August 20, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 45 • No. 34 • August 20-26, 2015

SFAF CEO to lead Phoenix biz group

Berkeley to investigate bias claim

by Matthew S. Bajko

B

by Seth Hemmelgarn

D

eparting San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Neil Giuliano will become president and CEO of Greater Phoenix Leadership, it was announced Wednesday.

GPL, as it is Rick Gerharter known, is a business leadership organiza- Neil Giuliano tion focused on civic improvement initiatives for Arizona, according to the Phoenix Business Journal, which posted the story August 19.

Last week, before his new job was announced, Giuliano, 58, said that he thought the time was right for a new leader at the AIDS foundation. The Journal reported that Giuliano expects to start his new job in November.

“I feel very, very good about what we’ve accomplished” at SFAF, and it’s “a different organization than when I arrived. It just feels right,” Giuliano, said Thursday, August 13, the day his departure was announced.

SFAF, which has a budget of more than $29 million and about 150 employees, had a staff of 88 and a budget of $19 million when Giuliano, the gay former mayor of Tempe, Arizona, started at the nonprofit in December 2010.

During his tenure, the agency, which offers free services to thousands of people, has worked to eliminate HIV transmissions in the city. It’s expanded HIV testing services, linkages to care, and prevention program outreach, among other achievements.

Recently, however, SFAF has faced delays in opening its gay and bi men’s health center at 470 Castro Street, and a report from a Yale student who spent last summer observing the foundation said some staff are unhappy with Giuliano and other agency leaders.

Still, Giuliano, who said leaving is “1,000 percent my decision,” has garnered praise from many in the community, including Michael Kidd, who chairs the nonprofit’s board.

“During his tenure, Neil provided strong direction and leadership for the agency,” Kidd said in an August 13 news release. “He leaves the foundation more focused, effective and secure, and we’re grateful for his years of service.”

The board has started the process of appointing a search committee to help find a successor to Giuliano, who said his biggest achievement has been “partnering with the community to shift the model of care from one focused on sickness and disease management to one focused on the health and wellness of the community.”

He said he’s confident that San Francisco See page 9 >>

A

All hail Rosies

Jane Philomen Cleland

representative from the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond Saturday, August 15, to document what organizers hope is the largest gathering of people dressed as Rosie the Riveter, which represents women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II. Sue Fritzke, acting superintendent of the park, said that 1,083

people dressed as Rosie were counted in the designated area. She said she’s confident the group broke the previous record of 776 people, even if Guinness disqualifies some participants. There were also several “Original Rosies” at the event.

From left, park ranger Karen Fong, original Rosies Mary Torres and Kay Morrison, out park ranger Elizabeth Tucker, and original Rosie Marian Wynn took a moment to enjoy the festivities.

erkeley officials will investigate a city-funded agency that provides services to people with disabilities after a transgender former employee accused it of fostering a “psychologically tortuous” Courtesy Orchid Bakla workplace and violating local laws and contract- Orchid Bakla ing procedures.

In emails to Berkeley officials, and documented in a complaint filed in November with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Orchid Bakla accuses Easy Does It Emergency Services staffers of discriminating against her based on her race – she is of Filipino and Caucasian descent – as well as her gender identity after she began transitioning from male to female while employed at the agency.

She also claims the agency retaliated against her for pointing out discrepancies in its reports See page 7 >>

Oakland queer space readies for opening

by Elliot Owen

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much-anticipated multi-use space in downtown Oakland dedicated to queer people will soon be opening its doors.

Qulture Collective, founded by three queer women who also identify as “serial entrepreneurs,” is undergoing a build-out process to support a cafe and work-study area, a retail space stocked with mostly queer-made merchandise, a queer art gallery, and co-working studios for queer artists and makers.

Located at 1714 Franklin Street, Qulture Collective is a response to the East Bay queer community’s call for a designated queer space to commune, collaborate, work, and feel safe – one that isn’t night-centric and doesn’t necessitate alcohol consumption. Earlier this month, co-founders Alyah Baker, Terry Sok, and Julia Wolfson launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to support the business’s build-out, an expensive and tedious endeavor ultimately resulting in the space’s official opening in September.

“Qulture Collective has a cultural/community slant to it,” Wolfson, 32, a self-identified queer lioness, told the Bay Area Reporter. “It poses the question: what does it mean for us to come together and spend time with one another? It’s a way to discover what ‘queer community’ means. Also, when you buy a cup of coffee, you’re supporting the staff and space.

When you buy something from the retail space, you’re supporting a queer artist or maker. It’s

Elliot Owen

Qulture Collective co-founders Julia Wolfson, left, Alyah Baker, and Terry Sok are holding a braunch (brunch and launch) event Saturday.

the power of purchasing; lifting up the community in the process of buying a cup of coffee or a gift for a friend. We’re also more inclusive than exclusive, which means we’re open to allies too.”

The multi-use space is founded on a “cycle of support” whereby the cafe and retail space secure Qulture Collective’s sustainability and permanence, which in effect ensures that community events and artist/maker workspace and merchandise arrangements remain accessible.

Baker, 33, a queer woman of color and owner of the downtown Oakland boutique Show and Tell, has been integrating accessibility into her business practices for four years and is bringing that expertise to the collective.

“In my past career working for a large mainstream retailer as a queer woman of color, people didn’t know how to relate to me; they looked at me weird,” Baker told the B.A.R. “That’s uncomfortable as you’re trying to excel in your career. When I left, it became important for me to highlight folks that experience spaces or opportunities as inaccessible because of gender, orientation, disability, etc.

“When Show and Tell opened, my co-owner at the time and I decided to carry products created by people we shared community with, people without representation,” Baker added.

“It was very much on my heart and mind that the business needed to be for people without access. Qulture Collective toes the same line.”

Baker also plans to move community events historically held at Show and Tell to Qulture Collective.

“We’ve needed to expand out of that location and establish something that will answer additional community needs,” Baker said, “like a cafe people get good service in where they don’t get misgendered or have bathroom issues. But also screen movies and have additional events, things we’ve been doing already that Show and Tell’s space can’t support anymore.”

Qulture Collective also seeks to break up the homogenizing effects of gentrification, a disturbing shift longtime Oakland residents Baker and Wolfson have witnessed, but that’s particularly painful to Sok, an Oakland native.

See page 9 >>

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Woman gets probation in Aiello case

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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woman who had been jailed after the death of a former Bay Area Reporter writer has been sentenced to five years probation in the case.

Sabrina Ahrens-Gravelle, 40, pleaded no contest in June to possession of methamphetamine.

Ahrens-Gravelle was reportedly with Kyle Billy Fletcher, 35, when Fletcher allegedly strangled to death Daniel James Aiello, 53, April 15 in Sacramento, where Aiello lived.

But Ahrens-Gravelle’s attorney, Paul Irish, said Friday, August 14 that his client had been sleeping in a vehicle around the time Fletcher allegedly murdered Aiello.

Aiello, a gay man, worked for the B.A.R. as a freelance writer who covered marriage equality and other issues before opening Midtown Moped shop in Sacramento. He’s been described as a “passionate” journalist and generous friend.

Ahrens-Gravelle was more than an hour late to her court appearance. She declined to speak with the B.A.R. as she entered the Sacramento County Main Jail, where her courtroom was located.

After she arrived at the Sacramento County Mail Jail, where her courtroom was located, but before her sentencing,

“I’m busy,” she said when Fletcher is being the B.A.R. approached her. charged with Aiello’s As a reporter walked bemurder, along with robhind her into the building, bery and the burglary she said, “Please don’t foland drug counts. low me. That’s harassment.”

As of July, Fletcher Inside the courtroom, hadn’t entered a plea.

Irish told Judge Michael He was scheduled for a G. Bowman that his clisettlement conference ent is working two jobs Courtesy Sacramento Police Dept. Friday, but that was conand is “supporting minor Sabrina Ahrenstinued to September 18. children.”

He remains in custody.

Gravelle Bowman told AhrensThe Sacramento Gravelle he hopes she thinks about County Coroner’s office has deterher kids the next time she’s “out on mined Aiello was strangled to death the street” associating with an alleged and died at 3:51 a.m. murderer.

Police have said officers respond“Your children are going to ask ed at 3:20 a.m. April 15 to Aiello’s you, ‘Why was he more important shop, at 1326 X Street, after a neighthan me?’” Bowman said. bor reported hearing “loud noises The judge ordered Ahrens-Gravand crashing.” elle to attend drug treatment as a Fletcher and Ahrens-Gravelle were condition of her probation and gave allegedly at the scene loading items her credit for 140 days time served into a vehicle, and they were arrested. in jail. Irish said she doesn’t have a Aiello, who was found inside the prior criminal record. building, was soon pronounced dead.

Besides the meth possession, Friday, Irish told the B.A.R. that prosecutors had also charged Ahrens-Gravelle had pleaded no conAhrens-Gravelle with residential test to having “controlled substances burglary and transportation and in a vehicle where she was asleep at the sale of meth. The latter charges time law enforcement arrived.” were dismissed Friday. She was arAsked about what happened rested in April, along with Fletcher, the night of Aiello’s killing, Irish but she’s been out of custody since quipped, “I wasn’t there.” He deentering her no contest plea in June. clined to say what Ahrens-Gravelle

had told him about what had gone on, citing attorney-client privilege, and he wouldn’t comment on what she’d been doing at the moped shop.

“I can’t get into the facts of the case,” Irish said.

However, Ahrens-Gravelle could be called into court to talk about what happened the night of Aiello’s death.

Irish said, “The agreement we have” with the district attorney doesn’t include any condition that his client testify, but she may be asked to.

He said that to his knowledge, Ahrens-Gravelle didn’t know Aiello.

He wouldn’t comment about what

her relationship with Fletcher was.

Attorney Jeff Raven, who previously represented Ahrens-Gravelle, said earlier this year that she “had no knowledge or role in the homicide.”

Raven said Fletcher had “portrayed himself, to her and to the world, as part owner and partner of the moped shop,” and as far as his former client had known, he’d gone to Aiello’s shop that night “to get his belongings.” (The B.A.R. hasn’t found any records indicating Fletcher actually co-owned Aiello’s shop.)

A sheriff’s department spokeswoman has said Ahrens-Gravelle listed Chico as her city of residence.t

by Cynthia Laird

recent death of Cecil the lion, who was killed by a Minnesota dentist who was big game hunting in Zimbabwe.

On Lion Appreciation Day, zoo visitors can learn more about these big cats through a variety of interactive ways. Activities include watching lions feast on treats, face painting, making paw print crafts, a lion “selfie” station, zookeeper chats, and tables hosted by three conservation partners: Bay Area Puma Project, Uganda Carnivore Program, and the Mountain Lion Foundation.

“The wave of sadness and anger over the death of Cecil the lion from Zimbabwe demonstrates the compassion that the world can feel when they learn about the plight of a single animal,” zoo conservation director Amy Gotliffe said in a news release. “The incident also demonstrates the actions people are willing to take to make change.

Our Lion Appreciation Day will focus on learning about lions and their conservation challenges while offering opportunities to turn that compassion into action.”

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it is estimated that there are just over 30,000 lions left in all of Africa. Habitat loss, the loss of natural prey population, and retaliatory killing by humans after lion attacks on livestock are the main reasons for the population decline.

Locally, mountain lions face many of the same threats that African lions face.

The day’s activities are free with zoo admission. For more information, visit www.oaklandzoo.org.

Oakland Zoo celebrates lions T

he Oakland Zoo will observe Lion Appreciation Day with special events Saturday, August 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The observance comes as people around the world are grieving the

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Openhouse to hold Friendly Visitor training

Openhouse, the LGBT senior agency, will hold a training for its Friendly Visitor program Saturday, August 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 306 at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

The program matches volunteers with a senior to foster a friendship around their common interests.

Program manager Sylvia Vargas said that volunteers can visit seniors and chat over coffee or tea, play board games, watch a movie, or take a walk. It’s a rewarding experience that allows volunteers to create a special bond with someone, Vargas noted in a news release.

For more information on the program and to complete a volunteer application form, visit http:// openhouse-sf.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/02/Caring-Connections-FV-Application_2013-Fillable-Form-for-Reader.pdf.

See page 10 >>

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4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Volume 45, Number 34 August 20-26, 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 – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

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

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Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

New accountability for officers

C

hanges to prosecutors’ handling of officerinvolved shootings and the training of police officers are receiving national attention as deadly incidents keep piling up, one year after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. In response, California will soon hold officers, and now prosecutors, more accountable.

A new law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown will prohibit secret grand juries from determining whether to charge an officer with a crime following the death of a suspect. This is a major step forward. After grand juries in the Brown and Eric Garner cases declined to indict white police officers in Missouri and New York, respectively, it became apparent to lawmakers here that fundamental change in the judicial process was necessary. Other states should consider similar legislation.

While protests by Black Lives Matter and other groups have garnered attention in the cases of unarmed black men (and women) who are killed by officers or die in custody, systemic change is needed not only in police departments but in district attorneys’ offices as well. Not surprisingly, most prosecutors, like most police officers, are white. It’s been reported that cities like Oakland are having difficulty recruiting African American police officers. The same is true in cities like Ferguson, where a year after Brown’s death, only one additional black officer has been hired.

But it’s in prosecutors’ offices that the biggest changes are needed. Too often, district attorneys have a bias – either implicit or explicit – in favor of law enforcement and this comes to bear in an officer-involved shooting

when they will often opt to convene a grand jury to determine whether the officer should face charges. This will change in California beginning in January. The new law, Senate Bill 227, forces prosecutors to decide themselves whether to file criminal charges against police officers after fatal shootings or death from excessive force.

State Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), authored the bill after grand juries declined to indict officers in the Brown and Garner cases. “The use of the criminal grand jury process, and the refusal to indict as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our entire justice system,” she said in a statement.

As we saw in those cities last year, the grand juries’ decisions not to indict fostered mistrust of the system and the evidence authorities presented to those grand juries.

The spotlight on these deaths over the past year has revealed the shortcomings of the grand jury process to determine whether or

t

not to indict a police officer. The proceedings are secret, and in some cases, prosecutors use their discretion to push for no indictment.

That’s not the way the system should work.

Many times, officers have seconds to sum up a situation, but as recent accounts have shown, they also make mistakes. It’s frustrating that after more than a year since Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, these deaths keep reoccurring. This month in Arlington, Texas, Christian Taylor, an unarmed black college football player, was shot by Brad Miller, a white officer-in-training. News accounts quoting police experts have said that Miller did not follow proper procedure. If he had, the situation may have had a different outcome.

And yet there’s little evidence that police training has changed, or that departments are undertaking comprehensive evaluations to help them deal with citizens more effectively. You shouldn’t be pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and end up dead, and yet that’s what happened in two recent cases, that of Sandra Bland, who later died in jail, and Samuel De Bose, who was shot while in his car. (In that case, it appears that University of Cincinnati Officer Ray Tensing misrepresented his interaction with De Bose, as video contradicts his report. He’s been fired and charged with murder in the case.)

Changes in the justice system are needed both for officers and prosecutors.

By signing SB 227, Brown has sent a clear signal to Californians that the state can and will improve procedures for holding officers accountable for crimes committed in the line of duty. We don’t expect every officer-involved shooting to result in criminal charges; but when incidents occur, they will be investigated. Now, prosecutors also will be held accountable as the authority to decide to file charges in these cases will rest with them.t

Did you feel that earthquake?

How same-sex families should prepare for the next one

by Francis Lan

E

very small earthquake in California is a reminder that large natural disasters can and do happen in an instant. That’s why, when stronger, more destructive quakes occur, LGBTs and same-sex families should have a plan in place.

Every member should know how to reconnect with each other if everyone is in different locations during the workday. Your child’s school will likely follow his/her school emergency plan, but do you know what that entails and if there’s an emergency coordinator? What about your disaster preparedness kit? Do you even have one and if you do, have you updated it lately to refresh expired batteries? And, by the way, did you know that each family member needs his or her own disaster preparedness kit?

Answers to these important questions take center stage at the “Good and Ready” Oakland Disaster Preparedness booth located at the Oakland Chinatown StreetFest Saturday, August 22, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is the perfect place and ideal time to learn about disaster preparedness. It is also a reason to gather the entire family and head over to the Oakland Chinatown StreetFest. The volunteers at the booth will provide an array of life-saving information, as well as help you build a free disaster preparedness kit.

This week’s quake in Piedmont, the tremblor last year in Napa, and the Loma Prieta earthquake close to 26 years ago that devastated our area, all have one major component that reaches across all natural disasters: They do not discriminate.

Research from the Federal Emergency Management Agency found that 85 percent of Americans are not prepared for potential disasters. So for a person or a family to create the best defense from disaster, preparation is vital.

Here are a few simple steps to take to get ready before the ground starts to shake.

Courtesy All State Foundation and Good and Ready

Volunteers hand out grab and go bags at a disaster preparedness event.

• Identify unsecure furniture like bookcases and other items and mount them, or move them away from where people sit or sleep.

• Install earthquake door latches on cabinets.

• Keep a pair of hard-sole shoes near your bed so you can get safely through the house even if disaster strikes in the middle of the night.

• Create an evacuation plan that includes a safe place outside the home for the family to meet after the shaking stops.

• Prepare an emergency kit to grab and go. The kit can include first-aid supplies, water, medications and important papers, and flashlight.

• Walk through your home with a video or still camera and make an inventory of your stuff. The Allstate Digital Locker app, free to download for iPhone or Android devises, helps preserve the inventory online.

To help Americans become better prepared for disaster, the Allstate Foundation, Target, and Points of Light founded the Good and Ready program in 2012, working in partnership with http://www.Ready.gov, the American Red Cross, and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes.

The Allstate Foundation’s involvement in the

program is part of its SaferLives program, which provides important safety information and tools to help people be aware of the risks in their lives and protect themselves and their loved ones.

Since March, foundation and Points of Light helped to prepare over 15,000 families and individuals in 10 U.S. cities to start their own disaster preparedness kits.

And this Saturday, at Oakland’s Chinatown Streetfest, more than 1,500 residents and families are expected to come and assemble their own disaster preparedness kits as the Allstate Foundation and Points of Light inspire the Bay Area to think about – and act on – the importance of emergency preparedness. I will be there along with HandsOn Bay Area volunteers, and other Allstate agency owners from the East Bay and the Allstate National Catastrophe Team.

We all are gearing up for the enthusiasm that so many people have for learning about preparedness and for reducing our risks from catastrophe, and for improving our ability to recover as quickly as possible from the effects of a disaster.

The next earthquake is coming. Prepare now. Come to the Good and Ready booth and make an emergency preparedness kit and keep it supplied.

Have an emergency plan and practice it. Assist others who for whatever reason can’t do this themselves; whether they’re children or the elderly or neighbors with special needs. Through simple steps like these, by person and by family, by neighborhood and our LGBT and same-sex communities Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area wide, we all can be safer in time of disaster and recover more quickly afterward.t For more information about the Oakland Chinatown Disaster Preparedness Event, visit Good and Ready Oakland.

Francis Lan is an Oakland resident and an Allstate volunteer.

t

Letters >>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Salary information should be omitted

The Bay Area Reporter’s policy of stating executive director salaries in articles concerning nonprofits in our community needs to end. Stating these salaries, which usually have nothing to do with the context of the article, propagates the harmful thinking that nonprofits should not offer competitive compensation to their leaders.

Though not always explicitly stated, the implication of this is that our nonprofit executives are paid too much. Compensation information is publicly available on organizations’ public tax filings, should any individual want to seek it out for him or herself.

Nonprofit executives require an extraordinary number of skills to be successful (sales, marketing, strategic planning, community engagement, budgeting, management, public speaking), and with very few exceptions sacrifice the higher salaries that such skills could earn them in a for-profit career. The nonprofit sector desperately needs talent, and cannot rely solely on the goodwill of volunteers. No nonprofit leader goes into the industry to get rich, nor do they go into it for an easy 9-5. But this should not mean they are taking a “vow of poverty.”

