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Vol. 45 • No. 18 • April 30-May 6, 2015

Marriage advocates optimistic of Supreme Court win

Bruce Jenner during the ABC interview last week.

Mixed reaction to Jenner interview

by Lisa Keen

by David-Elijah Nahmod

here was mixed reaction from trans community leaders to former Olympian Bruce Jenner’s announcement that he is a woman and undergoing a gender transition. Jenner’s news, made during a two-hour prime time interview with veteran journalist Diane Sawyer on ABC’s 20/20, showed him as humorous, somewhat nervous, and candid in his realization that “for all intents and purposes I am a woman.” Much of the interview was conducted at Jenner’s Malibu home. Jenner explained his transition this way: He feels he was created by God who said, “Hey, let’s give him the soul of a female and let’s see how he deals with that.” “So, here I am,” Jenner said, choking up. “Stuck – and I hate the word – a girl stuck in a guy’s body. I hate that terminology. I’m me. I’m a person and this is who I am ... My brain is much more female than it is male. It’s hard for people to understand that, but that’s what my soul is.” Jenner, 65, who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics, is known by millions for his participation in the hit reality series Keeping Up With the Kardashians. He did not state a new name during the interview, which was seen by an estimated 16.9 million viewers April 24. Sawyer also said during the program that for now, Jenner has not indicated that a new pronoun be used. That fact rankled some who watched the show. Veronika Fimbres, of San Francisco, who is a transgender woman, said that she was “uncomfortable” with Jenner’s continued use of male pronouns. “He is holding onto his straight male white privilege, which he seems reluctant to acquiesce,” Fimbres said. “I can only hope that his good intentions have a good outcome.” Pastor Megan Rohrer, the transgender leader of Grace Lutheran Church in the Sunset district, had no issue with Jenner’s continued use of male pronouns. But Rohrer, who prefers gender-neutral pronouns, acknowledged that pronoun usage could be a slippery slope. See page 9 >>

Katrina Voris and Natasha Gosiaco, left, enjoyed a San Francisco rally to support arguments Tuesday in the marriage equality case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

ame-sex marriage legal advocates who were at Tuesday’s oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court expressed optimism that Justice Anthony Kennedy will once again come through with the majority vote. The first question from the justices was about the rights of states to regulate marriage and, although attorneys for same-sex couples tried numerous times to refocus attention to the dam-

age that bans on same-sex marriage inflict on the rights of LGBT people, the focus stayed largely on states’ rights throughout the argument. The court seemed split on the second question of whether a state can refuse to recognize a marriage license from another state. Bay Area residents who attended a rally on the steps of San Francisco City Hall Tuesday evening expressed excitement at the historic court arguments. See page 6 >> Rick Gerharter

‘Pink Party’ new name for pre-Pride festival by Seth Hemmelgarn

Last year, organizers expected to have 50,000 visitors, the study says. rganizers of the Castro street According to the report, 48 percent of party formerly known as Pink the people who attended the event were Saturday have chosen Pink from out of town. Among those, “34.7 Party as the new name, while financpercent stated that Pink Saturday was the ing and other details for the June 27 main reason for visiting San Francisco.” festival continue to be worked out. Analysts focused on the effect last The developments come as a report year’s Pink Saturday had in terms of visifrom San Francisco officials shows the tors to the city and estimated their porannual pre-LGBT Pride parade event tion of the total was $2.7 million. That has brought in millions of dollars for includes “over $600,000 at retail trade the city. Despite that boost, the city has establishments, over $500,000 at restaurepeatedly declined to provide direct rants, and over $215,000 at hotels.” Rick Gerharter funding for the event. In a statement announcing the report’s As the Bay Area Reporter noted on The Market Street entrance was crowded at the 2012 release, Wiener, said, “Whether it’s a large Pink Saturday party. its blog last Thursday, organizer Ruth celebration like Pride or a neighborMcFarlane shared the party’s new hood festival, people come to our city name that morning. and frequent our local businesses. This Pink Saturday. The Sisters, who own rights to McFarlane, the San Francisco LGBT Comthat name, plan to revamp their event for 2016 report puts into hard numbers what we already munity Center’s programs director, said of the know – that our outdoor events are not only a at a different site. Pink Party name, “In a way, it comes up from Regardless of the name, recently released city huge part of our culture, but are essential to the the community. It’s the name everybody uses if health of our economy.” estimates indicate this year’s party will help the they don’t say, ‘Pink Saturday.’” Wiener has been heavily involved in Pink local economy. The center was brought in to plan the event Saturday planning for years, and he’s one of Tuesday, April 21, gay Supervisor Scott Wieafter the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which the officials from whom Sister Selma Soul, who ner, whose District 8 includes the Castro, rehad run the party for more than 20 years, anleased a study from the economic analysis unit coordinated Pink Saturday from 2012 to 2014, nounced in February that they wouldn’t produce of the controller’s office that shows in 2014, had sought help. this year’s festival. The Sisters cited concerns about Pink Saturday attendees generated about $6 The city had waived some fees and provided violence as a primary reason for their backing out. million in spending. other assistance to the Sisters, but for years did The center and other organizers had to not provide direct funding. Wiener has said the The figure is among data included in “The choose a new name for the event, which draws Economic Impact of San Francisco’s Outdoor city doesn’t typically fund such events. thousands of people to the Castro, after the Events” report from the economic analysis ofSee page 10 >> Sisters voted not to let the new planners call it fice, which did a survey of the event.

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Questions remain in gay man’s death by Seth Hemmelgarn

uestions continue to surround the death of a former Bay Area Reporter writer as people who know the man accused of killing him exRachel Swann press surprise, and an attorney for REALTOR®,Top Producer REALTOR®,Top Producer a co-defendant in the case says she’s Top 10% Citywide Top 10% Citywide 415.225.7743 415.225.7743 innocent. rachel@theswanngroupsf.com rachel@theswanngroupsf.com Daniel James Aiello, 53, has been BRE License # 01860456 BRE License # 01860456 TheSwannGroupSF.com described as a “passionate” journalTheSwannGroupSF.com ist and generous friend. Aiello, who Seth Hemmelgarn was gay, worked for the B.A.R. as a REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM freelance writer who covered mar- Midtown Moped, the Sacramento riage equality and other issues be- shop that was owned by Daniel 14 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM fore opening the Midtown Moped James Aiello. shop in Sacramento. Kyle Billy Fletcher, 36, is charged with murder, robbery, and residento court records, Fletcher pleaded tial burglary in the case. Sabrina no contest in 2005 to a domestic REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM Eileen Ahrens-Gravelle, 39, is also violence-related charge.) charged with burglary. Both are in Barbara Fletcher, Fletcher’s custody. mother, said he’s “a very loving kid,” Police have said officers respondand “he didn’t do that,” but she deGenuine & Personal Homecare offers compassionate care ed at 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, April 15 clined further comment. to Aiello’s shop, at 1326 X Street, for LGBT seniors who want to age in place but need Attorney Jeff Raven, who’s repreRachel Swann after a neighbor reported hearing senting Ahrens-Gravelle, said Tuessupport to live comfortably in their own home. REALTOR®,Top Producer “loud noises and crashing.” day that he’s “still trying to get up to Top 10% Citywide Fletcher and Ahrens-Gravelle Light Housekeeping • Companionship • Mobility Support speed” on the case, but “ultimately,” 415.225.7743 were allegedly at the scene loading Ahrens-Gravelle “will be exonerDementia/Alzheimer’s Care • Medication Reminders rachel@theswanngroupsf.com items into a vehicle, and they were ated, and it will come to light that Fall Prevention • Shopping • Personal Appointments BRE License # 01860456 arrested. Aiello, who was found she had no knowledge or role in the Eating Assistance • Menu Planning and Preparation TheSwannGroupSF.com inside the building, was soon prohomicide.” nounced dead. Asked what Ahrens-Gravelle had Kevin Pete & Kenneth Boozer, Owners Officials haven’t provided details of been doing at the shop the mornhow Aiello may have died, but court ing of her arrest, Raven said she was We invite you to contact us directly to discuss your needs records indicate a belt was used. “just with a friend.” or a FREE initial in-home assessment. Friends of Aiello have said that He said Fletcher had “portrayed he’d tried to help Fletcher before himself, to her and to the world, Aiello grew to fear the younger man. as part owner and partner of the But Mark Rankin, 23, of Reno, moped shop, so for all my client www.GPinHomeCare.com Nevada, Fletcher’s cousin, said knows, he’s going to his shop to get he was “completely surprised” by his belongings.” REV 2014 Rachel Castro Festival Guide ad.indd 1 9/14/14 5:12 PM Fletcher’s murder charge. He said he couldn’t comment on “I could never see him killevidence. ing someone,” Rankin said, and “I’ve only seen the most prelimiFletcher, who’d worked as a tattoo nary of discovery,” he said. artist, has “got one of the biggest However, Raven said, “the evihearts I’ve ever seen. ... Everybody dence will show” that Aiello and used to call him ‘Smiles’ because Fletcher “had an ongoing busihe was such a happy guy. I’ve never ness relationship that extended for once seen him angry.” (According months or longer.” REALTOR®,Top Producer Top 10% Citywide 415.225.7743 rachel@theswanngroupsf.com BRE License # 01860456 Rachel Swann TheSwannGroupSF.com

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Carr, one of its members, to lead the organizahe executive direction as it works to find tor of San Francisco’s a replacement for BoneGLBT Historical Society, berg. Carr, 51, who’s which collects archival gay, recently left his job materials and operates the as a spokesman for the gay history museum in the Contemporary Jewish Castro, has resigned under Museum. He’ll quit the Rick Gerharter pressure. historical society’s board. Paul Boneberg, who’s Carr said in a brief inPaul Boneberg led the nonprofit for eight terview that the nonprofyears, will step down effecit would hire an interim tive May 19, the society’s board anexecutive director, and it will then nounced Tuesday, April 28. search for someone to fill the lead Boneberg, 61, who recently post permanently. He said he’s “not at denied that his departure was imliberty” to share what he’s being paid. minent, said in an email to society The nonprofit has “not yet set a members Tuesday that his job has timetable for completing the search for been “immensely rewarding,” but a new executive director,” Sears said. it’s “a good time for new leadership In March, the historical society to move the organization forward.” announced it had reached a deal In an emailed response to interwith the museum’s landlord, Walview requests, Boneberg declined to greens, to remain at 4127 18th Street comment further. until 2020. In the board’s announcement, Society officials have been workCo-Chair Clare Sears stated the ing to find a new location for the nonprofit is “grateful” for Boneinstitution’s archives. The lease for berg’s work, which has included the space it uses in an office build“securing an affordable temporary ing on Mission Street near Third home for the museum in the Casexpires March 30. The nonprofit tro,” but she didn’t offer specific hopes to combine the museum and reasons for the transition. its archives into one building. She declined to respond to emailed Sears said the organization has questions about whether the board had received a $100,000 city grant “to asked Boneberg to resign, or whether prepare the archives for the move,” he’d volunteered to quit. She said that and the city has “promised another information was “confidential.” $100,000 later this year to complete The board has appointed Daryl preparation and actually move.”

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The two men “were involved in the moped shop together,” Raven said, but he doesn’t know whether Fletcher was Aiello’s employee, or if they were business partners. “They were clearly friends working together,” he said. “I don’t know the nature of the relationship.” Citing a fictitious business name filing, a Sacramento worker said that Aiello is the sole owner associated with the moped shop. Raven said, “I would guess” that Ahrens-Gravelle and Fletcher were “friends” or “acquaintances. I don’t believe they knew each other long.” He doesn’t think Ahrens-Gravelle knew Aiello. He said his client has “absolutely no criminal history, and from all accounts of family members, she is a hard-working, dedicated parent, and a good person.” Tuesday, Ahrens-Gravelle’s bail was reduced from $250,000 to $100,000. The next court date is May 28. Pleas haven’t yet been entered in the case, which Raven indicated is standard for Sacramento, but “when there is a plea” for his client, “it’s going to be not guilty.” Through an assistant, Chris Cosca, Fletcher’s attorney, declined to be interviewed unless questions were provided to him in advance. Approached through Sacramento jail staff, Fletcher declined to be interviewed. A reporter who visited the jail in Elk Grove, where AhrensGravelle is being held, was told the wait could be at least two hours. Aiello’s neighbors didn’t recall ever seeing Fletcher or Ahrens-Gravelle. Barbara Andrews, 65, who lives near Aiello’s building, said she’d last seen Aiello earlier in the month, and he’d been “as jovial and talkative as ever.” A woman who was behind a locked gate Sunday at the building where Aiello had lived and worked declined to speak with a reporter.t

Gay museum director quits under pressure by Seth Hemmelgarn

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Despite the progress, calls for Boneberg’s resignation, which emerged months ago, have not subsided. A June 2014 report from a group of people referring to themselves as “concerned former board members, high-level volunteers, donors,” and others, says, “[T]he time has come for an executive leadership change.” Boneberg “is no longer qualified to lead the organization,” the report, a copy of which was obtained by the Bay Area Reporter, says. “Worse, he has increasingly hampered progress at a crucial period in the organization’s life.” The group praised Boneberg’s early work at the historical society, but among other complaints, it cited problems with his “institutional vision and overall leadership” and “development and donor relations.” In an email exchange with the B.A.R. in late March, Boneberg said, “I have not been asked to resign,” and “I have no plans to resign.” He called the June 2014 document “an old story ... about the internal passions of a small organization nine months ago which resulted in hurt feelings and no action.” He said “much” had changed, and the report “was written before we secured major funding for both the museum and archives programs and before we renewed the museum’s lease.” Last fall the B.A.R. learned of the effort to push Boneberg out as See page 10 >>

Election 2015>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Ex-Milk club co-prez enters City College race

Courtesy Thomas Temprano

Thomas Temprano, right, who’s running for a seat on the City College board, has been endorsed by former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, left.

by Matthew S. Bajko

homas Temprano, a former co-president of the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, announced this week his campaign for a seat on the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees. Temprano, a gay man and wellknown deejay who goes by Tom, will be seeking to unseat gay college board member Alex Randolph, who was tapped by Mayor Ed Lee earlier this month to fill the vacancy created by longtime trustee Natalie Berg’s decision to resign for personal reasons. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter about his appointment, Randolph said he planned to resign later this year from his Obama administration job – he is a special assistant at the U.S. General Services Administration regional office – in order to run in the special election this November to serve out the remainder of Berg’s term and then seek a full four-year term in 2016. Speaking to the B.A.R. Monday, April 27 shortly after he pulled papers to enter the race, Temprano said he had planned to run for a college board seat in 2016. But due to the special election this fall, he decided there was no time to wait. “With this seat now open, City College can’t wait another year for strong leadership,” said Temprano, 29, co-owner of Virgil’s Sea Room bar on Mission Street. “City College at this point is fighting for its life. So when the board of trustees is reinstated this July, City College really needs someone to stand up for the students of City College. I am going to do that. It doesn’t need someone right now who is someone who’s a career politician and hasn’t been involved in the fight.” Gay former state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos have endorsed Temprano in the race. He plans to have an official campaign kick-off event in late May. Asked about Temprano’s decision to run for his seat, Randolph told the B.A.R. that he is “focused on City College right now and looking forward to meeting as many students and San Franciscans as I can over the next couple of weeks and months. I am in my, what, 10th day on the board. I am excited about my new role and helping to preserve access to higher education in San Francisco.” Gay City College board member Rafael Mandelman told the B.A.R. he does not plan to endorse in the race. “They are both great guys, they are both friends of mine and I assume they will both be strong candidates,” said Mandelman, who was elected president of the college board this year. Also pulling papers to run is

Wendy Aragon, a straight woman who came in fifth place in the November election for three four-year seats on the community college board. In an April 23 Facebook post about her decision to run again, she wrote that her loss last year left her feeling “like I let a lot of people who need this college down.” Aragon acknowledged that “it’s going to be a tough race against the mayor’s candidate, and others have already started building their war chests, but I have my base and I’m used to being a grassroots underdog so I’m ready.” While leading the Milk club in 2013 and 2014, Temprano prioritized the fight to save City College as one of the club’s top issues. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges had threatened to revoke its accreditation, sparking broad protests in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. Earlier this year the accreditation committee granted “restoration” status to CCSF, giving it two years to fully comply with the requirements needed to be in good standing. In the meantime, a city lawsuit against the commission is making its way through state court, and a special trustee continues to run City College until the elected board regains full oversight. “I think that right now City College is facing the biggest challenges it has ever faced. Unfortunately, it is facing an enrollment drop and a loss of confidence in the college,” said Temprano, whose partner of two years, Jarr VonSamuel, is a hairstylist. “We need to let people know there is a class for everyone at City College and it is open for business. I am happy to be City College’s biggest cheerleader.” Temprano has not taken any classes himself at City College but attended Ventura College, a community college in his hometown in southern California, in order to graduate on time from high school, which he was forced to drop out of due to an illness. “I am planning to enroll in some small business classes” at City College, said Temprano, who also works as a communications consultant for nonprofits and government agencies. Randolph also has not enrolled at City College but attended a community college in San Diego prior to transferring to UC Berkeley. His fiancé, Trevor Nguyen, was enrolled at a Bay Area community college before transferring to UC Berkeley and has taken German classes at City College. With Randolph’s strong ties to the city’s more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, on whose board he has served, the college board race is sure to divide the city’s LGBT community come the fall.t

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Volume 45, Number 18 April 30-May 6, 2015 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.861.5019 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Lance Roberts NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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<< Open Forum

t Time is now for full marriage ruling

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

his week we are closer to And so we ask, why? And the anachieving a long-anticipated swer we get is, well, people have milestone as the Supreme Court always done it. You know, you justices heard a consolidated samecould have answered that one sex marriage case involving plainthe same way we talk about racial tiffs from four states – Kentucky, segregation.” Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee John Bursch, the attorney ar– that we hope will affirm the conguing against same-sex marriage, stitutional right for people of the tried to make the point that his same sex to marry in all 50 states. side wasn’t defining marriage, Rudy K. Lawidjaja The piecemeal, state-by-state yet he pressed for recognition of approach so far has expanded Attorneys and plaintiff couples emerge from the U.S. Supreme Court opposite-sex marriage only. But marriage equality to 37 states, Tuesday after oral arguments in the marriage case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn’t plus Washington, D.C., but it has agree, saying that same-sex maralso exposed the urgent inequaliriage wasn’t taking anything able to participate in this institution,” Bonauto ties between states of how couples are treated. away from heterosexual marriage. Bursch also replied. The Supreme Court should take the next step argued that marriage is for procreation, a line If that’s all the anti-same-sex marriage side to bring consistency to the rights of married of reasoning that has been rejected by courts has, a ruling for equality should be inevitable. couples and their families. across the country, and drew skepticism from There is a lot at stake for the plaintiff couTuesday’s arguments were lively, as the jusJustice Elena Kagan, who asked him if it would ples, many of whom are raising children. After tices (except Clarence Thomas, who hasn’t be constitutional for states to deny marriage Roberts mentioned the increased acceptance asked a question in nearly a decade and last licenses to couples who did not want children. of gay and lesbian couples, Bonauto pointed spoke in court in 2013) peppered the attorneys After trying to dodge the question, Bursch was out that not all states are equal. with questions. But as the exchanges showed, forced to admit that it would be “an unconsti“And in terms of acceptance, when I think it’s time to resolve the issue and put to rest tutional invasion of privacy.” about acceptance, I think about the nation as some false arguments. Conservative justices We know that several of the justices are not a whole, and the – and there are places where, were reduced to raising the tired tropes that going to decide in favor of a constitutional again, there are no protections, virtually no anti-gay lawyers use every time they right to marry, and once again, Justice Anprotections for gay and lesbian people argue one of these cases. Justice thony Kennedy likely will be the swing vote. in employment, in parenting,” she Antonin Scalia, who’s otherwise Kennedy has authored three of the court’s said. “You know, the Michigan brilliant, showed his ignorance – other landmark gay rights decisions, and while petitioners, for example, are not as he does when LGBT issues are he did ask tough questions of the plaintiffs’ atallowed to be parents of their own before the court – by his obsestorney, we think that ultimately he will come children, the children that the state sion with two same-sex brothers or down on the right side of history. Kennedy’s of Michigan has placed with them sisters who might want to marry previous decisions have shown his concern and approved of their adoptions.” (not likely to be allowed, plaintiffs’ for children raised by same-sex couples and This example clearly shows that attorney Mary Bonauto said). the fact that without marriage equality, those the reasons for denying marriage Justice Samuel Alito talked about families are relegated to second-class status, equality are illogical: the state how ancient civilizations accepted which is unacceptable. places the children in the home of same-sex relations, such as Greece, Tuesday’s arguments had a “Groundhog a lesbian couple, yet the state’s outyet still didn’t allow two men to marry. Chief Day” feel to them – we’ve been through this dated marriage laws won’t legally recognize the Justice John Roberts was hung up on the dicbefore. Now is the time for the justices to family. tionary definition, which, until about a dozen make a bold decision by finding that marriage Justice Stephen Breyer got to the heart of the years ago, defined marriage as between two is a constitutional right for all couples – gay issue when he noted that just because somepeople of the opposite sex. Didn’t that prove or straight. To those states whose residents thing is relatively new doesn’t preclude it from that gays are trying to “redefine” marriage, he still don’t accept marriage equality, we say, being recognized: “But there is one group of asked Bonauto. “It’s time.” The sky won’t fall, and same-sex people whom they won’t open marriage to. “I hope not, your honor, because what we’re marriage in no way diminishes or undercuts So they have no possibility to participate in really talking about here is a class of people heterosexual marriage. It’s all about loving that fundamental liberty,” Breyer said. “That who are, by state laws, excluded from being relationships.t is people of the same sex who wish to marry.

