fox’s Gotham.

Fox ranks highest on GLAAD’s list of networks with LGBT characters, and Gotham has several. Even if Batman isn’t your métier, Gotham is simply extraordinary. The acting, the writing, the plotting. Jada Pinkett Smith’s Fish Mooney is a revelation.

Another must-see on Fox is the limited series Gracepoint, which debuted Oct. 2, an American version of the BBC series Broadchurch.

David Tennant and Breaking Bad’s brilliant Anna Gunn are superb.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town is appropriately stultifying. The juxtaposition of the beauty of the raw Pacific coastline and the raw emotions of the town is pitchperfect. And there’s a San Francisco

t

connection. Need we say more?

Some other new-season tidbits: Leslie the lesbian Shay (Lauren German) was killed off in the third season opener of NBC’s Chicago Fire. That cuts into the LGBT character count on the tube considerably, as Shay had many girlfriends.

We liked Shay, and we will miss her. But we admit, she was the only reason we watched Chicago Fire, so that’s now off our list.

We liked seeing Neil Patrick Harris on Letterman Sept. 29 talking about his wedding in Italy the same day the world was agog over George Clooney’s marriage to the gorgeous Amal Alamuddin. As he showed pics of his own wedding to David Burtka, he turned to the audience and said, “Take that, George Clooney.” Harris also did a hilarious impromptu bit reading from his memoir about Letterman as a “generous” gay lover.

We said we wouldn’t talk about the NFL scandal anymore after last column, and we likely won’t (and inexplicably it’s already out of the news cycle, although we will note that ESPN censoring Bill Simmons for calling Roger Goodell a liar is the height of hypocrisy). But we just want to note that South Park, as is often the show’s wont, did a fabulous show last week about the NFL and the Redskins controversy that was brilliant. South Park is now in its 18th season and is the longest-running animated series after The Simpsons. You can catch the Comedy Central show online, it streams.

For fans of zombie world, the fifth season of The Walking Dead begins on AMC Oct. 12. We want to know if Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is really gay. Reedus thinks he is, so does that mean he will be playing Daryl that way this season?

We hope so. The show’s creator Robert Kirkman has been hinting at it all summer. Stop teasing us and just bring it, please.

Speaking of bringing it, if you aren’t watching season six of CBS’ The Good Wife, you are missing one of the best shows on TV, with gay plots, Alicia’s gay brother, and of course, the magnificent Kalinda (Archie Panjabi), who was back in the sack with a woman in the debut episode. The lead-in to The Good Wife this season is Madam Secretary, starring Téa Leoni as a Valerie Plame-meets-Hillary Clinton Secretary of State. The debut episode was a little messy, but the show hit its stride in the second. NBC’s State of Affairs, with Alfre Woodard as the country’s first black female president Constance Payton, doesn’t debut until Nov. 17, so Madam Secretary has plenty of time to set the stage for women in the White House.

Finally, we’d love to see two women in the detective roles in the revolving HBO crime series True Detective. Who better to play one of those characters than lesbian actress Ellen Page? If you can’t imagine the winsome star of Juno as a toughtalking, Matthew McConaugheyesque gumshoe, check out the parody Page and Kate Mara did of the show for Funny or Die. It’s priceless: youtu.be/EGo58GUNi70.

So for all the things TV is and for all it has yet to become, for the brilliant Viola Davis and ever-amusing Ellen Page, for gay showrunners Peter Nowalk and Ryan Murphy, for out comedian Sean Hayes coming back to the tube on CBS’ The Millers (and hopefully not ruining it like he has the last few shows he’s been on), for knowing more about LGBT TV than GLAAD ever will, and to continue playing the “twofor-one marginalized characters” drinking game, you know you really must stay tuned.t

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From the Cover>>

Masked Ball

From page 13

With no air conditioning to speak of at the War Memorial Opera House, the orchestra section was still cool enough for comfort, and the standees, three-deep at the start of the performance, managed to avoid fainting before thinning their ranks as the night wore on. Gockley won’t be gone for a while, and he has lots of magic left to do. And by the second intermission, the Giants triumphed in their marathon.

This is not to say the opening of the seven-performance run was a comparable test of the audience’s strength or patience – well, maybe occasionally – because Ballo sort of sells itself with an uncommonly fine succession of great and memorable tunes, even by Verdi’s standards. It also has a relatively sophisticated plot, revolving around political intrigue and an assassination, superstitious fortune-telling, and chaste but illicit love-trysts. There are still plenty of Gilbert and Sullivan moments (especially if you are reading the bluntly correct supertitles), but by and all, it is one of the master’s finest achievements and always a surefire crowd-pleaser, as well as a personal favorite.

The cast looked awfully good on paper, and I certainly was up for the return of dramatic mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick to the SFO stage in the role of Satanist consultant Madame Arvidson, in the Sweden-set version of the opera used here. Additional star power was supplied by Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas as the immature but good-natured King Gustavus III, and iconic American baritone Thomas Hampson as the kinda-sorta cuckolded Count Anckarstrom. We’ll just call him the Count from here on.

The important role of Amelia, wife to the Count and unconsummated paramour of the King, was essayed

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October 9-15, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Taxidermy Art

From page 13

Freud developed the concept of the Uncanny to explain how familiar people, places, or pets could suddenly exude bad vibes without a dreamer being able to articulate the reason. The Uncanny flips the cozy into the demonic. The secret switch lies somewhere in the dreamer’s unconscious, struggling to speak but forbidden by societal or parental taboo. Whether it’s guilt, desire, jealousy, rage, paranoia, or a compound of these, the dread we feel belongs

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Ramon Vargas as Gustavus III in San Francisco Opera’s A Masked Ball.

by soprano Julianna Di Giacomo (Merola Program alumna) making her SFO debut. The pants role of the page Oscar was given to soprano Heidi Stober, who returns to the War Memorial stage after a good number of previously well-reviewed successes.

With handsome scenery purchased from the Washington National Opera, gorgeous period costumes by designer John Conklin, a sensible re-creation of the SFO’s prior staging by director Jose Maria Condemi, and most importantly, Music Director Nicola Luisotti on the podium, this Masked Ball looked ready to party on. And it did, through a rather luxuriously paced evening lasting a total running time of three hours.

Conductor Luisotti, never one to rush anyway, led the orchestra in a very refined and beautifully detailed rendition that was highlighted by some exceptionally effective solo playing. The rum-ti-tum and oompah-pah aspects of the orchestration were subdued, with just enough

rhythmic bounce left to keep us tapping our toes, and whistling in the men’s room during the intervals.

The SFO Chorus (Ian Robertson, director) made another outstanding presentation in each of the three acts, singing, dancing and emoting with poise and conviction. The Chorus also made an especially good supporting framework for Dolora Zajick’s big Act I, Scene 2 appearance.

Her star turn was self-defeated to a degree by the lack of power remaining in her still pure and richly impressive voice. When she advanced to the apron of the stage, it was as if someone had turned the volume up and we could once again bask in the beauty of her dramatic vocalism.

Julianna Di Giacomo, a replacement choice for Krassimira Stoyanova for the entire run, certainly didn’t seem like second-best. She has all the power necessary to fill the vast reaches of the auditorium, and her big arias were delivered with a lovely sweetness even in the highest notes.