Additionally, when nonprofits offer lower salaries to appease their supporters, the likelihood of executive director turnover is higher, which can be extremely costly for an organization.

Finally, let us not forget, we live in a city where to buy a home you need a minimum salary of $141,000. If we want to keep the most talented changemakers in our city, we have to at least allow them to stay here. Much like with teachers, nurses, firefighters, and other essential “middle class” professions, a shortage of talented nonprofit leaders will put at risk the most vulnerable members of our community.

So please, let’s stop devaluing our leaders, and start celebrating them for their achievements.

Rachel Hill The Center for Justice and Accountability San Francisco

A Marlena Christmas story

I see that Marlena is to be honored in San Francisco August 20, which compels me to tell a Marlena story. It was my last Christmas Day in the city – 2002. My husband had gone ahead to our new home in the Palm Springs area. My roommate was off to celebrate with a new man. Attempting to volunteer, I was rejected because there were so many others who were there before me, doing good works.

So there I was, wandering throughout empty streets devoid of pedestrians until I happened upon Marlena’s bar in Hayes Valley. I walked through her open door and into the real meaning of Christmas.

Marlena’s walls were decorated with her collection of Santa Claus dolls from around the world. The covered pool table had been turned into a buffet and on it was an enormous collection of food in celebration of the holiday: hors d’oeuvres, meat, vegetables and every kind of delectable.

Here in this small bar, tucked away in what was then a rather obscure area of the city, those neglected by others could feel welcome and have a healthy meal for no cost: the elderly; people who were not welcome in former homes; widows and widowers no longer sharing the occasion with loved ones; and the lonely, forgotten by friends and relatives.

That Christmas will remain a bright and beautiful memory for me every time I hear the name Marlena.

Thanks, shiny lady.

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Housing, Airbnb measures make SF fall ballot

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Francisco voters will decide the fate of 11 ballot measures this November, covering everything from development issues and regulations on short-term room rentals to how public testimony is taken at city meetings.

One of the more hotly contested proposals is Proposition F, which would restrict homeowners who rent out rooms, whether hosted or shared, to 75 days per year. They would also be required to submit quarterly reports on the number of days they live in the unit and the number of days the unit is rented.

The measure would also prohibit the listing of in-law units as shortterm rentals and allow people to sue hosting platforms. It would make it a misdemeanor for a hosting platform to unlawfully list a unit as a short-term rental.

The city controller’s office estimates it would cost the city an additional $20,000, for a total of $200,000, to administer the reporting requirements called for by the measure. And it predicts the city’s estimated hotel tax collection from room shares would drop from the budgeted $10-$15 million a year currently should the number of days people can rent out a room be capped at 75.

The measure, aimed at curtailing the listing of units on sites such as Airbnb, is supported by the group Share Better SF and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Mayor Ed Lee and the local Democratic Party are pushing for its defeat.

Another divisive issue on the ballot is Proposition I, which would impose a moratorium on housing and business development projects in the Mission District for at least 18 months. It is meant to hit pause on projects that neighborhood leaders contend will gentrify the Latino district while City Hall develops a Neighborhood Stabilization Plan for the area by January 31, 2017.

Major backers of the measure include the Committee to Save the Mission and gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who represents

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

Jane Philomen Cleland

Supervisor David Campos is a lead proponent of Proposition I, the Mission moratorium.

the area. One of the most vocal critics of Prop I is gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who has argued the moratorium will do nothing to help current Mission district residents fearful of being evicted from their homes.

Two other development-related measures placed on the ballot by supervisors have drawn opposition from the SF Taxpayer’s Association.

Proposition J would create a Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund, which would allow the city to provide grants to legacy businesses and to building owners who lease space to those businesses for terms of at least 10 years. The measure would define a legacy business as those that have operated in San Francisco for more than 20 years.

Proposition K would direct the city to use its surplus property for building affordable housing for the homeless, very low-income residents, and for those with incomes up to 120 percent of the area median income. Projects with more than 200 units would need to set aside some of the housing for households earning up to 150 percent or more of the area median income.

Proposition A, an affordable housing bond, has wide support after Lee and the Board of Supervisors’ progressive members struck a deal to increase the funding to $310 million. Its goal is to finance the construction, development, acqui-

sition, and preservation of housing affordable to low- and middleincome households with priority given to working families, veterans, seniors, and disabled people.

It would also help finance the reconstruction of the city’s dilapidated public housing and fund a middle-income rental program.

Proposition D, would grant city backing to the San Francisco Giants’ redevelopment plans for Mission Rock, the parking lot adjacent to the waterfront AT&T Park. Due to the baseball team’s agreeing to increase the set aside of affordable units to 33 percent, District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district covers the parcel, dropped her objections to the project, which has broad support.

There are two competing measures regarding CleanPowerSF, the name of the long-stalled city program to sell energy from renewable power sources. With the program now expected to launch later this year, all households in San Francisco would be placed into the CleanPowerSF program unless they opt out.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, which represents employees at PG&E, is pushing Proposition G, which would restrict how the city program defines “renewable, greenhouse-gas free electricity” offered through CleanPowerSF. Under the union’s proposal, the term would mean electricity derived exclusively from certain renewable resources located within or adjacent to the California border or electricity derived from Hetch Hetchy, the city-owned dam and reservoir in Yosemite National Park that produces hydro-electric power used to heat and light public buildings.

Environmentalists and city leaders argue Prop G is aimed at boosting the number of households that opt out of CleanPowerSF. Therefore, members of the Board of Supervisors placed the competing Proposition H on the ballot, which would supersede Prop G if it gets more votes.

It would instruct the city to use the state’s definition of “eligible renewable energy resources” when referring to terms such as “clean energy,” “green energy,” and “renewable greenhouse gas-free energy.” It would also restrict PG&E from including nuclear power See page 9 >>

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<< Commentary

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Cruel summer

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ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS

e’re coasting into the end of summer.

The days are hot and humid, and where I am sitting the smoke of distant wildfires rings the sky. Everyone is sated on the political machinations of way too many candidates for an election that is still more than a year away.

In the transgender community, we have the start of both the I Am Cait and I Am Jazz reality shows, both featuring eponymous transwomen. You’d think it’s a nice time to relax in front of the air conditioner and reflect on how great things are going here on the other side of the “transgender tipping point” that Time magazine proclaimed last year.

I feel, however, the need to drop a dose of reality.

Back in the late 1990s, I created the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a project that each fall seeks to raise awareness of anti-transgender murders. With that in mind, I need to tell you about this summer.

It was shortly after Memorial Day weekend, which many in the United States consider the start of summertime grilling and swimming, that Mercedes Williamson’s body was discovered buried in a field in Rocky Creek, Alabama. Josh Vallum had allegedly stabbed her to death on May 30. She was 17 years old.

On July 21 – just after mid-summer – the body of a black transgender woman by the name of India Clarke was found outside of the University Area community center in Tampa Bay, Florida. The 25-yearold was beaten to death.

Two days later, K.C. Haggard was found dead, stabbed to death in the street in Fresno, California. Surveillance video in the area not only recorded the crime, but other resi-

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Monroe’s death, Ashton O’Hara’s body was discovered in a field in Detroit. O’Hara was a black transgender/genderfluid person.

Now that is simply the summer months. Let’s talk for a moment about the rest of this year. If we count from January, those eight names above are added to nine more: • Papi Edwards, January 9 • Lamia Beard, January 17 • Ty Underwood, January 26 • Yazmin Vash Payne, January 31 • Taja Gabrielle DeJesus, February 1 • Penny Proud, February 10 • Bri Golec, February 13 • Kristina Grant Infiniti, also known as Kristina Gomez Reinwald, February 15 • London Chanel, May 18 Seventeen names. Sixteen if you only focus on those killed during this year given that Walker was missing since last year.

Let’s not miss this, too: as many people as that is who were murdered, these are only the known cases within the United States. If you include the rest of the world, the numbers go well past a hundred.

Oh, and one more thing about See page 10 >>

of documenting this important moment he disabled are genin history: Anthony erally not perceived Tusler and HolLynn as assertive. In fact, we D’Lil,” said Beitiks. are often depicted as “Their photographs vulnerable and more are beautiful, and todelicate members of gether they help show society. But in 1977, a the range of experigroup of disabled indiences that made up viduals broke all stereothe sit-in – from the types and took over a boredom to the exfederal building in San treme frustration, from Francisco. The Section the exhaustion to the 504 Sit-In, as it’s now overwhelming satisfacHannah Anderson, LCA Communications, San Francisco State University referred to, helped pave tion, to the pride when 1970s-era LGBT actions are included in “Patient No the way for the Amerithey left the building More,” an exhibit by San Francisco State University’s Paul cans with Disabilities victorious.”

K. Longmore Institute on Disability that celebrates the Act, which was signed Americans with Disabilities Act. The exhibit also feainto law by President tures video interviews George H.W. Bush on of people at the sit-in, July 26, 1990. which were produced disability rights movement seemed To honor and celebrate this often

by San Francisco State University like a way to forward our mission of overlooked piece of American hisstudents and are fully accessible. promoting empowering stories of tory, the Paul K. Longmore Institute While some people in the San what people with disabilities bring to on Disability at San Francisco State Francisco Bay Area may have heard the table.”

University has put together of the Section 504 Sit-In, what many The exhibit, which rean exhibit called “Patient of them may not know is that the ceived a Cal HumaniNo More,” which can be LGBT community had a role in this ties Stories Grant and viewed at the Ed Robcivil rights movement. support from the East erts Campus in Berkeley.

“The focus of the exhibit is queer Bay Community Foun“Knowing that the history, as well as disability history,” dation, features an amaz25th anniversary of the shared Beitiks. “A large number of ing collection of photos Americans with Disabilithe leaders were queer people. A that beautifully capture ties Act was approachgay men’s group called the Butterevery facet of this part ing in 2015,” said Emily fly Brigade lent their walkie-talkies of disability history.

Beitiks, associate director to the protesters so they could get “We were extremely at the Paul K. Longmore center, “an their messages out of the building. fortunate that in 1977, two photogexhibit to celebrate disability and the raphers understood the importance See page 10 >>

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dents seemingly ignoring Haggard’s cries for help. She was 66 years old.

In Dallas, Texas, on July 29, the body of Shade Schuler, a 22-yearold black transwoman, was discovered in a field off Riverside Drive.

Her body was so badly decomposed that it took an additional two weeks for the police to identify her. It’s unknown when she was killed.

And then there’s August.

The body of Elisha Walker was discovered August 14 in a poorly constructed grave in Johnson County, North Carolina. She had been reported missing November 11, 2014. The burial site was 100 miles from where Walker lived.

Amber Monroe was shot as she left a car at 6 Mile and Woodward in Detroit, Michigan on August 8. She was 20 years old, black, and known by her friends as someone who always had a smile on her face.

Late in the evening on August 11, Kandis Capri, a 35-year-old black transwoman from Phoenix, Arizona, was shot several times outside an apartment block.

Finally, a little over a week after

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Community News>>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

by Dr. Mark Reed

byremember Dr. Mark Reed LGBTs Julian Bond

by Cynthia Laird

L

GBT community leaders praised longtime civil rights leader Julian Bond, who died Saturday, August 15 in Florida after a brief illness. He was 75.

The Associated Press reported that his wife, Pamela Sue Horowitz, said Mr. Bond suffered from vascular disease.

A former chairman of the NAACP, Mr. Bond was a lifelong champion of equal rights, something that LGBT leaders pointed out over the weekend.

“Very few throughout human history have embodied the ideals of honor, dignity, courage, and friendship like Julian Bond,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. “Quite simply, this nation and this world are far better because of his life and commitment to equality for all people.

Future generations will look back on his life and legacy and see a warrior for good who helped conquer hate in the name of love. I will greatly miss my friend and my hero, Julian Bond.”

HRC said that in 2011 Mr. Bond announced his support for marriage equality in a video for the organization. He also wrote many opinion pieces in support of LGBT equality, particularly in the South, which long served as his base.

Mr. Bond was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

“From his years as a young organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to his decades in the Georgia Legislature to his leadership as the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and chairman of the NAACP, Julian Bond exemplifies commitment to change both from outside and within,” Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Executive Director Kevin Cathcart said in

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Saturday 1-3 pmMark Reed a statement. “As an LGBT advocate, Julian Bond was one of the first civil rights leaders to endorse marriage equality and, along with Coretta Scott King, to place the movement for LGBT equality alongside other campaigns for human rights.”

In the fight against HIV/AIDS, Mr. Bond “made sure it was front and center on the NAACP’s agenda,” Phill Wilson, president and CEO of the Black HIV/AIDS Institute, said in a statement.

“Julian Bond was a huge hero in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” Wilson said. “I first met him at an HIV summit of black civil rights leaders organized by a mutual friend, Mario Cooper, who died earlier this year. Julian was the only leader that instinctively knew that HIV and AIDS was a civil rights issue.”

Kate Kendell, executive director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, tweeted, “Julian Bond was a singular force for justice and our common humanity. The world mourns.”t

Scottish-born India-educated English-resident Dr. Reed was Head of School, Saint Dominic's Boys' College, Jaipur, India; Summa-Cum-Laude-Honours-Graduate, University of Cambridge, and Summa-Cum-Laude- Doctoral-HonoursGraduate, University of Southern California.

<<

Berkeley

From page 1

to the city, such as one employee inflating their time sheets, and claims her warnings to a city contract monitor were ignored.

Easy Does It receives more than $1 million from a voter-approved property tax assessment passed in 1998 to provide transportation, attendant care, and other services to Berkeley residents with disabilities or people in need while working or visiting the city.

“EDI does not comply with Berkeley municipal law, nor their own internal policies and procedures. They do not comply with the contract set forth by the city of Berkeley,” wrote Bakla, 29, who has yet to legally change her name, in an email to city officials that was shared with the Bay Area Reporter. “They do not accurately report the amount of calls they receive.

They allowed forgery of checks, they allowed employees to charge clients for services that were free.”

In the complaint filed with the state agency Bakla is identified under her birth name, Jonathan Grace, which she went by when Easy Does It hired her in August 2013.

(She chose Bakla as her new last name, she said, partly because in the Tagalog language the term is used to refer to men who dress as women or identify as women.)

Bakla alleges that the harassment she experienced “included but was not limited to calling Grace ugly, awkward, bossy, etc. Employers (sic) manager also used the n-word, photographed Grace as an oddity, pressured Grace to discuss cosmetics and beauty, unfairly scrutinized and critiqued Graces (sic) work after Grace complained ...”

The complaint with the state em-

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ployment and housing agency, which granted Bakla the right to sue, also alleges that Easy Does It management falsely claimed that Bakla had quit when she had been fired and “made untrue statements to local law enforcement that Grace had engaged in improper actions including but not limited to hacking such that law enforcement contacted Grace and threatened further action.”

April Wick, executive director of Easy Does It, told the B.A.R. she could not comment on specific employees or specific personnel matters due to privacy laws, as well as on the advice of the agency’s legal counsel due to the likelihood of legal action.

But Wick said she could discuss the agency’s “values and procedures,” noting that sexual orientation and gender identity are included in the non-discrimination policy set out in the handbook given to Easy Does It employees.

“We have a strong commitment to maintaining a diverse workforce,” said Wick, who became executive director in April 2013. “We strongly value diversity, being a grassroots organization and given our history.

We absolutely encourage and value all different types of people and want them to work for our agency.”

Upon learning about Bakla’s allegations, gay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington last week requested city officials investigate the agency. In an interview with the B.A.R. this week, Worthington said he met with interim City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley Monday morning and she agreed to move forward with an inquiry.

“I am pretty deeply concerned,” said Worthington, adding later that, See page 9 >>

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<< Sports

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Visibility’s double-edged sword

by Roger Brigham

I

n recent years, visibility has proved to be something of a doubleedged sword for gay athletes who venture out of the closet. Although it helps athletes enjoy happier, fuller lives through self-acceptance, acceptance by others, though more common now than in a previous era, is still not a given. What’s also not a given, it turns out, is that those who demand and fight for equality for themselves are not all that eager to support equality for others.

In a week that had our rugby brethren in Great Britain celebrating one of their captains coming out of the closet and Major League Baseball applauding one of its minor league prospects for having the courage to become the first active player affiliated with an MLB club to come out, we were also confronted by a high school publicly snubbing its own basketball team captain after he came out and we saw onetime defensive standout Michael Sam departing pro football just a year or so after having come out just before

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the 2014 NFL player draft, taking with him the uncertainty of whether he failed because of a lack of talent, or a lack of acceptance.

Last weekend, Keegan Hirst, a 27-year-old rugby prop for West Yorkshire’s Batley Bulldogs, told the Sunday Mirror he was gay and didn’t want to hide it any longer.

“I had a wife and kids,” the father of two said. “I’ve been a builder, doorman, worked in factories – I play rugby. I tick every macho box.

How could I be gay? I’m from Batley for goodness sake. No one is gay in Batley.”

Sounds a lot like China. Government tells us no one is gay there, either.

Hirst said he needed to come out of the closet when his wife blamed herself for their breakup.

“I couldn’t get the words out,” he said. “I felt like I was going to be sick. But I managed to say it. She didn’t ask a lot of questions, but she was supportive. She was totally blind-sided. She’d had absolutely no idea. It was incredibly tough, but for me it was a weird situation because it also felt liberating.”

Hirst said he expected he will get some abuse from opposing teams and their fans, but said he was grateful to get support from his teammates and Bulldog fans.

“Glad one of my best mates @ KeeganHirst has told world massive support for him today. Amazing lad/dad and all round great lad. #truegent,” teammate Alex Rowe wrote on Twitter.

That same day, the Milwaukee Brewers were praising 20-year-old first baseman David Denson of their Helena, Montana farm team, for telling his teammates he’s gay, calling him a “highly respected mem-

The photo that high school basketball player Dalton Maldonado said was omitted from the yearbook.

ber” of the organization and “a very courageous young man.”

Working with former MLB player Billy Bean, Denson shared his story with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them,” Denson said.

“They said, ‘You’re still our teammate. You’re still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You’re still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don’t treat you any different. We’ve got your back.’ That was a giant relief for me. I never wanted to feel like I was forcing it on them. It just happened. The outcome was amazing. It was nice to know my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality.”

Not all of the coming out stories unfold so smoothly, however. Although most folks affiliated with the National Football League expressed support for Sam after the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year came out on the eve of last year’s draft, his draft status dropped to the last round, the St. Louis Rams cut him after an impressive preseason, the Dallas Cowboys put him on their practice squad and then waived him shortly thereafter, and this year he played briefly in the Canadian Football League.

t

Within days after making history by becoming the first pro football player to appear in a game, Sam was making a retreat from the sport that had defined most of his life.

“The last 12 months have been very difficult for me, to the point where I became concerned with my mental health,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Because of this I am going to step away from the game at this time. ...

I hope to be back on the field soon.”

At the time Sam came out, news media speculated that teams might avoid him because of the “distractions” that level of acceptance would generate. Nobody wrote about the effect the “distractions” homophobic perceptions would have on Sam. While Sam could never be sure how much of his failure to connect with a team was due to those perceptions and how much was a matter of being ill suited for pro ball, the message of rejection was clearer for Kentucky high school basketball player Dalton Maldonado.

Maldonado said his teammates were supportive of him when he came out to them, but that the team was harassed by fans and opposing teams on road trips during the season. But he was stunned when his own school expressed its rejection by omitting his picture from the team tributes in the school yearbook.

“My school also didn’t approve,” he wrote on Facebook. “I would hear things that teachers would say, and many media outlets would say I ‘claimed’ this happened in spite of the pictures and text messages I had from my coaches as proof. Then I had a person with the school tell me what they had learned about the school attempting to cover up the whole story. I recently saw my senior yearbook, I flipped right to the sports basketball page only to find my senior basketball picture missing ... which devastated me.”