Everyone’s help needed in drought by Marguerite Young

For those customers, our water smart center provides the tips and ike any good lesbian (earth tools needed. Consider a laundry mother type) I’ve been doing to landscape gray water system, remy part for the last few years of moving turf, or purchasing a high this drought to save water. I take reefficiency washer – we have rebates ally short showers, flush only when for all of these. necessary, keep buckets on hand to Money talks, and beginning July catch extra water, wear my clothes 1, there will be drought use suran extra time before washing, and charge of 25 percent to cover the have a yard that doesn’t need a drop Marguerite Young actual costs of drought supplies and of water. With all of that our houseconservation outreach efforts, which hold of 3.5, including 1.5 teenagers, sends a strong price signal. We are uses 59 gallons of water a day – less than 20 also enacting penalties on water wasters, those gallons per person. Do you know your family’s who use more than four times the average use water number? per month, and instituting a water theft Not satisfied to rest on my personal contriordinance. You can also help us by bution, last year, I decided to run for a posireporting water waste when you tion on the board of the East Bay Municipal see it. Utility District, or EBMUD, which serves 1.3 On July 1 we will be adjusting million customers in much of Alameda and our rates to reflect the results of Contra Costa counties. I’d spent much of my a comprehensive cost of service career working as staff and on the board of study. The impact will be to environmental non-governmental organizasteepen our rate “tiers” so that tions focused on water issues, so it seemed like those who use more water pay a great fit and the right time to step up. At the more for using more. Along with time, I felt that in the third year of a drought, this is an overall increase to pay for EBMUD could do more, and I pledged if electlong-term maintenance and improvements to ed I would support stronger measures to adour aging infrastructure. Between these two dress the drought and climate change. Now, in changes, the typical customer will see their bill the fourth year of an unprecedented drought, go up $11 per month. In the next two years I’m finishing my fourth month as an elected revenue from these rate increases will replace board member charged with making decisions 30 miles of distribution pipes and several large on how best to deal with a Stage Four drought, waste water pipes, upgrade six water treatment and pushing for policies and programs to help plants, make dams and reservoir towers safer, us serve our customers in what could be more and improve odors at our wastewater treatcritically dry years ahead. ment plant. So what does all this mean to those of you that live in the EBMUD service area? What else you can do about the District-wide we will be cutting consumpdrought tion back 20 percent compared to use in 2013. You might stop eating California almonds We are asking all of our customers to “strive – I’m sure you have seen the campaigns on for 35” gallons per person per day of indoor Facebook. It’s true an almond requires about a use and to adhere to mandatory outdoor water gallon of water and may well end up in China. restrictions, including watering no more than They are also grown on trees that must be watwo days per week. Since many of our customtered. A head of broccoli takes five gallons to ers are already at or below these levels, we’ll produce; both pale in comparison to the 1,850 need others to cut back more than 20 percent. gallons it takes to produce a pound of beef.

All told agriculture uses 32,000,000 acre feet of water a year, much of it from groundwater basins that are being drained and will take decades to replenish. Your own water footprint is much larger than the amount of water you use at home. So eat a little lower on the food chain, it will save water. What about fracking? Opponents of fracking blame the oil and gas industry for making the drought worse. I get shivers every time I think about the pollution of our ground water supplies that fracking causes, but the amount of water it uses here in California is only 214 acre feet a year – literally a drop in the bucket. You can campaign to increase scrutiny on this industry so it can’t pollute our drinking water by supporting groups like Clean Water Action. Become an advocate for sensible water policy with your neighbors, co-workers, and your elected officials. For decades, California has been struggling with the conflict of how we should divide our limited water supply between cities, farms and the natural environment. About 80 percent of the water used in California goes to agriculture, a vital part of our and our nation’s economy, but one built on a myth that water would always be cheap and plentiful – these policies need an overhaul if agriculture is to continue to thrive. Of the 20 percent used in urban areas, we’re all going to have to get more efficient to accommodate future population growth. I look forward to the next four years of service as a board member of EBMUD. I’m excited about the opportunities we have to lead the way toward a climate smart, water smart future.t Marguerite Young is a newly elected director of the East Bay Municipal Utility District. She is a lesbian single mom from Oakland and longtime advocate for environmental protection and sensible water policy. She’s a former director of Clean Water Action. The opinions expressed here are her own and do not represent EBMUD.

Politics>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Judge’s swearing in sealed with a kiss by Matthew S. Bajko

dorned in their black judicial robes, James M. Humes, the presiding justice of the First District Court of Appeal’s Division One, administered the oath of office to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Joseph M. Quinn during his ceremonial investiture held on the mayor’s balcony inside San Francisco’s City Hall. They then sealed the moment with a quick kiss as multiple cameras flashed and the sound of applause reverberated throughout the interior of the Beaux Arts municipal building. Remarking on the historic nature of the April 22 ceremony, Humes told the several hundred friends and family members in attendance they were witnessing “something you don’t see often, a husband swearing in his husband.” Together 18 years and married since 2008, Humes and Quinn are believed to be the first male samesex couple to concurrently serve as judges on California courts. The first known same-sex judicial couple was that of lesbian jurists Donna Hitchens and Nancy Davis. Hitchens retired in 2010 from the San Francisco Superior Court, while Davis was re-elected in November to her seat on the local bench. There are just a handful of opposite-sex judicial couples currently serving in the state, according to judicial sources. In late March Governor Jerry Brown named Quinn, who had been a partner at law firm Hanson Bridgett LLP and an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University School of Law since 2010, to fill a vacancy on the local superior court. According to LGBT legal advocates, Quinn brings the number of gay and lesbian jurists on the San Francisco bench to nine. He was sworn in during a private ceremony held April 10 in Hume’s chambers and reported to Department 318 at the courthouse on McAllister Street April 13 to begin hearing civil trials and misdemeanor cases. “Thank you Governor Brown for this opportunity to serve the city and county of San Francisco,” said Quinn during his public swearing in. “I will work everyday to vindicate your trust and confidence.” Quinn, 46, who grew up in Buffalo, New York and earned his law degree from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1994, also thanked Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to public office in the city, for paving the way for the LGBT officeholders who followed. “It is a proud tradition I am very excited to become a part of,” said

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law Rick Gerharter

Presiding Justice of the First District Court of Appeal Division One James Humes, left, kissed his husband, newly appointed San Francisco Superior Court Judge Joseph Quinn, after administering the oath of office during Quinn’s ceremonial investiture April 22 at San Francisco City Hall.

voted 12-5 to send the bill to the Assembly Appron Assembly committee priations Committee. this week passed a bill If adopted and signed aimed at capping the prices into law by Governor of specialty drugs that Jerry Brown, the bill treat ailments such as HIV, would restrict health inAIDS, and hepatitis C. surance providers from The legislation, AB 339, charging copays of more is authored by gay Assemthan 1/24th of the out-ofblyman Rich Gordon (D- Assemblyman pocket cost for prescripMenlo Park) and co-au- Rich Gordon tion drugs. It also would thored by lesbian Assembly restrict insurance providSpeaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). ers from placing all of the drugs for a The Assembly Health Committee specific disease in the highest, most

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Quinn, who will face the voters on the June 2016 primary ballot in order to maintain his seat. He acknowledged Humes as “my everything. I love you so much,” and asked his husband to “please keep in mind though, while the First District may be the higher court, ‘reversed and remanded’ is never an appropriate response at home.” He was referring to when an appellate court finds a trial court made a mistake and overturns its ruling. Humes, who made history in 2012 when Brown, his longtime former boss, named him as the first openly gay judge to serve on a state appellate court, told those assembled “how happy and proud I am of Joe. He is the love of my life.” Quinn’s sister, Kathleen, a registered nurse from upstate New York, spoke on behalf of his family. She surprised her brother, the youngest of seven siblings, by bringing with her the Playskool tool bench he received on his third birthday. “Joe used one tool, the hammer. Even as a little boy this was his first gavel and his first bench,” she said. She described Quinn as “a very good listener” and “risk taker” who is “strong willed and very determined,” adding that, “his most brilliant decision was to bring Jim into our family.” Crispin Hollings, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s director of financial planning, spoke about his experience first meeting Quinn in the 1990s when he worked as an aircraft maintenance manager at United Airlines. The company had sued San Francisco over its requiring city contractors to provide the same benefits to their employees with domestic partners as those received by

their employees with spouses. Working at the time at the City Attorney’s office, Quinn recruited employees of the airline to testify, a task he was “tenacious in,” recalled Hollings, who agreed to speak publicly about how not having the same protections as his straight coworkers impacted him and his partner at the time, the late Eric Rofes. “Joe’s work put a human face on an otherwise theoretical challenge,” said Hollings. “Joe knew our experience would impact this case.” While the aviation industry won a partial victory – it did not have to provide domestic partner health insurance and pension coverage – United in 2000 became the first airline to do so, and Rofes became the first same-sex partner to fly on a family pass in order to attend his father’s funeral. In 2006 when Rofes died, Hollings complimented United for the support he received from the company. And he noted that he and his husband, Luis Casillas, in 2013 were married in City Hall near where Quinn was being sworn in. “Joe Quinn laid the groundwork for marriage equality,” said Hollings, adding that, as a judge, he will bring “the same sense of justice to all who come to his courtroom.”t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on various cities’s plans to mark Harvey Milk Day. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Assembly panel OKs drug pricing bill by Matthew S. Bajko

family law specialist*

expensive tier for prescriptions. “Some prescription drugs are simply very expensive. AB 339 does not address why this is the case,” testified Gordon. “It protects consumers. It builds on existing California law and clear federal guidance to take the patient out of the middle of negotiations between health plans and insurance providers.” Blue Shield of California, Kaiser Permanente, and CVS Health oppose the bill, as do a number of See page 10 >>

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<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Jenner: Haven’t we been here before? by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

his will come as no surprise to you, unless you happen to currently reside under a sizable stone: on ABC’s 20/20 last week, reporter Diane Sawyer sat down with former Olympian and current reality TV show family patriarch Bruce Jenner for an exclusive interview. In this interview, following months – even years – of speculation, Jenner disclosed that he is in the midst of a gender transition. Jenner’s story is one that in many ways I’d rather not write about. In some ways, writing about it feels like I’m playing into the same sort of media hype that I want to criticize. It feels hypocritical. At the same time, I feel that I cannot avoid writing about it. There’s more to it, though. I can’t watch a transgender documentary or interview without it being, well, work. There’s remarkable little that will come up in such a context that is going to be that earth-shatteringly interesting to me. Part of this is because of my own life experience, and I’ll admit that I saw a lot of my own life in Jenner’s history. No, I never competed in the Olympics, let alone won the gold in the decathlon; the specifics are quite different. Nevertheless, I, too, know what it is like to try to fight one’s transgender yearnings by force-feeding masculinity to yourself. I know the feelings of isolation dealing with this in an era before In-

ternet connectivity when there was little information. I also remember all too well the pain and hardship that goes hand in hand with the coming out process. To Jenner’s credit, this was a better interview than most. He – and I should note that Jenner has asked via his publicist to use traditionally masculine pronouns and his birth name for the time being – carried himself well, and managed to control the interview with a fair amount of grace and humor. Sure, there were a few missteps, in my opinion. For example, a rather embarrassing foray to Jenner’s closet to procure a little black dress, and a reply to the question “what do you look forward to” that focused on nail polish. I also have seen more than a few transfolks early in their own transitions who have said and done similar things, only to grit their teeth later. I’m sure I’ve done the same, too. I was especially glad to see him acknowledge some of the larger issues transgender people face, particularly around suicide and murder – while at the same time making it clear that he does not see himself as a transgender spokesman. Yet while Jenner did pretty well, Sawyer and the 20/20 production crew fell into so many of the usual

traps that accompany the typical transgender interview. She fell into so many of the old, tired stereotypes. The production cuts away to family members to gauge their approval and disapproval, and talk about Jenner’s father and what he might have said. They pulled out Deuteronomy 23:5 from the Bible and clips from Fox News. We are treated to B-roll images of women putting on makeup in mirrors. Meanwhile, a lot of Sawyer’s questions and discussion fell along traditional lines. It’s all about stereotypes: how masculine Jenner was, especially in the Olympics era, is a large part of her narrative. Meanwhile, she often tries to boil it down to makeup, or clothing, or surgery. At one point, Sawyer tells Jenner, incredulously, “I hate make up. I hate getting dressed up. You’re looking forward to this?” I certainly hope she does not think that womanhood simply equates to makeup, clothing, and other such superficial things. Yes, I also wear makeup, but not because I think foundation and eye shadow makes me a woman. I see it as more of a means to an end, something that helps others see who I am. Yet this is what the media reduces us to, every single time a story like this airs. Now, do I think this was an important moment, this two-hour interview? Yes and no.

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From page 1

“It’s a tremendous moment and a watershed moment that I thought I would never see,” said Paul Matzne, 70, a gay man who’s a retired museum curator and lives in Oakland. Others at the rally didn’t see the court hearing as the final word on the matter. “I don’t think this is the end but it is a really momentous step because everyone needs equal rights,” said Kristina Cole, 36, a lesbian and business owner. In Washington, D.C., Kate Kendell, executive director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, which helped represent same-sex couples from Tennessee, said she thinks there’s “no doubt” the court will find that states have to recognize other states’ marriages. “I do think things look favorable” for striking down state bans on same-sex marriage, said Kendell on the plaza outside the court after the argument. “Kennedy is always the swing.” Kendell acknowledged that Kennedy seemed “more inscrutable here than he was in the DOMA case,” the 2013 case in which a majority of justices struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act. “He didn’t really tip his hand. He asked difficult questions of both

Christine Smith

That this episode was the highest rated in years for 20/20, with nearly 17 million viewers, and the fact that every news outlet has yet to stop talking about it says something. Rather than halting all the rabid speculation of the last few months, this seems to have further ignited an interest. What’s more, I think this may well change some lives. Some may understand transgender people better in the wake of this. Some will learn a thing or two. It may help some young transgender people to understand themselves better. So yes, this may well help. Yet, this is a bit more of what I was alluding to above when I discussed this not being particularly earth shattering. Jenner is nowhere near the first high-profile gender transition. This is part of a very long linage of transgender people in the media spotlight. Christine Jorgensen in the

1950s, Jan Morris, Wendy Carlos, and Renee Richards in the 1970s, Caroline “Tula” Cossey in the 1980s, and many more predate Jenner by decades, while others have been in the spotlight in recent years. All of these people have gone through the same questions – and more – from the media. So here we go again. This leaves me wondering. Why do we still have to go through these interviews? What is it we’re not saying, and what isn’t getting through to people when we share our stories? Perhaps that will be when I’ll truly be surprised: when a highprofile celebrity transitions, and it doesn’t require an interview.t

sides,” said Kendell. “But even if it’s sooner than he wants to or the court is not entirely comfortable with it, I believe ... when push comes to shove, I do not believe this is a justice who is going to allow Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas and the Windsor decision to come up full stop and not have that legacy finished.” Kennedy wrote the majority decision in all three cases, striking down a voter-approved initiative in Colorado, striking down state laws banning intimate relations between same-sex couples, and gutting DOMA. Jon Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said he was encouraged by Kennedy’s comparison of Brown (school desegregation) and Loving (interracial marriage) to Lawrence and this appeal. And he thought it “odd” that Justice Samuel Alito “tried to make this point about Greece.” He was referring to Alito’s comments that ancient Greek civilization acknowledged same-sex relationships but reserved marriage for heterosexual couples. “Sometimes, it just seems like they’re playing with you,” said Davidson. Others mentioned other surprising points that the justices raised. “I was surprised that they focused so much at the beginning about this millennia this or that – that’s not

how you decide the law. That’s not the basis for constitutional jurisprudence,” said Abby Rubenfeld, former legal director for Lambda Legal and one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs from the Tennessee case. Rubenfeld said she was pleasantly surprised to hear Chief Justice John Roberts ask “an interesting sex discrimination question.” In questioning John Bursch, special assistant attorney general for Michigan, Roberts said he wasn’t sure it was necessary to get into the issue of sexual orientation discrimination to resolve the case. “If Sue loves Joe, and Tom loves Joe, Sue can marry him and Tom can’t,” said Roberts. “And the difference is based upon their different sex. Why isn’t that a straightforward question of sexual discrimination?” Bursch said laws banning samesex couples from marrying do not treat classes of men and women differently. And, he said, a 2001 Supreme Court ruling in Nguyen v. Immigration and Naturalization Services held that “it’s appropriate to draw lines based on sex if it’s related to biology.” (Kennedy wrote that 5-4 majority opinion, saying a law that provided citizenship to children if their biological mothers were American, but not if only their fathers were American, was unconstitutional.) See page 10 >>

also by his roommate, Jim Lewellan, of San Francisco. A memorial service is planned for May 10 at 1 p.m. at Old First Presbyterian Church, 1751 Sacramento Street (at Van Ness).

Roy Cardon, who preceded him in death. He will be missed by family and the many friends he made as a lifetime San Franciscan. He will be missed by staff and residents at the Granada, his most recent home. He made friends easily and became the Granada’s ambassador to all new arrivals. Allan loved to cook and enjoyed having friends and family around his dinner table. Dinner usually was complemented with his world-famous cheesecake. His quick wit and genuine sincerity endeared him to all. We all want to thank Coming Home Hospice staff for their amazing compassion and care. A funeral Mass will be held Saturday, May 2 at 10 a.m. at St. James Catholic Church, 1086 Guerrero Street, San Francisco.

Gwen Smith hopes Jenner stays strong and enjoys the ride. You’ll find her on Twitter at @ gwenners.

Obituaries >> James Bragg (David) July 4,1942 – April 8, 2015

spartacusworld.com/app

James Bragg passed away April 8, 2015 at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco of double pneumonia. He was 72. James, whose nickname was David, grew up in Glen Jean, West Virginia. He graduated from Mount Hope High School. He is also a graduate of Berea College in Kentucky. After college, he moved to Los Angeles for a brief period and then moved to San Francisco. He worked in many restaurants, including the Bohemian Club. He is survived by sisters and brothers in West Virginia and Indiana and

Allan Ernest Cardon September 29, 1944 – April 10, 2015

Allan Ernest Cardon, born September 29, 1944, passed away in San Francisco after a brief battle with cancer. Allan was born to Bernice and

Sports>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

‘Soft launch’ for A’s Pride Night goes viral by Roger Brigham

hen the Oakland A’s decided to schedule their first-ever Pride Night this year, they thought they would do a “soft launch.” Post a little mention on their social media sites, toss a promotional code up on their website, see if there were any takers. What they say they are getting is in fact a rush of positive community interest that has taken them by pleasant surprise. Troy Smith, senior director of marketing for the A’s, said originally the team had reserved a block of seats near Gate A for the Pride Night fans, but sales were so brisk that sections on the other side of the field have been added. The team said that so far about 1,500 tickets have been sold with more than a month to go. The $35 special event tickets are available at www.athletics.com/pride. Now, LGBT nights are not anything terribly new to the Bay Area. The defunct minor league hockey franchise San Francisco Bulls had the most enthusiastic LGBT promotional night, the Warriors and the Sharks have made forays into the field in recent years, and the San Francisco Giants, bless them, will hold their 13th annual LGBT Night Friday, June 26, with a 7:15 p.m. game against the Colorado Rockies. Proceeds of $7,200 from last year’s game benefitted Team San Francisco, the Federation of Gay Games, and

the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. This year’s inaugural Oakland A’s Pride Night will be held Wednesday, June 17, with a 7:05 p.m. interleague game against the visiting San Diego Padres. Fans with special event tickets will receive A’s Pride wristbands, sit in a special field level section with fellow Pride fans, and be able to attend a pre-game party at the Coliseum. Opera singer Breanna Sinclaire, a transgender woman, will sing the national anthem. The game will include a special tribute to the life of East Bay sports legend Glenn Burke, who was the first openly gay Major League Baseball player, and a member of Burke’s family is expected to throw out the first pitch. Partial proceeds from the game will benefit two local nonprofit agencies: Frameline and the East Bay AIDS Project. I asked Smith why the A’s had decided to stage a Pride night. “Well, for one thing,” he said, “it’s the right thing to do.” Apparently, a handful of A’s fans weren’t so sure. When the A’s first announced through social media last month that they would host a Pride night, some fans expressed disgust and said they wanted their tickets refunded. They didn’t have to wait long to find a buyer.

Eireann Dolan, the girlfriend of Oakland relief ace Sean Doolittle and the daughter of two moms, posted an immediate response on her blog, www.thankyoubasedball.com, offering to buy the tickets of anyone seeking a refund and donating the tickets to the Bay Area Youth Center’s Our Space program. “I’ll purchase as many unwanted tickets as I can out of my own pocket,” Dolan wrote. “I also encourage other A’s fans to do the same. Let’s fill the stands that night!” Dolan also started an online crowdfunding campaign to raise more money to buy back tickets. That fund had generated more than $36,000 by Monday, April 27, with the money pledged to go toward Our Space. Members of the A’s front office said such negative backlash was only slight and that the response has been overwhelmingly positive. They sat down for a meeting with Doug Litwin, marketing director for the FGG who has helped coordinate outreach for the Giants’ LGBT nights, and me to discuss ways to connect the team with local LGBT groups, from Our Family to the San Francisco Gay Softball League. “We were expecting a soft launch,” Smith said. “We weren’t expecting such a positive and organized effort.

Courtesy http://www.thankyoubasedball.com

Eireann Dolan, right, with her two moms, offered to buy the tickets from disgruntled A’s fans unhappy about the team’s inaugural Pride Night.