Her acting is merely serviceable, but

to us, not the screen onto which we project our messy urges, asleep or awake. Nothing provokes dread like dead bodies, especially when stuffed, mounted, and made to assume lifelike postures.

On the walls of Paxton Gate, a store on trendy Valencia Street in San Francisco full of animal relics cleaned up for sale, the preserved heads of animals stare out over the living heads of curious shoppers.

The gap is great between the living and the dead, greater even than that separating human from animal, and rarely are both displayed in clearer

contrast. Of course, living humans can buy dead animals. We do and have done it for thousands of years. Religion or law rarely impede this traffic.

Why, then, did I experience such a shock when I entered the store and saw a horse’s head with a horn glued to its head selling for thousands of dollars?

Animals make me cry.

When I visited the San Francisco Zoo on its monthly Free Day two years ago, having not visited a zoo in 50 years, the presence of giraffes and gorillas made me weep. I was so glad to see them.

And yet, their presence, in captivity, was a signal all was not well with them.

Indeed. Most zoo animals are listed as endangered, or critically endangered. Official terminology designates the precise desperation of each species’ plight, but simply

The Idiots

The Idiots, This Seat is Taken, from Taxidermy Art by Robert Marbury (Artisan Books), copyright 2014.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Thomas Hampson as Count Anckarstrom in San Francisco Opera’s A Masked Ball.

the part can really get by on postures alone as long as the voice is there, and the voice is definitely there.

Heidi Stober was pert (it isn’t her fault, Oscar is a pert sort of fellow), and her slightly darker voice gave attractive weight to the coloratura demands of the role.

Thomas Hampson, looking fit and darkly handsome (the original barihunk, after all) was also in very good voice as the conflicted and complicated Count. Hampson has proven himself in Verdi repeatedly through the years, and his textured portrayal was perhaps the best of the evening. He got a standing ovation at the final curtain, and it was deserved.

Unfortunately, the really pivotal character in the score and the plot is

stated, if humans don’t stop gobbling up habitat, wild animals are doomed.

Except cockroaches and water bears.

I had a very pleasant conversation with the store’s owner, Sean Quigley, whose quirky name is wedded to watery blue eyes and facial hair that would’ve done credit to a midshipman on the Pequod, that whaler out of Nantucket that quested after Moby Dick in Herman Melville’s masterpiece of the same name. And the Victorian reference is not far-fetched. The store’s name is derived from that of Joseph Paxton, Quigley confided, pointing to a portrait of that 19th-century autodidact architect and gardener, whose design of the 1851 Crystal Palace was inspired by giant water-lilies he’d transplanted from the Amazon.

Once I’d overcome my zoo dread, I volunteered to clean stables, then trained as a docent, which means I’m now familiar with the collection and can tell a monkey from an ape. When

the callow King, who has to grow up very suddenly indeed. The role resounds in our ears with some of the greatest tenors of the previous generation setting the bar very high. On opening night, Ramon Vargas vacillated between just okay and disappointing. His top notes were slightly pinched, and he couldn’t make up for them with very convincing acting. He has shown us better portrayals before, and his voice, while rarely exhibiting the clarion beauty of a Pavarotti or Domingo, is an estimable instrument. He shouldn’t be enough to keep lovers of the opera away from this reassuringly conventional and carefully mounted staging, but we hope he sturdies himself before the end of the run.t

I walk around the Zoo, my pleasure at seeing animals is matched by my sorrow they’re captive. This uncanny admixture is not unlike what I feel when confronted with carcasses, heads, and bones displayed for sale. I myself recently bought some antlers at a garage sale to adorn my wall. I am not indifferent to the allure of animal body parts, even though I now realize animals have been hunted to extinction for food, glory, or merchandise.

Author Robert Marbury lavished intensely considered responses to my emailed questions. “I am not very Victorian at all,” he claimed, but how else to characterize the vade mecum that is Taxidermy Art? A catalogue of contemporary objets of taxidermy, in which craft impinges on art, is preceded by a timeline running from Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) to Méret Oppenheim (1913-85), she of the furry tea cup.

A 50-page Do-It-Yourself taxidermy manual completes this exhaustive introduction to an uncanny genre.

“The artists involved all love animals and have devoted their work to investigating some aspect of animals in human culture,” Marbury reassured me via email. “Perhaps it’s difficult for some viewers to imagine being with death, working with animal remains. It isn’t easy, but neither is driving past road kill. Some people look away, some feel guilty, others say a prayer.” He added, “I always ask people who come to events to keep an open mind.”t Litquake 2014 runs from Oct. 1018; info: litquake.org.

Paxton Gate, 824 Valencia St, SF; info: paxtongate.com.

Klari Reis, “Hypo 1502”, Mixed Media in Petri Dish, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London

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Comedy

Litquake

NIGHTLIFE FOOD

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SPIRITS

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Andy Bell talks up his new grooves

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 41 • October 9-15, 2014

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Erasure’s new ‘Flame’

Drag Drinks

by Jim Provenzano

W

ith three decades of hit-making magic between them, and a few solo ventures here and there, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have maintained their status as one of the most popular electro pop bands. With Andy’s added fabulous outness, their new CD The Violet Flame, and their world concert tour, are getting the duo back in the deserved spotlight.

With anthem-like tracks that deserve a place on a massive dance floor (“Elevation” and “Sacred”) to the spooky minor-keyed “Dead of Night” (a critique of overdoing the excesses of nightlife?), Erasure’s new CD harkens back to their earlier years, but with a more richly layered production stylings of Richard X. “It’s just how it came out,” said Andy Bell in a phone interview. “After everything we’ve been through, it was almost a relief to make a new record. It seems like everything’s all clear, and calm is restored.”

See page 27 >>

Kristen Loken

Andy Bell (left) and Vince Clarke

Lakeside Cool Lesbian and gay Top Chef vets help fuel the Oakland renaissance

by Jim Gladstone “I mean I wanna go,” whines a feckless hipster in the recent viral video sensation Sh*t San Franciscans Say, “but it’s in Oakland.”

Indeed, certain Castro queens and Missionistas continue to dig in their heels –or platforms, as the case may be– refusing to succumb to the emerging allure of that Second City by the Bay. But others are happily discovering the laidback charms of a dinner out in O-town.

The Oakland dining vibe –San Francisco with a little less pretense and a little less expense– has been duly noted in publications from the New York Times to Travel and Leisure.

There’s been plenty of national attention lavished on tourist-friendly Jack London Square; the Uptown area, where music venues the Fox and Paramount Theaters have attracted an attendant cluster of restaurants; and northerly Temescal, where foodie walking tours tread the sidewalks every weekend.

See page 26 >>

Shakewell bar manager James Gatts pours a cocktail.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

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26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 9-15, 2014

Kristen Loken

Sardine Toast and Avocado at Shakewell.

Kristen Loken

Grilled Calimari at Shakewell.

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Lakeside Cool

From page 25

But less notice has been paid to the slowly renascent Grand Lake neighborhood, a strollable halfmile-long trapezoid of residential blocks flanked by two namesake commercial strips, Grand Avenue to the north and Lakeshore Avenue to the south. Still below the national cool-hunters’ radar, the area has been building serious cred as a local dining destination.

