April 20, 2017 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 47 • No. 16 • April 20-26, 2017

Feinstein has rowdy SF town hall

Gay attorney, trans friend told to leave Paris eatery

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Rick Gerharter

Senator Dianne Feinstein, right, spoke at her first town hall Monday, joined by moderator Bevan Dufty.

F

or attorney David Waggoner, a former co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, last weekend was going to be fun and relaxing with his close Courtesy Facebook friend, Aimar Sahae.

Currently traveling Attorney David across Europe to- Waggoner gether, the pair went on Saturday to La Chope Des Puces, a popular bar and restaurant in Paris. Their visit ended with harsh words exchanged between Waggoner, Sahae, and restaurant management.

Waggoner, 42, is a queer-identified cisgender man. Sahae, who declined to give her age, is a queer transgender woman.

“The restaurant is a famous place for jazz guitar,” Waggoner told the Bay Area Reporter via email from Paris. “We both love jazz and it was highly recommended to us by a local.”

Waggoner said that he and Sahae had enjoyed the company of a French family they met while having food and drinks. They eventually moved toward the front of the restaurant to be closer to the music, which is when things took an ugly turn.

“We were enjoying the music and occasionally sharing a kiss every five or 10 minutes,” Waggoner recalled. “We were not passionately making out. A woman began to ask Aimar if she is a man or woman and asked her why we were kissing. She then pulled on Aimar’s hair to see if it was real – Aimar has long hair. Meanwhile, the man who was with her started shaking his head in disgust at us.

He then kicked Aimar’s chair.”

Waggoner admitted that he became irate at this point. He said that a staff member noticed the tension and asked Waggoner and Sahae to move to another table, which they refused to do.

“When I refused to move – as we had done nothing wrong and in fact were being harassed – the staff person told us to leave,” Waggoner said. “I was disgusted that the individuals who had assaulted Aimar were not asked to leave or move. Feeling thoroughly outraged, we left.”

Waggoner said that he cried afterward.

“Aimar had been getting stared at and misgendered almost everywhere we went so this experience was especially upsetting,” he said. “Also, because this is a very bohemian place in Paris, I was flabbergasted.

See page 10 >>

Feinstein has rowdy SF town hall

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Sisters take on ‘Trump’

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L Gooch

he Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence took on President Donald Trump during their Easter party in Golden Gate Park Sunday, April 16.

The Sisters conducted an excorism of a Trumpinspired character, portrayed by John Flaw of the

Thrillpeddlers, to the delight of the audience. The Sisters also held their popular Hunky Jesus contest, won by “Wet T-shirt Jesus,” and the Foxxy Mary contest, won by Mary and her dog, Joseph. For more photos, see Shining Stars in BARtab.

ongtime California Senator Dianne Feinstein addressed the dangers presented by leaders of North Korea and Syria, as well as President Donald Trump, Monday at a rowdy town hall in the city during which she was frequently criticized herself.

The event was the first of its kind for See page 10 >>

SF protest targets Chechnya

by David Nahmod

“If I’d been born 50 years earlier it would have been me wearing a group of about 50 LGBT pink triangle,” he said. activists gathered outside Mandelman talked about his the Russian Consulate in Jewish heritage.

San Francisco Tuesday, demand“As a Jew I’m quite used to having that the Chechen Republic ing mixed feelings about Russia,” end its abuse of gay people there. said Mandelman, who recalled Reports have surfaced of the that his own family was rescued Russian republic actively targetfrom the Nazis by Russians at the ing gay men, or those perceived end of World War II. to be gay. Human rights groups Longtime gay activist Cleve have reported that men have Jones, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Dembeen detained and that some ocratic Club Co-Chair Lou Fischhave been tortured. er, and gay former Assemblyman A Russian newspaper reported Tom Ammiano also attended. that three men have been killed.

Several speakers noted that Rick Gerharter Earlier Tuesday, gay San Franboth President Donald Trump cisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy in- Community College Board Trustee Alex Randolph spoke at a and Russian President Vladimir troduced – and the board unani- rally at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco denouncing the Putin had close business ties to mously passed – a resolution imprisonment and murder of gays in Chechnya. numerous large corporations. condemning Chechnya’s actions.

“I am frustrated by our inability “The actions taking place in to organize and fight back,” said in honor killings if gay men were in Chechnya.”

Chechnya are tragic and an affront to all of huOther LGBT officials on hand included City Jones. “It matters that we are a sanctuary city. manity,” Sheehy, who attended the protest, said College of San Francisco board members Rafael If those people can get out of Chechnya I want in a statement. “San Francisco continues to be them to come here.”

Mandelman, Tom Temprano, and Alex Rana beacon of hope by loudly denouncing this afRandolph said that no one emerged from the dolph, and gay former state Senator Mark Leno. front and standing as one with our LGBT brothconsulate while the protest was happening.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter ers and sisters.”

Meanwhile, the California Legislative LGBT Wednesday, Randolph said that what’s happenSheehy’s resolution stated that Chechen leader Caucus issued a statement Wednesday. ing in Chechnya is “very personal” to him.

Ramzan Kadyrov has “actively chosen to erase “We are deeply disturbed by the reports of Randolph said he explained to the crowd the existence of gay Chechens in public comabuse, kidnapping, and murder of LGBT people that as a black, queer, German who grew up in mentary by claiming they do not exist, and at the Germany and went to school there, the news See page 10 >> same time inferring families would murder them reports out of Chechnya affected him.

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Pacifica man held for trial in rape case

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

Pacifica man accused of drugging and raping more than a dozen other men has been ordered to stand trial.

If convicted, Joseph Paul Courtney, 32, who faces 59 felony counts, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The youngest victim described by Pacifica Police Detective Steve Stump during Courtney’s preliminary hearing Friday in San Mateo County Superior Court was an autistic 17-year-old who was 16 when he first met Courtney on the Grindr hook-up app.

The boy, known as John Doe 14, “presents as a 10-year-old,” Stump said. The boy reported that during an encounter in Courtney’s house, Courtney injected him with a substance that Stump described as heroin, and he also gave him GHB. The boy said he felt “high” and then “passed out,” Stump testified.

The boy said that he and Courtney were alone at first, but as he went in and out of consciousness, there were “many people” in the room talking. After about six hours, Courtney drove him home.

John Doe 14 reported that he was in “a tremendous amount of pain,” with “leakage from his anus, and lots of blood and semen,” which

Courtesy Pacifica Police Dept.

Joseph Paul Courtney

continued for two days, Stump said.

The boy said that Courtney had texted him that 25 people had been at Courtney’s home, and he called the boy “the lucky one.”

Stump testified that John Doe 3, 23, said that in September 2015 “several” people sexually assaulted him at Courtney’s home. The incident began with John Doe 3 having consensual sex with Courtney, who gave him GHB that he “consumed over a span of several hours.” He got sick and “lost consciousness” for about three hours.

t

When he woke up, he reported, his hands had been tied to the bed by neckties, “he was being sodomized” by someone he didn’t know, and Courtney was forcing his penis into his mouth. He was also vomiting.

Then, Courtney had sex with John Doe 3 as he was forced to perform oral sex on the other man, Stump said.

When the other man left the house, Courtney allegedly said, “That was the easiest $100 I ever made.”

Despite what had happened, the man stayed at the house, and soon after the incident, John Doe 3 and Courtney masturbated together, Stump said. The victim contacted police a few hours later.

Stump testified that the victim had said he had been awake when he was tied to the bed, and he’d engaged in consensual sex with Courtney before passing out.

John Doe 4, 23, reported that he saw people “possibly paying money” to Courtney “to engage in sex with John Doe 5,” who had been homeless before he moved into Courtney’s home, Stump said.

Courtney “frequently” gave John Doe 5 GHB, Stump said the man reported, and on one occasion, John See page 10 >>

Osbourne book charts path to self-acceptance

by Alex Madison

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o say Kelly Osbourne has had an interesting life is quite an understatement. Her complexity is not known or understood by many, but instead is often misconstrued from her early days as the misbehaved, rebellious teenager on the reality TV series, “The Osbournes,” or as the perceived partying, spoiled-brat daughter of infamous rock n’ roller, Ozzy Osbourne.

But after reading her new book, “There is no Fucking Secret – Letters from a Badass Bitch,” anyone can recognize her strength, authenticity, and pure heart. Osbourne will be in San Francisco next week for a book signing and meet-and-greet.

Reading the book, due out April 25, it’s hard not to imagine Osbourne’s distinct British accent, signature potty mouth, and chic lavender, punk hair style as her voice shines through the pages of the light, hilarious, and at times, devastatingly sad book. Written as letters to experiences and people in her life, Osbourne, 32, explores her most challenging times, her passion for standing up for marginalized communities, and her long-fought, but successful, battle to unapologetically be herself.

“I wanted people to see me for me and tell them who I am,” Osbourne said in a recent phone interview. “So many people try to tell me who I am, ‘you don’t know anything about my life.’”

Her inspiration to write the book came from people asking her, “What’s your secret?” as if this self-acceptance transformation happened in an instant, and all it took was some diet pills, a new dress, and some counseling. She wanted people to know that it hasn’t been easy and there is no secret.

“Accepting yourself and realizing you don’t have to be someone else is a long miserable road,” she said. “I’ve been through the sadness, self-loathing, self-hatred, the pain of seeing a loved one suffering, and being greatly misunderstood in the world.”

It took her almost four years to finish the book, a journey she described

Kelly Osbourne

as, “a roller coaster.” Easily understood as she talks about moments like seeing her dad flatline after an ATV accident just months after her mom, Sharon Osbourne, was diagnosed with stage-three colon cancer, her body-image insecurities, self-hatred, and addiction to painkillers. She also chronicles some of her most rewarding experiences like placing third on “Dancing with the Stars,” her beloved friends like the late Joan Rivers, and her transformation into a careerdriven, style icon who accepts herself, “wobbly bits” and all.

For Osbourne, a longtime LGBTQ ally and friend, sharing this message is a part of her recognition that she is not alone in the battle to break out of being someone society tells you that you should be.

LGBTQ member and major Osbourne fan Na’amen Tilahun, 29, who will be attending the book signing, said Osbourne is an important voice for him and the queer community.

“I think to a large degree a lot of queer and people of color don’t get to see themselves in the media,” he said.

“Having advocates who aren’t necessarily a part of the community, but are a voice for us, is important because they can reach people who would maybe not hear the message otherwise.”

Tilahun said he appreciated that Osbourne goes against the grain and molds her own path and own identity in a society that tells you how to look, act, and feel. She is a role model for him.

Growing up, Osbourne said her time hanging out with drag queens and LGBTQ friends had a significant impact on her and ignited the beginning stage of her journey to self-acceptance.

“Drag queens, the trans and LGB community choose to be themselves, knowing a lot of people will question it in a mean way,” she said. “They choose to show the world who they really are. I have taken on and applied that to my life.”

Osbourne continues to be an activist and has participated in many campaigns to end discrimination. She calls her friends in the community “some of the bravest people I know,” and said, “I’m a big activist for anyone fighting to be who they are.”

Now living in Los Angeles, Osbourne spends time with her family and friends and said her biggest joy is accomplishing things people tell her she can’t.

“You never know what life will bring next,” she said.

The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, will host Osbourne Friday, April 28 and organizers said it’s a bit of a blast from the past. Amy Stephenson, events director for the store, talked about Ozzy Osbourne’s wild visit in 2011 and said Kelly Osbourne’s book defines what it means to be a young goddess woman and The Booksmith is all about that.

The book signing and meet-andgreet begin at 5:30 p.m. in the back of the store. The event is free, but to guarantee a signature from Osbourne and to meet her, a copy of her book must be purchased at The Booksmith. For more information, call the store at (415) 863-8688 or visit http:// www.booksmith.com. t

1985

Help Reduce Isolation in Your Community Give back as a one-on-one Shanti volunteer for our newest program!

2015

Shanti’s LGBT Aging & Abilities Support Network(LAASN) Supporting LGBT Seniors and Adults with Disabilities

1995

2001

Since 1974, Shanti has trained 20,000 Bay Area volunteers to offer emotional and practical support to some of our most vulnerable neighbors, including those with HIV/AIDS, women’s cancers, and other life-threatening diseases. We are now excited to announce that our services are being offered to LGBT aging adults and adults with disabilities who face isolation and need greater social support and connection.

Shanti LAASN peer support volunteers: 2009

1. Go through the internationally-recognized training on the Shanti Model of Peer Support TM 2. Make a commitment of 2-4 hours a week for a minimum of 6 months

1987

3. Get matched with one client, for whom they serve as a non-judgmental source of emotional support and reliable practical help 4. Have one of the most rewarding volunteer experiences of their lives!

2009

To learn more about how you can be a Shanti volunteer, please contact Volunteer Services Coordinator, Kayla Smyth at 415-674-4708 or email: ksmyth@shanti.org.

If you think you or someone you know could benefit by being a Shanti client, or to learn more about the services, please contact Joanne Kipnis at 415-625-5214 or email: jkipnis@shanti.org

1988

2010

The LGBT Aging & Abilities Support Network is made possible by funding from the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Aging and Adults Services.

2006

2001

Embracing Compassion.

Care, and Community Since 1974

<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Volume 47, Number 16 April 20-26, 2017 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Michael Nugent • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr •Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

California dreaming W

e were initially skeptical when we heard about gay state Senator Ricardo Lara’s (D-Bell Gardens) legislation that proposes moving California’s presidential primary from June to the third Tuesday in March. While we support the goal – increasing the state’s influence in presidential election years – we weren’t entirely sold on the plan.

After all, California has flirted with early presidential primaries before, and they didn’t seem to have much of an effect. Voters confused the presidential primary in March with the regular primary election in June. This did not increase the state’s role in presidential elections, except as the all-important ATM for campaign cash.

But after examining Lara’s legislation, which passed a Senate panel Tuesday, we now support it.

For one thing, Senate Bill 568 would also move up primary elections in statewide and legislative races in presidential years, eliminating potential voter confusion over multiple election dates, according to a news release from Lara’s office. “An earlier presidential primary in 2020 will help engage new voters from the top of the ticket down to state legislative races,” Lara’s release stated.

“California is the largest, most diverse state in the nation with one of the largest economies in the world,” Lara stated. “Yet Californians’ voices are silenced when it comes to choosing presidential nominees. California is leading the nation on clean air, criminal justice reform, and expanding health care for all, and moving up our presidential primary will ensure our state’s voters are heard in the national debate.”

Another change in Lara’s bill would give the governor authority to move the presidential primary even earlier if other states move up their primary elections.

That, too, would help keep the state relevant.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who supports Lara’s proposal, said the Golden State “should not be an afterthought” in presidential politics.

“Moving up the California primary in 2020 makes sense and will give California voters a more

significant role,” Padilla said in a statement.

There are 19.4 million registered voters in the state and we deserve a greater voice in presidential races in proportion to our numbers. Electoral College and U.S. Senate membership rules disadvantage large states like California and benefit smaller states.

Giving Golden State voters more sway in presidential primaries is a worthwhile goal, and Lara’s SB 568 aims to improve on earlier attempts. The Legislature should pass it, and Governor Jerry Brown should sign it.

Calexit fizzles

The flawed plan for California to secede from the United States died a quiet death this week when the backers of what had been known as Calexit asked the state to withdraw the ballot measure from signature gathering.

That’s good news for state residents, who were being asked to weigh in on an incomplete plan hatched by a man who lives in Russia. In fact, according to media reports, the main reason Louis Marinelli pulled the plug on Calexit was that he plans to remain in Russia.

About one out of three Californians supported secession, according to a January Reuters/Ipsos poll, but constitutional law experts said it was going to be all but impossible for the Golden State to leave the union.

Frankly, we’re glad that the Yes California campaign, as the secessionist movement was officially known, has ended its efforts. Marinelli, according to press reports, has a spotty

T

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record and, from our perspective, was dangerous. At one time he campaigned against LGBT rights in the U.S. with the homophobic National Organization for Marriage.

But it was his ties to Russia that ultimately did in Calexit. Since he first announced his plan shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency, more evidence has come to light about Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election, as has news about administration officials’ ties to the country. Today, Trump continues to try and distract public attention away from what is a growing problem: the involvement by current officials with Russian leaders, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Trump family members Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign over his association with the Russian government. There are plenty of former Trump campaign operatives who also have had dealings with the Kremlin, as documented by news organizations, a potential source for conflicts of interest.

The more Californians heard about Marinelli and Russia, the more uncomfortable they became with the Yes California campaign.

Other secession movements may surface, and when they do, Californians should carefully examine the proponents and their financial contributors to determine whether outside forces are involved, and, if they are, how they would benefit from California leaving the U.S. The fact is, however, that the Golden State will remain part of the United States. There’s no way Congress would approve secession, and little chance the other states would go along with such a plan.

Pipedreams like Calexit exist to confuse people and to give a small voice to fringe movements. Californians saw through Marinelli’s flawed plan and his Russian connections.

Residents concerned about how the Trump administration will negatively affect California have lots of ways to get involved.

State and local officials are challenging Trump in court while developing ways for the state and cities to continue providing services in the event that federal funds are cut.

Calexit’s death is welcome news. t

Trump budget plan endangers many

by Ro Khanna

Bay Area Reporter

t

hroughout the state of California, more than 217,000 seniors are served by a local Meals on Wheels program. These meals improve the quality of life and preserve the dignity of our most vulnerable older residents by allowing them to stay independent and healthy. The availability of nutrition and social services is particularly important for older LGBT adults, who are more likely to live in poverty than their non-LGBT peers.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to see first-hand how Meals on Wheels is helping residents in the Tri-City area. More than 2,200 meals are served daily in Alameda County alone. In addition to helping seniors, the Meals on Wheels program saves taxpayer dollars by lowering hospitalization rates among those who rely on the service.

However, Meals on Wheels and other critical government programs are facing potentially devastating budget cuts under the Trump administration’s federal budget plan.

Investments in the safety net, public education, research and development, the creative industries, and environmental protections support a vibrant and secure economy. Yet, the White House proposes to ignore American values of compassion and social justice by initiating massive cuts to programs that help millions of Americans and communities across the country.

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal shifts an even greater burden on the shoulders

Congressman Ro Khanna

of working families and individuals and reverses the progress of the past eight years. The American people have a right to be concerned.

The White House wants to slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency and endanger the health of millions of Americans. At the same time, California faces a loss of $310 million in EPA grants that would cripple our state’s ability to protect the public health of residents and preserve core environmental programs.

Proposed budget cuts would make California families less financially secure and

limit job growth by restricting access to employment services and economic development grants. At a time when the cost of living and access to affordable housing is a concern for many, the White House budget would exacerbate substandard living conditions for our most vulnerable families and individuals.

Additionally, National Institutes of Health grants funding medical research leading to treatments and cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS are facing a $6 billion cut. Family planning services could be eliminated entirely.

As a member of Congress who vows to put people’s needs first, I will reject these cuts, and instead fight for a budget that encourages innovation, rewards community, and protects the most vulnerable among us.

The strength of our nation is more than just our military might.

Former presidential candidate Hubert H. Humphrey said, “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.” As good neighbors and Americans, we must stand up for those who need our help the most.

Our strength is when we invest in education, the environment, jobs, and our health.

