August 14, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Police seek help in homicide probe

Vol. 44 • No. 33 • August 14-20, 2014

Tears, cheers for McDonald at Milk club dinner

by Seth Hemmelgarn

an Francisco police are asking for the public’s help as they investigate the death of a gay city resident who was found injured this weekend in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood. Bryan Higgins, Courtesy Bryan Higgins’s Facebook page 31, was found on the ground at about 7 a.m. Bryan Higgins in Sunday, August 10 near an undated photo the 100 block of Church Street, near Duboce Avenue, according to Albie Esparza, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. Esparza didn’t provide Higgins’s name, but it’s been published by other media outlets. The exact cause of death isn’t clear. Esparza said based on video surveillance footage, the suspect is a white male in his 20s See page 10 >>

by David-Elijah Nahmod

he tears and cheers flowed as the glitterati of San Francisco progressive politics gathered for a joyous celebration of those who’ve made a difference. It not only highlighted personal and organizational achievement, but also how the local community has embraced the diverse rainbow it’s become. There was nary a dry eye in the house as CeCe McDonald took to the podium to receive the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club’s Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award. McDonald, 25, is an African American transwoman who, in 2012, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for fatally stabbing a

Transwoman CeCe McDonald speaks at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club’s annual dinner August 7, as she received the club’s Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award.

man who had attacked her and her friends in Minneapolis the prior year. Her conviction sparked outrage, and was viewed by many as an act of transphobia and racism against a woman who defended herself. When introducing McDonald, who was released in January after serving 19 months in

prison, Milk Club Co-President Laura Thomas referred to her as a “political prisoner.” A beaming McDonald received a standing ovation. She addressed the crowd of about 200 in the outdoor courtyard of City College’s See page 3 >>

Diaz Oakland Pride to have inaugural parade testifies in park death T Rick Gerharter

by Sean Piverger

by Seth Hemmelgarn

he man accused of intentionally choking to death another man during a sexual encounter in Buena Vista Park in 2011 testified this week that he didn’t tell police for several weeks because Courtesy Public Defender’s office he was “scared.” David Munoz Diaz, David Diaz in an 25, who spoke with undated photo police several times before his arrest weeks after the killing, testified during his trial this week that he didn’t mean to kill Freddy Canul-Arguello, 23, and “Part of me wanted to be honest” with a homicide inspector “but I was also wrestling with myself whether to tell or not tell.” Diaz is charged with murder, arson, mutilating human remains, and destroying evidence in the death of Canul-Arguello, 23, whose burned, mostly naked body was found in the park just before 5 a.m. June 10, 2011. The medical examiner’s office listed the cause of death See page 10 >>

though grandstand seating will be available for $5 in advance or $10 at he fifth incarnation of Oakthe gate. Access is free for persons land Pride is coming up later with disabilities. this month and, to mark the Originally called East Bay occasion, there will be a parade. Pride, the festival was organized Carlos Uribe, an Oakland in part by former Oakland City Pride board member, said that Councilmember Danny Wan, the organization wanted to do who started the LGBT Round“something bigger” to mark the table working group when he was festival’s fifth anniversary since on the council. The first festival the event was relaunched in 2010 was held in 1997. following a seven-year hiatus. East Bay Pride was eventually “We felt it was the right next displaced by the city’s multi-day step,” he said. Art and Soul Festival and a lack of Oakland Pride is a nonprofit funds. Art and Soul then changed organization that works with Oakits dates, freeing up Labor Day land and neighboring East Bay Rick Gerharter weekend. communities to ensure equal rights Franklin Street in Uptown Oakland was packed at the 2012 In 2008, lesbian Oakland City to the LGBTQ community. This Oakland Pride festival; this year’s event will include a parade. Councilwoman Rebecca Kayear’s parade and festival take place plan led an effort to bring back Sunday, August 31, over the Labor the LGBT Roundtable. Oakland the theme,” Oakland Pride board Chair Amber Day weekend like previous years. Pride, which came out of those Todd said in an email. “So many people love it In a news release, Uribe said that the organizameetings, was organized two years later. that we decided to use it again and just switch it tion “has worked hard to create an event that not Oakland Pride’s website states that the only represents the diversity of the lesbian, gay, around a little. It is a reflection of our pride in roundtable, along with members of the LGBT bisexual, transgender, and queer community but our city, our pride in who we are, and our pride community, decided to bring the Pride celebrain our community.” one that serves to highlight the success, challengtion back “for the long term and advocate for Organizers hope to welcome nearly 50,000 peoes, and the families that make up who we are.” LGBT rights and interests, including the develple to the parade and festival. The parade steps off This year’s theme, “Pride is Oakland. Oakopment of the first LGBTQ community center at 10:30 a.m. at Broadway and 14th Street downland is Pride,” is similar to last year’s, which in Oakland for everyone.” To date, the commutown, and heads to the festival site five blocks away nity center remains a long-term goal. was so popular that the board wanted to use it at Broadway and 20th Street in the Uptown neighagain, officials said. See page 10 >> borhood. There is no cost to watch the parade, “We received such a wonderful response to

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Trial ordered in hate crime case by Seth Hemmelgarn

San Francisco man with an extensive criminal history was ordered to stand trial this week after allegedly threatening a lesbian couple and their daughter recently in the Mission district. Arturo Salvador Pleitez, 54, was held to answer on two felony charges of making criminal threats with a hate crime enhancement, Superior Court Judge Gerardo Sandoval found after a preliminary hearing Monday, August 11, said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. Bastian has said the charges stem from a July 28 incident at Arizmendi Bakery at 1268 Valencia Street. Pleitez allegedly “ran up on” the couple and their 2-year-old daughter, threatened them, and “made disparaging remarks about the victims’ sexual orientation,” he said. San Francisco Police Captain Daniel Perea, who heads Mission Station, told the Bay Area Reporter that Pleitez allegedly said, “You should read the Bible. You’re going to hell,” and that “he was going to fuck them up.” Perea said he didn’t have immediate access to the police report and didn’t recall what exactly the derogatory terms had been. He said an off-duty firefighter who was at the bakery intervened. Pleitez had originally been charged with another count of mak-

ing criminal threats and a hate crime enhancement, but Assistant District Attorney Charles Bisesto dismissed them due to a lack of evidence. In emailed comments after the hearing, Deputy Public Defender Michelle Tong said, “We don’t jail people who make insolent comments. Mr. Pleitez’s remarks did not rise to the level of criminal threats, and more importantly, they were not motivated by bias against anyone’s sexual orientation. Our First Amendment freedom includes the protection of unpopular speech.” Referring to comments such as Tong’s, Perea said, “Tell that to that 2-year-old kid that it’s just words.”

‘Serious threat’

Perea, who said he’s “had to deal with” Pleitez himself, said, “The guy is a real serious threat to public safety in the Mission district.” At Pleitez’s arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Karen Catalona said Pleitez has had 71 felony contacts and 174 misdemeanor contacts. (There may be multiple contacts for a single arrest.) He also has two prior state prison sentences, Catalona said. She pointed to a 2010 San Francisco Examiner story that said Pleitez’s previous arrests had included incidents in which he’d allegedly assaulted police officers and charges of domestic violence, attacks with weapons, and robbery. Tong said that Pleitez had “many,

Courtesy SFPD

Arturo Salvador Pleitez

many arrests” with “no convictions.” Some people in the Mission have obtained restraining orders against Pleitez, according to court records, with at least three of those coming since 2012. In a restraining order request filed May 13, Connie Ramirez Weber, 93, said that Pleitez “shouted obscenities” at her, threatened her and her son-in-law, and came to her home three separate times. The son-in-law had reported to police that Pleitez had driven into a garage Weber owns. Pleitez “appeared drunk” at each incident, she wrote, and “I am afraid for my safety and health.”

She said Pleitez accused her of reporting the garage crash, in which police arrested him for driving under the influence, the records say. In his report on the April wreck near Virgil and 26th streets, an officer who responded to the crash wrote that during sobriety tests, “Pleitez stated he had to pee, walked about three feet” away “and began urinating on the wall.” After he was taken to a police station, he yelled “Fuck you” at officers “numerous times.” Pleitez was cited for three vehicle code violations. It’s not clear from the report when he was released. A judge granted Weber’s restraining order request in June. It expires in June 2019. Told of the current charges against Pleitez, Weber said, “He’s going to hurt someone one of these days, and then it’s too late.” She said, “He should be locked up for a long time. I don’t know why they keep letting him out.” In a restraining order request filed in October, a 42-year-old man who lived with his family on South Van Ness Avenue wrote that in July, Pleitez “showed up in front of my house, on top of the stairs where there was no light. He scared my family and I because he was hiding and once he saw me he told me what he always tells my family and I – that we should leave the neighborhood because we’re Indians and that he is going to kill us.” The man wrote his

3-year-old son “is beginning to get scared.” A judge granted the order, which is set to expire in December 2016. The man couldn’t be reached for comment. Through a petition for a restraining order filed in August 2012, representatives of a grading and paving company wrote that Pleitez had “repeatedly appeared” at a job site one day, “kicked over safety devices” and equipment, and “hit two employees and threatened to return with a gun to shoot and kill employees.” Police responded three times, and on the third time “detained Mr. Pleitez and took him from the site.” The records don’t state he was booked into custody. In his response, Pleitez, who said that he was homeless, wrote that a worker had hit him “on my lips” after he knocked over a safety device. “Please believe me,” he said, adding that he “never” hit anybody “multiple times” and had never threatened the employees. A judge granted an order through June 2012, instructing Pleitez to stay away from several locations, including job sites. Pleitez is in custody on $150,000 bail. His next court date is August 25. Perea, the police captain, invited anyone who’s interested in Pleitez’s trial or who has had experiences with Pleitez to contact him at Daniel.Perea@sfgov.org.t

Minor delays for Castro sidewalk project compiled by Cynthia Laird

astro merchants were not happy to hear about delays in completing the sidewalk widening project that has disrupted the gay neighborhood since work started up again after a break in June for the Frameline LGBT film festival and San Francisco Pride festivities. At the August 7 Castro Merchants meeting, John Dennis, a designer with the San Francisco Department of Public Works who is serving as the project manager, informed business owners that concrete pours for the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street “are delayed a bit.” He attributed the delay to PG&E crews needing to reset utility boxes and the discovery of some previously unknown sub-sidewalk basements, particularly in the 400 block of Castro Street. Patrick Batt, who co-owns the Eureka Cafe on Castro Street and operates Auto Erotica on 18th Street, pointed out that the sidewalk concrete pours had been expected to be completed by August 15. Now it is likely that the pours won’t start for another two weeks. “We were delayed by PG&E,” Dennis said, adding that neither the city nor the contractor can move the utility boxes. Regarding the sub-basements, Dennis said, “We opened up the sidewalk and found things.” Dennis also fielded complaints from Batt and others, including gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, that a website for the project is not being updated often enough. “We feel we’re being jerked around,” Batt said. Added Wiener, “The site needs to be updated on more of a real-time basis.” Dennis agreed and pledged to ensure information is posted online in a timelier manner. Some residents and others coming to the Castro were apparently surprised to see the streets and sidewalk torn up after Pride, thinking that the

project was completed. But as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a midJune story, that was the first phase of the project and workers were expected to return at the end of June, which they did. The $6 million sidewalk widening project is on track to be finished by the Castro Street Fair on October 5. To check progress, visit the website at http:// castrostreet.org/index.php/ construction-alerts.

Reno Pride this weekend

The 18th annual Reno Gay Pride festival takes place Saturday, August 16 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Wingfield Park, 2 N. Arlington Avenue. An all-day festival access ticket costs $5. Entertainment includes Bay Area

Cynthia Laird

Construction workers are moving ahead on the Castro sidewalk widening project.

comedians Marga Gomez and Ronn Vigh, the Ethel Merman Experience, and more. There are several other Priderelated events throughout the weekend. For more information, visit www.renogaypride.com.

LeatherWalk fundraiser Sunday

Troy Brunet will hold his ninth annual LeatherWalk fundraiser Sunday, August 17 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the SF Eagle, 398 12th Street. The event benefits the AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds. There will be food, raffle prizes, and entertainment provided by Irene Soderberg, who’s coming up from Los Angeles to perform. A $12 donation is requested for the beer bust, Brunet said. Jello shots and raffle tickets are sold separately. The LeatherWalk itself is scheduled to take place Sunday, September 14, one week before the Folsom Street Fair.

‘Hot Cop of the Castro’ in ice bucket challenge

Courtesy Chris Kohrs’s Facebook page

Chris Kohrs, a.k.a. the Hot Cop of the Castro.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association and gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener invite people to attend an ice bucket challenge featuring Officer Chris Kohrs, otherwise known as the “Hot Cop of the Castro.” The benefit for the Officer Down

Memorial Fund takes place Monday, August 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Cafe, 2369 Market Street. The fund is an organization dedicated to remembering police officers who are killed in the line of duty and supporting their families. Attendees will receive a raffle ticket at the door for a chance to pour a bucket of ice on Kohrs, who is straight but good-natured about all the attention he has received in the Castro. Organizers said they encourage attendees to make a larger contribution to the fund and that the top three contributors will be given a special opportunity to help Kohrs prepare to take the challenge. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased online at www.memorialfund.eventbrite.com. Following the event, everyone will have an opportunity to meet Kohrs.

Project launched for older HIVers

The AIDS Legal Referral Panel recently launched its HIV50+ Project in an effort to help meet the needs of those people living with HIV/AIDS who are 50 years of age or older. According to the agency, more than half of people living with HIV/ AIDS in San Francisco are over 50 and many of them are facing new challenges such as losing their housing due to high rents and evictions,

and dramatic cuts in their incomes as a result of losing their long-term disability insurance income at the end of the policy term. “People with HIV over age 50 are likely to be sicker than the general HIV population,” ALRP Executive Director Bill Hirsh said in a statement. “These aging clients also face a high risk for poverty and homelessness.” The HIV50+ Project includes legal representation, counseling, trainings, and educational presentations to help clients with various issues. It focuses on three areas of law that most affect seniors with HIV: housing, benefits, and estate planning. ALRP is partnering with Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome) and Openhouse to reach out to clients. For access to the ALRP HIV50+ Project, contact staff attorney John Fasesky at (415) 701-1200, ext. 307. For more information, visit www. alrp.org.

Retreat for HIVers

A retreat for people affected by HIV/AIDS will be held next month at the Saratoga Springs Retreat Center, which is east of Ukiah in northern California. Facilitated by Gregg Cassin, “Honoring Our Experience” takes place Monday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 17. It is an opportunity for men and women to honor one another, honor people they have lost, and to experience healing by joining together. The retreat costs $199-$449 sliding scale. That includes six meals, lodging, taxes, and fees. Registration is limited to the first 60 participants. Cassin is the founder of the Healing Circle, and later the San Francisco Center for Living. He is an active member of the Billys, the California Men’s Gathering, Shanti, Maitri Hospice, and the aforementioned Let’s Kick ASS. To register or for more information, visit www.saratogasprings. com/retreats/honoringourexperience.html or contact Cassin at (415) 674-4706 or gcassin@shanti.org.t

Community News>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Collins a hit at Commonwealth Club event by Khaled Sayed

ay basketball player Jason Collins received a warm welcome Monday during his appearance at the Castro Theatre as part of the Commonwealth Club’s month of LGBT programming entitled “The LGBT Journey.” Collins, 35, became the NBA’s first openly gay player when he came out last year in an essay in Sports Illustrated. He spent much of the past year unsigned by a team, before the Brooklyn Nets picked him up in March. At the August 11 program, presented by Inforum, the Commonwealth Club’s division geared toward young professionals, Collins’s family members were sitting in the audience watching and supporting their relative. Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and gay man who is working on immigration reform since he came out as undocumented, interviewed Collins on stage. “I wish I would have come out earlier, it would have saved me a lot sleepless nights,” Collins said. “However, I don’t think people should be forced to come out, because it can be harmful for them and others. People should come out when they are ready to take that step.” In the May 6, 2013, issue of Sports Illustrated, Collins wrote, “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.” Start the conversation Collins did. “Last week the NBA invited me to talk to 10 to 15 rookie players at a time about diversity and changing the language in the locker room,” Collins said. “It was great talking to the guys because I remember when I was sitting in their chairs. I remember when I was drafted and all the excitement that comes with being drafted in the NBA.” He added, “I believe that the language has to change out of respect

Milk club dinner

From page 1

Mission campus for the Milk club’s annual dinner and gayla August 7. “I want people to see me as a person, a regular person,” McDonald said as she received her award. “It’s important for me to have a voice. We’re often overlooked, so I’m glad that people can come up to me and know who I am. I’m going to fight this fight to the end. It’s about more than myself. There are many transwomen who go unnoticed, so I know that what I’m doing is significant. I will never sell myself.” As she spoke, McDonald smiled proudly, but also seemed to be fighting tears. Many of the audience members could be seen weeping with her. McDonald’s story is now being made into a documentary film, Free CeCe, which is being produced by Emmy-nominated transgender actress Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black). McDonald briefly spoke to the Bay Area Reporter after her remarks. “I’m feeling really blessed,” she said. “I’m happy to be here with such great honorees. Knowing that there are people working in my community fighting for equality and justice within the marginalized groups that are targeted in this society and knowing that there are people who are fighting with me and for me makes my activism work feel like its worth it.” As McDonald sat down to enjoy her dinner, other honorees took to the stage. The Hank Wilson Housing Activist Award was given to the Housing Rights Committee and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project for their work in drawing attention to, and helping stem, the escalating tide of Ellis Act evictions across the city.

Jane Philomen Cleland

NBA player Jason Collins talked about coming out and gays in pro sports during an appearance at the Castro Theatre as part of the Commonwealth Club’s “The LGBT Journey” series.

for your teammates, or protecting your wallet, because if the NBA catches you they will fine you a minimum of $5,000 fine for using certain language.” According to Collins gay players are in the locker rooms on many teams, and most of the time other players don’t even realize they’re there. “I’m trying to raise awareness, and I have faith they are capable of changing and using different ways to pick on each other,” he said. Collins believes that commissioners, coaches, and team owners can establish a safe environment in pro sports. “Everyone can work together to create a safe healthy environment and set an example for the whole team,” he said. Collins’s twin brother, Jarron, was shocked when Collins came out to him in the summer of 2012. “I guess that means that I’m a really good actor,” Collins said, “but a lot of stuff made sense; like I haven’t dated a girl in so long. Anyway he was okay, but he told me that I have to be the one to tell his wife. So I asked his wife to come over to my house and sat “How special it is to be given this award by the Milk club,” said Sara Shortt of the Housing Rights Committee. “They’ve long been supportive of housing issues and of holding up the queer banner.” Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who also works at the Housing Rights Committee, said the Milk club was one of the few LGBT organizations that sees the bigger picture. “It’s a great honor to receive this award from the Milk club, the queer community’s progressive political club,” said Avicolli Mecca. “Housing is a queer issue, but not many LGBT organizations get this. Milk does. I look forward to many more years of working with them on tenant’s rights, affordable housing, and antidisplacement issues.” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), a personal friend of slain supervisor Harvey Milk, received the Harry Britt Lifetime Achievement Award. It was Ammiano’s second Milk club award; he also received one a few years ago. Ammiano took the opportunity to announce that Britt, a minister and a former city supervisor, would be officiating at his upcoming wedding to his longtime partner, Carolis Deal. Other honorees included Tita Aida, who received the Bill Kraus HIV/ AIDS Activism Award; Juanita More, who received the Sylvester Pride in the Arts Award; Gabriel Haaland, who received the Howard Wallace Labor Leadership Award; and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who received the Community Ally Award. Attendees enjoyed the event. “This is my home, this is the place where we are all welcome,” said Dan Choi, a former Army lieutenant whose 2009 coming out on The See page 10 >>

her down and told her. Looking back you would think coming out would be this huge terrifying event in your head, and yes, there were tears, but they were tears of love and support.”

The reaction to Collins coming out wasn’t all positive. Pro football player Mike Wallace of the Miami Dolphins posted a comment on Twitter at the time: “All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys.” Wallace later deleted the comment and issued an apology. Media coverage has also had some negative moments. On ESPN, NBA analyst Chris Broussard, citing his religious beliefs, said that living openly as a homosexual was a sin and that doing so was “walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ.” But according to a New York Times article, the positive comments online or on TV overweighed the negative. Audience members attending the event at the Castro Theatre were very supportive. “I’m very proud of him ... what he did is very brave,” said Michael Bourn, a San Francisco native. “It was terrifying to come out to my family, but Jason came out to the whole world, in a sense.”

Another attendee, Sally Long, told the Bay Area Reporter how happy she was to be at the event. “I’m very happy to see him in person talking about his coming out experience,” Long said. “I’m an NBA fan and I follow it religiously every session, and I’m happy to see that he is starting the conversation and making people realize that LGBT people are everywhere and that we come in many different shapes and sizes. Having a gay person in a pro sport is huge, and it will open the door to other LGBT athletes to come out and be part of pro sports.” In fact, Michael Sam made history when he was picked by the St. Louis Rams during the NFL draft this spring. According to media reports, Sam had a good performance during the Rams’ first preseason game last week and is working to earn a spot on the team. After he came out this year, Sam met with Collins, who tweeted about the get together, “He is a great young man who has shown tremendous courage and leadership.” t

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(1)

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th Lottery September 19th202014, PM, Wednesday, August , 6:00 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM th

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th SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin19 Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Lottery September 2014, 12:00 PM,

SF Main Library - Koret Auditorium - 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

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Bedroom Count

Bath Count

Square Feet

5 2

Studio 1

1 1

429 531

Wilson Building Unit Information Rent Maximum Minimum Household Monthly Income Household Allowed Income Required $899 55% of AMI $2247.50 $1022 55% of AMI $2555.00

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1 Persons 1 Persons

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Volume 44, Number 33 August 14-20, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Race Bannon • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Brent Calderwood Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • David Guarino Peter Hernandez • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood

MTA fine-tunes car share parking

he San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency has an ambitious pilot program that will allow car-sharing companies to obtain street parking permits for their vehicles. Last week’s presentation to Castro merchants by City CarShare was short on details, leading to questions and initial opposition by many in the audience. But a lengthy conversation with MTA’s Andy Thornley provided a more nuanced understanding of the program, for which MTA will carefully consider proposed locations and work to alleviate concerns by small business owners. It’s important to note that while City CarShare made a presentation at the merchant group, it is just one of three companies that are eligible for MTA’s pilot program – the others are Zip Car and Get Around. Under the program, the companies would purchase permits for street parking spaces dedicated for their cars. When the shared vehicles are in use the spaces must remain empty because those cars will return to the same spot for the next user. Consequently, a parking space could sit empty all day, depriving others of using it. The car sharing companies are required to maintain the area around the space, because their cars won’t be moved for street cleaning.

