August 9, 2012 editon of the Bay Reporter

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More from AIDS confab

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Meet Travis Wall

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

Vol. 42 • No. 32 • August 9-15, 2012

Drag is out at Holy Redeemer

Baldwin receives Bay Area boost in Senate bid

by Chuck Colbert

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by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he primary to decide her Republican opponent for a U.S. Senate seat is less than a week away, but lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) is already being Bill Wilson pummeled with atTammy Baldwin tack ads paid for by outside groups.

Polls in the race to succeed Democratic Senator Herb Kohl, who opted to retire from Congress this year, have consistently shown Baldwin either in a dead heat or with a slight See page 12 >>

Rick Gerharter

Bingo in the (almost) buff N

ovice Sister Yoda, right, keeps a close eye on players at the Bear Necessities bingo event as part of Lazy Bear Weekend in Guerneville on the Russian River Saturday, August 4. The Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence hold the

special event to complement their monthly bingo evenings throughout the year. Lazy Bear bingo debuted in 2003 and has become one of the most popular, and fun, events of the weekend, which also included pool parties and entertainment.

local gay recovery group will not be holding its annual fall fundraiser in the social hall of the Castro neighborhood’s Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church after officials said that no drag queens would Father be allowed.

Brian Costello For the past couple of years the Castro Country Club has held its event in the church’s social hall and had drag queens as entertainment.

As a statement issued by the country club’s board of directors explained, the new no-dragqueen policy at the church is simply unacceptable.

“The Castro Country Club had planned to hold our third annual Harvest Feast on October 20, 2012, at Most Holy Redeemer Church, where we have held this and other events in the past,” the directors said in a statement.

See page 12 >>

Minority journalist conference welcomes gay group

by Matthew S. Bajko

L Rick Gerharter

Jack Fertig speaking at a 9/11 memorial in 2010.

Jack Fertig, pioneering Sister, dies

by Liz Highleyman

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ack Fertig – a longtime gay Bay Area activist, spiritual devotee, and one of the first Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – died Sunday evening, August 5. He was 57.

Mr. Fertig had entered hospice care due to liver cancer and died at home with his partner, Elias Trevino, and other family at his side.

Though he went by several names over the years, Mr. Fertig was best known to many See page 11 >>

GBT individuals have attended the quadrennial Unity confabs held by minority journalist groups for decades. This year marked the first time that they helped organize it.

After the National Association of Black Journalists voted in 2011 to end its relationship with Unity over a dispute about finances and governance, the remaining groups invited the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association to become a member and help plan the 2012 conference, which took place last week in Las Vegas.

It had been a longtime goal of founding NLGJA member Leroy “Roy” Aarons, a former editor at the Oakland Tribune who died in 2004, for the group to join Unity. But Aaron’s entreaties were always rebuffed.

That changed last summer when NLGJA’s board voted to unite with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, and the Native American Journalists Association to present the four-day convention that drew more than 2,000 media professionals to Sin City.

The inclusion of NLGJA at Unity was largely celebrated during the event. The majority of attendees were more focused on landing a job offer or meeting new contacts than on whether the LGBT journalists belonged at the convention.

Bach Polakowski

Outgoing NLGJA president David Steinberg talked with incoming president Michael Triplett at the Unity convention last week in Las Vegas

Sharif Durhams, a member of both NABJ and NLGJA, on whose national board he serves, has attended the last three consecutive Unity conventions. He said attendees this year had been “incredibly welcoming” of the gay journalist group.

“People have been curious about our organization and the benefits we bring our members,” said Durhams, the social media editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I hope members of NLGJA see the similarities in the discrimination some of these other minority groups face.”

Durhams added that he hoped NLGJA’s inclusion in Unity would result in discussions about race and sexual orientation as it relates to the news media.

“I also hope our members get asked challenging questions. There is homophobia in communities of color just as there is racism in the gay community. I hope we are challenging each other to explore those issues,” said Durhams.

Ongoing debate “I think it has largely been supportive,” said NLGJA national board secretary Ken Miguel, a segment producer for ABC7 in San Francisco, when asked to describe NLGJA’s reception at Unity. “I think it has given us a bigger platform to share our collective vision on fairness and accuracy in coverage.”

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

The August 1 opening plenary, in fact, zeroed in on those topics as the discussion about covering race and LGBT issues turned to the ongoing debate over expanding Unity’s membership to include LGBT people and dropping “Journalists of Color” from its name.

See page 13 >>

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

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Man found dead in Castro

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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he San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office has identified a man found dead in the Castro district last weekend as Wesley Cuyler, 31.

The city resident’s body was reported Saturday, August 4, at 2200 Market Street, the site of the shuttered restaurant Leticia’s.

Officer Gordon Shyy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said the death “doesn’t appear suspicious at this time.”

According to San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge, the call for service came from a passing motorist at 7:46 a.m.

Saturday. “[The] reporting party noticed someone wearing a gray sweater and blue basketball shorts with their legs up on a duffle bag in front of what appeared to be an abandoned restaurant,” Talmadge said in response to emailed questions. The person didn’t appear to be breathing, she said, and responding crews reported that he was deceased.

Shyy said police were dispatched

Seth Hemmelgarn

The body of Wesley Cuyler was found at the site of the shuttered restaurant Leticia’s.

to the scene, which is at Market and 15th streets, at 7:57 a.m. Saturday.

The medical examiner’s office took custody of the body and all the possessions, he said.

The exact cause of death is to be determined by the medical examiner’s office, Shyy noted. That agency won’t likely release the cause and manner of

death publicly for several months.

Asked if there were any signs of how Cuyler had died, Shyy said he couldn’t share such details.

An online profile that appears to belong to Cuyler says he lived in the Noe Valley neighborhood and “survived a brother and sister and high school and my own self-torture.”▼

Police continue probe of Escalon killing

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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olice are continuing their investigation into the death of Steven “Eriq” Escalon, 28, a gay San Francisco man whose body was found bound and gagged in June.

The San Francisco Police Department released a sketch last week of a person of interest in the case.

“There have been no arrests, and there have been several calls,” Sergeant Scott Warnke, of the SFPD homicide unit, said Wednesday, August 8.

He said he couldn’t share what the calls were.

As police investigate the case, Esmeralda Escalon, Eriq Escalon’s mother, is hoping for more information to come in. She and several other family members came to San Francisco last weekend to distribute fliers with photos of her son, who was found in his apartment in the 5000 block of Diamond Heights Boulevard on June 12, and the police sketch.

Like others who knew her son, Escalon, who lives in Fresno, said she has no idea who could have killed him.

“The people that knew him knew how big of a heart Eriq had,” Escalon, 47, said in a phone interview before her visit to the city. “... He does not sit there and judge anyone. He does not sit there and gossip about anyone. That was not his nature at all.”

The bulletin police released July 31 says the man they’re seeking was seen getting into a cab with Escalon in front of the bar 440 Castro at about 1:30 a.m. the day he was

Seth Hemmelgarn

Mayling Castro, center, and Esmeralda Escalon, right, joined others Saturday, August 4 at 18th and Castro streets before distributing fliers about the June death of Steven “Eriq” Escalon.

killed. The man is described as white or Hispanic, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches, with a slim build. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt.

Warnke has said speculation that Escalon’s killing was related to a hookup is being investigated. Police have also suggested that whoever killed Escalon stole a TV and other items from his home.

Escalon expressed doubt about the possibility that her son had hooked up with someone just before his death.

“He’s never even done that here, why would he do that there?” she said.

Early Saturday afternoon, August 4, Aaron Escalon, 22, quietly took in the bustling scene near Castro and 18th streets, about a block away from where his older brother was seen the morning he died. A small metal tag bearing the dates of Eriq Escalon’s birth and death hung from his neck.

He said he doesn’t think his brother brought someone back to his apartment.

See page 7 >>

Foul play not suspected in park death

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he investigation into the death of a gay man in Golden Gate Park is still open, but at this point, it’s “not looking like it’s a homicide,” Inspector Daniel Cunningham, of the San Francisco Police Department homicide unit, said this week.

David Borowy, 55, was found dead Sunday, July 8, near John F. Kennedy Drive and Bernice Rogers Way, a section of the park popular

with men looking for sex.

In an interview Tuesday, August 7, Cunningham said that it appears Borowy “had some medical issues,” but he declined to offer details. The cause of death is to be determined by the medical examiner’s office.

“There were no defensive wounds on the body,” he said. “I think that he had possibly gone to meet somebody, had a date,” and then died, Cunningham said.

Bob Dupont, who called 911

about Borowy’s body, has said that a man known as Robby had told him about the body.

“Apparently the guy has never been there since,” Cunningham said, referring to the man as Robby or Bobby. He described the man as a white male in his 20s, with dark hair and glasses.

Cunningham said Borowy was gay and had been a longtime resident of an apartment on Ellis Street. He was “quiet, but well-liked,” he said. ▼

▼

Community News >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Bar owners urged to organize around nightlife issues

by Chris Carson

G

ay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener may call himself an “old fuddy-duddy who doesn’t stay out as late as he used to,” but that doesn’t mean he wants the rest of San Francisco to turn in early.

Speaking Monday afternoon at the fourth annual Nightlife Summit, held at the public library’s main branch, Wiener urged those who work in or alongside the city’s “other 9 to 5 industry” to support state Senator Mark Leno’s (D-San Francisco) “last call legislation,” which would allow restaurants, bars, and nightclubs in San Francisco with afterhours permits, and within areas zoned for late night operation, to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.

In March the controller’s office released an economic impact report on San Francisco’s nightlife, and found businesses like bars, restaurants, and nightclubs generated $4.2 billion in spending in 2010 and $55 million in tax revenue, while employing 48,000 people.

Wiener said that while there are still steps that can be taken to make nightlife in San Francisco better, such as improving late night transportation with more taxi cabs and later running BART trains, nothing can be done without organization by local business owners.

“The industry needs to be more and more organized in order to have the political strength we need to make positive change at City Hall and in Sacramento,” he said, before pleading with community bar owners to come together, as to “add a neighborhood element to political organizing.”

A representative from Sacramento was at the summit, and took a few questions from the audience.

Jacob Appelsmith is the director of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the

Rick Gerharter

The panel at the Nightlife Summit IV meeting included, from left, Commander Michael Biel and Inspector Rich VanKoll, both from the San Francisco Police Department; Demetri Moshoyannis from Folsom Street Events; Syd Gris from Opel; and Jeff Whitmore from the Department of Public Works.

government body with the power to “to license and regulate the manufacture, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages” in California. He was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in January 2011.

Appelsmith said that though he trusts his staff, he was still eager to hear what is “going on down on the ground” from people who live and work around nightlife every day.

A major issue, according to nightlife professionals like H. Joseph Ehrmann, the owner of Elixir, at 16th and Guerrero, and a founding member of San Francisco Cocktail Week, is a shortage of liquor licenses, which has caused their prices to skyrocket. He asked Appelsmith

Mandelman enters City College race

by Seth Hemmelgarn

G

ay attorney Rafael Mandelman has entered the race for the San Francisco Community College District Board of Trustees, amid concerns that its multi-campus City College of San Francisco may have to close.

City College is an important institution, “and it’s under threat,” Mandelman said when asked why he’s running. “Many of the things I care about are at issue there,” he said, including educational and job training opportunities.

The college’s future as an accredited community college, the largest of all accredited community colleges in California with about 90,000 students, has been in question since early June, after the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges issued a blistering report saying CCSF would need to “show cause why its accreditation should not be terminated” by October 15, according to a report sent to interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher in July, or lose its accreditation. That’s a loss that many fear could close CCSF’s doors for good.

The report, highlighting that City College is poorly run, aimed to have the school meet a few of the eligibility requirements for state accredited colleges. Among them, to document a funding base and plan for how to bring in future financial resources, conduct audits, and bring in an administrative staff with “appropriate experience to support necessary services for an institution of its size,

Rick Gerharter

Rafael Mandelman

mission, and purpose,” the ACCJC report said.

Mandelman, 38, is one of 12 people listed on the potential local candidate roster as running for four seats on the board in the November 6 election. Incumbents Natalie Berg, Chris Jackson, Milton Marks, and Steve Ngo are also on the list. Lawrence Wong, the college board’s only openly gay trustee, remains on the nine-member panel. His seat isn’t up until 2014. Mandelman pulled papers last Tuesday, July 31. The filing deadline is Friday, August 10.

Mandelman, a past president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and current member of the local Democratic County Central Committee, already serves on the college district board’s Citizens’ See page 6 >>

what could be done to make more licenses available.

“It boggles my mind to think that I’d have to pay $200,000 for a liquor license,” Ehrmann said.

“You say it’s up to me to get the local bars together. I’m doing everything I can but I don’t see anything happening,” he added. “I don’t know what else to do but try to make a profit in a city that’s over taxing me and running me down.”

Over supportive applause from the audience, Appelsmith reiterated to Ehrmann and others that the ABC and even Brown will be “supportive of whatever you want to do in the city of San Francisco,” but those working at the state level

need to see local government getting involved.

“I do think you can do a lot through talking with your local supervisors,” Appelsmith said, as many of the issues brought up, like licensing are “a local issue.”

Another local issue brought up by both Wiener and Appelsmith, is the appeal of San Francisco to young people. Appelsmith, who grew up in Berkeley, said as a young man he came into San Francisco to see his first concert – a Specials show.

Wiener said that when he was coming out as a gay man, “where did you find community as an LGBT person? In the bars and the nightclubs.” With more and more young

LGBT people trying to make a living in San Francisco, and more coming each year, the Bay Area Reporter asked during the panel session of the summit, if there is anything that can be done to keep nightlife affordable for the young, while the cost of living goes up.

Jeff Whitmore, founder of the live music nightclubs Mighty, on Utah Street, and Public Works, on Eerie Street, said that finding inexpensive nightlife often just requires some extra effort on the part of young people.

“What we frequently do,” Whitmore said of his venues, “is a lot of giveaways. So we put that out through Facebook so people do have an option of getting in for free.”

He also said that many venues will have cheaper tickets at earlier hours. Many people in San Francisco don’t start going out until 11:30 p.m., Whitmore said, so “at 9:30, very frequently, a ticket will be half price or even free.”

Demetri Moshoyannis, executive director of Folsom Street Events, spoke about some of the operation fees connected to one-day events, like the Folsom Street Fair.

Speaking specifically about the Entertainment Commission’s ability to shut down businesses not following set standards, Moshoyannis said, “I think it would be great to explore an incentive structure,” to see “how can we reduce some of their fees if they are doing what they need to be doing and doing it well.”

The Folsom Street Fair is a nonprofit event that Moshoyannis said donated over $300,000 back into the community last year.

Mayor Ed Lee was scheduled to speak at the summit but was called away at the last minute. Paul Henderson, the mayor’s policy adviser on public safety, went in his place and said the mayor was a fan of the city’s food and music.▼

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

Volume 42, Number 32 August 9-15, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • events@ebar.com Advertising • advertising@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com A division of Benro Enterprises, Inc. © 2012 Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.

Advertising rates available upon request.

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Wither EQCA? E

quality California keeps sliding into irrelevance. The organization has not had a permanent executive director since last fall, and the interim ED, Laurie Hasencamp, has an aversion for talking to the media. She has rarely spoken to the press, and for a group whose main job is to bolster support for pro-LGBT legislation, it doesn’t seem that she inspires community involvement.

Last week, we reported online that the public face of EQCA for the last year, Rebekah Orr, is leaving, effective this Friday. It was Orr, the communications manager, who was the real public voice of EQCA for much of the past year and after she’s gone, we don’t know who will speak for the group. The board leaders are as reticent as Hasencamp when it comes to talking to the press.

But in all honesty, the LGBT community doesn’t seem to care, or wonder what’s going on with California’s only statewide LGBT lobbying organization. Thankfully, EQCA does have a capable lobbyist, who takes care of lining up testimony for bills in Sacramento and scheduling meetings with lawmakers. And Orr told us that EQCA’s field staff continues to work in various parts of the state talking to voters.

But looking at the big picture, it’s clear that EQCA needs to reinvent itself. The Bay Area Reporter and Frontiers news editor Karen Ocamb are about the only media outlets that regularly report on EQCA, and in a recent post on her LGBT-POV blog, Ocamb pretty much summed it up: “Hear that deafening silence? That’s the sound of Equality California, the once highly regarded and legislatively active state LGBT lobbying organization, thinking about its next move.

And thinking, and thinking, and thinking: the organization has become so inert, so ineffectual with only an interim executive director, Laurie

Hasencamp, administratively holding down the fort that EQCA has become the hollow org – and no one seems to care.”

Successful statewide LGBT groups in California have always been a challenge, given the state’s size both geographically and in population. In fact, EQCA was born out of the California Alliance for Pride and Equality, which itself started up after the shuttering of the Life Lobby back in the mid1990s. It takes money to run a statewide organization, and money is one thing that EQCA doesn’t have much of these days.

The barebones administrative staff that remains at EQCA will be sending out action alerts, Orr told us, and continuing with its social media work on Twitter and Facebook. But without a dedicated leader at the helm, we’re unsure what the

messaging will be – and we wonder if the EQCA board or Hasencamp even knows.

With a board that seems as fractured as EQCA’s, perhaps it’s time for a wholesale rebuilding.

Hasencamp and consultant Joan Garry – who has never told us exactly what she is doing with the group – should consider starting over. Members of EQCA’s two boards – EQCA and its affiliated EQCA Institute – should resign and be replaced with people from both the grassroots and those with deeper pockets. The new boards could then begin the ED search. It’s apparent that no one wants the ED job as it stands now; the position has been open for nine months and if there was a credible candidate he or she would have been hired by now.

As it stands, other LGBT organizations are going to have to pick up the slack. Ultimately, EQCA should be remade into a proactive organization that fights for all of the state’s LGBT communities.▼

The godless gay versus Chick-fil-A?

by James Patterson

T

he Chick-fil-A controversy continues to rattle about in the press. Company President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy boldly told the Baptist Press that he does not support same-sex marriage and, in fact, contributes to hate groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council that spread lies about the LGBT community.

According to the company website, there are 1,615 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Annual sales, for the most recent year, totaled $4 billion for the Atlantabased company. Although stores are mostly in the East, there are some California outposts.

BusinessInsider.com says the company gave $2 million to seven anti-gay outfits in 2010 with more than $1 million going to the newly formed Marriage and Family Foundation, based in Jonesboro, Georgia.

Cathy cites a religious basis for his anti-gay views. This is an old argument. Southern racists, who opposed integration, cited the Bible as their source of opposition to racial equality. “God never intended whites and blacks to mix,” was a common view in the Deep South during the civil rights era.

Similarly, those who opposed women’s rights used religion to argue against giving women the right to vote. So, Cathy is adhering to a religious argument that has a long history of holding back social change.

In the weeks since this controversy began, conservative politicians have jumped on the Chickfil-A bandwagon. Texas’ U.S. Senate candidates campaigned at Chick-fil-A eateries in their state.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), once rumored to be gay, posted a photo on his Facebook page with a Chick-fil-A bag of sandwiches. Even 93-year-old Reverend Billy Graham, never an advocate for social change, endorsed the Chick-fil-A view against same-sex marriage. Many other conservatives have shown their support for the company. Former Republican Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rallied fellow conservatives for a national Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day last week. Long lines of people sent sales at some

steffens77/Flickr

A large crowd turned out for Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa last week.

stores up as much as 200 percent according to the New York Times. An LGBT-sponsored kiss-in at Chick-fil-A restaurants was held two days later with lesser success and publicity.

There are two main arguments connected to this controversy. The first argument revolves around the First Amendment’s freedom of speech. This argument goes that Cathy is free to express his views under the First Amendment against same-sex marriage. This is, after all, a free country. Politicians, including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and others, who initially advised Cathy against opening or expanding stores in their gay-friendly cities, have since backed away from their strong talk based on this First Amendment argument.

Cathy is free to speak out against same-sex marriage, but what if he had spoken out against interracial marriage and used the n-word in his speech. What would have been the public outcry? I’d like to think his speech would have been condemned by all segments of society. He has no freedom to spread hate speech. For this reason, we do not have media coverage of speeches by racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The media doesn’t want to give them a platform for their hate speech. I don’t understand why the media has given Cathy and others a platform to freely bash LGBT people.

The second argument in this controversy is one taken by those who support Cathy’s view that same-sex marriage is against God’s will. The Washington Times, once controlled

by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has been referring to those who oppose Cathy as “antiChristians.” This should make all LGBT people angry because it assumes there are no LGBT Christians. This feeds into the stereotype that LGBT people oppose religion. It diminishes the role of LGBT Christians, like Metropolitan Community Church founder the Reverend Troy Perry, in society. This view cannot stand as it is a further example of hate speech. It is simply illogical to say that those who oppose hate speech laced in religion are anti-Christian.

In order to protest against Chick-fil-A, don’t buy their sandwiches. Contact relatives and friends in states with Chick-fil-A stores and ask them not to support the company because it supports hate. Also, contact the corporate office and express your displeasure with the company. Some conservatives have suggested that any serious LGBT protest against Chickfil-A will make it less likely for others to express anti-gay views. Protest away, and let’s hope this is the case.▼ A former Washington journalist, James Patterson now resides in San Francisco. He can be reached at JamesPatterson705@gmail.com.

▼

Letters >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Last days for busy bench The concrete bench sprinkled with fairy glass in front of Starbucks in the Castro will soon be history. This great place to hang out is being removed as part of the store’s remodeling that will take place this month. The store’s front will now come to the sidewalk with a front door in the middle and seating inside all on one level. My understanding is they are doing this to expand the store’s ability to offer its complete food line.

Gay butts have been sitting on that bench for a long time. I have met some great people there, had some wonderful conversations, and made some intimate connections.

A lot in the Castro is changing these days, it goes without saying that change is inevitable, it seems like the end of an era.

Long live the Castro.

Jack Mattingly San Francisco

WOOF is a great idea Regarding Steve Kehrli’s letter, “WOOF is a bad idea” [Mailstrom, July 26], I respectfully disagree. Perceptions of homeless people are too often based on stereotypes. Not all of us are drug-addicted, violent crazies.

The Wonderful Opportunities for Occupants and Fidos program requires an extensive interview and training process, which will eliminate unacceptable candidates.

Further, prospective candidates must have stable housing for themselves as well as the animal.

I am a disabled, unemployed homeless person, however, I do have permanent housing and am a caring, intelligent, loving person. I’ve always been an animal lover and caregiver. Don’t write me off with a biased perception.

Brian Andrews San Francisco

Gay Olympics?

A San Francisco raised (straight) boy is home from college for the summer and read the following sentence from the New York Times about the Olympics: “(So and so) is the third straight American athlete to win this competition.” He honestly asked, “Does that mean all the rest were gay?” Even if slowly, the world does change.

Charles Spiegel, Esq. San Francisco

About the gay rodeo The International Gay Rodeo Association uses stock animals responsibly and ethically in the American sport of rodeo. Our high standards of animal care are clearly articulated in our animal welfare statement. Every IGRA member loves and protects domestic pets and stock farm animals. We completely agree with organizations like LGBT Compassion that animal abuse, neglect, torture,

confinement, abandonment and inhumane slaughter are abhorrent.

IGRA does not engage in these horrific actions and will not stand by quietly while members of LGBT Compassion lie, exaggerate, or smear an LGBT organization in order to undermine efforts to serve the LGBTQ community [“Protester works against gay rodeo events,” ebar.com blog post, July 5]. Our record on this issue is impeccable. IGRA does not abuse animals nor condone animal abuse at any time, by anyone.

There is a large gay and lesbian cowboy and cowgirl community who have grown up on farms or ranches.

These real life experiences provide a balanced perspective on ranching, farming, animal care, and use. There are also many disenfranchised gay youth in rural areas of the USA and Canada that benefit from knowing there are others of similar background that are solid members of society giving back through gay rodeo involvement.