We want to make sure we get this right – and not just this year.” So, I know where my significant other and I will be June 17, wristbands in place, clutching a couple of hotdogs and cheering on with rainbow pride. Years ago, when we belonged to a club for gay and lesbian couples (before marriage equality became politically cool), we used to help organize our own unofficial LGBT nights at the Coliseum, where we would gather to cheer on the likes of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Mark Mulder to win behind the blasts of Miguel Tejeda, Jason Giambi, and Eric Chavez. This time we’ll be rooting for the likes of longtime favorites Josh Reddick and

Eric Sogard and – hey, who are all these guys they have on the roster now and where did everyone go? Ahh, it’s A’s baseball. Get attached to someone and they get traded. You tear out your hair ... and next thing you know, they’re back in the playoffs. And sooner or later, everyone comes back. If we wait long enough, Zito will be back from the minors and Adam Rosales will get traded back from the Rangers – again. In the meantime, we’re pulling for Sonny Gray, Ike Davis, and Sam Fuld, and crossing our fingers for Doolittle’s return from the disabled list. Our town, our team. We’ll be right at home. It’s the right thing to do.t

AEF/BCEF hold farewell party for Smith tainment, raffles, tacos, and specialty cocktails. For more information and tickets, visit www.tinyurl.com/5DeMikeo.

Atmosqueer connection fair Saturday

Steven Underhill

AEF/BCEF Executive Director Mike Smith

compiled by Cynthia Laird

fficials at the AIDS Emergency Fund and Breast Cancer Emergency Fund will honor outgoing Executive Director Mike Smith with a “Cinco de Mike-O” party Tuesday, May 5 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Chambers at the Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy Street in San Francisco. Smith announced earlier this year that he’s stepping down from overseeing the two agencies, which are housed in the same offices but operate under different boards. Both entities provide emergency financial relief to people living with AIDS and breast cancer. “We are coping with a huge loss in the healthiest way we know how ... a giant party,” the invite reads. Smith told the Bay Area Reporter in January that he has no immediate plans, but that after 12 and a half years it was time to move on. The boards of AEF and BCEF have been conducting a search for his replacement, but have not yet announced a new hire. The suggested donation to attend the party is $55, in honor of Smith’s 55th birthday, which is May 1. All donations made through Razoo are eligible for a match through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The evening will include enter-

Leno, SF Giants to be honored by MEUSA

Marriage Equality USA will recognize gay state Senator Mark Leno (DSan Francisco) and the San Francisco Giants at its garden party and awards

celebration Sunday, May 3 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Chambers, 601 Eddy Street. Leno, who has been a leader on the marriage equality issue from the grassroots to the halls of government, is MEUSA’s ally honoree. He twice

tried to get a same-sex marriage bill passed in the Legislature, only to see it vetoed both times by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. See page 10 >>

Atmosqueer, a free LGBT community fair that seeks to connect people with various activities, will hold its Spring Fling Saturday, May 2 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. The event, sponsored by the center, Bridgemen, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, is held so that people can learn more about volunteerism, athletic organizations, health, lifestyle, and arts and culture. At press time, over 40 groups confirmed their participation. For more information, visit www. atmosqueer.org.

Collaborative divorce workshop

Couples whose marriages aren’t working out can learn about lowcost divorce options at a workshop Saturday, May 2 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street. Sponsored by the Collaborative Practice San Francisco, the workshop will educate participants about ending a marriage or domestic partnership without litigation. Participants will discuss collaboration and other alternatives to help avoid court. Appearing will be mental health therapist Avvy Mar, and divorce financial analyst Kathleen Nemetz. For information, see www.collaborativepracticesanfrancisco.com or email divorceoptionssf@gmail. com. Workshops are held monthly. The cost to attend is $45, payable at the door. Mental health therapists may attend the workshops at no cost. Advance registration is available at http://www.eventbrite. com/o/collaborative-practice-sanfrancisco-7940147671.

our doctors = better care Thank you, Bay Area Reporter readers for choosing Kaiser Permanente as the “BEST HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.” At Kaiser Permanente our doctors are focused on more than practicing good medicine. They take the time to really listen. And give all members the personalized, culturally sensitive care they deserve. For more information call 1-800-464-4000.

kp.org/thrive

<< Travel

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Now’s a good time to avoid the crowd on Oahu by Ed Walsh

sst – don’t tell anybody but the best time to visit Hawaii is now. May through mid-June is considered the low season on the islands because the snowbirds have already gone home and it’s too early for the summer vacation crowd. Right now, you will be met with not only lower hotel rates but with generally drier weather and many flowering plants are at their peak. If you can’t get away right now, September and October are also good months to enjoy nice weather without the crowds.

Airfares to Hawaii from the Bay Area will soon become more competitive year-round. The very gayfriendly Virgin America announced earlier this month that it will begin daily nonstop flights from San Francisco to Hawaii this fall. Oahu flights start November 2 and Maui flights begin December 3. If you have never been to Hawaii, the island of Oahu is a good introduction. It offers a vibrant and sophisticated city scene in Honolulu as well as rural undeveloped areas on the North Shore, Leeward Coast, and Windward Coast. About

70 percent of the state’s 1.4 million residents live in Oahu. Most tourists who visit the island stay in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu. Waikiki is known for its iconic beach lined with high-rise hotels with a spectacular view of the Diamond Head volcano crater to the west. Almost all of Hawaii’s gay nightlife is in Waikiki and you can easily barhop on foot. If you are staying in Waikiki, it is easy to get around without a car. The Waikiki Trolley bus makes regular rounds to the biggest attractions on the island and a number of tour buses originate from Waikiki. Several tours incorporate drive-bys of President Barack Obama’s two former homes on the island as well as the prestigious college prep Punahou School he attended. You can also take public transit to the island’s attractions on Oahu’s version of Muni called TheBus. The fare is $2.50 and you can get a transfer that is good for up to two connections. A four-day unlimited pass is $35: TheBus.org has a complete schedule and you can check when the next bus is coming on the site. If you don’t have Web service on your phone, you can also call a hotline and punch in your bus number to find out when it will arrive.

Attractions

If you enjoy bicycling, be sure to check out Holoholo Bicycles. The company offers a number of tours and can take you quickly to parks and other locales off limits to buses. The company also rents bikes from its store in Honolulu’s Chinatown, which in itself is an attraction. The tour is a great way to get out of Waikiki and see first-hand the re-

FEED YOUR SOUL

Ed Walsh

A view of Queen’s Surf Beach, located at the far Diamond Head end of Waikiki Beach.

vitalization of the city’s downtown. One of the most visited attractions in Hawaii is the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The tour of the harbor is free and takes visitors to the floating memorial over the battleship that was sunk in the 1941 Japanese attack that killed 2,403. You can see oil slowly bubbling to the surface from the ship, which still leaks two to nine quarts of oil per day. Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is Oahu’s most popular snorkeling spot. Colorful tropical fish enjoy the protected crescent-shaped inlet formed by a long-extinct volcano. It is about a 25-minute drive outside Waikiki but it is a good idea to take a shuttle bus from Waikiki because the parking lot usually fills up by 8:30 a.m. The bus costs $22 and includes rental of snorkeling gear and fins. That’s a good deal considering it costs $15-$20 to rent that stuff at the beach concession anyway. Admission to the park costs $7.50 and you have to watch a nine-minute educational video before you enter. You can make a shuttle reservation at http://www. hanaumabaystatepark.com. The beach is closed on Tuesdays to give the fish a break from human contact. If you are a movie fan, be sure to take in a tour of Kualoa Ranch, where a number of films, including Jurassic Park as well as the TV series, Lost, were filmed. It’s on the rugged Windward Coast, about a 40-minute drive north of Waikiki. The 4,000-acre ranch includes tours that offer pick-ups from Waikiki hotels. For more sophisticated art lovers, check out the Honolulu Museum of Art. And while you are there be sure to sign up for a tour of the famed Shangri La estate of the late philanthropist Doris Duke. An estate tour leaves from the Honolulu Museum of Art. The Duke home includes an extensive collection of Islamic art. Advanced reservations can be made through the museum’s website, http://www.honolulumuseum.org. If you would rather look at living art, check out the Waikiki Aquarium and just a short walk away, the Honolulu Zoo. While the aquarium

doesn’t approach the level of our Steinhart Aquarium or even the Aquarium of the Bay, the zoo is on par with the San Francisco Zoo and among Oahu’s most underrated attractions. The Ala Moana Center is the largest open-air mall in the world and the 16th largest shopping mall in the U.S. By comparison, Westfield San Francisco Centre is northern California’s largest at 1.5 million square feet but the Ala Moana bests it by 600,000. The mall has a number of large department stores as well as smaller locally owned shops and a huge food court. It is just outside Waikiki. You will pass it on the way from Waikiki to downtown. A big advantage to shopping in Honolulu is that sales tax is 4.5 percent, about half the rate of most Bay Area cities. The Tax Foundation ranks Honolulu as having the third lowest sales tax rate of cities with a population over 200,000. (Anchorage, Alaska and Portland, Oregon top the list because neither the state nor local governments there charge any sales tax.) One of the best things to do in Oahu is free. Manoa Falls is just a 20-minute drive outside Waikiki but feels like another world. (TheBus #5 takes about 30 minutes to get there from the Ala Moana Shopping Center.) From the road, it is a little less than a mile hike to get to the falls and the hike itself is a destination as the trail winds its way through a lush forest. Wear a bathing suit under your clothes and bring a towel because after you work up a sweat walking up to the falls, you can take a dip in the very cool pond under the falls. The website http:// www.manoafalls.com has detailed directions and tips.

Beach and bars

Honolulu has an unofficial gay beach called Queen’s Surf Beach. The name is derived from Hawaii’s royal past, not the beach’s present clientele. It is at the far Diamond Head end of Waikiki Beach a little past the intersection of Kapahulu Avenue and Kalakaua Avenue. It is conveniently near the snack bar and restrooms. If your phone has a GPS, See page 9 >>

VISIT. EAT. SMILE. On a morning drive into Sacramento, you stop by a fruit stand for fresh strawberries. The kids think they’re candy and you smile. In Old Sacramento, you find trains and horse-drawn carriages. It’s evening now and the Capitol lights up. The kids think it’s a castle and you chuckle. A last stop at the Farmer’s Market the next morning leaves the kids tugging at your shirt. More strawberries please! Life is sweeter in Sacramento. Come feed your soul. Start Your Experience at VisitSacramento.com/LGBT

Ed Walsh

Ali’iolani Hale houses the state Supreme Court and is across the street from the ’Iolani Palace.

t <<

Travel>>

Oahu

From page 8

plug in the address of the Queen’s Surf Cafe and Lanai Bar, which faces the beach: 2701 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815. Hawaii’s most popular gay bar may also be the most beautiful gay watering hole in the world. Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand, at 134 Kapahulu Avenue, has an open-air view of Diamond Head and the Kapiolani Regional Park, just in front of Queen’s Surf Beach. It is on the second floor of the Waikiki Grand Hotel. It is a little tricky to get to it. You have to walk through the hotel lobby and walk up the staircase to the left. Hula’s runs a gay catamaran cruise on Saturdays. You can make a reservation through http://www. hulas.com. Fusion Waikiki is a popular latenight gay dance spot, a short walk from Hula’s. It’s at 2260 Kuhio Avenue on the second floor. LoJax is Hawaii’s gay sports bar and it is also on the second floor, right next to Fusion, at 2256 Kuhio Avenue. (This is the bar that used to be Angles.) The space includes a patio with a view of Kuhio Avenue, known for its bars, restaurants, and nightlife. The In Between is a small bar popular with locals. It is tucked away at 2155 Lauula Street, just a five-minute walk from LoJax and Fusion. Bacchus Waikiki, at 408 Lewers Street, is just two blocks from LoJax. The lounge and video bar opened in the summer of 2011 with the help of a couple of business partners from San Francisco and quickly earned a loyal following of locals and tourists alike. Bacchus teams up with Aloha Bears for a monthly gay catamaran cruise. You need to sign up in advance and you can do it through the bar’s website, http://www.bacchuswaikiki.com. Tapa’s Lanai Bar is at 407 Seaside Avenue, just behind LoJax. It is also a second floor bar and features Karaoke and tapas. Wang Chung’s is a gay but straight-friendly karaoke bar and restaurant serving up Asian- and Latin-inspired food. It recently moved to the Stay Hotel at 2424 Koa Avenue. There are no full-time lesbian bars in Hawaii but gay women are very welcome in all of Honolulu’s predominantly gay male bars.

Jenner

From page 1

“It’s a gray space,” Rohrer told the Bay Area Reporter. “Jenner wanted he/him to be used in the ABC interview, so you could ethically go with that. GLAAD guidelines say that you use the pronouns expressed by the person.” Sawyer’s interview touched on many topics. Jenner spoke of his relationships with his family – his four biological children with two ex-wives, and his two biological children and four stepchildren with ex-wife Kris Jenner. Neither his former wives nor his children with Kris Jenner nor the Kardashian children appeared on camera. His four eldest children did appear on camera and voiced support for Jenner. He recalled his struggles with gender dysphoria during his childhood in Tarrytown, New York. Jenner also stated that he had begun undergoing hormone therapy as early as the 1980s with the intention of transitioning. But he stopped. “I lost my nerve,” he told Sawyer. Jenner drew a distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity. “Sexuality was totally different than what my issues were,” Jenner said. “And I always felt heterosexual.” He also added he had never been with a man. “I am not gay ... as far as I know, I am heterosexual.” Sawyer brought up the issue again later in the program, asking if Jenner

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Accommodations

There are no exclusively gay hotels on Oahu since Cabanas Waikiki went mainstream a few years ago but you would be hardpressed to find a hotel that is not gay-welcoming. Since same-sex marriage was legalized in Hawaii nearly two years ago, many hotels actively now court the gay marriage market. When comparing hotel prices, remember that most in Hawaii charge a mandatory resort fee that typically runs $10-$35 per night, so be sure to look for that when booking a room. If you want to live it up, you can’t do much better than the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The pink-clad historic hotel first opened in 1927 and has set the bar very high for luxury accommodations in Hawaii. The hotel has a modern high-rise tower as well as the original main building. The hotel does a great job of combining new world comforts while maintaining his old-Hawaiian charm. The Vive Hotel is more moderately priced and is hip, modern, and close to everything in Waikiki. It is conveniently located – a five-minute walk to LoJax/Fusion on one side and Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand in the other direction. The 125-room high-rise boutique hotel is one of the newer properties in Waikiki. It used to be the Continental Surf Hotel but it was completely gutted and very stylishly redone as the Vive. The hotel has no resort fee and includes a free continental breakfast, Wi-Fi, and use of beach gear. Aqua Hotels and Resorts include more than two-dozen hotels in Hawaii. Aqua is offering an “Out and Proud” 15 percent discount on its select Oahu properties, a copy of the gay Hawaii eXpression magazine, and each guest gets a coupon for a free Mai Tai at Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand. (Google “Aqua Resorts LGBT” for more info.) Hilton offers a “Go Out Hilton” package at all its hotels including the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Waikiki. The package includes a couple of free welcome drinks and a year’s digital subscription to Out magazine. The expansive Hawaiian Village is at the far end of Waikiki, opposite Diamond Head. It is a beautiful full-service resort but it is a long haul if you want to barhop. Hula’s is 1.5 miles away and LoJax/ would consider himself a lesbian after transitioning if he dated women. He did not agree, finally describing himself as “asexual – for now.” Throughout the program, educational bullet points were shown, such as one explaining, “Sexual identity is who you go to sleep with. Gender identity is who you go to sleep as.” During the interview Jenner acknowledged being a Republican and said he hoped to present transgender issues to party leaders like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio). He said that he’s “not a fan” of President Barack Obama, but gave him credit for saying the word “transgender” during the State of the Union address in January. Fimbres wondered if the Republican leadership would accept Jenner. Log Cabin Republicans, a lobbying group for LGBT conservatives, did issue a statement after the interview welcoming Jenner into the fold. The program did point out the high level of violence directed against transgender people, particularly transwomen of color. Jenner also made it clear that he does not consider himself a spokesman for the transgender community. Fimbres was happy that the show acknowledged the violence that transgender people face. But she was displeased with what she called Jenner’s “dissing” of Obama. “Bruce Jenner is not the face or spokesmodel of trans folks to me,” Fimbres said. “He still needs more

Fusion about a mile. To book and get your free drinks visit: http:// www.goout.hilton.com.

Eating out

Tiki’s Grill and Bar, in the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, 2570 Kalakaua Avenue, is just steps from the gay Queen’s Surf Beach. Its outdoor patio seating makes it the perfect place to watch the sunset. Chef Chai, 1009 Kapiolani Boulevard, is an upscale modern restaurant in downtown Honolulu famous for fusing fresh Hawaiian ingredients with exotic flavors from Asia. The Surf Lanai restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel is a great way to experience the Royal Hawaiian luxury without completely busting your budget. The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch with seating right on the beach. Egg dishes start at $20 and the continental breakfast is $25. The prix fixe lunch menu is $42. For a very gay Hawaiian dining experience, Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand has a cafe open for dinner and snacks during the week and lunch and dinner on the weekends. The aforementioned Tapa’s Waikiki and Wang Chung’s are also great places to have a casual bite in a gay setting.

Getting there

Hawaiian and United have the most flights to Honolulu from all three Bay Area airports. Unlike United, Hawaiian Airlines still offers free meals onboard and even a free alcoholic drink in economy. But all the airlines that service Hawaii charge to check a bag. Airfares should drop, at least temporarily, when Virgin America starts flying to Hawaii later this year, so keep your eyes peeled for deals this fall. Right now, nonstop flights to Honolulu start around $440 but you may be able to save some money if you book flights with stops in Los Angeles or Maui. Alaska, American, and Delta airlines also fly to the islands but with far fewer flights than United and Hawaiian. Now that same-sex marriage is legal in Hawaii, if you want to get married island-style, Hawaiian Airlines offers wedding discounts as part of its “Wedding Wings” program. Couples are eligible for a 10 percent discount plus all guests will receive a 5 percent discount. After 25 guests book, couples get a complimentary one-way upgrade to first class.t

counseling and guidance as he continues on his journey.” In the immediate aftermath of the interview, many LGBT people took to social media, describing Jenner as a “courageous hero.” But not all saw him that way. “Anyone who chose to go through the journey of gender transition is courageous and strong,” Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman and longtime community leader, wrote on Facebook April 25. “Jenner is no exception. To go through this private transformation in front of the camera is going to add multiple layers of complexities and inherent risks.” Chung also wrote that she thought Jenner had the best intentions, but that she has no faith in the mainstream media. “Let’s hope for the best for Jenner’s upcoming documentary series and for the media to respect his journey,” she wrote. Chung was referring to Jenner’s upcoming reality show that will air this summer. Rohrer said overall, the Jenner interview was a “sign of progress.” “When people are given the freedom to make their own choices about their bodies, faith, and politics our world is a better place,” Rohrer said. “There were days when all trans people had to answer medical questions the same way or they wouldn’t get approved.” Added Rohrer, “The fact that Jenner’s story and imagined future is different from mine and other trans people is a sign of progress.”t

EQUALITY

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Sat., May 2, and June 6, 9:30a.m. to 12:30p.m. and on the first Saturday AM most months. Tuesday, July 7 from 6:30 to 8:30p.m. For 2015-effective divorce, file & served by June 26 SF Jewish Community Center (JCC) 3200 California Street (at Presidio)

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DIVORCE OPTIONS Divorce Options is a 3 hour educational workshop offered monthly, equally appropriate if you are married or a state registered domestic partner, and with or without children.

Divorce Options is presented monthly throughout Northern California by panels of collaboratively trained attorneys, financial professionals and mental health professionals, who are members of:

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www.cpcal.org

SAN FRANCISCO

COLUMBARIUM Meet Your Neighbors You’re invited to mix and mingle with the people who will one day share your permanent San Francisco address. Wine & Cheese Open House Now you can Friday, July 19, 2013 2—5pm stay RSVP in Required: San(415) Francisco 752-8791 forever. 1 Loraine Court—San Francisco, CA 94118

Reserve your niche in history. Handsome discounts for pre-arranging.

Call 415.752.7891 Visit us at One Loraine Court, in the heart of the Richmond. COA 534

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

News Briefs

From page 7

The Giants, who will receive the corporate partner award, are being recognized for their long history of inclusion. In 1994, they were the first professional sports team to host a benefit game for AIDS research with “Until There’s A Cure Day.” In 2011, the team again became the first pro sports franchise to join the It Gets Better campaign with a video featuring many star players. More recently, the team signed on to a friend of the court brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of marriage equality in all 50 states. Finally, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom is the community honoree. BALIF is the nation’s oldest and largest association of LGBT persons in the legal profession. Founded in 1980, it has been the lead party in numerous amicus briefs that MEUSA and other civil rights groups have joined. Tickets are $120. For more information, visit www.marriageequality. org/sf-awards.

Maitri Bliss benefit Sunday

Maitri hospice will hold its annual Bliss benefit Sunday, May 3 at 4 p.m. at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens Street in San Francisco. This year’s theme is “Prescription: Joy,” and the gala will kick off with an inspirational processional ritual by Jana Drakka and Issan’s Monks. The headliner will be Broadway and television star Alec Mapa.

‘Pink Party’

From page 1

After the Sisters announced their withdrawal, Wiener pulled in the community center to help organize the festival, and the city will likely pay tens of thousands of dollars for it. Wiener’s said the city’s funding of this year’s party comes after the Sisters’ announcement left little time for funding to be pulled together. The 2014 festival cost the Sisters $80,000, though this year’s celebration is expected to cost more to produce. McFarlane said last week that the budget hasn’t been finalized, and she couldn’t provide an estimate.

Marriage

From page 6

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg interjected that the reason behind that sex discrimination was that “we know who the [biological] mother is” and was intended to avoid the possibility that a man might claim to be the father in order to gain some benefits. If the state laws were seen as sex discrimination, the court would impose a higher standard of judicial scrutiny than mere rational basis. Laws disadvantaging people based on gender must be justified with – not just a rational reason but – an important governmental interest. Evan Wolfson, head of the na-

Drug pricing bill

From page 5

insurance industry groups. Nick Louizos, vice president of legislative affairs for the California Association of Health Plans, warned the committee members the bill would result in higher copayments and costlier deductibles for the 23 million California residents with private insurance.