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Thornley said that it’s up to the car sharing businesses to do community outreach, and if that’s the case, improvement is needed. City CarShare spokeswoman Emily Van Gulik was vague at last week’s meeting; she distributed a map that didn’t have an accompanying legend showing what was proposed and what was already approved. Van Gulik did return our call this week, and was clear that City CarShare is not proposing any spaces on Castro Street and that the company will take into consideration concerns and work with the community. Thornley said this week that so far there aren’t proposed spaces directly on Castro Street. MTA believes the spaces, which are suggested by the car share firms, should be mostly in residential areas since that’s where the users likely will come from. Thornley acknowledged that parking is a tough issue to address in the city; MTA oversees 275,000 parking spaces citywide, but if you’re driving around the block for 30 minutes looking for parking, you’d probably think that’s not enough. The goals for this pilot program are to collect data on who uses the car sharing service, how long the vehicles are gone, and how many miles they travel, all of which will help determine any permanent car-sharing street parking program that the

city launches. Thornley said the pilot program would end next August. Some spaces in other city neighborhoods have already been approved by MTA, and hearings are ongoing about proposed sites. There’s a hearing Friday, August 15 at 10 a.m. at City Hall to discuss a small batch of spaces. Thornley said he didn’t believe any were in the Upper Market or Castro areas. After the MTA hearings, the full MTA board will vote on these spaces before they become part of the pilot program. MTA advocates for fewer cars and views car sharing as a good solution for someone who needs a car for a few errands or occasional use. Thornley hopes that as more people use car share, they might not buy a second car. If a car share vehicle is given a dedicated parking spot on a residential street, neighbors will see it and use it as a convenient alternative. This process started a year ago, and MTA is now at the point of determining actual space locations. Thornley said that if an approved spot proves problematic, it’s an easy fix of repainting the curb to take the space out of the program. We would like to see better information provided to Castro residents and merchants by the car share companies, so that instead of negative reactions, there can be a more thoughtful discussion. They all should be in the neighborhood explaining why they selected specific locations, and must be willing to listen to feedback and, if warranted, make refinements.t

Options for LGBT retirees by Ralph Harris

ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas

specially designed for older bodies, like yoga, balance and fall pret’s not just about marriage vention, Tai chi, line dancing, and equality anymore. Progress for workouts with a personal trainer. the LGBT community is usually I talked about how I was measured by two criteria: public mugged near Dolores Park and opinion polls about gay accepsuffered traumatic brain injury, tance in the general population; broken bones, and severe interand, the number of jurisdictions nal damage. In 10 seconds my which recognize our right to be life changed from being a healthy, treated equally when it comes to independent 65 year old. For the marriage laws and benefits. next four years physical and ocTraditionally “old and gay” cupational therapists had to teach meant “old and invisible.” Or me how to use my hands and finworse. Many providers of servicgers, and how to walk again. BeCourtesy Ralph Harris es for people over 60 were cruel ing disabled during those years and even punishing to clients Openhouse founder Marcy Adelman, Ph.D., at podium, talked about made me realize that I never had who were perceived as LGBT. LGBT retirement options during a recent Commonwealth Club a back-up plan and that I knew Years ago, the New York Times forum and was joined by panelists Ralph Harris and Sue Parsell nothing about the supportive reported on the mistreatment, from the Sequoias-San Francisco; and Matile Rothschild and John services that could help me in the neglect, and denial of services Kennedy from Fountaingrove Lodge. right senior living community. from retirement communities, When I later moved to the Seassisted living facilities, and nursmember, encouraged the audience to conquoias I had nurses available 24 ing homes (“Fearing Isolation in Old Age, Gay sider various options that are now available hours, and a gay-friendly social network in the Generation Seeks Haven,” October 21, 1999). for LGBT retirement living. Openhouse will same building where I was served restaurant In the past, gay partners were not allowed be directed toward lower income individuals quality meals and had live music, lectures and to share an apartment in senior residences. In and couples. Fountaingrove Lodge offers rumovies in a 96-seat auditorium. many instances, according to the Times article, ral living in a new, upscale, predominately gay Matile Rothschild, who resides at the Foungay people were totally isolated in these facilienvironment. The Sequoias is a diverse comtaingrove Lodge, and Sue Parsell, who lives ties because they were shunned and shamed by munity with a sizable gay population within at the Sequoias and is a board member and other residents and patients. Staff members, walking distance of Davies Symphony vice president overseeing resident comtoo, might refuse to provide care and proper Hall and the Opera House, and in mittees there, both agreed that the assistance to “those kind of people.” But there addition to independent living younger a person is the easier it are now pockets of great change and our fuapartments has skilled nursing, will be to make the adjustment into ture is a lot brighter. assisted living, and memory care a senior care community. When Marcy Adelman, Ph.D., a lesbian activist facilities on the same property. Parsell’s partner of 45 years died, in San Francisco, started Openhouse in 1998 Only in recent years can she realized that living at home with the long-term goal of developing housing the formerly “old and inviswould not provide the security and social support services for LGBT seniors. ible” gay senior have realistic and social network she would Its long-awaited project is under construction hope for finding positive, supprobably need in future years. As at 55 Laguna Street and the first phase should portive, and inclusive services a former nurse, Parsell knows of be ready for residents at the end of 2015. that are targeted to offer him or too many seniors who became isoLast week, Openhouse and two other proher an extended lifetime of rich and fulfilling lated when they became infirm or their friends gressive retirement communities were cited experiences and friendships. We often do not died or moved away. by the Commonwealth Club as forerunners in have the family support network to take care Rothschild has only one regret – that she did creating safe, secure, caring, and accepting enof us when we are sick or slowing down as we not move to a gay supportive retirement comvironments for gay people as they age. get older. munity earlier in her life. She and her partner, This is a big deal that the respected ComThe audience was largely people of pre-reJoan Zimmerman, have made so many new monwealth Club is giving public attention to the tirement age who asked questions about how friends at Fountaingrove, and they have a richneeds and civil rights of LGBT seniors. This club and when they should start thinking about er life than they ever dreamed would be posis the oldest and largest public affairs forum in entering a retirement community, and how sible when they were living in the former home the United States, according to its website. to plan for it financially. John Kennedy said they loved. Though Zimmerman is still an avid The club is devoting August to programhe looked at a number of retirement facilities gardener, both women are thrilled to give up ming on LGBT issues, including seniors. Havfor several years before he and his partner, Bill, the responsibilities of maintaining a house. ing speakers from Openhouse and two other decided to move to Fountaingrove Lodge last “Everyday feels like I am on vacation at a gay-inclusive retirement communities – the November. Kennedy encouraged the audience luxury resort where professional staff takes Sequoias-San Francisco and Fountaingrove to start early and learn about all the choices care of all my needs. Why didn’t Joan and I Lodge in Santa Rosa – at its podium portrayed that are available. Some places offer only sethink of this sooner?” Rothschild asked. examples of breaking down barriers toward nior housing but no added services. Others All the panelists said they would not have achieving full human equality for LGBT semay include, for a monthly fee, comprehensive chosen a facility that did not have a strong gay niors. Recognition of our past struggles and on-site medical care, meals, housekeeping, population and open acceptance. current needs in this prestigious and influenentertainment, lectures and classes, counselParsell talked about “the wonderful divertial forum is a giant step toward getting the ating with a professional nutritionist, physical sity of people at the Sequoias, including LGBT tention that marriage equality did. and occupational therapy, travel opportunities See page 5 >> Adelman and the panel, of which I was a in the community van, and fitness programs

Letters >>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Ting’s syringe bill a ‘life-saver’

Thank you for covering Assembly Bill 1743, Assemblyman Phil Ting’s (D-San Francisco) pharmacy syringe access bill, in your July 31 article “Ting adds sunset to safe syringe bill.” We appreciate Ting’s leadership in addressing HIV and hepatitis C transmission in California. This bill is an important expansion of an established and effective program. Studies show that the risk of syringe sharing, and the resulting potential transmission of HIV and hepatitis, increases when the number of safe syringes a person can obtain is capped. That is why we are grateful that Ting was willing to introduce a bill to allow adults to buy an unlimited number of syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. Ting’s inclusion of the six-year sunset was a strategy that the bill co-sponsors, Drug Policy Alliance and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, encouraged him to take. It removed entrenched law enforcement opposition, paving the way for the Legislature to pass this lifesaving bill in the coming weeks. It has taken years of advocacy to reach this level of progress. Ting’s bill is a life-saver and we are grateful for his leadership. Laura Thomas, Deputy State Director Drug Policy Alliance San Francisco

Never too late to quit smoking

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is running an admirable ad campaign called “Tips from Former Smokers.” One man in the campaign, identified as Brian from California, is featured in one of the ads that ran on the back page of last week’s Bay Area Reporter. Brian’s major point is: “Smoking makes living with HIV much worse. You can quit.” I’d like to echo Brian by reminding our community that free support is available through http://www. lastdrag.org, San Francisco’s own LGBT quit-smoking class; or by calling the California Smokers’ Helpline at 1-800-NO-BUTTS. Bob Gordon, MPH The Last Drag San Francisco

No truth in Putin’s Russia

I’ve just finished the letter “Putin is a man of peace” [Mailstrom, August 7] by Jay Lyon and am eager to answer. As a person who is from former Soviet Union, Ukraine, Crimea I’d like to explain what Mr. Lyon didn’t. First of all, there is no truth in Russia. The history of this country is a lie from the beginning till today. Why? It is very easy to manipulate people who don’t know the truth. It was, it is, and it’s continuing up to now. Russian President Vladimir Putin came from the KGB, whose logo is: No Person, No Problem. If someone doesn’t understand it, I’ll translate: If you have a problem with someone, kill him. Stalin created it and Putin supports it because it exists. About Crimea, the “referendum” was under Russian military power, and I know it from my relatives who live there. Putin doesn’t really care about Crimeans, he cares about Sebastopol, where the Russian fleet is. Ask anybody in Russia who is Putin, and the answer “man of peace” will be the last one. He helps Syria because Russia sells huge amounts of weapons there. He supports Hamas, the terrorist organization. I grew up in Crimea, where there are people from 45 nationalities and there was no problem with Ukrainian language at all. I can speak Ukrainian too, but I prefer to speak Russian. The same situation is here in America – this is up to you what language is yours. What about the Malaysian Flight 17, which crashed in Ukraine – nobody knows, except Putin. And the world is waiting for the answer from him, which will never come out because ... read the beginning of my letter. I’d like to remind Mr. Lyon that to live here in the U.S. and write what’s really going on in Russia by Putin’s propaganda doesn’t mean that everything that you believe about Putin is true. Georgy Prodorov San Francisco

Putin is an enemy of LGBTs

Putin is a man of peace? Give me a break. I don’t know what planet you live on, but Russian President Putin is an enemy of all LGBT people. Just look at the beating

Guest Opinion

From page 4

employees and the type of straight people who say, who cares?” The final questions came from a woman in the audience who was concerned about meeting the cost of care in places that cater to the gay community. Entry fees start around $225,000 at Fountaingrove and about $142,000 at the Sequoias, which is a nonprofit organization. Openhouse will be the only LGBToriented place in the Bay Area that offers housing to low-income people when it opens next year. Many people worry about what

and jailing of our people in Moscow when they tried to march with rainbow flags. He’s a monster, especially with Flight 17. Move to Russia if you love him so much and see if you can exercise your rights there. You’ll disappear one night and no one will ever hear from you again. Both Putin and Stalin are two peas in a pod. Mario Benfield San Francisco

Bias toward Israel in mainstream news

Regarding last week’s letter on the Middle East [Mailstrom, August 7]: There has not been an event as tragic as the killing of children and women where the U.S. mainstream press has not been so biased toward one side as the Gaza-Israel conflict. Except for voices as Amy Goodman, Harry Seigman, Mark Perry, Uri Avnery (in Tel Aviv), Norman Finkelstein (all Jewish Americans), Radio Pacifica 94.1 in Berkeley, and the Arab American community. Including PBS and NPR Radio. Not all of them sound like Fox News but the majority of the airtime is given to Israel, reporters (Israelis and some working for the New York Times) reporting from Tel Aviv. There’s been minimal exposure to the Palestinian press or coverage from the BBC, German DW TV or Al Jazeera. There is no mass movement among progressive mentalities in this country to stop Israel from this massacre. There is a lot of ignorance or “don’t talk about it” on how we came to this tragic situation. No word is said on what has been happening in Gaza since 1948, a land that is so divided by the Israeli occupation that if we ever see a Palestinian state it would be three or four land portions with Israeli settlements in the middle. Nobody points the finger toward Benjamin Netanyahu, a Zionist (that is not the same as to be a hard-working progressive Jew). Hamas is not the only terrorist in this non-Hollywood production. The Israeli hawks in the present government are as conservative and rightist as our local Tea Party. The Israeli army is one of the most powerful armies in the world. They are so “nice” that they call you at home and tell you they are going to bombard your house so you would have time to look for a shelter. I hope Palestine (yes, there is a country called Palestine) would be admitted to the international court and that Netanyahu would be tried as any other strongman that uses force and machinery provided by us, U.S. taxpayers, to kill innocents. The present government of Israel does not want a two-state solution. All agreements – Madrid, Oslo, Camp David – have been boycotted and manipulated by Israel. It is for us, all American citizens, Arabs, Jews, blacks, Latinos, Christians, and Muslims to raise our voices of protest. Jorge Rodríguez -Sanabria San Francisco

Don’t spam me, bro

Several pertinent facts were omitted from your story last week about my efforts to fully participate in the democratic process, as a candidate for District 8 supervisor, that I believe should be known to Bay Area Reporter readers [“Wiener won’t debate Petrelis,” August 7]. Last year, Judge Sam Feng twice ordered the district attorney’s office to instruct the incumbent supervisor to cease communicating with me via email. He was sending me unsolicited monthly newsletters. Strange as it seems, while he was racking up hefty legal costs for the city dragging me through court hearings, the supervisor violated the judge’s order and has continued to do so. For a few months, the emails from him stopped but earlier this year the supervisor sent me three additional newsletters, always with invitations to attend various events of his around town. In May, the supervisor again emailed me, this time asking me to march with him and his SF Pride parade contingent in June. Copies of original emails were provided to the B.A.R., but the paper chose to ignore them. I’ve received a total of nine emails from the incumbent, since the legal hassle began. A screen shot of the parade invitation is posted at my campaign site and I ask folks to look at it here: https:// www.facebook.com/petrelis4supe8. For information about my alternative candidacy and platform, readers should visit www.ilikemikesf.org.

will happen to them if they deplete their savings during a long retirement. Future inflation could double or triple the cost of living in their later years. Life Care is a provision offered by a few retirement communities that is almost like long term insurance protection. With a written contract from a Life Care community, a resident is assured that if their personal assets drop below a given amount the facility will provide financial assistance to care for them for the rest of their life. At the Sequoias-San Francisco the financial assistance plan kicks in when residents’ personal assets drop to between $60,000 and 100,000, and

Michael Petrelis San Francisco

Everyone is welcome! even pays for medical expenses and potential higher levels of care like assisted living or skilled nursing. Adelman said she tried for years to get developers to build facilities that are affordable for middleincome seniors in our community. But so far funding has not been available, and this is a very big niche that everyone recognizes must be filled for LGBT baby boomers who are now considering where they will go when they are old and gay. In the right location, they can even become older and gayer!t Ralph Harris lives at the Sequoias-San Francisco.

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<< Politics

6 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Out candidates run for SF education boards

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number of out candidates are seeking seats on education boards in San Francisco this fall, as the down ticket races on the local ballot will be among the more hotly contested this election cycle. As the Bay Area Reporter first noted in February, a gay man and a transgender woman are seeking seats on the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in November. The school board has not had an LGBT representative on it since early January 2009. Jamie Rafaela Wolfe, who lost her first bid for a school board seat in 2010, is again seeking to join the board. She is a behaviorist and floor manager at Oakes Children’s Center Inc., a nonprofit that provides educational and therapeutic services to children with emotional and developmental issues. Mounting his first bid for political office is Mark Murphy, a communications and marketing consultant

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whose husband is an elementary school teacher in the district. They are among the nine people who filed by last Friday, August 8, to run for one of the three seats on the school board up for grabs. Two incumbents are in the race: Emily Murase, who is seeking a second fouryear term, and Hydra Mendoza, who is running for a third term. Because Kim-Shree Maufas opted not to seek re-election this year, the deadline for candidates to file was extended to Wednesday, August 13 at 5 p.m., after the B.A.R.’s deadline. The other candidates who submitted their paperwork to elections officials last week were Stevon Cook, Lee Hsu, Trevor McNeil, Shamann Walton, and Dennis Yang.

SF college board races

As the B.A.R. first reported July 30 on its blog, gay former Army lieutenant and Arabic linguist Dan Choi is vying for one of three seats on the Community College Board of Trustees, which oversees City College of San Francisco. He is the only out candidate seeking one of the four-year terms up for grabs. Alex Randolph, who is gay and was once an aide to former Supervisor Bevan Dufty, had indicated last week that he would enter the race. But after the B.A.R. went to press last Wednesday, Randolph informed the paper that, due to his presidential appointment in the Obama administration as a special assistant at the General Services Administration in San Francisco, he cannot run for local office this year. Incumbents John Rizzo, the board’s president, and Anita Grier, its vice president, are both seeking re-election, while Haight neighborhood leader Thea Selby and Wendy Aragon, president of the Richmond Democratic Club and a local Girl Scout leader, are also running. Because long-time gay trustee Lawrence Wong opted not to seek re-election, having served on the college board since 1994, the deadline for additional candidates to file was also extended to Wednesday, August 13 at 5 p.m., after the B.A.R.’s deadline. In the race to serve in the college board seat that was vacated by former trustee Chris Jackson, who had two more years left to his fouryear term, gay former student trustee William Walker filed to run. Three other candidates submitted paperwork to elections officials last week: Amy Bacharach, Brigitte Davila, and Thomas Moyer. Currently the college board has two out trustees; in addition to Wong there is also gay attorney Rafael Mandelman. The board has not met in months, however, as City College was put under the control of a special trustee due to the termination of its accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The college remains open as city leaders and campus officials continue to fight the commission’s decision.

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy Mark Murphy

School board candidate Jamie Rafaela Wolfe

School board candidate Mark Murphy

running to succeed termed out gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (DAmmiano) in the 17th Assembly District covering the city’s eastern neighborhoods. District 8 BART Board member James Fang, the lone Republican to hold public office in the city, drew nominal opposition in his bid for re-election from two opponents: Democrat Nicholas Josefowitz, a solar energy company founder, and someone who filed under the name Flash Gordon. District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang, the board’s most freshman member, is running unopposed for a four-year term to represent the Outer Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods. District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell, who represents the Marina and Cow Hollow neighborhoods, has one opponent, Juan-Antonio Carballo. In District 6, which covers South of Market and the Tenderloin, Supervisor Jane Kim is up against three men, including gay Rincon Hill resident Jamie Whitaker. Another neighborhood activist, Michael Nulty, who is the identical twin of District 8 supervisor candidate John Nulty, and David Carlos Salaverry, a Republican who placed third in the June primary for the 17th Assembly District seat, are also running. District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener is being contested for his seat representing the Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park by four protest candidates: nude activist George Davis; gay blogger and LGBT global rights activist Michael Petrelis; Tom Wayne Basso, whose family owned a now-closed Noe Valley eatery; and Nulty, who is a community activist. District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen faces the most serious challenge this fall of the board members. Well-known progressive Tony Kelly, who came close to winning the seat four years ago, is once again seeking to represent the Potrero Hill, Bayview, and Hunter’s Point neighborhoods. Three other

people are also in the race: Ed Donaldson and Marlene Tran, who both also ran for the seat in 2010, and neighborhood activist Shawn M. Richard.

Gay man seeks East Bay council seat

El Cerrito resident Gabriel Quinto, a gay HIV-positive Filipino American, is running for a seat on his hometown’s city council this fall. He is one of two people who filed to run by last Friday’s deadline, the other being current Mayor Janet Abelson. Because incumbent Councilwoman Rebecca Benassini opted not to seek re-election, the filing deadline to enter the council race was extended to 4 p.m. Wednesday, August 13. Quinto, a local Democratic Party activist, joins a long list of out candidates seeking political offices in Alameda County this November. LGBT people are in the running for Berkeley and Oakland city council seats, Oakland mayor, and seats on the boards that oversee the county’s water and community college districts.

SF treasurer marries partner

Congratulations to gay San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros and his longtime partner, Mark Kelleher, who tied the knot Saturday, August 9 surrounded by family and friends at a private ceremony under the rotunda of City Hall. They publicly announced their marriage via Facebook Tuesday.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column will return Monday, August 18. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Other city races

The education board races are adding some excitement to an otherwise ho-hum election cycle for local offices in San Francisco. Both Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu and Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who are both seeking four-year terms in November, have no opponents in their races. The local race that has drawn the most attention to date is the state Assembly matchup between Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and his gay colleague, Supervisor David Campos. They are

Jane Philomen Cleland

The Assembly race between candidates David Chiu, left, and David Campos, right, has drawn the most attention locally. Here the candidates are shown with San Francisco Chronicle reporter Marisa Lagos at a debate earlier this year.

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<< National News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Gay prisoner shares story, his mistakes, in newspaper column by David-Elijah Nahmod

gay Florida man who is in prison is sharing his story with LGBT readers of a local gay newspaper through a column he’s been writing for almost a year. Christopher Reina is currently serving a five-year sentence at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami. He admits that he’s made many mistakes. A longtime HIV survivor, who also has hepatitis C, Reina got caught up in a hard partying lifestyle, which included drugs and sexual addiction. He had a serious run-in with the law around a dozen years ago. An embezzlement scheme in which he got involved in to pay for his meth habit ended with probation. He tried to clean up, but the drugs had a strong hold on him. He managed to stay clean for a few years and even earned a bachelor’s degree in social work, but his addictions eventually took control once more. He added online porn to his habits, spending so much money that he went bankrupt. Reina, 48, was finally arrested after indulging in online gay kiddie porn. He now lives a life filled with regret at the prison. Each month in South Florida Gay News, Reina writes his Prison Diaries column in which he talks about how he copes, his hopes for the future, his desire to rehabilitate, and his expressions of sorrow for those that he’s hurt.

