February 19, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

Gay GOPers seek official status

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Patti LuPone

Sherry Vine

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Vol. 45 • No. 8 • February 19-25, 2015

Sisters pull out of Pink Sat. T by Seth Hemmelgarn

Courtesy SFDPH

This health department graph shows rates for STDs in 2014.

SF unable to reverse STD rate increases by Matthew S. Bajko

espite efforts by local health officials to reverse the trend, San Francisco saw cases of sexually transmitted diseases rise for a ninth consecutive year in 2014. Preliminary year-end data for reportable STDs, released by the city’s public health department late last month, show year-overyear increases for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and early syphilis. The majority of cases remain among sexually active gay and bisexual men. Chlamydia increased by 17 percent, from 5,094 cases in 2013 to 5,972 in 2014. Male rectal chlamydia jumped 20 percent last year, increasing from 1,167 to 1,410 cases. Gonorrhea increased “even more steeply,” noted public health officials in an advisory included in the January 30, 2015 monthly STD report. Cases of the venereal disease shot up 30 percent in 2014 to 3,283 cases. There were 2,523 cases in 2013. Rectal gonorrhea among men also increased by 9.4 percent last year, from 796 cases in 2013 to 874 cases. Despite signs of early syphilis cases stabilizing in the first half of 2014, the later half of the year continued a trend of seeing increased cases of the STD between the months of July and December. Overall in 2014, early syphilis increased to 1,114 cases from the 1,021 cases reported in 2013. Asked if the nearly decade-long rise in STD cases in the city is a “new normal,” Dr. Stephanie Cohen, the medical director for the health department’s City Clinic, told the Bay Area Reporter, “I hope not.” The goal, Cohen said, remains to see the trend reversed. “We as the Department of Public Health want to work with the community to find prevention strategies that are effective and acceptable,” she said. “We are seeing increases among gay men really in all major cities that have large gay populations. But San Francisco does have a particularly high rate.” See page 10 >>

he Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have suspended the Pink Saturday street party in San Francisco’s Castro district, meaning there may be no planned event in the area the night before the annual LGBT Pride parade, but massive crowds are still expected in the neighborhood. Citing concerns about violence in recent years, the charitable drag nun group voted last week to step away from the street party that it’s organized for almost 20 years, which draws tens of thousands of people to the neighborhood the last Saturday of every June. The Bay Area Reporter broke the news in a blog post last Friday. The move wasn’t a surprise, as the group expressed strong uncertainty about continuing the event after one of the Sisters and his husband were attacked last year. Among other incidents, Stephen Powell, 19, was shot to death around the time the festival ended in 2010. The investigation into Powell’s death remains open. In an interview Friday, February 13, shortly after the Sisters announced their decision, Sister Selma Soul said, “We all feel awful” about the suspension, but the Sisters didn’t feel they should continue with no clear leadership “and no clear vision coming together” for this

Pink Saturday drew a crowd in 2011, with the illuminated pink triangle on Twin Peaks in the background. Jane Philomen Cleland

year’s festival, which would have been June 27. Soul, also known as James Bazydola, said it was possible the Sisters would allow the Pink Saturday name to be used for a new event depending on whether the group felt confident it would be “safe and successful for the community.” The party has helped raise thousands of

dollars for charities, but Soul said the organization has “diversified our funding a lot,” so it’s not as dependent on the annual preLGBT Pride event. Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the Castro, told the Bay Area Reporter he’d work with police and other offiSee page 9 >>