Gay museum director

From page 2

executive director. But at the time a number of the people urging that he be replaced declined to comment and referred questions to the historical society’s board of directors. Steve Gibson, at the time co-chair

In addition to music and dance performances, guests will enjoy delicious fare, signature cocktails and wines, and an exciting live auction. There will also be a silent auction, massages, a ritual arena, and photo booth. Tickets are $175. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.maitrisf.org.

Bay Area book launch for activists of color anthology

A book launch for Talking Back: Voices of Color will be held Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland (two blocks from MacArthur BART). The anthology features many LGBTQ voices, including Asian American lesbian feminist teacher Merle Woo, who writes about her landmark lawsuits against UC Berkeley, charging the university with discrimination based on sexuality, race, gender, and political ideology. Veteran queer activist Stephen Durham interviews Pepe Palacios, a gay resistance fighter from Honduras. Another writer featured is Karla Alegria, who asserts it’s not same-sex marriage but capitalism that is destroying families. She also describes how civil war and U.S. immigration policies split up her Salvadoran family. Norma Gallegos, Yuisa Gimeno, Moises Montoya, and Emily Woo also have pieces in the book. At the launch party, authors will be present to discuss and read from their contributions.t “We will release all the details as soon as we have them and they’re certain,” she said. It’s not clear yet how much money city officials will provide for the Pink Party. “The city is providing substantial support for the party,” McFarlane said. “The center is obviously leveraging the resources we have here in our organization, as well.” She couldn’t say whether the center would be spending money on the event. “Until we finalize the budget, it would be better for that conversation to wait,” McFarlane said. However, she said, “We do have staff resources dedicated” to the festival.t tional Freedom to Marry organization, said Kennedy’s questions “invited our advocates to make the case about the newness and relative evolution” of the issue. “He also asked key questions about the kids. He pointed out the illogic of some of the states’ positions. And at the end of the day,” said Wolfson, “arguments are arguments and what counts is what they’re going to go back and do, read these briefs, and write the arguments, build on the law, and write the opinion. And Justice Kennedy has a long and serious legacy to build on here and I hope he does the right thing.”t Chris Huqueriza contributed to this report.

“This bill does not only not solve the problem of drug pricing, it could make the problem worse,” he said. “It removes the reasons for health insurance companies to negotiate the costs of their drugs.” The bill would not impact the nearly 2 million people enrolled with Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, which has formed its own working group to address drug pricing.t of the board, told the B.A.R. that the oversight body “supports Paul and his leadership of the organization.” The historical society’s tax filing for 2013 lists Boneberg’s reportable compensation as $76,400. The nonprofit’s annual expenses through January were about $569,000.t

Legal Notices>> SUMMONS SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: BERNARDO RAMIRO FUENTES YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: IRMA ENCINAS CASE NO. CGC-12-526901

Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp) your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The name and address of the court is: San Francisco Superior Court, 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102. The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

ROBERT P. GARCIA, 12 GEARY ST RM 708, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108; (415) 648-3060 Date: Dec 11, 2012; Clerk Of The Court, by Steppe, Deputy.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551033

In the matter of the application of: MEGAN ASHLEY GRIMM, 4540 CALIFORNIA ST #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MEGAN ASHLEY GRIMM, is requesting that the name MEGAN ASHLEY GRIMM, be changed to MEGAN ASHLEY KUMAR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 2nd of June 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551034

In the matter of the application of: VISHAL AGARWAL, 4540 CALIFORNIA ST #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner VISHAL AGARWAL, is requesting that the name VISHAL AGARWAL, be changed to VISHAL KUMAR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 2nd of June, 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036394700

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF SAMMY LEE BELL IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 400 MCALLISTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102: FILE PES-15-298702

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of SAMMY LEE BELL. A Petition for Probate has been filed by DONNA MARIE MADISON-BELL in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that DONNA MARIE MADISON-BELL be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: May 18, 2015, Probate Department, 9:00a.m. Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: Hilary Hedemark, 601 Van Ness Ave., #2056, San Francisco, CA 94102; Ph. (415) 692-1503.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036396500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIZZA JOINT, 3088 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIHAD DABIT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/27/15.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036363500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UBIQUITY RETIREMENT & SAVINGS, 101 GREEN ST, 2ND FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DECIMAL INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/12/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/12/15.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036377100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1-2-3-4 GO! RECORDS, 1034 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEVEN PHILIP RAY STEVENSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/15.

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036404500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHARDS OF HISTORY, 1578 INNES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GREG FREEMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/26/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/26/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRACTISTRY, 945 IRVING ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed WENDIE SUE LASH & KAREN LEE ERLICHMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/15.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036358300

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036405400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036402600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHRISTOPHER’S AT THE PALACE, 3601 LYON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed POFA CAFE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/01/15.

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036384200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RED APRON PIZZERIA, 3214 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RED APRON PIZZERIA, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/20/15.

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036375500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANITA BOWEN PHOTOGRAPHY, 1034 STANFORD AVE #1, OAKLAND, CA 94608. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANITA BOWEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/17/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/17/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036415700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IDIOSYNCRATIC VISION, 857 CLAY ST #409, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANTHONY WILCOX. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/07/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036360800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUN STAR, 2545 A NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HUA JIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/11/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036389000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TYCOON STATUS ENTERTAINMENT, 78 MARGARET AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JORELLE JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/24/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/24/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036416500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A RAN, 161 THRIFT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HANG RAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/08/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036397600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIN CHERRY, 1228 GRANT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ORLANDO SANCHEZ ALVARADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/30/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036402300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOGO LOVE, 538 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MEERIYAGERD INC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/01/15.

APRIL 16, 23, 39, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036421300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GRANNY PANTY DESIGNS, 215 SANTA YNEZ AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARISSA CARTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/10/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GIG TELECOMMUNICATIONS, 1225 JUDAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JIANG ZHI HUI & SHEN PENGYU & FUNG HUNG LAU GIMEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE SPICE JAR, 2500 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TABELU LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/15.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036396000

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036389800

APRIL 16, 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036398900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRISKELIAN’S KEY, 399 ARGUELLO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HERSCHELL LARRICK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/27/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PLEASANT AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION, 1931 QUESADA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GALAXY UNLIMITED SERVICES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/24/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LAUNDRÉ, 1278 PAGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LAUNDRÉ LIMITED LIABILITY CO. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/30/15.

APRIL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2015

APRIL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015

APRIL 16, 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Legal Notices>> STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035898800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036419800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIVERA’S HOUSECLEANING & JANITORIAL, 725 MOULTRIE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NORA LISETT BERRIOS RIVERA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/09/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/09/15.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SUN STAR, 2545A NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by CHOI LIN IP. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/14.

APRIL 16, 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036157500

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036424100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SPOT ON SF, 325 NEWHALL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by HOGAN PENROSE LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/14.

APRIL 16, 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036438800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BILL’S GOODS, 262 12TH AVE, #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM HOLDENSTERN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036397800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TAN’S FINE ART STUDIO, 235 MONTGOMERY ST, #350, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZIMOU TAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/30/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036433900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MTENEROWICZ ENTERPRISES, 1299 BUSH ST, #204, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL TENEROWICZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036434700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RED GARAGE, 39 ERVINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH PELINA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036412500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE NAUGHTY HINDU, 1900 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUDHIR POPAT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/06/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOKSHA DESIGNS, 228 CONGDEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL DEAN OSGOOD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036439100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO SOCCER, 2653 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SULMA GARCIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036436800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PESBAS FISH AND CHICKEN, 393 EDDY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a general partnership and is signed KHALED OMER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036429700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HTH ADVISORS LLC PROPERTY ACCOUNT, 1074 UNION ST, #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARTHUR BRUZZONE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036429800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GET IT US, 532 40TH AVE, #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HYUN JOO LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036433100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHE CAVE CREATIONS, 808 NAPLES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SOFIA M. MATHEWS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015

City and County of San Francisco Outreach Advertising May 2015 Stay Connected To the City through SF311

The SF311 Customer Service Center is the single stop for residents to get information on government services and report problems to the City and County of San Francisco. And now, we have even more ways for you to stay connected to the City with our SF311 App and SF311 Explorer website. The SF311 App lets you get information on City services and submit service requests onthe-go right from your smartphone. You can track your service requests through the app or through our new website, SF311 Explorer. SF311 Explorer not only lets you check the status of your own requests, it enables you to see what issues are being reported throughout all of San Francisco and what the City is doing to resolve them. Download the SF311 App from your smartphone’s app store and visit the SF311 Explorer at explore311.sfgov.org today!

Port of San Francisco

Port of San Francisco announces Contract #2774, Pier 94 High Mast Lighting Project. Located at Pier 94, the scope of work will consist of removing two (2) 100-foot high lights and installing two (2) 80-foot high modern lights. Bidders may either be Class A or Class C-10 licensed, and only San Francisco certified Micro-LBE contractors are eligible to bid on this Set-aside contract. Bid discounts, LBE goals, Local Hire, & Partnering do not apply. Pre-bid meeting: 5/26/15, 10:30 AM at the Contractor Assistance Center located at 5 Thomas Mellon Circle in San Francisco. Bids Due: 6/30/15, 10:30AM, Pier 1. For questions contact Arnel Prestosa, (415) 274-0627. Information located on www.sfport.com and www. sfgov.org/oca.

San Francisco Youth Commission

“Are you a young person 24 or younger who is interested in improving services and programs for youth in San Francisco? The newly forming Children, Youth, and Families Oversight and Advisory Committee (OAC) has three positions for youth representatives. The OAC will oversee the policies of the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and ensure the Children and Youth Fund, passed in November 2014, is administered in a manner accountable to the community. The commitment is approximately 5 hours/month. There is a $500 annual stipend for participation as well as training and leadership opportunities. Applications are open until May 15th. Desired qualifications include: direct experience with after-school, summer, and youthfocused programs in San Francisco; a passion for youth-inclusion in decision-making; and connection to the diverse experiences of youth in San Francisco. For more information, please visit the SF Youth Commission webpage: www.sfgov.org/yc

Board of Supervisors Regularly Scheduled Board Meetings May OPEN TO THE PUBLIC –Tuesdays, 2:00pm, City Hall Chamber, Room 250. ·

May 5

Classifieds The

May 12

May 19

The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036427800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANGELS’ WASH HOUSE, 5205 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LOW ANGEL ENTERPRISES INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/01. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/14/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036431800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CANDY DOLL BEAUTY, 1737 POST ST, #385, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PERFECT LADY COSMETIC & FASHION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/15.

Blogs>>

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Movers>>

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036431000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MARTIN BUILDING COMPANY, 14 MINT PLAZA, 5TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MARTIN MCNERNEY DEVELOPMENT, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/89. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/15/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036433000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOME ON 15TH, 2281A 15TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed CONSTANCE RICCA & SALVADORE T. RICCA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036436100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROADSTER; ROADSTER.COM; ROADSTER AUTOMOTIVE, 1388 SUTTER ST, #900, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ROADSTER AUTOMOTIVE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/15.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035723500

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: AQUA SPA, 14 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business was conducted by a limited partnership and signed by RALF SYMANZICK & GINA SYMANZICK. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/18/14.

APRIL 23, 30, MAY 07, 14, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036441100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIN CHERRY 2, 2093 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGAR LITTLETON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/21/15.

APRIL 30, MAY 07, 14, 21, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036437300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RESCUE HR, 736 THORNTON AVE, SACRAMENTO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LANITA WILLIAMS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/15.

APRIL 30, MAY 07, 14, 21, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036452100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY ATHLETICS, 1737 GOLDEN GATE AVE #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed KAJARI BURNS & MATTHEW ILARINA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/27/15.

APRIL 30, MAY 07, 14, 21, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036443800

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036443900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COUNTRY HEARTH INN, 2707 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MANGAL, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/15.

APRIL 30, MAY 07, 14, 21, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036020200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUENA VISTA MOTOR INN, 1599 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GAJANAN, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/22/15.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SIN CHERRY 2, 2093 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by ALLAM BITAR & IMAD BITAR. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/28/14.

APRIL 30, MAY 07, 14, 21, 2015

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Vol. 45 • No. 18 • April 30-May 6, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

International buzz

58th San Francisco International Film Festival, week 2

by David Lamble

he 58th San Francisco International Film Festival’s second week (through May 7 at the Castro, Kabuki Cinemas, Clay, Roxie, Pacific Film Archive) delivers breathtaking original cinema, a great lead-in to the 2015 Fall awards season. See page 18 >>

Paul Dano in a scene from Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy, playing the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival. Courtesy SFFS

Music & glamour in a memory play by Richard Dodds

he was an Iranian film star who didn’t see her own movies, a celebrity who stayed home because she didn’t like to be recognized. “People would sometimes think you were the character you played, and treated you like that,” Vida Ghahremani said recently. “They felt they could approach you, and that bothered me.” See page 21 >>

Former Iranian film star Vida Ghahremani, left, plays a version of herself in Isfahan Blues, a new play by daughter Torange Yeghiazarian that also features L. Peter Callender as a character based on Billy Strayhorn, and Sofia Ahmad as a young version of the film star. Courtesy Golden Thread Productions

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

45 eB AR .co

Our largest edition of the year publishes on June 25, 2015 and will celebrate Pride’s historic 45th anniversary.

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▼

the anniversary historical parade contingents, to mind Pride’s 200 passing likely to call milestone is of the GLBT significance. executive director anniversary Paul Boneberg, said Pride’s 40th in events both Society, of the Pride Historical importance “shows the and around the world.” 24 San Francisco

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<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Night at the wax museum by Roberto Friedman

lease note that by wax museum, we don’t mean your favorite Castro District bar. We mean Madame Tussauds, the wax-figure tourist attraction deep in the tourist-a-go-go zone of Fisherman’s Wharf, and apparently spelled without the apostrophe. It was the site of the afterparty for opening night of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival, which began with a screening of documentarian Alex Gibney’s latest opus, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine at the Castro Theatre. Out There was Johnny-on-the-spot for all of the fun, both in the moviehouse and at the house of wax.

Room) by taking on the corruption and greed of digital-era capitalism. It shows Jobs to be multi-faceted: visionary, genius, spiritual, flawed. In a word, he was something that no Apple product will ever be, no matter how seductive: human.

We were happy to note LGBT figures among the waxy cast of characters at Tussauds: Harvey Milk, Billie Jean King, Neil Patrick Harris, and Quentin Crisp. (Also, Larry Kramer would have us believe, gay old George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.) OT & the ever-intrepid Pepi were also pleased to find that filmmaker Gibney, passing by us on his way to the VIP room, matched our diminutive stature. It was a great opening night for SFIFF. The film fits well into Gibney’s oeuvre (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the

First string

How do we love Owen Pallett? Let us count the ways. His classical violin training, his creativity, his mad skills with synthesizers and samplers, his angelic voice, his out gay public persona, his stunning good looks, his goofy patter between songs in performance, his athletic physique, his enlightened politics, his embrace of intellectual pursuits, his cute boyfriend, his impressive oeuvre. OP’s Full Grooming simply got everything that OT needs for new clientsGrooming only, Full For ALL Customers in an O. with this ad FullValidGrooming Valid For ALL Customers Now the Canadian boy wonder Valid For ALL Customers has released another video from his latest album, the excellent In Conflict (Domino). “The Sky Behind Serving the PHONE: 650-344-6400 DEAR ADVERTISER: We have followed your instructions and created this the Flag” (director: Eno Swinnen) proof. Please review it and indicate if it is ok to print or if it needs any FAX: 650-343-2540 Castro since minor corrections. This is not an opportunity to redesign your ad. fax back or email approval 24 hours. Thank You. this and created joins DEAR ADVERTISER: Weyour haveWe followed your instructions and created PHONE:650-344-6400 650-344-6400 Please EMAIL: wbcoupons@comcast.net DEAR ADVERTISER: havewithin followed your instructions this the videos already released PHONE: 1981 proof. Please review it and indicate if it is ok to print or if it needs any proof. Please review it and indicate if it is ok to print or if it needs any FAX: 650-343-2540 minor corrections. This is This not anis opportunity to redesign your ad. INDICATE MINOR CHANGES:FAX: 650-343-2540 minor corrections. not an opportunity to redesign your ad.from that album, “Song for Five and Please fax back or email your approval within 24 hours. Thank You. EMAIL: wbcoupons@comcast.net Please fax back or email your ST approval within 24 hours. Thank You. EMAIL: wbcoupons@comcast.net 15TH Six,” “On a Path,” “Infernal Fantasy,” Cafe | Restaurant | Catering INDICATE MINOR CHANGES: INDICATE MINOR CHANGES: the title tune and “The Riverbed,” PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO: ❒ EXPIRATION DATE ❒ ADDRESS ❒ PHONE NUMBER ❒ OFFER but unlike those vids, this one is 288 Noe❒Street, SF OK TO PRINT ❒ OK WITH CORRECTIONS PAY B PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO: ❒ EXPIRATION DATE ❒ ADDRESS ❒ PHONEDATE NUMBER ❒ OFFER SIGNED Y ✘______________________________________ ___/___/___ completely animated. The lyrics re(415) 431-7210 ST ❒ OK TO: TO PRINT ❒ OK DATE WITH CORRECTIONS PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION ❒ EXPIRATION ❒ ADDRESS ❒16TH PHONE NUMBER ❒ OFFER main the same. “Owen, why must ❒ OK TO PRINT ❒ OK WITH CORRECTIONS SIGNED Blamednoe.com Y ✘______________________________________ DATE___/___/___ you always be first to wake and first SIGNED BY ✘______________________________________ DATE___/___/___ COUPON NAME: GROOMINGDALE’S AREAS: WISE BUY$ IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS, CHANGES OR CORRECTIONS NOT INDICATED AT THIS TIME. La Mediterranee Noe to fight? First to wound and first to QUANTITY: SIZE: SIDES: PAPER: GROOMINGDALE’S FOR PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT USE ONLY COUPON NAME: AREAS: @LaMedNoe fly?” ST 17TH COUPON NAME: GROOMINGDALE’S AREAS: QUANTITY: SIZE: SIDES: PAPER: Pallett’s compositional genius QUANTITY: SIZE: SIDES: PAPER: involves playing violin lines into a sequencer, capturing them in digital loops, then playing acousDelicious Sichuan specialties tic lines over the synthesized ones. He’s taking techniques pioneered Tasty Dim Sum made by Laurie Anderson in the 1970s

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and bringing his own lyricism and invention to them. He’s a next-generation gay genius. In some ways, he’s the anti-Morrissey. “You put on The Queen Is Dead,” he sings.

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vies Symphony Hall will be available May 5 on hybrid SACD and as a digital download. The album is also mastered for iTunes. As a rare exception to the rule, hearing the gorgeously recorded disc at home is actually more than the next best thing to being there. The performances in DSH from 2014 seemed a little too meticulous at the time, but listening on good equipment without public distractions allows us to fully savor MTT’s emotional bond with Tchaikovsky. His elegant approach to two warhorse staples of the Russian symphonic repertoire is a dazzling celebration that coincides nicely with the 175th anniversary of the composer’s birth. We wanted more theatrical passion in the concert setting, although the orchestra responded to the maestro’s measured control with exceptional energy and flawless style. The playing remains as rich and assured as remembered, and actually gains in dramatic force as a purely aural experience. I can imagine returning to these deeply thoughtful interpretations often, and easily recommend the handsomely packaged disc as a library selection for the simple reason of MTT’s avoidance of excess. What is it about the Russian master’s gift for song that never ceases to move us? The big melodies still swell

“I just want to talk instead.” Where the Moz is self-aggrandizing, OP is self-effacing. Where M. is cutting, O. is kind. One day he’ll make a great wax figure.t

and soar inexorably without ever going over the top, and MTT’s grasp of the marvelous structure of the Fifth Symphony is seamlessly fulfilled. Again, Romeo and Juliet doesn’t convince as much, but heard without the usual interpretive torment, it refreshingly becomes more an opulent fantasy than the traditional emotional rollercoaster. MTT started his 20th season with the SFS conducting both works on different concert bills. A lifelong appreciation of Tchaikovsky’s genius is beautifully realized on the new recording, with tremendously sympathetic response from his musical colleagues. Leonard Bernstein (music); Betty Comden and Adolph Green (book and lyrics): On the Town (New Broadway Cast Recording) Tony Yazbeck (Gabey), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Chip), Clyde Alves (Ozzie), Megan Fairchild (Ivy Smith), Alysha Umphress (Hildy Esterhazy), Elizabeth Stanley (Claire) (PS Classics, 2-CD set), also available as Digital Download Bernstein, Comden & Green were kids themselves when they teamed up with ballet genius Jerome RobSee page 15 >>

Theatre>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Friends & family at the Talley estate by Richard Dodds

or a play that debuted in 1978, Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July is remarkable in how unremarkably a gay couple figures into an ensemble of otherwise straight characters. Ken and Jed are lovers, a matter-offact circumstance that pulls no particular attention in a group wrapped up in individual agendas. But those agendas do not add up to potent drama, at least not as rendered in Aurora Theatre’s uneven production. It’s likely that the play itself has not weathered the years well, the freshness once found so appealing having dissipated into an intermittently compelling tale sprinkled with mild humor. What audiences may now feel is the most emotionally charged issue is whether or not Jed will get to keep his beloved garden. That garden is located at the Talley family home in small-town Missouri where Ken, a tetchy Vietnam veteran maneuvering on artificial legs, and Jed, a horticulturist of saintly patience, make their home. Friends and family have gathered

for a holiday reunion, and the action unfolds on a bleary morning after a boozy Independence Day party. As backstories are revealed, strains among family and friends begin to amp up into confrontations borne of old hurts and resentments. Most of the characters are suffering hangovers from the previous evening’s party, and some are suffering hangovers from the previous decade, when they idealistically bonded around anti-Vietnam War activities. “It was all a crock,” says Ken’s sister, June, who nevertheless tries to maintain that their efforts were still meaningful. The biggest question amid the 1960s survivors, including the now-married John and Gwen who were part of the happily angry protesters, is why the equally militant Ken let himself be drafted into the war. The collisions of nostalgia and disillusionment can be intriguing, especially for the so-called children of the 60s, but the immediate relevance it had when the play was new has faded, leaving other matters to carry the dramatic weight. The antsy Ken wants to sell the old home,

David Allen

Craig Marker plays a once-idealistic Vietnam veteran hosting an often-rancorous reunion of friends and family in Fifth of July at Aurora Theatre.

and the always-calculating John wants to buy it to build a recording studio for his wannabe-singer wife, who happens to be a copper heiress he’s happy to keep distracted. Also on hand for the fun and game-playing are Ken’s equanimous aunt Sally, a character featured in Wilson’s Tal-

ley’s Folly set in 1944, as well as his histrionically inclined teenage niece, and a guitar-strumming buddy who still maintains one foot in the stoned 60s. Amid this ensemble cast of characters, Ken Talley is ultimately its center. Craig Marker, whose work

I have previously enjoyed, doesn’t feel at home in the role, and that lack of connection slackens all that is around it. But there are individually vibrant performances from Elizabeth Benedict as imperturbable Aunt Sally, Jennifer Le Blanc as Ken’s sister of uneasy single motherhood, Oceana Ortiz as her incorrigibly emotive daughter, Nanci Zoppi as the wildly self-involved singing heiress, Harold Pierce as the goofily aging hippie, and Josh Schell as the hunky pillar of strength who is Ken’s lover. Amid this group, John Girot comes off rather bland as the duplicitous would-be buyer of the Talley estate. It’s a big cast for the intimate Aurora stage that Tom Ross handles with skill mixed with missed opportunities. And perhaps the cast has yet to gel into a solid ensemble. As it is, this production of Fifth of July doesn’t make a strong case for its future revival.t Fifth of July will run at Aurora Theatre through May 17. Tickets are $32-$50. Call (510) 843-4822 or go to auroratheatre.org.