The senior captain had a message for closeted athletes on his page.

“To the kid who isn’t out and who is reading this ... it’s going to get better!” he wrote. “You’ll see that it’s not as scary as you think and the people who truly love you will stick by your side and that’s the people who you truly need in your life. To the parents who have a gay son or daughter, accept them. You don’t know what See page 10 >>

Obituaries >> Adrianne “AJ” Warmick September 6, 1962 – July 17, 2015

16th.

0446

Adrianne “AJ” Warmick passed away in peaceful sleep Friday afternoon, July 17, at her home in Buda, Texas.

She was surrounded by her housemates and friends, RJ Keffer and Linda Keffer. Ms. Warmick had multiple myeloma bone cancer, which went to stage 4 and she had to be on dialysis religiously near the end.

AJ was born in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Woodson High in 1980. She went to Pennsylvania State University in the fall of 1980.

She was stationed in Okinawa prefecture of Japan from 1986 to 1990 as a petty officer and a U.S. Navy radioman.

She was the bouncer at Castro dance club and bar the Phoenix, which was one of her favorite places to hang out as well. Great friends and good times there.

She worked at AT&T in the early 1990s.

She worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in the IT department, 2002, and in the IRS division in Oakland. She moved to Texas and was the IT specialist from 2011 to July 2015.

She loved her bingo and her Thai food. She was a regular player at the Coming Home Hospice Bingo and was famous for her O-69 yell that went on for minutes.

She became a member of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhists in the late 1980s. She had learned to be very accepting of everything that came her way from this amazing sect.

She was a great family person, having to go to the Midwest to take care of her mom’s estate.

She also had loving family members, including her uncle, Leonard Forbes; father, Walter Warmick, and late mother, Lorraine L. Forbes; and brother, Michael Warmick; cousins Candice Crooks, Brian Crooks, Terrence Crooks,

Fan Williams-Crooks, Keitra Crooks, Lourdes Crooks, Sandra Crooks, Roger Crooks, Terri Underwood Crooks, Trina Crooks, and Usula Crooks; and nephew Paul Joseph Fletcher.

Her friends in San Francisco are many and include Don “Ho” Tse, the late Omar Mosley, Robert Larrabee (the unholy trio), Sandy “Mama” Reinhardt, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the gang at Daddy’s (now 440), the Phoenix (now closed), Coming Home Hospice Bingo, and Black Sheets Adult Entertainment.

She also was a foster parent for cats. She had up to six at one time but made sure they were cared for before she adopted them out. She could not see any of them hurt.

She loved to go to estate sales, garage sales, yard sales, discount stores, and Goodwill stores. She has amassed a large collection of vintage jewelry that is still being discovered in her boxes in Texas. She also has a great collection of vintage clothing.

She was fond of going to the department stores the day after the big holidays and buying the gift sets, breaking them up, and saving them as individual gifts the following holiday.

She was a loving woman who cared for everyone she met. She was famous for being on the phone with you for hours while she was in the tub or just chilling after a long day. I, her dear friend Rick Le Blanc, was on the other end for many of those calls.

One thing that stands out for me is her laugh, which was infectious. My last call with her was with tears but a laugh at the end. That was a real treat.

There will be three bingo games in her honor soon: one in San Francisco, one at the Russian River, and one in San Jose.

She was cremated and friends will be scattering her ashes on Saturday, September 12 on San Francisco Bay, followed by lunch in the Castro. Afterwards, we will meet at the Edge, 4149 18th Street, San Francisco, at around 1 p.m., where everyone is invited for a hosted shot in her honor.

t <<

Community News>>

Oakland queer space

From page 1

Sok and Wolfson co-own Garden House, a 25-year-old salad and sandwich shop one block from Qulture Collective. Sok’s mother ran Garden House before her and Wolfson; the businesses on the block Sok remembers as a kid are long gone.

“There are so many cafes around now,” Sok, a queer woman of color, told the B.A.R. “They’re very similar in an unfamiliar way, in a way that’s not diverse. I don’t even recognize the people walking down the street anymore. None of them look like the people I grew up with. It’s scary for me to see this much change so rapidly.

“I’d like to influence people to understand where I’m from, that

<<

Political Notebook

From page 5

as a green energy source.

Three other ballot measures would impact bureaucratic policies at City Hall. Proposition B would amend the city’s charter to allow city employees whose spouse or partner is also a city employee to receive paid leave for up to 12 weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child. Passage of the measure would cost the city between $570,000 and $1.1 million annually, according to the city controller, depending on how many

<<

Berkeley

From page 7

“We can’t predetermine every single concern raised is totally valid. On the surface it seems pretty clear this employee certainly was made to feel very uncomfortable while transitioning.”

Asked if Berkeley required transgender sensitivity training for city contractors, Worthington said he didn’t believe it did but should.

“We need to make sure we have policies and procedures in place so no other people get treated like this,” he said.

In his email to Williams-Ridley requesting an investigation, Worthington emphasized that, “People of color and transgender people must not be subjected to the described abuse, and we must investigate the details of what happened.”

According to Worthington, Williams-Ridley said Bakla’s claims are “extremely serious and important and she is taking immediate action.”

Williams-Ridley did not respond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment.

Asked to confirm that the city will be investigating Easy Does It, city spokesman Matthai Chakko wrote in an email, “Yes, I can confirm that we are looking into the matter.”

As of Tuesday afternoon city officials had yet to notify Wick of any investigation into the agency, nor had she seen the emails Bakla had

<<

SFAF

From page 1

“will be the first city that ends HIV transmissions,” and “to have played even a minor role in that, leading this organization for five years, has been a tremendous honor.”

One of SFAF’s biggest funding sources is the city’s public health department, which for this fiscal year is providing about $9.9 million.

In an emailed statement, Health Director Barbara Garcia said, “Neil’s leadership took the SF AIDS Foundation to the next level of development, with a focus on ensuring integrated services for their clients.”

According to SFAF’s most recently available tax filings, Giuliano’s compensation was about $327,000.

470 Castro

The shift at SFAF has involved bringing testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, drug counseling, and other services together at 470 Castro.

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

things are changing but I’m not going to let absolutely everything about the city I grew up in be changed,” Sok added. “For me, that means preserving community. And if I am behind change, it’s change that means more space for that community. Qulture Collective means family, community, and a deep-seated love for Oakland.”

In just over two weeks, the Indiegogo campaign has raised about $3,600. By the fundraiser’s end on September 17, the three co-founders hope to have $50,000 raised. Perks for donating include bottomless mimosas served at Qulture Collective’s Indiegogo Braunch (brunch and lunch) fundraiser Saturday, August 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the collective.

“The brunch is an opportu-

nity for people to come and see the space, meet and talk with us, ask questions, and make suggestions around additional community needs,” said Wolfson.

Other donation perks include donor name engravings on a permanent founder’s wall in the cafe, sponsor of nonprofit of donor’s choice to utilize the Qulture Collective space as needed for one full day, and an array of event hosting options.

“We want people to know that shortly after making a donation, this will happen,” Sok said. “I can’t imagine not thriving once we’re open.”t

employees took advantage of it.

Proposition C, from the San Francisco Ethics Commission, would require anyone who spends $2,500 or more in a month to influence decisionmaking at City Hall to register as an “expenditure lobbyist” with the Ethics Commission, pay a $500 registration fee, and file monthly disclosures regarding their lobbying activities.

Proposition E would require the city to broadcast all meetings of policy bodies live on the Internet.

It would also allow for public comments to be submitted electronically in a video or audio format to be

played during meetings and allow requests that discussion of a particular agenda item begin at a specific time.

According to the city controller, it would cost $1.7 million to upgrade the city’s infrastructure to implement Prop E and would require an annual outlay of at least $750,000 in staff time to administer it going forward.

Early voting for the November 3 election begins Monday, October 5 at City Hall.

For more information about the ballot measures, visit the Election Department’s website at http:// sfgov2.org/index.aspx?page=2969.t

sent to council members. Thus, Wick said she could not directly comment on either but pledged to work with the city if it does launch an inquiry.

“They have a duty, just as I do as a steward and official of public funds, to make sure all city rules are being followed. I welcome, as the executive director, public officials doing their job,” said Wick. “If there is an investigation, I will cooperate and our agency will cooperate fully with it.”

Bakla’s attorney, Joshua Watson, told the B.A.R. this week that he intends to file a lawsuit against the agency in state court sometime in late September. He said they decided to pursue legal action after the agency refused to meet with him and resolve the matter.

“We did reach out to Easy Does It and their counsel. But for whatever reason, they declined to engage in conversations with us,” said Watson.

“At one point we wanted to see if we could repair the relationships. It would have to have included some changes in their personnel.”

Watson, a trial lawyer now with the Arnold Law Firm in Sacramento, agreed to work with Bakla pro bono due to the severity of the discrimination she alleges took place while she was employed by Easy Does It. “I will say there was certain conduct by the employer which struck me as so far beyond the realm of

being insensitive and that was stereotypical behavior that went on and on in nature with an employee who is transgender,” he said. “One of the things that jumped out at me was when the employer presented her with the dress code policy implying she made the supervisor uncomfortable by not dressing like a man. If you want to think of a poster for what not to do, that’s it.

That actually shocked me.”

Bakla told the B.A.R. that her experience at Easy Does It “has been a complete nightmare, scarred and traumatized me and done psychological damage to me ...” For a time she said she “was barely leaving my house so interviews and finding a supportive job seemed impossible.”

But after starting on hormone replacement therapy in February and attending support groups for trans women, Bakla said she regained her confidence to search for work. She saw a listing for a job on Craigslist that stressed people of color and members of the LGBT community should apply.

The San Francisco-based agency, the Women’s Donor Network, hired her in June and it’s “turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me,” said Bakla. “WDN empowers its members but also very much so its employees. I have never had a job in the Bay Area that has treated me like a decent human being.”t

The foundation announced its plans for the building, which used to house a video store and office space, in October 2012, and it had hoped to move into the space in October 2013.

SFAF now predicts the center will be ready for business this October.

The delays have some people concerned, including longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, who more than 30 years ago helped found what became SFAF. “I’m concerned about the future of the agency, and I have questions, in particular about the new building on Castro Street and when it will be operational,” Jones, who’s living with AIDS, said.

He said he has “no ax to grind” with SFAF, and he noted he held a fundraiser for the organization last year to mark his 60th birthday. The event raised more than $50,000, Jones said.

Giuliano himself acknowledged being bothered by the delay. He said his biggest disappointment involves the health center.

“I wish the center would have opened a year and a half ago,” he

said, and he and others “share the frustration” people have with it not being open yet.

“We would like to have had it open by now, but it has not impacted our delivery of services to the neighborhood by any stretch,” Giuliano said.

The main cause for delay is the center’s classification under Title 24 for California licensed health facilities.

Needed changes have included making baseboards in rooms with a water supply six inches tall instead of four inches, Giuliano said.

“There is always something as you get close to the end of a project,” he said, and when it’s a medical facility, the list of final tasks “is even longer.”

Despite the delays, Giuliano expressed optimism for 470 Castro.

“It really is going to be a place for holistic health and wellness for the community,” he said. “I realize it’s taking longer than we wanted it to take, but it’s going to be worth the wait.”

Gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the CasSee page 10 >>

To donate to Qulture Collective, visit www.indiegogo.com/ projects/qulture-collective#/story.

San Francisco Columbarium A cemetery for cremated remains in the City.

Plan ahead!

Meet Your Neighbors

You’re invited to mix and mingle with the people who will one day share your permanent San Francisco address.

This week, the SF Columbarium Wine & Cheese Open House is featuring glass-front niches Friday, July 19, 2013 2—5pm in the newer addition, RSVP Required: (415) 752-8791 starting 1at $4595.

Loraine Court—San Francisco, CA 94118

Call Mary Regan (415) 336-2419 Reserve your niche in history!

Visit us at 1 Loraine Court, in the Richmond District COA 534

Serving the LGBT Community with Pride!

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

<<

Jock Talk

From page 8

CLEANING SERVICES

they might already be facing. I want my message to be that life gets better so be who you are, embrace it! Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean that can stop you from doing anything you set your mind to.”

A clear sign of corporate acceptance comes from Nissan Motors, which said it would run its first-ever LGBT-themed print ad this week in several national outlets as part of HAULING its sponsorship of the Gay Softball World JOBS Series inOFFERED Columbus, Ohio.

LEGAL SERVICES

<<

Transmissions

From page 6

these numbers. Yes, 17 is high this year for the U.S., but 12 died in the country last year, and 15 died in 2013. These deaths have been happening at a high level for many years: the difference is our awareness of them.

When I first started examining anti-transgender violence in 1998, many cases were not covered in the media. If they were, it would often be a nameless “man in a dress” you might read about.

I’m sure that plenty of cases were treated like that of Edwards earlier this year, where a presumably transphobic investigator chose to call her

<<

Seeing in the Dark

From page 6

And one 504 protester remembered that inside the building, the queer women threw the best parties.”

MOVERS Beitiks talked about the experiences shared by LGBTs and disabled people.

NOTICES “There’s a shared experience of stigma and discrimination,” she said.

“LGBT people and disabled people alike aren’t necessarily born into a family like themselves, so finding a community is essential to allowing for a celebration of difference and pride.

The issue of bathrooms provides one specific example of overlap: people

<<

News Briefs

From page 2

Alzheimer’s Association launches LGBT support group

The Alzheimer’s Association, in conjunction with Openhouse, has announced that an LGBT support group for those who care for someone with dementia will start Wednesday, August 26. The group PET SERVICES will meet the fourth Thursday of the month from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Open-

<<

SFAF

From page 9

tro, said, “I was sad when I heard” Giuliano is leaving, “but I also completely understand. He’s had a great run here. He’s done some wonderful work for the organization and the community,” including building the new center.

The facility has “taken a few ESTATE monthsREAL longer than anticipated” to TECH said, SUPPORT open, Wiener but “these projects always take longer than you think. This is a small delay in the big scheme of things.” He added, “In a few months, no one will even remember there was a modest delay.”

Bevan Dufty, who previously held Wiener’s supervisor’s seat and now serves as director of Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement for Mayor Ed Lee, has known Giuliano since before he joined SFAF. Dufty echoed Wiener’s remarks.

“I couldn’t be prouder of Neil,” Dufty said. “He’s come in and done amazing things.”

Dufty and his partner, Corey Lambert, are donating $2,500 toward the center and he said, “I feel confident” about its future.

“This is an important facility,” Dufty said. “You really want to do it

Travis Parman, director of corporate communications for Nissan North America and the executive contact for the company’s gay-straight alliance program, said the ad, which will run in the Advocate, Curve, MetroSource, and Out, features a new Nissan parked at home plate under the message, “Come out and play.

Nissan proudly sponsors the 2015 Gay Softball World Series.” The chalk outline of the batter’s box, Parman said, represents an equal sign.

“We have been getting increasingly involved in a number of LGBT activities,” Parman said. “We have

a very engaged group of employees and allies. We chose this event because Nissan already has a lot of sponsorships in the sports arena.”

Ironically, Nissan chose one of the few major LGBT sports events that actively practices reverse discrimination. North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance bylaws restrict the number of “non-gay’ players on softball World Series teams, a clear violation of the non-discrimination laws where the series is being played.

Parman said Nissan was unaware of that restriction when it signed its sponsorship agreement.t

a male, and ignore her identity and her appearance at death.

So if we’ve always seen violence at these levels, you may ask, then how do we change things for the better?

My initial response is a simple one, born out of the frustration of someone who has, quite frankly, seen way too many people murdered due to anti-transgender violence: burn it all down and start over.

This sort of violence is not so simply cured by “educating people about transgender people,” or some such. This is violence that is born out of transphobia, sure, but homophobia is also an element. Many of those who kill us are not making a distinction between gay and transgender, and are acting out of

an anti-gay view.

For some, too, this is as much about trans as it is anti-woman.

The transgender women killed are women, and their deaths make them victims of misogyny.

Beyond that, it’s racism we’re looking at. Most of those killed were people of color, mostly black. This should not – cannot – be ignored.

We need to work together, and work on every “ism” to start to see change.

Until then, get used to many more cruel summers.t

with disabilities and transgender/genderqueer people have united in their shared agreement that the built environment can be oppressive to certain body types and their needs.”

The exhibit will be available through December. In 2016, the exhibit will go on tour.

For those of you who don’t live in the Bay Area, the entire collection can be found online at www. patientnomore.org. The website is fully accessible and showcases the exact exhibit that can be found at the Ed Roberts Campus.

Catherine Kudlick, a bisexual woman who’s director of the Paul K.

Longmore center, also invites everyone to visit the institute’s website at www.longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu.t

house’s offices at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street (Room 306).

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe the symptoms of a group of more than 100 conditions that impair memory, behavior, and thinking. Some of the conditions include Alzheimer’s, AIDS-related dementia, Lewy body, vascular, and reversible types.

The facilitator will be Ruth Macgregor, a board-certified music ther-

apist from Scotland who is working on her master’s degree at University of the Pacific, specializing in the use of music for partners with dementia. She has been involved with Openhouse on a voluntary basis for the last year.

There will likely be schedule updates for the November and December meetings due to the holidays.

For more information, contact Fairley Parson at (415) 728-0193 or fairley@openhouse-sf.org.t

right, rather than be expedient and try to rush something.”

employees” operate, he said.

He also said his leaving isn’t related to the essay.

“Oh, gosh, no. Are you kidding?

That’s silly,” he said.

Last week, Giuliano would not disclose what his next job would be during his interview with the B.A.R. He said recruiters had contacted him throughout his time at SFAF but it wasn’t until recently that he was willing to discuss possibilities.

As the foundation searches for a new CEO, Jones said it’s important for people to support it.

Among other things, he mentioned pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, of which the agency has been a strong backer. The treatment involves taking the pill Truvada once a day. The regimen has been shown to be effective at reducing HIV infection rates if used as prescribed.

“We need them to be strong,” Jones said of SFAF. “We need to be able to make the most of the advances in treatment and in PrEP, which I support, and we need to do a better job – not just the agency, but the whole community – in reaching young gay and bi men of color” to address infection rates. “It’s really important that the foundation does well, and we all need to be paying attention.”t

Yale essay

Delays at 470 Castro haven’t been the only problems SFAF has faced in recent months.

A senior essay by a recent Yale graduate indicated that many staffers feel dismissed by Giuliano and others on the foundation’s leadership team.

Asked about the paper in an interview last week, Giuliano said staff working groups have been formed and there has been “good dialogue internally about some of the issues” raised by Daniel Dangaran, the essay’s author. (Dangaran has never responded to the Bay Area Reporter’s interview requests.)

Giuliano wouldn’t give examples of areas that his agency is examining, though.

“You’re not on the staff,” he said, laughing. “It’s internal. It’s like a family. A family discussion.”

As for whether changes would be announced, Giuliano said, “These aren’t changes. These are dialogues.

These are conversations. It’s about always wanting to do better and coming in and having open communication.

It’s not like there’s a list of things that change next Wednesday. ... That’s not the way large organizations with 150

Gwen Smith isn’t tired of writing about death so much as the deaths themselves. You’ll find her on Twitter at @gwenners.

The Ed Roberts Campus is located at 3075 Adeline Street, across from the Ashby BART station, in Berkeley. For more information, visit www.edrobertscampus.org.

Belo Cipriani is a freelance journalist, the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams, and a spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind. He was voted “Best Disability Advocate” in the Bay Area in 2015 by SF Weekly.