Or, more accurately, a dinnerand-a-movie destination. The most familiar neighborhood landmark is the historic Grand Lake Theater, with its kaleidoscopic marquee and enormous roof sign, illuminated

by 2800 sparkling lightbulbs (3200 Grand Ave. 510-352-4556. www. renaissancerialto.com). The theater dates back to 1926, when the neighborhood was at a former peak, and has managed to hold on through Oakland’s economic shifts.

Rivaled only by the Castro for movie-going opulence in the Bay Area, the theater has expanded from its original single auditorium to a four-screen venue over the years, the renovations—which included taking over adjacent storefronts to add screening rooms—have not diminished its old-fashioned charms.

Lesbian and gay business partners Jen Biesty and Tim Nugent are true believers in the Grand Lake neighborhood, and the talents behind its

buzziest new hub.

Veterans of San Francisco’s dining scene and Top Chef’s television stardust—Biesty on season four of the flagship series, Nugent on season one of Just Desserts—the pair chose Grand Lake for the location of Shakewell, their first restaurant as owners (3407 Lakeshore Ave. 510-251-0329. www.shakewelloakland.com) For 15 years, Nugent called the Grand Lake neighborhood home while commuting across the bay to work at restaurants including Zuni Café and Perbacco. He first bonded with Biesty at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel –he was Executive Pastry Chef when she was came on as Executive Chef.

“We’re like a couple, then a divorced couple, then brother and sister, then best friends,” says Nugent, describing his close working relationship with Biesty (Both have longterm romantic partners).

Amidst the grind of overseeing more than 1000 meals a day at the hotel, the pair long contemplated opening a place of their own. When a space became available on Lake-

shore Avenue, Nugent, who now sits on the local business council, was inspired to get involved in the improvement he’s been watching as a resident.

“I love the speed that this neighborhood is moving at,” he enthuses.

“When I first got here, the major retail was a Hallmark shop.”

Now, he points out, the neighborhood boasts eclectic, locally owned stores including Urban Indigo, an artist-staffed emporium of housewares and accessories (3339 Lakeshore Ave. 510-459-0451. www. urbanindigo.com); designer women’s fashion consignment shop, Maribel (3251 Lakeshore Ave. 510-419-0677. www.facebook.com/ shopmaribel); idiosyncratic design boutique/installation art venue Oak Common (3231 Grand Ave. 510285-6629. www.oakcommon.com); and the comprehensively-stocked Oaktown Spice Shop, whose wares regularly make their way into meals at Shakewell (530 Grand Ave. 510201-5400. www.oaktownspiceshop. com).

“You know, there’s this been this

bad rap that Oakland is a gunshooting murder town. But this city is huge, you can drive for 20 miles and still be in Oakland,” said Biesty.

“There are bad parts, like in any city, but we’re in a thriving, eclectic neighborhood. I was always a little leery about Oakland, but that’s because I hadn’t really spent any time here,” confesses Brooklyn native Biesty, who spent seven years in what she deems “the Potrero foothills” of San Francisco before moving across the bay in conjunction with Shakewell’s opening.

“It turns out that this is a really cool, diverse part of town,” she said.

“I love that I see tables of black, white, and Asian women having dinner together at our restaurant.

Same when I’m walking to work or walking home.”

“It’s extremely diverse,” agrees Nugent. “The other day I saw a guy walking down the street with another guy on a leash.”

“When I was in Potrero,” Biesty says, “I sometimes knew a few of my neighbors. But people were always moving in and out. Here it feels like

Kristen Loken

Shakewell’s Jen Biesty and Tim Nugent.

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Kristen Loken

Shakewell’s spacious dining room.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

people plan to stay a while. They make an effort to say hello and to look out for each other.”

Shakewell, which opened in July, offers a menu of shareable, Mediterranean small plates that’s entirely accessible, without the molecular gastrobatics and obscure ingredients that seem de rigeur in newsmaking San Francisco eateries. Only a few dishes break the $20 mark.

This is food –like the neighborhood it’s served in– that’s easy to love.

Biesty focuses on fresh ingredients that are never overworked.

Dishes look and taste like the purest, most ideal versions of their constituent parts. The grilled lamb kefta are tender and spicy, zinging with mint and cooled by the accompanying cucumber yogurt. A cheerful little appetizer of deviled quail eggs with slivered Serrano ham is elevated by a dash of smoked paprika.

The pickled onions that make cameos in a fresh sardine appetizer and a grilled little gem salad are perfect, slightly sweet and not overvinegared –punctuating the dishes without puckering your mouth.

Preserved lemon and piquillo peppers are deftly incorporated to bring bright edges to the dark richness of a squid-ink infused bomba. (Several versions of wood-oven fired bomba—a sort of moister, deep-dish paella—are centerpieces of the menu).

Biesty is flat-out passionate when she talks about her romesco, another frequently encountered flavor on the menu (It accompanies chorizo and falafel, grilled calamari with artichokes, and fried cauliflower).

“Anyone can combine peppers and garlic and almonds,” she explains, “But the way we incorporate toasted bread, the way we add whole fresh tomatoes to slow down the cooking, the way we focus on the levels of carmelization and sweetness; that’s what makes it special.”

Nugent, who oversees desserts as well as running the front of the house, brings the same precise focus

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Erasure

From page 25

Last year’s eloquently somber Snow Globe emcompassed the nostalgia and ennui of a wintry holiday season. Bell’s partner of 25 years had died shortly before their last album was recorded. He’s since begun a new relationship, and found what he cited as a renewed working relationship with longtime collaborator Clarke.

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke onstage.

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

The dining room at the stylish Penrose.

837-8737. www.michelbistro.com); and the dramatic, industrial chic Penrose, where Michael Schaeffer, an alum of San Francisco hot spot Rich Table is at the helm in the kitchen (3311 Grand Ave. 510-4441649. www.penroseoakland.com).

Grand Lake Kitchen, which opened in 2013, is Biesty’s go-to lunch spot for delicatessen-style sandwiches that won’t disappoint a native New Yorker—still a culinary rarity in the Bay Area (576 Grand Ave. 510-922-9582. www.grandlakekitchen.com).

Charlie Hallowell, Penrose’s owner, is already on the path to Grand Lake empire-building that Nugent and Biesty hope to pursue: His widely praised, pizza-centric Boot & Shoe Service, right across the street from Penrose, opened four years ago to instant popularity, pointing out locals’ hunger for good eats and helping to get the Grand Lake ball rolling in earnest (3308 Grand Ave. 510-763-2668. www. bootandshoeservice.com) The grand daddy of contemporary Grand Lake dining is Camino, a real pioneer, having arrived in 2008, prior to the current boom, when the neighborhood had a thicker coat of grit. Opened by Chez Panisse vets and informed by Chez Panisse philosophies, it was a risk that contin-

ues to pay off with a sophisticated market-driven menu of wood-oven cooked entrees and a bar scene that’s lively—but not so lively that you can’t hear your own conversation.

(3917 Grand Ave. 510-547-5430. www.caminorestaurant.com).