Continuing revelations of Alvin Ailey by Paul Parish

the company’s physicality in Hans Van Manen’s Polish Pieces. Encased in all-over body tights in varying metallic hues, the 11 dancers looked like statues, moving with great power in tight, confined patterns, with brilliant, super-fast pencil-turns that emphasized their power in creating shapes and maintaining them with superhuman control. The hardedged music, by Henryk Gorecki, evoked an atmosphere of humanity struggling with forces of mechanization. Large group formations toggled against poignant dances for couples. The Ailey technique emphasizes muscularity, almost Michelangelesque – so the sculptural integrity of the torso involves pathos, and begs you to feel the effort involved in containing emotion within these extravagant postures. Van Manen’s rigor pulls the Ailey silhouettes back from the Expressionist edge into an almost Nordic realm of restraint –

but you feel the power coming from the dancers, and have to admire the choice by Ailey Artistic Director Robert Battle of Van Manen as an artist who could work with his dancers and extend a gift they already have into a new direction. Similarly, Battle’s decision to include a 1932 brief, glorious solo by the Sierra Leone choreographer Asadata Dafora (recreated by Charles Moore) dips into African heritage and uses the heroic muscularity of the male dancer to magnificent effect. Awassa Astrige/Ostrich is based on a traditional African bird dance, staged in a Western manner that put me in mind of Dying Swan. It lasts about as long, and displays the bird, and the wing-like movements of the heroically-built Jamar Roberts, wearing a skirt of ostrich plumes, from many angles. The muscles of his back weave into the sexiest undulation of major muscle

groups I’ve ever seen – without ever losing the dignity of a creature observed with admiration and awe. Similarly, Battle’s commission of a dance from San Francisco’s Robert Moses uses the dancers in a new and beautiful way, rather like Dafora’s bird – less monumental than Van Manen, more tender, open, vulnerable, expansive. Moses set five couples in a dark. smoky realm moving to music by David Worm that put me in mind of Electronica. At first, they’re in closed position, with the women opening out like night-blooming flowers and closing back in to embrace their partners. The effect was trance-like. Tambourine percussion yielded to something more melodic, with harmonies that reminded me of “Begin the Beguine.” The group opened up, the pulses grew larger, the imagery grew; it still felt like flowers opening into larger and more vulnerable shapes.

Revelations closed the show; they do not seem to be tired of dancing it. It is a nearly perfect work of art, a classic in every sense: structurally immaculate, no step could be changed, every gesture tells, and every time you see it there is more there. The opening section is hieratic, set to great mournful hymns, and realized in tableau of great sculptural power. It gets moving with a Baptism, set to powerfully rhythmic music, with Caribbean hip undulations as they wade in the water. (Ailey had worked with Harry Belafonte.) By this point, the rhythms have become so intoxicating, it’s very hard to sit still in your chair. The finale of the piece peels your eyes with the desperate, thrilling expressionistic starts and convulsions of “Sinner Man, where you gonna run to?” and perhaps the most effective use of pirouettes in all of ballet – in a ballet that has no other use of fast turns, this section has the terrified man spin 10-12 revolutions at top speed, like a centrifuge going out of control. It ends with a scene in church, with ladies working their palmetto fans like drag queens, and then a socko finale that puts the rock and roll into “Rocka my Soul in the bosom of Abraham.” If you’ve never seen them, Cal Performances brings them back next year, and you’ve got to go. Meanwhile, in two weeks Robert Moses’ Kin will be celebrating their 20th anniversary of dancing as a San Francisco-based troupe, dancing at the Forum at Yerba Buena Gardens. Moses was a star with ODC/SF for many years; he is a dancer who can move like smoke, and he’s succeeded in keeping a company together long enough to teach them his extraordinary style. And he’s attracted some of the most interesting dancers in town. His company is immensely worth seeing: May 14-17.t

than a year. It went on to Hollywood in a 1949 version that scrapped virtually all of the wonderful music (too sophisticated for the average folk), but kept the basic concept. The film at least had the energy of Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra to propel it, and the iconic opening number “New York, New York” was retained. There have been a few revivals over the years, and our own Michael Tilson Thomas recorded almost all of the score (still available on DG) with a great singing cast that included Thomas Hampson as Gabey and Tyne Daly as Hildy (the lovably libidinous taxi driver) from semi-staged

concerts at the Barbican Centre, London 1992. That production was repeated at Davies Symphony Hall in 1995, and the SFS has announced another incarnation, with a cast to be announced, for late May 2016. New Yorkers and Big Apple tourists can catch a full and very wellreviewed production at the Lyric Theatre on 42nd St. right now. The two-disc set capturing the joyful experience is now available, and for fans of the show and of its beloved creators, it’s a real treat. It can also be strongly applauded for recalling an era when Broadway used full-sized orchestras to support

singers and dancers of Golden Age musicals. A 28-piece band opens the new On the Town with a snappy “Star-Spangled Banner” that serves as an overture to the cavalcade of delightful tunes and dance numbers that follow. “Lonely Town,” “I Can Cook, Too,” “Some Other Time,” and of course, the thrilling “New York, New York” get the big brassy Broadway treatment, but the gorgeous ballet music that makes so much impact on the heart of listeners is also served beautifully. The young cast (triple-threat performers: actors, singers and dancers!) may not surpass previous perform-

ers on disc, but hearing them in the context of a very vibrant homage to a bygone time and brand of show is a continual pleasure. Best of all, the original orchestrations have been reconstructed to give an authentic feel to those wonderful songs and dances. If anyone needed a reminder of just how witty and warm Comden & Green were, it can be found here. We’re looking forward to attending MTT’s next go at the legendary show. He is even less than six degrees of separation from the late lamented Lenny. But for now, the adorable new cast recording will do nicely.t

he Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater filled Zellerbach Hall night after night last week. Since Ailey’s death of AIDS in 1989, the company he shaped has survived perhaps better than any other modern dance company, building on his eclectic and generous aesthetic and bringing in new choreography that is grateful for the dancers and, in the best way, an education for the audience. Ailey belonged to two minorities: that he was African-American, anyone could see; that he was gay, perhaps could be guessed through his overachievement in making art that would make his mother proud. His masterpiece, Revelations (1960), is a kind of portrait of her world, the hopes, fears, longings, inner spiritual piety, and the social pecking order of the down-home church in Texas that she grew up in, set to the music of that world. Every one of their six shows last week closed with Revelations, which sets the whole audience to dancing in their chairs, or on their feet, rocking and clapping, and sends them home happy. Ailey hit his stride just as the U.S. State Department was getting busy sending American dance companies overseas as goodwill ambassadors, to counteract the impact of the fantastically popular tours of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets, which were obviously propagandizing for Soviet ideals. Ailey’s joined the companies of Graham, Balanchine and Joffrey, and Revelations took shape under these touring conditions, with the result that it is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser that never fails to bring a crowd to its feet. The show I saw Wednesday night was a beautifully chosen mixed bill, opening with a thrilling display of

On the Town

From page 14

bins to create a revue-style book musical based on the adventures of three boisterous sailors on a frenetic 24-hour pass in New York City, 1944. Some of the onstage characters’ real-life counterparts were living much the same story in Times Square outside the Adelphi Theater, where the show was playing, and the wistful qualities of the score must have seemed especially poignant to the audiences inside. The show was a hit, running more

Christopher Duggan

Members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dance in Revelations.

<< Books

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Rewriting history by Jim Piechota

The American People, Volume 1: Search for my Heart by Larry Kramer; FSG, $40 n the opening passage of playwright, author, and pioneering AIDS activist Larry Kramer’s new novel The American People, the author reflects that he “is the only person still here who’s been on the front lines since the beginning” of a plague that has “so punished our world and our friends and our families and ourselves.” The book is a crowning achievement that reimagines American history from a queer perspective, so the specter of AIDS, of course, is omnipresent. As a founding member of the advocacy group ACT UP, Kramer knows well how history was reshaped as the pandemic tore through groups of friends and networks of families, leaving dust, disappearance, devastation, weekends overbooked with funerals and memorials, and confusion in its wake. Decades in the making, the book is a stunning achievement. Since it’s subtitled as a first volume (running chronologically up to the 1950s),

there are certain to be more books to follow. Kramer’s patient publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, calls this his “magnum opus,” and in many ways it really is. At 777 pages, wading through the jungle of Kramer’s genius imagination requires both a time and an attention commitment. But the ride is well worth it. The book, a mishmash of chapters with headers like “Yids, Fairies, Whores, and Sexopolis” and “Blood and Shit,” forms a historical kaleidoscope of events, sexual misadventures, historical landscapes, opinions, rants, and colorful characters who flit in and rush out, including the voice of the virus itself in bold font. Some are more memorable than others, and some have more pertinent things to impart than their counterparts. As a whole, the effect is bewildering and frustrating, yet it’s clear that Kramer has a point to prove and is doing so in the best way he knows how: hitting you over the head with enraged, rapid-fire prose and passionate ideas, hoping that, in the 2015 age of restlessness, self-absorption, and inattention to detail, something will sink in. The book’s steering wheel is left

in the capable hands of Fred Lemish, a thinly veiled attempt by Kramer to insinuate himself into his own novel (as he did in Faggots with the same character). Lemish is joined by a legion of other narrators, hookers, penis enviers, sadistic Nazis, and expert scientific commentators who dive down the rabbit hole into America’s sexual and political history as he attempts to tell the story of “The Plague of the Underlying Condition,” as AIDS is referred to within these pages. Kramer’s genealogy of AIDS also includes its anthropology, throwing us back to the age of primates, who have sex in groups and thus enact “endless opportunities for anything to jump the barrier between monkey and man.” This is followed closely by Dr. Sister Grace, who is eager “to tell you more than you want to know about the history of anal intercourse,” which involves the relationships between American Indian boys and men, and between the amorous male settlers in the log cabins at Jamestown and those of the Massachusetts Bay colonies.

In Kramer’s vast, deliciously unscrupulous, penile-centric annals, we find George Washington, whose troops are plagued with syphilis, indulging in the carnal company of his soldiers. Also participating in the secret-society rainbow coalition are Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth (“a hustler”), Buchanan, Pierce and Jackson, Lewis and Clark, Mark Twain’s

fabled Huck, Jim, and Tom, and Adolf Hitler. No one and nothing is sacred in this equal-opportunity literary offensive. While not always easy to see in such an exhaustive, digressive tome as this, the point underpinning all of the busy thematic tails chasing each other is that homosexuals have always been on the Earth, and through all of the misperceptions, the dogmatic demonization, and the political and personal ignorance, we deserve a place in American history that is respected and recognized. As the author of 1978’s bestselling novel Faggots and the 1985 semi-autobiographical play The Normal Heart, Kramer’s contemporary gift to us is this extended, remixed version of history. At first glance, it’s a haphazardlyscribbled fever dream filled with fantastical characters and unsavory events. Yet by the conclusion, we are beholden to this brilliant wizard behind the pink curtain. “It is all quite electric, this gay mess.” He sings out to all of us, with love and outrage.t

Activist, prophet, literary lion by Brian Bromberger

n a recent interview with novelist Andrew Holleran for Out magazine, Larry Kramer stated that his life is now primarily about writing: “It’s all I live for. If I didn’t have my writing right now, I would go crazy.” Kramer has just published Volume 1 of his nearly-800-page, years-in themaking novel The American People, which he views as more history than fiction, outing many historical figures, including George Washington and Mark Twain. Reviews have been decidedly mixed, but throughout his 45-year writing career, opinions have always diverged when it came to assessing his art. Today, Kramer is best remembered for his activist AIDS work, as founder of two significant advocacy groups, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP. But it’s important to understand that for Kramer, his literary output has always been intertwined with his activism/politics. The two are inseparable. Kramer began his career writing movie screenplays, the most famous being his Oscar nomination for Ken Russell’s direction of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. This 1970 film is treasured by gay men for its notorious nude wrestling scene between actors Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, one of the first instances of naked men in a legiti-

mate Hollywood feature. While the movie characters were presumably straight, the homoerotic overtones were undeniable, and this was an early attempt to get gay interests on screen, if only camouflaged. Kramer’s next successful project was his first novel, Faggots, published in 1978. Despite excoriating reviews, Faggots is still in print, and is now remembered as a satire of the gay ghetto, New York City and Fire Island in the late 1970s. Screenwriter Fred Lemish, four days short of his 40th birthday, is desperate to find true love, but looking in all the wrong places. While fiction, it is a cautionary tale on gay men’s drug use and promiscuity, with Fred screaming, “Why do faggots have to fuck so fucking much?,” bemoaning the way gay men treat each other as sexual commodities. It was seen as overwrought, focusing on the excesses of gay life, though largely true to the carnal obsessions/orgies of the day. Appalled gay critics worried its “lifestyle” revelations would be used against the community by its enemies. It established Kramer as an I-told-you-so moralist, and still evinces strong reactions in readers to this day. With the advent of the AIDS crisis, Kramer entered his most creative period, publishing articles and speeches, acting as a modern Cassandra warning of the doom to come, and urging the gay com-

Author and activist Larry Kramer: Gay people must not be ignored.

munity to fight against indifferent, often-adversarial bureaucracies and politicians. The most explosive of these invectives was “1,112 and Counting,” published in the New York Native in March 1983, with the famous opening lines: “If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you, we’re in real trouble. If this doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.” Apocalyptic in tone and content, it confirmed Kramer as the angry, Old Testament-like prophet scaring gay men into claiming their rights, especially beneficial, up-todate health information and potentially life-saving drug treatments. A 1987 essay, “An Open Letter to Richard Dunne and Gay Men’s Health Crisis,” a blistering attack on GMHC, contains in one extraordinary line his whole AIDS philosophy: “There is nothing in this whole AIDS mess that is not political!” At the time, many dismissed Kramer as hysterical, yet his work, though infuriating and disturbing, was also riveting and prompted both debate and action that ultimately saved lives. Years later, all these essays and speeches were compiled into the book Reports from the Holocaust,

probably his most important work, certainly as a historical document of the epidemic. During this tumultuous decade, Kramer wrote his most well-known work, The Normal Heart, a drama about the early days of the AIDS epidemic seen through the eyes of activist Ned Weeks, a stand-in for Kramer who discovers by the end of the play that he is HIV+. A searing, emotionally electric political tour de force, it denounced the apathy, cover-ups, ignorance, and fear in New York that led to the worldwide plague, without even mentioning the word AIDS. Returning to Broadway in 2011 to acclaim, it received the Tony Award for best revival of a play. In 2014, filmed for HBO, it won the Emmy Award as Outstanding TV movie. A more personal AIDS play, The Destiny of Me (1992), though nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, was less successful, and a 2005 book/transcribed speech, The Tragedy of Today’s Gays, claiming younger gay men are killing themselves with drugs and unprotected sex, ignorant of LGBT history and unwilling to fight against the powerful for their rights, was largely ignored by critics and the public. But with his new novel, Kramer echoes the theme that has obsessed

him from the beginning and pervades all his work: visibility. Gay people must not be ignored. They have special gifts and talents the larger culture has often dismissed. They have always been here, making significant contributions to history. Kramer warns gay men about the dangers of assimilation, wanting to disappear into the larger culture and deny their originality to their detriment, even in AIDS, where they render themselves invisible through death. The ambivalence of assimilation in the gay world is still being debated as the community enjoys victories with same-sex marriage, yet questions if too much of our uniqueness has been sacrificed by becoming absorbed into the mainstream. Despite being critically ill, Kramer now works five or six hours every day to finish Volume 2 of his magnum opus. One doesn’t need to agree with all he has written, but one must admire his courage to say what he felt was necessary despite trenchant criticism. Kramer’s compositions have held up a mirror to the gay community, and many haven’t liked the reflection. His work has had an incalculable effect on the LGBT world, summarized perhaps best by the late writer Paul Monette: “He makes us proud to be gay.”t

arriving to New Zealand on the back of a giant.

According to Maori legend, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exactly what whale-rider Paikea did. Discover the cultural connections between whales and people at this new exhibit. Get tickets at calacademy.org

Developed and presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This exhibition was made possible through the support of the New Zealand Government.

24092_Whales_9.75x16_ Bay Area NEWSPAPER.indd 1

4/28/15 8:55 AM

<< Film

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Real to reel at SF Internat’l Film Festival

Jimmy Chin, courtesy SFFS

A scene from Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi’s Meru, playing the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.

by Erin Blackwell

Courtesy SFFS

A scene from Henri Fescourt’s Monte-Cristo, playing the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.

SFIFF, week 2

From page 13

Love & Mercy The greatest actor of his generation, the oval-faced 30-year-old Gemini Paul Dano first appeared as the possibly gay teen in pedophile peril in 2001’s L.I.E. When you have Dano channeling America’s most enigmatic pop genius, SoCal-raised Beach Boys frontman/composer Brian Wilson, you have the ingredients for a scary good ride. Toss in John Cusack, who aced the role of a Nick Hornbyinspired record store manager in 2000’s High Fidelity, playing a broken, aging pop prince turned Hollywood recluse by an abusive shrink (scene-stealing Paul Giamatti), and the buzz is off the charts. Director Bill Pohlad shows how Brian Wilson’s high school band, Kenny & the Cadets, pushed by his ambitious dad, quickly morphed into the Beach Boys, thereby hatching a SoCal surf & car music style, and transforming Wilson into a 60s pop icon on a scale with the British Invasion. Dano put on pounds and took piano lessons for this role. He radiates a naive sweetness while showing how a prodigy deaf in one ear could create the revolutionary approach to pop that led to the genius-level compositions in Pet Sounds. Love & Mercy ends in a depiction of how a beaten-down Wilson reclaimed his pop throne, and more importantly, his life, after years of pills and isolation. (Kabuki, 5/1, 5/4) T-Rex It wasn’t that long ago that feminists would probably have burned in effigy a filmmaker doing a documentary on female boxers. But this new nonfiction exploration of the world of female Olympic boxers from directors Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari will more likely receive kudos for its depiction of how 17-year-

old would-be pugilist Claressa Shields fights her way onto the U.S. Olympic Squad from the bleak precincts of Michael Moore’s old stomping grounds, Flint, Michigan. While sparing us Moore’s tabloid visual metaphors (there’s no equivalent of Moore’s rabbit woman asking, “Pet or meat?”), T-Rex makes it clear that little has changed in the former car capital, or for that matter in the hardscrabble job of punching an age-peer in the face as your stab at stardom. (Kabuki, 5/2; Clay, 5/4; PFA, 5/7) Sworn Virgin Filmmaker Laura Bispuri has an even harder path to follow in dramatizing how an androgynous young Albanian woman attempts to evade macho/Balkan unwritten but sternly enforced rules for proper female behavior. Her protagonist finds a loophole in the custom of women passing as men. Renaming herself Mark, the plucky girl migrates to Italy, where she seeks refuge with her sister in a tiny remote village. (Clay, 5/2; PFA, 5/4; Clay, 5/7) How to Smell a Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock in Normandy In a unique type of “posthumous memoir,” director Gina Leibrecht (with the late Les Blank) created this homage to the career and charming personality of nonfiction filmmaker Ricky Leacock at his rural farmhouse. The film revels in the joy of good food as much as filmmaking at its most personal. On the same bill: Ed & Pauline, an account of the moment in the 1950s when Ed Landberg and future New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael started a small repertory cinema in Berkeley. This program acquires extra poignancy with the recent death of a Kael contemporary, the longtime Time magazine film critic Richard Corlis. Corlis’ New York Times obituary ends with the observation that his kind of serious film criticism

n the aftershock of the 7.8 earthquake that leveled Katmandu and killed thousands across Nepal, India, China, and Bangladesh on April 25, I don’t know if it’s in good or bad taste to see a movie about a Himalayan mountain. Oh, well. What are you going to do? If there were no tectonic plates there would be no continental drift, India wouldn’t have smashed into Pakistan millions of years ago, the Himalayas would never have risen, and Katmandu wouldn’t be in ruins. Perhaps reverent contemplation of the difficult and dangerous 21,000-foot Mount Meru might bring us closer in spirit to the suffering in the region. Unless Western egocentrism gets in our

