July 17, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

New director for gay men's group

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

WHO recommends PrEP for gay men

Gay Google exec battles SF tenants

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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by Liz Highleyman

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ay and bisexual men who are at risk for HIV infection should consider using antiretroviral drugs for pre-exposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP, according to new guidelines from Liz Highleyman the World Health OrRobert Grant ganization.

The WHO recommendation is similar to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines released in May, which state that health care providers should consider advising people at “substantial risk” to use PrEP to prevent HIV infection.

“With the WHO’s recommendation, two of the world’s most important public health institutions have recommended that gay and bisexual men who could become infected by HIV carefully consider PrEP,” said Project Inform Executive Director Dana Van Gorder.

“In Project Inform’s view, this would especially include men and transgender women who ever bottom without condoms.”

Noting that HIV infection rates among gay and bi men remain high almost everywhere and new prevention options are urgently needed, WHO strongly recommended that men who have sex with men consider taking antiretroviral drugs as an additional method of protection along with condoms.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead Sciences’ Truvada combination pill for PrEP in July 2012. The two drugs in Truvada, tenofovir and emtricitabine, have been approved for HIV treatment for more than a decade and are considered safe and well tolerated. Tenofovir can cause impaired kidney function and bone loss in some people, but so far it has shown minimal side effects in PrEP studies.

The international iPrEx trial found that daily use of Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection for gay and bisexual men and transgender women by 42 percent overall, rising to more than 90 percent among participants with blood drug levels indicating regular daily use.

Mathematical models estimate that widespread use of PrEP could reduce HIV incidence among men who have sex with men by 20-25 percent worldwide, preventing up to 1 million new infections.

“The WHO recommendation for PrEP for men who have sex with men is extremely important,” iPrEx lead investigator Robert See page 6 >>

Vol. 44 • No. 29 • July 17-23, 2014

Rick Gerharter

Susan Coss, left, and Claudia Tirado, with her son, Valentino, sit in front of 812 Guerrero Street, where Tirado still lives and where Coss used to reside.

gay Google executive who’s been working to evict people from the San Francisco apartment building he bought is facing a lawsuit from tenants over mold and other problems.

Jack Halprin, an attorney for the Mountain View-based tech company, settled a separate wrongful eviction lawsuit with a former tenant in May. According to the city’s planning department, Halprin is the sole owner of 812 Guerrero Street, which was last sold in 2012 for $1.4 million.

City rent board records show that Halprin started ousting people from the building after he filed an owner movein eviction against tenant Daniel Rubin in May 2012. Months later, he filed an owner move-in eviction against tenants Susan Coss and another woman because his then-domestic partner, Daniel Ortiz, was moving in.

In November 2013, Coss filed a wrongful eviction lawsuit against Halprin. The complaint notes that Halprin and Ortiz separated just days before she left her apartment November 16, 2012.

According to Los Angeles County Superior Court records that Coss provided, the couple separated November 10,

2012, and Halprin petitioned for dissolution of the partnership July 29, 2013.

Coss claims that Halprin never planned for Ortiz to move in and never offered to rerent the unit to her. Halprin was merging his apartment with Coss’s unit without obtaining the necessary permits, she says. City records indicate he’s worked to obtain permits since then, but it’s not immediately clear they’re related to the merger.

In an interview, Coss, 48, who now lives in Alameda, said she has “no idea” what Halprin’s intentions are through the evictions, but she suspects “part of the reason” he’s trying to get rid of the other tenants is he’s retaliating against her.

Whatever his reasons, Coss said “one of the most egregious parts” of the situation is “how difficult it was for people to fight for the right of domestic partnerships. To see someone use it for their own personal purpose and circumvent the law is such a slap in the face to people who worked long and hard to get that through.”

Coss, who’s straight, wouldn’t say how much she settled the suit for.

Reached by phone, Halprin said, “I have no comment” for this story. “You have a great day. Thank you.” He hasn’t yet filed a formal response to the lawsuit, according to the San See page 10 >>

Chick-fil-A Vallejo location faces opposition

by Matthew S. Bajko

Cathy, the son of company founder Truett Cathy, made headlines for sayproposed Chick-filing he was against same-sex marriage.

A location in Vallejo Cathy’s comments to the Baptist has drawn opposition Press, including his saying that his from LGBT residents and othopinion “might not be popular with ers due to the company’s antieveryone, but thank the Lord, we live gay history. in a country where we can share our The city council is expected values and operate on biblical printo vote at its July 22 meeting on ciples,” set off protests and LGBT the fast food outlet’s proposed kiss-ins at Chick-fil-A eateries. restaurant in Vallejo’s Northgate Supporters of the chain, in turn, area at Admiral Callaghan Lane flocked to its outlets in a coordinated and Auto Mall Parkway near an daylong eat-in action to counter the entrance and exit to Interstate calls to boycott Chick-fil-A. National 80. It would be the company’s and local leaders also weighed in seventh location in the Bay Area, on the controversy, with San Franwith outlets in Walnut Creek, Getty Images cisco Mayor Ed Lee tweeting that he Fairfield, San Jose, Sunnyvale, The anti-gay chicken fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A is planning to was “very disappointed #ChickFilA and Santa Rosa. doesn’t share San Francisco’s values open an eatery in Vallejo.

Due to Vallejo’s drive to inand strong commitment to equality crease its tax base and add jobs for everyone.”

The purpose of doing so, said Crumrine, is as it continues to pay its bills He added that the “closest #ChickFilA to so that “no one should be able to say afterward two years after coming out of bankruptcy, oppoSan Francisco is 40 miles away and I strongthey didn’t know what they were approving.” nents of Chick-fil-A expect the council will vote ly recommend that they not try to come any Due to the company’s support of discrimito approve the new location. closer.” natory policies toward LGBT people, it “should “It is an uphill battle,” admitted gay Vallejo House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San not be welcomed into our city,” Vallejo resident resident David Crumrine, who has been orFrancisco) also joined in the fray, tweeting that Nathan Stout told the city’s planning comganizing opposition to the Atlanta-based com“for the record, I prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken.” mission last month prior to its vote in support pany’s expansion plan.

Last year on the day the U.S. Supreme Court of the fast food chain’s permits.

Nonetheless, the company’s critics are not opened the door for federal recognition of Most of the opposition stems from the antibacking down in opposing the chain from opensame-sex marriages and overturned Califorgay stances espoused by the leaders of the familying in their city. They plan to address the council See page 6 >> owned company. In 2012 Chick-fil-A CEO Dan with their concerns at next week’s hearing.

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<< National News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 17-23, 2014

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Report exposes deceptions by the religious right

by Chuck Colbert

I

n the last few years, legal same-sex marriage has arrived in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The armed forces’ “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and federal law, which barred openly gay military service, has been repealed. And for all the religious right and social conservatives’ efforts to block such progress, equal rights and social justice for LGBTs, it would appear, are advancing in significant ways.

Detractors of gay rights, however, are far from declaring a truce in the so-called culture wars, let alone acknowledging their defeats. In fact, a new report highlights a stepped-up shift in strategy and tactics as antiLGBT activists claim they’re the ones being oppressed.

“Religious right leaders hold themselves up as the victims,” said Michael B. Keegan, president of People For the American Way, which released its findings last month. “This is a powerful talking point, even if not true. We need to expose these distortions for what they really are – an attempt to protect the right’s ability to discriminate and push its policy preferences on the rest of us.”

Founded in 1981 by television writer and producer Norman Lear, PFAW is a nonprofit liberal to progressive advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to make the American way, or “the promise of America real,” including “equality, freedom of speech, freedom of religion” and the right of all Americans “to seek justice in a court of law” and “the right to cast a vote that counts.”

The organization’s nine page report, “The Persecution Complex: The Religious Right’s Deceptive Rallying Cry,” documents how religious right activists and elected officials attempt to portray the increasing unpopularity of their stances on a number of cultural issues – for instance, same-sex marriage, public prayer, and Christmas celebrations – as evidence of oppression of their religious faith at the same time they represent themselves as societal bulwarks against a culture run amok with immorality.

Some examples – or dire myths –

Courtesy Jay Michaelson, Ph.D.

Courtesy University of Pennsylvania

Researcher and Brown University visiting scholar Jay Michaelson, Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff

from the PFAW study point to the tactics and strategy: • Two middle-school girls are forced into a lesbian kiss as part of an anti-bullying program.

• An Air Force sergeant is fired because he opposes same-sex marriage.

• A high-school track team is disqualified from a meet after an athlete thanks God for the team’s victory.

• A man affixing lights to a Christmas tree falls victim to a wave of “War-on-Christmas” violence.

Reality, however, tells a different narrative.

“None of these stories is true,” the PFAW report states. “But each has become a stock tale for religious right broadcasters, activists, and in some cases elected officials. These myths – which are becoming ever more pervasive in the right-wing media – serve to bolster a larger story, that of a majority religious group in American society becoming a persecuted minority, driven underground in its own country.”

The religious right and social conservatives are “reframing political losses as religious oppression,” PFAW’s study suggests, in an “attempt to build justification for turning back advances in gay rights, reproductive rights, and religious liberty for minority faiths.”

And while “the religious persecution narrative is nothing new – it has long been at the core of the right’s

reaction to secular government and religious pluralism,” the report notes, the persecution meme “has taken off in recent years in reaction to gay rights and reproductive freedom, and to an increasingly secular and pluralistic society.”

The religious right’s “frantic warnings” have gone so far as to claim that “conservative Christians are losing their right to free speech” and “that the U.S. is on the verge of instituting unconstitutional hate speech laws,” and even “that religious faith itself might soon be criminalized,” according to PFAW. The organization’s report takes aim not only at the myths, but also the myth makers, including “the most prolific manufacturer and promoter,” Fox News reporter Todd Starnes, host of Fox News and Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. Starnes, who holds strongly conservative views, is a regular contributor to Fox and Friends and FoxNews.com.

Take the case of Air Force Sergeant Phillip Monk, who, according to Starnes, was “relieved of his duties after he disagreed with his openly gay commander when she wanted to severely punish an instructor who had expressed religious objections to homosexuality.”

Monk’s story apparently struck a resonate chord with social conservatives dismayed over the 2010 repeal of DADT. By 2013, the religious right had

spun Monk’s alleged aggrievement into a reverse discrimination “that Christians were now the victims of a new ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” according to PFAW. During a Values Voter Summit panel on the alleged development of anti-Christian persecution, Monk, through a video produced by the anti-gay Family Research Council, told viewers how he was “reassigned by his commander because of his belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.”

But a later Air Force investigation found that “Monk was not removed from his position, but rather moved as scheduled to another Lackland unit, an assignment he was notified of in April,” according to the Military Times.

Similarly, the PFAW report debunks the myth of the forced middle-school lesbian kiss and the athlete disqualified for thanking God. “The middle school girls were never required to kiss,” PFAW noted.

“The track athlete admitted he was disqualified for taunting and disrespecting a referee.”

Altogether, “gay rights” serve as “the moral test for our time,” the report noted, “warning that every advance in the rights of LGBT people detracts from the rights of people of faith who have religious objections to homosexuality.”

PFAW’s findings are similar to those of Jay Michaelson, Ph.D., in his 2013 report for Political Research Associates entitled “Redefining Religious Liberty: The Hidden Assault on Civil Rights.” Michaelson’s report highlights the deep roots of the persecution narrative that lay at the core of religious conservatives’ response to desegregation, prayer in public schools, and abortion rights advances in Roe v.

Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Hobby Lobby and ENDA

Furthermore, Michaelson, along with a growing number of national and statewide LGBT organizations, are coming out against the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, saying that while it bans workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender iden-

tity, the federal law also would allow religious organizations to discriminate against LGBTs even in nonministerial or pastoral capacities.

Last week the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force became the largest LGBT organization to date to change course on ENDA, when its affiliated Action Fund announced it would not longer support the proposed legislation.

NGLTF Executive Director Rea Carey, writing in the Advocate, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Hobby Lobby case changed the landscape for religious exemptions.

In that case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., the court ruled 5-4 that the Department of Health and Human Services regulations requiring employers to provide their female employees with no-cost access to contraception violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Advocates for LGBT equality maintain the proposed religious exemption included in the current version of ENDA is unprecedented in civil rights legislation and would in effect gut the non-discrimination protections.

The Bay Area Reporter reported last month that several other organizations, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, no longer support ENDA. Full equality advocates, including Michaelson, a visiting scholar at Brown University, also voice concern about social conservatives’ efforts to empower discrimination against LGBTs. “Religious conservatives have really succeeded at ‘moving the goalposts’ here,” he said. “Just two years ago, this kind of broad exemption was a huge compromise for the Obama administration, in the context of the Affordable Care Act. Now, ENDA’s backers are offering it up as the default position. That is a huge, silent victory. And we all know what the ultimate goal is: Religious exemptions for anyone who wants one, including corporations and individuals. That would represent a tragic erosion of the rule of law.”

See page 10 >>

New Park Station captain sees ‘quality of life’ concerns

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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he new captain overseeing the San Francisco Police Department’s Park Station plans to continue addressing some of the biggest concerns in the neighborhood, including patrolling Golden Gate Park and working with homeless people.

Captain Raj Vaswani took over the top post at the station last month. Park Station oversees several neighborhoods popular with LGBTs such as the Haight, Duboce Triangle, Twin Peaks, and Cole Valley. He replaces longtime police Captain Greg Corrales, who retired.

In a recent interview at the station, which is near the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park, Vaswani said people have told him they’d like to see more officers patrolling the park, not just to enforce laws, but also to help homeless youth and others.

People don’t want to see “blatant quality of life” issues such as flagrant drug dealing, but they also “really want officers to be sensitive and responsive,” said Vaswani, whose first day in his post at the station, which includes about 70 sworn officers, was June 21.

He said other concerns are “aggressive” panhandling, people sitting or lying on sidewalks, and vandalism.

“I want people to feel like they can bring their kids to any part of our different commercial districts

and sit down with their kids and not have to worry” about problems ranging from “aggressive behavior” to speeding cars, said Vaswani.

However, he said, “I am a very strong believer that we cannot arrest our way out of this situation.”

He has officers who work with city agencies including the health department to refer people to shelters, treatment centers, or other resources.

Vaswani has been with the SFPD for about 20 years. He’s patrolled neighborhoods around the city, spent several years in investigations, and he’s also worked in the department’s legal division, among other posts.

Citing safety concerns, Vaswani didn’t reveal much personal information, including his age and where he lives, but he said he has a wife and two children. He also declined to share income figures, but according to the city’s Department of Human Resources website, his annual compensation is about $188,000.

Areas of concern

As Park Station captain, Corrales became known for focusing on what he sometimes referred to in his popular newsletter as people in possession of “the weed with the roots in hell” and “hibernating hippies.”

Asked about enforcement of marijuana violations and similar crimes being overzealous, Vaswani said,

Courtesy SFPD

New Park Station police Captain Raj Vaswani

“If it’s a behavior that’s affecting the use of the park for everybody, I think it’s our obligation” to perform “some type of intervention,” which “doesn’t always have to be jail.”

However, he said, “If somebody’s enjoying the park, and they’re not bothering anybody, I don’t see my officers bothering them.”

So far, newsletters under Vaswani’s watch have been more tame than the colorful ones that Corrales was known for, but they have included frequent references to admonishments for “chronic” offenders violat-

ing the city’s ban on sitting or lying on sidewalks during certain hours.

Mary Howe is the executive director of Homeless Youth Alliance, which works with homeless youth in the Haight neighborhood, including many who are LGBT. In response to emailed questions, Howe said that Vaswani reached out to her when he became Park captain to schedule a meeting.

“This very action, regardless of what approach he will take on the homeless issues in the district, shows an already vast difference between him and his predecessor,” said Howe. She’s met with Vaswani briefly and they’re set to have a follow-up meeting, she said.

“My concerns as it stands now without really knowing him are the same regardless who is captain,” Howe said. “I would like to see officers treat all people fairly, cease profiling and prejudging folks and utilize their time focusing on actual crime not quality of life infractions.”

Christin Evans is an owner of the Booksmith and is a member of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association. Evans said it seems that Vaswani is trying to build “the right relationships right from the get-go” by reaching out to the association and other groups. “Initial impressions are favorable,” she said.

Concerns include maintaining

police patrols, she said. Among other things, patrolling officers “get to know” people, including “chronic” quality of life abusers, and can “help them connect with services.”

LGBT issues

One issue that doesn’t seem to have generated much concern among people in the Haight is men having sex with other men in Buena Vista Park and other outdoor spaces.

Vaswani said, “I have not heard complaints about it,” and again referred to his “general philosophy” of focusing on things that are “affecting other people from using the park” and generating complaints, especially from people with children.

Despite LGBTs making up a sizable portion of the district’s merchants, residents, and visitors, Park Station doesn’t appear to have had someone serving as a liaison to the LGBT community for at least a year.

Selecting a new liaison is “definitely something I’m going to look into,” said Vaswani.

LGBTs are “a significant part of our community,” he said, and “if we have another channel that somebody feels comfortable coming to us to help us do our job, I’m totally open.”

For more information, visit the Park Station website at http://www. parkstation.org or follow Vaswani on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sfvas.t

Community News>>

t SF gay men’s group welcomes new executive director

July 17-23, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

by Matthew S. Bajko

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community-based group that helps queer men in San Francisco connect socially has welcomed a new executive director as it marks its 10th anniversary.

In May, well-known gay porn star Michael Brandon stepped into the position with the Community Initiative on a volunteer basis. Earlier this year he had joined the nonprofit’s board of directors and was then asked to succeed founding executive director Doug Sebesta.

“Anybody who knows anything about Michael Brandon knows I am very community oriented. I donate my time to a lot of things, anything to further a cause and all that good Rick Gerharter stuff,” Brandon told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent Michael Brandon celebrates at the Queens Are Wild casino night benefit for the Stop AIDS Project in 2007. phone interview.

Brandon, whose given name electronic ways for guys to meet unteered to serve as executive direcis Michael Phillips, not only is one another, such as hookup sites tor in his free time, and in 2008, the known for his adult film work but like Grindr, and to communicate group rebranded itself as simply the for his public struggles with crystal via social media sites like Twitter, Community Initiative. meth use, which garnered headlines Brandon said there is a parallel need Sebesta, 58, who left DPH on disin 2008 after he was arrested by to foster face-to-face interaction beability roughly six years ago, said he San Francisco police. He has been tween queer men. is “ecstatic” to transfer the day-toworking on a documentary, Born “We need to get people off their day management of the group to This Way: The Journey of Michael electronics and out in the commuBrandon.

Brandon, that delves into his life nity and helping each other,” he said.

“I personally, after I got sick a struggles.

Sebesta told the B.A.R. that Brannumber of years ago, had to pull Last year Brandon took part in a don was his “personal first choice” back. The board of directors has discussion about suicide within the to succeed him as executive director. mostly been running everything,” LGBT community that the Com“It is very exciting,” he said of the said Sebesta, who serves on the munity Initiative hosted. He said change in leadership. board. “It got to a time where we rehe agreed to take on the nonprofit’s Ten years ago Sebesta helped ally needed somebody to be a new executive director duties because he launched what was then called the leader and bring in a lot of new exbelieves in the core mission, which Gay Men’s Community Initiative citement and freshness, and [Branis to foster a sense of community as part of his job with the city’s Dedon] is doing exactly that.” among queer men by helping them partment of Public Health. One of One of the biggest challenges connect offline through various soits most popular programs has been facing Brandon and the board is cial gatherings. the weekly Wilde Chats, Saturday financing for the group, which “Being on the board and listening morning get-togethers for men to Sebesta noted dried up a number of in on things, it quickly became one discuss various topics of interest. years ago. The nonprofit last filed a of my pets. It is one of my favorite In 2007 the health department 990 tax return in 2006, according to organizations because it is comtransitioned oversight of the initiathe website Guidestar, which tracks munity oriented,” said Brandon, 49, tive to a community-led board of philanthropic groups. who lives in San Francisco. directors. At that point Sebesta volOn its own website the ComWith the continued growth of

Officials address PrEP via Healthy SF

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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fficials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and health advocates are working to ensure that Healthy San Francisco, the city’s locally designed and funded universal health care program, covers pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly referred to as PrEP. The treatment involves taking Truvada, which is manufactured by Gilead and costs thousands of dollars, once a day. The regimen has been shown to be effective at reducing HIV infection rates if used as prescribed.

Asked about whether Healthy SF covers PrEP, Health Director Barbara Garcia said, “Healthy San Francisco clients are qualified for PrEP,” but referred questions to health department official Bill Blum, who referred questions to Dr. Albert Liu. Liu is with the health department’s Bridge HIV division. He said that according to Healthy SF officials, the program provides PrEP “for clinically appropriate patients who are receiving their primary care at DPH clinics.”

Liu said Healthy SF screens people for eligibility for Gilead’s medication assistance program.

“If they qualify” for Gilead’s program, “they’ll get the medication covered through that,” said Liu. “If they don’t qualify, Healthy San Francisco” will cover the person’s PrEP. Liu said PrEP is “a relatively new treatment,” but “we’re currently

Courtesy Dr. Albert Liu

Dr. Albert Liu

working on plans and guidelines to work on expanding the use of PrEP in San Francisco, and that includes ensuring there’s medication access and coverage.”

But Shannon Weber, coordinator of UCSF’S Bay Area Perinatal AIDS Center, was troubled by Healthy SF referring a client to Gilead. The center, which sees 25 people a year, cares for pregnant women who are living with HIV, as well as HIV-negative women who have HIV-positive partners and want to conceive or are pregnant.