Our stock animals are skillfully used, fed, watered, rested, vaccinated, protected from elements, and watched over by our animal issues committee and large animal veterinarian at every rodeo. This responsible use does not now, never has, and never will, rise to the level of “abuse.” Our horses are part of our families; some of the best loved and cared for animals anywhere.

We do not agree in the over-projecting of human emotions onto stock animals. We do not agree that slipping a pair of underwear over the hind legs of a goat is remotely similar to starvation, beating, and neglecting.

Our goats are well fed, sturdy, healthy, and not stressed. In a 24-hour day, they are engaged for approximately 30 minutes and go back to feeding, watering and resting. We do not use “tight straps” on our riding stock and nothing touches their genitalia. A fleece, flat rear cinch is used to signal the bucking animals to buck.

IGRA members represent both the non-vegetarian and vegetarian philosophies and believe in the humane care, transport, and slaughter of stock animals raised solely for the purpose food and nutrition. While we will never agree with LGBT Compassion on the sport of rodeo; we will always agree that animal abuse is wrong.

IGRA members will never abandon the inherent passion for rodeo and will not tolerate being vilified and lied about. We strongly encourage LGBT Compassion, with our support if necessary, to seek out and assist the real abused, starved, neglected, confined and tortured animals in the world.

IGRA invites our community, friends, sponsors, and critics to come see how well cared for the animals are at our rodeos and make your own judgment. We ask you to acknowledge our contributions to the diverse LGBT community through charity driven rodeos. IGRA – and the cowboys and cowgirls we represent – is a valuable, responsible and ethical member of this diverse community.

Bruce L. Roby, President Golden State Gay Rodeo Association San Francisco

55 Laguna project set for planning vote compiled by Cynthia Laird

O

fficials at Openhouse, the agency that provides services to LGBT seniors, are asking those supportive of their senior housing project at 55 Laguna Street to attend the San Francisco Planning Commission meeting August 16 where the development plan will be up for a vote.

The 55 Laguna project includes 330 new multi-family rentals and 110 units of LGBT-friendly housing for low-income seniors. Openhouse and Mercy Housing California are working together to build the senior housing, which will also include Openhouse service offices and an activity center for both residents and LGBT seniors from across the city. Wood Partners is managing the multi-family development, which, pending final confirmation from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, is expected to include 50 units of housing for low-income renters.

Seth Kilbourn, executive director of Openhouse, said in an email to supporters that their voices are critical to the project.

The project sponsors have spent the last year working with architects, attorneys, consultants,

Courtesy Openhouse

Richardson Hall, at the corner of Hermann and Laguna, will feature retail space, new Openhouse offices, and 40 units of apartments for low-income seniors.

planning department staff, the Mayor’s housing office, and community stakeholders on a design and development plan to finance and construct housing. It is this comprehensive plan that the planning commission will vote on at its August 16 meeting. The hearing is scheduled to begin at noon, Openhouse officials said.

The commission must approve the

entire plan in order for the Openhouse-Mercy component to proceed.

The 55 Laguna site is the former UC Extension campus.

For more information, visit www. openhouse-sf.org.

Artify It partners with Openhouse In other Openhouse news, the agency has announced it is partnering with Artify It, a San Francisco See page 6 >>

<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

What’s in a name?

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

N

ext May, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-V, should hit bookshelves.

While much has been made about some of the individuals involved with the creation of this update and their history around transgender care, there are some changes coming that could benefit those of us who identify as transgender, with perhaps a caveat.

For one, the term “Gender Identity Disorder,” which crept in during the last edition, is going away. Indeed, this is being moved out of sexual disorders and into its own space, with the new title, Gender Dysphoria.

It is worth noting, however, that the term “gender dysphoria” is hardly a new one. It is credited to Dr. Harry Benjamin, who released the book The Transsexual Phenomenon in 1966, and had treated Christine Jorgensen, whose gender transition in 1952 sparked a public fascination with transsexuality during the years of President Eisenhower and beyond. The term “gender dysphoria” is a very common one both within the language of the community as well as in any number of publications for use by psychiatric and

<<

News Briefs

From page 5

art-sharing business.

Openhouse is consigning 50 pieces from a significant collection of donated art to Artify It’s subscriptionbased online catalog. The revenue will support Openhouse’s work building LGBT-welcoming housing and its services that work to reduce isolation among LGBT seniors. Artify It’s subscription model will allow Openhouse to maintain the rights to the art collection while generating new funds. Through Artify It’s sharing model, Openhouse has the potential to earn steady subscription revenue and proceeds from any art sales.

“Artify It is proud to partner with Openhouse to help support the important work they do for the LGBT senior community,” said company cofounder Lorenzo Thione.

Openhouse received a valuable art collection from Art for Healing in honor of the agency’s co-founder Marcy Adelman, Ph.D. Fifty pieces from that collection will be consigned to Artify It’s catalog. Art for Healing is a public benefit organization that has collected works or art through donation to place in health care facilities

Corrections In the August 2 article “Hot time in the city as panel debates hooking up,” Aimee Forster’s name was misspelled.

The article should have also noted that organizers Forster and Brendan McHugh are program committee chairs.

In the August 2 article “Special service to honor Golden Gate Bridge suicides,” the surname of Mark Finch was misspelled.

In the August 2 article “LGBT seniors of color speak out” it was incorrectly reported that lesbians and transgender seniors of color were not present at the meeting. The article should have read: “In spite of the good attendance at the meeting, some lesbian and transgender attendees noted that other members of their community who should have been present were absent. LGBT seniors and advocates encouraged those at the meeting to spread the word to get people to apply to the task force and encouraged the elected officials and others to continue doing more outreach by hosting town hall meetings.”

The online versions have been corrected.

other medical professionals.

Conversely, Kenneth Zucker, Ph.D., who also has a long – if not nearly as stellar – history in transgender care, coined gender identity disorder. Zucker’s involvement with controversial psychologist J. Michael Bailey, as well as his own work surrounding reparative therapy for homosexual and transgender youth, have made him a rightful target of decades of criticism.

I should note that Zucker and his protege Ray Blanchard, Ph.D. – known for his use of the “Phallometer” to measure the penises of transwomen in order to qualify or disqualify a patient for care in the notorious Clarke Institute of Toronto – served on the DSM-V Workgroup for Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders. This has led many people to be quite critical about the work done within the DSM-V. It also makes me a bit happier to see some of the proposed changes made in spite of Zucker and Blanchard.

The change from gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria is not important because it puts Benjamin over Zucker, as much as I personally may prefer the former over the latter.

Nor is the value of accepting a single term to describe the nature of being transgender, rather than

using Gender Identity Disorder and Gender Dysphoria interchangeably, what matters here.

Rather, what is key is losing the word “disorder.”

Now it might seem that the loss of the word “disorder” from a text named Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders wouldn’t matter, but it does. This changes the mindset surrounding transgender people and their treatment.

Under the gender identity disorder model, the label essentially says that transgender people are mentally ill. That the “disorder” is a mental issue – and even though the treatment has a physical cure, the problem is still a mental deficiency more than anything else.

As gender dysphoria, the issue is more focused on the physical state.

Those who are classified with gender dysphoria will be those displaying a “marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.”

It may seem a simple case of semantics, and perhaps at the heart of things it is, but the goal is to change the overall view of this as a disorder and more of a natural state of being.

Homosexuality, too, was once an illness in the DSM. It, too, changed over time in the eyes medical and psychiatric professionals, and was eventually dropped altogether. We may indeed be seeing this as one of many steps before transgender issues are removed from the DSM in

throughout the Bay Area for the last 35 years.

The Openhouse collection can be viewed at artify.it/collections.

statement said the anti-discrimination protections in section 1557 of the ACA, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, include discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

The announcement means that people who face discrimination or are being denied access to any federally funded health service or program on the basis of gender identity can file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at HHS. “This announcement affirms that all patients in federally funded health care settings must be treated equally and may not be denied care simply because of who they are,” NCLR federal policy director Maya Rupert said in the statement.

The Transgender Law Center also praised the clarification. In April, in a case brought by the center – Macy v. Holder – the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that transgender employees are protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

“This is an important clarification for all transgender people, who so often face extraordinary barriers in accessing health care,” said Masen Davis, executive director of TLC. The protections apply to hospitals, clinics, and mental health facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Target job fair in SF Target is getting ready to hire approximately 300 employees for its new CityTarget store at the Metreon in downtown San Francisco and will be holding a job fair starting today (Thursday, August 9) and concluding Saturday, August 11.

With the economy still sluggish, hundreds of prospective candidates are expected to attend the public event to apply and interview for open team member positions, as the company refers to its workers. During the event, store leaders will review applications, conduct interviews, and discuss Target’s dynamic, team-oriented culture.

Interested applicants are encouraged to visit www.target.com/careers.

The job fair runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It will be held in the Metreon City View Room, 135 4th Street.

ACA prohibits gender identity discrimination The Department of Health and Human Services this week has confirmed that the Affordable Case Act protects against discrimination on the basis of gender identity. That’s good news for transgender people, LGBT advocates said.

The clarification came in response to a letter sent by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and several other LGBT organizations. According to a news release from NCLR, the HHS

<<

Mandelman

From page 3

Bond Oversight Committee, to which he was appointed earlier this year. He ran for the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors in 2010 but came in second to Scott Wiener.

Among other qualities, the college board needs someone “who can bring the various and sometimes opposing constituencies at the college together to try to get through the crisis,” Mandelman said.

LGBT Mormons to meet in SF Mormon Stories, a nonprofit support community that seeks to create

According to the ACCJC report, salaries and benefits remain above 92 percent of CCSF’s unrestricted general fund expenditures. Mandelman said that figure “is too high,” but school officials have been trying “to keep as much of the institution going as they can, and largely that means investing in the people running the institution.”

Mandelman was one of many speakers at a town hall meeting held last month to discuss the problems at City College. ▼

Dr. Harry Benjamin

some future edition. Certainly this is changing it from a condition that is “treated and cured” by a gender transition into something that is mitigated by therapeutic assistance, including the potential for transition.

As such, we get to the caveat I mentioned at the beginning of this column: as we see this becoming a smaller part of the DSM, we also risk seeing transgender people losing a diagnosis that can provide them medical care as well as legal standing. That transgender people were listed in the DSM in the first place helped to see laws against cross-dressing and “impersonation” fall off the books. This is part of what has allowed us to get hormone

safe spaces where all Mormons can express themselves authentically, will hold its Circling the Wagons conference in San Francisco Saturday, August 11 at St. Cyprian’s Church, 2097 Turk Street (at Lyon) from noon to 6:30 p.m.

The event, for LGBT and same-sex attracted Mormons and their friends, families, and allies, will include several speakers and an interfaith service featuring Michael Pappas, executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council. Caitlin Ryan, Ph.D., of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, is also scheduled to attend.

“Who we love and how we understand and honor God are deep, personal issues that carry an especially profound weight in Mormon communities,” said Joanna Brooks, president of Mormon Stories.

The groups inaugural conference, held last year in Salt Lake City, garnered national media attention when Bishop Kevin Kloosterman advocated for Mormons everywhere to open their hearts to their gay brothers and sisters.

Registration is $37 (standard), or more or less depending on ability. For more information, visit www.mormonstories.org.

Night of queer black visibility in SJ A coalition of organizations, including the NAACP, Freedom to Marry, the Billy DeFrank Center, and San Jose Pride will hold a special screening of the award-winning film Pariah Thursday, August 16 at 6 p.m. at the DeFrank center, 938 The Alameda in San Jose.

The evening is billed as Growing Tolerance: A Night of Queer Black Visibility. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recently adopted a resolution

treatments, surgery, and other trans-specific needs.

That said, I am glad to see it move out of the realm of “disorder” and into something else. I look forward to people not thinking transgender people are mentally disordered due to our presence in the DSM-V – even though some will assume us mentally disordered regardless.

Yet I would like to see advocacy done to make sure we do see the needs for those of us who do require hormones and surgery considered – not as a “medical disorder,” but as a medical necessity. There really should be a process in place for those who need such care, even as the process of removing language that labels us “disordered” continues.

The DSM was the outgrowth of the United States census, and started with only one category. By 1917, the Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane – a precursor of the DSM – had 22 categories. Today there are more than 350 categories. The updating of the manual is from all accounts a laborious, sometimes political, and difficult process.

Things may yet change between now and publication – but it looks like we may indeed no longer be “disordered.” This is as it should be.▼ Gwen Smith is frequently disorganized, but not disordered.

You’ll find her online at www. gwensmith.com.

in support of marriage equality, after President Barack Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage.

The film, a coming of age story about a young African American lesbian, has won praise and awards since it was released last year.

Tickets for the screening are $5-$10 sliding scale. An audience reception and party will take place afterwards; tickets for that are $5 or free with screening ticket. There will also be a speakers panel and a meet and greet.

For more information, visit www.defrankcenter.org.

OPD seeks community members to sit on interview panels The Oakland Police Department is looking for community members who are interested in becoming involved in the hiring of future police officers for the city.

Officer Johnna Watson with the OPD’s media relations office said that the department is looking for volunteers to sit on oral board panels to interview potential candidates. This could be a one- to three-day commitment. People do not need to serve all three days, but participation is important for the success of this recruitment, Watson noted.

Community members must live, work, or be a business owner in Oakland.

The upcoming oral boards are scheduled for August 20, 21, and 22, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Typically, the first hour involves training.

Each interview panel will consist of three people; a sworn member of OPD, a city of Oakland employee, and a community member.

Those interested in serving as an assessor, as the community positions are called, should contact Antone Hicks at (510) 238-3339 or ahicks@ oaklandnet.com.▼

On the web Online content this week includes the Wedding Bell Blues column. www.ebar.com.

www.bartabsf.com

Politics>>

▼ Gay man seeks to succeed Baldwin in Congress

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

gay state legislator in Wisconsin is in a heated Democratic Party primary race to succeed lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, who is running for a U.S. Senate race this year.

It is a situation Mark Pocan has been in before. Fourteen years ago he ran for and won Baldwin’s state Assembly seat representing the college town of Madison after she won her congressional seat.

Political watchers in the Badger State give Pocan, 47, the edge in the race, as he has lined up considerable support from Democratic Party leaders in the state and allied union groups. He also secured the backing of the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund for his bid.

In the August 14 primary Pocan’s main competitor is his state Assembly colleague Kelda Helen Roys, 33, who is also from Madison. She has proved to be an aggressive opponent and has been fiercely critical of Pocan, though the negative tactics have brought her criticism from party leaders.

Two other Democrats are in the race, Madison attorney Matt Silverman, 30, and Dennis Hall, 63, a security consultant.

Baldwin, 50, has refrained from endorsing in the intraparty race, though Pocan did secure endorsements from the three gay male members of Congress: Barney Frank (DMassachusetts), David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island), and Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Pocan expressed optimism about his chances.

Due to the makeup of the state’s 2nd Congressional District, whomever wins the primary is all but assured of being elected in November.

“It is still one of the most Democratic seats in the Midwest, so the real challenge is the primary election on August 14. If I win, I will be in a very good place in November and can focus on electing Tammy U.S. senator and Barack Obama president,” said Pocan. “I feel good about it. But I don’t take anything for granted.”

The outcome of the race could make history, as a Pocan victory would mean that Wisconsin has elected three out people to Congress – the most of any state. Along with Baldwin, the first out lesbian to serve in Congress, former Republican Congressman Steve Gunderson, representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District, was outed in 1994 and served another two years.

“If we can hold this congressional seat, Wisconsin will have sent more openly gay and lesbian members of Congress than any other state in the country,” noted Pocan. “It will also be the first district to elect back-toback openly gay members of Congress.”

Heading into next week’s elec-

<<

Police probe

From page 2

“He won’t just bring any random person home,” Escalon said. Eriq Escalon has been described as being outgoing, but the younger Escalon highlighted his ability to read people.

“My brother, he’s on his toes,” Escalon said.

It’s not clear whether police think the man seen with Escalon in the Castro hours before he died is also responsible for his death. Warnke declined to comment on the issue. Skye

Courtesy Pocan for Congress

Wisconsin congressional candidate Mark Pocan

tion, Pocan reported having the most campaign cash on hand and had outraised Roys. According to campaign finance reports released last week, Pocan was sitting on a war chest of $454,000. Roys was far behind him with $190,120 remaining in her campaign account.

The owner of a union printing company, Pocan said he has thoroughly enjoyed his time serving in the Wisconsin Legislature. Now he would like to bring his progressive values to the national stage.

“The natural extension of this job is going to Congress and taking the same skill set and putting it to a new set of issues,” he said. “I think I can have a real impact on people’s lives.”

With Frank retiring from the House this year and Baldwin leaving as well if she loses her Senate bid, Pocan said another reason he jumped into the race is to ensure LGBT people continue to have a voice on Capitol Hill.

“We want to represent everywhere and have a seat at the table when decisions are made on LGBT issues,” said Pocan, when asked why his election should matter to LGBT people outside of his district.

There are 11 out LGBT candidates still in the running for House or Senate seats this year, eight of whom won the Victory Fund’s endorsement and are seen as running competitive campaigns. Several would also make gay political history this fall if they succeed.

Like Pocan, several of the out candidate’s fates will be decided this month.

Tuesday, former HRC spokesman Trevor Thomas, 28, came up short against fellow Democrat Steve Pestka, 60, in their primary battle for a Michigan House seat. Based on unofficial returns Wednesday, August 8 Pestka won with 59 percent of the vote while Thomas received 41 percent.

Pestka now advances to the November election where he will try to unseat conservative Republican Justin Amash, 32, from his 3rd Congressional District seat centered in Grand Rapids.

In a statement, Thomas conceded the race.

“I spoke with Judge Pestka tonight and congratulated him on his victory in this hard-fought campaign,” Thomas said in a statement released Tuesday night. “I told him that I look forward to working together to defeat Justin Amash in the fall.”

Headed into his own fierce August 14 primary fight is gay former Duluth, Minnesota councilman Jeff Anderson. The 35-year-old Minnesota Army National Guard veteran is considered a long shot to win the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party battle for the state’s northeastern 8th Congressional District and has not garnered backing from the national gay groups.

Another House candidate considered an underdog is openly gay Tucson Dr. Matt Heinz, 35, a state Representative running in the August 28 Democratic primary for the seat once held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Still recovering from being shot in the head last year, Giffords opted not to seek re-election and resigned her seat this year.

Her former aide Ron Barber won a special election in June to fill the vacancy. He is favored to win the primary later this month for the state’s 8th Congressional District seat.

Also on Arizona’s primary ballot later this month is former state lawmaker Kyrsten Sinema, 36, who could become the first out bisexual elected to Congress. She is in a tough race for the newly created 9th Congressional District in Phoenix.

The sole out congressional candidate running in California this fall is Mark Takano, 51, in Riverside. An openly gay Japanese American and education leader, Takano would be the first LGBT person of color in Congress.

He would also be the first out

Emerson, a friend of Escalon’s, has said that she was texting with him just before noon the day he died. Asked this week about the conversation, she said, “It wasn’t anything significant.”

Esmeralda Escalon said if whoever killed her son had wanted items from his home, he would have given it to them.

“You didn’t have to go to killing him,” she said.

Escalon also discussed the possibility of the person of interest in her son’s death being Hispanic. She indicated that would have made him in-

eligible to go out with her son. He “did not date Mexicans,” she said.

“He thought he was white, but he was Mexican,” Escalon said, laughing. She said she would tell him, “No, honey, you’re daddy’s Mexican, I’m Mexican ... you’re Mexican.”

Her voice grew quiet, though, when she talked about what the past several weeks have been like for her.

“It’s been horrible,” Escalon said.

“This person did not only take my son’s life, he took my life.”▼ To view a copy of the flier, see the online version of the story.

member of the Golden State’s congressional delegation. But Takano is in a tough race against his GOP opponent, Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, 63, on the November ballot.

Former Clinton administration staffer Sean Patrick Maloney, 46, would become the first gay congressman from New York if elected to the Empire State’s 18th Congressional District. But he faces an uphill battle this fall in trying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Nan Hayworth, 52, who represents several counties north of New York City.

The only gay Republican congressional candidate this year is Richard Tisei, a former Massachusetts state legislator who has surprised political watchers with the strength of his candidacy in the Bay State’s 6th Congressional District.

He is trying to oust pro-LGBT Democratic Congressman John Tierney. With Tisei reporting that he had raised more money than the sitting incumbent, the race was switched to being a “toss up” last week by the D.C. paper Roll Call.

As for the two incumbents running again for their House seats, Polis, 37, is favored to win while Cicilline, 51, is facing a tough road to

re-election. He must first defeat his Democratic challenger, businessman Anthony Gemma, 42, in the September 11 primary. Polls show the race to be extremely tight.

As for Baldwin, she does not have a primary challenger and is focused on the November election.

She will be watching to see which GOP candidate wins the August 14 primary and will challenge her in the fall.

She has received considerable financial support from Californians, and a number of Bay Area residents are expected to head to Wisconsin this fall to volunteer on Baldwin’s campaign. [See story, page 1.]▼ Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www. ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

The column will return Monday, August 13.

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

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

<< AIDS 2012

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

Shifting the HIV research paradigm from treatment to cure

by Bob Roehr

C

ure” was the fresh buzzword among researchers at the recent XIX International AIDS Conference. It was the focus of a two-day pre-conference workshop and a new initiative by the International AIDS Society. The talk of a cure is driving hope but not yet much funding.

And the path to the distant goal is far from clear.

“Today is the end of the first step,” Francoise Barre-Sinoussi said at a July 19 news conference that launched a collaborative effort

focusing on a cure for HIV. The French researcher, who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for her part in identifying HIV, has co-chaired the IAS effort that has been in development for three years.

“We’ve achieved all we can achieve with the current strategies” of treatment, said Co-Chair Dr. Steven Deeks, “and now we are shifting to the next steps.” He is an HIV researcher at UCSF. “The other reason for now is the so-called Berlin patient, Timothy Brown,” has proved that a cure can work, Deeks said. “We cannot eas-

ily find any virus anywhere; the immune system is back toward normal.”

The collaborative research effort, which is open to all who wish to participate, is not so much a roadmap toward a set location, but more a set of principles for working well together. The hope is that by prioritizing questions that need to be answered, using commonly agreed upon research tools, and sharing information the research process might be speeded up.

It draws upon lessons learned from HIV vaccine and microbicide research where lack of standardization and limited sharing of information impeded progress in the early years, and later took much effort to sort out.

One principle driving their effort is that a cure must be relevant for the entire world, not just the wealthy few in the developed world.

What is a cure?

HIV cure research tends to fall into two broad and not necessarily exclusionary categories that often reflect the disciplines of virology and immunology.

The eradication approach seeks to drive HIV from reservoirs where current therapies do not reach, while the functional approach looks to strengthen or augment the immune system to achieve a kind of peaceful coexistence with the infection so that it does not cause serious illness. Either would mean the end of daily drugs, if they can be achieved.

HIV commonly infects part of the immune system known as CD4 cells that circulate in blood and tissue. The initial hope was that treating the infection in these cells might

Bob Roehr

Researcher Dr. Steven Deeks discussed cure research at the AIDS conference.

result in a cure. But the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s led to the discovery that the virus also resides in resting CD4 cells and HAART only works against active cells.

A theory emerged that if one could activate these resting cells containing HIV, while on HAART, this reservoir might be eliminated.

David Margolis saw that the anti-cancer drug vorinostat could activate resting CD4 cells in the lab. Because the drug was already approved, the University of North Carolina researcher tried it out in HIV patients.

But the drug “was not very effective,” he reported at the conference.

He had proven the principle that it was possible to activate resting CD4 cells in humans, but he is moving on to try other compounds that might do the job more efficiently. The process is likely to take some time

Bob Roehr

Researcher David Margolis tried a cancer drug on HIV patients but was disappointed with the outcome.

because those molecules are not approved for use in humans.