“is an endangered species. Once it flourished; soon it may perish, to be replaced by a consumer service that is no brains and all thumbs.” (Clay, 5/2; Kabuki, 5/4) The Tribe This explosive drama/ romance is daringly set inside a Ukrainian school for the deaf. Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy embeds us inside a chaotic world of crime, prostitution and deep-seated passions, all captured in international sign language, Ukrainian with no subtitles. This is without doubt the most physically brutal and emotionally harrowing film I previewed for the 2015 SFIFF. (Kabuki, 5/2; Clay, 5/4) El Cordero Juan Francisco Olea explores one of contemporary CaSee page 19 >>

way. U.S. production Meru (Kabuki, 5/3, 5/7; PFA, 5/6) is directed by Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi. When I recently bought an English translation of The Count of MonteCristo (1844), I was astonished to discover the 440 pages of small print represent an abridgement. Author Alexandre Dumas (1802-70), son of Napoleon’s General Dumas and grandson of a black slave from Santo Domingo, was a huge man of prodigious talent who lived large on the proceeds from mammoth historical novels. Young hero Edmond Dantes is wrongly thrown into a cell, where he languishes for 14 years before escaping to refashion himself a Count, the better to methodically revenge himself on the “friends” who betrayed him. From the many, many film adaptations to choose from, SFIFF has selected Henri Fescourt’s 218-minute-long 1929 silent, MonteCristo (Kabuki, 5/3). With a French accent, “Henri Fescourt” is a homonym for “Henry makes it short.” When tyrants misbehave, they leave so many messes for others to clean up. So it is with Alberto Fujimori, Japanese-Peruvian president of Peru (1990-2000), whose brutal repression of left-wing Shining Path guerillas killed 70,000 in the 1980s and 90s. Now 76, Fujimori is serving 25 years for corruption and crimes against humanity. If you’re in the mood for a melancholy mystery featuring one-handed piano, you should consider NN (PFA, 4/30; Clay, 5/2; Kabuki, 5/3), a 95-minute co-production by Peru, Colombia, Germany, and France. NN is shorthand for “anonymous,” meaning an identity is unknown, or a known identity needs protecting. Director Hector Galvez’s second feature imagines a heroic forensic pathologist struggling to identify a single corpse. Look for lab coats, clipboards, bones, and conflicting versions of events. If you haven’t gone to war, you

can’t imagine what it’s like. I would say the same of lesbian passion, but some people might think I was trivializing war. I would hate to trivialize anything that has caused so much suffering to so many to line the pockets of so few. War is human nature at its most despicable, but that isn’t to say all people who go to war are evil. Any more than all lesbians. The challenge for civil society is to rehabilitate the warriors who survive. Despite exciting new surgical techniques, physical damage is the least of it. There is no official process for deprogramming a soldier from homicidal paranoid indoctrination. Vets are on their own. “Thanks for your service” is the hollow dismissal. Director Laurent Becue-Renard spent years filming at The Pathway Home, a PTSD treatment center in Yountville, California. The FrenchSwiss co-production Of Men and War (Clay, 5/3; Kabuki, 5/4; PFA, 5/5) lasts a riveting 142 minutes. Albanian women who are “sworn virgins” vow celibacy, wear men’s clothes, and enjoy male privilege in northern Albania, said to be particularly patriarchal. Unlike their oppressed sisters, these virgins enjoy perks like smoking, guns, watches, alcohol, the vote, land ownership, and all the other little things Albanian men like to deny Albanian women. The pretext given for cross-dressing is rigorously above-board: to help out a family deficient in males. But I imagine there’s some overlap with lesbianism, don’t you? The perfect looking-glass companion to the Daily Mail’s extensive coverage of Bruce Jenner’s transitioning is Laura Bispuri’s debut feature, Sworn Virgin (Clay, 5/2, 5/7; PFA, 5/4). This co-production by Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Albania and Kosovo follows a scrawny, brooding, youngish butch who visits her sister in Italy to find out who she really is. As if identity could ever be resolved.t

Courtesy SFFS

A scene from Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari’s T-Rex, playing the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Courtesy SFFS

A scene from Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s How To Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy, playing the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Books>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Candor & case histories by Tim Pfaff

or most longtime readers of Oliver Sacks, the most shocking thing about his new memoir On the Move (Knopf) will be the cover. On it, a leather-clad Sacks, betterknown now as the Scheherazade of neurology (OK, I made that up; a writer about neurological matters for readers of normal neurological endowment), sits atop his hog of a motorcycle in what, in this family newspaper, could only be described as a studly manner. I’ve stopped a couple of toney conversations dead by producing my bound review proofs – “[Pause.] Is that Oliver Sacks?” Then, louder, the second question, “Is Oliver Sacks gay?” Yes and yes. Time and again Sacks hymns the glory of motorcycle-riding – leaving you breathless with his account of, as a medical resident in LA, spending rare weekends off riding solo to the Grand Canyon to arrive there at dawn, then back to LA in time for work, 1,000 miles later. His candor about his sex life is, in his telling, also non-sensational. Preternaturally shy even as a young British expat in San Francisco, the city of his dreams, Sacks says, matter-offactly, “San Francisco’s gay bathhouses were not to my taste.” He’s candid about the select individuals he loved, and was intimate with, and midway through the book there’s a revealing story about a one-week odyssey with someone previously unknown, around the time of his 40th birthday. “We had a joyous week together – the days full, the nights intimate, a happy, festive, loving week – before he had to return to the States. There were no deep or agonized feelings – we liked each other, we enjoyed ourselves, and we parted without pain or promises when our week was up. It was just as well that I had no knowledge of the future, for after that sweet birthday fling I was to have no sex for the next 35 years.” His 35-year-later intimate, who appears at the end of the memoir, is a writer from San Francisco. Read Billy’s blog post, “AIDS at 30,” in The New York Review of Books www. nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/ jun/06/aids-30-time-capsule/, and you’ll sense the genuineness. I still remember the shock of reading, in “Altered States” in a 2012 New Yorker, Sacks’ account of his profligate drug use, primarily of speed and acid, in California and New York early in his professional life. The drugs flow in On the Move, and it’s almost the most harrowing part of this unsparing autobiography. Balancing it is Sacks’ overlapping phase of extreme body-building (“Muscle Beach”), which, like the drugs, finally tore him down as much it built him up. Unless you’re one of his many close friends – among the gay ones have been W.H. Auden and Bay Area

SFIFF, week 2

From page 18

tholicism’s most deep-seated theological-philosophical-spiritual problems, in many ways exploring the dilemmas facing the new Argentinian-born Pope. The film deals with the crisis of the soul of a Chilean Christian man who shoots a woman to death, mistaking her for a burglar. A turbulent encounter with the dead woman’s boyfriend threatens to shake Domingo’s world to its very foundations. This film may especially resonate with those like me who were exposed early in life to J.F. Powers’ fiction about Catholic priests, most particularly his 1962 novel Morte D’Urban. (Kabuki, 5/1, 5/7; PFA, 5/3) A German Youth Fans of the troubled queer German wunder-

R EA F P R ES EN TS

THE BOOK OF poet Thom Gunn – you’re going to be doing a lot of adjusting of your previous, self-conceived ideas of the Sacks who writes the compassionate, mind-blowing case histories. That Sacks is, of course, the “important,” lasting one, and even the most general reader of On the Move will reap the rewards of what he learned about migraines, deafness, color-blindness and less well-known neurological phenomena such as proprioception (“the sixth sense”), postencephalitic awakening and Tourette’s Syndrome, this last popularly misunderstood these days as only the obsessive utterance of “dirty words,” coprolalia, which is but one of its manifestations. Sacks’ career-long effort has been to go beyond the syndrome and diagnosis to their particular manifestations in patients he insists on seeing as individuals. Disguising identities as needed, Sacks brings a multitude of his patients, whom he regards as among his most important teachers, to vivid life on the page. He is a doctor who, not single-handedly but instrumentally, has brought people of hopeless diagnoses out of the caves of their isolating symptoms and, too often, their all-too-literal institutional cages. Among his patients has been Oliver Sacks, and his courage teasing out the meaning of an accident on one of his exotic one-man adventures – this one involving a bull in a fjord – provides one of the book’s strongest chapters, about the painful and painstaking writing of A Leg To Stand On. Recovering from the incident, which might easily have cost him his life, involved all manner of pain. What makes his a quintessentially Sacks story is his revelation that it was a memory of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto that

literally got him moving during physical therapy. “With this playing in my mind,” he writes, “I found myself suddenly able to walk, to regain (as neurologists say) the ‘kinetic melody’ of walking.” It was his The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat that brought Sacks international fame, but for some of us it was with a later book, Musicophilia, that he entered the canon. There’s a lot about writing, too, in On the Move, including unsparing accounts of what he calls his “too-muchness” (e.g., footnotes longer than some mathematics dissertations – even in this memoir – but as fascinating as what they annotate). “It seems that I discover my thoughts through the act of writing, in the act of writing,” he reports. For him the fusion of “science and storytelling” is imperative. Nearly as startling as anything else in the book are Sacks’ frequent stories of manuscripts, data sets and entire books that somehow just got lost. Sacks, it would seem, has mislaid more work than most people accomplish in a lifetime. It’s significant that he does not mention the recent diagnosis of his own incurable cancer, word of which has shocked and saddened all who admire him, but instead refers to another forthcoming book – this while he has an article in the current New Yorker. The book’s title is a direct steal from the title of one of Thom Gunn’s poems, one of whose stanzas ends with, “One is always nearer by not keeping still.” Having known Gunn into the poet’s old age, Sacks observes, “He had, so far as I could judge, no thoughts of slowing down or stopping. I think he was moving forward, on the move, until the end.” Those words could also be self-referential.t

kind Rainer Werner Fasbinder will revel in this found-footage doc on the origins of the infamous BaaderMeinhof Gang, which many in the West link to today’s “Age of Terror” movements. Director Jean-Gabriel Periot finds archival film to document stories Fassbinder spun into fiction. This film may lead astute viewers to troubling connections between the post-WWII generation’s debates over Holocaust survivor guilt and remembrance, and the even more troubling ethical dilemmas of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the ongoing Obama “anti-terror” drone strikes. (Kabuki, 5/2, 5/5) A Hard Day Fans of hard-hitting, out-of-control South Korean cops will get their hyperviolence fix in Kim Seong-hun’s tale involving a

hit-and-run accident that devolves into body-in-a trunk mischief by his protagonist Ko (Lee Sun-kyun). (Kabuki, 5/3, 5/7) Deep Web Especially timely following recent government raids and arrests, doc-maker Alex Winter’s film explores the story behind the online black-market website Silk Road and its controversial San Francisco founder, Ross Ulbricht. (Kabuki, 5/4, 5/6) A Few Cubic Meters of Love A taboo-laced love story involving an affair between a male Iranian metalpunch-worker and a female Afghan refugee. Jamshid Mahmoudi’s drama was Afghanistan’s official entry in the Oscar foreign-language category. (Clay, 5/3; Kabuki, 5/5) t Info: Festival.SFFS.ORG.

MORMON ‘Come Together’ THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES

MAY 18, 2015, 7:30 PM Marines’ Memorial Theater

BENEFITING REAF AND BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS

★

with special guest Countess Katya Smirnoff Skyy

★

Tickets & Information

www.helpisontheway.org or 415.273.1620 ★ SPONSORED BY

Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, Joseph Piazza, Music Director, presents

The Coming of the Kingdom Sunday, May 3, 2015 Tuesday, May 5, 2015

4pm 8pm

Mission Dolores 3321 16th Street, San Francisco

General $25 / VIP $40 Tickets: www.ggmc.org or at the door. Student discount available at the door.

★

<< Out&About

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Out &About

O&A

Head of Passes @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Thu 30 Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters

Opportunes

Alexis Keenan

by Jim Provenzano

ow many times has someone said, “You’ve got to see it!” about a movie, a play, or an art exhibit? Do you then feel guilt-tripped into attending? Never fear. No guilt here, just opportunities for enlightenment, space to sing the praises of artists without obligation, except to note that twice as many listings are online at www.ebar.com

Thu 30 Blackademics @ Thick House Crowded Fire Theater’s production of the West Coast premiere of Iris Goodwin’s new play full of searing wit, pop-culture humor, and psychological menace in an absurdist take on “post-racial America,” when two African American scholars argue over a dinner reservation. $10-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru May 2. 1695 18th St. 746-9238. www.crowdedfire.org

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh Echo Brown’s comic solo show follows a young women’s impending sexual encounter, and its political implications. $20-$35. Thu 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Thru May 9. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The Book of Mormon @ Orpheum Theatre The mega-hit musical comedy (nine Tony Awards and a Grammy) by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez returns. $60-$225. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru June 27. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.BookofMormonTheMusical.com www.shnsf.com

Fancy Animal Carnival @ Civic Center Plaza Outdoor exhibit of Taiwanese artists Hung Yi’s colorful large creature sculptures. Thru May 2. 1 Dr. Carlton Goodlett Place near McAllister. www.sfartscommission.org

Hot Draw! @ Mark I. Chester Studio

Michael Feinstein @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The multi-platinum jazz pianist-singer, and proprietor of the intimate cabaret club, performs a tribute ocncert of Frank Sinatra classics. $80-$95. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru May 3. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

Nelly Queen Fundraiser @ GLBT History Museum Supervisor David Campos hosts a fundraiser for Dante Alencastre’s documentary-in-progress Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of José Julio Sarria, with wine, cheese, and a screening of rare clips of Sarria; $75. 7pm-10pm. Also, Queer Past Becomes Present, exhibits about Bay Area LGBTQ people, history and communities. Free (members)-$5. Reg hours: Mon, WedSat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

The Ultimate Adventure @ New Conservatory Theatre Teen Performance Ensemble performance of Homer’s Odyssey, adapted and directed by Stephanie Temple. $10-$15. Thu & Fri 7:30pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru May 3. 25 Van Ness Ave. www.nctcsf.org

Fri 1 Curtain Call @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents Bill Cooper and Barry Lloyd in a classy open mic cabaret night. $10. 7pm. Cocktails and small plates available. 562 Sutter St. (800) 982-2787. societycabaret.com

AtmosQueer’s Spring Fling @ LGBT Center

Talking Back: Voices of Color @ Marcus Books

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s poignant poetic drama about a Mississippi family’s trials of faith and tribulation. $29-$79. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sun 2pm. Thru May 24. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Third annual party with food, drinks, and entertainment, DJs Jordee Akerley and Siobhan Aluvalot, with more than 40 local LGBT, social, service, sports groups, and HIV/AIDs organizations showcasing their services; sponsored by BridgeMen and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Free. 1pm-5pm. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

Contributors to the new anthology of political, feminist and cultural perspectives of activist African Americans, Latina/os, Asian Pacific Americans, Indigenous people, Arabs, LGBTQ, immigrants, and political prisoners. 2pm. 3900 MLK Jr. Way, Oakland. at 39th St. RedLetterPress.org

Karen Ripley @ The Marsh Berkeley

SF Hiking Club @ Borel Peak Russian Ridge

Mon 4

Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike down the Peninsula, and San Mateo County’s highest peak at 2800 ft, for a 360 degree view of the Bay. Bring water, lunch, sunscreen, hat, layers, good hiking shoes. Carpool meets 9:00 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 740-9888. sfhiking.com

Memory of Trees @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Independent Bookstore Day @ Books Inc.

Tue 5

The veteran comic performs her solo show, Oh No, There’s Men on the Land, her witty account of being a young lesbian in 1970s Berkeley. $15$100. 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru May 30. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Ondine @ Sutro Baths We Players, the innovative environmental theatre ensemble, presents an outdoor production of Jean Giraudoux’s fairy tale drama about an ocean-dwelling mermaid and her affair with an arrogant knight. $40-$60. Fri-Sun 4:30pm. Thru June 7. 680 Point Lobos Ave. www.weplayers.org

Day-long events schedule at several stores, including, at the Castro branch (2275 Market St.), award-winning author Dave Eggers editing your dating profile (2pm)! Plus, Tea Time with Michelle Tea (4pm), and more. www.booksinc.net

Rise @ Exit Theatre

Lear’s Shadow @ The Marsh

Scott Barry’s comic solo show about ex-girlfriends, erectile dysfunction drug phobia and losing his virginity. $15-$20. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru May 23. 156 Eddy St. www.risetheplay.com

Geoff Hoyle’s new solo take on Shakespeare’s King Lear, from the perspective of the unemployed Fool. $15-$35. Wed & Thu 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru May 30. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

stARTup Fair SF @ Hotel Del Sol The annual multi-artist independent art fair and series of parties is set at the scenic Marina hotel; included among the dozens of artists are gay creative talents Eugene Rodriguez, Jason Wyman and Forrest Williams. Thru May 3. www.startupartfair.com

Stereotypo @ The Marsh Don Reed’s new solo show, subtitled Rants and Rumblings at the DMV showcases the banal automotive office as a showcase of diverse characters. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru May 9. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Parke & Ronen Trunk Show @ Citizen Designers Parke Lutter and Ronen Jehezkel showcase their summer collection at a show, with wine and hors d’oeuvres. 2pm-6pm. 489 Castro St. www.citizensf.com

Fri 1

Talley’s Folly @ Harry’s Upstage, Berkeley

Where’s Charley

Sun 3

Fifth of July @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley

Where’s Charley? @ Eureka Theatre

Thrillpeddlers’ new production is a “revolutionary” Parisian-themed musical revue, with original music and lyrics by original Cockette Scrumbly Koldewyn, including characters based on Picasso, Cocteau, Josephine Baker and even Marie Antoinette. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 2. 575 10th St. www.hypnodrome.org

Lanfod Wilson’s “Talley Trilogy” continues with a production by the East Bay theatre ensemble; Ken Talley returns to his Missouri home after losing his legs in the Vietnam war, where he reminisces and makes decisions with his family and friends. $20-$50. Thru May 17. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Frank Loesser and George Abbott’s lively musical adaptation of Brandon Thomas’s uproarious 1892 farce Charley’s Aunt is performed by the SF revival ensemble. $25-$75. Fri 8pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 3pm. Thru May 17. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndStMoon.org

Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact thru Sept 20. Also, photographer Marion Gray: Within the Light thru June 21; Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Sat 2

Enjoy a preview of the large-scale art projects for the 2015 Burning Man. $10. 5:30pm. Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd. www.burningman.org/events/ desert-arts-preview-2015/

American Conservatory Theatre presents Kwame Kwei-Armah’s family drama about a West Indian immigrant and a Polish young man, whose lives connect, despite prejudices (Out With A.C.T. April 22). $20-$105. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru May 3. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Hairspray @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse presents their production of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical theatre adaptation of John Waters’ lighthearted film about a chubby Baltimore girl in the 1960s who fights racism on a dance show. $5-$20. Fri 7pm. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru May 17. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. berkeleyplayhouse.org

Antigonick @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowship-winning playwright Anne Carson’s take on Sophocles’ Antigone is produced by the innovative Shotgun Players. $20-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Wed 7pm. Extended thru May 3. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8416500. www.ShotgunPlayers.org

The News @ SOMArts Cultural Center The monthly queer performance series this time features Kolmel W Love hosting the very first live performance by The Homobiles, as well as performances by Katie Kelly, Cassandra Falby, OutLook Theatre Project. Free. 7:30pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Radar Reading @ SF Public Library Michelle Tea hosts the eclectic reading series, this time with Oakland comic artist/author Rina Ayuyang, Sassafras Lowry (queer punk and Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award winner), writer and video artist Maya Chinchilla, and editor/writer Sarah Fontaine (Actually People Quarterly). 6pm. 100 Larkin St. sfpl.org

Miriam Cabessa @ Dryansky Gallery

Jewels of Paris @ Hypnodrome

Let There Be Love @ Geary Theatre

The author of Hot Copy: Classic Gay Erotica from the Magazine Era reads from and discusses his anthology. 7pm. 2275 Market St. books.inc.net

Red Hots Burlesque, the weekly women’s sexy strip show, welcomes their male collegues for a bawdy night of dancerly thrills, with Fou Ha Ha!, Magnoliah black, the Tartlettes, Bohemian Brethren and more. $15-$25. 8:30pm-11:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

The Facts of Life Live @ Oasis

Aurora Theatre Company restages Lanford Wilson’s lyrical uplifting two-actor drama. $30-$50. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru June 7. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 8434822. www.AuroraTheatre.org

Dale Chase @ Books Inc.