Our strength is when we value equality over division. Our strength is when we seek progress for the country. t Congressman Ro Khanna (D) represents the 17th Congressional District of California in Silicon Valley. He is a member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and its Transgender Equality Task Force.

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Letters >>

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Gay sensibility at Tax March

The best sign with a gay sensibility that I saw at the Saturday, April 15 Resistance Tax March, protesting the first president not to release his own tax returns, said: “I show you mine every year. Show me yours just this once!”

Charlie Spiegel, Esq. San Francisco

Not surprised at Chechnya

I came to America from the former Soviet Union, so I am not surprised about what is going on in today’s Russia at all. If the Russian president is a killer, what are you going to expect from the butcher, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the best friend of

Vladimir Putin? Being a student of university I was just one time in Uzbekistan, where there were underground prisons to torture people, including gays. And when it was published in the newspaper, the answer from Uzbekistan was: This is what Islam is about.

So, I hope that this horrific news will not stop in Chechnya or even in Russia, but will go around the world to remember: it doesn’t matter who you are, what is your name, your religion, race, education, social establishment, and where are you from, your life matters, today, tomorrow, forever.

Georgy Prodorov San Francisco

EQCA to grade CA public schools on LGBT policies

by Matthew S. Bajko

needed to make a statement that we don’t believe anything Trump is saying,” said Pearl Hunt. “I wanted our LGBT students to know that we support you and we support your choices 100 percent.”

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statewide LGBT advocacy group will grade all of California’s 343 unified school districts on their LGBT policies.

The statewide schools scorecard

by Equality California would be the first of its kind in the country. It will examine everything from if the districts are teaching LGBT curriculum and have LGBT supportive student groups to if they have gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender students and allow same-sex couples to attend proms and other school functions.

“We will be hitting districts across the state, both urban, rural, and suburban districts,” said EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur.

Officially known as the Safe and Supportive Schools Index, it is modeled after the Municipal Equality Index created by the Human Rights Campaign, the national LGBT rights group, that annually scores cities across the country on how they are protecting their LGBT citizens.

Over the years California lawmakers have enacted a whole host of pro-LGBT schools legislation.

EQCA sees its scorecard as a way to ensure the school districts have implemented the laws.

“It is both a way to understand what is occurring in various school districts and a way of giving the community transparency so individual parents and students can go to their school principal to advocate for changes in their schools as well as to the school board and district superintendent,” said Zbur.

EQCA decided to start with just scoring public schools and only those districts that are unified, meaning they teach kindergarten through high school. It could add private schools in the future as well as smaller public school districts that only have elementary or high schools.

The unified districts should receive the more than 12-page scorecard this fall. They will be asked to fill it out and return it to EQCA, which plans to release the scores in early 2018.

EQCA has been working to develop the scorecard criteria over the last year and will conduct a trial run with a couple of school districts this summer in order to test it out.

“It is a pretty detailed metric,” said Zbur.

The law firm Latham and Watkins LLP, which has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, has assigned six of its employees to work on the schools scorecard.

According to EQCA, the firm has provided more than $25 million in pro bono help to date.

EQCA has reached out to HRC leaders for advice and has been coordinating with Equality Florida on the schools index. The LGBT rights group is looking to score school districts in

Milk SFO terminal takes off

Equality California is working on a project to grade the state’s unified school districts.

the Sunshine State but is not as far along as EQCA is, Zbur said.

Two advisory committees, one in the Bay Area and one in Los Angeles, have provided input to EQCA on the scorecard’s development, as have school district leaders in both regions. EQCA has also consulted with teachers union officials and the office of California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on the creation of the index.

It has asked Torlakson to pen a letter encouraging the school districts to fill out the scorecard. Torlakson’s office did not respond to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment by deadline Wednesday.

Eric Heins, a gay man who is president of the California Teachers Association, could not be reached for comment.

Noelani Pearl Hunt, a straight ally on the Santa Clara Unified School District board, told the B.A.R. she plans to make sure her district fills out the scorecard.

“I hope Santa Clara scores an A-plus,” said Pearl Hunt. “I have been diligent, and we as a district have been diligent, to make sure every LGBT student feels safe.”

Two years ago Pearl Hunt pushed through a policy change to ensure LGBT slurs were covered under the district’s sexual harassment policy. At the school board’s meeting Thursday (April 20), Pearl Hunt expects the board to approve her resolution reaffirming the district’s commitment to providing a safe learning environment for LGBT students.

It also commits the district, which last year created a director of wellness position, to ensuring that all of its child welfare personnel, including counselors, case managers, and crisis support team members, have the training they need to support LGBTQ students and their parents/guardians.

The resolution is a response to the Trump administration’s recent rollback of federal protections for transgender students, in particular on their right to access bathrooms and other school facilities that correspond with their preferred gender, explained Pearl Hunt.

“I decided that, as a board, we

Thursday morning the Airport Facilities Naming Advisory Committee will host its first meeting to select which terminal at San Francisco International Airport should be named after gay icon Harvey Milk, as the B.A.R. first reported on its blog Monday.

The panel has sat dormant since it was approved in 2013 because of Mayor Ed Lee’s snail’s pace in naming his five appointees to the nineperson body. Now that he has selected the quintet, and the Board of Supervisors replaced one of its four representatives earlier this month, the committee can get to work.

It arose out of a compromise that Lee and gay former Supervisor David Campos struck after Campos’ initial idea to rename all of SFO after Milk, the city’s first out elected official who was assassinated in 1978 a year after winning a supervisor seat, failed to take off. The naming committee is tasked with recommending to the board and mayor which of SFO’s four terminals should bear Milk’s name.

It could also decide to forward names for the other three terminals, the most prominent being the international terminal at the entrance of the airport.

Due to the reports of gay men being rounded up in the Russian republic of Chechnya, Campos told the B.A.R. this week that the international terminal should bear Milk’s name.

“Given what is happening with Chechnya and in other countries, the international terminal becomes more significant and more appropriate,” he said. “It is the first thing people who travel from all over the world see when they come into San Francisco.”

Depending on how fast the committee works, there is a chance the naming of the Milk terminal could be approved in time for this year’s Harvey Milk Day, which will take place on Monday, May 22, which is Milk’s birthday.t

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Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on a lesbian Alameda judge’s admonishment and a gay GOPer’s record FPPC fine.

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

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Web series aims to educate on PrEP

by Yael Chanoff

T

he rallying cry, “Always use a condom!” has been the basis of HIV prevention videos for years.

In one well-known 1987 ad that uses the slogan, the grim reaper goes bowling with people as pins.

A 2011 public service announcement illustrates the same plea with close-ups of diseased anuses. These ads are part of a tradition of talking about HIV using fear and shame.

But a new web series looks to do the former while chucking the latter out the door.

That series, called the “PrEP Project,” premieres May 16. Part of the goal is to spread the word about PrEP, a once-a-day pill that studies show is over 99 percent effective in preventing HIV. It also sets out to break down stigmas about sex and HIV. The project “presents the information in a nonjudgmental way. It’s OK to be doing what you’re doing.

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It’s OK to be having as much sex as you want. There’s a big culture of fear surrounding HIV. Our goal is to move the conversation away from fear tactics,” said the series creator, San Francisco filmmaker Chris Tipton-King.

The series features Eric Paul Leue, Mr. LA Leather and a sex educator for kink.com. With Leue as a guide, the series explores sex, love, body autonomy, and PrEP. Actors play out the scenes Leue describes in vivid, often hilarious detail. The series starts with Leue describing why he doesn’t like condoms.

“Medical establishment organizations can’t admit that people don’t want to use condoms, so they tiptoe around the issue,” Tipton-King said.

He wanted the “PrEP Project” to “just admit and accept that straight out the gate.”

“It’s what I can do as an independent filmmaker,” Tipton-King said.

Eliciana Nascimento

Filmmaker Chris Tipton-King

Tipton-King has a Kickstarter page for the project that’s so far raised just over $10,000 of the $15,000 goal with about 10 days to go.

t

Less than 17 percent of men who have sex with men use condoms every time, according to a 2016 study from the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Study Group.

“The number one thing everyone is telling you to do to prevent HIV, a lot of people aren’t doing it. There have to be other options on the table,” Tipton-King said. “If you’re targeting a campaign at people who don’t want to use condoms, which is more than half the population, they need to see themselves in it.”

Casting was one of the biggest challenges in the filmmaking process.

“We needed guys who were willing to be in gay sex scenes with the intention of it being blasted in every social media channel possible,” he said. “Casting was really hard.”

And when he held auditions, See page 10 >>

Presidio to host its first LGBTQ family camp compiled by Cynthia Laird

I

n May, the Rob Hill Campground in the Presidio will welcome LGBTQ families for the first-ever Queer Family Camp.

The weekend is the result of a partnership between Queer Camp, which brings LGBT adults together for group camping trips, and the Crissy Field Center, which connects youth and their families with the Bay Area’s natural spaces. The nonprofit center is a joint project between the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the Presidio Trust.

“Our national parks belong to everyone including queer families and the greater LGBTQ community,” stated Charity Maybury, deputy director of the Crissy Field Center.

“Partnering with Queer Camp staff provides a wonderful opportunity to welcome LGBTQ families to our parks, provide them high quality outdoor experiences, ensure they know about all of the resources the park has to offer their families, and to learn from our participants about how we can support their continued engagement in Golden Gate National Recreation Area.”

Oakland resident Rose “Slam” Johnson, who founded Queer Camp in 2009, said people should

Claire Woods

Queer Camp participants sit under a parachute in 2013.

expect “a beautiful camping trip in the Presidio, a really communityfocused vibe, love and warmth, playing games, and the opportunity to delight in each other’s company.”

The collaboration between the two groups came about, said Johnson, because an attendee of past adult Queer Camp trips happens to work at the Crissy Field Center. They brought the two entities together to collaborate on offering programs to the LGBTQ community.

In a statement to the Bay Area Reporter, Maybury explained that the center’s mission is to

reach new audiences that the national parks haven’t engaged with before and to form new partnerships. The conversations the center’s staff has had with Queer Camp leaders resulted in the idea to host the Queer Family Camp at Rob Hill Campground, which is the only camping site in San Francisco.

“There is a vibrant history of LGBTQ people using parks and the wish to create a space for non-normative families to explore and enjoy the outdoors,” stated Maybury. “We wanted to expand our efforts in reaching the community by combining the Crissy Field Center’s resources, experiential education program, and access to this Rob Hill Campground, with the culture and community available through Queer Camp.”

The substance-free weekend will take place May 19-21 and feature workshops, all-camp games, a variety show, and campfire. Costumes are also highly encouraged.

All meals (chefprepared, sustainable, dietary-need inclusive) and gear (tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag) are provided in the cost of the ticket.

See page 9 >>

t

Obituaries>>

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

YBCA board chair Paul Connolly dies

by Michael Nugent

P

aul Matthew Connolly, a gay San Franciscan who was board chair for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, died March 29. He was 54.

According to family members, Mr. Connolly passed away after a brief illness.

“Sharing a life with Paul is a bit like landing in Oz, where suddenly everything is in color,” said his partner, Chas Nol. “His incessant desire to explore boundaries broadened my horizons beyond my dreams.”

Mr. Connolly was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 1, 1962. A Harvard University graduate, he also received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. As the director of philanthropic advisory services at Bessemer Trust, he was a national leader in nonprofit management and philanthropy.

Stuart Gaffney

Paul Connolly

He authored two books on nonprofit organizational development: “Navigating the Organizational Lifecycle: A Capacity-Building

Guide for Nonprofit Leaders” and “Strengthening Nonprofit Performance: A Funder’s Guide to Capacity Building.” A frequent speaker and author on effective philanthropy, he published articles in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Foundation Review and was quoted in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, according to Northern California Grantmakers.

Mr. Connolly also served as board chair for YBCA. His boundless energy, deep commitment, and extensive knowledge propelled YBCA’s pursuit of new models for contemporary art centers in the context of their communities, according to a news release. Mr. Connolly was also a director of the Nathaniel Wharton Foundation; a member of the San Francisco Advisory Committee of the Foundation Center; an advisory committee member for the

Headlands Center for the Arts; and a member of the program committee for Horizons Foundation.

“As our board chair, Paul worked tirelessly to build a culture of engagement and to help evolve the organization to new levels,” said Deborah Cullinan, YBCA chief executive officer, according to a release. “He was a hands-on, extremely dedicated, and thoughtful partner. He showed up to every project, every meeting, and every event with joy and passion.

“Paul brought a remarkable depth of understanding of philanthropy and organizational development, and he shared his time, his expertise, and his resources with extraordinary generosity,” added Cullinan.

Mr. Connolly was a prolific artist with a large body of work in ceramics. His creations incorporated seashells, ancient Indonesian beads,

and abstract porcelain forms. He was also active in gay men’s spiritual communities, including Gay Buddhist Fellowship, particularly the annual retreat; the Billys; and Radical Faeries. Mr. Connolly also explored his expanding spirituality through guided shamanic ceremonies and Reiki. An adventurer at heart, he loved nothing more than a two-hour hike in the Marin Headlands, friends said.

In addition to Nol, Mr. Connolly is survived by brothers Jerry, Brian, and Mark Connolly; and seven nieces and nephews.

A public memorial service will be held Sunday, April 23, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the YBCA Forum, 701 Mission Street.

Donations in his memory can be made to Horizons Foundation, YBCA, and Headlands Center for the Arts.

For more information, go to www.paulmconnolly.org. t

Pioneering HIV researcher Mark Wainberg dies

by Liz Highleyman

M

ark Wainberg, Ph.D., a highly regarded clinician and researcher who helped advance HIV therapy and advocated for access to treatment worldwide, died April 11 in a swimming accident in Florida. He was 71.

Mr. Wainberg was a professor at McGill University in Montreal, an investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital, and founding director of the McGill University AIDS Centre. He was a past president of the Canadian AIDS Society and of the International AIDS Society from 1998 to 2000.

“We have lost one of our fiercest champions,” IAS President LindaGail Bekker said in a statement.

“To those of us in the research community, he was the epitome of dedication from the earliest days of the response. The impact of his work both through and beyond his role with the IAS will live on through the millions of people accessing HIV treatment and those of us who were lucky enough to know him.”

In the late 1980s Mr. Wainberg was part of the team that determined that the drug lamivudine or

HIV researcher Mark Wainberg, Ph.D.

3TC (Epivir) worked against HIV. It was one of the first effective antiretrovirals and is the only early drug that remains widely used today thanks to its minimal side effects. More recently he was also known for his work on HIV drug resistance and HIV cure research.

In addition, Mr. Wainberg was committed to ensuring that HIVpositive people worldwide would have access to effective antiretroviral therapy. He also worked to reduce stigma against and

Obituaries >> Arthur Patrick Hamilton May 15, 1950 – November 21, 2016

Arthur P. Hamilton, the youngest of five children, was born in Traverse City, Michigan on May 15, 1950 to Dr. Earl and Virginia Hamilton. Arthur graduated from Interlochen High School, the prestigious music school near Traverse City. Arthur was married for about 25 years to Christa Edwards. During his marriage he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. Arthur was especially proud of the music school that he and Christa founded in California.

Arthur was a man of many talents.

He was a musician, concert pianist, healer, massage therapist, trigger point specialist, master painter, and much more. He will be remembered for the pure joy that he shared with others and his radiant light! Every day of his life, Arthur accepted

people for who they were, shared his stories and wisdom, and brightened the lives of everyone he met. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2016. Arthur courageously fought the cancer for several months; then peacefully surrendered to God’s divine plan on November 21, 2016.

Arthur is survived by his siblings: Jo Merilyn Wooters (Pete); Carolyn Mewhorter (Terry); Earl and Sandra Lee (Hans Kristian); and many, many dear friends. He is preceded in death by his parents and sister-inlaw, Suzy Hamilton.

Please join Arthur’s family and friends for a gathering at the DugganWelch Funeral Home Saturday, May 20, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A celebration of life ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. A special Sound Healing Ceremony will take place Sunday, May 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Globe Institute of Sound Healing, 351 Ninth Street, Suite 202, San Francisco.

All donations will be used to pay for funeral expenses and buy musical instruments for the local hospitals that honored and cared for Arthur – El Camino Hospital and UCSF. Contributions may be made to Mary Lawson, 1826 Oak Squire Lane, Howell, Michigan 48855.

criminalization of people living with HIV. “Mark is probably best known as a co-discoverer of 3TC, an early, but still very important, HIV drug,” Dr. Paul Volberding, director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, told the Bay Area Reporter. “But he was also very committed to the overall international effort to control the epidemic. He was a persistent optimist and a friend to so many.”

Mr. Wainberg played a key role in bringing the XIII International AIDS Conference to Durban in 2000 – the first time the conference was held in a developing country – putting the spotlight

on AIDS denialism and lack of availability of HIV treatment in South Africa. When the conference returned to Durban in July 2016, South Africa had the largest antiretroviral therapy program in the world, treating more than 3 million people.

Mr. Wainberg was born in 1945 in Montreal, where he lived most of his life. He received his bachelor’s degree from McGill University in 1966 and his doctorate from Columbia University in New York City in 1972.

Mr. Wainberg died while swimming in rough seas near Bal Harbor, Florida. His son and others pulled him to shore and paramedics attempted resuscitation,

but he was pronounced dead at the hospital. The Miami-Dade County medical examiner said he apparently died from an asthma attack. A funeral was held April 14 in Montreal.

Mr. Wainberg is survived by his wife, Susan; sons Zev and Jonathan; three grandchildren; and his brother, Lawrence.

“Mark Wainberg was a giant in HIV science. His work contributed to saving millions of lives,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe. “UNAIDS and the millions of people living with HIV will mourn Mark Wainberg’s passing and celebrate the huge contribution to the response to HIV he made in his life.” t

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t Actor takes on mental health

8 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

THIS IS THE

by Belo Cipriani

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n 1986, Thom Bierdz catapulted into stardom with his role as Philip Chancellor III in the popular daytime drama “The Young and the Restless.” The Wisconsin native quickly became a sex symbol, a regular on soap magazines, and won fans around the country and beyond.

Bierdz was in the height of his career when his 19-year-old brother, Troy, murdered their mother, Phyllis, with a baseball bat, in their hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Now, more than two decades after the horrific tragedy, Bierdz shares his harsh journey to forgiving his brother in his stunning memoir, “Forgiving Troy.”

Bierdz’s debut book is brutally honest, emotionally uncensored, and skillfully brings readers into the aftermath of the murder, surviving Hollywood as a gay man, and the perceptions of mental health before the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Curiously,” said Bierdz, “Troy’s disputed onset of paranoid schizophrenia in his teens was debated by many doctors. My mom tried to get him help by taking Troy to 40 doctors, but most felt he was only faking symptoms of schizophrenia, while only a few believed he actually was schizophrenic. There is no denying he did become schizophrenic and is today.”

While many blame Phyllis’ death on the Wisconsin court system, as it ignored her multiple pleas for help each time her son threatened to kill her, Bierdz takes a completely different stance. He said, “I do not know how a system can stop killing, since mental ‘illness’ is so variable. Millions of people threaten to kill others – so how can outsiders really know who will?”

“If you asked me on a spiritual level,”

Thom Bierdz

continued Bierdz, “do I feel Troy was fated to kill mom, I would say no, that none of us are fated to do anything.”