U.S. protection of gay Iraqis questioned by Heather Cassell

55, who filed an appeal to his FOIA request to the State Department in late December. dozen years after the U.S. invaded “As gay advocates we have to be conIraq, the government is reluctant cerned that information was not released in to let LGBT Americans know a timely manner,” Petrelis added. “Five and what it was doing to protect gay Iraqis at a half years is not acceptable in terms of rethe height of the violence against them. leasing this information and then what was The U.S. government isn’t willing to disreleased was redacted.” close much information about what it was Human rights experts Becca Heller, didoing to help LGBT Iraqis during the inrector and co-founder of the Iraqi Refugee vasion of the Middle Eastern country, acAssistance Project, and Jessica Stern, excording to a heavily redacted report issued ecutive director of IGLHRC, agreed with five and a half years after it was requested. Petrelis, stating that the U.S.’s lack of rapid Bilal Hussein/AP The redacted documents followed response to a FOIA request in regard to alarming reports issued last year by the The bodies of gays lie on the streets of Iraq. human rights issues is a concern. International Gay and Lesbian Human Stern stated that the law provides that the mation Act requests that were filed with both Rights Commission. The November U.S. should fulfill requests in a timely manner. countries in June 2009 by Michael Petrelis, a 2014 reports, titled “When Coming Out is a “Five years could not be considered a timely Death Sentence: Persecution of LGBT Iraqis,” gay San Francisco activist with Gays Without manner,” she said. Boarders. and “We’re Here: Iraqi LGBT People’s AcStern pointed out that the U.K. was just Petrelis didn’t receive the heavily redacted counts of Violence and Rights Abuse,” coming to the conversation regarding for19-page FOIA report until early Decemaddressed the current situation for eign policy dealing with LGBT issues, and she ber 2014. That was five and a half years LGBT Iraqis, who experienced an hadn’t seen much in terms of LGBT Iraqis. after he received the U.K.’s 51-page uptick in violence in the second “I can’t comment on what the government FOIA response that wasn’t so heavily half of 2014. of the United Kingdom has done on Iraq. I censored. The reports confirm the rash of haven’t seen a lot from them from the British The redacted and tardy report raised murders of gay Iraqis at the hands government, which leads me to believe that this concerns for Petrelis about what the of militias but debunked other has not been a priority concern of theirs,” Stern U.S. was doing in Iraq and how U.S. claims that more than 100 gay told the B.A.R., despite being provided the U.K. officials were protecting LGBTs. Iraqis were sitting on death row. 2009 FOIA report. “But there also haven’t been “Like most Americans, I’ve been The Bay Area Reporter was proBritish organizations consistently lobbying concerned about the American war vided with the government reports their government to take up this issue. in Iraq and the troubles it’s unleashed, includfrom the United Kingdom and the U.S. The See page 7 >> ing the torture against gay people,” said Petrelis, reports were obtained under Freedom of Infor-

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ebar.com ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS

Rick Gerharter

embers of the Imperial family and supporters walk up the hill to the gravesites of Emperor Jose Norton and Empress I Jose Sarria, the Widow Norton, during the annual pilgrimage to Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma Sunday, February 15. Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the

Imperial Council of San Francisco, and events included the annual Coronation of new Emperor Kevin Lisle and Empress Khmera Rouge as well as the 50th anniversary gala at San Francisco City Hall. For more on the Imperial Court see page 35 of BARtab.

Gay collector’s Jackie Kennedy items set for auction by Matthew S. Bajko

onham’s Auction House is putting up for bid a number of Jackie Kennedy items a gay San Francisco man has spent a lifetime collecting. Amid fighting his landlord’s efforts to evict him from his Nob Hill apartment, Chris Lenwell, 64, decided last year to pare down his Kennedy collectibles. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in a story last September, Lenwell’s fascination with the first lady began in his childhood while growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It continued well into his adulthood, with his amassing hundreds of Kennedy memorabilia, from the kitschy to the more noteworthy. He transformed his dining room into a shrine to all things Kennedy, particularly relating to the former first lady who died in 1994. An invitation to John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier’s September See page 3 >>

Rick Gerharter

Chris Lenwell shows a figurine of the young John Kennedy Jr. saluting at his father’s funeral from his collection of items about Jacqueline Kennedy. The figurine is not among the items slated for auction by Bonham’s next month.

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February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Book editor praises Kameny over Milk by Brian Bromberger

he editor of a new book of letters written by the late Frank Kameny said that LGBTs today enjoy many rights because of the gay rights pioneer’s work, and called him more influential that slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. Michael G. Long’s Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse University Press) was published last year. Long, who identifies as a straight ally, wrote the book to make Kameny better known to a new generation of gays and lesbians. Long does make the startling claim that Kameny had much greater impact on the national LGBT movement than Milk, the first gay person elected to office in California, especially on policy issues, such as denouncing the federal government for excluding homosexuals from employment and security clearances, getting rid of homosexuality as a mental disorder, as well as organizing marches for gay rights at the White House and other public institutions long before New York City’s Stonewall riots in 1969. In 1971, Kameny became the first openly gay candidate for Congress when he campaigned for the District of Columbia’s nonvoting delegate seat. He lost badly. However, Kameny disliked the delegate at the time, a conservative anti-gay minister, and wanted to unseat him. Kameny could be abrasive, and he possessed none of Milk’s political charm and willingness to compromise, Long said. Having begun his research in 2012, Long, 51, never met Kameny,