Learn more at BeloCipriani.com.

t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036588000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACE DEUCE BAIL BONDS, 3327 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID ANTONIO RICHARDSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/22/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036558500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 50 FREMONT FARMERS MARKET ASSOCIATION, 50 FREMONT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HOLLY BRETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036587000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GEECHED OUT PRODUCTIONS, 2275 19TH AVE #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHARON BRIDGFORTH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036582100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC, 333 ONEIDA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REBECCA BRADSHAW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036594500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLUB LIBERTAD FILIAL SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA, 22 FUENTE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIA TERESA CAMINO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/24/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/24/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036597700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PARKMEALS; TRYBASA; TRIBASA; 3315 CLEMENT ST #7, SAN FRANCISO, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BASANOVA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036592500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEA STAR, 2289 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RATPACK SF LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036603000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HP ONE, 5600 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LEE EDWARD WARREN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/29/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036583000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY CITY PAWS, 468 BARTLETT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMBER PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036605500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CIRRUS CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, 365 12TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTELLIGENT REAL ESTATE 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 07/30/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036605800

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551369

In the matter of the application of: JULIE TISHKOFF, 2837 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JULIE TISHKOFF, is requesting that the name JULIE TISHKOFF, be changed to JULIE COHEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 1st of October 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036596500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UPTOWN, 200 CAPP ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BYODB LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036612800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GREEN SIGNZ & COMPANY; SIGNZ SF; 710 C ST #206, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NONPAREIL VENTURES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MP ENTERPRISE; SF REEDS; 3917 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARCUS PHILLIPS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036617200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RACHEL LARK, 4010 FULTON ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RACHEL ANTONY-LEVINE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/06/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036582000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUKAKE MOON, 1001 FRANKLIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN ENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036596700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOCALGRID, PROPERTY OPTIONS, 829 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PHILIP L. MILLENBAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/08. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/27/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036624600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EYEBROW QUEEN SALON, 4792 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SANGITA THAPA & SWASTI THAPA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/11/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036622000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALTHY KANGEN WATER, 919 GENEVA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed CUONG HUY DO & CONG CHI VU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/10/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHIEF SULLIVAN’S, 622 GREEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed NOELLE CALIXTO, RICHARD HOWARD & JUSTIN GHIGLIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY-LA EXPRESS MOVING; NIMBUS MOVING AND STORAGE; 950 BAY ST #15, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAPIEN ENTERPRISES INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 27, 2015

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036618500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF SUPER CAB, 120 WILLOW ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SF SUPER CAB CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036609000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUNIOR, 535 MISSION ST, 19TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALL JUNIOR, INC (MI). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/31/15.

AUGUST 13, 20, 27, SEPT 03, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036628100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PODESTO PROPERTIES, 431 VICENTE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GINA ENRIQUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/13/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036631200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TIPWAREE OLIVE SPA, 38 BRYANT ST. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KARAKIT TIPWAREE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036613900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABC AQUATIC, 286 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT EMILIO LAU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/04/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036629700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRONZE ORGANICS, 558 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GERALDINE L. CAMP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/14/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036628200

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551427

In the matter of the application of: YEE-TING SHIH, 463 NEVADA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YEE-TING SHIH, is requesting that the name YEE-TING SHIH, be changed to PETER SHIH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 27th of October 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

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AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036633200

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE GO WEST GROUP ENGEL AND VOELKERS, 582 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE GO WEST REAL ESTATE GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

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AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036626301

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENGEL & VOLKERS LAKE TAHOE; ENGEL & VOELKERS NEWPORT BEACH, 582 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS, INC (UTAH). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/12/15.

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036612200

Pet Grooming. Proudly Serving the LGBT Community. 4299 24th St, SF. 415-282-1393 or vipgroomingsf.com

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AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036632100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ORO, 305 GRANT AVE FL2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ORO SALON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/17/15.

26 Years Exp. (415) 794-4411 Roger Miller

AUGUST 20, 27, SEPT 03, 10, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036534300

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The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: ORO, 1299 BUSH ST #401, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by JARRETT DOWNS. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/15.

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Jest enough

Jerry's kids

Vol. 45 • No. 34 • August 20-26, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

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20

Out &About

Jones' town

17

O&A

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Edward Staudenmayer (right) and David Benoit play impresarios receiving strange messages from The Phantom of the Opera in the new touring production.

I M A G I N I N G

‘Phantom’

by Richard Dodds

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here wasn’t much doubt when this interview would be over, at least if Edward Staudenmayer was going on in the second act of Phantom of the Opera as opera house

manager Monsieur Andre. He had just finished his final scene in the first act, and was standing near the stage door “waiting for the chandelier to fall,” Staudenmayer said from Costa Mesa, where the newest Phantom tour was playing before its arrival this week at the Orpheum Theatre.

See page 21 >>

Matthew Murphy

Ringa-dingding, baby!

by Sura Wood

S

inatra is a noir sound, like saxophones, foghorns, gunfire and the quiet weeping of women in the background.” – Film historian David Thomson, in The Biographical Dictionary of Film.

Even though Frank Sinatra has long been on our collective soundtrack, it’s difficult to believe he would have turned 100 this year. He’s best remembered for his vocal style and singular phrasing, a masculine, cocky yet cool after-hours persona that men wanted to emulate and turned women on, as well as for his womanizing and a volatile, alcohol-soaked affair with Ava Gardner, in whom he met his match. But Sinatra had a simultaneous and substantive, though considerably less lauded 25-year film career in Hollywood, where he worked with some top-flight directors.

See page 16 >>

“

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in Anchors Aweigh, part of Ring-a-Ding-Ding: The Movies of Frank Sinatra at the Vogue Theater.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS } Spring and summer mean later sunsets and later hours at the Asian Art Museum. We’re open ‘til 9 PM on Thursdays and for just $5 after 5 PM, you can spend an evening in our beautiful building enjoying the galleries, special exhibitions, fun talks, lively gatherings and intimate hangs with artists. On first Thursdays, there are even cash bars, DJs and more. For details, visit www.asianart.org/thursdays

AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

$5 AFTER 5PM

<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Tunes for the dog days of August

by Roberto Friedman

W

“

hy does August try so hard/ To hoist me on my own petard?” – Ute Lemper singing Tom Waits’ “Purple Avenue” on Punishing Kiss (Decca, 2000). So what else is Out There quenching his thirsty ears with during these summer-doldrums days?

1. After the outrageous 2003 invasion of Iraq by American warmongers, Bay Area pianist Sarah Cahill bemoaned the lack of protest music in response. She commissioned 18 antiwar pieces from prominent composers, including the nine collected on A Sweeter Music (Other Minds, 2013). They include “Be Kind to One Another (Rag)” by Terry Riley, “Steppe Music” by Meredith Monk, “Peace Dances” by Frederic Rzewski, “Sonamu” by Carl Stone, “The Long Winter” by Phil Kline, “Toning” by Yoko Ono, and “drum no fife” by The Residents.

The most extraordinary composition on the album is “War Is Just a Racket” by composer/music critic Kyle Gann. This is a setting of a 1933 speech by General Smedley Butler, “who, in 1933, was approached by a bunch of plutocrats (including apparently Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of presidents) who wanted to stage a quiet coup, reducing FDR to a figurehead and setting up a government friendlier to Hitler and Mussolini,” Gann writes. “It was an attempt at a Fascist takeover.

Butler feigned interest for awhile, but he marched straight to Congress and turned the bastards in.”

From Butler’s speech, set to Gann’s music: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscleman for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” The Empire is exposed.

2. Pianist Anthony de Mare offers a new 3-CD set of 36 songs by legendary composer Stephen Sondheim arranged and reimagined by contemporary composers (ECM New Series, releases Sept. 25).

Per the press materials: “De Mare, a renowned champion of contemporary music, invited 36 composers from a wide variety of musical backgrounds – contemporary classical, jazz, pop, film and theatre – to ‘re-imagine’ a song of their choice

by Stephen Sondheim as a solo piano piece. The recording sessions for this spanned a four-year period and resulted in a remarkable compendium of new music.”

Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano features composers including William Bolcom, Nico Mulhy, Steve Reich, Jason Robert Brown, Duncan Sheik, Wynton Marsalis, Fred Hersch, Jake Heggie,

Frederic Rzewski, David Shire, Ricky Ian Gordon, Gabriel Kahane, Thomas Newman and others.

3. Singer-songwriter Janelle Kroll shared a terrific new track online, her own airy and up-tempo take on Joni Mitchell’s “Down to You (My Confidante).” It breathes new life into an old song.

4. Satirical songwriter Roy Zimmerman writes and performs funny topical ditties like “SCROTUS” (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IDMdSJJCKzk).

Here’s just one cunning verse: “Oh hail us, and heed us, and read us, and quote us, the Supreme Court Republicans of the United States: SCROTUS! “They brought a case before us, a ruling we upheld,/a private corporation can’t be legally compelled,/if it violates its deep religious credo,/ to insure an employee against her wild libido.

“For in our esteemed opinion, a woman has the right/to work for Hobby Lobby and to keep her legs shut tight./For the company, like a

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BY M ICH E ÁL K E R RIGAN WITH SCRIP T DE VE LOPM E NT BY PATRICIA BYR N E AN D MARY CON NORS DIR EC TE D BY J E FFR E Y HOFFMAN

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church, has its morality./No other church sells Elmer’s Glue, but that’s a technicality.”

5. Melody Gardot’s fourth studio album Currency of Man (Verve/ Decca) “is rooted in Melody’s observations of real-life characters on the streets of Los Angeles where Currency

t

of Man was recorded, touching upon many timely issues including racial inequality and homelessness. The cinematic black-and-white video for lead single ‘Preacherman’ is a stirring poetic tribute to the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African American boy whose 1955 murder was a catalyst for the ensuing Civil Rights Movement.” Gardot will appear on Sept. 29 in the newly renovated Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

Also cued up on OT’s trusty old Sony stereo system: Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, performed by Kronos Quartet and David Krakauer on clarinet, bass clarinet, and basset horn (Nonesuch, 1997); Final Fantasy’s Heartland (Domino, 2010); and Helene Grimaud with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Schumann Piano Concerto, Strauss Burleske (Erato, 1995).t

He enjoys being a femme

by Brian Bromberger

My Body is Yours: A Memoir by Michael V. Smith (Arsenal Pulp Press, $17.95) “ spent the first 30 years of my life trying to disappear,” writes Michael V. Smith in the first sentence of his memoir My Body is Yours, but by the end of the book readers will be glad he did not succeed in that goal.

Smith self-describes as an improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen, and occasional clown. He teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia, having authored two poetry collections and his novel Progress.

Growing up as a sissy in a small town outside Toronto amid a blue-collar family, his early story is not for the faint of heart. His parent’s early divorce and his absent, alcoholic father left their mark. His “failure as a man” is intertwined with his failed relationship with his father. Smith’s attempts to come to terms with his effeminate body and homosexuality inspire him to create a new definition of masculinity while charting his own gender evolution. He asks, “How can we know what a man is? How might understanding gender as metaphor be a tool for a deeper understanding of identity?” He’s led to accepting he is femme, which is a not-so-subtle critique of the gay subculture’s obsession with all things butch.

Smith adopts different strategies to derive new ways of conceiving gender by shattering gender norms, beginning with cross-dressing (donning skirts as boywear), then thinking he is trans, but eventually deducing he is a girly-boy who enjoys sex with other men. My Body is the story of learning to feel comfortable in one’s body, even if one is stigmatized for doing so. The memoir is also about how one creates a new self after coming to terms with a damaging past. Smith was using his father’s version of manhood to judge his own masculinity, but couldn’t live up to this ideal of being a man.

Smith is frank about how alcoholism in his teens to mid-20s was ruining his life, leading to boozeinduced amnesia during sex. He quits cold turkey at 27, minus AA. Smith is equally candid about his compulsive sexual history, especially all forms of cruising. Public

I

sex figures prominently in the lives of many gay men, but rarely do we read about it in gay autobiographies. Smith doesn’t shy away from revealing his attraction to risky sex practices and abandonment of unprotected sex. Miraculously, he escapes seroconverting to HIV. Eventually realizing his hunt for sex is using up all his free time, he accepts that he is a sex addict and seeks therapy, deciding “no one can lead such a caged life and be happy.”

Smith has a compulsive personality, but learns to channel it into less destructive areas such as his writing.

Smith’s sexual escapades are described in graphic detail, as are his queer punk/genderfuck adventures (including a futile attempt to have sex dressed in drag with a lesbian in public!), sparing no intimate detail in the belief that “we are all hiding, fearful, and full of shame. My job as a writer is to help us feel less alone in it.”

My Body then takes a radical Uturn into the prolonged ordeal of Smith’s father’s illness, a lengthy hospital stay and death. He comes to terms with the father he hardly knew, and both develop a hardwon love and respect for each other.

The juxtaposition between the two halves of the book is jarring, as we go from the joys of fisting to the horrors of having a gangrenous leg removed. It’s difficult to sympathize with Smith’s father in light of his past abuse of Smith.

Smith succeeds in creating a broader understanding of manhood as having a “cultural space to be soft and lovely, to be fearful and candid. Bravado is a costume that restricts the heart.” No one can accuse Smith of a restricted heart.t

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Books>>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Sondheim, Judy & Flo

by John F. Karr

excitement of Flo’s career, and they seem mostly interested in the clothes worn by Flo’s three wives. So while the book surpasses previous bios with its amount of domestic detail, it seems to me it scants the actual Follies (yet is generous with photographs). For a very show-bizzy bio of Flo and his

productions, read Ethan Mordden’s Ziegfeld – The Man Who Invented Show Business Business. And for the actual content of Flo’s shows – the punchlines, the songs, the content of the sketches and the staging of the spectacles – the authority remains The Ziegfeld Touch, a glamorous coffee-table showpiece of a book. Still, this book has the facts if not the frolic of the Follies.

Follies of a different sort – delusions, drugs, betrayal, and extraordinarily bad behavior – are on parade in the most fun memoir I’ve read in ages, Stevie Phillips’ Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me (St. Martin’s Press, $25.99). An agent to the stars and producer of films and B’way shows, Phillips began her career when, green as they come at 21, she became nursemaid to Judy Garland during the years of the star’s worst behavior in the 1960s. Phillips was there when Judy did those awful things, and it was Phillips who put Judy back together again. Phillips’ true tales surpass any other book of Garland-mongering in their horror, and her grasp of psychology will provoke pity. The book’s second half is hardly less fascinating, as Phillips reads her own beads on her career in Hollywood and Broadway.t

mercial Street making eye contact with the sexy and the hairy, only to consistently wind up beneath the rickety wooden slats of the Boatslip Resort on his knees in the sand greedily “looking around for number 10.”

In an interesting narrative twist, young thin houseboy Rudd pursues Moe, and while Moe initially rejects his advances, he also pauses to take in the situation, and sees much of himself in this persistent young man. He is no longer the young man in hot pursuit, he has become “an older man.” Once this reality sinks in, his heart makes room for the unexpected.

Hoffman nails gay Provincetown brilliantly: blowjobs at Dick Dock, Spiritus Pizza at 1 a.m., Boston nightlife’s notorious Hat Sisters – all of the fanciful attractions are described with arresting accuracy.

While the sexual romps are fun to read and the atmosphere cleverly detailed, there is more going on than simply sex, surf, and sunscreen. Ultimately, the novel is both a breezy story about a horny vacationing bear and a contemporary exami-

nation of the difficulties gay men encounter when addressing issues of self-acceptance, body image, aging, loneliness, and their own sexual culture as it evolves in the digitized 21st century.

Bear Bones Books is reissuing Hoffman’s Hard debut in both digital and print formats, so for readers interested in the finely-tuned evolution of a sexy gay man from his heady twinkie 20s to his bearish 40s, this two-book set will make a perfect end-of-summer distraction.t

Y

ou’ll be glad you did all those bicep curls when you pick up The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies (Oxford University Press; cloth, $127.38; paper, $50).

It’s weighty in size at 580 pages, and weighty in scholarly content.

This isn’t a coffee-table book, and it’s certainly not a fanzine. If your interest in the art of Broadway consists of wanting to know what tirade Patti-Lou Pone hurled at her audience this week, you’d best skip it. I found some of it impenetrable due to academic jargon and a few harebrained theories, some of it rigorous reading, and most of it fascinating, revealing, provocative.

I can’t represent the book’s 27 essays in a one-sentence overview.

The essays aren’t biographical, but offer a thorough overview of all the Sondheim shows and films, with a particular emphasis on the many ways Sondheim challenged the parameters of musical theatre with ceaseless innovation.

The essay “Queer Sondheim” was a highlight for me. “And One for Mahler” is subtitled “An Opera Director’s Reflections on Sondheim in the Subsidized Theatre,” and ponders the effect of Sweeney Todd in its

many opera-house incursions. It’s pretty hot stuff if you’ve got tix for the SF Opera production.

Then there are those legendary shows you can no longer get tix to, the Ziegfeld Follies. A new biography of Flo by twins Cynthia and Sara Brideson, Ziegfeld and His Follies (University Press

of Kentucky, $40) is the most encompassing book about Flo, if not the most engrossing. It’s true, I was amazed to read so much dirt on ostensibly lily-white Marilyn Miller, and was saddened at the protracted detailing of Flo’s downfall. But the authors’ only passable prose cannot convey the

Bear Week bonanza

by Jim Piechota

An Older Man by Wayne Hoffman; Bear Bones Books, $15 eaders familiar with writer Wayne Hoffman’s 2006 novel Hard will recognize his main character Moe Pearlman, who, in that debut novel, was a young, sexually talented, 20-something daddy-chaser fighting against conservative, sexnegative forces in 1990s New York.

The sequel, An Older Man, is just as engrossing and fun as the first book.

It finds Moe several decades older and wiser, having packed on a few

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extra pounds and sporting a patch of thinning gray hair. It’s summertime during Bear Week in Provincetown, so the seaside resort destination is packed full of the horny and the hirsute, including Moe, who travels by train, then by ferry with his ex-boyfriend Gene and Gene’s new boyfriend Carlos in tow, all anticipating plenty of carnal pleasures.

Hoffman is a smart writer, and he’s careful to keep Moe in character, even as he approaches middle age. The desire to find an older man to call his own still lives deep within his heart, just as it did in the

90s when he searched for love in all the wrong places. But he is now the “older man” he once longed for.

How that ties into his current status is what makes this novel hum at its core.

Still, while waiting for Mr. Right to show himself, insatiably horny Moe must get laid. Brandishing a blue “cocksucker” hanky drooping out of his back right pocket (“in case anyone was old enough to remember the hanky code”), and arming himself with bug spray, breath strips, Purel hand sanitizer, and a $20 bill, our hero strolls ComBurke Grafton, in a photo from Jim French Diaries.

Colt brand

by Ernie Alderete

J

im French is the man behind Colt Studios, and Jim French Diaries (Bruno Gmuender) is his story. French obviously admired massively muscular, hormonally charged, masculine men. It’s as if he brought the sketches of Tom of Finland to life. The cover art features a gorgeous faux cowboy wearing only his requisite white cowboy hat, brown suede chaps and boots. But what really struck me was his skin color. He’s obviously white, his eyes are blue, but he has so much Coppertone body make-up on that he looks as if his entire body has been tanned like the hide of a cow. There is no contrast between the brown tones of

his skin and the similar shade of his chaps and boots. He looks like a highly polished brown leather couch! His naturally white skin would have provided a much better contrast to his darker attire.

Some of the photos contained within are dated by today’s standards. Neff Wade looks more like a member of the cartoonish Village People than a legitimate leather daddy. Steve Kelso, on the other hand, retains his panache and carnal vibrancy as much today as when he posed for Colt decades ago.