Still, Bierdz does feel that if the ADA had been around when his mom was seeking mental health services for her schizophrenic son, things may have turned out differently. And while Bierdz does feel medication can help, he wants to ensure that people know pills are only one option for some conditions.

“I cannot dispute that the antipsychotic meds Troy now takes in prison miraculously take away most of his hallucinations and other symptoms. As a man who is over 50, and not on any pills, I cannot deny Ambien did, in fact, help my insomnia previously, and that medicines can help and cure people. But, I feel that is primarily because the patient’s mindset believes in a cure pill. We all know placebos have a 30 percent cure rate. My intent is to empower the patient, for them to see they deserve perfect health, and they can attain that in numerous ways, pills being only one option,” he said.

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Above everything, Bierdz wants people to know that schizophrenics are not necessarily dangerous people and that, statistically, they are less dangerous than people without any mental illness. He does, though, think that people with any type of mental or physical condition would benefit from reducing the stress in their lives and eating whole foods. (He is an especially big supporter of veganism.)

In 2015, Warren Hohmann, from KTLA News in Hollywood, flew to Wisconsin with Bierdz to visit Troy, and captured much of their story through interviews. The clips were later woven into a documentary film also called “Forgiving Troy,” which shows how Bierdz and his baby brother rebuilt their relationship.

“Troy and I were experiencing similar anxiety challenges – him in prison, me in the prison of Hollywood, etc.,” said Bierdz about the film.

Bierdz still acts occasionally, but now focuses mainly on painting. In fact, he has become Hollywood’s favorite realist painter and is in high demand.

“While I do realism for clients, my best stuff is when I spill my brain and do expressionism,” said Bierdz.

E-book copies of “Forgiving Troy” may be purchased through all online retailers and paperback copies can be obtained via http://www.thombierdz.com. The documentary may be streamed for free on YouTube.

To learn more about and follow Bierdz, you can find him on Facebook at Thom Bierdz and Thom Bierdz II and on Twitter @ThomBierdz. t Belo Cipriani is a disability advocate, a freelance journalist, the award-winning author of “Blind: A Memoir” and “Midday Dreams,” the spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind and the national spokesman for 100 Percent Wine – a premium winery that donates 100 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that help people with disabilities find work.

Learn more at belocipriani.com.

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Community News>>

t Tax March and Berkeley battle draw crowds

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

by Liz Highleyman

according to a Berkeley police statement.

“Political violence of this sort is very rare in recent history, so this is new territory in a lot of ways,” Alex Vitale, a former Bay Area activist and now associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We should keep in mind that even a well-crafted police strategy is going to have limits when you have two groups intent on fighting each other.”

More confrontations could happen next week when the Berkeley College Republicans host a talk by right-wing columnist Ann Coulter April 27.

S

everal thousand protesters took to the streets in San Francisco Saturday, April 15, to demand that President Donald Trump release his tax returns, while across the bay Trump supporters and anti-fascist activists faced off in Berkeley.

Tax March participants filled the plaza outside City Hall in the early afternoon, where they heard speeches from elected officials including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and San Francisco Supervisors Jane Kim and Sandra Lee Fewer.

“Every week on the floor of Congress, Democrats bring forth a motion that says Donald Trump must release his tax returns. We have to ask the Republicans, why are you hiding the truth from the American people?” said Pelosi, standing beside a giant inflatable chicken with a Trump hairdo. “Donald Trump wants a tax policy that gives tax breaks to his billionaire friends at the expense of the poorest children in America.”

“Who do you owe? We must know!” the crowd chanted in response.

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-San Jose) has pushed the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, requiring all presidential nominees of major political parties to publicly disclose three years of federal tax returns, Pelosi said.

In California, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has co-authored a bill that goes further, requiring future presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns in order to appear on the California primary ballot.

“Trump’s lack of transparency is astounding, and his refusal to release his returns raises alarming questions,” Wiener said in a statement. “Simply releasing his returns would clarify so many of these issues and rebuild trust with the American

<<

News Briefs

From page 6

The campground, whose two campsites accommodate 30 people each, has running water and bathrooms but no showers.

For adults, there is a sliding scale cost of $95 up to $250, children 5 to 16 cost $55, and kids under the age of 5 are free. People without children are welcome to attend.

To register, visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2879278.

To learn more about Queer Camp, which also has an adults-only camping trip in May at Oakland’s Chabot Regional Park, visit https://www. queer-camp.org/.

National Park Week events

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area has announced events during National Park Week.

There will be an observance at Crissy Field Sunday, April 23 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with ranger walks, free exercise classes, and a healthy living fair.

Birding 101 will be held April 23 in the Marin Headlands, where people can learn more about the feathered denizens of Rodeo Lagoon. Registration is required by visiting https:// www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/ event-details.htm?event=25747B181DD8-B71B-0B8633970C8727EF. Weekends at noon there will be cannon demonstrations at Fort Point.

For details, see https://www.nps.gov/ goga/planyourvisit/event-details. htm?event=9A87EA48-1DD8-B71B0BACA9C187C34DAE.

More Pride honorees named

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee has announced more community grand marshals and other honorees for the

Liz Highleyman

The April 15 Tax March in San Francisco drew a crowd, with many participants carrying humorous signs.

people. But President Trump doesn’t appear to be interested in transparency and accountability.”

The rally was followed by a spirited march that stretched down Market Street to the Embarcadero.

Tax Marches also took place in Washington, D.C. and more than 100 other cities across the U.S., including Walnut Creek and San Jose in the Bay Area.

Dueling rallies end in fisticuffs

Also on Saturday hundreds of Trump supporters and alt-right proponents – including explicit white nationalists and neo-Nazis – held a Patriot’s Day “free speech” rally sponsored by the Liberty Revival Alliance at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in downtown Berkeley.

They were met by a similar number of anti-fascist and antiTrump activists who held a cookout and “bloc party” in an attempt to outnumber the conservatives.

The weekly Berkeley farmers market in the park was canceled for the first time ever in anticipation of the protests.

June 24-25 parade and festivities.

Individual community grand marshals include Danielle Castro, a transgender community activist who cofounded Trans Advocates for Justice and Accountability, or Taja’s, Coalition, after the February 2015 stabbing death of Taja Gabrielle de Jesus, 36, in the city’s Bayview district.

Educator Amy Sueyoshi was also named a community grand marshal. She’s a leading scholar in queer Asian-American history and the founding co-curator of the GLBT History Museum.

The Lifetime Achievement grand marshal will be Marcy Adelman, Ph.D., who co-founded LGBT senior organization Openhouse with her late partner, Jeannette Gurevitch. Just last month, the Openhouse Community at 55 Laguna held its grand opening celebration.

This year’s Heritage of Pride Freedom Awardee will be El/La Para Trans Latina, which works to build collective vision, action, and power for the community’s trans Latina community.

The Heritage of Pride Community Award will go to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a legal organization that has advanced the human rights of LGBT people and their families since 1977 and is marking its 40th anniversary.

Positive Resource Center Chief Executive Officer Brett Andrews is the recipient of the Heritage of Pride 10 Years of Service Award. The 30-yearold nonprofit last year merged with Baker Places and the AIDS Emergency Fund to expand its services to people living with HIV/AIDS and other conditions.

Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits will receive the Gilbert Baker Pride Founder’s Award. BAAITS

With its liberal reputation, Berkeley has become a flashpoint for such stand-offs following a raucous protest that shut down a speech by gay alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley February 1. A similar altercation happened at a pro-Trump rally at the same park in early March.

The two factions faced off in the park – clad in American flag gear and alt-right memes on one side and black clothes and face masks on the other – and battles spilled into the streets throughout the afternoon. Some protesters were armed with sticks and knives and set off firecrackers and released pepper spray. Several people on both sides were injured in the running brawls.

Police generally took a hands-off approach, but 20 people – mostly from the Bay Area – were arrested.

Charges included assault with a deadly weapon, battery, inciting a riot, and wearing a mask while committing a criminal offense,

holds an annual powwow and offers culturally relevant activities for LGBT Native Americans.

Queer Mexican immigrant Maria Zamudio will receive the Teddy Witherington Award. She organizes mostly Latinx working-class tenants in San Francisco who are fighting for their homes.

The Audrey Joseph LGBTQ Entertainment Award will go to Blackberri, a songstylist, poet, writer, photographer, and health educator.

Finally, the Jose Julio Sarria History Maker’s Award will go to Subhi Nahas, who began advocating for women’s and children’s rights in Syria, then started working with Save the Children as a translator and advocate. He cofounded the first LGBTQ Syrian magazine, Mawaleh.

Previously announced grand marshals were fundraiser Chris Carnes, drag king Alex U. Inn (Carmen Morrison), and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

For more information on San Francisco Pride, visit sfpride.org.

City College open house

City College of San Francisco will hold an open house at all of its campuses Friday, April 21 from 9 a.m. to noon.

The open house is an opportunity for students to learn how to enroll in the free City College initiative and register on-site. CCSF staff and faculty will be available to answer questions and provide detailed information about the more than 150 academic programs and occupational disciplines available.

For a list of City College campuses, visit https://www.ccsf.edu/ and click on “Our Locations.”

Science March on Saturday

The next big national action will be the Science March Saturday, April 22, celebrated as Earth Day. The main march will take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and satellite marches are planned for more than 500 cities worldwide (marchforscience. com/). The San Francisco march will start at 11 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza and end at Civic Center (marchforsciencesf.com/).

Advocates oppose Trump’s proposed deep cuts to scientific and medical research, and want the new administration to keep intact science-related federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

More than a hundred sciencerelated organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Geographers, and, locally, the California Academy of Sciences and Monterey Bay Aquarium have signed on, according to Science magazine. But there has been some dissension from those who do not want to

Hospice by the Bay seeks volunteers

Hospice by the Bay is seeking volunteers and a training session starts this month.

Officials said that volunteers bring comfort and compassion to terminally-ill patients and their caregivers. The hospice is an affiliate of UCSF and provides care to anyone coping with loss in Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Sonoma counties and the cities of American Canyon, Napa, and Vallejo.

A 26-hour training will be held April 26 through May 18. Volunteer applications are due Friday, April 21. Anyone 18 or over is welcome to apply. For more information and an application, visit hospicebythebay.org.

LYRIC open house

The Lavander Youth Recreation and Information Center, or LYRIC for short, will hold its annual open house Thursday, April 27 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 127 Collingwood Street in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood.

People are welcome to attend an inspirational night showcasing LYRIC youth creativity. This year’s theme is “Queer Nation, Queer Migration.”

Refreshments will be served and there is no cost to attend. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/152162655299289/.

Pacific Center benefit

The Pacific Center for Human Growth will hold its annual fundraiser Sunday, April 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Z Cafe and Bar, 2735 Broadway in Oakland.

The center, located in Berkeley,

“politicize” science and think organizers are being deferential to leftleaning politics, noted a New York Times article.

Other upcoming events include the Day of Silence Friday, April 21, an annual student-led event to raise awareness about the silencing effects of anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment in schools (www.glsen.org/ day-of-silence). This year organizers are calling on state governors to implement inclusive LGBTQ nondiscrimination policies in schools.

On Wednesday, April 26, Cleve Jones and other local activists will hold a working meeting for people who want to help with the “Rise and Resist” contingent for the San Francisco Pride parade. The meeting takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Audre Lorde Room at the San Francisco Women’s Building, 3543 18th Street.

Jones said volunteers are needed to help with signs and banners, outreach and diversity, and social media.

Wiener will be joined by his Democratic San Francisco colleagues Assemblymen David Chiu and Phil Ting at a town hall Saturday, April 22 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street. To RSVP, visit https://www. eventbrite.com/e/town-hall-withsan-franciscos-state-legislatorstickets-32926946383.

The People’s Climate March will take place Saturday, April 29 in Washington, D.C., and other cities (https://peoplesclimate.org/).

Planning is underway for an array of protests, strikes, moratoriums, and boycotts on May 1.

Looking further ahead, on May 16, Equality California, in partnership with several other LGBT and HIV organizations across the state, will host the 2017 LGBT Advocacy Day at the State Capitol in Sacramento. For more information or to register, see https:// secure.eqca.org/page/contribute/ advocacy-day.t

provides an array of services for people living in the East Bay. This year’s benefit theme is “From Stonewall to No Walls,” and will celebrate 44 years of breaking down barriers to affordable and culturally competent mental health services.

The event will fetaure performances by Kim Lembo, Irina Rivkin, and Beryl and Nicole.

Center officials stated that they are expecting a 30 percent increase in demand for services for at least the next two years. It recently announced expanded services for older adults by operating peer support groups in Berkeley and Hayward.

Tickets are $75 for adults; $50 for older adults (65-plus), and $25 for youth and young adults (25 and under).

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://fromstonewalltonowalls.bpt.me.

Openhouse Spring Fling

Openhouse, the LGBT seniors agency, will hold its annual Spring Fling benefit Sunday, April 30 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Fairmont, 950 Mason Street in San Francisco.

The event will feature brunch and a live auction and honor the recipients of the Trailblazer of the Year (Marcy Adelman, Ph.D.) and Aldelman-Gurevitch Founders (Cleve Jones) awards.

Tickets are $200 and can be purchased online at https://www. openhouse-sf.org/fling - springfling-tickets. t Matthew S. Bajko contributed reporting.

<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

<<

Paris eatery

From page 1

The other patrons assaulted Aimar and used hate speech against us but we were treated by the staff as the problem.”

The B.A.R. contacted La Chope Des Puces via Facebook Messenger.

A staff member who did not identify themselves by name, gender, or title responded in French. The B.A.R. used Google Translate to translate the quotes.

The restaurant staff said that seeing such behavior in front of the musicians and other guests, they asked Waggoner and Sahae to move

<<

PrEP web series

From page 6

“mostly what I got was a not terribly diverse range of people.”

This didn’t reflect the community, including young men of color who are some of the most affected.

Through a nationwide, word-ofmouth search, Tipton-King managed to put together the diverse cast he wanted. Cast members come from as far Florida, home of drag queen and bodybuilder Rock Evans,

<<

<<

<<

people. The problem got started with the woman who kept laughing at us, calling me [a] whore and making fun of us to my face. The best thing we could do was to continue listening to the music. A few minutes passed until she pulled my hair and the man next to her kicked my chair because we kissed each other. The owner of the place arrived and told us the only thing we could do was to change places.

David started yelling because, of course, he was angry.”

Sahae said that she has no regrets about the anger Waggoner expressed before they left the restaurant.

“After all that happened I am happy that we were visible and didn’t hide who we are or feel any shame,” she said.

The B.A.R. was contacted via Facebook by restaurant employee Sylvie Lacombe. Facebook’s Translate app translated her quotes, in which she said that no one was thrown out of the restaurant.

Lacombe feels that Waggoner had too much to drink and began screaming because he was drunk.

Waggoner said that he had three drinks, but added that he was in full control of himself and remembers everything clearly.

Lacombe said that the owner is a nice man and that all are welcome at La Chope Des Puces, including LGBT people.

Waggoner said that he doesn’t believe this.

“What happened to us is yet another reminder that trans women of color are not safe from being attacked with words and violence on any place on this planet,” he said. “Trans rights are human rights and the broader queer community must center the lives of trans women of color until this kind of hate will no longer be tolerated anywhere.” t

who appears in the series.

Most of the cast is local, though, and Tipton-King is a Fremont native. Part of his motivation to create the series came from dedication to the local gay community. TiptonKing himself was an early adopter of PrEP and says he is “99 percent sure” that it prevented him from contracting HIV in at least one instance.

“I’ve dated HIV-positive people in the past, I have a lot of close friends who are HIV-positive. I’ve seen how much they suffer from

stigma and discrimination,” TiptonKing said.

In one scene in the series, an HIV-positive character explains what it means to be undetectable, or to have a low viral load level that significantly reduces risk of transmission. Tipton-King said he made it a point to film that scene in a restaurant, “in a public setting, and in daylight – not in a dark alley.”

The message: this is nothing to be ashamed of.

That symbolism is found

throughout the series’ five episodes.

“We tried in every scene to create a visual subtext of openness and inclusion,” Tipton-King said.

It’s a long way from the grimreaper-goes-bowling brand of HIVrelated media. But even today, this “sex ed for the 21st century” has detractors. Tipton-King said he’s been told the project is anti-condom. And he had to make a shorter, censored version of the trailer to avoid getting the video banned from Facebook.

He obliged – the goal is to get the

video out on as many social media channels as possible.

But he’s quick to point out that the project isn’t anti-condom. It’s anti-fear. Because, as Tipton-King said, “I don’t think that’s where we should be in 2017.” t

Chechnya

Keith Baraka, a gay San Francisco firefighter and vice chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, asked Feinstein about combatting efforts by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to re-launch a war on drugs that disproportionately affects poor people and minorities.

“I’ll do everything I possibly can to speak out about it,” said Feinstein, noting that most Democrats had voted against Sessions’ confirmation, and “We will be a voice. ...

There is some power in numbers.”

After the town hall, Suzanne Cowan, 76, of San Francisco, said she respects Feinstein “much more” than she did before.

“She gets down to the nitty-gritty of the way things work in this government,” Cowan said, adding that Feinstein had offered “a fairly strong dose of reality.”

However, Cowan, who was wearing a button calling for single-payer health care coverage, said Feinstein had “waffled” on a question about supporting singlepayer legislation.

Outside, Claire Lau, 28, who was holding a “Retire Feinstein” sign, said, “I was very disappointed. She evaded a lot of the questions.”

Lau referred to a suggestion that Feinstein had made that as one senator, there was only so much she could do.

Voters need another representative like Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who cast the lone vote against allowing the U.S. to use force in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she said. t

Feinstein

Pacifica

From page 2

Doe 5 saw video where he was unconscious and being sodomized “by numerous men.” He also said that Courtney had forcibly sodomized him five times, Stump testified.

John Doe 8, 21, said that Courtney sexually assaulted him, Stump said, and although he accepted GHB once from Courtney, he didn’t take much, because “he didn’t want to be incapacitated” around Courtney.

The man, who reported that he’d seen Courtney using heroin and other drugs, said that he became

to another table.

“It became very aggressive,” the person stated. “Other guests can attest to the diplomacy I had towards them. Many homosexuals frequent my establishment and I also hosted the wedding of my best friend, who is gay.”

Sahae offered her own version of how the evening transpired.

“I feel angry and a little sad,” she said in an email sent from her hotel room in Paris, which was translated from Spanish by Waggoner.

“The fact is that for non-binary trans people like me it is a constant job to deal with the prejudice, assumptions, and ignorance of cis

From page 1

Feinstein, 83, a Democrat and former San Francisco mayor who was first elected to the Senate in 1992.

It’s widely believed that she’ll run for re-election in 2018, amid concerns by some voters that she’s getting too old for the job.

At the April 17 town hall, which was held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, Feinstein referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “more ruthless than, I think, any existing leader on earth.” Among other recent moves, North Korea tried and failed to launch a missile Sunday.

North Korea is “the number one problem,” Feinstein said, followed

by Syria and Russia.

Syrian President Bashar alAssad’s use of poison gas this month to kill dozens of his own people also came up.

When Feinstein, who said she’d seen maps of where the gas was prepared, said that unlike ex-President Barack Obama, Trump “has taken a step” by firing missiles at the airport used in the attack, many in the crowd booed her.

