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Friends describe woman’s shooting death

Vol. 46 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2016

AIDS Walk Worthington runs draws 10,000 again for Berkeley mayor

by Matthew S. Bajko

ay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington has decided to run this November for mayor of the East Bay city. It is the second mayoral bid by the long-serving council member, who first ran for the elected post in Kriss Worthington 2012. This December will mark his 20th anniversary since joining the council. Tom Bates, who has served as Berkeley’s mayor since 2002, has said he will not seek re-election this year. Several members of the council have been running to succeed him for months, and the race for the open seat is expected to draw half a dozen or more candidates, though Worthington is expected to be the only LGBT person in the race. See page 13 >>

by Seth Hemmelgarn

riends of a lesbian who was shot to death in a parking lot near a gay San Francisco nightclub in 2013 described in court how she had put up her hands and pleaded with the suspect beCourtesy SFPD fore he shot her and Michael Sione a friend. Green Melquiesha “Mel” Warren, 23, had been at Club OMG, 43 Sixth Street, celebrating her girlfriend’s birthday when Michael Sione Green, 27, allegedly shot her after a minor car crash at about 2 a.m. November 17, 2013. Green, who’s in custody on $50 million bail, faces numerous charges including murder and attempted murder. He fled to Florida after the shooting but was arrested there in May 2014 and extradited to San Francisco. Testimony in court in recent days indicated that the driver of the car Warren was riding in hit another car in the parking lot, which is near Sixth and Jessie streets. Marshella Ryan, one of Warren’s friends, testified Thursday, July 14 that a woman got out of the car that had been struck and approached the driver of the other vehicle, Warren’s friend. She “reached into the car” and struck the woman, Ryan said. Ryan then wept as she recalled Warren’s last moments. She said Warren got out of the car and walked to the back, where at least one person pushed her. She stumbled, put up her hands, “and said ‘Wait,’” Ryan said. “When she said ‘Wait,’ she got shot,” Ryan, who heard two shots, said. “After Mel got shot, I ran toward her,” she said. “I thought the shooting had stopped,” but “then the shooting started again” as the gunman fired on the driver, who was still in the car. Warren died that morning, but the driver survived. Like the others, Ryan had also picked out the person identified as Green from a video clip. “I was 100 percent sure,” she said. “We looked each other dead in the eye.” When asked whether she saw the shooter in the courtroom, Ryan pointed toward Green and said, “Yeah, there you go.” See page 13 >>

ne participant in the July 17 AIDS Walk remembered his friend Calvin Ray Perry, (1956-1991), by displaying sunglasses and a black mustache. The 30th annual AIDS Walk, held in Golden Gate Park, drew about 10,000 walkers and raised just over $2 million for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86, Project Open Hand, Project Inform, and many other Bay Area HIV/AIDS service organizations. Organizers said that the target benchmarks set by the new AIDS Walk San Francisco Foundation board were met for the three main beneficiaries. Walkers enjoyed the 10k route, and a concert afterward.

SF LGBT theater remodels its lobby space Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko

versations and community-related events,” said Hodgen. “Once we ith the aim of improvstop talking to each other, everying the aesthetic expething starts to fall apart.” rience for its audiences, As for the bar, it is being reloas well as seeing an uptick in revecated to the end of the left-side nues, a San Francisco-based LGBT hallway. It will be built where a theater company is remodeling its conference room has been at the lobby, bar, and box office areas. bottom of the steps leading up The 35-year-old New Conservato a donors’ lounge. Drawings of tory Theatre Center is housed in the new space show it sporting the basement of the city-owned blue-colored sofas and bar stools, building at 25 Van Ness near Marlighting fixtures and flooring. ket Street. Its underground location By creating a more inviting bar and cramped entryway has lacked space for patrons, the theater’s the environment that induces ticket leaders hope to increase sales. It Courtesy NCTC holders to want to meet up for An artist’s rendering shows plans for the renovated lobby area at the operates on an annual budget of cocktails prior to shows or linger New Conservatory Theatre Center. nearly $1.5 million. after a performance. “Definitely, that is one of my “That is exactly what everyhopes as the person who balances to create a much more welcoming space and body says,” acknowledged Barbara the books,” said Hodgen. “As far people will be able to better circulate in it.” Hodgen, the nonprofit theater’s executive direcas the mission goes, it is more about creating The box office will be reconstructed in the a comfortable patron and community experitor the last five years. “We want a more inviting, space where the bar has been to the left side of comfortable space for our patrons.” ence. In terms of financially supporting that the entranceway. And off to the right of the en- mission, yeah, I am hoping the bar picks up.” The entryway is shaped like a barbell, noted Hodgen, with hallways leading to larger spaces tranceway will be a new small presentation area Work on the $300,000 remodel project, fronting the doorways to the main theater. on the left and right sides and a box office in the funded through a capital campaign the theater The theater company experimented during its middle. The remodel, which will use a blue color undertook, began this week. On Sunday, July just finished season with how to better program scheme, natural wood elements, and feature a 17, the theater closed its offices for seven days video wall, aims to make better use of the con- that space. It held audience talks, trivia nights, and shuttered its box office, which is expected lectures, and special performances and plans to figuration and brighten up the interior spaces. to reopen Wednesday, August 3, due to the con“We have always had traffic flow problems continue such events in the remodeled space. struction commencing. “We want to also utilize the lobby much more in the lobby because the box office sticks out See page 14 >> into it,” she said. “We are moving the box office as a community resource and a place to have con-

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

VALENCIA CYCLERY

Dada bar hopes to move

by Seth Hemmelgarn

emailed questions that she’s “not opposed” to Dada moving to Post Street. gay couple who own a bar in Instead, she said, she wants there San Francisco’s financial district to be conditions, including not havare trying to move their business to a ing amplified DJ music. new location a few blocks away, but a “These points got lost in the pubneighbor is trying to block it. lic hearing process,” Williams said. Michael Gouddou, 55, and his “That process was hurtful, especialhusband, Timothy Landregan, 50, ly to those of us who are also part of SPRING of San Francisco, own Dada, which SF’s LGBT and diverse community Courtesy Michael Gouddou We’ve got m is currently at 86 Second Street. and who want to live harmoniously. ready to ride Dada co-owner Timothy “We lost our lease because the Our home is within 100 feet of the Landregan, left, joined building got sold” to a restaurant proposed new bar location and we’d Bernadette Bohan, Duchess group, Gouddou said, and they’re have adjoining entrances.” Emma Peel, and his husband, trying to relocate to 65 Post Street. Williams declined to share her bar co-owner Michael Gouddou, Gouddou hopes to have the bar orientation. outside the club last July. open by late October. He said LeAt the July 14 meeting of the Hybrid/City anne Williams, who lives about a Board of Supervisors Public Safety Hybrid/City Kid’s block away from the proposed site, and Neighborhood Services ComGouddou said there would mostcould hold up the process, though. mittee, Supervisors John Avalos and ly be “background” music during If she doesn’t withdraw her proDavid Campos approved Dada’s the day, and there would be a DJ for test from state liquor license regulaproposal to transfer its liquor lifundraisers or birthday parties. tors, he said, the bar’s opening could cense from its current location. Su“That’s the extent of the sound,” Road be delayed for several months. pervisor Jane Kim, who’s also on the he said, adding, “We’re making sure Now Asked what the new Dada would committee, had been excused.Op there’s no audible noise outside the HAPPY be like, Gouddou said, “The whole Gouddou declined to say how premises so we are a good neighbor.” Ever y Thurs take 20% a concept of Dada is what we’ve been much theOFF rent on the new location is, In her protest filed with the Road Mountain doing. We’re part of the community. but he said it has more than twice the California Department of Alcoholic We’re an inclusive bar. We promote space, and there would be more art Beverage Control Williams, who Now Open Thursday to 7pm! tolerance and inclusiveness. ... Evshows and larger corporate events, as lives about a block away, said the erybody’s welcome.” well as occasional drag shows. bar “would violate ABC’s rule to not He said, “We cater to the happy Dada’s last day in its current lointerfere with the quiet enjoyment Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm hour crowd early on,” and then later cation, where Vale Gouddou said there of the property by residents” and take 20% OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* 1065 & 1077 in the SALES evening, “we do fundraisers has been no trouble, will be at the “licensing the premises would cre415-550SPRING *Sales*Sales limited to stock ononhand. limited to stock hand. Mon.Sat. 1 and philanthropic events,” includend of August. State ABC data availate a public nuisance,” among other We’ve got ing for LGBT organizations and able online don’t indicate there have m complaints. valenci causes such as the AIDS/LifeCycle. beenride any problems with the bar.t Williams said in response to ready to

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embers of the LGBTQ community rallied on the steps of San Francisco City Hall this week to Road 12:41 PM ask that Supervisors Scott Wiener Now O and Mark Farrell withdraw their HAPPY proposed ballot measures they say Ever y Thur take 20% OFF will negatively impact queer and trans homeless people. Farrell’s ballot measure would allow authorities to remove tent encampments as long as they give residents 24 hours written notice and offer shelter beds or other forms of housing. Wiener’s proposal calls for 1065 & 1077 Vale the San Francisco Police Department SALES 415-550 Khaled Sayed Mon.Sat. to operate a neighborhood crime unit of at least 60 officers to valenc address Lisa Marie Alatorre of the Coalition On Homelessness spoke on the increased break-ins, thefts from vesteps of San Francisco City Hall before a rally against two proposed hicles, and homeless encampments. ballot measures. Most of the ire at the July 18 rally was directed at Farrell’s initiative. Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the wedge issue, because what they are Lisa Marie Alatorre of the CoHousing Rights Committee said supposedly addressing in this inialition On Homelessness said that that the ballot initiatives would distiative, tents and encampments, is the rally was about the LGBTQ proportionately affect the LGBTQ already against the law. Why do you community denouncing the anticommunity. For example, offering a need a ballot initiative to address that homeless initiative being sponsored queer homeless person a bus ticket if it wasn’t a wedge issue?” by Supervisors Farrell and Wiener. home is often not an option, nor is a Wiener explained that the measure “Mark Farrell’s aides continue to one-night shelter bed. requires an offer of shelter and that insist that the measure would have “Everything I heard today from offer has to happen under the law. nothing to do with law enforcement Farrell aides led me to believe what “This law creates no criminal penor how police respond to an encampI believed in the beginning,” Avicolli alty whatsoever,” said Wiener, a gay ment,” Alatorre said. “However the Mecca said. “This measure is meant man who is in a heated race for a state initiative is a police code, and it is 100 to be a wedge issue to bring out the Senate seat against progressive Superpercent connected to law enforcevoters to support more moderate visor Jane Kim. “You can’t get a ticket. ment responding to encampments.” candidates for supervisors because You can’t get a citation. You can’t get Alatorre stated that the city curmore moderate candidates in varicharged with a crime. You won’t get rently has 23 laws on the books ous districts are going to support fined. There are no criminal penalties criminalizing different activities these measures and more progreswhatsoever in this measure, and it rehomeless people engage in just to sive candidates won’t support them.” quires an offer of shelter.” take care of themselves every day. He and others pointed to the city’s Wiener also stated that tents are “Our biggest concern is that this Point-In-Time survey that revealed not housing. measure is yet another law that would nearly 30 percent of the city’s home“It is not progressive, it’s not hucriminalize what is already criminalless population identifies as LGBTQ. mane, it’s not safe or healthy to let ized and it is not working, and it is a Recent studies have shown that napeople live in tents on sidewalks in failed solution, and it has been failing tionally, about 40 percent of homeneighborhoods,” he said. “It’s critius for the past 30 years,” she said, reless youth identify as LGBTQ. cal to transition people out of the ferring to Farrell’s proposal. “If they want to get housing they tents into shelter and housing. Every The protesters went inside City would have done it already,” Avicolli night there are spaces in our shelter Hall and visited the offices of SuperMecca said. “Farrell has been on the system for people to go. We absovisors Farrell, Wiener, Malia Cohen, Board of Supervisors for many years. lutely need to expand our housing and Katy Tang to deliver a petition He’s had every opportunity to do stock as well as navigation center to oppose the initiatives, however, something to get housing for people. capacity. There is no doubt about it.” none of the supervisors met with This is not about getting housing. Avicolli Mecca said that Wiener’s the protesters. This is not about getting shelter beds crime unit initiative is another way Farrell did not to respond to a reor services. This is about being a to police homeless people. quest for comment by press time.t

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4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Volume 46, Number 29 July 21-27, 2016 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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BAY AREA REPORTER 44 Gough Street, Suite 204 San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com A division of BAR Media, Inc. © 2016 President: Michael M. Yamashita Chairman: Thomas E. Horn VP and CFO: Patrick G. Brown Secretary: Todd A. Vogt

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is conﬁdential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Nothing gay-friendly about the GOP T

here is nothing positive for LGBTs in today’s Republican Party. The platform is the most homophobic in history. The presidential nominee vacillates on virtually every issue affecting LGBTs. And the vice presidential nominee has targeted LGBT folks and people living with HIV/AIDS for decades. It’s another presidential election, and for the GOP, it’s open season on queers, despite last month’s mass shooting in Orlando and Republicans’ faux sympathy. While the party platforms are not binding on the candidates, they serve to drum up support from their party’s base. This year’s GOP platform is a disaster for LGBTs, as the process was taken over by antigay conservatives who included every anti-gay fixation they could think of – from supporting conversion therapy to espousing a traditionalist view of child rearing to declaring pornography a public health crisis. Yikes! We are alarmed that Republican nominee Donald Trump selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. We don’t need another reason to oppose Trump, but choosing Pence clearly demonstrates that Trump does not care about LGBTs, despite his comments to the contrary. “You tell me who’s better for the gay community and who’s better for women than Donald Trump,” Trump said shortly after the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 49 mostly gay Latino men dead. Well, with a platform endorsing conversion therapy and opposing same-sex marriage (which is, by the way, the law of the land now), Trump’s party is definitely not better for LGBTs. “Post-Orlando Trump said he was only one to protect LGBTs,” tweeted California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom the other day. “GOP platform just released says conversion therapy OK.”

Exactly. When Pence was in Congress, he opposed federal HIV/AIDS funding – perhaps the one issue that has had broad bipartisan support ever since President George W. Bush established the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief aimed at curbing the epidemic worldwide – saying that such funds should go to organizations that work to “pray away the gay.” As governor of Indiana, Pence was in the spotlight last year when he signed a religious freedom bill that would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gays. Following sustained criticism from many corporations, civil rights groups, and others, Pence signed a revised version of the bill that clarifies businesses can’t use the legislation as a justification to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. But the law wasn’t repealed, and it remains to be seen how it will be enforced. From their interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes last Sunday, it’s clear that Pence will have difficulty trumping Trump – who kept cutting Pence off and interrupting him. When Pence was asked if he could “walk down the hall” to the Oval Office and tell Trump he was wrong

on something and should apologize, Trump quickly noted that he doesn’t apologize. Apparently that’s the secret to his “success.” We’ll never know because Trump refuses to release his tax returns. Trump’s discriminatory immigration policies would be terrible for LGBTs escaping dangerous conditions in their home countries or striving for better opportunities in the U.S. And it’s bad for immigrants who are already in this country and are looking for a path to citizenship, only to be marginalized and portrayed as criminals. The mainstream media keeps reporting that Trump is the most pro-LGBT Republican nominee. This is a false narrative, and shows that after all the gains the community has made, straight journalists don’t get it. The problem is that this false impression is perpetrated in major news outlets, causing the public to think that Trump is indeed gay-friendly and wouldn’t be so bad as president and so are puzzled when gays are opposed to him. Trump is a master at seizing the news cycle and offers just enough wiggle room so he can back out of any comment. That doesn’t bode well for a Trump administration, in which one day he may be for non-discrimination (as he was initially when weighing in on North Carolina’s anti-trans bathroom law), then the next day be against it (as he was a short time later when he said such laws are up to the states). Heck, sometimes Trump contradicts himself in the same speech. Next week, in stark contrast, people will see that the Democratic Party’s platform is the most LGBT-friendly in history and presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton stands solidly with our community. Her problem is that, like Trump, not a lot of people like her. But running for president should be more than a popularity contest. And when weighing LGBT issues in balance with a host of others, there really is only one choice.t

Reflections on a failed coup by James Loduca

in our rooms, dim lights, and avoid windows. Broadcast media was cut ’m an adventurer by nature and around midnight, but not before my travels have taken me to farwe learned the Turkish military was flung parts of the globe, including attempting a coup. It was too late work in developing countries durto reach the U.S. Consulate, so we ing civil conflict. busied ourselves with registering our But nothing prepared me for the whereabouts with the State Departwhirlwind 72 hours that began last ment online and texting photos of Friday night in Istanbul, Turkey. By our passports to relatives stateside. the time my partner, Charlie Smith, (Tip: Texting photos of your passJames Loduca and I made it to the airport on Sunday port to loved ones from a country morning, the U.S. State Department under siege really freaks them out. was recommending American citizens in Turkey Leave copies with them before you depart.) “shelter in place.” Meanwhile, common sense, As we settled in around 2 a.m., gunfire, and a close friend in Congresswoman Nancy Petanks, and explosions marked the night right losi’s (D-San Francisco) office, suggested we get outside our window. At one point the building out of the country as quickly as possible. shook so bad that I sprang up in bed certain we It took landing safely in Madrid to be able were having an earthquake. Charlie: “That to process my thoughts and reflect on what sounded like a bomb.” There were transpired. two more that night. It wasn’t until Friday night started innocuously. We had morning that we learned that gathered for a final celebratory birthday dinresistance forces were setting off ner with two dear American friends before we sonic booms to frighten people. were to part ways. Charlie and I would return It worked. It was a dramatic and to the U.S., while the birthday boy and his tense night, but at no point did companion would continue to France. The we ever feel in direct danger. tragedy in Nice weighed heavy on us and our When the dust cleared in the concern focused on safety during their next leg morning, the coup had failed. As of travel and for the people of France. Westerners, we had mixed emoThen the night took an abrupt turn. As tions. On the one hand, I oppose military interwe collected our check, a nervous waiter anvention in democracies. On the other, we met nounced in broken English: “Something is countless people who strongly believe Turkish happening in our country. You should get President Recep Erdogan is dangerous. Erdogan back to your hotel quickly.” We initially weren’t has been in power for 24 years, first as mayor of sure how to interpret this, but as we reached Istanbul, then prime minister, and now presithe streets, the panicked faces of locals told us dent. His current position, which he won after it could be serious. Then the ominous texts being termed out as prime minister, is largely from back home: “Are you safe?!?!” We still ceremonial. Now he’s attempting to change the didn’t have any information, but we knew constitution to assign himself power. During there was trouble in Turkey. We contacted our my visit, I learned directly from the Turkish loved ones, withdrew cash from the ATM, and people how Erdogan’s pro-Islamic radical views quickly returned to the hotel. against the secular, women, labor, and LGBT Our hotel was situated at the base of the Bospeople fundamentally betray democratic values phorus Bridge, one of two seized by resistance upon which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded forces. We were instructed by hotel staff to stay the country in 1923.

The day we left the country, pro-Erdogan (and largely conservative, religious) demonstrators flooded into Taksim Square. Meanwhile, the New York Times highlighted that earlier this year the same square was off limits for labor demonstrations and LGBT Pride celebrations. In both cases, gatherers were met with military police and tear gas. My heart is heavy for the Turkish people. We met so many kind, talented, generous people – people who are worried for their future. The country relies heavily on tourism, and recent ISIS attacks have left it hurting. Nobody could have predicted the attempted coup, but it could not be at a worse time for Turkey, and many worry it could be a fatal blow. Yet if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t change a thing. I was taught at a young age the importance of discovering new cultures and meeting people with different views. (It’s one of the things I love most about San Francisco and our diverse LGBT community.) It’s only by exploring the world can we learn how much we share in common as a human race, and overcome our insignificant differences. It is the antidote to the troubling global trend of nationalism. We explored caves. We visited markets and mosques. We shared meals with locals who don’t share our language or world view. We learned more about Islam, a beautiful, loving religion that has nothing to do with the extremists who commit violence in the name of the prophet Mohammad. We discovered people and places running over with joy, inspiration, and hope. And while I was truly grateful to touch down on American soil late on Monday night, I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I look forward to the day I return, and in the meantime, I pray for peace and stability in Turkey.t James Loduca is senior vice president at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. He and his partner live in Noe Valley.

Letters >>

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Honor walk oversight

When the first list of honorees for the Rainbow Honor Walk was announced in 2014, I was surprised that the poet, Thom Gunn, was not included. When the second list was announced a few weeks ago and his name was again conspicuous by its absence, I was flabbergasted [“2nd class picked for honor walk,” June 30]. The four lines etched into the top of the wall partly circling the National AIDS Memorial Grove were written by Gunn. The Triangle Award for gay poetry was renamed the Thom Gunn Award in his memory. His most famous book, The Man with Night Sweats, a “contemporary classic by one of the most singular and compelling poets in English of the past half century,” was said to qualify him as “the poet laureate for the AIDS crisis.” Indeed, it made him “a spokesperson of an annihilated generation.” Gunn lived in San Francisco from 1960 until his death in 2004. He wrote often about the city; about bars, hustlers, the street people, the streets (“Pierce Street,” “Taylor Street,” and “Market At Turk” were three of his poems). He wrote about gay fathers, bathhouses, the Geysers, “The J Car,” and AIDS. He was often honored; won many awards: a Rockefeller Award, the PEN Prize for poetry, the Lila WallaceReader’s Digest Award, etc., and two fellowships, the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation. He deserves to be honored in the city he loved. Mike Kitay San Francisco

No need for more gun laws

With reference to your July 14 issue and its various mostly anti-Second Amendment, anti-gun, and antilaw-abiding gun owner articles and opinions, I wish to state that I believe law-abiding gun owners wishing to exercise their individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes such as self-defense, hunting, target shooting, and collecting, as upheld by the Supreme Court in the Washington, D.C. and Chicago cases, are one of the most discriminated against groups in the state of California [“LGBTs debate gun laws,” and “Gun Safety: A step forward in CA, an uphill fight in DC,” Guest Opinion]. In no other western state do law-abiding gun owners have to put up with the constant attacks on their right to keep and bear arms by “liberal” extremist anti-gun Democrats in the state Legislature, who, by their actions, violate their oath of office and the Bill of Rights. As shown by such legislation, and, by letters to the editor, there is an incredibly high level of hoplophobia, anti-Second Amendment, anti-gun, and anti-law-abiding gun owner organization bias and anti-law-abiding gun owner bigotry in this state, particularly in Sacramento and in the East Bay-San Francisco area that needs to be opposed. There needs to be a stop to using guns as a whipping boy and law-abiding gun owners as scapegoats for the actions of criminals and others who misuse guns. There needs to be a stop to the use of the term “gun violence,” which falsely implies that guns jump up and do something by themselves and a start to the use of the terms “criminal violence,” “suicidal violence,” and “careless person violence,” which put the blame for the misuse of guns on the persons who are doing it; a tiny, tiny minority of all gun owners and users. Governor Jerry Brown should have vetoed every one of those anti-gun bills except for the one restoring the theft of a firearm to the level of a felony. The most iniquitous of the bills he did sign relates to the purchase of ammunition. Each person wishing to purchase ammunition is first required to obtain and pay for a permit from the state Department of Justice, before going through the instantaneous electronic background check at the point of sale. This unfair bill punishes lawabiding citizens for the actions of criminals.