Other researchers are wary of the eradication approach. They fear that, as with the earlier experience when HAART was introduced, eliminating HIV from one pool of infected cells is likely to reveal other places where the virus is hiding.

The brain is a likely candidate.

Some HIV drugs do not penetrate the blood-brain barrier very well and separate genetic variants of the virus can evolve within it. National Institutes of Health brain researcher Avi Nath is afraid that if the virus is suppressed in the body, “HIV will become primarily a CNS [central nervous system] disease.”

Functional cure Harvard researcher Daniel Kuritzkes tried a variation of the apSee page 9 >>

Brown’s foundation is vague on structure

by Bob Roehr

T

imothy Ray Brown, the so-called Berlin patient, is the first and so far only person functionally cured of AIDS. He developed leukemia and had to undergo chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant, which first destroyed his immune system, then gave him a new one.

His doctor searched for and found a one-in-a million match of a bone marrow donation that also contained the rare genetic mutation (ccr5 32).

Persons with that mutation lack the receptor on the cell surface that HIV uses to enter the cell. The transplant took and Brown’s new immune system seems to be impervious to infec-

Bob Roehr

Timothy Ray Brown speaks about his new foundation.

tion by the virus.

Brown, who now lives in San Francisco, announced formation of the Timothy Brown Foundation, on July 24, to “fight for an innovative cure.”

He criticized the National Institutes of Health for not being willing to take risks in funding new approaches.

The foundation, at least initially, will not conduct its own research but will offer grants to those who do. Beyond that the organizers were vague on structure, process, how it would acquire money, and why contributions should be funneled through it rather than other groups supporting cure research such as the longestablished American Foundation for AIDS Research.▼

IAS showed ‘failure of imagination,’ activist says

by Bob Roehr

O

rganizers of the International AIDS Society cure meeting showed “a real failure of imagination” in not including cell and gene therapy approaches on the program because they are expensive and not readily applicable to Africa, says Jeff Sheehy.

Sheehy is a longtime San Francisco AIDS activist who sits on the governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The Institute was set up under a $3 billion bond issue approved by voters to promote research on cures for diseases.

It has supported a small HIV clinical trial using the technology of Sangamo BioSciences to modify a patient’s own CD4 cells to give them the ccr5 32 mutation that confers resistance to HIV.

Bob Roehr

Jeff Sheehy sits on the state stem cell board.

Sheehy acknowledged that the Sangamo approach, should it pan out, is likely to be expensive at first.

But it might be particularly useful

for patients whose CD4 counts do not increase significantly when they start HAART, or highly active antiretroviral treatment.

The economics might also make sense for the urban poor with issues of daily survival –housing, food, etc.

– that compromise their ability to adhere to a daily HAART regimen.

He believes middle income countries like Brazil and China are likely to jump on cell therapy research because “they pay first world prices” for HAART but costs for doctors and technicians are significantly lower than in the U.S. CRIM is putting $10-$12 million a year into HIV cure research, “about a fifth of what NIH is spending, more than other governments, more than amfAR,” said Sheehy, “but we are not invited to the table. I feel stigmatized.”▼

▼

Community News>>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Trans man raises money for a new van for disabled son

by Heather Cassell

campaign, especially those who he knows don’t have much themselves.

Karen Cook, 61, a straight woman from St. Louis, Missouri, saw Jack and Vaile’s story on the Facebook page of a friend. She immediately felt compelled to donate, in spite of being on a limited income.

“It just really moved me and touched me,” said Cook, who had a friend who raised two disabled children, so she was aware of the expense and the need.

Vaile’s friends in the Bay Area have also been drumming up support for Jack to get a new van.

“When I saw that Jack and Lou needed a new van it just spoke to me because I know how important mobility can be to folks,” said Taylor Xavier, 31, a Bay Area queer trans man and friend of Vaile’s. He’s been dreaming up publicity ideas and

I

t’s often said that there is no greater love than that of a parent. Lou Vaile, who is raising his disabled son Jack, mirrors that phrase perfectly.

He would do anything in the world for his son, including campaigning online to raise the money needed for a new van to take his son where he needs to go.

At the beginning of June, Vaile and Jack took to the Internet and social networking sites where they are working to raise $40,000 to purchase a previously owned specially equipped van. Their current van, a 17-year-old Dodge Caravan, has over 100,000 miles on it, breaks down, and is technologically outdated.

At the beginning of this week they were racing toward the halfway mark of their goal with nearly $19,350 raised. They are hoping against hope they make their goal by today (Thursday, August 9) when the campaign ends at midnight.

If they don’t raise the total $40,000, the money will be deposited into a bank account and Vaile will keep working toward saving for a new van, he said.

Vaile, 47, is a transgender man and a single parent. He took in Jack as a foster child when he was five weeks old and later adopted him.

“He was just a little tiny guy,” said Vaile, about his son, who is now 14 years old with a “wicked sense of humor” and is a typical teen in many ways.

Jack was born with cerebral palsy and suffered trauma to the brain during the birthing process, said Vaile. He had no idea when he took Jack home the extent of his son’s disability, but that wouldn’t have deterred him, he said.

“It wouldn’t have mattered, because the moment I laid eyes on him he was such a beautiful little baby lying there that it wouldn’t have mattered if I had known,” said Vaile. “I really do feel like the luckiest person on the planet to be his dad.”

“The kid is stronger than anyone I know. He inspires me every day,” Vaile added.

Vaile’s sole job is caring for his son, who has undergone two hip surgeries and lives with a “great amount of pain on a daily basis,” he said.

Jack, who communicates via an iPad, wasn’t available for an interview.

Raising a disabled child hasn’t been easy, but Vaile doesn’t let that get in the way of giving his son the most normal life possible. His activities, however, might be severely limited if they don’t get the specially equipped

<<

HIV research

From page 8

proach that cured Brown (see sidebar), using less toxic chemotherapy and “normal” stem cells, not ones containing the genetic mutation chosen for Brown.

The “transplanted donor cells replaced the patients’ own lymphocytes, and as this occurred, the amount of HIV DNA that was detectible in the patients’ blood cells decreased and eventually became undetectable,” he said in presenting preliminary findings on two cancer patients for the first time.

“We believe that continuous administration of effective antiretroviral therapy protected the donor cells from becoming HIV-infected,” while the original immune cells became infected and died off. Kuritzkes said they also saw “a significant decline” in antibodies to HIV, which suggests there is little or no viral replication going on.

However, patients in the study have been on HAART the entire

Courtesy Lou Vaile

Lou Vaile, left, and his son Jack outside the Mormon temple in the Oakland hills.

van, which is necessary for Jack to go to his doctor appointments, school, and Little League games.

The van the family currently owns is unreliable. Vaile doesn’t feel safe driving it more than a 30-mile radius from their Oakland home.

A retrofitted van can run anywhere from $40,000 for a used vehicle upwards to an estimated $60,000 for a new van that would still need to be modified, said Vaile.

The income Vaile receives from In-Home Supportive Services, a program that pays qualified parents with disabled children to care for them, isn’t enough to buy a new van.

On their own without the support of a grant or foundation, Vaile and Jack turned to the Internet. A new van would allow them to take road trips to some of California’s outdoor destinations, which Jack loves.

The family hasn’t been on a road trip since they drove cross country from Columbus, Ohio to settle in the Bay Area seven years ago, said Vaile.

“We just need something reliable that is going to last Jack into adulthood,” said Vaile. “I really need

time. The big test will come if and when they stop taking the drugs.

Will the virus come back? It is likely to be several years before we know the answer to that question.

Marty Markowitz took a look back at patients at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. He looked at two key blood markers of immune activation, CD8+ T cells and soluble CD14.

He found they were elevated in most HIV-positive patients whether they were on HAART or not. The exception was 31 patients who started treatment early (19 to 155 days) after they became infected with HIV; they had levels of immune activation that were similar to persons who were HIV-negative.

“When you intervene early, you kind of freeze things” in the course of viral destruction of the immune system, Markowitz concluded. He thinks understanding the biology behind this might suggest possible pathways toward a functional cure.▼

something that is going to last and that we can count on for the next eight years of his life.

“Something as simple as not having to worry about getting from one place to another would mean the world to us, it really would,” he added.

As contributions have come in, Vaile said he has been touched by the people who have donated to the

trying to get father and son on Ellen DeGeneres’s television show.

“It’s a life necessity they have to have and [their current van] is breaking down. It’s not like they have any good options,” said Renee Garcia, 52, a queer woman who is a friend of Vaile’s. “I cannot think of a better thing that you can do with your money.”

One of Jack’s favorite things to do is play baseball with the Challengers, the San Francisco Giant’s Little League team for disabled kids. He plays second base and shortstop, said Vaile. Donors who give $100 or more get one of Jack’s autographed baseball cards. Other prizes include homemade waffles and a ride in the new van. ▼ For more information, visit www.indiegogo.com/p/118172.

<< Sports

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

The summer games roll on

by Roger Brigham

M

ore medals and musings from the Summer Olympics in London.

• Speaking out: Australian gay Olympian Ji Wallace, who won the silver medal on the trampoline in 2000, publicly disclosed his HIVpositive status for the first time during the Olympics in a letter to the Star Observer.

Saying he was inspired by an interview he heard of poz diver and fellow Olympian Greg Louganis, Wallace wrote the paper, “I felt inspired to write. I too am an Olympic medal winner living with HIV. I am doing it to raise awareness of this issue. It is still here.

Being seen does have value. A voice does have value. I have the support of my boyfriend, my great friends and my loving parents. Many do not and this is, in part, for them.”

• Uniforms: Red, white, and gay?

Ever notice how the Olympics are supposed to be all about athletic performance and achievement, and then everyone ends up buzzing about appearances instead?

In an emerging American tradition, Team USA outsourced the making of its uniforms for the 30th Olympiad to China, and, to the horror of Fox News, dropped the traditional starspangled motif and color scheme.

Any day now, expect the “fair and

balanced” news network to speculate that Gabby Douglas’s ultra pink attire in the women’s gymnastics competition is further proof of the gay agenda.

And the Russian uniforms (made in the US of A) are hands down the butt-ugliest uniforms of the entire Olympics. Swirling white lines on a dark red background: they look like a bad 1950s sofa cover. My theory is the gay agenda strikes again, purposely designing ugly uniforms for the Russians to protest their ban on gay Pride celebrations.

• Dress to the right: Gay Speedo aficionados were delighted by the appearance of the U.S. men’s four-man rowing team on the medals podium. Specifically, in the appearance of team member Henrik Rummel, clear winner of the wet shorts contest. At ease, men.

• Splitting hairs: The emergence this Olympics of African American athletes in sports which have usually been dominated by Caucasian athletes on Team USA is illustrated best by the steely-nerved performance of Douglas in powering the women to team gold, and then winning the individual all-around. There was an athletic energy in her routines that was a stylistic departure and a revelation.

The critics who were not focused on her uniform, however, found

Courtesy Federation of Gay Games

Ji Wallace, left, Gay Games ambassador and 2000 silver medalist (trampoline), joined Federation of Gay Games Co-President Emy Ritt; out South African archer Karen Hultzer; and Shamey Cramer, FGG officer of ceremonies at the Olympic Pride House in London.

plenty to harp on about her hair.

I’ve seen her performance footage, I’ve scanned the Internet for images, and I have no idea what they are moaning about. Then again, I’ve always thought most gymnasts’ hairstyles looked like they were done by the makeup folks for the original Planet of the Apes.

• To the NBC producer who decided to give us almost non-stop closeup shots of America’s Daniel Leyva as

he was watching the women’s gymnastics: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. ‘Nuff said.

• The Gay Agenda, Part 7: Monday, August 6, was a notable day in LGBT sports. Out lesbian Megan Rapinoe, playing for the U.S. women’s soccer team, which is coached by out lesbian Pia Sundhage, scored two late goals to power Team USA over Canada in the semifinals and into the gold medal match against Japan, scheduled for

Thursday (August 9).

Coming out in an interview in Out magazine in May, Rapinoe said, “I feel like sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out. I feel everyone is really craving (for) people to come out.

People want – they need – to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.” Even if their uniforms are made in China. ▼

Not all like plans for new Bernal mural

by Elliot Owen

T

he fate of an iconic Bernal Heights mural painted three decades ago on the district’s library branch to represent the neighborhood’s cultural and historical diversity is facing removal in early October.

The decision making process leading up to the mural’s scheduled removal has been marked by years of volatile disagreement between community members dating back to 2002.

After the library’s interior was revamped in 2009 as part of a citywide library branch renovation project, the building’s exterior condition was addressed, compounding the existing rift between those that wanted the mural restored and those in favor of its removal.

To alleviate the polarized tension, District 9 Supervisor David Campos asked Beth Roy, a professional mediator and longtime Bernal Heights resident, to facilitate a community mediation process later called the Bernal Library Art Project.

“The language and judgment being used by both sides had driven wedges in the neighborhood that had gone well beyond the mural,” Roy said.

“Bernal, like most of San Francisco, had been gentrifying for some time so there had been major changes in the composition of the neighborhood and very little understanding across those lines.”

Roy selected a dozen community members to represent the neighborhood’s varied opinions and demography. BLAP meetings commenced in January 2010 and by April, the group had agreed to the prospect of a new mural that reflected the current neighborhood more accurately while also integrating elements from the old artwork.

Painted by Arch Williams in collaboration with Carlos Alcala, Joe Tucker, neighborhood children, and community members in 1982, the original mural wraps around three sides of the building symbolizing that, like the Bernal Heights community,

“BLAP evaded every requirement of the city’s laws on open government,” –Peter Warfield

not every cultural or historical facet can be seen simultaneously but must be acknowledged just the same. The building’s front wall includes words in English and Spanish by musicians Holly Near and Victor Jara expressing song as a form of healing and social progression.

After BLAP agreed upon the mural’s removal, a task force was created to oversee the approval of new artwork. Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Reuben Rude were selected as the new mural’s artists in early 2011 followed by the approval of the San Francisco Library Commission and the San Francisco Arts Commission to replace the original mural.

Despite the agreement taking years to materialize, Roy points to the hard work done during the mediation process as evidence of the community’s great success. She adamantly supports the final decision.

“It’s come out of a process of growth and dialogue and compromise that’s a model for other communities,” Roy said. “The new artwork’s major image is an updated version of the four elements and the symbol for multiculturalism. While there are people that are more focused on the social justice symbolism represented

Ebony Pleasants

A portion of the mural on the exterior of the Bernal branch library; the entire mural is slated for removal this fall and will be replaced with a new one.

by Victor Jara and Holly Near, there were more people focused on what it said about diversity and multiculturalism. And that’s the part that Precita Eyes decided to make prominent.”

Dissent after agreement But not everyone is thrilled about the resolution as evidenced by Peter Warfield, executive director of the Library Users Association. Warfield, one of many advocates for the restoration of the old mural, has been especially vocal about his reservations regarding the legitimacy and transparency of BLAP and the task force.

“BLAP evaded every requirement of the city’s laws on open government,” Warfield said. “No agendas, no minutes, no recorded votes.”

The secretive nature of BLAP’s process, Warfield explained, was taken seriously by the Library Users

Association, which filed a complaint with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, the city’s open government watchdop group, against Campos in April. After requesting copies of the BLAP’s signed consensus to replace the original mural, the association not only received redacted versions from Campos’s office but received those documents past the deadline outlined by city law. The sunshine task force passed the complaint unanimously.

Another point of contention is the selection of Precita Eyes as an artist for the new mural. Susan Cervantes, the company’s executive director, was among the 12 BLAP members that decided the mural should be replaced, which some have perceived as a conflict of interest. Roy insists that BLAP and the task force have operated with integrity and practicality.

“We are not a secret or exclusive

body,” said Roy. “What we’ve done is get the jist of what people wanted the most and include that in the new artwork. We don’t consider that it’s being removed, it’s being updated and rolling over historically into a new piece of art.”

The removal of the original mural and installation of the new one is funded by 2009 city bond money and donations totaling approximately $110,000.

Under state law, owners of fine art are required to give 90 days notice to artists or their next of kin when the removal of their artwork is intended. The city gave Williams’s surviving sister, Nancy York, notice in late June slating the original mural’s removal for early October. Scaffolding currently lines the building’s exterior in preparation for the paint out’s commencement.▼

▼

Obituaries >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

JB Carhaix

Sister Boom Boom, center, conducted a ritual exorcism of Jerry Falwell in Union Square during the runup to the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

<<

Jack Fertig

From page 1

as Sister Boom Boom, a.k.a. Sister Rose of the Bloody Stains of the Sacred Robes of Jesus.

“He was the brightest star in the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence galaxy,” said longtime friend and fellow activist Gilbert Baker. “He was a blasphemous clown, but with a very serious spirituality under that.”

Mr. Fertig is widely credited with bringing queer consciousness to mainstream America, providing one of the most iconic images of San Francisco’s unconventional style. The San Francisco Chronicle once described him as “the paragon of San Francisco’s flamboyance.”

“Jack Fertig was at once highly original and highly representative of our city,” gay historian Gerard Koskovich told the Bay Area Reporter.

“His most widely known creation, Sister Boom Boom, brought an inventive, sharp-witted, politically astute, and thoroughly queer edge to the long line of larger-than-life San Francisco characters that goes back at least to the Emperor Norton.”

Mr. Fertig was born on February 21, 1955 in Chicago and grew up in Maryland, but his family had a long history in San Francisco dating to the 1850s so he always considered himself a native.

His parents were civil rights activists and he attended political demonstrations with them as a young boy. At age 15 he told his parents he was gay, and described himself in high school as “a fat, unathletic, bookish sissy.”

Mr. Fertig’s interest in religion, spirituality, and the occult started early. A Pisces himself, he started studying astrology in the late 1960s and launched his professional practice in 1977.

Though raised Jewish, at various times he embraced his Catholic roots and attended Episcopal churches, before ultimately converting to Islam.

“He was forever spiritually curious as he sampled faiths like good meals before finding a home in Islam,” said fellow activist Waiyde Palmer.

Political activism An activist from a young age, Mr. Fertig claimed to have attended the 1968 Democratic National Conven-

tion in Chicago, as a junior delegate rather than a protester. He gravitated toward the nascent gay liberation movement and said he was at the first New York City Stonewall March in 1970, commemorating the riots of the year before.

Making his way to San Francisco in the early 1970s, Mr. Fertig helped start the Fruit Punch gay radio show on KPFA, developed gay youth programs at the Pacific Center in Berkeley, and performed with local theater groups.

Sister Soami Delux, formerly known as Sister Missionary Position (who did not give her legal name), takes credit for recruiting Mr. Fertig to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the 21st Street Baths in the early 1980s,

July 27, 1955 – July 8, 2012

Joseph M. Gaynor died July 8, 2012 in Newark, California.

He was 56. The cause of death was diabetes.

He loved disco and was known as “Jumpin’ Joe Gaynor.” He was a flamboyant dancer at the huge orgies Jon Sugar produced and DJ’d in the mid-1970s.

The memorable poster from Sister Boom Boom’s 1982 supervisorial campaign.

and sober for the rest of his life. Asked about the fate of Sister Boom Boom, he told the Chronicle that she was “a cocktail waitress in purgatory” and he did not expect to see or hear from her again. “In sobriety we learn deeper and subtler satisfactions,” he added.

In the years that followed Mr. Fertig was active in the Bay Area recovery and leather communities, and was a member of the sober leather group Trusted Servants. He returned to school peri-

“His life was a series of remarkable and seemingly contradictory evolutions, but the values of his heart remained constant and consistent through all the changes and decades.”

–Cleve Jones when the group consisted of less than a dozen members.

As the AIDS epidemic hit the city, the Sisters produced “Play Fair,” the first explicit safer sex pamphlet. In 1982 Sister Boom Boom and actress Shirley MacLaine emceed what is thought to be the first-ever AIDS fundraiser, a dog show in the Castro.

Sister Boom Boom made her mark on history when she threw her wimple into the ring in the 1982 San Francisco supervisor election. Listing her occupation as “Nun of the Above” and with a war chest of less than $1,000, she garnered more than 23,000 votes, but fell short of winning one of the five open seats. A memorable campaign poster was created for that race, showing Boom Boom flying on a broomstick, the words “Surrender Dianne” trailing in purple smoke, a reference to then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein.

“I think a good citizen should run for office once in their lifetime,” Mr. Fertig would say years later, “and any-

Obituaries >> Joseph M. Gaynor

body who does it more than that is absolutely crazy.”

Nevertheless, in 1983, Sister Boom Boom unsuccessfully challenged Feinstein in the mayoral race. In response, the city instituted a law requiring that all candidates use their legal names on the ballot.

In the run-up to the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, Sister Boom Boom led a ritual exorcism of Jerry Falwell and Phyllis Schlafly in Union Square that drew broad media attention.

“Those were exciting, exuberant times made so much more so by Jack’s feisty, witty participation,” Sister Soami told the B.A.R. “He was certainly one of our brightest and boldest and a

A Vietnam veteran, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was active in LGBT East Bay clubs and communities.

He is survived by Liang Lin, his loving husband of 27 years; his loving nephews Sean and Brian Foley; and loving sister Arlene Silveus.

Joseph was a very generous, funny, helpful man with big heart.

He always made quiche for the orgies.

He wanted people to pitch in, and wanted donations made to the American Diabetes Association.

most clever and talented Sister.”

The campaigns and the convention brought the Sisters nationwide and even international renown, and Mr. Fertig, in particular, became a symbol of San Francisco’s unique culture – a role he would soon grow tired of.

“No large gathering in San Francisco’s homosexual community ... would be quite complete without the appearance of a figure clad in a hiked-up nun’s habit, black fishnet stockings, and a tightly drawn wimple that sometimes fails to hold in an unruly shock of red hair,” wrote Michael Moritz and co-authors in a Time magazine roundup up of events surrounding the convention. “Outside San Francisco, Fertig’s bizarre alter ego has come to symbolize a climate of tolerance gone haywire.”

In addition to gay liberation, over the years Mr. Fertig embraced causes including workers’ rights, racial equality, immigrant rights, and Palestine solidarity. According to his 1982 candidate statement, he worked with an alphabet soup of organizations including labor unions, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and gay liberation groups.

Spiritual journey In the mid-1980s, Mr. Fertig’s platonic “marriage” to the first female nun, Mystie Grey (a.k.a. Sister Mysteria of the Holy Order of the Broken Hymen), broke up, and he parted ways with the Sisters due to what an SPI memorial web posting calls “internal disputes.”

Mr. Fertig began his recovery from alcohol abuse and remained clean

odically, studying subjects including history and foreign languages.

Mr. Fertig worked as a locker-room attendant at the Jewish Community Center, penned articles for the LGBT press, gave private astrology readings, and wrote the popular Q Scopes gay horoscope column. Other interests included opera, travel, and skydiving.

“In 1988 Jack had told me that on a certain date I would experience the culmination of a transformational crisis of sexuality and gender expression,” recalled Max Wolf Valerio, who at the time had yet to begin – or even contemplate – his FTM transition.

“After deciding to embark on that transition, I looked at the date, and realized that it was the same date he’d pinpointed. I’ll never forget that, or Jack’s amazing humor, compassionate spirit, and inspiring sense of mischief.”

While Mr. Fertig’s earlier flamboyance exemplified one aspect of gay life in the city, Koskovich noted that, “The arc of Jack’s life in San Francisco also reflected experiences common to many gay residents of his generation – for example, his embrace of sobriety and his search for a critically aware, humane, and queer-positive approach to spirituality.”

As Mr. Fertig’s social views became more conservative over the years, coinciding with his study of Islam prompted by a trip to the Middle East, his economic views remained radical.