who died October 11, 2011 (National Coming Out Day) at age 86. Kameny left all his papers and correspondence to the Library of Congress, which accepted the gift. Over the years, Kameny wrote thousands of letters. Long claims that you can trace the history of the early homophile movement through his letters. Long focused on Kameny’s most creative and activist period from 1958 to 1975. Kameny’s estate gave Long permission to use the letters. “We see Kameny’s transformation from victim of the law to voice of the law, when he becomes active in the human rights commission,” Long said in a telephone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “In his early letters he sounds desperate and pathetic while later he is prophetic, setting policies, and dictating what he wants to happen.” Long, a professor of religious studies and peace and conflict studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, is interested in the connection between gay equality and the civil rights movement. He saw Kameny as an essential figure in this intersection and wanted to explore him further. “I realized how much Kameny had been influenced by Martin Luther King and as I started reading his letters I became hooked, not only because of the quality of their substance, but his breadth of interest, which included politics, religion, psychology, sports, and science,” he said. Kameny isn’t as well known as other gay rights pioneers such as Milk. Long speculates that “the LGBT movement has never had a significant public leader, like the civil

Bill Wilson

Frank Kameny spoke at the Congressional Cemetery on October 10, 2009.

rights movement had in King, and it was always a diffuse movement, still true today. Also, Kameny did not have the national platform, huge national constituency, or interest of the mainstream media that King had.” Long noted that Kameny was not diplomatic, either to friends or strangers, when it came to substantive issues and LGBT rights. “He was a bull in the china closet, which was why he probably accomplished so much yet also alienated people. He wore people down, because he was so brilliant and relentless. He was respected in the movement, but not many saw him as a movement leader to cozy up to due to his autocratic personality,” Long said. Long believes Kameny’s greatest accomplishment was informing

Generations event marks Black History Month compiled by Cynthia Laird

o celebrate Black History Month, the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Community Health Equity and Promotion and Bridge HIV divisions will hold Generations 2015 Friday, February 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street. The event, which is free, will include an award ceremony, art gallery, HIV/STD testing, entertainment, and refreshments. The fourth annual Generations, which celebrates the lives of black LGBT people, is a collaboration between the health department, San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Black Brothers Esteem, and other community partners. For more information, visit www. sfaf.org.

Lions clubs hold crab feed

The Castro and Park Presidio-

Kennedy items

From page 2

12, 1953 wedding, priced between $800 and $1,200, is among the items Bonham’s curators selected for an entertainment memorabilia auction the company’s Los Angeles office is holding Sunday, March 1. Also for sale is a letter sent to the designer Halston, signed “J. Onassis” due to her later marriage to Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, on her signature pale blue stationery priced between $1,200 and $1,800. And a trove of Kennedy documents, including White House Christmas cards and a number of condolence correspondences, is priced between

Sunset Lions clubs will hold their third annual crab feed Saturday, February 21 from 6 to 9 p.m. at St. Anne of the Sunset Church, 850 Judah Street (at Funston on the N-Judah Muni line). Free parking is available in the rear of the school. Tickets for the event are $50 per person. Beneficiaries include the Lions Eye Foundation of California and Nevada, Lighthouse for the Blind, San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Band, Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, AIDS Emergency Fund, and others. Sponsors include the Bob Ross Foundation, which is named after founding Bay Area Reporter publisher Bob Ross but is a separate entity from BAR Media Co., which owns the newspaper.

The North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefit District invites the public to meet its final candidate for executive director at a

reception Friday, February 27 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Mr. Crave Bistro (Cova Hotel), 655 Ellis Street. Kent Smith is the organization’s final candidate, after an extensive national search was conducted. CBD board members said in a flier that they want Tenderloin stakeholders to be involved in the hiring of the group’s next leader and the reception is an opportunity to meet, greet, and talk about the issues with Smith. According to the flier, Smith has been the executive director of the Los Angeles Fashion District Business Improvement District since 1999. His award-winning work with the Fashion District BID is credited for helping to revitalize downtown Los Angeles. In addition to his work at the Fashion District BID, Kent served on and/or has chaired many boards including the Santa Monica Pier Board, the Business Leaders Task Force to End Chronic Homelessness in Los Angeles County, and LA Streetcar Inc. For more information about the CBD, visit http://www.nom-tlcbd. org.t

$1,200 and $1,800. “It is a really interesting collection of Jackie Kennedy memorabilia, tracking her life from her wedding to John F. Kennedy (lot 1242), through their marriage (lot 1243) to her later life in New York (lot 1244),” wrote Lucy Carr, a Bonham’s associate specialist, in an emailed response to the B.A.R. about why the auction house had agreed to sell the items. “The letter to Halston is a particular favorite of mine as it links two of the greatest icons in American fashion, giving us an insight into their relationship.” In an interview this month, Lenwell said he is ready to relinquish ownership of the items to other collectors who will cherish them as he has.