The Pink Pistols and other LGBT firearms enthusiasts have it right – there is quite enough gun control legislation in California and at the federal level. Additional legislation is unnecessary. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom’s anti-gun initiative should be defeated by the voters in November, and of governor of California, he should also be defeated by the voters. Hillary Clinton advocates the confiscation of lawful guns legally held by law-abiding citizens and, should therefore be rejected by the voters. Republican majorities in both houses of Congress should continue so that the Second Amendment individual’s right to keep and bear arms will be preserved. California needs to add a right to keep and bear arms amendment to the state constitution. David R. Russell Berkeley, California [Editor’s note: Newsom is running for governor.]

More on SJ sex sting case

In regards to the story written about me (and the five other plaintiffs), “Judge slams police in SJ park sex case,” [July 7] there are additional points I would like to make: The case started out with the district attorney saying the sting operations were in response to 10 public complaints about sex at the park. The deputy public defender, Carlie Ware, brought up that the police only targeted gay men, which was not equal treatment under the law as heterosexuals were not targeted. Due to this reason, the judge considered the case to have a “constitutional backdrop” and allowed Ware to be given access to two years of police records to find out if unconstitutional enforcement was indeed going on. The review turned up records for the 10 complaints mentioned earlier. Only one of the 10 complaints was concerning public gay sex in the park. The other nine complaints were not related but the district attorney said they were before the actual complaint records were made available. Saying that 10 complaints were the justification for the sting operation was a lie. It was also a false statement to make to the judge in court. The district attorney and the San Jose Police Department should be prosecuted for this. Another point of disinformation is in regards to the police report written by San Jose police Officer Samuel Marquardt. In it he describes my propositioning him by putting my finger in the glory hole accurately, but later in the report leaves out things that he said to me and that he mirrored sexual attraction to me as we stood talking to another outside the stall in the bathroom. He also implied things in his report that made me look “extra bad” to anyone reading it. He said children could have been hurt (I’m a pedophile?), the bathroom was dirty (I’m dirty? Ick factor reference?), and that graffiti was written on the wall, which he quoted as saying: “I eat man cum,” “Blow jobs Tuesday 12:30,” “Feed me your cum.” (I wrote these things?). I was surprised how subjective the report was and how effectively written it was to ensure I had an awkward experience in court during the early hearings. These early hearings were conducted in an open courtroom with crowds of people present and listening to each other’s cases being discussed. Some judges seemed embarrassed when they reviewed my court records. Thankfully, the public defender’s office helped me to feel more comfortable as a gay man going through the legal system and to have a measure of dignity as I sat through many months of court hearings. In conclusion, I didn’t expect the courts to say that gay sex in public places was completely allowable. I also didn’t expect that false statements would be made in court by the district attorney and that Officer Marquardt would write the type of subjective report that he did. In doing these things they tried to tip the scale of justice against me. If anyone is interested in knowing more about this case, the 18-page decision written by Judge Jose Franco is an inspirational and insightful document to read. John Ferguson Morgan Hill, California

Out Glide pastor elected Methodist bishop compiled by Cynthia Laird

he Reverend Dr. Karen Oliveto was consecrated as the newest bishop of the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, making history as the first out lesbian to be elected to the leadership post in a denomination that continues to forbid ordaining “practicing, selfavowed homosexuals.” Oliveto, senior pastor at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, was elected bishop July 16 during the Methodists’ General Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to the United Method-

ist News Service, Oliveto number has been lifted up is married to Robin Rideas a bishop of the church.” nour. The couple has been Oliveto’s election, she in a relationship since they said, also means the voice met at a junior high camp of gay people will be repwhere they were counselresented in the work of ors 17 years ago. the bishops’ commission. The Reverend Beth Oliveto has longLaRocca-Pitts, a standing ties to the Pacific Rick Gerharter Southeastern JurisSchool of Religion, where diction delegate, is The Reverend Dr. she earned her Master the senior pastor Karen Oliveto of Divinity degree at the of Atlanta’s Saint seminary in 1980. She Mark United Methodist has since served as associate dean for Church where a maacademic affairs and as an adjunct jority of members are faculty member in the area of United LGBTQ individuals. Methodist studies. PSR’s Center for “We’re ecstatic [about LGBTQ and Gender Studies in ReOliveto’s election],” she ligion honored her with a Leading told the news service. “It means a lot Voice Award in May. See page 13 >> to that population that one of their

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<< Politics

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

CA includes LGBT history in school curriculum by Matthew S. Bajko

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alifornia’s public school children, beginning in the second grade, will now be taught the most LGBT-inclusive curriculum in the country due to revisions made by the state’s Board of Education. At its meeting last Thursday, July 14, the board unanimously voted to update the History-Social Science Framework that sets out what children are to be taught in kindergarten through 12th grade. LGBT subject matter will now be presented in the second, fourth, fifth, eighth, 11th, and 12th grades. For example, it is now suggested that second-graders learn about lesbian social worker Jane Addams, who in 1931 was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. In fourth grade, under California history, pupils may now learn about Charlie Parkhurst, one of the most famous of the state’s stagecoach drivers who lived as a man but was born female, and about the modern gay rights movement, including the election of the late gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and the state’s role in the fight for marriage rights for same-sex couples. Eighth grade lesson plans about U.S. history now include references to Native American two-spirits and different beliefs on gender roles. In 11th grade it calls for the inclusion of how LGBT people lived during the Jazz Age of the 1920s, particularly LGBT African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, how they were hounded by the government during the Cold War of the 1950s, and were among the leaders of the 1960s civil rights movement, such as Bayard Rustin. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last July, the LGBT additions to the state’s lesson plans on U.S. history is largely due to the work of the Committee on LGBT History, led by San Francisco resident Don Romesburg, a gay man who’s department chair and associate professor of women’s and gender studies at Sonoma State University. Beginning in 2013, the committee began working with leaders of the Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network (formerly the Gay Straight Alliance Network) and LGBT historians to push for ways state education officials could implement the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act adopted in 2011. Authored by gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the state law requires K-12 history and social science classes to include historical contributions of LGBT and disabled people. Now that the state education board has approved the committee’s suggestions, it is expected its decision will have national impact on what is taught in the country’s classrooms. “The framework is used to generate new curriculum as well as instructional materials and textbooks. That is incredibly important because California is such a large state that textbook providers who write U.S. history for California students are going to be the textbooks used around the country by many students in other states,” explained Romesburg in an interview this spring. The revised framework, added Romesburg, is “by far the most LGBT-inclusive history and social science framework in the United States.”

Associated Press

Sonoma State University associate Professor Don Romesburg spoke in Sacramento last week.

And it should have significant impacts for LGBT students going forward, he argued. “We know one of the most important things about history education in primary schools and secondary schools is to give all students ways to see themselves in the past so they know their lives and their stories carry forward the legacies of generations that have come before,” said Romesburg. “So that means we need to see lesbians of the past, transgender people of the past, bisexuals of the past, and queer people of color of the past.” Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization that was part of the coalition of groups working on the framework’s LGBT revisions, hailed the education board’s decision to adopt them in a statement released after the vote. “LGBT students are frequent targets of bullying and harassment, leading to lower graduation rates, depression and a suicide attempt rate up to four times higher than their non-LGBT peers. An LGBTinclusive curriculum helps create an environment where all students can thrive,” stated Zbur. “And by seeing themselves reflected in lessons and materials, students’ experiences are validated and their sense of selfworth reinforced, creating the opportunity for students to be able to achieve academically.”

SF to begin LGBT data collection

The number of San Francisco city agencies collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data is set to grow due to the passage this week of an ordinance authored by gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener. At its meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an amendment to the city code that requires city departments and contractors providing health care and social services to collect and analyze data concerning the sexual orientation and gender identity of the clients they serve. Answering the questions, however, will be voluntary for the clients. “For years we have heard stories about how programs and facilities could better serve our community, but so much evidence has been anecdotal,” stated Wiener in a news release thanking his colleagues for supporting the proposal. “This legislation will allow us to collect real data that can be analyzed to show us where our city departments and non-profits are succeeding, and where we need improvement in meeting the diverse and significant needs of the LGBT community.” The legislation specifically applies to the departments of public

health; human services; children, youth and their families; aging and adult services; the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development; and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. The impacted agencies and service providers need to start collecting the LGBT data by July 1 next year, though they can seek a waiver from the city administrator if doing so would not be feasible. The departments will also have two years to submit a report to the city administrator that includes analysis of the data and identifies all services and programs where LGBT people are underrepresented. They are also tasked with developing plans to make their services and programs more accessible to the LGBT community.

Gay man sues San Jose

A gay Latino Republican is among the 14 people who filed a lawsuit last Thursday, July 14, against the city of San Jose, its mayor and police chief due to being attacked after attending a Donald Trump rally. As the B.A.R. reported last month, Santa Clara resident Juan Hernandez was one of several supporters of the Republican presidential nominee who were punched by anti-Trump protesters after leaving the June 2 event held at the San Jose Convention Center. Hernandez, 38, a rehabilitation counselor, suffered a broken nose and had said he was contemplating suing the city. He has been vocal in his criticisms of how city leaders, particularly Mayor Sam Liccardo and Police Chief Edgardo Garcia, handled the incident. Liccardo, while defending the actions of the police and city, also laid blame for the violence with Trump and his incendiary language he has used. The police have arrested 22 people accused of attacking the Trump supporters. Nonetheless, Hernandez is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, a former chair of the San Francisco Republican Party. The plaintiffs are alleging their constitutional rights, including the rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, and due process, were violated and are seeking unspecified damages and have requested a jury trial. “My intention is someone needs to be accountable for it, either the mayor or the police chief,” Hernandez told the B.A.R. about why he decided to join the lawsuit. “Also, I wanted to change the way rallies happen. Other cities need to be aware more. They need to protect their citizens no matter who they are voting for. This mayor failed because he let his political bias get in the way.” Attending the Republican National Convention this week as an alternate delegate for Trump, Hernandez said last week that the swelling around his nose had yet to fully subside. “At some point, I will need surgery,” he said.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 a summit the USDA held in CA for rural LGBT residents. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Election 2016

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Dem convention promises to be gay-friendly analysis by Lisa Keen

Fowlkes said the platform is the result of collaboration between the campaigns of Clinton and her biggest challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I), along with input from “hundreds of Democrats.” Sanders finally formally endorsed Clinton last week during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “I am satisfied with the platform,” said Fowlkes, “because I know that [Clinton] will be a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights as president and her administration will continue to build on the pro-LGBTQ foundation that was laid by the Obama administration.”

oth the Republican and Democratic national conventions are marked this year by something tantalizingly new. For the GOP, it’s a nominee essentially untethered from the party, yet carried along to the top of the ticket by voters who are said to be angry. For the Democrats, it’s a candidate for the history books – the first woman to win a major party’s nomination and, perhaps, to win the presidency. For Republicans, this “new” phenomenon is Donald Trump, whose barker-like and volatile ramblings have promised something “huge” and something “great,” but something that, to many, sounds more ominous than it is specific. For the Democrats, the historic candidate is Hillary Clinton, whose calculated climb to the top has overcome decades of push-back from Republicans and even a dynamic challenge from the progressive wing of her own party. Trump is hobbled by his extremist solutions, pugilistic temperament, and self-contradictory remarks. Clinton is hobbled by feuds that erupted between Republicans and the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton, and by a recent FBI report that said she was “extremely careless” in the handling of “very sensitive, highly classified information” during her tenure as secretary of state when she had her own computer server in her home. But for most LGBT viewers, much in convention watching will be familiar. At the Republican convention, which got underway Monday afternoon in Cleveland, the GOP will once again approve a platform that

Jane Philomen Cleland

Hillary Clinton addressed supporters in Oakland during a May campaign stop.

is hostile to equal rights for LGBT people. Its convention podium will host a parade of speakers who either share that hostility or, like Trump, show no sense of responsibility to confront it in the party. And the emerging ticket – Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence – will promise nothing specific to LGBT voters. At the Democratic convention, which opens Monday, the party will approve a platform that is, once again, deemed more LGBT-friendly than the one four years ago. Its numerous speakers will include openly LGBT people and will commit the party to seeking equality and respect for LGBT citizens. In fact, Earl Fowlkes Jr., chairman of the LGBT Caucus of the Democratic National Committee, predicts the Democratic convention in Philadelphia will be the “gayest ever.” “I am certain there will be a number of speakers talking about

the differences between the homophobic and transphobic GOP and the LGBTQ welcoming and supportive Democratic Party,” said Fowlkes. And it will likely include the largest number of openly LGBT delegates and alternates – more than the 500-plus who attended the 2012 convention. So what should LGBT viewers watch for at the July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia?

Party platform

The proposed platform this year commits Democrats to fighting for “comprehensive federal nondiscrimination protections” for LGBT citizens. It promises to “combat LGBT youth homelessness,” “improve school climates,” “protect transgender individuals from violence,” “promote LGBT human rights and ensure America’s foreign policy is inclusive of LGBT people around the world.”

The nomination

Since the beginning of the primaries, the bulk of visible LGBT support in the Democratic primaries has been behind Clinton. Fowlkes said he doesn’t have any breakdown of how many LGBT Caucus members supported Clinton and how many supported Sanders. He’s hopeful that Clinton, in accepting the nomination next Thursday night, “speaks to the continued violence toward LGBTQ Americans and the need for full equality protections for our community.”

Veep

Media outlets reported last week that Clinton is expected to name her running mate Saturday in Florida. Several names of potential vice presidential candidates have circulated in recent weeks. Fowlkes said, “I think Senator Tim Kaine would be an excellent VP choice and would be a great vice president.” Kaine has a strong record of supporting equal rights for LGBT people. As governor of Virginia, he

signed an executive order to prohibit discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation. Since joining the Senate, he earned a 90 rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. Other possibilities, including Senators Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Cory Booker (New Jersey), also have pro-LGBT records. Speculation has also centered on Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

LGBT visibility

A number of LGBT groups will be hosting events around the Democratic convention, including the Equality Forum, which will hold its annual LGBT civil rights conference in Philadelphia. There will be two LGBT caucus meetings open to the delegates and the general public, said Fowlkes. And next Thursday night, a coalition of LGBT groups will again air a political ad that ran during the Republican convention and explains the injury that is done by laws banning transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. The ad was funded by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Movement Advancement Project, and others.

Convention speeches

Fowlkes said he is “very hopeful” of seeing an out LGBT speaker during a primetime slot. Although a brief preliminary list of high-profile speakers does not include any LGBT people, likely possibilities include Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, one of 11 states that have been pegged as a tossup in November.t

Tension between gays and GOP shrouds convention by Lisa Keen

he Republican National Convention this week will include a gay speaker in a primetime slot Thursday night, when Donald Trump accepts the party’s nomination for president. But that’s about it, for pro-LGBT news coming out of Cleveland this week. Gay PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel is slated to speak in a high-profile slot at the convention. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told reporters that Thiel is a friend of Trump and that his being gay had nothing to do with his being given such a coveted spot. “People are going to be speaking at this convention based on what they want to say, not on any particular sexual preference or things like that,” Manafort told reporters. The first openly gay speaker at a Republican National Convention was Log Cabin Republicans member Steve Fong of California in 1996. Four years later, openly gay Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona spoke to the convention, becoming the first openly gay member of Congress to do so. But most news out of the convention so far this week has highlighted the tension between the Republican Party and the LGBT community. Log Cabin Republicans, a national group of LGBT Republicans, placed a full-page ad in the Cleveland edition of USA Today Tuesday, harshly criticizing the Republican Party for proposing the “most antiLGBT platform in the Republican Party’s 162-year history.” A group called Planting Peace paid for billboard space near the convention site in Cleveland to post a rendering of Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz “kissing,” along

with the message, “Love Trumps Hate – End Homophobia.” In an online message, the organization said it is motivated by a desire to end “negative, hateful” messages “in the name of religious freedom.” And on Thursday night, a coalition of LGBT groups has bought national television airtime on Fox News to run a political ad that talks about what it’s like to be a transgender person banned from using a restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. The ad shows both a restaurant employee barring a transgender woman from entering a women’s room and two female restaurant patrons intervening to enable her to use the women’s restroom. During the convention, LGBTorganized protests against Trump were staged outside Trump Tower in New York City. In a news release, Gays Against Guns and Queer Nation-NY criticized the GOP for “most anti-LGBTQ platform yet.” Tuesday’s demonstration was called “Stop the Hate, Stop the Guns.” Ironically, Chris Cox, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, speaking Tuesday during primetime, assured viewers that the NRA is fighting “for the rights of all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation.”

Michael Key/Washington Blade

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie led the delegates in a mock prosecution of Hillary Clinton Tuesday at the Republican National Convention.

The Human Rights Campaign distributed an email Monday saying it is “prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to defeat” the GOP ticket of Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. “Donald Trump would immediately undermine every ounce of progress we have made over the last eight, historic years – and he would put a stop to all progress we hope

“I’ve known the party was against the right of same-sex couples to marry. I’ve not been living under a rock for the past 12 years.” – Rachel Hoff, gay Republican Platform Committee member

to achieve in the next four,” said the email, signed by HRC President Chad Griffin. Politico reported Tuesday that Paul Singer, founder of the proLGBT political action committee American Unity Fund, snubbed an important fundraiser for the Trump campaign in Cleveland Monday. Singer’s PAC began lobbying delegates last December, seeking a more LGBT-friendly platform. That effort failed, and the platform is still hostile to equal rights for LGBT people. Speaking to a C-SPAN host of Washington Journal Tuesday morning, gay Republican Platform Committee member Rachel Hoff, of Washington, D.C., said she was “encouraged” by the fact that an amendment to have a conversation about marriage equality got about one-fourth of the committee’s vote. The amendment received little debate July 11 and it, and a second amendment asking the party to acknowledge support for the Orlando

nightclub shooting victims, failed. “In one sense, our party’s come a long way on LGBT issues,” said Hoff. “Sixty percent of young Republicans now support marriage equality. Within the Republican Party as a whole, that number is not yet a majority but it is increasing and I have no doubt that it will be a majority of Republicans soon, supporting marriage equality. I think the platform committee in many ways is lagging behind, certainly the country on these issues, but even our own party.” Hoff said she thinks the Republican platform “sends a really harmful message” on marriage equality, transgender use of bathrooms, conversion therapy, and adoption of children by gays. She said the message to LGBT people, young Republicans, and the majority of Americans is that the party isn’t interested in their views. She said that last week was “the first time” she considered leaving the party. She said the debate around the LGBT amendments displayed what “seemed to me like a concerted effort to resist any mention of the LGBT community in a positive way in our platform.” “It made me feel personally excluded, but this isn’t about me,” said Hoff. “... This is about principle, it’s about core beliefs, and I hope our party will eventually evolve to catch up with the country, catch up with young people in our own party, and accept the reality that LGBT rights – marriage equality in particular – are squarely in line with Republican Party principles. “I’ve known the party was against the right of same-sex couples to marry. I’ve not been living under a rock for the past 12 years,” said Hoff. Hoff acknowledged signing a See page 14 >>

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July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

AIDS confab looks at advances and barriers by Liz Highleyman

hile remarkable gains have been made in preventing and treating HIV over the past 16 years, this progress could be reversed without adequate funding and respect for the human rights of the people most at risk, speakers said at the 21st International AIDS Conference this week in Durban, South Africa. “We call for AIDS 2016 to finish what we started in 2000,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at an opening news conference on July 18. “We must close the gaps that keep people from accessing services and living with dignity. We can end stigma and discrimination, prevent the spread of HIV, and save lives.” Effective antiretroviral therapy arrived in the mid-1990s, but it was not until the AIDS conference in Durban in 2000 that widespread access to treatment for people in low-income countries was put forth as a global priority. This year’s theme – “Access, Equity, Rights Now” – recognizes the barriers that must still be overcome to achieve universal access to treatment and new biomedical HIV prevention methods such as PrEP. “The 2000 conference was a catalyst for historical change and launched a global movement to bring lifesaving treatment to people around the world,” AIDS 2016 CoChair Olive Shisana said in her opening remarks. But “progress is precarious” and requires structural changes in laws and policies to expand access. UNAIDS has set a goal that 90 percent of people with HIV be tested, 90 percent of those who test positive will start treatment, and 90 percent of those on treatment will achieve undetectable viral load by 2020. The

Liz Highleyman

Young people staged an action at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

agency recently announced that an estimated 17 million people with HIV were receiving antiretrovirals at the end of 2015. South Africa – which has the world’s largest treatment program – now has about 3.4 million people on therapy. But still over half of those who need treatment are not yet receiving it. Preceding the AIDS 2016 opening ceremony Monday, July 18, several thousand AIDS activists from around the world joined together in a march to demand universal access to HIV treatment and prevention for everyone who needs it. At the end of the march, which wound from Durban City Hall to the convention center, activists presented memoranda to leaders including UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe, U.S. Global AIDS Ambassador Deborah Birx, and South African deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. “Our political leaders want to talk about the millions who are on treatment – which is a far cry from the

Castro market hall opens

Rick Gerharter

Elyse Thogerson prepares a smoothie in her stand, Raw – A Juice Company, in the Myriad market hall, which opened last weekend in the Castro.

by Sari Staver

year behind schedule and minus a few of the marquee names mentioned as possible tenants, the Castro’s new market hall, the Myriad, had its grand opening July 16. Located in 4,000 square feet of ground floor space in the new apartment building at 2175 Market Street (between 15th and Church streets), 10 of the 13 available spaces are now leased. The mall is open seven days a week but opening and closing times vary. The anchor tenant, owned by developer Jordan Langer and his partners, is a full service cocktail bar with a changing seasonal menu. The bar, Mrs. Jones, is described as the “little sister” of the developers’ restaurant, Jones. In kiosk spaces ranging from 75 to 200 square feet, the Myriad’s tenants also offer craft beers, chocolate chip cookies and soft serve ice cream, coffee, juice, Filipino barbeque, poke, crepes, and sushi. There is also a flower shop and a cellphone repair store.