As much as massively hairy Kelso was a fantasy of my youth, I am more impressed by images I haven’t seen before, especially an ethereal picture of Burke Grafton displaying a choice tan-line, pro-

Courtesy Bruno Gmuender

viding the natural contrast lacking in the cover photo. Grafton is more of a regular guy, not so much the macho he-man Colt built its reputation on, but his appeal is as fresh as ever. He’s posed facedown, hands and knees on a twin mattress covered in nothing but a plain crumpled white sheet and a well-used pillow. This is much more effective than posing him on a luxury hotel bed. Here we are not distracted by fancy pillowcases or bedspreads. We zero in on the man, which is the way it should be.

Jim French could well be the gay male equivalent of what Hugh Hefner was to straight male sexuality.

He created and preserved a certain male image that we may not have seen otherwise.t

<< Music

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Rickie Lee Jones’ side of the story

by Gregg Shapiro

about tradition here, we’re about the new world!

I come from Los Angeles. Everybody that I know there is a professional. There’s a kind of prostitution thing about it. They won’t play unless they’re going to get paid. Here, everybody wants to play all the time.

I’m sure there are opportunists, but it’s a whole different thing. Sure, I like the horn section and I like the swamp pop, but what has really gone in for me is a revitalization of my confidence for playing with other people.

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ickie Lee Jones’ 13th full-length studio disc The Other Side of Desire is a marvel of perseverance (it was fan-funded) and originality. Jones has long been one of the most compelling yet mysterious of singer-songwriters. Arriving at the tail-end of the 1970s, a decade in which singer-songwriters bloomed, she has moved in many unexpected directions over the course of her lengthy career. What makes The Other Side of Desire (Thirteen Tigers) distinctive is that while Jones incorporates new musical influences (a New Orleans sound), the songs are unmistakably hers, from her distinguished vocal delivery to her idiosyncratic writing style.

Gregg Shapiro: You have a long history as an artist who makes what could be described as concept albums, from the electronic Ghostyhead to the spiritual The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard to cover albums of standards from various periods: Pop Pop, It’s Like This and The Devil You Know. Would it be fair to say that The Other Side of Desire is a New Orleans concept record?

Rickie Lee Jones: I guess you could. Somebody once characterized them as little films. It’s like the clay I use is a totally different clay than I used on the last one. New Orleans is the setting of this film, but it’s more of a film about those people who are alone, lost and left behind, and their eternal courage. They don’t leave, even though the floods come and wash them away. When the waters recede, they’re still standing. That’s somehow the theme.

<<

Sinatra series

From page 13

Judging from his filmography, he was a very busy guy, but critics have not always been kind in their assessment of the Sinatra canon. Although Thomson credits Sinatra as a “pervasive influence on American acting” and with glamorizing the “fatalistic outsider,” he also writes, “The surly charm of the runt’s ugliness made him too broody, too lazy, or too bored to pick films carefully or attend to them with due seriousness. The extraordinary flair for the dramatic ballads and complete assurance [he had] with a live audience have all-too-seldom shown themselves on the screen.”

But on Friday, set those reservations aside, sidle up to the bar, and raise a glass of Jack Daniels to Ol’ Blue Eyes at the opening night of Ring-a-Ding-Ding: The Movies of Frank Sinatra, a weekend program of 11 films at the Vogue Theater, Aug.

You’ve written songs that would qualify as tearjerkers, like “Company” and “Skeletons.”

“Feet on the Ground” from Other Side of Desire would also qualify.

I could agree with that. I’m thinking of those other songs as ballads, and I guess this is a ballad, too. It’s about addiction, people losing their children to addiction, or their sister or whomever.

“New Orleans is the setting of this film, but it’s more of a film about those people who are alone, lost and left behind, and their eternal courage.”

– Rickie Lee Jones How would you describe the impact of New Orleans on your life and music?

Everywhere you go, people are making music for a dollar, and they’re going to make that music 21-23. Come to think of it, getting a little soused might put one in exactly the right frame of mind for the afterparty chaser, a screening of Ocean’s Eleven. For those of a younger vintage weaned on Steve Soderbergh’s sleek remake and sequels with their pampered stars, this 1960 movie, starring Sinatra as the charismatic Danny Ocean, is the origin story, the big daddy of them all. Ocean, an ex-con and man’s man, orchestrates a series of impossible Vegas casino heists that unfold on New Year’s Eve with the assistance of 11 of his WWII buddies, including Rat Pack “bros” Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis, Jr.; Angie Dickinson, the token gal pal, is there by virtue of her then-famous legs.

That lighthearted comic caper shares a double bill with Fred Zinnemann’s From Here to Eternity (1953), Sinatra’s first serious dramatic role and one for which he took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. In this adaptation

whether or not they get paid. When I take a walk around the block, I hear people practicing the trombone.

We don’t have that much tradition here in America, where it’s passed on from a grandparent. We’re not

Your song “Juliette” about your dog was extremely moving to me.

Juliette’s 13 years old. We’ve had her since my daughter brought her home on New Year’s Day when she was six weeks old. She’s got a big vocabulary, 300 words easy. She’s one of those pit bulls who help people who are afraid of pit bulls pet pit bulls. I have a picture of her in my guitar case. When I’m recording, she likes to lie on the microphone stand and be part of all that energy. She’s my best friend, she really is.

You’re going to be out on tour with these wonderful new songs,.

How do you put together a setlist? Is it important to get every new song in, or do you try to mix it up?

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I definitely mix it up. One of my hopes when I wrote this new collection was that I could play them all live for a long time and would stay interested in them. People want to hear certain old songs. I gave the band a really eclectic list. It depends on how we play them together what actually ends up being performed.

The only time I did one record was when I did Pirates in its entirety a couple of years ago, or on the very first tour when I had only written one record.

You have acted in some movies, including playing the mother in the gay-themed Dream Boy. What was it about that part that made you want to play it?

To be honest, I didn’t know the character. The director said, “I’d like you to play the mother,” and he gave me a synopsis of the story.

As I watched it unfolding, I realized I was in deeper water than I knew going in. I had not read the book. It was pretty moving.

We’re speaking a few days after the SCOTUS decision on samesex marriage. Have you had the opportunity to attend any samesex weddings?

No, nobody ever invites me to weddings. I’ve only been to one wedding, my cousin’s, when she was 16.

If you were invited to a same-sex wedding and you were asked to sing a song, what song would you choose?

The first thing that comes to mind is “Second Time Around.” Because by the time anybody gets married, they’ve probably been through a lot of stuff. I like the lyrics, and it’s got a sultry melody, too.t

Frank Sinatra in director John Frankenheimer’s commie-conspiracy thriller The Manchurian Candidate.

of the James Jones novel, Sinatra plays an n’er-do-well junior army officer stationed in Hawaii in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. It was rumored that in order to land the part, Sinatra called on his mob connections, much as the downon-his-luck crooner did in The Godfather, though it’s unlikely that a bloody racehorse’s head ended up between the sheets of a Hollywood producer’s bed. The urban legend would explain, however, how a relative novice was cast alongside big stars like Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. Made during a period of personal upheaval, his recording career and disastrous marriage to Gardner tanking, the film raised his stock and allowed him greater freedom to mix it up between dramas and the musicals that were a natural fit.

In the San Francisco-set Pal Joey (1957), for instance, he’s a musically-inclined cad – not a stretch – whom Rita Hayworth, a wealthy

high-society type with a big bankroll, and Kim Novak, a naive showgirl with standards, if there is such a thing, fight over. It has some terrific, memorable songs from the Rodgers & Hart Broadway show to recommend it, notably “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “The Lady is a Tramp” and “My Funny Valentine.”

Shot on location in New York City, the Arthur Freed-produced MGM musical On the Town (1949) features wunderkinds Stanley Donen and choreographer/co-director/star Gene Kelly at the helm of a story about rambunctious singing and dancing sailors – Sinatra trying to keep up, and Jules Munshin – on 24-hour shore leave. A few years later Sinatra appeared as the hustling gambler Nathan Detroit in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Guys and Dolls (1955), where his singing of Frank Loesser’s score is infinitely better than that of his co-star, Marlon Brando. All three of the above, plus Anchors Aweigh, will be screened on Saturday.

The event wraps with darker works, such as John Frankenheimer’s cold-war paranoia, commie-conspiracy thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Sinatra fully invests himself in the role of an intelligence officer and captain of a platoon who might have been brainwashed during the Korean War; after returning Stateside, he dreams of murder and begins to unravel. Based on the Richard Condon novel, the film also stars Laurence Harvey as an unwitting assassin and Angela Lansbury as the mother from hell. And, in one of his strongest, most realistic and least glamorous performances, Sinatra shed his nonchalant toughness and vanity to portray a tortured musician who descends into heroin addiction and emerges from a harrowing recovery in Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Happy 100th, Frank!t Aug. 21-23 at the Vogue Theater.

Info: cinemasf.com/vogue.

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Music>>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Enduring appeal of composer John Adams

by Philip Campbell

John Adams: Absolute Jest, Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director John Adams, conductor St. Lawrence String Quartet; Marc-Andre Hamelin and Orli Shaham (pianos); Synergy Vocals Recorded live in performances in Davies Symphony Hall, 2013 & 2015 (SFS Media) he San Francisco Symphony’s outstanding in-house audio and visual label SFS Media has recently released a Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) of two alluring works by contemporary American composer and Bay Area citizen John Adams. Coming from both ends of a remarkable career, each piece demonstrates what has made him such an enduring and celebrated presence in the imperiled world of “serious” modern music. Adams ranks as one of the most performed and praised of contemporary writers, but still manages to incite controversy amidst the acclaim.

The selections on the new disc of-

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fer a perfect example of what so enraged and excited earlier listeners, and of the mature voice of an artist who, after three decades, hasn’t lost his passion or, better yet, his endearing wit. There is a sense of occasion in the greatest of Adams’ scores, and recording them live seems the best way to convey their exuberant vitality.

The engineers at SFS Media, including Gus Skinas, who did the mastering, and producer Jack Vad, deserve special bows for making the SACD such a glittering treat. In some ways, it offers better aural clarification of what we first heard in the quirky acoustics of DSH. The trademark brilliance of the composer’s orchestrations and the wide range of the musical performers’ contributions come across with more thrilling presence and tangible drive.

MTT opens the concert as conductor with the revised edition of Absolute Jest, Adams’ often beautiful and engaging homage to Beethoven and the scherzos of his late string quartets and Ninth Symphony. An SFS commission and, like Grand Pianola Music, written with the orchestra specifically in mind, the carefully re-tooled score is much

more than a musical joke or collection of tantalizing quotes.

Adams obviously loves the old master, and we love him for treating him so well. The interchange is still a lot of fun, but there is enough gravitas to show respect, and the St. Lawrence Quartet (rightly balanced with the orchestra) lends some lovely detail in more reflective moments.

The composer himself takes the podium for Grand Pianola Music, and frankly, I might have preferred hearing what MTT could bring to the once-divisive score. Adams is a good conductor, and he has an undisputed authority over his own work, but he sometimes unnecessarily tames the eagerness of his musicians.

Not to worry; the engineers have

come to the rescue and given helpful prominence to Synergy Vocals – Micaela Haslam, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Heather Cairncross – as they sing out in a minimalist take on female backup trios. Pianists Shaham and Hamelin are also heard to full advantage as they boisterously cut loose with technique ranging from Rachmaninoff to Liberace.

(Hey, Adams said it first.)

Part 2, On the Dominant Divide, the movement that scandalized listeners at the New York premiere in 1982, seemed softened by Adams in January of this year, but some of the impact was simply diminished by the sheer size of the auditorium. The expert balancing on disc brings out all of the naughty oomph and bad-boy chutzpah that must have sounded intolerable to the snooty “new music” elite 30 years ago.

Now it simply amounts to a riproaring good time and a wonderful finale for the latest SFS Media library addition. Audience applause is included at the end. You may want to join in.t Disc available: SFSymphony.org/ store. Download mastered for iTunes: iTunes.com/SFSymphony.

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<< Music

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Extraordinary Mahler

by Tim Pfaff

F

“

or Mahler I think every note is like, ‘To be or not to be.’” The sound bite is from Andris Nelsons, rightly one of the most watched conductors of our day – are conductors actually “listened to” if they themselves don’t grunt or sing while waving the stick? – in an interview anticipating his recent Tanglewood performance of the composer’s Eighth Symphony. Mahler aficionados know what he means. The onceoverused word “existential” holds its place in the thesaurus of writers about Mahler.

Part of what brought the composer back from neglect (yes, kids, a time there was) was the intensely emotional – some would say emotionally overwrought – thread advocate conductors brought to the front of the compositional weave.

My first-ever Mahler was during the “four days of TV” surrounding the assassination of JFK. Leonard Bernstein, who knew the President personally and had finished and dedicated his own third symphony, Kaddish, to him literal minutes before he learned of the assassination, led a complete performance of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony – which would have been new to most of the TV audience, including some classical-music buffs – with

the New York Philharmonic. A few years later, Georg Solti’s torrid first recording of Mahler’s Ninth became another nail in the coffin of emotion-lite commute classical radio.

Since then some cooler heads have prevailed, and the Ninth continues to grow in stature as a composition even more than as a ritual.

Sure, some people still have to pull off onto the shoulder when the Adagio comes on the car radio, and the promise of catharsis still sells more tickets than the Ninth’s compositional complexity does, but today’s audiences demand detail as much as discharge in a live Ninth.

It’s hard to make a sensationalenough statement out of the facts that the Ninth is being performed by two different orchestras (one a youth group!) during this summer’s BBC Proms, and that there are at least five new recordings of it. The two best ones focus on the score and its place in the Mahler oeuvre while leaving listeners all the room they need to be stirred to the soles of their feet or the bottoms of their souls, or indeed their feet on the brake pedals.

Riccardo Chailly – who, incidentally, as I was writing this review, was announced as the new music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, one of classical music’s most coveted positions, beginning

with a 2016 Mahler Eighth – adds to long familiarity and a previous fine recording of the Ninth his singular grasp of the composer’s uncompleted but performable fivemovement Tenth, which no other conductor has recorded more potently or satisfyingly. So, going into the Ninth, he’s free of those sentimental notions of the Ninth as Mahler’s farewell to anything save perhaps Alma, his supreme human love and tormentor. Experience tells Chailly that the Ninth’s closing Adagio leads seamlessly into the opening Adagio of the Tenth (the last movement for which the composer completed the full orchestration), in which Mahler steps from the searching modernity of the Ninth to music

that is aptly described as a brave new world. (It’s much like the world we glimpse when Bruckner’s Ninth is performed with its completed-byothers final movement.)

Chailly’s new, live (2013) Ninth, with his own Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Accentus Music, DVD), is propulsive without feeling driven, pellucid in conception and all-encompassing in execution; visionary without having to lose its mind in the process. No other recorded Ninth in my experience so fully integrates the four movements, which can feel like four countries on the same continent that share linguistic roots but not vocabularies. Chailly offers sense and sensitivity.

Ivan Fischer’s penetrating new

live (also 2013) recording with his Budapest Festival Orchestra (Channel Classics, arguably the bestrecorded Mahler Ninth ever) challenges many of the received ideas about the music, but with such confidence and security that you follow willingly and without regret. It’s a performance of contradictions, the outer movements not quite brisk but also never tarrying, the noisier inner movements deliberate yet bold. Fischer asks you to lose your preconceptions, particularly about tempo, and then richly rewards you with sound tempo relationships.

This Ninth, too, eschews emotionalism for feeling.

It’s hard to explain how a performance this coherent and transparent – the progress of the RondoBurleske from hectic near-chaos to, dead center, the achingly spare strains of solo instruments, then back to frenzy, is as clear as I’ve ever heard it – can at the same time be so edge-of-your-seat compelling. The pinpoint concentration of the Adagio, sustained across some extreme changes of dynamics, strikes at the heart in ways more customarily sobbing sonorities only seek to.

Dryness, or the lack thereof, in the eyes of the behearer is at the discretion of each listener to these two extraordinary, and different, traversals of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.t

ambitious if flawed symphonic Storytone project, The Monsanto Years (Reprise) fires off several rounds at the toxic corporate chemical behemoth of the album’s title. Teaming up with the Promise of the Real (featuring Lukas Nelson, son of Willie), Young goes on the attack beginning with “A New Day for Love,” and

doesn’t let up all the way through “If I Didn’t Know,” with songs such as “Big Box” and “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop.” But the lyrics sound like they were written by angry high school students in the Future Farmers of America club. Even the music is repetitive and unimaginative.

That’s what makes this all such a

shame; Young’s anti-Monsanto/ anti-corporate-greed message is a necessary one. It’s too bad it wasn’t delivered in a more alluring manner.

Forty-five years after the release of Sweet Baby James, James Taylor’s voice retains the purity and persuasiveness that it did back then, on Before This World (Concord), his first album of original songs in more than a dozen years. Aside from his No Nukes activism in the late 1970s alongside ex-wife Carly Simon, Taylor wasn’t known for his political voice. Young stirred us up, Taylor calmed us down, and he continues to do so on the new album. On “Far Afghanistan,” one of Taylor’s most overt statement songs, it’s refreshing to hear him add his voice to the canon of protest music. The remaining songs are standard issue Taylor, blending lightheartedness (“Angels of Fenway”) with more personal material (“Watchin’ Over Me”). The deluxe edition includes a making-of DVD. There’s a bit of Young and Taylor in Sufjan Stevens’ work, but it’s unclear whether Young or Taylor could have created an album as emotionally raw and open as Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty). Written in the wake of his mother’s 2012 passing, most of the 11 songs on the album are very personal. “Should Have Known Better,” about childhood abandonment, is especially candid.

Stevens maintains the mourning mood without becoming maudlin on “Death with Dignity” and “Blue Bucket of Gold.”

Dylan Gardner may only be in his late teens, but he understands the value of a well-placed John & Yoko reference. In “Let’s Get Started,” the opening track on Adventures in Real Time (WB/Parlophone), he sings, “I’ll be John and you’ll be Yoko/Just sit back and watch our love grow.”

The album’s 10 songs are shiny pop numbers that belie Gardner’s age. He comes across as someone with a decent musical vocabulary.

Highlights include “I’m Nothing Without You,” “I Think I’m Falling for Something” and the ballad “The Actor.”

George Ezra was barely out of his

teens when he released his debut album Wanted on Voyage (Columbia). You’d never guess his age by listening to his deep and lived-in baritone, and that works in Ezra’s favor. It also helps that he writes mature songs such as “Budapest,” “Barcelona” and “Breakaway.” Ezra conjures Nick Cave on “Spectacular Rival,” while taking full advantage of his vocal abilities on the mournful “Did You Hear the Rain?”

Seth Glier turns up the pop effect on his fourth full-length studio album If I Could Change One Thing (MPress). Working with new producers, Glier teams up with American Idol’s Crystal Bowersox on the power-ballad title track. Other notable tracks include “Standing Still” and “Lift You Up,” which sounds like it could have been written by MPress label-head Rachael Sage.

Butch Walker is essentially the male version of Linda Perry and Sia. Singer-songwriter Walker is best known for hit songs he has written for others, including Avril Lavigne, Weezer, Fall Out Boy, the All-American Rejects, Never Shout Never, Pete Yorn and Dashboard Confessional. Produced by Ryan Adams, the intimate Afraid of Ghosts (Dangerbird) sounds more like Adams’ early insurgent country album on Bloodshot than anything Walker has written.t

In the footsteps of Neil & James

by Gregg Shapiro

N

o one could accuse Neil Young of sitting idle. With more than a dozen studio albums released in the 21st century alone, Young still has a lot to say, whether it’s his own words or someone else’s, solo or with a band. Arriving a year after the

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I am the future of the LGBT community.

I’m gay.

I’m 55. I’ve been out to my family for twenty years. I married a wonderful woman six years ago, and we adopted a baby girl from Vietnam. My family is everything to me.

That’s why I’m an avid follower of LGBT rights. Not just marriage, either. I want to make sure that I can travel safely, enjoy my retirement and have my child benefit from my life’s work.