Some of the columns are heartbreaking. “Five years,” he wrote in his first column of his prison sentence. “The longer I contemplate those two words, the more the walls in my cell seem to press in around me.” Reina hopes that his mother will live long enough to see him released. He’s already wept for a beloved cat that he never got to say goodbye to, and for all the pain he’s caused a former partner. The two remain friends, and his partner, who the Bay Area Reporter was unable to contact, continues to offer emotional support, even though he told Reina that they can never be a couple again. The B.A.R. interviewed Reina through a monitored email account that the prison provides to approved people, in this case, Jason Parsley, editor of South Florida Gay News. Parsley told the B.A.R. that he had a couple reasons for running Reina’s column. “I wanted to run Prison Diaries for two reasons,” Parsley said via email. “One was to give our readers a behind the scenes look at prison life for a gay man, while he was still in prison. The second reason is that I wanted to spotlight the consequences of drug addiction, especially crystal meth, because it’s reemerging in the gay male community as an epidemic.” Reina is paid $30 per column, but he donates the money to the Pet Project, a nonprofit that promotes “the

Courtesy South Florida Gay News

Christopher Reina

healing bond between humans and their companion animals,” according to its website. Parsley said that the paper sends the checks directly to the agency. Reina wrote in his first column that he used to volunteer there. Parsley said that the idea for the column came after Reina’s sentencing, which the paper covered, and his former partner wrote a letter to the editor. Parsley asked Reina to write a column and it went from there. The child porn crimes for which Reina is serving time are perhaps the most controversial, as Parsley acknowledged. “Initially we got some backlash for running the column, especially from gay parents and gay parenting orga-

nizations because they believed we were giving a voice to someone who, because of the nature of his crimes, abused children through child porn,” Parsley said. “I believe Chris has taken responsibility for his crimes and he even says that he should have been punished. If that hadn’t been the case I would never have considered running the column.” Reina feels that those who seek out kiddie porn should be treated as though they were suffering from an illness. “I am not advocating that society accept child sexual abuse,” he said. “Adult producers of child porn and predators should be put in prison and be given fair, mandatory treatment. But we need to switch the focus from punishment to treatment for possibly the majority of sex offenders. Who in their right mind would seek treatment in this hostile climate?” But don’t let perpetrators off the hook, Reina said. “If a guy were to see a therapist for help with his pornography addiction and admitted to possessing underage porn, that therapist would be required to notify authorities,” he said. “To quote my latest column, ‘draconian laws haven’t worked in the war on drugs, so why do people think they’ll work for child pornography crimes?’”

Gay behind bars

Reina said that he feels relatively safe as a gay inmate. “This is a low security federal pris-

LGBTs mourn actor Robin Williams by Cynthia Laird

ay Area LGBTs mourned the sudden death of actor and comedian Robin Williams this week, recalling his generosity to HIV/ AIDS causes and support for the community. The body of Mr. Williams, 63, was found by his personal assistant Monday, August 11 at his home in unincorporated Tiburon. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said that Mr. Williams died of an apparent suicide. At a news conference Tuesday, sheriff ’s Lieutenant Keith Boyd, assistant chief deputy coroner, said that the preliminary results of the forensic examination revealed that Mr. Williams died of asphyxia due to hanging. Boyd said Tuesday that acute superficial cuts were found on the inside of Mr. Williams’s left wrist and a pocketknife with a closed

blade was found near his body. Boyd also told reporters that the investigation, which is ongoing, revealed that Mr. Williams had been seeking treatment for depression. Perhaps best known for his drag role in the hit film Mrs. Doubtfire, Mr. Williams appeared in numerous other movies, including Good Morning, Vietnam; The Birdcage; Dead Poets Society, and Good Will Hunting, for which he won an Oscar. A longtime comedian and Bay Area resident, Mr. Williams got his start in San Francisco comedy clubs before moving to television with the hit show, Mork and Mindy. News of Mr. Williams’s death spread quickly on social media late Monday afternoon, and several local LGBTs took to Facebook to express their shock, sadness, and appreciation for Mr. Williams. Tez Anderson, a longtime AIDS

survivor and co-founder of the group Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome) wrote on Facebook that he first met Mr. Williams in 1986, shortly after Anderson tested positive for HIV. Mr. Williams later agreed to be in a film that Anderson (then known as Terry) co-wrote, The Night Listener, playing a version of Anderson’s former lover. “I had the privilege and bizarre experience of hearing he and Bobby Cannavale play out parts of my life on the set of a film that I co-wrote and lived,” Anderson wrote. “Robin honed in on the undertones of how realizing that I might live a very long Actor and comedian Robin Williams time, that I’m a survivor played into some of my decisions in those days. I’ll never forget our talk about it.” anniversary gala in 2007, he fully Anderson wrote that Mr. Williams, embraced the PAWS mission and who he said lived in the Castro duryou could tell he truly cared about ing the height of the AIDS epidemic, all the people we served. It was a “gave a shitload of money to HIV. He magical moment for me and all the lost a shitload of friends to HIV.” people who were there that night.” “He was not gay but he was one of Gwen Smith, a transgender womus. He got it,” Anderson wrote. an who writes the B.A.R.’s TransJohn Lipp, the former executive missions column, said that during director of Pets Are Wonderful Suphis career, Mr. Williams was in three port, posted a photo of he and Mr. films with trans-related storylines. Williams at PAWS’ 20th anniversary “The World According to Garp, celebration in 2007. where he played opposite John Lith“The Bay Area wasn’t just a home gow’s ‘Roberta Muldoon’ character; for Robin Williams, it was his comThe Birdcage, with its drag-centric munity,” Lipp said in a Facebook plot twists; and Mrs. Doubtfire. message to the Bay Area Reporter. “The latter – with a sequel Mr. “When he stepped on stage to serve Williams had signed onto before his as the auctioneer at the PAWS 20th death – was often viewed as problem-

Obituaries >> Bill Lewandowski September 13, 1950 – March 12, 2014

Bill Lewandowski passed away on March 12, 2014 after battling melanoma. He was 63. He was born in Foley, Minnesota on September 13, 1950 to Darlene and Walter (who preceded him in death). He is also, preceded by his best friend, Diane Schuster, who succumbed to lung cancer two weeks prior to Bill’s death. Bill loved San Francisco and considered it his home. He was a member of the staff of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus for many years and worked in administrative and financial positions for 22 years. For the last 10 years Bill

was employed as the director of operations for the nonprofit organization Support for Families of Children with Disabilities, where he was respected and beloved by his co-workers. Bill is survived by his mother, as well as five brothers and three sisters; 22 nieces and nephews; 23 grand nieces and nephews, and many great friends in northern California, too many to mention. He is deeply loved and missed for his kind, giving heart, his wonderful sense of humor, and for always seeing the glass half full. Contributions in his memory can be made to the Support For Families of Children with Disabilities at 1663 Mission Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103.

on,” he said. “It’s basically adult day care with razor wire. The guards aren’t a problem as long as you keep off of their radar. The thing about prison is that it’s designed to strip away as much of your individual identity as possible, so aside from protection from rape and physical assaults, I really don’t think they think in terms of LGBT issues. Sure, it would be great if they provided condoms or had Advocate or Out in the prison library.” For Reina, his being gay isn’t as much of an issue as what he did. “The issue really isn’t being gay, it’s being a sex offender, the bottom of the prison totem pole,” Reina said. “All but two of the 30 gay guys that I know of are sex offenders, though the majority of the sex offenders are straight. Some of the guards are less than friendly to sex offenders, but for the most part the staff is very professional. There are a few inmates here that will make predatory advances as soon as they hear you are gay, but I haven’t come up [against] any outright coercion.” Reina also addressed transgender prisoner issues. “I have only seen one trans prisoner in the detention center in Miami,” he said. “She got plenty of stares and cat calls. I once wrote a paper on transgender inmates for school, and I know that being incarcerated in usually a living hell for them. I do understand that they will provide hormone therapy for those See page 9 >>

atic,” Smith said in an email. “We’re too often viewed as deceptive men by those who do not know us, and his character is chock full of that. Even though it’s clear the character is not actually transgender, Mrs. Doubtfire is what so many see transgender people as. For example, last year the Fox Nation website used an image of Mrs. Doubtfire alongside a story about transgender health care.” Smith said that she did not know what Mr. Williams thought about transgender people. “I wish I’d had the chance to ask,” she said. “What I do know, though, is that in his ability to take the role of a lovable, friendly outsider – from ‘Mork from Ork’ to the Genie in Aladdin – I felt like there was someone out there who might grasp me. Even with the more problematic roles he played, particularly Mrs. Doubtfire, I still viewed him as a hero.” Tiffany Woods, a transgender woman who is the transgender programs manager at Tri-City Health Center in Fremont, said that she worked as an extra with Mr. Williams on Mrs. Doubtfire and the lesser-known Being Human. She was able to “hang out” with the actor on set. “Most extras or background actors/actresses are treated like cattle by everyone on set, cast and crew alike,” Woods wrote in her Facebook post. “Mr. Williams included us in conversation and treated us with respect and part of the film.” In addition to various HIV/AIDS causes, Mr. Williams was a big supporter of the United Service Organizations, or USO, which provides support and morale-boosting performances to troops and families. CNN reported that according to the USO, Mr. Williams was involved with the organization for 12 years and “created special moments for nearly 90,000 servicemen and servicewomen in 13 countries.” Mr. Williams is survived by his wife, Susan Schneider, and three children from his previous marriages, son, Zak; daughter, Zelda; and son, Cody.t

Business News>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Castro groups survey gay district’s retail needs by Matthew S. Bajko

coalition of Castro neighborhood groups is surveying the retail needs of the city’s gay district. Dubbed the “Castro and Upper Market Retail Strategy,” its purpose is to develop a plan for how to attract businesses to fill the various vacant retail spaces dotting Castro and Market streets as well as the new storefronts that will be housed on the ground floors of the mixed-use residential buildings currently under construction. According to the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, the project will “develop an actionable plan to fill new ground floor retail in a manner that enables the commercial corridor to thrive while preserving its unique character and draw as a tourist destination. It also aims to ensure high quality of life for area residents.” The LGBT business district has seen a number of restaurants shutter, including Blue and Shanghai, and national chain stores, such as L’Occitane en Provence and Diesel, pull out of the Castro in recent

Gay prisoner

From page 8

who were on it on the outside, but the catch is that they need to be able to prove it. Many trans prisoners are using black market hormones.” Reina explained why he writes Prison Diaries. “I want to humanize myself as a sex offender, which is something that people out there consider to be dangerous and irresponsible,” he said. “I commend South Florida Gay News for having the guts to explore this volatile subject. Many

years. Attempts to turn the building that housed Diesel at the corner of Market and Castro, above the Castro Muni station, into a gay men’s club never materialized. At the same time a number of new coffeehouses, such as Eureka Cafe on Castro Street and Espressamente Illy on Market Street, have moved in within the last year. A new video arcade bar and Mexican eatery, both locally owned, are set to open in the new residential building named the Century at Market and 15th streets, while a block away a new food hall is being planned and the Swedish American Hall is receiving a topto-bottom renovation that will reactive the building and its basement club space. But concerns about seeing chain stores flood the area led last year to city officials enacting tougher restrictions on formula retail and an 18-month moratorium on financial services opening along Market Street. Plans for a Hamburger Mary’s to go into the old Patio Cafe space on Castro Street and the AIDS Healthcare of the sex offender laws are ill considered and actually detrimental to society and the former sex offenders themselves. If I can open a few eyes to that, it gives me the opportunity to take something that is pretty tragic and find the silver lining.”t Christopher Reina’s Prison Diaries can be followed, from the beginning, at South Florida Gay News: www.southfloridagaynews. com. Editor’s note: Reporter DavidElijah Nahmod is a contributor to South Florida Gay News.

A survey of the Castro’s retail needs will start soon; the empty building that housed Diesel is one of several vacant storefronts.

Foundation’s proposed pharmacy and HIV testing clinic across the street have both elicited opposition. The CBD is leading the effort to create the strategy and is working with the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, the Castro/ Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, and the Castro Merchants group to develop it. The project is being paid for with $87,200 raised through a grant from the city and donations from neighborhood groups and developers. San Francisco-based firm Seifel Consulting has been hired to conduct the study, while the CBD has hired Danny Yadegar, a Duboce Triangle resident, urban planner, and DTNA board member, as a part-time, temporary consultant to coordinate the project. Surveyors are expected to hit the streets this fall to seek public input about what types of retail is wanted or needed in the Castro. A final report based on the survey feedback and input from neighborhood

groups is to be presented to the public next July.

Honor roll

The National LGBT Bar Association is honoring two San Francisco attorneys, John T. Hendricks and Kyle Wong, with its 2014 Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 award. The group will fete this year’s 40 “outstanding” LGBT legal professionals under the age of 40 at a luncheon August 23 as part of the 2014 Lavender Law Conference and Career Fair in New York City. Wong is a special counsel at Cooley LLP’s litigation department. He joined the firm in 2007 and focuses on complex commercial litigation, including antitrust and trade regulation, privacy matters, class actions, and other commercial litigation. Hendricks is a partner and founder of HendricksMurry, P.C., previously the Law Offices of John T. Hendricks. His practice focuses on the areas of business, real estate and employment law. He has served in various leadership

positions within legal organizations, including as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, as a director of the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom – the local LGBT lawyer group known as BALIF – and as president of the National LGBT Bar Foundation. “I am honored to be recognized by the LGBT Bar Association,” stated Hendricks. “Our firm is proud to be a gay-owned business, and we are committed to ensuring equality and fair treatment for LGBT people in everything we do. To be acknowledged for work that is so important to me in both my personal and professional life is incredibly gratifying.” To mark its 15th anniversary, Mission Street eatery Foreign Cinema is throwing itself a “Quintessentially Quixotic Quinceanera” that will raise money for two Castro-based youth institutions. Proceeds from the September 18 party will be split between LGBT youth services provider LYRIC, which stands for the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, and the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, a public elementary school named after the city’s first gay supervisor. Tickets for the event, which begins at 7 p.m., are $100 per person. The evening will feature “visual delights, sensual bites, sultry libations, and unique burlesque and art performances from the world renowned drag queens of San Francisco’s Trannyshack and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” promise the restaurant’s chef co-owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark. For information on how to purchase tickets, visit http://www.foreigncinema.com/upcomingevents/.t Got a tip on LGBT business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

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10 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Park death

From page 1

as asphyxia due to strangulation. Assistant District Attorney Danielle Douglas repeatedly got Diaz, who testified through a Spanish interpreter, to acknowledge that he had lied to police and others before his arrest. In one exchange, Douglas asked him about an interview with police on July 22, 2011 the day he finally said what had happened and was arrested. Police finally played 911 calls for Diaz that he’d made just after Canul-Arguello died, in which Diaz talked about the fire and killing someone without identifying himself. Douglas asked Diaz if when he was presented with the recordings he had implicated another person. “Even after you were confronted with the 911 calls ... you still lied?” she said. “Yes, and I did it because I was scared,” Diaz testified.

Milk club dinner

From page 3

Rachel Maddow Show publicly challenged the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that was repealed by Congress in 2010. Choi recently moved to San Francisco and is running for the City College board.

Oakland Pride

From page 1

In a phone interview, Kaplan, who is running for mayor this year, said that Pride not only helps the local economy but it also stands as a testament to the power of the LGBTQ community. “It’s more grassroots-based and very supportive of the local community,” she said. What makes Oakland Pride unique from other Pride festivals is that it caters to a different crowd. “We are regarded as the most family-friendly Pride,” Todd explained. “We are a satellite center for a day in a community that does not have a centralized location for LGBT services,” said Todd. The festival is one of northern California’s biggest Pride parties. Last year over 30,000 people attended the festival. The San Francisco Business Times estimated that Oakland’s LGBT population is 40,000. The budget for the parade and the festival is around $300,000. In an email, Uribe said that funding for Pride comes from a variety of sources, including sponsors, fundraising by the all-volunteer board, booth/vendor sales, gate receipts, and community donations. Last year the organization broke even

Homicide probe

From page 1

or 30s wearing a gray hoodie. Higgins was in “critical condition” at San Francisco General Hospital as of Wednesday morning, August 13, according to Rachael Kagan, a health department spokeswoman, but the San Francisco Bay Guardian reported that Higgins’s family wanted to “remove him from life support” Wednesday afternoon. A vigil was planned for the same time. Higgins’s identity wasn’t known at first. In a news release issued Monday, August 11, Kagan said San Francisco General Hospital needed the public’s help to identify him, and released a photo showing Higgins in a hospital bed with a tube coming out of his mouth. Esparza said when Higgins was found, “it was believed it was probably just a medical incident.” He said Higgins “had injuries,” but he didn’t know what they were. “There was no obvious traumatic injury” such as stabbing or gunshot wounds, he said.

He said he’d been drinking at the gay bar the Cafe and saw Canul-Arguello at La Tortilla taqueria after 2 a.m. the morning Canul-Arguello died. They eventually decided to have sex and walked to Buena Vista Park. They stopped at different spots in the park and performed oral sex and other acts on each other, he testified. Canul-Arguello “told me he wanted me to penetrate him,” he said, but he didn’t because “we didn’t have any condoms.” Canul-Arguello was giving Diaz head and asked him to choke him, he testified. “He told me he liked it,” Diaz told the court. “He said it excited him and he wanted to cum.” At first, Diaz declined, but he eventually agreed, and put his hands around Canul-Arguello’s throat while Canul-Arguello was performing oral sex on him. He told Diaz it “hurt,” stood up, got behind him, and showed him how to do it, Diaz said. “He placed himself behind me and he crossed his arm covering my

neck,” Diaz testified, holding his right arm across his throat to demonstrate. Diaz ended up standing behind Canul-Arguello, and choking him while playing with his penis near his butt, as Canul-Arguello continued touching Diaz. He asked to be choked “a little bit harder” and corrected Diaz more than once, Diaz testified. Then, “at a certain point, he stopped moving,” Diaz said. He let go of Canul-Arguello, who fell to the ground, and then tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him. “I was frightened,” he said. “... I didn’t know what to do. I was really nervous.” He said he lit a cigarette, then noticed a recycling bin, moved it close to where Canul-Arguello’s body was, and lit a cup inside the bin to start a fire to signal for help. He pulled a fire alarm and made calls to 911 about the fire but didn’t identify himself as the person who had just killed Canul-Arguello. He struggled

“It makes me want to serve when I see this family,” he said. Milk club Co-President Tom Temprano was pleased with how the evening turned out. “Thanks to the hard work of our executive board and the generosity of our sponsors this year’s dinner was the most successful the club has had in years,” he said in a statement

to the B.A.R. “Our lineup of awardees, like CeCe McDonald and Tom Ammiano, was comprised of inspiring queer leaders who stand up and fight for what they believe in. City College’s Mission campus proved to be the perfect venue to showcase these folks and we were honored to be their guests and to lend our support to their ongoing fight.”t

on the festival at around $250,000, Uribe said. The festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., will have a main stage, joined by the womyn’s and Latin stages and one of the most popular venues, the family and children’s garden. There will also be an area for seniors. Oakland’s own Grammy-nominated artist, Sheila E., will be the headlining performer. Her hits include “The Glamorous Life,” “A Love Bizarre,” and “Erotic City” (with Prince). The easiest way to get to Oakland Pride, organizers said, is to take BART and exit at the 12th Street/ City Center station for the parade, or the 19th Street station for the festival. Admission to the festival is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 12 and under. Oakland-based streaming music company Pandora is among numerous sponsors, which also include Tesla Motors, Whole Foods Market, Clear Channel Radio, Kaiser Permanente, and the Golden State Warriors. Past Pride festivals have resulted in few problems, but the Oakland Police Department and security

personnel will be on hand as usual. In the news release, Uribe said that volunteers are still needed for the parade and festival. People can also register parade contingents by visiting http://www.oaklandpride. org/parade_map. “I encourage everybody to come,” said Kaplan. Kaplan also said that the festival has “a very friendly and welcoming environment.” Todd encouraged people who have not been to Oakland Pride before to check it out this year. “To those who think they have seen what all Prides have to offer and have not taken the time to attend our event, I challenge you to attend Oakland Pride and tell me if it is not one of the best festivals around,” said Todd. Related Pride weekend events include the Oakland Pride Creative Arts and Film festival and the Oakland Pride Block Party. Additionally, a gala fundraiser will take place Saturday, August 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Betti Ono Gallery, 1427 Broadway. Tickets are $75 in advance or $100 at the door. For more information on Oakland Pride, go to www.oaklandpride.org or check its Facebook page, at “Oakland Pride and Parade 2014.”t

However, he said, “video surveillance was brought to the police department that indicated he was the victim of a crime.” Police don’t have much information, he said, including whether it was a robbery or hate crime. Kagan said Higgins had been “wearing pants and shoes,” but he’d “had no wallet or ID, or any other belongings with him when he arrived at the hospital.” Esparza declined to say who provided the video and didn’t share details of what it showed, but he said it “shows it was a criminal act.” He wouldn’t say whether people in the neighborhood reported hearing screaming. “We don’t discuss what the witness statements were,” he said. Jerry Deal, 38, a friend of Higgins’s, said, “He was the kindest, gentlest, freest spirit I’ve ever met, and I’ve been blessed to have amazing friends.” “He was all about love, all about love,” Deal said. According to Higgins’s Facebook page, he was also known as Feather Lynn Deal, who said Higgins was part

of the Faerie community, said, “It is frightening to know that whoever did it is still out there. It makes me angry.” He said he went with another friend to see Higgins at San Francisco General Hospital Tuesday night to pay his respects. Higgins’s husband, Brian Hagerty, told the Bay Guardian, “Right now, we are just concerned with his spirit, and making sure everyone has a chance to say goodbye. Too many factors came together in this situation. But the truth is he has left us.” Esparza said once Higgins is declared dead, the case will become a homicide investigation. “A lot of questions are unanswered,” he said. He said police need witnesses to come forward, and he encouraged businesses in the area to check their video surveillance systems. Anyone with information in the case may call the police department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to 847411 and type SFPD, then the message. The incident number is 140 665 807.t

Stages, headliners

over what to do and didn’t go to greet firefighters when they arrived, instead going home. Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien asked Diaz how he felt about “the whole situation.” “Like shit,” Diaz responded. He said, “I think, what if I had said ‘No’ to Freddy? What if I had condoms? What if I had not gone out that night? I think about many things.” Early in his testimony, as Lilien asked him about his early childhood in Mexico, Diaz grinned, but his face was grim through more than a day on the witness stand. He sounded like he was choking up toward the end.

During his testimony, Diaz also described how Canul-Arguello had performed oral sex on him months before and they’d occasionally see each other around. Kristin Marcos, an acquaintance of Canul-Arguello’s, testified that Canul-Arguello had talked to her about getting choked during sex a few months before he died and asked if she thought it was “weird.” She said she told him it wasn’t. Douglas didn’t present a clear motive for the death during her opening statements late last month. Closing arguments are expected by early next week.t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035952700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLO2GO, 411 SPRUCE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BLO2GO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035953200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRIGHT’S LES CLOS, 234 TOWNSEND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRIGHT WINE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032530900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: GOLDEN GATE VIDEO; MOVIE MAVEN; 1799 10TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by CRAFTY CANINES LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/10.

