September 13, 2012 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

8

A cure for your sweet tooth

11

17

New model for pot dispensary

Larry Kramer

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Mirkarimi hoping for delay

Vol. 42 • No. 37 • September 13-19, 2012

Wiener open to banning public nudity

by Seth Hemmelgarn

E

mbattled suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is engaged in a multi-faceted campaign to be reinstated into his elected office as the Board of Supervisors prepares to vote on the matter.

Jane Philomen Cleland In recent weeks Ross Mirkarimi Mirkarimi has attended meetings of various civic and political groups to drum up support.

He spoke to the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, which has been a vocal backer of his, at its meeting Tuesday night.

Mirkarimi and his wife, Eliana Lopez, have also been walking various neighborhood business corridors to tell their story directly to the public.

The couple recently met with the Bay Area Reporter to discuss their ongoing legal battle to win back his job. Mirkarimi said he was meeting with the various groups and media outlets that endorsed him during last year’s sheriff’s race to express his gratitude for their support and address any questions they may have about the incidents that led to his suspension.

Mirkarimi said he’s “humiliated” and “ashamed” for the domestic abuse incident in which he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, “but I’m trying to right a wrong.”

The latest strategy being employed by his attorneys is to ask for a delay of the vote before the Board of Supervisors. Mirkarimi, however, did not mention pushing back the hearing during the hourlong meeting with the B.A.R. Friday, August, 31.

On Tuesday, September 11, the Ethics Commission approved its written findings and is expected to soon forward them to the Board of Supervisors, who will determine whether their former colleague is removed from office for official misconduct.

In March, Mayor Ed Lee suspended Mirkarimi without pay on grounds of official misconduct after he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge stemming from an incident with Lopez.

Lee transmitted the charges to the city’s Ethics Commission and asked that Mirkarimi be removed from his job.

After several hearings, the commission in August voted 4-1 in favor of recommending to the board that the official misconduct charges should be sustained. As it stands, a vote by the supervisors would come before Election Day, which could put the city’s progressive supervisors who are facing re-election in a bind.

In their request, filed this week, Mirkarimi’s See page 12 >>

Naked men were out for a stroll on Castro Street in 2010; Supervisor Scott Wiener says that the practice of some nudists wearing cock rings has crossed the line of acceptable public behavior.

Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

showdown over whether San Francisco should ban public nudity is looming as the issue again rears its head.

This time the tipping point may be due to naked men wearing cock rings.

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener disclosed to the Bay Area Reporter this week that he is open to introducing legislation at City

Hall that would ban public nudity.

“I have not done so right now but I am considering to do that in the near future,” said Wiener, whose district covers the Castro and a public plaza where many nudists gather on sunny days.

His reviewing of whether stricter rules are required is being driven by an increase in the number of naked men wearing cock rings in public, said Wiener. His office has been field-

ing calls all summer from constituents upset with the practice.

“People are absolutely repulsed by it,” said Wiener.

The openly gay supervisor, who joked that he never imagined when he ran for public office he would be asked about cock rings, said he agrees that the penile accouterments are inappropriate in public.

“People can have whatever view they want to have on public nudity in general. But to be walking around with a cock ring on or something similar is just not acceptable, responsible behavior,” Wiener said. “The whole purpose of a cock ring is to draw attention to that area.”

Many nudists, in turn, contend that sporting cock rings is similar to wearing earrings or bracelets. They have reported that the police are informing men who wear the genital jewelry that they are in violation of city codes governing being undressed in public.

“Men have been told they will be arrested on the spot if they are wearing a cock ring,” said Mitch Hightower, a nudist who runs a website about public nudity and organizes a yearly Nude In at the Castro’s Jane Warner Plaza the Saturday of Folsom Street Fair weekend. “Since Pride people have reported to me of being hassled for wearing cock See page 12 >>

City College board OKs special trustee

by Peter Hernandez

A

riotous mixture of hysteria, tears, and what some called misguided anger stirred as City College of San Francisco trustees voted 6-1 to bring in a special trustee to manage the present accreditation crisis.

The board also voted unanimously to make a $67 million cut for the coming fiscal year.

The college of 86,000 students is meanwhile preparing for possible closure if it does not meet recommendations by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The trustees reasoned at the Chinatown campus meeting Tuesday, September 11 that a voluntary special trustee would provide necessary guidance.

“I think we need someone who knows more than we do about accreditation,” said board President John Rizzo.

Protesters shouted “Resign! Resign!” and wore bright red T-shirts that said, “Stand With the Chicago Teachers Union,” in reference to a teachers’ strike in that city that began Monday.

“Why should we re-elect you if you can’t do your own job?” said student and activist Eric Blanc during public comment.

Three of the trustees – Natalie Berg, Chris Jackson, and Steve Ngo – are up for re-election in November. A fourth, Rodrigo Santos, was appointed by Mayor Ed Lee in August to fill the last few months of the term of late Trustee Milton Marks. Santos is also a candidate for the

Jane Philomen Cleland

City College Trustee Chris Jackson

November election. Rizzo, the college board president, is leaving the body and running for supervisor in District 5, which includes the Haight-Ashbury and Western Addition neighborhoods.

The special trustee will provide “advice and counsel” to the other trustees when voluntarily implemented, assisting with meeting the commission’s recommendations and preparing

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

a closure report by October. The state would have otherwise implemented a mandatory trustee that would strip the board of its governance until resolving its finances, like at Compton Community College District in 2004.

Solutions to the commission’s recommendations may include closure of some of the college’s nine campuses and the hiring of more administrators – many of whom retired but weren’t replaced in an effort to save money.

“We need some consistency outside of this administration,” said Rizzo.

His defense of the special trustee differed from that of the sole trustee in opposition, Chris Jackson, who tapped his feet to the rhythm of protesters shouting, “Show us the money!”

The town hall-style meeting acted as a venue for many articulated frustrations, from students’ lack of involvement in their college’s government to the many reductions to faculty pay.

“Why weren’t you there to involve more students?” said Shanell Williams, City College’s associated student body senator. “There are students raising children, and we’re here instead.

We don’t get paid for this.”

The scramble for a special trustee comes after an August mandate by California Community College State Chancellor Jack Scott, who retires Friday.

“I am deeply concerned that [the commission’s recommendations] may prove insuffiSee page 12 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Ex-MCC pastor ordered to stand trial on sex charges

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

judge has ordered a gay San Francisco man who’s been accused of having sex with minors he met through Craigslist, possession of child pornography, and other crimes to stand trial on most of the charges.

Brandon Lee Hamm, 37, who had been a volunteer pastor at Peninsula Metropolitan Community Church in San Mateo, appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court Friday, September 7 for a preliminary hearing before Judge Leland Davis III. According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, Hamm advertised on Craigslist for “horny skater boys.” A police detective responded to the ad posing as a 14-yearold boy and engaged in “graphic” email exchanges with Hamm, who sent a picture of his genitals, prosecutors said in a case summary.

Hamm allegedly arranged to meet for sex, and the South San Francisco Police Department arrested him in June after he showed up at a park, which had been designated as a meeting spot. Police found child pornography featuring boys 4 to 6 years old having sex with adults on his cell phone, according to the DA’s office.

In this case, he faces felony charges related to possession of child pornography, arranging to meet with a minor for the purpose of engaging in lewd and lascivious acts, contacting or communicating with a minor with the intent to commit a sexual act, and sending or distributing harmful matter with sexual intent to a minor.

Davis didn’t hold Hamm to answer on the latter two counts, since the officer wasn’t an actual minor, but he’s still facing trial on attempting each of the two alleged crimes.

Hamm is also facing numerous other charges, all of which were cov-

Courtesy San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department

Brandon Lee Hamm

ered by Friday’s preliminary hearing.

Following his June arrest, with his consent, officers went through his email account and located a victim who’s now 16, according to the DA’s office. The boy was 14 in 2009 when he responded to Hamm’s Craigslist ad and ultimately met him a number of times. They allegedly engaged in oral copulation and sodomy.

“Much of their conduct was documented in their email exchanges,” according to the DA’s office.

Hamm faces 42 felony counts in this case, including accusations related to going to meet a minor for engaging in lewd or lascivious behavior, and participating in sodomy with a minor, among other acts.

Hamm is also being held to answer on 10 felony counts in a third case, which also came to the police department’s attention after the June arrest. Officers located a boy who was 15 in the fall of 2010 at the time of the alleged crimes.

The charges include sodomy with a minor and distributing lewd materials to a minor, among other crimes.

Prosecutors say that Hamm responded to the victim’s Craigslist ad, and prosecutors indicated that they ended up meeting several times and had oral and anal sex.

The victim’s emails “show great anguish and embarrassment over what he was doing but [Hamm] kept the relationship going right up to the time of his arrest in the other case,” according to the DA’s office.

According to law enforcement officials, meeting places included a Burlingame park, a school, and the home of one boy’s aunt.

Outside the South San Francisco courtroom Friday, before Davis delivered his orders, Ryan McHugh, Hamm’s attorney, declined to comment on the cases.

During the hearing, South San Francisco Police Detective Christy Wesselius said one of the victims had wanted to stop communicating with Hamm and had closed email accounts. She also said one of the victims eventually told Hamm that he wasn’t gay and didn’t want to continue the acts.

When at least one of the boys didn’t show up for a meeting with Hamm, he expressed “disappointment or frustration,” but wasn’t threatening, Wesselius said.

She testified that one of the boys, who had been photographed while naked and handcuffed to a tree, had told her his doing so had been completely voluntary.

Hamm is out of custody on $200,000 bail bond on the first case, but he remains in San Mateo County’s main jail for the other two. His bail for each of those is $200,000.

The cases were continued to September 25 for arraignment. Deputy District Attorney Sharon Cho is the prosecutor.▼

Trans woman pleads guilty in burglary case

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

transgender San Francisco woman is expected to serve almost 10 years in prison after pleading guilty last week in a November 2011 home burglary case.

Felipe Valdez-Tejera, 51, was on parole when she entered the home of a sleeping Russian Hill couple, whose baby was about 3 months old and also in the residence.

She had previously pleaded not guilty in June and denied all allegations.

However, at her Thursday, September 6 appearance in San Francisco Superior Court before Judge Jim Collins, Valdez-Tejera pleaded guilty to a felony charge of firstdegree residential burglary, and admitted to an allegation of prior convictions.

Deputy Public Defender Sangeeta Sinha had been trying to get ValdezTejera into a treatment program, saying that her client, who’s originally from Cuba, had experienced years of physical abuse and drug addiction.

Valdez-Tejera’s previous crimes include three felony convictions for first-degree burglary. Most recently, in 2005, she was sentenced to eight years in state prison. Under California’s three strikes law, she could have already been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The new plea means another strike.

“Neither I nor Felipe is naive enough to believe she wouldn’t have

Courtesy SF Public Defender’s office

Felipe Valdez-Tejera

a state prison sentence suspended over her head as an incentive to comply with probation, and as punishment if she did not,” Sinha said in a June interview.

After Valdez-Tejera’s appearance Thursday, Sinha said her client pleaded guilty because “ultimately, she felt this was in her best interest.

At this point, it appeared the case was not going to be resolved for the treatment she wanted.” However, she said, Valdez-Tejera still planned to go to treatment upon release.

The expected sentence is 80 percent of 12 years, or almost 10 years.

Sinha said Valdez-Tejera is “disappointed, but she’s remaining hopeful” that she’ll “be able to get

the help that she needs.”

According to the police report, an officer responded to the burglary in this most recent case at about 3 a.m.

November 17.

The 32-year-old victim reported that he was awakened by his wife’s scream, saw Valdez-Tejera, and chased her out of the house, which is in the 1400 block of Green Street.

When he got outside, she had a brown shoulder bag that held two laptops, according to the police report. She and the victim eventually ran toward responding police and Valdez-Tejera was soon taken into custody.

Valdez-Tejera’s sentencing is set for October 1.▼

▼

Community News >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Trial begins in 1983 murder

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he trial of a bisexual man accused of murdering another man in 1983 began this week in San Francisco Superior Court.

DNA, the testimony of a woman who says defendant William Payne admitted the killing, and even Payne’s sexuality were among the topics that came up Monday, September 10 as the trial opened before Superior Court Judge Andrew Cheng.

Payne, 48, has been charged with first-degree murder during the course of sodomy in the death of Nikolaus Crumbley, 41, who was found dead in McLaren Park with his pants and underwear below his knees. The cause of death was ligature strangulation.

Payne had been questioned as early as 1984 in the death. Police arrested him in January 2012 after matching DNA from Crumbley’s body to him.

In his opening statements Monday, Assistant District Attorney Michael Swart said, “This case is about a man who manipulates his way with his victims,” getting them “into a seemingly safe situation” to achieve “his criminal purpose.” One way was “under the guise of having sexual relations,” Swart said.

Swart said the evidence would show that Crumbley, who appeared to be visiting San Francisco at the time he was killed, was found early in the morning of November 16, 1983 with “bruising around his entire body.” He had no belt or wallet,

bartabsf.com

and the American Express card that he’d used was missing. Swart mentioned that two men, who apparently haven’t been identified, had been seen pushing Crumbley’s rental car into Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

The medical examiner’s office took rectal swabs from Crumbley, but because of a lack of DNA testing technology, the “case was quickly at a standstill,” Swart said.

Then, in 1984, Payne admitted the killing to Demetrice Enis, and later sexually assaulted and beat her, Swart said. After that incident, San Francisco homicide inspectors asked Payne about Crumbley’s killing, but he denied knowing about it, Swart said.

Then, DNA from swabs ordered in 2003 was matched to Payne, Swart said.

“They found his sperm in such large amounts” that Payne “was the last person to have sex with Nikolaus Crumbley, and therefore, the person that murdered Nikolaus Crumbley,” Swart said.

He also said Payne’s DNA wasn’t found in Crumbley’s underwear, and if the men had had consensual sex, Crumbley’s underwear would have been pulled up and there would have been “leakage” leaving

Courtesy SFPD

Defendant William Payne

Payne’s DNA in the underwear.

There was DNA from a “minor” contributor who’d been “an earlier consensual partner” of Crumbley, Swart said.

“This case is not about somebody’s sexuality,” Swart said.

Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan Maloof began his opening remarks by showing jurors a slide that said, “No more secrets, William Payne is bisexual!!!”

Payne “has lived a secret bisexual lifestyle,” Maloof said of his client, who’s been married, has children, and has previously told police he’d

never had any sexual relations with another man. He said that secret was partly the reason for the proceedings against Payne, because it makes him “look suspicious,” so the secrets would end.

The evidence points to someone else, Maloof said, but he hasn’t been able to provide the identity of who is responsible for Crumbley’s death.

He said “young Billy” and Crumbley met at the old Frenchy’s shop, which sold gay pornography and other items. From there, they walked to the Atherton Hotel, where Crumbley was staying, and had sex. A couple days later, at the old Pendulum bar in the Castro, Payne heard that Crumbley had been murdered and that his body had been dumped in McLaren Park, Maloof said.

“Imagine hearing someone you recently had sex with was murdered, and you can’t tell anyone how you know,” because it would have revealed Payne’s orientation, Maloof said.

He also discussed two men pushing Crumbley’s car into Lake Merritt. A witness said the men ran away and disappeared, he said, and Crumbley’s blood was found in the car. Palm prints and fingerprints on the car, which was only partially

submerged, didn’t match Payne, Maloof said.

He also said jurors would hear testimony that semen can remain in the rectum for up to almost three days, and that semen from at least two men other than Crumbley and Payne was found in Crumbley’s underwear.

Under questioning by Swart, Enis, 46, testified that Payne admitted to her that he had “robbed and killed a guy and dumped him in McLaren Park.” She said she told police, but apparently nothing happened.

Then, in September 1984, upset about a breakup with his girlfriend (another woman), Payne again mentioned the killing, Enis said.

She said after Payne kissed her and she told him, “I didn’t come here for that,” he beat her, threatened to rape and kill her, and choked her with a belt.

Payne pleaded guilty to assaulting Enis, Maloof acknowledged, but during his cross-examination of her, he worked to pick apart Enis’s testimony.

Maloof plans to have Payne testify. The trial is expected to take about two to four weeks. If convicted, Payne could be sentenced to life without parole.▼

<< Community News

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Dem club honors East Bay trailblazers

by Elliot Owen

T

ebar.com

he East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club celebrated its 30th anniversary Sunday, September 9 by honoring 30 upstanding LGBT community members and allies who’ve shown dedication in fighting for social justice and advancing equal rights.

Formerly known as the East Bay LGBT Democratic Club, the organization holds its Trailblazer Awards every two or three years and only recognizes up to four individuals. This year, the club wanted to spotlight more trailblazers to coincide not only with the anniversary but the election year, too.

“Thirty years is a long time for an LGBT organization and the club has achieved a lot of innovative policy and electoral accomplishments,” said political action committee Co-Chair Kriss Worthington, a Berkeley city councilman who is running for mayor this year. “By having a large event we’re hoping to motivate people to get engaged and deliver a new wave of lavender activism in the East Bay.” Emceed by comedian Marga Go-

Elliot Owen

Stonewall Democratic Club PAC Co-Chair Kriss Worthington, left, congratulates Pacific Center youth leader the Reverend Mark Wilson, as emcee Marga Gomez and Stonewall President Brendalynn Goodall look on.

mez, the event, held at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, was attended by around 50 people including Oakland’s at-large city councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan who is running for re-election and other Berkeley and Oakland city council and school board hopefuls in

addition to the diverse group of trailblazers being honored.

“Some of them are in the spotlight and some are grassroots activists,” Worthington said. “Each one of them has incredible accomplishments. It’s far too rare that we actually recognize them so it’s beautiful to get together and celebrate.”

Among those honored were public servants, artists, faith community leaders, business owners, community activists and more – all of whom were selected after being nominated by any member of the community based on their dedication to the advancement of the LGBT rights and visibility.

El Cerrito Police Chief Sylvia Moir, who identifies as gay, was nominated

by El Cerrito City Councilwoman Janet Abelson, who said Moir is an “outstanding role model for people to follow.” Moir, who had never been recognized as a member of the LGBT community before, was honored that her work as a public servant might “make the path easier for the next generation” of the LGBT community.

Also recognized was Wendy Herndon, president of NIA Collective, a support and outreach organization for lesbians of African descent.

Herndon expressed her appreciation for both the club and the trailblazer event.

“It’s good to be recognized and appreciated in the community, especially when you do the tireless work of trying to build community,” Herndon said. “A lot of times people don’t get credit so it’s a pleasure and I feel very blessed. I’m glad the Democratic Stonewall Club is here and that they do the work to get [President Barack] Obama elected again.”

In fact, Obama was recognized as a straight ally for his support of marriage equality and for ending the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

Other allies selected as trailblazers were Mirna Media and Laurin Mayeno of Somos Familia, two mothers with gay and bisexual sons who founded their organization to create support and acceptance for Latino LGBTQ youth and their families. After five years of hard work, Mayeno said, the acknowledgement of their mission by the club is inspiring.

“We still need to do more work but it gives me a lot of encouragement to continue,” added Media.

Honorees also included diversity and inclusion trainer Lia Shigemura; musician Mary Watkins; spoken word poet Terry Taplin; businesswomen Diane Pfile and Ruth Villasenor; UC Berkley dean Billy Curtis; AIDS prevention activist Henry Ocampo; artist Kim Anno; former state Senator Carole Migden, who used to run the Pacific Center; the Reverend See page 9 >>

▼

Politics >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Supe candidates weigh in on Mirkarimi case

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

uspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has good reason to want a postponement in having the Board of Supervisors vote on whether he should be removed from elected office. The issue is already coming into play in several campaigns for the odd-numbered supervisor seats up for grabs this fall, and there are potential benefits for his political survival in having the matter delayed.

Mirkarimi needs at least three votes among the 11 supervisors to win reinstatement as sheriff. The Ethics Commission, which voted to oust him from the post, is expected to send the matter to the board next Tuesday, September 18. The supervisors would then have 30 days to act.

But on Monday Mirkarimi’s lawyers filed a request with the Ethics Commission to delay having the board vote on the matter until after the November 6 election. Doing so would provide Mirkarimi with having his case decided by “neutral decision makers,” his attorney David Waggoner told the Bay Area Reporter. [See story, page 1.]

One of Mirkarimi’s main arguments against his ouster is that it should not be up to the mayor or the board to decide, but left to the voters.

“If people want to remove me as sheriff they can do that through a recall or they can not re-elect me,” he said during a recent editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. “There are democratic ways to do that.”

A postponement of the board hearing his case could be advantageous for Mirkarimi as he tries to secure the trio of board backers he needs to keep his job. By drawing out the debate in the press, as well as on the campaign trail, there is the chance that the supervisors up for re-election this fall may feel it necessary to weigh in on the case.

The supervisors have been advised not to speak about it, however, as they will be meeting as a quasi-judicial body when they hear the matter.

Mirkarimi’s legal team could use any statements the supervisors make to try and disqualify them from adjudicating the issue.

Board President David Chiu, who would determine when to schedule the vote, has remained largely silent about the issue. In an editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. last week, the District 3 supervisor said he has purposefully avoided talking about the matter with the press.

“People are asking me about it,” said Chiu, who is up for re-election. “I am telling them the same thing I am telling you, I am not allowed to talk about it.”

The only thing Chiu did say is that the board would adhere to the procedure outlined by the city charter.

“The board does need to make a decision in 30 days, and we will do that,” Chiu said last week prior to Mirkarimi’s request for a postponement of the matter.

It is assumed that Mirkarimi, who formerly held the District 5 supervisor seat before resigning to become sheriff, has the best chance at lining up three votes from his former progressive allies on the board: gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, District 11 Supervisor John Avalos, and District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar. Campos and Avalos are both running for re-election unopposed this year and are unlikely to uphold Mayor Ed Lee’s decision to suspend Mirkarimi after he plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false impris-

Jane Philomen Cleland

District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar

onment stemming from an incident last December with his wife.

Mar, on the other hand, is facing a tough competitor in David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voter Education Committee. It is unclear if setting aside the Mirkarimi case until after the November election would help or hinder Mar’s reelection bid.

He told the B.A.R. that he isn’t concerned about having his vote in the case impact his seeking a second term.

“I am not nervous at all about that,” said Mar, though he quickly added, “and I can’t talk about it.”

When asked about it on the campaign trail, Mar said he turns the conversation to his “strong track record” on working with women’s organizations and domestic violence policy.

Lee, on the other hand, is talking about it.

He told the B.A.R. that if he were hearing the matter that he would vote to remove Mirkarimi as sheriff.

Asked if he would use Mar’s vote on the matter against him in the race, Lee said at first that the issue “isn’t why” he is running for supervisor.

He said it does not often come up with Richmond district residents, but when it does, he tells people he would vote out the sheriff.

When pressed on if he saw the issue as a legitimate talking point in the campaign, Lee did say that he could see referring to how Mar votes as a way to “draw contrasts” between the two candidates.

“I am on one side,” said Lee, adding that if it is a legitimate public policy difference of concern to residents, then “it is legitimate to point that out.”

In the race for Mirkarimi’s old District 5 seat, where mayoral appointee bisexual Supervisor Christina Olague is seeking a full term on the board, the pending vote on the sheriff has yet to become a flashpoint. During the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club’s forum with the District 5 candidates, the issue wasn’t addressed.

“It doesn’t come up a lot,” said Julian Davis, president of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center who is one of seven opponents trying to unseat Olague.

Davis said he would not vote to remove the sheriff and feels the decision is best left for voters to decide. He demurred when asked if he would use Olague’s vote against her in the race if she sides with the mayor.

“It is a tough vote for her either way,” he said. “[Mirkarimi] remains very popular in District 5.”