Weber said the female client “doesn’t have other insurance, and Healthy San Francisco is her safety net coverage.” The center’s nurse

practitioner prescribed PrEP for the client.

Healthy SF told the woman’s provider that PrEP is “not covered by Healthy San Francisco but that they were setting up patient navigators to help patients apply” to the Gilead program. Weber estimated the denial came six to eight weeks ago.

Citing confidentiality concerns, she declined to provide documentation.

“The issue for this woman was a delay of two months in getting this medication,” said Weber. “That’s pretty significant.”

Dr. Stephanie Cohen, medical director of the health department’s City Clinic, which provides sexually transmitted disease testing and other services, said that her understanding is the first step is to go to Gilead’s medication assistance program. If the request for PrEP is denied there, “then Healthy San Francisco will cover it.”

“So far, all the Healthy San Francisco clients we’ve referred qualify” for the Gilead program, said Cohen.

Asked about the delay in getting someone on PrEP, Cohen said, “We’ve been using the Gilead program for about six months,” and “the turnaround has gotten a lot quicker.”

She said that one issue is that doctors may be unfamiliar with the process.

Cohen encourages people who have questions about PrEP to drop in at City Clinic, 356 7th Street, and ask to talk to a counselor. For clinic hours, visit www.sfcityclinic.org.t

One of the first new events he has started is a monthly bingo event at OMG, the gay-owned club at 43 6th Street. It takes place from 7 to 10 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month; the next one will be August 12.

The nonprofit is also hosting a town hall meeting July 24 titled “Does PrEP Equal a New Sexual Revolution for Gay Men?” It will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco at 150 Eureka Street in the Castro district.

“The goal of the Community Initiative is to bring people together and get them off their damn cellphones and laptops,” said Brandon.

“Let’s get together and have some fun.”t

munity Initiative’s most recent financial information is from 2007, when it reported total income of $23,541.

“We haven’t had any money for a while,” said Sebesta. “We were really struggling financially.”

One of Brandon’s strengths, noted Sebesta, is that he “brings a lot of cachet with him and a lot of experience fundraising for community organizations and worthy causes.”

The nonprofit is currently able to operate on $300 a month, said Brandon, which helps cover meeting room expenses and the cost to advertise its events. Funding comes from individual donors and grants from various sources.

“What I would like to do is infuse new energy in to it and bring on new programs and new events,” Brandon said.

For more information about the Community Initiative, visit http:// thecommunityinitiative.org/ index.php.

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 17-23, 2014

Volume 44, Number 29 July 17-23, 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 ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds David Guarino • Peter Hernandez Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • 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 Andre Torrez • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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The store that keeps on taking

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nder One Roof is the charity retail shop that keeps taking advantage of the LGBT community and its recent announcement that it is closing its doors – again – at the end of the month is a relief.

It should have happened over a year ago, when we last wrote in this space that the nonprofit organization should shutter rather than take a deal to open a shop in the Financial District – not exactly the best location for brisk walk-up sales, especially on weekends when it’s a ghost town.

But some things never change and such was the case with Under One Roof, which could not dig itself out of an expensive longterm lease in the Castro that saw its annual rent go from $80,000 to more than $200,000 starting in 2008 until 2013. When the economy tanked during the recession in 20082009, Under One Roof found itself in dire financial straits in a store it couldn’t afford and with sales projections it couldn’t reach. Checks to benefiting HIV/AIDS service organizations – the sole purpose of the store in the first place – dwindled. Predictably, AIDS organization executives were loath to publicly say what should have been done – give up the ship – for fear of seeing whatever pittance they were receiving from Under One Roof dry up. All in all a pitiful end to what was once a wonderful nonprofit that put people living with HIV/ AIDS ahead of everything else. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been like that in years.

Under One Roof’s current board is no different than previous iterations. New board chair Tim Smith refused to provide financial information to our reporter for his recent story on the July 31 closure. Smith would not answer our questions about recent monthly expenses and other information. Last year, board members Tony Hart and Jennifer Kutz canceled an interview with us so they wouldn’t have to answer questions about those pesky money matters. One week later, they reversed course and divulged financial details

about the store’s arrangement with Crocker Galleria in the Financial District. And while it was a generous deal, the store couldn’t make it there either. Obviously, the board had little familiarity with marketing strategies. Shoppers weren’t going to trek downtown from the Castro, so in effect Under One Roof sacrificed its longtime loyal customer base for green dollar signs that turned out to be an illusion.

This whole sorry episode once again raises questions about the viability of third-party charities – whereby an umbrella nonprofit makes grants to other nonprofit beneficiaries in exchange for volunteer work or other participation. We saw the Academy of Friends (Oscar viewing party and gala) melt down several years ago. But AOF, to our surprise, frankly, managed to turn it around by going back to its roots and forecasting a more

t

realistic fundraising model. It’s paid off as the events the last few years have drawn a steady attendance and managed to return money to the benefiting agencies. AOF also brought in one of the original founders to help shore things up, and has had stable board leadership. AOF may not have fancy offices anymore, but this year it returned $90,000 to six nonprofits.

It used to be that Under One Roof was a place you could find unique items and holiday gifts and you would feel good shopping there knowing that local HIV/AIDS nonprofits would benefit. Sometime in the last six years that changed due to what can only be described as mismanagement and hubris. We suspect that the days of retail nonprofits are a thing of the past, but if this model is to be tried again, there needs to be more careful oversight by stakeholders so that PWAs aren’t in a lurch. Those agencies that received checks from Under One Roof will need to find some way to recoup that revenue, and it’s their clients who are suffering because of it.t

Poster boys

by Daniel J. Demers

R

obert Gray grew up in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point district, a predominantly African American community.

It was a rough place. Gray told the Bay Area Reporter, “It was a tough place to be gay and grow up,” adding that he “had to endure being taunted and had his share of fights.”

From the time he was a senior in high school he began “sneaking into gay bars and discos in San Francisco’s Castro and Tenderloin districts” – meeting and dating men. By 1984, he was well-known in the neighborhoods. He remembers sitting at a kitchen table in a Castro apartment with a guy he was dating and reading in the newspapers about gay men coming down with lesions and strange symptoms.

“Friends and acquaintances were going to the hospital in droves,” he recalled. “I remember men walking around the Castro with canes – that’s how you knew they were sick – the lesions on the bottoms of their feet were painful, and so they used canes to minimize the pressure when they walked. It seemed like hundreds and hundreds of canes.”

Like everyone else at the time, he was scared and worried, “Is it going to hit me?”

Gray wished there was something he could do, when out of nowhere he was approached by a man who “asked me if I would be willing to pose for a safe-sex poster for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and I agreed.” Gray’s nearperfect physique – enhanced by long hours at the gym – made him the perfect candidate for what the foundation wanted to communicate.

He was asked to meet with photographer Mick Hicks. Hicks, who had studied photojournalism at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, worked for literally all the gay newspapers in San Francisco during the 1970s and 1980s, covering gay life, celebrities, events, and parties.

By 1984, Hicks had been working for a year and a half on a series of photos of people with AIDS, chronicling their struggle with the disease “up until they died.” He also was working with a nurse on developing an instructive slide

show to be used to teach health care workers about AIDS. He recalls, “Doctors and nurses were unsure and scared. They would wear rubber gloves and masks when they saw gay patients then.” The medical profession hadn’t quite figured out exactly what was causing AIDS – although it was pretty clear it was being transmitted sexually and intravenously through dirty needles. Hicks was asked by Rick Crane, director of the foundation, to shoot a photo for a safe-sex poster.

Thirty years later, the creation of that poster, and the controversy that followed it, speak to both the evolving notion of gay liberation and the changing racial relations within a minority community that were a backdrop during the AIDS crisis.

On a cold San Francisco morning, Gray arrived at the Mission/Noe Valley flat where Hicks and his partner at the time, Nick Cuccia, lived. Cuccia, then 32 and an editor at the Oakland Tribune, was conveniently enlisted to be the second model in the shoot that took place in the living room.

Cuccia also vividly remembers the AIDS crisis when “people in the Castro looked shell-shocked, when people started disappearing.” He had worked with Crane to edit and design a newsletter for the then AIDS/KS Foundation.

Cuccia didn’t know Gray and he remembers it as an almost surreal experience, “a couple of naked guys embracing on a cold morning while Mick took 50 or so photos.” It was the first time either had posed naked with another man. He recalls the poster and the controversy it elicited, a controversy that hit home personally – and humorously – when it found its way into a column by the late San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Among his comments, Caen wrote that “the black guy was athletic and buff, but for some reason the white guy is an overweight blob with an enlarged posterior.”

Cuccia laughingly told the B.A.R., “I didn’t have a model’s body, but I wasn’t overweight either and I didn’t have a big butt!”

For Gray, who was 24 and working in construction, the controversy also hit home per-

Courtesy Mick Hicks

The safe-sex poster that started it all.

sonally – but in a different way: He was still living with his parents. He remembers watching the local news with his mom and dad when the poster flashed on the screen as a reporter discussed it and the interracial controversy.

He hadn’t come out yet. He said, “My heart pounded with worry that mom and dad were seeing me naked embracing a white guy and realized I was gay.” He was relieved when they didn’t make the connection.

Crane told the B.A.R. that the poster was created as a “baby step” with a couple of messages.

At the time, “Everybody was afraid of sex and we wanted to promote the idea that gay sex was positive if men would simply use condoms and druggies would quit sharing needles,” he said.

He also noted that portraying an interracial couple (Gray and Cuccia) subtly highlighted a deeper issue. “Gays as a group were considered second-class citizens and, ironically, gays themselves were treating gay blacks the same way – as second-class citizens.”

The poster depicting a white man’s arm wrapped around a black man’s torso – and vice versa – immediately caused a sensation. Crane noted that many gay bars in the city found the racial overtones of the poster unacceptable and refused to display it.

Although tensions were waning, even in the “anything-goes” Castro and Tenderloin areas, See page 10 >>

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Letters >>

July 17-23, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Dismayed at Frameline omission

I was dismayed that Frameline did nothing to commemorate the life of a wonderful producer, Lewis Tice, at the recent LGBT film festival.

Tice, a champion of LGBT film, was born in 1969. He is known for his work on BearCity (2010), Longhorns (2011), and Blood for Irina (2012). He died on April 1, 2014.

Harry Lit San Francisco

No fan of Pelosi

The Bay Area Reporter’s recent editorial evidently thinks it was admirable for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (DSan Francisco) to have stuck her nose into Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s business [“Time for a change on Cathedral Hill,” Editorial, July 3]. I don’t; nor do I think it admirable for her to have tried to bully the appointed Presidio Trust board to approve George Lucas’s plans for his gigantic junk museum in the Marina. I couldn’t be happier that in both instances she got rebuffed big time. That power hungry, pompous woman needs to get over herself.

munity knows how hard Wiener works, respects his leadership and willingness to tackle hard issues, and understands that you can support someone even if you don’t agree with him 100 percent of the time.

Keith Folger San Francisco

Cheers, boos over D8 race

Kudos to Steve Gaynes for a nice summary of why so many of us in District 8 are working to unseat Scott Wiener, our sellout supervisor.

But boos to Gaynes for saying “no one cares enough to run against him.” As Gaynes well knows, my partner, Michael Petrelis, has thrown his hat into the ring against Wiener as an alternative candidate and is waging a thoughtful and sincere campaign.

And the B.A.R. could have included a note too about Petrelis’s candidacy, since it was announced in its pages some weeks ago. Readers can learn more about our campaign at http://www.ilikemikesf.org.

Onward to November (October for early advance voting).

Michael E. Merrigan, Treasurer Petrelis 4 Supervisor San Francisco

Michael Biehl San Francisco

Wiener takes on the tough issues

High court may not hear a marriage case

Steve Gaynes’s letter “Boos for Wiener at Frameline” [Mailstrom, July 10] can only be described as bizarre and melodramatic. While I respect Gaynes for his long service to the leather community, I cannot agree with his characterization of Supervisor Scott Wiener. Gaynes describes Wiener as a “traitor to the gay community” for having put modest restrictions on guys waving their dicks around on our neighborhood sidewalks – legislation, by the way, that was supported by many in the LGBT community and specifically the Castro neighborhood of which I am a part. Gaynes is over the top in his statement that Wiener is “oppressing” gay people and laments that there are no serious candidates running against Wiener as he seeks re-election in November. Gaynes does not clarify how Wiener is “oppressing” the LGBT community, other than the whole nudity issue, which, by the way, seems to be the singular issue that everyone focuses on when they disagree with him. Whenever many of my friends and I listen to people complain about Wiener, the one issue that they focus on is his nudity legislation. Is this what they say is destroying the LGBT community?

Wiener is not at all anti-sex. The reason why there are exceptions to the rule for events such as Folsom and the Dore Alley street fairs is because Wiener wants to honor long-standing, sex-positive spaces for LGBT folk.

There’s a reason Wiener didn’t draw a serious opponent: He’s done a good job representing an opinionated district where it’s impossible to please everyone. Wiener has strong support in the district based on his hard work.

Wiener has been there time and again for our community. He leads the charge each year to restore millions in federal HIV funding cuts. He secured housing resources for at-risk youth and emergency housing support for people living with HIV. He’s championing the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s future health center on Castro Street and went to the mat to make sure that Castro County Club continues to exist. He’s a strong voice for renters – and a consistent supporter of Ellis Act reform – while also passing numerous laws to address our chronic housing shortage (e.g., his recent legislation to allow new in-law units in the Castro). He’s one of the few officials at City Hall who fights for public transportation investment and for nightlife. He was one of the key movers in restarting police academy classes in order to improve police staffing. And, he’s delivered a lot for our district, including the Castro Street sidewalk project, the Dolores Park renovation, and saving the Noe Valley Farmers Market by engineering the acquisition of the site for a future public park. This list does not include the complete responsiveness I have gotten from his office whenever I have had a concern. During the sidewalk reconstruction Ghilloti Brothers put up a chain link fence across the sidewalk that eliminated our access to the curb where our trash cans go. I called Scott’s office at 9:30 a.m. and had an answer about where to put our trash cans by noon. He also went one step further and followed up with a call to DPW to insure this does not happen again.

Sure, a small minority doesn’t like Wiener because he has the guts to take on difficult issues that no one else wants to touch. But, a much larger segment of our com-

With the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision declaring Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, it’s time to consider the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will never take up an appeal. It takes four out of the nine justices to hear an appeal. Traditionally, the court won’t hear an appeal from an appeals court when it doesn’t contradict other appeals courts’ rulings on the same subject.

There are 12 circuit courts of appeal. It’s possible, if all 12 of them declare bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, there won’t be four justices willing to hear a final appeal.

Justice Antonin Scalia has prophesized, in previous dissents, including last year’s decision declaring a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, that these decisions will lead to declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. He’s right, and why would Scalia want to be one of four justices granting a hearing on an appeal that would likely fulfill his previous warnings? Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the other hand, has wanted to be cautious in how far he goes on the issue, without looking like he’s ahead of both public and political opinion. If no federal circuit court upholds the constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage, there may not be four justices interested in hearing a final appeal. The justices may feel the lower courts have done their work for them, and leave it alone.

Steven L. Kendall Seattle, Washington

Marriage and religion

In every discussion of fundamentalist rejection of same-gender marriage, the essence of Christ’s admonition on the subject gets ignored. The Pharisees, hoping to ensnare Jesus in a trap regarding his insistence on the sanctity of marriage, asked why had Moses allowed divorce. His answer: “Because of the hardness of your hearts.” He then added: “But I say to you, whomever God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Christians notoriously overlook that essence, divorce and remarry multiple times. Children in these families are often raised with only one parent in the home ... or struggle with stepparents and step-siblings. The one father-one mother family is rare. It’s totally disingenuous to assert that same-gender couples are a threat to children. As studies show, two fathers or two mothers are eminently qualified to raise children. Often same-gender couples foster or adopt the children of broken heterosexual marriages.

The stellar example of Christians upholding traditional marriage is the much-married Newt Gingrich who ran for president in 2012 on a platform that included the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. Even fellow congressmembers joked about which marriage Gingrich was espousing the sanctity of: the first, the second, or the third.

It turned out he had been saved the third time around and the Catholic Church welcomed him and his bride Callista with open arms. What utter sanctimony. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone should be ashamed.

Ron Schmidt San Francisco

Obamacare and the LGBT community compiled by Cynthia Laird

I

nformation about the Affordable Care Act and the LGBT community will be the topic at a Commonwealth Club forum Tuesday, July 22 at the club’s San Francisco offices, 595 Market Street. Check-in is at 5:30 p.m., followed by the program at 6.

The expansion of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, has increased the number of underserved populations that have access to health care, according to recent news reports. Those groups include the LGBT community, particularly transgender people. Advocates have long pointed out that trans people are twice as likely to be unemployed or without employer-provided health

care coverage, making the availability of health insurance under Obamacare even more important.

Scheduled speakers for next week’s program include Elizabeth Sekera, RN, clinic director at Lyon-Martin Health Services; Dr. Maddie Deutsch, clinical lead at the UCSF Center for Excellence for Transgender Health; and Anand Kalra, program administrator at the Transgender Law Center.

See page 10 >>

<< Politics

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 17-23, 2014

<<

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Chick-fil-A

From page 1

nia’s ban against such marriages, Dan Cathy tweeted it was a “sad day for our nation; founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: cornerstone of strong societies.”

The tweet was later deleted and the company issued a statement distancing itself from Cathy’s position. Yet Cathy’s views continue to leave a pall over the company.

Earlier this year he admitted as much in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cathy, an evangelical Christian, was quoted as saying that he regretted “making the company a symbol in the marriage debate” and acknowledged he had made a mistake for taking such public stances.

“Every leader goes through different phases of maturity, growth, and development and it helps by (recognizing) the mistakes that you make,” Cathy told the paper. “And you learn from those mistakes. If not, you’re just a fool. I’m thankful that I lived through it and I learned a lot from it.”

While Cathy’s personal views remain the same, according to the article, he pledged to stay out of the public debate over same-sex marriage.

“The wiser thing for us to do is to stay focused on customer service,” he said.

A letter sent to local media outlets this month, signed by three Vallejo groups opposed to the com-

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pany opening in town, pointed out that Cathy broke a pledge to stop funding anti-gay groups such as Focus On The Family and the American Family Association.

“Not only did Cathy break that promise as well, he doubled down the very next year, giving another $4 million to anti-gay causes,” stated the letter. “After the ensuing controversy, Chick-fil-A released a statement saying that the corporate foundation would ‘leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena,’ and not support antiLGBT causes.”

The groups that signed on to the letter were United Democrats of Southern Solano County, on whose board Crumrine serves as vice president; the Bayard Rustin LGBT Democratic Club of Napa and Solano Counties, and Better Vallejo.

The groups also pointed to the company’s support of reparative therapy, “the same therapy that was outlawed in California for minors due to its contribution toward depression and suicides. Chick-fil-A has donated millions of dollars to fund reparative therapy through Exodus International, the discredited organization which is now defunct after the founder admitted that the therapy has never been successful in changing gay persons into heterosexuals.”

Local LGBT advocates claim their request that the company issue a statement affirming they will not discriminate against LGBT people or same-sex couples was rejected. Calls for the company to donate to LGBT programs for youth or health services in Solano County in exchange for being granted their permits were also rejected, claim the advocates.

“They came back and said they would bring chicken to a picnic,” said Crumrine. “We said basically that is not what we are talking about, not some minimal effort.”

Trudi Loscotoff, a local public relations professional working with Chick-fil-A who has met with those opposed to the company, did not return the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment by press time.

Earlier this year a company spokeswoman, Jennifer Daw, told the Vallejo Times Herald that the new location would be “a locally owned franchise, employing approximately 60 area residents. We’re excited for the opportunity to be working and involved in this unique community.”

Ironically, next door to the chicken sandwich purveyor, the gay-owned Mexican fast food chain Chipotle is also seeking approval to open. The Vallejo Chamber of Commerce is supportive of seeing the chains open their doors, as are a number of local religious leaders and residents.

“We are absolutely elated that Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, and CVS wants to come to our city,” Anthony Summers, a pastor whose own anti-gay statements became an issue when he ran for a city council seat last year, told planning commissioners in early June.

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PrEP

From page 1

Grant from UCSF told the Bay Area Reporter. “These recommendations highlight how HIV uninfected people can play an important role in getting to zero transmissions. These medications have a proven record of safety and effectiveness for treatment and prevention.”

The WHO PrEP recommendation was included in new guidelines for HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care for key populations, released ahead of the 20th International AIDS Conference that starts Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.

“Failure to provide adequate

Rick Gerharter

Mayor Ed Lee supports Supervisor Scott Wiener’s call for the feds to end a gay blood ban.

The Vallejo City Council meets at 7 p.m. inside City Hall at 555 Santa Clara Street.

SF supes adopt LGBT housing rule

The Board of Supervisors Tuesday adopted a new rule aimed at protecting LGBT tenants nationwide from anti-gay housing discrimination.

Under the policy, pushed by gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos and LGBT housing activists, national developers wishing to build residential projects with 10 or more units in the city would have to disclose if they prohibit LGBT discrimination.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in March, the new rule was crafted with an eye toward providing nationwide protections for LGBT tenants. Currently 21 states in the U.S. prohibit housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 16 states also ban gender identity based housing discrimination.

“This is really, I think, a first-ofits-kind piece of legislation that aims to address the very real issue we still have in this country, not withstanding the many advances of the LGBT community, of many instances of discrimination against the LGBT community when it comes to housing,” Campos told the board’s land use committee Monday when it took up the proposal.

The committee voted 3-0 without debate to recommend that the full board approve the rule, known as the LGBTQ Equal Housing Ordinance.

The board unanimously backed the proposal the next day, July 15.