Biesty also gives props to the scene’s great grand daddy, The Alley, where stiff drinks have been poured for locals and in-the-know visitors since 1933, and octogenarian pianist Rod Dibble tickles the ivories for sometimes raucous singalongs (3325 Grand Ave. 510-4448505. www.facebook.com/pages/ The-Alley-In-Oakland).

“It’s super funky,” exults Biesty, “with old newspapers plastered all over the walls and the smell of fried food everywhere.”

For those curmudgeons inclined to grouse that Shakewell and its coterie of fresh new restaurants will somehow sap Grand Lake of its old school charms, take note: Oakland Magazine’s 2014 “Best of Oakland and the East Bay” issue awarded The Alley its honor for the best steak dinner in town.t

to his flavor combinations. There’s a sliver of manchego cheese alongside his quince tart to undercut the fruit’s sugar; and olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and red grapes atop vanilla ice cream, turning the simple to the sublime.

It’s only on the tight list of under a dozen specialty cocktails that Shakewell proffers provocative ingredient combinations. But while the likes of the signature Lakeshore cooler may prompt initial headscratching –Dill syrup and cucumbers? Will it taste like a pickle?– your trust is well merited.

The airy dining room is as welcoming as the food, with a handsome high slatted wooden ceiling and low room dividers made of chicken wire and rocks. It’s a décor that greets you warmly, then recedes to allow you to focus on your dining partners, your meal, and Biesty’s impressively unfrantic open kitchen.

“We’re here for the long haul,” says Nugent, who suggests that he and Biesty may eventually open a bakery –Bakewell; a prepared foods shop– Takewell; and a non-rhyming taqueria in the Grand Lake neighborhood. “We want to be part of the

continuing evolution of the neighborhood.”

The pair are quick to sing the praises of other local eateries, noting that it’s their mutual success that will help Grand Lake continue to emerge as a dining destination.

In addition to Shakewell, this year has seen the nearby openings of Michel Bistro, a casual Cal-French brasserie (3343 Lakeshore Ave. 510-

Nearby shopping at Urban Indigo.

The Grand Lake Theatre’s marquee in silhouette.

“I feel so greateful to be given this new opportunity,” said Bell.

He and Clarke spent about a week working with producer Richard X in sunny Miami, Florida (where their U.S. tour also started in September).

Bell said he spent another three weeks in production with his producer and Clarke back near his home in London.

“I think that kind of really gave the record a kind of richness that we weren’t actually looking for. But Richard’s specification was to keep the feel of the band in a really good way.”

Asked about some of the influences, which in a few tracks recall ‘80s disco and electro grooves (a hint of Georgio Moroder pops up in the song “Paradise”), Bell said that Clarke “has been doing lots of DJing, and I think he’s its rubbed off on him. He likes to lift beats from here and there.” In a change from their previous collaborations, Clarke’s grooves and beats were composed first.

The colors and themes from the new Violet Flame album will also become a part of their new stage show (Erasure’s November 1 concert at Oakland’s Fox Theatre sold out weeks ago).

“I really love the album cover,” said Bell, who mentioned magicians’ books and even Tarot spiritualism and mysticism as influences in the colorful design. “I love the kind of parlor game aspect of it. It’s almost like a fun sideshow.”

Along with the fun and danceable tunes, songs like the new “Be the One” offer a bit of ballad-like inspiration.

“I felt like I’ve cried all the tears I could,” said Bell of his more emotional times that inspire such songs.

“I love the taste of tears, but after a while, you get a bit over the crying, and have to stop being so down on yourself and lift yourself up a bit.”

One uplifting aspect of Bell’s life has been quitting smoking. Bell’s voice is notably strong in the new album, and fans and reviewers of the early concerts have noted Bell’s buff physique and renewed onstage energy.

Bell also credits their time in Miami producing the new music as exemplary of his new lease on life.

“I always knew that I would end up there,” said Bell. “It wasn’t because I had a yearning. It was just an instinct. I love the Art Deco buildings and neon. Maybe that’s the feeling that rubbed off in the new music.”

With 40 hit singles and more than 25 million albums sold, Bell is one of several iconic U.K. pop stars (Boy George, Jimmy Somerville) who’ve endured while being out gay men.

But that hasn’t always been a good thing.

“I do get a bit annoyed by it all,” Bell said. “I feel like while I love being special, there wasn’t all that fanfare when I came out. Nowadays, it’s kind

Erasure’s Bell and Clarke flanked by their back-up singers.

Jim Gladstone

of like a career move. When I did it, it was more like career suicide.”

So, is his being gay now a nonissue?

“There’s always gonna be a core group of fans that admire you because of who you are,” said Bell. “I love that, and I love the fact that we were kind of a grassroots band. I do get annoyed because we’ve been ignored by the rock brats,” (aka Rolling Stone, etc.). Sometimes, just because you’re gay, you’re not on their radar at all.”

Despite corporate media’s dismissal, Erasure’s concerts remain hot tickets worldwide. And Bell said that he does get a few days off in between concerts to enjoy seeing the world.

“It’s often quite good, and I have been going to the gym,” he said. “So I’m really glad now that the muscle memory is kicking in.

The Alley’s feisty cat.

It’s nice when you have days off or are in a city overnight,” said Bell of touring. “I like going around and taking a walk ‘round. But I also like just relaxing and being alone in my hotel room. The down side is waking up early and packing every five minutes.”

Along with his two back-up dancers, Valerie and Emma, the show includes Vince playing his usual minimal keyboard accompaniment.

Bell extolled the wonders of his back-up singers, and told an offthe-record unusual tale of his singers almost being kidnapped while on tour.

But that’ll have to wait for another conversation.t Erasure’s U.S. tour continues through December 31 in New York City. For more info, visit www.erasureinfo.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 9-15, 2014

New Horizons

by Donna Sachet

O

nce in a great while, amid the many awards banquets and galas, an event comes along which offers such sincere recognition that the audience and honorees alike are amazed and humbled. Such an event occurred last Saturday at the Fairmont Hotel at the Horizons Foundation’s annual Perfectly Suited Evening Gala Dinner and Casino Night.

We arrived with Richard Sablatura, our frequent and always appropriate escort, and were warmly and personally greeted by the dapper doorman, William May. We strolled through the opulent lobby and joined the VIP reception, already in progress in the rich Gold Room, touching base with Executive Director Roger Doughty, Deb Stallings, Jenna Heath, and others, enjoying Far Niente wines and finger foods.

From there we wandered into the general reception, teeming with early arrivals who were examining the silent auction and madly catching up with each other. Inside the Grand Ballroom, we sat with State Senator Mark Leno, Chris Carnes,

Russell Kassman, Michael Loftis & Erik Nickel, Lindsay Nickel, Beth Nickel, Tom Horn, Joe Fairchild, Paul Melbostad, Gary Virginia, and Nick Jimenez.

While enjoying an excellent meal, we were welcomed by co-chairs Rosio Alvarez, Richard Davis, Randolph Quebec, and Irene White and entertained by singer Terry Bradford. The Corporate Champion Award was presented by Erin Flynn to AT&T, graciously accepted by Ken McNeely, California President. The Leadership Award was then presented to this columnist by Mark Leno in a touching and personal speech which we will long treasure.