Olague told the Bay Guardian that she plans to “vote on the merits” of the case. But it is expected that Mirkarimi’s legal team will seek

to disqualify her from voting due to accusations that she and the mayor discussed the matter. Lee and Olague have both denied the charges.

In the race for the open District 7 supervisor seat west of Twin Peaks, several of the candidates have said publicly they would vote to oust Mirkarimi. It is doubtful, however, that the vote will take place after the current officeholder, Sean Elsbernd, is termed off the board.

The first contender for Elsbernd’s seat to raise the issue was Port Commissioner Francis “FX” Crowley. In late August he sent out an email urging the board to oust Mirkarimi and asked his supporters to write to the supervisors and voice the same demand.

“The sheriff’s misconduct, together with his efforts to discredit domestic violence victims’ advocates and witnesses, have disqualified Mr. Mirkarimi from holding this vital law enforcement role,” stated Crowley.

He later told the B.A.R. he sent out the email because “folks asked me to weigh in on it.”

Two other candidates have since come out in agreement with Crowley.

Gay journalist Joel Engardio told the B.A.R. that he would vote to remove the sheriff since, “I don’t think he can effectively serve.”

He added that he wished Mirkarimi had resigned rather than fight to keep his job. But he also questioned allowing the mayor to be “invested with that much power.”

“I think the question we should look at is if the mayor should have the power to remove someone from office,” said Engardio.

School Board President Norman Yee also told the B.A.R. that he would vote to remove the sheriff. But he allowed for some wiggle room on his position.

“If you give me something else to show why he shouldn’t be removed, I am open to it,” said Yee. Unless the matter is set aside until after the November election, the supervisors are expected to vote before October 18.

Cicilline survives primary fight Rhode Island gay Democratic Congressman David Cicilline survived a nasty primary fight Tuesday, September 11. But he enters the general election campaign badly beaten up as he now tries to fend off his Republican challenger, Brendan Doherty.

Ahead of the Democratic primary this week, businessman Anthony Gemma unleashed a barrage of accusations against Cicilline, a first-term congressman, accusing him of everything from voter fraud to lying to his constituents. In the end the effort failed, as Cicilline trounced Gemma with a 32-point victory, according to the unofficial returns.

Doherty wasted no time in attacking Cicilline, calling him “untrustworthy” at a Wednesday morning press conference. Polls have shown the GOP candidate with the edge in the race, though Democratic Party operatives insist the race is Cicilline’s to lose.▼ Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www. ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on numerous political fundraisers aimed at LGBT donors in the coming weeks.

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

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

<< Open Forum

▼ CA tax measures – Yes on 30; No on 38

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

Volume 42, Number 37 September 13-19, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

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B

oth Propositions 30 and 38 would increase state taxes. Prop 30 was crafted by Governor Jerry Brown and is an initiative constitutional amendment, also known as the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act. It came about after his failure to negotiate a compromise with the state Legislature to close the state’s budget gap. Prop 38, titled the same as Prop 30, was crafted by wealthy attorney Molly Munger and essentially completely financed by her. They are competing measures, and, if they both win, the one with the most votes takes effect. We believe Prop 30 is better reasoned and less harmful to the middle class and recommend a YES vote. We recommend a NO vote on Prop 38.

Anyone paying attention knows the dire straits the state of California is in. Unemployment is among the highest in the nation. Tax revenues have plummeted and public services, from education to public safety, have sustained draconian cuts. Failure to adopt a meaningful tax increase measure will have unthinkable consequences.

Prop 30 raises the tax rate on those taxpayers most able to pay.

It raises the personal income tax rate on individuals making more than $250,000 a year but less than $300,000 by 1 percent. Single taxpayers earning between $300,000 and $500,000 annually would see their income tax rate increased by 2 percent, and earners over $500,000 would have their taxes increased by 3 percent. The earnings thresholds are doubled for married taxpayers. For single taxpayers earning less than $250,000 ($500,000 if married),

Lydia Gonzales

Governor Jerry Brown

there would be no tax rate increase.

These new tax rates would be temporary and in place for seven years. Additionally, Prop 30 raises the state sales tax by a quarter cent for the next four years. It aims to raise about $6 billion annually.

Prop 38 is a much broader measure, raising taxes on essentially all taxpayers beginning with singles earning $7,316 ($14,632 for married taxpayers). The rate of increase starts at 0.4 percent and goes up to 2.2 percent for singles earning more than $2.5 million or joint filers over $5 mil-

lion. It aims to raise $10 billion annually over 10 years.

We support Prop 30 for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is the product of the political process (although attempts to reach a legislative compromise failed) in which the governor, the Democratic majorities in the Legislature, and affected stakeholders were all part of the negotiations and compromise that resulted in the proposition before the voters.

Prop 38 did not result from a collaborative process but was the plan put forward by one wealthy individual.

New revenues from Prop 30 would be used to help balance the state budget and to fund schools. The current budget adopted by the legislature is linked to Prop 30. If it goes down to defeat, it will cause “trigger cuts” to go into effect. Schools and community colleges would lose some $5.4 billion; the University of California and California State Universities would lose another one half billion. Public safety (city police department grants and firefighter services) would lose tens of millions of dollars.

Flood control programs and local water safety patrol grants would lose another $10 million.

These figures are provided by the Legislative Analyst’s office.

Prop 30 has the broad support of education and public safety groups as well as health care and business and community organizations.

Labor strongly supports Prop 30.

Prop 30 is a reasoned approach to a dire problem. Failure to act will have catastrophic consequences to education and public safety in California. It asks those in the higher income brackets who can afford to pay more to increase their support for the common good.

Vote YES on Prop 30 and NO on Prop 38.▼

The gayest convention ever

by Rebecca Prozan

A

s an out lesbian representing San Francisco as a delegate to the 2012 Democratic convention, I must say we’ve come a long way in 40 years. In 1972, San Franciscan Jim Foster broke lavender glass as the first openly gay person to address a convention floor and asked for a gay rights plank in the party platform. Foster, along with Madeline Davis of Florida, comprised the entire out LGBT delegation that year.

A fan of politics all my life, I caught a glimpse of Democratic leadership with President Jimmy Carter before being bombarded with Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. When I came out in the early 1990s, President Clinton made history as the first candidate to conduct major outreach to the LGBT community. That year, the party platform included adoption of a gay civil rights bill, more AIDS funding, and an end to the ban on gays in the military. A record 110 openly lesbian and gay delegates attended the 1992 convention.

While the Los Angeles Times called the 1992 convention a “watershed” for the gay community, the waters of justice didn’t flow in the form of gay civil rights legislation or in the right to serve openly in the military. We did, however, see a dramatic increase in AIDS funding.

Over my adult life, I’ve attended many state Democratic conventions. In 2008, I was an early supporter of Barack Obama and represented San Francisco as a delegate to the national convention in Denver. I remember the years where we hung on every word to hear if “gay” was spoken. I read position papers to see if the word “gay” was used. I’ve justified the positions of straight allies who weren’t ready to support our right to marry, our right to serve, and sometimes our right to be equal. This past week, however, I finally experienced what it means to be actually included. Included in the platform, in the speeches both gay and straight, and in the party. That was my experience in 2012 – in fact, I’m calling it the gayest convention I’ve ever attended.

On the eve of this year’s convention, I went to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund’s welcoming event for LGBT delegates. An RSVP was required to attend this free event, and people on the waitlist were being turned away. The room was packed with 200-plus D.C. staffers, grassroots activists fighting anti-marriage ini-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Obama delegate Rebecca Prozan

tiatives, and more. When the program began, all of us were amazed to hear from LaWana Mayfield, the African American lesbian councilwoman from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Since 1992, we’ve quintupled the number of openly LGBT delegates as we hit 534, more than 10 percent of the entire delegation. At the first session of the LGBT caucus, we honored Babs Saperstein, the first transgender member of the DNC. When the LGBT veterans were asked to approach the stage, more than half the room moved toward the front. Even second lady Jill Biden came by the caucus to rally the troops.

A forum on the state of the LGBT movement boasted speakers like NAACP Chairman Ben Jealous, CNN news anchor Campbell Brown, and comedian Aisha Tyler. Jealous discussed the work the NAACP did to fight with us against the marriage initiative in North Carolina. The forum’s analysis and conversation would have impressed any San Franciscan activist in terms of what we need, how to achieve it, and what’s next on the horizon.

The Human Rights Campaign held a luncheon where newly minted President Chad Griffin introduced first lady Michelle Obama with these words: Did you see that dress she was wearing? And where do I get those arms?

Joking aside, the first lady spoke passionately about how we don’t have a minute to waste in this election. This election is about the lessons we want to teach our kids. Afterwards, she shook hands and spoke with folks.

And then of course, there was the actual convention itself. By my count, we had at least five openly gay speakers (four of whom are elected officials) address the convention floor.

These included: Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank; our own California Assembly Speaker John A. Perez; Colorado Congressman Jared Polis; Wisconsin Congresswoman and the first out Senate candidate to address the convention, Tammy Baldwin; and DNC Treasurer Andrew Tobias. All of these individuals made it clear they were part of the LGBT community and all of them were heard not just for their identity as an LGBT individual, but as a Democrat fighting for the values of inclusion.

Instead of trying to hear the word “gay” or the phrase “same-sex marriage,” I found it was more difficult to find a person who did not include us. So many straight leaders made impassioned pleas on behalf of our right to marry. President Obama, Michelle Obama, and President Clinton clearly referenced both our right to marry and our right to serve. Others, like the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Emanuel Cleaver, made an impassioned plea for our rights. There were many speakers at the convention, many of whom made incredible speeches, one of whom deserves special recognition. Zach Wahls, the son of two lesbian moms in Iowa, summed up what we’ve been fighting for when he told Mitt Romney: “My family’s every bit as real as yours.”

And for all the discussion about the inclusion of same-sex marriage in this year’s platform, the delegates voted unanimously to approve it! Over the past four years, we’ve repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” we’ve passed the hate crimes prevention act, we’ve stopped defending the Defense of Marriage Act, and our president is on record supporting gay marriage. Over the next four, when we win, it’s time for us to pass an all-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And after that?

Well, then I start to dream about what the convention will look like in 2032.▼ Rebecca Prozan is a lifelong advocate for LGBT rights who serves as the director of community relations under District Attorney George Gascón.

Two LGBT events will be held in San Francisco to support the president next week. One features Washington Governor Gregoire, which will be held Wednesday September 19 and another, which features Wahls, on Friday September 21. For more information, contact prozan@gmail.com.

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Letters >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

No on Prop F I was pleased to see your strong editorial against Proposition F, the Hetch Hetchy initiative [“Leave Hetch Hetchy alone,” Editorial, September 6].

It is worth remembering that President Theodore Roosevelt, the conservation president and the founder of the National Park Service, granted San Francisco the original permits for the Hetch Hetchy Dam project in 1908. Roosevelt believed that government should be a good steward of the nation’s natural resources and the use of Hetch Hetchy Canyon in Yosemite Park to provide water for San Francisco fulfilled that purpose. Needless to say, John Muir with his spiritual environmentalism vigorously disagreed and a battle over those two points of view was waged in the Congress for five years. The Roosevelt argument won and now one hundred years later some people want to reargue the case. We have more important environmental issues to face. No on Prop F. James W. Haas San Francisco

Yes on Prop F Whereas I applaud the attention the Bay Area Reporter has paid to the emerging concern for San Francisco’s environmentally destructive water system, I was disappointed to read the many factual inaccuracies upon which you based your opposition to Prop F, the Water Conservation and Yosemite Restoration Initiative. The Tuolumne River is the source of 85 percent of San Francisco’s water supply not Hetch Hetchy Valley. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is one of just nine reservoirs that San Francisco uses to store its water. San Francisco is the only city in the country allowed to store its water in a national park.

You claim in your editorial that the California Department of Water Resources report on restoring Hetch Hetchy concluded that restoration “while technically feasible was not financially feasible.” In fact the report says quite clearly on page 50 “It does appear technically feasible to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley. However, it is premature to evaluate its financial feasibility.”

You also claim in your editorial that the same report claims further studies would cost $65 million when in fact on page 5 it clearly states, “An estimated $7 million is needed for a comprehensive Hetch Hetchy Restoration study ...” Lastly you assert that the above mentioned report states that the average customer would pay $709 to $2,777 more for water each year if Hetch Hetchy were restored. The report makes no such claim and in fact repudiates the high end of their own cost estimate with the following statement on page 42; “Via memo to DWR dated July 20, 2005, SFPUC provided an estimate of $9 billion in total costs to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley. The SFPUC did not respond to DWR requests to review documentation of this cost estimate; therefore, DWR was unable to examine SFPUC’s claim in this report.”

Aside from these errors you also omitted some important facts. The California Department of Water Resources report estimates that the economic benefit of restoring Hetch Hetchy would be $6 billion annually. That is a key fact your readers should know. The San Francisco Department of Public Health warns anyone living with HIV to speak with a doctor prior to drinking San Francisco’s unfiltered tap water. That is also a key fact your readers should know.

Earlier this year the San Francisco Business Times – hardly a champion of environmental values – editorialized that “While other cities in water-poor areas have made great strides in storing rainwater, reclaiming used water and recycling it, San Francisco and its Public Utilities Commission have taken baby steps at most.” They

went on to characterize our waste of water as “disgraceful and even disgusting.”

Prop F makes no changes to our existing water system.

It simply requires San Francisco to develop a long-term plan to increase its local water sources through water recycling and groundwater recharge so that we can begin to reverse the damage our water system has done to the Tuolumne River and Yosemite National Park over the last 100 years. The plan would then be brought back to the voters in 2016 for approval. Prop F is simply a small, reasonable first step designed to create a more sustainable, less environmentally damaging future for San Francisco.

Mike Marshall, Executive Director Restore Hetch Hetchy San Francisco

Inaccurate ad message?

So the banner at the top of Most Holy Redeemer’s ad in the B.A.R. proclaims “God’s inclusive love proclaimed here.” But I guess that does not include drag queens?

I truly think it is time the gay community realizes that the Catholic Church (which I was raised in) wants your money, but at the same time they feel you are an abomination.

Michael Langsdorf Oakland, California

Secular state vs. Catholic doctrine I read with interest Michael Biehl’s spirited defense of his church, crediting it with everything but canned beer [Mailstrom, August 30]. He certainly is correct in his assertion that the Catholic Church, which was pretty much Christianity until the Reformation, was a mainstream of Western civilization. Of course, we are grateful to be the recipients of this tradition, especially as it has given us the secular state. And therein lies a problem for some of us.

At this point in history we resent the intrusion of the church into politics. The Republican Party is in the process of becoming a religious party, more evangelical than Catholic perhaps, but with a biblical bias.

The GOP is an anti-gay party. It opposes gay marriage.

Catholic doctrine of “morally disordered” homosexuals play into that agenda. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is a good example of a Catholic who votes his Catholic philosophy in his court decisions, which can be counted on to be anti-gay. He rails against the so-called gay agenda.

Permit me an anecdote here. Not that many years ago, a group of teenagers attacked a lone gay man with a baseball bat studded with razor blades. Needless to say, they hurt him badly. It was only by accident that they didn’t kill him. The newspaper story about the assault included the information that one of the teenagers used to be an altar boy, and a priest came forward to testify that he was a good kid. Nowhere in the story was a suggestion that the church had failed in its duty to provide the boy with proper moral guidance. Rather, the Catholic Church, like most Christen churches, has honed its message on the theme of “us and them.” And we queers are definitely “them.”

I suggest to Mr. Biehl that his church is now part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. The new archbishop campaigned in California against gay marriage.

Which is it, Mr. Biehl? The Declaration of Independence with its right of “pursuit of happiness” equally for all citizens or his church’s reserving of marriage for “morally ordered” straight folk?

James Queen San Francisco

Walk kicks off Leather Week compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he rainbow flag at Castro and Market streets will be temporarily replaced with the leather flag as Leather Week commences with a fundraising walk Sunday, September 16.

The raising of the leather flag at Harvey Milk Plaza takes place at noon. Immediately following, Sandy “Mama” Reinhardt will lead the 21st annual Leatherwalk down Market Street into the South of Market neighborhood, the traditional home of San Francisco’s leather community. The walk stops at several bars, including the Powerhouse (1347 Folsom Street), Kok (1225 Folsom Street), and culminates at Beat Box (314 11th Street) with a beer bust run by the Bare Chest Calendar men.

Founded in 1992 by Art Tomaszewski, Leatherwalk raises funds for the AIDS Emergency Fund and Breast Cancer Emergency Fund through pledges and donations col-

Rick Gerharter

Doug Mezzacopa gave a celebratory cheer as the leather flag was raised at last year’s Leatherwalk.

lected by walkers. Past Leatherwalks have raised in excess of $25,000 annually for the two organizations, which provide emergency financial assistance to persons with HIV/ AIDS or breast cancer, respectively.

“This event is a tremendous outpouring of love from the leather community,” Mike Smith, executive director of the two nonprofits, said in a statement. “Their generosity has See page 13 >>

<< Business News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Rick Gerharter

Chambers hold joint mixer I

n what was billed as the business networking event of the season, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and the Golden Gate Business Association, the nation’s oldest LGBT chamber, held a joint mixer Tuesday, September 11 at the historic Union Bank

building in the Financial district. SF chamber President and CEO Steve Falk, left, spoke to attendees and was joined by Eric GoForth, GGBA’s board president. Over 200 people attended the event, which was sponsored in part by the Bay Area Reporter.

New shop satisfies sweet tooth

by Raymond Flournoy

S

an Francisco’s own Yigit Pura – the telegenic and out winner of the first season of Bravo’s Top Chef: Just Desserts – has pulled back the curtains on Tout Sweet, his first restaurant. The jewel box patisserie is housed on the third floor of Macy’s Union Square, with a wall of windows looking down onto the park below.

Featuring a menu of Pura’s sweet confections alongside a smattering of savory offerings, Tout Sweet, which opened September 8, also showcases Pura’s line of jarred sauces, curds, and jams. But the stars of the show are the desserts, including feather-light macarons in a rainbow of dusty colors, creamy panna cottas, Belgian waffles, and a variety of cakes and cookies.

“There aren’t too many pastry shops left in San Francisco,” Pura, 31, said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “There used to be so many more, and I wanted to bring something that is all about desserts back to the city. Desserts bring out the joy in people, and I wanted to celebrate that.”

Among the highlights of the menu is the signature Tout Sweet cake, which features layers of chocolate cake, milk jam, and chocolate mousse. A slice runs $6.50, or a full 8-inch round cake is available for $62.

Pura also devised a line of desserts named Inspired, each of which is meant to capture a certain feeling in dessert form. The lead off for the line is the Tesla, a mixture of passion fruit, yuzu, and Meyer lemon, which is named for physicist and electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla.

“I am a sentimental chef, and I cook with love.

I cook to inspire a feeling. So I asked myself, if electricity were a flavor profile, what would it taste like?” said Pura.

Coming soon are desserts inspired

by Big Sur, and that most universal of inspirations, love.

In addition to Tout Sweet, Pura has also been working on a cookbook with Chronicle Books, set to hit shelves in fall of 2013 or spring of 2014. Entitled Sweet Alchemy, the book will attempt to break down desserts into the five most basic components. Five sections will feature recipes highlighting each component, with a final section merging all of the parts into one grand unified theory of goodness.

“Desserts are an intimidating specter for a lot of folks. I want this book to empower home bakers to make all of these things on their own,” he said.

Steven Kasapi

Yigit Pura stands behind the counter during the grand opening of Tout Sweet, his new patisserie located in Macy’s Union Square.

As for the medium that made him a household name, Pura said that he has few television appearances lined up. He recently worked on some projects with the Cooking Channel, and he will also be making a guest appearance on the Bravo network next month. But any deeper commitments to a larger television project are on hold while Pura concentrates on Tout Sweet.

In the future, Tout Sweet may expand to other locations but Pura says that there are no definite plans in place yet.

“Right now I’m re-analyzing the restaurant and seeing how to make it better. ... Tout Sweet is my entire life, my 100 percent right now,” Pura said.

Visit http://www.toutsweetsf.com to see the full menu and to learn about special cake commissions. The Tout Sweet line of jams and treats will also be available via the website within the next few weeks.

Gold’s no more As of 7 a.m. on Saturday, September 15, Gold’s Gym Castro will be renamed Fitness SF (2301 Market St), according to director of marketing Jeff Brooks. The separation from the international chain will also affect

Gold’s Gym locations in Corte Madera (10 Fifer Avenue), Oakland (600 Grand Avenue), and South of Market (1001 Brannan Street).

The owners of the four gyms, Sebastyen and Zsolt Jackovics, are not issuing an official reason for cutting ties with the Gold’s brand. However in 2010 the brothers famously drew the ire of TRT Holdings, the corporation which owns Gold’s, when they criticized contributions made by CEO Robert Rowlings to support conservative political causes.

Patio predictions?

At the September meeting of the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro, Supervisor Scott Wiener said that he believes that a new tenant will be announced for the long-dormant space at 531 Castro Street. Although he did not provide details, he indicated that he has seen progress behind the scenes for the storefront, which formerly housed the Patio Cafe.

“I would not have said that two months ago. But now I can say that I am hopeful that something will open very soon,” Wiener said.

In an email to the B.A.R., Wiener addressed a recent rumor about the new tenant for the space, saying, “Tangerine isn’t moving in.” The restaurant Tangerine recently closed its doors at See page 13 >>

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Community News>>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

More than 55K petitions urge Brown to sign SB 1172

by Catherine Pickavet

R

epresentatives from Gaylesta and Equality California delivered more than 55,000 petitions to Governor Jerry Brown’s San Francisco office last week, urging him to sign Senate Bill 1172. The bill would prohibit mental health professionals from attempting to engage in efforts to alter the sexual orientation of LGBT youth 18 years and younger.

Authored by state Senator Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), SB 1172 was passed by the California Assembly on August 28 by a vote of 23-13. It was then passed a second time by the state Senate on August 30 due to minor changes before heading to the governor’s desk.

“The abusive practices that this bill would end cause serious harm to LGBT youth, including depression, shame, decreased self-esteem, social withdrawal, substance abuse and suicide,” said EQCA spokesman Steve Roth. “Passage of this bill will help keep California at the leading edge in the effort to protect LGBT youth, making it the first state in the nation to ban these abusive practices.”

Most mental health practitioners agree that so-called conversion therapy is a detriment to the mental health of gay youth and adults who have been subject to the practice.

Guy Albert, a Berkeley-based psychologist and member of LGBTQ psychotherapy group Gaylesta, said he has witnessed firsthand the lasting damage that the practice has had on youth and adults and that having this many signatures in support of the bill is meaningful.

“This is an impressive show of names to tell Governor Brown that SB 1172 is vitally important to the health and safety of youth around the state,” Albert said in an interview in front of the governor’s office before the petitions were delivered.

“The implication within the terms ‘reparative therapy’ or ‘conversion therapy’ is that something needs to be repaired or converted in someone with same-sex attractions.

There’s nothing to repair or convert in us. What’s been happening is a kind of legalized gay bashing. We want that to stop.”

Since the bill went to Brown’s office, the campaign to amass public support has been gathering momentum on multiple fronts. EQCA has collected more than 11,200 signatures. Gaylesta, through its Change.org petition, has collected more than 11,600. And All Out has collected more than 32,000. Each signature helps to further illustrate to Brown the significance of the bill’s impact on LGBT youth and the larger community, proponents said.