A strong foe of gentrification, he described the contemporary Castro as “a shopping mall built over a graveyard.” “[I]n a typically American pattern of commercialization, [Pride] has

become a crowded affair of commercialized sexuality, pornography, and alcohol,” he wrote in an open letter to LGBT activists planning a local Pride march in the Maldives. “[P]eer pressure to measure up pushes young gay men to focus on their bodies, to ignore their souls.”

Mr. Fertig’s conversion to Islam in 2003, after a period of travel and study, was greeted with skepticism in some quarters, but he became a wellknown voice for progressive Muslims, speaking out against sexism and homophobia and opposing clerics who put rules and regulations ahead of spiritual well-being.

During his last years Mr. Fertig reached a rapprochement with the Sisters, appearing occasionally in full hijab as Sister Boom Boom XXX. “We’re trying to bring levity and joy where it’s been squashed, and what we do comes out of the ancient tradition of the shamanic, transgendered, wise person in old tribal cultures,” he said at a 2012 queer spirituality panel organized by the San Francisco Gay Buddhist Fellowship. “[W]e live up to our mission: promulgating universal joy, expiating stigmatic guilt, helping people get over the hang-ups and fears that have been shoved down their throats about spirituality, ritual, the church, mosque, synagogue, whatever, so that they can find their own spirituality and greet God not in fear, but with a laugh.”

“Jack was an incredibly intelligent man with deeply held convictions and a strong personal ethic,” said Cleve Jones, who recalled that he was friends with both Mr. Fertig and Sister Boom Boom for nearly two years before he realized they were the same person.

“His life was a series of remarkable and seemingly contradictory evolutions, but the values of his heart remained constant and consistent through all the changes and decades.”

Mr. Fertig is survived by Trevino, his partner since 1994; their two rescue dogs Chloe and Perry; a brother, David Fertig; sisters Louise Fertig and Katie Fertig; and many loving friends.

“He was very much loved by many people around the world, had many friends, and they are all showing their love for him,” Tervino said.

The Sisters will hold a memorial walking tour of the Castro Saturday, August 11 at 5:30 p.m., meeting at Pink Triangle Park, between Market and 17th streets.

Donations in his memory may be made to Grateful Dogs Rescue or the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center.▼

<< From the Cover

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

<<

Baldwin

From page 1

lead over the field of GOP candidates.

Hedge fund manager Eric Hovde, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, and former Congressman Mark Neumann are pitted against each other in the increasingly bitter GOP primary, which will take place Tuesday, August 14.

Polls show that political newcomer Hovde has a slight edge heading into the primary this month, but Thompson has long been considered the favorite to win.

As of now whichever of the GOP candidates survives the primary appears to have a bit of a hill to climb in order to defeat the seven-term congresswoman.

The latest telephone survey of likely voters in the state, conducted in late July by GOP-leaning Rasmussen Reports, showed Baldwin with 45 percent to 48 percent of the vote regardless of which Republican she is matched against. She leads by margins ranging from three to 10 points.

<<

Whoever is the winner of the intraparty fight will try to keep Baldwin from making history in the November 6 election. Should she win the seat, Baldwin, 50, will become the first openly LGBT person elected to the U.S. Senate. She would also be the first female senator from Wisconsin.

She will have achieved that historic milestone partly due to a boost from Bay Area donors, who not only have been contributing cash to her campaign coffers but also are planning to travel to the Midwest this fall to help her achieve victory.

From former high school and college friends now living in northern California to local LGBT elected officials and community leaders, a small army of Bay Area volunteers is expected to descend on Wisconsin in the months prior to the November election to work on Baldwin’s campaign.

“If I am anywhere in the fall, I will take a week and a half of vacation to stump somewhere for Tammy Baldwin,” said Neil Giuliano, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and a former mayor of Tempe, Arizona. “Tammy is a friend, I have known her a long time.”

Giuliano already has pitched in for Baldwin’s bid by co-hosting fundraisers in both San Francisco and Arizona. According to federal campaign contribution records, he has given Baldwin $1,000 toward her Senate bid.

“I think she has a great shot to be the first out lesbian member of the U.S. Senate,” he said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter this summer. “If the campaign calls, I will go wherever.”

Former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty, now a mayoral aide working on homelessness, is also planning to pitch in for Baldwin and has already donated $500 to her campaign. He told the B.A.R. that as a member of San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee he plans to “recruit teams” to head to Wisconsin and other battleground states this fall.

Baldwin has already benefited from Bay Area pocketbooks. She has visited the region a number of times this year for fundraisers. The most recent event took place two weekends ago at the home of Naomi Fine and Kathy Levinson, a co-chair of the National Finance Committee of Obama for America.

“Tammy is a proven champion

progressives everywhere are proud to support,” read the invite posted to Facebook.

Baldwin’s Bay Area fundraising swings have largely gone under the radar, however, as her campaign has not sought to publicize them. One reason for the low profile is due to the criticism she has received back home from her opponents for the amount of money she has raised outside of Wisconsin.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Baldwin as of July 9 had raised 68 percent of her Senate bid contributions from out of state.

The haul amounted to more than $1.2 million, compared to the nearly $569,000 Baldwin had collected from Wisconsin residents, according to data compiled by the center.

While the political watchdog group ranked Baldwin’s base of Madison, Wisconsin as the top metro area in terms of contributions, accounting for $363,225, it lists San Francisco in fifth place with $122,544.

Baldwin’s local donors include former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg ($1,000), a lesbian who serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; longtime gay rights advocate and donor Al-

Holy Redeemer

From page 1

But that changed when the club was notified by the church last week that they would not be able to hold the dinner if any drag queens were part of the program, the board said.

“In previous years, we have had Ivy Drip and Heklina, both well-known entertainers and community fundraisers, serve as emcees of the event, and we felt we could not in good conscience abide by the church’s new policy,” the board said.

“It is our organization’s policy to be inclusive and welcoming to all. Drag queens are no exception. We are currently seeking an alternative venue for the Harvest Feast, which provides an important source of revenue for our annual budget,” the board added.

Individual members of the country club declined to comment and referred to the board’s statement.

Most Holy Redeemer’s new pastor, the Reverend Brian Costello, confirmed over telephone on Monday, August 6, that drag queen performers and emcees are no longer permitted to participate in events at the church.

Costello said that during a telephone conversation with a Castro Country Club representative, when the topic of drag queens came up, he told the person, “That is not going to work under the present circumstances.”

“I said work with me. You can still have the dinner. You can have a regular emcee, but not drag queens on church property,” Costello said.

New leadership

It seems the directive is the result of several factors.

“I am the new pastor,” Costello added. “There is a new archbishop.

The archdiocese told me straight out, ‘No drag queens.’”

The change of policy at Most Holy Redeemer was greeted with charges of discrimination, homophobia, and calls for compromise, even reconciliation.

“It’s really ridiculous and discriminatory,” said Zachary Davenport in a phone interview. “I mean it’s like, who’s next?”

The drag queen ban is personal for Davenport, who, in drag as Laybelline has served as emcee for a variety of sobriety-related nonprofit events held at Most Holy Redeemer.

“What constitutes drag?” he said.

“If we want to get funny, let’s talk about the priests. Hello.”

Davenport also pointed to a nuanced landscape of gender identity and expression, which the new policy at Most Holy Redeemer seemingly blocks. “There are members of our

Rick Gerharter

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro has banned drag queens, forcing the Castro Country Club to find a new venue for its fall fundraiser.

community who express their gender all the time, and are not necessarily performing, but would say, ‘Yes, I am in drag,’” he said.

“Yes, I realize [Most Holy Redeemer] is a church. But it is in the Castro,” said Davenport. If, “the new archbishop is wanting to do away with drag queens and the gays,” then “look where you are. [The neighborhood] has a history of 30 to 40 years of being a safe place.”

A California native from Watsonville, Davenport, 28, who is not Catholic, added, “I know gay people who go to Most Holy Redeemer and love the church.”

Dignity San Francisco offered its take on the new policy at Most Holy Redeemer.

“This is an unfortunate development between Most Holy Redeemer and the Castro County Club,” said Ernest L. Camisa, treasurer of the Dignity/SF chapter, speaking for the organization by e-mail and over the telephone.

“It looks like the Archdiocese of San Francisco wants to protect its image by not condoning cross-dressers.

By doing so they show that they care more for their image than they do for gay people trying to overcome alcohol addiction. Here the church looks like it values its own image more than it does human life. This is not Christian, but callous,” Camisa said.

A couple of Most Holy Redeemer parishioners declined to comment.

Reached by phone, George Wesolek, department head for communications and public policy for the

archdiocese, said he was not in the policy conversation “loop.” Nonetheless, Wesolek acknowledged, the situation is “difficult pastorally,” particularly in “very divided and fractious church.”

Others weigh in Meanwhile, across the country, the new no-drag queen policy has struck a chord among gay Catholic activists and those in ministry.

“I think this is a very difficult and complex time for not only the pastor and the people of Holy Redeemer parish, but also for members of the drag community. All three groups are an example of ordinary people being called to do some extraordinary things for their neighbors. The pastor and parish of Most Holy Redeemer have to be very careful not to throw out the baby with the water in the name of homophobia. Jesus, not homophobia, should guide us in this matter,” said Joe Murray, a founder of the Chicago-based the pro-LGBT Catholic Rainbow Sash Movement.

The Rainbow Sash Movement, stateside and abroad, advocates reception of Eucharist by visibly gay persons during Mass. The movement is best known for donning rainbow sashes on Pentecost and approaching the altar for communion during Mass that day.

At the same time, New Ways Ministry Executive Director Francis De Bernardo offered his assessment via e-mail correspondence.

“Drag is a historically-based, timehonored entertainment tradition that

has existed, at least, since classical times,” he said.

“Canceling this program without any explanation or substantial reason is simply caving into fear of reprisals from higher authorities. If the [Most Holy Redeemer] community has supported this event for years, there has obviously been a relationship that has developed between the sponsoring organization and the parish, and it would be great if the two groups could work together to find some resolution. Reconciliation is what any and every parish should be about. If the parish does not offer a substantial intervening reason, we can only assume that other forces have had influence,” said DeBernardo.

Located just outside Washington, D.C., New Ways is a pro-gay Catholic ministry of education, healing, and reconciliation for LGBT Catholics, their families, friends, and the wider church.

For his part, Costello said the Castro Country Club event would have been in its third year at Most Holy Redeemer.

“It’s not a 20- to 25-year relationship,” he said.

Nonetheless, Costello lamented the course of events.

“I am big on compromising,” he said. But “[Castro Country Club] would not work with me. It was all or nothing. And they got nothing.”

Costello also said that with respect to drag queens, “We have had bad experiences, not only in church, but also the [social] hall.”

Still, “I feel bad because [Castro

▼

vin Baum ($3,250); Judy Dlugacz, president and founder of lesbian cruise company Olivia ($2,500); and Democratic fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell ($3,000).

“The contributions are really, really helping,” Baldwin told a crowd of LGBT donors at a San Francisco fundraiser held in March at the home of lesbian former Supervisor Leslie Katz.

She also jokingly asked those with family or friends back in Wisconsin to consider making a trip there before Election Day to talk to them about her candidacy.

“If any of you want to come visit your families between now and November 6, please do. If not, please send them postcards saying, “Wish you were here. But since you are not, please consider voting for Tammy Baldwin.”

For those not from her home state, Baldwin asked that they spread the word via Facebook about her Senate bid and ask friends and loved ones to check out her website at www.tammybaldwin.com.

“That is how we will spread the word and grow the interest in the campaign from across the country,” she said.▼

Country Club] do[es] good work in the community,” he said.

While Costello did not elaborate on any social hall “bad experience,” one church incident nearly five years ago caused a media stir.

During Sunday Mass on Sunday, October 7, 2007, Archbishop George Niederauer gave communion to two members of the activist group and drag troupe Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an incident that angered, hurt, and even horrified some conservative Catholics, as well as it grabbed local and national headlines.

Called to task locally by the California Catholic Daily and a “90 years young” priest, the Reverend John Malloy, on A Shepherd’s Voice blog, Niederauer apologized for giving communion to gays dressed as nuns.

Attempts to reach the Sisters for comment on the recent change of policy at Most Holy Redeemer were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, as recent as April 29, in a Shepherd’s Voice post Malloy blasted the “gay parish” for hosting an April 14 “drag show” to benefit the Castro Country Club, “a substance abuse treatment organization.”

“Hosting a drag show at [Most Holy Redeemer] is the equivalent of sending a case of wine to Castro Country Club,” wrote Malloy. “It is beyond irresponsible for the Archdiocese of San Francisco to allow it.”

And while local conservative bloggers and orthodox Catholic activists may well exacerbate tensions at Most Holy Redeemer, Rainbow Sash Movement’s Murray noted, “The appointment of Archbishopelect [Salvatore] Cordileone has brought this matter to a head.”

And yet, said Murray, “Let’s be very clear homophobia in the church existed prior to this event.”

He went on to fault the teaching of the Catholic Church, the Catechism, “for saying on the one hand that homosexuals are to be welcomed and every form of unjust discrimination is to be condemned, while saying at the same time saying we are morally disordered for our love.”

“Either gay and lesbian people are welcome at Most Holy Redeemer or they are not. It’s that simple. If the tradition of Most Holy Redeemer is to allow for drag queens to raise money for charity, then to fault those who are raising the money in the name of homophobia, I think, speaks volumes to what type of ministry is going on at Most Holy Redeemer; and that deeply disturbs me. If that is the case, I like the parishioners of Most Holy Redeemer have been misled,” said Murray.▼

International News >>

▼ Arrests, harassment mar Uganda’s first Pride event

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

by Heather Cassell

A

gainst all odds 100 LGBT Ugandans celebrated the country’s inaugural pride event last weekend amidst arrests and police harassment.

At the Botanical Gardens along Lake Victoria in Entebbe, pride organizers hosted a party, Pride Parade along the beach, and a film festival August 4-5.

Maurice Tomlinson, an LGBT activist in Jamaica, was the Pride grand marshal.

On the eve of the event, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored a coalition of Ugandan human rights groups with the State Department’s 2011 Human Rights Defender Award at a dinner in Kampala, Uganda.

“It’s critical for all Ugandans – the government and citizens alike – to speak out against discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of anyone. That’s true no matter where they come from, what they believe, or whom they love,” said Clinton in a statement on August 3.

It was an inspirational kick off but police interrupted the weekend event on Saturday.

Police raided the event on August 4 upon reports of a gay wedding occurring and arrested several people, including Frank Mugisha, an award-winning Ugandan LGBT rights activist, and Tomlinson. The activists were rounded up into a van and taken to the police station. Charges weren’t filed and the activists were later released, according to media reports.

Tomlinson described the incident and police officers’ treatment of the activists, from making them sit on bare floors as they waited to be processed to one officer pushing a young woman to the floor and another officer verbally abusing a 60-year-old woman, who is an anthropologist from Makerere University, he told Gay Star News.

Currently, there is no law banning LGBT gatherings in Uganda.

The country’s current penal code, however, does criminalize homosexuality. LGBT individuals can face life imprisonment under the code.

<<

Courtesy Uganda Pride

Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, left, director of Freedom and Roam Uganda and the coordinator or Pride Uganda, marched along with other participants at the Beach Pride Uganda event last weekend.

The so-called kill the gays bill that was reintroduced in Parliament in February does have an anti-LGBT propaganda clause, according to Amnesty International, and punishes anyone who “funds, sponsors, or abets homosexuality,” according to the State Department. Ugandan legislatures haven’t made any further moves with the bill beyond watering it down, which included taking out the death penalty.

Yet, prior to the police raid on Saturday, onlookers were welcomed with open arms and enjoying the party, according to media reports.

Children with their parents flocked to the “jubilant” event, sharing drinks and food “freely with onlookers,” Tomlinson described to Gay Star News.

“There was a wonderful party atmosphere,” he told the news outlet.

Police left the celebration alone after the initial arrest and release of the activists. At the end of the event, Mugisha announced, “Next time we begin the march from the police station.”

To contact the Ugandan Ambassador to the U.S., Perezi K. Kamunanwire, call (202) 726-4758 or email pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org.

Gay-friendly company provides fellowships at China corporations Opportunities beyond the Peace Corps and teaching English as a second language abroad are becoming increasingly available to individuals interested in international business.

That is what openly gay Edward Holroyd Pearce and his colleague Daniel Nivern, who founded China Recruitment and China Consulting, discovered when they launched their firm in 2006.

Pearce, who is fluent in Mandarin, studied at Beijing University and in Singapore and was an assistant manager of China Eastern Airlines. He then moved on to work for a $2 billion asset management company, where he specialized in investment into China before launching and becoming director of CRCC, according to his biography on the company’s website.

Nivern and Pearce found themselves in an interesting position soon after launching the consulting company. People kept approaching the two British men, asking them to assist with finding opportunities to work in China other than teaching English as a second language. The two men began working with a variety of universities, connecting students to work in Chinese industries. That developed into the China Recruitment branch of the firm, which places students from Australia, United Kingdom, and the

Journalist confab

From page 1

ESPN editor and CNN commentator LZ Granderson, who is gay and black, ruffled feathers when he suggested homophobia played a role in why NABJ voted to keep NLGJA out of Unity for years.

In an interview with OutQ News, NABJ board president Gregory Lee denied charges that his association was motivated by anti-gay bias in not wanting NLGJA to join Unity.

“I’m sick of everyone jumping on our organization and saying that we’re homophobic. We’re not,” said Lee, who attended the Unity confab.

“We’ve been pioneers; we have our own gay and lesbian task force. It’s wrong, and I’m sick of it.”

But Lee added that the Unity name change has complicated talks about having NABJ rejoin the group. And he told OutQ News that one condition for having the black journalist group return would be to hold a vote on having the gay journalist group remain a member.

The controversy appeared to play out more in press coverage of Unity than at the conference itself. Conference attendees paid more attention to a brouhaha over the Hispanic journalists’ board blocking live coverage of its meeting on Twitter by a student journalist than whether NLGJA should be present.

Matthew Mullins/NLGJA

NLGJA board member Ken Miguel spoke at one of the sessions during the Unity conference.

And the decision of President Barack Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney to skip the confab also generated derision, particularly after Romney arrived Friday, August 3 to speak at a campaign event in North Las Vegas.

Obama, who addressed the Unity convention in 2008, also was a noshow this year; his campaign sent Representative Luis Gutierrez (DIllinois) on Obama’s behalf.

NABJ’s absence was also felt.

“I definitely think there is tension in the room with NABJ not being here,” said Miguel. “I think of the

groups here, nobody made me feel unwelcome.”

Durhams added that he hopes NABJ will rejoin Unity by 2016 for the next conference.

“It does change the vibe of this event by not having NABJ a partner,” he said.

David Steinberg, who stepped down Sunday as NLGJA’s national board president due to term limits, said seeing the association become an official member of Unity was one of his biggest accomplishments over the last four years. Aarons would be “very, very happy it happened,” he added.

United States in internships in China.

Eventually recruitment and placement become the company’s primary focus. The two companies merged creating CRCC, which is a rapidly growing, placing young professionals, most between the ages of 18 and 26, in Chinese companies, said Pearce.

CRCC is headquartered in San Francisco and also has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China; London; and Pennsylvania. It has partnered with several universities that help fund the program in addition to individual applicants’ participation. Pearce didn’t provide the company’s earnings.

Students who qualify for the rolling program don’t need to speak Mandarin, which is spoken widely throughout China, or lesser-spoken Cantonese.

The employment rate for CRCC returning fellows is up to 96 percent, according to Pearce.

“At the moment we are seeing really, really high employment levels for those people who have graduated and are looking for jobs,” said Pearce. The company attempts to support returning fellows with employment networking, opportunities, and placement.

We try to “encourage them to use their China experience to their best advantage,” Pearce added.

During the past six years the company has experienced tremendous growth, placing more than 2,500

“The people here, at least in my experience, have been wonderfully accepting and very happy to see us join, “ said Steinberg, a copy editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. “A lot of people have come up to me and said they think it is overdue, it makes sense, and they are so glad we are here.”

As for the Unity name change, Steinberg said the request came from NLGJA in order to reflect the new dynamics of the group and the makeup of conference attendees. It passed the Unity board 11-4 with one abstention.

“For some people the term ‘journalists of color’ has a very emotional response. Whether true or not, there were some people in NLGJA who felt the name ‘journalists of color’ was adopted specifically to keep NLGJA out,” said Steinberg, who met with Lee for 20 minutes during the conference. “Whether true or not, it is irrelevant. But because people felt that, you had to address that.”

Since he took over as president in 2008, Steinberg has helped steward NLGJA through a fiscal crisis that almost saw the professional group shut down. It is now stable and has roughly 600 members.

“There were some ups and downs the last four years. We are now in good shape,” said Steinberg. “We are smaller but more financially sound than we were. Having NLGJA join Unity was the icing on the cake.”

students in China for one- to threemonth internships.

China has a long history of human rights violations against LGBT people and others who step outside of the government’s strict rules of conduct.

But within the past three years the communist country has seen a surge in openly LGBT activity from bars to organizations to Pride events in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Pearce said that he doesn’t know the number of CRCC fellows who are openly gay, but that the company also isn’t going into China with a “sledgehammer,” he said about the diverse backgrounds of fellows, which are evenly divided by gender.

“We are going in gently,” said Pearce.

Michael Benson, a 22-year-old gay man, completed the program in 2011, working in marketing at one of China’s social networking companies. He said that China’s major metropolitan cities have vibrant gay-friendly areas.

Benson, who is from the U.K., is now the Asia Pacific regional manager for CRCC in the Beijing office.

“There are definitely some gayfriendly areas. There are gay bars and gay clubs. There are plenty of opportunities ... to experience LGBT life here in China,” said Benson.

Pearce agreed.

“I think that China would probably be classed as one of the more gayfriendly [countries], just given some of the other options that are there,” said Pearce, mentioning Brazil and Thailand as other gay-friendly countries people might consider for business internships.

“It kind of surprised me how easy it is on the ground to be pretty open about being gay,” Pearce added.

Benson didn’t have much knowledge about the Chinese culture or language prior to his initial experience in the country, he said. In spite of the differences he found it was “still really easy to make bonds with Chinese people,” and learn about the shared similarities because relationships were part of the culture in the workplace and outside the company, he said.

The Chinese are just as curious about Westerners as Westerners are curious about the East, Benson said.▼ Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, or heather@whimsymedia.com.

New leadership At its meeting July 31 NLGJA’s board voted in Michael Triplett, the assistant managing editor for Bloomberg BNA Inc., as its new president following the results of an election among members of the 23-year-old professional association.

“I am honored to have been elected president of NLGJA,” said Triplett. “This is an organization with an amazing future ahead of it and I look forward to being part of that future. Thanks to David Steinberg, our outgoing president, who guided us through some of our most challenging years and put us on our positive path.”

The board also confirmed as its vice president of print and digital media Sarah Blazucki, the editor of the Philadelphia Gay News. And Laura Kutch, community relations manager at ABC7 in San Francisco, was seated as a new member of the board.