If you’ve ever had to compose an acceptance speech for an event like this, you’ll know how difficult it is to balance the personal with the universal, the individual thanks with the more general, and the facts with the emotional reactions. After a few weeks of preparation, we did our best to express profound appreciation and personal gratitude with a touch of signature humor. The amazing standing ovation before and after our speech still looms in our memory.

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet (left) with several honorees at Positive Resource Center’s Windows of Opportunity.

The rest of the night became a blur as many came by to share their congratulations and the event continued with fun gaming in the casino, wild dancing in the Tonga Room, and genuine celebration all around. As anyone knows who reads this column, we attend many such events throughout the year, but to be the recipient of such recognition among so many friends in such an extraordinary setting was magical and momentous. Thank you, Horizons Foundation.

Positive Resource Center hosted their annual Windows of Opportunity last Wednesday at the headquarters of SF Planning & Urban Research on Mission Street. Despite the traffic jam caused by Oracle, a lively crowd assembled, reuniting past and present Board members, clients, and supporters. Executive Director Brett Andrews did an excellent job emceeing the proceedings. Honored that night were the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation with the Community Pillar Award, presented by Board President Kent Roger, and Rink Foto with the new Bob Emerson Community Volunteer Award, presented by Jennifer Viegas & Betty Sullivan of Bay Times. That second award is named after a long-time Board member and supporter who passed away recently, but who left a lasting impression on the agency and all who knew him. Key selections from Rink’s wide variety of photography were featured throughout the venue, leaving no doubt of his importance as a photographer of San Francisco’s LGBT history.

We caught up with so many friends and PRC fans, including another long-time Board member Zoe Borkowski, Deana Dawn, KC Dare, Scott Peterson, Mark Rogers, Mario Diaz, Julius Turman, Jacques Michaels, Bob Dockendorff, Patrik Gallineaux, and Ken Henderson.

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Donna with Ken Hamai at the Christine Jorgenson plaque along the new installed Rainbow Honor Walk.

Although we missed the Castro Street Fair due to a long scheduled trip to Cincinnati, we understand that the weather cooperated, the crowds attended, and the recent improvements to Castro Street survived the onslaught of revelers. If you haven’t checked out the nearly complete enhancements, be sure to check them out soon, including new light poles, rainbow crosswalks, improved foliage, modified leaning benches, historical markers, and the Rainbow Honor Walk.

This Saturday, we hope you can keep up with the flurry of activities and will join us at many of them, including the Reigning Emperor & Empress’ Shenanigans at Beaux from 4-7PM, Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala that night at the Westin St. Francis, and later that night for Cleve Jones’ birthday party at the Café.

The following Wed., Oct. 15, AIDS Legal Referral Panel celebrates at the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchants Exchange, 465 California. That Friday, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund hosts This Old Bag at the Bently Reserve, where you can bid on handbags from celebrities, designer boutiques, and local heroes.

And on Saturday, Shanti takes us back to the Fairmont Hotel for their annual gala, this time honoring Rev. Cecil Williams & Janice Mirikitani of Glide Memorial Church, presented by the Honorable Willie L. Brown, Jr., and posthumously honoring beloved Stu Smith with the James C. Jormel Client Community Spirit Award. There may be a water shortage, but there is never a shortage of things to do and places to go in San Francisco!t

Comedic Inspirations Local Comedians and their Idols

By Ronn Vigh

legends, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to ask some of Harvey’s favorite comics who inspires them to keep getting on stage and entertaining.

A

s a young child, I would bargain with my Mom to stay up late and watch Joan Rivers fill in Monday evenings on The Tonight Show.

I was never one to make deals that rewarded me in hot fudge sundaes or video games. All I wanted was to stay up late and watch comedy, even though I’m sure I didn’t understand much of what was being said.

We recently lost two comedic icons, Joan Rivers and Robin Williams. Robin had more of an impact on comedy in the Bay Area, but Joan was always my comedic idol and inspiration long before I ever stepped on stage. Her spunky brash attitude and acerbic wit that did me in every time. Occasionally her jokes may have seemed hacky or one-dimensional to some, but I disagree. She didn’t create a style, she created a signature brand. There’s a structure, a storyline, and a strong sassy point of view behind all of her jokes, propelled by an unusual drive and stamina that comics half her age never have.

I’ve produced Harvey’s Funny Tuesdays, a weekly comedy series in the Castro, for just about most of its nine-year tenure, and have gone to exhausting lengths to keep our shows as diverse as possible. On October 14, Funny Tuesdays will host a special secret guest who has also been an inspiration to many in the LGBT community and turns my usually well composed boyfriend into a blushing 13-year-old girl who is about to steal a backstage kiss from Justin Bieber.

Jessica Sele Years performing stand up: Five Comedic Idol: Hari Kondabolu

What about Hari inspires you?

He really gave me inspiration to push myself to be a stand up. When I was just starting out, I saw in Hari that comedy could be humanizing, socially driven and hilarious at the same time.

Jessica Sele

When I slipped the secret of our special guest to my boyfriend, he told me of his first months in San Francisco as a young and broke college student. He scraped together his last sixty dollars to get premium seats to see this comic, and it was one of the best choices he has ever made. As a college student, not only was he attracted by her undeniably funny ways, but by her advocacy for gay rights and fighting racism and sexism. You will have to come down and see who is making the special appearance, but I promise it will be a notorious (rhymes with) show.

Last week, I performed at a tribute for my comedic idol Joan Rivers where I dressed in full Joan garb, donning a long sequin studded jacket, faux fur and chunky statement jewelry. While the world mourns the loss of some comedy

Karinda Dobbins Years performing comedy: Four Comedic inspiration: Moms Mabley

What about your idol inspires you?

Moms was black, lesbian and political. She was the first female standup comedian. She said, “As long as I can run, I’m gonna say what I want to say.” That quote inspires me to not be afraid of tackling controversial subjects in my material.

How has this shaped you on stage?

I think my comedy is very personal, emotionally driven, conversational and weird. My subject material ranges from sexuality to living in the End Times to mental health issues and their related habits.

Don’t you know you went through a red light?’ I say, ‘Yeah, I know I went through a red light.’ ‘Well, what did you do that for?’ I said, ‘Cause I seen all you white folks goin’ on the green light...I thought the red light was for us!’”

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan Years performing stand up: Seven Comedic Inspiration: There are definitely a few. Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett as comedic actors.

As stand ups, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Janeane Garofalo and in terms of political commentary, Colbert, Stewart, and Oliver

What inspires you about them?

All of these people are brainy, smart, and have a handle on the business/production side of comedy. Also I like their outfits. In a sea of hoodies and ill-fitting jeans, I try my best to dress nicely on stage.

Morgan Years performing stand up: Eight Comedic Idol: Marga Gomez

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan

Karinda Dobbins

What is your favorite joke from your idol?

“I was on my way down to Miami... I was ridin’ along in my Cadillac, you know, goin’ through one of them little towns in South Carolina. Pass through a red light.

One of them big cops come runnin’ over to me, say, ‘Hey woman!

What about Marga inspires you?

I’m very inspired by all the different things that she does her onewoman shows, her stand up and all the other venues that she moves in.