“It is in the right hands of people who will appreciate it and not throw it in a heap at Goodwill. Hopefully, the life of these things will be preserved and people will take care of it,” said Lenwell, who has already sold off a number of items through the online site eBay. He is still uncertain about what to do with the remainder of his collection that Bonham’s did not take to auction. In the meantime, he expects to be served with an unlawful detainer notice February 24 and plans to fight it in court. “Despite the eviction thing, it is time to figure out how to deal with all this stuff,” said Lenwell of his remaining Kennedy collectibles.t

Meet Tenderloin benefit district candidate

Michael G. Long is the editor of Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny.

civil society from the U.S. Supreme Court to religious institutions that “Gay is Good.” He created the slogan before Stonewall, inspired by Stokely Carmichael’s phrase, “Black is Beautiful,” in an attempt to reflect what he had been trying to accomplish in his work as well as help the rest of us understand that homosexuality is moral and healthy. “If you want to see Kameny’s legacy, read his petition to the Supreme Court that homosexuals are a minority group who faced discrimination like people of color and who deserved first-class citizenship like people of color,” which he wrote as part of his unsuccessful case to be reinstated to his government astronomer job after being fired once his bosses discovered he was gay, Long said. Long’s favorite letters are the ones Kameny wrote to religious personalities in which, despite being an atheist, he used religious sources to critique them (such as the Senate chaplain), taking their own ideology and theology and turning it against them. Kameny was criticized by his enemies for being shrill, taking positions threatening to civil society, character-

izing him as marginal. But he was also criticized by the early homophile movement for wanting to politicize it by holding marches and rallies. Homophile leaders disagreed with Kameny’s tactic of picketing the White House and Civil Service Commission as being too radical and unendearing to mainstream America. (In 2009, the Smithsonian Institute requested and was given those historic picket signs). The FBI put him under surveillance and Kameny responded by making sure director J. Edgar Hoover was put on the mailing list of all D.C. Mattachine Society publications. Even the early militants who came out of Stonewall critiqued Kameny as being too mainstream by getting into government institutions and wanting to access their full power, rather than jettisoning them. Long credits Kameny with changing government policy, which finally vindicated him during the Obama administration. Kameny was not bitter and praised the government for its evolution. “Kameny was the leader of the LGBT movement that they never thought they had,” Long said. “I still believe no one was more important in the early gay movement and left a greater legacy than Kameny. He wanted and succeeded in building a national network of politicized LGBT members bent on change. It is a shame we don’t know his name better.” Long’s uncle and aunt were kicked out of the military for engaging in homosexual sex, which struck him as indecent, and unjust. “As a scholar I looked for projects to redeem their lives and ours in the process, to make us more loving, just and accepting, so others won’t have to undergo the same struggles, pains, and devastating moments. I want to pick projects that will leave good legacies for my two sons and working on Kameny has been one of those projects I believe will make my sons proud.”t

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Volume 45, Number 8 February 19-25, 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 Chuck Colbert • 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 Elliot Owen • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.861.5019 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Lance Roberts NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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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. Advertising rates available upon request. 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.

Time to reimagine Pink Saturday

ow that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have decided not to produce the Pink Saturday party, the city needs to come up with a plan that ensures the safety of the thousands of revelers who are expected to congregate in the Castro the night before the Pride parade. For years the Sisters have done an admirable job with what has increasingly become a no-win situation for them. Reports of violent incidents marred Pink Saturday for the last several years and the Sisters determined that the fundraising aspect of the event has diminished due to increasing costs. Last year was the final straw as one of the Sisters and his husband were brutally attacked. Community meetings have not provided a path forward, so the Sisters last week voted overwhelmingly to end their involvement with the event. Now, the city has an opportunity to develop a new festive street celebration (which may or may not be called Pink Saturday as the Sisters have registered that name). Between the thousands of women coming to the Castro at the end of the Dyke March and thousands more people already in the neighborhood, there will be an overflow crowd whether or not there is a party. Here are our suggestions: First, make it a ticketed event. Selling tickets (the proceeds can be given to charity or help cover costs) will at least decrease the amount of troublemakers and raise funds. Second, post paid security at the entrance gates to search for weapons. It’s sad that it has to come to this, but violence is commonplace at big events these days, whether they be gay or straight. That doesn’t mean they need to be shut down; it does mean a higher level of scrutiny must be applied and bag searches are one way to address that. It has been done; it used