AUG 07, 14, 21, 28, 2014 PUBLIC SALE OF PROPERTY

Personal property described as: shoes, clothes, furniture, tables, bed, linen, shelves, lamps, kitchen glassware, silverware, dvds, tube TV, pictures, books, miscellaneous household items left at 855 Folsom St. #522, San Francisco. Public auction will meet in front of property at 4pm on 08/27/14. Auctioneer will only accept cash.

AUG 14, 21, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550500

In the matter of the application of: JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ, is requesting that the name JOHN MARK ROLDAN RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN MARK RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN RODRIQUEZ aka JOHN MARK RODRIGUEZ, be changed to BEN SALVADOR TREVINO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 2nd of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550505

In the matter of the application of: LE LE DO for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LE LE DO is requesting that the name LE LE DO be changed to EDWARD LUY DO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 9th of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550497 In the matter of the application of: SAMANTA GURUNG for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SAMANTA GURUNG is requesting that the name SAMANTA GURUNG be changed to SAMUEL TILAK GURUNG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 7th of October 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550457

In the matter of the application of: ZEBADYHA TREE LEE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ZEBADYHA TREE LEE,, is requesting that the name ZEBADYHA TREE LEE,, be changed to ZEE BOUDREAUX. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 16th of September 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035984300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TODD WANERMAN EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING, 234 19TH AVE #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TODD MOORE WANERMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/14.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035973000

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AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035992200

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AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035983800

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AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035970400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIGHT-FRAME COSTRUCTION INC, 1325 B EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LIGHT-FRAME COSTRUCTION INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/14.

AUG 14, 21, 28, SEPT 04. 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035993100

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUNSET MOBILE NOTARY SERVICE, 1472 LA PLAYA ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUSSELL EUGENE CHAMPAGNE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/14.

August 14-20, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DELI 23, 2449 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ISA J. MUHAWIEH. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/11.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THOMAS DOHERTY CONSTRUCTION, 51 EAST GATE DR, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOMAS DOHERTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/14.

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Dance wars

Grant's pass

Taiwanese tease

Out &About

O&A

The

Vol. 44 • No. 33 • August 14-20, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Capturing the essence of Barbra by Richard Dodds

s far as anyone knows, and most likely it would be known, Barbra Streisand has not seen Buyer & Cellar. But right now, the little off-Broadway show that has grown into a big hit is in her own backyard, more or less, running in Los Angeles as part of a national tour that arrives Aug. 19 at the Curran Theatre. While the solo show’s starting premise certainly has sport with the indulgently outfitted cocoons Streisand builds for herself, Buyer & Cellar star Michael Urie believes there is more compassion than derision in Jonathan Tolins’ script. “It’s really left up to the audience to decide if they think what is happening is mean or not,” Urie said, “and because the play is more an observation than a judgment, I would definitely argue that it’s not mean. Ultimately, it’s like a really nice, touching tribute to her – but with some fun.” See page 14 >>

Michael Urie stars in the SFbound hit comedy Buyer & Cellar as an out-of-work actor hired by Barbra Streisand to tend to her private little shopping lane.

What’s up at the galleries in August? Joan Marcus

Oliver Klink’s “Herding Instincts, Bhutan,” winner of the juried competition The Perimeter of the World – Contemporary Travel Photography at RayKo Photo Center.

by Sura Wood

rt doesn’t take a summer vacation. Here’s a taste of what’s out there this August. The images in RayKo Photo Center’s The Perimeter of the World – Contemporary Travel Photography aren’t your average tourist shots. The curators pored over 3,000 photographs submitted by more than 300 artists from around the globe to arrive at the 70 displayed here, a goodly portion of which were shot on traditional film. RayKo Gallery director Ann Jastrab wanted to know what drove photographers to lug a 4x5 up a mountain into thin air, cart around tons of film, or dole out money to rent expensive lens while on holiday. Whatever their motivations, the enticing pictures they brought back speak to just how big the world is, and the myriad ways of life that surge forward thousands of miles from home in Argentina, Mongolia, Tibet, Burma and See page 23 >>

Oliver Klink, courtesy RayKo Photo Center

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

PREview

Out &About

Eagle's nest

O&A

arts 2014 FALL

26 30 23 20

Hello, Olivia

The

Culture clash

Vol. 42 • No.

ber 6-12,

36 • Septem

2012

Publishing on August 28 and September 4 in

m/arts www.ebar.co

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OF TWO SECOND

} SECTIONS

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<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Lifetime achievement by Roberto Friedman

ndoubtedly the big art-house movie of the summer has been writer-director Richard Linklater’s extraordinary Boyhood, which opened in July. Though the film was showing in three screening rooms at the Embarcadero Center Cinema one weeknight last week, it played to an almost-full house when Out There saw it, and a later showing was already sold out. Word is clearly out. What’s revolutionary about the movie is that it tells the story of one boy’s transition from 6 to 17 years

old, and Linklater actually shot it in increments over the course of 12 years, so that his cast ages naturally, you might even say in “real time.” Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) goes from cherubic first-grader to college freshman in three hours, and we see that the child really is the father of the man. Linklater apparently has an eye for movie stars, as Coltrane grows steadily into leading-man good looks. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette are convincing and dedicated as Mason’s estranged parents; their looks really change as well, from young adult beauty to

middle-aged spread. And Lorelei Linklater is spot-on as Ethan’s older sister, aging from little girl to awkward tween to confident teen. Boyhood’s mundane setting (various Texas cities) and plot (life’s imperfect trajectories) mask a rather cosmic achievement in cinema. If Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) used suburban American life as the basis for a meditation on the cosmos, Linklater’s Middle American film is at heart an artistic statement about time, and its effects on us all. In other three-hour movies, it’s often the audience that feels as if it’s aged 12 years. Not so here. Slice of life? Boyhood gives you the whole pie.

IFC Films

Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is the unhappy recipient of a crew-cut in writer-director Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.

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BAReporter.indd 1

Out There was in the house as San Francisco Playhouse’s Sandbox Series presented the world premiere of playwright Rhett Rossi’s From Red to Black, directed by Susi Damilano, at the ACT Costume Shop. This series of plays given stripped-down productions in a black-box theater is intended to create an intermediate space between workshopped readings and fully staged runs, and upand-coming stage scribe Rossi’s urban tale fills the bill of fare quite well. Two NYPD detectives investigate the suspicious death of a man who fell onto subway tracks in front of an oncoming train. They bring a young black man who was at the scene in for questioning – the kind of youth, as one policeman notes, who was sentenced before he was even born. The play raises questions of police misconduct, coercive confession, the criminal justice system’s treatment of the underclass, and other contemporary issues, but it doesn’t feel like an “issue play,” it feels like drama. There’s even an important “gangle” (gay angle) involved, but it unfolds naturally as part of the plot, so it won’t be given up here. The cast – Matthew Baldiga and Charles Shaw Robinson convincing as hard-bitten cops of different generations, Isiah Thompson excellent as the brother from the projects, and Michael Shipley solid as the deceased’s work associate – is uniformly strong. SF Playhouse co-founder Damilano’s brisk direction keeps the evening to a taut 90 minutes. At the opening night’s afterparty, Baldiga told OT he finds it hard to unwind after such a powerful punch. We told him alcohol helps. Until it doesn’t. Plays Wed. & Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. & Sat.

8/7/14 10:49 PM

Jordan Puckett

Isiah Thompson, Matthew Baldiga, Charles Shaw Robinson, and Michael Shipley in San Francisco Playhouse’s production of playwright Rhett Rossi’s From Red to Black.

at 8 p.m., through Aug. 30 at ACT Costume Shop, 1119 Market St., SF. Tickets ($20): (415) 677-9596 or sfplayhouse.org.

Davies on the down-low

We hear through the grapevine (i.e., not through official press relations) that representatives of Davies Symphony Hall are currently polling people about major changes for the building and its cell phone policy. To wit: They are asking people about being able to use cell phones inside the hall during concerts to take pictures or search an app about the San Francisco Symphony; if people would be willing to pay extra to sit in “skyboxes” or private suites like at football stadiums; if they would pay to sit in a separate lounge area where they could order food and drink; if they would like a sit-down restaurant on-site in the building, or more grab-to-go and bar areas; what they think about proposals to build a 330-car garage

Michael Urie

From page 13

The impetus for Tolins to write Buyer & Cellar came from the lavish coffee table book My Passion for Design that Streisand wrote and photographed detailing her meticulous home renovations. Specifically, Tolins was drawn to Streisand’s description of a little street of faux shops she had built in the basement to showcase the various collectibles she has acquired over the years. It is not, perhaps to state the obvious,

nearby; about a private, club-like space nearby off-site where simulcasts of shows would be played; and finally, what do they think about simulcast screens in new restaurant and bar areas outside the main hall? That’s a lot to consider. The polling also asked questions about having more shows featuring celebrities of film and stage, and if shows should be shorter with no intermissions. Sounds like some audience-friendly changes are being seriously tossed around in focus groups. We’ll let you know more when we know more.

An oldie but goodie

Finally: “My friend Sal Bernardi, who used to live here in San Francisco for many years, said he thought all the fog brought in spirits, and they manifested on the streets of San Francisco, and that’s most of the population.” – singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, live in San Francisco, from Naked Songs (1995). A theory with legs.t open to the public. Starting with this kernel of truth, Tolins imagined an underemployed actor hired to oversee this ye olde shopping mall who then uses his acting skills to bring forth Streisand’s usually guarded feelings. “I come out on stage as myself,” Urie said, “and explain that there is a street of shops in Barbra Streisand’s basement, and that’s definitely real, but nothing else you’re going to see is real.” See page 23 >>

Joan Marcus

Michael Urie wants to evoke the “essence” of Barbra Streisand, one of five characters he plays in the solo show Buyer & Cellar, due soon at the Curran Theatre.

DVD>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Report from the dance world by David Lamble

a stellar collaboration between Brown and choreographer Jonah Bokaer, are the main reason to seek out the DVD. Bonus features include commentary by Alan Brown and Ryan Steele, deleted scenes, theatrical trailer, 5.1 surround sound, and closed captions.

ne of the San Francisco LGBT Festival’s favorite directors, Alan Brown (Private Romeo, The Book of Love), returns with a lowkey romance set in lower Manhattan’s modern-dance subculture. In Five Dances, Broadway star Ryan Steele is enchanting as a shy student dancer about to burst out of the closet. Chip (Steele), still freeing himself from the Kansas-bound apron strings of an emotionally needy mom, finds himself sleeping on the couch of one of the company’s veteran female dancers while weighing whether or not to pursue one of its cutest aspiring male stars. Like the recently released, San Francisco-situated film Test, Five Dances is sublimely on point about both modern dance and love. Director Brown and actor Ryan Steele deliver a witty commentary track that is almost a do-it-yourself modern-dance company starter kit. Focusing on his core cast, three men and two women, Brown explains how he began shooting the film with a bare-bones, 40-page script, gradually expanding the narrative by narrowing in on the budding relationship between Chip and another young dancer, Theo (Reed Luplau). Brown lucidly describes how he “stole” shots on the New York subway system as a way to dispel the claustrophobic feel of a film stuck inside the walls of a Canal Street walkup dance studio. Steele, a dancer and theatre veteran who played “Specs” in the Disney

Married to the Third Reich

production of Newsies on Broadway, explains how a tiny tattoo on his foot became a sexy story beat. Doubtlessly, the parallels between his Chip character and his own origins as a Michigan-trained dancer who had a two-year relationship with another young Broadway performer, Matt Doyle, helped Steele morph seamlessly inside the skin of a naive young man faced with both jump-starting a challenging professional career and taking baby steps out of the closet. Doyle also shined

in the earlier Brown film Private Romeo, which deftly showcased the lives of a gaggle of kids at an East Coast military academy charged with performing an all-male version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Doyle played Private Romeo’s Juliet. Fans of Brown’s 2004 feature debut The Book of Love will again appreciate his talent for mixing and matching the private lives of his play-within-a-play cast members and the challenges presented by their off-stage lives. With Ryan

Steele, Brown has found another fresh film face to match the performance of Book’s Gregory Smith as a love-smitten teen enveloped into a menage with an older married couple. With Smith and now Steele, Brown capitalizes on the abilities of his boyish performers – Smith first bounced onto the screen as a cute 14-month-old baby in a Tide commercial – to lay romantic traps for other characters, as well as for members of the audience. Here, though, the dances themselves,

A beautiful boy (Tom Schilling), his lips bloated to bluish red by freezing water, his eyes bidding an urgent farewell, turns into a ghost before our eyes in a startling, homoerotic moment at the climax of the 2004 German history film Before the Fall, now out on DVD. In Dennis Gansel’s intoxicating, haunting portrait of teenage boys training, in effect, to be brides of Hitler, a soulful young man (Schilling) who wants to be a poet in defiance of his own Hermann Goering-like father, sacrifices himself to save the soul of his best friend, a young boxer-in-training (the blonde Adonis Max Riemelt). Gansel’s film, co-written by Maggie Peren, employs homoerotic beats and imagery to plumb the inner lives and passions of characters who are not overtly homosexual, but whose deep, platonic love is the only shield between themselves and the devil who’s paying their tuition. Bonus features include shots of the making of Before the Fall, scenes of the cast of Before the Fall in New York, deleted scenes, storyboards, widescreen, photo gallery, and trailer.t

Gotta film, gotta dance! by David-Elijah Nahmod

ecently released on DVD after enjoying a healthy run on the film festival circuit followed by some theatrical playdates, Alan Brown’s Five Dances is a lovely, lyrical coming-ofage film. Sweet, angelic Ryan Steele stars as Chip, a young dancer, 18 years old, who comes to New York City determined to make his dream come true. As his overbearing mom tries to convince him to come home, Chip is accepted into an avant-garde dance company. As he rehearses for his first public performances, Chip meets his first love (Reed Luplau) and embraces his gay identity. Alan Brown chatted with the B.A.R. about his shamelessly romantic and heartfelt film. David-Elijah Nahmod: Are you a dancer? The film implies that you know the dance world well. Alan Brown: I’m an OK social dancer, but I’ve never been a professional dancer. I’m an enthusiastic dancegoer. My love of dance inspired the film. I included a small dance segment in my film Super Heroes. I really loved working with the dancers, and that put the idea for Five Dances in my head. Are any parts of the film autobiographical? Not at all. It’s a sweet, very romantic coming out story, don’t we all wish we had that story? I was inspired to create the story by having the guys in my cast. They’re really sweet guys, and the story was created for them.

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Five Dances director Alan Brown: “I can give back.”

out there. It’s important to have positive gay love stories. Older gay men have told me they wished they had these when they were younger.

What about Chip’s overbearing mom? My mom was very lovely and loving, but I have plenty of friends who have nightmarish moms. I just made the mom in the film up.

I was surprised to see the dancers in the film rehearsing to silence. I expected to hear music during the dance sequences. Our choreographer created the pieces to silence, which is very frequent in contemporary dance. Rehearsals are usually done in silence so the choreographer can talk to people and explain things. Five Dances is a peek into the reality of the dance world.

Can we assume that you are a gay man? I’m a gay filmmaker. It’s important to deal with gay film subjects because there’s not enough of them

Is it difficult to market a lowbudget gay independent film in today’s X-Men/Transformers market? I don’t directly deal with market-

ing. When I make my films I know they have a limited and specific audience. Financing is the most difficult aspect of it, I would make many more movies if the financing were easier. My films don’t require much money, and I’m lucky to be in New York City. There’s a great talent pool willing to work for little money. If you’re going to sign on for my films, you do it because you actually like the process of it. The creative process is very satisfying. Are you pleased with how the film has done? It’s done well. It’s played overseas in Europe and Asia, and won prizes. For a tiny little film, I’m very gratified. It makes me particularly happy because the dancers worked so hard. I can give back to them.t

<< Books

16 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

She couldn’t say no by Tavo Amador

emoirs by performers with impressive careers who nonetheless didn’t become major stars are often fascinating. They have insights into the vagaries of show business, of what it takes to become a household name, of the inflated and fragile egos that abound, and of the consequences of poor decisions, that only insiders have. That’s true of Lee Grant’s I Said Yes to Everything (Blue Rider Press, $28.95). She earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her first movie, Detective Story (1951), repeating her acclaimed Broadway performance. Then, in 1952, she was blacklisted during America’s shameful Red Scare era. Consequently, she didn’t make another Hollywood movie for 12 years. During that dark period, she acted sporadically on television, worked in the theatre, and taught. Despite her youth and beauty, she shied away from leads, and was usually cast in supporting roles in the tradition of Eve Arden and Thelma Ritter. Born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal (1925) into an upper-class Jewish family in Manhattan, she grew up an adored only child. She made her stage debut at four in a production at the old Metropolitan Opera House. Her small singing voice got her accepted to Music and Arts High School and Julliard, but she was an indifferent student. It was at the legendary Neighborhood Play-

house, run by Sanford Miesner, that her acting talent bloomed. Like many American intellectuals in the 1930s and 40s, her first husband, writer Arnold Manhoff, was drawn to Communism and admired Stalin – both were seen as viable alternatives to Fascism and Hitler. They were naive and wrong, but no threat to America. During the late 40s and 50s, however, paranoia about Communists – often linked to homosexuals – swept America. Grant seems to have been apolitical, but instinctively liberal. Her association with Manhoff and his friends, including writers Dalton Trumbo and Clifford Odets, got her blacklisted. She writes movingly of her testimony before the vicious House Un-American Activities Committee. She planned to defy them by not naming others who may have had Communist sympathies. Many, like director Elia Kazan, did betray colleagues and friends. But to her lifetime regret, she was tricked into giving the names of two women. Eventually, she hired a well-connected lawyer to clear her. Professional acclaim and good money followed when she joined the cast of nighttime television’s first soap opera, Peyton Place, which aired three nights a week in 1965-66, and made stars of Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal. On the big screen, she earned kudos in supporting roles in In the Heat of the Night, Valley of the Dolls (1967), Buona Serra, Mrs.

Campbell (1968), got an Oscar nomination for The Landlord (1970), would win the award for Shampoo (1975), and earned another nod for Voyage of the Damned (1976). More recent appearances include Dr. T and the Women (2000) and Mulholland Drive (2001). She filmed many television movies and shows in the1970s, 80s, and 90s. In 1958, she rejected the lead in Two for the Seesaw, liking neither the play nor the character of Gittel. The role went to Anne Bancroft, making her a Broadway star. Ironically, Grant became her understudy and eventually replaced Bancroft opposite Henry Fonda. In 1971, she starred with Peter Falk in Neil Simon’s smash The Prisoner of Second Avenue. Late in the run, she forgot her lines, got no help from Falk, but the audience cheered her. That experience, which she attributes to a decades-long dependency on sleeping pills, along with concerns about her appearance, increased her insecurities. She became apprehensive about filming, even though on television and in movies, if an actor “goes up” on her lines, she can shoot a re-take. She successfully

turned to directing, both dramas and documentaries: Nobody’s Child, Down and Out in America (1976). She has insightful anecdotes about colleagues. Elizabeth Taylor’s courage, her “moxie,” in tackling AIDS earned Grant’s admiration. Faye Dunaway and Fonda’s professionalism were exemplary. She’s funny and warm writing about Warren Beatty. But Shelley Winters, with whom she shared a controversial kiss in the 1963

independent film of Jean Genet’s The Balcony, was often an egomaniacal bully. On the set of Buona Serra, Mrs. Campbell, Winters told Grant that she didn’t “have what it takes to be a star.” Pearl Bailey was more charming, but Grant demanded a retake of a scene from The Landlord when Bailey appropriated a funny bit that belonged to her character. Grant divorced the controlling Manhoff in 1960. Their daughter, Dinah Manhoff, has had a successful acting career, winning a Tony and starring in television’s Empty Nest. Their idyllic mother/daughter relationship collapsed with Manhoff ’s turbulent Malibu-based adolescence. They have since completely reconciled. Grant married producer Joseph Feury, 10 years her junior, in 1962. They adopted a daughter, Belinda. The best parts of I Said Yes to Everything are those about Grant’s career. Too many pages are devoted to her childhood and analyzing her turbulent, abusive marriage to Manhoff. Those chapters would have benefited from tighter editing. Still, Grant is a show business and political survivor. As an actress and as a woman, she demands respect, and has earned it.t

Taiwanese gay cultural shift by Brian Bromberger

“ haven’t been gay in a long time. I used to be. Then I stopped.” This is the sad refrain of the main character Weichung after a hotel-room fling with Thomas, his studly Hong Kong airline flight attendant perhaps boyfriend, in the understated yet emotionally simmering film Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, newly released on DVD by Film Movement. Director Arvin Chen, a native San Franciscan who now lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan, describes his work as a Taiwanese gay-film dramedy. Marketed as a romantic comedy, it is really a compassionate family drama photographed in a realistic, you-are-there style. The plot grapples with the question of how a traditional society deals with shifting cultural attitudes toward homosexuality, as well as the consequences of sexual repression. Weichung and his wife Feng are in their late 30s, have been married for 9 years, and have a six-year-old son, Arwan. Feng’s desire to have another child instigates a personal crisis in Weichung, especially after bumping into his long-discarded friend Stephen, a gay weddingphotographer working at his sister Mandy’s engagement party. Stephen has married a lesbian and lives the

Thomas (Wong Ko Lok) kisses Weichung (Richie Jen) in a scene from director Arvin Chen’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

life of a gay party-boy as he meanders through the Taipei gay underground, thus socially acceptable while pursuing his own sexual agenda. Weichung, an optician at an eye-