In addition to the signatures, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a co-sponsor, initiated a Twitter

<<

Dem club From page 4

Roland Stringfellow; Rabbi Reuben Zellman; John Betterton from the Port of Oakland; Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone; publishers Michelle Fitzhugh Clark and Z’ma Wyatt; activist Koko Lin; educator Rebecca Kenney; and two of the Democratic club’s co-founders, James Chambers and Eric Hsu. Organizations that were recognized included Lavender Seniors of the East Bay and Tracy’s House, a transgender drop-in program run by AIDS Project of the East Bay. Rounding out the honorees were Peggy Moore, political director for the California chapter of Obama for America; Marion Abdullah, a senior

Catherine Pickavet

Guy Albert, left, of Gaylesta and Chris Riley of Equality California discuss SB 1172 outside Governor Jerry Brown’s San Francisco office, where they and other advocates delivered over 55,000 petitions in support of the bill.

campaign on September 5, asking people to send tweets directly to the governor with the #SB1172 hashtag, urging him to sign the bill.

According to NCLR spokesman Erik Olvera, out celebrities, including Jane Lynch, Chely Wright, and Wilson Cruz, have tweeted their support. In addition, the organization said, almost every major national LGBT organization has tweeted in support of SB 1172, and asked their followers to do the same.

As of this week, there were thousands of direct tweets in support of the bill, he said.

“We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for this bill, including extraordinary efforts on the part of all the Senate Bill 1172 co-sponsors and supporters to gather thousands of signatures to present to Governor Brown,” Shannon Minter, NCLR legal director, said in an email to the Bay Area Reporter.

“It is essential that the governor understands why this bill is so important to LGBT people and our friends and families, and nothing communicates that more clearly than hearing directly from voters who take the time to sign petitions, write letters, call or tweet asking him to support this bill and sign it into law,” Minter added.

The governor has until September 30 to sign or veto the bill. If he does nothing, the law’s protections will go into effect January 1.

In addition to EQCA, Gaylesta, and NCLR the bill’s other co-sponsors include the Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Mental Health America of Northern California.▼ For more information or to sign a petition, visit Equality California (www.eqca.org); NCLR (www.nclrights.org); Gaylesta (www.gaylesta.org and chn.ge/ Qc7I3r); or All Out (www.allout.

activist and 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade community grand marshal; Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski, the nation’s first openly transgender trial judge; and the Reverend Mark Wilson, youth program director of the Pacific Center, who described the recognition as an extension of his existing visibility.

“I am a 52-year-old African American gay man and clergy person who came out in the church and knows the struggle of that,” Wilson said.

“That hurt and pain is more than the ‘it gets better’ message. We have to make it better for ourselves.”

Despite the honor, he continued, he said that he would be back at work Monday just like the rest of the honorees.▼

www.ebar.com

<< Sports

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Agony, ecstasy, and fromunda stains

by Roger Brigham

E

ssential to the addictive nature of sports is their ability to allow us to escape in the physical fantasies of greatness played out before us, while at the same time jarringly and repeatedly smacking us again with heavy doses of reality. Two epic incidents of the latter occurred as baseball’s season was winding down and football’s season was just kicking in.

In Tulsa Oklahoma, Tulane safety Devon Walker broke his neck while trying to make a tackle in a head-tohead collision with teammate Julius Warmsley. His spine was stabilized through three hours of surgery but physicians said it would be a matter of days before they knew whether he would be paralyzed for life.

Oakland fans got a similar gutwrenching jolt when the A’s were finishing up a home stand against the archrival Angels. Erick Aybar led off the sixth inning of the Wednesday, September 5 finale with a line shot that smashed pitcher Brandon McCarthy in the temple, causing a brain contusion, fracture, and epidural hemorrhage. Two hours of surgery were performed to relieve

the life-threatening pressure on his brain but what the long-term effects will be are unknown.

It was a sad, sobering, and suddenly silent scene when McCarthy went down, instantly dwarfing the concerns Bay Area sports fans felt when A’s pitcher Bartolo Colon and Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera were suspended earlier in the season for drug violations. Yes, we still want to make the playoffs, yes we’d love to see a rematch of the 1989 World Series, this time without an earthquake, but we’d trade it all and throw in Aubrey Huff’s rally thong just to know that McCarthy, one of the first major league baseball players to speak up for same-sex marriage, is up and able again.

The A’s honored McCarthy as best they could by shaking off the loss and sweeping the Seattle Mariners in the next road trip. And that’s the thing about sports: tragedy hits and you’ve still got to pick the ball up and keep on playing. Keep on escaping in a world of hurt and mayhem.

Most of that escape comes on the field – Alex Smith and the 49ers romping over ballyhooed Green Bay, Robert Griffin III earning first-week bragging rights over fellow rookie

Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe

quarterback Andrew Luck, Barry Zito continuing his Zen mastery over the Dodgers – but blessedly we also are entertained by the things the players say and write off the field.

Sometimes it’s just a minor chuckle, as when Giants first baseman Brandon Belt told a radio interviewer last week that he was hitting better because he had better “comfortability.”

Then sometimes things turn into a gut-busting WTF viral moment.

As when Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, ticked off because Maryland state Delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. asked the Ravens to take action against Baltimore linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo for speaking out in favor of same-sex marriage, wrote an open letter that strung together pro-

fanity with vehemence and creativity that has not been heard since HBO stopped airing Deadwood.

Now, those of you who are loyal readers know I have never shied from calling a spade a fucking shovel, but even I would have difficulty justifying reprinting the off-color language Kluwe uses to eviscerate Burns. Do yourself a service: Google the letter (it’s published on www.Deadspin. com as well as other places) and read it in its entirety. Hilarious. And then again, not all obscene: Kluwe does refer to Burns as a “narcissistic fromunda stain.”

Kluwe will join former NFL player Esera Tuaolo and University of Minnesota basketball player Trevor Mbakwe at a Human Rights Campaign Athletes for Marriage Equality event in Minnesota Friday, September 14.

Minnesota is one of four states where voters will weigh in on a marriage initiative in November.

Candlestick tours The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has begun offering tours of Candlestick Park Stadium, the 52-year-old home of the San Francisco 49ers and former home of the San Francisco Giants.

Hourlong tours are conducted Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.; and Saturdays 11 a.m.

Candlestick is the second oldest

stadium in the NFL. It was the scene of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit.

Tickets are $18 for adults; $15 for seniors 62 or older, veterans, and students; $12 for children 4-17 years old; and free for children 3 or younger.

Tickets can be booked at http://candlestickparkstadiumtours.bpt.me and there is a small service fee.

More tour information and scheduling are available by calling (415) 819-6498 or emailing amanda.tugwell@sfgov.org.

Golden Gate Wrestling tournament Golden Gate Wrestling Club will hold its 27th annual Don Jung Memorial Championship on Saturday, September 22, as part of the Folsom Street Fair weekend.

As it did in 2011, the freestyle tournament will be the host event for the international Wrestlers WithOut Borders Cup. Major club competition is expected from San Diego, Los Angeles and Sydney.

Competition registration is $20 and available at http://www.ggwc. org/memorial. The tournament runs noon to 5 p.m. in the Mark Bingham Gymnasium at Eureka Valley Recreation Center. USAW membership cards and red and blue singlets are required. All tournament entrants receive a commemorative T-shirt.▼

Queer music fest aims to showcase local talent

by Elliot Owen

I

f you’re looking for something to do this Saturday, September 15 in San Francisco, make plans to attend Bring Your Own Queer, a music and arts festival taking place at the Music Concourse between the DeYoung

Museum and the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park between noon and 6 p.m.

Started in 2009 by Rebeka Rodriguez, program director at Intersection for the Arts, BYOQ is free and will showcase local queer performers and artists for a crowd that has grown

exponentially each year. The lineup consists of many of San Francisco’s well-known performers including Edaj, who was selected as one of this year’s SF Pride Parade community grand marshals, DJs Guy Ruben and Steve Fabus, Darling Gunsel, Vogue and Tone, La Chica Boom, and more.

“The idea is to celebrate local queer artists and to support art within San Francisco,” Rodriguez said, “to celebrate the work that we do so it’s not just happening in June but all year long. There’s is so much money in San Francisco – we should have free arts festivals. It should be the norm instead of the exception.”

BYOQ’s first year was funded primarily by Rodriguez’s credit cards, community sponsorships, and donations. Each year thereafter, grant money has been secured from organizations like the Horizons Foundation and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Operating from a budget of approximately $20,000 this year, BYOQ is expecting upwards of around 750 people at the Music Concourse at any given time.

The festival is not only based on the premise of accessible art and entertainment for everyone, but also on

Elliot Owen

Rebeka Rodriguez, founder of BYOQ

unity within the queer community.

Oftentimes, Rodriguez said, queer men and women party separately at different locations, which is understandable but can become too exclusive.

See page 13

>>

Obituaries >> Robert Reynolds April 20, 1942 – August 26, 2012

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on April 20, 1942, Robert died of a brain tumor in Portland, Oregon, on August 26, 2012.

Robert was a legendary chef, teacher, and culinary pioneer. On graduation from Suffolk University, he obtained a Carnegie Fellowship in education and began a career in curriculum development. After moving to San Francisco in 1977, on the J headed to work, Robert decided his future was going to be with food, whatever it took. He got off the trolley, went straight back to his home above 22nd Street, made a basket full of sandwiches and returned downtown to peddle them.

Robert began his formal culinary studies in Annecy, France with Madeleine Kamman, advocate of la cuisine des femmes, or home-style cooking. Back in San Francisco, he forged a close relationship with Josephine Araldo, a pioneer of le gout du terroir, what we now call locally sourced, seasonal food. With Josephine as friend and confidante, Robert taught

the art of cuisine – in San Francisco, Denver, and France. Then he practiced what he preached, combining his love of education and of food at Le Trou restaurant on Guerrero and 22nd. We the people of San Francisco were the happy beneficiaries of his imagination and passion, crafted daily.

Moving to Portland in 1999, Robert quickly established himself at the center of the culinary scene, teaching and cooking and hooking chefs up.

He settled into his little house in the Buckman neighborhood, which he came to share with his beloved dog Thomas, and where he died peacefully among family and friends.

Robert is survived by dozens of friends, students and fellow chefs, in whose lives and hearts he lives on; by many colleagues in France and Italy, by the Chef Studio – the school he founded in Portland – and three books; by Thomas and by a large Irish family in the East. He will be interred beside his mother in Boston. Memorial celebrations are being planned in Portland and San Francisco; for information, write RobertReynolds.

Memorial@gmail.com. For the many tributes, see Robert’s Facebook page.

In lieu of flowers, donations are being accepted for the Araldo/Reynolds scholarship fund; for more info visit www.LeTrouRobert.org.

Community News >>

▼ New model for medical cannabis might beat the feds

by Peter Hernandez

T

hree nonprofit LGBT organizations have developed a medical cannabis dispensary model heralded by city officials as a possible workaround to the federal government’s crackdown on medical marijuana clubs.

The dispensary was unanimously approved recently by the Planning Commission and received a preliminary okay from the Health Commission.

The nonprofit Morado Collective will dispense medical marijuana in the Mission district through its healing center, using revenue to provide “sustainable funding” for three nonprofit organizations. One of those is the Association of United Gays Impacting Latinos/Latinas Towards SelfEmpowerment (AGUILAS), which has been tussling with fiscal stress since 2008 and has seen a declining annual budget since.

This new venture is what AGUILAS Executive Director Eduardo Morales, Ph.D., has conceptualized to provide sustainable funds to the 20-year-old organization, instead of relying on one-time grants and city funds that fluctuate annually.

AGUILAS’ 2010 budget was $306,731 – nearly 10 percent higher than its revenue, which is comprised of city grants for HIV services alongside one-time Levi Strauss grants for leadership development and stigma reduction for Latinos with HIV. The 550-square foot Morado Healing Center at 2522 Mission Street will also collaborate with Shanti and the LGBT Community Center.

Victor Marquez, an attorney for landlord Gus Murad, is the person filing as Morado Collective with the city. It is not yet known who will actually be running the dispensary, which is aiming for a November opening, pending final approval from the Health Commission.

Kaushik Roy, executive director of Shanti, said that his agency serves 2,400 debilitated HIV and cancer patients each year who are in need of medical cannabis. The dispensary, he said, would provide a symbiotic relationship to help some at their “end-oflife” and would be a financial benefit to the organization.

The LGBT center is also embracing the project.

“We think it’s important to our community that we have sustainable income that comes through outside means and this would provide quite a bit of support for the services that have been cut due to funding cuts through the government,” said Jennifer Valles, community programs manager at the LGBT center.

The collective is expected to employ between 15 and 20 people.

Morales wants to work with the federal government to create an observatory and laboratory for the use of medicinal marijuana to ease pain to those that suffer debilitation from cancer treatment or HIV/AIDS medication through case management that utilize the city’s network of services.

“We know that if you don’t smoke it, it’s probably good for you,” said Morales, referring to other ways cannabis can be ingested.

Medical cannabis has been used to ease pain associated with HIV/ AIDS medications. Morales wants to provide research studies and ethical review boards through the retail sale of cannabis in the form of marijuana

Jane Philomen Cleland

AGUILAS Executive Director Eduardo Morales, Ph.D.

and edibles.

To deter a shutdown, Morales said that a congressional waiver must be forged with the federal government, starting with use of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ research into the medicinal benefits of marijuana.

At the healing center, this research can be applied and monitored scientifically, which Morales hopes will result in a waiver.

“It is irresponsible of them to produce evidence demonstrating medical benefits of cannabis and forbid a mechanism for the public to access those benefits in a proper manner.

We want to partner with federal agencies and use this business as a model that will provide service data and best practices for medical dispensary of cannabis,” he said.

So far, the U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t seem interested in research. Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the northern district of California, joined her counterparts in the central and southern regions of the state and last year embarked on a crackdown of numerous cannabis dispensaries.

Some, she has indicated, were too close to schools or playgrounds, others, she alleged, ran afoul of tax provisions. Clubs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley are among those that have closed in the last year.

The Green Cross, a medical marijuana collective that was forced to shut down its Mission location due to the federal crackdown, was before San Francisco’s Board of Appeals Wednesday fighting an attempt to revoke the permit it received to open a dispensary near the city’s Excelsior and Outer Richmond districts.

“Regardless of the outcome, the Green Cross will continue to offer the delivery service to our members, and, I fully expect that many of our members will continue to utilize delivery as their primary means of access,” wrote Kevin Reed, Green Cross’ president, in a note on Facebook urging supporters to contact the appeals board.

“Our vision has always included (re) opening a storefront location in order to extend the availability of our products and services to our members who prefer to visit a walk-in facility.”

In San Jose three city councilmen, including Pierluigi Oliverio, who represents many LGBT neighborhoods, introduced an ordinance this week to go after what they deem to be “taxskirting” medical marijuana dispensaries. If approved by the full council, it would make it easier for city officials to shut down the 80 of the city’s 158 medical marijuana dispensaries that never, or only sporadically, pay San

ebar.com

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Jose’s voter-passed medicinal marijuana tax.

The Morado center, Morales said, is not like the pool of dispensaries that have sprouted up in recent years in San Francisco, which is currently around two-dozen. Two have been shuttered in the past six months by the federal government.

The collective’s location may be problematic, as it will be situated just a block away from Alioto Park at 20th and Capp streets. That echoes the closure of the Vapor Room dispensary in late July on the grounds of its proximity to Duboce Park just two blocks away.

Planning department staffer Diego Sanchez said it would be the only Mission district retail cannabis space, as the nearest open-door dispensaries are in the Castro and just below Bernal Heights.

Resource center Morado Collective proponents said that patients with debilitating diseases need an accessible walk-in dispensary. Morales furthers this concept with potentially using the upstairs hostel for respite beds, and by creating a healing center that provides referrals to HIV prevention services like AGUILAS or the LGBT center.

“It’s important that there is a supportive network for a better chance of survival,” said Mesha MongeIrizarry in a telephone interview. She is one of seven members of the Marijuana Offenses Overview Committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors, which monitors the implementation of an ordinance that makes medical marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority. She said that the center’s network of resources would benefit the Mission community.

AGUILAS’ involvement in HIV prevention, she said, is key to the success of the healing center.

Its placement in a predominantly Latino neighborhood will also work to reduce the stigma of HIV within the gay Latino community, said Morales, whose work with AGUILAS has largely aimed toward that goal.

Neighborhood concerns Sanchez addressed complaints at the Planning Commission’s July hearing regarding “antisocial behavior” near dispensaries and “criminal activities,” assuring commissioners that Morado Collective would provide daily litter pick-up outside the building and would prevent “noxious odors” from escaping the dispensary through its own ventilation.

The collective will prohibit smoking or vaporization of cannabis on site.

The Morado Healing Center is now determining who to reach within HHS to collaborate on case studies and pain management using medical cannabis by using their research, like what is done at UCSF Parnassus or San Francisco General Hospital.

“We will not be responsible for running the operations but are available to advise the Morado Collective in how to provide case management services,” said Morales.

The retail space was endowed by Murad, who owns the building that will house the dispensary. Were the dispensary shuttered by the federal government, Murad would be held liable, firstly in the form of notice of closure and then seizure of property.▼

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online column, Political Notes, the Out in the World column, and a story on a report of the military’s first year allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. www.ebar.com.

ebar.com

<< From the Cover

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Public nudity From page 1

rings. I don’t wear one but I have observed” men being approached by the police.

Hightower, a gay man who lives in Miraloma Park, said he recently changed his views about the wearing of cock rings in public. He did so after he conducted a poll on his site that found the majority of respondents consider cock rings akin to jewelry.

“So I feel comfortable subscribing to that belief system,” said Hightower, the webmaster for the 12-year-old site www.bucknakedinpublic.com.

Technically, under current San Francisco rules, as long as a person is not visibly sexually aroused, they can be nude in public. But when men have on cock rings, whose primary purpose is to help wearers retain an erection, some city leaders maintain they are crossing the line into public indecency and are in violation of the law.

“There is a difference between being naked and making a political statement and then wearing jewelry that brings attention to one’s genital areas,” said gay San Francisco police Sergeant Chuck Limbert, the LGBT liaison at Mission Station, whose jurisdiction covers the Castro neighborhood. “We have been getting a lot more pressure from the community to do some enforcement in regard to the public nudity and what is going on up there.”

Limbert insisted there is no specific police department policy regarding cock rings and denied that there were “cock ring patrols” on the hunt in the Castro.

Nonetheless, he said he personally believes that the usage of a cock ring while naked in public violates the city codes on such behavior.

“Wearing a cock ring, when you are aroused or getting aroused, that to me has kind of moved over or stepped out of the realm of being a political statement,” said Limbert.

“When you are drawing attention and, specifically for the intention of arousal or stimulus, that is just in my humble opinion – I am speaking on my own and not for the department – that has crossed over now.”

With September and October historically being the warmest months of the year, Wiener said he is bracing for even more complaints on the issue. He has no concerns with the police taking action against those wearing cock rings.

“I am one hundred percent supportive of SFPD citing people for being nude with a cock ring on or otherwise drawing attention to their genitals,” he said.

In early 2011 local news reports on the nudists at Jane Warner Plaza on 17th Street at Market and Castro led to international media coverage of the phenomenon. Up to now Wiener has stopped short of calling for an outright ban against public nudity.

Instead, he introduced a measure requiring people to be clothed in restaurants and to put down napkins or some covering when seated on public benches and chairs. While ridiculed by some for not banning nudity and by others as being ridiculous, the legislation was unanimously adopted in November.

“I took a pretty measured approach ... there were a lot of people who didn’t like it. But I was not prepared to go and ban it,” said Wiener.

Hightower said he and his fellow nudists have had no problem adhering to the new guidelines. And he said he encourages those who go naked in the Castro to patronize the businesses there.

The nudists continue to be a draw for tourists, who when in the neigh-

Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey said he was barred from discussing what talks, if any, had taken place on the matter due to rules governing attorney client privilege.

Supervisor candidates opposed to a ban

Rick Gerharter

District 5 supervisor candidate Julian Davis does not think public nudity should be banned.

borhood want their picture taken with them, said Hightower.

“It happens every time I am there,” he said.

He doubts that the public would be supportive of increased enforcement against the nudists.

“I think people in the city are tired of this being an issue and are tired of seeing the city wasting resources on something that is not really a problem,” said Hightower.

“Most people I know who like to be naked in the plaza want nothing to do with the police. They want to be naked and left alone.”

Yet Wiener blames those nudists wearing cock rings for escalating the issue and forcing the city to take a stronger stance.

“Over the last year and a half the situation has gotten more extreme.

There are more of them out there,” said Wiener. “And it is not just the plaza. I have gotten reports of them walking by elementary schools and walking by Girl Scout troops. They are doing really obnoxious, irresponsible things.”

Rather than “be responsible and maybe self-edit or self-regulate,” said Wiener, their behavior has “gotten more extreme with things like cock rings. That is why I am considering the next step.”

Wiener would not discuss how soon he might introduce a ban on public nudity. Nor would he comment on if he had asked for advice from the city attorney’s office for help in crafting such a measure. City

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City College From page 1

cient to save the college’s accreditation,” he wrote in a letter to Rizzo and interim City College Chancellor Pamila Fisher.

If the college doesn’t meet the commission’s recommendations, it would be stripped of its eligibility for state funding as it prepares for a possible March 14 closure, resulting in bankruptcy or privatization.

Critics of the decision reference the ambiguity of the conditions under which the special trustee would

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Mirkarimi From page 1

attorneys said that “the fate of the sheriff has been made a key political issue in the election” by the media, candidates, and others. “Sending the record to the board immediately prior to an election deprives the sheriff of a neutral decision-maker,” they wrote.

Mirkarimi is requesting the commission continue the matter and “avoid forcing a political train wreck at the board in the midst of a highly charged political election,” they wrote.

In an interview Tuesday, Ethics Commission Executive Director John St. Croix said the panel plans to send its record to the board Tuesday, September 18. That action would set into motion a 30-day window during which the supervisors must act.

Whether Wiener could secure a majority vote on the Board of Supervisors to pass a nudity ban remains to be seen. It doesn’t seem to be a priority for those running for supervisor this fall.

On its questionnaire sent to candidates seeking the odd-numbered supervisor seats on the November ballot, the B.A.R. asked if San Francisco should ban nudity in public.

Of the 15 candidates who responded as of Tuesday, September 11, none outright backed a ban.

The only candidate to express any sentiment in support was Board of Appeals President Mike Garcia, who is seeking the open District 7 seat west of Twin Peaks.

“The standards of any community should be judged by the community as a whole – not by just a vocal minority,” wrote Garcia, who added, “I think the wishes of the neighborhood, as well as any health and safety standards, should have exceptional weight on this issue.”

The overwhelming majority of the candidates who responded either voiced no support for a public nudity ban, or they dodged the question.

Board President David Chiu, who is seeking a second term in District 3, did not express a view either way on a ban. He simply wrote that he had voted for Wiener’s nudity rules legislation last year.

School board President Norman Yee, running in District 7, said that he is “not a supporter of public nudity,” but did not say he would back an outright ban. Instead, he wrote that he favors proposals like Wiener’s legislation.

Another District 7 candidate, educator Julian Lagos, said he is against a ban but suggested the city “designate certain public areas for this activity” such as beaches.

While he supports allowing people to “express themselves through nudity,” gay District 7 candidate Joel Engardio also suggested that nudists be encouraged to use “Baker Beach on nice weather days.”

District 11 Supervisor John

▼

Avalos, who is running unopposed for a second term, questioned the merits of enacting a ban.

“I don’t see nudity as a problem that needs to be banned,” wrote Avalos. “If you try to ban nudity we will illicit [sic] a reaction from people who will want to go about their everyday business without any clothes.”

Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, also unopposed this year, does not back banning nudity and stated that the city should focus on other priorities.