to be routine in the 1980s on Halloween, and the police would later display all the weapons seized from people who at that time would come to the Castro to beat up gays. Third, there needs to be a plan to manage the crowds with directed activities for attendees. At Pink Saturday 2009, run by the late Sister Barbie, there was a disco stage, and the footprint was more spread out along Market, giving people some breathing room. In recent years, everything has been concentrated along Castro Street, which can’t accommodate crowds safely. District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener has taken up the issue, and he will have to hustle to find a solution, given that there are only four months to plan a Saturday night street party. Our community leaders must come up with a plan to save the event. There are plenty of creative event planners who can pull something fun together, organize the dance areas and hire DJs. Pink Saturday is not like Halloween in that officials can’t tell people not to go to the Castro the night before Pride. The bars can’t possibly hold them all.

Plaza problems

In another issue challenging the Castro,

the much-maligned Jane Warner Plaza will close later this month so that its design can be tweaked, following an outcry over anti-social behavior that has escalated since late December after it was rehabbed as part of the $6 million sidewalk-widening project. When the plaza reopened, it didn’t take long for a few folks to ruin it for the rest of us. Specifically, as detailed at a recent community meeting, there is regular misuse of the space. Whether homeless or not, a few have spoiled the plaza with trash, unruly anti-social behavior, anti-gay name-calling, and an all-around aggressiveness that has made others wary or even afraid of using it. We want to be clear, as has Wiener and Castro Community Benefit District Executive Director Andrea Aiello, that this isn’t about placing blame on the homeless or scapegoating homeless queer youth. As Wiener himself noted at a recent community meeting on the topic, even some homeless people are afraid to hang out there because of the bad vibes emanating from those who are misbehaving. We have a suggestion for this, too: replace the plants now in the planter with cactuses. Their prickly needles will keep people out, and they don’t need water – a practical solution in the midst of the drought. Physical changes to the area alone, however, won’t solve the problem. The fact is that Jane Warner Plaza sits smack in the middle of Castro and Market streets, a prominent location for attention-seekers. In the past, it was ground zero for the silly nudists, who thought they could make a last stand for body freedom by taking it all off as Muni streetcars, autos, and passerby all gawked. They craved the attention. Like with the aforementioned Pink Saturday, a key to improving behavior is activating the space, whether it be with free concerts, craft sessions, or games. When the majority of people come to participate in activities, there won’t be the tolerance for the spoilers.t

E-cig users, non-users need protection by Mark Leno

not present secondhand smoke concerns, studies have found formalden a newspaper article last week, hyde, benzene and tobacco-specific I read the disturbing news that a nitrosamines (a carcinogen) comnew study in the New England Jouring from secondhand emissions of nal of Medicine shows that cigarette e-cigarettes. smoking is even more deadly than CDPH recommends that “existwe already know it to be. In ading laws that currently protect midition to the nearly half million nors and the general public from Americans who die annually from Courtesy Sen. Leno’s ofﬁce traditional tobacco products should the 21 diseases, including 12 types be extended to cover e-cigarettes.” State Senator of cancer, listed by the surgeon genOf course, the industry also Mark Leno eral, another 60,000 die from at least claims that e-cigarettes five additional diseases, including are a healthy cessation kidney and hypertensive heart diseases. Acdevice to kick the smoking habit. cording to the Centers for Disease Control and Yet public health experts inform Prevention, smokers die more than a decade us that e-cigarette users are no before non-smokers and are more than 20 more likely to quit than regular times more likely to die of lung cancer. These smokers, with one study finding are chilling statistics. 89 percent of e-cigarette users What is even more frightening is the prostill using them one year later. liferation of a new technology used to deliver The fact remains that by switchthe addictive drug of nicotine, e-cigarettes. ing from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, The Food and Drug Administration defines a person is simply trading one dangerous nicoe-cigarettes as battery-operated products that tine habit for another. turn nicotine and other chemicals into an This year I am authoring Senate Bill 140, aerosol that is inhaled by the consumer. Many which would ensure that users and non-users e-cigarettes, like those manufactured by Philip of e-cigarettes are better protected from the Morris, give users the same level of nicotine potential health risks associated with these as cigarettes by heating rather than burning. products. The bill aligns state law with the Not surprisingly, the three major tobacco corFDA’s proposed ruling by defining e-cigarettes porations have been purchasing independent as “tobacco products” and also ensures that e-cigarette companies and are estimated by they fall under the restrictions of the CaliforWells Fargo to share 75 percent of the profit nia Smoke Free Act and the Stop Tobacco Acpool within 10 years. cess to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act. Astoundingly, e-cigarettes are not regulated The Smoke Free Act prohibits smoking at by the state of California, beyond a restriction places of work, schools, daycare centers, reson the sale to minors. In 2014, the FDA issued taurants, bars, hospitals, and on public transproposed regulations that would expand the portation. These laws protect non-users from definition of “tobacco products” to include eexposure to secondhand smoke and reduce the cigarettes. A 2015 report on e-cigarettes by the acceptability of smoking. California Department of Public Health states The STAKE Act prohibits a person from that mainstream and secondhand e-cigarette selling tobacco products to minors. The act aerosol contains at least 10 chemicals that are requires retailers to post warning signs, which on our state’s Prop. 65 list of chemicals known include a toll-free number for the public to to cause cancer, birth defects, and other rereport violations, ensures that clerks check the productive harm. According to a UCSF study, identification of youthful-appearing persons these devices deliver high levels of nanopartiprior to sale and authorizes law enforcement cles, which can trigger inflammation and have to conduct sting operations using 15- and been linked to asthma, stroke, heart disease, 16-year-olds. These stings have reduced illeand diabetes. gal sales of cigarettes from 52.1 percent to 5.6 Despite industry claims that e-cigarettes do percent since the enactment of the STAKE Act.