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glass retail store, is attracted to one of his customers, Thomas (smoldering, chaste chemistry between the two actors, both straight Hong Kong action stars), yet still cares deeply for Feng, and is a devoted father to Arwan. Through the course of the film, symbolically, he needs to discover the correct prescriptive lens for the life he wants to lead, a theme echoed by all the characters. Mandy is engaged to the bland but reliable San-san (who later gets a humorous makeover from Stephen and his gay friends), but in a panic attack at the vision of the suffocating middle-class life looming ahead, she abandons him in a supermarket, calling off the wedding. Feng, realizing her husband’s lack of sexual interest (and only dimly aware of her boss’ infatuation) and dealing with upheavals at work and with her parents’ prodding that she produce another grandchild,

must cope with her fears and insecurities. Will she remain with her dissatisfying status-quo? What will she do when she discovers the truth about her husband? She is as central a protagonist as Weichung, and arguably the stronger of the two. In a bar with her co-workers, she sings the Shirelles title song karaoke-style. It becomes her coming out as to what course her life might take. The movie is less a middle-aged coming out story, and more a meditation on coping with a life that winds up differently from what you had expected. Chen brilliantly uses magical-realist, fantasy scenes to underscore the characters’ dreams of

the lives they want to lead. In the opening sequence, Weichung opens an umbrella, floating to the sky like a male Mary Poppins, suggesting the potential for a new direction in his life. In the bonus DVD extra interview of Chen (well worth watching), he relates how for an Asian culture, Taiwan has somewhat liberal views on homosexuality, but they are still set in a rigid, conservative family structure. Often, young gay men live openly in their 20s, but return to the closet in their mid-30s, marry a straight woman and have children, primarily to appease their parents. Chen respects all his characters, even when they make poor decisions. The film stresses the role of honesty in relationships, whether they be gay or straight, as central in developing an awareness of our true desires, and of how we are willing to conform when those desires conflict with family or society. That this path can be tricky to navigate is reflected in the movie’s ambiguous ending. Despite their confusion, Chen’s lighthearted tone hints all will go well for these characters. The fact that we care so much for their fate is a testament to Chen’s touching, well-written script.t

Music>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

It takes a disco village by Gregg Shapiro

omeone really ought to tell our straight allies (or foes, depending on the day) dancing the night away to thumping electronic beats that dance music is still gay. Gay, gay, gay. Remember that the next time you’re at a mixed-gender wedding and everyone has crowded onto the dance floor to spell out YMCA with their bodies. While we’re on the subject, please express your gratitude to groundbreaking gay disco act the Village People. Not only did they provide the world with a perennial party favorite, they were also brazenly queer (hello, leatherman and construction worker!) at a time when such images were not all that common in mainstream America. The 11-song Icon (Mercury/UMe) compilation falls short of the superior 1994 The Best of Village People collection (if you can find it, snap it up!), but it does contain essential VP tracks such as “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man,” “Go West,” and important early hits including “San Francisco

(You’ve Got Me)” and “Hollywood (Everybody Is a Star).” In 2014, gay dance acts such as Ssion and Men are a common occurrence. But none can compare to Hercules and Love Affair. Featuring yet another stellar array of guest vocalists (past guest artists have included Antony Hegarty and Kele Okereke) such as brilliant gay singer/songwriter John Grant and Krystle Warren, as well as Rouge Mary and Gustaph, The Feast of the Broken Heart (Big Beat/Atlantic) deserves to be Hercules & Love Affair’s mainstream breakout disc. Sure, there are blushworthy moments (the NSFW but dazzling “My Offence”) and proof that dance music also has a serious side (“I Try to Talk to You”). But on the whole, if you aren’t on your feet and dancing from start to finish, to house-influenced cuts such as “Liberty,” “Do You Feel the Same?” and “5:43 to Freedom,” then you might consider taking to your bed for the rest of your life. Hercules and Love Affair aren’t the only ones having good luck

when combining their firepower with other artists. Norwegian duo Röyksopp hit the jackpot when teaming with Swedish diva Robyn (“The Girl and the Robot”) and have done so again on the fivesong EP Do It Again (Dog Tr iumph/Cher r y t ree/ Interscope). Monumental opening track “Monument” is an expansive warm-up track that sets the listener swaying in preparation for what’s to follow. “Say It” casts a spell with its Speak & Spell call-and-response and irresistible beat, and “Do It Again” is sure to have you dancing. Just a few years shy of the 20th anniversary of their debut disc Vegas (containing the huge hit single “Busy Child”), American electronica The Crystal Method is still at it. “Emulator” opens the duo’s new self-titled Tiny E disc (its first in five years) with promise before taking a Skrillex/strip-club detour on the grindy “Over It.” There’s some re-

demption on “Grace” and “110 to the 101,” but for the most part the Crystal Method sounds like it needs a fix. On its debut album CI (Mute), German electro duo Diamond Version takes the most experimental road of any of the artists mentioned here. Not quite Sprockets with your host Dieter, at least not until you get to “Feel the Freedom” featuring Kyoka, these 10 songs mainly combine a bit of the old industrial (“Science for a Better Life”) with a plugged-in playfulness (“Access to Excellence”). The disc’s centerpiece, “Were You There,” a reimaging of an

old spiritual, features Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant on vocals. Effectively working an 80s vibe on When the Night (Neon Gold/Columbia), St. Lucia elevates the dance level via tracks such as “Elevate,” the glittery “Wait for Love,” “ and the a-ha moment of the title cut. Offensive on multiple levels, Dconstructed (Walt Disney Records) takes Disney desperation and dysfunction to new depths by unnecessarily remixing movie tunes, including “Let It Go,” “Circle of Life,” “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and “Baby Mine,” from the likes of Armin Van Buuren, Mat Zo, Alfred Montejano and Kaskade.t

to surprise and delight us, as she does on her blazing new album Comet, Come to Me (Naïve). Opening with a pure Ndegeocello cover of Whodini’s “Friends,” she not only revives the song for new ears, but also makes it her very own in the process. Comet, Come to Me burns brightly and beautifully throughout, but especially on “Good Day Bad,” “Tom,” “Shopping for Jazz,” and “Conviction,” the best song the Rolling Stones never wrote. A new iteration of the late, la-

mented queer quartet Girlyman, Django Jones features the trio JJ Jones, Doris Muramatsu and Nate Borofsky. The new name also brings about a new direction on its de-

but album D is for Django (djangojonesband.com). The 15 songs on the album are geared towards “kids and families.” Of course, there are

Lesbian season by Gregg Shapiro

he Belle Brigade is a brother/ sister duo with excellent genes. Siblings Barbara and Ethan Gruska are the grandchildren of composer John Williams. Of course, the Belle Brigade’s music doesn’t really sound anything like any of their famous grandpa’s compositions. Instead, out lesbian Barbara and her brother Ethan make sun-soaked modern pop music that is appealing and evocative. The Belle Brigade’s second disc Just Because (ATO) begins with the deceptively upbeat

and rhythmic numbers “Ashes” and “When Everything Was What It Was” before diving head-first into the substance-abuse subject matter of “Likely To Use Something.” The pair shares lead vocals on “Be Like Him,” with a nod to queerness. “Miss You in My Life” and “How I See It,” two songs where Ethan takes the lead, are worth mentioning, as is “Not the One You Want.” More than 20 years and nearly a dozen studio albums into her recording career, in-demand bass player and unique singer/songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello is still able

See page 18 >>

<< Music

18 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Unexpected Schumann

by Tim Pfaff

THE RICHMOND/ERMET AIDS FOUNDATION PRESENTS

NorCal’s Largest Annual AIDS Benefit Concert & Gala

August 24, 7:30pm

Palace of Fine Arts Theater Florence Henderson Richard Chamberlain Alex Newell ★ Lisa Vroman Maureen McGovern Paula West ★ Carole Cook Valarie Pettiford Jake Simpson ★ Meg Mackay Cast of Motown: The Musical & MORE!

Director: David Galligan Musical Directors: Ben Prince & Cesar Cancino

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he symphonies of Robert Schumann have been politely written off as “conductors’ symphonies,” which is short for “the public doesn’t care for them.” Pity the poor flacks whose job it is to sell them, because recorded sets of all four are currently descending like an avalanche on a buying public that’s come to the mountain for fresh air. Personally, I’d be happy to avert my ears, but two of the fabled halfdozen new or imminent sets fairly demand attention. Out conductor Yannick NezetSeguin, whose career is leaping tall buildings with a single bound – but whose qualifications for this very repertoire are coming into question – leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a bright new set from DG. And the Berlin Philharmonic, the second most-recorded orchestra in the world (after the London Symphony), has inaugurated its new house label, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, with the Schumanns under music director Simon Rattle. The irony is that both sets hew to the historically-informed model – leaner, more small-boned, and lighter on its feet – which in itself is hardly a new development. It’s more the rule than the exception today. But for approaching these symphonies in a similar way, these two recordings could hardly be more different. Choice will depend on matters of personal preference. If the approach to these works is what matters most to you, you might consider holding out for word on next month’s (yes, really) complete new Schumann symphony set from Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, highly imaginative purveyors of period-sensitive Romantic music, so already in prospect a contender. Somewhere Roger Norrington, scorned a generation ago for dragging Romantic music into the historically informed-performance arena, is laughing. The book on Nezet-Seguin is that he’s terrific in the opera pit, whatever the repertoire, but that in the core central “German” repertoire (through Mahler) he’s a serious musician who has yet to exhibit depths of interpretation that nevertheless may be there, yet to emerge at their fullest in a 39-year-old conductor whose career has him literally all over the map and who still has time for tweeting and the gym. This Schumann set will only nail that perception. The pulse is strong in his reading of all four symphonies, and no one could accuse them of being boring

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Lesbian season

From page 17

all kinds of families, including those with two moms or two dads, so the LGBT appeal remains intact. A dozen of the songs get spoken intro, ranging from six to 59 seconds in length, and the songs themselves

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except when Schumann is. (The infamous thinness of the composer’s orchestration is accented, not concealed, in Nezet-Seguin’s Fourth, which, it’s good to remember, is really Schumann’s depression-tinged second work in the genre.) And the polishing of the surfaces yields a vivid “Rhenish” Symphony. But the almost routinely surging energy can be wearing, and when Nezet-Seguin drives a movement such as the closing Allegro molto vivace of the Second, even the scurrying strings of the fine Chamber Orchestra of Europe get out of breath, and the movement ends in veritable noise unless, that is, you’re entranced by the sound of the historical timpani. And in that same work’s Adagio espressivo, the high-water mark of this music, Nezet-Seguin acknowledges the emotional undertow of the music more than he actually explores it. If you’re indifferent to this music, Nezet-Seguin is the way to go, both because he supplies genuine enthusiasm for it and because his performances are over faster. Why the Berlin Philharmonic chose this repertoire for its houselabel debut is anyone’s guess, but it’s made the move with characteristic heft. The two CDs are accompanied by a Blu-ray disc of the same live performances, a high-definition video disc, and a free seven-day pass to the orchestra’s extraordinary Digital Concert Hall, all in an oversized, linen-covered “book” that includes explanatory material so beautifully typeset it’s hard to read and mystifying pictures of fine German porcelain. The lead essay begins with a boldface but unattrib-

uted pull quote: “Created out of the deepest soul.” It would be sad if this were all window-dressing, but in the event the Berliners really come through. Rattle’s forces may be as pared down in number as Nezet-Seguin’s, but the sound is richer and deeper and in all senses “carries” better. It’s low-viscosity compared to the burnished Berlin Philharmonic sound of yore, but Rattle knows how to get the cholesterol out of Romantic music without lowering the caloric punch. Plenty of British Thermal units here. So if the forces are, similarly, lean, the overall sound is more voluptuous, which doesn’t hurt this music a bit. Rattle clearly has lived with it and, importantly, had the luxury of having it on the backburner, which shows in his shaping of the symphonies. The phrasing is consistently magisterial, but Rattle knows the long arc of these works. His “Rhenish” has deep currents. Whatever you think of this music, Nezet-Seguin makes you glad to be in its presence. Rattle holds out for the possibility that you just might love it, and loves it first and without apology.t

have many of the same elements that made Girlyman such a fan favorite. Jess Klein, who belts like a queer Joan Osborne, teaches us a thing or two on her new disc Learning Faith (Motherlode). When she elaborates on why she’s “So Fucking Cool,” we have no choice but to believe her. Learning Faith also finds Klein singing about “sweet acceptance” on “Surrender,” makes an effort to separate church from state in “If There’s a God,” and does something similar on her “Dear God” (not XTC’s), about the dwindling status of a woman’s right to choose. Thank the goddess for Jess Klein. Mary Gauthier is our resident expert on the trouble with love, so it’s apropos that she titled her new album Trouble and Love (In The Black). Still the reigning lesbian Lucinda Williams, Gauthier has brought us down-low with her before. But the depths here are deeper, and yet it’s hard to resist traveling this painful path

with Gauthier. She’s singing and writing with more authority than ever, and you believe every word (and emotion) Gauthier sings on the title tune, as well as on “When a Woman Goes Cold,” the ache of “Worthy,” and “How You Learn To Love Alone.” Nashville and the rest of the country music community would be wise to pay more attention, and do it soon. Allison Weiss follows up her impressive 2013 full-length disc Say What You Mean with the fivesong EP Remember When (No Sleep). In addition to an acoustic cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” (brava, Allison, for seeing the queer potential in the tune), original tunes such as “Remember When” and “The Fall” make Weiss an unforgettable talent. Prolific singer/songwriter Rachael Sage also goes the EP route with her latest release New Destination (MPress). Sage sounds like she’s moving towards a new destination on the innovative title cut and the marvelous “Wax.”t

Film>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

River Phoenix: the drugs & the films by David Lamble

t’s 1991, and up on the big screen, a shabbily dressed young man with an ashen complexion steps out on a two-lane highway that stretches out to the horizon. The young man grunts, his eyes roll back into his head, he collapses, his body twitching in spasms. What appears to be a dramatic death rattle is in fact a cinematic bait-andswitch. Director Gus Van Sant is using a sly gambit to introduce rising boy star and fellow Oregonian River Phoenix as the decade’s queer poster-boy, the narcoleptic Portland gay-for-pay boy hustler Mike Waters. The character, based on a real rent-boy friend of Van Sant’s, will up-end bygone images of chic twinks, LGBT demonstrators storming outside NYC’s Stonewall bar, and the downcast icks of Mart Crowley’s Boys in the Band. Welcome to the opening salvo

of the New Queer Cinema, as every art-film house becomes the stage for many a bumpy night. By the end of the decade, the LGBT community will have crossed the River Jordan with a real-life martyr, Wyoming’s

Matt Shepard. But River Phoenix’s extraordinary performance is bolstered by the young actor’s determination to disappear into the role: appearing for work in the Boys Town section of downtown Portland, apparently having not bathed for weeks, and having mastered the narcoleptic seizures of his character, the spasmodic jerks and writhing that would, two years hence, seem more than a little ironic as the beautiful young actor died on a cold LA sidewalk following a drug overdose at Hollywood’s aptly named Viper Room. It’s Halloween weekend in the Castro, 1993, and had you asked me who was the fairest movie lad of all in that first autumn of the Clinton years, I would have replied, “River Phoenix, of course!” It had been just over two months since this shape-shifting imp, born to a vegan family in an Oregon log cabin, had celebrated his 23rd

birthday (Aug. 23). The buzz was running like lava from Pompeii: next up, a guest slot opposite Tom Cruise in the eagerly awaited Neil Jordan film of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire; then Van Sant beckoned with the opportunity for Phoenix to dazzle as the young Andy Warhol. After that, sunshine and lollypops extending out to the horizon, with Oscars a mere matter of luck and timing. Suddenly, a filmmaker buddy bursts into the queer bookshop where I pull double Sunday shifts. “River Phoenix died last night. They think it was drugs.” In the 21 years since the night of Phoenix’s death outside the Viper Room, there’s been a fair amount of useless handwringing about drugs in the La-La fast lanes. In a rare grace note, Phoenix’s family declined to seek out the identity of the young musician friend who handed him his leSee page 23 >>

smoothly plays out over the course of two days as the men, who met while each was in graduate school then transplanted themselves from the Manhattan shuffle to suburban Pennsylvania, take a stern look at their future. Adam’s livelihood as a psychotherapist more than compensates for law-school-dropout Jesse’s lack of employment and lack of desire to do anything other than be a housewife and pitch-perfect party host. While Jesse is off sulking on a bus into Manhattan to visit a “friend” (actually a liposuction consultation), Adam’s Porsche stalls out in the gym parking lot, setting Currier’s uncomplicated plot into motion. Adam accepts a ride home with young, blond-bearded Shane, who makes a series of pit stops,

and the day goes downhill from there. Meanwhile, Adam and Jesse leave each other a series of nasty voicemails, re-fueling that morning’s argument and exacerbating a situation that becomes increasingly implausible. If your relationship has devolved to the point of days-long bickering, leaving each other nasty messages, and being apart to play around with other guys, then what’s the point? Both men arrive back home just in time to host an ironic 10th-anniversary party for another couple, but the backlash from the day before erupts in a swirl of hospital visits, drug dealers, and missing cars. The petty one-upmanship of Adam and Jesse’s epic battle does grow tiresome, and the reader may eventually

Lost too young: New Queer Cinema actor River Phoenix.

War of the roses by Jim Piechota

The Forever Marathon by Jameson Currier; Chelsea Station Editions, $18 t is common knowledge that loving relationships wax and wane over time, their commitments ebbing and flowing across the span of open arrangements and anniversaries, through sheer delight and dismal discord. In the opening pages of accomplished gay author Jameson Currier’s fifth novel The Forever Marathon, a longtime, middle-aged gay couple bickers about dry cleaning and whether one is coming home that evening or not. The set-up makes for an inauspicious beginning to a novel that could use some sugar and spice, but is as real as it gets.

Jesse and Adam’s relationship, having endured for 24 years (“in gay time, that’s longer than forever,” an onlooker remarks), has seen better days. Their partnership is fraying along its edges, and the sexy fun enjoyed in the beginning has now become a faded memory – a reminder that both men have morphed into different people, with painfully dissimilar needs and desires. The temporary fix for their frustration and interpersonal angst is to place themselves in the presence of younger, sexier men: Adam with his personal trainer, and Jesse taking day trips to New York City in search of the ultimate temporary distraction. Currier’s story isn’t a protracted examination of the disappointed and the misunderstood, but instead

wish these dejected queens would just separate already and enjoy the rest of their lives with others. But the ride itself is ultimately a fun one. Currier is a talented storyteller with a knack for engrossing characterization and bona fide emotion.t

<< Out&About

20 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

O&A

Fri 15 Andrew Ogus @ Magnet Exhibit of the artist’s many works on paper, each interpreting a homoerotic take on ancient myths and characters. 8pm-10pm. Exhibit thru August. 4122 18th St. 581-1600. www.magnetsf.org andrew-ogus.artistwebsites.com

Out &About

Bay Area Now 7 @ YBCA Seventh annual exhibit of local and regional artists’ visual, performing, film and video art works. $12-$15 (free for members). Exhibit thru Oct. 5. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Fri 15 Motown the Musical

But, seriously by Jim Provenzano

istoric drag events and people are honored, Motown gets a reverent and rousing musical

Thu 14 Debra Tate @ Books Inc. The sister of murdered actress Sharon Tate reads from and discusses her book Sharon Tate: Recollection. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Decades Apart @ Exit Theatre Decades Apart: Reflections of Three Gay Men, Rick Pulos’ one-man, multimedia theatrical performance, captures significant moments in the lives of three gay American men from different eras and cities: a 1970s San Franciscan, an ‘80s New York gay Republican, and an LA ‘90s club kid. $25. 8pm. Also Aug. 15 & 16, 8pm. 156 Eddy St. (718) 996-4800. www.decadesapart.org decadesapart.brownpapertickets.com

Drawings @ John Pence Gallery Opening reception for a group exhibit of beautiful realist drawings; portraits, figure studies, animals and plants. 6pm-8pm. Reg hours Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat til 5pm. Thru Sept. 27. 750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

From Red to Black @ A.C.T. Costume Shop Rhett Rossi’s New York-set drama about a subway death explores racism. $15-$20. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 30. 1119 Market St. at 7th. Thru Aug. 30. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

visit, and LGBT topics get serious talks. The serious can get a campy touch under a gay gaze.