Bisexual District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague, who is running for a full term to her seat, has yet to answer the B.A.R.’s questionnaire.

Several of her opponents did and said they are against a nudity ban.

Julian Davis, president of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center and Hope Johnson, the former chair of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, both simply answered “No” to the question. City College Board of Trustees President John Rizzo also came out against a ban and said other issues, such as public safety, affordable housing and public transit, should be the board’s focus.

Another District 5 candidate London Breed, executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex, wrote that the city has always embraced the various “institutions, people and events known for occasional nudity or adult themes” and that they “do not interfere with the greater workings of the city.”

Thus, wrote Breed, “an outright ban on nudity would, frankly, only be aimed at targeting these specific segments of our culture. We shouldn’t change what is working.

We can continue to be the city we know and love without an outright ban on nudity.”

David Lee, a businessman running against District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar, said he “personally disapprove(s) of public nudity,” but added, “banning it is not even close to one of my top priorities.”

Mar also said a ban is not needed but suggested “appropriate regulations when minors might be present should be considered.”▼ The third annual Nude In will take place at noon Saturday, September 22 at Jane Warner Plaza. For more info visit www.nude-in.blogspot.com.

be hired. Many asked how much the trustee would cost, and for how long the trustee would remain on the board. The trustees could not provide answers and instead cited a state of “financial solvency” as a moment for the special trustee’s termination.

The raucous meeting resulted in protesters taking over the board’s seats, holding a mock public comment while the trustees had a private recess in the building’s cafe.

“How are we supposed to vote if they’re sitting in our seats?” said Fisher from the annex’s cafe, where

she and the other trustees sought refuge with campus police.

Standing in a clandestine circle with all trustees but Jackson and student trustee William Walker, they expressed discomfort with increasing protest within the meeting.

“Will you guys walk us to our cars after this?” asked Fisher to campus security.▼

St. Croix said Mirkarimi’s request was received Monday, September 10, so it wasn’t on the agenda for the commission’s September 11 meeting.

He said it was “unlikely” commissioners would delay sending the information to the board, “but I can’t tell you with any certainty.” He also indicated the decision is ultimately up to commission Chair Benedict Hur, who voted against sustaining the official misconduct charges against Mirkarimi.

Asked whether Hur has the authority to delay sending the record, including the recommendation on Mirkarimi, to the Board of Supervisors, St. Croix said, “He does have the authority, because the commission gave him the authority to make administrative decisions on their behalf in this case.”

St. Croix said he doesn’t think Hur

will delay delivering the record, “but that will be up to him in the end.”

In response to emailed questions, David Waggoner, an attorney for Mirkarimi, discussed the board vote.

One of the questions, which Waggoner seemed to ignore, was, “If Ross Mirkarimi and his attorneys are so concerned about the Board of Supervisors having to vote on Mirkarimi’s fate, why was the request regarding this issue just sent to the Ethics Commission?”

“The issue is the timing of the board vote,” Waggoner said. “The sheriff has a due process right to have his case decided by neutral decision makers. The political pressure cannot be completely eliminated but it can certainly be reduced. The case should be decided on the facts and the law, not politics.”

See page 13

Full disclosure: Reporter Peter Hernandez is a student at City College, where he works on the school newspaper.

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▼ <<

Community News >>

Business Briefs

From page 8

3499 16th Street due to a conflict with the landlord, and is reportedly looking for a new location within the Castro neighborhood.

The former Patio Cafe has been empty for over a decade, with the vacant restaurant space and adjacent retail space undergoing construction projects on and off for most of that period.

In other Castro restaurant news, a

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News Briefs From page 7

sustained many people battling HIV or breast cancer for many years.”

Pledge and donation sheets can be downloaded at www.leatherwalk. org. The event is free and open to all. Registration takes place at 440 Castro beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Tenderloin health fair The 17th annual Tenderloin Health, Safety, and Resource Fair will take place Saturday, September 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tenderloin Children’s Playground, 570 Ellis Street. There is no cost to attend.

Organizers said that this year, the fair will focus on connecting people to free, available neighborhood and city services. Fair participants will have access to a range of informational resources such as tenant rights, veteran services, and parent support services.

There will also be health screenings and free flu shots. The American Red Cross will provide free earthquake kits, and Curry Senior Center will introduce a health resource guide for elders. The fair is expected to draw over 500 attendees, the first 450 of which will receive a free lunch courtesy of the San Francisco Hilton Hotel.

The fair is sponsored by the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District, the American Red Cross-Bay Area chapter, and local hospitals and businesses.

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Queer music fest From page 10

“Can’t we all mix it up with all kinds of homos and not have to worry if it’s your set or my set and everyone can feel comfortable?” Rodriguez said. “The festival doesn’t aim to be everything to everyone but it at least provides a space for some overlap to happen.”

Xandra Ibarra of La Chica Boom, who has been performing at BYOQ since the first year, echoed the point.

“For me, the best part about BYOQ

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Mirkarimi From page 12

City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey rejected the notion that the board vote could be delayed.

“The charter establishes a clear process for official misconduct proceedings, and there is simply no provision to delay that process until the political climate is supposedly more favorable to one side or the other,” Dorsey said in a statement. “The Ethics Commission found that Sheriff Mirkarimi committed official misconduct, and now the Board of Supervisors has responsibility under the charter to make a final decision.”

Nine of the 11 supervisors would have to sustain the charges against Mirkarimi for him to be removed from office. If they don’t act within 30 days after receiving the recommendation, or if they don’t sustain the charges, Mirkarimi would be reinstated.

Gay Supervisor David Campos, and Supervisors Eric Mar and John Avalos are up for re-election in November. Lee appointed Christina Olague, who’s bisexual, to fill Mirkari-

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

to support the school system during the “Shop for San Francisco Public Schools” event later this month.

Organized by edMatch, a local nonprofit that raises funds for the educational system, the event will run from September 24 to 29. During this period, local businesses will offer special online coupon offers, with some percentage of the funds raised going to San Francisco public schools.

Local schools, including the

Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy located in the Castro district, are currently looking for businesses interested in being part of this promotion and fundraising opportunity. For more information, contact Michelle Lutz, co-chair of Harvey Milk’s Parent-Faculty Club at mlutz50@hotmail.com.

The deadline for joining this program is September 21. For more information, visit http://www.edmatchsf.org. ▼

which is to isolate the low-abundance protein that is the CD8+ cell anti-HIV factor, or CAF,” McKee said in an email.

For more information, visit www. californiaantiviralfoundation.org.

The California Antiviral Founda-

tion will hold a fundraising reception Thursday, September 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Delancey Street Foundation, 600 Embarcadero in San Francisco. Tickets are $100.

The Woodside-based nonprofit works to support discovery of a new HIV drug based on natural immunity to AIDS. Among the speakers at the event will be Dr. Jay Levy, professor of medicine at UCSF and chief medical officer for CAF. There will also be two people with natural resistance to AIDS. “About 5 percent of all HIV-infected people do not progress to AIDS, even without drug therapy, because of a protein expressed in their blood that naturally shuts down HIV activity,” Michael Siani-Rose, a member of the CAF board, said in a statement.

He said that CAF’s new video would be shown at the event.

The goal of CAF is to discover a protein that protects against AIDS, translate that protein into an affordable drug, then make sure it reaches all HIV-infected individuals worldwide.

Constance McKee, co-founder and executive director, said the new group is in its start-up phase, with an annual budget of $15,000. Everyone involved is volunteering their time right now, she said.

“Our goal is to raise $5 million for our first technical milestone,

The National AIDS Memorial Grove has announced the expansion of its Young Leaders Scholarship program, making available $1,000 to $2,500 scholarships to young people.

The purpose of the scholarship is to recognize, support, and encourage the educational efforts of young people committed to active roles of public service and leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Sponsored by UnitedHealthcare, the program will expand the number of scholarships this year and accept applications from both college-bound high school seniors and college undergraduates. Applicants are asked to write an essay describing their leadership goals and experiences related to HIV/AIDS, and encouraged to participate in HIV/ AIDS-related community service projects.

“Today’s young people have been raised in a world in which AIDS has always existed,” noted John Cunningham, executive director of the AIDS grove, in a statement. “Our intention is that these scholarships will help to shape a future leadership that understands the challenges faced by those who came before them.”

The scholarships are open to current high school seniors and college undergraduates who have demonstrated an active commitment to fighting AIDS. Applications and proposal statements are due by October 5 and essays must be received

by October 22. Awardees will be recognized at a ceremony on December 1, World AIDS Day. Further information and applications are available at www.aidsmemorial.org or by contacting Steve Sagaser at (415) 765-0497 or ssagaser@aidsmemorial.org.▼

is that it breaks the format of attending gay and lesbian bars,” Ibarra said. “It attempts to bring everyone out into a public space inhabited by straight tourist families. [The Music Concourse] becomes a space for moving your feet chaotically and in beat with people from all over the city to electronica, house, and several different local queer bands.”

Jocquese Whitfield of Vogue and Tone attended BYOQ for the first time last year and found the music to be “awesome.” Through wordof-mouth his name landed among

those asked to perform this year.

“I said, ‘Of course!,’” Whitfield remembers. “I identify myself as queer and I think the festival is a good way to bring all queers together to socialize and network. It’s a good place to meet and be proud of who you are as an individual and in belonging to the queer community.”

In addition to the performances, attendees can partake in a myriad of fun, useful and perhaps odd activities. A health information area will be set up with interactive ways to bring attention to mental and physi-

cal health organizations that cater to the queer community. A fashion and jewelry display curated by vintage apparel company Stone Poney will be present in addition to a “glamorization station,” whereby festivalgoers can get “glamorized.”

For bicycle riders, a bike repair and education booth will provide quick fixes and tips for a more streamlined riding experience. The festival will not be providing food or drinks but, Rodriguez said, that will allow for people to bring their own picnics, camp out all day, and

stay within their means.

Prior to the festival’s commencement, a BYOQ group bike ride organized by Queers for Gears will begin at 17th and Castro at 10 a.m. and end at Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse. BYOQ’s after-party will be located at the Upper Haight’s Milk bar from 6 to 10 p.m.

To donate to BYOQ, visit http:// byoq.org/ or send check to: BYOQ, c/o Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission Street, Suite 109, San Francisco, CA 94103. All donations are tax deductible. ▼

mi’s District 5 term after he became sheriff, and she’s running to hold on to that position. Board President David Chiu, who entered office as a progressive but is now considered more moderate, also is up for re-election.

Campos and Avalos are unopposed in their races.

The pending board vote is already an issue in several of the fall races for the odd-numbered supervisor seats, as this week’s Political Notebook reports. [See page 5.]

Mirkarimi served for seven years on the board before being elected to the sheriff’s post last November. The official misconduct stems from a December 31, 2011 incident in which he bruised Lopez’s arm. She has disputed the charges. His sentence includes counseling and three years of probation.

Kim were other possibilities. The supervisors have been advised not to discuss Mirkarimi’s case.

Mirkarimi said his false imprisonment charge is next to what he described as the lowest-level criminal offense, disturbing the peace. The charge stemmed from when he “wrongfully” turned the family’s van around to go home the day of the incident.

Referring to his guilty plea, Mirkarimi said he accepted responsibility “on a myriad of factors” including the desire to be reunited with his family. He said some have told him he should revoke his plea, but “I’m not saying that’s what I’m doing.”

Mirkarimi discussed outings he’s been making in neighborhoods around the city, including the Castro, and described the support he’s received. He commonly hears comments like “Hang in there, you gotta fight, you gotta beat this,” he said.

“Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive of me and my family,” Mirkarimi said.

“People come to our door,” he said, choking up, “offering us dinner or food.”

Some polls, however, have found that about two-thirds of city residents want the sheriff removed. Mirkarimi was critical of what he described as “push polls” that are designed to elicit a specific response.

Asked about what he would do differently than interim Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, whom the mayor appointed, Mirkarimi said, “I wouldn’t put that on her.”

However, he said he’d move forward with several reforms, including improving efforts related to putting people in county jails rather than state prison; helping people who don’t want to return to sex work; addressing mental health needs; and having the sheriff’s department assume some police duties, which he said could save taxpayers money.

Mirkarimi, who held Lopez’s hand through much of his meeting with the B.A.R. and called her “sweetie,” criticized media coverage of his case. He said the press has “tried to dehumanize me” and treated his wife “as if she can’t think for herself.”

Referring to his reputation as a progressive, he said his removal from

office “sets a precedent” and consolidates power among law enforcement agencies, “which I would be rather concerned about.” He said there are “proper democratic remedies” in place, such as recalling him or not reelecting him.

The past several months have also been financially difficult for Mirkarimi and his family, which includes the couple’s young son, Theo.

“We’re completely broke,” he said, estimating his debt at more than $130,000 to $140,000.

“I can’t go looking for work because I’m seeking the job I’ve just been suspended from,” he said.

Lopez said of the case, “The real violence is happening now.”

She said since the beginning of the case, it’s been clear to her that it’s “not about domestic violence,” but an effort to use her family “as a weapon to destroy a political opponent.”

Paul H. Melbostad, a Mirkarimi supporter and former Ethics Commission president, is also the B.A.R.’s legal counsel. He accompanied Mirkarimi and Lopez to their meeting with the paper.▼

new bar named the Roaring Donkey is coming to 2349 Market Street, according to a permit application on the Alcoholic Beverage Control website. The storefront is the former location of Mirrors and Frames.

Mudpuppy’s wine tasting benefit On Saturday, September 15, Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub (536 Castro Street) is hosting a wine tasting benefiting Pets Are Wonderful

SF Pride to hold annual meeting The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee will hold its annual general meeting on Sunday, September 16 at the Hotel Kabuki, 1625 Post Street (at Laguna). Registration opens at 1:30 p.m., the meeting begins at 2.

Pride Committee Executive Director Brendan Behan said that at around 5 p.m. there will be a reception for attendees that will follow the conclusion of meeting business. Voting members will have the opportunity to participate in elections for the board of directors and to select the 2013 Pride theme.

For more information, visit www. sfpride.org/membership.

Tribute for drummer Chris Olson A memorial for drummer Chris Olson of the Offs will be held Sunday, September 16 at 9 p.m. at On Broadway, 435 Broadway in San Francisco.

The Offs were an important punk rock band, said local musician Jon Sugar, who will be performing along with No Alternative and the Offs.

Olson died in July of hepatitis Crelated liver cancer.

Admission is $10.

CA Antiviral Foundation to hold reception

Addressing concerns During the editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. at the paper’s offices, Mirkarimi said he anticipates Campos, Avalos, and Mar will support his remaining sheriff. He said Olague, Chiu, and District 6 Supervisor Jane

Support (http://www.pawssf.org).

The event runs from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and will feature wines from Stewart Cellars and gourmet dog treats from Paw Patch Pastries.

The $25 ticket price supports PAWS in its work providing companion animals for seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

Shopping for schools Local businesses are partnering

Take part in ‘A Day with HIV’ Positively Aware magazine has announced that its annual “A Day with HIV” photo project will take place Friday, September 21.

On that day people everywhere, both HIV-positive and HIV-negative, can share an image of coping or care through the lens of a camera. People can record a special image, a time with friends and family, at work or play, or any moment in the day that helps people better understand how HIV impacts people, loved ones, colleagues, and communities.

Photos need to be submitted by Tuesday, September 25 to the A Day with HIV website (www.adaywithhiv.com). People can follow A Day with HIV’s Facebook page (www. facebook.com/ADayWithHIV), or Twitter (@A_day_with_HIV) to see updates and selected photos.

Each day across the globe almost 7,000 people will contract HIV, joining an estimated 34.2 million people already living with the disease.

AIDS grove announces scholarships

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • Bay Area Reporter • September 13-19, 2012

Classifieds

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Legal Notices>>

The

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548880 In the matter of the application of: LAURENTPAUL PERROUD for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LAURENT-PAUL PERROUD is requesting that the name LAURENTPAUL PERROUD be changed to LAURENT-PAUL DURELL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 23rd of October 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

Aug 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034516400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JIAN’S CONSTRUCTION, 806 Schwerin St., DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jian Wu Yu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 8/09/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/09/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034523600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHUN SUM INTERNATIONAL SERVICES, 855 Stockton St. #202, SF, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jin Ping Liu. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034527000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DUKANAC ARCHITECTURE, 451 Kansas St. Unit 509, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Vuk Dukanac. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/15/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034535100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRAMBLE FLOWERS, 164 Lundys Ln., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jacqueline Huck. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034534000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1000 YEARS CLINIC; 1000YEARSCLINIC.COM, 1021 Mission St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Arif A. Khan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/25/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034537000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUTO PANEL, 1620 Davidson Ave., SF, CA 94124.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Chan, Edmund. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034525800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAD ASS ORGANIZING, 275 5th St. #310, SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jane Dolan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034519200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034521400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCELERATE FORWARD; XLR8 FORWARD; XLR8FORWARD; XLR8FWD; 14 Woodward St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed International Technologists, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034527100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SODA POPINSKI’S, 1548 California St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Bitter Badger, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/15/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034528000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAIGO SUSHI, 2450 Clement St., SF, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by a limited liability corporation, and is signed Minamoto, LLC. (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/16/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034515900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 18 MONKEY, 25867 Cascade St., HAYWARD, CA 94544. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Henry Chan and Michael Lau. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/09/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034531800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LELAND MARKET, 65 Leland Ave., SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is Maninder Singh and Patwinder Singh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034522300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ATTORNEY SERVICE OF SAN FRANCISCO; PROCESS SERVER INSTITUTE; TRAVELING NOTARY, 667 Folsom St. 2nd Fl., SF, CA 94107.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Tony Klein. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034544600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ASIAN PACIFIC TRAVEL, 703 Market St. #1506, SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Alfred Natividad. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034537700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIENSPA, 582 Market St. #1510, SF, CA 94104.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Carrie Kang. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034535200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRIENDS OF THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, 710 Van Ness Ave., SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Friends + Foundation of the SF Public Library, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/27/00. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/10/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: S MCCANN CONSTRUCTION, 83 Garden Grove Dr., Daly City, CA 94015. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by John McCann. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/12.

AUG 23, 30, SEPT 06, 13, 2012

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012

SUMMONS SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: STANLEY LEE, DOES 1 TO 10 YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: STEPHEN J. USOZ, TRUSTEE OF THE STEPHEN J. USOZ EXEMPT TRUST CASE NO. CGC-12-519589 Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp). your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

The name and address of the court is : SUPERIOR COURT, STATE OF CALIFORNIAUNLTD, 400 MCALLISTER ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94102 The name, address, and telephone number of the plantiff’s attorney, or plantiff without an attorney, is:

NILS ROSENQUEST, ROSENQUEST & ASSOCIATES, 2720 TAYLOR ST. #420, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 94133; 415-292-0980.

Date: Mar 29, 2012; Clerk of the Court: Rossaly Lavega Navarro.

AUG 23, 30, SEP 6, 13, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 08/21/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: LORIS DINER INTERNATIONAL INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 449 Powell St. 3rd Fl., SF, CA 94102-1503. Type of license applied for

47 - ON-sale GENERAL EATING PLACE AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS

Dated 08/21/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: LORIS DINER INTERNATIONAL INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 439 Powell St., SF, CA 94102-1503. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-sale BEER & WINE - EATING PLACE AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034546500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIDELINE TOWING, 1175 Selby St., SF, CA 94124.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Mayra L. Sevillano. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034546400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NET STOP BUSINESS CENTER, 4460 Mission St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Thomas Lacey. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034551000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MANAGING HUMAN DIFFERENCES, 735 Geary #404, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Mark L. Perlmutter. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/24/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034538300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO RUG GALLERY, 101 Henry Adams #217, SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed

by Mohsen Tavakol Nejad. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034489500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXCEL MOBILE, 4790A Mission St., SF, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Kyongson Pak. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/30/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034538700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MING KEE ENTERPRISE, 285 Taylor St., SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Kevin Hong. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/21/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/21/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034535900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BELLA FIORA, A FLORAL DESIGN STUDIO, 1475 Polk St. #7, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed by Dino A. Bocala & Mark A. Leahy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/20/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034545000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SYCAMORE STREET RESIDENCY, 30 Sycamore St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed by Dipak Bhogilal Gandhi & Hansaben Dipak Gandhi. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034541500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TWO SONS SANDWICHES, 2249 17th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed by George T. Salameh, George T. Salameh II & Joseph G. Salameh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/22/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034540100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAHORE KARAHI, 612 O’Farrell St., SF, CA 94109.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed by Sajjad Enterprises Inc. (CA). 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 08/22/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034555500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DF PAINTING & REMODELING CO., 1010 Hyde St. #203, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed by Di Qiao Zheng. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034554900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMERICAN TRUTH COMMISSION LLC, 2141 Filbert St., SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed by American Truth Commission LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/12.

AUG 30, SEPT 6, 13, 20, 2012

Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-034125800 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SIDELINE TOWING, 1175 Selby St., SF, CA 94124.

This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by Mayra L. Sevillano & Yudith Ramirez. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/12.

Aug 30, sep 6, 13, 20, 2012 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE A-031151300 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: ARS UNA, 459 Frederick St., SF, CA 94117. This business was conducted by a husband & wife and signed by Lyall Forsyth Harris & Francesco Ronchetti. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/08.

Aug 30, sep 6, 13, 20, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034552600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAURA HAZLETT DESIGNS, 2805 22nd St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Laura Hazlett. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/87. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034541000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHAMBERLAIN LANDSCAPING, 44 Escondido Ave., SF, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Christopher J. Chamberlain. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/22/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034560200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SANCTUARY HAIR SALON, 1204 Sutter St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mark Steven Lewis. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/04/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/30/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034559000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOKYOSF, 7700 Geary Blvd. #110, SF, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael McDonald. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034564000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ICLEAN SERVICES, 2303 Mission St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Honorio Galicia. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/31/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/31/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034551600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVEILLE COFFEE CO, 200 Columbus Ave., SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed New England Dough Boys Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/27/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034560700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VECTO, INC., 336 Bon Air Center #396, Greenbrae, CA 94904. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Vecto, 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 08/30/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034557000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KITCHEN STORY CAFE, 3499 16th St., SF, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Cafe Veranda Enterprises 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 08/29/12.

SEPT 06, 13, 20, 27, 2012

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

September 13-19, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Household Services>>

Legal Notices>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Vehicle Engineering Consultant Services,Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M3214, on or about September 10, 2012, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, October 16, 2012.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services of a consulting firm or joint venture to provide vehicle engineering consultant services for BART Revenue Vehicles Project. A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 19, 2012.

The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 AMin the District’s Board Room located in the Kaiser Center 20th Street Mall – 3rd Floor, 344–20th Street, Oakland, California 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program will be explained. All questions regarding DBE participation should be directed to Mr. Hayden Lee, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 476-6209 – FAX (510) 464-7587. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District’s Senior Contract Administrator, telephone (510) 464-6390, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting.

Networking Session: Immediately following the Pre-Proposal meeting, the District’s Office of Civil Rights will be conducting a networking session for subconsultants to meet the prime consultants for DBE participation opportunities.

Movers>>

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034558800

Real Estate>>

EAGLE M &

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The Folsom Street Fair edition of America’s oldest and best-read LGBT newspaper (and the only LGBT title in Northern California with an audited and verified circulation) will publish on Thursday, September 20.

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LAST CALL

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High 'Lights'

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Out &About

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24

The

Vol. 42 • No. 37 • September 13-19, 2012

www.ebar.com/arts

Larry Kramer unbound Playwright, author, activist, gay icon

by Richard Dodds

T

Playwright and early AIDS activist Larry Kramer was amazed when his 1985 play The Normal Heart found new audiences on Broadway in 2011.

Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

ime has not given Larry Kramer a distancing perspective on The Normal Heart. “I wrote the play to make people cry, and I’m happy to say it still does, including its author,” Kramer said recently from his home in New York. “It’s about a period I’ll never forget and never want to forget.”

It was the period when Kramer’s friends were dying of AIDS, though the disease didn’t yet have a name. The Normal Heart was Kramer’s angry response to the indifference he saw among the mainstream press and politicians as well as documentation of the personal toll taken by his confrontational techniques and unpopular positions. “I just wanted to call everybody to arms,” said Kramer, who was a founding member of Gay Men’s Health Crisis before his colleagues terminated his membership.

The Normal Heart was first produced in 1985 by the New York Public Theater, where it was an immediate success. But Kramer himself considered it “agitprop theater” destined to have a short shelf-life. He’s still in awe of its second wave, which included a Tony Award-winning Broadway revival last year that is being remounted as the opening production in ACT’s new season. “It was all a wonderful accident,” Kramer said. “Nobody was expecting anything to happen.”

The road back to New York began with a starry benefit reading of the play in Los Angeles in 2010. The one-night-only event was a success, and organizer Joel Grey asked Kramer if he could do the same in New York. Again, See page 29 >>

What’s coming up in the art world?

Fall 2012 Bay Area art gallery preview

by Sura Wood

T

here are too many Bay Area galleries to name or do justice to in this limited space, but here’s a not necessarily comprehensive survey of what’s coming up this fall. Take a look.

Intersection for the Arts (re) collection – a Collaboration with Lost and Found: Family Photos Swept by the 3.11 East Japan Tsunami is a group exhibition where seven American, mostly Bay Area artists respond to the thousands of photographs recovered from Yamamoto, one the areas most devastated by the cataclysmic undersea earthquake that triggered a tsunami with waves of up to 130 feet off the coast of Japan. New works will be installed adjacent to these found photographs, remnants of a past literally swept away by forces of Biblical proportion.

(Sept. 12-Oct. 27) www.theintersection.org SF Camerawork Gerald Slota: Story. Slota’s defaced, torn photographs reveal secret histories and subterranean narratives; they often begin life in his journals on pages crammed with pieces of black-and-white images that caught his eye, random jottings, drawings, and sketches done with darkroom chemicals. The exhibition explores the artist’s process, projects, journal excerpts, and photographs from six bodies of work. (Through Oct. 27) www.sfcamerawork.org Steven Wolf Fine Arts Brent Green: To Many Men Strange Fates are Given. The ingenious artist, self-taught animator and storyteller Brent Green imaginatively mixes high-tech paraphernalia with battered contraptions

and his American folk roots, orchestrating disparate elements into unexpectedly harmonious combinations. His latest project weaves LCD screens, 3-D animation, polarized lenses, wooden audio horns and the tale of a custom-made spacesuit designed for the first canine astronaut. (Sept.

15-Oct. 20) Scott Williams: Home Invasion runs concurrently. www. stevenwolffinearts@gmail.com Jack Fischer Gallery Minor Characters and Sympathetic Criminals. Painter Frances Lerner’s androgynous, doll-like figures with obliterated facial features are bit players on life’s stage, the people we walk by and never notice. In scenes she has staged with Ben Liddle Photography, courtesy SFFS Japanese and French dolls dressed Animator and fi ne artist Brent Green, whose piece To Many Men Strange in drab Victorian clothing, they Fates Are Given will be shown at the San Francisco Film Society’s KinoTek fade into the semi-industrial setexhibition at Steven Wolf Fine Arts.

See page 23 >>

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

▼

Season to taste: opera, design, electronics

by Roberto Friedman

B

anners announcing the new symphony and opera seasons hang all around Civic Center these days, and perhaps taking his cue from the Tosca banner, the gentleman walking behind us on Grove Street began a vigorous and noteperfect whistling rendition of a famous aria, “E lucevan la stelle,” from that opera. Ahoy, the new culture season has definitely arrived!

If Out There had any doubts about that, they were dispelled last Friday night at San Francisco Opera’s 90th season opening-night gala. For us, the festive affair began in the early evening, at the Bravo!

Club’s swanky cocktail reception in the War Memorial Veterans Building. Heavy appetizers and light wine are so much better than a full honking meal when you’re facing a long night of operatic splendor. The classical harpist tinkling away in the corner of the Bravo fest lent an ethereal touch. The champagne got us high.

From there we scooted over to the opera house for opening night

Robert Pattinson is the center of his limousine universe in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, based on the Don DeLillo novel.

of the master composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. Popped into the press room to offer our fond regards to our hosts there (thanks, Jon, Julia, Gelane!), then got our traditional season-opener man-hug from doorman extraordinaire Bill Repp, who was wearing a crown royale broach gifted him by B.A.R.

society columnist Donna Sachet, another elegant opening-night attendee. Then it was on to the actual opera, which you’ll find brilliantly reviewed by B.A.R. music critic Philip Campbell on the facing page. No need for us to gas on about it, except to say: pashernate love, vengeance, a nobleman’s curse, untimely death – it’s sooo consummately Italian!

The evening wrapped up with lovely dessert and libations in the Green Room over in the Veterans Building, on a Beaux Arts balcony overlooking City Hall, discussing fine points of vocalizations with a man who brandished a fat cigar.

We’re proud to say we closed down the jernt. Out There takes our cultural celebrations seriously – serious fun, that is. We’re off to the races!

Design junction Over in the design galleries at SFMOMA, the new exhibition Field Conditions offers nearly 30 works in various media by contemporary artists and practicing architects, including Tauba Auerbach, Daniel Libeskind, Rafael LozanoHemmer, Sol LeWitt, and Lebbeus Woods.

Organized by assistant curator of architecture and design Joseph Becker, the show is up and running through Jan. 6 of next year. The Architecture + Design Forum invited Out There to its opening events last week. Here are the museum’s descriptions of three

Steven Underhill

San Francisco Opera patrons on their way to the Gala opening-night performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the War Memorial Opera House.

works that captured our imagination, with our translations.

“Daniel Libeskind’s Micromegas (1978), made early in the celebrated architect’s career and now in the SFMOMA collection, is a conceptual cornerstone of the exhibition, with its early and radical stance to the language of architecture.”

They’re architectural drawings that spill over into the realm of fantasy.

“In Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #45 (1970), a significant instance of art as plan or system rather than object, the size of the artwork is determined by the dimensions of the wall.” Elaborately plotted pencil drawings, done directly on the wall.

“Tauba Auerbach’s 50/50 Floor (2008) suggests a rectangle cut out of an infinite expanse. Covering the gallery floor with a grid randomly composed of 50% black and 50% white, the piece creates a walk-in field, one of a limitless number of possible configurations.” Totally arbitrary crossword-puzzle grid.

After a presentation in the galleries, a reception upstairs on the Rooftop Pavilion offered us a chance to party and prance with architects, artists, and design professionals.

Blue Bottle Coffee Co. presented a tableful of pastries modeled after the Auerbach black-and-white tile piece. We had a squid-ink cracker with white bean whip, we kid you not.

Up on the roof, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival presented a live performance of John Cage’s Score Without Parts (40 Drawings by Thoreau: Twelve Haiku) conducted by Gino Robair with texts by Tom Djll. The musicians – playing flute, drum, electric guitar, saxophone sans reed – surrounded us and squawked away.

Now normally, when attending a live performance of any kind, OT is careful to turn off our cell phone – our beloved $10 flip-phone! – or leave it home altogether. But considering Cage’s famous propensity for incorporating chance and ambient noise into his music, we thought it appropriate to keep our phone on.

By chance, no-one rang in.

Screen saver We were going to see the new Julie Delpy movie, but at the last minute saw we were just in time for the screening of Cosmopolis, the David Cronenberg adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel. Though more a DeLillo fan than a Cronenberg one, OT ducked in.

If America has a poet laureate of the dystopian new world, DeLillo is it. Here, in ways that seem prescient of the 2008 financial collapse, the Occupy movement, and a general, free-floating anxiety/dread, DeLillo has captured millennial Manhattan, the very belly of the late capitalist beast. Writers like DeLillo who are so attuned to the tempo of the moment always seem prophetic.

His novel White Noise’s “airborne toxic event” told us more about the nature of environmental crisis than any documentary on Chernobyl.

Anyway, if you’ve ever had a hankering to watch Robert Pattinson get a prostrate exam naked in a limousine, this is the movie for you.

Meanwhile, our friend the Soap Geek watches the soap opera Days of Our Lives, like, every day of his life.

Last week gay character Will (Chandler Massey) told his supportive Grandma Marlena (Deidre Hall) about a guy he “screwed up with.”

Marlena to Will: “Can you hear how self-critical you are? You’re behaving as if this man were as handsome as a male model and had the social consciousness of Harvey Milk. Now go tell him how much you care about him.” A Harvey Milk mention on Days, a soap first.

Finally, we are proud to publish theatre writer Richard Dodds’ interview with gay man of letters and actions Larry Kramer as The Normal Heart begins performances at ACT. Kramer’s cri de coeur “1,112 and Counting,” first published in The New York Native in 1983, then more widely in the gay press, was the original rallying cry to confront the AIDS epidemic. Sample line: “If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.” Still resonates today.▼

▼

Music>>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Tragic consequences in a shadowy light

by Philip Campbell

T

he San Francisco Opera opened season 90 last Friday with a time-tested and sturdy production of Verdi’s molto Italiano masterwork Rigoletto. Theatrically tight, chock-full of famous tunes, and remarkably easy to follow, this was the right choice for an opening-night crowd easily distracted by all of the showy action offstage.

Of course, the performance didn’t start on time and audience members were egregiously late returning to their seats after intermission, but none of the party atmosphere stopped the dramatic flow of a performance anchored by a singer of outstanding authority in the title role. Serbian baritone Zeljko Lucic is internationally recognized as a specialist in Verdi for good reason, and he has rapidly become the goto guy for portrayal of the tortured and physically deformed court jester. His interpretation is marked by histrionic restraint, and best of all, he really sings the role.

Lucic may be a little young by comparison to other singers who have sobbed and gasped their way through the exhausting assignment, and his voice possesses little of the hearty Italianate sound usually associated with Verdi. What makes Lucic’s enactment so compelling is his beautifully colored tone and intense focus. He may have ideas of his own about tempo and attack, but he was partnered with a game conductor in Nicola Luisotti, willing to accommodate him throughout with sympathetic orchestral support.

Luisotti alerted us early to his own urgent and burnished approach to an opera that is often obscured by conflicting performing styles. The dark and ominous Prelude to Act I rumbled and crashed from the pit on opening night, forcing the giddy crowd to straighten up and face the music. What followed was a richly detailed and sonorous performance that managed to avoid any sense of casual oom-pah-pah accompaniment.

The stark and imposing set designs by Michael Yeargan, influenced by paintings of Giorgio de Chirico and luridly colored by the dramatic lighting of Chris Maravich, may remind me a bit of the Shakespeare scenes in the movie production of Kiss Me, Kate, but they provide a

strong and fluid backdrop for director Harry Silverstein’s generally uncluttered and potently dramatic production.

In keeping with the focus on Verdi’s great score and letting the composition speak for itself, the other singers assembled for the first-night cast also contributed fine-sounding characterizations. As Rigoletto’s remarkably dim-witted daughter Gilda (well, okay, the poor dear has always been locked away in her bedroom whenever she is not in church), Polish coloratura soprano Aleksandra Kurzak made her SFO debut with a gratifying depth and sturdy middle voice that could still encompass the high notes with ease.

She has a genuine and unobtrusive trill that is managed to subtle and satisfying effect.

No one will ever make Gilda’s dying duet with her devastated father completely convincing (sorry, if you didn’t know already), but Kurzak’s simple acting approach proved a good match for Lucic’s, and she received enthusiastic and justified audience approval for her lovely “Caro, nome” earlier in the performance.

As the vile seducer and cruelly selfish Duke of Mantua, tenor Francesco Demuro, a native of Sardinia making his own SFO debut, managed to more or less convince with a bland characterization marked by careful and pleasant singing and a certain physical appeal. It was not enough to make us love and loathe the rogue as Verdi intended, but no impediment to a trio of principal singers clearly intent on remaining musical.

Italian bass Andrea Silvestri as the creepy assassin Sparafucile made a hearty meal of his scenes with Rigoletto, and also in his exchanges with his slatternly sister Maddalena (a substantial and welcome return to the SFO by American mezzo Kendall Gladen). Silvestri has a surprising voice that sounds like it is emanating from an oaken cask. How apt for the mysterious killer who wants to maintain his reputation for thoroughness.

Another artist making his SFO debut was Canadian bass Robert Pomakov, as Count Monterone.

Delivering the curse of a horribly wronged father that ultimately causes Rigoletto’s tragic undoing, Pomakov was artistically in keeping with the uniformity of the production, with most of his acting hap-

Cory Weaver

Zeljko Lucic in the title role of San Francisco Opera’s Rigoletto.

Cory Weaver

Francesco Demuro as the Duke of Matua, and Aleksandra Kurzak as Gilda in San Francisco Opera’s Rigoletto.

pening in his voice, but he deserved more visual emphasis from the director. It was hard to find where that powerful voice was coming from amidst the shadows.

There is an alternate cast for the opening production of the new season, and it should be enlightening to see what Marco Vratogna does with the title role (we liked his Iago in Otello here in 2009). Coloratura soprano Albina Shagimuratova, who made an impressive Company debut this past summer as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, will sing Gilda.

If opening night was largely dependent on the focus of Zeljko Lucic’s performance in his signature role, much musical satisfaction was also provided by conductor Luisotti and his ability to put a personal interpretive stamp on an old warhorse. Framing the singers, coaxing disciplined and passionate orchestral playing, and forcing a distracted gala crowd to pay attention, the SFO Music Director earned his bravos.▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

▼

Film >>

Homeboys, veterans & gourmets Highlights from the Cine+Mas San Francisco Latino Film Festival

by David Lamble

T

here’s a distinctly queer accent to this year’s Cine+Mas San Francisco Latino Film Festival, running Sept. 13-28 at nine Bay Area venues: San Francisco’s Victoria Theatre, Opera Plaza Cinemas, Blue Macaw, Galeria de La Raza, Artists Television Access, and Mission Cultural Center, Richmond’s Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center, Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance, and San Jose’s MACLA. Homeboy In this intimate oral history, Dino Dinco has former LA area gang members share moving and occasionally very funny stories about their constantly evolving identity as gay men. One man discusses how he accidentally stumbled upon a rent-boy scene, receiving a painful baptism in the back of a van on a dark Hollywood street.

Larry, a handsome US Army veteran, is equally proud of his Casper “the friendly ghost” tattoos and his certificate of graduation from an Army technical school. Recalling his days with a now-defunct gang, he soberly reflects on the gang’s prison reunions.

The film’s panel sport images from butch to fem, but all comment on how hard it was to juggle their families’ expectations that they be “real men” with their growing awareness of attraction for just such hombres. Their personal stories range from an absurdly funny account of a misfired first attempt at anal sex, to present-day efforts to erase tattoos, to memories of old boyfriends and the acknowledgement of a new generation of defiantly open and proud gay men.

Homeboy’s stories are enhanced by photos and Tom of Finland-style

drawings by Rafael Esparza and Hector Silva. The film’s first-person stories are buttressed by research conducted by gang scholar Luis J. Rodriguez, author of the memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA (www. l u i s j ro d r i q u e z . com).

(Opera Plaza, 9/16) Fallen Comrade James Valdez astutely employs patriotic imagery – an American flag is given to a grieving mother at her son’s (Tyler Kimball) military funeral, who then passes it on to his platoon buddy “lover” (Javier Lezama) – and a nicely crafted music track (Bjork’s “Unravel,” and a low-key, moving version of “Amazing Grace”

by Leann Rimes) in an emotional short that examines a brief but passionate combat romance. Playing in the LGBT Latino Shorts Program.

(Artists’ Television Access, 9/26, 7:30 p.m.)

Recipe for Love Self-discovery and a love of food are a bond for two ambitious young women in Chauncey Wales’ short, which walks a thin line between being a slick infomercial for emerging lifestyles and a risible parody of same. The gourmet-food hook is fine as far as it goes as a metaphor for upscale hotties indulging themselves to the nines,

Courtesy Cine+Mas

Scene from director Dino Dinco’s Homeboy.

but the final product demonstrates, perhaps unintentionally, just how gentrified the old Barbary Coast has gotten. Playing in the LGBT Latino Shorts Program. (Artists’ Television Access, 9/26, 7:30 p.m.)

We’re All Meant to be Queens Miguel Astudillo presents a portrait of Aurora Grajeda and Rosa Cortez, transgendered women from Mexico living in San Francisco. (LGBT Latino Shorts Program) (Artists’ Television Access, 9/26, 7:30 p.m.)

Sin Padre Jay Francisco Lopez and Maria Fe Picar set this tale of a fatherless 17-year-old Honduran refugee in San Francisco’s Mission District. Javier Lezama gives an impassioned performance as a kid haunted by the sense that he lacks

the family roots he envies in his classmates, including his dopey best friend and soccer buddy.

The film takes a while to hit its stride, wobbling at first between preachy afterschool special and cable sitcom, but eventually the filmmakers find their footing and give us a heart-breaking piece on, ironically, some of the themes that have popped up on the margins of the presidential campaign: women’s reproductive rights and the unacknowledged role that rape plays in some family cultures in this society.

Should provoke a stimulating Q&A at its Victoria Theatre screening.

(9/14)

Smuggled Talk about claustrophobia. In Ramon Hamilton’s chamber drama, we sit with a mother and her 10-year-old son as they hide in a secret compartment on a tourist bus crossing the MexicanUS border. The pair are trying to join the boy’s dad, who left to seek work in the States. Director Hamilton employs touches from radio theatre as the pair hear disturbing sounds outside the bus: the heavy breathing of a border agent’s dog, the driver announcing that the vehicle has broken down 50 miles short of their destination.

Newcomer Ramsess Letrado See page 21 >>

Books >>

Love pains

by Jim Piechota 44 Horrible Dates by Eddie Campbell; Sourcebooks, $14.99

L

ove can be a tricky thing. It can make life worth living and bring a sense of peaceful, lovely cohesion to every day, week, month, and year of our lives. And then again, there are times when love can rip your heart to shreds.

Yet more often than not, it’s not the ups and downs of actual romance but the intricate search for it that makes the ride worth the trip.

Los Angeles native Eddie Campbell, a longtime art director for an impressive list of hit television shows, generously and often hilariously shares his adventures looking for love in 44 Horrible Dates, assuring readers that “unfortunately and sometimes unbelievably, these stories of my horrible dates are all true.”

He considers the 44 bad dates he describes as “therapy” for single people everywhere (and “the 50% of married people who will end up single”) in the hopes of acquiring some semblance of solidarity with them, but instead of trying to socially validate his collection of hook-up horrors, the book is better served up with no preamble, and best read with an open mind and a heaping helping of humor.

He begins in 1994 with a six-mile trek (which takes 45 minutes on

Southern California streets) to pick up a guy (whom he met at a bar while drunk) for a date that collapses once the dude gets into the car and expresses himself through some repeated, high-octane flatulence. From

there, things get much worse, and Campbell even goes the extra step of commemorating each first date with a sometimes comical, sometimes mean-spirited “nickname.” One guy was late after doing a pre-date bump of cocaine, one wanted a hot dog inserted into his butt, and another liked feet just a bit too much. Others run the gamut from bad breath, herpes, a foul-smelling penis (“dirty socks See page 22 >>

▼

Film >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Complicated co-dependent relationship Director Ira Sachs on his autobiographical new film ‘Keep the Lights On,’ opening Friday

by David Lamble

K

eep the Lights On begins in a shabby East Village walk-up as Eric (Danish-born actor Thure Lindhardt), a ruggedly handsome blonde top with scraggily facial hair, struggles to connect with a suitable bottom on a phone sex chat-line.

After several no-sales, Eric arranges a hookup with a literary lawyer just coming out, Paul (Zachary Booth), in the latter’s Chelsea flat. The physical connection is immediate, electric – despite Paul’s protestations that he has a girlfriend, “Don’t get your hopes up” – and before they realize it, Eric and Paul are a couple bound together by a ferocious bedroom chemistry, but hobbled by career and personal differences. Eric’s resolve to survive as an openly queer documentary-maker imposes the financial horizons of a perpetual student. Paul abjectly surrenders to a crack-cocaine habit.

In an impeccably detailed, tornfrom-life tale spanning a decade (1998-2007), director Ira Sachs (with co-writer Mauricio Zacharias) provides a rigorously honest account of how two emotionally incompatible men struggle to preserve a relationship that, while lacking the legal sanction of marriage, is witnessed by a complicated extended family – at a surprise birthday party, a drug intervention, a holiday-dinner reconciliation – only to finally collapse in a third-act burst of mutual candor.

Ironically, as Eric embarks on a hopelessly romantic project, detailing the life of the failed filmmaker but significant queer underground pioneer Avery Willard, he leans on his relationship with Paul for emotional ballast and at least the appearance of grown-up financial responsibility in a profession that doesn’t even pay for itself, let alone allow its practitioners the luxury of picking up the check at dinner. So while the gypsy filmmaker starts acting like an adult – even contemplating having a child with a female friend – lawyer Paul, with the big corporate job, starts to spiral down into a vortex of rent-boy trysts and crack-pipe binges.

Sachs creates his career masterwork by seamlessly balancing Eric and Paul’s emotional dust-ups with reality checks from their disparate careers.

There’s a hilarious moment when an underground survivor candidly opines on what a terrible filmmaker Willard was; and Sachs provides some revealing glimpses at the private support networks that keep high-functioning fuck-ups like Paul afloat in the corporate world.

The movie benefits from the beautiful lighting scheme from director of photography Thimios Bakatakis: even the actors’ skin tones reflect on their characters. A scintillating element is

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Jean-Christophe Husson

Thure Lindhardt as Eric in director Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On.

the revelatory folk-disco soundtrack drawn from the late queer musician/ composer Arthur Russell, which provides a feathery tone to the proceedings, warding off any tendency towards soap opera or melodrama.

Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth dazzle as two halves of a dizzyingly complicated co-dependent relationship, demonstrating how the sexual sizzle that binds Eric and Paul may itself be an obstacle to the ultimate success of their union. Since he is a surrogate for Sachs, Lindhardt benefits from it being his story, while the moody Booth makes a powerful impression with less screentime.

“Would you turn that light on above the bed? I don’t want to be in the dark with you. We’re not having sex!”

“I just want to be naked with you.”

“I think this is enough for right now.”

On the record In his first three narrative features, Memphis-raised Ira Sachs has relished placing his characters between an erotic rock and a socially impossible hard place. In The Delta, Lincoln, an upstanding and impossibly seductive white boy, connects with a desperate Vietnamese immigrant.

When this Huck Finn on-a-raft relationship implodes, murder follows.

Forty Shades of Blue finds a vulnerable young Russian woman turning to the son of her music-mogul hubby when the old boy refuses to curb his appetites. Married Life gives a farcical twist to a businessman’s mad scheme to cushion the shock of his infidelity by doing away with his wife. In Keep the Lights On, Sachs demonstrates that even at a time when gay men’s lives are becoming more open and even quasi-respectable, there remain further closets with untold additional secrets. As his best female friend lashes out at him for withholding vital details about the perilous state of his

Latino Film Festival From page 20

turns young Miguel into a person who inspires empathy, especially as his story takes several desperate turns. (Opera Plaza, 9/15) Not So Modern Times When first we spy him, Karken is a simple, stoic Patagonian sheep-herder who lives off the products of his ranch, supplemented by a barter system with distant neighbors. In Simon Franco’s Argentine comedy, the modern world starts its insidious creep with tourists showing up in 4x4 off-road vehicles, then satellite TV with its lifestyle commercials, soap operas, and reality shows – what next? Well, the old man becomes hooked, and pretty soon starts selling pieces of himself – as an Argentine singing cowboy – for filthy pesos. As usual, the remote and beautiful Patagonia is the star in a fable that shows how

Courtesy Cine+Mas

Scene from director Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos’ Filly Brown.

relationship with Paul, Eric calmly replies, “I’ve been hiding crucial events in my life since I was 13.”