That’s where I’ve set the bar as I do both stand up and story telling. I’ve started billing myself as a stand-up storyteller.... it just fits.t Harvey’s Funny Tuesdays, every Tuesday at 9pm, 500 Castro St., San Francisco CA. 415-431-4278, Free show with one-item minimum.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Fans at a recent Lit Crawl event.

Steven Underhill

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415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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Baruch Porras-Hernandez at a recent Lit Crawl event at Martuni’s.

A café reading at Litquake.

Litquake line-up Literary fest’s fun faves

by David-Elijah Nahmod

L

itquake, the Bay Area’s earthshaking celebration of literature, turns 15 years old. Since 1999 Litquake’s nine-day celebration of local writers includes live readings, performances, panels, and parties.

The closing night Lit Crawl event includes dozens of festive events up and down the Valencia Street corridor.

“The festival was conceived fifteen years ago and started out with an attendance of about thirty folks shivering out in the fog of Golden Gate Park,” said Litquake’s Liam Passmore. “This year we’ll be close to 20,000.”

Litquake is definitely a gayfriendly event. Each year the event gives out its Barbary Coast Award to a Bay Area writer who had a significant impact on local arts and letters. The first recipient, many years ago, was Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin.

“For writers, I think it’s a sense of community outside of being a ‘gay writer,’ and rather of being among the community of writers at large, which is real important I think,” Passmore said.

Litquake’s nightlife events for this year promise to be a blast.

“Many of the nightlife events are centered on the closing night Lit Crawl, which is always literary mayhem at its finest,” said Passmore. “This year I think you can make the argument that between Martuni’s, The Beauty Bar and The Lexington Club during the crawl, and the other events, Litquake is representing and engaging the gay and Queer community in ways as eccentric and varied as the community itself. What other literary event would engage Heklina and D’arcy Drollinger along with names like Marc Maron, Nicholson Baker, and the million-selling Italian author Paolo Giordano, who is a babe and a half, but I have no idea of his sexual orientation!”

Here are some of the Litquake nightlife events where you can join literary figures in a little imbibing: Litquake in the Castro October 11, 1pm Magnet, 4122 18 Street OK, it’s not exactly at night, but Magnet has been known to offer up some wine and cheese at their events. A variety of LGBT writers will read from their work.

Barely Published October 12, 7pm, $5 The Make Out Room, 3325 22nd Street Readings by the best up and com-

ing masters of prose and poetry in the Bay Area, including handsome and gay Patrick Lettellier.

From Austen to Room to Frog Music: Emma Donoghue’s Literary Life October 13, 6pm $25 Z Space, 450 Florida Jewelle Gomez interviews bestselling lesbian author Emma Donoghue about her new murder mystery Frog Music, set in 19th-century San Francisco: attendees get a copy of the book.

Smart Smut October 16, 8pm, $7.

The Make Out Room, 3325 22nd Street Sexual provocateurs such as bisexual porn queen Nina Hartley and gay author Scott James spin naughty if thought provoking tales of perversion by the Bay. Emerging Voices in Queer Literature October 18 8:30-9:30pm Asterisk San Francisco Magazine and Gallery 3156 24th Street

ebar.com

Rising talents such as Celeste Chan, Dawn Robinson and author/ columnist Belo Cipriani will read from their works.

Radar Presents Sister Spit October 18, 7:15-8:15pm Lexington Club, 3464 19th Street A literary reading atop the pool table at a legendary Queer bar.

Celebrity Twitterature October 18, 7:15-8:15pm at Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission An evening of social media reenactments with drag icons Heklina, D’arcy Drollinger, among others.

Listen to their hilarious readings of some of Twitters more embarrassing tweets!

A Fifth of Fiction: hosted by BARtab October 18, 6-7pm at Martuni’s, 4 Valencia BARtab’s editor Jim Provenzano, a five-time novelist, hosts a variety of writers, including local DJ Jim Piechota and author Mark Abramson, who share booze-influenced fictional and confessional accounts, with a gay twist of course.t

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30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 9-15, 2014

AB f eON THE T – October 9 16

★

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge The intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Fri 10 7th Anniversary Party @ Lookout The gay bar with a fab view celebrates its lucky seventh, DJs Paul Goodyear and Russ Rich. No cover. 3:30pm-2am.

Buffet 6pm-8pm. 3600 16th St. 4310306. www.lookoutsf.com

Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Gerard Way @ The Fillmore

Sun 12

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alented musicians in rock, jazz, cabaret and other genres should please your entertainment cravings. DJs and their accompanying gogo hotties will help you shake your own booty, or watch others shake theirs.

Thu 9 Beats Reality @ Trax Resident DJs Jim Hopkins and Justime welcome guest DJs and play groovy tunes. Weekly, 9pm-2am. 1437 Haight St. 864-4213.

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Club Yass @ City Nights Frisco Robbie presents a new 18+ LGBT weekly night, with live sets by guest performers, DJ TwistMix, with a Latin room up front, gogo guys and gals. $10. 9:30-3am. 546-7938. www.sfclubs.com

La Femme @ Beaux Weekly ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Flamenco Festival @ La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley 9th annual concert of flamenco dance and music, with Jose Mendez, Mari Peña and Antonio Moya. $30-$50.

8pm. 3105 Shattuck Ave. (510) 8492568. www.lapena.org

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. Oct. 9: a Nine Inch Nails & Marilyn Manson tribute night! $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux Heklina hosts a new weekly '90s-themed video, dancin', drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks!

'90s-themed attire and costume 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

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Oct. 9, Sharktoberfest, with pop-up beer garden full of plenty local brweries, fish and shark docent talks, and specimens. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland

Women's happy hour, with all-women music and live performances, 2 for 1 drinks, and no cover. 5pm-9am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

New weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Imelda May @ The Fillmore The gorgeous UK pop rockabilly singer performs music from her new album Tribal. $25-$35. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. 346-6000. www.imeldamay. co.uk www.thefillmore.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts.

10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 12pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Sondre Lerche @ The Independent The New York indie poprock singer performs his new music. Teen opens. $15. 9pm. 628 Divisadero.

771-1421. www.theindependentsf.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

Violent Femmes @ The Fillmore The angst rock band performs classic songs. Ashwin Batish opens. $40.

9pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. 346-6000. www.thefillmore.com

Sat 11

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Cleve Jones 60th @ The Café Juanita More! hosts a birthday party for the veteran gay activist at this fundraiser for the SF AIDS Foundation. $30-$80. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.sfaf.org

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland

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

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

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm.

1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Get groovin' at the weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am.

510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

HRC Gala Dinner @ Westin St. Francis The Human Rights Campaign's annual gala dinner and silent auction, with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Barbara Young, and honors recipients.