NLGJA announced during the Unity confab that its 2013 national convention and ninth LGBT Media Summit will take place August 2225 in Boston.▼ Full disclosure: Matthew S. Bajko is a member of NLGJA and stepped down from the national board this month after serving on it as a representative for the LGBT press the last four years.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • Bay Area Reporter • August 9-15, 2012

Classifieds

t

Legal Notices>>

The

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548839 In the matter of the application of: SEOW LONG CHIN for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEOW LONG CHIN is requesting that the name WAN QI CHIN be changed to WANQI KAY CHIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 20th of September 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548822 In the matter of the application of: TANYA B. BERNSTEIN for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TANYA B. BERNSTEIN is requesting that his/her name be changed to TANYA KAMINSKY BERNSTEIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 25th of September 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

August 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034493900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POMODORO PIZZA 240 KEARNY ST SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Sasan Shams. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/14/08. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/31/12.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034499600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STANDARD BUILDING COMPANY, 72 COUNTRY CLUB DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Daniel Bernard Griffin. 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 08/02/12.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034496400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MY SISTER VIV, 1035 Pine St Apt 402 San Francisco, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Maria Roetgerman. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/01/12.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034496000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHELDON HOTEL, 629 Post st, SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by co-partners, and is signed Kamran Ardebilchi & Jahangir Ardebilchi. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/83. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/01/12.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 08/03/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: ZHILIANG SHEN. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1058 VALENCIA ST, SF, CA 94110-2427. Type of license applied for

41 - On-sale BEER AND WINE EATING PLACE AUG 09, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 07/16/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: GARFIELD BEACH CVS LLC, LONGS DRUG STORES CALIFORNIA LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1059 HYDE St., SF, CA 94109. Type of license applied for

20 - OFF-sale BEER AND WINE AUGUST 09, 16, 23 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 07/12/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: NELLY NICOLAS GHASSAN, GHASSAN JOSEPH GHASSAN. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1201 MINNESOTA ST SF, CA 941073407. Type of license applied for

20 - OFF-sale BEER AND WINE AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 07/26/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: TOUT SWEET PASTRY COMPANY, INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control a t 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 170 OFARRELL ST SF, CA 94102-2208. Type of license applied for

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034495300

41 - ON-sale BEER AND WINEEATING PLACE 58-CATERER’S PERMIT AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MY NAILS, 1204 Green st SF, CA 94109.

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

Dated 07/26/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: GDL SFO, INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 165 JEFFERSON ST SF, CA 941331234. Type of license applied for

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034506100

48 – ON-SALE GENERAL PUBLIC PREMISES AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUGOI SUSHI, 1058 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Zhiliang Shen. 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 08/06/12.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034496700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROBERT & CO, 3863A 26th street, SF, CA 94131.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Robert & Company 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 08/01/12.

August 9, 16, 23, 30 2012

ebar.com

Dated 07/26/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: DOUBLE TAP, LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 2243 & 2247 MARKET ST SF, CA 94114. Type of license applied for

47 – ON-SALE GENERAL EATING PLACE AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034459800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NATURAL PERMANENT MAKEUP LAB, 476 Grove St. SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kim Mijini. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034462000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PALACE, 4460 Mission St., SF, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Thomas P. Lacey. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/16/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034459600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A FOTO VIDEO MAIL & MORE, 3041 Mission St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Dylan A. Siddiqui. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/29/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034454600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARC OLIVIER LE BLANC MOBAFOTO, 612 Alabama St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Marc B. Abonnat. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/2010. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034459300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABULEY, 3 Bayside Village Place #317, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Yixuan Ma. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034453800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GALAXY GLASS, 2806 28th Ave., SF, CA 94122.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Nardein Mirza. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034452800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KNOWNLEADER, 992 Portola Dr., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Ken Nangle & Mike Berg. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034461100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SALDOCELL, 2640 Mission St., SF, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Alonso Morales. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/12.

JULY 19, 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP OF alcOholic beverage LICENSE

Dated 06/29/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: KATHERINE KHAMSI BEST. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 2165 UNION ST SF, CA 94123-4003. Type of license applied for

Dated 07/19/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: NEW BIG LANTERN INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 3170 16th St., SF, CA 94103-3363. Type of license applied for

41 – ON-SALE BEER AND WINEEATING PLACE AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 2012

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE – EATING PLACE JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 2012

notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034440800

Dated 07/12/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: E.D.M. HOSPITALITY INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1653 Polk St., SF, CA 94109-3614. Type of license applied for

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE TREE PRODUCTIONS, 1455 Haight St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed The Tree Productions LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/12.

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE – EATING PLACE July 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 07/23/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: WARREN J H LI. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1063 Market St., SF, CA 941031605. Type of license applied for

41 - ON-SALE BEER & WINE – EATING PLACE July 26, Aug 2, 9, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548814 In the matter of the application of: NAM VAN NGUYEN & THANH THI NGUYEN for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NAM VAN NGUYEN & THANH THI NGUYEN are requesting that the name NAM VAN NGUYEN be changed to NAM VAN PHAM and the name CALVIN DUY NGUYEN be changed to CALVIN DUY PHAM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 13th of September 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, Aug 2, 9, 16, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548816 In the matter of the application of: BENSON DUY NGUYEN for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BENSON DUY NGUYEN is requesting that his/her name be changed to BENSON DUY PHAM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 13th of September 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, Aug 2, 9, 16, 2012 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF california, county of san francisco file CNC12-548815 In the matter of the application of: QUANG DUY NGUYEN for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner QUANG DUY NGUYEN is requesting that his/her name be changed to QUANG DUY PHAM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 13th of September 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 26, Aug 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034464800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHANCELLOR GIFT SHOP, 433 Powell St., SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael Song. 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 07/17/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034456000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1111 PINE ST ASSOCIATES, 1111 Pine St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kinta Haller. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034456200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1240 7TH AVE ASSOCIATES, 1240 7th Ave., SF, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Kinta Haller. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034456400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 2340 VALLEJO ST ASSOCIATES, 2340 Vallejo St., SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a husband and wife, and is signed Peter Rice & Megan Rice. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034472100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOSE’S 90TH, 135 Red Rock Way Bldg L #303, SF, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Gerald P. Coletti. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034469300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STUNMO, 2180 Bryant St. #106, SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Stunner of the Month LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/08/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/20/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034465700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOZZO, 3288 21st St. #239, SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed The Folsom Gang, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/12.

JULY 26, AUG 2, 9, 16, 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034477000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HI TOPS, 2247 MARKET ST, SF, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Double Tap LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/24/12.

AUGust 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034479700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIND OVER MEDIA, 701 MINNESOTA St. #202, SF, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Gregory A. Harvey LLC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/12.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/25/12.

AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034482800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PLANET AUTOWERKS, 45 DORE St., SF, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JF SITTON Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/26/12.

AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034484500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CO NAM, 1653 POLK St. SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed E.D.M Hospitality, Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/26/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/26/12.

AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034487700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN POPPY NANNIES, 83 GARDEN GROVE DR, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michelle Cudden. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/27/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/12.

AUGUST 2, 9, 16, 23 2012 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME statement file A-034487800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOUND CONSTRUCTION, 1309 6TH AVE APT A. SF, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Robert Camusus White.

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/12.

AUGust 2, 9, 16, 23 2012

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Vol. 42 • No. 32 • August 9-15, 2012

Dancer/choreographer Travis Wall.

T

ravis Wall is a little excited. It’s understandable. The day we spoke, he had learned about his Emmy nomination only the previous morning, for Outstanding Choreography for his new dance company Shaping Sound’s performance of “Without You” on Dancing With the Stars. That same day, Wall, 25, was also headed off to a rehearsal for the celebrity-filled Teen Choice Awards (he choreographed the opening number and other routines). Along with all that, Wall, best known as a former contestant turned choreogra-

Travis Wall dances coast to coast

by Jim Provenzano pher for the popular TV show So You Think You Can Dance, is also heading up the cast of a reality show about forming the contemporary dance company Shaping Sound in Los Angeles.

All the Right Moves began airing July 31 on the

Oxygen network, and is produced by the erudite World of Wonder team, producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Being Chad, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster and dozens of other fascinating features, reality shows and documentaries, of-

ten with an LGBT cast. Along with Wall, who is openly gay, the show stars dancers Nick Lazzarini (a fellow SYTYCD contestant), Kyle Robinson (Juilliard-trained mentee of Mikhail Baryshnikov) and Teddy Forance (back-up dancer for Lady Gaga and Janet Jackson).

The series follows the trips, turns, trials and triumphs of these four handsome, lithe dancers through health problems, ego battles and the sheer thrill of dancing. We get to meet Wall’s See page 29 >>

Imagination finds safe haven Rene Bouche and Marcel Duchamp at the Legion of Honor

by Sura Wood

A

René Bouché, La Parisienne 1945, from The Morning After: Paris, 1945. Pen and ink with color additions.

s the sage Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, you can’t step twice in the same river. That’s certainly what Rene Bouche discovered when he returned to Paris in 1945 following the trauma of WWII. Born Robert August Buchstein in Prague at the turn of the 20th century and raised in Germany, where he studied art history, Bouche, an accomplished painter and portraitist, was a fashion illustrator and art director for French Vogue in Paris. In 1940, with war raging on the continent, he made his way to New York via Lisbon, a point of departure for those fleeing the rising storm. (Remember Bergman and Bogey

on the tarmac in Casablanca?) Stateside, he became a regular contributor to Vogue.

While on assignment for the magazine, covering the first post-war couture shows in Paris, Bouche compiled a series of lilting, observant sketches of Parisians attempting to regain their equilibrium and return to a semblance of normal life.

A dozen of these enchanting pen, ink and color wash images, characterized by an undercurrent of loss and lament, and accompanied by the artist’s astute commentary, comprise Rene Bouche (19051963): Letters from Post-War Paris, a marvelous, engaging exhibition that fills a gallery at the Legion of Honor.

Courtesy FAMSF

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

Novelistic in their flair for telling details and nostalgic with an acerbic bite, his illustrated short essays limn a portrait of a great European capital in transition, experiencing hardship and trying to retrieve an elusive pre-war gaiety. But how could things ever be the same after deprivation, collaborations with the enemy, and the city’s narrow escape from being razed by the Nazi occupiers? Echoes of an insouciant, not-so-distant past are leavened by Bouche’s disenchantment with the exasperating pettiness of French bureaucracy, cheap entertainments, bread lines and the proliferation of the black market and its See page 28 >>

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

Kinsey Sicks rock the electorate

by Roberto Friedman

E

veryone’s favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, the Kinsey Sicks, have returned to the Rrazz Room in San Francisco for a twoweek engagement (through Aug. 19) with their election-year show, Electile Dysfunction. Their mix of comedy and social critique informs new songs like “Vote for Me (I Wasn’t Born in Kenya),”“Sell the Poor,”“Peoria” (pandering to the tastes of Middle America, to the tune of 1980s pop anthem “Gloria”) and “Eliminate the Schools” (to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Three Little Maids from School.”)

This new show makes its Bay Area premiere following recent performances in New York, Baltimore, San Diego, Denver, Minneapolis, Northampton, MA, Hayes, KS, and its world premiere as a commission from Theatre J in Washington, DC. After the San Francisco run, the show will be performed for one night in Tampa, FL, at the same time as the Republi-

can National Convention. We asked Rachel of the Kinsey Sicks (aka Irwin Keller) if she was looking forward to rubbing shoulders (and other body parts) with Republican conventioneers.

“We’re thrilled that the Republican Party has scheduled its national convention to coincide with our concert in Tampa,” said Rachel. “We believe this is a much-needed sign that the GOP is finally returning to the great traditions that the Kinsey Sicks represent: Bible Belt, unionbusting, shame-filled sex. Speaking of which, I am very excited about my post-show tete-atete with Larry Craig and Ann Coulter – those guys are hot!” For tickets ($35-$40), go to www. therrazzroom.com.

Lexus nexus Out There long ago learned the two rules of successful parties: 1) there should be a reason for the celebration, even if it’s only (as Warhol famously said) the opening of an envelope; and 2) there should be one moment

Cyndi Lauper makes her theatrical debut with the new musical Kinky Boots.

when everyone at the party comes together to focus on the reason all are there. Guests can then feel free to leave at any point thereafter and feel they have participated in the party’s raison d’etre. Party with a purpose, decadesce with decision. Yes, we made that word up.

Criteria both 1 & 2 were amply satisfied at the VIP launch party for the new 2013 Lexus LS sedans last week at City View at the Metreon, and OT was there. It was a deluxe affair held at the top-floor venue with its terrace offering sweeping views of the city.

An exhibit of work by photographer Ellen von Unwerth, curated by Barney’s New York creative ambassador Simon Doonan (he does the Barney’s windows) and his husband, designer Jonathan Adler, added interest. Actor Jason Schwartzman and his wife Brady Cunningham added juicy celebrity presence. Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes is given music credit, but we don’t know if he DJed because we were busy at the open bars, which offered some kind of kooky cocktail made with the aid of a bell jar and vaporizer. Yummy victuals ranged from sushi, prime rib and rack of baby lamb to Dungeness crabcakes and lobster salad. This was no Costcocatered affair.

The new cars were parked under dropcloths around the space, and at the party climax two hours in, they were spotlit and dramatically undraped to ooohs and aaahs. OT imbibed libations and chatted up strangers. One guest wore a button that said, “Free Foie Gras!” It was that kind of

The Kinsey Sicks bring a special election-year show, Electile Dysfunction, to the Rrazz Room: pandering to American tastes.

Harry Benson, courtesy Taschen

The Beatles have a pillow fight in the George V hotel, Paris, January 1964, in an iconic photograph by Harry Benson.

party. After the autos were revealed in all their phallic glory, and all the glamour was soaked up, we could go home satisfied that we had done the party proud.

Foot fetish The upcoming Broadway musical Kinky Boots is headed to its world premiere in Chicago this fall (it’s expected on Broadway next year.) Inspired by a true story and based on the film of the same name, the musical has a book by Harvey Fierstein, direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell, and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, who is making her theatrical career debut.

What is the true story behind it, you ask?

Let’s go to the release. “In Kinky Boots, Charlie Price is forced to step in and save his family’s shoe factory in Northern England following the sudden death of his father. Help comes from the unlikeliest angel, a fabulous drag performer named Lola.” Let’s just say Lola knows her way around a stiletto heel.

Lauper has released a song, “Sex Is in the Heel,” and a selection of remixes from the musical. Hasn’t opened yet, and it’s already in the mix. Girls just wanna have Broadway credentials.

Pillow book In the Summer 2012 catalog for art-book publisher Taschen, photographer Harry Benson recalls how he came to take an iconic early photograph of the Fab Four, aka the Beatles. “We were all staying at the George V in Paris on the same floor, and my brief was to cover it as a news story,” he writes. “Their [gay] manager Brian Epstein was a good man.

If you were legitimate, he wouldn’t get in your way. They were friendly, and I got on with all of them. George and I even shared a room a few times.

“I had heard that they liked to have a pillow fight, and knew that this would make a great picture, but there was another photographer in the room from The Daily Mirror. I suggested to the Beatles that we do the photograph. They weren’t keen at first, John said it would make them look childish, then he hit Paul in the back of the head with the pillow, and it went on from there. I didn’t give them any directions, it was just pure spontaneous joy, captured perfectly.” Just boys being boys.

“Then driving from the Plaza Hotel to The Ed Sullivan Show, I was in the limo with them, sitting on John’s lap, photographing American Beatlemania through the car window.” That’s photographer intimacy alright.

Classic Joan You’ll find a DVD review of the preCode Joan Crawford film Possessed in this week’s issue, so as a little bonus here is a jaunty Joan anecdote for your jest. Jazz Age author F. Scott Fitzgerald had admired Crawford during her flapper days. Early in the 1930s, he was assigned to write a script for her, and complained about her limitations as an actress. They were at a party, and he asked her to dance. He said, “I’m writing a script for you, Miss Crawford.”

She had heard about his comments and coolly replied, “So I heard. Write hard, Mr. Fitzgerald, write hard.”

RIP great gay man of letters Gore Vidal.▼

ebar.com

▼

Theatre>>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

You’re ambiguously gay, Charlie Brown

by Richard Dodds

T

wo ascendant gay playwrights whose works have been noticed in New York and beyond are being introduced to Bay Area audiences with plays that, on the surface at least, could hardly seem more different. Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, opening this week at Boxcar Theatre, looks at the Peanuts characters as late teens with issues ranging from homophobia to pyromania. Madeleine George’s Precious Little, opening next week at Shotgun’s Ashby Stage, examines the paradoxes of communication as a lesbian linguistics expert learns that her unborn child may have a genetic communications defect.

ly a lesbian to everyone around me.”

Her other works include the play The Zero Hour, about a lesbian couple and closeted ex-Nazis, and the novel Looks, dealing with an overweight high school girl and her unlikely bond with a secretive rebel.

Marissa Wolf is directing Shotgun’s production, which features Zehra Berkman as the linguistics professor and two other performers in multiple roles. Prominent among those other roles are the professor’s romantic partner, played by Rami Margron, and the possibly word-savvy gorilla, played

by Nancy Carlin. Precious Little runs Aug. 18-Sept. 16 at Ashby Stage in Berkeley. Tickets at www.shotgunplayers.org.

Come to the cabarets Life after Snoopy The premise behind Dog Sees God sounds both subversively funny and profoundly sad. While the names of Charles Shultz’s Peanuts characters have been altered to gain some legal detachment from the originals, whom they are meant to represent are clear enough. The rabid Snoopy has been put down, Linus is a stoner, Pig Pen is a germaphobe, Lucy is in jail for setting the little redhead girl’s hair on fire, and Schroeder is the victim of gay-bashing. And then there’s Charlie Brown, forlorn after the loss of Snoopy and involved in an ambiguous relationship with Schroeder.

“I hate teenagers,” Royal said before the play’s 2005 off-Broadway premiere. “I can’t stand them. They scare me. I just think it’s this period of time where puberty makes you crazy.

They’re such nasty human beings.”

The Florida native was 28 years old when Dog Sees God launched his playwriting career, and its success led to a commission to write the screenplay for Easy A, a high school comedy with a gay supporting character that Royal says he based on himself.

Boxcar’s Artistic Director Nick Olivero is staging Dog Sees God close on the heels of his Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The cast is mostly made up of recent high schoolers, giving the new production a “raw and honest” energy.

“A friend of mine gave me the play about a year ago,” Olivero said. “I read it once through, quietly crying to myself in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. I stopped, turned back to page one, and read it again. This play has been weighing on my mind and I have been itching to bring it to life here in the Bay Area ever since.”

Dog Sees God will run through Aug. 25 at the South-of-Market Boxcar Theatre. More info at www.boxcartheatre.org.

Mother tongue In Madeleine George’s Precious Little, the Shotgun show, a self-assured linguistics professor has three big projects running concurrently: She is documenting a dying language, she is studying an ape purported to grasp human vocabulary, and she is pregnant via a sperm donor. All three have unexpected complications, but it is incipient motherhood that proves the most vexing as she must decide whether to proceed or terminate when prenatal tests reveal a potential communications defect.

That the professor is a lesbian in a relationship with a grad student is a detail in the story rather than a pivotal piece of the plot. “That part of her existence [is] a total given and not terribly interesting, but also there.

So not erased, but not the crux of things,” George said in a 2010 interview about how she works with sexual orientations in her plays. She also said she herself came out “late, late, late, given the fact that I was obvious-

Cast members from Les Miserables now at the Orpheum Theatre will be spending one of their nights off working another stage to benefit the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. They are part of the ongoing One Night Only cabaret series presented by Richmond/Ermet that

Heather Phelps Lipton

Playwright Madeleine George delves into the mysteries of communications in Precious Little coming to Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage.

arises on Aug. 20 at Marines Memorial in a program that also features Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and the Vocal Minority component of the SF’s Gay Men’s Chorus. Tickets at www.helpisontheway.org.

The Kinsey Sicks are taking their campaign to the Rrazz Room for performances that continue through Aug. 19. The dragapella beauty shop

Wilki W. K. Tom

Playwright Bert V. Royal, who claims to hate teenagers, writes about the Peanuts characters as disaffected teens in Dog Sees God, now playing at the Boxcar Theatre.

quartet’s new show is Electile Dysfunction, which equips pop songs with new lyrics to skewer current politics. And hard on their high heels

comes, at last, Barbara Cook on Aug. 21-26, after illness forced cancellation of her spring engagement. More into at www.therrazzroom.com.▼

<< Film

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

Imaginary lover

by David Lamble

R

uby Sparks is a diabolically clever new film comedy about a young writer who has an anxiety attack over two distinctly different choices for his love life: hit the bars or the Web like a normal person, or solve two problems at once, his empty bed and an irritating writer’s block, by imagining the perfect lover, the dream-girl heroine for his long-delayed second novel.

Once upon a time, Calvin (Paul Dano) was considered a literary prodigy, the author of a sensationally popular yet serious novel with a bratty adolescent protagonist. Yeah, sort of Catcher in the Rye. Fortunately, Zoe Kazan’s original script and Dano’s nimble performance suggest nothing like a younger J.D. Salinger.

Calvin shares rather sterile-appearing digs – a townhouse with a bleached-white interior as formidably blank as the sheets of paper in his old-

fashioned portable typewriter – with a small, pee-shy mutt.

“Scotty pees like a girl, he interrupts my writing. I walk him and meet people, but Scotty gets scared when people pet him.”

In the decade since his early fame, Calvin has produced only a small novella with a title that embarrasses him not only for its pretentious ring (Breakfast for Dinner) but also for the stale air it gives off of an author who’s aging without having lived. But as Calvin confesses sadly to his older married brother (Chris Messina), the impression is pitifully close to the truth.

“People only want to sleep with me because they’ve read my book in high school.”

“Seriously, you don’t even get laid in your dreams. How sad!”

Challenged by his therapist (Elliott Gould) to write his way out of his malaise, Calvin pounds away at his portable, imagining one Ruby Sparks (screenwriter, actor and Dano’s reallife girlfriend, Zoe Kazan), a flirty, impetuous lass from small-town Ohio.

Rather too pleased with himself, Calvin freaks out when, descending from his bedroom one morning, he finds

to the Pygmalion myth of a sculptor whose statue comes to life because he loves it so much. I thought of the sculptor in his dark studio turning his head and seeing the statue move. And I woke up one morning with the seeds of this in my head.

It was Paul [Dano] who discovered it was for both of you, right?

Yes, he said, “You’re writing this for us.”

Merrick Morton

Paul Dano as Calvin and Zoe Kazan as Ruby on the set of Ruby Sparks.

Ruby herself, casually attired in one of his old shirts, eating cereal and acting like nothing is amiss. Calvin ratchets his normally neurotic disposition to hysterical red alert.

“It’s really happening! They’re going to hospitalize me.”

Once he realizes that others can see Ruby and he adjusts to the novel sensation of having his libidinous needs met, Calvin’s nerdy façade is gradually replaced by his inner control freak.

Soon he starts resenting the perky, outgoing Ruby’s desire to meet his embarrassingly hippie mom (Annette Bening) and stepdad (Antonio Banderas), and starts to imagine a more cloistered life.

“You don’t have any friends.”

“The only person I want to be in a relationship with is you.”

“You don’t get to decide what I do!”

“Want to bet?”

As diverting as Ruby Sparks is as a feminist Groundhog Day, the movie really moves up several notches as Ruby and Calvin discover to what dark lengths he will and won’t go to maintain his absolute power over Ruby’s growth as a person. He has power over whether she can be considered separate from the disturbingly infantile needs of his authorial inner child.

Gay boys have one thing in common with Calvin: a seemingly hapless ability to project feelings we consider love onto total strangers. Ruby Sparks transcends the cleverness of its central

conceit to ask profound questions about how autonomous two strongwilled individuals can ever be.

Credit co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the brilliant husband/wife team behind the savage 2006 satire/ensemble comedy Little Miss Sunshine, with giving Kazan’s original theme full exploration, even when doing so took the film way beyond the boundaries of Judd Apatowlike rude male fantasy.

Dano and Kazan, with bursts of energy only possible in one’s 20s, provide a generation of couples – hooked up, “living in sin,” possibly staying together only until they’ve worked off their college loans – with a witty, wise-beyond-their-years model for imagining a kind of gender equality that once seemed impossibly idealistic. Screenwriter/actor Kazan and directors Dayton and Faris spent a day at a Nob Hill hostelry to explain the magic behind Ruby Sparks.

David Lamble: It’s almost like a ghost story turned on its head, a figment of Calvin’s creative imagination. Where did the idea for Ruby Sparks come from?

Zoe Kazan: Like for Calvin, where Ruby comes to him in a dream, I similarly had a strange bout of inspiration.