“This is a very common sense piece of legislation,” said gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who chairs the committee and is a co-sponsor of Campos’s proposal.

Under the rule the planning department, as part of its routine application process, will ask developers of larger projects if they have a national policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the sale, lease, or financing of any dwelling unit.

Planners cannot use the information when considering the merits of a project but will submit the responses to the city’s Human Rights Commission, which will be tasked with compiling a yearly report to send to the supervisors.

Advocates, however, could use a firm’s lack of such pro-gay policies

HIV services for key groups – men who have sex with men, people in prison, people who inject drugs, sex workers, and transgender people – threatens global progress on the HIV response,” WHO warned.

“These people are most at risk of HIV infection yet are least likely to have access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services. In many countries they are left out of national HIV plans, and discriminatory laws and policies are major barriers to access.”

So far, uptake of PrEP has been relatively slow. A Gilead survey showed that about half of all Truvada PrEP users in the U.S. are women. San Francisco has taken the lead, having

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to rally opposition against its projects or as leverage to seek concessions such as increasing the number of affordable units a developer would be required to build.

Simply asking the question, argue backers of the measure, could prompt companies to adopt LGBT housing protections on a nationwide basis.

“This is a minor procedural change we believe has the power to make substantial impact to housing policies for corporations outside of San Francisco,” said Campos, adding that he hoped other cities would adopt a similar rule. “As more jurisdictions pay attention to this, the more likely it is change will occur.”

The rule is set to take effect within 30 days of its passage.

SF mayor, supervisor call for end to gay blood ban

Joining the list of Bay Area politicians calling for an end to the ban against gay and bisexual men from donating blood are San Francisco Mayor Lee and Supervisor Wiener.

As the Political Notebook last week reported, a number of South Bay officials held a press conference July 7 to call on the federal Food and Drug Administration to drop its discriminatory policy that bars any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood. Among them were Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose), Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara Supervisor Dave Cortese, and gay Campbell Councilman Evan Low. Last Friday, July 11, Wiener joined a press conference promoting the National Gay Blood Drive that day, which had called on people to donate blood on behalf of gay and bi men. Tuesday of this week he introduced a resolution at the board calling for an end to the FDA’s policy.

“This archaic ban has no basis in public health and is discrimination, plain and simple,” stated Wiener.

Lee issued a statement Tuesday to voice his support of Wiener’s resolution and called for an end to the anti-gay blood ban.

“Donated blood is critical to helping our hospitals and trauma physicians. Even one single donation can make a life-saving difference,” stated Lee. “I stand with the American Red Cross, American Medical Association, Blood Centers of the Pacific and the National Gay Blood Drive to urge the Food and Drug Administration to change its policy that prohibits gay and bisexual men from donating blood.”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 an East Bay LGBT political club’s endorsement snub of a lesbian Oakland mayoral candidate.

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

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

implemented one of the country’s first PrEP demonstration projects.

Many local doctors are prescribing PrEP, and most insurers are covering it, but some resistance remains.

“The CDC and WHO recommendations should put to rest the harmful efforts of community members and medical providers who would deny people the right to choose PrEP in order to protect their health,” said Van Gorder.

“Armed with these sound and important WHO and CDC recommendations, people who want to start PrEP are in a superior position to advocate for what they believe is the right prevention intervention for them.”t

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Sports>>

July 17-23, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

From Thorpe to Thorson, a busy sports week

by Roger Brigham

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here are so many announcements to keep track of in the past few days in the sports world.

LeBron James told the basketball nation where his temporary forwarding address would be, Olympian Ian Thorpe told us not to pay attention to his previous denials, Germany announced rather emphatically that Brazil would not be the World Cup champion for a record sixth time, and the members of the Republican National Committee decided that if Cleveland is good enough for the Gay Games, Johnny “Football” Manzel, and James, it’s good enough for them to try out Quicken Loans Arena.

That’s almost as many announcements as goals scored by Germany in the first half of its annihilation of Brazil in the semifinals. Let’s make some sense of all this.

Four years ago, James made an ordeal out of his decision to bolt from the Cleveland Cavaliers to join friends with the Miami Heat, holding a much-derided televised news conference to announce The Decision. The only thing that could have been a more massive show of ego would have been if he had gotten director Peter Jackson to produce it and turn it into three segments spread over three months.

This time James’s decision was short and sweet – as is the $42.1 million, two-year deal he inked with his old pen pal, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert. Gilbert infamously published a blistering letter accusing James of betrayal when he bolted four years ago, and the city went into a collective shunning of its native son, but now all of the other millionaires in the NBA

can decide where they’d like to shack up next winter and things are loveydovey on the shores of Lake Eerie.

Well, at least temporarily. James could bolt in two years when a new revenue agreement is signed, or even opt out after just one season.

Quick – someone get Jackson on the phone.

Of more lasting import was the proclamation by Olympic swimmer Thorpe that his earlier statements that he wasn’t gay were not true. Thorpe said he’d been badgered by questions about his sexuality from the media since his early teens, had battled depression, and had only recently begun to find stronger support and relationships within his own family.

In other words, in the glare of an international spotlight, a young man went through the same internal torment and indecision, and compromised choices in an effort to maintain control of his own circumstances, and finally has crossed into a place where he begins to live fully and happily without a lot of nagging questions. That’s a situation virtually every man and woman who reads this newspaper has gone through and each of us has handled it with varying degrees of success and grace.

So, a hat-tip to Ian for making the journey. Welcome to the party!

Receiving only a little bit less media attention in recent days was San Francisco’s own Brad Thorson. Less attention because he is currently an amateur rugby player, which rates lower on the media scale than Olympic swimming; but a fair amount because he is a former pro football player. Thorson’s story hit home to me in particular because he plies his trade now for the San Francisco Fog, and the Fog have always

Geof Teague

San Francisco Fog Rugby player Brad Thorson runs a play at a match against Shasta earlier this year.

been dear to my heart.

In this day and age, with barriers coming down and announcements such as Thorpe’s becoming almost routine, many wonder aloud why or if there is a need for LGBT sports.

Such people either forget or do not realize that LGBT sports aren’t about being queer, they’re about providing an inclusive, supportive sports environment in which athletes are free to be themselves.

So it was that Thorson, thoroughly closeted when he played center for Wisconsin and Kansas universities and then signed as a free agent by the Arizona Cardinals before breaking his foot and being placed on injured reserve in 2011, never to play a down in the NFL, found his way to the Fog late last year.

He had just moved to San Francisco for a new job in the tech sector and had heard about the Fog. He

was a rookie and he was nervous.

“Nobody on the Fog ever asked my sexual orientation, because as a team we’ve come to realize it doesn’t matter come game time,” Thorson told the Bay Area Reporter. “The important difference between previous teams to the Fog is the ambivalence to sexuality, that what matters is the willingness to work hard, learn a new sport, and accept people no matter their walk of life. Athletics and competition have never been about validating my sexual orientation.”

This year, emboldened by the coming-out declarations of prominent male athletes such as Jason Collins, Michael Sam, and Brian Sims, Thorson decided to come out on his personal blog, in a posting called “Seeing through the Fog.” In the blog, he referred to coming out as an “arduous” task he had avoided for years. I asked him about that.

“Many of my one-off coming out experiences were met with an initial reaction of disbelief,” he said. “It became easy for me to justify staying quiet because I didn’t want to break the stereotype that I could be a masculine athlete and gay. When I wrote that it was ‘arduous,’ my intention was to bring light to my poor excuses for staying in the closet. My fear of not being accepted by people that were important to me when coming out was easier to conceptualize as being arduous. For me, coming out was about finally letting go of that fear of not being accepted, and allowing the people important to me to be able to accept me for who I am as a whole. In that sense, I would say coming out was more about letting go for me.”

In his blog, he writes about his fears when he joined the Fog – and the family he has since discovered: “Without question, it was more nerve-wracking than when stepping onto the football field against some of the best defensive linemen in the country; at 26 years old, my fear of being outed was still that extreme.

Much of my maturation occurred in a hyper-masculine environment that demeaned homosexuality, and the idea of gay men competing, much less alongside straight men, was all too foreign to me. Since that first practice, the Fog has become a family to me. They’ve taught me a new sport and to accept myself.”

Now, the former football center finds himself playing rugby inside center (it’s a very different position; “Can you believe they’re letting a former lineman handle the ball?” he asked me incredulously) and headed for the biggest gay rugby tournament of them all: the Bingham Cup, founded in San Francisco by the Fog in honor of 9/11 hero Mark BingSee page 10 >>

Cure setback: HIV found in ‘Mississippi baby’

by Liz Highleyman

A

Mississippi child who had undetectable HIV for more than two years off antiretroviral treatment has been found to still be infected, tempering optimism about a functional cure, researchers recently announced.

“Certainly, this is a disappointing turn of events for this young child, the medical staff involved in the child’s care, and the HIV/AIDS research community,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said last week. “Scientifically, this development reminds us that we still have much more to learn about the intricacies of HIV infection and where the virus hides in the body.”

The “Mississippi baby,” as the child is known among scientists, grabbed headlines at the 2013 Retrovirus Conference, where researcher Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center first described the case.

The girl – now nearly 4 years old – was born to an HIV-positive mother who was not diagnosed until the time of delivery. Because the baby was delivered prematurely, before the woman could be given drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, the infant was started on a full combination antiretroviral regimen 30 hours after birth.

The baby continued on combination treatment for a year, maintaining an undetectable viral load. At that time, she began missing clinic visits and was taken off treatment by her caretakers.

When the girl was brought back for care, her viral load was still undetectable despite being off treatment for several months. Extensive

Liz Highleyman

Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researcher Deborah Persaud

testing over the ensuing years – including tests for HIV DNA, or genetic material, in peripheral blood cells – failed to find infectious virus.

“The fact that this child was able to remain off antiretroviral treatment for two years and maintain quiescent virus for that length of time is unprecedented,” Persaud said during a NIAID media briefing July 10. “Typically, when treatment is stopped, HIV levels rebound within weeks, not years.”

The child’s doctors explained that during a routine clinical visit earlier this month, the girl was found to have detectable HIV in her blood, with a viral load of nearly 17,000 copies.

She also had a decreasing CD4 T-cell count, indicating the virus was killing off her immune cells. She was put back on antiretroviral therapy and was reported to be tolerating treatment well and showing reduced viral load as the drugs start to work.

The latest findings represent a setback for HIV cure research, which is expected to be a major theme at the

20th International AIDS Conference starting Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.

HIV establishes reservoirs of latent virus in resting T-cells soon after infection, where it is not susceptible to natural immune responses or antiretroviral drugs. When these resting cells are later activated, the HIV DNA they contain can “wake up” and start producing new virus.

Scientists have been exploring several approaches, including very early antiretroviral treatment to prevent establishment of reservoirs, and bone marrow transplants that essentially give patients a new immune system.

Several other children who start-

ed treatment very early – including a baby in Long Beach and a group of Canadian children – also have prolonged undetectable HIV using the most sensitive tests. But they have not yet been taken off antiretrovirals to see if the virus comes back.

The NIH-funded IMPAACT Network has been planning a study of at-risk infants started on intensive combination therapy immediately after birth. If HIV remained undetectable after two or more years, they would undergo experimental treatment interruption.

After the latest findings, however, this approach appears ethically questionable. Researchers first want to learn more about what en-

abled the Mississippi child to stay off treatment so long without viral rebound or any apparent negative health effects.

“I think these so-called setbacks are highly informative, despite the fact that this news was disappointing,” HIV cure expert Dr. Steven Deeks from UCSF told the Bay Area Reporter.

“We now need to figure out which cells allow the virus to persist, and where these cells reside,” Deeks continued. “If it proves impossible to get rid of every last infected cell, then we will need therapies to boost the immune system’s capacity to control the virus in absence of antiretroviral drugs.”t

dear friends, John and Marilyn Chalstrom, Bill and Charlene Duchie, Charlie Glenn and Marshall Stockton, Matt McCabe and Charlie Wilson, and Lowell Norris. Lowell requested no services and that his ashes be scattered along the coast near Jenner, California. Donations in his memory may be made to Maitri Compassionate Care, 401 Duboce Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117.

1980 with a B.A. in English from Wayne State University and attended Syracuse University as a graduate student in American literature. He maintained an active interest in American history and politics. An independent literary scholar, Robert knew and corresponded with numerous gay male writers. He was a former reviewer for the San Diego Gayzette. Usually seen notebook in hand, he pursued biographical research, including dancer and artist Chuck Arnett.

Robert is survived by his parents, Allen and Dianne Prager; his sister, Cheryl Lindner; and his brother, Richard Prager.

There is a memorial service Monday, July 21 at 4:30 p.m. at Laguna Honda, 375 Laguna Honda Boulevard South.

Obituaries >> Lowell Oliver Hills October 14, 1939 – July 12, 2014 Lowell Oliver Hills died peacefully Saturday morning, July 12, 2014, at the Ray Hickey Hospice House in Vancouver, Washington. A longtime resident of San Francisco, Lowell was well known for his good looks, dry wit, independent spirit, and love of chocolate. He had lived for a time in London and traveled widely throughout Europe.

After settling in San Francisco, Lowell was employed in retail grocery produce services and more recently managed residential property on Corbett Street. An unrepentant tinkerer and lover of British sports cars, perhaps his favorite project was his red 1979 MG of which he was the original and sole owner.

Lowell is survived by his sister, Colleen Wilson, who provided loving care in his final months; niece and nephew, Kristen and Michael Bommarito; and

Robert Allen Prager May 16, 1955 – June 16, 2014 The family and friends of Robert Allen Prager are deeply saddened to announce his passing in San Francisco on Monday, June 16, 2014 after a short illness. Robert was born May 16, 1955 in Detroit, Michigan. He moved to San Diego in 1984 and permanently to San Francisco in 1994, the city he loved and saw as his destiny.

Robert graduated Phi Beta Kappa in

Correction The July 10 obituary for Michael Newell misidentified where he attended law school. It was at the University of San Francisco. The online version of the obituary has been updated.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 17-23, 2014

<<

Guest Opinion

From page 4

there remained a racial divide. The Pendulum was “the [Castro’s] only gay bar where black and whites went to meet; the other Castro bars catered primarily to whites. They were not interracial,” recalls Gray.

The Pendulum was different and, according to Gray, a group called Black and White Men Together was formed to show solidarity. He also recalled that a bar called the Trap, located in the Tenderloin district, also catered to interracial couples.

The poster went on to be displayed in bathhouses and bars from San Francisco to New York and eventually found its way to Australia. Then a new controversy surfaced about the poster and its message – intended or not – about gay sex.

A retrospective by Harvard’s Gadi Niram confirms Crane’s assertion that the early AIDS posters “portrayed – even promoted – [gay] sex as normal, expected behavior ... and highlighted the pleasure that could be had while still protecting oneself against infection.”

<<

Religious right

From page 2

Michaelson said that he hoped progressive members of Congress would insist on an “appropriate, narrow exemption for churches and religious functionaries, while rejecting this over-broad one that would leave hospital orderlies, school cafeteria workers, and shopping mall security guards without protection.”

The Hobby Lobby decision has prompted one LGBT legal activist to say it is “a dangerous and radical departure from existing law that creates far more questions than it answers,” according to Keen News Service, quoting NCLR legal director Shannon Minter.

“Thankfully, however, the majority recognized that even under its sweeping new rule, corporations cannot rely on claims of religious

<<

News Briefs

From page 5

There is no cost to attend the program; it is being underwritten by the California Wellness Foundation.

For more information, visit www. commonwealthclub.org.

Gender Spectrum confab in Moraga

Gender Spectrum, a Bay Area-

<<

Google exec

From page 1

Francisco Superior Court website.

Ortiz couldn’t be reached. Rubin, the first tenant to be evicted, declined to comment.

More evictions

In June 2012, Halprin filed an eviction against tenant Rebecca Bauknight. A rent board document says he was removing her from the garage.

Then, on March 6, 2014, he filed Ellis Act eviction notices against Bauknight; Christopher Sideris; Claudia Tirado and Alex Barros, who are a couple; and Matthew Evan Wolkenstein. He’d filed notices of intent about a week earlier.

The Ellis Act is a 1986 state law

<<

Jock Talk

From page 9

ham and played every two years.

This year’s event is August 24-31 in Sydney.

“I hope to leave a few Aussies bruised and beat up,” he said with a smile. “I’ve never been to a Bingham Cup, or Australia for that matter, but after meeting Mark’s mother, Alice

And therein lay the controversy: It was the first poster to portray gay sex as normal, even between men of differing races.

The first safe-sex poster incorporated “acceptance and self-esteem” as its overall message, Niram said. It was presented to the world at a time when gayness was viewed as aberrant and AIDS was thought by many as a visitation of the wrath of God on immoral men who were violating God’s law. It shocked traditional society, which reacted with moral outrage over its interracial portrayal of two men. The poster’s narrative message – which advocated “mutual masturbation,” “erotic massage,” “imagination and fantasies,” and “limiting social drugs” – was condemned as an affront to decency and family values.

Gay sex was still widely condemned and governmental health agencies, hospitals, and medical professionals were unsure how to deal with the disease that had begun to reach epidemic proportions.

The 1984 poster would be the first of many more to come. San Francisco graphic artist Buzz Bense accumulated 150 such posters, one of the

largest private collections. In 2011, he donated them to the San Francisco Center for Sex and Culture, which recently exhibited the collection and has just published a catalogue showing 49 of the posters. In the catalogue’s introduction, Bense writes that the posters represent “a story of a fight against stigma, hatred and ignorance; of a community stepping up to take care of its own ... [of building] pride and self-esteem ... and [the efforts] of committed activists to communicate a path to health and survival.” The largest AIDS epidemic poster collection, numbering 6,200, is housed at the University of Rochester.

Cuccia, Crane, Gray, and Hicks probably never thought in such lofty terms, but there is little doubt their effort was the first chapter of the story.

Today, at 54, Gray is still an imposing figure. He owns and operates Cuts on the Green, a barbershop in the upscale Northwood Golf and Country Club in Sonoma County’s Monte Rio community. He and his husband, Charles “Chuck” Prince, have been together 34 years. They

married in 2013.

Cuccia and Hicks each left San Francisco in 1986 for separate adventures. Cuccia, now 62, moved to Los Angeles, where he spent 21 years as an editor and designer at the Los Angeles Times and is now a software trainer and consultant. He is a long-term survivor of HIV, having been diagnosed in 1985. Looking back, Cuccia says he didn’t know it at the time, but ironically, he may have seroconverted before he posed for the poster.

Hicks, 67, continued his passion for photography in Boston and San Diego before settling in Los Angeles, where he specializes in portraiture and feature-film promotional stills.

Reflecting the times and, indirectly, the devastating toll taken by AIDS, Crane commented to the B.A.R. that it’s remarkable “that all the principals [Cuccia, Gray, Hicks and himself] survived the AIDS crisis, and all are still alive and able to describe the poster’s genesis.”t

liberty to evade non-discrimination laws,” Minter explained. “That limitation is extremely important and means that employers cannot exploit today’s decision to justify discrimination against LGBT people or other vulnerable groups, but we will need to be vigilant to make sure that principle is respected and enforced.”

In a similar vein, law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff offered his perspective.

“In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision, opponents of LGBT equality are trying to reverse the progress we have made on workplace protections,” Wolff said in an email. “As Chris Geidner [legal editor at the online news site BuzzFeed] reports, a group of advocates including Rick Warren have published a letter seeking to pressure the White House to insert a broad and unprecedented religious exemption in the forth-

coming executive order on federal contractors, and they point to Hobby Lobby as one principal justification.

“It is important to understand that Hobby Lobby in fact rejects the argument that religious exercise can be an excuse for invidious discrimination,” such as anti-gay and antitransgender bias, Wolff added.

Wolff, who teaches classes on sexuality and the law, same-sex marriage, and human rights at the University of Pennsylvania, and previously advised President Barack Obama on LGBT issues during the 2008 campaign, pointed to a key passage in the court’s decision, which he said “was inserted specifically to respond to the suggestion that its ruling could authorize discrimination in the workplace.”

That passage reads: “The principal dissent raises the possibility that discrimination in hiring, for

example on the basis of race, might be cloaked as religious practice to escape legal sanction. See post, at 32-33. Our decision today provides no such shield. The government has a compelling interest in providing an equal opportunity to participate in the workforce without regard to race, and prohibitions on racial discrimination are precisely tailored to achieve that critical goal.”

As Wolff explained, “In the days ahead, it is important that advocates and leaders strongly push out the message that the Hobby Lobby decision strongly supports the enforceability of anti-discrimination laws, even in the face of religious exemption arguments,” adding, “Hobby Lobby represents a vindication of the principle that antidiscrimination protections should trump religious objections in the workplace.”t

based organization that provides education, training, and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for all children and teens, will hold its annual conference July 25-27 at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.

Organizers said that the event is an opportunity for parents, caregivers, teens, and children to come together to discuss the concepts of gender identity and expression. The gathering is

also an opportunity to become part of a welcoming and supportive community dedicated to helping young people feel accepted for who they are.

This year’s theme is “Expanding Understanding of Gender.” A full menu of workshops for adults, separate programming for teens, tweens, and kids, and lots of chances to build community with others are at the heart of the weekend.

A symposium for professionals

will be held Friday, July 25.

Registration for the full conference is $480 for families (plus $20 for extra lunches); $245 for adults; and $45 for kids. A one-day pass is $185. There may be scholarship information available, although the conference website indicated the deadline was last month.

For more information, visit www. genderspectrum.org or call (510) 788-4412.t

that allows landlords to evict tenants in order to get out of the rental business. The landlord must remove all units from the rental market.