I ♥ the 80s @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre

Turn back time as an ensemble of talented singers, including Tony Vincent (American Idiot, The Voice) and Jessica Phillips (Leap of Faith), who perform classic songs from the 1980s. $35-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Aug. 14-17 and 21-24. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. ticketweb.com

Aug. 14: Mr. X (6pm), Boy Meets Girl (7:25), and Before Sunrise (9:20). Aug. 15: Mamma Mia! (7pm) and Moulin Rouge (9:10). Aug. 16: The Muppet Movie (11am), The Benson Movie Interruption does Twilight: Eclipse (jokey commentary about the teen vampire/werewolf flick, (4:20pm) and Office Space (9pm); all part of www.sfsketchfest.com. Aug. 17: The Line-Up (12pm), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1:40) then another SF Sketchfest program with Fred Armisen ( Portlandia, SNL) and his band Rubbish ($25, 8pm). Aug. 19: Lola (7pm) and Incendies (8:35). Aug. 20: We Are The Best (7pm) and The Fabulous Stains (9pm). Aug. 21: Mr. X (6pm), Mauvais Sang (7:235) and Before Sunset (9:35). $12. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com

LGBT Talks @ Commonwealth Club The political lecture hall’s gay-themed events continue. Aug. 14: Shakespeare LGBT: the Bard and Gay and Transgender Roles, with Jonathon Moscone, Artistic Director, California Shakespeare Company (6pm). Aug. 15: Steve Pinetti, Senior Vice President, Inspiration & Creativity, Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, on their successful LGBT marketing campaigns (12pm). Aug. 18: Gregory M. Herek: Beyond Homophobia: Thinking More Clearly about Sexual Stigma and Prejudice (6pm). Aug. 21: Daniel Curzon and The Big Book of In-Your-Face Gay Etiquette (6pm). Each $7-$20. 595 Market St. at 2nd. 597-6712. commonwealthclub.org

Music Moves Festival @ ODC Theater The impressive month-long dance festival continues with ODC Dance performing Kate Weare’s new work, and Paufve Dance’s Soil. $15-$45 ($150 full pass). Aug. 14-16, 8pm. Other works: San Jose Taiko with DJ Bangerz (Aug. 17, 8pm). Holcombe Waller (Aug. 19, 8pm). Namita Kapoor and Rueda con Ritmo (Aug. 22 & 23, 8pm). Antoine Hunter and Millissa Payne Bradley (Aug. 24, 6pm). 3153 17th St. www.odcdance.org

Fri 15 Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can @ Woodminster Amphitheater, Oakland Bay Area premiere of the stage musical of Catch Me If You Can, based on the hit Dreamworks movie, about the real-life adventurous con man. $18-$58. Fri-Sun 8pm. Thru Aug. 17. Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, Oakland. (510) 531-9597. www.woodminster.com

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh, Berkeley Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira’s compelling multi-character solo show about his life in the worlds of hip hop (he’s toured with Snoop Dogg Busta Rhymes and others) and law enforcement. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, thru Sept 13. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Dance Concerts @ The Garage Space Occupying Physicality and New Ground Theatre Dance Company. Aug. 15 & 16, 8pm. $10-$20. 715 Bryant St. 518-1517. www.715bryant.org

Music Concerts @ Old First Church Aug. 15, Zachary Gordin and Bryan Niles perform music of Reynaldo Hahn (8pm). Aug. 17: cellist Nathan Chan and pianist Audrey Vardanega (4pm). $5-$17. 1751 Sacramento St. 4741608. www.oldfirstconcerts.org

The Taming of the Shrew @ Memorial Park Ampitheater, Cupertino San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s summer outdoor shows continue, with shows in Pleasanton, Redwood City, San Francisco and Cupertino Free. Mostly Sat & Sun 7:30pm, Sun 2pm. Thru Sept 21. www.sfshakes.org

Tofu Art @ Glama-Rama Salon Collage + Landscape = Collagescape, the local artist’s new exhibit of works in mixed media, collage and paintings, and a second group exhibit of mixed media work by a dozen artists from California, New Mexico, New York, Sweden, and Germany. Thru Sept. 28. tofuart.com glamarama.com

Twelfth Night @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s romantic classic includes live music and a jaunty-sexy staging. $20-$35. Thru Aug. 24. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Sat 16 Alonzo King Showscase @ McKenna Theatre Students in the local choreographer’s summer workshop perform new works. $15-$22. 8pm. Creative Arts Building, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave. www.creativestate.sfsu.edu

Sat 16 Tara Krebs

Noises Off @ Shelton Theater Michael Frayns’ hilarious theatre comedy off on and backstage pratfalls returns. $20-$438. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Oct. 25. 533 Sutter St. at Powell. (800) 838-3008. www.sheltontheater.org

The Pirates of Penzance @ YBCA Lamplighters’ production of the classic Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. $20-$59. Aug. 14-17 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SF; and Aug. 23 & 24 at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore. 2274797. www.lamplighters.org

Pleiades @ Phoenix Theatre World premiere of Marissa Skudlarek’s play, based on the Greek myth of the seven sisters, reset in a Baby Boomer era of the 1970s, at the height of the feminist movement. $25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 30. 414 Mason St. #601. www.pleiadessf.wordpress.com

Unusual Shorts @ Oddball Films Enjoy wacky offbeat vintage short films. Thu & Fri, each $10, 8pm. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival @ Esplanade The months-long free performance series continues, with weekend outdoor dance, music and theatre concerts, on various days and evenings. Aug. 14: Son Jarocho, 12:30pm. Aug. 16: Jerry González & The Fort Apache Band, 1pm. Aug. 17: Brazil in the Gardens, 1pm. Aug. 19: Poetic Tuesday at Jessie Square, 12:30pm. Shows thru Oct. Mission St. at 3rd. 543-1718. www.ybgfestival.org

Darlene Popovic @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents the delightfully talented musical theatre singer’s new show, Love & Laughter, with musical director Tom Shaw. $30$50. 8pm. Also Aug. 16. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com www.ticketmaster.com

Into the Woods @ San Francisco Playhouse Local production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s acclaimed musical that takes an ‘after Happily Ever After’ look at fairy tales. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 6. 450 Post St., 2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Motown the Musical @ Orpheum Theatre Clifton Oliver and Allison Semmes costar in the first national tour of the musical treasure about the life and career of Berry Gordy, featuring dozens of performers singing and dancing to Motown classic hits. $45-$210. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7:30pm. Also Sat 2pm. Thru Sept. 28. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.motownthemusical.com www.shnsf.com

Carving Through Borders @ Galeria de la Raza Exhibit of wood carving prints by undocumented artists in the Bay Area, LA, New York and Florida. Also, Blooming in the Midst of Gentrification. Both thru Sept. 19. Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 2857 24th St. 826-8009. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Dan Hoyle @ The Marsh The award-winning solo performer premieres his new show, Each and Every Thing, a multi-character play about the search for real community in a hyper-connected world. $20-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 4. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Derek Jarman, Visionary @ BAM/Pacific Film Archive Screenings of the works of the late gay filmmaker who defied trends and created his own unique cinematic style, most often with explicitly gay themes. Aug. 16: digitally restored version of The Tempest, 8:30pm. $4-$6.50. 8:40pm. Screenings Thru Aug. 28. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Out&About>>

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Dracula Inquest @ Berkeley City Club

Semi-Famous @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Central Works performs Gary Graves’ new dramatic take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale. $15-$28. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Aug. 17. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Don Reed’s new solo show, SemiFamous: Hollywood Hell Tales From the Middle, includes tales of panicridden auditions and almost being shot by the Secret Service. $20-$100. Sat 5pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Sept. 7. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

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

The Habit of Art @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros presents Alan Bennet’s “very British Comedy” about theatre, poetry and life itself. $15-$25. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm. Thru Aug. 23. 215 Jackson St. (800) 838-3006. www.TheRhino.org

Mugwumpin @ Costume Shop The innovative experimental theatre company celebrates ten years with several revivals; This Is All I Need and other plays in repertory with the new Blockbuster Season, also later this summer. other shows thru August and Sept. $20-$40. 1117 Market St. www.mugwumpin.org

Sun 17 Screaming Queens

Tara Krebs @ Modern Eden Gallery Opening reception for the artist’s exhibit of colorful fantastical nature imagery. Also the gallery’s reopening at a new location. 6pm-10pm. Thru Sept. 6. Reg hours Tue-Sat 10am-6pm. 801 Greenwich St. moderneden.com

San Francisco Mime Troupe @ Various Venues Ripple Effect, the newest play produced by the politically-themed satirical theatre company, now celebrating its 55th season, takes on eviction, Google Glass-sporting hipster techies, and economic disparity in the Bay Area. Half-hour music set preshow. Aug. 16: Glen Park (Bosworth & O’Shaugnessy), 2pm. Aug. 17: Washington Square Park (Columbus & Union), 2pm. Aug. 21: Mitchell Park, (600 East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto) 7pm. Indoor and outdoor locales thru Sept. 1. 285-1717. www.sfmt.org

Silicon Valley Pride @ Discovery Meadows, San Jose Cazwell, Deepa Soul, and Kristine W headline the LGBT South Bay LGBT celebration, with Liz Primo, She, Xavier Toscano, Raven, Tatianna and Kelly Mantle; DJs St. John, Math, James Torres, Rockaway and Russ Rich. $10 and up. 10am-4pm. 180 Woz Way, San Jose. svpride.com

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history. Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10. Weekly, 1pm-4pm. 88 5th St. 5371105. www.SFhistory.org

Mon 18 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum

Sat 16 The Habit of Art

Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus @ Holy Names University The chorus performs a Summer Pops concert. $8-$25. 2pm family shows, 7pm adult show. Oakland Regent’s Theater, Valley Center For The Performing Arts, Holy Names University, 5900 Mountain Blvd. Oakland. www.oebgmc.org

Romeo and Juliet @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael Marin Shakespeare Company kicks off its 25th anniversary summer series with William Shakespeare’s classic underage teen romantic tragedy; in repertory with Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. Ampitheatre open one hour prior to showtime for picnicking; Bring overwear; it gets chilly. $12$240 (season pass) and ‘pay as you like.’ Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru Sept 28. 499-4488. Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University of California, San Rafael. marinshakespeare.org

The Scion @ The Marsh Solo performer Brian Copeland returns with his unusual play about privilege, murder and sausage in his retelling of the triple murder crime at the Santos Linguisa Factory. $30-$100. Sat 5pm. Thru Aug. 23. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

SF Drag King Contest @ SOMArts Cultural Center The 19th annual “studliest competition in the world,” cohosted by Fudgie Frottage and Sister Roma, includes wild performances that poke fun at stereotypical masculine behavior; including celebrity guest judge Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos. Proceeds benefit PWAS (Pets Are Wonderful Support). $20-$35. 9pm. 934 Brannan St. www.sfdragkingcontest.com

Sun 17

Kent Taylor

Chomp! @ Conservatory of Flowers They Came From the Swamp, a new floral exhibit of carnivorous plants, includes exhibits, docent talks, and a giant replica model so you can feel like a bug about to be eaten. Thru Oct. 19. Reg. hours, 10am-4pm. Free-$7. Tue-Sun 10am-4:30pm. Thru Oct. 19. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. 8312090. conservatoryofflowers.org

Project Mah Jongg @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit about the popular Chinese game and Jewish culture’s affection for it. Thru Oct. 28. Also, Designing Homes : Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Pugs for Mutts @ DogPatch Wineworks Sip and snort at the benefit for Muttville Senior Dog Rescue; dress up your dog, enjoy wines, bites, raffles and more. $52-$62. 2:30pm-5:30pm. 2455 3rd St. PugsForMuttville. Eventbrite.com

Screaming Queens @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Screening of the acclaimed documentary about the historic 1960s Compton Cafeteria riots, preceded by a Queer History of the Tenderloin walking tour with Del Seymour, and followed by a salon at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge. 2pm. 80 Turk St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

New exhibit focusing on San Francisco’s emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE magazine feature “Homosexuality in America.” Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members). 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

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

Woods to Wildflowers @ SF Botanical Gardens See blooming floral displays, trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 6612-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Tue 19 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum Exhibit of photos, and an audiovisual installation, by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early ‘70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015. Lines on the Horizon : Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Buyer & Cellar @ Curran Theatre Michael Urie ( Ugly Betty) stars in Jonathan Tolins’ comic play about an actor working in Barbra Streisand’s Malibu basement mall (yes, there is such a thing). $60-$80. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 31. 445 Geary St. (888) 746-1799. buyerandcellar.com www.shnsf.com

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni’s

William Odiorne’s Paris @ Robert Tat Gallery

A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company’s music and variety show. No cover. 6:30pm-9pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Photo exhibit of the artist’s 1920s prints of the beautiful French capital. Tue-Sat 11am-5:30pm (1st Thursdays til 7:30). Thru Aug. 23. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

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

Remembering José Julio Sarria @ LGBT Center Openhouse’s community fundraising event celebrates the life of the pioneering LGBT rights activist, with panelists Juliet Demeter, Galilea, Gerard Koskovich, Marlena and Robbie Robinson, with moderator Donna Sachet. $20-$25. 6pm. 1800 Market St. www.openhouse-sf.org

Ted Hope @ Books Inc. Creator, editor and regular contributor to the popular blog Hope For Film reads from and discusses his book, Hope for Film: From the Frontline of the Independent Cinema Revolutions. 7:30pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

Wed 20 Killing My Lobster @ Z Below The improv comic ensemble performs a live radio show, with sound effects, for an audience; with music opening acts. $10-$50. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 23. www.KillingMyLobster.com

Smack Dab @ Magnet Musician Monica McIntyre is the featured performer at the open mic cohosted by Larry-bob Roberts and Dana Hopkins. 7:30pm sign-up. 8pm show. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Tue 19

Remembering José Julio Sarria

Thu 21 Gorgeous @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit about 2,000 years of unconventional visualizations of beauty at the contemporary and historical museum. Thru Sept.14. Also, Enter the Mandala: Cosmic Centers and Mental Maps of Himalayan Buddhism (thru Oct. 26); Dual Natures in Ceramics: Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea (thru Feb 22, 2015). Permanent exhibits as well. $15. Thru Sept. 14. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

Queering the Gentrification Conversation @ Modern Times Bookstore Janetta Johnson from TGI Justice Project and Erin McElroy from Anti-Eviction Mapping Project lead a discussion on local evictions, gentrification and economic issues. 7pm. 2919 24th st. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Sharknado 2: The Second One @ Bay Area Cinemas The campy horror-action-scifi film filled with flying sharks –and Tara Reid and Ian Zeiring– returns! $10$15. 8pm. www.FathomEvents.com To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< TV

22 • Bay Area Reporter • August 14-20, 2014

Compelling but woeful world by Victoria A. Brownworth

here we were, watching one of our favorite summer TV dramas, Fox’s superlative Gang Related, with the ultra-hot Ramon Rodriguez, when President Obama broke in with the announcement that he was going to bomb Iraq. Deja vu all over again. Ironic that one of the characters on Gang Related had just been talking sangre por sangre. It’s the news you haven’t been seeing, because no one has deemed civilians being killed in Syria (remember Syria?), Libya (remember Libya?) and Iraq (you have to remember Iraq, we were there for a decade) worthy of attention. It’s been all Gaza, all the time. Meanwhile, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has been killing with impunity and taking over that part of the world. Oh, and ISIS is also banning gay men and lesbians from the earth, just in case you weren’t aware of that, because that’s a thing with ISIS: get rid of all the lesbians and gay men. Just like it’s kind of a thing in Gaza. Gaza leads the world in honor killings, a fact reported by Al Jazeera in March, including for lesbians who shame their families by being lesbians. In Gaza, same-sex acts between men are illegal. According to Al Jazeera, lesbian and gay Palestinians flee to Israel, fearing for their lives, often from their own families. BBC World News has reported that gay Palestinian men are risking their lives to cross the border into Israel, claiming they feel safer among Israelis than their own people because of death threats for being gay. But BBC reports in Israel they risk being detained and deported as a security threat, meaning Palestinian gay men are truly trapped between house arrest in Israel or death threats in Gaza. Yet another example of LGBT news you’re not seeing. We don’t want to tell network news how to do their job (actually, we do), but we are pretty sure with hours of news time each day they can cover more than one story at a time. This ISIS-driven humanitarian crisis President Obama called “genocide” has been going on for over a month. ISIS has killed five times the number of civilians killed in Gaza in the Israel/Gaza conflict. Meanwhile, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has also had little news coverage until now. One American doctor has died and two others have been brought back to the U.S., still infected and near death, for experimental treatment. We’d just like to remind people of a disease called

AIDS that started in Africa also. In the global village, pandemic illness with no known cure is news. Not after the fact. CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on The Lead on Aug. 8 that Nigeria is the latest country, following Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, to be at risk from an outbreak. Tapper reported WHO saying, “The possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health-facility transmission patterns, and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries.” Where have we heard this before? This is a story that will not be going away, particularly since Americans are now involved. While GLAAD focuses on TV programming and Hollywood representations, they might want to add news coverage. LGBT people are virtually invisible on the news unless we do something to bother str8 people, like asking bakeries to bake our wedding cakes or something equally traumatic. Like did you know the International Gay Games have been going on since Aug. 9 and run through Aug.16 in, of all unlikely places, Cleveland? Yeah, that didn’t make the news. Yet more than 8,000 people have registered to participate in more than 35 events, from track-andfield and basketball to rodeo and ballroom dancing. The participants come from 51 countries and 48 states. This is why we need gay news: because without it, we’d never know anything about what was happening for LGBT people worldwide. Given the 24-hour nature of all network news, this is not just infuriating, it can mean, as is the case with reportage on ISIS and Gaza, life and death. We did like trans singing star Dana International saying on Aug. 6 that Europeans should “shut their mouths about Gaza” since they were getting skewed news. It’s not often LGBT people actually from the Middle East are able to speak out about issues. We often think drama series do more justice to the news than the news itself. This is certainly the case with Sundance TV’s stellar new eight-part miniseries, The Honorable Woman, which debuted Aug. 7 and runs through September. Maggie Gyllenhaal is superb as Nessa Stein, Baroness Stein of Tilbury, an Anglo-Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist with a political past that haunts her. She gives the role depth and heart, torn by a world that is simply not right, morally or

Courtesy Sundance TV

Maggie Gyllenhaal is Nessa Stein in The Honorable Woman, which runs through September.

any other way. Show creator, writer, director and producer Hugo Blick said in a BBC interview, “The series centers around a woman who is deeply conflicted about past events that have haunted her. She is battling a consuming internal struggle for reconciliation with her past, and her search for personal equilibrium is manifested in her political activities to try to reconcile a conflict that has haunted a region of the world, countless lives, and political agendas for many years.” The Honorable Woman focuses on the Israel/Gaza conflict, and as Gyllenhaal told TV Guide, does not take a side but “asks the viewers to consider how they feel about an issue that is terrifying and upsetting. There are people on either side with a vice-grip on their points of view. The show asks them to loosen it, even the tiniest bit, for a few seconds.” Sundance TV repeats airings, so catch up and watch. There could not be a better time to view this compelling and gut-wrenching series.

Name-droppers

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is not going away. She “surprised” Stephen Colbert on Aug. 5 in what turned into a hilarious visit. Colbert, who plays an ultra-conservative of the Glenn Beck sort on his show, was complaining about how Hillary “drops names constantly” in her new book, like “Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.” Suddenly the former Secretary of State walked onto the stage to cheers and chants of “Hil-lar-y! Hil-lar-y!” The two played a namedropping competition that was progressively more hilarious. Finally, seemingly outdone, Colbert tried to stump the potential presidential candidate: “Which would you rather fight? One horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?” Not skipping a beat, Hillary responded, “We’d have peace-peace here. Peace-peace there. Here a peace. There a peace. Everywhere a peace!” The crowd went wild. And no, she did not announce. Except perhaps to say what her plans were long-term with that “everywhere a peace” rhyme. There’s not going to be any peace on ABC’s The View come September. The show hasn’t even started its new season yet, but there’s already trouble brewing. A contentious testshow taping had Rosie O’Donnell in

a fight with CNN’s S.E.Cupp. Isn’t this why Rosie was brought back, to get into fights with people? TMZ says the Aug.7 taping went wild when Rosie and Cupp (who is hoping to grab the “conservative” seat on the show) “had a nasty debate over the Australian couple making headlines for asking their surrogate to abort a Down syndrome baby.” That sounds like it could start a debate. Apparently Whoopi Goldberg upped the ante by asking Cupp if she ever had to consider an abortion. Silence. But then Rosie, not about to let either Whoopi or Cupp get the last word, announced she was not interested in another Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the former co-host who regularly argued with Rosie. It was after a fight with Hasselbeck that Rosie quit the show. The coup de grace on this test airing came when production sources said Whoopi declared she’d been “working with a cranky 85-year-old woman who’s mad about everything for two years, and I need a break.” Ouch. Looks like next season on The View is going to be a lot more exciting than the last one if Rosie has any say, and Rosie has never been known to silence herself. If it’s intense you like, another new summer series worth a look is TNT’s Legends, which debuted Aug. 13. Legends stars Sean Bean, late (literally, as he lost his head) of Game of Thrones. Here Bean plays Martin Odum, an FBI operative of the Jason Bourne school of multiple identities. If you’re in the mood for a spy thriller, Legends is complex enough to engage, not so complex that you change the channel. The show also stars Heroes alum Ali Larter as Crystal McGuire, leader of Odum’s Deep Cover Operations. Larter looks great pulling a gun on the bad guys. TNT hasn’t managed to hit a series out of the park in some time, but Legends might just be the show to do it. Speaking of holding one’s attention, MTV’s queerish Teen Wolf has a new wolf, Liam (ultra-cutie Dylan Sprayberry, who was younger when he was on Glee a couple of seasons ago). Currently recurring, he will be a series regular in season five next year. Worth howling over. Speaking of things worth howling over, Laverne Cox did a snap diva on CBS This Morning’s Gayle King. When King said, “So, you were born a boy,” Cox corrected her in no uncertain terms, saying she’d been “assigned male at birth,” but had al-

ways “felt like a girl.” Oprah’s bestie, a longtime supporter of all things LGBT, was somewhat taken aback, but soldiered on, and did not push Cox on the issue. Cox’s statement does have scientific ramifications, however, as Cox has an identical twin brother. Identical twins are always the same sex. We’re waiting for some science folks to take this one on and see where it goes. Cox’s brother Lamar has played her pretransition on Orange Is the New Black. Speaking of LGBT fun, Lady Gaga took the entire audience of David Letterman’s The Late Show to Roseland for the final performance before Roseland closed. We were thrilled to see this on the Aug 6 show. The show originally aired in April, so this was a re-run, but we hadn’t seen it first time around. For her big 55th birthday, Emmynominated American Horror Story star Angela Bassett decided to go big, and go lingerie. Check her out at VioletGrey.com, where she talks about Ryan Murphy’s Emmy-nominated AHS, and what it means to be a black actress in her 50s. She looks amazing in the black-and-white spread. It’s always good to see actresses who have not wrecked their faces with plastic surgery. Speaking of actresses who look great, lesbians love Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, and they loved her even more after her Aug. 7 Funny or Die sketch about women in the workforce. Thank the goddess there is still an actress in Hollywood not afraid of the F word (feminist). Hendricks lampoons both her role in Mad Men and some truly awful facts about what women are paid. Even we didn’t know that 70% of all minimum wage workers were women. Yikes. MTV has it here: on.mtv. com/1yb8uCE. We could watch this, and Hendricks, over and over. We could also watch some of the gay acts from this season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent on their own show. Neither the Latin dance duo John and Andrew, wonderfully, fabulously good and gay (where else are you going to see two men dancing together?) nor flaming roller skater Juan Carlos made it from the semi-finals to be one of the 10 final acts on Aug. 6, but they had incredible competition. This season of AGT has had a plethora of gay acts, which has been fantastic. Everyone loved Juan Carlos except AGT judge Howard Stern, who found him irritating, and asserted that fellow judges were just humoring him. Conversely, Stern loved John and Andrew, and urged the voting audience to vote them through. But the audience loved the aging queen, and so did the other three judges. Critics noted that Juan Carlos should have his own show. We’d definitely watch. And we hope he’d have John and Andrew on as his first guests. AGT is up for an Emmy at the awards ceremony on Aug. 25 on NBC, and we think it has a shot. It’s the best of the contestant shows, it has the best judges, and it has the most queer contestants. AGT never disappoints. We hope the Emmys don’t, either. We love SNL writer Seth Meyers, so at least we know the show will be funny. Finally, it’s fangs for the memories as HBO’s queer-laden vampire series True Blood comes to an end in the series finale Aug. 24. The show has had its ups and downs, but the writers definitely put some teeth into this final season. If you haven’t been watching, the entire series will be available in September for viewing from the beginning. It’s a bloody good time, too. So for the Bon Temps crowd, the honorable women, the cute gay werewolves, and to see who’s bombing whom, you know you really must stay tuned.t

t <<

Theatre>>

Michael Urie

From page 14

Urie then becomes Alex, the basement’s caretaker, as well as four other characters, including Alex’s Barbra-obsessed boyfriend, Streisand’s husband James Brolin, and the great lady herself. For 100 minutes, Urie shuttles between these characters, having quick-fire conversations among the characters and with the audience. There is no attempt to realistically impersonate the muchmimicked Streisand. “We wanted to stay away from the drag-show way of doing impressions, which is basically find a few things to hang your hat on, and be funny in-between,” he said. “That wasn’t going to work for this because it’s not just a comedy show. I have to play her in scenes where there is conflict and emotional depth. What I’m doing is more like capturing an aura or an essence, and in rehearsals we couldn’t put it into words, but whenever we found it, it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’”

Courtesy ABC-TV

Before Buyer & Cellar, Michael Urie was best known as the flamboyant Marc St. James in the TV series Ugly Betty.