I’m the future of the LGBT community. And I read about that future every morning on my work laptop. Because that’s where I want it to be.

The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Film>>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Derring-do at 21,000 feet

by David Lamble

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he new mountain-climbing documentary Meru is not only an irresistible adrenaline rush of a movie (opening Friday at Bay Area theatres), but for serious film buffs a very tangible lesson in the exhilarating development of a new hybrid category of film that fits comfortably in neither the old fiction nor documentary slots.

“Wow!” The first bit of language off the screen prepares you for total immersion into the daredevil world of young climbers. The filmmakers subtly collapse and expand time as they unroll the story of a hardy band of climber brothers determined to conquer one of the world’s last remaining unreachable summits, the so-called “Shark’s Fin” on India’s Mount Meru, rising 21,000 feet above the River Ganges, sacred to Hindus.

Warning: this journey, compressed into 90 minutes of screen time, covers two separate expeditions and a couple of life cycles touching several families, producing at least one fatality and one fresh widow, as well as a climber dad who overcomes survivor’s guilt to help raise his late buddy’s kids. In some ways, this little doc contains many of the heart-stopping beats of such acclaimed fiction-film fare as Ordinary People, The Great Santini and Titanic. For viewers like me, for whom climbing up on a kitch-

en ladder can induce waves of fear and vertigo, Meru is a guilty pleasure, unlocking a top-of-the-world kingdom whose denizens brave avalanches, sub-zero temperatures, and grotesque if temporary injuries to toes and fingers.

Knowing they needed an audience guide, co-directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi recruited legendary outdoor adventure author Jon Krakauer. Krakauer is best known for his 2007 nonfiction bestseller Into the Wild, the basis for Sean Penn’s account of one young man’s fatal encounter with a tragically remote slice of the Alaskan wilderness. Krakauer vividly describes the bond among Meru’s alpining trio: Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk.

“Conrad first tried Meru in 2003, and got his ass kicked. It was supertechnical climbing. This isn’t Everest, it’s a whole different kind of climbing. On Everest, you can hire Sherpas to bring all your stuff, to fix the ropes for you, to take all kinds of risks. Jimmy and Conrad have climbed Everest four or five times, Jimmy’s even skied off it. But Meru’s the anti-Everest. No one’s going to carry your stuff: if you need it, you need to carry it on your back.”

A chilling moment occurs as co-director Jimmy Chin relives his close-call encounter with a mountain avalanche, an episode that ended with his head miraculously popping up out of the snow.

Plastic fantastic

Courtesy William Farley & Janis Plotkin

Jerry Ross Barrish with some of his creations.

by David Lamble

I

f you were to pass him on the street, would you give this large, lumbering bear of a man a second look? In their intimate bio-doc Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish, director William Farley and producer Janis Plotkin create a vivid picture-essay on “left coast” San Francisco politics through their portrait of a righteous dude, a man who, although a bit old (born 1939) to be considered a 1960s radical, made damn sure that street demonstrators did not rot in the holding cells of the city’s Hall of Justice.

Folks who had business at the Hall in the 60s remember Jerry Barrish’s sign in his tiny office across Bryant Street: “Don’t Perish in Jail: Call BARRISH for Bail.”

Now well into his 70s, no longer in the bail bond business, Barrish is spending his days in a small studio using a blowtorch to shape foundobject plastic pieces into imaginative sculptures. Barrish has a position as curator at the Sanchez Art Center near his home in Pacifica.

He gives a candid assessment of the feedback he gets after folks have seen one of his pieces hanging at a small gallery. “There are some people who never like the work, there are some who like the work but don’t like the materials, and there are some who love the work but who say to me, ‘Is it art?’”

Farley and Plotkin deftly give us Jerry’s colorful backstory. He

was born to working-class parents, dad a WWII GI, mom a shipyard worker. “My mother’s family, their name was Van Stratten, that means from the street. My uncles were amateur boxers. My father was a professional boxer out of Chicago.

And my middle name, Ross, is after my godfather, [1930s champ] Barney Ross.”

While Jerry’s mom remembers his dad, an associate of the gangster Mickey Cohen, describing little Jerry as “a lover, not a fighter,” Jerry credits his family’s hardscrabble background with toughening him up. “It was great to be surrounded by tough Jews. It was a great pride to me that my father was tough.”

Finding himself in the WWII army parachute corps, Barrish lucked out by seeing service in the European rather than the Pacific theatre.

Getting into the bail bond business in the 60s just in time to free celebrity protesters like Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, Barrish acquired a reputation for being the rare liberal bail bondsman who provided assistance to protesters of hotel segregation, police brutality and the 12-year war in Vietnam.

Decades later, Barrish wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced a pair of underground films, Dan’s Motel (1982) and Shuttlecock (1989). The Barrish style, with its emphasis on non-professional actors playing off-the-cuff scenes about the seamier sides of domestic life, bears resemblance to the work

Courtesy of Music Box Films

Conrad Anker climbing in directors Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi’s Meru.

Fans of the Winter Olympics may notice an ironic convergence between the dangers and rewards facing the men scaling Meru and similar dangers confronting Olympic-caliber snowboarders like the medal-winning, charismatic redhead Shaun White and his one-time rival Kevin Pearce.

At the height of his duel in the snow with White, Pearce suffered a near-fatal crash that resulted in traumatic brain injuries, as de-

picted in the 2012 doc Crash Reel, similar to ones suffered by one of Meru’s climbers, cinematographer Renan Ozturk.

All of this thrilling footage illustrates not only how Meru copped the U.S. Audience Documentary Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but also why this terrific movie is best viewed on a 45-foot screen.

Ozturk’s miraculous recovery takes on beyond-heroic resonance when he insists on accompanying his bud-

dies for a second challenge to the mountain that nearly did him in.

As Krakauer notes, “Meru is not just hard, it’s hard in this really complicated way: you can’t just be a good ice-climber, you can’t just be good at altitude, you can’t just be a good rock-climber. You’ve got to be able to ice-climb at 20,000 feet. That feat, to a certain kind of mindset, [presents] an irresistible appeal.”

Here’s a resounding “Wow!” for Meru.t

of pioneering independent actordirector John Cassavetes. Although he had a brief stint working alongside German iconoclast director Wim Wenders, by the end of the 80s, Barrish’s filmmaking time had expired. The film would benefit from a bit more context as to why Barrish’s underground work failed to find the right champions.

Barrish’s third act finds him soldering plastic scraps into appealing human and animal figures. He has a great fondness for fashioning plastic dog sculptures. Another witty example of Barrish’s plastic art is a small boxing ring in which a pugilist holds his arms aloft in a gesture of victory as he stands astride a fallen opponent, KO’d on his back.

In the end, Plastic Man’s message may be about the importance of personal reinvention, that an American’s working life is never over until he says it is. You may be surprised at just how engaging Jerry Barrish’s hundreds of plastic sculptures can be – to say nothing of the man himself, a true mensch. (Opens Friday at the Roxie.)t

<< Out&About

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • August 20-26, 2015

Oh! zones

Sat 22

Encore performances of the summer theatre company’s staging of the Broadway musical adaptation of the Disney film and P.L. Travers’ book. $16-$26. Fri & Sat 7pm. Sat & Sun 1pm. Thru Aug. 30. Codding Theatre, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.

(707) 588-3400. www.spreckelsonline.com

by Jim Provenzano

D

itties become operas, poems become epics.

Outer space leads to inner peace, or camp hilarity.

Everything is subjective, and here are some subjects.

For more arts events, visit us on the Interwebs at www. ebar.com. For nightlifery, see On the Tab listings.

O&A Thu 20 Barbary Coast Revue @ Balancoire

The third season of the popular cabaret show returns, with Danny Kennedy as Mark Twain, a cast of diverse performers, and guest performer Connie Champagne.

Thursdays weekly thru September. $14-$64. 8pm. 2565 Mission St. at 22nd. www.BarbaryCoastRevue.com

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. Extended thru Sept. 12. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Born to Read @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Celebrating the Lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, and Born to Run’s 40th anniversary, with songs, talks with music critic Ben Fong-Torres, Beth Lisick, SF poet laureate Alejandro Murguia, Daphne Gottleib and others. $10-$15. 6:30-9pm. 736 Mission St. www.thecjm.org

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s sequel to the hilarious hit comedy Shit & Champagne, with a women’s prisonthemed parody and suspense-filled action-comedy show. $25-$200 (fourperson VIP table). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Sept 12. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Stand ups Karinda Dobbins, Nathan Habib, Bernadette Luckett, Jeremy Talamantes, and Lisa Geduldig perform at the monthly series. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Drag King Contest @ Oasis 20th anniversary show and contest of the Bay Area’s best male impersonation acts, with cohosts Sister Roma and Fudgie Frottage, guest judges Leigh Crow, Steven LeMay, Nancy French, performers The Momma’s Boyz, DeeDee Luxe, Madd Dogg, Rebel Kings, Kit Tapata, and a bevy of competing talents. Proceeds benefit Pets Are Wonderful Support. $20-$35. 10pm show. 298 11th St. www.sfdragkingcontest.com www.sfoasis.com

Eurydice @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Sarah Ruhl’s update on the Orpheus myth, from the viewpoint of his love, who is lost in the Underworld. $20$30. Wed-Sun. Thru Sept. 27. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Jackie Ryan @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The amazing jazz vocalist performs her cabaret tribute to Michel Legrand, with the Larry Dunlap Trio. $25-$40 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.jackieryanmusic.com www.ticketweb.com

Mary Poppins @ Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park

The Mystery of Irma Vep @ California Shakespeare Theatre, Orinda Black Sci-Fi, part of Radical Presence @ YBCA

Marlena Love Roast @ LGBT Center Openhouse’s tribute to Absolute Empress XXV Marlena, owner of the legendary Marlena’s bar, with a ‘Love Roast’ at the second Annual José Sarria Community Celebration. $20.

6pm-8pm. 1800 Market St. www.openhouse-sf.org

Mya Byrne, Shelley Miller @ Modern Times Bookstore Poet, songwriter and trans woman and hir colleague perform. 7pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Aug. 20: Noir double feature Guns, Girls and Gangsters ( 6pm, 9:15) and Inside Detroit (7:30). Aug 21: The Goonies (7pm) and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (9:10). Aug. 22: 2001: A Space Odyssey (2:30, 8pm) and Capricorn One (5:30). Aug. 23: 2001: A Space Odyssey (2:30, 7pm) and Zardoz (5:30). Aug. 26: Mad Max: Fury Road (7pm, 9:15) Aug. 27: Killer’s Kiss (6:20), Witness to Murder (7:45) and Dementia (9:30). $11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Project 24 San Francisco @ Dryansky Gallery Opening reception for a group exhibit of unusual local images set at different times in a day by 24 local photographers. 7pm. Thru Sept. 10.

2120 Union St. at Webster. 932-9302. www.thedryansky.com

Charles Ludlam’s comic satire of gothic mysteries, with werewolves, ghosts, ex-wives and a mansion full of fun, gets an East Bay production. $15$84. Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm.

Sun 4pm. Thru Sept. 6. 100 California Shakespeare Theatre, Orinda. (510) 548-9666. www.calshakes.org

Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club

Snakes @ Destiny Arts Center, Oakland American Conservatory Theatre student production of a collaboritve theatre work, with Oakland’s Destiny Arts Center, about race, bigotry and the American Dream. $20. 7pm. Aug 20-22 at 7pm & Aug 23 3pm. 970 Grace Ave., Oakland. www.act-sf.org

Fri 21 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.).

421-4222. beachblanketbabylon.com

Club Inferno @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious rockin’ production of Kelly Kittell and Peter Fogel’s glam rock musical spin on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, where the road to fame can be hell, literally! $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Sept.

12. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Outspoken: Portraits of LGBTQ Luminaries, an exhibit of photographs

by Roger Erickson. Ground floor, North Light Court. Thru Sept. 11. 1 Carlton B. Goodlet Place. www.sfgov.org

SF Hiking Club @ China Camp

Queer Ancestors Project @ LGBT Center

Join GLBT hikers for a 12-mile hike at China Camp State Park in Marin County, with lunch at China Camp and Beach. Bring water, lunch, hat, sunscreen, layers, sturdy hiking shoes, swimsuit and towel if you want to swim at the beach by the bay. Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 740-9888. sfhiking.com

28 Chinese @ Asian Art Museum

Sat 22

Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley

Jinho Ferreira returns with his autobiographical solo show about being a hip hop star, law encorcement officer and Oakland resident. $20$55. Saturdays, 5pm. Thru Sept. 26.

2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Erika Sanada, Henry Schreiber @ Modern Eden Gallery Exhibit of the Tokyo-based artist’s unusual canine ceramic sculptures, and Here, Hold This, Schreiber’s cute yet strange groundhog portraits. Thru Sept. 5. 801 Greenwich Ave. www.moderneden.com

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

ASL Epic @ Sweet Inspirations Café Open-mic show for deaf and hearing performers (story, rap, comedy, song), with sign-interpretation when available. 4pm-7pm. 2239 Market St. www.Facebook.com/ASLEpic

Leann Rimes @ Davies Symphony Hall The hit country singer-songwriter performs an intimate acoustic concert with two guitarists. $25-$105.

7:30pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.sfsymphony.org

Mon 24 30 Years of Collecting Art That Tells Our Stories @ GLBT History Museum

Sun 23 Leeann Rimes @ Davies Symphony Hall

Karen Ripley @ The Marsh Berkeley The veteran lesbian comic returns with her solo show, Oh No, There’s Men on the Land, her stories of self-discovery and life in 1970s Berkeley. $15-$100.

Saturdays, 5pm. 2120 Allston way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Live in the Castro @ Jane Warner Plaza Outdoor free concerts and shows, weekends noon. Aug. 22, jazz band The Klipptones and a swing dance lesson! 12pm. Aug. 23: Caribbean All Stars band, 1pm. Castro St. at Market. www.castrocbd.org

Radical Presence @ YBCA Subtitled Black Performance in Contemporary Art, this new exhibit explores identity in a variety of media.

Thru Oct. 11. Also, Maggot Brains: Black Sci-Fi, Punk & Experimental Film, screenings thru Aug. 29. Also, the multimedia installation Won Ju Lim: Raycraft is Dead, thru Dec. 6. Also, Earth Machines : Exploring the environmental impact of our high-tech world, thru Dec. 6. $5-$12.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Exhibition of prints of iconic LGBTQ people, made by queer artists aged 18 to 26 (Corey Brown, Daveron, Roxana Dhada, Hanna Kelly, Holly McHugh, Onyinye Alheri, Roxy Schoenfeld, Sasha Solomonov, madhvi trivedipathak, and Weyam) and artistic director Katie Gilmartin.

Thru Sept. 23. 1800 Market St. katiegilmartin.com/queer-ancestors www.sfcenter.org

Sun 23 Exhibit of works by contemporary Chinese artists, including Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huan. Thru Aug. 16. Also, Exquisite Nature: 20 Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings, thru Nov. 1, Woven Luxuries: Indian, Persian and Turkish Textiles, thru Nov 1. Free (members, kids 12 and under)-$15. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. asianart.org

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh Berkeley

OUTspoken @ City Hall

San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s annual summer outdoor performances begin with the classic tragic romance.

Fri-Sun 7:30pm. Various venues thru Sept. www.sfshakes.org

Do the Hustle: Stories of Keeping It Together by Any Means Necessary, with Grant Faulkner, Dayvid Figler, Virgie Tovar, Alia Volz, Michael Wharton and Dana Merwin. $15-$20.

8pm. 2424 Mariposa Ave. www.porchlightsf.com

Salome, Dance for Me @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Trixxie Carr’s beguiling solo musical show loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s play about the dancing biblical temptress. $20-$25. $90 includes private front row table and bottle of wine. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 29. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Romeo and Juliet @ Various Venues

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New exhibit of collected drawings, paintings and sculptures from three decades of queer donations, guestcurated by Elisabeth Cornu. Free (members)-$5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Amy Winehouse @ Contemporary Jewish Museum A Family Portrait features images of and ephemera from the estate of the deceased soul singer; Thru Nov. 1. Also, other exhibits. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. thecjm.org

Hysteria @ Oasis Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. sfoasis.com

Jon Bailey @ Commonwealth Club The former artistic director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles discusses how gay men’s choruses deal with the AIDS crisis. Free/$20. 5:30pm. 555 Post St. www.commonwealthclub.org

Tue 25 George Cole @ Yoshi’s Oakland Guitarist-singer peforms original songs and the hits of Nat King Cole. $19. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero, Oakland. www.georgecole.net www.yoshis.com

Thu 20 Sean Connery in the camp cult Zardoz. See New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre

Wed 26 The Country House @ Theatreworks Silicon Valley West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Donald Margulies’ dramedy about a revered stage and film actress who summons her family for a summer stock gathering. $19$80. Tue-Wed 7:30pm. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Wed & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Sept.

20. 500 Castro St., Mountain View. www.TheatreWorks.org

Russ Lorenson @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented vocalist performs his Tony Bennett tribute concert, with guest singer Jennifer Haber. $20-$35 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Exdysis: The Molting of a Cucarachica @ Galeria de la Raza Xandra Ibarra (aka Chica Boom)’s exhibit of costumes, photos, fake products, and other items as a form of parodic character disintegration.

Wed-Sat 12pm-6pm (Sun til 5pm).

Thru Sept. 6. 2857 24th St. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Thu 27 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. Check for times on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/10Percent/66629477326 www.ComcastHometown.com

Hardcore Cronenberg @ YBCA Three months of weekly screenings of David Cronenberg’s artful unusual films. Thursdays 7:30pm, repeats Sundays 2pm. Thru Sept. 5. Free (members)-$8. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Headphone @ Oasis Jasten King’s LA-based variety show includes dozens of male burlesque strippers, vaudeville and music acts. $5. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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Theatre>>

August 20-26, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Alistair Muir

The cast of The Phantom of the Opera opens the second act with “Masquerade” in a reimagined touring production now at the Orpheum Theatre.

<<

Phantom

From page 13

The musical’s trademark chandelier crash has been spiffed up for this tour, part of a major conceptual overhaul for a show that is still running on Broadway in its original form after 27 years. “There are more bells and whistles, shooting fireworks and glass,” he said of the deadly chandelier drop that the title character engineers to show his power. “If you’re sitting under it you get scared because you think it’s going to crash into you. The old one fell slowly, dreamlike, and this one falls a lot faster.”

It’s emblematic of the changes that director Laurence Connor has brought to the show first staged by Harold Prince. “The original is kind of surreal, directed almost like a silent movie, and this one is much more realistic,” Staudenmayer said.

“If Phantom wasn’t still playing on Broadway, we’d be the Broadway revival.”

That’s the case with Les Miserables, which Connor also revamped for a tour that played SF in 2012, and has since returned the show to Broadway.

“I think they felt it was time to mess with success because they didn’t want to send out another show of that production anymore,” the actor said.

“People think they were trying to scale it down, but they haven’t done that. It still takes 20 trucks to move us, and they have to reinforce stages

Courtesy Edward Staudenmayer

Edward Staudenmayer is on the road with his dog Mac in The Phantom of the Opera.

because our set is so heavy.”

Staudenmayer has been with the tour since it began in November 2013, longer than he usually stays with a show.

“I’ve been enjoying it so much, and it’s very nice to be in a hit,” he said. “I’ve been in some turkeys, if you look at my resume.” The fowl column would be topped by Wonderland, a 2011 Frank Wildhorn musical in which Staudenmayer played the White Rabbit in a contemporary take on Alice in Wonderland. “You finally get to Broadway, get a leading role, and then the show runs for a month,” Staudenmayer sighed.

years, but have only dated for five or six in real time.”