Such tenants are paid relocation expenses to move. The amount they receive can vary depending on how many individuals occupy a unit, the tenants’ ages, or disability/HIV status. The amounts can range from $5,000-$15,000 per tenant, with an additional $3,403 paid to tenants who are senior/disabled, according to information from the Tenants Union website. For most tenants, the money doesn’t go far in San Francisco’s sizzling rental market.

Last month, the tenants, who have all lived in the building since at least 2006, filed a lawsuit against Halprin and Ortiz.

In their complaint, they say prob-

lems included “rodent infestation, mold, and mildew;” “inadequate” heating and plumbing; “a lack of working smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors;” “excessive debris in the garbage and refuse area;” and “failure to maintain working fire extinguishers.”

The tenants claim they had notified Halprin and Ortiz through the former couple’s agents “repeatedly” of the problems, but repairs weren’t made.

The complaint notes that in May, the city’s Department of Building Inspection issued notices of violations for mold and other problems with Barros and Tirado’s apartment, as well as for issues with the building’s common areas.

Data from the building inspection department’s website indicate at least two of the problems have

been corrected.

The complaint says Ortiz coowned the four-story, seven-unit building until February 2014. The tenants are seeking unlimited damages exceeding $25,000.

Tirado, 44, and Barros, 43, have a 3-year-old son. In an interview, Tirado, who’s a teacher, said it would be “very difficult” for them to stay in the city if they have to leave their apartment, for which the rent is $1,600 a month.

Wolkenstein, 40, who’s straight, said he and the other tenants had tried to resolve their problems with Halprin “through normal means of communication” and the suit wasn’t meant as retaliation for the Ellis Act filings.

The other tenants couldn’t be reached for comment.t

Hoglan, my hope is to be a good representative for the team Mark helped build. I gravitated toward the Fog because of their ethic of inclusiveness and a developmental focus.

I see Bingham as an opportunity for the Fog to continue developing our rugby skills and breaking down barriers in sports.”

For anyone interested in becoming involved in rugby, the Fog will

hold a clinic Saturday, July 19, with men and women newcomers welcome. Details are available at www. sffog.org. Donations to help send the Fog to Australia can be made through www.gofundme.com/ fogrugby.

As for the RNC’s vote to tread the shores of Lake Eerie, that’s just part of the civic rejuvenation push Cleveland has been undergoing for

the past few years. Cleveland Special Events Corporation, before its resurrection to focus solely on the Gay Games, was originally linked with unsuccessful efforts to land the 2008 Republican convention.

Eight years later, Cleveland’s efforts will finally pay off. Now the question is whether they’ll be fighting for media play with the career whims of the NBA’s biggest star.t

This piece is an adaptation of one that ran in the Gay and Lesbian Review. For sourcing, see the online version at ebar.com.

t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035894100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRACTICE NATURE, 1816 BRODERICK ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DONNA PLUNKETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035900100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TEXT-O-MAT, 2899 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KENNETH WONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/19/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035865800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS TO BUSINESS, 1440 GOLDEN GATE AVE #103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARA ELIZABETH GILMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/30/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035893500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PHOENIX ARTS ENTERTAINMENT, 315 GARFIELD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL TURNER JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035904400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WISCONSIN STREET DINING SERVICES, 5 GALILEE LANE #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM L. BOGDANOFF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/14.

JUNE 26, JULY 03, 10, 17, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035910000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GALA, 2277 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GAYLE LEE RECUERDO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/14.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035900600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIER 70 PARTNERS, 420 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PIER 70 PARTNERS 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 06/19/14.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035911100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DIAMONDS ON WEB, 888 BRANNAN ST #3110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DIAMOND IMPORTS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/86. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/2014.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014 NOTICE OF ADOPTION

In the Matter of the Petition of: Michelle A. Maxwell, for the Adoption of a Child. Case Number: 49D08-1405-AD-018725.

To JASON CASSADY, the father of Michelle A. Maxwell (5/28/2008).

You are hereby notified that on May 29, 2014, a Petition for Adoption of Michelle A. Maxwell born 5/28/2008 was filed in the Superior Court of Marion County, Indiana.

All parental rights you may have with respect to the minor child will be lost and you will neither receive notice nor be entitled to object to the adoption of the child unless you appear in the pending adoption action and show cause why your rights to the child should not be terminated by adoption.

Michele L. Jackson - Attorney for Petitioner HARDEN JACKSON, PC 11450 North Meridian Street, Suite 200 Carmel, Indiana 46032 Telephone: (317) 569-0770 Facsimile: (317) 569-6775

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035918500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LESCOE LEASING, 1232 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT LESCOE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035920300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JESSIMPORTS; GASTON COLLECTIVE, 110 GOUGH ST, #203B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSSICA GASTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035925700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TUYET MAI, 547 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIMMY TRAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035926600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF MID MARKET, 1 TENTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MID MARKET FITNESS, INC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A AND A GROUP, 137 DOCKSIDE DR, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALFREDO VELA BALAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035943100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PK MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIONS, 77 VAN NESS AVE #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL KENNELLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A. MORIKAMI CONSULTING, 295 21ST AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMY K. MORIKAMI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035938300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOOD, FORM & SPECTACLE, 16 SHERMAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGINA OATES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035919500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RICHARD HUNG ALLSTATE INSURANCE AGENCY, 601 KANSAS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD HUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035904700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VANDASIAM SUSHI, 61 PARK PLAZA DR, #3, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ANAND MISHIGDORJ & MIKHAIL GUNYAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/23/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014

July 17-23, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035933700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RD HOME, 30 WINTER PLACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed LARRY F. DASALLA & RAYMOND F. REGALADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/14.

Tech Support>>

Counseling>>

MACINTOSH HELP

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014

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

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Broadway Babel

Eleanor's lady

15

Castro calendar

18

Out &About

15

O&A

14

The

Vol. 44 • No. 29 • July 17-23, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Cheyenne Jackson goes to the movies

by Adam Sandel

W

ithin the past year or so, San Francisco has become Cheyenne Jackson’s home away from home.

The handsome star of stage, screen, television, and concerts has been the SF Pride Grand Marshal, starred in the San Francisco Symphony’s West Side Story in Concert, brought his cabaret act to Feinstein’s – and now he’s back.

In addition to participating in the AIDS Walk on July 20, he’ll re-team with the San Francisco Symphony for Music from the Movies on Thursday and Friday, July 24 & 25. As one might expect, the inspiration for the new concert was Jackson’s lifelong love affair with the movies.

“There’s such a vast range of films that I love, the challenge in choosing the songs was to stay true to the style of music that I’ve been singing, in that Mad Men, Sinatra style, while incorporating songs from different eras,” he said in an interview.

Singing actor Cheyenne Jackson: “To be really genuine, you have to give it to them.”

See page 23 >>

Courtesy SF Symphony

Rufus Wainwright, the wizard of awes

by Gregg Shapiro

R

ufus Wainwright has long been one of the most open and out recording artists, surely benefiting from the groundwork laid by queer forebears such as Elton John, George Michael and Neil Tennant. His talented family tree, including his late mother Kate McGarrigle and his father Loudon Wainwright III, as well as aunts Anna McGarrigle and Sloan Wainwright, and sisters Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, also contributed considerably.

See page 16 >>

Rufus Wainwright: “I think that vanity has its perks.”

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

designing home jews and midcentury modernism On view through October 6, 2014 The Contemporary Jewish Museum | Plan your visit at thecjm.org

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Foodie fool for love

by Roberto Friedman

ry including meeting Harvey Milk, and his photography and artwork, including the restoration of panoramic photomurals in the hotel’s banquet room and in the Masonic Auditorium across the street.

Yes, it’s been a feast of foodie delights recently, including a cocktail reception at the Press Club in which OT mingled with many charming concierges and other hospitality professionals while sampling the new line of appetizers from Taste catering; and a serious wine & food tasting at Hakkasan SF, where we considered two white and four red wines with each of four family-style courses: mild (dim sum), savory, sweet and spicy. That’s a total of 24 tastes, and we were told by the wine professionals at our table, “We don’t spit.” This was good with us, as we think spittoons are gross, and we’re not at all deterred in our delectations by the lift that alcohol gives us. The rule of thumb at Hakkasan is that all the wines auditioning for its extensive list must complement each flavor group, and it was fascinating to hear how the wine experts arrived at their decisions.

Now here’s the low-down on how to prepare those Pork Chops Roberto from our own kitchen: Find thick and nicely fatted loin chops, preferably butterfly-split and still on the bone. Dry them by patting with paper towel, then coat both sides with coarse salt & freshly ground black pepper. Broil under high heat, three-four minutes each side, in a pan to reserve the juices. Serve up piping hot, sided with cold applesauce. Drink with a cold white wine such as a Riesling. Don’t spit.t

vibes, from its American comfortfood menu to its crisp white tablecloths and gentleman’s-club décor.

The fine folks at the Big 4 had us up to their place on Nob Hill in order to sample the menu, and although we’re no relation to the big four 19th-century SF railroad-tycoon families for whom it’s named – the Huntingtons, Crockers, Stanfords or Hopkinses – we felt right at home.

New executive chef Kevin Scott is offering classic American cuisine with a focus on seasonal Bay Area ingredients and current culinary trends, and he pulls off the blend of tradition and contemporary sophistication with flair.

Our dinner at a corner table nestled under historic photos of classic San Francisco started with baked oysters in caper butter, mushrooms en croute and crispy artichokes. For our main course, Pepi enjoyed the daily special, which was Loch Duart Salmon, while OT devoured the incredible Mediterranean Fish Stew with lobster, prawns, Ling Cod, littleneck clams, mussels, Pernod Saffron Broth, aioli, and crostini. Dessert was decadent, profiteroles made with caramel gelato, chocolate sauce, and Marcona almonds; Earl Grey crème brûlée; and peach tarte tatin with crème fraîche.

For libations we chose a craft cocktail of barrel-aged Loretto shaken up with Barsol Pisco, cherry liqueur, yellow chartreuse and orange bitters, and had no regrets. Our dapper waiter Ron Henggeler regaled us with Big 4 history, his own gay histo-

O

ut There typically dines out six out of seven nights a week.

We’re more out than in because we’re representing at receptions and openings for our job, and we’re pleased to be invited to restaurant and hotel openings because we love the hospitality industry. But we’re not sure we’d qualify as a “foodie,” because to be a “foodie,” don’t you have to know how to do more in the kitchen than boil water?

LOL, we do stay home and broil a pork chop once a week – so not kosher – and we’ll share our recipe at the end of the column. Anyway, we’re thinking foodie thoughts this week because we attended a passel of food and wine events, and went to a screening of Le Chef, the new foodie comedy starring French screen notables Jean Reno and Michaël Youn. Reno (La Femme Nikita) plays a veteran chef who faces off against his restaurant group’s corporate-minded CEO. When management tries to sabotage Reno’s Michelin star, he brings in a younger chef (French actor, singer, comedian Youn) who specializes in molecular gastronomy. Directed and co-written by Daniel Cohen (Two Worlds), the movie is light fare, pitting old-school vs. new-school culinary techniques, and you can guess how it all works out.

The newly refreshed Big 4 Restaurant at the Scarlet Huntington Hotel has decidedly old-school

t

Courtesy Cohen Media Group

Michaël Youn as an apprentice chef in director Daniel Cohen’s Le Chef.

Courtesy Big 4/Scarlet Huntington

Big 4 executive chef Kevin Scott in the restaurant’s kitchen.

Performance revue

by Richard Dodds

evenly deals with this dilemma in its extended run at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, but there are more nagging problems. It variously pokes fun at targets that don’t really exist, lacks a clever edge where there are possibilities, or, when the satire does actually push buttons, is reaching back so far that the digs may be more puzzling than amusing.

The Forbidden Broadway franchise made its first appearance in

O

nce you take Forbidden Broadway away from an audience of rialto cognoscenti, you tread a fine line. Too much insider satire will sail over the heads of more casual theatergoers, while more common denominators can cause beenthere, seen-that shrugs from more stage-savvy contingents. Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking! un-

New York in 1982, and has gone through numerous revised revivals since then. Memories of those early editions, both from personal attendance and a cast album, recall a show with parody lyrics set to famous songs that really had the power to skewer its subjects. Indeed, it seemed a wonder that cease-anddesist orders were not frequently slipping through creator Gerard Alessandrini’s mail slot. Now it all Carol Rosegg

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Gina Kreiezmar spoofs Patti LuPone in her Gypsy role in Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking! at Feinstein’s at the Nikko.

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seems more like side-of-a-barn target practice.

The revue is certainly fast-moving, delivering 25 numbers in less than 90 minutes, but some are so fleeting as to have scant chance to make an impression. The fourmember cast is buoyant enough, assuredly dashing on and off stage as various musical characters or theatrical celebrities. But with a few exceptions, the performers’ skills don’t much aid the middling material.

One case is the wit-free reworking of “Somewhere” as sung by Susan Blakeslee in the styling of Barbra Streisand. The new lyrics have no real point to make, but might be a worth a few laughs if Blakeslee could do a comically credible Streisand impersonation.

In the impersonation department, Gina Kreiezmar comes closest to hitting the mark with her performance as Liza Minnelli, in her latecareer desperation mode, though the song has nothing to do with Broadway. There might be some good laughs in Kreiezmar’s take on Patti LuPone in Gypsy, though I couldn’t decipher the punchline lyrics. As for going for the jugular, a reworking of “Over the Rainbow” to make fun of Mandy Patinkin’s bipolar concerts a la Al Jolson really

does hit on Patinkin’s indulgences – though it’s a performing persona now several decades old, delivered by James Donegan in a cheesy fright-wig.

One could go on with the deficiencies, such as making fun of Idina Menzel’s shrill voice, but delivered with painfully harsh vocals

by Blakeslee; the not-so-funny nor unique fact that producer Cameron Mackintosh makes some of his money from sales of show-related merchandise; or the neck strains supposedly caused by Julie Taymor’s heavy headdresses worn in The Lion King – an issue that has never publically arisen – while ignoring the much more injury-prone and comically rich misadventures of Taymor’s recent Spiderman.

Forbidden Broadway has built up an enormous library of material from which to pick and choose material, so it’s a mystery why this production has wound up with such a weak repertoire. Alive and Kicking! is a misnomer for a show that may be alive but is little more than twitching.t Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking! will run at Feinstein’s at the Nikko through July 27. Tickets are $45-$60. Call (866) 663-1063 or go to ticketweb.com.

t

Theatre>>

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Eleanor Roosevelt’s gal pal

by Richard Dodds

W

as it an “unusually belated schoolgirl crush,” as one biographer insisted, or was it a fullthrottle erotic lesbian affair? The letters between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok certainly indicate at least a “hugs and kisses” relationship, but the consensus among historians is that its full extent remains inconclusive. Playwright-performer Terry Baum sees nothing inconclusive about it, as she lays out in her solo show Hick: A Love Story.

The play, now at Eureka Theatre, was inspired by the thousands of letters that the two shared between 1933 and Eleanor Roosevelt’s death in 1962. We are told that the words we hear in Paula Barish’s voiceover recitations come verbatim from Mrs. Roosevelt’s letters, but they serve really as accent marks to Baum’s monologue as Hick, taken from historical records, correspondence, and, to a large degree, Baum’s liberal dramatic license.

Because this significant player in the early days of the Roosevelt administration was largely erased from history, the story is intriguing just for illuminating a world unknown to most of us. But thanks to Baum’s skill as a performer and a writer,

Liz Payne

Terry Baum plays Lorena Hickok in a story of the pioneering newspaper reporter’s relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt in Hick: A Love Story at Eureka Theatre.

and to Carolyn Myers’ lively direction, Hick (with additional writing

by Pat Bond) has dramatic worth beyond the novelty of its story. In a series of scenes set mostly between 1932 and 1934, we learn about this pioneering “gal” reporter who broke gender barriers at the Associated Press. Described by Time magazine

at the time as “rumpled, fat, and masculine,” Hickok never came out of the closet because she never went in. Not that she was unaware of societal taboos.

“God forgive me for taking my unnatural love to her,” Hick says of ER, the nicknames they had for each other. Or at least that is what

Baum has Hick saying of ER. When Hick says, “I was born this way,” it sounds awfully close to the title of a recent song adopted by the LGBT community. While we hear in one of ER’s actual letters that the first lady kissed Hick’s photo every night before bed, the play takes the notunreasonable leap that good old sex

was involved. “I’m not just close to the center of power,” Hick tells us.

“I’m sleeping with the power’s wife.”

But there is an arc to the story that goes between epistolary sweet nothings and claims of something more.

Hick gets too close to the center of power and resigns her beloved job at the AP. And then she alienates ER by becoming too possessive, at one point berating tourists who want to take the first lady’s photo, and the burning heat of their relationship is reduced to a simmer – one, however, that continues right up to ER’s death in 1962, as she writes a last letter from her hospital bed. A final scene brings us up to 1968, the year of Hick’s death, as she weighs what she lost and what she gained from her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Thanks to Baum’s strong and inviting performance, we feel we are a party to this intriguing sidebar to history. We now live in a time when kiss-and-tell gossip is a common political pastime, but nobody much seemed to care whom Eleanor Roosevelt was kissing. At least not until now.t Hick: A Love Story will run at Eureka Theatre through July 27.

Tickets are free, but reservations must be made at (800) 838-3006 or crackpotcrones.com.

July is jumpin’ at the Castro Theatre

by David Lamble

T

his month the Castro Theatre programmers give us film fanatics a kosher delicatessen’s worth of tasty treats bridging the gap between the San Francisco LGBT and Jewish film festivals.

Young and Beautiful (2013) A ho-hum movie from France’s leading openly queer director Francois Ozon might be a grand slam from a lesser talent. In the first frames we spy a young woman sunbathing, sans bra, on a pristine South of France beach. The scene acquires a naughty spin as we realize we’re observing her through binoculars wielded by her nosy younger brother. The prickly sister/brother bond highlights a bored teen’s attempt to spice up her life by turning tricks with older gentlemen.

Swimming Pool (2003) “You’re just a frustrated Englishwoman who writes about dirty things, but never does them.” In our San Francisco chat, actress Ludivine Sagnier blushed as she heard one of her best lines from Francois Ozon’s psychological thriller read back to her. Set in a palatial country-home where the pool comes to dominate the life of the house, Ozon’s film fashions a battle of wits and wills between a middle-age British mystery author (Charlotte Rampling) and a saucy, half-dressed rebellious teenager (Sagnier). (both 7/17) The Girl Can’t Help It (1956) The hounddog-faced straight man Tom Ewell followed his turn with Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch with this romantic song-fest flirting with Monroe rival Jane Mansfield. The film features terrific numbers from R&B heavyweights Fats Domino, Little Richard and Gene Vincent.

The Blues Brothers (1980) Director John Landis channeled the energy from his Animal House fratboy comedy into this John Belushi deadpan cult-caper with succulent cameos from Steven Spielberg, John Lee Hooker, Twiggy and Pee-wee Herman. (both 7/18) The Dance of Reality (2013) Right out of the box it’s clear that Alejandro Jodorowsky is channeling the Italian master Federico Fellini, as his child

Scene from director Francois Ozon’s Young and Beautiful.

alter ego (Jeremias Herskovitz) innocently tosses a stone into the sea and instigates a massive fish kill. Moments later the boy, miming Shirley Temple with a huge mane of shoulder-length blond hair, offers to scratch the back of a beggar who has lost his hands. The back scratch turns into a full embrace.

This symbolically queer act sends his Fascist-leaning dad into a rage, during which he runs off the beggar and screams at the boy and his mom. “You like men, do you? With that girlish mane, he looks like a faggot!”

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) Frank Pavich, previously known for co-producing the Charles Busch drag drama Die, Mommie, Die!, provides an exhaustive and exhausting account of a genial madman’s dream to escape the label “Midnight Movie Maven” by filming a visionary sci-fi blockbuster. While Stanley Kubrick chose science-fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke as his avatar, Jodorowsky stumbled upon Frank Herbert’s massive 1965 classic Dune. That this phone-book-sized cult book might prove unfilmable seems never to have occurred to the Chilean director, who, in a revealing aside, admits he never actually read it. It’s as if to have done so would have spoiled the fun of imposing

Scene from director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Dance of Reality.

his peculiar vision on the material. (both 7/19) The Wild Bunch (1969) It’s still hard for me to realize that with all that was shaking in 1969 – the first year of the doomed Nixon presidency, an escalation of the killing in Vietnam, the Woodstock hippie love-fest, the American moon walk, the Mets abandoning their clown suits and winning a World Series, and most of all, the Stonewall queerbar rebellion – this odd throwback macho-man’s movie classic remains

such a vivid touchstone of an incredible year. William Holden, in the next-to-the-last of his many career comebacks, plays the grizzled leader of a murderous gang who only manages to keep it together by sticking to his peculiar private code.

That code is sorely tested in a William Goldman-penned script that simultaneously invokes the Mexican Revolution, the end of the frontier, and the first stirring of American global hegemony. Credit director Sam Peckinpah with investing this

last-gasp Western with both a surreal burst of violence and a prescient grasp of this country’s failure to live up to its most cherished ideals. With career-topping turns by Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan.

The Long Riders (1980) Veteran Western director Walter Hill corrals an early-80s dream cast, with brothers Carradine, Guest, Keach and Quaid, reliving the showdowns between those legendary desperado brothers Younger, James, Miller and Ford. (both 7/20) Pennies from Heaven (1981) This Dennis Potter-penned Depressionera musical drama was considered a big career turn at the time for the then-light comedian Steve Martin.