“If you believe you know more than I do about it, go right ahead, but if you’re going to let me speak, let me speak,” Feinstein said. Her comment was greeted by applause.

She went on to say that Trump “needs to put together a strategy and come to the Congress before he does anything else.”

Moments later, after a man started shouting at Feinstein, others in the crowd yelled at him. It

Chechnya

From page 1

living in Chechnya,” the LGBT caucus stated. “This brutality, coupled with Chechen officials’ callous disregard for LGBT lives, is horrifying.”

t

Find out more about the project at its kickstarter page, kickstarter.com/projects/theprepproject/ the-prep-project, and website, theprepproject.tv/.

was one of several times there was conflict among people in the almost-packed auditorium, which holds about 760 people. At one point, Feinstein asked, “How many want me to continue?” Most people raised their hands.

After being asked about steps she’d take to address “the most unethical administration” since former Republican President Richard Nixon, Feinstein said that she and other senators are “looking very closely at the emoluments clause” in the Constitution, which prohibits the president from receiving gifts from foreign leaders, and refusing to pay expenses related to Trump’s sons’ business trips.

She also said that Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut)

has asked colleagues to contribute money “for a court case. ... The hope is there will be 41 of us that will be on that court case.”

Spokespeople for Feinstein and Blumenthal didn’t respond to requests for more information.

There are several federal investigations examining possible collusion between people associated with Trump and the Russian government, which meddled in the U.S. presidential election held in November in favor of Trump.

Feinstein sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which held its first hearing related to the controversy in March.

“I believe within the month there will be a second public hearing,” Feinstein said Monday.

Reported round-ups, torture, and killings of gay men in the Russian republic of Chechnya also came up when a woman asked Feinstein what she would do to “pressure our government” to denounce the actions.

Feinstein responded that she wanted to take the woman’s question with her so she could “get specific answers on each part.”

Gay former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who now sits on the BART transit system’s board of directors and moderated Monday’s event, said there would be a protest Tuesday night at the Russian consulate in San Francisco.

“Come along, Senator Feinstein,” a man called out.

“You never know, I may go,” she responded.

A woman from the group Indivisible SF asked Feinstein about where Democrats would draw the line on working with “fascists” such as Trump administration officials Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, both of whom have been criticized as being anti-Semitic.

Feinstein said, “You’ve given me an idea. Let me explore that idea.”

She asked for the woman’s name and phone number, but a man in the crowd yelled for her to “Answer the question.”

“You’re pretty good at yelling,” Feinstein told him. “All of this takes a plan. ... You can stand here and pound your fists,” but there aren’t “too many senators, if any, who’ve gotten more done [than I have]”.

HIV-positive after engaging in unprotected sex with Courtney, who was “insistent” on not using condoms.

“I can’t say if he consented to unprotected sex,” Stump said of John Doe 8.

When Steve Chase, Courtney’s attorney, asked Stump, “Mr. Courtney didn’t hold him down and make him have sex with him, did he?”

Stump said that that was correct.

John Doe 11, 33, said that he’d seen Courtney giving people enough GHB to incapacitate them, and that he’d seen people pay Courtney so that they could have sex with people who were unconscious, according to Stump.

Stump said that Courtney himself had said that John Doe 11 had “warned him that if this behavior didn’t change he’d be in the position that he’s in today.”

The criminal complaint against Courtney include an allegation that he committed the alleged offenses knowing that he has AIDS. Nine of the victims said they became HIV-positive after their contacts with Courtney, according to prosecutors. Stump said someone had told police that Courtney knew he was HIV-positive around 2007.

According to Chase, though, one of the men wasn’t diagnosed

until a year and a half after he’d been with Courtney.

Stump said that in Courtney’s bedroom he’d recovered a flash drive with more than 700 photos of boys ages 9 to 12 engaging in oral copulation, anal sex, and masturbation. There were also 16 videos depicting children engaged in sex acts.

Authorities haven’t provided descriptions of any of the other dozens of men who allegedly sexually assaulted Courtney’s victims, and prosecutors didn’t respond to an email asking whether they had the video footage or

photos that reportedly showed such incidents.

Courtney remains in Redwood City’s Maguire Correctional Facility on $10 million bail. His next court date is April 28 for arraignment. His charges include sodomy by use of force, sodomy by anesthesia or use of a controlled substance, sodomy of an unconscious victim, possession of child pornography, and second-degree robbery.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Garratt oversaw Friday’s hearing. Deputy District Attorney Joe Goethals is the prosecutor in the case. t

GLAAD, an LGBT media organization, reported Tuesday that Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the attacks. LGBT activists had called on Haley to issue a statement.

“We continue to be disturbed by reports of kidnapping, torture,

and murder of people in Chechnya based on their sexual orientation and those persecuted by association,” Haley stated.

She called on Chechen authorities to investigate the allegations.

Haley also said, “We are against all forms of discrimination, including

against people based on sexual orientation. When left unchecked, discrimination and human rights abuses can lead to destabilization and conflict.”

Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and chief executive officer, said Haley “is taking the right step

in speaking out against these blatant violations of human rights.”

“This is a powerful sign that the U.S. Mission to the United Nations will continue to prioritize LGBTQ acceptance and fight discrimination and human rights abuses around the world.” t

Rick Gerharter

Attendees at Senator Dianne Feinstein’s town hall meeting express their approval with the comments of a person asking a question of the senator.

Legals>>

t Legal Notices

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

>>

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037529400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE UPPER HAND NAIL SPA, 3836 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NGUYET NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/27/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/27/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037529200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EBERHART, 1575 TURK ST #308, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NYZEINA EBERHART. 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 03/24/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037527800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOVA LOCKSMITH, 1045 MISSION ST #487, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AVIAD BRACHA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/24/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/24/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037523700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SMALL BUSINESS ACTION NETWORK, 3547 MISSION ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEPHANIE HIBBERT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/22/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037521100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOGADOR MOROCCAN CAFE & CUISINE, 105 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ABDELKADER CHENBOD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/21/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037521200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TEDDY’S MARKET, 298 TEDDY AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed TAUFIK NAGI MOHSEN & ALI MOSA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/09/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037517400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SLAPADAY, 946 GEARY ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed DEVON JONES & MICHAEL LANGE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/12/17.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/17/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037528000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AJC AUTOBODY, INC, 250 NAPOLEON ST #P, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AJC AUTOBODY, INC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/24/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037499500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROBIN, 620 GOUGH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed VERDE LAGO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/03/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037524500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARDIANA, 1781 CHURCH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ARDIANA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/22/17.

MAR 30, APR 06, 13, 20, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037532500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PEARL PAINTING, 555 CLAYTON ST #28, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRENDAN JOHN MEERE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/07/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/29/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF VENTURA - NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: JENNIFER IVEY, YOU ARE BEING SUED. PETITIONER’S NAME IS TIMOTHY CENICEROS CASE NO. D369912

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you.

If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately.

Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts. ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE – RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE ON PAGE 2: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form.

The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party.

1. The name and address of the court are: SUPERIOR COURT COUNTY OF VENTURA, 800 S. VICTORIA AVENUE, VENTURA, CA 93009; PREPARED BY MICHAEL D. PLANET 2. The name, address, and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, is: TIMOTHY CENICEROS, 257 N. LOMITA, OJAI, CA 93023 213-304-0862 Clerk of the Superior Court by J. LUNA, Deputy.

STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state or applying for a new or replacement passport for those minor children without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor children; 3.

Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4.

Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party.

You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective.

However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs.

NOTICE - ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance?

If so, you should apply for Covered California.

Covered California can help reduce the cost you pay towards high quality affordable health care. For more information, visit www. coveredca.com. Or call Covered California at 1-800-300-1506.

WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (ie: joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037528700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WILLIAM J TRADING COMPANY, 571 DARIEN WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MATHEW QIU. 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 03/24/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037515600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GALAXIA’S JANITORIAL SERVICES, 781 MISSOURI ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GALAXIA ZAMUDIO MOCTEZUMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

Before the Tel Aviv-Yaffo Magistrate Court

C.C.

In the matter of:

1. Karina Abitisian I.D. 311915615 2. Arthur Abitisian I.D. 311915680 Both by their rep. adv. Zeev Braz and\or Yiftach Ibn Ezra Of 3 Nirim St. TLV 67060 Phone: 03-6886565 fax: 03-6886566 The “Plaintiffs”-Vs. -Yelena Fisherman I.D. 304233372 Whose address is: 418 25th Ave. San Francisco, California 94121, United States of America The “Defendant” Remedy essence: winding-up of a real estate partnership; receiver appointment; declaratory And in the matter of: Winding-up of a Real Estate Partnership Claim The honorable court is hereby requested to use its authority and provide an order for the winding-up of the partnership in the residential apartment on 59 Jabotinsky St. Bnei Brak known as parcel 82/15 in plot 7361, by way of its sale to a third party. Also, the honorable court is requested to declare that the Plaintiffs are entitled to receive full consideration of the land sale. In so doing, the honorable court is requested to appoint Plaintiffs rep. as receivers of the rights of the Defendant in the referenced land and authorize them to sign in her name and on her behalf any document and\or statement necessary for the transfer of her rights in the apartment to a third party.

Factual Background 1. The Plaintiffs are spouses, Israeli citizens and residents, who in 1994 or thereabouts immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union.

2. The Defendant too was a new immigrant who immigrated to Israel on those dates, yet she has ceased to be an Israeli resident many years ago, since she left Israel in favor of the Ukraine and then the U.S. 3. Immediately following their arrival in Israel, the Plaintiffs and the Defendant purchased the capitalized lease rights in the referenced residential apartment, so that the Plaintiffs purchased 2/3 of the rights and the Defendant purchased the remaining 1/3.

A copy of the apartment’s registration extract is attached herewith and marked “A”.

4. Transaction amount was 316,890 NIS. 5. In favor of purchasing the apartment and in order to fund it, the parties realized their right as new immigrants and took a mortgage guaranteed loan from the Bank of Jerusalem Mortgages Ltd. in the sum of 300,000 NIS, i.e. funding of more than 90 percent of transaction amount.

A copy of the deed of mortgage is attached herewith and marked “B”.

6. Immediately following the purchase of the abovementioned apartment and since she did not manage to settle in Israel, the Defendant decided to leave the country and moved to the Ukraine.

7. Before leaving the country and in light of her rights in the apartment, the Defendant took several steps aimed at waiving all of her rights in the apartment in favor of the Plaintiffs: 7.1. On October 19th 1994, the Defendant signed a power of attorney, authorizing Plaintiff 1 to take any action in the apartment, including its sale.

A copy of the power of attorney is attached herewith and marked “C”.

7.2. On December 4th 1994, the Defendant signed a waiver instrument, in which she renounced all of her rights in the apartment in favor of Plaintiff 1, provided that Plaintiff 1 bore all of the mortgage payment she owed, according to her relative share.

A copy of the waiver instrument, translated into Hebrew and notarized, is attached herewith and marked “D”.

7.3. On December 18th 1994, the Defendant signed an evidenced will, according to which she bequeathed that following her demise all of her rights in the apartment will be transferred to the Plaintiffs, in equal shares.

A copy of the will is attached herewith and marked “E”.

8. It is further noted that prior to leaving the country, the Defendant borrowed from the Plaintiffs the sum of US$7,000, which she has never repaid them.

9. On February 21st 1995, the Defendant left Israel.

10. Indeed, as of the apartment’s purchase by the parties, for approximately 20 years, the Plaintiffs paid the mortgage on the apartment, out of their joint account, when the Defendant did not pay a single penny.

11. In total, throughout loan years, the Plaintiffs paid the lending bank a sum amounting to approximately 600,000 NIS. 12. On October 21st 2014, the Plaintiffs repaid the remainder of the loan and retired the mortgage on the property.

A copy of the mortgage repayment certificate is attached herewith and marked “F”.

13. The Plaintiffs’ attempts over the years to locate the Defendant in the Ukraine have failed, and despite their investment of great efforts and funds they came up empty handed.

14. Several months ago, the Plaintiffs managed to locate and contact the Defendant, through social media, and learned that she currently resides in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 15. As part of the contact with the Defendant, the Plaintiffs asked her to sign a new power of attorney for them before the Israeli Consul in California, in lieu of appendix “C” [which expired] so they could realize their right, as they agreed, sell the apartment to a third party and move to a larger apartment, yet she refused to do so.

Plaintiffs Arguments 16. The Plaintiffs argue that the Defendant waived in their favor all of her rights in the referenced apartment, prior to leaving the country and against the Plaintiff ’s undertaking to bear full payment of the loan taken by the parties to purchase the property.

17. That waiver is undisputed and was accompanied by the Defendant’s signature of several documents, unequivocally attesting to that waiver, mainly a special power of attorney in favor of the Plaintiffs, authorizing them to sell her share in the apartment in her name and on her behalf.

18. However, the Defendant remained the owner of rights registered with the Land Registration Bureau, and in the absence of a valid power of attorney the apartment could not be sold to a third party.

19. In this state of affairs, the Plaintiffs are held captive by the Defendant and cannot sell their rights in the apartment and improve their quality of life, as they have been wishing to do for several years, when in reality she has no right to enjoy sale fruits.

20. Therefore, the honorable court is requested to order the winding-up of the partnership in the referenced land, by way of the sale of the rights in it to a third part.

The honorable court is also requested to declare that the Plaintiffs are entitled to receive the full consideration.

To do so, the honorable court is requested to appoint Plaintiffs’ rep. as receiver of the rights in the apartment, to put it up for sale and sell it.

21. The honorable court has material and local jurisdiction to debate the claim, in light of its requested remedy and the location of the referenced property.

Yiftach Ibn Ezra, adv.

Representing the Plaintiffs The Tel Aviv-Yaffo Magistrate Court Motion number: 1 Before the honorable judge Avi Shalev Applicants

1.

2.

Respondent

Karina Abitisian Arthur Abitisian Vs. Yelena Fisherman

Decision Based on motion reasoning and according to my authority under Ordinance 500 of the Civil Procedure Ordinances of 5744-1984, a permit is hereby given for process out of jurisdiction according to the Respondent’s address in the statement of claim. Delivery will be made via registered, verified air mail or personal verified delivery via an international courier. Delivery will include the statement of claim with its appendixes, the subpoena, the motion for a permit for process out of jurisdiction with all it entails, and this decision. All documents will be sent in their original form, as well as in a notarized translation into Russian. The Respondent will file a statement of defense within 90 days of receiving the documents and is authorized to appeal for motion annulment within 45 days. Secretariat will process the decision to Applicants rep.

Given today, Kislev 3rd 5775, November 25th 2014, without parties presence.

Avi Shalev, judge

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037527500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAKASERU SF, 1501 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EVAN CARTER EISEN. 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 03/24/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037526900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037530600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037514600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ONCA UNDERWEAR, 3864 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MELISA JARAMILLO. 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 03/28/17.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRESH START CLEANING SERVICES, 107 RUSSIA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LILLIANA BEATRIS FUNES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/15/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037529600

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037528400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DR. TIRTHA MENDAKE DC, LAC, 350 TOWNSEND ST #275, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIRTHA MENDAKE WANIGASEKARAMOHOTTI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/17.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIXUP GROUP, 1829 28TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VIVIANA ANDREA HURTADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/27/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/27/17.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EXCEL MAINTENANCE, 1180 4TH ST #305, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGARDO A. GOMEZ CRUZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/24/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/24/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

<< Classifieds

12 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037517100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUST THE LITTLE THINGS PHOTOS INC, 601 VAN NESS AVE #E805, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JUST THE LITTLE THINGS PHOTOS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/02/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/16/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037531700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAL PACIFIC SYSTEMS, 1591 HOWARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HYDRA VENTURES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/28/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/28/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037527400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INDIAN PALACE, 2154 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GHALE FOOD INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/23/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037510400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRENCH PICNIC PASTRY COMPANY, 2565 3RD ST #308, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BETTER BAKERIES INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/13/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037543000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PEDAL, 1770 POST ST #104, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an corporation, and is signed PEDAL CAB AND LIMOUSINE TECHNOLOGY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/03/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/03/17.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035730200 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DANCING OCTOPUS HEALTH & MEDIA, 2137 LOMBARD ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94125. This business was conducted by an individual and signed

by CASONDRA MARIE SOBIERALSKI. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/14.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036517400 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: JUST THE LITTLE THINGS, 601 VAN NESS AVE #E805, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed

by JUST THE LITTLE THINGS LLC (CA).

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/15.

APR 06, 13, 20, 27, 2017 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-17-552955

In the matter of the application of: BETTINA K. NEUMANN-BALUUSAT, 2082 QUESADA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BETTINA K. NEUMANN-BALUUSAT, is requesting that the name BETTINA K. NEUMANN-BALUUSAT, be changed to BETTINA KIRA NEUMANN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 20th of June 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037523500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: T. PRIOR & COMPANY, 39 WESTGATE DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOMAS PRIOR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/22/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037550600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VISIONAIR RESOURCES, 438 12TH AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH HIGHT MONTAGUE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/06/17.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037550900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRVING STREET PSYCHIC, 2151 IRVING ST #205, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANET ADAMS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/17.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037544800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAW OFFICE OF ASHISH A. BHATT, 29 IRIS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ASHISH ASHOK BHATT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/03/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037543600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DUSIT THAI HEALING ARTS, 1618 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KANOKWAN CHEWPANICH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/03/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/03/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037548100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JACK & UGGZ, 355 SERRANO DR. #6J, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN E. OLSON III. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/06/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037547400

t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037552100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CJ PACIFIC USA, 1140 REVERE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WELLSPRING INVESTMENT GROUP (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 04/06/17.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIVEX CONSULTING GROUP, 400 BEALE ST #1409, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STELLA M. EDRALIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/11/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/11/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037542500

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037553500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOLTRON, 30 NIANTIC AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ROQUE BARON, MANOLO DAVILA, AHKEEL MESTAYER, CHRISTIAN NAVARRO, ADRIANNA MARRERO OCASIO, DANIEL RIERA, RUBEN SANDOVAL, REMI SPIRO, ARTURO BLANCO VILLEGAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/31/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037545900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 10TH AVE LAUNDRYMAT, 700 10TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed BUD HADDAD & MARIA HADDAD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/17.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/05/17.

APR 13, 20, 27, MAY 4, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037544000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO NATURAL AESTHETICS, 490 POST ST #1701, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARK IWANICKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/22/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/17.

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037547700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YING TRADING, 2226 ULLOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY GENE YU. 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 04/06/17.

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REPUTOLOGY, 86 IDORA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DEUMAS HOLDINGS, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/12/17.

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037554100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLOWERSHOP, 753 ALABAMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FLOWER SHOP, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/12/17.

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036869600 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: VALENCIA STREET OPTOMETRY, 1000 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by MARTHA KLUFAS. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/16.

APR 20, 27, MAY 04, 11, 2017

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Out &About

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21 century Rita Moreno st

by David-Elijah Nahmod

F

ew performers can match the longevity of Rita Moreno. Now 85 years old (she announces her age proudly), Moreno first attracted attention with her role as Zelda, a silent-film starlet in the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain (1952). A decade later she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in another classic musical, West Side Story.