I was walking home from work, and I saw a mannequin discarded in a dumpster. I thought it was a person, and it scared me. It made me flash

Had you realized that before?

No. But I was only like five pages in.

I tend to show him as I go along.

Ruth Gordon and Garsin Kanin wrote together until they discovered they couldn’t do that and preserve their marriage.

Ruth Gordon is so totally my hero!

But Paul and I are not writing together, that’s the difference. I don’t think I’d write well with a partner. But having that person to check in with and bounce ideas off has been wonderful.

Zoe Kazan’s script is so delightfully original.

Jonathan Dayton: We worked with Zoe for nine months trying to simplify and focus the love story, to free her as a writer, so when it came time to act in it – Valerie Faris: When Ruby shows up in Calvin’s life, it’s absolutely real, and we’re not really thinking how she got there.

There’s the dark moment late in the film where he displays a sadistic side, fucking with her, so to speak.

It’s a side that any of us might manifest in such a situation.

Faris: He says, “I want to make her happy without making her happy.”

What was the funniest moment on set?

Faris: Because we’re shooting digitally, Paul likes to try different things by doing a series – Dayton: Where you don’t call take, but immediately start the scene again.

He would do seven takes in a row.

Faris: He was like a bull who kept charging at the cape.▼

Rough justice

by David Lamble

I

n the latest drama from French director Andre Techine (Wild Reeds, The Witnesses) fresh from this year’s LGBT Festival, Venice becomes the backdrop for a Gordian knot of very messy lives. At the center of Unforgivable is Francis (Andre Dussollier), an aging and temporarily blocked French mystery writer who thinks a change of scenery will produce not only a good plot, but the piece of mind to see his new book through to completion before his publisher demands his advance back.

Francis’ bid to rent a small garretlike room is thwarted by a persistent bisexual real estate woman, Judith (Carole Bouquet), who wants him to lease an off-shore island retreat that he thinks is too pricey for his budget.

Francis winds up living with Judith, her lesbian private-eye ex Anna Maria, and the ex’s gay-bashing ex-con son Jeremy. In the process he learns more that he bargained for about a hard-knocks crowd – enough, it turns out, to fill a book.

Just when Francis thinks he has everybody figured out, they surprise him, and not in a polite way. One night while following 24-year-old Jeremy through Venetian back alleys, he witnesses the boy and his small dog set upon by what at first appears to be a gang of muggers. The men kill Jeremy’s dog “to teach him a lesson.” One of the guys hisses at Francis, “What are you doing hanging out with this sicko, don’t you know he beats up queers?”

When Francis confronts the boy as

Andre Dussollier in Andre Techine’s Venice-set film Unforgivable.

he’s burying his dog, he gets an earful.

“Tomorrow I’ll make a cross. I did woodcutting in prison.”

“I tried to build a bridge with you. I got it all wrong. I give up. Is it true you beat guys up?”

“Sometimes.”

“Why?” “When they want to touch me. Nobody touches me!”

“Not even girls?”

“Nobody.”

“What if they go to the police? Hate crime, aggravating circumstances?

You want to go back inside?”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’ll say nothing. We don’t talk the same language. Don’t you realize that violence against other people, setting out to wound or maim, is unforgivable?”

Francis, of course, doesn’t give up on this rude boy or anyone else in his cursed circle of friends. The love he does dish out gets rather tough, including a very public beating of the boy at the cemetery while they’re burying his mom.

Techine treats all his “unforgivables” with a sense of despair, humor and some kind of rough justice. He sets us up for this death in Venice with shots of the elephantine cruise-liners bearing tourists and their Yankee dollars. Reports persist that Venice is a dying city, its priceless monuments and art treasures decaying, its population shrinking. Before it all melts away, catch this rich, empathetic portrait of the kind of folks they used to call “Euro trash,” before the Euro crashed.▼

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Theatre>>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Brinkhoff/Mogenburg

English farm boy Albert (Andrew Veenstra) tries to convince his horse to accept a harness in the touring production of War Horse now playing at the Curran Theatre.

Horse sense

by Richard Dodds

T

he word “puppet” sounds far too diminutive to define the creations that dominate War Horse.

It doesn’t seem right to put them in a category in which Pinocchio and Lamb Chop are famous role models. But the South African enterprise that devised the life-size horses now bucking and snorting on the Curran stage calls itself Handspring Puppet Company, so the p-word it shall be.

And while these puppets help tell a tale drawn from Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 children’s novel, the production exists not as much for the story than as a showcase for the Handspring talents. In a sense, this is a star vehicle, and as is often the case with star vehicles, it can droop when the star is off in the wings.

That happens more in the second act than in the first, as humans are put through familiar paces, but when the horse – who clearly knows he deserves a star on his stable door – returns to the stage, our full attention returns, too.

War Horse was developed by the National Theatre of Great Britain as one of its periodic productions specifically designed to draw young people to the theater. But its popularity exploded, and the production transferred to London’s West End for a continuing commercial run, with Broadway, a US national tour, and international productions in its stead. Its appeal has obviously spread beyond the original focus demographics.

No obvious stage equivalents come readily to mind for War Horse, because animals and live theater are

an uneasy mix, but a movie such as Lassie Come Home provides a crossmedia parallel. A beloved quadruped is removed from its bucolic surroundings, and the mutual quest of a man and beast to be reunited pushes the drama ahead. While Morpurgo’s original novel found originality in telling the story from a horse’s point of view, the stage adaptation isn’t so much about transcending dramatic formulas as creating a majestic theatricality more through suggestion than lavish accouterment.

The half-thoroughbred horse who goes by the name Joey, and in whom we are asked to pour our emotions, looks at first to be made from loose scraps of leather and wood and mesh. But the creation, which requires three cast members to quite visibly operate, is obviously an intricate assemblage that both pulls our eye into its intriguing mechanics and allows us to see a seemingly real horse worthy of the heart-tugging story.

When we first meet Joey as a frantic foal newly separated from his mother, he trots anxiously about the stage and seems to catch a glimpse of the audience before emitting a dismissive whinny. Soon he is a grown horse, under the tutelage of farmer’s son Albert, who must convert him into a work animal or risk losing him. Albert succeeds, only to then see Joey sold off to the cavalry as Britain is drawn into the First World War. “We’ll flash our swords and send them back to Berlin,” says the sadly optimistic Lieutenant Nicholls, who rides Joey into battle against a German regiment equipped with machine guns. Joey, who bonds with

an even larger horse named Topthorn, becomes a nomad of the war.

While human and horse casualties are depicted on stage, the horror is tempered by the care afforded to Joey, whose star power is recognized whether under the domain of the British, the Germans, or the French.

Aside from Topthorn, the other horses are basically low-wattage extras that never pull the spotlight.

The script itself, adapted by Nick Stafford from Morpurgo’s novel, is also in service of the horse. While the novel lost track of young Albert (the appealing Andrew Veenstraw at the Curran) through much of its middle, the stage story includes stretches showing the lad as a soldier on the front, and carrying a sketch of Joey rather than a photo of the girl back home. But without the horse itself, these scenes slip into drama of an ordinary sort.

Directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris wisely don’t try for massive stage effects, letting the look of the production mirror the seemingly skeletal simplicity of the horse puppetry. Horse choreography is not a frequently seen Broadway credit, but Toby Sedgwick’s work at detailing equine movements both bold and subtle is an art in itself. The flip of a tail, the twitch of an ear, an affectionate nuzzle, or a fearful buck can combine to celebrate both human enchantment with horses and the human ingenuity that makes War Horse possible.▼ War Horse will run through Sept. 9 at the Curran Theatre. Tickets are $35-$300. Call (888) 746-1799 or go to www.shnsf.com.

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22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

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Film >>

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure

by David-Elijah Nahmod

M

arc Huestis, the Castro’s very own PT Barnum, again brings a real, honest-to-God movie star into our little neighborhood. On Sat., Aug. 11, join Huestis and Carol Lynley at the Castro Theatre for a screening of Irwin Allen’s The Poseidon Adventure (1972), the granddaddy of all disaster flicks. Lynley will appear in the Castro mezzanine for a meet-and-greet, and onstage for a live interview. The film will show on the giant Castro screen.

Making Poseidon is a fond memory for the down-to-earth Lynley, who has enjoyed quite an extensive career. It’s not her first appearance at a show with her pal Huestis – she last appeared at the Castro in 2005, when she interviewed film legend Debbie Reynolds onstage. “I had kinda known Debbie for a long time,” she recalled. “I wanted to be kind and gentle, but she wasn’t having it – she guided me through it. I didn’t want to bring up Eddie Fisher, but she did!”

Out of her more than 100 screen credits, Poseidon is one of Lynley’s signature performances. She now refers to the film as “monolithic.”

“What can I say? It goes on and on. A fourth generation of people are now seeing it. It struck a chord.

It just works.”

Of course, she spoke of her Poseidon co-star Ernest Borgnine, who recently passed on at age 95. “He’s the only person I was shocked to see die at 95. He was so full of life, so strong. You realize that there’s a time limit for all of us.”

She also had a fondness for Shelley Winters, who won an Oscar for her Poseidon role. “I liked Shelley. I never had a problem with her. She didn’t ‘get’ me – I was a starlet, not out to cut people. She could be difficult, but she could also be kind and nurturing. I respected her ability to survive as long as she did. Hollywood is not kind to women.”

Lynley’s career dates back to the 1950s. She started out as a model, then co-starred in the Broadway and 1959 film versions of the thencontroversial drama Blue Denim, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for the latter. Blue Denim, a tale of unwanted teen pregnancy, was a shocker at the time. For Lynley it launched a lengthy career that included close friendships with Fred Astaire, and co-starring roles alongside legends like Jack Lemmon, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier. She found Douglas to be “incredibly intelligent and articulate,” while Lemmon was “a sweet, sweet guy.” “I’m boring,” she said with a laugh. “I have nothing to say!”

She cites Otto Preminger’s thriller

doggie, so I don’t need money. I’ve worked since I was 10. I still get up at 5:30 a.m., I still go to the movies.

I’m very plugged into it, but I don’t need it.”

She calls getting older “a privilege.” “The main thing is to be in good health, to enjoy your life. If you’ve got your brains and your health, you can’t ask for more.”

As she revs up for her appearance at the Castro, Lynley expressed her personal support for one of today’s most prominent civil rights issues.

“Everyone should have the right to get married, male/male or female/ female. It’s an absolute given. It’s stupid: you pay your taxes, you vote, you should have the right to do so.”

Join our friend Carol Lynley and her friend Marc Huestis at the big, beautiful Castro Theater on Sat., Aug. 11 at 8 p.m. Also appearing will be Arturo Galster, who’ll lead a singalong of Poseidon theme song “The Morning After.” There will also be a Shelley Winters look-alike contest, among other surprises.▼ The Poseidon Adventure star Carol Lynley, back in the day.

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) as her favorite among her own films. In the nail-biter, Lynley plays a young American mom in London whose daughter is missing – a daughter no one else can recall ever having seen.

“It’s well made, one of Preminger’s best,” she said.

These days, Lynley is largely retired. “I’m lucky to have many pensions and Social Security, and no one to support. Just me and my

Tickets are $19.72, which matches the year The Poseidon Adventure was released.

Film only: show up at 9:15 p.m., available seats will be sold for $10. Tickets at www.ticketfly. com/event/139373?utm_ medium=apl or (415) 863-0611.

Music >>

Transforming Beethoven

by Tim Pfaff

Y

ou wonder where we’ve come when a young pianist such as HJ Lim makes a calling card of the 32 sonatas of Beethoven (EMI) in an iTunes download. It’s not that she shouldn’t have so much as that she shouldn’t have, if you catch my drift. What does it signal? Jonathan

Biss’ comparative tortoise to her hare seems somehow more properly in awe of the repertoire.

Anyway, with Beethoven sonata cycles coming at us from every direction again, bracing, fresh air arrives by way of two exemplary new recordings of lesser-known yet major Beethoven works: the Diabelli Variations with fortepianist Andreas Staier (Harmo-

nia Mundi) and the Bagatelles with Steven Osborne (Hyperion).

My favorite recording of anything is Piotr Anderszewski’s of the Diabelli Variations (Virgin Classics DVD, with Anderszewksi’s interview cum lecture and a studio performance film by Bruno Montsaingeon that atones for the director’s other sins). Some day I hope to be man enough to make

it through Anderszewski’s fiercely concentrated performance start to finish without myself woolgathering now and again, fleeing paradise.

If Staier’s recording did nothing more than refute definitively the tired notion that the fortepiano is just the beta version of the Steinway concert grand with a pansy sound, it would be important.

Staier performs the work(s) on a modern reconstruction of a Conrad Graf instrument that doesn’t just reveal the kinds of keyboard sounds Beethoven might have had in mind (he was deaf by the time he completed the Diabellis), it revels in their extraordinary palette of colors.

But it does a great deal more. Staier bases his performance on the autograph score, a facsimile of which he contributed to making available digitally. He “introduces” Beethoven’s Variations with a three-minute prelude of his own, a gratifying period-practice touch. He further varies the variations by occasionally embellishing repeats. And to put Beethoven’s towering work in perspective, before he plays Beethoven’s great set, he plays variations by 10 other composers who took up Diabelli’s challenge.

Publisher Anton Diabelli invited 50 of the greatest composers of his day to compose a variation – one – on an odd little waltz he wrote, a ditty really, a trifle almost without a theme. Staier selects responses by composers whose names most listeners drawn to this disc in the first place would know (Czerny, Hummel, and Mozart’s youngest son, Franz Xaver, born the year his father died), demonstrating how most were showy and elegant and

little more. The then-young Liszt’s compels attention, and the 90-second one by Schubert is sublime. Anderszewski starts his introduction to the work with it.

None of that would matter, either, if Staier didn’t have important things to say about Beethoven’s ascent-of-Everest variations. (Anderszewski notes that the German word for variation, “Veraenderung,” is more aptly translated as “transformations,” particularly in Beethoven’s case.)

But Staier’s playing is, besides spectacular and prestidigitating, so searching that it augurs to bring this stillneglected late masterpiece one step closer to what Michael Ladenburger, in his perceptive notes, calls “proper discovery.” Performances like Staier’s and Anderszewski’s should make audiences demand to hear the See page 23 >>

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DVD >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Pre-Code Joan Crawford

by Tavo Amador

F

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Beethoven variations

From page 22

Diabelli Variations live, by themselves or perhaps with some late Bagatelles.

If ever there were a musical reason for a CD tour, this is it.

As if it weren’t startling enough to hear Beethoven haul Mozart into the music by way of splicing additional variations, on “Notte e giorno faticar” from Don Giovanni, into Variation 22, Staier adds to that a pedal on the Graf fortepiano that gives the music a literal buzz and that spicy “Turkish” sound Mozart so savored. If a single moment is going to define this recording (at its peril), it’s the crashing chords at the beginning of Variation 23, a noisy, crushing sound one knuckle this side of hammy.

The playing – and recording – are so good this could be a sophisticated sound-effects CD if Staier’s interpretation weren’t so focused on

es stylishly and sends money home to mother. They’re happy, in love. She’s comfortable with the arrangement.

To her delight, Al looks her up.

He’s become a successful contractor, thanks to Marion’s mother, who invested much of the money she sent in his businesses. Thinking Marion’s divorced, he wants to marry her. She demurs. When Al meets Mark, he realizes the attorney can help him land an important contract. Mark agrees to assist.

Things change, however, when Mark is pressured to run for governor.

His backers urge him to marry Marion. She overhears him restate that he won’t marry anyone. They warn that their affair will be used against him.

He will be ruined. He decides against pursuing a political career.

Marion won’t hurt Mark’s future.

She ends their relationship, telling him it had gone stale long ago. They quarrel and separate. He announces his candidacy.

Marion tells Al the truth – that she has never been married, that she has been a kept woman. He denounces her, then, fearing she may interfere with the deal he has made with Mark, apologizes, but she’s not fooled.

the long arc of the work as well as on its incidental details. The test of any set of Diabellis is the introspective Variation XX, where Staier plumbs depths without exploiting sentiment. The fugues, too, emerge masterworks of musical architecture.

When you’ve gone the distance to that spare, final minuet with Staier, you’ve been somewhere, and back.

The Diabelli Variations constitute Beethoven’s last great work for piano, the composition of which was interrupted by the last three piano sonatas and the Missa Solemnis. The Bagatelles, which stand in his piano works as the mazurkas do in Chopin’s, come relatively early but mostly late, 17 of them flanking the Variations.

Richard Osborne revels in their mercurial brilliance, handing in the finest set of the complete Bagatelles on CD. He, too, ends his captivating disc on a note of transcendent simplicity, with an achingly beautiful “Fuer Elise.”▼

On a rainy night, Marion takes the elevated train to hear Mark deliver a major political address. When his enemies embarrass him, she makes an impassioned speech in his defense – with surprising results.

Crawford, astonishingly beautiful, gives a superb, straightforward performance. She conveys Marion’s awareness of her limited shelf life.

Yo Youth and loveliness perish qu quickly. She either capitalizes on them or goes without. It’s a simple decision, but one th that underscores society’s d double standard. Men have m many more choices. Mark is isn’t tarnished by their affair.

SShe, however, is. Unlike her, h he can refuse to marry witho out loss of social status.

Gable is excellent as M Mark. He and Crawford had ggreat chemistry, a reflection o of the intense off-screen afffair they had for years. Ford is effective as the ambitious, h hypocritical Al. Clarence B Brown directed smoothly.

L Leonore Coffee wrote the ccrisp screenplay. Adrian d designed Crawford’s glamo orous wardrobe. Oliver T. M Marsh’s black-and-white ccinematography is striking, aas are Cedric Gibbons’ Art D Deco sets.

Once the Production C Code took hold, characters llike Marion would have either been punished or forced to redeem themselves by admitting their transgressions. There would have been little understanding of how few options Marion had if she wanted a better life.

Crawford, billed solo above the title, carried the movie to great commercial success. The year before, she had been named the most popular actress in movies, and remained in

the Top 10 for most of the 1930s.

Audiences, especially women, saw Crawford’s personal life reflected in Possessed. Born to a laundress (probably unmarried), Crawford suffered a Dickensian childhood in Texas, escaped by dancing, was discovered in the chorus of a Broadway musical, Innocent Eyes, and made her movie debut in 1925. Three

years later, she was a star. In 1929, the uneducated flapper wed the Crown Prince of Hollywood, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. His stepmother, Mary Pickford, and his father, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., entertained the social creme de la creme at their legendary home, Pickfair. Crawford was a regular guest. It’s no wonder she understood Marion so well.▼

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ew things are as eye-opening as classic films released between 1929 and mid-1934, when the enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code began. Fearing that states would establish their own censorship boards, the studios enacted the Code in 1930, opting to police themselves.

Once it was applied, sexually liberated women were chastised. Sex outside matrimony became taboo.

Divorce, adultery, out-of-wedlock births, no matter how sympathetically portrayed, were condemned.

Even a hint of homosexuality was perverse.

When Lillian Hellman’s groundbreaking Broadway smash about lesbianism The Children’s Hour was filmed in 1936, the title was changed to These Three, and the conflict dealt with pre-marital heterosexual sex.

Mae West may be the Code’s best remembered victim, but other actresses suffered, including Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Joan Crawford (1906-77), whose 1931 movie Possessed is available on DVD from Warner Archives. Anyone wondering why Crawford became a major star will find the answer in this film.

Small-town factory worker Marion Martin (Crawford) aspires to more than a dreary, hardscrabble existence.

Ambitious Al Manning (Wallace Ford), another laborer, wants to marry her. She’s fond of him, but doubts he will ever be a success. One evening, she sees a train stopped at the station.

Glimpsing the swank life of first-class passengers fascinates her. One wealthy man, Wally Stuart (Skeets Gallagher), struck by her beauty, offers her a glass of champagne. Tipsy, he encourages her to come to New York. Casually, he gives her his Park Avenue address.

To his astonishment, she shows up at his swank apartment. At first, he can’t recall her. After he does, he tells her to leave, suggesting several places where she might meet suitable men.

Confused, she departs, but sees three elegant gentlemen get off the elevator and enter his apartment. Feigning an excuse, she returns. One of the men is Mark Whitney (Clark Gable), a divorced lawyer. He’s amused by her directness in asking if he’s wealthy.

Learning she’s barely eaten all day, he buys her dinner. They begin an affair.

Mark, whose wife betrayed him with his chauffeur, is determined not to marry again. Marion becomes his mistress, calling herself “Mrs. Moreland.” Within three years, the ignorant factory girl has become an elegant, sophisticated woman. Mark buys her jewels, takes her to Europe, pays the rent on her lavish apartment, and provides a generous allowance. She dress-

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24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

Macy Gray DJs @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Upholstery Jackson Kackson at Queer as Folk Music

The soulful singer shares her music faves in a special DJ set; not a live performance. $18-$25. 10:30pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Marat/Sade @ Brava Theatre

Aural fix

by Jim Provenzano

Sound off for some unusual music acts and a popular annual festival.

Sun 12 - Queer as Folk Music @ Martuni’s

Charming Hostess

Sat 11 - Charming Hostess @ Red Poppy Art House

Upholstery Jackson Jackson (photo, above) performs “Mommy Damage,” about a wild gay man’s hunt for a birthday cake; also, Jamie Treadwell sings original songs, Robb Huddleston performs with Trauma Flintstone. $5.

7pm. 4 Valencia St. 241-0205.

The “Balkan beat box” vocal quartet performs unusual music (a Gamalan version of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” for example); Jeremiah Lockwood also performs. $10-$20. 9pm. 2698 Folsom St. www.charminghostess.us

Sun 12 - Dead Can Dance @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley Hear the amazing music of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, reunited, as they perform favorite songs and music from their new CD. $40-$95. 7:30pm. 2001 Gayley Road, Berkeley. (510) 548-3010. www.apeconcerts.com

Thu 9>> The Art of Chai @ Conservatory of Flowers Pawaan Kothari, proprietor of San Francisco’s well-known Chai Cart, shows you that the best cup of chai is the one you make. Learn what constitutes chatt, Indian street food, as you enjoy a sampling of Kothari’s signature Masala Chai, Rose Chai and a variety of street snacks. $35. 6pm7:30pm. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park.

831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

The Big Eat @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Enjoy a festive live mix of short talks and presentations by artists, chefs, and distillers; learn about innovations at the intersection of food and art in the Bay Area. $10. 6:30-8:30pm. 736 Mission St. at 3rd. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Enron @ Exit Theatre Open Tab theatre company’s production of the U.K. West End hit that combines the documentary facts of The Smartest Guys in the Room with the performance style of Avenue Q ; yes, there are puppets! $25.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 17. 156 Eddy St. www.enron2012.com

Go Deep @ El Rio Man on man lube wrestling in the pit (an inflatable mini-pool), porn guys, drag queens, clowns, Boylesque performances, DJ Drama Bin Laden and Cajun food! 2nd Thursdays. 8pm-12am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

The Kinsey Sicks @ The Rrazz Room The hilarious dragapella group returns with Electile Dysfunction: The Kinsey Sicks for President. $35-$40. 8pm (Sun 7pm) Aug 7-12, 14-19. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Vintage Short Films @ Oddball Films Short odd clips about dreams and hallucinations. 8pm. Aug 10, 8pm: short odd

The fifth annual massive music festival features performances by Stevie Wonder, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Norah Jones, Passion Pit, Jovanotti and many many more; comedy and vaudeville tent with Neil Patrick Harris, David Cross, Todd Barry and others; food kiosks with dozens of tasty local eatieries, plus wine, beer, green eco projects and art booths. $95 (single day) $225 (3-day) and VIP $495. 12pm-10pm daily. Thru Aug. 12. Polo Field, Speedway Meadow and nearby areas. www. sfoutsidelands.com

films about boxing, wrestling and fighting. $10 each. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Project Lohan @ The Costume Shop West Coast premiere of D’Arcy Drollinger’s comic, ironic pop culture timeline show about the troubled actress turned media catastrophe. $25-$30 (got a DUI or parole card? Get $5 off!). Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 19. 1117 Market St. at 7th. www.projectlohan.com

War Horse @ Curran Theatre Touring production of the acclaimed Broadway drama about an English soldier’s horse and the harrowing tale of survival during World War I; performed with innovative life-size puppets. $35-$300. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat Sun 2pm. Sun 7:30pm. Thru Sept. 9. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com/ online/warhorse

Fri 10>> Bark @ CounterPulse Group experimental dance work by Liam Clancy, Eric Geiger, Omar Ramos, Karen Schaffman and Leslie Seiters. $10-$20.