The Landlord (1970) A pivotal comedy/drama from Hollywood’s pre-Spielberg/Lucas blockbuster era, this one was notable for the debut of genius-level director Hal Ashby. Beau Bridges stars as an idealistic property owner whose dreams of renovating a slum tenement come unstuck when he gets drawn into the messy lives of his new tenants. (both 7/22) Double Indemnity (1944) This founding film of America’s filmnoir genre represents not only the brilliant casting against type of comedy icon Fred MacMurray and his cool chemistry with femme fatale vixen Barbara Stanwyck, but was also an early sign of the uncanny genre-jumping talent of auteur Billy Wilder. Wilder’s acein-the-hole was a tumultuous collaboration with Indemnity novelist James M. Cain’s contemporary, the disgruntled boozehound crime novelist Raymond Chandler, who, by most accounts, was appalled by Wilder’s lifestyle and work habits.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Tay Garnett directed this code-sanctioned version of Cain’s violent melodrama of a drifter who’s lured into a vengeful wife’s plot to kill her hubby. Ironically this version, handicapped by Puritanical restrictions, had more critics drooling than the let-it-all-hang-out early-80s Bob Rafelson/Jack Nicholson remake, “more faithful to Cain.” (both 7/23)t Info: www.castrotheatre.com

<< Music

16 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Bold & bolder

by Michael McDonagh

T

he theatre is a very expensive place to work in, or as composer Philip Glass put it, “Opera companies are always raising money because every time the curtain goes up they’re losing money, even with Carmen.” Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal’s 90-minute, threeact ballet Othello, which Lar Lubovitch choreographed for the San Francisco Ballet, caused a sensation when it premiered here at the War Memorial Opera House in 1997. Our ballet toured it, and American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey performed it, proving that it had legs. But every theatre composer wants their work to have a life after the curtain goes down, so Goldenthal re-cast his Othello into a 34-minute stand-alone symphony for an orchestra of 80, which Poland’s AUKSO symphony under Marek Mos have recorded on Goldenthal’s Zarathustra Music label, which has also released a CD of his striking chamber work.

Both are major achievements, especially when you’re up against Shakespeare’s trenchant 1605 original, Verdi’s operatic masterwork based on it, and the hallowed European chamber music tradition. Goldenthal’s extensive work for the stage also includes scores for films as diverse as Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire (1994) and director Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) and Public Enemies (2009). His score for Mann’s 2015 Cyber is in post-production. He won his Oscar for his score for Julie

Taymor’s Frida (2002). Goldenthal pulls it off because his mastery of all of the elements that make up theatre – character, gesture, weight, pace, meaning – is so complete. His ear is acute, and so is his sense of musical space and time.

His Oscar-winning gay composer teachers Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, who’s perhaps most famous for his widely performed AIDS Symphony # 1, helped give him the skills for his technique to blossom into his own personal and often highly visceral style.

Goldenthal credits Corigliano this way. “Without imposing his will or his stylistic proclivities, he showed me the right mirror to reflect things that were there all the time.”

Goldenthal’s theatrical gifts are apparent in his recorded chamber-music works, which date from the 1970s, when he was in his 20s. The elemental married with the essential is what gives his Othello its ineluctable drive.

It’s one of the most fully realized evening-length marriages of dance and music since Prokofiev’s ballet score for Romeo and Juliet (1935-36).

Lubovitch compresses Shakespeare’s five-act drama of innocence and betrayal into a series of solo and general dances, and Goldenthal is with him from the get-go. His music telescopes and magnifies the matter at hand. A glass harmonica begins it, putting Othello’s and Desdemona’s

innocent love center-stage. His ballet’s “Carnival Dance” has morphed into his symphony’s Allegro, replete with its harmonic zigzags and blowsy wind solos. Other sections are just as striking, because Lubovitch has succinctly embedded the action of his and Goldenthal’s 14-minute “Tarantella” into a piece which mirrors the specific actors in the play/ballet as other things happen around them, as in life. His orchestration makes the matters at hand feel entirely necessary. It’s a fragmented fanfare, and his complex, constantly shifting counts must keep even the best of orchestras on their toes. There’s lots of syncopation, dramatically motivated. Sax solos are bleary, desperate. Enchanted harmonics fly above the human fray.

Mos and his AUKSO orchestra best even the superb San Francisco Ballet under Emil de Cou’s direction on Va-

rese Sarabande, which, though very fine, doesn’t have quite the same vigor and sense of impending tragedy.

Goldenthal’s CD String Quartet No. 1 - The Stone Cutters (2013) is impressive for what it tries to do and does do. His two-movement 1977 Sonata for Double Bass and Piano has rude assurance rare for his time, when he was likely expected to write in the canonical 12-note style, but his imagination and that of his players here – Tim Cobb, double bass, and Stephen Gosling, piano – seem to have leaped over difficult hurdles.

His Brass Quintet # 2 (1978), played by the Extension Ensemble, seems even more difficult, with a few notes of Stravinsky’s great homage to Debussy Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) lurking behind it. This sounds like the ground from which Goldenthal’s Othello, with its explicit

t

and disguised fanfares, flourished.

The 1974 Three Pieces for Solo Piano, with Geilach Perach, piano, eschews drama for intimacy, but not always convincingly. The Stone Cutters, which takes off from a poem

by Robinson Jeffers, delineates its sculptural, classical reserve as if from afar, but doesn’t seem to take off in any new direction until its second half, which looks forward to the steeped but classicized blues that would shadow Goldenthal’s wonderfully “simple” score for Mann’s Public Enemies.

These two beautiful CDs show where Goldenthal has been and where he might next go. He’s one of the most gifted composers on the international scene, and not just in the undeservedly maligned arena of film music. He’s continuously coming into his own.t

Looking for love in Chicago & Berlin

by David Lamble

T

ake it from me, the quality of direct-to-DVD LGBT fiction features has risen mightily in recent years, as of course it had to. With the sea change in theatrical distribution these days, many deserving queer features are missing their stab at the big screen. There used to be a circuit of cities, 16 or so, where LGBT movies would routinely play before slipping between plastic covers. Not surprisingly, both of our features this week cleverly evoke recent indie-hits from distinguished pedigrees. Imitation, in this case, is not only the sincerest form of flattery, but also a good tool for launching one’s own oeuvre.

In Bloom Writer/director C.M. Birkmeier makes subtle use of a non-glam slice of suburban Chicago as the site of an engrossing gay romantic triangle that will remind some of the work of queer auteur Ira Sachs. Blonde weed-dealer Kurt finds his relationship with grocery stock-boy Paul hitting the rocks over his boyfriend’s objections to the increasing role the pot business is playing in their lives. A romantic distraction in the form of a blonde customer of Kurt’s adds to their domestic misery. It’s no demerit to Birkmeier that he may have ben-

<<

Rufus Wainwright

From page 13

The handsome deluxe edition of Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright (Interscope/Geffen/Decca/ UMe) consists of 34 tracks covering the period from Wainwright’s 1998 eponymous debut through 2012’s Out of the Game. It excludes 2010’s All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

There are two new songs, including the marvelous “Me and Liza,” and live recordings. Wainwright’s legendary recording of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is present, although his own “Gay Messiah” is absent. More of Rufus in a live set-

TLA Releasing

Scene from writer/director C.M. Birkmeier’s In Bloom.

efited from multi-screenings of Ira Sachs’ heftier 2012 romantic opera Keep the Lights On. The rise of American film noir was definitely aided by the sincere imitation produced by the American studio system of 1940s and early 50s. It’s quite possible that LGBT filmmakers will be helped by the sheer number of quality works hitting the market.

Much of the credit for the film’s original spin on a familiar theme can be ascribed to go-for-broke performances by leads Kyle Wigent,

Tanner Rittenhouse and Jake Andrews. Features: 16:9 anamorphic stereo, color. (TLAReleasing) Lose Your Head Stefan Westerwelle and Patrick Schuckmann kick off their Berlin-sited paranoid thriller with a sure-shot hook: sultry, dark-haired Spanish tourist Luis (Fernando Tielve) lands in the German capital on the rebound from a messy breakup with a Madrid writer. Soon he’s swimming in a 24/7 party-down circuit of bars and drug-fueled hookups.

Sincerely bi Luis wakes up in a Euro-trash crash pad after a pleasant tryst with a young lady. Awakening to discover that the apartment’s occupants have left him locked in with the cat, Luis summons the Berlin Fire Dept. for a hook-and-ladder rescue. He then plunges into the bar scene, where he meets a Rasputinlike trickster. Mistaking the rogue for a lover, Luis pours his heart out to a brother/sister duo over glasses of wine.

“Guess what happened to me yes-

ting can also be found on the new Live from the Artists Den (UMe/Artists Den) album and separate DVD. I spoke with Wainwright about his new releases and upcoming projects.

Rufus Wainwright: I’ve definitely heard the news that vinyl is on the rise again. I don’t think it will ever regain the prominence that it once held. But it’s promising, I guess. I like vinyl for the sound, but also my face looks bigger on the cover!

about Hadrian, and I’m in the process of raising money to make my next album, which is a recording of Prima Donna, my first opera. I felt like in this interlude period it was good to clean house and be retrospective about my career, so I could figure out how to move forward. I’m 40 and I have another 40 years to go!

Gregg Shapiro: In the liner notes for the deluxe edition of Vibrate, you express your gratitude to those who actually purchase the CD, which you describe as “an act that in this day and age has become wholly altruistic,” describing yourself as an “avowed album guy.” With the revival of vinyl, do you think album guys and girls will be making a comeback?

You’re flooding the market with the release of the different editions of Vibrate and the Live from the Artists Den CD and Bluray. What was the thought behind that?

I don’t know how much thought there was behind that. What’s going on is that I’m at the end of my record contract with Universal. I’m about to embark on a new opera

Was it a daunting task to compile songs for Vibrate?

I enlisted the help of my friend Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys. I asked him to do the first round. I really feel like he has the perfect balance between pop culture and highbrow entertainment.

He did the first list, then I tinkered

terday? I fell in love.”

“With a blonde German girl?”

“No, he’s from the Ukraine or something like that. He threw me into the river, and now I am in love.”

“When will you see him again?”

“Tonight.”

“Let’s drink to that! To love!”

The brother and sister are searching the party underground for the whereabouts of her younger brother, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Luis. The filmmakers fashion a genuine erotic-fueled mystery/ thriller whose chilling resolution is only partly undermined by a baitand-switch plot that lures us in by withholding information in a somewhat underhanded fashion.

See this one for a charming rollercoaster turn from Tielve, whose saucer-sized brown eyes and messy curls conjure up many an enchanting Euro-boy lead, such as Romain Duris around the time of The Beat My Heart Skipped, or Gael Garcia Bernal in any number of romantic heart-stoppers.

Warning: there’s an overly tricky ending that may have the more rational-minded among you crying, “Foul!” Features: 16:9 anamorphic stereo, color, in English, German and Spanish with English subtitles.

(Canteen Outlaws)t with it, and we came up with what we have today. I thought it was important that it could be given to a complete unknown, who had no sense of what I do at all, and can then become acquainted with my vast repertoire!

You have been a familiar voice on movie soundtracks since the late 1990s, with your version of “Hallelujah” from Shrek becoming an instant classic.

That song has always been a golden thorn in my side. Because on one hand, even [the song’s writer] Leonard [Cohen] says it’s overplayed and See page 23 >>

<< Out&About

18 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Bay Area Now 7 @ YBCA

Fri 18

Opening party for the seventh annual exhibit of local and regional artists’ visual, performing, film and video art works. $12$15 (free for members). 8pm-11pm (VIP receptions and dinners 6pm-8pm; $165$500). Exhibit thru Oct. 5. Grand lobby, galleries and Forum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Out &About

O&A

t

Les Miserables

Bay Area Playwrights Festival @ Thick House

Sat 19 Derek Jarman, Visionary, including Caravaggio

Why so serious?

by Jim Provenzano

W

hat can be said about the ongoing bevy of talents? Despite our summer sun and delicious fog, several works take on serious themes. A dance about gay WWII codebreaker Alan Turing? Sure, why not (RAWdance)? A solo show about a hard-drinking male boxer told by a woman? I’m there (Tough). A new exhibit about gay San Francisco life in the 1960s? Liked and Shared (1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out). A hit musical about poverty and oppression (Les Miserables)?

Seen it, but if you’re in the mood, there it is. Need a pick-up? How about a flesh-eating monster musical performed by third-graders? (Zombie Prom). You want to go to there.

Thu 17 American Buffalo @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Aurora Theatre Company performs David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1977 drama about three desperate men who plot to steal a valuable coin collection. $35-$60. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Extended thru July 20. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Bi Any Other Name Contributors @ GLBT History Museum Loraine Hutchins, Lani Ka’ahumanu, the co-editors of the groundbreaking 1991 Bi Any Other Name read from and discuss the anthology, along with several contributors, as the ebook edition is published. $5/ members free. 7pm-9pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Forbidden Broadway @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Alive and Kicking!, Gerald Alessandrini’s newest edition of the show tune parody revue comes to the Bay Area, with musical send-ups and satirical vignettes of The Book of Mormon, Once, Newsies, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patankin and more. $45$60. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru July 27. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Fury Factory Festival @ Various Venues Fifth annual festival of theater, with companies from several countries performing innovative new works at Z Space (420 Florida St.), Z Below (470 Florida St.), Joe Goode Annex (401 Alabama St.) and NOHspace (2840 Mariposa St.). $16-$55. Thru July 20. (866) 811-4111. www.foolsfury.org

Hick: A Love Story @ Eureka Theatre Terry Baum and Pat Bond wrote and perform in a two-women play about the romance between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok; co-presented by Theatre Rhinoceros and Crackpot Crones. Free.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru July 27. 215 Jackson St. at Battery. www.crackpotcrones.com

New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre July 17: Young & Beautiful (7pm) and Swimming Pool (8:50). July 18: The Girl Can’t Help It! (7pm) and The Blues Brothers (8:55). July 19: Frozen sing-along (1pm; also July 20) The Dance of Reality (7pm) and Jodorowsky’s Dune (5:10, 9:55).

July 20: The Wild Bunch (7pm) and The Long Riders (5pm, 9:35). July 22: Pennies From Heaven (7pm) and The Landlord (9:05). July 23: Double Indemnity (7pm) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (9:05). July 24: San Francisco Jewish Film Festival 34 begins (www.sfjff.org). $11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Patterns @ New Stage Patterns: For Some Reason, It Reall Tickled Me, Amy Munz’ solo performance, with innovative multiple projections, about young adult romance quandaries. $30.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 16. Dennis Gallagher Arts Pavilion, French American International High School, 66 Page St. (800) 838-3006. www.TheNewStage.com

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes, performers, and some of the original cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Extended thru July 26. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Stand Up for Campos @ El Rio Comedy and music show and fundraiser for David Campos’ Assembly run, with Yayne Abeba, Frankie Quiñones, Steve Lee, and Lisa Geduldig. And music by Candace Roberts and Larisa Migachyov; and Dr Loco y Sus Cuates featuring The Peña Goveas, Tomas Montoya & Francisco Herrera. $7$100. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. elriosf.com

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival @ Esplanade The months-long free performance series has commenced, with weekend outdoor dance, music and theatre concerts, on various days and evenings. July 17: Rumbaché, 6pm. July 19: Merola Opera’s Schwabacher Summer Concert, 2pm. July 24: Dalia Marina, 12:30pm. Shows thru Oct. Mission St. at 3rd. 543-1718. www.ybgfestival.org

Fri 18 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum Opening reception for a new exhibit ofcusing on San Francisco’s emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE Magazine feature “Homosexuality in America.” Also, Biconic Flashpoints : Four Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics, thru Aug. 15. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm.

Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members).

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

Fri 18

1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out

37th annual festival of nearly a dozen diverse works by local playwrights, each staged once. $20-$95 (full pass).

Thru July 27. 1695 18th St. www. playwrightsfoundation.org

The Klipptones @ Terrace Room, Oakland Vocalist Joshua Klipp and his jazz band perform at the Art Deco-stylish East Bay restaurant and bar with a panoramic view of Lake Merritt. 7pm-10pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland. (510) 903-3771. www.theterraceroom.com

Life X 3 @ Phoenix Theatre Broadway West performs Tony and Olivierwinning playwright Yasmina Reza’s comic drama about a dinner party gone wrong, where family truths are revealed. $40.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru July 19. 414 Mason St. #601. (510) 835-4205. www.offbroadwaywest.org

Kathy Kahn

Twelfth Night @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Frank Pietronigro @ Johnston Gallery

Shotgun Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s romantic classic includes live music and a jaunty-sexy staging. $20-$35.

Thru Aug. 17. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley.

(510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Exhibit of gay-themed paintings (“Great American Patriots”) and “Documents,” an unusual installation that uses anti-gay words. Thru Sept. 2327 Market St. www.pietronigro.com www.johnstontaxgroup.com/art

Judy Chicago @ Oakland Museum

Into the Woods @ San Francisco Playhouse

Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist’s 75th birthday; thru Nov. 30. Also, SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot (thru July 27); Vinyl: The Sound and Culture of Records, about the culture of collecting records. Thru July 27.; Free/$15.

Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm).

1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Local production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s acclaimed musical that takes an ‘after Happily Ever After’ look at fairy tales. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm.

Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm.

Thru Sept. 6. 450 Post St., 2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Mel Reiff Hill @ Wicked Grounds

Thu 24

Author/illustrator of The Gender Book signs books, makes doodles and meets fans. 6:30-8:30pm. 289 8th St. www.wickedgrounds.com

Les Misérables @ Woodminster Ampitheater, Oakland Woodminster Summer Musicals presents a local production of the hit Broadway musical based on the Victor Hugo novel about tyrants and the underclass in Revolutionary France. $28-$59. Fri-Sun 8pm. Thru July 20. Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, Oakland. (510) 531-9597. www.woodminster.com

Chris Black’s Tough Lydia Daniller

Sat 19 As You Like It @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael

Opening reception for a group exhibition of works by eclectic members of the Yerba Buena Lodge No. 15; live jazz music, New Orleans-style hors d’oeuvres, and drinks. 6pm-9pm. Also July 19, 12pm3pm. Regular museum hours 26 7th St. at Market, 2nd floor. 861-1737.

Marin Shakespeare Company kicks off its 25th anniversary summer series with William Shakespeare’s gender-bending romantic comedy. Ampitheatre open one hbour prior to showtime for picnicking; Bring overwear; it gets chilly. $12-$240 (season pass) and ‘pay as you like.’ Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru Aug. 10. 4994488. Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University of California, San Rafael. www.marinshakespeare.org

Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Art Exhibition @ Odd Fellows Building

The popular storytelling series celebrates 12 years; with founders Arline Klatte, Beth Lisick, musical director Marc Capelle, storytellers Nicole J. Georges, Mike Keegan, Whit Leigh, Vero Majano, Dominic Riley, Tiffany Shlain and others. $15-$20.

8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www.porchlightsf.com www.verdiclub.net

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

SPF7 @ ODC Theater

The award-winning solo performer premieres his new show, Each and Every Thing, a multi-character play about the search for real community in a hyperconnected world. $20-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru August 24.

1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The seventh annual Summer Performance Festival, presented by SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, includes new dance works by the Anata Project, Cali & Co Dance, Alma Esperanca Cunningham, Jaara Dance Project, and others. Of particular note: Joe Landini’s gay-themed solo set for dancer Jessie Bie, who’s been living with HIV for 30 years (July 18 & 19). $10-$20.

Wed-Sun various times. Thru July 20. 3153 17th St. at Shotwell. www.spf7dance.org

Dan Hoyle @ The Marsh

Derek Jarman, Visionary @ BAM/Pacific Film Archive Screenings of the works of the late gay filmmaker who defied trends and created his own unique cinematic style, most often with explicitly gay themes. July 19: Caravaggio. $4-$6.50.

Saturday screenings Thru Aug. 28. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Dracula Inquest @ Berkeley City Club

Bill Eppridge, LIFE magazine, courtesy GLBT History Museum

Central Works performs Gary Graves’ new dramatic take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale. $15-$28. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Sun 5pm. Thru Aug. 17. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Mugwumpin @ Costume Shop The innovative experimental theatre company celebrates ten years with several revivals; This Is All I Need and other plays in repertory with the new Blockbuster Season, also later this summer. other shows thru August and Sept. $20-$40.

1117 Market St. www.mugwumpin.org

Night Light @ SOMArts Cultural Center Enjoy a multimedia garden party that blankets SOMArts Cultural Center in luminous art installations, including five audiovisual performances, and digital and cinematic projections by more than 30 artists. $12. 9pm-12am. 934 Brannan St. at 9th. www.somarts.org

San Francisco Mime Troupe @ Various Venues Ripple Effect, the newest play produced by the politically-themed satirical theatre company now celebrating its 55th season, takes on eviction, Google Glass-sporting hipster techies, and economic disparity in the Bay Area. Half-hour music set preshow. July 19: Mateel Community Center, Redway. July 23: Mill Valley Community Center, 6:30pm music, 7pm show. Indoor and outdoor locales thru Sept. 1. 285-1717. www.sfmt.org

The Scion @ The Marsh Solo performer Brian Copeland returns with his unusual play about privilege, murder and sausage in his retelling of the triple murder crime at the Santos Linguisa Factory. $30-$100. Sat 5pm. Thru Aug. 23.

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

Shrek the Musical @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse’s youth-inclusive production of the stage musical based on the animated film about an ogre who enters the world of a royal kingdom. $17$60. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm.

Wed & Thu 7pm. Thru Aug. 3. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Sun 20 Chomp! @ Conservatory of Flowers They Came From the Swamp, a new floral exhibit of carnivorous plants, includes exhibits, docent talks, and a giant replica model so you can feel like a bug about to be eaten. Thru Oct. 19. Reg. hours, 10am4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm. Thru Oct. 19. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park.