The most unique tenant is a self-service vending machine, built in France, that bakes loaves of baguettes around the clock, dispensing them warm within two hours of coming out of the oven. The company, Le Bread Express, is owned by Benoit Herve, who moved to Silicon Valley 18 years ago to work in high tech. Herve told the Bay Area Reporter that he noticed the machines on a French television news station after it won first prize at the Concours Lepine International in Paris in 2014 as the best invention of the year. The vending machine at the Myriad is the first in the U.S., said Benoit, who is planning to place one at Stonestown Mall and eventually throughout the state and the rest of the U.S., he said. There are currently over 700 machines in France. Most of the tenants represent the owners’ first brick and mortar stores, investor Matt Rosenberg said in an interview with the B.A.R. during the grand opening. Rosenberg said the developers hope to fill the three remaining stores with busiSee page 13 >>

last Durban AIDS conference,” said Anele Yawa of the Treatment Action Campaign. “But we know that instead we have to tell the truth about the majority who still lack access.” Sidibe, in his keynote speech opening the conference, said he feared progress has stalled – and in some areas gains have even been reversed. The number of new infections has remained stubbornly flat over the past five years, and many wealthy donor countries have scaled back their support for global AIDS funding. “Our progress is incredibly fragile,” he said. “If we do not act now we risk resurgence and resistance.”

count for nearly 60 percent of people with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. This year’s conference featured a special emphasis on youth, who have high rates of HIV in many areas – including the U.S., where new infections are highest among young black gay men. Gay and transgender people, sex workers, and people who use drugs are more vulnerable due to stigma, discrimination, and criminalization, which can prevent them from living their lives openly and accessing the services they need, speakers pointed out. “Human rights is fundamental to fighting HIV – science alone cannot save our lives,” said Michael Ighodaro, an HIV-positive young gay man from Nigeria who sought asylum in the U.S. after a homophobic attack. “We don’t have to be here [for another AIDS conference] in 20 years, and I hope we’re not.” While past conferences have often focused on scientific advances in treatment and biomedical prevention, many sessions at AIDS 2016 look at how to translate these break-

throughs into widespread practice – a challenge that will require social, cultural, political, and legal change. Yet the conference still featured plenty of science, including new data on PrEP and other biomedical prevention methods that will be reported in more detail in a future issue. HIV cure research was the topic of the International AIDS Society’s Towards an HIV Cure symposium preceding the main conference. Cure science has suffered setbacks in recent years – as people who appeared to be controlling HIV without treatment experienced viral rebound – but basic research continues on a variety of approaches. Most experts think a combination will be needed to achieve sustained viral remission. “As difficult as it is, I’m confident we’re going to make progress that will be impressive,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the symposium. But he cautioned, “I can’t tell you when we’re going to have a cure, because I can’t be sure if we’re going to have a cure.”t

Key groups highlighted

Speaker after speaker at the conference emphasized the importance of reaching the groups most vulnerable to HIV, including women and girls, youth, gay and bisexual men, transgender people, sex workers, prisoners, and people who inject drugs. In some parts of the world nine out of 10 people living with HIV belong to these groups, according to Shisana, and women and girls ac-

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<< Sports

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Uganda to swim at IGLA championships by Roger Brigham

wimmers from numerous countries are working to bring five LGBT Ugandan swimmers to the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics championships next month in Edmonton, Alberta to compete and meet with peers from across the globe – and you can contribute to the effort. Organizers of the initiative learned Friday, July 15 that a long battle to secure travel visas for the five had been won. IGLA has pledged $4,000 to

help with travel costs and the host team, Making Waves Aquatics Club, has waived registration fees and arranged for hosted housing. The effort comes against a backdrop of widespread violence and intolerance aimed at the LGBT community. In 2014 in Uganda, a law was enacted that criminalized homosexual acts, gay marriage ceremonies, and promotion of homosexuality with sentences from seven years to life, with the Ugandan president calling gays “disgusting” and saying that homosexu-

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ality was a choice. That law was later overturned by the Constitutional Court of Uganda, but same-sex relations remain against the law. A U.S. State Department report in 2011 found that, “LGBT persons were subject to societal harassment, discrimination, intimidation, and threats to their well-being and were denied access to health services. Discriminatory practices also prevented local LGBT [nongovernmental organizations] from registering with the NGO Board and obtaining official NGO status.” Ugandan newspapers in recent years have published names, photos, and addresses of men they report are gay. The dropping of the 2014 law due to international pressure was a success, but for widespread change to occur, people’s perceptions must change. And there’s no better place to begin than with sports. “I think it is a great thing what IGLA is doing to bring Ugandans to their championship,” Federation of Gay Games Co-President Kurt Dahl said. “I am also glad to hear there are other efforts to bring Ugandans to Paris 2018 and hopefully the Gay Games X scholarship program will be able to assist in bring several Ugandans to Gay Games X. What is happening in Uganda is terrible, and we all as part of the LGBTQ community need to work to change these laws not only in Uganda but around the world where people are discriminated against because of whom they love or how they want to

Courtesy IGLA

Nate Freeman, left, front row, sits with Ugandan swimmers.

live their lives.” Nate Freeman of Ireland had been in Uganda doing legal work for LGBT-related organizations when he encountered what he referred to as a “burgeoning LGBT sports community,” with several athletes organizing to compete in the 2018 Gay Games in Paris. “This initiative started as a result of conversations between myself and a number of Ugandan LGBT activists who are interested in sports opportunities in Uganda,” he told the Bay Area Reporter this week from Galway, Ireland. “I spoke to basketball players, rugby players, footballers, and swimmers, and all of them talked about the need for a stronger LGBT sports community. I thought IGLA would be a great event to try to get a team to attend both because I had connections to IGLA from my days swimming with Queer Utah Athletic Club in

Salt Lake City (2012-13) and because Canada under the Trudeau administration seemed like it might be more friendly toward visas for LGBT Ugandans.” Now, swimming does not have a strong history in Uganda and nobody is looking for the swimmers to go home with a boatload of medals. What is of importance is the opportunity for the swimmers to go through the experience, to meet others from around the world, to talk about the need for change. “I think this effort is extremely important,” Freeman said. “Most money that is directed from the U.S. toward LGBT issues in Uganda goes toward legal and health issues. Those matters are important, but in themselves they are not sufficient really to change people’s perceptions in local communities. To do that, we also need to See page 14 >>

Nonprofit aims to create jobs for those with employment barriers by Belo Cipriani

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o matter what happens in the competitive worlds of retail and runway, the fashion industry has had a long history of supporting social justice causes. Swimwear designer Rebecca Cahua is continuing this legacy of giving back to underserved communities through new workshops offered by her apparel nonprofit, Designing a Difference. With the new services Designing a Difference will start offering this month, Cahua plans to create jobs for people with employment barriers, such as discharged female prisoners, the homeless, veterans, and people with physical and mental disabilities, by preparing them to work in retail and the apparel manufacturing industry. Through workshops in sewing and merchandising, Cahua plans to give new career opportunities to these oftenoverlooked populations. While the 30-year-old executive director may be new to the world of nonprofits, she is no rookie when it comes to being an agent of change. Cahua is a longtime philanthropist and the curator of #HashTagLunchBagSF – a charity movement that has been feeding the homeless in San Francisco for the last two years – and has received support from the NFL Alumni Association, Golden State Warriors, and Citibank. “Once I realized my ability to make things happen, I decided to make things happen,” she said. “I realized I had the power to make change by bringing people together to help others, so why wouldn’t I do just that?” Joining Cahua, a straight ally, as the assistant director of Designing a Difference is fashion producer and 25-year-old San Francisco resident Eduardo Aguire, a gay man. “Getting the training center

Courtesy Designing a Difference

Eduardo Aguire, left, and Rebecca Cahua, second from left, joined students on the first day of the Designing a Difference class July 18.

situated in order to create the best learning environment for the upcoming class is our first initiative,” said Aguire. The first cohort of 15 students being put through the workshops this month are a mix of homeless youth and teens with disabilities. Aguire said that finding the inaugural group was not an easy task, and that it took a lot of research from their network of staff and volunteers to recruit the class. Aguire said the assembly of fashion enthusiasts will enjoy the curriculum. “The program has been very thought out and developed to be interactive, fun and insightful,” Aguire explained. In addition to improving job prospects for disenfranchised demographics, Designing a Difference also aims to advance the fashion apparel business in San Francisco. “The city faces significant barriers, such as the high prices to manufacture, leasing cost of facilities and a lack of resources,” said Aguire. The nonprofit hopes that by

creating a polished fleet of apparel workers, the fashion industry will expand in San Francisco. Designing a Difference has partnered with Linda Hannawalt of QuiltWorks Collaborative, who generously donated a facility and the equipment to start the first training program. It also received support from Jeremy Taylor (aka DJ PNUT), who has previously helped with the production of fashion shows, and will continue to work with event production in the future. To become a volunteer, or to learn more about Designing a Difference, visit http://www.designingadifference.org, and follow the agency on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.t Belo Cipriani is the awardwinning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams. He’s a disability advocate, the spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the national spokesman for 100 Percent Wine – a premium winery that donates 100 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that help people with disabilities find work. Learn more at www.belocipriani.com.

t <<

Community News>>

Worthington

From page 1

Speaking exclusively to the Bay Area Reporter about his decision, Worthington said in an interview Tuesday evening that his mayoral bid was prompted by being endorsed by both the city’s firefighters union, IAFF Local 1277, and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 even though he had yet to declare his candidacy. “Members of the unions have been encouraging me to run, so the unions included me in their considerations and endorsed me even though I told them I was not sure I was running,” said Worthington, 62, who is considered one of the more liberal members of the council and holds the District 7 seat. The firefighters union has also endorsed District 5 City Councilman Laurie Capitelli in the race, while SEIU dual endorsed District

Shooting death

From page 1

San Francisco police Inspector Ronan Shouldice testified that police collected 15 .40-caliber bullet casings from the scene. Photos displayed in court showed a large pool of blood near the vehicle and several places inside the car where bullets had struck.

Girlfriend describes shooting

Warren’s girlfriend, Tiffany Cohen-Carson, 30, wept throughout her testimony as she recounted the night Warren was killed, frequently dabbing her eyes with Kleenex. Cohen-Carson said that after the crash, she and a friend approached the car Warren had been riding in, and “we heard a gun click back.”

Castro market hall

From page 11

nesses that sell products other than food and beverages.

Long time coming

First announced last year, the Myriad has repeatedly fallen behind schedule to open. Rosenberg blamed the delays on “challenging city regulations.” When developer Langer presented his business plan to the Castro Merchants group last year, he said “more than 300” businesses had applied to lease space. On the Myriad’s Facebook page, the developers also said that Top Chef alum Ryan Scott was

News Briefs

From page 5

“We are delighted by the news of the election of the Reverend Dr. Karen Oliveto to serve as a bishop on the United Methodist Church,” the Reverend Dr. David VasquezLevy, PSR president, said in a news release. He added that Oliveto brings to the office of bishop “the leadership, vision, and courage that are critical to this moment for our world and our church.” United Methodist Church is deeply divided over LGBT rights, the Associated Press reported, as church law says same-sex relationships are “incompatible with Christian teaching.” This year’s General Conference has decided to appoint a special commission to address all aspects of human sexuality currently covered in church law, according to the news service. The denomination has 12.7 million members.

SF Pride accepting theme suggestions

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee is now accepting theme suggestions for the 2017 parade and festival. The theme will be chosen by the

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

ate Don Perata, who had the most votes in the first round but then saw Quan surge past him as the ranked votes where tallied when the other candidates were knocked out of the race. Now Worthington and Arreguin hope to see the same outcome in their race against Capitelli. “I think one of the three of us is going to win,” predicted Worthington. “It will be fascinating to see.” Worthington’s bid four years ago marked the first time an openly LGBT person had run for mayor in Berkeley. And should he win come November, Worthington would only be the second out person elected mayor of a Bay Area city. (Gary Cloutier was sworn in as Vallejo’s mayor in 2007 but was ousted from office seven days later following a recount of the vote.) In 1994 gay Berkeley resident Jeffrey Shattuck Leiter was appointed the city’s mayor following the resignation of Loni Hancock, who is

married to Bates and is now a state senator. She stepped down to take a job with then-President Bill Clinton’s administration. Leiter was seen as a caretaker of the office and agreed not to seek a full term, leading to the election that fall of Shirley Dean as mayor. Should he become mayor, which is largely a ceremonial post, as Berkeley has a strong city manager form of government, Worthington said his main goal would be to revamp how City Council meetings, which are held twice a month on Tuesday nights, are run. Any controversial land use or zoning issue, for instance, he would pull from the regular council meeting agenda and call for a special hearing on the matter on a separate night. “I think we can end the Tuesday night circus,” said Worthington. “I can wave my magic wand and say this land use thing will have its own night.”t

Some concern had been expressed just before the trial got underway last week that witnesses were being intimidated by at least one Green supporter. Monday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi said the fact that there were “witnesses clamming up when they were free to talk before is of concern to me,” although witnesses haven’t said they’ve been threatened. Tuesday morning, Giorgi told people in the gallery she understood it was an emotional process, but she warned them not to mouth things to witnesses or make faces, or she may have them ejected from the courtroom. One witness seemed to serve as a prime example of someone whose story now is inconsistent with what

she’s previously said. San Francisco police Sergeant Kyra Delaney testified Tuesday that Haunani Tuopo had called her just hours after the shooting to say that she’d witnessed the incident, and she was “100 percent sure” that Green was the suspect. Tuopo, who’d said “she was scared and wanted to remain anonymous,” then texted Delaney a photo of Green that had been taken the night before, Delaney said. She testified that she and another police investigator then went to San Mateo, where Officer Chris Lewis, who was familiar with Green, confirmed the man in the photo was Green. They then went to Green’s home, but they weren’t able to locate him. When Tuopo testified Monday,

though, she suggested she wasn’t certain about much related to the case. Tuopo, who was in custody, confirmed that she didn’t want to be there, and that she hadn’t appeared for court when she was supposed to last week. A warrant had been issued when she failed to show up. When Assistant District Attorney Heather Trevisan asked Tuopo if she’d seen the shooting, Tuopo took a long pause and said that she had, but she couldn’t provide any details. She said she couldn’t remember whether she recognized the shooter. Tuopo confirmed she’d contacted police soon after the incident and identified the shooter, but she didn’t know who he was, and she said

in the process of “locking down” two spaces, but that never happened. The Myriad website had also said that businesses selling chocolates, bubble tea, puppy pate, bulletinspired jewelry, and clothing made in Bangladesh were hoping to open in the mall. The developers had also planned to open a butcher shop. Rosenberg said that the Myriad is “different” than other food halls in the city because they are hoping it will act as an incubator for entrepreneurs who cannot afford to open a brick and mortar store on their own. At rents between $15-$30 per square foot and spaces as small as 75 square feet, the new mall should give more people “a chance to get

started in the Castro,” he said. Rosenberg said some of the other malls also charge business owners an additional fee, based on their revenues, which the Myriad doesn’t do. Elyse Thogerson moved her juice bar, Raw – A Juice Company, from the Second Act on Haight Street over to the Myriad. Thogerson, who is straight, has named half the raw juice drinks after gay bars in the city. “I’ve been here a long time and feel like a part of the gay community,” she said. Thogerson said she learned how to juice in her 24 years bartending in the city. For Chris Joseph, Homestead Cookies was his first brick and mortar, after selling his chocolate chip

cookies online, at several North Beach restaurants, and at music festivals. Joseph, who bakes the cookies at a commissary in Hunter’s Point, is also selling soft serve ice cream and will team up with neighbor vender CRO to put together an affogato (espresso and ice cream). Joseph, who works full time as an event producer, developed the cookie recipe after years of experimentation. “There’s a mystery ingredient,” he said. For fans of craft beer, the San Francisco Brewing Company’s Tap Room offers eight different beers on draft, which will be delivered daily from the brewery. It consists of their three flagship beers Broadway IPA,

Marina Blonde, and Alcatraz Amber, with two others, the Marina Blond and Miner’s Sourdough Sour. Two more draft beers will be featured from small independent breweries and there will also be a rotating cider. Born and raised in the Philippines, husband and wife Jay and Claudine Dava decided in 2011 that they wanted to bring Filipino street food to the Bay Area. Since then, Antonik’s BBQ – named after their two children, Anton and Nikki – has served pork skewers, pork and chicken rice plates and barbecue sandwiches throughout the region. In addition to its booth at the Myriad, Antonik’s sells at events throughout the Bay Area.t

SF Pride membership at the annual general meeting, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 17. Theme suggestions should be emailed to theme@sfpride.org by Tuesday, August 9. For a list of past SF Pride themes, and more information, visit http://www.sfpride.org/ theme-suggestions/.

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener also praised the project, and noted that there used to be an unsanctioned trail “that wasn’t particularly safe or environmentally friendly.”

August 1966, three years before the more famous Stonewall riots in New York City. Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin was a hangout for trans people, drag queens, hair fairies (effeminate street queens of the 1960s), and gay street hustlers. But on that August night, they fought back against police harassment. The full series is open to the public. Kicking off the anniversary will be a queer history walking tour and reception Thursday, July 28 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Tenderloin Museum, 398 Eddy Street. Admission is $5. Trans activist Felicia Elizondo, who was featured in a documentary about the riots, will give a talk about the Tenderloin in the 1960s Thursday, August 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th Street in the Castro. Admission is free for museum members and $5 for non-members. Also at the GLBT History Museum Tuesday, August 16 will be an art launch and artist talk by ceramic artist Nicki Green and interdisciplinary artist Chris Vargas. Green is producing commemorative Compton’s coffee mugs, while Vargas is hand-screening a numbered set of T-shirts from his own design. The event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and is free of museum mem-

bers and $5 for non-members. Additional events are planned for August and September. For more information, visit http://www. glbthistory.org (click on “Museum” button).

4 City Councilman Jesse Arreguin, a former aide to Worthington. Berkeley uses a ranked-choice voting system, allowing voters to rank their first, second and third choice candidates in both mayoral and council races. Worthington told the B.A.R. that he and Arreguin have agreed to form what he called “a candidate coalition and a political partnership” in the race. Each will be asking their supporters to also vote for their council colleague on the ballot in an effort to use the ranked-choice system to their advantage. “We are encouraging people to vote for both of us,” said Worthington, adding that he doesn’t care if voters choose him as their first or second choice. “I would be happy either way.” Arreguin did not respond to a request for comment by press time Wednesday morning. According to his campaign website, he has the

endorsement of one of his council colleagues, District 3 Councilman Max Anderson. Capitelli, considered a more moderate council member, has secured the endorsement of Bates as well as four of his council colleagues, including gay Councilman Darryl Moore and lesbian Councilwoman Lori Droste. Judy Appel, a lesbian who serves on the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education, is also backing his mayoral bid.

Then, she said, “shots rang out, and as we started scattering, I saw Mel drop to the ground, and we scattered over to her side.” The first shots were followed by “a lot” more, she said. Cohen-Carson’s description of the shooter was similar to what other witnesses shared: A tall man with a long-sleeve black shirt, long hair, and distinctive eyebrows. She said a man in surveillance video who’s been identified as Green was the shooter. The footage is from Club Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street, which is near the parking lot where Warren was killed and where many of the witnesses had been. Video footage played repeatedly in court shows Green leaving the club just before the shooting.

‘Clamming up’

New SF trail opens

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department officially opened the Beacon Trail last week, connecting Walter Haas Park to Billy Goat Hill. The trail project was community-driven, with support from the Friends of Walter Haas Park and the Diamond Heights Community Association, according to Rec and Park officials. The $147,000 project was made possible by the Open Space Fund Undesignated Contingency Reserve, and connects the two parks with 680 feet of trail – composed of 560 feet of earthen trail and 120 feet of box steps. “This improvement project allows families increased access to the basketball courts at Walter Haas and the incredible trails and view from Billy Goat Hill,” Phil Ginsburg, Rec and Park general manager, said in a news release.

Precedent

There is precedent for candidates successfully using ranked-choice voting to block an opponent. In the 2010 Oakland mayoral race, Jean Quan sought to be the second or third choice of supporters of the other candidates in the race, especially of those backing lesbian City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan. The strategy worked, and Quan was able to defeat the more moder-

Prague Pride fundraiser

A fundraiser and send off party for Prague Pride organizers will be held Tuesday, July 26 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Pilsner Inn, 225 Church Street in San Francisco. Supported by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, “Czechia for Equality” will feature a raffle with Sister Roma, Czech beer, and other surprises. Special guests will include Willem van der Bas and Czeslaw Walek of Prague Pride, who have been in San Francisco for several weeks before heading back to the Czech Republic. Donations will be accepted at the door, or people can contribute at http://www.friendsofpraguepride.org.

Events mark 50th anniversary of Compton’s riot

Next month marks the 50th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot and two organizations are planning events around the milestone. While the exact date has been lost to history, the Compton’s Cafeteria riot happened in San Francisco in

See page 14 >>

Deadline soon for ‘Hearts’ artist submissions

The San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s annual “Hearts in San Francisco” project is now accepting artist submissions for the 2017 series. Designs by upand-coming artists as well as those whose work is featured in the new Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are welcome to apply. In February the selected “heartworks” will be auctioned, with proceeds benefiting the programs at Zuckerberg SF General. Since 2004 the program has raised more than $15 million for the foundation and hospital programs. Artists can propose a design for either a large heart, table-top heart, or mini heart. Artists interested in applying must submit an completed application and full-color design rendering (8.5 inches by 11 inches or larger) by Monday August 1. Artwork guidelines, official regulations, and the application are available at http://www.sfghf.org/ createaheart.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

SF LGBT theater

From page 1

The revamp is scheduled to last two months and finish by September 15. The public reveal is being timed to the theater’s planned 35th anniversary celebration it is holding Saturday, October 1. Its new season will kick off days later. Although Hodgen described the work as “a fairly small renovation” that involves “primarily new carpeting and paint,” it is the most extensive work the theater has undertaken outside of remodeling the interiors of its two smaller theaters and main theater. “We are looking forward to how our patrons will react and how our students will react,” said Hodgen, as the theater runs various programs for budding youth actors. CoBuild Construction Services,

Shooting death

From page 13

she didn’t recognize him in court. (Giorgi said Tuopo would be released after her testimony.) In her testimony, Delaney also said that surveillance video showed a white Chevrolet Suburban registered to Green’s father leaving the parking lot 15 to 20 minutes before the shooting.