Barnaby’s Babes @ Oasis

Student & Faculty Concerts @ SF Conservatory of Music Nearly nightly concerts in several forms (instrumental, vocal) by accomplished students and faculty. May 1, 8pm: accompanying pianists, 8pm. May 2, 8pm & May 3, 2pm: Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 ; Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 65 ($15-$20). May 4, 1pm & May 5, 8pm: Cello works. May 6, 7:30pm: Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring. May 6, 8pm: woodwind chamber concert. May 7, 4pm & 8pm: string and piano works. Free-$18. 50 Oak St. 503-6322. www.sfcm.edu

Kathryn Cook’s exhibit of photos commemorating the Armenian genocide. Reg hours Mon-Fri 12pm7pm. Sat & Sun 12pm-5pm. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Wed 6

Erotic, fetish, bondage poses for gay male sketchers of all skill levels; a fun, friendly group open to erotic drawing, with Jeff, the model who’s into bondage and kink. Donations. 6:30pm. 1229 Folsom St. Call day of to reserve: 621-6294. www.markichester.com/hotdraw

Those wacky queens who gave you Sex & the City are now doing drag parody versions of two episodes from the cult classic schoolgirl sitcom. $25$30. 7pm. Thu-Sat thru May 16. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

Bees @ Oakland Museum

Desert Arts Preview @ Cowell Theater

Garden Party & Awards @ Chambers Marriage Equality USA honors Sen. Mark Leno, the San Francisco Giants, and BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual freedom) and this festive fundraiser. $120. 1pm-4pm. 601 Eddy St. marriageequality.org/sf-awards

Exhibit of works by the New Yorkbased lesbian artist. Wed-Sun 11am-5pm. 2120 Union St. at Webster. 932-9302. www.miriamcabessa.com www.thedryansky.com

Thu 7 Author Talk @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Award-winning writers Michelle Tea ( Valencia, Mermaid in Chelsea Creek), Eileen Myles ( Chelsea Girls, Cool for You ), and Emmy-nominated Jill Soloway ( Six-Feet Under, Transparent) discuss literature, pop culture, making it in Hollywood. $15. 6:30pm. 736 Mission St. 655-7800. thecjm.org

Cypress String Quartet @ Various Venues The acclaimed music ensemble performs early and middle Beethoven String Quartets. $50. May 7, 7pm & May 8, 8pm at Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts (1537 Euclid Ave.), Berkeley. May 9, 8pm, Kanbar Performing Arts Center (44 Page St.) Sf. May 10, 3pm at Woman’s Club of Palo Alto (475 Homer Ave.). cypressquartet.com

Lewis DeSimone, Jonathan Harper @ Books Inc. Two gay authors read from and discuss their recent works: Harper’s Daydreamers, and DeSimone’s The Heart’s History. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

t <<

Theatre>>

April 30-May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Isfahan Blues

From page 13

This was the late 1950s and early 60s, a time when intersections of Western influences and Persian culture were rapidly accelerating. Now Ghahremani, a real-life star of nearly 20 Iranian movies, is playing a fictionalized version of herself in a new play written by daughter Torange Yeghiazarian. Both are now residents of the East Bay. Yeghiazarian, founder of Golden Thread Productions, said that the central idea for the play came from a Middle Eastern tour that Duke Ellington and his orchestra undertook in 1963. It was arranged by the U.S. State Department, eager to present a positive image of race relations when worldwide headlines were focusing on the desegregation battles in the South. Among those on the arduous 10-country tour was Billy Strayhorn, the composer and arranger who served as Ellington’s righthand man and who wrote such Ellington standards as “Take the ‘A’ Train” and “Lush Life.” Strayhorn was also openly gay, but found protection in Ellington’s shadow. “I was also inspired by Strayhorn’s relationship with Lena Horne, who called him the true love of her life,” Yeghiazarian said. In the play, Yeghiazarian’s mother, Vida, becomes Bella, a glamorous Iranian actress, while the Strayhorn character is renamed Ray Hamilton. During Ellington’s tour, Bella and Ray decide to run off together, traveling from Tehran to the fabled Iranian city of Isfahan. “I thought it would be interesting to see how these two people from very different backgrounds could still find a bond,” Yeghiazarian said. “They both had lives that were superseded by others” – Ray by Ellington, and Bella by her husband – “and they share this in an escape for independence.” Isfahan Blues will have its world premiere May 2 at Buriel Clay Theater, the first co-production between the Middle Eastern-themed Golden Thread that Yeghiazarian founded in 1996 and the African-American Shakespeare Company that traditionally presents interpretations of classic drama. L. Peter Callender, the latter’s artistic director, is playing the character based on Strayhorn, and an original score has been written for the show by Marcus Shelby. “This is a memory play,” Yeghiazarian said, with the older Bella and the ghost of Ray looking back at their quixotic attempt to flee together from expected roles. While Callender will portray Ray throughout the play, Sofia Ahmad will play the Bella of 1963, and Ghahremani will play the Bella recalling events of decades before. “The entire play takes place over the course of 17 hours,” the playwright said. The situation might suggest a bittersweet ending, but Yeghiazarian said, “I hope it is inspiring.” The stories that Yeghiazarian has heard her mother tell over the years provided background for the play, and her own memories as a child at her parents’ music club are also woven into the story. A bisexual character named Farid is based on a musician who worked at the club, and he accompanies Bella and Ray, and brings a sexual tension to the road trip. The music club in the play is named Cuccini, and it’s the name of the actual club that Ghahremani and her jazz-loving husband ran in Tehran. The music and decor at Club Cuccini definitely tilted Westward, and the name of the house band, for example, was the Stray Cats.

Vida Ghahremani was often featured in Iranian magazines during her years as a film star, and she plays a character based on her younger self in Isfahan Blues.

The situation might suggest a bittersweet ending, but Yeghiazarian said, “I hope it is inspiring.”

After the Iranian revolution of 1979, both mother and grown children separately made the U.S. their homes. Ghahremani’s own reluctance to support in any way the leaders and policies of Iran in the post-Shah era was finally softened by homesick yearnings. “I did go back to visit Iran in 2004 after 26 years away,” she said. “I felt very sorry for the women. So many of their rights are gone.” (Her own experiences as a popular working actress did begin on a sour note when she was expelled from high school because her first movie role included a screen kiss.) There was also an unexpected and happy surprise, an ironic one for an actress who had so hated being recognized all those years ago. She was at a theater in Tehran during a film festival, and two young men thought

she looked familiar. When she mentioned the name of a particular director she had worked with, they both called out her name in unison. “It was funny for me and also made me cry,” she said. They made DVD copies of seven of her movies, six of which she had never seen, and sent them to her along with glamour shots from vintage magazines. There were film and music artists who stayed in Iran after the revolution and who tried to stay employable by making peace with the new strictures. This brought some rebuke from those who left either in fear or disapproval of the new government. How does Ghahremani feel about those who stayed behind? “All I can say,” she said, “is God blessBAR 3.75x5 online appointment ad v3.indd them.”t

8/15/14 10:17 AM

More information on the run of Isfahan Blues is available at www. african-americanshakes.org or goldenthread.org.

SAN FRANCISCO LOS ANGELES NEW YORK TORONTO

BESTIES 20 15

THE LGBT BEST OF THE BAY

WINNER - Best Wedding Photographer

Steven Underhill

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WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

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<< DVD

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30-May 6, 2015

Boy gets girl, boy loses girl by Gregg Shapiro

here is much to admire about straight writer/director Eric Schaeffer’s new film Boy Meets Girl. First, the film’s lead character, pre-op transgender female Ricky, is portrayed by transgender actress Michelle Hendley, making her film debut. As if that weren’t enough, Schaeffer gets a riveting and unforgettable performance out of Hendley, making it a debut with promise and resonance. Ricky, “born in the wrong body and the wrong town,” lives at home in Kentucky with her father and younger brother Sam, while she takes hormones and waits to find out if she’s been accepted to the Fashion Institute in New York. She’s an aspiring fashion designer and a

waitress at a coffeehouse. Her best friend, straight Robby (Michael Welch), has been her champion and defender since they were kids. Everything in Ricky’s world is up-ended when local rich girl (and politician’s daughter) Francesca (Alexandra Turshen) comes in for a beverage. The two young women strike up a fast friendship, leading to Ricky telling Francesca about herself by text – while Francesca is sitting right next to her. It’s that kind of intimate detail that separates Boy Meets Girl from the pack. Boy Meets Girl also turns the traditional romance suggested by the title on its pierced ear. Francesca, who claims to be saving herself for marriage, is engaged to U.S. Marine David (the stunning Michael Galante). But David and Ricky have

enough of a secret history that it infuriates David when he finds out that Felicia and Ricky are socializing. Meanwhile, Ricky and Felicia’s relationship is quickly moving beyond the friend stage. This is sure to confuse more than a few people, but it’s handled carefully and tastefully, and makes sense in context. Smart, sensitive and enlightening on many fronts, it’s no wonder that Boy Meets Girl was the recipient of many awards at LGBT film festivals. The DVD contains no significant bonus material. Based on the stage musical by Jason Robert Brown, The Last Five Years (Radius/ Weinstein) features Anna Kendrick in her most mature role, as “shiksa goddess” Cathy, a struggling actress/waitress. Cathy and nice Jewish boy Jamie (the gorgeous and often partially clothed Jeremy Jordan), a successful young novelist, meet, marry, then split up. In this mostly sung-through musical, each character sings her or his version, providing alternating perspectives. To make it more interesting, Brown constructed the show so that Cathy is telling her version from the end to the beginning, while Jamie’s account is from the beginning to the end. They meet in the middle on the duet “The Next 10 Minutes.” With a small cast and only a few choreographed numbers, The Last Five Years is an economical musical. Kendrick and Jordan sing the heck out of the songs. Director Richard LaGravenese (who wrote the screenplay for the cracked Barbra Streisand vehicle The Mirror Has Two Faces) does a decent job of bringing the musical to life. DVD

In Springtime, a young man’s fancy turns to... the World’s #1 Source for Gay News, Photos, and Entertainment!

edgemedianetwork.com

bonus features include a conversation with composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown and a sing-along version of the musical. Perhaps the least funny comedian who ever lived, diminutive comic Kevin Hart plays the title character in the nasty The Wedding Ringer (Sony Pictures/Screen Gems). Jimmy (Hart) is enlisted by pitiful and friendless Doug (a dull Josh Gad) to be the best man, for a fee, at his wedding to Gretchen (a surprisingly one-note Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). With only 10 days to prepare, including getting into character as well as rounding up groomsmen, Jimmy and Doug have their work cut out for them. Gross-out and physical comedy

rules. Doug suffers a series of faceplants as well as an unfortunate interaction between his genitals and a basset hound. Nothing is offlimits to co-writer/director Jeremy Garelick. Vulgar and mean-spirited jokes about women, race, stuttering, rape, disabilities and especially gay folks are the order of the day. The homophobia is so rampant in The Wedding Ringer, you have to wonder if craft services were provided by Indiana’s Memories Pizza. Poor Cloris Leachman, as Gretchen’s grandmother, is reduced to spewing blue language and being set on fire. How will Gad ever be able to look his theater friends in the eye again? How can Cuoco-Sweeting ever face Jim Parsons after this?t

Handsome but immoral

by Ernie Alderete

ow, Our Paradise! This movie blew me away from the first frame. One of the best gay movies I’ve ever seen, its strengths include its indisputable realism. The trolls, the johns, the older men are cast and played to perfection. You forget you’re seeing actors who may or may not be gay. As a gay man you might be afraid you are seeing embarrassing bits and pieces of your own life exposed on that screen. Prepare to be shocked. I’ve never seen such negative gay themes presented so convincingly. Sort of like a gay version of Natural Born Killers on steroids. Death, dismemberment and destruction as entertainment. Yet you can’t take your eyes off the handsome but immoral and psychopathic main characters, the street-trash couple (Stéphane Rideau as Vassili, and Dimitri Durdaine as Angelo) who wreak havoc on anyone in their destructive path.

Their love is so real, so palpable, that you yearn to see them survive the bloody nightmare, le merde, that is their lives. I only wish I spoke French, the language of this movie. There are English-language subtitles, but however good the captions are, there is just no way to capture every nuance spoken in such a sophisticated language as French. It’s the language that gave us such elegant terms as soixante-neuf, menage-a-trois, frottage, mon choi, voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?, and so many more. Our Paradise is magnificently filmed on location in Paris and elsewhere across France. You feel as if you were standing in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. I normally don’t watch films in a foreign language, but the title fooled me into thinking it was in English (original title: Notre Paradis). One glimpse of the mesmerizing story and I was hooked regardless of language. Available on Netflix.t

On the Tab

Hard shadows

NIGHTLIFE

SPIRITS

DINING

Leather

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 18 • April 30 - May 6, 2015 Gareth Gooch

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

D’Arcy Drollinger, James Arthur M., and Matthew Simmons (aka Peggy L’Eggs) in The Facts of Life Live.

by Andre Torrez

Y Geena Dabadghav

ou don’t have to be a coder or anything tech-related in San Francisco’s booming economy to realize that office culture can fall into a few traps. Your job may be demoralizing, mind-numbing, or overly demanding and your work week... See page 24

Get Hoppy Finding beer nirvana on the Bay Area Ale Trail by Heather Cassell

eer nerds are getting hoppy this summer with the Bay Area’s latest craft beer tour, the Bay Area Ale Trail. Launched in San Jose in November 2014, the once a month beer tour led by founder Kerri Carder-McCoy, is currently focused on San Jose’s emerging craft beer scene, but she has her eye on the Bay Area’s beer movement. See page 25 >>

Kerri Carder-McCoy, founder of the Bay Area Ale Trail.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

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34 wraps up Frameline final weekend’s The big 4-0! days: The politics of Pride parade.

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24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30 - May 6, 2015

Gareth Gooch

Tamale Ringwald and D’Arcy Drollinger in The Facts of Life Live at Oasis.

The Facts of Life

From page 23

grueling. By the time Friday rolls around, you’re probably just one of many people at their desk staring catatonically at a screen, eyes glazed over, counting down the minutes until the weekend. You could probably use some laughs. Laughter, after all, is the best medicine, and if you were at the opening weekend for The Facts of Life Live at Oasis, there was plenty to laugh about. D’Arcy Drollinger and the cast of drag queens are at it again with another parody production of TV shows past. They’ve done Sex and The City and Roseanne, but this time they delve a little deeper into the trove for more of a quasifeminist sitcom, going back to the early 1980s.

The long-running hit, with its all-female cast, could be considered a cult classic all these years later, although at the time it was totally mainstream. After all, it did air on the NBC network. Drollinger, who plays Blair Warner, the snob we all love to hate, but really wanna be, wrote in an email why the humor in the cabaret-style production works best. “You can’t ignore the fact that much of the humor comes from grown men playing angst-ridden teenage girls.” A trio of ladies seated up front opt for the $200 VIP Edna’s Champagne Table service at the 7 p.m. Friday night show. A good-sized audience filters in promptly to take their seats. If you don’t want to sip from flute stemware, you have other options. The cocktail list keeps in character

Gareth Gooch

Andy Alabran, James Arthur M. and Matthew Simmons in The Facts of Life Live.

with drinks like: Jo Bronx, Nat’s Pajamas, Tootie Roll, Blair Warmer, and of course Mrs. G’s Purse. Lights flash on the curtains and the campy theme song is our cue to clap and prepare to be entertained. (“If you hear ‘em from your brother, better clear ‘em with your mother. The facts of life…”) The first episode begins to unfold on stage before our eyes. Titled “Double Standard,” this episode sees Blair actually become jealous of her tomboyish nemesis and roommate, Jo Polniaczek, played by Daft-nee Gesuntheit. Blair’s childhood playmate, Harrison, moves to Peekskill (upstate New York). But instead of their bloodlines merging like she’s always dreamed, he sees something rebellious in Jo’s motorcycle ways and asks her to the cotillion instead. Gasps ensue.

Bare Chest Men 2016 Calendar guys chosen

photos by Rich Stadtmiller

he finalists for the 2016 Bare Chest Calendar were chosen on Sunday April 26 at the DNA Lounge. the competitions and calendars are a longstanding successful fundraiser for the AIDS/Breast Cancer Emergency funds. The festive celebrations included the traditional speeches, numbers, and doffing of T-shirts, and even a flamenco dance by Damien Alvarez. For more info, visit www.barechest.org For more nightlife photos by Rich Stadtmiller, visit www.richtrove.com

We get plenty of snarky retorts (just like the show) but they add their own flavor with comical asides, plays on words and to some degree, even a little ad-libbing. “Most of the asides and new parts were either written or came out of the rehearsal process,” says Drollinger. “Though in performing at the Oasis (co-owned with Heklina) which is a hybrid, bar, theater, cabaret, it harkens back to the old vaudeville stages where the audience was a vital part of the performance. So a certain amount of ad-libs and playing with the audience is a natural and integral part of the shows.” Later, I check on YouTube to see if they were really doing the scripts verbatim, and for the most part they were. Mrs. Edna Garrett, the fiery red-headed matriarchal den mother, (played by Peggy L’eggs, with the help of a prominent prosthetic nose) really does say there will be no “burning rubbers” on Eastland. But on phrases like “come again” and “beat off,” I can tell that the stage actors linger for affect. By now, I think the room realizes that Tamale Ringwald as Natalie Green is a spot-on and uncanny likeness, which in itself is laughable. Her bestie, Dorothy “Tootie” Ramsey is played by James Arthur M., who can’t stop hamming it up to the audience, by delivering ridiculous amounts of obnoxious adorability with one-liners, and jabs (often directed at Blair). The crowd seems to love it. What would an episode be without Mrs. Garrett belting out “Girls, girls, girls!” nearly a catchphrase for her? She delivers. Meanwhile, Blair tells Jo she’s out of her league and that she’ll humiliate herself by putting “ketchup on her quiche.” Jo changes her mind and decides to go to the cotillion after all. Someone in the audience actually says, “Good!” in a heartfelt tone. In the end, Harrison’s true intentions are made clear. He’s a creep who just wants to get laid, makes assumptions about ‘what kind of girl’ Jo is, and takes her out back to the putting green instead of the dance, and messes up her dress. “Although a comedy, it wasn’t until going back and looking at the seasons that I realized how many ‘hard-hitting’ topics they tackle,”

Drollinger said. “Each one like those ‘70s After-School Specials. Facts of Life has dealt with teen pregnancy, rape, drugs, drunk driving, prostitution, shoplifting…just to name a few.” The unlikely pair of Blair and Jo form a bond over boy trouble, which in this case is coded for rape culture, since it’s never made explicit what exactly happened. This cements the show’s feminist element, which the live show punctuates, satirizes and expands upon. They push the envelope in the very last off-thescript closing scene where Blair and Jo would have innocently turned to one another for a hug or a handshake, but of course this is Oasis, so, naturally, dyking out is implied. The mistakes, goofs and general low-budget quality add to the show’s humor and charm. At one point L’Eggs as Garrett accidently calls Jo, Blair. The crowd goes nuts, won’t let her live it down and the actors really seem to feed off that energy, milking it for more laughs. Interludes of classic commercials including Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Dr. Pepper and Hot Pockets play over the house speakers while the set is changed for a new scene or episode. For this short run, Drollinger says it’s the same two episodes that the cast will perform for all eleven shows. “So many people kept asking specifically for The Facts of Life. So far it has been going over really well. So perhaps more episodes will be on their way in the future.” The next episode in actuality is titled, “Pretty Babies.” This time, to paraphrase the Internet Movie Database: ‘Tootie gets lured into a photo shoot with a child pornographer.’ Again...whoa. What’s with all the strong sexual content and innuendo from all those early ‘80s sitcoms? “I think what resonates with Facts of Life is the same camaraderie that we see in The Golden Girls, Sex and The City and Designing Women,” said Drollinger. “You’ve got the strong archetypes and the same conflicts, heartaches and humor, but just around different topics.” Fear not, Tootie; Mrs. Garrett has your back and her maternal instinct kicks in to protect you from the sleaze photographer who wanted to put your still-developing body (she was feeling self-conscious in this episode) on a diet! The cast concludes the production to a hearty round of applause. They finish the night by posing for photos on the stage set with members of the audience. “What we’re creating with these TV parodies is more than a just drag show. We’re sending up iconic programs and characters people love,” Drollinger said. “Adding the drag blows it up in a way that is both parody and homage, with just enough of sass that make it something unique.”t The Facts of Life Live at Oasis. $25$30 ($200 VIP group rates). 7pm. Thu-Sat thru May 16. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Gareth Gooch

The full cast of The Facts of Life Live backstage at Oasis.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 30 - May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

weren’t quite ready to quit their day jobs and run off to paradise just yet. They returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area, but a little bit of hops and yeast was brewing within Kerri.

Geena Dabadghav

Tasting the brew on the Bay Area Ale Trail in San Jose.

Geena Dabadghav

On tap at Hermitage Brewing Company, one of the craft breweries on the Bay Area Ale Trail, in San Jose.

Get Hoppy

From page 23

Since the fall, Kerri, a 35-year old lesbian event-planning and hospitality industry professional in San Francisco, has been taking groups of 10 to 25 people and private tours starting with two guests on an adventure to industrial San Jose to sample the South Bay’s craft brews. She also customizes tours. Recently Kerri guided a private tour for guests to some of Santa Cruz’s breweries. For the Silicon Valley tours, Kerri and her driver picked up guests at San Jose’s Diridon Caltrain Station and took them to the city’s industrial area where breweries Clandestine, Strike, and Hermitage have set up shop within a mile of each other. The tours include a gourmet lunch and fun facts about the breweries and Bay Area to California brewing history for a chance to win some swag. “Everybody leaves happy, and not just because they’ve been drinking,” said Erin Carder-McCoy, Kerri’s wife, who tags along on the tours. She loves that each tour is creative and unique in spite of going to the same breweries. “They’ve all been very different,” said Kerri, talking about the tours that have taken on themes such as “The Ugly Holiday Sweater” tour in December. For Father’s Day Weekend, the Bay Area Ale Trail will be all about the dads – gay and straight – as Kerri has a special tour planned for the papas June 20. Brewing dreams Sipping a beer on a sandy beach in Thailand at the turn of the New Year in 2013, Kerri began day dreaming with Erin what every vacationer at least once fantasizes about: “How can I quit my job and live here?” The couple easily came up with an employment solution for Erin, a 40year old elementary school teacher. But for Kerri, her options were wide but limited. She had no interest in

working at a hotel. She had already been there and done that. Beer in hand, and after a little soul-searching, the beer aficionado turned her attention to beer tours, but in Thailand, it’s “Chang, Chang, and Chang. That’s all they have. There’s not a lot of beer,” she said. Since one brewery doesn’t make a profitable beer tour and vacation was over, the couple realized they

Geena Dabadghav

Bay Area Ale Trail t-shirt.