8pm. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.CounterPulse.org

Church @ Public Works Peaches Christ MCs a night of DJed music and live acts by the crazed Christeene, queerhop locals Double Duchess, plus other religious parody fun like a confessional video booth, holy gogo guys; DJs include Primo & Viv, Rocket Collective’s David & Trevor, David Harness, Pink Lightning and Andre. $15-$20. 9pm-3am. 161 Erie St. www.Peacheschrist.com

Cindy Sherman @ SF MOMA Retrospective touring exhibit of 150 photos by the artist who poses as different fascinating and obscure characters. Free-$18.

Daily 11am-5:30pm, except Wed. late Thu until 8:45pm. Thru Oct. 8. 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org

My Fair Lady @ SF Playhouse Modern stripped-down adaptation of the Lerner & Lowe classic musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. $20$50. Tue-Thu 7pm.Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm.

Thru Sept. 29. 533 Sutter St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Occupy Bay Area @ YBCA Exhibit of activist art related to the Occupy protests. Thru Oct. 14. Also, David Shrigley: Brain Activity, an exhibit of caustically witty sculptures and visual art. Free-$15.

Thru Sept. 23. $8-$10. 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Phantoms of Asia @ Asian Art Museum Exhibit of bold contemporary art with perspectives on life, death, nature and other themes. $12-$15. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

The Poseidon Event-ure @ Castro Theatre Marc Heustis presents a screening of the original classic oceanic disaster flick, with a special Q&A with star Carol Linley, a Shelley Winters look-alike contest, and more fun. $10-$30. 8pm. 429 Castro St. www.marchuestispresents.com www.castrotheatre.com

A Midsummer Night’s Dream @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre Shakespeare’s summery romantic comedy, where fairies make asses of humans, gets an appropriate outdoor production

by Marin Shakes. In repertory with King John. $20-$35. Thru Sept 30. Dominican University of California, 890 Belle Ave., San Rafael. 499-4488. www.marinshakespeare.org

Les Misérables @ Orpheum Theatre 25th anniversary touring production of Boublil & Schönberg’s legendary awardwinning musical based on the Victor Hugo novel about the French Revolution, in a new re-designed production. $30-$150.

Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 26. 1192 Market St. at 8th. www.shnsf.com

San Francisco @ City Art

Fri-Sun - Outside Lands @ Golden Gate Park

Dead Can Dance

Thrillpeddlers and Marc Huestis’ production of The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Peter Weiss’ strange drama about 1700s French counter-revolutionary assassination.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. 2781 24th St. 8630611. www.thrillpeddlers.com www.marchuesticpresents.com

The Book and the Box. Free-$10. Thru Oct. 14. Tue-Sat 9:30am-5:15pm. Lincoln Park at 100 34th Avenue (at Clement Street). www.famsf.org

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Group exhibit of paintings and works in other media, each visualizing San Francisco. 12pm-9pm, Wed-Sun. Thru Sept 1.

828 Valencia St. 970-9900. www.cityartgallery.org

Sweeney Todd @ Eureka Theatre Ray of Light Theatre’s new production of the deliciously grisly Stephen Sondheim musical about The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with a live on-stage orchestra. $25-$36. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm.

Thru Aug. 11. 215 Jackson St. at Battery.

690-7658. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Humor Abuse

Fun, funny, funnier Whether it’s a one-night stand or a long-running play, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to LOL.

Thu 9 - Angry Geek Show @ SF Punchline

Dog Sees God @ Boxcar Theatre

Bimonthly comedy show featuring comics with a nerdy perspective; Tony Dijamco, Natasha Muse, Dave Sirius, Erikka Innes, Big All Gonzales and Klee Wiggins. $15. 8pm. 444 Battery St. 3977573. www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, Bert V. Royal’s darkly comic parody, with adult themes, of Charles Schultz’ Peanuts characters. $16. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Thru Aug. 25. 505 Natoma St. 967-2227. www.boxcartheatre.org

Thu 9 - Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The weekly LGBT and indie comic standup night. 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Sat 11>> Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi Musical comedy revue, now in its 35th year, with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25-$130. Wed, Thu, Fri at 8pm. Sat 6:30, 9:30pm. Sun 2pm, 5pm.

(Beer/wine served; cash only). 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Choose Paint! Choose Abstraction! @ MOAD Exhibit of abstract art by African American artists. Special lectures and programs thru exhibit run. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

Circling the Wagons @ St. Cyprian’s Church

Sun 12 - Drag Queen Comedy @ Deco Lounge Charlie Ballard’s Hella Gay Comedy makes a wardrobe change, withv drag queens, kings and faux queens Carmelita, Daniella Bella, Pia Messing, Nate Casteneda, Ping Pong, House of Glitter, Mad Madam, Splashes. $10. 21+. 8pm.

510 Larkin St. www.charlieballard.com www.decosf.com

Mormon Stories, a nonprofit support community that seeks to create safe spaces where all Mormons can express themselves authentically, announces the San Francisco “Circling the Wagons” conference for LGBTQ/SSA Mormons and their friends, families and allies. $37. 12pm6:30pm. 2097 Turk St. at Lyon. www.mormonstories.org

Cory Benhatzel @ Modern Eden Gallery Opening reception for the artist’s exhibition of mystical animal portraits rich in symbolism. 6pm-10pm. Reg hours WedSun 11am-7pm. Thru Sept 9. 403 Francisco St. 956-3303. www.ModernEden.com

Love Will Fix It @ Hot Spot DJ Bus Station John’s intimate monthly (2nd Saturdays) retro disco night with an R&B focus, re-decorates the cozy dive bar into a cool dance hangout; popular with a gaily diverse crowd. $5. 9pm-2am.

1414 Market St. at Polk.

Man Ray/Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism @ Legion of Honor Photographs, paintings, drawings and manuscripts that explore the creative interaction between gay artists Man Ray and Lee Miller, two giants of European Surrealism. Also, Gifts From the Gods: Art and the Olympic Ideal, and Marcel Duchamp:

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum @ Woodminster Ampitheater, Oakland Stephen Sondheim’s slapstick musical (photo, above) very loosely based on Roman playwright Plautus tale of a conniving servant. $12-$56. Fri-Sun 8pm.

Thru Aug 19. 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, Oakland. (510) 531-9597. www.woodminster.com

Humor Abuse @ American Conservatory Theatre Lorenzo Pisoni’s (photo, top) hit solo show about his life in a circus family returns for a limited engagement. $25$95. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Aug 19. ACT Theatre, 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Kenny Yun @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Mon 13 - Comedy Returns @ El Rio Nathan Habib (photo), Brendan Lynch, Andrea Carla Michaels, Nina G and hostess Lisa Geduldig perform at the monthly comedy night. $7-$20. 21+. 8pm.

3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.koshercomedy.com

Tuesdays - Elect to Laugh @ The Marsh Will Durst welcomes comic commentator pals to a weekly political humor night. $15-$50. 8pm. Thru Nov 6. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.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

See a hilarious dictator parody in Yun’s Happy Hour With Kim Jong Il, a comedy work-in-progress, with live music by Candace Roberts. Free; $5 cocktails and food. Fridays, 6pm. Thru Aug 24. 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. 826-5750. www.themarsh.org

Noises Off @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley Actors Ensemble of Berkeley perform Michael Frayn’s hilarious backstage farce, where a play is performed three times, front, back and out of control. $10-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Aug. 18. 1301 Shattuck Ave at Berryman, North Berkeley. (510) 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org

Up Your Rabbit Hole @ The Garage Moore Theatre’s political satire about genetically modified monsters, Cheney, Palin and more. $15-$20. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Thru Aug 25. 715 Bryant St. www.facebook.com/MooreTheatre

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Out&About >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Scott Wells Dance at Desserts and dance

Tue 14>> AIDS Quilt Interactive @ San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles New exhibit marking the 25th anniversary of the AIDS Quilt; a 42-inch interactive touchscreen tabletop that allows users to search through and examine detailed individual images from the 1.3 million square feet of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Tue-Sun, 10am-5pm. (Also 7pm-11pm first Fridays).

Thru Oct. 14. 520 South First St., San Jose.

(408) 971-0323. www.sjquiltmuseum.org

The Drag Show @ Various Channels Stu Smith’s weekly LGBT variety show features local talents, and not just drag artistes.

Channels 29 & 76 on Comcast; 99 on AT&T and 30 on Astound. www.thedragshow.org

Airborne

Kate Bornstein @ Books Inc.

Extraordinary and unusually-themed dance events take to the stage this week.

Fri 10 - Man Dance @ SF Music Conservatory

Life & Death in Black & White @ GLBT History Museum

Enjoy gay dance interpretations of musical numbers from Broadway shows, including West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Victor/Victoria, Cabaret and Chicago, accompanied by acclaimed guest artist Connie Champagne. $25-$45.

8pm. Also Aug 11. 50 Oak St. www.mandance.org

Sat 11 - ODC Dance @ ODC Theater Summer Series program of works with and dedicated to retiring company dancer Daniel Santos. $30-$40. 4pm & 7pm. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Sat 11 - Student Showcase @ AXIS Dance Studio, Oakland 40 people from 6 countries perform alongside AXIS dancers in this informal showing of work developed from a week-long Summer Intensive. Free. 1pm.

Malonga Arts Center, 1428 Alice St. www.axisdancecompany.wordpress.com

Performer, playwright and transgender activist discusses her new memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger. 7pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. www.booksinc.net

AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985–1990, focuses on the AIDS activist photojournalism of Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta. $5. New expanded hours: Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

AXIS Dance Student Showcase

Tue 14 - Desserts and Dance @ ODC Theater Fundraiser for the programming at the stylishly renovated dance space.

Enjoy treats from Anthony’s Cookies, Arizmendi, Dianda’s, La Victoria, Mission Pie, and Pinkie’s Bakery. Wine, beer, and specialty drinks. $35-$50. 8pm-10pm.

Dinner at 6pm is $125, with dishes from AQ, Bar Tartine, Delfina, Foreign Cinema, Hayes Street Grill, Slow Club and Universal Café. Performances by Scott Wells & Dancers (photo above) and RAWdance.

3153 17th St. 863-6606. www.odcdance. org/indulge www.odctheater.org

Man Dance

Smarty Pants Trivia @ Stray Bar Kitty Tapata hosts the game show fun with popcorn and prizes at the dog-friendly gay/ straight bar in Bernal Heights. Tuesdays, 8pm. 309 Cortland. www.straybarsf.com

Wed 15>> 19th Century San Francisco @ Robert Tat Gallery Fascinating exhibit of vintage prints from the Bay Area’s early days. Tue-Sat 11am-5:30pm & by appointment. Thru Sept. 1. 49 Geary St. Suite 410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Candlelight Flow Yoga @ LGBT Center David Clark leads various yoga poses and practices, plus meditation and breathing exercises. Bring your own mat and water bottle, etc. $10. 7pm-8:30pm.

1800 Market St. www.4dbliss.com

John Huston Films @ Castro Theatre

Shamanism Classes @ LGBT Center LGBT class on finding your animal spirit. $25. 10am-12pm. 1800 Market St. RSVP: Lizsanpablo@aol.com www.sfcenter.org

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory @ Julia Morgan Theatre, Berkeley Local singer-musician Vernon Bush stars in Berkeley Playhouse’s musical stage adaptation of the Roald Dahl book (a new script adapted with permissions from the Dahl estate), with songs from the original film adapatation, about a boy who wins a visit to a mysterious candy factory. $17-$35.

Thu 7pm. Sat 2pm. Sun 12pm, 5pm. Thru Aug 19. 2640 College Ave. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Sun 12>> Brett Thomas @ Castro Country Club Reflections of My Mind, an exhibit of evocative nature photographs by the local artist, at the LGBT sober space.

Exhibit thru August. 4058 18th St. www.castrocountryclub.org

A Flock of Seagulls @ Yoshi’s The English New Wave band (“I Ran”) performs 80s hits and new music. $12.50-$25.

7pm. 1330 Fillmore St. 655-5600. www.yoshis.com

SF Hiking Club @ Point Bonita Join LGBT outdoors enthusiasts on a 10-mile hike from the Golden Gate Bridge to the newly renovated lighthouse in the Marin Headlands. Carpool meets at the Safeway sign, Market St. at Dolores, 8:45am. (510) 759-5664. www.sfhiking.com

Skyeview: A Sistah’s View of the World @ Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland Book launch and reading of The Paris Chapter of the new women of color travel series; reading and live performances by Anna Maria Flechero, Lisa Cohen, with MC Liz Hendrickson, and opening remarks

by Paola Bacchetta of UC Berkeley’s Dept. of Gender & Women’s Studies.

2pm-5pm. 406 14th St. Oakland. www.joycegordongallery.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Mon 13>> Royal Families of the Americas @ SF Public Library, Harvey Milk/Eureka Valley Exhibit of photographs by Karen Massing of four years of pageantry and royalty in the LGBT International Court System. Thru Sept. 15. 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th St. www.karenmassingpix.com www.sfpl.org

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. Perry speaks with Top Chef: Just Desserts winner and gay activist Yigit Pura; also, mental health issues with Dr. Ronald Holt. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Tommy Igoe Band @ The Rrazz Room Accomplished drummer welcomes guest stars at his monthly concert. $25. 7:30pm.

Also Aug. 20. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Retrospective of the prolific film director’s works. Aug 15, The African Queen (2:30, 7pm) and The Man Who Would Be King (4:30, 9pm). Aug 22, The Misfits (2:30, 7pm) and Fat City (4:55, 9:20). Aug 28, Chinatown (2pm, 7pm) and Prizzi’s Honor (4:30, 9:25). Aug 29, The Night of the Iguana (2:30, 7pm) and Under the Volcano (4:50, 9:20). 429 Castro St. $8.50-$11. www.castrotheatre.com

Smack Dab @ Magnet Author Lewis DeSimone (Chemistry, The Heart’s History) reads from and discusses his gay-themed novels. Open mic sign-up 7:30; event 8pm. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Thu 16>> Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge The classy drag revue (3rd Thursdays) has moved to a new location, and celebrates its 11th year; Victoria Secret, Alexandria, Chanel, Maria Garza, Mini Minerva, Kipper, Daffney Deluxe and Ruby LeBrowne; dinner seating at 7pm. Show at 8pm. No cover. 124 Ellis St. 421-8700. www.fauxgirls.com

These Walls Can Speak @ GLBT History Museum Telling the Stories of Queer Places, a panel presentation on historic LGBT spaces and their loss or preservation, with Transgender pioneer Felicia Elizondo, historian and curator Gerard Koskovich, architect Alan Martinez, preservation consultant and architect Gerry Takano and architectural historian Shayne Watson; architectural historian Carson Anderson moderates. $8$12. 6pm. 4127 18th St. 777-5455. www.glbthistory.org

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

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

<< Leather+

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

Mr. S Leather

Seen at the Up Your Alley street fair: The Mr. S Leather booth is always a fun time.

Let’s hear it for the boys!

by Scott Brogan

I

t’s come to my attention that a new group has sprung up over the past month, the YLDG: Young Leathermen’s Discussion Group.

The SF boys of Leather have been defunct for quite some time, so it’s exciting that a new and different group geared towards the young men in our community has been created. The group is a branch of the ongoing Leathermen’s Discussion Group [LDG], which shows me that it is in good hands. As I understand it, the new group is being mentored by the LDG. The focus is on providing a space for young men, mostly subs/boys but not solely, to congregate and talk about their specific needs, concerns, etc. It’s about time! The SF girls of Leather have been going strong for several years now, filling a need in the girls’ community. What we’ve been lacking is something for the boys.

The YLDG meetings feature

speakers and guests who provide information about a wide variety of topics and issues. I will give more information once I do more research. I hope to be invited to attend a meeting (hint, hint!) soon, but until then I want to get the word out so subs/boys know it’s there as a resource.

They meet every Sunday afternoon in the upstairs playspace at Mr. S Leather (398A 8th St.). They have a group on Facebook: w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / groups/189277717849683. Check it out if you’re interested in attending.

International Leather Sir/boy & Bootblack 2012: Congratulations to the 2012 International Leather Sir Jack Duke of Dallas, TX; International Leather boy “boy bammbamm” of Kansas; and International Leather Bootblack Ruin of Seattle, WA. They won their titles during Up Your Alley Weekend on Sat., July 28. The ILSb-ICBB contest weekend took place at the SF Holiday Inn and featured the contest (broken up be-

tween Fri. & Sat. nights) plus many other events, seminars and more.

Due to work responsibilities, I was unable to attend. It was reported to me that the weekend was another big success. I’m not surprised. Based on my experiences from last year, I assumed it would be another blast.

Sure enough, it was.

Sadly, the contest weekend is moving to Dallas, TX next year. We hate to see it go. The contest now has new owners/executive producers: IML 2009 Jeffrey Payne and David Roy. If Payne’s stellar year as IML is any indication, the contest is in very capable and sexy hands. Perhaps a trip to the always-welcoming city of Dallas is in my future? I hope so.

I always have a great time in Dallas.

Go to: www.ilsb-icbb.com for more information.

Another production change of note is the addition of Sharrin Spector to the International Ms. Leather/ Bootblack (IMsL/IMsBB) producing team. This contest weekend is staying in SF, scheduled for April 18-21, 2013.

Go to: www.IMsL.org for details.

See page 27 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Aug. 9: Koktail Club Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Drink specials and Hamisi doing Hammy Time. 5-10 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs, afterhours fun! 9 p.m.-4 a.m.

Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com.

Thu., Aug. 9: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse.

Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., Aug. 12: Truck Bust Sundays at Truck. $1 beer bust. 4-8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Fri., Aug. 10: Fridays Underwear at Kok Bar. Boxers, jockstraps, undies and nasty fun! 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Fri., Aug. 10: Lick It! at The Powerhouse. Sexy Lance Holman hosts this monthly fundraiser. Go-go boys, raffles, bootblacks! 9 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Aug. 10: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom).

10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys, drink specials! Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: GearUp or Go Home! at BeatBox (314 11th St.). Party where you can wear your gear and have a great time. Clothes check available. $15 before 11 p.m., $20 after. 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Go to Facebook for details.

Sat., Aug. 11: Fandango Post-Flea Event at the SF Citadel (181 Eddy). Starts 8 p.m. Sat., ends Sun. at 1 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org and www.smflea.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: Leather Beer Bust at Kok Bar. $5 Rolling Rock Beer Bust, $3 all other beer and well koktails.

5-9 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 100% SoMa Beef! 9 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Sun., Aug. 12: Jockstrap Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 3-7 p.m.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Aug. 12: SF MAsT (Masters and slaves Together) at the SF Citadel. 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Aug. 12: Baby Daddy at Kok Bar. 9 p.m.-close.

Drink & shot specials all night, cartoons, music and no cover! Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Aug. 12: PoHo Sundays at The Powerhouse.

Dollar drafts all day! Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Mon., Aug. 13: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. 8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., Aug. 14: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel. 6:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org/ calendar/.

Tue., Aug. 14: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., Aug. 14: Kok Block at Kok Bar. Happy hour prices all night. Pool tournament. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Wed., Aug. 15: Pit Stop at Kok Bar. Happy Hour prices all night. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Wed., Aug. 15: Bare Bear, a Night at the Baths at The Water Garden (1010 The Alameda, San Jose). 6-10 p.m.

Go to: www.thewatergarden.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: Boot Lickin’ at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Wed., Aug. 15: Underwear Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison), a male-only club. Doors open 8 p.m.12 a.m. Play till late. Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

Sat., Aug. 11: SF Men’s Spanking Party at the Power Exchange (220 Jones St.), a male-only event.

Go to: www.voy.com/201188/.

Wed., Aug. 15: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse.

Free clothes check. 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

▼

Karrnal >>

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Sex with strangers

by John F. Karr

F

ast Friends is not only the title of a new TitanMen movie, but a declaration of what you’ll be with the crop of new and recent faces Titan’s been featuring. In this movie, that would be Will Swagger, Jesse Jackman, Stany Falcone, and Mack Manus.

The three scenes of Fast Friends are connected by the slimmest thread: in each one, a guy meets a stranger and they fuck. Quelle surprise! In the first scene, for instance, Will Swagger’s taking an outdoor work break from an apartment remodel when Jessy Ares (just ending an excellent run as a TitanMen Exclusive) saunters by and sizes up the workman. Their amazingly terse mutual pick-up isn’t much longer than this: Whatcha doin’? Workin’. Nearby? Yeah. Wanna get into something? I swear, that succinct and suggestive clincher would snare me right snappy even if it comprised the entire conversation.

Cut to the worksite, and cut to the chase. Ares has his thick and rocksolid cock out in a flash, and Swagger’s showing him what sucktion is all about. Ares is soon going for his ass, and fucks Swagger as vigorously as Swagger sucked him. Later, Ares lays Swagger on his back, which provides swell views of his potent insertions, as well as the reactions of Swagger’s cock.

I think a basic requirement of a wellfilmed fuck scene is that it lets us see both cocks, don’t you? Swagger lays a pool of snow-white jizz on his belly, and Ares seconds that emotion.

Too bad there’s no attention paid at all to Swagger’s nips, which are popup nubs. Doesn’t every apartment restoration have a couple of clothespins laying around?

Next up is businessman Jesse Jackman, another TitanMen Exclusive and the real-life boyfriend of Dirk Caber.

He’s distracted by the noise outside his window, where a homeless dude is dumpster diving. Jackman shoos the guy away, but reconsiders and invites him in for a shower. I think it’s unlikely that a fastidious-looking dude like Jackman would drag in such a bedraggled castoff. But it’s easy to suspend disbelief when we see them in the shower, where Mack Manus is expertly applying his businessman’s blowjob.

Jackman is a certifiable Dad. He’s quite attractive, with shaved head, cropped beard, and a well-built body generously graced with honey-colored hair. Whatta hunk. He keeps his glasses on and looks delicious.

His elongated dick describes a large half-circle as it arches up and away from his body before curving downward. As Manus sucks him, the first couple inches flatten back against his

<<

TitanMen

Jessy Ares, Stany Falcone and Jesse Jackman star in TitanMen’s Fast Friends.

groin before considerably more than a couple inches arch outward and subsequently down Manus’ gullet.

Jackman’s glasses come off only when he gets to suck the fat cock of Mr. Manus, whose foreskin retracts so far when he’s hard (which is all the time) as to look like he’s circumcised. But what do we notice when Jackman gets down there? A homeless person with a Speedo tan-line?

Methinks not. Perhaps a different story-line should have been concocted. At any rate, Manus’ meat is inspirational, and Jackman’s a fine fellator.

After a while he rims Manus, and smiles when his tongue is up that cootie. And then – well, only then does he begin to bathe his scavenging, soiled sex partner. Ewwww.

I was so intrigued by the broadfaced, husky-bodied and fully adult Manus that I paused the film to do some background research. Who is this guy? Turns out he’s been in the business for a dozen years. He describes himself as bi, and he’s starred in some rough-action European films, founded his own company, and directed some features.