Before Buyer & Cellar, Urie described himself as “a minor fan” of Streisand. “When I was a kid, my mother was a huge fan, and she’s the one who introduced me to Barbra,”

August galleries

River Phoenix

From page 19

thal speedball cocktail with the words, “This will make you feel fabulous.” The young actor had become a veritable poster-boy for clean living, telling the media that he had celebrated his 21st birthday with carrot juice, criticizing an actress playing his on-screen mom for having a Diet Coke. But he made a telling confession in his last recorded words. Between spasms, Phoenix was said to have glanced up from the sidewalk and pleaded with his brother, “No paparazzi. I want anonymity.” Gavin Edwards, author of the recent volume on Phoenix’s meteoric rise and fall Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind, speculates that had the young actor been rushed to a nearby hospital ER, he might have been saved. Instead, image preservation triumphed over common

he said. “She showed me the 1994 comeback concert, and explained to me why people love her so much. Just a few weeks ago, I visited my parents and we rewatched the concert together. I had done a lot of research for the show, but I hadn’t rewatched that concert, and I realized so much of what I’m doing I actually learned from that concert.” Going into Buyer & Cellar, Urie was best known as the flamboyant Marc St. James on the TV series Ugly Betty. After that series ended its four-season run in 2010, Urie had a co-starring role in the series Partners. But when CBS cancelled it after just six episodes, Urie was unexpectedly a free agent. “It was the beginning of the famed and dreaded pilot season,” Urie said. “When you’re on a show that doesn’t last but you get nice reviews, you think, ‘I should capitalize on that.’ But no, here I am telling my manager that I’m not going to try to get a pilot, but instead go make $280 a week off-Broadway. I said, ‘I really think it could be big, and maybe I

Peter Eickmeyer has transformed Remarque’s classic into a graphic novel. In his illustrated adaptation, the abridged text remains faithful to the source material, but the artist’s emotionally affecting, grimy, earth-toned gouache illustrations of war-ravaged landscapes and weary, shell-shocked soldiers, in conjunction with Remarque’s language and the inner voice of the 19-year-old protagonist, amplify the horrors of a ghastly conflict that wiped out or damaged a generation of young men. The exhibition of 30 large-format paintings and pages from the graphic novel, complemented by excerpts from the book, premieres in San Francisco, Aug. 20-Sept 12. Raised in Tel Aviv, San Franciscobased artist Dana Harel draws on her Israeli youth, her familial relationships with men, and her intimate experiences with the military – she’s the daughter and wife of Israeli soldiers, and served in the army – for haunting hybrid works that combine sculpture, photography, drawing, painting and printmaking. In her solo exhibition Between Dreams and Nightmares, now at the Palo Alto Art Center,

Harel’s human figures seem stripped bare, weighed down by sorrow, anxiety and impending loss, their gender (and future) undefined. Imminent violence might be just off-stage in “Only in Human Eyes,” which depicts the head of a fierce dog, mouth wide, teeth bared, howling behind the ear of a partially blighted human face. Astride a horse whose haunches are consumed by an aura of milky white, a rider turns to look back in “When I’m Gone,” and a mournful, defeated figure in rags proffers a bare tree branch (“Not Telling Them Apart until the Very End 1”). Inspired by collective memories rather than current headlines, Harel says her layered multimedia pieces “reflect the messiness of war and its effects on survivors,” a subject that couldn’t more timely. (Through Sept. 7.) Chandler Fine Art features workson-paper by a group of artists. Josette Urso, moved by T. S. Eliot’s notion of “the still point of the turning world,” creates patterned, concentric circle, collage-like roulette wheels, while photographer Wayne Hoy captures San Francisco’s cityscape during the magic hours, twilight and dawn. Citing influences ranging from traditional sumi-e painting and ancient alchemy illustrations to jazz and blues and carnivorous plants, Alexis Manheim’s gift for titles – How to Set off Fireworks with Your Eyes Closed, Astrological Blunder, The Drawing That Ran Away – is matched by the mischievous vitality of her pastel, raw pigment, graphite and gouache compositions that bring Nancy Graves and Elizabeth Murray to mind. (She makes her own pastels.) A chaos vs. control war reigns amidst squiggles, childlike shapes and dashes of black ink that provide an informal, skeletal structure. It’s as if a precocious kid had plundered her first box of paints. (Through Aug. 31.)t

sense. Of all the friends who knew and loved him, perhaps the wisest quote comes from his two-time onscreen and real-life girlfriend Martha Plimpton. “He was just a boy, a very good-hearted boy who was very fucked up and had no idea how to implement his good intentions.” In a film column, the last word belongs to a look at River Phoenix’s great twin masterpieces. My Own Private Idaho (1991) Van Sant’s unique mix of autobio, Shakespearean-style rent-boy hijinks, including a first act when Phoenix’s Mike Waters gets a bj from a hungry john, is not every queer fan’s cup of tea. But there’s no questioning the astonishing, vivid portrayal of a lost boy turned in by Phoenix at the pinnacle of his game. Gone is the vegan-boy media hype, and present is a prodigy actor who rarely had a false moment on screen. The Criterion DVD comes with a

lovely remastering of the film, plus about four hours of extra disc features. Running on Empty (1987) This Sidney Lumet-directed anthem to the twilight of the New Left features a 7-year-old Phoenix as the musically gifted oldest son of a family on the run. Danny Pope’s parents (Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti) blew up a Federal weapons lab in the early 1970s, and in the film’s present tense a decade and a half later, are still paying the price as fugitives, surviving on the kindness of an underground movement of strangers. The strain that the “sins” of the parents inflict on Danny and his young brother make for a singularly moving piece of filmmaking. Seeing Phoenix explaining to his girlfriend (Plimpton) why he can’t abandon his folks for a normal life left me freshly moist-eyed, awestruck and heartbroken at this terrible loss.t

From page 13

other far-flung locales. Even better, viewers are transported to distant continents without the pain of wading through airport security lines. Steam rises from Icelandic geodesic domes; lions move stealthily through the tall grasses of the Kalahiari savannah (Steve Chapman); a ladder peeks through a snowy, mist-shrouded aerie at the top of the world (Joyce Lopez); Robi Chakraborty catches a bevy of Indian women, draped in blood red saris and gold jewelry, who are crammed into a third-class railway car (one of many images of the lesstrodden areas of India, shot by natives of the country); and a grey wolf leans forward on a rocky premonitory, her cubs behind her, as she sizes up the interloper pointing the camera (Elaine Heron). Oliver Klink’s “Herding Instincts, Bhutan,” the winner of this juried competition, shows us Mrs. Thuji’s general shop and bar, where patrons gaze out windows at the sideshow on the street: a pair of airborne baby rams poised to butt heads. This exhibition is the next best thing to being there. (Through Sept. 3.) The beginning of the so-called “Great War” marks its centennial this year with an array of art and film programs built around the theme. The Goethe-Institut’s 100 Years Later mixes talks, films and a pair of exhibitions, the first of which, No Escape, focuses on All Quiet on the Western Front, the epic anti-war novel by German veteran Erich Maria Remarque about the senselessness and devastation of WWI. It came out in serialized form in 1928, was published as a book the following year, and made into a movie in 1930. In 1933, the Nazis burned the book, which says good things for it. Now German artist

August 14-20, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Josette Urso, courtesy Chandler Fine Art

“Ride, New York City,” collage by Josette Urso, now showing at Chandler Fine Art.

could be the toast of the town or something.’ Thank God I was right.” Urie indeed got noticed in Buyer & Cellar by both audiences and critics, but not even he thought it would lead to a national tour playing theaters far larger than the show’s New York home. He turned over his role in the off-Broadway production to two subsequent actors so he could hit the road. “There were certain places, San Francisco of course being one of them, where I thought, I want to be the one to do this role.” After the tour, Urie has several projects in development that include a TV series created by Buyer & Cellar playwright Tolins and a second feature film that he would direct. His first, He’s Way More Famous Than You, was co-authored by and featured Ryan Spahn, his partner of the past five years. As his role on Ugly Betty brought him wide attention, he said he was worried that he could get typecast in “bitchy, colorful, over-the-top characters like Marc St. James, which

was a great character, but one that I didn’t necessarily want to be stuck with forever.” He was also reluctant to take on a specific label regarding sexual orientation, but “queer” emerged as acceptably inclusive. “Being open about my sexuality, for the kind of actor I am, opened so many doors, not only to playing such a variety of characters, but to being part of LGBTQ organizations,” Urie said. “As a filmmaker, having my documentary [Thank You for Judging] play to such an emotional and rapt crowd at the Outfest Film Festival was a true thrill, and to be able to stand at the GLAAD Awards and accept an award on behalf of Ugly Betty was an honor. I’m in a really good place about it, professionally and emotionally. It’s worn me, and I’ve worn it, very well.”t Buyer & Cellar will run Aug. 19-31 at the Curran Theatre. Tickets are $50-$100. Call (800) 746-1799 or go to shnsf.com.

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PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 33 • August 14-20, 2014

Comedic pianist and singer Matt Yee returns to Martuni’s by Ronn Vigh

ore than a pianist and singer, Matt Yee is an entertaining whirlwind of energy both on and off-stage. However, Yee’s admittedly bleary-eyed for this interview, after having a great show and partying a bit late aboard the Atlantis Gay Mediterranean Cruise where he’s currently performing. Growing up in Hawaii, Yee has a degree in law but found that his passion is in music and comedy, making folks sing and laugh night after night as he packs out shows for all sorts of audiences on cruise ships and dry land. We chatted via emails as he replied from various ports of call. See page 27

David Sweet

Matt Yee

Kings Landing Drag Kings Strut Their Stuff in Annual Contest by David-Elijah Nahmod

The SF Drag King crew gets spacey

“We look for talent,” said drag king extraordinare Fudgie Frottage. “We want them to be real, to bring their own ‘cocktitude’ to the stage and bring it out.” Frottage, along with Sister Roma, will be co-hosting the 19th annual San Francisco Drag King Contest: The Studliest Competition in the World on Saturday August 16 at SOMArts Cultural Center. “The Drag King pageant is one of my favorite events,” said Sister Roma. “I never knew lesbians had a sense of humor. They go for blood! They’re out to win!” Frottage explained, for the uninitiated, exactly what a drag king is. “It’s a genetic female who dresses like a male in the style of a drag queen,” he said. “It’s an exaggerated persona, done for entertainment purposes. Kings go out of their way to accentuate eccentric male characteristics.” See page 27 >>

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 14-20, 2014

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Matt Yee on an Atlantis cruise.

t <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 14-20, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Matt Yee

From page 25

Ronn Vigh: You’ve been performing on cruise ships for years now. I take it that you don’t get seasick? Matt Yee: Only when I eat ass. Wow! I don’t know why that just shocked me so much when it says both ‘outrageous’ and ‘adult’ in the title of your show. So, is there a difference in your performance on the gay cruises vs. the straight cruises? The ‘ordinary cruises,’ as I call them, can be just as wild as the gay cruises, just with more wheelchairs. The goal, of course, is to get to the energy and feeling of a giant communal party, like church with booze. I am definitely not politically correct in either setting. I will do what it takes to get to the place where everyone is laughing, singing along and letting their hair down no matter who you are and where you come from or what you do in bed. This weekend, you’re bringing your Outrageous Adult SingAlong Show to Martuni’s in San Francisco. What can we expect of your show on dry land? Boas and muu-muus will definitely be flying. We are all going to be singing up a storm of songs that everyone will know (and if not, just sing “na na”). I don’t care if you don’t know how to sing. I don’t care if you suck. All I care is that you sing loud! And at Martunis last time we blew off the roof! People were coming off the street going, “What’s happening?” Is there any thing you must do when you come to the Bay Area when you’re not performing? Yes! Go to Truck on Tuesday nights, and a visit to the Armory. You are from Hawaii and still

Matt Yee, muu-muu-ified

reside there. Is ‘Island Fever’ a real thing, or do you really embrace your time on steady land? I treasure my time at home with my husband. We got married last year as soon as it became legal in Hawaii. We spend lots of time with my family, and at home watching old reruns of Star Trek. But if I stay at home too long I get rock fever too. So these jaunts around the world; it’s addicting. And I love it when my gay and straight audiences come together on land. It’s so satisfying! And they bring their friends and new peeps and we get to recreate that party for new people who would never think to step on a cruise ship. You’ve made your living performing on cruise ships. Are there any disadvantages to that? Here in Europe, they really do need to wash more. Nothing like a dirty foreskin to leave a bad taste in my mouth. But, don’t get me

wrong, I have been so blessed, meeting so many wonderful people, from so many countries. The only big drawback is the travel it takes to get there. It’s even worse in coach. Sometimes you get stuck in the back of the bus.

legrino. Teach your kids right! Oh I could go on for hours, but I have to go shopping in Nice; people are waiting for me. It’s just been an amazing adventure for the past 13 years with both Atlantis Events Gay Cruises and the ordinary cruises.

You’ve shared the stage with many celebrities. Do you get starstruck? Any stories of a favorite performer you worked with? I get starstruck all the time. And I’m so appreciative of the time we all spend with each other and the chance to play with each other on stage. One of my favorite all-time highs was performing with Idina Menzel of Frozen/Wicked/Glee fame. She had just done her show and came up to see mine. Idina got up and sang with me and that duet is on my website. I just saw her on Broadway and she gave me a big hug! I’m such a fan, and I’m like a twelve-year-old girl: “Let it go….!” I love the chance to hang out with folks like Patti LuPone and Chita Rivera. Oh, Courtney Act from RuPaul’s Drag Race will be here tonight. Courtney is such a generous and wonderful person. She let me stay at her place in Los Angeles when she was out of town. I told her, ‘Don’t change the sheets, and leave me some dirty underwear to sniff.’ That’s how close we are. We share notes in the steam room!

Before you run, what’s your guilty pleasure? Blonds!

You’ve made friends with stars from all different parts of the entertainment industry! Yes! Bruce Vilanch (writer of the Tonys and Oscars jokes) and I always have a great time together. Nothing is ever “too soon” for Bruce. I’m sure he’s writing hurricane jokes right now for Hawaii as we speak. We just spent time with Alec Mapa and his family. I love how his nine-year-old son has been raised. When we go to an Italian Restaurant, he orders San Pel-

David Sweet

SF Drag King host and creator Fudgie Frottage.

Kings Landing From page 25

Drag kings have never quite achieved the iconic status of their queen counterparts. “We’re famous in our own minds, as we like to say” Frottage said. “The most famous is Murray Hill, who travels around as the MC for burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese.” Frottage found it easy to come up with his stage name. “I really like the name Fudgie,” he said. “Consonant names always sound nice. I once had a faux drag queen persona. Her name was Rusty Scrotum, but I haven’t done her in a long time.” “I’ve had a few drag king boyfriends,” said Roma. “These guys are rowdy and fun. I know people are shocked even though it’s our 19th year, but people have a good time and come away feeling good.” As this is a crossdressing show, Frottage also addressed the recent controversy surrounding the use of the T word. “When a word is used in an endearing way, it’s okay,” he said. “It’s ridiculous to police words not used in a hateful way.” The co-hosts will be bringing their colorful personas to the contest. Self-described as “the man with the biggest balls in show business,” Frottage is “heavily influenced by the free love of the 1960s and the free love of the 1970s.” He hopes to bring his Fudgie Frottage Revue to Las Vegas.

Yes! Keep it simple! But, If you could sing a duet with one person, living or dead, blond or not, who would it be? My husband. But he can’t sing. He’s a mute. So sad. But he gives a

great blow job. I’ll let you run to explore Nice now…. What’s the final word from Matt Yee? Asian men are huge! And girls, get your tickets to Martuni’s now before they sell out. It’s going to be a blast!t Matt Yee’s Outrageous Adult SingAlong Show at Martuni’s Piano Bar, 4 Valencia Street, Saturday, August 16 at 7pm and Sunday, August 17 at 4pm. $17 advanced tickets available at www.BrownPaperTickets.com

All aboard for laughs with Matt Yee

Sister Roma describes herself as “the most photographed nun in the world.” Roma has cohosted the main stages at SF Pride and Folsom Street Fair, and has performed around the world. “I love to laugh,” she said. “If you can make me laugh, I’m yours. I also like gifts of cash and jewelry and will accept bribes from contestants.” This year’s contest offers a science fiction theme. Guest performers include Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos, Klingon Vanna White and Mo B. Dick. “We’re offering discount drinks to people who come in sci-fi drag,” said Frottage. The contest will benefit PAWS: Pets Are Wonderful Support, a service organization formed during the 1980s peak of the AIDS crisis. Its mission was simple, to assist people with AIDS keep and care for their pets, which might include providing food, vet care, and dog walks. “It now extends to all life-threatening illnesses and income issues,” said Frottage. “It’s a great organization.”t The 19th Annual San Francisco Drag King Contest, Saturday, August 16, 9pm, $20-35. SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. www. sfdragkingcontest.com

David Sweet

Guest judge Klingon Vanna White.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 14-20, 2014

Galas and gay times by Donna Sachet

he Gay Asian Pacific Alliance again presented a thoroughly entertaining Runway 26: Villains & Femme Fatales at a new location for them, the Marines’ Memorial Theater, on August 2. The spacious lobby teemed with excitement anticipating the competition between three for Mr. GAPA and five for Miss GAPA 2014. Glimpsed in the crowd were City Supervisor Scott Wiener, Ken Hamai, Benjamin Leong, Deena Cartier, Ray McKenzie & Matt Homier, Jenny Twoblocksaway, Colby Michaels, David

was going to be a tough contest! The favorite categories were questions from the judges and fantasy presentations. As always, the audience played a role in the selection of Mr. and Miss GAPA, not only by their applause, but with electronic voting by phone during intermission. Before the winners were announced, we bid good-bye and congratulations to last year’s winners Mr. GAPA 2013 Nguyen “Sir Whitney Queers” Pham and Miss GAPA 2013 Khmera Rouge, both of whom spent their year actively engaged in GAPA and other community organizations and

their selection and ready to represent their constituents. Shanti hosted an intimate pre-gala reception last Monday at the Fairmont Hotel in the owner’s suite, a gloriously decadent arrangement of rooms, including a Moorish pool room, circular library, and stunning outdoor patio with City views. From what we hear, if those walls could talk, we would be listening! As supporters ogled the rooms, co-chair of the October 18 gala Bahya Murad and Shanti Executive Director Kaushik Roy welcomed guests and thanked sponsors. Also attending were Lenny Broberg, Michael Montoya & Kevin Shanahan, Joy Bianchi, Antonio White, Joel Goodrich, and many others. The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club’s annual dinner always brings together an intriguing mix of political junkies and this year was no exception. Its location changes each year, often as a reflection of its leaders, and this year co-presidents Tom Steven underhill Temprano and Laura Brenda Dong’s competition routine, moments before it Thomas chose City Col- got quite naughty! lege’s Mission Campus.

Steven Underhill

Khmera Rouge bubbles with glamour in a farewell dance at GAPA Runway XXVI, with Simon Palczynski.

Fleming, Salvodar Tovar, Patrice, and so many Emperors, Empresses, Grand Dukes, and Grand Duchesses that we were recognized from the audience and even on stage during the evening. The talented and spontaneous Tita Aida skillfully emceed the contest, having fun with contestants, stage assistants, and the audience, while judges Kristina Wong, Kat Evasco, Jesse Mandapat, Trevor Nguyen, and Holy McGrail scored the competition. From their first appearance on stage, we knew this

stepped down with touching final performances. Keep an eye on these two; they will continue to contribute to their community. Finally, it was time for the announcement, as competitors for Mr. GAPA Neokoni-Mario Pagala, Franz Vincent Lacanlale, and Jaden Duong and competitors for Miss GAPA Brenda Dong, Carney Asada, Lily Rose, Livivan Truong, and La Moni Stat lined up on stage. Mr. GAPA 2014 is Franz Vincent Lacanlale and Miss GAPA 2014 is Brenda Dong, both thrilled with

Steven Underhill

Newly crowned Mr GAPA Franz Vincent Lacanlale and Ms GAPA Brenda Dong.

The place overflowed with elected officials, including State Assemblymen Tom Ammiano (recipient of the Harry Britt Lifetime Achievement Award) and Phil Ting, City Supervisor David Campos, Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and City College Trustee Rafael Mandelman (both recipients of the City College Champion Award), political activists Dan Choi, Gary Virginia, Mark Murphy, Gabriel Haaland, Alix Rosenthal, Bob Dockendorff, Brian Basinger, and Michael Petrelis, and transgender spokespersons Tita Aida (Bill Kraus HIV/ AIDS Activism Award recipient), Cece McDonald (Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award recipient), and Cecilia Chung. Although the breeze got progressively cooler as the outdoor program grew longer, the conversation was consistently hot and engaging. Saturday found us at Beaux for Shenanigans, one of the ongoing monthly fundraisers of the Reigning Emperor and Empress, this time hosted by Mr. Gay Tyler Nelson & Miss Gay Kipper Snacks. The boisterous show included performances by Empresses Galilea, Alexis Miranda, and Renita Valdez, Miss Cowgirl Piper Angelique, Synergy, Patrice, and our hosts. Jello shots, beer bust, and raffle tickets all contributed to a successful event. Sunday ended up as one of those multiple event marathons. After two great shows at The Starlight Room with Sunday’s a Drag, we flew to Lewis Sykes’ birthday party for Jim Connor at their welcoming home near the Panhandle. The eclectic collection of mementos within was rivaled only by the eclectic collecSee page 29 >>

Chanteuse Darlene Popovic Sophisticated Lady Cabaret Brings New Show to Society Cabaret by David-Elijah Nahmod

f you miss the great old days of yore when sophisticated ladies sang romantic ballads of love, loss and laughter, then Society Cabaret at Hotel Rex is where you want to be on August 15 and 16 at 8PM. The Bay Area’s very own Darlene Popovic will take to the stage on those two nights, belting out standards

Darlene Popovic

from the glory days of jazz/pop standards. “Society Cabaret is fairly new,” Popovic said. “It’s been open for a little over a year, I played it last year. Hotel Rex has been very supportive. Scott Lacy, one of the cabaret owners, has a lot of contacts and can get a lot of New York people to come here. You hear all kinds of horror stories in this business, but the So-

ciety Cabaret people are the nicest people around.” All four owners are performers themselves, with extensive credits in musical theater and cabaret. “They can relate to the performers’ needs,” Popovic said. She explained what drew her to performing, which has included scores of appearances on cabaret and musical theater stages, stand-up

comedy, as well as some film and TV. “I don’t remember ever doing anything else,” she recalled. “I grew up in a small farming community. I did impressions, I watched TV and wanted to do what they did. I never wanted to do anything else. You’re born with it.” She wasn’t the only performer in the neighborhood. Her grade school pal was Elizabeth Hartman (19431987), the brilliant but troubled actress who scored an Oscar nomination in her 1965 debut, A Patch of Blue, a groundbreaking love story between a Black man and a blind white girl who didn’t know he was black. Hartman’s career was shortlived due to her battles with severe clinical depression. Hartman committed suicide in 1987 at age 43. Popovic had been following her friend’s career but was unaware of her personal demons. “I’m sorry I didn’t contact her,” she said. Popovic was raised by her grandmother. “I left home at 18 to study in Bloomington, Indiana,” she recalls. “I came here in 1969 and studied with Michael Learned (The Waltons) at American Conservatory of Music. I ended up here because a lovely elderly couple in Indiana had a daughter here in San Francisco.