Hewitt starred in The Rocky Horror Show and Dracula, and is back on Broadway in Amazing Grace. But he’s also often on the road, and Bay Area audiences have seen him in touring productions of Urinetown and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. “But we make sure we don’t go more than six weeks without seeing each other,” Staudenmayer said. “Making it work is easier with him than somebody who isn’t in the business.”

The two met at a wedding on Staudenmayer’s very first day in New York. “They sat us at the same table, and I thought he was cute, and we danced together,” Staudenmayer said. Their paths crossed again at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, where Staudenmayer was appearing in Gigi and Hewitt was au-

ditioning for Jane Eyre. “He got the lead, and I begged them to please let me audition, and I got a small part.

That’s where we fell in love.”

Like Hewitt, Staudenmayer went through internal discussions about how openly gay he could be without hurting his career. “It seems like things are changing so much for gay people, but you still hear people in the press, big producers, saying things like, So-and-so is the only straight leading man we have in New York. There’s a prejudice that gay actors can’t play leading romantic roles against women.

It’s frustrating. But have we stayed in the closet? No. And are we very open? Yes.” t The Phantom of the Opera will run through Oct. 4 at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets are $50-$220. Call (888) 746-1799 or go to shnsf.com.

Not that the graduate of Palm Springs High School, class of 1988, has ever been out of work for long.

National tours that have previously brought him to the Bay Area include Beauty and the Beast, and most recently, Anything Goes, in which he played stuffy nobleman Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. “Director Kathleen Turner gave me such great advice in that,” Staudenmayer said. “She said, ‘Don’t show your panties till the end.’ Hold back. Because the character was so meek and sweet and nice, and when I had my huge explosion number, the payoff was so much better.”

Staudenmayer’s showcase scene in Phantom comes near the end of the first act, in the musical number “Notes/Prima Donna,” in which his character and other opera staffers discuss the various Phantom-caused debacles that have nonetheless sold tickets. “I love doing it because I feel like I’m in a Rossini opera,” he said.

“We have eight people fighting with each other, so it’s not just taking it out and doing your part. It’s juicy scene work.”

But part of Staudenmayer is itching to get back to New York “because when you’re out on tour it seems they sort of forget you,” he said of Broadway casting agents.

“I think I’ve always been a bit of a character man, and now I’m at the right age where I’m castable.”

And then there is Tom Hewitt, the actor and Staudenmayer’s partner of 18 years. “He does want me to leave the tour and come home,” he said. “He misses me and the dog, so we’ll see what happens. We laugh that we’ve been together for 18

Red alert

by Ernie Alderete

I

like the concept of Thomas Knights’ Red Hot 100 (Bruno Gmuender), if not the execution. Spotlight the hottest 100 ginger guys you can find. But most of the pictures are headshots, or from the torso on up, not full body compositions. The men are presented almost in resume format. But we’re not looking to hire an employee, we’re looking to get hard and get off.

My favorites are Julen and Iosu Martinez, identical ginger twin twinks from Spain, who credit their shared identity to their twin birth and flaming red hair. Very refreshing that they acknowledge the obvious. Many twins desperately try to find ways to differentiate themselves from each other. This pair embraces their charming sameness.

Eduardo Alabarse from Brazil is another standout carrot top with more muscles than the Spanish twins combined! Eduardo admits that when he was a kid he wanted to be darker like the rest of his com-

rades, but has grown to appreciate his pigment-based uniqueness.

Christopher Medeiros doesn’t identify his nationality, he might be Portuguese or Brazilian. Whatever his national origins, I love his curly red hair which he says he once tried to bleach blond by soaking it with lemon juice white lying on the

beach all day. This resulted in a massive sunburn, but no change in hair color.

Ben Hawley admits he used to dye his striking red hair light brown. “My hair color used to torment me, especially in school.”

Mikey Robinson: “Growing up gay and ginger just made me a big orange target.”

Most of the ginger guys are in their mid-20s through their early- to mid-30s. Some have trimmed body hair, some have more natural body-hair patterns. Almost all are clean-cut, white bread.

Only one with long dreadlocks is cast against type.

Many have blue eyes, some have brown eyes, all of them have a good sprinkling of freckles.

99 white guys, and one Afro ginger, Vernon Francois, who tells us one trick pulled his pants down ready to suck his dick, but changed his mind in disgust when he saw his flaming red bush. “I am a black man with red hair, which is even more of a rarity.”

The sassy cover photo is good, but the contents only get better.t

Steven Underhill

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PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 34 • August 20-26, 2015

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

August 20-27, 2015

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by Jim Provenzano

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ew Orleans is without compare as a travel destination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and even straight people. The city combines world class bawdiness, drinking, exquisite fine and casual dining, art, a music scene featuring jazz, blues, gospel, rock and soul, and Mardi Gras, North America’s most celebrated street festival.

See page 24 >>

Verdant planters on a French Quarter balcony in New Orleans.

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

24 • Bay Area Reporter • August 20-26, 2015

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New Orleans Tourism

Queens on the balcony at Southern Decadence.

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New Orleans

From page 23

For tourists (if not for many former residents), New Orleans has more than recovered from the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Many historic parts of the city and districts with the most concentrated LGBT life suffered little to no flood damage and today are more vibrant than before Katrina.

If you want to see Katrina damage, and you should, you may have to travel to specific neighborhoods to find it. As with almost every other aspect of New Orleans culture or history, “There’s a tour for that.”

When to Go

“Uptown” or “above Canal” means upriver from Canal Street and includes the Garden District, the Central Business District, Audubon Park and Zoo, and the stately St. Charles Avenue.

“Towards the river,” “river side,” “towards the lake” and “lake side” are constantly used in New Orleans directions. “Above” means up river and “below” means downriver.

holidays, with thousands of people in mostly masked costumes. From huge fundraisers to private parties, a good spooky time can be had just about anywhere.

This year, it is October 29 to November 1. Halloween events and bar nights often include costumes, and Halloween weekend is the time for the city’s most popular circuit parties. www.halloweenneworleans.com

French Quarter

The majority of LGBT nightlife is in the French Quarter, below St. Louis Street, and the epicenter is the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann, the location of four large popular nightclubs.

If you’re not familiar with the unusual law allowing public drinking, just ask for a ‘go cup’ at your local bar, and you can sip your cocktail between visits.

And good news for health-conscious bar-hoppers; the city finally passed an ordinance against indoor smoking, particularly in bars and nightclubs.

So, which bars might a visitor prefer? Bars are a main feature of nightlife in New Orleans, of course.

For drag shows, visit Big Daddy’s for the Zoo Revue on Saturday nights (2513 Royal Street).

For those who prefer their gogo guys with easy access, The Corner Pocket (940 St. Louis St. www.CornerPocket. net) has a longstanding tradition of showcasing lithe BARtab young men shaking their (usually trade) bonbons.

Stop by on a weekend night for a cavalcade of coyness at the strip contest.

For more interactive cruising, The New Orleans Eagle (941 Elysian Fields) offers a cruisy downstairs and upstairs sex stalls for some direct interaction. It should be noted that not only is the upstairs very dark. It’s also up a narrow winding flight of stairs.

For more bar listings, visit www.gayneworleans.com/bars.htm The Bourbon Pub and Parade is the more college dance club/video

Any time is a good time to visit New Orleans, but LGBT tourism is heaviest for three holidays: Mardi Gras, Southern Decadence, and Halloween.

To purists, Mardi Gras is one day, always a Tuesday. The date changes each year, but is always between February 3 to March 9. Mardi Gras 2016 will be Feb. 9. The two weekends prior are part of what New Orleanians call Carnival and are very active precursors to the main event.

(Traditionally, the holiday comes to a screeching halt at midnight, and anyone out in costume or wearing beads on Wednesday is subject to gentle scorn from the locals.)

For a fun history of the history of Gay Mardis Gras, visit www.gaymardigras.com/history.htm Every gay club in New The Round Up and Pheonix signs Orleans is very busy during Carnival, and special events, parties, costume contests, and street Cruising the Crescent parades abound. Celebrating CarniHistoric New Orleans was built val involves costumes. While visitors at a pronounced crescent along the are welcomed to just watch, to truly east bank of the Mississippi River, participate and be treated like a loand a popular local nickname is cal by the locals, bring one (or a few) Crescent City. Because major streets great costumes: the more risqué the follow the crescent shape of the city, better.

North, South, East and West direcSouthern Decadence, the city’s tions are not helpful and not used. huge gay festival of debauchery, Major orientating points are the is Labor Day weekend, starting river, the lake (Lake Pontchatrain), from the week’s Wednesday. The and Canal Street. bacchanal known for lots of drinking, pants-dropping for beads, sex parties, and an extra serving of gogo guys in the bars, has tamed down in some ways. But a naughty time can still be had. This year’s Southern Decadence is Sept. 2-5. www.southerndecadence.net For more formal –and clothed– queer fun, the next annual Gay Easter Parade takes place March 27, 2016. Some 30,000 spectators enjoyed the parade this year. The related fundraisers feature dapper dykes and festive formal wear, plus hundreds of decorated bonnets worn by folks of any gender, and raises fund for a local food bank. www.gayeasterparade.com Halloween in New Orleans (last Serving shots at Good Friends Bar. week of October, of course) is possibly one of the most colorful of

Top: New Orleans Tourism, Bottom: courtesy Ambush

Top: Packed crowds at a recent Halloween weekend.

Bottom: Superheroes at a New Orleans Halloween.

bar, Oz is the more cruisy dance club. The much newer Napolean’s Itch has a cool, crisp feel, while Lucky Pierre’s is the city’s newest and largest drag venue.

Many, many other gay bars and eateries are located in “the loop,” generally within two to four blocks of that corner. Visit www.neworleansfruitloop.com The entire Quarter is 13 blocks along the river by six blocks going towards the lake, and is walkable and considered reasonably safe. It includes several of the city’s deservedly most famous restaurants (Arnaud’s, Galatoire’s and Antoine’s), newer standouts (GW Fins), and good casual dining (Coop’s Place, Clover Grill, Port’O Call).

With its density of gay night life, restaurants, shopping, and historic and romantic points of interest, many visitors book a room in the Quarter and never leave it. (www. frenchquarter.com) Not a terrible plan, though there is much more of New Orleans and surrounding areas worth seeing.

Marigny

The Marigny is just below the Quarter along the river, with gay life/nightlife spread throughout.

Frenchman St. is steps away from the Quarter and home to Faubourg Marigny Books, the oldest gayowned bookstore in the South. Stop in and say hello to Otis, the owner and source of much information, and buy something.

Frenchmen Street is popular with locals for its music venues as well as Aldopho’s, a local favorite restau-

rant serving New Orleans-Italian food. A few blocks further, Elysian Fields Ave. (where the fictional Stanley Kowalski lived), boasts The Phoenix, a large 2-floor leather/ cruise/backroom bar and leather/ sex shop.

Across the Street is Mag’s 940, a popular club with locals. Around the corner, on either side of St. Claude Ave., are a number of more recent venues that host dance clubs, drag events and burlesque shows (some especially popular with the 21-35 crowd).

The LGBT-identified AllWays Lounge and Kajun’s Pub are on the river side of St. Claude Ave., and the more mixed Siberia and Saturn bar are outside the Marigny on the formerly no-go lake side of St. Claude Ave.

Bywater

The Bywater is the large neighborhood below the Marigny near the river and has many, many LGBT residents. The Country Club, on Louisa Street, was formerly a favorite for its clothing-optional large pool and garden/hottub/bar area.

Swimwear is now required and the pool crowd far more straight than in years past. It now boasts a restaurant and much-admired brunch menu.

634 Louisa St. (504) 945-0742. www.thecountryclubneworleans.com Bywater dining and nightlife options have substantially expanded since Katrina, with Bacchanal, Elizabeth’s, Maurepaux, and Bywater Barbeque among the favorite options.

See page 25 >>

courtesy Corner Pocket

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Gogo trade at The Corner Pocket.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

August 20-26, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 25

New Orleans

arts. The most recent Hex Fest was August 21-23. www.hexfest.com

From page 24

City & Shopping

Restin’

To start with the most royal accommodations in the center of town, the Hotel Monteleone is among the most elegant places for a stay. Prices range from $300-$500 a night; a bit steep for some budgets, but there is a pool, elegant conference rooms, and relatively soundproof windows, if you’re facing the bar side of a street.

Hotels and guest houses popular with gay folk and near –but not too near– bar districts include Burgundy Bed & Breakfast at 2513 Burgundy St. www.theburgundy.com Another stylish hotel, with modern accommodations and old style charm, is the Chateau Lemoyne (301 Dauphine St. www.hi-chateau. com). With enough distance from the partying crowds, you can get a good night’s sleep, and enjoy the pool.

The gay-owned Antebellum Guesthouse provides authentic décor and surroundings, a luxurious pool and gardens, and a sumptuous New Orleans-style breakfast.

(1333 Esplanade Ave. www.antebellumguesthouse.com ) The New Orleans Courtyard Hotel, a beautiful 19th-century converted home, also includes a pool (these pools come in handy in the hot and steamy summer months) and is just three blocks from Bourbon Street at 1101 N. Rampart Street.

Simpler accommodations in different areas can be found on www. tripping.com or other Air B&B services. Most of the cheaper apartment rentals may not look like much, but if they’re in a quiet neighborhood, it’ll be a blessing to escape the late night partying crowds in the Quarter or the Marigny’s club district.

While summer months are quite hot and humid, many indoor spaces in New Orleans are air-conditioned (sometimes too much), and hotels do offer cheaper rates in the summer and in between the bigger party seasons.

Eatin’

Be prepared to break any and all diets when you visit New Orleans.

The food is just too tempting, and an

BARtab

Left: Servin’ up po boys in the Quarter. Right: Classic Nawlins-style food at the French Market.

integral part of the various cultures.

Food is so diverse in New Orleans, it’s impossible to list all the best places.

For gay-owned restaurants, check out Petunia’s Restaurant for Cajun and Creole dining, crepes, cocktails and a sassy attitude. 817 St. Louis St. For an informal lunch, brunch, a po’ boy and a few laughs 24/7, munch away at Quartermaster, “the Nellie Deli” at 1100 Bourbon St. It’s open all day and night, and is sort of the Orphan Andy’s of New Orleans.

Another favorite for lunch and brunch is The Ruby Slipper. With four locations, we dined at the airy Marigny location, the former site of a bank. www.therubyslippercafe.net

Book of Love

If you’re not familiar with New Orleans’ rich literary associations, you’ve got a wide variety of potential in-flight reading selections.

Of course John Kennedy O’Toole’s classic (and only) novel

A Confederacy of Dunces is required reading for its unique New Orleans characters.

For gay-themed reading, Tennessee Williams ranks among the most known. While you can’t actually visit the settings of his classic stage play A Streetcar Named Desire, you can stroll the French Quarter for similar scenes of romantic balconies, and stop by the historic one-time residence of the famous playwright.

Anne Rice’s Vampire LeStat novels include historic scenes in New Orleans, as do the thrillers penned by her gay son, Christopher Rice.

For contemporary murder mysteries, gay author and New Orleans resident Greg Herren’s numerous books are set in locales all over the city, and get a real sense of the intrigue of New Orleans. Read his essay on www.criminalelement.com about TV shows “getting New Orleans right.”

Should you want to hang out with authors in New Orleans, the annual Tennessee Williams Festival has merged with the LGBT Saints and Sinners Conference, this year held in March. Check next year’s schedule at www.sasfest.org For local readings, the intimate Fauberg Marigny Bookstore (aka Fab Books) is full of new and used LGBT books and magazines.

You can probably pick up a copy of Ambush magazine (www.AmbushMag.com), the local LGBT weekly that will feature the latest events and listings.

For more about gay New Orleans, visit www.neworleansonline.com/ neworleans/lgbt/

Scary spice

BARtab

Top Left: St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Top Right: Marie Levau’s grave at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Bottom: Hex occult shop in Jackson Square.

Speaking of mysteries, the city is also known for its often spooky relationship with death. From aboveground graves to Voodoo folklore, New Orleans is certainly known for its wild days-long Halloween celebrations. From classic horror films to the recent American Horror Story: Coven, the bayou region has been a creatively creepy setting for numerous forms of cinematic entertainment.

Because of that whole ‘below sea level’ thing, historic graves were placed above ground, and are now tourist attractions. Most prominent among them is the grave of Marie Laveau, an alleged Voodoo priestess.

Believers scrawl a name or request on her tomb in the hopes of getting their wishes granted.

To keep the evil spirits at bay (or attract a few; whatever floats your boat), more than half a dozen

occult shops should entice your curiosity in magic and a realistic perspective.

Hex in Jackson Square sells occult items ranging from charms to games, sculptures and jewelry, love potions and coffin nails, plus a lot of sweet-smelling candles for every occasion. With owners and management who are gay, lesbian and queer, they’ve also got a shop in Salem, Massachusetts, so you know these folks know their Wicca. 1219 Decatur Street. www.hexwitch.com They also sponsor the annual Hex Fest, a two-day festival of celebration, ritual, and crafts relating to magic, Voodoo and the hidden

For a quick run of souvenirs for yourself or friends and family back home, you can’t beat The French Market. Nibble on a Gator burger –yes, it’s real alligator meat– along with a fruit smoothie while you choose from colorful T-shirts, art work, jewelry and cute sculptures, all with a local flavor, although not all locally made. The lengthy market place runs along the riverfront, and is near Jackson Square and the main church, St. Louis Cathedral, which matches the city’s own history dating back to the King of France, and reflecting the area’s strong Catholic faith.

For art souvenirs that are more unusual than tourist trinkets, visit the Warehouse Arts District, the sort of SoHo of creativity. Galleries are opening each month between abandoned lots, and a bike rental is advisable for touring this and other areas.

For our disabled friends, many buildings are historic, and that means elegant yet inaccessible stairs.

While modern facilities include ramps and elevators, streetcars and small businesses don’t. Still, most of the city is level, and while many sidewalks are uneven, again, updated areas and parks are in better condition.

Rollin’ on the River

Adventure awaits outside the city, from plantation tours to gator boat cruises. Commercial tours are a very popular option for New Orleans visitors and the better ones can provide a great introduction to specific aspects of the city and surrounding locales. There are plantation tours, swamp tours, vampire tours, voodoo tours, Katrina tours, antique shopping tours, among many others.

Explore options at www.neworleans.com/tours or at your favorite travel site.t

<< On the Tab

26 • Bay Area Reporter • August 20-26, 2015

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire

Midnight Show @ Divas

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

Valeria Branch’s weekly comedy night, where she embodies her faux queen character Pia Messing for some offbeat wit, along with guest performers. $5. 8pm-10pm. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.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

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club The monthly Goth/darkwave dance night hosts a Sandman Ball, with costumes based on the Neil Gaiman book encouraged (costumes contest, too); DJs Xander, Daniel Skellington, Tomas Diablo and BatKat. $5-$8.

9pm-2am. 1190 Folsom St. at 8th. www.sfcatclub.com

Party Nights @ Club BnB, Oakland

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

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Fri 21 Mz 007 at Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

From page 23

Thu 20

Bolo @ PLACE, Oakland World music trio performs music from their debut album; Lulacruza also performs. 1121 64th St., Oakland. www.bolomusic.org www.aplaceforsustainableliving.org

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

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s sequel to the hilarious hit comedy Shit & Champagne, with a women’s prisonthemed parody and suspense-filled action-comedy show. $25-$200 (fourperson VIP table). Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru Sept 12. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn stud David Benjamin leads the very interactive entertainments in the strip club’s downstairs arcade. $10.

9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Stand ups Karinda Dobbins, Nathan Habib, Bernadette Luckett, Jeremy Talamantes, and Lisa Geduldig perform at the monthly series. $7-$20. 8pm.