Jock Talk

From page 12

support LGBT Ugandans in the other aspects of their identity: as athletes, or artists, and as businesspeople. When people are successful – no matter what their passion – then their sexual orientation and gender identity are less important to those around them who might otherwise stigmatize them. People respect them for who they are and it is easier for them to be more visible about their LGBT status. “Supporting LGBT athletes across the world is an underutilized form of activism that can increase both a sense of community among members of a team, and also give individuals on that team greater support to be more visible in their larger communities and with their families,” Freeman added. And quite frankly, the Uganda squad seems loaded with winners.

Gay, GOP tension

From page 8

petition from the District of Columbia delegation, seeking an open convention because she thinks the “delegates should be able to play a role in the process of nominating.” “I don’t like the idea the convention is just pre-scripted and predetermined,” she said, adding that she doesn’t plan to vote for Trump in November. “His rhetoric, his principles, his policies – to the degree that he ever talks about them – are simply not in line with my own,” said Hoff. “There are, of course, issues that we agree on, but the kind of leadership that he has indicated that he would exercise as president is a form of divisive leadership, in my view, and not one that would bring the country together. “The party is useful to the degree it advances what any individual believes in,” explained Hoff. During the Tuesday morning show, a woman from Columbia, South Carolina, called in to say that Hoff seemed like “a really nice lady, but the platform is not for enshrining a vice like gambling or the lifestyles of gay and lesbian as a sacrament and that’s why I don’t think that belongs in a platform.” Hoff said she takes issue with referring to homosexuality as a “vice,” and said she only wants to “enshrine what’s best in human nature and in our country as well and, for me, all I ask is for the freedom to live my

based in Castro Valley, is handling the build out. The theater last year partnered with El Cerrito-based FOG Studio, led by architects Tiffany Redding and Brandon Marshall, to design the remodel. The firm donated its services through a program known as 1-Plus, which challenges designers to dedicate 1 percent or more of their working hours to pro bono service and connects nonprofits with pro bono design services. On its website, it described the theater lobby project as using “colorful wayfinding” and introducing different “scales” to the space. “The design also opens up what is currently a very crowded lobby space before, during and after shows,” it explained. “The mission is to create a place where theatre patrons will dwell, bring their kids and

support the center’s mission.” In an interview this week, Redding said they at first explored a speakeasy vibe for the underground space. But since the theater company attracts as many youth as it does adult patrons, they opted for a more modern take. “It ended up fitting them better. It is a really clean, fresh look for the interior,” she said. “It had last been worked on in the 1980s. We wanted to really strip away all those angles and muddy colors.” Andrew Jordan Nance, a past director of the theater who now sits on its board, told the Bay Area Reporter he is confident the project will achieve those goals. “The lobby and bar remodel will create a space that is current, welcoming, and have a much better flow to it than ever before,” said Nance.t

Some described one key car involved in the incident as a black Chrysler 300, but descriptions of the car varied. After Cohen-Carson’s testimony, she and Amanda Buckley, Warren’s mother, held each other for several moments. Buckley, who’s been present throughout the trial, sometimes wept as witnesses described her daughter’s killing.

At one point, though, she told the Bay Area Reporter, “I’m not scared at all. I’m here to support my child.” Several people who’ve been in court to support Green declined to comment, and Eileen Burke, Green’s attorney, told the B.A.R. to stop trying to talk to them. It’s not clear whether Green will testify in the trial, which began July 13 and is expected to continue into August.t

“Most of the athletes are activists in one way or another,” Freeman said. Diane Bakuraira works with Sexual Minorities Uganda, or SMUG, which is one of the longest-running LGBT activist groups in Uganda, noted Freeman. Clare Byarugaba is with Chapter Four, which works on legal issues and was instrumental in helping a consortium of lawyers overturn the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2014. The other three swimmers are open in other ways in the community. Sadat Kinene and Adebayo, who uses one name, are both physical trainers. “Adebayo was Mr. Pride Uganda 2015. Deb Muganzi is a singer and artist who performs with the Talented Ugandan Kuchus, a gay band (Kuchu is a slang word that the members of the LGBT community in Uganda use to refer to themselves),” Freeman said. Bakuraira trained on the national team but was never allowed to compete.

“The world has low perceptions of LGBT people and of Africans,” she said. “We want to show that we can compete.” Locally, San Francisco Tsunami’s Jeremy Davidson has been working with Freeman and other IGLA leaders on the effort. SF Tsunami has pledged to match any individual member donation up to $500 to help with the Ugandans’ travel and incidental expenses. To donate, visit http://www.igla. org/2016/07/out-and-proud-swimmers-in-uganda/ and write “IGLA Uganda” in the notes section. The IGLA championships are August 9-14 in Edmonton, with indoor events held at Kinsmen Sports Centre and the open water swim being held at Lake Summerside. For more information, visit http://www.igla2016.org. For more information about SF Tsunami, visit http://www.sftsunami.org.t

life as who I am, the freedom to love who I love, and the rights and protections the government grants to my heterosexual friends.” Outside the convention arena, scuffles broke out throughout the day, between pro-Trump supporters and protesters unhappy with his positions on LGBT people, women, immigration, and police violence against African Americans, to name just a few. The International Business Times reported that on late Tuesday afternoon, the tensions had escalated to the point where protesters representing Black Lives Matter, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Westboro Baptist Church were fighting and throwing urine and feces at one another. The Huffington Post reported that one man with a megaphone called out that “Homos leading Black Lives Matter!” Meanwhile, Tony Schwartz, the man who ghostwrote Trump’s biography The Art of the Deal, said in the July 25 New Yorker magazine that “Lying is second-nature” to Trump and that Trump has an “absolute lack of interest in anything beyond power and money.” “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization,” said Schwartz. He also noted, as has been published before, that Trump was impressed with closeted gay attorney Roy Cohn, the right-hand man to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against communists. Trump hired

Cohn as his personal lawyer and said they were such dear friends that Cohn was “the sort of guy who’d be there at your hospital bed ... literally standing by you to the death,” Schwartz said. Cohn, said Schwartz, “felt abandoned by Trump when he became fatally ill from AIDS.” Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who signed both a “religious freedom” law and a law to prevent local jurisdictions from prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people, addressed the convention Tuesday night. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also spoke Tuesday. She vigorously defended the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, but once the U.S. Supreme Court decision was issued striking down such bans, Rutledge issued a statement saying, “The decision must be followed.” Also speaking Tuesday night was former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who reversed an earlier decision by the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush to prevent LGBT employee groups from using DOJ bulletin boards and email to distribute information about their meetings. House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wisconsin) spoke to the delegates, as did New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a failed 2016 presidential candidate, who led a mock prosecution of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her alleged misdeeds, encouraging the crowd to pronounce her “guilty” on all counts.t

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552201

In the matter of the application of: HONG THU THI NGUYEN, 1433 SILLIMAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HONG THU THI NGUYEN, is requesting that the name HONG THU THI NGUYEN, be changed to MILEY NGUYEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 16th of August 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037122400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ONE BOILING POT, 1155 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DIANE J. CHEUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/16.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037148300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO BAY COMPUTER SERVICES, 4736 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed EDUARDO SANCHEZ & MICHAEL POHLABLE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/22/16.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037143900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KINGDOM RICE, 1337 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO LIGHTHOUSE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/16.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037152800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PSYCHIC HORIZONS, 970 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHURCH OF NATURAL GRACE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/18/81. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/16.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037146600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNLIMITED AUTO TITLE LOAN, 1315 23RD AVE. #212 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LINCOLN EASY CASH (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 06/21/16.

JUNE 30, JULY 07, 14, 21, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037160400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOE’S PICKLES, 46 SEWARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH NORTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037147400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIMAVERA REALTY, 60 GOLETA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VERA KOPILENKO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037163100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARMIN HAMMER PRODUCTIONS, 2200 CESAR CHAVEZ ST #99, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GARY STEVEN HOBISH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037161300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037134800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A & M TOWING SERVICE, 150 TOLAND ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOMAS CHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/09/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037151300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WICKED STICKY, 2636 JUDAH ST #135, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NATIVE ROOTS COOPERATIVE 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 06/24/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037165900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NAMI, 1830 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed R & L VENTURES LLC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/05/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037141300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCESS BIOPHARMA TRAINING, LLC, 660 4TH ST #323, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ACCESS BIOPHARMA TRAINING, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/12/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/14/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036542100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: A & M TOWING SERVICE, 150 TOLAND ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ALSON HO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/15.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552231

In the matter of the application of: TINA BHUTANI, 350 EWING TERRACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TINA BHUTANI, is requesting that the name TINA BHUTANI, be changed to TINA BHUTANIJACQUES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 30th of August 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037145400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: N3XT, 340 PAGE ST #207, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT J. THOMAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037170700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VILLA AROMA, 801 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID CHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037171000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WORKERS RIGHTS LAW OFFICE, 360 RITCH ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL DAVID NELSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037146400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXCEPTIONAL SENIOR PLACEMENT SERVICES, 3757 WEBSTER ST #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID COHEN. 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 07/01/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NORTH BEACH PSYCHIC, 527 COLUMBUS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HOLLY MARKS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/16.

JULY 07, 14, 21, 28, 2016

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037163500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FUELING STATION, 2436 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LILLIAN W. WONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037153400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARIEL EXPRESS #2, 2359 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARTA S. FIGUEROA. 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 06/27/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037077700

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GREEN SPA & NAIL, 347 JUDAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by MUI CHANH VONG. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037171400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREEN SPA & NAIL, 347 JUDAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed HAO KIM LAM & HOANG CHUC PHUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037145900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PICCIONE FLOREALE, 1254 MASON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed GENNARO PICCIONE & BELEM PICCIONE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/20/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/20/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS - GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Carpet Cleaning Services, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M4510, on or about July 17, 2016, with proposals due by 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, August 23, 2016.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED

The District is soliciting proposals from contractors to provide carpet cleaning services for the District’s Administration Offices at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612 and the District Board Room at 344 20th Street, Third Floor, Oakland, CA 94612 in accordance with the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration (IICRC) Certification Standards. All service performed shall be done in accordance with the revised ANSI/IICRC 2015 Standard and its accompanied R100 Reference Guide for professional carpet cleaning. The awarded Agreement will be for a base term of three (3) years, with options to renew for two (2) additional one-year periods, exercisable by the District at its sole discretion.

REQUIRED REGISTRATION ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL

In order for prospective Proposers to be eligible for award of an Agreement being solicited on the BART Procurement Portal, such Proposers are required to be currently registered to do business with BART on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https:// suppliers.bart.gov and have obtained Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on line so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation. If a prospective Proposer is a joint venture or partnership, such entity may register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s tax identification number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an on-line planholder under the entity’s name prior to submitting its Proposal. If such entity has not registered on BART Procurement Portal in the name of the joint venture or partnership prior to submitting its Proposal, provided that at least one of the joint venturers or partners registered on line on the BART Procurement Portal and downloaded the Solicitation Documents so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation, such entity will be required to register with the entity’s TIN as an on-line planholder following the submittal of Proposals, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement. PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON THE BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, (OR FOR JOINT VENTURE OR PARTNERSIP AS DESCRIBED ABOVE PRIOR TO AWARD) AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ON-LINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. A Pre-Proposal Meeting, Networking Session and Facilities Tour will be held on Thursday, July 28, 2016. The meeting will convene promptly at 10 A.M. at the District’s Offices, in Conference Room No.1700, 17th Floor, at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting will be explained. All questions regarding the RFP should be directed to Ms. Irene Gray, Procurement Department at (510) 464-6390 or email: igray@bart.gov. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, Networking Session and Facilities Tour. Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a proposal shall constitute a firm offer to the District for One Hundred and Eighty (180) calendar days from the date of proposal submission. Dated at Oakland, California this 14th day of July, 2016. /S/ Jacqueline R. Edwards Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 7/21/16 CNS-2904086# BAY AREA REPORTER

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037151400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOE VALLEY SMILES AND BRACES; NOE VALLEY SMILES & BRACES; NOE VALLEY SMILES FOR KIDS, 3932 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JAFARI DMD INC. AND SIAMAK JAFARI DENTAL CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/24/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037146700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MONCLER, 212 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MONCLER USA RETAIL LLC (NY). 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 06/21/16.

JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037170800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIMONCELLO, 1400 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ALIMENTO, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/16.

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

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JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037155300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONNIE’S BEAUTY SALON, 5011 GEARY BLVD APT C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIAHUA ZHENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/28/16.

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037169800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DREAMSCAPES, 980 TERESITA BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUSAN LANDRY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/16.

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037181700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NAAN N CURRY, 2154 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALMEER FOOD INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/16.

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037172600

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JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037172901

The Bay Area Reporter reaches more LGBT consumers than any other advertising medium in the nine county San Francisco Bay Area.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEADS FIRST SALON; H F SALON, 1700 A UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed LINETTE WATSON & GEORGE WATSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/12/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/16.

We’re also proud to be the only LGBT print publication with both an audited and verified circulation. Call (415) 861-5019 to market your business to more than 120,000 Bay Area readers.

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037152000

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WEST HALYARD, 924 MINNESOTA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAPITO LIFE TECHNOLOGIES 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 07/12/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE JELLY BUS; THE PIANO BUS, 171 COLERIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ABACAXI, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/27/16.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HALAL SF GYRO, 1301 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MUHAMMAD AKMAL KHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/18/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HALAL SF GYRO, 1390 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MUHAMMAD AKMAL KHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/18/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/18/16.

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JULY 14, 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037181500

JULY 21, 28, AUGUST 04, 11, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037181400

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An Open Letter to the CDC on PrEP Four years ago on July 16, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of Truvada for the prevention of HIV, which is also known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)1. In a report released by Gilead Sciences on June 20, 2016, they revealed the following information: 1. 49,148 total cumulative prescriptions for Truvada as PrEP have been filled based on data reported by 82% of all pharmacies. While it is unknown how many people who were originally prescribed the drug are still on it, based on adherence information in previous studies, no more than half the people actually took the drug on any type of consistent basis2. Therefore, we estimate that about 25,000 are still taking Truvada for prevention. Of these patients 79% were men or about 20,000. (MSM). 2. We are assuming almost all of these 20,000 are men who have sex with men (MSM). Studies estimate that there are 4,875,000 MSM3—or 3.9% of the 125 million adult men in the US. As a result, we can conclude that less than .04% of MSM are taking Truvada for PrEP. CDC has suggested that 1.2 million men4 should be on PrEP but doctors and patients are not responding to that call in large numbers. PrEP cannot be a major factor in preventing HIV when so few people are on it. On the other hand recent studies indicate that 60% of MSM use condoms regularly5, based on last sex among HIV-negative MSM. 3. African-Americans are 12% of the US population but are 44% of new HIV infections6. However, they are only 10% of people on PrEP. Young people are most at risk for new HIV infections, but made up only 7.6% of PrEP prescriptions. Whites represent 27% of new infections but made up 74% of those on PrEP. The men who are taking PrEP are those least at risk from HIV. 4. PrEP does not protect people from STDs. The rapid rise in rates of STDs such as syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea7 indicate that fewer people are using condoms and suggesting the need to reinvigorate safer sex campaigns, which have suffered greatly as a result of the CDC's almost exclusive focus on PrEP. 5. The wide-scale advertising promotions of Truvada for PrEP by AIDS organizations and community groups funded by the manufacturer Gilead Sciences gives the impression that PrEP is very popular even though the raw numbers tell another story. Based on the large number of men who say they are on PrEP on hook-up sites such as Grindr, it would appear that they are seeking unprotected sex whether they take the drug or not.

The CDC is the national agency responsible for the prevention of HIV and other STDs. As such, we call on you to re-balance your prevention efforts to align with what patients want and need so that we can achieve better success in preventing new infections. Thank you. AIDS Healthcare Foundation Food and Drug Administration. (2012). FDA approves first drug for reducing the risk of sexually acquired HIV infection. Retrieved online: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm312210.htm Cohen SE et al. (2014). Implementation of PrEP in STD Clinics: High Uptake and Drug Detection Among MSM in the Demonstration Project. 21st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Retrieved online: http://www.croiconference.org/sessions/implementation-prep-std-clinics-high-uptake-and-drug-detection-among-msm-demo-project 3 Jones JM. (22 June 2016). Same-Sex Marriages Up One Year After Supreme Court Verdict. Gallup. Retrieved online: http://www.gallup.com/poll/193055/sex-marriages-one-year-supreme-court-verdict.aspx 4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (24 November 2015). Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: Daily Pill Prevents HIV – New CDC estimates underscore the need to increase awareness of a daily pill that can prevent HIV infection. Retrieved online: http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/t1124-hivprep.html 5 Paz-Bailey G et al. (2016). Trends in condom use among men who have sex with men in the United States: The role of antiretroviral therapy and sero-adaptive strategies. AIDS. 6 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (November 2015). Diagnoses of HIV Infection in the United States and Dependent Areas, 2014. Retrieved online: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-us.pdf 7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (17 November 2015). Reported Cases of Sexually Transmitted Diseases on the Rise, Some at Alarming Rate. Retrieved online: http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2015/std-surveillance-report-press-release.html 1 2

Showgirls! The Column!

California mindset

Out &About

Better angels

O&A

Vol. 46 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Jewisuhm ps ectr MoreFab than ever!

David Appleby, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Jennifer Saunders as Edina and Joanna Lumley as Patsy in the film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

hey’re back, sweetie darlings! Edina and Patsy, those larger-than-life trendsetters, have returned. This time they’re on the big screen, which is only fitting when one considers their big personalities. It’s hard to believe that the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous has been around for 25 years. The series has amassed a devoted worldwide following, a fan base that includes

a sizable number of gay men. Ab Fab, as devotees call it, follows the madcap adventures of Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), a boozy, drug-addicted PR agent who chases after bizarre fads in a desperate, delusional attempt to stay “young” and “hip.” Edina gets plenty of enabling from Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), a magazine editor whose substance abuse is far worse than Edina’s. The ladies See page 26 >>

`Looking’ back at male H intimacy

Scene from director Michal Vinik’s Israeli lesbian teen romance Blush.

by David Lamble

dition # 36 of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival unfolds July 21-Aug. 7 at venues around the Bay: the Castro Theatre (July 21-31), Berkeley’s Roda Theatre (July 29-Aug. 4), Oakland’s Piedmont Theatre (Aug. 5-7), Palo Alto’s Cinearts (July 23-28), and San Rafael’s Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (Aug. 5-7). The SFJFF programmers have traditionally

by David-Elijah Nahmod

BO will premiere Looking: The Movie, the feature-length finale to its shortlived comedy-drama about a closeknit group of 30-ish gay men in San Francisco, on July 23. Over two seasons, 18 episodes were produced.

sought to broaden our knowledge of Jewish history and culture, and provide timely updates from troubled parts of the globe. The film fest has also always been an excellent source of LGBT history. This year is no exception, which Michal Vinik’s passionate Israeli lesbian teen romance Blush proves in entertaining fashion. Blush At times silly, profound and wise, this little fable ignites with a 17-year-old’s crush on a cute blonde classmate. Naama gets hooked on hard-partying, flirtatious Dana, who’s better at the tease than at the squeeze. Naama’s family is a trip unto itself, with a mostly silent, jug-eared baby brother and a hot-tempered See page 22 >>

Since its January 2014 premiere, Looking kept looking for its audience. Though generally well-received by the press, the ratings were low. The target gay male community for whom the show was made largely shunned the series. Many in the gay community felt that the series was dull, and that the cast lacked diversity.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

SFJFF

See page 18 >>

Looking: The Movie cast members, including Frankie J. Alvarez, right, at the film’s premiere at the Castro Theatre. Steven Underhill

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Maestro on the beach by Roberto Friedman

Ling cycle

WINNER Best Wedding Photographer

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PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

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et’s catch up a bit with the world of high culture since we’ve been otherwise engaged during the onslaught and aftermath of Pride month. In June, conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin was named new Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, effective 2020. Was the classical music world abuzz when word of this dropped? We turned to our insider friend Classical Cliff. “In my time ‘in the biz’ I’ve not seen a story fall flatter. First of all, no one was the least surprised. And both The New York Times and [music critic] Alex Ross weighed in with big doubts, which I share, about N-S’ artistic creds. “Little Miss Zachary [Woolfe, NYT classical music editor] has been particularly loud about his misgivings, as I’m sure you know. He tweeted this picture [above] of ‘Your new music director with his boyfriend on the beach.’ What I don’t know is whether he put it in the paper [he didn’t], but I suspect it’s on Twitter because he didn’t or couldn’t. Anyway, what matters at this point is that the queens are at it.” Their own press materials indicate there have been only two previous Music Directors in the Met’s 133year history: James Levine, who after 40 years in the position stepped down at the end of last season to become the company’s first Music Director Emeritus; and Rafael Kubelik, who held the title briefly in the company’s 197374 season. “Nezet-Seguin will assume the interim title of Music Director Designate in the Met’s 2017-18 season, and become Music Director in the 2020-21 season, when he’ll have artistic authority over the company’s orchestra, chorus, and music staff, and will work in tandem with Met

<< C

CMY

Courtesy Twitter

Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, named new Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, with his boyfriend on the beach.

General Manager Peter Gelb to oversee the planning and casting of each Met season, including repertoire choices, new productions, revivals, and commissions. He will initially conduct five different operas each season, as well as concerts with the Met Orchestra. Next season at the Met, he will conduct his first Wagner opera with the company, a revival of Der Fliegende Holländer.” But what we really want to know is, what SPF sunscreen does the maestro use to protect that porcelain skin? Moving on to other musical news, the 200-voice San Francisco Choral Society, under the artistic direction of Robert Geary, will perform Giuseppe Verdi’s magnificent Requiem at Davies Symphony Hall in SF on Fri. & Sat., Aug. 19 & 20, in 8 p.m. performances. Maestro Geary has brought in as his soloists soprano Hope Briggs, contralto Edith Dowd, tenor Noah Stewart and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu. The 60-piece California Chamber Symphony will accompany. Tickets: (415)-392-4400 or cityboxoffice.com.