Unfortunately, use of e-cigarettes in California is on the rise, especially among young people. Adults using e-cigarettes in our state doubled from 1.8 to 3.5 percent in 2013, and for younger adults aged 18 to 29, e-cigarette use tripled in that same year from 2.3 to 7.6 percent. Last year the CDPH found that teen use of e-cigarettes surpassed the use of traditional cigarettes for the first time, with more than twice as many eighth and 10th graders reporting using e-cigarettes over regular cigarettes. Among 12th graders, 17 percent reported using e-cigarettes while 14 percent smoked traditional cigarettes. Just as alarming are the rates of e-cigarette smoking among the LGBT community. The CDC states that less than 2 percent of Americans use e-cigarettes, but that percentage rises to 4.5 percent in the queer community. This percentage is higher than any other population group tested by the federal agency. Big Tobacco began openly targeting the LGBT community in 1992 when Philip Morris started running ads in Genre magazine. According to the American Lung Association, 43.4 percent of California’s LGBT young adults between 18 and 24 smoke, as compared to 10.7 percent of their straight peers. Lesbians smoke at a rate three times higher than that of women in the general population. This is not Big Tobacco’s first attempt to fool the public, nor will it be its last. It is critical that California act now, as San Francisco and scores of other cities already have, to prevent a new generation of youth from becoming nicotine addicts. By doing so, we will protect the health and well-being of Californians, as well as the $2 billion, 25-year investment this state has made in ridding our society of tobacco and nicotine use. Join me, cessation groups including The Last Drag, and many in the LGBT community in saying enough already to Big Tobacco.t State Senator Mark Leno represents the 11th District, which includes San Francisco and portions of northern San Mateo County.

Letters >>

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Castro plaza should close

Regarding the front-page article “Jane Warner Plaza to close for redesign” [February 12]: I must have my say on this important issue. In this matter, the people are right and Supervisor Scott Wiener and other representatives of the city are wrong. This plaza must either be closed or they must post “no loitering, no sleeping, no dogs, no homeless” signs or do something about the vagrants that take over that plaza on a daily, and nightly basis. I go to and through the Castro many times during the week and I would never set foot in the plaza. The number of homeless people who are aggressive, taunting, and misbehaving in general are the sole cause of the problem – whether or not the supervisor wants to admit it. The smell, the name-calling, and just the general filth of the area are disgusting and, as many have stated, definitely do not honor the memory of Jane Warner. The article states “... supervisor will address this through legislation.” What legislation? When? The legislative process can take months, even years. The problem is now, and it is growing daily – not just here, throughout our district. I have written to the supervisor myself and his replies make no concrete commitments to do anything immediately – it’s always legislation. We have legislation. It’s called Laura’s Law and it needs to be expanded to include all of the homeless who misuse our plazas, sidewalks, porches, gardens, etc. As attendee Mark McHale stated at the meeting, “The city is under assault by people who are out of control.” No truer words could have been spoken. Listen up City Hall, we’ve all had enough talk and promises – we want action now. Put your money where your mouth is and find help for the homeless instead of spending more millions now to “fix” the plaza – it will not work.