831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

t

Out&About>>

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

God Fights the Plague @ The Marsh

Thu 24

18-year-old playwright Dezi Gallegos (who made a splash at 14 with Prop 8 Love Stories) performs a solo show with multiple gay and straight characters of different faiths, each searching for God. $15-$100.

Sat 8:30pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 10. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

RAWdance

Celebrating AIGA @ Museum of Craft and Design Dogpatch warehouse is now a museum store, gallery and program space. Exhibits include Celebrating AIGA (the American professional organization for design), Jennifer Crupi: A Display of Gestures (thru Oct 5) , Joe Brubaker and The Exquisite Gardeners: The Visible Transparency Project (thru Sept. 21). Mon-Fri 9:30am5:30pm. 2569 Third St. 773-0303. www.sfmcd.org

Kevin Fisher-Paulson @ Book Passage, Corte Madera Author of the memoir A Song for Lost Angels: How Daddy and Papa Fought to Save Their Family, reads from and discusses his book about he and his partner’s struggle to keep their adopted children. 4pm. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 927-0960. fearlessbooks.com

Project Mah Jongg @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

RJ Muna

JB Higgins @ Magnet

Sony Holland @ Level III

Exhibit of prints depicting Moments of Realization, with local LGBT community subjects. Exhibit thru July. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

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

William Odiorne’s Paris @ Robert Tat Gallery

Tue 22 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum

New exhibit about the popular Chinese game and Jewish culture’s affection for it; thru Oct. 28. Also, Designing Homes : Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Exhibit of photos, and an audiovisual installation, by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early ‘70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015. Lines on the Horizon : Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015.

Free/$10. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center

New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history.

Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10. Weekly, 1pm4pm. 88 5th St. 537-1105. SFhistory.org

Mon 21 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s weekly online talk show’s rebroadcast through the week. This week, Xavier Caylor, producer of Flagging in the Park; and Harry Lit and Jack Sugrue, organizers of the annual Lazy Bear Weekend in Guerneville. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 12/13 at 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Frozen Music Festival @ Balançoire Two nights of music with several local bands at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; with an auction to raise funds for the Frozen Film Festival. $5. 9:30pm12:30am. Also July 15. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Photo exhibit of the artist’s 1920s prints of the beautiful French capital. Tue-Sat 11am5:30pm (1st Thursdays til 7:30). Thru Aug. 23. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Woods to Wildflowers @ SF Botanical Gardens See blooming floral displays, trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a centuryold grove of towering Coast Redwoods.

Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 66121316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group. Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.letskickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

Thu 24

Zombie Prom @ Berkeley Playhouse

New exhibit about 2,000 years of unconventional visualizations of beauty at the contemporary and historical museum.

Permanent exhibits as well. $15. Thru Sept.

14. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

Children’s student ensemble production of John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe’s musical comedy about a 1950s high school besieged by zombies. $15-$20. 3:30pm & 7pm. Thru July 25. Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Wed 23 Project Tremelo @ The Garage Project Tremolo presents Through the Layers of Weathered Glass, a new evening-length dance work that examines the internal landscapes created by deeply rooted memories. $10-$20. 8pm. Also July 24, and Aug. 1 & 2. 715 Bryant St. 715bryant.org

Thu 24

Sketch 4; Music Mirror

Gorgeous @ Asian Art Museum

RAWdance @ Z Space Tenth anniversary concert of works by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein’s innovative local dance company, including Turing’s Apple, inspired by the work of gay mathematician and WWII “code breaker” Alan Turing, plus the premeire of Burn In, and works by guest artists Gretchen Garnett & Dancers and Tanya Bello’s Project B. $25-$30. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 7pm. 450 Florida St. (866) 811-4111. www.RawDance.org www.Zspace.org

Sketch 4; Music Mirror @ ODC Theater Acclaimed local choreographers Amy Seiwert and Adam Hougland premiere two works-in-progress with eight of the Bay Area’s best dancers, each interpreting the same live music work by composer Kevin Keller. $22-$40. 8pm. Thu0Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm. Thru July 27. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Skulls @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth, including the new popular exhibit of animal and human skulls (thru Nov. 30). Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$30. Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Tough @ Z Below Chris Black’s one-woman show about hard-drinking boxer John L. Sullivan, and the nature of athleticism and ending a career. $20-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 9. 470 Florida St. www.chrisblackdance.wix.com/dance

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

David DeSilva

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

<< Books

20 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Dangerous ‘Ulysses’

by Tim Pfaff

T

here are people, including me, who read James Joyce’s Ulysses for fun. (OK, not the first couple times.) But for a guaranteed good time, try Kevin Birmingham’s The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses (Penguin Press), a spellbinding history of the obscenity trials that allowed Joyce’s early-1920s novel, now regularly regarded as the 20th-century’s greatest work of fiction in English, to be published and sold legally in 1933.

Although Ulysses used unprecedentedly frank language to depict sex and, even more, sexual fantasy, its supporters, some of its opponents and rafts of readers of all sexualities over subsequent generations have come to see that it’s piss-poor pornography.

United States District Judge John M. Woolsey, who wrote the opinion legalizing Ulysses in the U.S. – a piece of prose itself so dandy it’s reprinted

in a number of editions of the novel – called reading Ulysses the hardest two months of his life. While allowing that the book “disturbed” him in positive as well as negative ways, he wrote in his opinion, “I have not found anything that I consider dirt for dirt’s sake.” That quaint, monosyllabic but self-explanatory word “dirt” is nearly as arresting in a legal opinion as Joyce’s generous four-letter words are in literature of high purpose. Joyce’s language is, as its devotees know, infectious.

Birmingham, a Harvard historian, has a knack for the stop-you-inyour-tracks simple declarative sentence. At the end of his chapter on the Woolsey decision, he observes, with full irony, “The first legal edition of Ulysses in the United States was the corrupted text of a literary pirate.” And there are hundreds more where that came from.

With at least one startling new fact or observation per page, Bir-

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mingham tells the story, astonishing to 21st-century ears, of the suppression and censorship of Ulysses by seemingly countless agencies and individuals that could see only dirt in it. He writes not breathlessly but with the wiles of a lit-crit Scheherazade, and you feel the depth of his primary research.

It doesn’t take an alert reader to discern that a great deal of the saga could as easily have been subsumed under a different chapter entitled Lesbians to the Rescue (LTTR). Among the principal cache of standout characters in The Most Dangerous Book, earning between them at least a quarter of its 350 text pages, are Dykes To Watch Out For. The first actual publishers of Ulysses were Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, publishers of the literary magazine The Little Review, which serialized it, and Sylvia Beach, the American expat owner of the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company, whose painstaking publication and determined distribution (Hemingway helped with that) of the complete – and still not yet legal – novel was only the key element in her almost flagrantly devoted support of Joyce, about which he was both greedy and indifferent. Artists.

These women walk right off the page of Birmingham’s book. Anderson, a male-head-turning beauty, was the first woman to support gay rights in print. Her exquisitely Dickensian-named partner, Heap, Birmingham writes, “was husky, owned a revolver, looked squarely at everyone she spoke to, had short hair she swept across her face and full lips that reminded Anderson of Oscar Wilde. She and her friends wore trousers and neckties and called one another by masculine names. Jane had a knack for conversation.” The two were “feminists of the most radical kind,” open supporters of homosexual rights and prime representatives of the so-called Washington Square-ites, the New York “sexual iconoclasts” who were perceived as “threatening” the city, if not Ameri-

can culture as a whole.

“The qualities that made Joyce an excellent writer made him a ruthless human being,” Birmingham writes, “and Sylvia Beach may have suffered the most.” In addition to the enterprising if self-effacing Beach – whose bookstore, inspired by that of a Parisian woman with whom she fell in love, became one of the intellectual and social hubs, the “preeminent locations,” of modernism – there also are Dora Mardsen, Harriet Weaver and Josephine Bell.

Practitioners of what attorney and Joyce advocate John Quinn called “lesbianism” or not, the women were trenchant feminists who, through dedication to the freedom of expression Joyce’s work exemplified, rallied to his cause. They are far from footnotes in a book all of whose historical characters, on all sides of the issue, are drawn in cinematic dimensions. If only there were room here to recount Birmingham’s astonishing portrait of the woman who was Joyce’s muse, life partner and eventual wife, Nora Barnacle, who, if fate already hadn’t, might have been named only by the budding novelist Joyce himself.

Sometimes you wonder if Birmingham has fired up the Wayback Machine to achieve the level of detail he relates in historical events. In his account of the New York obscen-

t

ity trial, he writes of Heap: “Jane, eager to avoid prison, was poking Anderson in the ribs, whispering, ‘Don’t try to talk. Don’t put yourself into their hands.’” It seems almost fanciful, but then, Birmingham supplies a full page of endnotes (of which there are more than 50 pages in all) about the scene.

What makes the story startlingly contemporary with us today is its investigation of the mechanisms of censorship. “It’s strange to think of it now, but the Post Office was a major law enforcement agency,” Birmingham writes. Inspecting mail, under the aegis of the Espionage Act of 1917, “was how the government found James Joyce. A powerful Post Office was the cornerstone of the U.S. censorship regime.” Only the media, it seems, have changed.

Focus on the queer backstory could obscure the book’s superb handling of the novel itself and its odd, brilliant, anything-but-heroic, except-when-he-was author.

Another aspect of the artistry, if not the art, Birmingham explores thoroughly – sometimes groundbreakingly but never sensationally – is Joyce’s excruciating battle with his eyesight, caused by syphilis the writer acquired as a young man in Dublin. There are unique windows into Joyce in his initial attempts, once the diagnosis was known, to pass it off as “congenital” and, elsewhere, in his word play with it. He called Dublin a “den of syphilis” and Europe a “syphilisation.”

The mighty, subversive prose of Ulysses keeps wending its way into Birmingham’s book, more potently and meaningfully with its every appearance. Perhaps the greatest thing about what Birmingham himself calls this “biography of a novel” is that it may bring new readers, and re-readers, to a book that, 80 years on, still sells 100,000 copies a year.

That other great if more eclipsed literary modernist T.S. Eliot called Ulysses “a book to which we are all indebted and from which none of us can escape.”t

Perseverence in the Bible Belt

by Brian Bromberger

Teaching the Cat to Sit: A Memoir

by Michelle Theall; Gallery Books, $24.99 t doesn’t take too much imagination to contemplate how intimidating it would be to grow up as a lesbian Catholic in the Texas Bible Belt during the 1970s and 80s. Yet in her captivating self-actualization memoir, Michelle Theall has fashioned more than an enthralling, at times hilarious account of her experiences. From her unique vantage point, she has written a personal post-Stonewall history of what it has been like to grow up gay in America in the last 40 years, ranging

I

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from total denial to self-loathing to seeking salvation in therapy to dating men, and finally to a healthy acceptance of her sexual identity.

Catholicism serves as a foil for her desire to win her parents’ love if she can win the Church’s approval of her nontraditional family (she co-parents her four-year-old adopted halfCambodian son, Connor, with her life partner, Jill). Her parents don’t understand her lifestyle. After she tells them she is a lesbian, they banish her from their house and their lives for years. Her mother, in all her Grand Guignol horror, is poignantly etched as a needy, depressed strict Catholic who blames Michelle for all her problems and uses guilt as a tool of control as skillfully as a surgeon wields a scalpel. Some of her comments are outrageous, such as suggesting AIDS is God’s wrath against homosexuals. Other conversations are cruel: after reading an article written by Michelle on her family’s entanglements with Catholicism, her mother screams at her, “Why do you have to broadcast you’re gay? Your sister doesn’t run around telling everyone she’s heterosexual. No one wants to hear your story. You’re not a celebrity. Who cares? Who’s even going to read this?” The bulk of Theall’s memoir is coming to terms with her mom from hell, who throws fits and emotionally abuses Michelle. Finally, mom does arrive at a modicum of begrudging acceptance by giving Michelle a sterling silver chain with an

amulet, etched with the words, “We are shaped by what we love.”

As tortured as is her relationship with her mother, Michelle faces many other obstacles on her journey towards pride and self-acceptance.

She is raped at 11 by her best friend’s father. She is diagnosed with MS in 2003, and writes, “Then I did what every sane person who has been diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease would do: I booked a trip to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro.”

She is bullied by her fellow high school students after being outed even before she kisses another girl, and publically humiliated as she is kicked out of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. No matter how much discrimination or alienation are heaped upon her, she gets back See page 23 >>

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22 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Everything’s coming up Emmys

by Victoria A. Brownworth

T

he Emmy nominations were announced this week, and gay was definitively in play. It’s exciting to see so many nominations of both gay actors and gay- and lesbian-themed programming. It’s way past time.

Among the nominations that pleased us were some old faves and new series. Outstanding Comedy Series include Modern Family, which now ranks with Frasier and Cheers for most successive nominations. Also in that category is Orange Is the New Black. The Netflix original series was nominated for its very first season (the second season began in June).

OITNB is breaking barriers with its strong lesbian themes and a multi-cultural ensemble of actresses doing a pitchperfect job of exploring the issues of women in prison. It also has the only out transgender actress on the tube, Laverne Cox, who recently made the cover of Time, that’s how pivotal the show has been. OITNB star Taylor Schilling is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Kate Mulgrew, who plays the amazing bull-daggery kitchen Russian, Red, is nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox and Natasha Lyonne all got the nod for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for their roles on OITNB. Oscar winner and (finally) out lesbian actress and director Jodie Foster is nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the OITNB episode, “Lesbian Request Denied.” Jenji Kohan, the show’s creator, and Liz Friedman are both nominated as a team for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, but have stiff competition from Louis C.K. They are also the only women nominated in the category.

Ty Burrell and out gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson are both up for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, and Julie Bowen is up for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, all for their ensemble roles in Modern Family. (Eric Stonestreet has previously won for his role on the show.) Nathan Lane is nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Pepper, the hilarious gay wedding planner and friend of Cam and Mitchell on Modern Family. We love Pepper.

Two of our favorite nominations were both surprises. Andre Braugher, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as the gay captain in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is also one of the few ac-

tors of color to get an Emmy nomination. Out lesbian comedian Kate McKinnon, as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Saturday Night Live, is the only member of the SNL ensemble to be nominated, a major achievement.

Out gay actor Jim Parsons is up again for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang Theory, which is itself again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series. Parsons has won three out of five years he’s been nominated in this category.

Out gay showrunner Ryan Murphy’s FX series American Horror Story: Coven is up for Outstanding Miniseries, but has stiff competition from Fargo, Treme and Luther, all of which were among the best series on the tube in 2013.

Murphy’s film for HBO of Larry Kramer’s iconic play The Normal Heart is up for Outstanding Television Movie. Mark Ruffalo, who played Kramer’s stand-in Ned Weeks in Normal Heart, is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. The Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie category has six entrants, four of whom are from The Normal Heart: out gay actors Matt Bomer and Jim Parsons, as well as Joe Mantello and Alfred Molina. Julia Roberts was also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her role in the film.

Murphy, who was nominated for a record 34 Emmy nominations for his various projects, including as writer and director for Glee, told Deadline.com he was honored by the nominations and said, “I worked with Larry Kramer for five years on The Normal Heart. I really believed that it is the culture’s sacred text. It was important to get it right.

The tone on the set was like that of a church. It was a passion project for everyone who worked on it.” Kramer is nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special, ironically in competition with Murphy, who is nominated in the same category for AHS. We were also pleased to see longtime out gay African-American director Paris Barclay, who is one of the least noted but most deserving TV directors on the tube, nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for directing the “100” episode of Glee. Speaking of Glee, why has the final season been cut to 13 episodes?

Is that Fox’s idea, Murphy’s idea, or a combination of both? Stay tuned for more on that decision, which is, we admit, surprising.

Barclay has been directing TV forever, and was a standout in get-

t

however. That makes for rollicking TV, and the main reason to watch The View is to see what drama the various co-hosts bring to their table.

Big losers

Courtesy Netflix

Orange Is the New Black star Taylor Schilling deserves her nom.

ting gay storylines as well as other gay and lesbian directors into the NYPD Blue lineup back in the 1990s. He’s president of the Directors Guild of America and has won the prime-time Emmy before for directing. He’s also executive producer and principal director of FX’s Sons of Anarchy, which is currently filming its seventh (and final) season and is FX’s best-rated series.

But back to the Emmys. Out lesbian Jane Lynch is nominated for Outstanding Host for a Reality or RealityCompetition Program, for Hollywood Game Night (which we really don’t like, but we always love her). Out gay Renaissance man and fashionista Tim Gunn is also nominated in that category for Project Runway, and deserves to win. Gunn has totally made that show with his smart and savvy direction of contestants. How many times have we uttered his signature phrases “Make it work!,” “Trying and achieving are two different things!” or “It’s a little costumey?”

No Emmy nominations list is complete without the snubs. Several that made our head swivel off were – surprise! – queer. How there was not a single Emmy nomination for gay showrunner Bryan Fuller’s lush, crazy, complex, homoerotic thriller Hannibal seems impossible.

Mads Mikkelsen not nominated?

We are far from the sole critic who has raved about this show since its debut. Everything about it screams Emmy. Or so we thought.

Also startling is the lack of a nomination for a second year for Tatiana Maslany for her outstanding (and lesbian) work on the BBC America scifi/thriller Orphan Black. Maslany is the show in many respects. She plays six different characters (sometimes more), and often they all appear in the same scene! Where is her Emmy nomination? Orphan Black was renewed for a third season, so the Emmys will have yet another chance to get it right. Three better be the charm.

Another surprise for us was the shut-out of Shonda Rhimes for Scandal. Although Scandal actresses Kerry Washington and Kate Burton, and Scandal actor Joe Morton all received nominations, Jeff Perry deserved a spot in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series category. His performance as the grieving and betrayed gay husband took gay to a whole different place.

The Emmy committee may have missed it, but we didn’t. Perry was brilliant, and he was robbed.

We counted carefully, and we only saw a handful of black actors nominated for anything, with Kerry Washington and Don Cheadle (House of Lies) as the only leads. We’d say tsk tsk to this, but that doesn’t sound serious enough.

So let’s say instead, for shame. Like why was Tony winner and out gay actor (and San Franciscan!) B.D. Wong snubbed in the Emmy nods for The Normal Heart? It’s telling.

And Sandra Oh’s final season on Grey’s Anatomy didn’t register? Another shut-out of an Asian actor. A

total of 10 acting nods for black actors, several of whom are British. No Asians, no Latinos. That’s 10 out of 16 acting categories with a total of six nominees each. Ten out of 96 is a piss-poor ratio if you ask us.

Must. Do. Better. We’re gratified to see gays do so well, but women and people of color are still MIA in these awards. That’s got to change.

The TV landscape has to start reflecting all of us. Surely when women are writing their own series, like Shonda Rhimes, Lena Dunham, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kahling, Jenji Kohan, Sarah Silverman and Tina Fey, a nomination is due?

In the final tally, the nominations look like this: Game of Thrones is this year’s most nominated program, with 19 nods, all deserved. Fargo and AHS received 18 and 17 nominations, respectively, also deserved. The death knell for HBO is clearly exaggerated, as the network was far and away the front-runner, with 99 nods.

Next is CBS with 47 nominations, including The Good Wife; NBC with 46, but none for Cannibal or The Blacklist; and FX with 45. We agree with most of the nominations, but there were additions that definitely needed to be made.

Speaking of additions, it’s official: She’s back! As of July 10, Rosie O’Donnell has been rehired at ABC to co-host The View. Both ABC and Rosie herself took to her favorite medium, Twitter, to announce the news and start fighting with naysayers in advance of her September return. (Check out the flurry of tweets from Rosie who is, natch, @Rosie.)

Rosie left The View after a series of dramatic on-air and off-air fights with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and doyenne Barbara Walters. She has been tapped to co-host in the fall with remaining host Whoopi Goldberg. ABC is looking for at least two other co-hosts, who may come from the cable news ranks. Oh, to see Rachel Maddow join The View.

It’s been seven years since Rosie left, yet her shadow has hovered over the show since that much-tabloiddiscussed split in 2007. After nearly 10 years, Hasselbeck left the series in July 2013, replacing Gretchen Carlson as the female co-host of Fox & Friends, a perfect fit with her strong conservative politics.

Rosie’s return prompted a snippy comment from Hasselbeck, who said, “She spit in the face of our military, and spit in the face of our network.” Okay then. We told you this would happen the minute Barbara Walters retired. We also told you Hasselbeck would not be happy about it. Hasselbeck said Barbara Walters’ farewell show in May was really Rosie’s “hello show.” ABC World News Now reported this as a “cat fight” as the “claws come out.” Oy. Jenny McCarthy, the current cohost whom Rosie will be replacing, was more generous, noting simply that ABC likes controversy on the program, and Rosie would provide it. We do hope the show decides to include another conservative voice,

Meanwhile over on NBC, lesbian fitness trainer and weight-loss guru Jillian Michaels has left Biggest Loser in a cloud of controversy.

NBC announced last week Michaels was leaving. Known as the tough one, Michaels has been known to scream in the faces of her contestants as well as give them big hugs.

She was appalled at the end of last season when winner Rachel Fredrickson came onstage having lost 155 lbs. She looked emaciated and, as the ripped Michaels noted, “anorexic.” Michaels said the win made the show look “unhealthy,” and she did not want to promote unhealthy body images.

She’s been wooed back before by the network and is a huge fan favorite, but we agreed with her assessment. Fredrickson did not look like what the show aims for, and we thought the show gave the wrong message, especially to girls already dealing with the pressure to adopt eating disorders as a way of maintaining thinness.