Last weekend the luxurious Hakkasan nightclub-eatery in downtown SF invited us to try their new Evolution of Ling Ling cocktail flight and dim sum pairing. We brought our better half Pepi, who, being a teetotaler, had our handsome bartender make him a right nice virgin. As if. First up for Out There was a delectable alcoholic drink called the Bitter Fortune, which combined Tanqueray No. 10 gin, the Italian aperitif Aperol, rhubarb liqueur, pink grapefruit and peach bitters. It paired nicely with a right tasty venison puff, and represented the city of London, where Hakkasan started. Then came the Golden Mare: again that very fine No. 10 gin, Aperol, rhubarb liqueur, the same two bitters, plus Pernod, rosemary, basil and pineapple. Paired with a crispy duck roll, the additional greenery and tropicalia in the drink are meant to evoke Mykonos, where Hakkasan maintains its Grecian outpost. Finally we tucked into the Chili Coupette, composed of the same first five ingredients, with chili, cardamom, peppermint and passion fruit, paired with a savory sesame prawn toast. This last impressive libation evoked sensory impressions of Morocco, in order to celebrate the Hakkasan opening there in Marrakech this autumn. Gin is OT’s lubricant of choice, and No. 10 is among the finest we know. We abide folks who can’t abide the spirit – a friend says, “Gin tastes like fermented Scotch Tape!” To which we say, “That’s just why we like it.” The Ling Ling flight/pairing will be available for lunch and dinner service at the bar at Hakkasan San Francisco through Aug. 31. The three cocktails appear in darling custom-made smaller stemware, suitable for martini-drinking toddlers. For $30, the three mini-drinks with their yummy dim sum accompaniments make for rather a nice deal at such a glamorous spot.t

Looking

From page 17

“This is the best show you’re not watching,” wrote The Wall Street Journal, while BBC’s Keith Uhlich opined that Looking “is one of the most revolutionary depictions of gay life ever on TV – and that’s because it makes it totally ordinary.” “I know the numbers were not there,” Frankie J. Alvarez, who played the bumbling but lovable artist Augustin in both seasons, told the B.A.R. “We were telling stories about male intimacy. Looking was about forwarding the medium.” Alvarez said that the cast and crew were “shocked and dismayed” when HBO decided to pull the plug, but the network’s agreement to produced a feature-length film in order to give the storylines a proper finale helped to soften the blow. “We got together, got drunk, and mourned,” Alvarez recalled. “Then we rallied and came back together for the movie. Everyone came back.” Alvarez pointed out that Looking’s primary goal was to show positive images of gay men who were fully integrated into their communities. “We didn’t want to show any gay men who were victimized or marginalized,” he said. “We were dismayed that a lot of our detractors were from within the LGBT community. To have the biggest rocks come from the community was hurtful.” Alvarez feels that this may have been because LGBT people still aren’t used to seeing realistic images of themselves in mainstream entertainment. “For so long gay men turned to Golden Girls and Sex and the City,” he said. “Those women were conduits because there wasn’t a history of gays on screen. Looking

Steven Underhill

Looking: The Movie cast members at the film’s premiere at the Castro Theatre.

was a first step. Hopefully doors will continue to open.” Alvarez said that he couldn’t reveal too much about the film. “I’m sworn to secrecy,” he said. “The film is set 10 months after the series’ end. Patrick [Jonathan Groff] comes back to town for a life-changing event. Augustin is in a crisis – he understands the repercussions of his past behavior, and is now becoming the thing he fears most.” A screener of the film was made available to the B.A.R. We’re happy to report that there are no loose ends as the storylines conclude. Both Patrick and Augustin do a great deal of self-reflection as the film unfolds, and beautifully resolve their inner turmoil. The final scene might be the ending that Looking devotees had hoped for. Looking: the Movie will feel familiar to San Francisco viewers, as the film, like the series, was shot on location in and around the city. When Patrick meets with ex-boss/ ex-boyfriend Kevin (Russell Tovey) for a heartfelt attempt at resolving their feelings for each other, they stand in front of the Bank of America

building at the corner of Market St. and Van Ness Ave. After they say their goodbyes, Kevin steps into the familiar entrance of the intersection’s Muni underground station. Other locations include the beloved SoMa bar The Stud, where iconic local activist Cleve Jones appears as himself in a cameo. The Stud sequence is particularly moving in light of the owner’s recently announced plans to sell the venue. And when our heroes go out to eat, their choice of restaurants is none other than beloved Orphan Andy’s in the Castro. The film’s final fade-out is a lovely shot of the famed Castro Theatre marquee around the corner. Alvarez said that he loved every moment he spent in the city bringing these scenes to Looking fans. As he prepares for his appearance in Bathing in the Moonlight, a new play about a Cuban-American family, Alvarez hoped Looking: The Movie pulls in bigger numbers than the series did, and leads to more reunion films. He noted that “life-changing friendships” happened both on and off the screen. “I see the love we have for each other burning on the screen,” he said.t

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<< Theatre

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Murder among the moviemakers by Richard Dodds

here is smart and then there is smart-aleck, and these twains meet with joyful friction in City of Angels. The 1989 Broadway musical is a Hollywood satire, both of the sausage-making process of getting a script onto the screen and, in alternating scenes, what that movie would look like once it made it to the screen. An actual movie editor would seem to have it easy next to the challenge of staging the material live, where the two worlds must exist together in real time and in the flesh. Musicals have not been a particular forte of San Francisco Playhouse, but its production of City of Angels is a game-changer. This is a musical that needs sharp-as-a-tack skills in every department, and that sharpness can be found throughout the production. Let’s start with the elaborate set by director Bill English that has the “real” world of moviemaking downstage, and a second upstage proscenium that represents a movie screen where all the sets, props, and costumes are devoid of color for the black-and-white film being shot. An actress might be in a red dress downstage in one moment before reappearing moments later upstage in a black frock via Melissa Torchia’s period costumes of the 1940s that feature lots of broad shoulders, clingy satins, and class-climbing overstatement. The di-chromatic worlds are a clever touch provided

Jessica Palopoli

Brandon Dahlquist, left, plays a movie character and Jeffrey Brian Adams his screenwriting creator in City of Angels, in which real and reel worlds collide at SF Playhouse.

by the musical’s creators, and director English’s staging makes smooth the transitions that could be lumpy. There isn’t much full-out dancing in this musical, but it wouldn’t be surprising if choreographer Morgan Dayley’s work also extended to the charmingly well-honed bits that have the movie’s characters run in reverse whenever a scene gets rewritten. The story of an idealistic writer sucked into the philistine maw of the Hollywood machinery is hardly new to City of Angels. But Larry Gelbart, whose works include A Funny Thing Happened … on Broadway, MASH on television, and Tootsie

in the movies, lets the story mock its own cliches while coming up with dialogue that has uncommon zing. The songs by composer Cy Coleman and lyricist David Zippel pull from the sounds of the 1940s, with an unpredictable mix of pop, jazz, swing, and a crooning quartet that slides in and out of the action. Their flavors always seem right for the moment, and the small orchestra led by musical director David Dobrusky has a big, assured sound.

This story and these songs need savvy guidance, which English provides in his direction, and the cast is in harmony with both the sung and spoken material. City of Angels actually has dual, and sometimes dueling, leading men. There are a bookish screenwriter and the tough-talking gumshoe hero from his novel that he is under contract to adapt, hoping not to have to completely sell his soul in the process. Jeffrey Brian Adams has a quiet strength as Stine, the writer threatened to be broken by the studio system, while Brandon Dahlquist creates the writer’s alter ego, Stone, and he confidently captures the comic exaggerations of the Dashiell Hammett-style private eye without losing a charismatic connection to the character. The conflicting personalities of writer and character come to a head as the two performers put across the insistent rhythms of “You’re Nothing Without Me,” which brings down the first-act curtain with confident flair. Adams and Dahlquist stick with their individual characters throughout, but there is double casting in other main roles, with characters from the real world reflected in the fun-house mirror of the reel world. Among these performers, Nanci Zoppi is perhaps best at capturing

the parallel moods as the caustic wife of the movie’s producer and as the calculating dame who hires Stone to find her missing stepdaughter. Ryan Drummond plays only a corpse in the movie, but makes abundant use of his stage time as the crude movie producer with a gift for mixed metaphors and a ruthless editor’s pencil. Monique Haffen finds riches in the role of the producer’s misused secretary and as the private eye’s pining Gal Friday, with both getting a chance at the woe-is-me power ballad “You Can Always Count on Me.” Haffen also has a second big song, “What You Don’t Know About Women,” this one effectively shared with Caitlan Taylor, who plays Stine’s sensible wife and Stone’s long-lost love. City of Angels had a healthy original Broadway run and won that season’s Tony Award for best musical, but there was a notion that it was just a little too smart to go the megahit route. But its size, style, and sophistication are right at home at SF Playhouse, which can now add musicals to its honor roll.t City of Angels will run through Sept. 17 at San Francisco Playhouse. Tickets ($20-$125): call (415) 677-9596 or go to sfplayhouse. org.

Hiding the gay on the French Riviera by Richard Dodds

ay Area Musicals is ending its freshman season with La Cage aux Folles, a step further up the ladder toward a professional shine. Its first two productions, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Hair, showed a fledgling company still finding its way. There are still more steps to be taken for the company to establish itself as a viable artistic endeavor, but more of the talent and resources toward that end have been corralled for the current production at the Victoria Theatre. Despite its enormous popularity, La Cage aux Folles is not a particularly quick-witted musical, and the humor that librettist Harvey Fierstein derived from a French play by Jean Poiret, better known for its screen adaptations, is often broad and obvious. But it can work well enough as part of the musical’s boisterous context, and director-choreographer Matthew McCoy and the cast he has assembled are often hitting the right notes, but amid other crucial scenes that don’t quite take flight. Before proceeding, a technical note must be highlighted because it undermines far too much of the considerable effort that has obviously gone into the production. The sound is abysmal, echoing around the auditorium, undermining punchlines and leaving segments of dialogue barely decipherable. You might think to blame the venue’s acoustics, but other companies have brought in sound systems to the Victoria that raised no audible objections. You only have to look back to Ray of Light Theatre’s recent production of The Wild Party for an example. Where the production works best is not so much in the spectacle that surrounds the story but at its intimate heart. You probably know that it’s a tale of longtime gay partners who run a nightclub on the French Riviera, with the couldpass-for-straight Georges managing the operation and the no-chancefor-passing Albin as the headliner billed as Zaza. The comedy moves into farce when Jean-Michel, the son that Georges inadvertently sired

Ben Krantz

Clay David and Michael RJ Campbell play longtime lovers who run a drag nightclub in Bay Area Musicals’ production of La Cage aux Folles at the Victoria Theatre.

24 years before, wants to bring his fiancee home with her conservative parents. That means de-gaying the decor and de-gaying Albin, with the former much easier than the latter. Albin/Zaza is the core of the musical, exemplified by the song “I Am What I Am” from the Jerry Herman score, and Michael RJ Campbell sells this defiant anthem for all it’s worth. Campbell is also the main catalyst for making the comedy work, from his diva tantrums to his efforts to emulate John Wayne to his drag performances highlighted by a Julia Child-like appearance as a stand-in for Jean-Michel’s biological mother. Campbell has a good foil in Clay David, looking like a dapper gigolo dipped in Brylcreem, as the much more levelheaded Georges. There are performances of intermittent success from the supporting cast, including a straight-arrow Jack O’Reilly as Jean-Michel and Cameron Weston as the stodgy father of the bride. As a restaurateur-accomplice, Sarah Sloan overdoes the French accent, which actually is the only French accent to be heard. Joseph Alvarado is perhaps the performer most done in by the faulty acoustics, playing the comic butler who’d rather be a maid

and whose lines are often lost. The main disappointments of this production are the moments that have always been a highlight of the musical: the numbers of the mostly cross-dressing Cagelles who are a featured attraction at the nightclub. This group of performers almost makes up with high spirits their uneven efforts, and McCoy’s choreography, perhaps tailored to the talents available, is overly familiar. Brooke Jennings’ costumes do the Cagelles no favors, though they otherwise befit the proceedings. Kuo-Hao Lo’s set designs work fine, and the band under Joe Gallo’s direction works as well. But points do have to be taken away for prop designer Clay David’s use of paper plates in a dinner-party scene where the china has an important comic role to play. Now that the season is concluding, Bay Area Musicals will hopefully be able to build on the progress it has made through its debut efforts. The will is certainly there, and it’s time to build on the wherewithal.t La Cage aux Folles will run through July 31 at the Victoria Theatre. Tickets are $20-$65. Call (415) 340-2207 or go to bamsf.org.

Theatre>>

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Pole-dancer from the dance by Richard Dodds

CEO has hired a Santeria priest to purify the office. People of Interest describes the play as “a darkly comic fable about the cost of gentrification and the price you pay when you piss off the dead.” Campo Maldito runs July 28-Aug. 13, and info on both plays is available at theexit.org.

ovies that are so bad that they’re good, a familiar refrain, are actually a rare breed. Most really bad movies commit the worst sin of all. They’re just boring. But the 1995 movie Showgirls became an instant archetype of the so-badso-good genre. Reviewing the movie for The New York Times 21 years ago, Janet Maslin wrote that it is “an instant camp classic ... a demonstration of how coarseness and uninvited laughter can have anti-aphrodisiac effects on even the smuttiest of stories.” If the Times was not aroused in 1995, it was amused in 2013 when Showgirls! The Musical! opened in New York. And the reviewer had unrestrained praise for April Kidwell in the role of the good-girl-gone-poledancer that sank Elizabeth Berkley’s career. There is the good news that Showgirls! The Musical! will soon have its West Coast premiere, and the very good news that Kidwell will be reprising her role as the reluctant lap dancer Nomi Malone at the Victoria Theatre. “The coltish April Kidwell is a wonder,” said the Times in its review. “Amid an exhausting onslaught of often obvious ribaldry, she is tireless, fearless, and performs circles around Elizabeth Berkley’s portrayal in the movie.” In the story musicalized by Bob and Tobly McSmith, Nomi is tormented by a vindictive rival named Cristal Connors who is a superstar stripper in Las Vegas. It will be the formidable Peaches Christ who will co-star as Nomi’s nemesis in the SF staging. Peaches Christ Productions is teaming with the musical’s New York presenters, MediumFace Productions, for the Aug. 10-20 run at the Victoria Theatre. For the past 18 years, Peaches Christ has hosted an annual screening of Showgirls with live pre-show entertainment. “This show is an exciting new challenge for our production company,” Peaches says of its foray into a full-length show. “I’m confident we’re going to create something that doesn’t suck.” Peaches Christ, also known as Joshua Granell, is directing the local production as well as co-starring in it. Along with Kidwell, another original New York cast member, Marcus Desion, will be reprising his roll as Nomi’s best girlfriend. Those who purchase a large popcorn at the concession stand will be entitled to a personalized lap dance by one of

Beware the woodpeckers

Courtesy Peaches Christ Productions

April Kidwell will star in Showgirls! The Musical!, reprising her lauded performance from the original New York production when this send-up of the notorious 1995 movie opens at the Victoria Theatre.

Peaches’ “dude-girls,” and tips from the free lap dances will be donated to The Shanti Project. Ticket information is available at peacheschrist. com.

Summer awakening

Kate Chopin was a literary critics’ darling in the late 19th century, and as her novel The Awakening was announced for publication, they expected to read more of her descriptive language, colorful characters, and regional portraits of Louisiana Creole life. Instead she gave them a heroine who fights the chains of marriage in search of independence and sexual satisfaction. A few of the adjectives that greeted its arrival in bookstores in 1899 included morbid, poisonous, unholy, and diseased. Chopin never wrote again, and it was decades before The Awakening was recognized as the groundbreaking work it is. The Breadbox, a theater in residence at the Exit Theatre, is offering a world-premiere stage adaptation of The Awakening. Written by Oren Stevens and developed with director Ariel Craft, it begins a three-week

run at the Exit on July 29. Maria Marquis heads the cast as Edna Pontellier, married to a successful New Orleans businessman, who begins to reassess her familial duties with her desire for social freedoms after falling in love with the passionate young Robert during a family vacation. Back in New Orleans, the internal struggle continues with her longings for Robert, a brief affair with a notorious womanizer, and conflicting advice from two of her

women friends. A second play from a different theater company also begins performances the same weekend on another of the Exit’s stages. People of Interest Theatre is presenting Bennett Fisher’s Campo Maldito, a play previously seen at various theater festivals, including the Exit’s own SF Fringe Fest, where it was awarded Best of Fringe in 2014. The original cast is back for this story of an SF tech startup whose hip

Custom Made Theatre is participating in the National New Play Network’s “rolling world premiere” of Steve Yockey’s The Thrust & the Woodpecker that begins performances on Aug. 4. Yockey’s new play starts off with a familiar motherson dynamic, as various tensions arise after the son is expelled from a prestigious university and returns to live with his mother in Northern California. It’s when a mysterious woman arrives that the play veers into unexpected territories. Stacy Ross, Fontana Butterfield, and Adam Magill make up the cast of director Tracy Ward’s production. A rolling world premiere means that various theater companies can sign on to present their own stagings of the play while each maintains the enticing “world premiere” moniker. Several productions of Yockey’s play have preceded Custom Made’s, and the nature of the play’s unexpected territories has been admirably withheld by theater critics in cities where it has already played. Typical of this discretion is provided by the Dallas Voice, in a review that outlines the plot before abruptly stopping: “Saying much more would be to reveal too much of this brisk, brief, heart-racing psychological thriller that takes eerie twists and delves deep into the psyches of motherhood and revenge and obsession.” The Thrush and the Woodpecker will run through Aug. 20. Tickets are available at custommade.org.t

I am the future of the LGBT community. I was married to a wonderful woman for 30 years. Now it’s time to be who I really am. Now I’m happy, authentic, and dating a wonderful man. I read EDGE on all my devices, because I have a whole future to look forward to - and that’s where I want it to be.

Ben Calabrese

Maria Marquis plays a conflicted wife and mother who falls in love with another man (Justin Gilman) in a world premiere adaptation of Kate Chopin’s controversial novel The Awakening at Exit Theatre.

The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< Film

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Navigating their pregnancies by Sari Staver

ow do people react when they meet someone with a full beard, large breasts, and a pregnant belly? Thirty-three-year-old high school teacher Rae Goodman answers this and other questions in the new documentary A Womb of Their Own, which screens Sun., July 24, at the Roxie Theater. Goodman is one of six “masculine-identified people” who tell the stories of their pregnancies and the minefields they navigated. The film was written and directed by filmmaker and psychotherapist Cyn Lubow, who is also featured in the film. Goodman, who has had a beard since age 13, said in an interview, “I’m used to the double takes” from people who “can’t wrap their heads around a bearded woman with tits.” So being pregnant, for Goodman, didn’t raise too many more eyebrows. “My high school biology students were quick to understand that both women and men can have beards. News of the pregnancy didn’t phase them.” But for those on the street, the reaction was different. “I’ve actually been asked if I have some sort of

Scene from filmmaker Cyn Lubow’s documentary A Womb of Their Own, which screens Sunday at the Roxie Theater.

secret formula to grow facial hair,” she said. “I said, ‘No, I’m just a hairy Ashkenazi Jew.’” Following Sunday’s screening, Lubow and a handful of others from the film will answer questions and continue the discussion at a restaurant across the street.

Lubow, who is also featured in the film, became interested in the topic because she, too, identifies as a “masculine off-center gendered person” and has given birth to two sons. “I knew,” she said in an interview, “that there had to be more of us.” “My goal for the film,” she explained, “was to help relieve pain for people who feel misunderstood, confused or shamed just because their gender doesn’t fit someone else’s rules. Our culture carries an expectation that pregnant people will look a certain way. There are also assumptions that someone identifying as a man would have no interest in or ability to undergo a pregnancy. “I want to validate people who are their own unique mix of gender elements. I also wanted to challenge many common assumptions about gender so people who don’t fit the assumptions can be more visible, understood, and accepted,” she said. Lubow spent months searching for people who would agree to be interviewed in front of the camera, with five who made the final cut. In addition to Goodman, these were: Lorenzo Ramirez, assigned

SFJFF

From page 17

dad forever seeking out an Israeli authority figure whom he calls “the commander” while his family tries to pretend they don’t know him. Skipping by in a rapid-fire 85 minutes, Blush shows what life is really like in places we know to be far too dangerous for tourists or even soldiers. The filmmakers make their dueling languages (Hebrew and Arabic, with English subtitles) seem as delicious a choice as the girls’ first stab at adult makeup. (Castro, 7/24; Piedmont, 8/6; Rafael, 8/7) Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You A festival highlight is this 92-minute bio-doc from filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. In their personal, witty, literate and forward-looking film, Ewing and Grady find hope for the future in the memories and stories of the man who virtually created the model for American home entertainment. The 94-year-old Norman Lear will receive the SFJFF’s Freedom of Expression Award on Sun., July 24, at a Castro screening. (also Cinearts, 7/25; Rafael, 8/7) The People vs. Fritz Bauer In 1950s Germany, when a number of ex-Nazis barely hid in plain sight, a brave, closeted, gay Jewish official stood up to the challenge of pursuing mass murderer Adolph Eichmann. It was a time when many German prosecutors may have had their own swastika pasts. (Castro, 7/23; Cinearts, 7/26; Piedmont, 8/5; Rafael, 8/6) The Freedom to Marry Eddie Rosenstein’s informative, moving doc traces the history of the queer right-to-marry movement back to a then-obscure Harvard Law School student. Dubbed by the filmmakers “the Marriage Guy,” Evan Wolfson doggedly pursued marriage equality even while friends and colleagues were more concerned with HIV/ AIDS. Reagan’s Supreme Court choice, a lawyer dubbed a “liquor lobbyist from Sacramento,” Anthony

SFJFF

Scene from director Aaron Brookner’s portrait of his Uncle Howard.