On his MySpace page, he claims he’s 41 (it’s hard to tell how long ago the page was put up), and he does have a raunchy, lived-in look. There are lots of photos to be found. Most prime are some from a half-dozen years ago when his hair was long

www.ebar.com Mack Studio

Mack Manus as a sultry Tarzan.

and full – he looks like a sultry Tarzan. I wish he hadn’t cut it. At any rate, he evinces no special chemistry with Jackman, though his fuck has a fair amount of oomph.

A final scene finds tourist Stany Falcone asking Tristan Jaxx where the Castro is. Jaxx tell him it’s right over there. Which is impossible, as they’re adjacent to an overhead freeway. Jaxx merely wants to whisk Falcone into his nearby workshop, where you know what happens.

Falcone sucks Jaxx, and Jaxx fucks Falcone. It’s all rather calm. But it’s spectacularly capped by Jaxx’s orgasm. If he shot a couple more inches, he’d leave spots on the ceiling.▼ www.TitanMen.com

Leather +

From page 26

Missing the fair: I missed Dore Alley (Up Your Alley) this year due to work. Contrary to what you might think, my glamorous job here at the B.A.R. isn’t my only vocation. Even though I was working, I did get to experience part of the fair vicariously through one of my co-workers. His girlfriend is an office manager at one of the apartment buildings across the street from the Powerhouse. She had a front-row seat to the festivities, which from her vantage point was more a parade of fetish and depravity than a fair. She regularly texted updates to my co-worker throughout the day. I’ve never experienced the fair through the eyes of a nonkink yet savvy straight couple. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll be the one led by a leash past her building’s lobby window? Naw, I’m too much of a pushy bottom for that.▼

Rich Stadtmiller

2012 International Leather Sir Jack Duke, boy bamm-bamm, and Bootblack Ruin pose after winning their titles. Congratulations!

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

▼

DVD>>

Doing the right thing

by Tavo Amador

T

raditional American freedoms are being threatened by Big Government, quasi-Marxist bureaucrats.

An atheistic homosexual agenda is destroying the moral order. These aren’t paraphrases from recent presidential campaign speeches by Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum or Michelle Bachmann. They’re not the ravings of Rush Limbaugh. Instead, they are typical of the accusations hurled by Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and his counterparts in the House Un-American Activities Committee during the late 1940s and early 50s, a period known as the Red Scare.

Among the targets of this witch hunt were liberal Hollywood actors, writers, directors, and producers, whether or not they had been members of the American Communist Party – not that it should have mattered.

Sadly, many movie executives, stars (Robert Taylor, Adolphe Menjou), writers, and directors (Elia Kazan) betrayed their colleagues during congressional hearings.

Those named would be blacklisted, unable to earn a living. Some, however, stood up to the paranoid right-wingers. Among them was Carl Foreman (1914-84), author of High Noon (1952), a western about one man’s refusal to compromise his ideals. It has just been re-issued in a 60th Anniversary DVD, and remains a stinging rebuke to a dark period in American history.

The film opens with a shot of

Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef) waiting near a rural train station for two other gunslingers (Sheb Wooley, Robert Wilke). The Noon train, due in about 90 minutes, will bring their leader, paroled killer Ben Miller (Ian MacDonald). They intend to avenge themselves on Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) and others who sent Miller to prison.

It’s Sunday and Will’s wedding day. While the criminals wait, he and new bride Amy (Grace Kelly) celebrate with friends and neighbors. Kane turns in his badge – a new Marshal arrives the next day.

Amy, a Quaker, has persuaded Will to become a farmer. They’re leaving within the hour.

The frantic station agent warns officials that Miller and his bunch will soon be coming into town. Will, listening to Amy and his friends, starts to leave, but changes his mind.

He won’t abandon his community.

He asks for help. The responses are disappointing. One by one, people he trusted offer reasons not to get involved. They urge Will to flee, but if he doesn’t, they won’t assist him.

Why should they risk their lives and those of their families? It’s easier to wait for the new Marshal. Besides, if Will is gone, there may not be any trouble. But Will does what he thinks is right, even if it means destroying his marriage.

Only one person understands him, Mrs. Helen Ramirez (the remarkable Katy Jurado). Up until a year earlier, she had been Will’s mistress. Before

that, she had been Miller’s paramour, and is currently having an affair with Will’s deputy, Harvey Pell (a sexy, buffed Lloyd Bridges), who insists he should have been named the new Marshal.

Will warns Helen that she’s in danger, but she’s already planning to leave. She owns the town’s only saloon and is a silent partner in its general store. She arranges to sell both. Amy thinks Will is still in love with Helen, and confronts her.

Fred Zinnemann’s direction is taut, with the tension escalating by the minute.

The gripping final scenes are superb, even if they reinforce the myth of rugged American individualism.

He gets fine work from the actors. Cooper, politically one of Hollywood’s most conservative stars, won his second Best Actor Oscar. Kelly, 27 years younger than Cooper, is fine as Amy. Two years later, she would be a major star, before retiring in 1956 to become Princess of Monaco. Bridges is excellent, but the acting honors go to the sensuous Jurado, already well-established in Mexican cinema.

Hers is one of the most complex portraits of an independent woman dealing with racism and sexism in the West. She effortlessly dominates her scenes, showing intelligence, warmth, wit, vulnerability, pride,

and fear. Others in the large cast include Thomas Mitchell, Otto Kruger, Harry Morgan (decades before M*A*S*H) and Lon Chaney, Jr., all of whom are memorable.

Foreman’s brilliant script compresses the action into around 90 minutes. The story opens at 10:33 a.m., and clocks regularly show the approaching Noon hour and Will’s diminishing options. It’s a superb example of the Aristotelian unities of time, action, and place. Dimitri Tiomkin’s Academy Award-winning score adds immensely to the drama. During the opening credits

aand scenes, Tex Ritter (father o of John) sings the famous balllad, “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh M My Darling,” which acts like a Greek chorus in a classic ttragedy, warning of the moral cconflict the protagonist faces.

IIt won the Best Song Oscar.

F Floyd Crosby (father of David) w won the Best Cinematography A Academy Award for his stunn ning black-and-white camera w work. The film lost the top p prize to The Greatest Show oon Earth, among the biggest m mistakes in the Academy’s h history.

Producer Stanley Kramer, o one of Tinseltown’s most coura rageous liberals, made the film o on a skimpy $750,000 budget.

Z Zinnemann, a Viennese-born Je Jew who fled the Nazis, was an another who wouldn’t back do down from his beliefs. Both went on to successful careers. Foreman, whose screenplay got an Oscar nomination, was blacklisted. (He was also the uncredited co-producer of the movie.) He left for Europe, writing scripts under a pseudonym.

He and blacklisted writer Michael Wilson authored the Academy Award-winning screenplay for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), but couldn’t claim the credit, which was given to French novelist Pierre Boulle. That shameful event was rectified when Foreman and Wilson received posthumous credit for their work.▼

Courtesy FAMSF

Marcel Duchamp, Robert Lebel, André Breton, Éditions Trianon, H.P. Roché, Eau & gaz a tous les étages (Imitated Readymade) and the book Sur Marcel Duchamp by Robert Lebel, André Breton, and H. P. Roché (France: Éditions Trianon, 1959), ca. 1959.

<<

Rene Bouche

From page 17

profiteers, who took pleasure and made money wherever they could find it.

Yet Bouche maintains a reverence for beauty and a tattered joie de vivre in drawings that convey the spell the City of Lights has long exerted on the romantic imagination, though his words and insights can provide a sobering counterpoint. Viewing the Rue Royale, seen here jammed with bikes and horse-cabs, he remembers headier days of luxury and abundance when the hectic boulevard was “one of the glamorous shopping streets of Paris [with] windows displaying perfumes, shoes, books, pastry, jewelry, books and records; there were elegant, world-famous places like the Maxim and Larue.”

Some establishments remain, he writes, as “shadows of a splendid past, but the rest are requisitioned

or closed or open but empty.”

You can almost hear the glasses tinkling above the laughter and chatter in scenes of cafes and bars overflowing with patrons and American GIs flirting with pretty French girls, who are shown elsewhere whizzing by on old bicycles.

“The Bars, hundreds of them, grew like mushrooms in Paris the last four years,” he recalls. “And between six and nine, they are so overcrowded that people stand in ranges of two and three behind the counters.

Their owners made millions with the Germans and keep making millions now with the Americans and with the whole new crop of sleek guys and their girls who profit from the ruin of France.”

With the resurrection of the arts, Parisians pack theaters that had been shuttered, anticipating performances with a renewed enthusiasm.

The excitement of the murmuring crowds, depicted by Bouche milling around the lobby or waiting for

the curtain to rise on the venerable Theatre Francais, is palpable. “Before the war the theatres in Paris had an elegant audience of slightly bored socialites; the houses were half empty,” he notes. “Now, in spite – or because? – of their daily hardships, people fill the theaters to the brim every night of the week!”

Adjacent to an image of visitors descending a staircase beneath a grand archway of the Louvre, he cheers the survival and triumphant reopening of the mighty institution: “The first weeks gave the most reassuring confirmation of the cultural vitality of the French people and hunger for good art,” he says. “The New-Riches weren’t there, but the real people.

Those who know.”

Bouche is presented in conjunction with the Legion’s Man Ray/Lee Miller show (Bouche knew fashion model and photographer Miller through Vogue), as is Marcel Duchamp: The Book and the Box, a tantalizing but very slight satellite ex-

Courtesy FAMSF

René Bouché, Au Louvre, from The Morning After: Paris, 1945. Pen and ink with color additions.

hibition with seven unconventional works that defy categorization and blur the boundaries of book, objet d’art and sculpture – blurring boundaries being Duchamp’s métier. Easily the greatest subversive of Western art, the Dada/Surrealist rabble-rouser had an aptitude for controversy, directing the conversation and challenging orthodox assumptions concerning the very nature of art. No cow was too sacred for Duchamp, who, in 1919, painted a mustache and beard on a parody of the “Mona Lisa.” He added an

inscription in French that roughly translates: “She has a hot ass,” or as the master himself once eloquently phrased it, “There is fire down below.”

Among the idiosyncratic objects on view are a Surrealist exhibition catalog cover with a rubber breast, and “Boite en Valise” (1941), a leather suitcase doubling as a portable museum containing tiny replicas and color reproductions of his works.▼ Bouche runs through Oct. 14; Duchamp through Nov. 11, at the Legion of Honor.

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 9-15, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Books >>

groups (“I played with pointy th things, and I wanted them to dr draw my blood”), which she w writes about in graphic detail, an incremental success on the and p performance artist circuit and as an advocate within transgender co communities at large.

Bornstein, a former arts write for this newspaper, dictates er h struggles and triumphs as her a transgender personality with st striking honesty. She emerges as a outspoken identity through an t revelations unveiled in this the s serpentine life story written w raw emotion and a touch with o dark humor. Though the auof t thor has fidgeted with multiple r relocations from Philadelphia t San Francisco to Seattle, to s finally settles down in New she Y York City with her girlfriend, t three cats, two dogs, a turtle – a not an ounce of regret.▼ and

Surviving Scientology

by Jim Piechota A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein; Beacon Press, $24.95 here’s a personal letter attached to the advance copy of transgendered performance artist and playwright Kate Bornstein’s frank new memoir A Queer and Pleasant Danger. In it, she not only openly (and curiously) admits that “being a man never worked for me, and I’m certainly not a woman,” but emotionally appeals to readers to help her become reunited with her estranged daughter and grandchildren. Her daughter Jessica is a “high-level executive” in the Church of Scientology’s most holy order, The Sea Organization, and their laws forbid her from speaking with anyone who has abandoned the group, as Bornstein did and writes about in stirring detail. Bornstein’s

T

story circles around the controversial nature of Scientology, and as her life as both a man, then a woman unfolds, it becomes clear she has emerged as an assured, powerful representative for the LGBTQ community.

She was born Albert Bornstein on the Jersey Shore to a “touchy-feely family.” Her Mom was an early civil rights supporter, and Dad was an esteemed doctor who, as the author seems to take particular pride in revealing, was Jewish but never bar mitzvahed and “had breasts.” Albert’s awkward adolescence was studded with uncomfortable sexual attempts with women, obsessions with boys, acting, and anorexia, but eventually her life became influenced by an illfated indoctrination into the “applied religious philosophy” of the Church of Scientology.

Bornstein writes pages of fascinating factoids about her 12 years inside

the controversial organization (surveys, reincarnation, Commodores, Flagships, thetans), including the billion-year servitude contract she signed once married to wife Molly, who would give birth to daughter Jessica.

After leaving the Church (a move which to Scientologists means she became “a danger to everyone everywhere”), her life began to take dramatic twists as an “ex-cult member and secret girl,” including bouts with Borderline Personality Disorder, the grand gender transition from Albert Herman to Katherine Vandam, and harrowing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Further self-examination revealed a need to become an active participant in S&M

K Kate Bornstein will discuss her memoir at Books, Inc., h 2 2275 Market St., on Tues., Aug. 14 at 7 p.m.

A

Books >>

Letters to myself

by Jim Piechota The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to their Younger Selves, edited by Sarah Moon; Scholastic, $17.99

W

hile we are all at the mercy of time and tide, wouldn’t it be great to create a time capsule from the present day intended for our younger selves to receive? Imparting the wisdom of age and experience to a naive, innocent, budding queer boy or girl (who happens to be us!) is genius in hindsight, and so goes the inspiration for Brooklyn editor and teacher Sarah Moon’s wonderfully affecting literary project, The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to their Younger Selves.

The book, assisted by actor and contributing editor James Lecesne (his short film Trevor won an Academy Award), will be instructive reading material for the younger

<<

gay set eager to know more indepth factoids about the popular contributing authors, and to know how their lives were changed both positively (there are many giddy, humorous entries) and negatively (some write grimly about suicide attempts in moments of confused desperation) by acknowledging their homosexuality.

The anthology incorporates letters from 64 well-known, awardwinning LGBT authors, poets, and varied personalities who are writing to their younger selves offering all forms of cautionary advice, celebratory news about the future of gays and lesbians, and grim deterrence from the desperate measures many authors have taken to either end or permanently alter their young impressionable lives. Recognizable names are scattered everywhere in these pages: Michael Cunningham urges his young-boy self to “worry less” and “have faith in the fact that

your sexual identity, which sometimes seems to you like an impediment, is one of your greatest gifts.”

Author Christopher Rice tells his

y youthful self “to take y yourself less seriously,” e even on days when “selfa awareness can feel like g guzzling sand.” Double L Lambda Award-winning S San Francisco author J Jewelle Gomez tells her 1 10-year-old self she will b become a “colored, lesb bian, feminist writer – sorry, nothing to be d done about that – so just b breathe.”

Soon-to-be S Santa Fe, New Mexico re resident Armistead Maup contributes memopin r ries of the male image o a copy of Demigods on m magazine that had “so u undone you” as a boy an will become a great and source of future amusement when framed and hung on the kitchen wall as an adult.

Sections of graphic comics punc-

Travis Wall

From page 17

mom and his boyfriend as well. Each episode also includes a few full dance routines, said Wall.

Look for Wall’s choreography in this summer’s dance film Step Up: Revolution, as well as in music videos

by Florence and the Machine, Adele and Demi Lovato. Also, as if he’s not busy enough, this fall Wall is headed to Broadway to choreograph the new musical Bare. That’s pretty good for a kid who sprang onto the dance floor of his mother’s suburban studio in Virginia Beach as a toddler. “I was born into it,” said Wall with pride.

Despite his contemporary jazz background, Wall said he prefers to dance barefoot. But he learned every modern style, “ballet, jazz, tap, flamenco, gymnastics. My mom was very well-rounded.”

Wall became a professional at a young age, featured in commercials and dance competitions. At 12, he was a featured kid and understudy in the Broadway revival of The Music Man. Six years later, he was touring with the New York City Dance Alliance.

“I moved to Los Angeles when I was 18,” said Wall of his time competing at 18 for the second season of SYTYCD. “Then it was back to New York City for three years. Now I’m here [in L.A.] – for now.”

What’s it like being a contestant on a nationally broadcast dance show versus being a choreographer?

“I felt a lot more pressure being a

Dancer/choreographer Travis Wall: ‘I was born into it.’

Travis Wall and the cast of All the Right Moves.

choreographer,” said Wall. “It’s on you if the contestant gets kicked off. It’s really stressful!” Wall gets only two days with the dancers before the routine is aired, he said. “You only get five hours total to put out a dance that’s one minute and 45 seconds.”

Having just wrapped four months of taping, Wall is well aware of the fraction of aired footage that will pale in comparison to having a video crew follow their every move for almost half a year. But, he promised, “you do get to see a lot of dancing: rehearsals, and two full routines.”

Wall said he supports any kind of dancing on TV, even that which might loosen their standards a bit.

“Any show on TV that shows some form that’s entertaining, that’s keeping dance out there. Some of us have worked our whole lives for what we do. To be recognized in these shows is great. Dance is kind of disappearing in some ways. So I’m happy that the world is seeing it through these shows.”

Being on national TV and being openly gay has never been a big deal to Wall. His identity and his romantic relationship offer a refreshingly uncontroversial aspect to the world of entertainment.

“When I was a contestant on the show, I wasn’t high-profile enough to make a statement,” said Wall. “I’ve

lived my life in public for the past four or five years. I never thought about that much, except, you know, ‘This is me.’”

Nevertheless, Wall understands that LGBT artists and teens can face problems on and offstage, which is why, along with supporting other nonprofits and causes, Wall has worked with the Point Foundation, which provides financial support, mentoring and leadership training to students who are marginalized due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

“It shouldn’t be treated like a big deal,” he said. “Does my sexuality make me who I am? No, my craft does.”

But Wall agrees with some statements made by SYTYCD judge Nigel Lythgoe, who frequently focuses on a

tuate the anthology as well. Jane’s World creator Paige Braddock counsels herself with advice not to “follow the herd” or “be afraid to take chances.” Portland graphic artist Erika Moen’s one-page cartoon illustrates the importance of loving her 14-year-old self “freely, without the prison of rules that labels create.”

And popular gay cartoonist Eric Orner returns to a backyard barbecue before his high school graduation to tell himself that everything he’d been going through now and in the future will all be “worth it.”

Allusions to the “It Gets Better” video campaign will be obvious, but that reference shouldn’t distract from the importance of this imaginative effort. Both this book and that uplifting, star-studded mission are life-positive and extremely important experimental projects for young people at odds with their sexuality or stuck in a place they can no longer comfortably call home.

What’s even better: half of the royalties from The Letter Q book sales will go toward support for The Trevor Project, the humanitarian organization dedicated to preventing LGBTQ suicide.▼ male dancer’s “masculinity.” Lythgoe’s opinions about the few male-male duets veered toward homophobia, according to several critics.

“To be a dancer in the industry, you need to be masculine,” he said.

“I like to see a strong male dancer, particularly one who can dance convincingly with women. That’s what you’re hired to do. We need to believe it. Dancing is a form of acting. I put on a face when I go onstage. Everything [Lythgoe] says is legit. But it may come across as a bit harsh.”

Harsh as well to think about the more grueling aspects of the reality show All the Right Moves, where, said Wall, “The cameras were everywhere.

I’m used to it, but there were moments where I was so stressed out and tired; I just did not want them there.

But they wanted to capture the moment. In the five months they filmed the show, they pulled every last string out of me, including healthwise.”

Now, recovering from that experience, working on a tour for the company, and developing other dance projects, Wall offered some advice to young dancers.

“Remember your voice and find it.

It gets really tough. Keep trying, keep pushing, set goals. I set goals and remembered about trying to get where I want to be in my life.”

Considering that “everything” was, and is now on his list, dancewise, the young man is already well on his way.▼ www.traviswall.tv www.worldofwonder.net

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 9-15, 2012

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Music >>

Discotheque deluxe

by Gregg Shapiro

W

ayward Fire (Modern Art), the funky flame of a debut disc by The Chain Gang of 1974 (a.k.a. the versatile Kamtin Mohager), is a musical mash-note to 1980s synth pop from beginning to end. While the subject matter (a break-up) is no reason for dancing, TCG 74 keeps the beats free-flowing and the funky bass line snapping. So what if you’re dancing with tears in your eyes? Just try to keep your feet and pelvis still when you hear the mind-blowing “Hold On,” as well as “Devil Is a Lady,” “Undercover,” “Ethical Drugs” and “Tell Me.” Mohager, another straight dude with a serious appreciation for the power of the BPM, has a bright future on the club circuit.

On An Album by Korallreven (Acephale), Swedish electro pair Korallreven also gives a tip of the stocking cap to the 1980s, on tracks such as “As Young as Yesterday,” “The Truest Faith,” “Comin’ Closer” and the mini chill-out epic “Comin’ Down.” But they also sound like they are keenly aware of their responsibility to keep electronic music both hot and cool in the 21st century.

Guest appearances by The Concretes’ Victoria Bergsman and the whack-a-doodle Julianna Barwick also do much for the duo’s credibility.

Is anyone else out there having as much fun as Brite Futures on their album Dark Past (Turnout)? Previously known as Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (really!), Brite Futures haven’t lost their sense of humor in the course of the name change, a fact that is immediately obvious on dance-beatdriven opener “Baby Rain,” all about “how you make a baby.” “Kissed Her Sister” details twin trouble, and “Jag in a Jungle” is such a pure dance-party anthem it’s bound to make LMFAO jealous. Ditto for “Best Party Ever (So Far).” The “blacklight fantasy” of “Cosmic Horn” sounds like it owes a debt to the B52’s, while “Black Wedding” will have you checking your mailbox for your invitation.

Lead singer Adeline Michèle and head songwriters and musicians Eugene Cho and Dan Balis are the core trio of “disco orchestra” Escort on their self-titled Escort Records debut.

When the disc begins with the Latin beat of “Caméleon Chameleon,” you might think you were listening to a track from a Ze Records release from 30 years ago. Escort’s respectful cover of the late-70s classic “Cocaine Blues” further emphasizes the vintage vibe, as does a Doctor Buzzard-style disco

remake of the 1937 tune “A Sailboat in the Moonlight.” But Escort is hip to the calendar, and songs such as “Starlight,” “Why Oh Why,” the Casablanca Records-style “A Bright New Life” and “Karawane,” timeless though they may be, belong to today’s discos and dance-floors.

Even though the first three, brief songs on Out of Frequency (BMG Rights) by Copenhagen export The Asteroids Galaxy Tour sound like a series of false starts, the 15-track album is a frequently rewarding, spaced-out, retro-pop update delight. “Major,” a sassy and brassy spine-tickler, is followed by the exuberant “Heart Attack.” “Cloak & Dagger” comes across like the lost theme song to a 60s Cold War spy thriller, complete with horns and whistler, while “Theme from 45 Eugenia” is a pseudo-psychedelic trip. “Mafia,” about “the bad boys of Russia,” pays the funk forward, and “Suburban Space Invader” is guaran-

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Model/Escorts / >> teed to mess with your brain. “When It Come to Us” is a heartbreaker with a beat, worthy of the application of iridescent lipstick and wet-look go-go boots. Appealing if dark closer “Givin’ It Back” does just that.

If you saw the pared down (two members) acoustic Graffiti6 tour in late 2011, you might be surprised at the dance-oriented direction of the band’s full-length debut album Colours (Capitol). Songs such as “Stone in My Heart” and “Lay Me Down” are destined for the nearest dance club.

Can’t you just picture a salivating DJ or remixer rubbing hands together in anticipation?

Possibly the most bizarre and challenging of all the discs here, Keep Your Dreams (Modular) by Canyons can also be the most rewarding. Unwilling to be labeled as a dance duo, the Aussie pair makes music that makes your head spin along with your body. From the bouncy and brassy French disco of “Circadia” to the rhythmic gallop of “My Rescue,” the acid-house flashback of “See Blind Through,” and the slithery funk of “Blue Snakes,” these are the kinds of dreams you wake up remembering. ▼

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August 9-15, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

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