VIP reception includes hosted hors d'oeuvres and beverages. $150 and up. 6pm. 335 Powell St. www.sfhrcgala.org

Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Friday Night @ de Young Museum Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Leaves ch but you c to bring entertain

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Lick It @ Powerhouse Hottie gogos and house grooves at the cruisy bar, with DJ Guy Ruben. $5.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Joey Arias @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The veteran cabaret, Cirque do Soleil and Billie Holiday-channeling music performer returns for a solo show, with pianist Matt Ray. $25-$40 ($20 food/bev. Min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland The Oakland nightclub continues its 22nd-year anniversary with Hip Hop, Top 40, and Latin music, gogo dancers and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $6 afterward. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

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Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Roger Sellers @ Amnesia The alt-folk-electronic musician performs with his band; Modern Kin also performs. $8. 6pm-9pm. 853 Valencia St. 970-0012. www.rogersellers.tumblr.com www.amnesiathebar.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Fri 10 Joey Arias @ Feinstein’s

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge Celebrate eleven years of the weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. $8-$15. 9pm-3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF. com www.DNAlounge.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Marlena Shaw @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The legendary jazz singer performs a variety of songs in many genres. $35$50 ($20 food/bev. Min.). 8pm. Also Oct. 12, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Resilient @ Truck The monthly social event by and for HIV+ guys and their allies moves to the SoMa bar, with an underwear party. Free clothes check, no cover.

5pm-9pm. 1900 Folsom st. www.youareresilient.com www.trucksf.com

Sing-Along Saturdays @ Martuni's Join Joe Wicht for the weekly night of top 40 rock and pop sing-alongs.

9pm-1am. 4 Valencia St.

Sun 12 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event. 3pm-6pm.

Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ SF Mix The popular Castro bar hosts its weekly softball team beer bust fundraiser. 3pm-7pm. 4086 18th St. 431-8616. www.sfmixbar.com

Big Top @ Beaux Joshua J.'s homo disco circus night returns, now weekly, with guest DJs and performers, hotty gogo guys and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.BeauxSF.com

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping two-stepping and line-dancing. $5.

5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sat 11

Marlena Shaw @ Feinstein’s

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night.

7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pmclosing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone).

9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www. dragatmartunis.com

Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club Litquake presents Brushes With the Other Side of Fame, the festive storytelling night, with authors Antonia Crane, Caitlin Doughty, Owen Egerton, Jennifer Longo, Joshua Safran, Frances Stroh and Wendy Spero. $20-$25. 8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www.verdiclub.net

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at popular men's night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Tue 14 Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

henet.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni's Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Gerard Way @ The Fillmore Former lead singer for My Chemical Romance performs music from his solo work. The Eeries open. $47. 8pm.

1805 Geary Blvd. 346-6000. www.thefillmore.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Jock @ The Lookout The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mon 13 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night.

9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio

Kink.com presents an adults-only Halloweenthemed haunted house tour in their basement, Thru Nov. 1. $45. Various times.

1800 Mission St. www.

HellintheArmory.com

Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

hange with the seasons can always count on EDGE you the best in LGBT news, nment and sexy photos!

Hell in the Armory @ SF Armory

A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company's music and variety show, includes raffles and tickets to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. Oct. 9: speical surprise guest! One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the "Godfather of Skate."

Actually, every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday's Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

The weekly themed wild variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7.

Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am.

399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down at the strip joint while onstage strippers entertain. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Piano Bar @ Beaux Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Switch @ Q Bar Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Wed 15 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

Bromance @ Beaux DJ Kidd Sysko spins tunes for the bro-tastic midweek night, with $2 beer pitchers, beer pong, $1 shots served by undie-clad guys. It's like a frat house without the closet cases.

8:30-10pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Dare 2 Bare @ Club OMG New weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, no cover, and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Good Times @ Bench and Bar, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay's weekly queer women and men's R&B hip hop and soul night. No cover. 8pm-2am.

510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Linda Kosut @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Cabaret singer performs music from her new CD, Easy Come, Easy Go: The Music of Johnny Green. $15. 7pm.

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

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm.

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle Kollin Holts hosts the new weekly comedy and open mic talent night.

6pm-8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Wed 15

Bromance @ Beaux

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays.

JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. Oct. 8 is a special birthday party for gay rights activist Cleve Jones. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440 Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Thu 16 Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn blond hunk Christopher Daniels hosts the interactive event in the strip joint's cruisy downstairs arcade. $10.

9pm (Daniels performs onstage Oct. 18 & 19). 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio The monthly comedy show this time features Maureen Langan, Betsy Salkind, Yayne Abeba, Eloisa Braco, Stefani Silverman, Nick Leonard and host Lisa Geduldig. Proceeds benefit Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent, Inc. $7-$50. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.elriosf.com

Sundance Stompede @ Various Venues The annual country-western twostepping line-dancing celebration returns, with dance events at the Holiday Inn (1500 Van Ness Ave.), the Regency Ballroom (1300 Van Ness Ave.) and Sundance Saloon (550 Barneveld Ave.) Oct. 16's kickoff dance (500 Barneveld) is $12.

6:30pm-11pm. Other events $12-$50.

Thru Oct. 19. www.stompede.org

Tony DeSare @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The talented vocalist performs classic songs by Ellington, Cole Porter, even Willie Nelson. $40-$55 ($20 food/bev.

Min.). 8pm. Also Oct. 17. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. ww.ticketweb.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Gareth Gooch Photography

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On the Tab>>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 9-15, 2014

Drink Up!

by Jeza Belle

I

t was Friday night, and I was barhopping all of the establishments in New York City’s West Village. By the time I left the last watering hole, I was feeling as fabulous as I looked!

After all, I had just completed one of those torturous ten-day juice cleanses that had me drinking my weight in spicy lemonade in order to look as svelte as Twiggy.

As I made my way down Seventh

t

excerpt from ‘The Harlot’s Guide to Classy Cocktails’

Avenue, a crowd began to form.

People started to point and yell out how much they loved me. In my delightfully inebriated state, I could not help but revel in the attention.

All of that starvation was clearly paying off, as my slender figure was sending forth a siren’s call to the adoring masses.

After several photos, hugs, and handshakes, I was blowing kisses to the crowd when I overheard two men nearby engaged in conversa-

tion. With a look of confusion, one man turned to the other and asked, “Who the heck is that chick that everyone is going crazy over?”

As I cocked my head back preparing to declare my name, the second man blurted out with certainty, “It’s that fat actress….Melissa McCarthy!” I let out an audible gasp. At once I realized that every photo op I had just enjoyed was only a case of mistaken identity. After days of relentlessly squeezing fresh lemons into a guaranteed pound-shedding concoction, I was being confused with one of the chubbiest actresses on the planet! I put a smile back on my face and laughed with the crowd until the last picture was taken.

Then, I pursed my lips, adjusted my boobs, and stormed off in a Miss Piggy huff down the street to the nearest diner, where I drowned my diet in a trough of greasy food.

Hell, if after not eating a solid morsel for close to two weeks I was still serving-up full-figured Hollywood starlet, why in the fuck would I continue to deny myself that cheeseburger and fries?t Author Jeza Belle is one of 27 queens featured in The Harlot’s Guide to Classy Cocktails, among them, a #1 Billboard artist, reality show winners and contestants, social media sensations, rising pop stars, and a bevy of other bevvy lovers from over a dozen countries on six continents. The reliably raunchy Lady Bunny wrote the book’s hilarious introduction.

ebar.com

New York queen Jeza Belle serves up the drinks

Mix it up Here are three drink recipes from Jeza Belle, who reminds us, “These recipes are meant to be super easy....just like the girls, so lots of simple twists on classics.”