Bonilla’s mixed gay rights record

Susan Bonilla must come out to voters on her gay rights record. As a member of the LGBT community, I am appalled by Assemblywoman Bonilla’s (D) muddled record on gay rights. Not once in her candidacy for the 7th state Senate seat has she explained why as supervisor she voted for Contra Costa not to stand up against Proposition 8. Bonilla’s deciding vote made us the only county in the Bay Area not to join the fight against Prop 8, even though her district voted overwhelmingly against it. And while today she claims to be a supporter of gay rights, her endorsement of a pro-life, anti-gay candidate flies in the face of her newly formulated positions. There’s only one candidate on the ballot who’s consistently supported marriage equality since her first day in office, and that’s Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan (D). Buchanan opposed Prop 8 when it was politically unpopular, and has a zero-tolerance policy for endorsing candidates who do not support equal rights. Please join me in supporting Buchanan for state Senate on March 17. Robert D. Camacho Concord, California

Date check for Gay Games

After having read David Lamble’s fine review of Red Army, the film about the Soviet national hockey team, I’m convinced that I really want to see it [“Soviet Army hockey heroes and us,” February 5]. However, the two mentions of the Gay Games and founder Tom Waddell contain errors. The first Gay Games took place in San Francisco in 1982, not 1986 as the article states. Gay Games II also took place in San Francisco in 1986, but this amazing event was actually born four years earlier.

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Log Cabin group seeks official status with CA GOP

Courtesy Fred Schein

San Francisco Log Cabin club President Fred Schein

by Matthew S. Bajko

og Cabin California, a group for gay Republicans, is close to realizing its long held goal of official recognition from the California Republican Party as a chartered club. This week Log Cabin leaders submitted their 170-page application for chartership ahead of the state party’s spring convention, set to take place Friday, February 27 through Sunday, March 1 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a likely Republican presidential candidate, will keynote the Saturday luncheon. “The significance of getting chartered is we will be an official recognized volunteer organization by the Republican Party,” said Charles Moran, a gay GOP political consultant based in Los Angeles who is chairman of California Log Cabin Republicans. “This is a recruiting tool. So when people say the Republican Party doesn’t support the gays, we can say we are recognized by the Republican Party. It is more symbolic than anything else, but it is important.” Fred Schein, president of the Log Cabin San Francisco chapter, said it would be an historic moment for the state GOP. “When this happens, to my knowledge, it will be the first time the state Republican party has recognized and designated an LGBT organization as part of the state party,” he said.

For close to two decades Log Cabin California has sought to be officially recognized by the state Republican Party. But the group encountered various roadblocks created by antigay forces within the party opposed to its pursuit. “There would be procedural movements or bylaw amendments to exclude Log Cabin from ever being eligible to be a chartered organization,” said Moran. “As society has made progress, and things have progressed for the LGBT community, those barriers have fallen away.” Three years ago Log Cabin California began to lay the groundwork to meet the chartership criteria. Two key factors is having 10 chapters in 10 different counties throughout the state with 10 unique members in each who are registered Republicans.

In southern California, a Log Cabin chapter was formed in Ventura about a year ago. It joined the four already established chapters in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Orange County, and San Diego. Log Cabin membership statewide now stands at 248 members. In the northern half of the state there are now five Log Cabin chapters, including one based in San Francisco. Chapters in Silicon Valley and Sacramento have been reactivated, while ones were launched at UC Berkeley and in Marin. Log Cabin leaders are confident they have met the requirements needed for chartership, although there are several procedural hurdles still to be met before they can declare victory. The first step is to receive sign off from the state Republican Party’s See page 10 >>

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6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Navigating A fun place tothe play… world of dating with a disability by Belo Cipriani

A fun

to being the one who waits a fab place to stay! cocktail, for someone else to make the first

advice – and because everyone has heard through a song or a movie or some people, the just-passed that “love is blind” – some people Valentine’s Day is an occasion to think that automatically makes me celebrate your mate, while for others some sort of love expert. The truth place play… it’s simplyto a holiday used by busiof the matter is that when it comes nesses as an opportunity to market romance, I am just as knowledgea fab place to stay!to their products. As someone who is able as anyone else in his or her blind and has a public voice via a mid-30s. weekly radio segment and a syndiFurthermore, losing my sight in cated column, this is a time when I my late 20s forced me to change A fun to play… get floodedplace with emails asking for my dating habits. I went from relationship guidance. being the one who buys the dark a fab place to stay! I suppose because I give career and handsome guy across the bar a