Getting to hoppiness Soon after, Kerri started blogging about local breweries, reviewing them, and profiling brewmisters, and checking out beer tours, such as the North Bay Brewery Tours, as a part of her research as she created the Bay Area Ale Trails. In the process, Kerri discovered that she didn’t have to venture far from home (she’s a Bay Area native) to create her beer tours. The craft beer movement was spreading around the bay with more than 100 breweries and brew pubs currently operating, with dozens more coming on tap this summer from the North Bay to the South Bay. One of the untapped areas bustling with breweries is the Peninsula down into the South Bay, particularly in San Jose. This year, two more breweries are opening up in the area: the Santa Clara Valley Brewing Company, launched by veteran Bay Area brewmiester Steve Donohue, and Mission Creek Brewery, Whole Foods’ first California craft brewery located at its new store close to Diridon Station. All five breweries are all located within a mile and a half of each other. Quench that thirst The couple appreciate that they aren’t the only ones who are discovering San Jose’s coolness. Nearly a year after her beach fantasy, Kerri’s Silicon Valley beer tour has been a hit among guests, many of whom are local, and had no clue that breweries were being “home brewed” by South Bay natives in their own back. “I thought it was great,” said Gabe Morales, a 40-something Latino gay man, a San Francisco transplant now living in New York, who was home visiting friends when they went on the tour. He liked the tour because, “It’s not just sitting at a bar and drinking with friends,” and it was informative, more than he expected, he said. More so, the tour gave him a new perspective on the changes happening in the Bay Area. “To have a tour that is designed to give you an insight into the Bay Area was very, very special to me,” said Morales. Erin agreed. “I think that people should be willing to jump out of their comfort zone sometimes and check out what is going on in other places in the Bay Area, especially, if they like craft beer. Because there is some really, really delicious craft beer happening in San Jose,” she said. Finding beer nirvana in the Bay Area, Kerri plans to eventually grow her tour company beyond the oncea-month tour and private tours in San Jose. She’s looking at eventually venturing into Santa Cruz to

Geena Dabadghav

A selection of taps at a recent Brew Tour venue.

up and down the Peninsula to San Francisco and the East Bay as well as cideries and meaderies. Kerri is also co-launching The Brew Pass, an annual membership to a group of breweries where members show their card to receive perks from free beer, discounts, and more, that should be available within the coming months, she said. But for now she’s happy introducing people to San Jose’s craft breweries.t

Group and private tours are available on the Bay Area Ale Trail. Tours are $125 per person. For more information, contact Kerri at kerri@bayareaaletrails.com or visit www.bayareaaletrails.com. To learn more about the Brew Pass, visit www.brewerypass.com. Heather Cassell is a travel and entertainment writer for the Bay Area Reporter and other publications. Read more about queer women’s travel and entertainment at www.GirlsThatRoam.com.

<< On the Tab

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30 - May 6, 2015

TAB f eON THE –May 7 April 30

★

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio

Kyle Krews @ Hotel Rex

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

The saucy women's burlesque revue's weekend show; different musical guests each week. $10. 7:30pm. 3158 Mission St. 672-4735. Also Wed nights at Oasis. www.redhotsburlesque.com www.elriosf.com

The American Idol finalist and UC Berkeley grad performs his new cabaret show. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. (800) 982-2787. www.societycabaret.com

Gareth Gooch

Fri 1 The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

stARTup Fair SF @ Hotel Del Sol

Cinco de Kinko @ The Armory

Buck 65, Astronautalis @ The New Parish Canadian and Texan/Minneapolis rap? Yup. Two witty hip hop guys share a bill. $17-$20. 9pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. (510) 444-7474. www.thenewparish.com

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

The Facts of Life Live @ Oasis Those wacky queens who gave you Sex & the City are now doing drag parody versions of two episodes from the cult classic schoolgirl sitcom. $25$30. 7pm. Thu-Sat thru May 16. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

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

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

Homo Thursdays @ Qbar Franko DJs the weekly mash-up/ pop music night. No cover. 2 for 1 well drinks, 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Hot Draw! @ Mark I. Chester Studio Erotic, fetish, bondage poses for gay male sketchers of all skill levels; a fun, friendly group open to erotic drawing, with Jeff, the model who's into bondage and kink. Donations. 6:30pm. 1229 Folsom St. Call day of to reserve: 621-6294. www.markichester.com/hotdraw

Karaoke Night @ Club BnB, Oakland Sing your heart out at the free lively night. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

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

Michael Feinstein @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The multi-platinum jazz pianist-singer, and proprietor of the intimate cabaret club, performs a tribute concert of Frank Sinatra classics. $80-$95. Wed 7pm. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru May 3. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

The Monster Show @ The Edge The dearly missed Cookie Dough's weekly drag show continues, with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Kink.com's dance party fundraiser for Three Strikes Justice Center includes DJed music (Lumenetti, Shooey, Nikki), kink set tours, cash bar and bondage demos. $40. 8pm-3am. 1800 Mission St. www.cincodekinko.com

Curtain Call @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents Bill Cooper and Barry Lloyd in a classy open mic cabaret night. $10. 7pm. Cocktails, small plates available. 562 Sutter St. (800) 982-2787. www.societycabaret.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland The festive gogo-filled dance club, with host Lulu, features Latin pop dance hits with DJs Speedy Douglas Romero and Fabricio; no cover before 10pm. $6-$12. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

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

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

Midnight Show @ Divas

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room

Polyglamorous @ Oasis

Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com The groovy DJ team of Mark O'Brien, M*J*R and guest Jason Kendig (Honey Soundsystem) bring on the sexy dance night. $7-$10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

The annual multi-artist independent art fair and series of parties is set at the scenic Marina hotel; included among the dozens of artists are gay creative talents Eugene Rodriguez, Jason Wyman and Forrest Williams. Thru May 3. www.startupartfair.com

Sun 3 John Cooper Clark @ Great American Music Hall

17th annual benefit for the innovative theatre company, with cocktails, and dinner, silent and live auctions and entertainment. $325 and up. 6pm. 41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley. www.auroratheatre.org

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

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

Beltane Carnival @ Oakland Warehouse Get your playa drag on at this fundraiser for Burning Man camps Zoom and Fur. Dance and chill to great DJs with two areas of sound (house, funk, breaks, EDM), featuring the Future Pussy Sound System, lighting, lasers decor by Top Dawg SF, Frolic Productions, and Underground Nation; fire art garden and performances, too! $5-$10. 8pm-4am. (510) 459-7958. www.beltanecarnival. brownpapertickets.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland Get groovin' at the weekly hip hop and R&B night at their new location. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Go Bang! @ The Stud Elaine Denham & Robin Malone Simmons are the guest DJs at the disco-tastic dance night with residents Steve Fabus, Prince Wolf and Sergio Fedasz. $10 (free B4 10pm). 9pm3am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

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

The Orb @ Regency Ballroom

Sex & Drags & Rock & Roll @ Midnight Sun Mutha Chucka's wild monthly drag show (first Saturdays), with Bearonce Growles, Ruby Blue Gender Bender, Dina Isis and Tia Dora for "What's Rock with this Country?" a night of country rock divas. Shows 10:30pm & 12am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Sugar @ The Café Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sun 3 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

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

Big Top @ Beaux Joshua J.'s homo disco circus night, with guest DJs and performers, hotty gogo guys and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.BeauxSF.com

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

Garden Party & Awards @ Chambers

Everybody's favorite international electro duo ("Little Fluffy Clouds"), performs; Govinda and DJ Icon open. $22-$25. 8pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. www.theregencyballroom.com

Marriage Equality USA honors Sen. Mark Leno, the San Francisco Giants, and BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual freedom) at this festive fundraiser. $120. 1pm-4pm. 601 Eddy St. www.marriageequality.org/sf-awards

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Drink specials, Top 40, gogo studs and no cover. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. 11th anniversary night!! $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Heklina's weekly drag show night at the fabulous renovated SoMa nightclub; plus DJ MC2 and guests. May 2 is a Stevie Nicks tribute night! $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Aurora Borealis @ Claremont Hotel, Berkeley

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge

Mother @ Oasis

Sat 2

Shot in the City

Thu 30

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

Some Thing @ The Stud

Gus Presents' weekly dance night, with DJ Kid Sysko, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Polyglamorous @ Oasis

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Fri 1

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

Sat 2 Elaine Dunham and Robin Malone Simmons @ Go Bang!

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

On the Tab>>

April 30 - May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

John Cooper Clark @ Great American Music Hall

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

Meow Mix @ The Stud

The 1970s 'Godfather of punk poetry,' known for his witty songs and poetry performances, stops by on his first tour in 35 years. $21-$46 (with dinner). 8pm. 859 O'Farrell St. 8850750. www.gamh.com

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

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

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 Dance it up at the popular twiceweekly country-western night that includes line-dancing, two-stepping and lessons. $5. 5pm-10:30pm. Also Thursdays 6:30pm-10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. at Industrial. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday Brunch, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with host Galilea and various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

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

Sunsation Sundays @ Oasis Celebrate the rooftop grand opening at the new nightclub, with a T-dance, DJs Dan De Leon and Riley Patrick. $7-$10. 3pm-9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

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

Opulence @ Beaux New weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

Tue 5 Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

BESTIES 20 15

THE LGBT BEST OF THE BAY

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Kingdom of Sodom invades the sexy night; strip down with the strippers at the cruisy adult theatre and arcade; free beverages. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

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

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland Vicky Jimenez' drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials; different hosts each week. $3. 10pm2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 6

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Red Hots Burlesque, the weekly women's sexy strip show, welcomes their male collegues for a bawdy night of dancerly thrills, with Fou Ha Ha!, Magnoliah Black, the Tartlettes, Bohemian Brethren and more. $15$25. 8:30pm-11:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

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Booty Call @ QBar

Thu 7 Keiko Matsui @ Feinstein’s

Mon 4 Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Drag Mondays @ The Café Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night, 2014's last of the year. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

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

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The new weekly LGBT video game enthusiastnight include big-screen games, and signature beers. No cover. 7pm-11pm. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

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

Juanita More! and her weekly intimate –yet packed– dance party. $10-$15. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Bondage a GoGo @ Cat Club The (mostly straight) kinky weekly dance night, where fetish gear is welcome; DJs Damon and Tomas Diablo play electro, goth, industrial, etc. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.bondage-a-go-go.com

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

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

415 370 7152

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

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

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Weekly women's happy hour, with allwomen music and live performances, 2 for 1 drinks, and no cover. 5pm-9am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Amatuer night, where the newbies get nude for a $200 prize. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

See page 30 >>

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30 - May 6, 2015

TitanMen

Nick Prescott’s working over a squirming and vocal Dirk Caber, from In the Shadows.

Cast a hard shadow by John F. Karr

ou could do worse than to spend nearly two pleasant hours with the latest from TitanMen, Hard at Work. Its guys are buff; even the single thin dude is tautly put together. They’re mostly furry-bodied, frequently bearded and frequently uncut. The movie has an absolute modicum of talking, with one scene altogether wordless. The scenarios, competently directed by Jasun Mark, find working men taking time off with the boss. Up first is brawny Titan Exclusive George Ce, applying his impressively thick dick to an energized Landon Conrad. This justifiably popular performer has obviously studied the Michael Soldier Manual of Porn Performance Style, meaning he makes as much reactionary noise as he can. I like the momentary sight of the guys pressed together, kissing like mad, with Ce tweaking nipples and Conrad grinding cocks together. You can’t help but notice how their tan lines match up. I don’t know if it’s the vagaries of two cameras, or the lighting as seen from different angles, but the view flips distractingly between two contrasting textures. A small matter, but not up to the Titan standard. Football coach Tom Nero lays hands on his strapping star player, Alex Graham, and we’re glad for it, since the coach has scruffy beard, shaggy haircut and well forested body, and the player’s got the solid look of a pugilist. Perhaps the lack of a credited art director explains why the coach’s office has lockers in it. Or is it that the coach’s desk is in the locker room? Whichever, Alex’s meaty ass and Nero’s darkly-haired torso help you ride over the minor question of setting, just as the guys ride over each other in their flip-fuck. Lastly, a star turn for homeowner Nick Prescott with his gardener, Eric Nero. What’s the odds of two guys with the unusual last name of Nero landing in the same movie? Don’t get over excited. Tom and Eric aren’t brothers. What Eric is, beside a Titan Exclusive, is hot. Comedy lurks in his thick eyebrows, big schnoz, broad slit of mouth and stand-out ears, but the possibility is completely overridden by Eric’s raunchy attitude and monster cock. It’s not as fat as Ce’s, but seems several lengths longer.

His make-out with Prescott is rambunctious. Eric sets his ass cheeks down on Nick’s face for some extended rimming, and then slides down Nick’s body to settle his ass onto Nick’s upstanding cock. Later, in doggie position, it’s Nick’s hearty plugging that makes Eric’s big dong flap heavily between his legs. Now, all these scenes are very nice, proficiently filmed and performed. But if you wanna up the ante, see some sex that goes Pow! while throwing in a little kink, you’ll glom onto Titan’s recent In the Shadows. The titular shadows are the sex dreams of Dirk Caber. Excuse me for skipping over first two quite fine scenes with the uncut, furry pair of Dario Beck and Tony Orion, and then smooth, California blond prettyboy Kevin Lee, paired with swarthy Adam Champ. There’s such a contrast between them; what a nutty brown foreskin on Champ that Lee loves nibbling, and what a scrumptious pink and hairless asshole on Lee, that Champ loves nibbling and banging. It’s the third and final scene that’ll pin ya down in a way that hasn’t been exhibited in any other scene reported on above. In lusty Caber’s best dream, it’s himself who gets pinned –spreadeagled and straining within re-

straints atop an unyielding wood table. You’d think he’d be the bottom, but it just ain’t so. Nick Prescott acts like a top; at least, in the beginning, working over the defenseless Caber in a lot of juicy, nasty ways. He’s chompin’ on Dirk’s nipples, pinching ‘em while Dirk moans. Caber’s cock throbs and jumps, dripping precum, and the two-inch ball stretcher strangling his nuts turns them darkly purple. Prescott manipulates Dirk’s cock masterfully, but watch out when he applies a fat black dildo to Dirk’s quivering asshole. Caber swears, and begs Prescott to slow down, but his jumpin’ cock tells a different story. With hips undulating, he swallows up and conquers the toy. No slouch, that Dirk. Prescott rubbers up Caber’s cock, and climbs aboard. After a holepunching fuck that makes his cum churn up, he pushes a corkscrew dildo into Caber’s butt and jerks off the sweaty dude. The movie credits Jasun Mark and Paul Wilde as directors; somehow I think it’s Wilde who handled the home run of the last scene, which should have set the standard for both movies. It’s not the bondage, and it’s not the dildo. It’s the intent and focus of the performers. They see each other; they’re real. Their palpable enjoyment goes way beyond making a lot of noise.t www.TitanMen.com

TitanMen

Beefy Alex Graham and furry Tom Nero, in Hard at Work.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 30 - May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

IMsL/IMsBB and a Community Hero

Rich Stadtmiller

This year’s winner of IMsL 2015 is Tina M. (aka Sarge) from San Diego.

by Race Bannon

many men do attend to support their fellow women kinksters. Because this column lacks the space to adequately do justice to reporting on the entire weekend’s events, I urge readers wanting more detail to look up Deborah Hoffman-Wade’s article on Leatherati (www.leatherati.com) titled “Walking The Labyrinth: IMsL 2015.” It’s a thoughtful and thorough reflection on the weekend. Since the contest is one of the main focal points of the weekend, the winners end up being the face of both the title and the event for the coming year. This

lot has been going on lately about which I could write, but two events stood out to me as important to talk about in this column. The International Ms. Leather and International Ms. Bootblack contest and weekend (often referred to as IMsL/IMsBB) (www.imsl.org) took place in San Jose April 9-12. The SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group (www.sfldg.org) event, RichTrove. com 10th Anniversary: a conversation with founder Rich Stadtmiller, took place on April 22 at the SF LGBT Center. Both of these events are notable. IMsL/IMsBB is the largest gathering for leather and kink women. Rich Stadtmiller can justifiably be considered a hero of the community (and he also provides most of the photos included in this column). Thus why I consider them both worthy of mention here. The IMsL/IMsBB weekend and contest offers women from around the world an opportunity to commune with others who share their passion for our style of sexuality and erotic identity. In my opinion, it’s the most high profile and important of the kinky women’s gatherings because it seeks to pull together women from all walks of the scene from around the world. I’m not aware of any other event that does that consistently. So it’s important that IMsL/IMsBB exRace Bannon ist and thrive since women often have a hard time finding large The always-smiling Rich Stadtmiller events at which to commune. (left) receiving a proclamation from With this year’s event’s large at- State Senator Mark Leno for his tendance, it’s clear there’s a big community contributions from need that this event fulfills for the Anna Damiani (right), Senator Leno’s District Representative. community. The weekend may center on the contest, but it’s much more year’s winner of IMsL 2015 is Tina than that. There are a host of eduM. (aka Sarge) from San Diego. cational, social, play, shopping and The winner of IMsBB 2015 is slave fundraising options that can keep tabitha arie from Phoenix. Both anyone in attendance occupied women did an amazing job. I wish and having fun. And they certainly them both great title years. did so again this year. For the men I asked the new IMsL 2015, Sarge, reading this, men are also welcome what some of her plans are for her to participate in the weekend and title year.

Rich Stadtmiller

Tina M.’s Disney-themed kink number at IMsL 2015.

“I am planning to write a book documenting the last 30 years of IMsL history,” she said. “Interviewing, photographing and documenting the amazing women who have paved the way for the current class of leather women. Why am I happy to have won? Well I worked really hard to win the title! Studying, late nights, long preparations, practicing, struggling with self-image and self-esteem as I squeezed my big beautiful body into a countless amount of steel-boned corsets and painted-on leather pants. So, to bring the sash home meant that all the hard work paid off, not just for me, but for my family and the entire Southern California community. I want people to know I’m approachable and I love to play. I’m a sex positive butch that rolls with the GBGs (Gang Bang Girls).” I asked one of the producers, Pat Baillie, for her thoughts on the event that she and so many others work so hard all year long to create. She said, “We had just over 700 attendees and besides having an amazing contest with 9 IMsL and 5 IMsBB (a record), hot play parties, lots of workshops and vending, we also looked at deeper issues like the intersection of kink, porn and feminism and continued the discussion on racism in the community. Even during amazing events like IMsL, these issues impact the ability for all of us to live, love and play radically and although we can’t solve these issues with just a few discussions, we are committed to addressing the ‘isms’ that are all around us.” Bravo to the producers, volunteers and sponsors for mounting yet again the preeminent event for kinky women.

Rich’s riches

The event honoring Rich Stadtmiller’s accomplishments, photographically documenting leather, kink and other communities at both local and national events, was well attended. Hundreds of Rich’s images flashed on the large screen as Rich beautifully recounted how he got into this type of photographic contribution and what motivates him to continue the work, while also offering the audience some great stories that provided further insight into Rich’s photographs and mission. If you have never visited the vast photo repository at www. richtrove.com, you should. At present more than 250,000 images reside on that site with the number growing almost daily. It’s truly one of the most remarkable records of the leather and kink scene’s people and happenings. Rich started on his photographic journey after a few personal epiphanies. During his presentation, Rich said, “What would possess a man to leave a 30-year tech career to live off his savings and wander through dark bars in a red leather Santa suit, hanging a three-pound, strap-on around his neck with a flashing light? To approach strangers to get them to lower their guard and lend a piece of their souls for safekeeping?” Even Rich wasn’t immediately quite sure why he was so compelled to become this sort of photographer. Eventually he realized that what was driving him was that a chunk of his life was missing. Like other veterans of the early HIV/AIDs era, he had done his best to kill off any memories of that time - to the point of forgetting that the ones he loved ever existed. That didn’t sit well with Rich. His photo-

graphs are his passionate response. Providing photographic service to the community became Rich’s way of ensuring that no one will ever feel that their memories are entirely lost. As Rich put it, “I would hate for anybody to experience such loss again. Instead I want to provide an abundance of memories. I hoped people would realize their value.” By the accolades Rich has received both locally and nationally for his contributions, I know people have absolutely realized their value. Thanks, Rich, for being such a community hero, and I do consider you a hero. Few people are as generous and caring as you are. May we all continue to benefit from the next 250,000 photographs you shoot. Let me close with a few words from Rich that apply not just to the amazing work he does, but I think offers some wisdom for our community generally.

He said, “If you want to enhance your life, if you want to build community, connect with people, make sweet memories with them, hang on to those memories and share them with others. Our bonds with each other are forged in shared experiences, strengthened through shared memories, and extended through shared stories. Those bonds form the fabric of our community and hold us together.” Yes, they do. Shared experiences, like IMsL/IMsBB and viewing Rich’s photographs, do indeed form the backbone of what we call community.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him on his website, www.bannon.com For Leather events listings, visit www.ebar.com

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30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 30 - May 6, 2015

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On the Tab

From page 27

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Trixie Carr @ Oasis Maniac! The singer-comic's live performance of all of the music –yes, each song!- from the film Flashdance. $15. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

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

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates Karaoke Night @ Club OMG Dana leads the weekly amateur singing night. 8pm. No cover. 43 6th St. 896-6473. www.clubomgsf.com

Keiko Matsui @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The internationally acclaimed contemporary jazz pianist/composer performs at the intimate cabaret club. $45-$60. ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also May 8, 8pm, May 9, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.keikomatsui.com www.ticketweb.com www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

The Monster Show @ The Edge The dearly missed Cookie Dough's weekly drag show conitnues, with themed events and cute gogo guys. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

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

Thu 7 After Dark @ Exploratorium The "Photography"-themed party includes displays, exhibits, interactive image-making, cocktails and DJed music. $10-$15. 6pm-10pm. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. www.exploratorium.edu

Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell @ The Fillmore The queen of country rock (and a 13time Grammy winner) performs with the veteran musician, including songs from their new album The Traveling Kind. $40. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. www.thefillmore.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Thu 7 After Dark @ The Exploratorium

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

Karaoke Night @ Club BnB, Oakland Sing your heart out at the free lively night. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Thu 7 Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell @ The Fillmore

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

April 30 - May 6, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

photos by Steven Underhill Cocktailgate

fter seven years of wacky unusual drag shows at the cozy Truck bar, Suppositori Spelling has retired Cocktailgate. Last Saturday night’s show attracted cute patrons and devoted drag fans. Visit Truck at 1900 Folsom Street. More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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

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