Pink Panty Dropper 12 ounce container frozen pink lemonade concentrate 12 ounces vodka Ice Lemon twists Pour container of frozen lemonade concentrate into a blender filled with ice. Fill the empty container with vodka and add

to blender. Cover and blend until the consistency of a slushy. Pour into glasses and garnish with lemon twists. Serve immediately.

(Watch Ms. Belle prepare this recipe: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jb67YRJBZNw) The Tuck 1 bottle dry red wine 32 ounces orange soda, such as San Pellegrino ¼ cup brandy

¼ cup orange juice 1 apple, cored and cut into pieces 1 orange, sliced thin 1 lime, sliced thin Lime twists Combine ingredients, except lime twists, in a large pitcher and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours. Pour into glasses and garnish with lime twists.

MAI Cock is TAI-ed Back (from the “Passed Out Drunk in the Alley” chapter) 2 ounces spiced rum 1 ounce coconut rum 1 teaspoon agave nectar 3 ounces orange juice 3 ounces pineapple juice 1 pineapple slice Fill shaker with ice. Add both rums, nectar, and juices. Shake and strain into a glass. Garnish with a pineapple slice.

The Pink Panty Dropper & The Tuck

Root Queer Float 2 ounces bourbon 2 scoops vanilla ice cream Root beer Whipped cream Place ice cream in glass. Add bourbon then fill with root beer.

Top with whipped cream.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Behind the booty

by John F. Karr

T

here’s no doubt you’ll be entertained by the new DVD documentary, I’m a Porn Star, which is available to rent or own (at $24.95).

There are juicy nuggets about the lives and experiences of its four porn star subjects, as well as items of general porn world high jinx and low down scattered throughout the film, even if the final effect can feel rather scattershot.

The film was directed by Charlie David, who’s known mostly as a performer. But offscreen, he’s garnered experience and awards as a writer, scriptwriter, director and producer.

He knows the biz, and although I’d have liked him to focus more tightly on his stars and their experiences, and perhaps left out the fragmenting multiplicity of side trips and diversions, his movie’s a jam packed pornucopia every which way. Even if the rapid beats of club mixes that are pervasive on the soundtrack support the movie’s snippet-style

the most fascinating. The wellspoken man’s got an undergraduate degree in Physics, and is now working on an MBA. He spent eight years in the Marines, a lot of time playing professional rugby, and more time as a Defense Contractor (he worked in the Pentagon!).

And then he met awardwinning transsexual porn performer Gia Darling.

He thought she was the hottest woman he’d ever seen. Sometime after being smitten, he found out she had a penis. Even though Gia has since given it up for what Jansen calls a very pleasurably workable vagina, Colby adjusted to it when it was there, and, surprise, found out he liked it.

After all, he says, he loved her, and it didn’t matter what was between her legs (they’ve been married for some years). And so, by meeting his wife, Jansen was led into the world of sex with men. So his sexuality is quite fluid, and he’s not exactly Gay for Pay (G4P). Actually, his expansive sexuality is

they’d had sex with guys independent of film work, and continue to do so for personal pleasure. Even so, that brings up questions that the movie neglects to ask.

When Fiddler on the Roof was enjoying a long run and longer tours, it was routinely cast with Greeks, Italians, and the like—any gypsy who was at all swarthy. The joke being that there was hardly a Jew among them. Well, you don’t have to be Jewish to eat lox. But in many intangible ways, I think it helps to be gay if you eat penis. Now, you may know that many porn stars aren’t gay (or Jewish). This movie documents how that affects their

Johnny Rapid and his Andrew Christian enhanced bulge adorn the I’m a Porn Star box.

The stars of I’m a Porn Star—Brent Everett, Johnny Rapid, Rocco Reed, and Colby Jansen.

lives and work, but neglects the elephant in the room. How does that affect the final product, and its viewers?

A narrator claims the men “have the swagger to say, ‘I’m a porn star.’”

They also have the swag porn stardom provides. I’m a Porn Starmakes it obvious that most performers who are G4P, bi, or sexually fluid do it for the money, with other considerations remaining secondary (such as, exploring sexuality).

It doesn’t probe much below the surface of the situation. What’s the impact on viewers, if any, of seeing non-gay men have homo sex?

Three of the four interviewees in the doc admit they think of girls while having homo-sex. I should think that would create a divide, distance them from their partners in so many ways. Yet the performers aren’t asked about that. Nor are the film’s talking heads—directors, sex therapists, doctors and, most tellingly, porn producers—asked about the possible ramifications. Is a gay porn consumer a guy who can reasonably expect his sexuality to be validated by the product he buys, or is he just a mark who is learning to pay?

editing but belie a seriousness of inadmirable, and you’ll be fascinated as tent. I’m a Porn Star wasn’t intended he details his adventures. for the intelligentsia, but is, instead, Buoyant Mr. Everett is big-time a popdoc. gay, and a joy. His mother mainI’m a Porn Star spends far too tains a shrine with awards and other much time on a history of gay porn, memorabilia of his career, and his before getting to its meat—the four father seems proud of his son’s gleestars whose experience it details. ful statement, “I got my big dick They are Brent Everett, Colby Janfrom my father!” sen, Rocco Reed, and Johnny Rapid.

The other three guys could be They’ve let their director take us beconsidered G4P—although the fact hind the scenes at their shoots, and that they have wives and children when they’re interviewed, they’re and also perform in str8 porn is forthcoming and candid about mitigated by their admission that their experiences—who they are, what they like when the cameras aren’t rolling, how much money they make, where they’ve been, and where they’re going.

Rocco Reed is low key, realistic about his career, and sensible (“I think the reason there are so many str8 guys doing gay porn is that everyone’s a little bit gay”). Johnny Rapid seems a strange one; his description of his off-screen sex life is a little scary. He’s filming as many scenes as he can to support his wife, three-yearold daughter and newborn son. “I need my career to last until I get out of school and can earn as much or more than I am now, to take care Ironic, isn’t it? I’m a Porn Star shows these four str8 guys (and one gay guy) of my family.”

Colby Jansen was, to me, just before they’ll be filmed having homo sex.

Another subject mentioned briefly in the movie by a veteran director is the difficulty porn stars have with acting. It’s simple, he says. They lack training. I ask, if they can’t act, and if they’re str8, how can they show or experience emotion? A bigger question is, does the porn industry have any interest in showing emotion?

The answer is a big No. Yet they should. Despite my being a fan of a

number of G4P performers, I think hiring gay would help the industry more often pin down that elusive thing they call “chemistry.”

At its very beginning, the documentary states its thesis: “We must be changed by our consumption of porn. But in what ways, exactly?”

While it answers a host of questions, it never gets around to that one.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 9-15, 2014

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Shooting Stars

October 9-15, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by Steven Underhill

The Arc’s performance at ld he t, an ge Pa es at St mers.

United The Miss Gay California t out a festive array of competitors and perfor space on Oct. 4, brough

The Castro Street Fair attracted thousands on a warm and sunny day Oct. 5. Musical acts, food, drinks, and craft booths included a new fave, the Yarness (yarn harnesses!).

Last Friday, Magnet’s la test exhibit, photos by po local luminati attend, inc rn luding author Armistea legend Peter Berlin, saw dozens of d Maupin and his hubby Ch ris Turner.

See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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