See page 15 >>

Larry Sultan in living color

V

isual acuity and verbal eloquence are abilities that rarely inhabit the same person in equal measure; photographer Larry Sultan is one of the exceptions to the rule. From the early 1970s until his death in 2009, Sultan was an important fixture in the Bay Area, where he lived and taught for over three decades (at SFAI & CCA), but the SoCal pop culture wonderland of his San Fernando Valley youth remained an inspiration. The scope of his career is the subject of Larry Sultan: Here and Home, a new show at SFMOMA. See page 17 >>

A retrospective, Larry Sultan: Here and Home is now at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and includes images from his series Pictures from Home.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

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Austin Hargrave

Vol. 47 • No. 16 • April 20-26, 2017

www.ebar.com/arts

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Looking for thrills in Fisherman’s Wharf

Hotel Zephyr

The renovated Hotel Zephyr makes the most of its midcentury modern bones.

by Roberto Friedman

O

ut There’s love of cultural adventures takes us all around the Bay Area and beyond. Earlier this month we were lured deep into the heart of what is usually terra incognita for us, namely the tourist mecca of Fisherman’s Wharf right there on the San Francisco waterfront. We couldn’t say no to an overnight stay at the Hotel Zephyr, which opened in 2015 after a $32 million renova-

tion. We decided to be out-of-towners for a night.

The Hotel Zephyr is centrally located in the whole carnival atmosphere of the Wharf. Its redesign makes the most of its midcentury modern motel architecture, presenting an International Style facade to Beach St., complete with porthole windows. Our room didn’t have a porthole, but it did have a nice balcony that overlooked the interior courtyard, see below. We also

The Brass Age

by Philip Campbell

T

imothy Higgins, Principal Trombone of the San Francisco Symphony, curated, hosted and starred recently in the latest installment of SoundBox, the stylish nightclub adjunct to Davies Symphony Hall. The program and performance sometimes moved out of synch with the ambience of the venue, but ultimately succeeded as an entertaining insight into the dramatic and lyrical range of the brass instrument through the ages. It also adds tremendous bite and vocalism to modern compositions, evidenced by the many contemporary pieces on the bill.

With self-deprecatory wit and positive energy, the gifted and versatile Higgins repeatedly stressed his mission statement for the night, making a trombone recital into a show and a showcase, rather than a traditional concert.

He needn’t have worried, as the SoundBox crowd is open to a variety of musical genres and eager to experience whatever comes next.

Drinks and snacks from the bar enjoyed in the chic atmosphere of the warehouse-like room create a warm, relaxed mood. Placating the club’s demographic is unnecessary. Divided into three “acts” or (more accurately) sets, the evening included long, convivial intermis-

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had a great view out over F-Wharf low-rises to the Bay and that strange little Forbes Island restaurant, and in the other direction, Coit Tower all lit up and spectacular.

The courtyard, known as “the Yard,” is home to many types of sporting games, such as shuffleboard, ping pong, billiards and the like. Darts and backgammon boards abound. Personally, OT doesn’t go to hotels to play games, at least not the kind that involve

sions. That’s the SoundBox formula so far, and it obviously works.

The musical aspects of Bell Curve would probably have worked in any setting, but the gorgeous projections and evocative lighting of video designer Adam Larsen and lighting designer Luke Kritzeck set the seal on the evening’s success.

Thematically paced as Early Baroque and religious in the first part, dramatic and Romantic in the second, and modern in the third, the program progressed easily, interspersed with some engaging personal video of Higgins as he lives his life with the SFS in beloved San Francisco. Did you know he is an expert mixologist? Judging by his comments on the subject, there should have been some signature drinks available at the bar.

With fellow Symphony musicians, notably Principal Keyboards Robin Sutherland and Associate Principal Trombone Nicholas Platoff, Higgins created more than a few memorable highlights. His talented, charming wife Sharon Rietkerk found her way to the stage for one of the night’s best selections, an arrangement of tango king Astor Piazzolla’s typically haunting and sensual Mon âme a son secret.

Higgins’ own Altemusik (2014), a three-movement work for an unlikely trio – alto trombone, marimba, and harpsichord – is in a Baroque style using melodies and harmonies from Bach, Corelli, and Schein, but the catchy and pleasing result is pure modern ear-candy.

Altemusik leavened some of the more somber aspects of the early part of the show, which Higgins stressed would not be pervasive.

He couldn’t have been truer to his word, and the contemporary pieces that came later proved to be both explosively dramatic and intriguingly experimental. Radiant Spheres (2014) by David Biedenbender, which Higgins commis-

checkers. But F-Wharf appeals to families and groups of all ages, so we see the logic, indeed the beauty of this decorating scheme. The children around us were all engaged and busy with games, which kept them out of trouble and far from our cocktails. So you might say it was a win-win situation.

There are fire pits and plenty of outdoor seating in the Yard, and a “periscope” through which you can see views from a rotatable camera set on the roof. We quickly warmed to the hotel’s quirky design.

We loved the vertical bike rack in the lobby and the wall hung with buoys. Where the buoys are. In our guest room, beds had pillows festooned with giant graphics of gulls.

They reminded us of our favorite headline from a recent Brighton tabloid.

“Cheeky Gull Grabs Crisps!”

Back in the Yard, a classic, 18-foot Shasta sleeper trailer dubbed “the Camper” has been refashioned as a food truck where guests can grab a locally-sourced bite (7 a.m.-7 p.m.)

Our breakfast of fruit salad, yoghurt and hot black tea hit the spot. Then it was time to ride along for the Electric Tour Company’s private Segway tour. Now, your gay uncle OT is hugely uncoordinated, bur after a short training lesson in the back lot, even we could drive one of these things. Our charming young guide Cameron had us zipping over to Washington Square, up the

t

hill to Coit Tower, and zig-zagging down that “crookedest” Lombard St. Highly recommended even for complete spazzes like OT. Our last stab at an F-Wharf attraction was taking the San Francisco Dungeon Tour, a harrowing walkthrough of 10 scary scenes from gory SF history (Gold Rush, Barbary Coast, plague, Alcatraz ghosts) staged with actors, scenery and special effects. In one of these tableaux, it was a shivery thrill to be Shanghai’d by none other than our friend the arts writer Erin Blackwell, playing a runner who ferried drugged victims out to a ship headed for white slavery in China. We always knew that would be our fate.

Later Blackwell told us about her role, “Nikko is a true historical character, originally from Lapland, although no one does that accent!” Great ghoulish fun!

And we had fun at F-Wharf. We like a neighborhood that knows how to play games. More info: hotelzephyrsf.com, electrictourcompany.com, sanfrancisco.thedungeons.com.

End note

Newspaper correction of the week, found in The New York Times Magazine. “Because of an editing error, an article on March 26 about Hawaii gave an incorrect English translation of the Hawaiian word ‘Kilauea.’ It is ‘much spreading,’ not ‘mush spreading.’” Mush obliged.t

SFS

Principal Trombone of the San Francisco Symphony Timothy Higgins.

sioned, managed to say an awful lot in just six minutes. From bluesy and introspective to anguished and finally pacified, the beautiful work for trombone and piano alerted us to a real emerging talent.

That is just one of the rewards offered by the SoundBox experience.

As a sort of music appreciation and history course wrapped up in an atmosphere of discovery and renewal, the Higgins-curated Bell

Curve further demonstrated the possibilities of the concept.

It is also a singular pleasure seeing familiar faces from the DSH main stage in casual attire, getting their licks in a hip nightclub.

SoundBox wants to knock down the stereotype of classical musicians as stuffed shirts, and believe me, Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik looked right at home under the colored lights.t

On the web

This week, find Victoria A. Brownworth’s Lavender Tube column, “Mother of all bombshell TV,” and Out & About online at ebar.com.

t

Theatre>>

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Austin Hargrave

BERNADETTE PETERS

MARIO CANTONE and JERRY DIXON

SPENCER DAY

May 13

June 2 – 3

June 16 – 17

Rita Moreno: “I’ve always had gay friends.”

<<

Rita Moreno

From page 13

Moreno’s award was a pivotal moment in Oscar history. She was a Latina actress playing a Latina role at a time when people of color were largely invisible in the movies.

Moreno was the first Latina to take home the coveted statue for acting.

“I was beside myself,” Moreno tells the B.A.R. “I thought Judy Garland would win for Judgment at Nuremberg. When my name was called I could not believe it! My mom was there, it was so wonderful.”

Yet Moreno spent the next seven years doing TV and theatre. “I was offered a lot of parts that were lesser versions of Anita in West Side Story,” she recalls. “Show business, gotta love it!”

But Moreno persevered. Eventually good film roles came her way again. She went on to become the first performer to win all five major performing awards: an Oscar, a Tony, a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Grammy. She was awarded a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, plus Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Screen Actors Guild and Kennedy Center Honors, among many other awards.

Moreno, who will be performing at Feinstein’s at the Nikko on April 21 & 22, won her Tony Award for The Ritz, a screamingly funny Broadway farce set in a gay bathhouse. Moreno played Googie Gomez, a no-talent but lovable girl from the barrio who performed for the scantily clad bathhouse patrons. She reprised that role for the 1976 movie version of The Ritz. She retains a strong gay following and is a staunch community ally.

“My gay following started with The Ritz,” she said. “I’ve always had gay friends. My best friend as a teen was Eddie, a gay Cuban kid.

We would laugh and laugh. I’d love to see him now.”

One person from her past with whom she remains in contact is West Side Story co-star George Chakiris, who also won an Oscar for the film. “George is my daughter’s godfather,” she said. “He’s a dear friend.”

Moreno is also quite fond of actress Fran Drescher, who played her

onscreen daughter in the TV Land series Happily Divorced. The sitcom was about a woman (Drescher) whose best friend is her gay exhusband. The series was produced

by Drescher and her real-life gay ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson.

“I loved working with Fran,” Moreno said. “She’s good people.

She and Peter were always hugging each other. The show was hilariously funny and had delicious writers.”

Moreno was surprised when Happily Divorced was cancelled after two seasons. “I have a feeling it was marketed improperly,” she said. “Maybe the show wasn’t right for TV Land. We had a great cast.

Fran tried very hard to sell it to another network.”

Currently Moreno is appearing on the Netflix reboot of the 1970s sitcom One Day at a Time.

“I’m so happy to be there,” she said. “I’m 85, and I have this sensational series. We’ve been picked up for a second season.” She expressed her affection for 94-year-old Norman Lear, who produced the original series and is again producing.

Moreno reports that he’s on set everyday and is still at the top of his game.

Moreno has no plans of slowing down. She continues to appear in films and on TV, and to perform her cabaret act around the country.

To look at her today, one might think that she’s in her 60s.

“I’m very flattered,” she said.

“I’ve always had good genes. For years my career suffered because I couldn’t play my age.”

Moreno declined to give too much information about her upcoming show at Feinstein’s. She wants to surprise people. “I’ll do Broadway stuff,” she said. “They’ll be funny pieces because I love to be funny. I’ll do songs that I like. I have to like the songs that I do.”

She’ll also be telling stories about her wonderful life. She mentioned her former boyfriend, the great actor Marlon Brando, as someone she might share stories about.

“You could call the show scrambled eggs,” Moreno said with a laugh.t Rita Moreno plays Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 4/21-22, 222 Mason St., SF. Tickets ($50-$90): feinsteinsatthenikko.com.

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

<< Theatre

16 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Youthful passions end in tragedy

by Richard Dodds

S

un Valley is a blue dot in the red state of Idaho. But when a local theater company put on a 2010 staged reading of My Name Is Rachel Corrie in Ketchum, the area’s major metropolitan area with a population of 2,700, you’d think Jane Fonda was a surprise speaker at a Tea Party convention. The parents of the late American political activist, whose youthful passions centered on Palestinian rights when she was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, were present for a talkback after the readings, and found themselves on the wrong side of a verbal firing squad.

Charlotte Hemmings, who played Corrie in the one-woman play, was thrown off-balance. “I think ‘sickening’ is a good word for what happened,” she recently said from Ketchum, where she is in rehearsals with director Jonathan Kane for a fully staged production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie that begins a run at the Magic Theatre on April 27. “There was very strong anger and love on both sides of the conflict, and the Corries took it very well,” Hemmings said. “They reminded people that, hey, we lost our little baby girl when she was just 23, so take it easy. There’s a universality in that kind of loss, and if people can’t set aside their politics to see that, that’s a shame.”

But before anyone in such swathes of progressive blue as New York and San Francisco tut-tut at Sun Valley intolerance, Rachel Cor-

rie certainly pushed buttons in both these locales. My Name Is Rachel Corrie, compiled by late actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner from Corrie’s journals and letters home, had a well-received premiere in London in 2005, where it won multiple awards. A transfer was planned the next year to New York Theatre Workshop, where Rent had its debut and such notable playwrights as Caryl Churchill and Tony Kushner have unveiled new works, but the theater started getting blowback from many of Jewish interests, and the show was “indefinitely postponed.”

And we cannot forget what happened when the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival scheduled the documentary Rachel as part of its 2009 events. The festival board’s president stepped down from her role in protest, opening ceremonies were boycotted, and the Israel Consul General said it was a “big mistake to invite Mrs. Corrie” to participate in another talkback. But the movie was shown as scheduled, and Craig and Cindy Corrie will be at talkbacks following the May 3 and 4 performances at the Magic.

Rachel Corrie was in the Gaza Strip in 2003 as part of a senioryear project at Evergreen State College in her native Olympia, Wash., and on the day of her death she was either intentionally or accidentally run over by a bulldozer that may have been razing Palestinian homes or clearing bush. Investigations and lawsuits followed, with the Israeli courts declaring it an

Heart of darkness

by David Lamble

F

ilmmaker Terry George tackled a heartbreaking tragedy in his Oscar-honored 2004 drama Hotel Rwanda. The film humanized the savagery and astonishing loss of life that occurred when one tribal group systematically slaughtered men, women and children from a rival tribe. The world, including the American government (under then-President Bill Clinton), largely stood by as blood flowed across an important African nation. The core of the film’s appeal lies in the heroic actions of a previously non-political hotel manager played with humor and pluck by African American actor Don Cheadle.

Now George (with co-screenwriter Robin Swicord) returns with an equally tragic and equally misunderstood subject: the savage 1914 slaughter of approximately 1.5 million Armenian men, women

and children by authorities and soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to today’s modern Turkish state.

Worldly wisdom

by Jim Piechota

Make Trouble by John Waters; Algonquin Books, $14.95

A

s Graduation Day nears, high school and college seniors anticipate the rush of freedom and the ring of true adulthood right on their doorsteps. Who better to provide a salutary send-off into that great unknown than our own so-called “People’s Pervert” and “Prince of Puke,” John Waters? At 70, the outspoken author, actor, screenwriter, and film director relishes telling it like it is, not mincing words about the state of the world.

Commencement speeches are congratulatory to those receiv-

ing worldly advice before that final farewell. But in the hands of a “filth elder” like Waters, it can also be meant as a stern adieu, a pointed warning, the permission to say “Fuck it, I’m free!” and a proverbial kick-in-the-pants to unleash creativity. Waters’ new book Make Trouble is just that, the hilarious 72-page transcription of a commencement speech Waters gave to the 2015 graduating class of the Rhode Island School of Design, which went viral in its entirety.

Complemented by the penand-ink artwork of Eric Hanson, Waters immediately disqualifies himself as a distinguished speaker to creative artists about to enter the

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accident precipitated by a careless woman who had put herself in harm’s way.

Stories emerged after her death suggesting she was affiliated with Hamas, or at least sympathized with the organization, a notion her parents refute.

“I think Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner did such a beautiful job in creating the play from her words,” Hemmings said. “They don’t paint her as a saint or martyr, but a young idealist with a spark of brilliance who deserves to be shown for all of who she was instead of this really political symbol.”

Of course, Corrie didn’t plan on dying, and her writings were not intended as anything other than observations for herself and for her parents. The fact is Kirsten Shultz that Rachel Corrie’s name Charlotte Hemmings will play would not have lived on had she not been such an impas- a young American activist killed by sioned, vivid chronicler of an Israeli bulldozer in the one-woman what she was experiencing. My Name Is Rachel Corrie coming to The play doesn’t even start the Magic Theatre. in Gaza, but goes back as far as her childhood journals, has become about her death,” Hemwhere she was already imagining mings said. “She was just reporting her role as a future peacemaker back on what she was seeing and while trying to plan how her first what she was feeling, and she was encounter with an ex-boyfriend such an amazing writer that if she will go. Emails between Rachel and were alive today, plays and novels her parents then become the basis would be pouring out of her.” of the latter half of the play.

The staged readings in Ketchum “I don’t think she would be very were done at nexStage, a small pleased with the idea that her life theater that Hemmings’ father, the

late British actor David Hemmings (Blow-Up), helped establish during a retreat from Hollywood. He played such roles as Scrooge and Dracula there, while Charlotte was playing various roles in children’s productions before graduating to the theater’s main productions.

The elder Hemmings relocated to London when his career as a character actor began picking up, while Charlotte and her mother, a set decorator, remained in Ketchum.

Hemmings and her husband relocated to Portland two years ago to work as graphic designers, and to have a baby, and she put her acting career on the backburner. The same production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie coming to the Magic was staged in New York in 2015, and helped get her theatrical fires recharged.

“But I was really scared about going into New York because of what happened the first time they tried to stage it in New York, and then what happened in Sun Valley,” Hemmings said. “We were really shocked by how welcoming everyone in New York was. The lobby was packed after each performance with people taking part in a very benign and non-aggressive discourse. If art can do that, then it’s doing its job.”t

Like his earlier plunge into the heart of human darkness, George takes us to a palpably real land, with fabulous vistas, beautiful mountain ranges, peopled by tribes who seem to feel no common bond of humanity. The ruling Turks were mostly Muslim, while the Armenians were mostly Christian. The good thing, but the tricky thing, about The Promise is that at the core of the film is a vibrant, confusing romantic triangle among Michael, an idealistic young medical student (a passionate Oscar Isaac); a lovely young woman, Ana (Charlotte Le Bon); and Ana’s boyfriend, the studly American photojournalist Chris (star character Christian Bale).

While actual foreplay and lovemaking take a distinct backseat to the growing violence that engulfs the characters, the romantic dalliances will distract the more martial-minded from the

60s folksinger in 2011’s Inside Llewyn Davis. He demonstrated a knack for folkie scenes along with a gift for odd Coen-style comedy riffs where he competed for laughs with a scene-stealing alley cat.

A true test for The Promise will come when it hits the Castro Theatre calendar. It should be paired with a great David Lean history epic: Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago. Whatever quibbles history purists might have with Lean, there’s no question that he maintained a crystal-clear narrative line. Even history novices knew exactly what was going on. In The Promise, there was a whole chapter involving a firing squad execution where I was truly confused about where we were in the story.

This is a film for which the MPAA ratings only hint at the levels of historical tragedy and human misery: PG-13 for material including war atrocities, violence, disturbing images, and some sexuality.t

workforce of art and design. He admits to being suspended from high school, expelled from college, and having “built a career out of negative reviews.”

Still, Waters calls new graduates lucky. When he went to school, he was discouraged from dreaming, crossing boundaries, or thinking “outside the box.”

He encourages participation in the creative world these fresh minds seek to break into: read, visit galleries, see movies,

film’s real mission: to make clear that this terrible moment in history had disastrous repercussions.