Speaking of real-life drama, we love ABC’s NY Med because it never shies away from gay issues. In the July 10 episode, one of the patients spotlighted was a black gay actor and homeless/HIV activist from New York, Levorne Moore. Moore was magnificent to watch. The very definition of fierce, he had no intention of hiding his gayness or his fears. Dr. Ashley Winters told him his bladder cancer had become invasive, and she would need to remove his bladder. The exchange between them was loving and humane. She held him, he cried softly and said he felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, caught up in a whirlwind. Iconic gay imagery.

All did not go well for Moore, who starred in a production of The Worm in the Apple, a play about homelessness and HIV in the Big Apple. After the surgery he had a heart attack, his organs began to fail and he was near death. But, as Winters explained for the camera, he had a “miracle” recovery and we watched as he sashayed out of the hospital healthy and beautifully attired (Gunn would have approved), leaving Winters fighting back tears at the thought that she nearly lost this patient.

Speaking of will to live, NBC’s hit medical drama Night Shift has added one of our favorite gay actors, Luke Macfarlane (beloved Scotty on Brothers & Sisters). He has joined the cast as Rick Lincoln, Dr. Drew McAllister’s (Brendan Fehr) partner, who has just returned from Afghanistan. Nobody has ever done gay military couples on the tube before. Night Shift is doing it.

While the show may have jumped the shark in putting Rick’s life at risk Stateside (he and other returning soldiers were in a massive bus crash), it did mean Drew had to acknowledge his gayness and his partner to his colleagues. That kiss in the ER was one we’d been waiting for.

Other shows that should be on your radar this summer are: PBS’ Vicious, the gay comedy starring Derek Jacobi and Sir Ian McKellen as aging lovers. The sci-fi/thrillers The Strain, The Last Ship and Extant have all just debuted, and they are stellar. Also, DVR the return of the phenomenal Masters of Sex, The Bridge, True Blood and Pretty Little Liars. Watch for Rush on USA, July 17. So for all of this, the shows that got the Emmy nods and the ones that missed, and for the constantly evolving landscape of the tube, you really must stay tuned.t

t <<

Music>>

Cheyenne Jackson

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

For the past six months, Jackson and his musical director Ben Toth (whom he describes as his “heterosexual musical life-partner”) have been sifting through the endless variety of music from the movies to craft the concert’s repertoire. But Jackson wanted a show that was more than just a series of movie medleys. “I’ve been touring with concerts for the last year and a half, and it’s been very cathartic to get out from behind a character and perform as myself,” he said.

Having been through many challenges in the past year, including a divorce, he’s come to use his own life experiences as the show’s thematic threads.

“An audience wants to know you, they want a personal connection with the performer, and to be really genuine, you have to give it to them,” he said. “Once you’ve gone autobiographical in a concert, you can’t go back to doing just a Best of Gershwin kind of show.”

Some of the films that were most influential in the singing actor’s early life have inspired him not only for the upcoming concert, but also in his decision to become an actor.

“I was 12 years old when I saw Stand By Me, and it blew me away. It

was the first R-rated film that I saw with my parents, and I was the exact same age as all of the boys in the movie,” he said. “I thought, ‘These kids are my age. I can do this!’

“I saw the movie Annie before I even knew it had been a stage musical. I was the same age as all the girls in it, and I thought I could be the first boy to play Annie!”

Born in 1975, Jackson has a special place in his heart for films from the late 1980s, such as Adventures in Babysitting, Ruthless People, Clueless, Big Business, Working Girl, and especially The Shawshank Redemption. “Ever since I was 16, I’ve loved to go to the movies, and I like to go by myself. I don’t want to have to talk to anyone or explain anything, just immerse myself in the film.”

Like many of us, he earned his gay card at a young age, inspired by classic MGM musicals such as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, and anything else starring Judy Garland.

“I’m also fascinated by the use of pop music in films, where the music is like another character,” he said.

“Love Actually comes to mind, and Moulin Rouge. When I first saw that, I wondered, ‘How did they get the rights to all those songs?’ And for me, Amadeus is the ultimate movie musical – the most beautiful thing ever.”

<<

present to radio, a little more palatable for the everyday listener. I went with the tough material as usual.

From page 13

Rufus Wainwright

From page 16

over-covered, although I was one of the early people to present it. That being said, people love it all over the world. There’s always a reaction, and there’s a kind of lift in the room when I sing it. You can’t really shoot that down when you’re a struggling musician. I’m really thankful for the song. It definitely took a period of frustration to get to the peaceful acceptance that I’m at now!

There are two studio versions of “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk,” from Poses, one of which features a beat box.

The one on Vibrate and at the beginning of Poses is really the ultimate version, the classic long version. The second one was more something to

<<

Teaching the Cat

From page 20

up, ready to fight again. She is willing to expose her own flaws and uncertainties, yet reveals her amazing strength and perseverance.

The baptism of Connor, in the liberal Catholic church of Boulder, Colorado, is done in secret, the gay equivalent of segregation, rather than be celebrated as a community event at the regular Sunday mass.

This becomes the spark that ignites her transformation. Her story becomes a quest for unconditional love from her parents, her congregation, but mostly from herself.

When her local priest decides to ex-

There are new compositions “Me and Liza” and “Chic and Pointless” on Vibrate.

“Me and Liza” is a playful ode to an American legend, Miss Liza Minnelli, who I sort of know, in a sense.

We know of each other. We have yet to really bond properly. But we have been whizzing around the same universe for a while. The second one, “Chic and Pointless,” is about a bad review I got from The New York Times.

“Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” seems to be custom-made for Liza. Wouldn’t it be great if she covered it?

That would be great. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

pel Connor and all the children of gay parents, who he says are living immoral lifestyles in contradiction to church teaching, Michelle must battle her own shame, insecurities, and ambivalent history concerning the church as she struggles with the question, How can a child be blamed for who his parents are?

In the ongoing evolution of her faith, Michelle leaves Catholicism in 2010 to find a UCC Protestant community that loves her for who she really is, and remains true to her principles in the face of adversity.

Michelle’s transparency, vulnerability, honesty, and bravery make Teaching the Cat to Sit one of the best LGBT memoirs of the year.t

Of more recent movie music, he said, “There’s great music in The Hunger Games soundtracks – all working within that modern but folk sound.”

Although he promises plenty of surprises in the upcoming concert, he does admit that it will include a tribute to James Bond music, a movie-musical section, and songs from Broadway musicals that were made into films. The Symphony will also perform the iconic overtures to Funny Girl and Gypsy.

“I’m excited about working with my two special guest stars, [Broadway’s Tony Award-winning] Faith Prince, who I adore, and Courtney Act, the Australian diva and star of RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Jackson is also happy to return to his adopted home of San Francisco. “I’m so thankful to sing with the SF Symphony again after West Side Story. It’s such a treat, and I’m thrilled that San Francisco has been so great to me.”t Music from the Movies, Cheyenne Jackson and the SF Symphony, Thurs. & Fri., 7/24 & 25 at 7:30 p.m. Davies Symphony Hall, SF. Tickets ($11.25-$33.75): (415) 8646000 or sfsymphony.org/Buy-Tickets/2013-2014/Cheyenne-JacksonGoes-to-the-Movies.aspx

You have a history of live recordings, beginning with the Live at the Fillmore DVD on Want Two, Rufus Does Judy, and Milwaukee at Last. Vibrate also contains live tracks, and Live from the Artists Den is also a live recording.

I’m particularly proud of the live recordings on the deluxe edition of Vibrate. I’ve always had an interesting voice, but it has taken years to refine it into the instrument it is today. I feel like those live recordings are very much a testament to that, to a lot of hard work. I think live recordings matter the most for a singer.

There’s something palpable about it that you can’t get in the studio.

Courtesy SF Symphony

Singing actor Cheyenne Jackson: ‘SF has been so great to me.’

Before launching into “Out of the Game,” you don a mask of Helena Bonham Carter, who appeared in the video. As you say in the liner notes, you like costumes.

Is this something that started in childhood or later, and do you think you’ll ever lose your love for dressing up?

It’s something that started in childhood. I was pretty obsessed with The Wizard of Oz, either dressing up like Dorothy when it was a good day, or the Wicked Witch when I was in a bad mood. I think that vanity has its perks. It’s good for show business. You like looking at yourself in the mirror, therefore you can change clothes a lot! You

might as well let the public in to that wonderful experience.

Will the tour dates that you are doing be structured like a live Vibrate set?

It’s quite loose. It’s just me alone at the piano and with a guitar. I think my sister Lucy Wainwright Roche will be with me. I even sing some new material to whet people’s appetites. On the one hand, it’s to go over the material and have a fun, intimate evening. But it’s also, I have to be honest, to make some good money! When I’m alone, I do significantly better. I have to write this next opera, which is basically a financial nightmare.t

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PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 29 • July 17-23, 2014

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Matt Alber

LEATHER

by Andre Torrez

B

etty Ford: a distinctive name, both distinguished because of the former First Lady and perhaps notorious for its associations with her eponymously-titled rehab center. It also happens to be the pet name Matt Alber, a Bay Area-based singersongwriter, has given to his unwavering 1989 Ford Tempo, which he purchased used for one dollar in Seattle. Still in use, he pulls Betty over to the curb on a street in the Castro for an interview about everything that’s kept him so busy lately.

See page 27 >>

Nate Feldman Photography

Our Musical Ambassador on Russian Bear Necessities

Matt Alber

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Fabric of our lives Flagging in the Park’s summer session

by Jim Provenzano

F

lagging in the Park, the celebratory fabric-spinning party and commemoration, returns to the National AIDS Memorial Grove next Saturday, July 26. A combination of festive outdoor event and fundraiser, the roots of the swirling tie-dyed dance form goes back to the earliest days of gay culture, and even decades before.

For organizer Xavier Caylor, flagging brought him to San Francisco. And while he almost left his heart here, he’s since become devoted to these events.

After learning the basics of the movement form in 1997 on Will Rogers Beach in Santa Monica, Caylor visited San Francisco, fell in love with a man, and the city, and has since been an integral part of the events for more than a decade.

“I fell in love through flagging, so it has a special place in my heart,” said Caylor, who has co-produced most of the events, and also works as an American Sign Language interpreter. This year, Grass Roots Gay Rights West (the Real Bad dance event producers) is working with the flaggers on a series of fundraisers for local AIDS/HIV nonprofits.

See page 26

>>

John Wong spins fabric at a recent Flagging in the Park event.

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26 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

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Fabric of our Lives

From page 25

Colorful flags and dance music in an otherwise quiet park landscaped specifically to commemorate those lost to AIDS may seem incongruous to some. But for the tribe of flaggers, poi dancers and their friends, it’s a perfect union of the somber, the celebratory, and yes, even the sexy.

“Our pre-Dore event is annually the biggest,” said Caylor of the well-timed midsummer event that’s scheduled a day before the Up Your Alley Street Fair in South of Market.

“So many people are in town for that, and there is a loose connection between flaggers and the leather

community. There’s even a term, ‘flag daddy,’ for the person who taught you how to flag.”

With more than 100 attendees dancing, picnicking, even blowing giant bubbles, the events draw people of all ages, from seniors to parents with small children and dogs.

There have been variations, including earlier versions that were held in other parks. But with sound permits and distractions in other parks, the event has all but settled in with the AIDS Grove.

“A DJ producer took the event over in 2003 and 2004, and produced his own version in Dolores Park,” said Caylor, who took over the producer reigns in 2005. In the

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Xavier Caylor in June 2014.

past few years the events have raised thousands, including for the AIDS Grove itself, which is this year’s beneficiary.

Three years ago, Caylor had a chat with Damron’s Guide publisher Gina Gatta while at a Play T-Dance fundraiser, a quarterly dance event where flaggers are also popular. By coordinating flagging events with popular DJs’ local visits, they’ve been able to get big names to volunteer for the fundraisers. Next week’s event features New York DJ Warren Gluck, whose talents go back to the days of the legendary Saint parties.

Caylor is featured in Wolfgang Busch’s 2011 documentary Flow Affair, the Evolution of Flow Arts. The film charts the New York, Chicago and San Francisco scenes, and in several interviews, shows why and how the dance form remains. From fire-dancing Burning Man devotees, to Fire Island gays surviving AIDS, the dance form itself presents a sort

t

of meditation for participants.

With small weights sewn into the hems, designers create flags in a variety of shapes, but most opt for a manageable two-handed pair.

Accomplishing a rippling flow of movement is not easy, and can’t be forced. In nightclubs, often a little black light creates a magical effect.

That lighting and flow goes back decades before the emerging gay culture. Caylor reminded me of the first modern fabric choreographer, Loie Fuller. The Chicago-born dancer (1862-1928) who worked in vaudeville, burlesque and eventually the Folies Bergere, became internationally known for her magical flowing fabric performances. Fuller even became the human embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement.

“She was an out lesbian for some years, and rumored to be the lover of Queen Marie of Romania,” said Caylor. “She came up with the idea of using colored gels to make her dresses light up in colors.”

From those early roots, flagging See page 29 >>

Loie’s Legacy

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Chad Dawson spins a moth-patterned pair of flags at a May 2011 Flagging in the Park.

The roots of flagging in the gay community are varied, according to sources.

“I’ve heard different stories and tales from the 1970s,” said Caylor.

“But there is a connection to the leather community. Usually, the people who had the balls enough to wear leather were also the ones to dance with fabric.”

The emerging circuit scene also popularized flagging in the 1990s.

“There was more cross-pollination then,” said Caylor. “These days, we all tend to label ourselves. But it is a loving, giving community.”

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Michele Laskowski smiles while spinning.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Matt Alber with the Cello String Quartet, with whom he recently toured Russia.

Robert Davidson

Matt Alber onstage

<<

Matt Alber

From page 25

annual outing where he’ll perform at the nine-day, Massachusetts resort town’s gay getaway. Alber affectionately refers to the locale as “P-Town” and says he treats it like a “class reunion.” With its “party central” overtones where the swimming pools eventually becoming a virtual “bear soup,” it’s obvious the focus is on having a good time.

When asked about his place or role in the local music scene, Alber isn’t so sure he’s a part of it in a trendy sense, but he knows the free-follicled subculture is definitely a large part of his audience that has embraced him.

“No place feels more like home than San Francisco. The gay guys here are so supportive,” he says.

But is he technically a bear? A little gained weight to his mostly fit figure and a speckled, ginger beard later, and that’s how some have la-

2014 is shaping up to be quite an accomplished year for the 39-yearold who’s come a long way from dropping his jobs when he lived in Los Angeles five years ago to see if he could make his musical dreams come true. One of them was as a cover-band performer for celebrity weddings. Alber considers names like Channing Tatum as part of the upper echelon of his clientele back then.

Now he’s his own boss and rather than hobnobbing in Hollywood, he’s self-released his new album, Wind Sand Stars, and is looking forward to an upcoming performance at the Great American Music Hall on Friday, July 25.

“I just want everyone to meet my dad and my brother,” he says about the concert that will feature not only mallet, vibes, cellists and bass, but his brother Bryce (nine years his junior, he performs under the name Lou Jane) who will play on his arrangements, as well as his father, Kurt Alber, who plays piano. With church-choir roots, Alber’s musical background is strong and stems from an upbringing in St. Louis, Missouri.

Alber mainly plays guitar and in his father’s footsteps, the piano. Matt Alber’s new CD, Wind Sand Stars Part of his curiosity on whether or not he could beled him. That may come across as earn a living doing what he loves too easy, or like a superficial marketmeans turning that sense of wonder ing ploy, but Alber previously said in into work ethic. He designs the artearnest that that’s who he associates work for his albums and produces with and he doesn’t feel limited by audio on an iMac out of his Walnut his audience.

Creek home. Booking himself is an“I think only half the people there other part of the challenge, but has [Bear Week Provincetown] fit the resulted in some unique opportunibill of being a bear. I don’t feel like a ties. bear on the inside, but I sure can eat In a couple of days from the like it. It’s a lot of corn dogs, nachos, time we spoke, he leaves for Bear and chicken strips by the pool.”

Week Provincetown. It’s his third

As American as that menu sounds, Alber, along with the Cello Street Quartet (a group he met while they busked hits by Lady Gaga, Queen and classical numbers

by Bach in front of Cliff ’s Variety) were voluntarily sent to Russia, Kosovo and Hungary by the U.S. State Department last May. Together they spent 31 days riding around in embassy vans on a 19-city musical ambassador tour funded by the American Music Abroad program.

He said their only instruction was to go and let people meet them. “Bring them your expertise,” is what he was told.

The program is administered by the Association of American Voices on behalf of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Food and lodging would be taken care of and they’d get a stipend along with a per diem.

Once the group learned they were selected for the program, it would be months before they’d find out where they’d be sent to give con-

certs, make friends and engage, but not in a political way.

On the heels of the Olympic Games in Sochi, which had largely been marred by a reputation for anti-gay rhetoric and violence that erupted throughout the region, Alber touched on Vladimir Putin’s so-called Russian “gay propaganda” laws that make it illegal to promote or teach that being gay is normal to anyone under the age of 18.

“Technically they can arrest you, but my experience there was quite different,” he says. “Friends in Moscow go to dinner and you can be gay.”

Alber says overall the experience was overwhelmingly positive.

“It was an honor. I never felt unsafe.” He lightheartedly reflects on his dad’s gesture of offering to buy a ticket to be his son’s bodyguard after finding out where he’d be going.

“It’s like anywhere. Watch your back in a sketchy neighborhood.”

There’d be nothing sketchy about playing to a crowd of 1,000 Russians at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, where they were warmly received on a Monday night. They traveled long distances and in each city the local embassy would run the show.

Alber giddily admits travelling with

the State Department is probably one of the best and safest ways to do Russia.

“Music has a way of creating a force field of oneness against anything that might divide. We were safe and welcome there.” And so he sang in that hall and around the region the lyrics to his song, “Handsome Man,” a sentimental number indicative of who he is and how he’s a romantic at heart.

“I’m definitely a romantic to a fault,’ Alber said. “It’s hard to be in a relationship. I’ve given it a few tries.

I’m single now, but I’ll try again.”

In the meantime, he hangs on to Betty Ford, his steadfast chariot.

They’ll hit the open road together with hopes she’ll get him down to his first Burning Man in ten years.

He’ll probably sing when he gets there and she’ll probably bring him back home.t Matt Alber performs at Great American Music Hall, with guests Bryce Alber (aka Lou Jane) and Kurt Alber, Friday, July 25. $21. ($46 with dinner). Doors 8pm.

Show 9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. 8850750. www.mattalber.com www.slimspresents.com

Adrian Lourie

Matt Alber in Los Angeles.

gloss

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

Rockin’ Roles Paul Zone’s ‘Playground’ captures New York’s ‘70s music scene

by Jim Provenzano

R

ock stars die, but the sounds and sights of the 1970s punk and glam stars live on in the hearts and minds of fans, and in captivating photos by Paul Zone, whose new book, Playground: Growing Up in the New York Underground ($50 Glitterati Incorporated), shares rarely seen images of the rock revolution.

Before and after he became a minor sensation with he and his brothers’ band The Fast, then in the electronic duo band Man 2 Man, and as a DJ, Paul Zone took thousands of photographs of bands at such historic clubs as Max’s Kansas City, Club 82 and CBGB through the New York glam and punk era of the 1970s.

Working with music editor Jake Austen, this sturdy 208-page hardcov-

er book is perfect for any retro music fan, or person of a certain age who still relishes a bit of glitter or a safety pin as a fashion accessory.

Zone was there when Blondie premiered, and the innocent youthful images of Debbie Harry (who co-wrote the book’s foreword) are astonishing in their freshness. The band looks like

they’re playing a basement party of teenagers. He captures members of The Ramones in casual moments, designers like Steven Sprouse and Anna Sui posing casually or with teeth-glaring smiles.

“In the early seventies no one really cared what you did, and everyone experimented with sexuality and drugs- at least in Manhattan,” Zone writes in his introduction.

In one of several memoir chapters, he describes his teenage life of club-going til 4am, then getting to school late and exhausted, only after washing off the previous night’s glitter or sweat.

t

Paul Zone

Lou Reed at the Academy of Music, December 21, 1973

Paul Zone

Dee Dee Ramone and Connie Gripp at Max’s Kansas City, 1975

Paul Zone

Above right: Paul Zone’s Playground.

Above: Wayne County at Coventry, Queens NY 1973

THE GAY VIBE IN THE HAIGHT

Zone shares a touching summary of his upbringing, and how he came to be one of three gay/ bi brothers whose working class father would scream, “No good is going to come from your lifestyle!”

But it was because they were musicians, not because they were gay.

Even those definitions –gay, bisexual, queer– were more fluid for people in the scene, including Zone and his band mates, whose lyrics did take on gay subtexts, as in “Jack is a Jock” and “Boys Will Be Boys.”

The queer elements of this androgynous era are captured with flair and a casual intimate bluntness. Jayne County shocked some with fishnet stockings and bustiers.

Photographed at his iconic concert where Rock and Roll Animal was recorded as a live album, Lou Reed is seen at a distance, in dark eye make-up, a black T-shirt and jeans, the iconic butch queer of the era.

Lance Loud, the gay star of the pioneering reality show An American Family, and the poppunk band The Mumps, is shown in several photos, some with cocomposer Kristian Hoffman, and in a haunting landscape with the World Trade Center far in the background. Author Zone became close with Loud, and often accompanied him as a photographer for rock

music interviews, although most of his images in this amazing book did not originally make it to print.

There are many people documented in the book who’ve sinced died: The Ramones, Loud, Reed, and almost the book’s author. Zone was hospitalized for a collapsed lung in 1981 after a show.