Sachs once explained to me how his emerging queer-boy persona was shaped by riding through nighttime Memphis with his “hippie bachelor man-about-town” dad. Appearing back in June for the film’s LGBT festival debut at the Castro Theatre with one of his stars, Zachary Booth, Sachs riffed on the origins of the story.

“I feel that this film is really about shame in general in the gay community. We all know that drugs are everywhere, and some of us have been very affected by that drug use, and we’re scared to talk about it because we’ve been complicit and involved.

And many of those who survived the AIDS epidemic gave up our protection and decided we wanted our pleasures back, and drugs were right there waiting for us. I think there are communities in which drugs are the commonality; they also equalize age differences, money differences, they make it possible for men to stay potent. “ David Lamble: Doesn’t every gay man construct some sort of fantasy cocoon to survive, especially during perilous times?

Ira Sachs: The film is very autobiographically inspired, so I have to merge myself with the character – even though I’m now played by a Danish actor. There’s something about obsession and compulsion that, in a way, narrows anxiety: if you just fixate on the relationship in front of you, and try and hold on to it – which Eric does – then you can stop thinking about all the other things that are possibly going to hurt or scare you. It’s comforting to give in to an addiction: there’s an addiction to drugs in the film, and also an addiction to love.

Zach, your character Paul can be viewed as unsympathetic. How did you deal with this possible perception?

we all become corrupted.

This is one movie without the usual “no animals were harmed in the making,” as we see in the final stages of skinning a sheep. The remaining live critters look a tad nervous. (Opera Plaza, 9/15; Mission Cultural Center, 9/23) Sibila Teresa Arredondo examines her once-imprisoned aunt’s history with the Peruvian terrorist group The Shining Path. (Opera Plaza, 9/16) Unfinished Spaces Doc about a futuristic art school commissioned

by Fidel Castro in 1965, and only completed by a group of aging exile architects in the new century. (Galeria de La Raza, 9/19) Filly Brown Street poet meets DJ and sparks fly in Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos’ urban drama.

(Victoria, 9/14; Opera Plaza, 9/15)▼ www.sflatinofilmfestival.org

Jean-Christophe Husson

Zachary Booth as Paul in director Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On.

Zachary Booth: It didn’t occur to me until we started screening the film – I did so much work to understand Paul, and to see Eric’s shortcomings – I was almost shocked by it. My sister saw the film, and she was in tears.

Sachs: Mine, too.

Booth: Your sister was really in tears. And my sister didn’t have that kind of relationship, but she was able to find a way in.

How did you and Thure Lindhardt bond?

Booth: We spent time together: we went to dinner, saw a play, went dancing. And Thure, as Eric is described in the film, is a really open, beautiful person who has no fear.

This film is remarkable in part for its complex layers, in how it views the characters’ attempt to salvage their relationship.

Sachs: This brings up for me the isolation these characters are experiencing based on the addicted relationship. They’re not isolated by being gay: that is very open, they have

people in their houses, but the addiction is isolating in that they cut off any support system other than each other.

They’re not up to the fight, but they believe they are. As one who was in such a relationship, I thought I could cope, but I was very naïve.▼

<< Books

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

▼

Opening up with author Steven James

by Gregg Shapiro

R

eaders of detective and mystery fiction are certain to find something to like about Steven James’ Opening Moves (Signet Select), the latest in the Bowers Files series featuring detective Patrick Bowers. Set in Milwaukee in 1997, just a few years after the horrors of Jeffrey Dahmer, Opening Moves is a prequel, setting the stage for James’ books about Bowers that followed.

A copycat serial killer is at work in Milwaukee, making reference to Dahmer, Ed Gein and others. For a city still not fully recovered, these murders are more than just matters of life and death. I spoke with author James in late summer.

Gregg Shapiro: How much is there of Steven James in your detective character Patrick Bowers?

Steven James: Well, he’s a better rock-climber than I am, more of a coffee snob, and a little smoother with the ladies, but I have to admit that many of the struggles that I have do find their way into Patrick’s

life. After the first book in the series, The Pawn, came out, someone asked my wife who I was the most like, Bowers or the serial killer. She said the serial killer. I think she was joking, but I’m still not quite sure!

Patrick “notices things.” Are you the type of person who notices things?

I think that all writers have to be in the habit of noticing things, but Bowers is able to piece things together a lot better than I am. I am constantly jotting or recording notes to myself about small observations, many of which eventually make their way into my books. Bowers wouldn’t need to write them down.

He’d remember them all, which sort of annoys me!

Books in the Bowers series have chess-themed book titles. Do you play chess?

I play a little bit of chess but am by no means an expert. I wanted the books to be related, and this turned out to be a good idea. I moved my way through the pieces: The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishop

ccan be thankful to live in our ccountry.

and The Queen, then wrote this new prequel, Opening Moves. Readers are asking for The King, and it will eventually happen.

Opening Moves is set in 1997 Milwaukee, a few yyears after the horrors o of Dahmer. Why did you cchoose that year?

Part of the storyline invvolves a criminal orchestratiing reenactments of horrific ccrimes from Wisconsin’s histtory. Dahmer is one of those kkillers, so are a father/son team tthat followed him the next yyear. It was a perfect fit.

Some of your books can be categorized as genre fiction.

You write it, but do you also read it?

Most writing instructors say you should write in the genre that you like to read, but truthfully I don’t read all that much suspense. I enjoy it, but I don’t want my writing to inadvertently mirror that of another writer. So I read a variety of genres and nonfiction, and watch suspense movies.

I love stories with a twist, so watching films is a good way to get my fix when I avoid novels that might be similar to the ones I write.

W Were you living in Wisconsin aat the time of Dahmer?

Yes. I was working at a camp in central Wisconsin, and still re remember the story breaking o on the news.

In Opening Moves, the narration moves from 1st to 3rd person, sometimes within the same chapter.

The books are mostly told from FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers’ point of view. But since the plots are complex and have interweaving subplots that all converge at the climax, he’s not able to be in every scene. So I included some scenes told from the perspective of other characters in order to draw the story together. I’ve done all of the Bowers novels this way, and now it’s just the natural way that I tell stories.

Bowers makes fun of coffeedrinkers on a number of occasions in the novel, but you make it clear in your bio that you drink coffee.

Well, in the following books in the series Pat is a true coffee snob.

I thought it would be interesting to show his genesis from hating coffee to eventually trying it at the end of the book, toward becoming a connoisseur as the series progressed. I have to admit that the more I’ve written about him, the more particular I’ve become about the coffee I drink!

Early in the book you write about the 1990s being a violent decade, beginning with Dahmer, followed

by OJ. Do you think these kinds of events set the tone for the 21st century?

Justice Department crime statistics from the last 20 years have shown a decline in the number of violent crimes in most major US cities. We hear about these brutal mass killings, and they naturally shock us. Several times a week, suicide bombers in the Middle East kill dozens of innocent people and it ends up being only a small blip on our news media’s radar screen. Truthfully, I believe we

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Horrible Dates From page 20

and cheddar cheese”), road rage, and a choking fetish to chatting through movies, dressing poorly, no resemblance to his e-mailed picture (Craigslist), a condom allergy, a guy who was blessed with being both crosseyed and a magician, and men who tastelessly check their Grindr profiles right at the dinner table. Is dating in Los Angeles this much of a minefield?

Along the way, Campbell divulges personal factoids about his life. Now in his 30s, he holds two degrees from USC, was raised in the San Fernando Valley (“like growing up in an amusement park without any rides”), and remains unhappily single. Perusing his website, he’s not an unattractive man, either. So combining a book of unbelievably bad dating experiences with a smart, handsome, successful Hollywood guy begs the questions: Are Campbell’s standards set too high? Is he too picky to settle down,

Y You write about how ch childhood events shaped the li lives of Patrick and Joshua. Is th there a parallel with the event in involving the Oswalds that oc occurred in your life?

As I mentioned in the prolo logue, my father was being ta targeted by James Oswald, but thankfully James and his son were apprehended before they could commit any more crimes. I was no longer living at home at the time, but there was an event that did affect me deeply that appears in the book. When I was about 10 a girl disappeared in our hometown, and the authorities told everyone to look in their outbuildings for any sign of her. We had a treehouse, and I remember my dad going out there to look for a body in it. It was deeply disturbing. In Opening Moves, I drew from that experience, and it ended up as a powerful and terrifying scene.

Later in the book you write about “our choices” and accountability.

Can you elaborate on that?

While writing Opening Moves I thought a lot about justice and our choices, and the point at which we become responsible for them. I think that in every crime the offender can point to extenuating circumstances – a mental illness, abuse as a child, fear of being killed himself – but how do we determine there were enough of those to diminish the punishment of the person? I don’t have answers, but I think these questions are important ones to ask, so I let them surface throughout the book.

If there were a movie version of the Patrick Bowers series, who would you want to play Bowers?

So I have to admit I’ve thought about that. I really like Colin Farrell for the part. He has this darkness, this intelligence, and strong screen presence. I think he’d be great.▼

or too snarky for his own good? Or was he just born under a bad sign?

Granted, a good portion of Campbell’s disastrous dates took place more than 10 years ago, so technology and attitudes have changed the dating process (is there even a “process” any longer?), but hopefully, as of this writing, the author has found his match, or something/someone that closely resembles one.

His first book, a splashy pictorial history of the mega-soap opera Days of Our Lives (Days of Our Lives 45 Years, A Celebration in Photos, 2010), brought fans directly on-set and into the dressing rooms of the long-running serial’s stars. This one sweeps us into the first-date mindset of a single gay guy living in L.A. and takes us along for the ride with a puzzling procession of farters, crazies, and cell-phone-obsessed nymphomaniacs. It’s a work that’s uproarious if you have a sturdy funny bone, and kind of sad for those with a soft heart (like me). ▼

▼ <<

Fine Art >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Fall galleries

produced unique, ethereal images reflecting the photographer’s interest in the 19th-century Western vista master Carleton Watkins. (Through Oct. 27.) www.hainesgallery.com Gallery Wendi Norris Dana Harel: Wrestling God addresses transformation, physical struggle and the internal war between the spiritual and “brute self.” An architect by training, Harel, an Israeli-born artist and stage designer, has created four largescale, theatrical and visceral graphite portraits and action scenes, as well as a cluster of smaller mixed-media pieces, inspired by the Biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an Angel. The supernatural, epic saga from the Book of Genesis has fascinated poets and painters from Rilke, Rembrandt and Delacroix to Chagall. (A live sound component will be performed Oct. 13.) Stellar Orbits: Lovers and Intellectuals among Surrealists and Their Peers. Given their credo of free love and the amount of bed-hopping and torrid affairs engaged in by this loose cadre of artists, not to mention their fierce cerebral debates, it’s amazing they got anything done. This show looks at art by Max Ernst, Dorothea

From page 17

tings and sweat shops which threaten to engulf them. (Sept. 22-Oct. 20) www.jackfischergallery.com Weinstein Gallery mounts intriguing shows (Leonor Fini last July was spectacular), and their exhibition of paintings, sculpture and works on paper by David Hare continues the trend. Born into a prominent New York family, Hare, a pivot point between the European avant-garde and hot, young New York artists, lived among the Surrealists in the city during the late 1940s, as it was evolving into the epicenter of the art world.

That mind-bending Surrealist sensibility, facets of abstraction and humor infiltrate Hare’s colorful paintings (sometimes collaged) like one starring an imposing, lavender dream lion with a piercing orange eye, or the redflecked, ebony monster of “Earth Shaman,” whose insides glow like a stoked furnace. Many of the artist’s wonderful pen, ink and watercolor drawings are of animals, real and conjured, and then there are witty sculptures such as “Dog and Snake,” depicting a duo in a high-noon standoff, and “Man Running,” a wiry figure with a pair of fully extended, supple limbs that ensure a first-place finish. (Sept.22-Oct. 25) www.weinstein.com Dolby Chadwick Marshall Crossman, Big Water. Sometimes employing a “wet-on-wet” style, Crossman paints voluptuous, color-drenched canvases that beautifully render the trance-like, contemplative state induced by the relentless ebb and flow of expansive ocean and endless horizon seen from her beach-front home.

In other works, intrepid (fantasy) bathers splash in icy surf, and proud local fisherman show off the catch of the day. (Through Sept. 29) Flesh and Blood presents paintings characterized by Sherie Franssen’s athletic style. (Oct. 4-27) This display of John DiPaolo’s expressive, emotionally charged, abstract paintings will mark the culmination of his 40-year career.

Courtesy Weinstein Gallery

Earth Shaman (1989), acrylic on canvas, by David Hare.

(Nov. 1-Dec.1) www.dolbychadwickgallery.com UC Graduate School of Journalism Rag Theater: The 2400 Block of Telegraph Avenue, 1969-1973. Nacio Jan Brown, who started as an underground photographer, made a commitment to a dodgy block in Berkeley teeming with hustlers, stray dogs, junkies and café regulars, and captured the circus in his black-andwhite images. (Through Jan. 11, 2013) www.journalism.berkeley.edu Bancroft Library Fiat Lux Redux: Ansel Adams and Clark Kerr. Fifty original photographs chronicling the U.C. expansion, originally commissioned by former U.C. president Clark Kerr, for a 1967 book marking the

university system’s centennial, have been chosen from over 605 prints signed by Ansel Adams. The exhibit also includes supplemental material on the forward-thinking, controversial Kerr. (Sept. 27-Feb. 28, 2013) bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/onexhibit. html#fiatlux Haines Gallery Binh Danh: Yosemite. Photographers who’ve experienced the astonishing wonder of the Valley have been struck by the dramatic light falling across the gigantic natural monuments and waterfalls.

Heightened eerie light is the salient feature of Danh’s in-camera daguerreotypes here. They’re the product of a three-year investigation involving modified large-format cameras which

Tanning and others through the prism of their relationships, creative attractions and distractions, conflicts and sexual entanglements, of course.

(Both shows: Sept. 6-Oct. 27) www. gallerywendinorris.com Gallery 16 Charles Linder: New Sculpture. Utilizing poetry and puns, Linder, an artist said to be fascinated equally by the sublime and the absurd, fashions beautiful objects from detritus. His oeuvre includes handmade chandeliers, a black pig named Conrad, its body a piñata of pink lights, in apparent conversation with a 1956 Spyder Porsche convertible parked nearby, and an array of perforated gas-can lanterns connected by a tangle of wires suggesting a science experiment gone awry. (Through Sept. 29) An artist with a pessimistic world-view who was once described as “literate without being literary, and painterly in a tortured sort of way,” Martin McMurray, working primarily in acrylic on panel for this exhibition, makes gemlike, whimsical books whose illustrated narratives frequently deal with human frailty, errors, unfortunate accidents and moral failings.

(Oct. 5-Dec.1) www.gallery16.com ▼

<< Out&About

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

The Normal Heart @ ACT

The Real Americans @ The Marsh

West Coast premiere of George C. Wolfe’s Tony Award-winning revival of Larry Kramer’s historic drama about the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City, with a stellar cast of Broadway and TV actors. $25-$80. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Some special curtain times. Special events and pre-curtain discussions thru run. Thru Oct. 7.

American Conservatory Theatre, 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Dan Hoyle returns with his acclaimed solo show with multiple characters based on his travels to the most liberal and conservative regions of America. $25-$50. Fri 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Thru Sept 29. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055.www.themarsh.org

Rights of Passage @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Olivia Newton-John @ Golden Gate Theatre The pop icon returns to San Francisco for a rare one-night concert. $50-$150. 1 Taylor St. at Market/6th. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Jock Sturges

The Other Place @ Magic Theatre

Art for AIDS. See Friday.

Write-off

by Jim Provenzano

A

certain online forum recently came to my attention via a fellow author. In it, a hacker shared a link to a bootleg Kindle version of my latest novel, Every Time I Think of You. The hacker’s exploits have been downloaded by about 75 people so far, costing me about $400 in sales.

I’m still working on getting it shut down, or at least convince the forum members who helped themselves to pirated versions of hundreds of books to at least post a review or offer some sort of payback.

You see, most authors are far from millionaires like that Fifty Shades of Gray gal. While even old TV sitcom script writers have made a quite few more bucks than I have, I can’t help but be consistently irked when yet another “drag version” of a TV show gets staged at a local theatre or bar. I can only wonder what gall the (usually honorable and professional) presenters have. They never even mention whose script they’re performing, let alone pay a penny of royalties to the writers.

So if you want to know where and when Heklina et al’s latest in this series of shows is, you’ll have to go somewhere else. Since writers are so worthless to them, I’ve run out of words to direct you to see them.

Thu 13>> Askew Film Festival @ YBCA Three-night film and experimental performance festival with a women’s feminist/ queer perspective, also with reading and dance, presented by YBCA and Femina Potens Art Gallery. $10. 7pm nightly. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 301 Mission St. http://www.ybca.org/ femina-potens-askew-film-andperformance-festival

Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Enjoy a week’s worth of interesting double and triple-features at the beautiful theatre.

Sept 13: Bad Day at Black Rock (2:30, 7pm) and The Wild Bunch (4:10, 8:35) both feature Ernest Borgnine. Sept 14, Midnites for Maniacs presents The Iron Giant (7:30), Labyrinth (9:20) and the unrated director’s cut of Dario Argento’s horror cult classic, Phenomena (11:30). $13. Sept 15, Sutro’s: The Palace at Lands End (2pm) and Remembering Playland (3:30pm). Sept 15 eve, Kill Bill Vol I (7pm) and Vol. 2 (9:10pm). Sept 16, the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2pm), Death Proof (7pm) and Punch-Drunk Love (5pm, 8:45). Sept 17 & 18, Moonrise

Kingdom. Sept 19, Risky Business (7pm) & Election (8:55). Sept 20, Office Space (7pm) and Secretary (8:45pm). $8.50-$11. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

Darling Nikki @ Som Bar Monthly 80s/indie queer dance party (2nd Thursdays) and fundraiser for CounterPulse’s arts programs. $5. 9pm-2am. 2925 16th St. at South Van Ness. www.counterpulse.org

L.A. Rebellion @ BAM/PFA Creating a New Black Cinema, screenings of historic African American narrative and documentary films. $5.50-$13.50. Various dates and times. Thru Oct. 30. Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. (510) 642-5249. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Lypsinka @ The Rrazz Room New York’s drag icon returns to perform The Passion of the Crawford, the fascinating audio collage tribute to the film diva. $35. TueThu 8pm. Fri & Sat 9:30pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Sept 16. Also, John Epperson (out of drag) performs An Evening With Lipsynka’s Maid, Sept 17, 8pm. $25. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www. lypsinka.com www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Sharr White’s acclaimed thriller about a strange Cape Cod unexplained mystery. $22$62. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm.

Thru Oct. 7. Fort Mason Center, Bldg. D, 3rd floor. Marina Blvd at Buchana. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org

Placas @ Lorraine Hansberry Theater Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo, Paul S. Flores’ drama about a San Francisco Mission family troubled by a historic connection to El Salvador criminals; part of the SF International Arts Fesitval. $13-$30. 8pm. Thru Sept 16. 450 Post St. 399-9554. www.sfiaf.org

Unusual Short Films @ Oddball Film This week: One Good Turn, odd commercials and vintage short flicks with women; 8pm.

And, Sept 14, 8pm: Crime Watch!, vintage cautionary and instructional flicks. $10. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Wed 19 Paloma Faith @ Rickshaw Stop Talented singer from the UK (who’s perfomed in TV shows with Jennifer Saunders) stops by on her first US tour. $15. 8pm. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness. www.palomafaith.com www.rickshawstop.com

Bay Area Rainbow Symphony @ SF Conservatory of Music

Robin Thicke and Karmin headline a benefit concert with a glitzy fashion show as well, all with a British music theme. Proceeds benefit AIDS Emergency Fund, Project Open Hand and The Glide Foundation. $75-$1,000.

8pm. 1192 Market St. After-party at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St. (888) 746-1799. www.macys.com

LGBT orchestra performs works by Ravel, Brahms and Jennifer Higdon. $15-$35. 8pm.

50 Oak St. at Van Ness. (800) 595-4TIX. www.bars-sf.org

Aurora Theatre Company’s production of Kristoffer Diaz’ smart, action-packed play about racial stereotypes in the world of professional wrestling. $32-$50. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm & 7pm., Also Tue 7pm. Thru Sept 30. 2081 Addison St. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Invasion! @ Boxcar Playhouse Crowded Fire Theatre Company’s production of Rachel Willson-Broyles‘s translation of Jona Hassen Khemiri’s Obie-winning dark comedy about Middle Eastern misrepresentations. $15-$30. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Sept 29. 505 Natoma St. www.crowdedfire.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm. (Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Big Gay 10K @ Upper Great Meadow, Fort Mason Annual fun race, with wacky costumes; proceeds go to the SF AIDS Foundation’s HIV prevention services. $35 entry fee. 9am. www.sfaf.org www.thebiggay10k.com

Art for AIDS @ City View, Metreon

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley

30th Anniversary @ Headlands Center for Arts

Macy’s Glamorama @ Orpheum Theater

Fri 14>>

David Henry Hwang’s ( M. Butterfly) hilarious play, direct from its New York run; set in China, explores the cultural and linguistic confusion a businessman faces while attempting to secure a lucrative company contract. $15-$99. Tue, & Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Also Sat & Sun 2pm. Extended thru Oct. 21. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck, Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Sat 15>>

shops and parties for, by and about trans and queer women. 2278 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 238-9171. www.rpscollective.org

Lucas Brooks’ comic solo show about the difficulties he’s faced finding a sex partner who wants a shorter top man. Part of the San Francisco Fringe Festival. $10. 8:30pm and various dates/times thru Sept. 16.

277 Taylor St. www.sffringe.org

Chinglish @ Berkeley Rep

World premiere of Ed Decker and Robert Leone’s play about a gay Hindu man coming of age in Bali, and the international struggle for human rights; told with monologues, puppetry, digital media and dance. $22-$40.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 16. 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market, lower level. 8618972. www.nctcsf.org

Artist-produced projects, food, live music, and visual exhibits celebrates the innovative outpost of artist residencies. Several programs and exhibits through the season.

Tue-Fri & Sun 12pm-5pm. 944 Simmonds Road, Sausalito. 331-2737. www.headlands.org

VGL 5’ 4” Top @ Exit Theatre

16th annual benefit for the UCSF Alliance Health Project, with fabulous art works up for auction by Jock Sturges (see photo), Rex Ray, Paul Madonna, Ross Bleckner, Annie Leibowitz and many more, plus winery tours, spa treatments and luxury vacations. $50250. 5:30-9:30pm. 135 4th St. www.ucsf-ahp.org

▼

Henry V @ Presidio Parade Lawn

Wed 19 Smack Dab @ Magnet The monthly reading and open mic night, guest-hosted by Blythe Baldwin and Wonder Dave, features gay rapper MC Crumbsnatcher. Open mic sign-up 7:30pm, performers at 8pm.

4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

A Midsummer Night’s Dream @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre Shakespeare’s summer romantic comedy, where fairies make asses of humans, gets an appropriate outdoor production by Marin Shakes. Performed in repertory with The Liar, David Ives’ adaptation of Pierre Cornielle’s 17th-century fast-paced romp about charming pathological liar. $20-$35.