The Armenian genocide would be cited as precedent and excuse by no less a practitioner of terror against civilians than Adolph Hitler.

The Promise can also be faulted for a plot that is so dense that even attentive viewers can be excused for wondering, What’s going on here? It’s one of the few times when a prologue or pre-film scroll would have been helpful for history-attention-deficit American audiences. To be successful, dramatic films must accomplish an orchestration of emotion, which mostly eludes the makers of The Promise.

The film does allow us the pleasure of observing the continued evolution of the Central American-born, handsome lead actor Oscar Isaac into a movie star. Fans of the Coen Bros.’ off-kilter resume may remember Isaac as the early-

The Sawtooth Productions presentation of My Name Is Rachel Corrie will run April 27-May 14 at the Magic Theatre. Tickets are $50. Call (415) 441-8822 or go to magictheatre.org.

people-watch, be nosy, curious, and take time to eavesdrop, he insists. As Waters did with his notorious film Pink Flamingos, have fun launching sneak attacks on society while resisting isolation. Design, horrify, and outrage, Waters urges, but don’t forget to count your blessings along the way.

Waters’ sage advice will resonate long after this book’s covers are closed. Fight the norm and enjoy “the first day of your new adult disobedience,” but also don’t be too much of an outsider that you don’t allow yourself to get in there and screw with everything. “Go out into the world and fuck it up beautifully,” Waters demands. He’s done it in spades. Now it’s your turn.t

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Film>>

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Green films for a better future

by Erin Blackwell

M

ovies are synonymous with escape. It’s a downer for some people to have to watch a film about reality. Yet images can tell startling truths in memorable ways, and independent films can escape the pressures of the military-industrial-Hollywood complex of propaganda fabrication and dissemination. Our town is blessed to be the home of a most forwardthinking film festival, and no, it’s not about drones, driverless cars, or life on Mars. The Green Film Festival raises consciousness of consequences to the ecosystem of human activities. Tonight through April 26, at the Castro, Roxie, and 518 Valencia, catch up on the latest planet-saving techniques.

Two dozen feature-length documentaries, a dozen short films and animated shorts are complemented by discussions with filmmakers and conservationists. Activism, agriculture, art, biodiversity, deforestation, fish, food, gardening, giraffes, homelessness, lead, nuclear power, oil, plastic, rivers, Trump, whales, and wilderness are some of the areas explored. Bolivia, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Haiti, Italy,

New Zealand, Russia, Scotland, and Syria are among the countries covered, although Anglophone producers dominate, chiefly USA, UK, and Canada.

It’s hard to know where to start after deciding to change the world for the better, even in so simple a matter as picking which socially conscious film to watch. Might I suggest giraffes? As a docent at the zoo, I’ve seen them up-close and met Dr. Julian Fennessey, their point man in Africa. It seems unbelievable this iconic species could be allowed, or rather forced, to disappear. There’s a complex web of reasons why these great and beautiful creatures are now facing extinction: colonial slaughter of African animals, exploitation of native resources by foreign agents, civil disorder and political breakdown driven by global corporate greed.

Get the facts while it’s still time to act. The Last of the Longnecks.

(Roxie, 4/22) Then there’s nuclear power, the insane risk we’re forced to live with by the experts. This septuagenarian hobgoblin is represented by a stream-of-consciousness archival montage, Atomic: Living in Dread & Promise (Roxie, 4/21), and two vintage features: one fictional

comedy, one documentary tragedy.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) has a testosterone overdrive that echoes the current White House. Stanley Kubrick’s knife-edge satire about the idiots in charge of the atom bomb features an embarrassment of great performances, including Peter Sellers’

Green Film Festival

Scene from Evolution of Organic, one of the films screening at the Green Film Festival.

Laugh like an Italian

by Erin Blackwell

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e inhabit a culture in which cinematic output is monopolized by Hollywood. The sad thing is, most of the world is similarly swamped by Tinseltown trash.

These huge-budget, bloated-star juggernauts based on comic-book heroes so dominate the world’s screens there’s hardly any room left for art. Here in San Francisco, a defiant outpost of dissident film, hard-bitten programmers persist in screening vintage, silent, independent, and on all-too-rare occasions, foreign films. When the op arises, you must seize it. So it is with the single-day mini-fest of Dino Risi films at the Castro Theatre this Saturday.

Four films and a party celebrate the Italian director born 100 years ago, in a program by Luce Cinecittà recently seen at New York’s MoMa. This is a history lesson and a nostalgic revisiting of the 1960s, when Italian film was an exciting presence at neighborhood movie theaters. Back then, Hollywood itself was making emotion-driven, human-scale narratives about or-

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Larry Sultan

From page 13

Organized by project, it samples his 35-year output from early collaborative ventures and black & white photos to his staged documentary-style images. Three narrative bodies of work, executed in saturated “living” color – The Valley, Homeland, and the remarkable Pictures from Home (also published in book form) – are complemented by the artist’s engaging written reflections on himself and the work at hand. Rather than an afterthought or an affectation, his commentary and insights are an integral part of the viewer’s experience.

Influenced by a West Coast version of Conceptualism, Evidence (1975-77), exploring appropriation and context, exemplifies work Sultan did with Mike Mandel, a fellow grad student he met in 1973 at the San Francisco Art Institute. After carefully selecting black & white

titular crypto Nazi and Sterling Hayden’s bomb-straddling fourstar general. (Roxie, 4/25) Dark Circle (1982) is a masterpiece of poetical political storytelling, piecing together personal anecdote, archival footage, and in-depth reporting to guide the viewer from the end-of-war nuclear bombing of Nagasaki to the

Cinema Italia SF

Vittorio Gassman (right) and Jean-Louis Trintignant co-star in director Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso (The Easy Life).

dinary people. American artists weren’t yet afraid of “cheapening the brand” (a term not yet in use) by acknowledging the influence and inspiration of Italian movies.

Italy, let’s face it, has a rich heritage of visual, theatrical, architectural genius to steal from.

Comedy is a notoriously underrated genre, because people are too busy laughing to take it seriously. Comedy, among writers and performers, is considered much

harder than drama. The Italians might be said to have invented comedy in the Western World, being the inheritors of Greek theater, and much later the creators of Commedia dell’arte, itself the basis of modern theater. The stock characters of Commedia live on in Dino Risi’s films, as do the trenchant philosophical insights into human character. We laugh at the human comedy, only to keep from crying.

Vittorio Gassman is the tall,

pictures culled from the archives of corporations and government institutions like NASA and the EPA, they produced a compendium of thoughtfully sequenced, unidentified found objects and cultural artifacts whose ambiguous meaning is left open to interpretation.

There are some choice images here: a space suit with or without an occupant laying face down on a carpet; crushed landing gear, a gloved hand clasping a noose; a corpse halfway out of a body bag; a car ablaze; and hospital beds misplaced on an expanse of grassy lawn.

A canny and subversive photographer who on occasion took assignments from magazines such as W, Interview and Maxim, Sultan often shot in banal domestic settings that aren’t as innocuous as they initially appear. It’s tempting to dismiss the slick surfaces of Sultan’s glossy color photographs as too easy, but resistance is futile when confronted by the gravitational

pull exerted by Pictures from Home (1983-92), a series in which he invested nearly 10 years scrutinizing his childhood and family history, rummaging through snapshots, scrapbooks and home movies from which he made stills. In the contemporary photographs he shot of his mother and father in the L.A. suburbs and the well-manicured habitat of their Palm Desert retirement community, Sultan lures you into the theater of his parents’ relationship, stuck in outdated gender roles and distant from each other in ways that likely went challenged after a long marriage. His mother’s rigid posture, tight-shouldered, terribly slim, pampered and perfectly groomed in a pink silk charmeuse blouse and white pants, speaks volumes about the era. The pictures also follow the trajectory of Sultan’s father Irving, who gave up a successful sales executive job See page 20 >>

handsome, charismatic, athletic, joyous, foolish, shameless, dazzlingly versatile leading man of all four films. At 1 p.m., in Il mattatore (Love and Larceny, 1960), he plays a con man, thief, and master of disguise, in homage to the trickery rampant in post-war Rome under reconstruction. At 3:30 p.m., Profumo di donna (Scent of a Woman, 1974) is the original of the 1992 Pacino remake. At 6 p.m., Jean-Louis Trintignant co-stars in Il sorpasso (The Easy Life, 1962), a road movie bromance. At 10 p.m., I mostri (literally, The Monsters, 1963) features Gassman and fellow chameleon Ugo Tognazzi in a series of scathing sketches, both comic and tragic, about hypocrisy and betrayal. The first and final films are 35mm, the middle two newly restored DCP. The reason to go to these movies is to see comedy in its most tragic form. At the end of the press screening of I mostri, I was weeping. I couldn’t take the wisdom. I’m so used to distracting trash and the unchallenged reign of narcissism, in which no folly is questioned.

Now that everyone’s turned into

domestic battleground of nuclear power plants. Directors Judy Irving, Christopher Beaver, and Ruth Landy depict the criminal folly of the government’s testing in the Southwest, and the dilemma of families in range of the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado. The film ends on the fleeting success of direct action against the Diablo Canyon Plant in California. The gentle thoughtfulness of the voiceover makes this condemnation of the nuclear age a nail-biting heartbreaker. (Roxie, 4/23, in 35mm) The crazy thing about Homo sapiens is the extent to which we’re hell-bent on destroying the environment we’re completely dependent on to survive. Not to mention every other species. Green Fest presents films that don’t lie about the damage we’re doing, and even better, demonstrate the possibility of resisting, stopping, and reversing mass-murder trends in human behavior. These films put the bad news into a context from which good news can emerge. The Fest does its best to provide opportunities for feedback at every screening, plus workshops, speakers, and even a 5 p.m. Happy Hour at 518 Valencia over the weekend. Be there or be in denial. greenfilmfest.org.t

robots staring at selfies, it’s a jolt to watch clear-eyed vignettes skewering corruption and deceit as relevant here and now as they were there and then. This is comedy at its most devastating: philosophic and political, speaking truth to power, and alternately breaking your heart with its compassion for small lives ruined.

Amelia Antonucci is the local point-person for these brief flashes of Italian cinematic genius that light up the Castro screen once a year. She briefed me on the censoring of I mostri, the must-see masterpiece of this mini-fest. The film was withdrawn from distribution and chopped up, and there is still no DVD. That’s too bad, because I’d like it watch it again and again.

Centuries of Italian theatrical know-how are condensed into its two-hour run-time. Make sure you’re wide awake for the 10 p.m. screening, you won’t want to miss a thing. Spoiler alert: Gassman does an amazing Callas-inspired drag.t Tickets are $12 per screening, party: $15. All-access pass: $60.

Info: CinemaItaliaSF.com.

<< Music

18 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Symphonic sanctuaries

by Tim Pfaff

“A

syla are places of safety,” commentator Paul Griffiths begins his album notes on a new, composer-conducted recording of Thomas Ades’ Asyla, the 1997 work that still holds pride of place among the out composer’s works for full orchestra (LSO Live). “We are all of us asylum-seekers. Asyla are also places of confinement. We may all of us, at times, feel ourselves to be living in a madhouse.” He ends his thought with a conjecture that concert halls, and musical forms such as the symphony, may be asyla “where we feel at home, or once felt at home.”

No sector in our musical universe feels less at home than the composers, now chafing at the limitations, the putative exhaustion, of the means of the standard orchestral ensemble. Not infrequently, that resistance tells on audiences.

For a generation now, Ades – along with his fellow gay Brit George Benjamin, whose music could be described verbally in many of the same terms, though the two men’s scores are both immediately recognizable and essentially different – has been a notable exception.

Audiences hearing Ades’ dense, complex scores, whose instrumentation rarely wanders beyond extensions like Mahler’s and Messiaen’s, know instinctively that

they are not being zoomed by a prankster, that the composer is in every particular mindful of both form and content, both of which are deployed to evoke emotional responses in listeners that may well venture into taxing extremes but whose primary purpose is not to assault. The intrinsic value of this aesthetic can hardly be overstated.

Among living composers, Ades, who is also a formidable conductor and pianist, has a current reputation poor old Arnold Schoenberg

Women on top

by Gregg Shapiro

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ould we have Mitski without queer artist St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark)? It’s hard to ignore St. Vincent’s influence. But Mitski is

her own artist on Puberty 2 (Dead Oceans), beginning with the stuttering beat and fluttering vocal of “Happy,” a song that morphs from experimental to pure pop and back again. Her loud-quiet-loud approach

would die again for. This live CD (two discs, including a Blu-ray and a SACD) derives from two 2016 London Symphony Orchestra concerts, one of which included Asyla, the other an all-Ades program comprised of the works Tevot, Polaris and “Brahms.”

What strikes you about Ades’ 2016 Asyla is how different it is from the earlier versions by Simon Rattle, the LSO’s incoming conductor who was a trenchant advocate of Ades’ work as music director of

on “Best American Girl” suits the subject’s drama. Prepare yourself for the shift from the shrieking punk of “My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars” to the exquisite ballad “Thursday Girl.” Like puberty, there is never

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the powerful Berlin Philharmonic, opening his 2002 inaugural concert in Berlin with Asyla, after making its first commercial recording with his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1997.

Rattle’s is a relentless, riling, often scathing performance that tilts the balance of the asylum idea in the direction of the insane. With no sacrifice of acuity, Ades’ Asyla feels more lived in, more rounded, more balanced – which makes the ways it rocks out, particularly in the techno-tinged third movement Ecstasio, all the more pulsepounding. But there’s a feeling here that Ades rightly trusts a piece that has, for all the challenges it poses, held its own.

Tevot (2005-06), which Rattle also took to Berlin, is a bark on a different sea. The intellectually playful composer jostles the Hebrew word of the title, which means bars, between an almost graphic sense of the measure-bars of music, and the associations the word has with the reed basket with which Moses’ mother floated him to safety on the Nile. That’s a lot of cargo, but in this directly affecting work, Ades floats it by and through the listener.

It’s a work of mostly quiet, stratospheric extremes, with high music falling out of silence like manna from heaven. It merges with an Ivesian sense of layering musics of

many characters (including, again, the club, in an identifiably gay sense). In its final third, violins at the upper extremes of their pitches usher in a buoyant tune that carries the piece to its consoling, ambiguously calm conclusion.

Polaris (2010), the program’s final, single-movement “symphony,” was performed at Davies in 2011 by the SF Symphony under MTT, accompanied, as it was at its premiere in Miami with MTT’s New World Symphony, by a video projection by Ades’ partner, Tal Rosner. In another indication of the power of Ades’ music, there seems to have been agreement that, while Rosner’s atmospheric video did not detract, the substance was in the orchestra (in which a brass choir is placed at the back of the hall for an antiphonal effect). It’s a Richard Strauss- and ape-free 2001 space odyssey and my favorite Ades orchestral score. The brass choir runs offense through the skittering, star-spangled orchestral canvas as the score surges from event to event, and the ethereal sections are transporting. It has no significant competition on CD. The concluding “Brahms,” a five-minute setting for baritone of an Alfred Brendel poem about the 19th-century titan, skirts parody while making a declaration of independence. It’s a tart coda to this glorious symphonic trilogy.t

a dull moment on this album. Mitski makes an indelible impression with “Crack Baby,” “Dan the Dancer” and “Fireworks.”

Jesca Hoop released her debut album in 2007. Ten years later, she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves with Memories Are Now (Sub Pop). Hoop continues to be unconventional in the best possible way. The opening title-cut is one of the more accessible tunes, but it’s no cookie-cutter Katy Perry song.

It’s a bare-bones affair augmented by layered choral vocals. “Animal Kingdom Chaotic” is sure to appeal to LGBT fans of Little Britain with its “Computer says no” echo.

Endorsed by Hillary Clinton’s former running mate Tim Kaine, Lucy Dacus makes her debut with No Burden (Matador). That’s quite a distinction, and it’s easy to understand the appeal. Dacus’ honeyand-smoke voice conveys every inch of an emotion, and her songs, beginning with “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” pack an emotional wallop. “Troublemaker Doppelganger” alternates between the blues and a modern rock gallop.

Medicine for Birds (Warner Brothers) is the debut album by young

singer-songwriter Angelica Garcia, a natural folkie (“Bridge on Fire”), front-porch stomper (“Woman, I’m Hollerin’”), modern blues blaster (“Orange Flower”), balladeer (“Loretta Lynn”) and twangy torch singer (“Call Me Later”). Medicine for Birds is a fine introduction to an artist with much to offer.

The rocky coast photo on the cover of Sallie Ford’s Soul Sick (Vanguard) is an indication that these songs are a different kind of beach music. The vintage vibe of “Screw Up” and “Hurts So Bad” might have you thinking about doing The Jerk in a polka-dot bikini atop a beach blanket. But the lyrics are about more than finding the perfect wave. Don’t neglect to dig that Farfisa on “Get Out.” Taking its title Freedom Highway (Nonesuch) from the “Pops” Staples song that closes the disc, Rhiannon Giddens’ second solo album mines a vintage vein. Giddens writes and performs in a style that honors the past. She strikes a balance between folk and soul styles that call on the past (“The Love We Almost Had”) and the present (“Better Get It Right the First Time”), sometimes within the same song.t

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DVD>>

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Complications of faith & sexuality

by Brian Bromberger

C

ounselor: “Gay doesn’t exist.

It’s a false identity.” Teen: “This isn’t my choice. Why would I choose this?” Counselor: “If you’re a moral person, you choose heterosexuality in order to be with God.” These are the chilling first words of the new DVD I Am Michael (PassionRiver Films), showing the transformation of Michael Glatze from gay activist to Christian pastor who renounces his homosexual identity. Based on “My Ex-Gay Friend” in The New York Times Magazine, a true story by Glatze’s former colleague Benoit Denizet-Lewis, I Am Michael controversially launched Frameline in 2015, drawing skepticism about its suitability as opening-night feature. With its DVD release, audiences can evaluate the feature on its own merits.

After its present-day revelation, I Am Michael flashes back to 1998 San Francisco, where Glatze (James Franco) is the ebullient managing editor of the gay male youth-oriented magazine and social network XY, reaching out to confused young men in the closet with positive gay

role models. He is conversant in queer theory, believing gay and straight are social constructs. He is in a happy long-term relationship with architect boyfriend Bennett (Zachary Quinto). The couple moves to Halifax, Nova Scotia when Bennett gets a job offer.

They meet college physics student Tyler (Charlie Carver) and evolve into a threesome. Glatze starts a new magazine, YGA (Young Gay America), catering to queer and questioning youth. Bored by the quiet environment, he convinces Tyler and Bennett to accompany him on a cross-country tour to make a documentary, Jim in Bold, about the struggles of LGBT youth.

Here he encounters gay Christian youth trying to integrate their sexuality and spirituality, which begins a long crisis of faith for Michael. This is complicated by his guilt over not being present at the death of his mother due to cancer when he was 19. He has also not recovered from his father dying of a hereditary heart condition. Studying the Bible, he starts to see his homosexuality as incompatible with his salvation. He separates from a disbelieving Bennett and Tyler, an-

Power broker

by David Lamble

I

n the complicated but enjoyable new comedy-drama Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, a small-time financial schemer (Richard Gere, exuding chutzpah) befriends a struggling Israeli politician by gifting him a $1,200 pair of shoes.

When the pol becomes Prime Minister, Norman enjoys a brief moment in the sun before his inevitable crash to earth.