Fortunately, he survived, and went on to become an international sensation with his electronic duo Man 2 Man, whose song “Male stripper” became popular in gay clubs through the growing discoelectro early 1980s. Zone tells of his adventures in the ‘80s as an electro hunk pop sensation with honesty and a sense of awe.

But it is the photos of others that comprise the bulk of the book. In

Paul Zone

David Johansen performs with the New York Dolls at Max’s Kansas City, August 1973

color and black and white, KISS, The New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Alice Cooper, Patti Smith and many others are captured at the early moments of their fame.

Playground shares Zone’s intimate celebration of a bygone era in American music, an era to which today’s often talent-free “artists” owe everything.t

They Are Devo

In other historic music news, the DVD edition of Devo’s The Men Who Make the Music has been released by MVD Entertainment group. The masterminds of the witty robotic punk-rock sound are seen in rare footage from their 1978 tour, along with classic and obscure music videos, and a 1996 Sundance Film Festival surprise concert. VHS copies of this collection have recently sold for high prices at online auctions.

Now it’s available for a mere $15, with more stuff!

California, Uber Alles

VOTED BEST DIVE BAR IN SF CHEAP DRINKS! • GREAT CROWD!

Paul Zone

Debbie Harry performing with Blondie at Max’s Kansas City, 1975

The Dead Kennedys’ harshly political themes and catchy punk sounds vilified the likes of Ronald Reagan (and later Jerry Brown) in their most famous song. Jello Biafra remains an iconic role model for creative left-wing critics of our corporate oligarchy.

The band’s reputation preceded them with provocative album covers, some of which were censored and banned in American shopping malls and chain music stores.

And while I missed the release party on July 11 for Alex Ogg’s new book, Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables: The Early Years, ($17.95, PM Press) with art- work by the wonderfully talented collage master Winston Smith, photographs by Ruby Ray, I did not miss the Dead Kennedys show in Akron, Ohio in 1979 where I also stage-dove into the arms of a sweaty hunk who became my boyfriend for a year. So there.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Dino Vanonni at a June 2001 flagging event.

<<

Fabric of our Lives

From page 26

has had its ups and downs.

“The large nightclubs have gone by the wayside,” said Caylor of San Francisco and New York’s changing scene. Through the AIDS epidemic, many of its core devotees died. The recent resurgence of outdoor and nightclub events that feature flagging has also attracted a community in recovery. Once associated more with the drug-fueled circuit parties, many participants now proudly wave their ‘clean and sober’ flag as well.

Not that some don’t party.

“We’ve picked up more than a few champagne bottles at our events,” said Caylor. “People do like to have a good time.”

Complimenting the bubbly are the portions of the event where the music stops, and Caylor asks participants to meditate on our collective losses. “We pay tribute to those who have passed, and then continue to the celebration.”

Get Into the Grove

“Flagging and flow artistsry are all based in positive energy,” said John Cunningham, Executive Director for the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

“In the earlier years, it did not

have a philanthropic connection,” Cunningham added, as he recalled the first flagging events as being accompanied by a mere boombox. He talked about how the modest event has become a force for philanthropy.

“Individuals in the gay community, effected by the AIDS epidemic, needed to find an expression of joy,” Cunningham said. “The group started to look at how it could give back. The numbers grew and it had more participation. I’ve been amazed by the generosity; thousands of dollars donated to smaller organizations that are operating on shoestring budgets. Three or four thousand dollars means a lot. Some participants come and offer a challenge match, and it’s been amazing to watch that.”

The Grove has been recognized as a prime example of civic beautification that combines both public and private sectors in urban-park restoration while promoting AIDS awareness. In 1999, it was bestowed the Rudy Bruner Silver Medal Award for excellence in the urban environment.

Cunningham estimated that more than 50,000 volunteer hours have been spent on developing the National AIDS Memorial Grove, and more from the flagging fundraisers. He said that more than 40 trees have been planted specifically

courtesy Xavier Caylor

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Flaggers at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in 1998.

in honor of people who have died of AIDS. In a special dispensation, some have even been allowed to have their ashes dispersed at the memorial site.

Cunningham talked about the devoted tribal core of flag-makers, gardeners and others who donate their time to the cause. He also discussed his own personal connection to the events.

“I had to exit the club scene and have been clean and sober for years,” he said. “Participating in this, the Grove is a depository for positive energy. It’s very synergistic.”

Other events take place in the Grove, including straight and gay wedding celebrations and parties.

While some don’t clean up afterward, Cunningham cited the flaggers as the best who adhere to the Burning Man advice to “leave no trace” after departing. Cunningham sees the spiritual aspect of the flagging community as a core part of its uplifting aspects.

“It’s rooted in this good energy,” he said. “Flagging is about artistry and spirit, and embodies the spirit of San Francisco, that freedom of selfexpression. It’s a great mix of people.

You’ll see tourists happening upon it, and learning how to flag, while others relax with extravagant picnics.”

To sum it up, Cunningham cited three words that serve as a motto for both the Grove and the flagging events: “Healing, hope and remembrance.” t Flagging in the Park, Saturday, July 26, National AIDS Memorial Grove, Bowling Green Drive, near Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park. www.grgrwest.org/fitp.html www.flaggercentral.com www.aidsmemorial.org

Jim Knight at a recent Flagging in the Park event.

courtesy Xavier Caylor

The festive meadow scene at a recent Flagging in the Park.

courtesy Xavier Caylor

Jeff Kennedy DJs at a 1997 flagging event at the AIDS Memorial Grove.

<< On the Tab

30 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

July 17

Shot In The City

Sun 20

H

Bay Area Now 7 @ YBCA Opening party for the seventh annual exhibit of local and regional artists' visual, performing, film and video art works. $12-$15 (free for members). 8pm-11pm (VIP receptions and dinners 6pm-8pm; $165-$500).

Exhibit thru Oct. 5. Grand lobby, galleries and Forum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club The monthly Goth night includes DJs Joe Radio and Unit 77 playing classic industrial, dark wave and goth (Bauhaus, Specimen, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie, Cocteau Twins). $5-$8.

9:30pm-2:30pm. 1190 Folsom St. at 8th. www.sfcatclub.com

P

arty in the daytime (Realness), the nighttime funk, or even on wheels!

It’s up to you.

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the gogo-tastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. July 17: Casey Ley. $10.

8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Jukebox @ Beatbox Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

The Klipptones @ Cigar Bar Josh Klipp and his jazz band perform classic songs at the stylish bar and grille. No cover. 8pm-11pm. 850 Montgomery St. www.klipptones.com www.cigarbarandgrill.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

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

Night Fever @ Madrone Art Bar DJs Freshstep and Niklas play disco classics and grooves; actual vinyl records! With guest DJs. 9pm-2am.

500 Divisadero St. www.madroneartbar.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers' hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes and cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Extended thru July 26. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Stand Up for Campos @ El Rio

Tue 15 Gay Skate Night at Church on 8 Wheels

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

CheCk o Cooking

Funkatory @ Club OMG DJs Tweaka Turner and Shawn Perry spin groovy funky sounds, local drag performers offer soulful numbers, and Raquela hosts the Funky Chicken gogo contest ($50 cash prize). 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

For sizzling photos, Pride event coverage, LGBT news & entertainment!

Hardbox @ Powerhouse See hot dudes in MMA fighting demos, DJ Guy Ruben spinning tunes, host Gehno Aviance keeping things naughty. Proceeds benefit the Barechest Calendars/AEF. $5-$10.

9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night.

Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Vocalist Joshua Klipp and his jazz band perform at the Art Deco-stylish East Bay restaurant and bar with a panoramic view of Lake Merritt. 7pm10pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland.

(510) 903-3771. www.theterraceroom.com

Enjoy eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge at the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area.

Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club The popular storytelling series celebrates 12 years; with founders Arline Klatte, Beth Lisick, musical director Marc Capelle, storytellers Nicole J. Georges, Mike Keegan, Whit Leigh, Vero Majano, Dominic Riley, Tiffany Shlain and others. $15-$20.

8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www. porchlightsf.com www.verdiclub.net

Some Thing Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night.

10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Trannyshack @ DNA Lounge

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Fri 18 Hardbox @ Beatbox

Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm.

1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

The Klipptones @ Terrace Room, Oakland

The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Juanita More!, Walter Gomez and Side Kick cohost the stanky, SM-themed, pre-Dore edition of the eclectic club night, with gogo guys getting' sleazy. $5 door benefits the transgender Law Center. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhouse-sf.com

Alive and Kicking!, Gerald Alessandrini's newest edition of the show tune parody revue, comes to the Bay Area, with musical send-ups and satirical vignettes of The Book of Mormon, Once, Newsies, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patankin and more. $45-$60. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru July 27. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Comedy and music show and fundraiser for David Campos' Assembly run, with Yayne Abeba, Frankie Quiñones, Steve Lee, and Lisa Geduldig. And music by Candace Roberts and Larisa Migachyov; and Dr Loco y Sus Cuates featuring The Peña Goveas, Tomas Montoya & Francisco Herrera. $7-$100. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Heklina hosts a new weekly '90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox, plus hostess Heklina. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks! '90s-themed attire and costume conest. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Beatpig @ Powerhouse

Forbidden Broadway @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Daytime Realness @ El Rio

Thu 17

Sat 19

BARtab

eON THE–2T4AB f

Fri 18

t

Heklina's drag show deluxe (Fauxnique, Raya Light, U-Phoria, Jordan L'Moore, and others) offers a musical lip-synch tribute to David Bowie, with special guest Raja. $15$30. 9pm meet & greet with raja.

10pm-2am. 11:30pm showtime. 375 11th St. www.trannyshack.com www.DNAlounge.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge 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. 9pm3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF.com www.DNAlounge.com

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Night Light @ SOMArts Cultural Center Enjoy a multimedia garden party that blankets SOMArts Cultural Center in luminous art installations, including five audiovisual performances, and digital and cinematic projections by more than 30 artists. $12. 9pm-12am.

934 Brannan St. at 9th. www.somarts.org

t

On the Tab>>

Stallion Saturdays @ Beaux The gogo-tastic night returns, with hunky dancers offering lap dances upstairs in the lounge, hosted by Sister Roma. $4. Free before 10pm.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Where Love Lives @ Beatbox DJs Paul Goodyear and Jerry Bonham spin at the special event. $10-$15.

9pm-3am (open bar 9pm-9:30pm).

314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Sun 20 Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Daytime Realness @ El Rio Stanley Frank and Heklina cohost the third Saturdays outdoor patio drag and soul music party, with DJs Carnita, Stanley Frank, Taco Tuesday and Miss Pop; acts by Honey Mahogany, Daft-Nee Gesundheit, Roxy-Cotton Candy, Eva Sensitiva and others. $6-$8. 2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.ElRioSF.com

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances.

No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

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

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

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

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

Sony Holland @ Level III

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

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

out what’s g at eDge!

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Piano Bar @ Beaux

Drag Mondays @ The Café

Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the new weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night.

9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Wed 23

Mon 21 Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night.

7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pmclosing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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 The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays.

JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Thu 24 FSH Society Benefit @ Yoshi's

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

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

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge The classic drag show features ollette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. No cover.

2nd & 4th wed, 9:30pm. 133 Turk St. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

The charity for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy's fundraiser, Songs in the Key of Steven Blier, features opera singer Frederica von Stade and pianist Steven Blier, with a reception, auction and dinner. $50-$125 and $250. 1330 Fillmore St. www.fshsociety.org www.yoshis.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. July 24: Natasha Muse. $10.

8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com BARtab

Name That Beat @ Toad Hall BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly musical trivia challenge and drag show. 8:30-11:30pm. 4146 18th st. at Castro. www.toadhallbar.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room

Fri 18

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Bay Area Now 7 opening party @ YBCA (photo from recent YBCA opening party featuring Non-Stop Banghra)

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

Tue 22

Brunch Sundays @ Balançoire

13 Licks @ Q Bar

Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Bingo Night @ Club OMG Michael Brandon hosts the game night and funderaiser for The Community Initiative. 7pm-10pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

California Gold Pageant @ Beatbox Sixth annual fundraiser pagenant produced by the Grand Ducal Council, with judges Richard Hallmarq, Mercedez Munro, Savannah Summers and Alina Malletti; hosted by Landa Lakes and Pollo Del Mar. $15. 5pm9pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf. com www.misscagold2014. brownpapertickets.com

Disco Daddy @ Eagle DJ Bus Station John’s groovy disco post-beer bust tea dance brings ‘70s and ‘80s classics to the leather bar. $5. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun

Thu 24 Ursula Rucker @ Leo’s Music Club

Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.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

Mad Manhattans @ Starlight Room The new weekly event includes classic cocktails created by David Cruz, and inspired by the the show Mad Men, plus retro food classics like prawn cocktails and Oysters Rockefeller, all with a fantastic city view. 6pm-10pm.

21st, Sir Francis Drake Hotel. 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm.

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www. rainbowskate.net www.facebook. com/rainbowskating/

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe Enjoy 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

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday; now in its tenth year! $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Ursula Rucker @ Leo's Music Club The veteran spoken word performer is joined by Mona Webb, Dahleed Jeffries, Aisha Fukushima, Aima and DJ Cecil. $10-$15. 9pm. 5447 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.bit.ly/ursulaoakland Want your nightlife event listed?

Email . events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • Bay Area Reporter • July 17-23, 2014

t

The Booty Call crew at Qbar: Joshua J, guestDJ Jake Shears, Cip Cipriano and Juanita More!

Castro Cadence

by Donna Sachet

L

ike most of you, after such a frenetic Pride Season, we’ve been relishing some down time.

But even during down times, we keep our ear to the ground and plan to keep you informed of what’s going on in our beautiful City. This is a good time to check out museum exhibits, like Gorgeous at the Asian Art Museum, the Exploratorium at Pier 15, or the Walt Disney Family Museum in the sprawling Presidio. Catch some

Mr. Gay Tyler and Miss Gay Kipper and Doll House at Midnight Sun hosted by the Reigning Emperor J.P. Soto and Empress Misty Blue. At both locations, the jello shots were flying, the performers fierce, and the raffle tickets plentiful, resulting in nearly a thousand dollars raised for the Monarchs’ Charity Fund.

As is the custom, at the end of their reign, the Monarchs will distribute this fund to various local charities, chosen by them. And about half-way through their year, indications are

that it will be a sizeable amount to distribute.

As the brief respite from construction on Castro Street comes to an end and the workmen, heavy equipment, and parking restrictions return, merchants face hurdles to summer business. May we again suggest that those of us who live in the neighborhood patronize the neighborhood businesses.

Need a coffee and pastry? Go to Spike’s or Eureka Coffee Shop! Need a Pride flag, eyelashes, or a hammer?

Go to Cliff ’s Variety! Need a house plant, a bottle of wine, or a package mailed? Go to Hortica, Swirl, or P.O. Plus! It’s all right here. And also, if you live in the area, leave the car at home and walk; it will save those few precious parking places for those who come from farther away and provide a little exercise as well.

Mark Abramson

Shop in the Castro and meet Officer Chris Kohrs, the “Hot Cop” of the Castro.

Georg Lester

Girls’ night at Castro Street at 17th, outside Twin Peaks bar.

theatre like the current Hick: A Love Story by Terry Baum at the Eureka Theatre or the upcoming Katya on a Hot Tin Roof at New Conservatory Theatre Center, August 1-2.

And there are always those dependable weekly events, like Musical Mondays and Wednesdays at The Edge, Jason Brock’s Tuesday piano bar at Beaux, Ronn Vigh’s Funny Tuesday at Harvey’s, BeBe Sweetbriar’s Wednesday Trivia Night at Harvey’s, and Juanita More!’s Wednesday Booty Call at QBar. Or how about getting out in the weather and cheering on your favorite gay softball or rugby team!

Last Saturday, the Imperial Court kept two parties going at the same time in the Castro with a beer bust at The Edge hosted by the newest

Jose Guzman-Colon

Jason Brock’s at Beaux each Tuesday.

Tomorrow night, Friday, July 18, the unstoppable Heklina presents a Trannyshack David Bowie Tribute Night at DNA Lounge, bound to include all the wild stage productions this event always brings, plus special guest Raja. And that huge fundraiser called AIDS Walk is this Sunday with individual walkers and teams from all over the Bay Area, determined to keep up the fight against AIDS and to help fund many vital organizations.

The following weekend, on Saturday, July 26, you can enjoy another Flagging in the Park in beautiful Golden Gate Park’s AIDS Memorial Grove, led by Xavier Caylor and featuring happy music, swaths of fabric, and smiles all around.

And on Sunday, July 27, prepare yourself for Up Your Alley Street Fair, the naughtier brother of Folsom Street Fair. Embrace your darker side, push your limits, or simply take in the sights. See you there!t

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 33

Erectionary

by John F Karr

No winner is declared, although with my predilecight on the brink of my weekly tion, I’d declare as the windeadline came startling news. ner of each bout the one who Hot House founder and president gets to gobble the other’s Steven Scarborough has announced load. That’s right—there’s his retirement, ending a 27-year caan Oral Cumshot in every reer in sexography. A press release scene, with Conrad downannounced on Friday ing a double shot in the 11 that Falcon/Raging savory climax. If you Stallion has acquired like, you can go to the assets of Hot House. www.CockFightWhile this new conxxx.com and glomerate is, in turn, cast a vote for owned by a company the guy you most noted as a purliked best. veyor of Video OnThey’ve Demand, the Adult each got their Entertainment Broadcast Network fine points, but I think it’s (AEBN), it is now the world’s largest Conrad’s show. Sheesh, is gay erotic company. he gonzo. He seems to have The good news is that the current eaten the sun. Like a school film director at Hot House, Chrisof piranha in the water, he tian Owen, is also being absorbed swarms over his victim, in the new venture, so Hot House er, partner. Doesn’t matter films under the Falcon/RS umbrella if he’s top or bottom. The should have a continuity of content. guy is mincemeat when he’s I sure hope there’s also a berth in done. there for the snappy art direction In the first bout, Wolfe’s of Sister Roma! Stay tuned, because gung-ho, though not as exin a week or so I’ll give a more inplosive as Conrad, who findepth look. ger-fucks himself and then feeds the finger to Wolfe. The winRaging Stallion some lad does do Cock Fight is a swell showcase for some scene-stealing by employing friendly, furry Shawn Wolfe. a dildo during a time out, to prep like they frequently do, making a his ass for conquering swell, erotic visual of jutting cock Conrad. It’s only a minatop tight balls. I wish he’d wear this ute or two, though. He’s most basic men’s accessory more a supreme bottom, and often. then the guys flip, with Director Cruz did the wellConrad’s extreme reacframed, consistently stable videogtions upstaging his top. raphy, as well as the smooth editing.

As for handsome, Still, despite my appreciation for dark-haired Ramzi, he’s Cock Fight, it has two flaws, each a seriously serious-lookcaused by what might just be an exing guy. When he makes cess of creativity on Cruz’ part. I get a few brief remarks, I that the movie’s a sendup of profeswas glad to hear he’s got sional wrestling competitions, but I some wit, as well. And still think the dubbed-in audience how easily his cock slides cheers are cheesy. The guys are havinto Wolfe and brutally ing really butch sex. Why tart it up? batters him.

And now we enter the DepartNatch, Conrad and ment of Don’t Stop the Movie, I Ramzi are terrifically Wanna Get Off! It’s true that the hot together during their moments of talking heads during flip-fuck. Ramzi chews which the performers protest just Conrad’s nipple, and how smashingly they’re going to then watches, turned pulverize their opponent, are only on during a time out, as seconds long, but they interrupt Conrad sits on a ringthe action. They’d have been fine side bench and feverishly lead-ins, perhaps while the trainers fingers his asshole. And are prepping their guys before the there are splendid views bell rings. I don’t go for interrupof Conrad’s solid muscles tions of a sexbout. Does Cruz exand more solid joy stick pect me to stop pounding my meat crashing around when he while the guys make clever remarks? rides upon Ramzi.

The always heated action handily In the final, buddyovercomes this misstep, but think skewering three-way, of how much stronger a scene’s efRaging Stallion Conrad sports a tight red fect would be without intermittent distraction.t Adam Ramzi’s seriously serious expression cockring. It looks great, keeping his balls from masks a droll wit and wild sexuality, in receding into his body Cock Fight. www.RagingStallion.com

R

Now, back to business as usual.

The World Cup has come and gone. I’m not at all sorry I missed the whole thing. While those soccer dudes were banging the ball around, I was banging my balls around, deeply absorbed as I was in Cock Fight, a recent release from the Monster Bang brand of Raging Stallion. It’s really good, another sure shot from director Steve Cruz.

Cock Fight has a particularly strong cast, with Landon Conrad, Shawn Wolfe, and Adam Ramzi.

In three scenes, each guy appears twice—Conrad and Wolfe, Wolfe and Ramzi, and Ramzi and Conrad.

And then they demolish each other in a fourth scene three-way. There are the trappings of a wrestling flick, only without the wrestling. It’s devour-’em sex all the way, each guy trying to out-bottom, out-top, outrim or suck the other.

Raging Stallion

An especially toned and tanned Landon Conrad makes Shawn Wolfe howl, in Cock Fight.

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Shooting Stars

July 17-23, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

photos by steven underhill Gaymer X2 C

osplay and LGBTQ gaming fans gathered last week at the GaymerX2 convention, held July 11-13 at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Board games and electronic game fans gathered, many in cosplay costumes for panels and a costume pageant. Vendor booths, panels, parties and fun were enjoyed by more than 1,000 participants, including a special appearance by openly gay WWE wrestler Darren Young.

For info on other Gaymer events, visit www.gaymerx.com.

See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.

StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter.t

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