3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Drag King Contest @ Oasis 20th anniversary show and contest of the Bay Area’s best male impersonation acts, with cohosts Sister Roma and Fudgie Frottage, guest judges Leigh Crow, Steven LeMay, Nancy French, performers The Momma’s Boyz, DeeDee Luxe, Madd Dogg, Rebel Kings, Kit Tapata, and a bevy of competing talents. Proceeds benefit Pets Are Wonderful Support. $20-$35. 10pm show. 298 11th St. www.sfdragkingcontest.com www.sfoasis.com

Eat Drink SF @ Various Venues Large-scale multi-venue festival of delicious food, drinks and desserts from hundreds of local upscale restaurants and chefs. $75 and up.

Thru Aug. 23. www.eatdrink-sf.com

Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge The classic monthly drag show, now in its fifteenth year, features Victoria Secret, Alexandria, Chanel, Mini Minerva, Kipper, Ruby LeBrowne, and Lulu Ramirez. Dinner seating 6pm on.

8pm show. No cover. 124 Ellis St. 4218700. www.fauxgirls.com www.infusionlounge-sf.com

Full Frontal Comedy @ Lookout Mary Van Note headlines the comedy show, with Drew Harmon, Shanti Charan, Greg Asdourian, and cohosts Valerie Branch and Yuri Kagan. $5 (dinner/drink special $12). 8pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.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

Jackie Ryan @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The amazing jazz vocalist performs her cabaret tribute to Michel Legrand, with the Larry Dunlap Trio. $25-$40 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.jackieryanmusic.com www.ticketweb.com

Maria Konner @ Martuni’s The cohost of Under the Golden Gate performs and accompanies the open mic night. 6:30pm-8:30pm (3rd Thursdays). 4 Valencia St.

Marlena Love Roast @ LGBT Center Openhouse’s tribute to Absolute Empress XXV Marlena, owner of the legendary Marlena’s bar, with a ‘Love Roast’ at the second Annual José Sarria Community Celebration. $20. 6pm8pm. 1800 Market St. www.openhouse-sf.org

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Aug. 20: Soundwave with music by Russell Butler, DJ Jackie House, synthesizer demos and sound experiences. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Planet Booty @ The New Parish, Oakland East Bay’s fun funk band headlines a show with Dirty Revival, HiScores and DJ Jaysonik. $10-$15. 9pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. www.thenewparish.com

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

Tanned muscled porn stud performs solo (8pm) and in a live sex show with Jon Shield (10pm). $25. Also Aug. 22.

729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.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

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

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

Fri 21 Vergie Tovar at Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club

Frisco Robbie and Persia’s dance and pop music night gets the weekend started, with gogo guys and gals, plus drink specials and guest DJs. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Hard Fridays @ Qbar DH Haute Toddy’s weekly electro-pop night with hotty gogos. $3. 9pm-2am (happy hour 4pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Hardbox @ Powerhouse The monthly sports gear night returns; shirtless dudes get free clothes check; wear your kinky sports/boxing gear as DJ Guy Ruben spins sexy grooves. $5 benefits the Bare chest Calendar.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Killer Queens @ Slim’s The only all-women Queen tribute band rocks out; with Jean Genies (Bowie tribute band) and Trouble With Monkeys (Monkees tribute band). $15. 8pm. 333 11th St. www.slimspresents.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Thu 20 Marlena Love Roast @ LGBT Center

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox

Some Thing @ The Stud

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Fri 21

Do the Hustle: Stories of Keeping It Together by any Means Necessary, with Grant Faulkner, Dayvid Figler, Virgie Tovar, Alia Volz, Michael Wharton and Dana Merwin. $15-$20.

8pm. 2424 Mariposa Ave. www.porchlightsf.com

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

Music with local and touring bands. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Xcess Thursdays @ The Café

Porchlight Storytelling @ Verdi Club

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $4. 10pm2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Different events each week; 1st Fri: Taboo with DJ Harness. 2nd: Menage with DJ Rapture. 3rd: Seduction Feroce, a burlesque cabaret show (9pm). 4th: Bleu Sugar shows with hotess Miss Lady Lana. July 30: eightyear anniversary party. 8pm-2am.

2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

The saucy women’s burlesque revue’s weekend show; different musical guests each week. Also Wednesday nights. $10$20. 7:30pm. 314 11th St. redhotsburlesque.com www.beatboxsf.com

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover. 9pm-2am.

456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes weekly drag show does a Grace Jones tribute night, with Honey Mahogany, Kendra Munroe, Bridget Weslet and Camille Tow. $5. 10:30pm show.

3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

David Benjamin @ Nob Hill Theatre

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Steven Underhill

<<

On the Tab

t

Lulu, Jacki, and Vicki cohost the festive gogo-filled dance club that 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. club21oakland.com

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

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis The queer hip hop dance party welcomes guest DJs Mz007 and Kelly Lovemonster. 10pm-2am.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Sat 22

Atmosphere @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley The hip hop duo, whose latest music video was created entirely with solar power, performs with Dilated Peoples, Brother Ali and Get Cryphy. $39.50.

7pm. 2001 Gayley Road, UC Berkeley campus. www.ticketmaster.com

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

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

Five-Year Anniversary @ The Perfect Sidekick, Oakland Celebrate half a decade at the queerowned gym; dress to impress. $20.

8pm-12am. 2706 Park Blvd., Oakland. www.theperfectsidekick.com

Mother @ Oasis Sharon Needles takes over Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. Needles’s Oh My Goth theme should amuse; with DJ LePerv. $15-$25. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

t

On the Tab>>

August 20-26, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

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 25 13 Licks @ Qbar

The “lezzie queer dance party” brings out the femmes and butches. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. 864-2877. www.qbarsf.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun

Sat 22 Sharon Needles at Mother @ Oasis

Saturgay @ Qbar

Unicorn @ Powerhouse

Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the intimate Castro dance bar. $3. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

The monthly queer art party takes on a UFO theme, with Tea Castro, Joseph Valliere and Uel Renteria. 6pm-11pm.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sun 23

Afternoon Delight @ The New Parish, Oakland The monthly daytime dance party features DJs Casablanca, Juan Garcia and Jordee. 3pm-8pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. www.thenewparish.com

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. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. 3pm-6pm.

Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

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

Jesse R. Berlin @ The Stork Club New musician with a grunge-electropsych sound performs music from his debut album Glitter Lung at the fun club. $5 9pm. 2330 Telegraph Ave. (510) 444-6174. www.storkcluboakland.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Morning After BBQ @ Oasis The weekly barbeque brunch on the newly opened rooftop deck, with Mimosas and Bloody Mary cocktails.

11am-3pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Sunday Brunch, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with 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, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Mon 24 Beat It @ Oasis

80s music party, with black light, cheap beer and acid-wash jeans welcome. No cover. 8pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe 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.

8:30pm-1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night include big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm.

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Hysteria @ Oasis Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

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

Monday Musicals @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.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

Thee Oh Sees @ Great American Music Hall The Bay Area’s amazing rockpunk-psyche genre-blurring band performs; White Mystery opens. $16 ($41 w/ dinner). 8pm. Also Aug. 26.

859 O’Farrell St. 885-0750. www. slimspresents.com Also Aug. 25 at Leo’s, 5447 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.clubleos.com www.theeohsees.com

Opulence @ Beaux 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

Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

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.” $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

George Cole @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Guitarist-singer peforms original songs and the hits of Nat King Cole. $19.

8pm. 510 Embarcadero, Oakland. www.georgecole.net www.yoshis.com

Get strippin’ with the strippers; refreshments,a show and a cruisy ambiance. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud 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

See page 30 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • Bay Area Reporter • August 20-26, 2015

Upon the Kross

t

by John F. Karr

I

think Sebastian Kross is a bit of bliss, and I’m sure his relatively newborn career has brought viewing pleasure to countless households. He was scooped up by RagingHotFalcon as an Exclusive performer when he was brand new, and has been rapidly spread around their various brands in ten movies.

I thought an overview of his RHF career to this date might be worthwhile.

His made his debut with two scenes in Krossfire, but since I’ve already jubilated about them in Bay Area Reporter issue of March 3, we’ll move right along.

Falcon has long thought of Tahoe as a sort of sister city, and this year revisited it for the umpteenth time in two movies. Tahoe: Cozy Up once again gave Kross two scenes (RHF sure was being generous with their newbie). He sucks and fucks Brenner Bolton professionally, in an energetic but largely uninvolved manner that will henceforth be his basic MO. Brenner gets an entertaining, rapidpunch screwing in Cowgirl position, and then a mouthful of cum. The second tier scene is easily surpassed by the second, with Brandon More, which is so good you won’t feel shortchanged that it’s only oral.

Kross has displayed lingering signs of heterosexuality (he says he’s bi), with cocksucking that’s eager but which remains a little awkward, and rimming that seems generic— he does it, as aggressively as he does everything, but he doesn’t seem to know what it’s about.

Is it More’s deep, smooth, and wet sucking of Kross’ cock that inspires Kross to do a better job himself?

And rimming, oh boy, Sebastian really savors it this time, and then blasts his cum into More’s mouth.

First Brenner, and now More—just everybody wants to sample Sebastian’s semen (though it seems Kross hardly has enough to go around; his orgasms are disappointingly cumdeficient).

Redheaded and raunchy Johnny V. was in a tizzy to wrap his tuchas around Sebastian’s tower of power, and so threw himself upon Kross with extra fervor in Tahoe: Warm and Cozy. Perhaps it was the scene’s extended lead-in, though a workout cliché, that made this the most personally engaged of all Kross’ appearances. Sebastian and Johnny cap a consistently good movie with their steamy finale. Johnny is focussed, working with specificity. Sebastian responds similarly, only a bit more generally. As if he’s learned something from Johnny’s concentrated rimming, Sebastian tongues the

FalconStudios

Man of the hour, Sebastian Kross.

redhead’s ass with greater proclivity.

With Johnny egging him on, Sebastian’s furioso fuck forces Johnny to shoot all over his chest, in one of the ginger boy’s better orgasms. Sebastian brutally beats out his own exciting, but typically small load.

Then came the Krossfire follow up, Double Kross. It’s the Sebastian Kross bonanza—he’s unlikely to surpass his sizzling scenes with Chris Bines and Ryan Rose. Witness, intense sex, novel positions, sexy wardrobe that launches each scene with guys in cunning mini-jockstraps, and Sebastian’s shaved crotch that makes his love luger loom ever larger. Bines—very hard of cock and tight of balls—is a superlative performer, getting face-fucked, sitting and bouncing on Sebastian’s cock, and finally getting fed an undoubtedly flavorful load.

The scene’s hot, but Ryan Rose outdoes it. He seems to get smuttier with each appearance. His cocksucking is such fun, so sleazy in intent.

Too bad that Sebastian is confined to sucking Ryan’s cock only while facing forward, which makes it hit the roof of his mouth. If he came down from a 69-like position, Ryan’s cock could curve downward in his mouth, and maybe even slide more easily down his throat. Come to think of it, there hasn’t been a 69 in any of these scenes. Don’t they have a manual of popular sex positions at RHF?

The scene is enlivened by a fuck that lets Sebastian plunge his cock downward into an upside-down Rose, and by Rose insistently, nearly insanely gobbling Kross’ cum, and then continuing to hold Sebastian’s massive meat prisoner in his mouth, milking and suckling it like a starved baby, while he beats his own load unto its blast.

Sebastian certainly works hard to match Ryan’s ever-sleazier behavior, but though this scene’s damn good, second only to the one with Johnny V., Sebastian’s performance hardly varies from his earliest work. He’s giving the same fuck he’s thrown everyone.

What’s a director for, if not to lead his performers to a fuller flowering of their potential?

Can our interest be sustained by a lad, however hung, handsome, and high-powered, whose performances hardly vary?

More damaging, is that Sebastian doesn’t much pick up on his partner’s intention. He’s said he’s a quick cummer, and has to concentrate on holding off, so it could be that he’s just too busy doing his own sex workout to get connected to his co-stars.

What will the future bring? Will our decimation by Sebastian’s dong endure? The discussion continues next week.t www.FalconStudios.com

FalconStudios

Chris Bines gets a lickin’ from Sebastian Kross in Double Kross.

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August 20-26, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Drawn to kink Tom of Finland to be celebrated in SF

Tom of Finland Foundation

rt feeds and nurtures us. It prods us to think and feel. It reflects back our life experiences and the experiences of others.

It does this for every segment of our culture, including leather and kink culture.

To celebrate the importance of erotic art, San Francisco Leathermen’s Discussion Group (LDG) is hosting a Tom of Finland Foundation Reception and Erotic Art Silent Auction on September 23, 2015 from 6:30pm to 9:30pm at the SF LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

The event will feature artwork courtesy of Tom of Finland Foundation (www.tomoffinlandfoundation.org) with national artist contributions, including Stanley Stellar, as well as local artists. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Tom of Finland Foundation and LDG. Visit LDG’s site at www.sfldg.org for more details.

Along with committee chair Graylin Thornton, co-chair Richard Bolingbroke, and a bevy of volunteers, at the heart of the event is Durk Dehner, president and cofounder of the Tom of Finland Foundation.

Durk will deliver a presentation during the LDG event during which he will reflect on some very personal erotic iconology tied to San Francisco, including some of the artists who have passed on and are no longer with us. He’ll focus on visual art that has been created right here in San Francisco and relates to the city itself. It should be a fascinating evening.

I’ve known Durk for a long time, but I never had the privilege of interviewing him. During one of his recent San Francisco visits I was given that opportunity. We had a long conversation, and there’s no way I can cover all that we discussed here, but I’m honored to be able to give you a snippet of insight into a remarkable man, his friend Tom of Finland, and the work he and the Foundation are so clearly passionate about.

Durk explained that the Tom of Finland Foundation was founded to support and nurture art that the world has historically had a hard time accepting.

Western culture has not typically been comfortable with sexual art, especially homoerotic art.

Tom of Finland (real name Touko Laaksonen), for whom the Foundation is named, created works that formed a unique set of visual images with deep, symbolic meaning within our kink and gay cultures. Tom’s art is specifically sex-positive, a true celebration of the fully sexual gay male. At the time that Tom started his career, there was no similar erotic art that was being put out into the homo culture that was proud, overtly sexual and so free in nature.

Durk has always loved Tom’s work ever since he first discovered it as a young man. In 1977, Durk met Tom after he had written him

form the beginnings of his own erotic explorations and the sexual freedom he claimed for himself and others. At 20 years of age, Durk was visiting San Francisco. He had come to San Francisco to find himself.

He found his way to The Eagle and ended up standing next to a drag queen there who asked him what he was doing in town. When Durk mentioned his quest to find himself, the drag queen said, “You can be anything you want to be here.”

Durk never forgot that message and he’s created and molded his life and work around being his most authentic self.

Traveling has been part of Durk’s personal explorations as he’s followed his sexuality, erotic partners and the leather culture he desired around the world. At one point in the late 1970s, that led to living in Chicago for a while, where Durk entered the very first International Mr. Leather contest. The American Uniform Association sponsored him for the 1979 contest and he ended up placing second (first runner up). Already a well-known leatherman, his profile rose even more as a result of that contest.

During his tenure at the Foundation, Durk has had countless men tell him how Tom’s work affected them in profound ways. Tom’s art literally helped these men to mold their characters and have selfconfidence in their sexuality.

One thing Durk is vehement about is that erotic art, and specifically erotic art that empowers gay men whose sexuality has often been demonized, is vital to maintain a vibrant and functioning culture. The passion with which Durk believes this literally oozes from him when you speak to him.

One of the things that Durk kept hammering home during our interview is the importance of Tom’s work in helping to form both leather and gay male culture’s iconography and to visually influence sexual liberation.

Tom is an icon for artists, not just gay men. He and his work are inspirations for anyone who is looking for erotic liberation.

Durk said that Tom did not sit around and ponder how his erotic art might influence others.

He initially did it entirely from a point of self-satisfaction. They were his dirty little drawings.

What he drew turned him on.

But at one point when Tom was in his 60s, during a lecture he delivered at the California Institute of the Arts, he told the audience that he had progressed to a phase of his life in which he recognized that it was always his intention to make a difference with his art, to see if he could change the way that gays thought about themselves and the way that the larger society looked upon gays.

This is the legacy for which Durk wants Tom and his work to be remembered. And that goes for all of the erotic artists of that era and today.

There is so much more I could mention about Durk, Tom, and the work Durk and the Foundation continue to this day. But I’m ending with the concept of community heroes. Durk mentioned that homosexuals have so few heroes. Durk considers Tom a hero.

Jim Wigler

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a fan letter in 1976. They remained extremely close friends until Tom’s death in 1991. They created the Foundation in 1984. From the start it was dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting homoerotic art.

The Foundation eventually expanded to erotic works of many types.

The message that Durk delivers to audiences around the world, and that Tom’s work was founded upon, is freedom. It’s a theme that is pervasive throughout Tom’s work and has remained integral to Durk’s entire adult life as well.

He told me a great story about an important moment that helped

Tom of Finland Foundation

by Race Bannon

Top: Tom of Finland’s iconic hypermasculine imagery helped to formulate the modern gay male leather scene’s look and aesthetic. Middle: Durk Dehner (left) clearly showing his affection for his good friend, the late Tom of Finland (right).

Bottom: Tom of Finland’s art was unabashedly sexual, often using exaggerated male body parts to accentuate the erotic nature of his work.

As Durk said, “Here’s a man who actually devoted his whole entire career that spanned six decades, 60 years of works, that reflect his commitment. He was a rare man.”

If you like erotic art, I strongly recommend you attend the LDG event. Listen to Durk Dehner, one of our community’s most important art figures. See some really cool and important erotic art. And mix and mingle with fellow erotic ad-

venturers who understand, as Durk always emphasizes, that our erotic art is an important part of our history and culture.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist.

You can reach him at his website, www.bannon.com.

For Leather events, visit www.ebar.com/bartab.

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From page 27

Follies @ Oasis

Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. Also, Yuri Kagan’s comedy set. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

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

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

Switch @ Q Bar

Man Francisco @ Oasis

Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.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 26 Booty Call @ QBar

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

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. No cover. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

The new weekly all-male striptease revue with a storyline of San Francisco’s history, from the Gold Rush to the tech boom, performed by sexy local hunks. $20 (plus optional $30 lap dances!). 9pm. Thru July. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.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

Thu 27

Painted Palms @ Rickshaw Stop

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Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www.rainbowskate.net www.facebook.com/rainbowskating/

Rookie Night @ Nob Hill Theatre New talent night at the historic strip club; contestants sign-up 8pm, for a $200 first prize. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Russ Lorenson @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented vocalist performs his Tony Bennett tribute concert, with guest singer Jennifer Haber. $20-$35 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.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

Thu 27

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (with a contest at midnight), and dance beats spun

by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland Weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Headphone @ Oasis

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Aug. 27: DJed music

by Sleazemore and Richie Panic, SF Bazaar arts and crafts showcases, mini-book workshops and more. $10$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Painted Palms @ The Rickshaw Stop Pop duo perform at the 2nd album release party; also, Antwon + Sad Andy, Meat Market. $15. 8pm. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness. www.rickshawstop.com

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe Drink specials, Top 40, gogo studs and no cover, 2 for 1 cocktails until 10:30pm. 2369 Market St. www. cafesf.com

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

Jasten King’s LA-based variety show includes dozens of male burlesque strippers, vaudeville and music acts. $5. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Thursday Night Live @ Eagle

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

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

Live bands- usually, rock, punk and always good- perform at the famed leather bar. 8:30pm first band. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Eleventh anniversary year of the retro disco night with a fun diverse crowd, and disco master DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

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August 20-26, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Shooting Stars Steven Underhill photos by

Ladies of SF @ Club OMG

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alilea’s new drag show took place at the intimate midMarket nightclub OMG. Featuring “old school drag,” performers Alexis Miranda, Tiger Lily, Renita Valdez and others were tipped by admirers. See the Ladies of San Francisco Friday nights at Club OMG, 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com 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