Oscar-nominated director Joseph Cedar, whose 2011 Israeli father-son rivalry piece Footnote neatly plowed similar comic soil, is adept at crafting characters who in less skilled hands might feel stereotypical. The filmmaker also aces the trick of casting against type.

Here, Italian-American character actor Steve Buscemi feels perfectly at home as the raging chief rabbi of a NYC congregation whose future Norman’s shenanigans put at risk. If Norman has a flaw, it’s in its complicated plot, which feels like the pilot for an HBO miniseries.

But as played by one-time matinee idol Gere, Norman delivers laughs and an apt message for the mor-

ally slippery Trump era. While the audience may wince at Norman’s more audacious schemes in this comedy of humiliation, the targets of his scams are pathetically grateful to be given a kind of free lottery ticket that later proves no more than an expensive booby prize.

There’s not much in the way of a romantic subplot, although Norman’s train-station encounter with the lovely Alex Green (Charlotte Gainsbourg) does provide an amusing interlude, which pays off in a scene where Alex spots Norman pretending to be somewhere he’s not. Norman’s ability to cover his tracks via digital technology provides another reason for counting Cedar’s comedy among the potential hits of a still young film season.

One of the unexpected delights of Norman is the American debut of the resourceful Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi as Micha Eshel, a politician hungry for higher office. The recipient of the shoes (itself a very wry moment), Eshel is the only one of Norman’s “clients” who feels not only indebted to, but really quite grateful to have crossed his path.

nouncing on his blog that he is a Christian heterosexual with a homosexual problem, and that homosexuality leads to damnation.

Crucified by a betrayed gay community and lauded by the religious right, Glatze retreats to a Buddhist meditation center after meeting a young gay Buddhist, Nico (Avan Jogia), who he feels is tempting him. Feeling delivered, he studies for the ministry at a Bible school in Wyoming. He meets a young woman, Rebekah (Emma Roberts), who can accept his past. They are engaged, though not much ardor is evident. He opens his own church as he prepares to wed Rebekah, making a final, heartbreaking phone call to Bennett, saying he will pray for him.

In his debut feature, writer-director Justin Kelly, a protege of executive producer Gus Van Sant, paints Glatze as neither villain nor hero. This gives the film a detached feel, allowing viewers to make up their

mind about him, yet keeping us at arm’s length. The film focuses on Michael’s inner anguish revealed through voiceovers, so we are told what happens rather than showed.

There are few confrontations with other characters. The movie can never decide if this is a genuine religious conversion or an unstable man coming apart at the seams.

With public curiosity about his own sexuality, Franco is perhaps the ideal actor to portray Glatze. He manages to engender compassion for an often-unlikable character. He is matched by Quinto, who, in his few scenes, conveys sadness, gentleness, wit, and levelheadedness. We never doubt that this couple loved each other, and that Michael will always have unresolved feelings toward men. The film raises questions about the destructive role of labels, and there are ways to reconcile being gay and Christian. Yet I Am Michael sidesteps these issues, producing a bland film that will divide viewers, an inevitable result of such a contentious figure.t

Devotees of the CBS drama The Good Wife will enjoy seeing where Josh Charles disappeared to. Charles’ longtime fans will recall him as the gay roommate/French film buff in the 1993 comedy-drama Threesome.

But Charles is such a strong screen presence that his cameo turn in Norman may seem more a tease than a fully fleshed character. If Charles played Norman, you’d have a very

different movie.

One of the gifts that a densely plotted comedy can offer is a glimpse at how other folks live that is neither condescending nor incomprehensible. In my case, exposure to the big-screen treatment afforded the novels of CanadianJewish author Mordecai Richler (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz) was a plunge into the

rigors of “Jewish anti-Semitism.”

Richler created protagonists who pushed so hard to escape Montreal’s St. Urban Street ghetto that the undiscerning might regard them as offensive rather than the latter-day Dickensian strivers I found them to be. I’m glad to proclaim that Gere’s Norman Oppenheimer is fit to join their company as a flawed but engaging mensch. (Opens Friday.)t

We are the future of the LGBT community.

Sony Pictures Classics

Richard Gere as the title character in director Joseph Cedar’s Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.

“The world still has its challenges but things are getting better. From the way we first met on line to marriage equality to our daughter’s upcoming Quinceañera our life together is more fulfilling every day. We keep up with events and entertainment on EDGE, because that’s where we see our future at its brightest.”

The people depicted here are models. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< Fine Arts

20 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

<<

Larry Sultan

From page 17

at Schick rather than relocate to the green pastures of Connecticut.

A photograph of his cluttered desk is particularly poignant for reasons that are difficult to explain. Forced into early retirement, there he is in shorts, perfecting his golf swing in the back room of his house, or posed by the artist on the edge of his bed in a crisp blue suit, presumably with no particular place to go. “Maybe I’m a little bored, but I’m not longing for the old days or waiting for death,” his father said in reaction to the portrait. “Whose truth is it?” he asks. “It’s your picture but my image.” He has a point.

Ruminating on his dual role as participant and documentarian, Sultan observed: “It has more to do with love than with sociology, with being a subject in the drama rather than a witness. Beyond the rolls of film is the wish to stop time.

I want my parents to live forever.”

They died shortly after he finished the series. In a way, he made that wish a reality.

In The Valley (1997-2003), an outgrowth of a Maxim assignment to chronicle a day in the life of a porn star, kids play on the streets of Sultan’s old San Fernando Valley neighborhood while inside the pedestrian family houses, which

residents have rented out to porn productions, a pair of nubile blondes crouch on the floor between takes; a woman is slumped over a plastic patio chair awaiting her co-star’s entrance from behind; and a nude stud leans against the kitchen sink gazing out the window. Adult-film stars acting out sexual fantasies could be right next door, Sultan seems to be saying, but the conceit, a dichotomy between the domestic and the transactional, wears thin. The series is not nearly as moving as the deeply personal Pictures from Home, where he had more skin in the game. (Through July 23; sfmoma.org.)

Infrequently exhibited images from Sultan’s magazine projects and ad campaigns for high-end designers can be found in a separate satellite show at Casemore Kirkeby’s Minnesota Street Project gallery. For Porn Furniture, a Wallpaper magazine gig that coincided with his creation of The Valley, Sultan insisted on staging the sleek modern seating at an adult-film studio. He utilized the facility’s absurd, garish sets and must-have accouterments like handcuffs and stilettos, but shrewdly pulled back his camera to expose the shabby surroundings that belied the fantasy. The subtle puncturing of facades being one of his trademarks, Sultan’s memorable photo spread of rarified, un-self-aware members of the San Francisco high-society

Courtesy Casemore Kirkeby and Estate of Larry Sultan

Larry Sultan, “My Mother Posing for Me,” from the series Pictures from Home, 1984; chromogenic print.

crowd, which first appeared in W, pleased its subjects and stopped everyone else in their tracks. A killer

picture of socialite Denise Hale, photographed in her home next to an ill-fated Bengal tiger who made

the ultimate sacrifice for home décor, is on view. (Through June 10; casemorekirkeby.com.)t

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Shining Stars Vol. 47 • No. 16 • April 20-26, 2017

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

Big Freedia The Queen of Bounce at Mezzanine

by Cornelius Washington

I

t is rare that black gay male culture is expressed without filters or censors, and is allowed to be real. The music sensation known as Big Freedia is an entity who comes along ever so rarely.

See page 22 >>

Eddie Sarfaty

The gay comic’s a real ‘Chucklef*cker’

by Jim Gladstone

I

n December, Eddie Sarfaty was in town to do a fifteenminute stand-up set at Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, San Francisco’s annual showcase of Jewish comics in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. His set was not especially Jewish.

On Monday night, in a benefit performance for the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation, he’ll be back with a full hour at Oasis. It will not be especially gay.

See page 23 >>

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

@LGBTSF

@eBARnews

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

22 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

Big Freedia, in a regal photo shoot.

<<

Big Freedia

From page 21

It is still more rare, in the 21stcentury internet age, complete with social media and awful appropriation, that we see someone so warm and genuine.

Born Freddie Ross, Jr. in 1978, Big Freedia has been building a music reputation since 1999, with roots in his home of New Orleans. Soon

after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina evacuation, Big Freedia returned to perform at countless benefits, including FEMA Fridays at Club Caesar. Alternating between butch casual (jeans, a t-shirt, and a stylish hair flip) and high drag, Big Freedia defies gender categorization.

Along with the music title of Queen of Bounce, the hip hop musician was the subject of a five-season documentary TV series on Fuse.

You were also moved by the Set mostly in New Orleans, the show tragic killings at Orlando’s Pulse also included a New York World Bar as well, right?

Record twerking event.

When that tragedy happened, I Along with being sampled in got a tattoo that reads, “Love Wins,” Beyoncé’s “Formation” song (and in its memory. I was very saddened bringing some New Orleans realby those people losing their lives to ness), Big Freedia has expanded his just nonsense, and my heart confame while also remaining one of the tinues to go out to their families, most charismatic people to reprefriends and loved ones who are still sented the LGBTQ community. His dealing with this situation. I am still autobiography God Save the Queen praying for them.

Diva was published last year, and the performer recently evaded prison after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $35,000 in federal housing voucher money.

But Big Freedia is most prominently known for popularizing twerking through shows and music, to some controversy. His shows have been occasionally protested and cancelled. In America, we have no problem hearing sexuality in music, but we disconnect when we see it in dance. What we in America need to realize is that the ass is anthropological, as is the shaking of it.

Once again, Big Freedia braces the Bay Area with uncut black gay realness and some of the most over-thetop beats at live performances.

On April 27, The Mezzanine will bounce and twerk and funk all over the place.

God Save the Queen Diva!, Cornelius Washington: Big Freedia’s autobiography.

You’ve performed all over the world. What cities seem How has your Gospel music exto be the most interested in perience informed your approach bounce music? to bounce music?

Big Freedia: Actually, all of them.

It’s connecting people to music They’re all excited, in every market, and bringing them together, from to hear bounce music, and to see a different cultures and walks of life. I little ass-shaking, too. am bringing them joy. When I directed choirs, I would put my hands up, What dance do men perform, and I would hear voices. Now, when I while the women are twerking? put my hands up, I’m directing asses.

There are several; The Peter Pan, The Shoulder Hustle, The Kick-Out. Were you nervous, the first They do quite a few dances. Even time that you recorded bounce with the girls, there’s more than just twerking. We do The Shake, The Wiggle-Wobble, The Bust-Open, The Bend-Over, etc. We do all kinds of movement.

t

music, in the studio?

Very! I was nervous about everything! It was something new for me.

I had been in studios before, but, it had been with choirs, like being in a family. I felt love, but when I first recorded bounce music, I walked into the studio by myself. I was alone with my producer. It was a new beginning for me, a new venture that I was taking on, and it was all-around nervousness.

With and for whom would you kill to produce a song?

Oh, my God, all the greats; Beyoncé, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, P. Diddy and Kanye West! I would produce for every damned body!

What were the easiest and most difficult aspects of your reality show?

The easiest was just me, being myself. Just being me. The most difficult was trying to have a personal life. Planning it was difficult, with all of the taping, etc., going on. When the show starts to air or when the show starts to tape, juggling the schedules.

What fan do you have who, in a million years, you’d have never thought would be a fan?

Beyoncé.

I’ve seen you talk about your amazing experiences with her.

She just a very humble person.

We’ve connected, and we’ve been friends ever since we worked together. She’s just so loving. People see her as just a big star, but at the end of the day, she’s a human being.

She wants to bring people joy and inspiration. I’m just very grateful for her.

This is the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death. Any comments?

Oh, my God! Legendary! He’s done wonderful things in the muSee page 23 >>

Let’s talk fashion. I love to see you wear your great printed suits.

Where do you get them?

Different places; I have a few people who design and make clothes for me. I go to tuxedo shops, high-end shops and high fashion stores. It just depends upon where I am, and in what city. I shop all over.

This month is the 49th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Any thoughts?

His legacy and contributions will live on forever. His memory, and all that he’s done for us, as a nation, will endure. We must educate our children, and their children, about what he’s done for our nation, as a whole.

Above: Big Freedia, about to introduce Beyoncé before the New Orleans Formation concert.

Below: A crowd favorite; Big Freedia at a recent performance.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Eddie Sarfaty

<<

Eddie Sarfaty

From page 21

“One of the things I love about stand-up comedy,” says Sarfaty, who’s been playing clubs, colleges, and cruises for more than 15 years, “is that it’s all about being who you are. You don’t have a playwright, you don’t have a director. It’s you.”

Like many comics, Sarfaty’s life is a source of creativity.

“I grew up in a New York Jewish family and still live in New York, so that’s a part of my material. I’m gay, so sure, that’s an element of my act.

But mainly it’s human. People understand stress, people understand feeling like an outsider, people have parents, and partners. I’ll talk about anything, family, relationships, pets, politics.”

Asked if he adjusts his set for different audiences, Sarfaty said, “There are probably five or six jokes that I don’t tell when I’m performing for a mainly straight audience. It’s not fair to the audience if they’re not likely to get certain references. But for the most part, straight people are appreciative when I do material about gay stuff. In a comedy club, usually all the guys who come on are straight and they complain about their girlfriends. So it’s refreshing when I come on, even if the audience isn’t gay.”

Sarfaty is particularly looking forward to his Oasis show because he’s been away from the mic since February, holed up at an artists’ retreat in Arizona, from which he spoke to Bay Area Reporter last week, before

<<

Big Freedia

From page 22

sic world. Even outside the music world. I’m very saddened by losing him. The memory and images of him will live on, and his music will be with us forever. I’d never seen him live, but I’m very grateful that he opened doors for people like me, to just be who they are, without apologizing for it.

Let’s discuss RuPaul. How did you begin working with him?

He’s legendary, very talented, very smart, very genuine. That’s Mother Ru! She loves me and I love her.

I was just very grateful when I got her phone call. I was very excited to work with her. I’ve been such a huge fan, for such a long time. I’m just very grateful that he reached out to me. He’s done great things for the LGBTQ community. He’s helped so many people, on so many levels.

He’s amazing; just a sweetheart.

I can definitely see you being a guest judge on his show. Do you think that that’s something you’d be interested in?

Very much! I’m waiting for it to happen. It’s way overdue.

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

finally heading home to New York just last weekend.

“I’m working on a novel,” he explains. “Writing can be so isolating. I’ve been staring at a computer for the past three months.”

While his work-in-progress –a quirky multi-generational family saga influenced by Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex and Katharine Dunn’s Geek Love– is Sarfaty’s first serious attempt at fiction, he published a well-received collection of humorous essays, Mental in the Head, in 2009.

“When it came out,” he recalls, “I had no illusions of being a writer. But the editor saw me doing stand up in Provincetown and asked if I could expand some of my anecdotes to turn them into a book. It sold well enough that I was asked to write another essay collection, but I felt like I’d used my best stories and didn’t necessarily want to try to find more at the bottom of the barrel.” (Augusten Burroughs, please take note).

The adventures in family life, dating, public transit and other mundanity that Sarfaty recounts in his essays share a generous, sweetnatured tone that also informs his stand-up. But Sarfaty says that writing jokes is markedly different than writing prose.

“The writing that’s closest to stand up is poetry,” he said. “Brevity really is the soul of wit. You want each word and syllable to serve a purpose. You build a rhythm, you take a turn, and then you spring a surprise.

“The quality of the writing is really important in comedy,” says Sarfaty, who teaches workshops for aspiring comics. “Especially when you’re new to it and people don’t know you as having some particular persona that you can work for laughs. The jokes have got to be written well.”

Sarfaty’s inspirations span the years of comic legends.

“I have such admiration for Henny Youngman and the old Borscht Belt style of comedy,” he said. “Oneliners are so elegant, they turn on the last word. If I tell a story on stage, it really needs to be a series of related jokes, with individual punchlines.

“I put a lot of work into jokes before they make it into my act. I’m not particularly fast at generating material. Writing my novel, I get to write and rewrite and refine, over and over. For stand up I need to

write something and try it out live.

And if it doesn’t go over well, I can’t try again right then. I have to wait, and think about why it didn’t work and try the next version another time.”

Sarfaty says he tries to work in a few new jokes at each performance, “but I don’t like the idea of throwing everything away and doing an all new set. The career is hard enough without complete disasters.

“If a single joke doesn’t work, the audience is okay with you just being human. They really want you to do well. If a comic is dying onstage, I think that 99% of the audience is envious –they’d rather be dead than have to watch it. Watching a comic flop is a horrible experience.”

Sarfaty finds that the slowly accreting sprawl of novel-writing is a radically different experience than writing jokes.

“I started with one little moment of thought, about the repercussions that happen when people don’t fit into their familes. And that was a point of departure for me. I realized I wanted to write about a WWII Jewish family escaping from Poland and put typical strains of family dynamics against that background.

“But it’s led me down so many roads. I’ve read a lot of history: the first third of the book is set in Finland, where the Finnish Jews fought alongside the Germans against the Russians, who were seen as a bigger threat early on. And then I made the daughter of the family a taxidermist who buys euthanized cats, articulates their skeletons and dresses them as Day of the Dead Dolls. Another character runs a flea circus. So I’ve been researching and interviewing people about all these different subjects.”

Unlike writing his first book, for which he had a contract and deadline to motivate him from the time he started, Sarfaty has taken great pleasure in working on his novel at his own self-determined pace. He’s been at it for four years now, with no sense of the flop sweat that can accompany writing or performing stand-up.

“The worst thing that could happen is that I’d end up self-publishing this book instead of selling it to a publisher. I’ve really been enjoying writing it, and I’ve learned so much.”t

If I were to return to New Orleans, and you were to cook for me, what would be on the menu?

Let’s talk about my cooking. I’d make something very old Southern cooking for you; cabbage and rice, cornbread, probably with a smothered pork chop on the side, stuffed bell peppers, macaroni and cheese, sweet peas and potato salad... or maybe some barbecued ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn on the cob. I’d do a crawfish bisque for you, too.

generations about the bounce game and culture. I have a lot of ideas about things I want to do.

I haven’t been back to New Orleans since I evacuated, and the only two things that I miss are the food and the music, and you serve the world both.

The culture, food, the music; these are the things that make us in New Orleans. It’s what binds us together.

What do you think the future of bounce music will be, and where do you see yourself in it?

It will be elevated to new levels, new heights. It will influence other forms of music. It will push limits and boundaries, and I will always be its ambassador. I have a vision for the future, the creation of a Bounce School of Music, to teach younger

Eddie Sarfaty @ Oasis; The funny gay comic brings his “Chucklef*cker” show to SF. $25$45. Monday, April 24, 7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Please create a cooking show and cookbook.

It’s comin’! The Big Freedia Pot ‘N Pans line. Honey, I want it all!

What do you think your pop culture legacy will be?

I think that I’ve already made my mark, and I will be remembered for creating great styles and sounds of music, and to keep opening doors for the city of New Orleans.

What do you think your LGBTQ culture legacy will be?

Big Freedia busts down doors.