Kennedy, would later translate into four significant pro-LGBT decisions, including the right to marry. The language of Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion upholding a universal right to marry has proved so moving that many queer couples have opted to include it as part of their marriage vows. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.” Director Eddie Rosenstein and producer Jenni Olson will appear. (Castro, 7/29; Roda, 8/3) Who’s Gonna Love Me Now? The life and struggles of an HIV+ member of the London Gay Men’s Chorus are movingly rendered. At 40, Saar Maoz is asked by his Orthodox parents to return home to Israel. Filmmakers Tomer and Barak Heymann reveal the complexities of

a modern Jewish queer identity in this nonfiction prizewinner from the 2016 Berlin Festival. (Castro, 7/30; Cinearts, 7/24; Roda, 7/31) Uncle Howard Aaron Brookner digs back into NYC’s 80s indie-film scene to offer this portrait of his uncle, Howard Brookner, a once-vital doc-maker who died of HIV/AIDS at 34. (Castro, 7/26; Roda, 8/4) Screenagers One-man filmmaking machine, director-editorcinematographer Delaney Ruston provides a free Sunday-morning seminar on how to unplug. Conducted at the Castro and followed by a bagels-and-cream-cheese Castro mezzanine nosh, this is an informative pit-stop open to all. (7/31) Rabin in His Own Words November 4, 1995 was a dark night for the secular cultural community that identifies with a Jewish sensibility. All were shocked to hear that Israeli Prime Minister and former general Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated by a right-wing Jewish extremist from the settler’s movement. The murder was prompted by growing fears by the settlers that Rabin, a genuine Israeli war hero, would produce a peace agreement with the Palestinians that would thwart the settlers’ dreams for a Biblicallysanctioned Greater Israel. Director Erez Laufer gathers photos and other records of Rabin’s life from childhood through service in three wars to document the memories of a shattered peace. (Castro, 7/22;

female at birth, now identifies as a straight man who dates women. Ramirez, who has a 14-year-old son, talks about the frustrations of being unable to afford top surgery and having to wear a “really uncomfortable,” skintight body suit. Morgan Weinert, who prefers the pronoun “they,” identifies as a “fabulous gay man.” Weinert says they are attracted to a variety of people that identify as male, both cisgendered and trans. Darcy Allder, a social work student who had top surgery nine years ago, stopped testosterone treatment and now sees himself as living in a “gender middle space.” Allder, most comfortable in a slender body, discusses his struggles with feeling unattractive in pregnancy. AK Summers, who identifies as a “faggy butch,” assumed pregnancy would be “nine months that would really suck.” Summers chronicled her experience in a memoir, Pregnant Butch. Filmmaker Cyn Lubow disclosed her childhood fascination with facial hair and her attempts to chop up her own hair and paste it together as a thick mustache. In addition to

screenings at film festivals throughout North America, Lubow said she has also had requests to show the documentary to groups of “birthing professionals.” “Born to be a psychotherapist,” Lubow said she’s always had friends coming to her to discuss their problems. She attended Vassar for undergraduate studies. For 25 years, Lubow had a busy private practice, “but that was enough,” and she retired at age 50. After a lifetime of “other creative pursuits,” including writing poetry and fiction, Lubow made her first film, a narrative short, The Fifth Stage of Labor, about a single lesbian mom whose only son is getting ready to leave for college. Based on feedback she has received from those who have seen her new film, Lubow said she’s satisfied it is “making a contribution” toward better acceptance and understanding of “how people present themselves along the gender spectrum.” For Lubow, her new career as a filmmaker has been a “natural fit. I think the skills I developed as a psychotherapist helped me to get people to relax and tell their stories in front of the camera.”t

Cinearts, 7/24; Roda, 8/3) Holy Zoo It probably does not surprise you to learn that Jerusalem has a so-called “Biblical Zoo.” It may be a little surprising to learn that the facility is maintained by a staff of Jewish and Palestinian zookeepers. Director Katharina Waisburd peeps in as the zoo employees show both Muslim and Jewish schoolkids the origin of our species. Waisburd will appear in Palo Alto and SF. (Cinearts, 7/27; Castro, 7/28; Roda, 7/29) Mr. Gaga Ohad Naharin, aka Mr. Gaga, is a hugely popular pop starchoreographer, creating a dance form both playful and physically demanding. The Castro screening is Single Jewish Mom Free, and director Tomer Heymann will be on hand. (Castro, 7/30; Roda, 7/31) Sand Storm Bedouin teen Layla lives in a village in Israel’s vast Southern desert. A hip kid with a car, cell phone and secret boyfriend, Layla is disturbed to observe her dad taking on a second wife, an arrangement her mom apparently agrees to. Director-writer Elite Zexer uses the natural beauty of the Negev Desert to spotlight the ongoing problems of modernity vs. traditionalism in many parts of the Holy Land. Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner. (Castro, 7/22; Cinearts, 7/24; Roda, 8/2) How to Win Enemies Argentine director Gabriel Lichtmann mixes two popular styles of storytelling, Woody Allen comedy with Hitchcock suspense, as this story’s comic hero bumbles his way into figuring out who swindled him out of a down payment on a new home. (Cinearts, 7/27; Castro, 7/28; Piedmont, 8/7) Germans and Jews In this nuanced doc about an extremely sensitive topic, a small dinner party unfolds in a private Berlin home. The guests, some German-born and some Jewish-identified, are

living in the new German and old Nazi capital. Filmmakers Janina Quint and Tal Recanati navigate a time 70 years after the end of WWII and revelations about the Nazisponsored Holocaust against Jews, gays, Gypsies and other persecuted minorities. At a dinner party, teachers and social leaders share memories of their identities and how they came by them. At film’s end, a few teenage boys offer their own unique perspectives about a topic that will shape their adult lives. (Castro, 7/23; Cinearts, 7/28; Roda, 8/2) A Tale of Love and Darkness Natalie Portman writes, directs and stars in an adaptation of the Amos Oz novel of the same title. Unfolding in 1948 as the new Jewish state is fighting for its survival, the film tells the harrowing story of Oz’s mother, played by Portman. Believing the story should be told in Hebrew, Portman struggled for eight years to raise the film’s budget. (Castro, 7/23; Roda, 8/4) There Are Jews Here Poignant, overlooked stories of Jewish life in small-town America. Co-directors Brad Lichtenstein and Morgan Elise Johnson depict four communities so tiny as to make it virtually impossible to gather 10 Jewish men to form a quorum and carry on religious life. Lichtenstein will appear in SF and Berkeley. (Castro, 7/30; Roda, 8/1; Cinearts, 7/26) A German Life “What did you do in the war, Grandma?” Four directors, including Christian Krones, give us a two-hour slice of an ordinary German working woman’s days, from 1942 to war’s end. Brunhilde Pomsel was personal secretary to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. For those with the stomach for still another chapter in the Nazi banality of evil, this film delivers the goods. The now-104-yearold functionary is photographed in See page 23 >>

SFJFF

Scene from director James Schamus’ Indignation.

Music>>

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Summering with the SF Symphony by Philip Campbell

Chang has a growing repertoire. We will look forward to his return and another opportunity to appreciate his pleasing tone, hopefully projected more directly next time. Last week brought a touring show to DSH with an evening called Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage. The 50th Anniversary Concert Tour exuberantly celebrated the beloved franchise and reminded us of the deeply humanist philosophy that abides in a series that is still evolving. Summer with the Symphony has also included a concert devoted to the music of John Williams, so we know the musicians of the SFS have got their big-sound sci-fi score skills down. For the Star Trek bill

they played more in support of the wonderfully well-edited film clips and engaging narration of actor Michael Dorn (Starfleet Klingon Colonel Worf). Okay, okay, I know there are more than a few snickers coming from non-Trekkies at this point, but one of the best things about Star Trek, especially the original TV series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, is the sense of warmth and humor in the imaginative writing. That funny take on universal foibles, human or otherwise, was abundantly displayed in the winning show. The big audience for two performances could easily have yielded one more, and it was heartening to note the diversity of the crowd. Young, old, every ethnicity, shape and size came out to cheer the spirit of adventure and liberal understanding encapsulated in the beloved saga. When Benedict Cumberbatch ominously says, “You think your world is safe” in the last big-screen incarnation, we respond with a considered, “Maybe.” As long as “serious-minded” adults, including classical music-lovers, allow for some nights of fun and exploration like the recent concert, there just may be some hope, for the arts at least. An Evening in Paris with Madeleine Peyroux is on for this Thursday night, and there are three different concerts between now and the end of the month, when Pink Martini & the SFS turn DSH into a big, sophisticated cocktail lounge.t

Kimbra duet “Holding It Back” delights, and “Bury Me Next to You” brilliantly brings the disc to a close. The country is still reeling from the deaths of two African-American men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, at the hands of white police officers. The chorus of the title track of Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals’ new album Call It What It Is (Stax), “call it what it is/murder,” a tragically timely blues number that mentions Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford and Michael Brown by name while calling out “government, policing, hard times, oppression, racism, fear, suffering,” could be the unintentional anthem of the summer. “How Dark Is Gone,” “Finding Our Way,” “Bones” and “Dance Like Fire” convey similar sentiments.

Admit it, the first time you heard the song “7 Years,” you thought, “Who could that brother be who is singing?” When you found out that it was Lukas Graham, a bunch of white guys from Denmark, you shook your head. Still, you have to give the band credit for sounding so convincingly blue eyed-soulful. Most of Lukas Graham’s eponymous Warner Brothers disc does a spectacular job of sounding as black as it wants to be. Take “Mama Said,” which samples “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from Annie. There’s also a bit of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata interpolated in “Better Than Yourself (Criminal Mind Pt. 2).” But it’s the sung-rap of “Happy Home,” classic R&B vibe of “Drunk in the Morning,” the Motown-y “Strip No More” and the bluesy “Funeral” that give the album its soul credibility. On Stereotypes (Universal Classics/Deutsche Gramophon), violinists Kev Marcus and Wil Baptiste of Black Violin take classical and soul to a whole other level. The 11 originals and one cover (Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Walk On By”), most of which are sung by Baptiste, are examples of the ways in which different musical genres can coexist. Singer Melanie Fiona provides the vocals on “Send Me a Sign,” and jazz pianist Robert Glasper can be heard on “Stay Clear.” On Everything’s Beautiful (Columbia/Blue Note/ Legacy), Glasper reimagines Miles Davis tunes with collaborators Bilal, Stevie Wonder, Laura Mvula, Erykah Badu, King and Ledisi.t

or symphonic music lovers, summer is usually a pretty dry season. Concerts are infrequently performed outdoors, especially in foggy San Francisco, and festivals are usually limited to specific genres or musical periods. Still, there is an uncommon amount of musical activity happening as we near the midsummer mark (if you include opera and pop), and if you’re craving a solid concert experience and willing to soften up a bit, Summer with the Symphony is in full swing at Davies Symphony Hall, continuing through the end of July. Recent shows have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous; far be it from me to judge, but all of the programming is aimed at bringing listeners in from the cold to find the fun in lighter fare served by the crack musicians of the SFS. Of course, I’m not suggesting Beethoven’s Ninth is exactly a walk in the park, but two recent performances of the joyous score certainly qualified as high-spirited events. When was the last time you saw a distinctly younger crowd, all dressed up and out for a date night with Ludwig van? In his third season as Director of Summer Concerts at the SFS, conductor Edwin Outwater once again proved his artistic worth and his understanding of the summertime audience. When listeners repeatedly applauded happily between movements, he acknowledged their praise

Erika Goldring

Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage, the 50th Anniversary Concert Tour, came to Davies Hall as part of Summer with the Symphony.

with a pleasant nod and a grin, but still pressed on without interrupting the flow. For seasoned concertgoers, it was a little disconcerting at first. Upon reflection we thought, why the heck not? It used to be standard behavior long ago, and after all, this was meant to be a concert celebrating the joy of shared humanity. Female soloists included excellent soprano Wendy Bryn Hamer of Roseville, CA, and Latvian mezzosoprano Zanda Svede, currently a third-year Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera and an alumna of the Merola Opera Program. They sang their parts beautifully and easily rose above the full-throated and thrilling SFS Chorus, well-prepared by assistant director Eric Choate.

The men of the quartet included bass Adam Lau, who made a favorable impression when he first appeared with the SFS in Handel’s Messiah back in 2015. His richly resonant voice is almost startling in its purity. Since Lau resides in San Francisco, I hope his easy availability increases his local appearances. Making his SFS debut, tenor Mario Chang sang from a tablet rather than the printed score used by his fellow vocalists. In the context of the overall audience demographic, it probably didn’t strike many as odd. I was more amused at the curious lighting it gave his face, since he rarely looked up or made eye contact. His singing couldn’t be faulted, and judging from his resume,

Larry Williamson

Director of Summer Concerts at the SFS, conductor Edwin Outwater.

Summer soul men by Gregg Shapiro

very Maxwell studio album, and there have only been five in 20 years, is treated like an event of great musically historical significance. The neo-soul forefather’s latest, blackSUMMERS’night (Columbia), is no exception. Arriving seven years after its predecessor BLACKsummers’night, the 12-track disc doesn’t vary much from the formula that’s so appealing and enduring, including drawing on the influence of the late Prince. Maxwell looks towards club play with the soulfully sexy “All the Ways that Love Can Feel,” which could benefit from just the right remix. Maxwell makes intriguing use of organic beats to drive home his message on “The Fall” and “III.” Retro soul and neo-soul blend throughout, and are especially spellbinding on “Fingers Crossed,” “Of All Kind” and the improvised-in-the-studio “Lost.” The perversely prolific R. Kelly is the excessive polar opposite of the reserved Maxwell. Even after having his name linked to various sexual scandals, Kelly doesn’t rein it in. Instead he serves up the unappetizing The Buffet (RCA). Kelly should have his poetic license revoked for calling the embarrassing recitation that opens the disc “The Poem,” following it with “Poetic Sex,” a song that includes the line, “My lyrics got a big dick, and I just fucked the shit out of

SFJFF

From page 22

close-up. Two of the directors will take questions in SF and Palo Alto, with an extended Q&A at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. (Castro, 7/24; Cinearts, 7/25; Piedmont, 8/7) A Grain of Truth Polish director Borys Lankosz turns a woman’s ritual murder into a compelling thriller, an Eastern European take on the American crime mystery Seven. In Polish with English subtitles. (Castro, 7/25; Piedmont, 8/5)

y’all.” Keepin’ it classy, Kelly. If you aren’t too nauseated to continue listening, then you’ll probably be able to stomach junk such as “Let’s Make Some Noise,” “Sextime” and “Get Out of Here with Me.” Kelly zips his fly long enough to perform the vintage vibe of “All My Fault,” the only song worth hearing. Life on Earth (eOne/MyBlock), the new studio disc from Musiq Soulchild, is something of a disappointment. With the exception of the Stevie Wonder-ful “Change My Mind,” the uplifting soul-pop of “Alive and Well,” the JoiStaRR duet on “Part of Me” and the spacey title track, the album is generally a bore.

One indistinguishable song after another makes life on earth as dull as dirt. A Curtis Mayfield for the 21st century, Bilal is back with the exceptional In Another Life (eOne/ Purpose). As forward-looking as he is respectful of his roots, Bilal effortlessly conjures modern and retro soul, often in the same song. Teaming up with acclaimed producer Adrian Younge, Bilal has made his most thrilling and evocative album. Beginning with the ominous “Sirens II,” In Another Life is a musical journey through time and textures. Both Marvin Gaye and Prince are summoned on “Pleasure Toy.” The

Jews in Shorts An eclectic shorts collection includes I, Dalio, the tale of a Jewish screen character whose face can be seen in French and Hollywood melodramas including such classics as Casablanca and Catch-22. Tempts viewers into a parlor game of guessing, Where have I seen that face before? Director Mark Rappaport is so good at manipulating his character actor subject’s features that the short starts to take on the heft of a Jewish Celluloid Closet. (Castro, 7/27; Piedmont, 8/6) Indignation Brokeback Mountain

producer James Schamus gets a compelling performance from rising Jewish character actor Logan Lerman as a young atheist who finds prejudice and cultural pushback as a butcher’s son who seeks a college education in Korean War-era America. Based on a Philip Roth short story, the film has received high praise from Roth himself. With Sarah Gadon and Tracy Letts. Director Schamus will appear. (Rafael, 8/5)t Tickets: (415) 621-0523. Info: sfjff. org.

<< Out&About

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

O&A

Sat 23

Drag Spectacular @ The Rite Spot

Drag Spectacular @ The Rite Spot Detour Dance’s unusual night of dance, drag and performance, with hosts Eric Garcia and El Beh, and a dozen performers. Dress up in drag, or don’t. $10. Cash bar, nibblys. 10pm. 17th at Folsom. www.detourdance.com

Grand Concourse @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Artifiying by Jim Provenzano

rt heals. Art informs. Art entertains. Art reduces blood pressure. Well, I’m not so sure about that. Some of it gets the blood going! For more events, visit us online at www.ebar.com. For nightlife, see On the Tab in BARtab.

Thu 21 La Cage Aux Folles @ Victoria Theatre Bay Area Musicals’ production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s nine-Tony-winning musical adaptation of the French film about a nightclub owner and his partner who try to hide being gay when their conservative in-laws-to-be visit. $20-$100. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru July 31. 2961 16th St. www.bamsf.org

From Piss to Bliss @ The Marsh Ady Lady’s solo show explores the search for happiness and higher consciousness amid daily life. $20$100. Thu 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Thru Aug. 27. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

LGBT Chronicled: 1933-2016 @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Group exhibit of photos documenting Bay Area LGBT lives. Tue-Wed 4pm8pm. Thu 1pm-9pm. Sat & Sun 12pm5pm. Thru July 16. 50 Scott St. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

Stroke @ GLBT History Museum Opening reception for Stroke: From Under the Mattress to the Museum Wall, Robert W. Richards’ exhibit of gay men’s erotic magazines from the 1950s to the ‘90s. $5. 7pm. Also, Decades of Dive Bars, a slideshow and discussion about vintage long-gone local gay bars; 5:30pm. 4127 18th St. www.dancerswelost.org/exhibit/ www.glbthistory.org

Stale Magnolias @ Oasis Don Seaver and Sean Owens’ drag parody musical blends Southern wit, green tomatoes and designing women. $25-$35 (VIP tables $225). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Aug. 3. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Summer Sampler @ ODC Theater Three-night series of works by Brenda Way and KT Nelson, with composer Pamela Z, and an expansive solo by returning dancer Private Freeman. $30-$45. 8pm. Also July 22 & 23. 3153 17th St. www.odcdance.org

Fri 22 Absolutely Fabulous @ Several Cinemas Edina and Patsy are back in a madcap big-screen addition to the hit BBC TV comedy show about a dizzy publicist and her pal, as they go on the run after possibly killing model Kate Moss. www.foxsearchlight.com/ absolutelyfabulous

City of Angels @ SF Playhouse Cy Coleman and David Zippel’s Tonywinning film noir musical is produced by the acclaimed local theatre company. $20-$125. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 17. Kensington Park Hotel, 2nd floor, 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

The Gathering @ Live Oak Theater, Berkeley West Coast revival of Arje Shaw’s drama about the Holocaust’s legacy in reagan ‘80s America. $35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 20. 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thegatheringplay.com

John Leguizamo: Latin History for Morons @ Berkeley Rep The award-winning comic, stage, TV and film actor performs his solo show about trying to teach his son about Latin history, with satirical takes on the Civil War, Aztec and Incan history. $35-$60. 8pm. Tue-Fri & Sun 8pm. Sat 7pm & 10pm. Also Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 14. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Ken Ireland @ Strut Re-Mastered, classical art works redone as gay erotica by the local artist. Thru July. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Low Hanging Fruit @ Z Below 3Girls Theatre Company’s production of Robin Bradford’s drama about four homeless women military veterans struggling to survive in LA. $20-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru July 30. 470 Florida St. www.3girlstheatre.org

Master Harold …and the Boys @ Aurora Theatre Athol Fugard’s award-winning drama about a South African white young man and his family’s Black employees. $32-$60. Wed-Sat 8pm. Tue & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru July 31. (510) 843-4042. auroratheatre.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore Blythe Baldwin and Baruch PorrasHernandez cohost the vibrant reading and performance series. 7pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Sell/Buy/Date @ Berkeley Rep Tony Award winner Sarah Jones performs a multi-character workshop presentation of her NYC-bound solo show about sex workers. $20-$40. TueSat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru July 31. Osher Studio, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Xrysalis @ Groundswell Institute Gathering for queer people of color at the pastoral rurul retreat center two hours drive north of SF. Flexible rates, overnight cabins and camping. Thru July 24. www.groundswell.institute

Heidi Schreck’s new witty drama about the volunteers at a community soup kitchen. $23-$35. Wed-Sun, thru Aug. 21, then in repertory Nov.26-Jan. 31. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Hearts of Palm @ Berkeley City Club World premiere of Patricia Milton’s political comedy about capitalism and romance. $15-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Leslie Odom @ Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek The Tony-winning star of Broadway’s Hamilton performs music from his debut album. $40-$75. 8pm. 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. www.lesherartscenter.com

Live in the Castro @ Jane Warner Plaza The outdoor performance series returns, with varied acts each weekend. Juyl 23, 1pm: Castro Flaggers. July 24, 11am: Mary Delave. July 3, 1pm: Mark Etheredge. Castro St. at Market. www.castrocbd.org

Night Light @ SOMArts Cultural center Multimedia Garden Party, an artistic night of performances, projections, art installations by 44 artists. $12-$15. 8:30pm-12am. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Playa in the Grove @ National AIDS Memorial Grove Comfort & Joy presents an outdoor party and art installation with groovy DJed music, flagging, picnic space and interactive art works. Dress in your fab colors. Free. 11am-5pm. Nancy Pelosi Drive at Bowling Green, Golden Gae Park. www.playajoy.org

The Real Americans @ The Marsh Dan Hoyle returns with his hit solo show about the polarized sides of right and leftwing America. $25-$100. Fri 8pm & Sat 8:30pm. Thru Aug. 27. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, a new multimedia exhibit about the prolific filmmaker (thru Oct. 30). Lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen @ Exploratorium New exhibit of the amazing walking sculptures that resemble giant insectlike creatures. Thru Sept. 5. Free-$25. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm-10pm, 18+). 528-4893. www.exploratorium.edu/strandbeest

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

Chris Colfer @ Michaan’s Auction House, Alameda The star of Glee hosts a reading, audience Q&A costume contest and more for his bestselling YA fantasy book, The Land of Stories. $17 includes a signed book. 3pm-5pm. 2751 Todd St., Alameda. www.booksinc.net

Eating Pasta Off the Floor @ The Marsh Maria Grazia Affinito returns with her comic solo show about ItalianAmerican family life and her mother’s history. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sun 5pm. Thru July 24. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

San Francisco Symphony @ Pier 27

Marga’s Comedy Salon @ Spark Arts Marga Gomez, the fave award-winning comic, hosts a new monthly series of comedy, readings, performance a discussion; guest comics Natasha Muse, Karinda Dobbins, and author Jim Provenzano. $10. 8pm. 4229 18th St. www.sparkarts.com

Top of the Pyramid @ Strand Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s student-cast production of Obiewinning playwright Nikkole Salter’s drama about race, segregation and education in Ferguson, Missouri. $20. Tue-Sat 7pm. Thru July 30. 1127 Market St. www.act-sf.org

Will Durst @ The Marsh The political comic’s updated solo show, Elect to Laugh: 2016, adds topical jokes about the bizarre election season. $15-$100. Tuesdays, 8pm. Extended thru Nov. 8. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Wed 27 10 Percent @ Comcast

Daytime outdoor concert of classical works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Mussorgsky. Free. 12pm. Pier 27. www.sfsymphony.org

David Perry’s online and cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. ComcastHometown.com

Ed Ruscha @ de Young Museum

Moving Units @ SF Independent

Ed Ruscha and the Great American West, an exhibit of the artist’s landscape/text paintings; thru Oct. 9. Also, exhibits of Bruce Davidson photos, Printed Stories, The Sumatran Ship cloth, and works by Kay Sekimachi. Free/$25. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.famsf.org

Joy Division tribute band performs. Victor Fiction opens. $15-$20. 8pm. 628 Divisadero St. apeconcerts.com

Mon 25 OutLoud @ Oasis Storytelling series with host Joshua Grannell and guests Profundity, Carnie Asada, Coco Buttah, Fauxnique Mahlae Balenciaga, and Greg Deranian. $10. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Queerest Library Ever @ SF Public Libraries Hormel at 20: Celebrating Our Past/ Creating Our Future, a dual exhibit of archival materials celebrating the two decades of the LGBTQ collections. Also, Bar Rags to Mainstream Press: San Francisco’s Local LGBT Newspapers & Magazines, at the Main Library, 100 Larkin St., 5th floor. Thru Aug 7. 100 Larkin St., 3rd floor, and at the Eureka Valley Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th St. www.sfpl.org

Tue 26 The Black Woman is God @ SOMArts Cultural Center Exhibit of works reclaining “the God Code,” exploring race and women as icons. Thru Aug. 17. Tue-Fri 122pm7pm. sat 12pm-5pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Charles Gatewood @ Center for Sex and Culture Exhibit of prints by the late prolific photographer of rock music icons and fetish subcultures. Tuesdays 11am6pm, and by appointment. Thru Aug 12. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Tue 26

Natasha Muse at Marga’s Comedy Salon @ Spark Arts

Thu 28 Garret + Moulton @ YBCA Theater Janice Garrett and Charles Molton’s new dance spiritually-themed work, Speak, Angels, includes 36 dancers, live singers and instrumentalists. $27$40. July 30 includes gala reception ($75-$500). Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. www.garrettmoulton.org www.ybca.org

Hero Awards @ City Hall Juanita More! receives the Human Rights Commission’s Hero Award at a reception and ceremony. Free. 5:30pm. Room 250, City Hall. 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. sf-hrc.org

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s Poet James J. Seigel’s monthly lit & drinks series, this time with Tusiata Avia, Jason Bayani, Natasha Dennerstein, Bill Dupp, and Soma Mei Sheng Frazier. No cover. 7pm 4 Valencia St. www.facebook.com/ literaryspeakeasy

Paradox Voice Band @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Local pop-rock a cappella group performs hits and original songs in entertaining vocal styles. $25-$45. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.paradoxvoiceband.com www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Sat 23 Approaching American Abstraction @ SF Museum of Modern Art See the restaged installations and new exhibits of Pop, Abstract and classic Modern art at the renovated and visually amazing museum, with two extra floors, a new additional Howard Street entrance, café and outdoor gardens. Free-$25. 10am8pm. 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org

Sun 24

Queer History Walking Tour @ Tenderloin Museum

Sat 23 Night Light @ SOMArts

Tours and kick-off reception for the new Compton’s Cafeteria Riot exhibit, with Cruzin d’Loo, Susn Stryker and Felicia Elizondo. 6pm-8:30pm. Reg. hours Tue-Sun 10am-5pm, $6-$10 ($15 includes walking tour). 398 Eddy St. 351-1912. tenderloinmuseum.org

Show

SANAUGUST FRANCISCO 5–7 FORT MASON CENTER

2016

Glass, Jewelry, Furniture, Ceramics, Fashion Wearables, Fiber, Wood, Metal. Craft like you’ve never seen before.