Thru Sept 30. Dominican University of California, 890 Belle Ave., San Rafael.

499-4488. www.marinshakespeare.org

Port Out, Starboard Home @ Z Space Fools Fury Company performs Sheila Callaghan’s black comedy about a group of cruise ship tourists who stumble upon a mysterious island ritual. $12-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Sept 23. 450 Florida St. www.zspace.org

SF Shakepeare Festival’s production of The Bard’s political royal drama; Bring a blanket, a picnic and enjoy fascinating outdoor theatre. Free. 2pm. Also Sept 16, 22, 23.

Main Post Parade Ground Lawn, Graham St. at Lincoln Blvd. www.sfshakes.org

Janis Paige @ The Rrazz Room Veteran actress performs a selection of classic cabaret songs. 3pm. 2-drink min.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Mascara @ Castro Country Club The monthly drag show at the LGBT sober space. $3-$6. 10:30pm. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

My Fair Lady @ SF Playhouse Modern stripped-down adaptation of the Lerner & Lowe classic musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. $20-$50.

Tue-Thu 7pm.Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Sept. 29. 533 Sutter St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

National Circus of the People’s Republic of China @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Bejing company performs amazing acrobatic, tumbling and other theatrical feats. $22-$52.

8pm. Also Sept. 16 at 3pm. Bancroft Way at

Karen Akers @ The Rrazz Room The popular New York cabaret singer brings her acclaimed Algonquin Hotel show of allSondheim songs to SF. $45-$47.50. 7:30pm.

Also Sept 15, 7:30pm. Sept 16, 4pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 3803095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Quinceañera Prom @ Verdi Club

Sun 16 Imagining Val Travel @ Glama-Rama Salon Opening reception for popular local collage artist Tofu’s exhibit focusing on vintage travel imagery, based on his research discovering that the salon’s building formerly housed Val Travel agency at the height of the “glam travel” 60s. Reception 6pm-9pm.

On view thru Nov. 3. 304 Valencia St at 14th. www.tofuart.com

Killing My Lobster comedy theatre troupe’s 15th anniversary gala fundraiser, with Marga Gomez, a prom photo booth, silent auction, drinks, nibblies and music. $35-$50. 8pm12am. 2424 Mariposa St. www.killingmylobster.com www.verdiclub.com

Ladyfest @ Rock, Paper, Scissor Arts Collective Three-day festival of performances, work-

Fri 14 Chanticleer @ SF Conservatory of Music Grammy-winning vocal ensemble performs works by Bates, Palestrina, Barber, Corigliano and world premieres by Chen Yi and Michael McGlynn. $20-$50. 8pm. 50 Oak St. Also Sept 15 at Mission Santa Clara; Sept 16, 5pm at SF Music Conservatory; Sept 22 at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church; and Sept 23, 5pm at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Sacramento. (800) 407-1400. www.chanticleer.org

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Out&About >> Tue 18

Telegraph Ave., UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Phantoms of Asia @ Asian Art Museum

SF Hiking Club @ Purisima Creek

F Love and Community For @ GLBT History Museum

Join GLBT hikers for a 9-mile hike along fern-bordered creeks and through redwood forests on the Peninsula. Bring lunch, water, layers, hat, and sunscreen.

Carpool meets 9:00 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 794-2275, www.sfhiking.com

O Opening reception of For Love and Comm munity: Queer Asian Pacific Islanders TTake Action 1960-1990s, a new exhibit organized o by queer and transgender Asian Pacifi P c Islanders. 7pm-9pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107.

6 www.glbthistorymuseum.org

Strange Travel Suggestions @ The Marsh

Twelfth Night @ Hyde Street Pier We Players’ latest outdoor theatre adventure brings Shakespeare’s mistaken identity, gender-bending, romantic comedy, set at Illyria’s seaport, to the historic local pier.

Evening show includes a live jazz band, drinks and snacks. $40-$60. Fri 5:30. Sat & Sun 12pm & 5:309pm. Thru Oct. 7. Jefferson St. at Hyde. 547-0189. www.weplayers.org

The William S. Paley Collection @ de Young A Taste for Modernism, the new exhibit of varied and little seen Modern Art works collected by the New York art patron with a diverse taste, including paintings by Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. $10-$20. Tue-Sun 9:30am5:15pm. (til 8:45pm Fridays) Thru Dec. 30.

Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Women 我們 @ Chinese Cultural Center Opening reception for an exhibit of video works, installation art, photography, sculpture, and more by a diverse array of female and male LGBTQ artists including Mu Xi, Yang Meiyan, He Chengyao, and other emerging artists based in China as well as five U.S.-based artists, among them Man Yee Lam and Stella Zhang. 1pm-4pm. Reg hours Tue-Sat 10am-4pm. 750 Kearny St., 3rd floor (inside the Hilton Hotel). 986-1822. www.c-c-c.org

Sun 16>> A Brief History of the Piano @ Performance Art Institute Mauro Fortissimo and Robert Soper (with weekly guests) perform in a new weekly concerts of modern piano classics by Igor Stravinsky, John Coltrane, John Cage, Sun Rah and other composers. $15-$20. 4pm.

Thru Oct. 7. 75 Boardman Place. 501-0575. www.theperformanceartinstitute.org

Divas @ The Penthouse Club New monthly drag and brunch show (3rd Sundays) with an all-you-can-eat buffet, drinks and three shows hosted by the lovely and talented Katya Smirnoff-Skyy. $40.

11:30am-3pm. 412 Broadway Ave 391-2800. www.penthousesf.com

Outlook Video @ Chanel 29 Monthly LGBT TV show, this month with features on pet care, GLAAD Media Awards, SF’s International LGBT Film Fest. 5pm. Also streaming online. www.outlookvideo.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show

Feast of Words @ SOMArts Gallery Gay author Belo Cipriano (Blind) discusses G his h acclaimed memoir at the monthly literary l potluck food event (3rd Tuesdays), w where writers discuss their work and chefs bring b tasty treats, along with your dishes; oon-the-spot writing contest and other aactivities. $5-$12. 7pm. 934 Brannan St. aat 9th. www.feastofwords.somarts.org

Exhibit of bold contemporary art with perspectives on life, death, nature and other themes. $12-$15. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Oakland author Jeff Greenwald’s witty insightful solo show about his travels and wanderlust, with audience participatory “spin the wheel” story selection. $20-$50.

Saturdays only, 8:30pm. Thru Sept. 29. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Divining Divas @ Various Locations Editor Michael Montlack and contributors Ron Palmer, Kevin Simmonds, Brent Calderwood, Richard Loranger and Barach Porras-Hernandez, plus musician Montoya Rose, read from and discuss their contributions to the new anthology of gay men’s inspirations from female icons. Free.

6pm, SF Public Library, 100 Larkin St. Also, Monlack, Porras-Hernandez and Christian Gullette on Wed., Sept 19 at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley. Also, Montlack, Gullette, Rose, Kevin Killian, Jay Siegel, Kirk Read and Wonder Dave on Thu., Sept 20 at Books Inc., 2275 Market St. www. lethe-press.tumblr.com www.booksinc.net at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Mon 17>> Irvine Welsh @ Z Space Litquake welcomes the popular author of Trainspotting and other witty daring books, who discusses his new book, Skagboys. $12.

7pm. 450 Florida St. www.litquake.org

Obama Fundraiser @ The Box LGBT community dinner with wine pairings; 40% benefits the Pride PAC. $350. 6:30pm11pm. 1069 Howard St. www.Pride-PAC.com

PJ Andrews @ Castro Country Club Exhibit of the gay artist’s amusing glitter cartoon character portraits and collages.

Thru Oct 31. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

Porchlight Storytellers @ Verdi Club Duo stories night, with twins James and John Reichmuth, Google engineer Sean Kelly and landscape designer Anneke Swinehart, radio celebs Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, and gay couple Ed Wolf (featured in We Were There) and author-performer Kirk Read. $7.50-$15. 8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www.porchlightsf.com

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. This week, attorney Michael Fiumara and filmmaker Paul Festa. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Tue 18>> Cheryl Bentyne @ The Rrazz Room Original member of the The Manhattan Transfer performs with her trio in a Cole Porter tribute. $35-$40. 8pm. 2-drink min.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

L Laurie Anderson @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The pop art musician premieres her new work, Dirtday!, a look at politics, evolution, and animals. $22-$82. 8pm. Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Ransom & Mitchell @ Varnish Fine Art Smoke & Mirrors, the duo’s exhibit of unusual photo-paintings, portraits and short films. Tue-Sat 11am-6pm. Thru Oct. 27. 16 Jessie St. #C120. 433-4400. www.varnishfineart.com

Turtle Island Quartet @ Yoshi’s Two-time Grammy winning chamber jazz group performs with guest vocalist Tierney Sutton. $16-$20. 8pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

Wed 19>> Big Book Sale @ Fort Mason Center Friends of the Public Library’s annual massive used/overstock book sale, with bargains by the pound; everything $1-$3. (Members preview Sept 18). 10am-6pm. Thru Sept 23.

Festival Pavilion, Marina Blvd, at Buchanan.

626-7500. www.friendssfpl.org

Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes @ The Rrazz Room Veteran R&B group (“If You Don’t Know Me

by Now,” “The Love I Lost”) performs their classic hits. $30-$37.50. Thru Sept 23, various times. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala @ Davies Hall Violinist Joshua Bell is a special guest performer at the opening season gala, with music by Chausson, Berlioz, Ravel and others. Wine reception before; after-party with live music, dancing, drinks and food. Concert 8pm; $150-$295. Pre- and post-concert events $500 and up. 201 Van Ness Ave. 503-5500. www.sfsymphony.org

Thu 20>> Children's Hospital Benefit Concert @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Lady Antebellum headlines a concert benefit for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, with comic Dana Carvey, and other guests. MC Hammer DJs the after-party at City Hall. $250-$1000. 6:30 reception, 8pm concert.

99 Grove St. 476-6400. www.theconcertforucsfbch.com

Homo File, Fuck My Life @ CounterPulse Seth Eisen’s multi-layered performance exploration of gay rights author, scholar and tattoo artist Sam Steward; and Xandra Ibarra’s darkly comic study of Hollywood “Latina bombshells.” $20-$30. Thu-Sun 8pm. Thru Sept 30. 1310 Mission St at 9th.

626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Hungarian Rhapshody: Queen Live in Budapest @ Embarcadero Cinema Remastered concert film of the clasic rock band, and Freddie Mercury’s last filmed concert performance. $12. 7:30pm. Also Sept 23, 2pm & Sept 27, 7:30pm. 1 Embarcadero Center. 352-0835. Also at other theatres. www.queenonline.com www.landmarktheatres.com

Sat 15

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

Mark I. Chester @ Wicked Grounds

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

Opening reception and slideshow discussion with the veteran photographer of leather culture. 7pm slideshow/talk. Reception til 10pm. 289 8th St. Exhibit thru November. www.markichester.com www.wickedgrounds.com

For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

www.ebar.com

<< Society

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Night at the opera

by Donna Sachet

S

ebar.com

an Francisco Opera’s opening night lived up to its reputation as the dressiest, most festive event of the social season last Friday. We arrived on the arm of Richard Sablatura, elegantly attired in brand-new, crisply modern tails, availing ourselves of the valet parking provided by Ferrari/Masarati of San Francisco. On the steps of the War Memorial Opera House, we were greeted by General Director David Gockley and our generous sponsor Jon Finck, amidst the conspicuous arrivals of Dede Wilsey on the arm of New York’s Boaz Mazor, top assistant to Oscar de la Renta; Denise Hale in head-to-toe Gianfranco Ferre with Ken Fulk; Paul & House Minority Leader Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi; and newlyweds Jan & Maria Manetti Shrem. Once inside, a sea of black tuxes and tails joined richly colorful gowns in the ornate lobby accented with a huge vase of long-stemmed roses. We shared moments with Mayor Willie Brown & Sonya Molodetskaya, perhaps the most dramatically dressed of the evening; Wilkes Bashford & Jeanne Lawrence of New York; SF Chronicle’s Carolyne Zinko and Leah Garchik; Deepa Pakianathan; and beloved head usher Bill Repp.

As Opera Ball guests strolled into the adjoining tent for the Patrons’ Dinner, we visited the adjacent War Memorial Veterans Building’s Grand Foyer, which had been miraculously transformed with dramatic lighting, luxurious fabrics, and spacious seating. Here the Bravo! Club, a younger group of opera supporters, nibbled, sipped and mingled, less ostentatiously dressed, but equally enthusiastic about the night and this rich art-form. Back at the Opera House, we chatted in the press room with city Supervisor Scott Wiener, Austin Phillips, Sean Martinfield, David Latulippe, and Katherine Holland before settling in for the first act of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. During intermission, we caught up with more opera aficionados like Mark Rhoades, Riley Johndonnell,

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet attended the San Francisco Opera opening-night gala, last Friday night at the War Memorial Opera House.

Frank Stein & Paul S. May, Joseph Osborne & Bill Schoenleber, Ken McNeely & Inder Signh Dhillon, and Beth Townsend. After the second act, as we left the Opera House thinking we had seen more socialites than we would ever be able to recollect for this column, we ran into George & Charlotte Schultz, Alec Hughes & Gavin Hamilton, Vera Carpanetti and our personal selection as bestdressed of the evening, Komal Shah in sleek black, whimsically detailed with embroidery and feathers. The San Francisco social season has indeed begun!

From the elegant swirl of Civic Center, we wound down the night with a few choice friends at Martuni’s, where Skip Ziobron and his staff made us feel more than welcome, despite the overflowing crowd. If you haven’t popped into this classic piano bar lately, give it a try; you’re sure to enjoy a warm reception, generous cocktails, and surprising vocal talents.

Congratulations to Yigit Pura, winner of Bravo’s Top Chef, Just Desserts, on the successful opening of Tout Sweet Patisserie on the third floor of Macy’s Union Square. Last Wednesday’s official unveiling party revealed an inviting pink ambiance, tempting selections, and energetic service. This handsome and affable See page 27 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Sep. 13: Koktail Club Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Drink specials and Hamisi doing Hammy Time. 5-10 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Thu., Sep. 13: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse.

Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Thu., Sep. 13: First Hand: A Spanking and Paddling Playshop at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). 7:30 p.m. $15-$25 sliding scale. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Fri., Sep. 14: Leather Beer Bust at Kok Bar. All beer & well cocktails $3, Rolling Rock beer bust $5. 5–9 p.m.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com Fri., Sep. 14: Lick It! Anniversary Party at The Powerhouse. Dark, dirty, and fun! DJ Guy Ruben Spins.

10 p.m.-1 a.m. $5. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Sep. 14: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom).

10 p.m.–close. Live shower boys, drink specials!

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Fri., Sep. 14: Folsom Exposed! at Wicked Grounds Kinky Coffeehouse (289 8th St.) Opening night for retrospective of Mark I. Chester’s photos. 7-10 p.m.

Go to: www.markichester.com.

Sat., Sep. 15: Leather Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 5-9 p.m.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Sep. 15: Pansexual Event at the SF Citadel. $25.

8 p.m.-1 a.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sat., Sep. 15: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 9 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Sun., Sep. 16: Leather Walk 2012 Registration, 10 a.m. at 440 Castro. Walk at Noon after the raising of the Leather Flag on Market & Castro.

Go to: www.facebook.com/mamasleatherwalk.

Sun., Sep. 16: Jockstrap Beer Bust at Kok Bar. Wear

your jock! 3-7 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Sep. 16: Get Down and Dirty (Sprucing Up Your Friendly Neighborhood Dungeon) at the SF Citadel.

Help the Citadel get ready for Folsom! 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Sep. 16: Castro Bear presents Sunday Furry Sunday at 440 Castro. 4–10 p.m. Go to: www.the440.com.

Sun., Sep. 16: Baby Daddy at Kok Bar. 9 p.m.–close.

Drink & shot specials all night, no cover!

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Sep. 16: PoHo Sundays at The Powerhouse.

Dollar drafts all day! Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Mon., Sep. 17: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. 8–10 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., Sep. 18: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org/calendar/.

Tue., Sep. 18: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.–close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., Sep. 18: Body Punching with the legendary Mr. Dawson at the Mr. S Playspace (385A 8th St.) 7:30 p.m.

Go to Facebook.

Wed., Sep. 19: Opening night of the Carter-Johnson Leather Library Exhibition at the SF Center for Sex & Culture (1349 Mission), through 9/25.

Go to: www.leatheralliance.org.

Wed., Sep. 19: Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair at the SF Citadel. 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfldg.org.

Wed., Sep. 19: Underwear Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison), a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.– 12 a.m. Play til late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

Wed., Sep. 19: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse.

Strip down! Free clothes check. 10 p.m.–close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

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Karrnal >>

September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Butch deluxe

by John F. Karr

S

ome of my favorite guys are in a movie with a premise that promises lots of butch, and somehow I didn’t watch it for a couple of months. The movie is Colt’s Uniform Men, with, among others, King of the Whole Damn Crowd, Adam Killian, along with Nate Karlton, Samuel Colt, Shay Michaels, and a relative newcomer who’s growing on me, Bob Hager.

Also appearing are Spencer Reed and Marc Dylan. But of course, you knew that, since they’re in every movie made by every company.

Uniform Men was directed by Kristofer Weston. It has four regulation suck ’n’ fucks, and two oral-only scenes. Given the quality of the casting, they’re all enjoyable. Yet they’re uniformly not quite top-rank. There’s something formulaic about the encounters – the men perform with each other, instead of having sex with each other. That’s a fine distinction, I know.

Could it be the dress-up nature of the costuming? But I’m thankful there’s no plotting, none of those false situations that attempt to portray the performers as actual enlisted men. Could it be the tone set by the scene’s spoken lead-ins? Though mercifully brief, a mere sentence or two (“Gee, he looks so hot in his uniform, I want to get it on”), they’re such clichés that the performers sound like shills in an infomercial.

Actually, that’s what they are. The movie’s performers have reported to a photo shoot for the Colt 2013 Uniform Men Calendar. We’re spared all that photoshoot flurry of background activity, as well as the models becoming aroused and getting it on (“Gee, the lights are so hot, I think I’ll take off my clothes”), and most thankfully of all, The Photographer springing a boner and joining in. Said Photographer is not even a character in this movie, which maintains its straightforward concentration on its duos.

Leading off are Killian and Reed in a flip-flop scene. I can’t remember if Reed’s ever made it with Killian before. I’m sure for this outing, rather than being paid more to bottom, he paid to bottom for Killian. Wouldn’t you? He can’t respond to Killian on quite the level of engagement Killian’s known for, but he sure looks swell sluicing his fat cock into Killian’s ass.

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Colt Studio

Colt Studio’s Uniform Men cover man Adam Killian.

In return, Killian’s a prostate-pusher who plugs the cum right outta Reed.

It’s pretty damn good. In a subsequent scene featuring army fatigues, Reed is well-serviced by Sam Colt. This hunky dude probably has more juicy jpgs scattered across various tumblr sites than any other porn star, but he hasn’t been overexposed on film. So this is a nice visit, because he’s an ardent cocksucker, and he’s got Reed’s fat cock on which to ply his skills. Next up, Colt returns with burly Shay Michaels in tow. They’re très butch in their shiny black dress-leathers, in a swank way. And in today’s world of haute couture leather, those aren’t contradictory terms. Have you seen photos from IML? It’s the Royal Court, with an all-Emperor line-up.

Shay licks Sam’s boots, services his cock, and gets royally plowed, but unfortunately for my taste doesn’t sport his frequently seen cockring. A leatherman without a cockring? I’d throw him back. Or give him one of my own (although they’re usually too large).

Bob Hager and Scott Hunter are

costumed as firemen. Scott’s cute and butch, with heavy, uncut cock and furry crack framed in festive red jock. Bob (a Colt Exclusive) is dashing, with his dark-black beard and intense gaze. He fucks well, too, and plasters Scott’s face when it’s time for a facial. The scene lacks a certain spark, but Bob sure has moments of impressive fuck-force.

There are two black beards when the manly pair of Hager and Will Swagger trade blow jobs in an oralonly scene. The finale then delivers the movie’s only youngster, with robust Marc Dylan getting his ass blasted by my dream daddy, Nate Karlton. The guys are dressed as highway patrolmen. Karlton looks stern behind mirrored sunglasses, and in black leather gloves. His fine body hair is neatly clipped, not shaven, and his sturdy cock is as granite as ever (je t’adore the Karlton cock, not just for its fine shape and hardness, but for the way it’s so much a part of the rest of him; there’s a gestalt going on here that moves me).

Dylan’s his usual ebullient self, even during some play with a nightstick in his butt.▼ www.ColtStudioGroup.com

On the Town From page 26

dessert chef brings his years of experience at Le Cirque, Four Seasons, Daniel, and Taste Catering to his colorful downtown shop, well worth a stop while shopping or before the theatre. Among the first to line up were Meme Pederson, Charles Zukow, Elaine Russell Ahn-Robertson, David Petlin, John Downey, Jason Gosnell and Neil Giuliano.

Availability may be limited, but it is not too late to claim your seat for tonight’s Olivia Newton-John concert at the Golden Gate Theatre.

You are bound to run into friends, and will undoubtedly leave with an unforgettable tune in your head!

Political fundraisers will abound in the next several weeks, but of particular significance is next Fri., Sept.

21, when Bill Hemenger, Rebecca Prozan, and Geoff Murray welcome 20-year-old Zach Wahls to San Francisco at a private home in the Castro.

This candid, composed young man, raised by his two lesbian mothers in Iowa, spoke convincingly in favor of same-gender marriage before that state’s legislature. He has quickly become a vocal advocate against discrimination in the Boy Scouts and a strong ally of Pres. Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Last week, he

Steven Underhill

Fabled performer Lypsinka (John Epperson) presents The Passion of the Crawford at the Rrazz Room, through Sept. 16.

boldly spoke before thousands during the second night of the Democratic National Convention. Eyes and ears will certainly be glued to him here in San Francisco.

Finally, the infamous Folsom Street Fair and all its related events arrive next week. Complete de-

tails will appear in our colleague’s Leather column, but we encourage you to welcome the many visitors, wear your best leather/fetish ensemble, and proudly support this celebration of diversity, liberation, and community. Only in San Francisco.▼

www.ebar.com

<< TV

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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Pump up the volume

by Victoria A. Brownworth

O

kay, let’s not pretend that the signal TV event of the waning days of summer wasn’t the Democratic National Convention. We’re sure there were people watching fat, tiara-ed toddlers and overBotoxed housewives or re-runs of very good shows that they’d already seen the first time a few months back, or re-runs of shows they had missed the first time around. And of course there were some sports die-hards who couldn’t pass up the NBC football preview because the NY Giants and Dallas Cowboys are part of the national landscape (and who doesn’t love a tight end?) rather than watch former President Bill Clinton pump up the volume and do some real uniting (and unabashed Republican-bashing) at the DNC. But those people probably already know who they are voting for and why, or may just be suffering election season fatigue. That said, the DNC was a pretty great mini-series, especially in its non-prime-time periods. One of the reasons these conventions are still televised is because they debut the political stars of the future. We saw that at the DNC (and at the RNC, although we don’t swing that way). The convention presented some of the most exciting new faces of the Democratic Party and gave them big time on the small screen, and even for those of us who may have moved further to the left and into the Green or Progressive parties, it was powerful seeing these new faces.

We watched both conventions, although one was easier to watch than the other. (Guess which one?) We found a few of the RNC speeches interesting – mostly because they seemed so at odds with the party platform, like Marco Rubio and Condi Rice. But we found a lot of the DNC electrifying, and we expect to see some of these people as rising stars in the coming years. We’re talking to you, Sandra Fluke and Elizabeth Warren.