She broke barriers, and did things that were previously thought to be impossible. She took it to another level and a new generation. I will be like Sylvester and RuPaul, and I will move us all forward. I will continue to carry the torch of true LGBTQ culture.t Big Freedia @ Mezzanine; The Queen of Bounce returns; Boyfriend and Madam Gandhi open. $22-$25. Thursday, April 27. 9pm. 444 Jessie St. www.bigfreedia.com www.mezzaninesf.com

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Sat 22 Brüt @ Monarch

420 Bud Drop @ The EndUp Celebration of cannabis from the website GreeRush. 4:20pm. 401 6th St. www.theendupsf.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Mimi Gonzalez, Bill Santiago, Nathan Habib, Valerie Vernale and host Lisa Geduldig share intelligent humor. $7$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. www.elriosf.com

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

Nice Jewish Boys @ The Residence Keshet’s monthly gay men’s gathering.

7pm. 718 14th St. keshetonline.org

Three’s Company Live @ Oasis The drag parody performances of two new episodes of the campy 70s sitcom returns, with D’Arcy Drollinger, Heklina, Michael Phillis, Matthew Martin, Sara Moore, Marine Layer, Sue Casa & Laurie Bushman. $25-$35 ($225 champagne VIP table). Thu 8pm, Fri & Sat 7pm. Thru April 29. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Junk @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar, with hosts mrPam and Dulce de Leche, Steamworks & lube prizes. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Fri 21 4-Year Anniversary @ SF Eagle BearzBub, Frank Lucas, and Paul Goodyear DJ, and The She Gees (BeeGees cover band) play live to celebrate the new and improved leather bar. No cover. 7pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Bear Happy Hour @ Midnight Sun Hairy men and their pals enjoy 2-for-1 drinks and no cover. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club Celebrate The Cure’s Robert Smith on his birthday at the New Wave, Goth night, with DJs Xander, Daniel Skellingto, Tomas Diablo and Melting Girl (playing other grooves in the back). $5-$8. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.catclubsf.com

Hella Gay Comedy @ Club OMG Weekly women & queers comedy night hosted by Debbie Devereaux (aka Charlie Ballard). No cover. Open mic, too. 6pm-8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

The Latin dance night includes drag acts hosted by Lulu and Jacqueline, and gogo studs. April 21 is a special Selena tribute night, with a lookalike contest and cash prize. $10-$20.

9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Rita Moreno @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway, TV and film actress performs her new show, with stories and songs from her illustrious career. $50-$90. $20 food/drink min. 8pm.

Also April 22, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason st. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketfly.com

RuPaul’s Drag Race Viewings @ Various Bars Kick off Season 9 of the popular drag competition show. 8pm at Oasis (cohosted by Honey Mahogany and Sister Roma), Beaux, Toad Hall, Midnight Sun, Port Bar Oakland and other venues. www.logotv.com

Sing-along Jesus Christ Superstar @ Victoria Theatre Actor Barry Dennen (Pontius Pilate) appears at The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and host Storm Miguel Florez’s annual campy sing-along with the film adaptation of the hit Rice/ Lloyd Weber musical about Jesus’ last days; costume and Chunky Jesus contest. Proceeds benefit the trans March. $15-$35. 7pm. 2961 16th St. www.thesisters.org www.victoriatheatre.org

Vibe Fridays @ Club BnB, Oakland

Matthew Jain @ Martuni’s

Sat 22 Brüt @ Monarch The dance-leather cruise-tastic night returns. $20. 11pm-4am. 101 6th St. www.brutparty.com

CMYK @ The Stud Bunny Hop and Mozhgan DJ the new dance night (techno, house, electro) that goes late! $7-$10. 10pm-4am.

399 9th st. www.studsf.com

Jennifer Ekman @ Hotel Rex Songs I Want to Sing, for You!, with pianist G. Scott Lacy and guitarist Stephanie Teel. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Lips and Lashes Brunch @ Lookout

The TV and musical theatre actor performs a concert and fundraiser for Because Justice Matters. $? 7pm? 4 Valencia St.

Heklina hosts the fun drag show with weekly themes. April 22: Hollywood Babylon with Ben DeLaCreme. MC2 spins dance grooves before and after the show. $10. 10pm-3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Pièce de Resistance @ SOMArts Cultural Center A contemporary renaissance ball and benefit for SOMArts, with Happy hour 6pm, 8pm party and performances (Dia Dear, Nicole Kidman is Fucking Gorgeous, and India Sky of Topsy Turvy Queer Circus), custom cocktails, wines, beer, DJs Juanita More!, Jackie House and Lady Ryan. Fierce, fab and freaky attire requested. $20-$85. 6pm-12am. 934 Brannan St. somartsresist.eventbrite.com

Polyglamorous @ F8 The groovy dance music night, with residents Mark O’Brien, M*J*R and Beya, welcomes guest DJs Gay Marvine, Julio and Vivki Powell. $7$12. 9pm-4am. 1192 Folsom St. www.eventbrite.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The country-Western line-dancing two-stepping dance events celebrates 18 years! Free, including lessons for newbies. 5pm-10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet often hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Le Voix’s Red Hot Globe Trot @ Oasis The drag chanteuse channels Cher, Liza, Judy, Shirley Bassey and other music icons in a comic muscal travelogue. $20-$30. 7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Weenie Roast @ Oasis

Queer Hip Hop @ Club OMG Dance night to hip hop grooves. 9pm2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Shake It Up @ Port Bar, Oakland DJ Lady Char spins dance grooves; gogo studs, and drink specials, too.

9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway. (510) 8232099. www.portbaroakland.com

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

House music and cocktails, with DJs Shareef Raheim-Jihad and Ellis Lindsey. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. $10. 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 contestant Nina Bo’Nina Brown performs at the fun Castro nightclub, with Au Jus, plus hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $8. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Mother @ Oasis

AIDS LifeCycle fundraiser beer bust with hot dogs and hot dudes on the upstairs outdoor patio. 2pm-7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Mon 24 Eddie Sarfaty @ Oasis The funny gay comic brings his “Chucklef*cker” show to SF. $25-$45.

7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Musical Mondays @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. edgesf.com

Spanglish @ Club OMG Spanish and English drag shows and dance music with DJ Carlitos. 9pm2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

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

Tue 25 Hysteria @ Martuni’s Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm.

4 Valencia St.

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland Vicky Jimenez’ drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4.

10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 26 Comedy Showcase @ SF Eagle Kollin Holtz hosts the open mic comedy night. 5:30pm-8pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Girl Scout @ Port Bar, Oakland The weekly women’s happy hour and dance night with DJ Becky Knox. 6pm10pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Nip @ Powerhouse Nipple play night for the chesty types.

Free coatcheck and drink discount for the shirtless. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux The hot Latin dance night with sexy gogo guys, drag divas, and more, returns to the Castro, with Club Papi’s Frisco Robbie and Fabian Torres. $5 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Thu 27 Big Freedia @ Mezzanine

BARtab

Thu 20

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Big Top @ Beaux

April 20-27 Edited for space.

For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/bartab

Sun 23

t

Thu 20 Sue Casa hosts The Monster Show

The Queen of Bounce returns for a rousing concert of booty-shaking grooves; Boyfriend and Madam Gandhi open. $22-$25. 9pm. 444 Jessie St. www.mezzaninesf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Poetry & Martinis @ Martuni’s Dan Bellm, Kay Nilson, Julian Shendelman , Amos White, and Arisa White read their own poems, and a few by their favortie authors. Jame J Siegel hosts. No cover. 7pm-8:30pm.

4 Valencia St. at Market.

Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1:30pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Megawoof @ SF Eagle

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland

The roving super party lands at the famed leather bar, with DJ Glovibes, and beefy gogo bears. $5. 9pm-2am.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

Symphonic pride

Cory Weaver

Audra McDonald (center) performed in the SF Symphony’s Pride concert.

by Donna Sachet

S

ometimes a large, seemingly unwieldy organization makes a mid-course correction that appears costly and perhaps ill-advised, but it is simply the right thing to do; such is the case with the San Francisco Symphony and its Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas.

When North Carolina began demonstrating an incomprehensible disdain for the civil rights of transgender individuals, the Symphony cancelled upcoming concerts scheduled there only a few months away with the full support of the board and membership. With amazing speed, Thomas’ partner Joshua Robison and long-time friend State Senator Mark Leno rallied to the cause, co-chairing a local concert to benefit five LGBTQ related non-profit organizations.

Within months, tickets were sold out for Symphony Pride and special guest Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald was booked to sing.

Attending the concert on Tuesday, April 4, was one of those surreal San Francisco nights, as we joined Joe Mac, Matt Lovell, and Alex Kleinberg for glorious music and empowering inspiration in spectacular Davies Symphony Hall.

The concert began with a rousing overture by Leonard Bernstein, and then short very modern pieces written by LGBTQ composers, preceded by video enhancements and one concerto by Michael Harrison that enlisted the skills of Michael Hay on the inhouse pipe organ.

Soon, Ms. McDonald joined the orchestra on stage for some Broadway musical renditions and the house went wild. Even Mayor Ed Lee was on hand to speak to the audience before the break.

During intermission, it was truly a reunion of local LGBTQ movers and shakers including the Execu-

tive Directors of the five benefiting agencies, Larkin Street Youth Services, National Center for Lesbian Rights, San Francisco LGBT Center, Transgender Law Center, and The Trevor Project.

We chatted over Champagne with Sister Roma, Cockatielia, Don Berger, Chris Verdugo, Tom Horn, and many others. Remarkably, we found co-chair of the event, Mark Leno, mingling with the crowd and congratulated him on a splendid evening.

The second half of the concert began with comments from the co-chairs and the community’s love of Mark Leno was obvious. We then heard a work by Aaron Copland inspired by the words of Abraham Lincoln, narrated by Ms. McDonald, and a stirring movement from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major.

The evening ended, not with the anticipated musical encore, but with video presentations of individual LGBT members of the Symphony and statements of support for their civil rights. All in all, this evening had it all and demonstrated a wonderful spirit of solidarity from the City, the Symphony, its leadership and membership, and the many individual and business financial sponsors.

Besties & Soirée

Congratulations to all the Best of the Bay winners, celebrated at the Bay Area Reporter’s party at Oasis on April 6 with food, drink, and a lively show emceed by local favorite Marga Gomez, whose comedy kept the audiences in stitches.

Veronica Klaus, Jason Brock, Tammy Hall, and Alex U. Inn all entertained us, and photographers snapped Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Linda Lee, Tom Temprano, Erik Lopez, Ken Henderson, Mr. Bill, Grand Duchess Migitte Nielsen, Barbara Liu McDowell, and others.

Leandro Gonzales

Juanita More!, Leandro Gonzales and David Glamamore at the SF LGBT center’s 15th annual Soirée, held at Terra Gallery.

Contrary to expectations expressed in our previous column, there was no noticeable bitterness among those who did not win in their respective categories, including yours truly, who finished first runner-up in two areas; after all, we’re all winners in San Francisco!

The LGBT Community Center’s 15th annual Soiree at Terra Gallery was definitely the place to be last Saturday, as community leaders across the spectrum gathered to celebrate.

We arrived with dapper James Holloway amid a flurry of friends, including Don Spradlin, Peter Witrak, Gudrun Witrak, Cicero Braganca, J. Conrad Frank, Alex Walker, Mike Young, and others.

Juanita More! served as entertainment director and we enjoyed a joyful number led by Mr. David and a bevy of drag queens. The following morning, the official ribbon-cutting at the Center ushered in a new era of service for the newly remodeled and repurposed building on Market Street.

Miss Conception made her long-awaited San Francisco debut at Oasis last Sunday and the City adored her! This very talented drag star combines live singing, comic timing, and creative costumes into a spell-binding show. Don’t miss her next engagement here or wherever you see her name.

Reigning Emperor Nic Hunter and Reigning Empress Mercedez Monro now officially have a court, formally invested on Sunday at Balencoire as the Court of Inclusion, Community, and Hope.

Courtiers from San Francisco and around the country joined them providing entertainment and support for the new year.

Of the many titles bestowed that night, most notable were Imperial Crown Prince Terrill Grimes and Imperial Crown Princess Cameron Stiehl. Hopes are indeed high for an active, representative, and innovative reign and we wish them all the very best!

And finally, Empress Alexis Miranda celebrated her 50th birthday at Diva’s a few days ago, and Empresses galore were there to salute her, including Tiger Lily, Renita Valdez, Galilea, Misty Blue, Chablis, and Reigning Empress Mercedez Monro. Also there with best wishes were Queen Cougar, Andrea Goldengate, Victoria Secret, Theresa Sparks, and the legendary Lady Herman.

Coming up in May is Spotlight on Broadway, Saturday, May 20, 8PM, at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, featuring Leanne Borghesi and this singing columnist with the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band! There will be plenty of opportunities to sing along with your favorite Broadway tunes.

If you haven’t yet heard, let us be your source! Members of the cast of the touring company of Hamilton will perform at a One Night Only benefit concert for the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation on Monday, June 5, 7:30PM, at Marines’ Memorial Theatre.

Here’s your chance to see this amazingly talented cast, not in the blockbuster show, but singing and dancing songs of their own choosing in solo, duet, and group performances. These events with touring Broadway casts are always a hit and include an afterparty with the cast. Get your tickets now at www.reaf-sf.org Also up on the REAF calendar is ManuStript: Literary Tales with Happy Endings, Sunday, June 18, 9PM at DNA Lounge, their annual salute to Broadway Bares, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS & REAF. If last year’s event is any indication, it’s going to be a crowd-pleasing night!t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • Bay Area Reporter • April 20-26, 2017

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Rafael Alencar Brazilian porn stud returns to Nob Hill Theatre

Rafael Alencar

by Cornelius Washington

R

afael Alencar has the face of a Botticelli angel, is built like a tank, with a jacked-up butt, (the likes of which I haven’t seen since the days of Josephine Baker) and that amazing dick!

With one of the most prolific and longest-lasting careers in the history of contemporary pornography, this Brazilian brain is the total package, and he’s back at The Nob Hill Theatre to seduce and serve the true definition of Brazilian Bomber. The Bay Area Reporter’s in-depth interview shows more of this brilliant bisexual being.

Cornelius Washington: Welcome back to The Nob Hill Theatre, where your performances are legendary. Please describe your enduring relationship with the theater and its audiences.

Rafael Alencar: Coming to the

Nob Hill Theatre always feels like coming home. It’s the only venue in the USA where I perform live. The managers, Gary and Larry, are doing an awesome job! They will do everything to make me feel welcome, and I’ll do anything to make them blush and smile. The audience is who I am looking to meet, get messy, show off, at least, a few boners and a lot more!

What has an audience member ever done to or for you that has taken you over the edge?

The Nob Hill audience has always been the most respectful, and that’s why I keep coming back.

Nothing bad has happened so far.

The audiences are very well-behaved, according to the situation.

I, too, need to police my actions, but again, nothing awkward has ever happened, so far. I guess I can handle the situation, if it does. I just hope that they can handle me.

Brazilian culture is very sensual. What could Americans learn from Brazilians about their approach to sensuality and sexuality?

Americans pull up their zippers and cut off their air supply. In Brazil, we unzip and breathe. Each culture has their ability to do something very good. Japanese with traditions, Germans with rules, Americans with money and Brazilians with sex, too much sex. We see sexuality in everything. I agree that we are too liberal. First sex, then everything else.

When was the last time you visited Brazil, and what did you do there?

I try to go there every other year.

Imagine the entire country recognizing me. I have to wear hats and sunglasses full-time, but they still stop me for a selfie every ten minutes when I’m on the streets. I’m not always ready for my close-up.

I’ve taken selfies with fans when I was wearing my pajamas, and others when I was waiting for the train. For me, Brazil is home. Or it was. Gosh, I have so many homes; New York, Brazil, The Nob Hill Theatre, public toilets, among other places, where I feel welcomed.

What’s the secret to your longevity and popularity in the adult entertainment business?

To be a fashion model, you need a pretty face. To be a runway model, you need a body and a face, but all with the clothes on. To be a porn star, you have to look good, both clothed and naked. What I’ve heard from some directors I’ve worked with is that the most important thing in a porn movie is still the

size of your dick. Bigger is always better, and if this comes attached to a hot body, it’s a bonus, and if you have a pretty face, congratulations, a porn star is born!

I’ve heard from other directors that I still sell more movies than any other model in the studio. Still others say I know how to fuck. But I believe everyone does. Don’t they?

Whatever the reason, they keep asking to do more videos (I filmed my first scenes in 2003, with Falcon and Kristen Bjorn, in the same week.). I am very genuine and I love sex.

What are your favorite scenes that you’ve filmed and studios with which you’ve worked?

I’d pick all the studios I’ve worked with. I loved my time at Raging Stallion and Hot House, many years ago, but the people that I worked with are no longer there. I could pick many studios and scenes, but I will pick two studios: Men.com and Lucas Entertainment. I’ve worked with those studios more than any other, and they are both great. The scene that everyone asks me about most, and the one that I love most, is still Men.com’s “Prison Shower,” with Johnny Rapid. To be honest, all of the movies that I’ve filmed for Men.com are my first choices.

They are incredibly professional and they let me be who I am: a fuck machine.

What’s next for Rafael Alencar?

Once, I asked myself this question, and I had a fan next to me.

He answered, “If you keep doing exactly what you are doing for the next ten years, it’d be a dream come true.”

Yes, he was sweet, but honestly, there’s no way I’ll still be a porn star in ten years, maybe not even five years, even though I see porn movies with actors more than ten years older than me, and they look hot.

No, I just think I’ve had a lot of fun, and I am still, but I do need to do that change from being watched to just start watching. I love porn.

Who doesn’t? Who in this world doesn’t have a naked guy’s picture in the cell phone? Who among us has never filmed our own private porn movie?

I understand some of us might watch porn more than others, but we all do. Some people know that I was a dentist back in Brazil, and after so many invitations to do porn movies, I finally accepted. It was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I loved my time as a dentist, working in a hospital, but I have way more fun doing what I am doing now. Rafael intends to keep doing what he’s doing today for a little while, then, he’ll probably spend more time watching porn and eventually, start hiring escorts, too.t

Read the full-length, bigger uncut version of Rafael’s interview online at www.ebar.com/bartab.

Rafael Alencar @ Nob Hill Theatre: the superhung Brazilian porn stud leads the interactive playroom fun (Circle Jerk, April 20, $10) and performs live strip shows April, 21 & 22 at the famed strip club. $25. 8pm & 10pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com www.rafaelworld.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shining Stars

April 20-26, 2017 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Photos by

Steven Underhill The Sisters ’ Easter @ Hellman Hollow

E

aster and all its parody whimsical drag fun were enjoyed –despite the rain– at the annual Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s celebrations, for the past few years in Golden Gate Park’s lush green pasture. Rain didn’t stop many from donning festive dress, for fun, follies (like Fou Fou Ha’s act) or for the bonnet, Mary and Hunky Jesus contests. www.thesisters.org More photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www. facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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

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The Bay Area Reporter, undisputed newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community since 1971, is now accepting space reservations for our June 22 San Francisco Pride edition, our largest issue of the year.

Distributed widely throughout SF and the Bay Area, our annual PRIDE edition offers the most comprehensive coverage, and resources, for the estimated 1 million+ people, locals and tourists alike, who attend the annual parade and celebrations.

PREMIUM POSITIONS DEADLINE*: May 15, 2017 Call Scott Wazlowski, Vice President, Advertising at (415) 829-8937 or email advertising@ebar.com

* All premium positions are available on a first come, best served basis.