Kris Marubayashi

Barbara Sebastian

Kimberly Morris

Andrea Handy

W. John Jameson III

Valerie Hector

Debra Adelson

Barry Uden

Ena Dubnoff

Marie Perrin-Mcgraw and Robert Turek

Michael Adcock

Scott Wynn

Mary Jaeger

craftcouncil.org/sf

<< Fine Art

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

A California paradise of the mind

Rick Gerharter

Karin Breuer, Curator in Charge, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, discusses “Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas,” on exhibit in the de Young Museum’s show Ed Ruscha and the Great American West.

by Sura Wood

t the age of 78, Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha is operating on all creative cylinders. A show of his new work is slated for London this fall, and Ed Ruscha and the Great American West, an exhibition of nearly 100 prints, drawings, photographs and paintings, just opened at the de Young Museum. Though not a retrospective in the purest sense, the Fine Arts Museums’ show covers over a half-century of this prolific artist’s engagement with the changing Western landscape, especially LA and California, and encompasses his focus on the culture, iconography and mythology of the modern American West and its hold on the romantic imagination. The exhibition’s title might well have been On the Road with Ed, seeing as one of Ruscha’s early inspirations was Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel, which he read in 1958. In 2009, Ruscha used his own photographs and curated others to illustrate the author’s original text for a limited edition, leather-bound book that’s on display. Anomie, rootlessness and alienation are the less-appealing aspects of Kerouac’s footloose ethos, but the sights Ruscha absorbed traveling both on Route 66 back and forth from his childhood home in Oklahoma

Ab Fab

From page 17

crash every celebrity gathering they can, often stumbling around in a bubbly, champagne-induced haze, oblivious to the contemptible stares that follow in their wake. The result is some of the edgiest, most screamingly funny humor ever produced by our friends across the pond. “These are people who have been friends since they began,” said Saunders in a conference call. She and Lumley were promoting Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, opening in cinemas on July 22. “Edina thinks she’s a fashion PR guru. Patsy works as an editor on a fashion magazine. They’re inseparable friends, and they walk in chaos.” “A chaos of drink and cigarettes and champagne,” added Lumley. Saunders noted that updating the characters for the new film was an easy task. “We just get older,” she said. “Edina gets older and fatter, and actually Patsy doesn’t change at all. She’s just sort of embalmed and remains exactly the same.” In the film, the ladies are on the run. Edina has been accused of murdering supermodel Kate Moss, who appears as herself. Our hapless heroines take off for the South

throwaway culture of bullet-ridden road signs,, sagebrush and detritus seen in “Psycho Spaghetti Western #5” (2010), a wide, horizontal painting in which an exploded tire tread and a packing box have been abandoned on a rocky, weedstrewn embankment on the side of a desert highway. His striking prints and paintings of the Hollywood sign have a vividly cinematic quality. Perched on a hill, the symbol of erotic allure and dream-factory glamour that has beckoned and led many to ruin is positioned against electrifying, fiery-crimson Technicolor sunsets and hallucinatory, sometimes apocalyptic backdrops. A dense indigo night descends on a desolate “House of Hollywood” (1982-86), and in the color lithograph “Landmark Decay” (2006), the sign is sliding into oblivion down a barren stretch of scorched red earth. The Saturday mornings Ruscha spent as kid watching black & white cowboy serials at the local theater clearly made a big impression on him and contributed to some of the movie allusions in his work. The grayish, blurry, silhouetted images of buffalo, tipis, howling coyotes and wagon trains trudging through the foggy dawn, for example, seem to recall a vanished Old West mythologized in wide-screen Hollywood Westerns. As if to drive home that association, the surfaces of the canvases are stippled and marked to look like damaged celluloid. He began photographing gas stations in 1962 and shot 100 that

lay between LA and Oklahoma City for his 1963 photo essay/book Twentysix Gasoline Stations. The same year, he did his first painting of the subject, “Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas” (1963), a brilliant rendering in one-point perspective whose stunning clean lines epitomize bold modernist architecture. A midnight sky meets the bright red-and-white Standard logo at the top of the structure, creating an oblique angle that juts into view at the forefront, a “zoom factor” that appears in multiple works. A sparkling, All-American, red, white & blue temple designed to lure drivers to the pumps, the station looks so immaculate you could eat off the pavement. Did filling up ever pack this much visual drama? It’s enough to make you want to hop in a car and drive back in time. Later, in dreamier incarnations like “Station 2003,” the mundane roadside destination becomes a black oasis in the fading sunset. In the 1960s, Ruscha traversed the back streets and roadways of LA in his truck, expeditions that led to photo essays such as Every Building on the Sunset Strip, which indeed included every single building on the famous boulevard, shot on film and compiled into an accordionstyle book. But his excursions into photography, while technically proficient, aren’t in the same class as his paintings and prints. One of the revelations of the show is how gifted he is at printmaking, a pursuit he evidently loves; the Fine Arts Museums has acquired 450 to date. The exhibition concludes fittingly with The End, a section featuring that universal message in Gothic lettering announcing that the fantasy – the world, the relationship or the movie – is over. Some may find hidden meaning in the half-dozen prints and acrylics depicting those definitive words, but the titles say it all: “The End,” “Dead End,” “The Final End,” and last but certainly not least, “The Absolute End,” where the bars of what could be a jail-cell window cast ominous, deep blue shadows on a cold, hard floor. It’s a chilly, fatalistic scene Hitchcock could love.t

to art school in LA, and on the of the frame. It evokes an endless three-hour drive to a studio retreat horizon and a California paradise he built in the Mojave Desert in of the mind. In other similar works, 1976, have informed the prevailing the phrases he deploys express motifs that have characterized his frustration with traffic congeswork throughout a long, productive tion or the desecration of Native career. American territory, suggesting The crisp, minimalist exhibition disillusionment and paradise lost. installation overseen by meticulous But the intersection of words and organizing curator Karin Breuer text, conceptually interesting at an suits Ruscha, whose cerebral work earlier juncture, don’t deliver the does more to tickle the intellect excitement they once did. More efthan quicken the pulse or touch the fective are his ruminations on the heart. Associated with the Pop Art and Conceptual Art movements and influenced by Marcel Duchamp, Jasper Johns, the visual vocabulary of Southern California and the movies, he’s perhaps most famous for his rendering of words superimposed over landscapes like “A Particular Kind of Heaven,” part of an expanded largescale triptych commissioned by FAMSF for the opening of the de Young in 2005. In the central panel of this 1983 panoramic painting, on view here, the words of the title, in white capital letters, hover over a waning yellow, big-sky Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, © Ed Ruscha sunset, a narrow strip of cerulean blue Pacific Ocean Ed Ruscha, “A Particular Kind of Heaven,” 1983. Oil on canvas, 90 x 136 1/2 in. undulating at the bottom of France, where they hope to elude the law. This leads to more mishaps and wild celebrity encounters. More than two dozen famous names from the worlds of film and fashion appear in the movie, some as themselves, others as deliriously over-the-top adversaries to “the

girls.” Famous faces on display include Kim Kardashian, Dame Joan Collins, Glee’s Chris Colfer, Graham Norton, and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, who has a priceless reaction to former fling Patsy: “Oh God, I can’t believe you’re still alive!” Comic highlights from Absolutely

David Appleby, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Jennifer Saunders as Edina and Joanna Lumley as Patsy in the film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Fabulous: The Movie include a hilarious turn by Barry Humphries, best known as Dame Edna Everage. Humphries plays a man this time out. He offers one of the film’s more unforgettable moments as a chubby, sleazy pornographer with a creepy grin. More laughs abound when Patsy appears in male drag so she can marry the world’s richest woman. “Patsy’s been a man before,” recalled Lumley. “We had a flashback to the 1960s where she had a mustache and was dressed in a Sgt. Pepper coat like a Beatle. This time she didn’t bother to go the whole hog and take the hormones and have something stitched on. This time she just glued a mustache on and put her hair back and thought she could probably get away with it. After all, she’s only trying to attract a 90-year-old person who can’t see!” With the police in hot pursuit (or so they think), the film also offers a few humorous action scenes. “We insisted on doing our own stunts,” said Lumley. “Obviously it’s a reach from a car travelling at almost three miles an hour to take a cigarette off a completely supine man. It was a bit challenging, but I managed it.” “I’d never been on a scooter

Through Oct. 9. www.famsf. org.

before, and they wouldn’t let me wear a helmet,” added Saunders. “I was very, very brave. It’s also the most exercise I’ve ever done.” Saunders admitted that precautions were taken when writing the film’s screenplay due to today’s climate of political correctness. “Because people are much more ready to be offended these days,” she noted. “If you write a movie, you have a raft of lawyers telling you who you can offend, and who you can’t offend, and who’s going to sue you and who won’t. So it was quite an issue, I have to say.” But it works. Edina and Patsy push the boundaries of good taste as few people can, but it’s all in goodfun humor. After 25 years of playing these characters off and on, Saunders and Lumley have developed a comfortable rapport with each other and slip into their signature roles with ease. Ab Fab devotees will be pleased to see other familiar faces in the film: Julia Sawalha is particularly amusing as Edina’s jaded daughter Saffron. She gets a scene-stealing moment in the spotlight when she leads a sing-along of the famed Janis Ian tune “At Seventeen” in a gay bar filled with adoring drag queens. If only life were as fabulous as this.t

Leather

Laura Benanti

On the Tab Vol. 46 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Glow in the Park Comfort & Joy at the AIDS Memorial Grove

By Jim Provenzano

Glowing cartoon fish swim over revelers at this year’s Afterglow, held on Pink Saturday, Pride weekend, June 2016.

LS Ludwig; courtesy Lazy Bear

Photo By Dot

hey’ve brought their glowingly queer presence to Burning Man, to nightclubs around the Bay Area, and to faerie gatherings in the countryside. This Saturday, with lead artist Brian “Chickpea” Busta, the fluorescent flair of the Comfort & Joy community merges with the serene beauty of the National AIDS Memorial Grove for the first Playa in the Grove. See page 28 >>

Bears in the Woods Lazy Bear Weekends’ legacy of fun

by David Elijah-Nahmod

or the past two decades, gay couple Harry Lit and Allen Eggman have hosted Lazy Bear Weekend just about every summer in Guerneville. Now the former Bay Area residents, who currently live in South Florida, are calling it quits. Due in part to Lit’s health issues, next month’s Lazy Bear Weekend will be their last. See page 29

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Brian Busta

BARtab

Left: Gay Glow guru Brian “Chickpea” Busta in his home studio Middle: Brian Busta setting up for a 2015 Afterglow party Right: A giant octopus hovers over revelers at this year’s Afterglow, held on Pink Saturday, Pride weekend, June 2016.

Glow in the Park

parties, some in the Western Addition, said Busta, of the fundraiser’s origins 13 years ago. “Then we did it at Dance Mission, and then Cell Space, and for the past four years at Sound Factory.” What’s up for the future of such events that draw capacity crowds? This year’s Afterglow sold out. “We actually may have outgrown Sound Factory,” said Busta with a tone of awe. “I could see it exploding with fun, you could see all the effort put into it.” Asked if the popular dance party

Since then he’s been building, decorating and creating environments that get more ambitious. “It’s so much work,” said Busta. Although it is a nonprofit collec“We just kept going and building tive, the art of Brian Busta stands art. It was nice to see people come out as ‘the look’ of Comfort & Joy; back and help it grow. I like things bright fluorescent colors, flapping to get bigger.” flags and giant cartoon characters. Busta mentioned the roots of Busta works out of his home in the the Comfort & Joy and gay BurnCastro district, where many a festive ing Man camps, which he joined flag or creature has emerged, only in 2000, as having roots in Radical to be shipped out to a party, then Faerie culture. He even decorated a stored for later use at another event . maypole at a recent Beltane festival. “We just moved into a bigger “Kitten Calfee really wanted to storage space and filled it up,” said blend communities,” Busta Busta. said of one of the camp’s A certain durability is reearly cofounders. “There quired for Playa art at Burnwere already faeries who ing Man, where the C&J crew went to Burning Man, and has hosted a queer camp since we had that hippie vibe 2003. Once a cute cluster of going on. Our camp is sexhomo-friendly areas, the LGpositive and we have yoga, BTQ groups have grown each food. Now there are many year to an entire neighborcamps. It’s amazing how hood that includes the Glamit all started in the desert cocks, Beavertons, Comfort and how it’s created its own & Joy and BAAAHS (Big Ass little world.” Amazingly Awesome HomoFor Playa in the Grove, sexual Sheep), all of whom Busta said he’ll work with collaborated on last year’s flagpoles and fabric. Other Pride Afterglow event. contributing artists include So, how will they bring David Cooney Bob Burnside, Steve Dudek, this fun –without the occaFrank Eddy, Neon, Noodles, A mock-up of David Cooney’s Labyrinth design at sional dust storm– to Golden Dev Ray, Bill Samios, Rob the AIDS Grove. Gate Park? Vedar, and Jason Smart. “It all started when we Dance music will be prowanted to figure out how to vided by DJs Bus Station John and has become too big, Busta coundo an event outside of a nightclub,” Trever Pearson. tered with the idea of expanding it said Busta. “It’s the 25th anniverAnd although it’s not an official further. sary of the AIDS Grove. It seemed Flagging event (the next one is July “Maybe in a stadum,” he said. “I like a fun idea to bring all our freaky 30), those with a flair for fabric and see it as a daytime festival. People are friends to the Grove to celebrate.” flow arts are certainly welcome to really excited about new ideas, and Comfort & Joy events outside of add their colorful tribute. other artists really contribute a lot.” Burning Man include fundraisers Among the dozen art projects, Giant glowing cartoon octopi are for their camp. The most known is David Cooney’s Heart Space Labya few sizes up from the small jewelry the annual Afterglow party, which rinth offers a contemplative side to Busta made for more than a decade has grown exponentially each year. the event. Stories of loss and healing back in New Hamphire. OrigiBusta first hosted glow-paint parwill be accepted for a group art projnally from Andover, Massachusetts, ties in his apartment, and then for ect, where personal and anonymous Busta, 52, originally “worked small. Halloween with ‘Gay-Glo’ gogo dancexpressions of loss, grief and AIDS Then I started doing canvas painters body-painted and gyrating in the stories in words, poetry, art or altar ings. It was so fun to make somewindows of a friend’s Castro Street items will be added to a collective thing big and fast.” apartment, and later in the windows art experience. Busta connected to Burning Man of his Noe Street home. “We kept Coordinating such diverse projsoon after moving to San Francisco, them short when the cops came by!” ects requires a lot of collaboration. and attended his first Burn in 1996. Afterglow’s first events were small From page 27

Both photos: Brian Busta

Top: Afterglow’s 2009 party, held Pink Saturday at Dance Mission. Bottom: The saucy window dancers of Gay Glo in Brian Busta’s Noe Street apartment.

“When we formed the board, we wanted to be more legit,” said Busta. “We have programming, communication, and other committiees. It can be exhausting, but we spread out the responsibilities. We want it to last.”

Production team

Michael Cooper has served as a production manager for Comfort & Joy events since 2010. He’s worked on every Touch (the more intimate, sex-themed event) and Afterglow party since then, and several years’ worth of Burning Man encampments. “Usually for AfterGlow, it’s an eight to ten-hour set-up,” said Cooper. “This year we had 100 volunteers who did everything.” Along with renting a truck, picking up everything from art supplies to tools, fabric, and staple guns,

Brian Busta

Left: A breezy day with Brian Busta’s Comfort & Joy décor at the 2013 Burning Man. Right: Comfort & Joy members at 2014’s Burning Man.

Cooper guides volunteers where help is needed. “A lot of people don’t know exactly what to do. My job is managing the volunteers, giving them a little direction, and getting them fed.” Cooper acknowledged the growth of their events, and mentioned the varying ideas for the future expressed by organizers. “For Touch, we want to maintain a smaller venue,” said Cooper. “For Afterglow, we might go to a larger venue. People who have been with Comfort & Joy for years want some more intimate events like the old days.” Cooper mentioned how C&J welcomes and encourages artists to participate with art grants for materials. “We’ve also invited the flagging community,” he said. “It’s just a way See page 29 >>

Brian Busta

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

All photos: LS Ludwig; courtesy Lazy Bear

Harry Lit & Allen Eggman

Lazy Bear

From page 27

Never fear, Bear fans. Lit and Eggman tell the Bay Area Reporter that the show will go on, albeit with new producers at the helm. The final Lazy Bear Weekend with Lit and Eggman as hosts and promoters takes place from Wednesday August 3 through Monday August 8. “A Bear is a big hairy gay man who likes being appreciated for being big and hairy,” explains Lit, for those who might not be familiar with Bear culture. “Bear is a state of mind.” “Being comfortable in your own skin is what it comes down to,” added Eggman. “I’m more of a cub.” The couple recalled their first trip to Guerneville when they first started dating in the early 1990s. “We handed out business cards at the local bar,” Eggman said. “We held the first Lazy Bear Weekend in 1995, when we got a couple of hundred people. Initially it was just Saturday and Sunday.” “Because it was such a fun weekend, word spread,” said Lit. Two decades later, Lazy Bear Weekend has expanded to a five-day event with thousands of attendees. “We’ve progressed,” said Eggman.

“We give choices; you can be lazy or active. There are pool parties, beach parties, dance parties, nature hikes, bonfires at night and wine tastings.” “There’s also daily physical fitness,” Lit said, noting that not a lot of Bears participate in this activity. “There’s also a sober group to give strength to those in recovery who might find it difficult to be surrounded by alcohol.” Eggman thinks there might be a 50/50 split between single people and couples among Lazy Bear attendees. “I don’t know if there’s any way to know for sure,” he said. “We just throw the parties so people can go.” On top of all those fabulous-sounding parties, there’s also live entertainment. This year features the musical stylings of cabaret superstar Sharon McKnight and actor Leslie Jordan, beloved as Will and Grace’s “Southern belle” Leslie Jordan. Lit and Eggman are quite pleased with their

Brian Busta

Art work for this year’s AfterGlow was so big it had to be hauled out of a window.

Glow in the Park

From page 28

to make the Grove a little more festive and celebrate.” Richard DelleFave, who is on the Board of the AIDS Grove, and a veteran Comfort & Joy Burning Man participant and board member, is one of those responsible for starting the Grove project. “Last fall, with the folks in the programming committee, we discused how to bring Playa projects into the city, and I thought of the Grove as a perfect place for that.” DelleFave mentioned the numerous events held at the AIDS Grove, including the fundraisers Light in the Grove, gardening work days, weddings and memorial services. The Grove gets permits from Parks and

Recreation, particularly if amplified sound is involved. The daytime fun will be a nice change from comfort & Joy’s all-night parties at Pride. “We hope for a playfulness at the event,” said DelleFave. “That’s definitely something that Brian brings to the table; zany and funny. There’ll be dancing and picnicing; it’ll have its own sunny atmosphere. “Keeping in mind that it’s a remembrance as well as a celebration,” he added, “I can’t think of anything more befitting.”t Playa in the Grove is Saturday, July 23, 11am to 5pm. Bowling Green Drive and Nancy Pelosi Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.playajoy.org PositivePathLabyrinth.org www.aidsmemorial.org

success. They’re particularly proud of the monies they’ve raised for worthy causes including Positive Resource Center, Bay Positives, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, Women’s Cancer Resource Center, The Shanti Project among many others. They’ve raised an impressive $1.7 million for these charities.