The two most compelling lines for us in both conventions were these: Rice saying that education too often depends on one’s zip code (she really was at the wrong convention), and Michelle Obama referencing queer Americans when she talked about the American Dream being for all, “no matter where you come from, or what you look like, or who you love.” Sure, it was mostly red meat for the confirmed carnivores of both parties, but just as with the Olympics, sometimes we really need to have a jingoistic moment.

As Obama spoke on the final night, the cameras panned and we saw two obviously gay male delegates leaning up against each other, and in another pan, an obvious lesbian with a rainbow pin on her vest. We know that the queer GOP group and the Log Cabin boys were at the RNC because we saw them on CNN and PBS, but they weren’t out there flaming in the stands because they couldn’t be. But when Obama mentioned “gays” in passing in his acceptance speech, the camera had queers to pan to, lesbians and gay men. Open and obvious.

Gabby Douglas, gymnastic queen of the Olympics, introduced the DNC Wednesday night with the Pledge of Allegiance while another Gabby, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, gave the pledge on Thursday night because the DNC was nothing if not multi-cultural.

Both moments were deeply emotional rather than merely political.

They were all about being able to

overcome obstacles.

The conventions were absolutely the most compelling shows in that interim place between the summer TV season ending and the new fall season beginning. If you missed them or chose not to watch, you really did miss something. We certainly remember writing in this very column after another DNC several years back that a speaker named Barack Obama could very well become the first black president.

“History in the making,” as our fourth grade nun used to say. Many of these faces will return come 2016.

And you will have wished you’d seen them, so make a point of checking out the main speakers on YouTube or CNN.com, especially the women and people of color from both conventions, because they are undoubtedly among the faces of the future and were the strongest voices at both conventions.

Blood sport Speaking of TV and the change in seasons, there are some shows you might have missed as they ended while others were beginning. If you missed the season finale of True Blood, one of the truly queer shows on cable, the good news is that in another month this season will be on DVD and available on Netflix.

True Blood continues to evolve as a series, and remains one of the best supernatural shows on the tube.

It has lust, power, sex, fabulouslooking stars of both sexes, lots of violence and a multi-layered and constantly evolving storyline that is incredibly compelling. In many respects, True Blood is a show about politics as blood sport – the battle between the parties in Bontemps surely parallels Washington, right down to the fangs and guts spilling and heads being torn off and, most of all, shapeshifting. If you don’t or haven’t watched True Blood, do.

And try watching it as political metaphor. That makes it all the better, in our opinion.

A few other summer shows we really loved and are sorry to see end were the trio of Gordon Ramsay shows on Fox. Fun as it was, Hotel Hell made us never want to travel again. (Never take one of those blacklights with you on vacation, you so do not want to know what bodily fluids you are walking on and sleeping on and bathing in.) MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen brought us some of the most extraordinary cooking competitions on the tube, and we just want to say for the record that we predicted here that lesbian chef Christina would be the finalist on Hell’s Kitchen.

We really like how Ramsay’s shows treat queers just like everyone else. There’s none of the forced closeting or forced showcasing that occurs on other competition shows.

(Yes, we’re talking to you, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest.) Christina revealed her lesbianism in an offhand manner, and when she ended up in the final four last week and the families were brought in to bolster the contestants’ morale, her kissing and telling her partner (a very soignee blonde) that she loved her and had missed her was presented the exact same way that another straight contestant’s male partner was.

In many respects this is how we normalize queer relationships for the rest of America: by presenting ourselves not as rarified and thus marginal creatures, but as regular people with regular lives. We’re just really happy we put our money on Christina. She was amazing. Also one of us, and not even remotely afraid to say so.

Also amazing was MasterChef’s

First lady Michelle Obama’s speech to the DNC enlivened the lavender tube.

Christine Ha, who is blind yet managed to cook and plate her way through the “home cook” contest against some extraordinary competition. Not only did she do everything her competition did, she did it blind. We admit, we love an inspirational story, and there are few as inspirational as Ha’s tale. Of course, leave it to the sneering French to put her in her place. During one of the final competitions, three Michelin star chefs were flown in from Paris to judge the final four. Ha is obviously blind – white cane, straightahead stare, needs someone to lead her around. So as the three were judging her food and presentation, which were always flawless, while she was out of the room, one judge asked Gordon Ramsay if she was blind, and he said yes. Another of the chefs, clearly unimpressed, responded, “Well, we always say that if you are a true chef, you should be able to cook with your eyes closed.”

Really? Try it.

In one episode, Ha was in a team competition and having to cook ears of corn on an open grill. They caught on fire, and Ha was humiliated, yet somehow managed to re-do the corn and not burn it the second time. So we’d like to see the French guy make the kind of dishes Ha made throughout the season and do them seemingly effortlessly despite not being able to see them.

We’re not sure he could do them sighted. Ha was amazing and inspirational and such a standard-bearer for other disabled people. Both these shows were just fabulous this season.

There have been some disappointments of late, however. We really thought all the attention to the new queer characters on The Bold & the Beautiful was going to herald a serious and ongoing queer storyline. Not so. Despite the fact that two stellar actresses, Crystal Chapell (who has played several other key lesbian soap roles) and Joanna Johnson (who is a lesbian in real life, married with kids), were cast in pivotal roles as Karen and Dani, related to one of the three major families in the soap, after their initial coming out storyline: nothing.

This is particularly annoying because the soap has gotten hideously bogged down in the endless, tedious love triangle of Hope, Steffy and Liam, three of the most boring and sexless 20somethings in soap history. We would like to see them become involved in a sister-wives marriage. That would be interesting. But regardless of that, we’d like to see Karen and Dani move from off-screen to at least back-burner.

And when they come back, no more of these chaste cheek kisses. Let’s see actual kissing, please. They’ve been together for years. They should kiss.

They know how.

Speaking of queers off-screen, whatever happened to Will Horton on Days? He came out, then became involved in a really creepy blackmailing scheme with EJ, his mother’s one-time illicit lover, and for a while it looked like Will and EJ might have an affair, which was, well, too veering into the pedophile lane. We’re not sure we even like Will now.

But Days is moving on with an anti-gay bullying storyline with the show’s other gay character, Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith). Not exactly a new idea, especially the way Days has laid it out: Tad, an old friend of Sonny’s, gets queer fear when he thinks Sonny is coming on to him. If this sounds like a storyline from several years ago on As the World Turns when Kevin, a school friend of Luke’s, thought Luke was coming on to him, then bullied him mercilessly and attacked him, then you remember correctly. It’s the same storyline, only the “kids” involved on Days aren’t kids, but adults.

We hope we don’t get flak for saying this, but is there no other storyline to have with gay characters other than bullying? This is one of the biggest problems with queer characters on TV: straight people discover an “issue” and run with it.

(And please, Days, after 40-some years without a gay character, don’t act like you’re breaking ground here. You’re actually the last soap to do this. The. Very. Last.) Seriously, unless you are a vampire or shapeshifter, you really don’t get to lead a real gay life on the tube. As we noted last column, as soon as gay men get onto the screen in a major storyline, they get sexually neutered.

And when they first come out, it’s all about bullying.

We’re not saying that bullying isn’t awful or that it doesn’t happen to queer kids. But it also happens to straight kids, and we’d like to see a few empowered gay kids (not that someone Sonny’s age is a kid) on the tube. We actually think that would help queer kids watching these shows a lot. Seeing queer kids who aren’t being bullied, but are standing up for themselves and sure of who they are and in charge of their own lives. Just saying.

Speaking of queer kids on the tube, we’re going to say it now.

Much as we love Glee, and how could we not?, if something doesn’t happen with that show to pull it together, we despair of there being another season after this one. And tossing the winners of the Glee Project into the mix? That never seems to go anywhere. The Leprechaun?

Really? This season it’s Blake Jenner, who at 20 will actually be one of the youngest members of the McKinley High crew. He’s cute and sexy, but then he’s from Miami and half-Cu-

ban. He’s primed for leading-man material. but paired with whom?

Hopefully, whatever the pairing, it will bring something dynamic to the mix.

Speaking of bringing something dynamic to the mix and queer shows, Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) is joining the cast of our guilty pleasure, Smash, this season. Not surprisingly, because this is something Hayes does Emmy-well, he will be playing a diva in the cast of this season’s new production. Hayes coming to Smash is apparently coincidental to his former W&G castmate Debra Messing being the star.

We always like to see gay actors on the small screen, whether they are playing gay or playing straight.

Hayes is also co-executive producer on one of NBC’s other best series, Grimm, which is one of the edgiest dramas on network. Grimm is having a spectacular second season. If you aren’t watching, why not?

Speaking of queers on NBC, Ellen just began her 10th season. The dyke doyenne of daytime ran a series of utterly hilarious promos for the show prior to the premiere of the new season, including one where she makes over Jennifer Aniston.

The promos have been so popular that NBC is actually running them on their website, and they are also available on YouTube. Ellen’s and Aniston’s deadpan humor are really worth a look. And who doesn’t love Ellen, anyway?

We’re not huge fans of Elton John, but we were ROFLAO when we happened to catch TMZ on Labor Day as they did a whole segment on Sir Elton and hubby David Furnish and their son Zachary on vacation in St. Tropez. Check it out, it will leave you howling. Imagine the rhyme scheme that goes with gay, vacay, St. Tropez, Labor Day and Chick-Fil-A. Oh yay!

Whenever we catch TMZ we are reminded of how amusing it is. So we watched another episode and caught a bit on Prince Philip showing “the crown jewels” as he sat in a kilt at some event. The guy is 91, cut him some slack. But there was a pretty funny bit about his Prince Albert. And whether or not he was wearing a codpiece. The moral of this story is, if you are going to wear a skirt and go commando, close your legs for the camera.

Speaking of closing one’s legs for the camera – no, we really don’t have anything that goes with that, alas, but we liked the segue. We also liked that on Sept. 5, within an hour of his latest outrageously sexist diatribe, a petition was presented to CNN requesting the firing of right-wing ideologue Erick Erickson. What prompted the demand?

Erickson tweeted that the DNC could better be called the Vagina Monologues. Surprised by subsequent outrage, Erickson apologized.

Sort of. We’re all for free speech, but we tend to agree with the Women’s Media Center, which generated the petition that Erickson’s sexism damages CNN’s brand. Damages it.

Take note, CNN. Finally, speaking of talk-show hosts, there are too many. Way too many. This week Katie Couric, Steve Harvey and Jeff Probst all debut their new shows, adding to the overload. How many talk shows can we watch? How many do we want to watch? How many of the same guests rotating from network to network do we want to see?

Now Oprah will be filling in for seriously ill Robin Roberts on GMA. And thanks to Roberts, who while still not coming out has brought so much attention to the health care divisions in this country related to race, gender and poverty. We say, watch Ellen and TMZ, but for everything else, you will have to surf and stay tuned.▼

▼

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September 13-19, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Music>>

Evidence of evanescence

by Tim Pfaff

A

lthough the childlike side of John Cage would surely have been delighted that major flanks of today’s musical and artistic worlds turned out to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday on Sept. 5, the great gay maker of sounds and silences might merely have been bemused.

Few artists of his stature in the last century showed less interest in legacy, which he might have seen as an illusion of permanence.

It’s useful that in addition to the literally hundreds of concerts and verbal tributes there comes an unprepossessing bit of documentary, Frank Scheffer’s nearly hour-long film, How To Get Out of the Cage: A Year with John Cage (EuroArts), fleshed out by five experimental films Scheffer made with Cage or, in the case of the longest of them, Ryoanji (2011), with Cage’s ideas and recorded music. The films are far more than bonus tracks; they’re hard evidence of work a huge portion of which was all too evanescent. “Chessfilmnoise” salutes the game Cage loved as the antidote to chance elsewhere in his art.

No one seriously questions that Cage, who died in 1992, and Merce Cunningham, his lifelong partner and most regular collaborator, who died in 2009, individually and together changed 20th-century art – beyond their fiefdoms of music and movement, respectively – profoundly and irrevocably. Since their art endures but is fundamentally not the same

<<

without their active presence in real time – and seldom have creators made time more real, demanded so little of it, and found so much in it – the documentary strands become all the more important.

Having met Cage in 1982, when he interviewed him “without knowing then how influential he actually was” (which, he adds, Cage “loved”), Scheffer worked with Cage as a filmmaker off and on from 1986 until Cage’s death. How To Get Out of the Cage is composed of onsite interviews Scheffer did with Cage throughout 1987. Not surprisingly, the tone of the film is adulatory to the point of worshipful.

Visually, Scheffer himself is a nonpresence, allowing Cage the talking head to expound at length and largely aphoristically, often quoting the aphorisms of others, particularly Marcel Duchamp. In one of his single most telling and penetrating lines, a soft-spoken Cage comments, “I am very impressed by the idea of Marcel Duchamp that a work of art is not completed by an artist but is completed by the listener – or the observer – so that it can change from one person to another.”

Few people in our time did more to teach us to listen, and then to hear, than did Cage. It’s no accident that the work still most strongly associated with him is “4’33”,” in which a pianist sits at the instrument for four minutes and 33 seconds without touching a key. It’s still “played” and as controversial as

Frank Scheffer

John Cage changed 20th-century art profoundly and irrevocably.

at its premiere 60 years ago.

In all the experimental films included on this DVD, Scheffer himself uses Cage’s main tool – the I Ching, which Cage used in a computer program – to “structure” the otherwise indeterminate content.

There are considerable benefits that he structures his own five-part film

along more conventional lines, since a very great deal about Cage and his work and working methods is revealed in those fleet 56 minutes.

Some of Cage’s best and most large-scale work is represented, peaking with excerpts from a performance of Roaratorio, an Irish circus based on James Joyce’s

Finnegans Wake (which an offstage Cage sagely declares the 20th century’s most advanced work of art), to which Cunningham’s dancers add exuberance and depth. But film doesn’t lie, and with respect to the last episode – Frankfurt’s Europeras I and II – neither did Cage.

Although all the individual elements, performed randomly and simultaneously, seem “operatic” in some generic way, the piece never achieves lift. It’s the way it struck me at what seemed an interminable performance in Berkeley years ago, and there’s a palpable sense of backing away from the piece in accounts of its full revival in Germany last week, as part of the Cage centennial celebrations. In his interview with Scheffer, Cage is forthright about it.

He says simply that, while he isn’t inclined to regret, he regretted saying yes to Frankfurt’s offer. You feel that downdrag in the piece.

Exuberance, it turns out, is not a necessary offspring of chance. One of the things you can’t help noticing is that, while Cage’s musicians are as devoted to the work as Cunningham’s dancers are – their attention is unflagging – they also look bored beyond comprehension a great deal of the time. So, too, the experimental films go from the mesmerizing to the brain-deadening. At its freest and most open, Cage’s music slapped a smile on your soul, but it also turns out that its emotional content was limited to whatever the listener brought to it.▼

Larry Kramer From page 17

it was a single-night event with, as Kramer says, “an all-star cast and a star-studded audience.”

Kramer himself didn’t know how an audience would react to his play all these years after its moment in a movement was over. “From the very first line in the play, which is, ‘I know something’s wrong,’ everybody was spellbound to the end,” Kramer said. “And literally the minute it was over, Daryl Roth, who is a very big Broadway producer, said, ‘I’m going to take this to Broadway.’

And she did.”

Joel Grey, who, in the 1985 production, had replaced Brad Davis in the role Kramer modeled on himself, called on George C. Wolfe to assist him in mounting the new Broadway production because of conflicts with Grey’s rehearsal schedule for the revival of Anything Goes. Wolfe, the original Broadway director of Angels in America, now receives solo directorial credit for the production opening at ACT and earlier presented in Washington, D.C. The producers had been hoping to mount a national tour, but Kramer acknowledged that had faltered.

“It’s very hard to tour a straight play – no pun intended – without a star.

It’s been hard to get bookings.”

But the long-aborning movie version of The Normal Heart is finally gaining steam after having been in Barbra Streisand’s hands for a while.

“A while? She had the rights for 12 fucking years,” Kramer exclaimed.

“She kept renewing the option, and it was a disappointing experience because I would have liked to work with her, and I would have liked if she had made it when she first optioned it, because it would have been out there doing its job.”

Ryan Murphy, creator of the TV shows Glee and Nip/Tuck, now owns the rights, and the cast will include Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Jim Parsons, and Alec Baldwin.

“Barbra couldn’t verbalize to me what bothered her about the script, and I’ve worked in the movie busi-

Courtesy Public Theater

Brad Davis (right, with D.W. Moffett) played AIDS activist Ned Weeks in the original Public Theater production of The Normal Heart.

Scott Suchman

Larry Kramer modeled the character of Ned Weeks (Patrick Breen, above, at ACT) on himself in his 1985 play The Normal Heart.

ness for many years so I understand that the screenwriter is at the service at his director,” said Kramer, who received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Women in Love.

“Ryan Murphy just has a million brilliant ideas a minute, and it’s really challenged me to go much further and deeper. If you think the play is strong, wait til you see the movie.”

Another long-aborning project nearing fruition is Kramer’s encyclopedic The American People: A History, which recounts the continent’s past by “putting gay people in from the beginning,” the author said. “I’m in the home stretch, and I’m trying to edit it down so [publisher] Farrar, Strauss doesn’t have to put it into two volumes, but technically there are only so many pages they can put in a binding.” Page count at the moment: 4,000.

Kramer, 77, is coming to SF for the Sept. 19 opening of The Normal

Heart (and will be onstage for a discussion before the Sept. 18 preview), and he said, health-wise, he feels just fine. Kramer learned he was HIVpositive in 1988 during a liver scan that showed damage from hepatitis B. A decade later, Kramer desperately needed a liver transplant, which had been routinely denied positive patients on the assumption they wouldn’t live long enough to warrant an organ of such scarce availability. “I had the transplant in 2001,” he said, “and that’s what saved my life.”

The health of other gay men remains a passionate cause for Kramer, who first riled the gay community in his pre-activist days with his 1978 novel Faggots. It looked at the emotional waste of frequent and meaningless sex, fueled by drink and drugs, that left him feeling like the odd man out in a place like Fire Island, where much of the novel is set.

When Kramer began promoting sexual caution, and even abstinence, until the manner in which the virus was transmitted was better understood, he was seen by many as carrying on his role as an anti-sex scold.

The safe-sex message obviously gained momentum in the years to follow, but now Kramer thinks it is being forgotten as sophisticated drug cocktails have lifted an inevitable death sentence.

“I get plenty of calls from doctors here in New York saying that I’ve got to go out on the stump again and makes speeches,” Kramer said, as his voice began lifting from a heretofore mellow tone. “It’s not complicated.

Everybody knows what causes AIDS. The cock is a lethal weapon, and you’ve got to protect it.”

That’s the kind of language Kramer was using when The Normal Heart was a new play, and if it continues to sound harsh, he doesn’t care. “You want to murder somebody? Go out and murder somebody. That’s what it comes down to.”

But in The Normal Heart, Kramer also wanted to acknowledge a gay society defined by more than any

specific sexual activity. “The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual,” says the Kramer-inspired character in the play.

During the recent Broadway revival, Kramer was happy that young gay audiences found their way to the production. “When they did come in and see it,” he said, “they were incredibly moved because so many of them were unaware of this history at all.”

When The Normal Heart began its initial run back in 1985, could Kramer conceive of the play still impacting audiences decades later? “No,” said Kramer, “because I thought I’d be dead by the time the play closed in New York. I’ve been very lucky, and anyone who is still alive from those years has been very lucky. But it’s not about luck anymore.”▼ The Normal Heart will run Sept. 13-Oct. 7 at ACT. Tickets are $20-$95. The OUT with ACT performance is on Sept. 26, which includes a post-show reception with the cast. Call 749-2228 or go to www.act-sf.org.

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30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 13-19, 2012

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hether you’ve been following The Black Keys from day one or are a newcomer to their music, there is something inspiring about watching a band hit its critical and commercial peak, especially since there is bound to be more to come.

Arriving on the heels of their wellreceived Brothers disc, El Camino (Nonesuch) crashes the shore on the soul-surfer vibe of opener “Lonely Boy.” It’s a Black Keys song where you can sing along, particularly on the infectious chorus. Things stay soulful, thanks in part to the female backing vocals provided by Ashley Wilcoxson, Leisa Hans and Heather Rigdon, on “Dead and Gone” and “Stop Stop.”

There’s even a touch of glam on “Gold on the Ceiling.”

Sophomore slump be damned! Chairlift, now a duo, returns with Something (Columbia/Kanine), and it’s something special. A 1980s new wave/dance influence powers Chairlift, but instead of recycling, they reformat and refresh for the 21st century. Beginning with the fancyfootwork inspiring rhythms of “Sidewalk Safari,” Chairlift lifts listeners to their feet. The dance dynamic continues on “I Belong in Your Arms” and “Amanaemonesia.” For pure 80s energy, dig “Take It Out on Me” and “Ghost Tonight,” which recalls underrated 80s twosome Eye to Eye. School of Seven Bells is also now a duo. Consisting of Benjamin Curtis (of Secret Machines renown) and Alejandra Deheza, the pair updates dream pop for the iTunes generation on their fittingly spooky third album Ghostory (Vagrant). Moody and misty, songs such as “Lafaye” and “Show Me Love” are like the soundtrack to your strangest dreams.

If you ever found yourself dancing in a dream, “Scavenger” and the pulsing “White Wind” could be the songs providing the beat.

Almost too beautiful for words, Aloha Moon (ILG/Bright Antenna), the title cut from the full-length debut by electro Nashville couple Magic Wands (Chris & Dexy Valentine), is a trippy tropical delight. The tune washes over the listener like warm waves kissing the coastline. The funky “Teenage Love” exposes Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” for the nightmare that it is. “Kaleidoscope Hearts” is modern disco to dance to and love, while “Warrior” turns the dance-floor into a booty-shaking battlefield.

UK mixed-gender duo Prinzhorn Dance School skirts the cursed soph-

omore slump with Clay Class (DFA).

This is one dance school that should come with knee and arm pads and a neck brace. because while minimalist but rhythmic songs such as “Happy in Bits,” “Your Fire Has Gone Out” and “Sing Orderly” promote dancing, they also encourage dancers to contort themselves in ways they might not be used to.

The shimmering Always the Light (Saint Marie) by Elika is a more chill electronic music experience.

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EDUARDO On the album’s most memorable tracks “Stay Beside Me,” “Count Your Steps” and “Trials,” vocalist Evagelia Maravelias is reminiscent, in a good way, of a less pinched and processed Madonna. Consider that a recommendation.

Clear across the musical spectrum, Alabama (!) duo Dead Fingers (husband and wife Taylor and Kate Taylor Hollingsworth) make their lively debut with their Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum full-length disc. Twangy Southern folk-pop at its most endearing, songs such as “Lost in Mississippi” and “Closet Full of Bones” sound familiar and comfy as a pair of well-worn overalls, even though they’re new compositions.

The eponymous Modern Outsider debut by California-transplant duo Soft Swells rides in on a wave of warm modern pop sunshine. You can practically feel the sunlight sparkling on the surface of the strangely optimistic “Every Little Thing” and “Shake It Off.” There’s also something engaging about “Make It Go Away” and “Decisions.” On the whole, this is the kind of promising debut that makes you look forward to what will come next.

Other dazzling duos include The Milk Carton Kids and their extremely beautiful album Prologue (Milk Carton); Little Hurricane, who blow in on a bluesy breeze on Homewrecker (littlehurricanmusic.com); Orcas’ nine experimental tunes on their self-titled Morr Music release; and hot lesbian duo Driftwood Fire, who burn through 11 tracks on How to Untangle a Heartache (driftwoodfire.com).▼

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