They told me that I mustn’t go to Los Angeles; that the smart people go to San Francisco.” Though her performance resumé is lengthy, Popovic hasn’t always been able to avoid the actor’s pitfall of needing a day job. “People say that you aren’t really a professional because you have your day job,” she said. “But you have to make a living. Everything is suppressed in the corporate world, you can’t be who you really are. But I was grateful to be making a living.” Yet she feels that she’s been blessed as a performer. “I’ve been very lucky, particularly with 42nd Street Moon, I’ve done a lot of shows for them,” she said. “This year has been a little slow, so I’ve been doing a lot of cabaret. You’ve got to keep your skills up.” One of Popovic’s signature songs is “Vodka,” a campy, boozy number composed in 1925 by George Gershwin, and Herbert Stothart (music) with Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach (lyrics) for the 1925 musical Song of the Flame. When she performs the song, Popovic camps it up for all it’s worth, even affecting an Eastern See page 29 >>

August 14-20, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Serving the Castro since 1981

La Mediterranee Noe @LaMedNoe

Steven Underhill

Marlena (left) with Galilea at the recent, and now monthly, Birdcage Follies at The Arc SF.

and community for LGBT seniors. We’ll be moderating a panel which includes friends of Jose and experts on LGBT history. The following weekend is packed with the Stoli Most Original Guy contest at Beatbox on Friday, Aug. 22, Peaches Christ’s 17th annual Showgirls Spectacular at the Castro Theatre on Sat., Aug. 23, and Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation’s 20th annual Help is on the Way at the Palace of Fine Arts on Sun., Aug. 24. In a final plug for Help is on the Way, let us simply say that if you

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet (third right) at Beaux with Imperial Court royals.

Darlene Popovic

From page 28

European accent. She wants people to know that there are two YouTube videos claiming to be her singing “Vodka,” which is on her CD. “The video which shows a still pic of me isn’t me singing,” she warns. “I don’t know who posted it.” The live video performance of “Vodka,” shot at Martuni’s, is indeed Popovic in all her theatrical glory. What can people expect from the chanteuse at her new Society Cabaret

show? “With Love and Laughter, I’m trying to thread a story through the songs,” she explains. “”It’s the ups and downs of love. I’ll be remembering the various ways I’ve been dumped. Relationships can be lovely, dangerous and convoluted, all at the same time.” t Darlene Popovic: Love and Laughter, Friday & Saturday, August 15 & 16 at 8PM Society Cabaret, Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter Street. $30-$50. www.darlenepopovic.com

miss this extravaganza of music, laughter, and heart, you will deeply regret it. San Francisco is richer and kinder due to these 20 years of cabaret performances and we thank Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler for keeping the show alive and for raising significant funds for so many local AIDS related organizations. Good news for fans of drag! After too long an absence due to the closing of beloved Marlena’s bar in Hayes Valley, Empress Galilea has created a brand new show called Birdcage Follies, to be held at the 180 Eleventh Street Showroom of The Arc SF on the fourth Saturday of each month. The inaugural show in July showcased a newly refurbished club with built-in booth seating, full bar, and dazzling lighting with special thanks to Emperor Jerry Coletti and Steven Zyski. The next Birdcage Follies will be on Sat., Aug. 30, starting at 8:30PM and you don’t want to miss it!t

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288 Noe Street, SF (415) 431-7210 lamednoe.com

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tion of guests, ripe for conversation and happy to celebrate with their hosts. From there, we accompanied Richard Sablatura to join Xavier Caylor & Jeff Doney for a spectacular show of Vanessa Bousay’s at Martuni’s to benefit Tenderloin Tessie’s Holiday Dinners. This singing drag sensation is drawing rave reviews and kept that audience spellbound. We went from there to The Edge for an unofficial closing party for Under One Roof, the venerable San Francisco retail venue which has raised millions for a variety of causes over the years and is now winding down its operation. With a disco theme, we knew it would be crowded, and it was! Deana Dawn and Gary Virginia organized this incredible event complete with spinning mirrored ball, scantily clad gogo boys, disco musical performances, retro hairdos and outfits, and a throng of happy celebrants. Once again, The Edge proved to be the place to end a beautiful Sunday night! This Tuesday, August 19, at 6PM, head to the LGBT Community Center for a fascinating panel discussion of the life and legacy of Jose Sarria, sponsored by Openhouse, which is committed to housing, services,

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Cafe | Restaurant | Catering

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On the Town

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<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 14-20, 2014

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

eON THE –TAB f August 14 20

★

Heklina hosts a new weekly '90s-themed video, dancing', drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks! '90s-themed attire and costume conest. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org Dragula @ The Eagle

Sat 16

aybe you’re out of town. Maybe you’ve got visitors. Maybe you just want to get out of the house. Maybe you’ll notice that despite it being many peoples’ “vacay time,” there are more nightlife, concert and unusual events taking place for the “off-season,” so many that we have an extra page-full.

Thu 14

I ♥ the 80s @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Beats Reality @ Trax

Turn back time as an ensemble of talented singers, including Tony Vincent (American Idiot, The Voice) and Jessica Phillips (Leap of Faith), perform classic songs from the 1980s. $35-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Aug. 14-17 and 21-24. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Resident DJs Jim Hopkins and Justime welcome guest DJs and play groovy tunes. Weekly, 9pm-2am. 1437 Haight St. 864-4213.

Bettye LaVette @ Yoshi's The elegant veteran R&B singer performs live. $39. 8pm. (VIP meet & greet $65). 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. Also Aug 15, at Yoshi's Oakland, 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the gogo-tastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Cinekink @ New Parkway Theatre Night of short films that celebrate a wide diversity of sexuality. $10. 18+. 9:15pm. Also Aug. 15. 474 24th St., Oakland. www.cinekink.com www.thenewparkway.com

The Crib @ 715 Dance night for the younger guys and gals. 9:30pm-2am. 715 Harrison St. www.thecribsf.com

La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts. 10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. ThuSat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Celebrate the 22-year anniversary of the Hip Hop, Top 40, and Latin music night, with a special tribute to Gloria Trevi performed by Jacqueline Aguilar La Gata hosted by Miss Lulu Ramirez; plus gogo dancers and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $6 afterward. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Funkatory @ Club OMG DJs Tweaka Turner and Shawn Perry spin groovy funky sounds, local drag performers offer soulful numbers, and Raquela hosts the Funky Chicken gogo contest ($50 cash prize). 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club The Darkwave dance party presents the fourth annual Sandman Ball, with two rooms of décor and dance tracks devoted to the Neil Gaiman character; costumes encouraged, with prizes for best outfits. DJs Xander, Daniel Skellington, Fact.50, and BatKat. $5$8. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom st at 8th. www.SFcatclub.com

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

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The Orb @ Brick & Mortar Pioneering electronic music duo ("Little Fluffy Clouds") play a DJ set with Duffrey vs. Intellitard and LeafyGreen. $15-$20. 9pm. 1710 Mission St. 800-8782. www.brickandmortarmusic.com

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

The Orb @ Brick & Mortar

Paul McCartney @ Candlestick Park To celebrate the closing of the stadium, and the anniversary of The Beatles' performance there, McCartney and his band perform. $49.50-$255. 8pm. 490 Jamestown Ave. www.ticketmaster.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 12pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge The intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland $15-$20. 9pm.

DJs Tweaka Turner and Shawn Perry spin groovy funky sounds, local drag performers offer soulful numbers, and Raquela hosts the Funky Chicken gogo contest with a $50 cash prize; now each 2nd Thursday. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 15 Bettye LeVette @ Yoshi”s

Thu 14

As the summer heats up, EDGE gets hotter! Check out all the LGBT News, Entertainment and Hot photos today!

Thu 14

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Funkatory @ Club OMG

Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

Jukebox @ Beatbox

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Darlene Popovic @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents the delightfully talented musical theatre singer's new show, Love & Laughter, with musical director Tom Shaw. $30-$50. 8pm. Also Aug. 16. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www. societycabaret.com www.ticketmaster.com

Fri 15 Trannyshack @ DNA Lounge

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Trannyshack @ DNA Lounge The longrunning drag show hosted by Heklina offers a Janet Jackson tribtue night, with RuPaul's Drag Race's Milk, plus Chaka Corn, Kegel Kater, Cookie dough, Sugah Betes, Mahlae Balenciaga and more. $15. (9pm meet & greet with Milk, $20). 11:30pm showtime. 375 11th St. www. trannyshack.com www.dnalounge.com

On the Tab>>

August 14-20, 2014 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ 31

Sat 16 Bearracuda @ Beatbox The ursine dance party celebrates eight years of bear fun, with DJs Matt Consola, Brian Maier and Robert Jeffrey; gogo bears, visual fun and a great crowd. $5-$10. 9pm-3am. 314 11th St. www.bearracuda.com www.beatboxsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ SF Mix

Nerd out in cosplay costumes at the gay gamer, superhero, scifi, furry and fantasy fan night. $5 (free before 11pm w. RSVP). 43 6th St. 896-6473. www.geekgasm.eventbrite.com

The popular Castro bar hosts its weekly softball team beer bust fundraiser. 3pm-7pm. 4086 18th St. 431-8616. www.sfmixbar.com

Literary Death Match @ Elbo Room

Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Sarah Marie Griff, Kurt Bodden and Jules Posner judge; Carolina De Robertis, Joshua Merchant, Amrit Chima, Earle McCartney read at the feisty writer competition. $10. 7pm. 647 Valencia St. www.literarydeathmatch.com

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Geekgasm @ Club OMG

Sat 16 DJ Lee Decker DJs Sundance/Moondance

The Love Boat @ Pier 3 Get on board for Pop-Up Gay Bar's nauticul BYOB event; bring your Clipper Card and set sail for an East Bay day. Meet 2pm at Embarcadero ferry teminal. Look for the megaphone-wielding nuns. www.popupgaybar.com

Odyssey @ The Stud Guy Ruben, Elaine Denham and Robin Simmons DJ, and Miguel McNamara gets a birthday party. $5. 9pm-3am. 399 Harrison St. www.odysseysf.com www.studsf.com

SF Drag King Contest @ SOMArts Cultural Center The 19th annual "studliest competition in the world," cohosted by Fudgie Frottage and Sister Roma, includes wild performances that poke fun of stereotypical masculine behavior; including celebrity guest judge Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos. Proceeds benefit PWAS (Pets Are Wonderful Support). $20-$35. 9pm. 934 Brannan St. www. sfdragkingcontest.com

Brunch @ Hi Tops

Brunch Sundays @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com Back to School-themed afternoon R&B soul patio party includes performances by Grace Towers, Killer, Roce Rockettes, Fauxnique and Lady Satan. BBQ food while it lasts. $6-$8. 2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle Steve Fabus and Sergio Fedasz play groovy disco records of yesteryear (as DJ Bus Station John's outta town). $5. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf. com

Jock @ The Lookout The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers. 3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

ShangriLa @ The EndUp The Kylie Minono Show presents Sailor Moon and Runway XXVI Coronation, a celebration for the newly crowned Mr. and Miss GAPA Franz Vincent Lacanlale and Brenda Dong. Meet the new court and enjoy performances by Khmera Rouge, Lily Rose, Jezebel Patel, Soy Joy, Nguyen "Sir Whitney Queers" Pham and others. RSVP on eventbrite.com 10pm-2am. 401 6th St. www.gapa. org www.theendup.com

Stallion Saturdays @ Beaux

The Coup @ YBCA

Juanita More!, Sidekick and Walter Gomez' trendy swagger night at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5 benefits Transgender Law Center. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Shadowbox, a concert-art showevent, includes Jazz Mafia Horns, Bhi Bhiman, Classical Revolution, Snow Angel, Emily Jayne from Fashion Slaves, and Damion Gallegos from Fungo Mungo, visuals and more. $20$35. 5pm & 9pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

Dog Days @ The Edge

Celebrate 11 years of the weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. $8-$15. 9pm-3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF. com www.DNAlounge.com

Benefit for the AIDS Housing Alliance, w/host Colby Michaels of the Grand Ducal Council; Enjoy a baseball game on big-screen TVs, raffle prizes (incl. a two-night stay at R3 in Guerneville), woofy gogo guys, a Wag That Tail contest, with prizes. 3:30-7pm. 4149 18th St. www.edgesf.com

Beatpig @ Powerhouse

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Dragula @ The Eagle The Boulet Brothers' wild LA vampire drag night returns from the crypt! Drag acts by Grace Towers, Heklina, and others; costume pageant with $300 cash prize. $10. 10pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.eagle-sf.com

The gogo-tastic night returns, with hunky dancers offering lap dances upstairs in the lounge, hosted by Sister Roma. $4. Free before 10pm. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Sundance/Moondance @ Treasure Island Gus Presents' outdoor circuit dance event (not the country-western line-dancing events), with DJs Lee Decker, Andrew Gibbons, and Billy Lace; two dance areas, a great view, shuttle service, $20-$30. 12pm-12am. Pavilion by the Bay, 291 Ave. of the Palms, Treasure Island. Moondance after-party, with DJ Alexander, at The Factory, 525 Harrison St. $20. 12am7am. www.guspresents.com

Sun 17 Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

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

Sunset Summer Boat Party @ Pier 3 Party aboard the San Francisco Spirit ferry, with DJ grooves by the Honey Soundsystem crew (Jason Kendig, Robot Hustle, Josh Cheon and others), guest Ivan Smagghe. $55-$60. 5pm-11pm. After party at Monarch, 10pm-2am. 101 6th St. www.ticketfly. com/purchase/event/650443 www.hnysndsystm.tumblr.com

Daytime Realness @ El Rio

Fri 15

Jacqueline Aguilar La Gata @ Latin Explosion

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room

No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Salsa Sundays @ El Rio Salsa dancing for LGBT folks and friends, with live merengue and cumbia bands; tapas and donations that support local causes. 2nd & 4th Sundays. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Screaming Queens @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Screening of the acclaimed documentary about the historic 1960s Compton Cafeteria riots, preceded by a Queer History of the Tenderloin walking tour with Del Seymour, and followed by a salon at Aunt Charlie's Lounge. 2pm. 80 Turk St. 626-2060. www. counterpulse.org

Mon 18 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pmclosing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Name That Beat @ Toad Hall BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly musical trivia challenge and drag show. 8:30-11:30pm. 4146 18th St. at Castro. www.toadhallbar.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Sun 17

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

Cazwell @ Silicon Valley Pride

The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping twostepping and line-dancing. $5. 5pm10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 14-20, 2014

Steven Underhill

Sat 16

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www. thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

Geekgasm will hopefully attract these cosplay hunks (seen at Gaymer X2)

Sports Night @ The Eagle

Switch @ Q Bar

The legendary leather bar gets jock-ular, with beer buckets, games (including beer pong and corn-hole!), prizes, sports on the TVs, and more fun. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Weekly women's night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

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

Tue 19 Bingo Night @ Club OMG Michael Brandon hosts the game night and fundraiser for The Community Initiatiuve. 7pm-10pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni's A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company's music and variety show; this week with singers Matt Barnick and Xavier Toscano. No cover. 6:30pm-9pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the "Godfather of Skate." Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday's Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

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

Yayne Abeba @ the Punch Line The ascerbic Ethiopian comic performs; also, Kaseem Bentley, and gay comics Ronn vigh and Yuri Kagan. $15. 8pm. 444 Battery St. 397-7573. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

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

Benjamin Booker @ Brick & Mortar New Orleans-based rock-funk singersongwriter performs. Burning Curtains opens. $12-$15. 9pm. 1710 Mission St. 800-8782. www.brickandmortarmusic.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Wed 20 Benjamin Booker @ Brick & Mortar

Bromance @ Beaux DJ Kidd Sysko spins tunes for the bro-tastic midweek night, with $2 beer pitchers, beer pong, $1 shots served by undie-clad guys. It's like a frat house without the closet cases. 8:30-10pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

City Singers @ Feinstein's at the Nikko New weekly cabaret night, with various local singers performing at the elegant nightclub. $15. 7pm. Aug. 20: Betty Roi. Aug. 27: Clairdee. Sept. 17 Tom Reardon. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (855) 636-4556. www.ticketweb.com

Dare 2 Bare @ Club OMG New weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, no cover, and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Thu 21 Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Interactive sexy fun with super-hung porn star Rafael Alencar (before his Fri & Sat night strip shows). $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Will Durst, Marga Gomez, Joe Nguyen, and Lisa Geduldig perform, along with The Bad Aunties improv group (Diane Amos, Debi Durst, and Judy Nihei). $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. (800) 8383006. www.ElRioSF.com

La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Piano Bar @ Beaux Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the new weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multi-purpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

Sony Holland @ Level III

Wed 20

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland

Sun 17 Mahlae Balenciaga’s Drag Revue @ The White Horse

Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

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Re-engaged by John F. Karr

mmediately after my article about AB1576 was published in issue 31, I received a request for a correction from Terry Schanz, representing the office of the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Isadore Hill. Disputing my claim that the bill, “will require the public revelation of the HIV status of all of its performers, gay as well as str8,” Mr. Schanz wrote, “The bill does not do that and in fact takes important steps to protect the medical privacy of all adult film actors.” Mr. Schanz is correct—to a degree. The way the legislation is crafted, it carefully avoids anything that requires public disclosure by the performer. However, AB1576 requires producers to disclose performers’ STI test details to the Department of Industrial Relations. Public records maintained by the DIR are available for inspection by members of the public pursuant to the Public Records Act (PRA) which is contained in the California Government Code beginning at section 6250 (http:// www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/display code?section=gov&group=0600107000&file=6250-6270). In effect, performers will be forced to waive their privacy rights in order to work. Also to be considered is the de facto revelation of a gay performer’s HIV status. If the bill passed, a lot of gay performers would not be able to work. The reason for their sudden absence might seem obvious. So, on both these points, I feel that having the government collect and retain STI test results unconstitutionally infringes on the privacy rights of performers. So, does AB 1576 legislate public revelation? No. But does it result in it? Yes.

August 14-20, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Joe Gage Sex Files Vol. #16: Faculty Night

ing Homosex Gay or Str8, because it’s been jettisoned in Faculty Night. The deans and professors (and one delivery boy) in this movie may show hesitancy about who will pull their dick out first, but it’s gung-ho after that, and there’s little doubt of their persuasion. And while the sex in Faculty Night is more engaging than that of Chain Reaction, there’s a trade off. Production values and technical standards aren’t the emphasis at Dragon Video. So the movie’s two sets lack atmosphere—there’s a fake alley and a dull but acceptable Dean’s office—and the screen image isn’t as glossy as Titan’s. Also typical of Dragon Media is the lack of documentation. The

movie itself has neither credits nor cast list. The box cover lists titles of the movie’s scenes, but not who’s in them. The guys include a couple erstwhile porn stars still hangin’ in there (like Trevor Knight), some fave names (Ray Hahn, Rich Kelly), and a couple near-unknown but tasty guys (Scott Reynolds, Kyler Ash). Gage likes a multi-generational purview of penises, so cast ages range from twink (Seth Roberts) to older bear/dads (Reynolds and the mononymous Butch). And they keep their suits on, most of the time. The movie is well-launched with a suck-a-thon between Tommy Deluca (still young and still hung) and Mike Tanner (30-ish, bearded, with authoritative cock). Deluca feeds a mighty load to Tanner, and the dudes savor it at length. It’s cum play of zesty sleaze, so tasty and so

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A screengrab from Faculty Night shows Tommy Deluca and Mike Tanner goin’ for the goods.

satisfying. Then the assorted professors and their dean play in various combinations—Dean Knight sitting out one scene so he can be jackin’ off while calling the shots for his staff. Nerdy twink delivery boy Seth Roberts provides good service, and he keeps on suckin’ even when his glasses are splattered with cum. There’s another twink, smooth and slender Kyler Ash, who takes on the two more mature guys—Scott Reynold with his thick, silver mustache, and stolid-faced Butch. They go after the kid, because, let’s face it, his is the biggest dick among them, and he’s 30 or 40 years younger. But then, there’s a switcheroo, with twink energetically topping dad. The movie ends with more cumeating. All told, not like Gage-ofyore, but definitely not a bore.t Twink goes for dads, in a screengrab from Faculty Night.

And while we’re talking about the use of condoms in porn, here’s a statistic worth noting. A recent study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, states that the rate of HIV infections annually diagnosed in the United States fell by one-third over the past decade. That is, rates fell for everyone except for gay and bisexual men. The study found their diagnoses increasing. Now, finally, I can get to what I prefer to do—talk about porn. Director Joe Gage has two recent movies. Last week I reported on Titan’s rather meh Chain Reaction, and this week it’s Ray Dragon Video’s rather elaborately titled—and much better—Joe Gage Sex Files Vol. #16: Faculty Night. Perhaps Gage has tired of his usual premise, Are These Guys Hav-

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In a screengrab from Faculty Night, dad Scott Roberts gets it from twink Kyler Ash.

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August 14-20, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by Steven Underhill Food Fun

how biz and food fun combined at two events last week, captured by the prolific Steven Underhill. Chef Yigit Pura premiered some new desserts at Tout Sweet Pâtisserie at Macy’s Union Square, 170 O’Farrell St., third floor. Among the delicious treats was a special limited edition glittery macaron, called the “Hedwig Schmidt,” made in honor of the smash Broadway revival of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. “Hedwig and the Angry Inch has played an integral role in my life since its original Off-Broadway production at the Jane Street Theatre,” said Pura. “I have been inspired by the ingenuity of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s book and music and the positive message of love and discovering who you really are.” The shoppe features fresh desserts and a sweet array of gift packages. For more info, visit www.toutsweetsf.com. And over at Fisherman’s Wharf (you know, that place you go when your parents visit), The Rock Hard Café unveiled a zesty new Beach Blanket Babylon Burger, with the help of a few festive cast members from the longrunning Steve Silver show. See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

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