They noted that their work was made much easier thanks to the help of events coordinator George Delmar, Scott McGillivray, who designs their posters, and banker Jack Sugrue. It’s been a fun ride for Lit and Eggman, but they say they have no regrets about moving on. “Twenty years is enough,” said Eggman. “With Harry disabled, the work was all on my shoulders. We’re

transferring Lazy Bear to three new promoters: David Barker of 440 Castro; Steven Adams, VP of Sterling Bank; and John Jacobs, who owns a catering business which serves firefighters up in the mountains. We’ll continue to consult and plan to attend next year. We’re both looking forward to being participants.” Scheduling and ticket info for Lazy Bear Weekend can be found at www.lazybearweekend.comt

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Holding our Ground

by Race Bannon

t’s not a secret that the Bay Area, San Francisco in particular, has been losing spaces in which us kinky folks gather. Bars. Play spaces. Meeting and class locations. Conference and contest venues. Kinky retailers. All have experienced challenges in recent years due to the economic realities of a growing city amid the rapid urbanization of America. Recently, Beatbox, a beloved dance club that often hosted events for the kink community, closed its doors. And Alchemy, one of the few dungeon play spaces available to local organizations and play party promoters, also announced that it was shuttering. We’ve been down this road before and it’s a bumpy one. The Bay Area is not alone. Other cities are experiencing similar problems. Gay bars and clubs continue to have difficulty remaining profitable, including those that cater to the leather and kink crowd. Dance club spaces are feeling the pinch of rising rents and development as those places become prime real estate acquisition targets. Leather and fetish organizations are having difficulty finding suitable, affordable spaces in which to meet. Leather conference organizers tell me local hotel conference space has risen in price considerably, if they will accept our kind at all. Dungeon and play space options are shrinking. Taken together, the situation looks bleak. If we want to maintain a functional kink community that has enough opportunities to meet face to face, we need to consider ways to mitigate the declining situation. Hookup apps and sites are great, but do we really want an entirely virtual scene? Imagine a world where there are no physical gathering places where we can meet, learn, play, organize and discuss. That’s not an appealing scenario. I think it’s incumbent upon all of us to do what we can to ensure that such a reality does not happen. Now, I’m a realist. I’m aware that increased LGBT acceptance, the compartmentalizing of our scene into more granular networks, virtual cruising and communications, and the rising expense of real estate are all likely to continue to exert their pressures. That’s just the way it is. I get that. At the same time, the optimist in me wants to believe that we can keep at least a reasonable number of such places operational. I’ve been a kinkster long enough to have developed a strong network of like-minded friends and connections, but what about the newcomers? Yes, they can certainly meet online and that’s without a doubt the new connection paradigm. However, there is value in fostering in person meetings and interactions. Anyone who knows me knows that I have embraced the online, app and social media world fully. Even so, I realize there is no viable replacement for staring another person directly in the eyes and connecting on that visceral level. So, how might we all contribute toward improving the situation? One obvious solution is to give our business to those places that do currently welcome us with open arms. And by this I mean they overtly reach out to our kind, not just tolerate us. I’ve often heard lip service given to supporting businesses and venues that welcome us, along with tirades about the dire situation of losing them and how we must not let that happen. Then, many of those same people rarely frequent the same places they were

Rich Stadtmiller

Men gather during a cigar party at the San Francisco Eagle, one of the bars that’s been incredibly welcoming of leather and kink folks.

so desperate to keep around. I recall one online conversation in which a self-identified leatherman took offense that a local bar, known for being a regular leather and kink hot spot, charged him a door cover charge even though he was wearing full leather. Really? Have we come to that? Are we going to get bent out of shape because a bar adds a cover charge? Do we feel that somehow our leather fetish absolves us from contributing to the survival of that business? With attitudes like that, our bar scene will indeed be doomed. Luckily, I don’t think most people think that way. I think most realize that in order for these places to keep their doors open, we’re going to have to contribute to their coffers. It’s Business 101. Rising costs of doing business mean rising costs for the customer. That’s just how it is. Let’s support our businesses and venues. Of course, one of the more common complaints is that we can’t afford to pay more. I’m sure for some that’s true, but should not those of us who can afford to pay more do so in order to keep spaces open for not only our benefit but for others who might not be as financially solvent?

A friend of mine once offered this reality check when someone said there wasn’t enough money to support a certain kind of local kink venue. He offered as but one counter that an estimated 400-500 guys from San Francisco go to International Mr. Leather weekend in Chicago every year. With hotel, travel, registration, meals, parties and incidentals, it’s probably a $2500 tab. 400 times $2500 is $1 million, which he suggested was more than a decent down payment on a new kink community building which was being floated as an idea at the time. Even if the IML cost estimate is a bit high, that’s still a lot of money spent every year for a few days of out of town entertainment. Could we not funnel at least some of that cash toward our local businesses, events and venues? I think we could, if we had the will and dedication to do so. The bottom line is that it’s up to all of us to support our communal spaces. If we don’t, the leather and kink scene in our area and elsewhere will become but a shadow of its former self. I don’t think we want to see that happen.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through his website, www.bannon.com. Leather events are online at www.ebar.com/bartab.

Both photos: Rich Stadtmiller

Top: Leather notables gather at last year’s BLUF Dinner at Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurant, one of the dining venues that’s historically been quite open to hosting leather events. Bottom: The now-closed Beatbox hosted the 2014 Tenacious: Rubber on the Runway event in February 2014.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Laura Benanti Tony-winning musical theatre & TV star returns to Feinstein’s

Laura Benanti

by Jim Provenzano

ales from Soprano Isle is the new cabaret show from Tonywinning musical theatre and TV star Laura Benanti, who said she has a new repertory of songs for her shows at Feinstein’s at the Nikko July 29-31. “They’re all new songs with the exception of a few hits, along with anecdotes and funny stories,” said Benanti in a phone interview from New York City. “I want the show to reflect my Broadway experience, so we’ll put some of those songs into the show,” said the singer. With her musical director Todd Almond, Benanti has put together a show with both the heartfelt ballads she’s known for, and intimate versions of pop favorites by Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell. “These are women that I greatly admire,” said Benanti, 37. “I want to show that the soprano voice isn’t only operatic. It can melt and make itself conducive to many genres.” Expect a few of Benanti’s known musical theatre songs, since she has a great repertory to choose from. Most recently, Benanti starred in the Broadway revival of She Loves Me at Studio 54 with Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi. Before that, Benanti won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in the musical adapation of the Almodovar film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Benanti also won a 2008 Tony (among other awards, and six other Tony nominations) for her performance as Louise in Gypsy with Patti LuPone. In 2002, Benanti won praise for her ‘Cinderella’ in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. “Stephen has always been very helpful with recommendations,” she said of the prolific composer, who advised her in Into the Woods and later in Gypsy. “It was also wonderful to be directed by Arthur Laurents, who directed the original Gypsy. He really was able to guide us in the roles.” Asked about her most difficult song, Benanti said, “Singing Sondheim is not for the faint of heart, but it’s not as rangy as some songs in [composer Jerry Bock’s] She Loves Me. “’Children Will Listen’ [from Into the Woods] is challenging. But all that show’s songs are beautiful and incredibly melodic.” Theatre is in her family blood. Benanti’s parents are both former professional actor-singers. Even in high school in New Jersey, Benanti starred in the title roles of Hello, Dolly! and Evita. San Franciscans may recall Benanti’s evocative performance in the 2013 Bay Area premiere of Andrew Lippa’s oratorio, I Am Harvey Milk. Although she can fill a huge theatre with her opera-quality vocals, Benanti said she hopes for a sense of

the personal at her Feinstein’s shows. “Some of the songs do not lend themselves to intimacy, and I’ll sing them off the mic,” she said. “It’s nice to hear a song naturally.” Most Bay Area fans may have not seen Benanti live on stage. Television is no stranger to the accomplished actor. Benanti’s shows include the NBC TV production of The Sound of Music (she also performed as Maria as a replacement in the Broadway revival). This week on The Late Show, Benanti induced laughter nationwide with her spot-on parody impersonation of Melania Trump’s plagiarized RNC speech. And who could forget her intense portrayal of an ex-hus-

band-abused country music singer in Nashville? Scifi fans have enjoyed her costarring role as Supergirl’s mother, and her mom’s evil twin sister. She also played recurring characters in Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife. Mum’s the word on any returning appearances with Supergirl or Nashville (Supergirl premieres in October on the CW; Nashville’s fate remains unknown). In between her cabaret shows and TV work, Benanti is also writing a book of comedic essays. Before she stars in yet another Tony-winning musical, Benanti’s cabaret nights should please fans. Last year, Benanti brought her show In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention to SF, which is also a 2013 album recorded at New York’s 54 Below. Of course, Benanti is featured on the cast recordings of several musicals, and on select soundtracks from Nashville’s third season.

Above: Laura Benanti at 54 Below in New York City. Below: Laura Benanti’s send-up of Melania Trump’s 2016 Republican Convention speech on The Late Show.

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But seeing the star sing live is a special event, and Benanti has won praise for her cabaret shows as well, including a 2014 Nitelife Award for Outstanding Major Cabaret Vocalist and Broadway. com Cabaret Award for Best Female Celebrity Vocalist. Just the beautiful voice of this stellar performer, accompanied by a pianist, is like going right to the gold of her vocal talents. “I really like my shows to feel

casual,” said Benanti. “I want it to feel like someone’s come in to my living room, and I’m just singing to them and telling stories.”t Laura Benanti performs at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, July 29 at 8pm; July 30 at 7pm; July 31 at 3pm. $75-$95. $20 food-drink minimum. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.laurabenanti.com www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

<< On the Tab James Jordan

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

On the Tab

Psychedelic Furs, The Church @ UC Theatre, Berkeley

Thu 21

sis

Stale Magnolias @ Oa

Fri 22

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire

Thu 21

Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Grace Towers hosts the fun sexy night. $100 cash prize for best bulge. $5-$10 benefits various local nonprofits. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Curtain Call @ Hotel Rex

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Maureen Langan, Abhay Nadkarni (Guest Host), Julia Jackson, David Lawrence Hawkins, and Lisa Geduldig perform thought-provoking queerfriendly stand-up. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Die Antwoord @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium The popular South Afrikan techno band (“I Fink U Freeky”) performs. Crystal Castles opens. $2.50. 8pm. Civic Center Plaza at Grove St. www.apeconcerts.com

Maria Konner @ Martuni’s The local trans diva musician and host performs with her jazz-blues-rock trio No cover. Opem mic, too. 6:308:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with DJ MC2, themed nights, gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nice Jewish Boys @ The Residence 3rd Thursday Happy Hour with members of the LGBT Jewish organization. No cover, discount drinks.7pm. 718 14th St. www.keshetonline.org

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Bill Cooper hosts the open mic cabaret night, with a summer theme; Barry Lloyd accompanies. $15-$25. 7pm10pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Ladies of San Francisco @ Club OMG Galilea hosts the weekly “old school drag show” with guest performers and DJ Jack Rojo. $4. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Enjoy Latin, hip hop and electro, plus hot gogos galore, and a big dance floor. April 29: Violeta and Jacqueline La Gata. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux has moved, with new acts. $10. 8pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. Also Sunday brunch shows at PianoFight Theatre, 4pm. www.redhotsburlesque.com

Shenanigans @ Oasis The monthly queer costume dance night takes on a Dungeons & Dragons theme. $15. 10pm-2am. 2981 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. $7. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. studsf.com

They Might Be Giants @ UC Theatre, Berkeley The popular pop-nerd band performs. $30-$50. 8pm. 2036 University Ave., UC Berkeley campus. theuctheatre.org

Sat 23

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Two classic alt rock bands perform. $40-$140. 8pm. 2036 University Ave., UC Berkeley campus. www.thepsychedelicfurs.com www.theuctheatre.org

ShangriLa @ The EndUp The monthly (4th Saturdays) gay Asian & pals’ dance night, this time with a ‘Panda black and white’ costumeclothes, featuring DJs Louis T, Bugie, Mohammad, with Singa performing. Free before 11pm. $20. 10pm-8am. 401 6th st. www.theendup.com

Soul Delicious @ Lookout Brunch, booze, sass and grooves, with the Mom DJs, Motown sounds, and soul food. 11am-4pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sat 23 Jason Brock @ Martuni’s

Jason Brock @ Martuni’s The powerhouse vocalist celebrates his birthday with a concert of classic soul and R&B hits, with accompanist Dee Spencer. $20-$25. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. jbbday.bpt.me/

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. July 23, LA’s Jackie Beat headlines, with Disney tribute-parody numbers, and Beauty is a Beast, Drunk Drag Broadway’s live parody version of the Disney musical, with Linden Linty, Chyna Maykit, Sue Casa and others. $15-$25. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Don Seaver and Sean Owens’ drag parody musical blends Southern wit, green tomatoes and designing women. $25-$35 (VIP tables $225). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Aug. 3. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Let’s Have a Kiki @ The Cinch

Jackie Beat at Mother @ Oasis

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night includes big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

OutLoud @ Oasis Storytelling series hosted by Joshua Grannel, with Profundity, Carnie Asada, Coco Buttah, Fauxnique Mahlae Balenciaga, and Greg Deranian. $10. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

Underwear Night @ 440

Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sat 23

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch buffet, bottomless Mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. BeBe hosts, with live entertainment and DJ Shawn P. $15$20. 11am-3pm. After that, Femme T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

BeBe Sweetbriar’s Brunch Revue, Femme @ Balancoire

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe

Sun 24

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis. 7pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Mon 25

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. 8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Latin, hip hop and Electro music night. June 11, Banda Tierra Del Sol performs live. $5-$25. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Stale Magnolias @ Oasis

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. No cell phones on the dance floor, please! July 21: After-party for Stroke, the sexy GLBT History Museum exhibit opening night.$5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

First of a new monthly fundraiser for Groundswell Insititute, the queer cultural retreat, with DJs Steve Fabus, Prince Wolfe, drag acts by Baby Grrl, Beatrix, Storm Arcana and more; gogo cuties Ross Fur Trap, Jared and others; snacks for sale, art and sexy raffle prizes. $10. 7pm-1pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

José Guzman-Colon

e it a spooky foggy night, or a sunny afternoon, usually both in one day, your nightlife summer options may require a change of outfits. Where are our fleec e drag couturiers?

Bulge @ Powerhouse

Revel @ SF Eagle

Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know and Jorge T. $4. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Comfort & Joy presents an outdoor party and art installation with groovy DJed music, flagging, picnic space and interactive art works. Dress in your fab colors. Free. 11am-5pm. Nancy Pelosi Drive at Bowling Green, Golden Gae Park. www.playajoy.org

This week’s listings have been edited for space. Visit www.ebar.com/bartab for full listings.

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux

Playa in the Grove @ Nat’l AIDS Memorial Grove

July 21-28

Drag, dancing and delicious drink, with DJ Sergio Fedasz, Dank, drag shows hosted by Ferosha Titties, Maria Konner doing interviews, plus gogo hotties, back patio and no cover. 4pm8pm. 1723 Polk St. www.cinchsf.com

Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Tue 26

Bandit @ Lone Star Saloon New weekly queer event with resident DJ Justime; electro, soul, funk, house. No cover. 9pm-1am. 1354 Harrison St. www.facebook.com/BanditPartySF www.lonestarsf.com

Big LGBTQ Mixer @ Lyft The booming ride-share company hosts a reception with beer, cocktails and light bites. $25 donation to Give Out Day. 5pm-8pm. 185 Berry St. www.giveoutday.org

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar Queer dance party at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus DJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Personals

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

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Floor 21 @ Starlight Room Juanita More! presents the weekly scenic happy hour event, with host Rudy Valdez, and guest DJs. No cover, and a fantastic panoramic city view. 5pm-9pm. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sat 23 Psychedelic Furs @ UC Theatre, Berkeley

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Hysteria @ Martuni’s Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Marga’s Comedy Salon @ Spark Arts Marga Gomez, the fave awardwinning comic, hosts a new monthly series of comedy, readings, performance and discussion; guest comics Natasha Muse, Karinda Dobbins, and author Jim Provenzano. $10. 8pm. 4229 18th St. www.sparkarts.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers also take it all off. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www. thenobhilltheatre.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am. 44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4. 10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 27 Bedlam @ Beaux

Weekly event with DJs Haute Toddy, Guy Ruben, hosts Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Best in Show @ Oasis 2nd annual Ducal Court Best Pup competition, with Madd-Dogg 20/20, Miss Shugana, Sugah Betes and Cruzin d’Loo. $10-$15. Proceeds go to PAWS. 6:30pm-10pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Bone @ Powerhouse Weekly punk-alternative music night hosted by Uel Renteria and Johnny Rockitt. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates

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

Thu 28 Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre

David Benjamin leads the interactive downstairs sex party ($10, 9pm), a night before his onstage strip & sex shows with Mike Gaite ($25, 8pm & 10pm, July 29 & 30). 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Picante @ The Cafe Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol. 8pm. 43 6th St. clubomgsf.com

Joy Division tribute band performs. Victor Fiction opens. $15-$20. 8pm. 628 Divisadero St. www.apeconcerts.com

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Open Mic/ Comedy @ SF Eagle

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. whitehorsebar.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG

Moving Units @ SF Independent

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Thu 28 Natasha Dennerstein at Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s

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

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 21-27, 2016

Symphony Sips III by Jim Gladstone

Martini, the retro-swing combo from Portland, et’s make it a double! fronted by one-time local For the third and final hellraiser, Storm Large. round of Symphony Sips, Christina Cabrera BARtab’s cocktail pairing was actually in Paris, program for the San Franguest-bartending at hot cisco Symphony OrchesRight Bank bar Le Syntra’s summer concerts, dicat, when we asked we’re going on a bender her to concoct a drink in and bellying up for two honor of tonight’s gallic weeks worth of perforrepertoire. The creator mances, and drinks. Cocktail creator of cocktail programs at A quintet of irresistible Christina Cabrera Novela, Old Bus Tavern programs starts tonight and Barbarossa Lounge with An Evening in Paris and lead bartender at featuring guest vocalist Madeleine Wildhawk in the former Lexington Peyroux, the Georgia-born chanClub space (3463 19th Street. www. teuse who first came to public attenwildhawk.com), Cabrera toasts the tion busking in the Latin Quarter. City of Light with a spritely sumThe orchestra heads east from mertime champagne cocktail. France tomorrow night with a Russian Celebration of Tchaikovsky, Christina Cabrera’s Le Syndicat Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, Violet for An Evening in Paris then goes all-American on Saturday night with a crowd-pleasing tribute In a shaker, combine: to Gershwin and Bernstein, playing 1 ½ oz. Grey Goose vodka Rhapsody in Blue, the overture to ½ oz. Crème de Violette Candide, and An American in Paris. ½ oz. lemon juice Next Wednesday, video game ¼ oz. Luxardo maraschino soundtracks from the Final Fantasy ¼ oz. simple syrup series are on offer followed by a two night collaboration between the Add ice. Shake and strain into a SFSO and returning favorites, Pink champagne flute.

Top with Champagne.

After Higgins started tooting his own horn, other drink-dabbling denizens of Davies asked to get in More about Christina Cabrera at on the act. And while they’re on www.christinamcabrera.com hand to support the symphony, Evan Man cannot live Charest of the Patina by trombone alone, Restaurant Group, so Tim Higgins, the which caters the orsymphony’s principal chestra concerts, and trombonist, asked to SFSO production step in and show his manager Tim Carstuff at the bar with a less, both chose to seasonal vodka drink in play the blues with honor of Tchaikovsky their booze. and company. As his Carless’ Blue recipe demonstrates, in Monday is named bartending as in musiEvan Charest created a for a one-act opcianship, precise techBlue Magic cocktail. era composed by nique is essential. George Gershwin. “I think Lenny would Tim Higgins’ have preferred a scotch,” its creator Russian Celebration quipped. In a shaker, combine: Tim Carless’ Blue Monday for 2 oz Stolichnaya vodka Gershwin and Bernstein 1.5 oz fresh watermelon juice .5 oz Lillet Blanc In a shaker, over ice, combine: 1 ½ oz vanilla-flavored vodka Add ice. Shake and double strain ½ oz Cointreau into a stemmed glass. Place a ¼ oz Blue Curacao mint leaf on the palm of your hand and lightly slap it to release Shake and serve up with an the oils. Lay the leaf across the top orange twist. of the cocktail.

Evan Charest’s Blue Magic for Final Symphony In a rocks glass, over ice, combine: 1oz vodka ½ oz Blue Curacao ½ oz lime juice Fill remainder of glass with up to 3 oz of pineapple juice. Blue Magic will be available for sale at Davies during intermission at Final Fantasy-inspired concert. As for the season closing concerts with Pink Martini? You don’t really need a special recipe for that, now do you? Just hold your martini in one hand and wave your BARtab with the other. Cheers, darlings! The final two weeks of the San Francisco Symphony’s summer series include performances of An Evening in Paris with Madeleine Peyroux, tonight 7:30 pm; Gershwin and Bernstein, Saturday July 23 7:30 pm; Final Symphony: Music from Final Fantasy, Wednesday July 27 7:30 pm; Pink Martini with the SFSO, Thursday July 28 and Friday July 29, both 7:30pm. www.sfsymphony.org/summer

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shining Stars

July 21-27, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by

Steven Underhill Gameboi SF @ Rickshaw Stop

amboi, the monthly gay Asian and pals’ dance party, took over the Rickshaw Stop (133 Fell Street) with panache and a Pokemon Go presence, including Poke-swag, a few guys in Poke-costumes, but mostly dancing patrons working up a sweat while having fun. www.facebook.com/GAMeBoiSF www.rickshawstop.com More photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

SUMMER

WITH THE

SYMPHONY

Pink Martini WITH THE SAN FR ANCISCO SYMPHONY T H U J U LY 2 8 7: 3 0 P M • B E S T S E AT S AVA I L A B L E F R I J U LY 2 9 7: 3 0 P M

Stir things up with Pink Martini and the San Francisco Symphony on two unforgettable evenings of live music with the wildly popular, selfdescribed twelve-piece “little orchestra.” Drawing inspiration from cabaret, samba, and jazz, S T O R M L A R G E leads vocals in collaboration with the SF Symphony on a performance sure to get you smiling, clapping, and tapping your feet to the music.

O N S TAG E

Edwin Outwater conductor Storm Large vocalist Ari Shapiro special guest vocalist Pink Martini San Francisco Symphony

SFS Y MPHON Y.ORG/SUMMER

415 - 8 6 4 - 6 0 0 0

S U M M E R W IT H T H E S YM P H O N Y S P O N S O R S

LEAD SPONSOR

SUPPORTING SPONSOR

MEDIA SPONSORS

Concerts at Davies Symphony Hall. Programs, artists, and prices subject to change. Box Office Hours Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat noon–6pm, Sun 2 hours prior to concerts Walk Up Grove Street between Van Ness and Franklin