move. And even though I have published a memoir, I can sometimes be a little shy about sharing my cause of blindness – especially since it often upsets the guy hearing the story for the first time. Recently, I was prepping for my Monday night creative writing class when I heard my laptop read a new email message: “Blind girl needs dating advice,” said my computer in a robotic voice. Swiveling my chair closer to my laptop, I began to listen to the rest of the message. I will call her Alexa, and she said she was a 25-year-old lesbian from Miami. Alexa had met a woman on Craigslist and their communication had gone from email, to phone to now planning their first date. “Be safe,” my computer read out loud as I typed, “and meet in a public place. Also, let her ask a few questions about your disability at the start of the date – it will help with some of the initial awkwardness.” Feeling like a big brother, I hit send button and reached for 9/14/14the 5:12 PM

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my guide dog Oslo’s soft head on the floor. Sensing his tongue on my hand, I reflected on the young woman’s ability to put herself out in cyberspace to find love. With an hour before class and with nothing else to do, I decided to give online dating a shot. But as I went back and forth on describing the kind of guy I wanted to meet, I also debated if I should reveal my disability in the post. I should make this a social experiment, I thought, and write two versions of the post – one that says I am blind and another version that does not. Over the next few days, I experimented with different websites and decided on Craigslist, Match.com, and MyPartner.com. After one week, my blind ad had only received one reply, from a 70-year-old man in San Francisco who promised he would cook for me and my little guide dog too. However, the ad that concealed my blindness received multiple messages per day and replying to each note quickly became a part-time job. But as I revealed my blindness

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to each bachelor, they all responded the same. Each would claim it was not an issue, only to stop all communication shortly after I had confessed to being blind. Not ready to give up on meeting someone, I opted to plunge into the world of chatrooms to give that channel a chance. On Adam4Adam and Grinder, I was met with similar feedback. Guys wanted to meet up until they found out I was blind. Once the cat was out of the bag, the men would say something along the lines of, “Let’s meet up some other time.” Then there was someone I will call JazzGuy, since his web identity on Adam4Adam is the name of an old jazz tune. He was forever chatting about music and, in fact, we chatted so much about lyrics and artists that I would always forget to tell him I was blind. For weeks, we chatted here and there about all things music – never sharing anything personal about each other. Aside from knowing he was 31 and lived in San Francisco, I knew more about his musical likes and dislikes than anything else. A week before Valentine’s Day, I sat down before my computer and began to cancel my memberships to the dating sites. It was hard to stomach the fact that my blind ad had only received one response across the different services I enrolled with, while my other ad had sent 124 bachelors my way. Still, out of the 124 gay men I connected with via the dating sites, none made the effort to want to meet me once they learned about my lack of sight. And the 70-year-old, well, he never replied to my note that explained that, like my ad mentioned, I wanted to date men near my age, but that I was open to something platonic. I logged onto Adam4Adam to close my account when JazzGuy messaged me. Feeling that old hunter instinct, I asked for his number and promised to call later that evening. A few hours later, I nestled into my sofa wearing my pajamas to dial JazzGuy. He answered after the second ring and his greeting sounded like a song. We jumped into our familiar musical observations and time quickly went by. When he mentioned he had something to share, I told him I too wanted to confess something and asked to go first. After I said I was blind, my admission was met with hearty laughs. “Me too,” he breathed. “I’m a total.” “Me too,” I echoed, my voice full of surprise. We made plans to meet up that weekend and neither one of us asked about each other’s cause of blindness. I suppose that’s a conversation better suited for an in-person meeting. I jumped into bed and reflected on all of the men who didn’t want to even invest in a friendship because of my disability. Smiling, I thanked my blindness for filtering out all the men who, for one reason or another, didn’t have an open heart.t Belo Cipriani is a staffing professional, the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams, a spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the career expert for the Ed Baxter Show on Talk Radio San Francisco 910AM. Learn more at BeloCipriani.com.

On the web Online content this week includes the Transmissions column. www.ebar.com.

t <<

International News>>

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Out in the World

From page 1

“I would say very clearly the fact that I haven’t heard of particular initiatives from the U.K. foreign office on the plight of LGBTI Iraqis does not mean that nothing has been done, but it certainly hasn’t been of the level that it has come to my attention,” Stern added. The U.S. has a long record of what it’s done to protect LGBT Iraqis, she pointed out. “The U.S. has actually addressed issues of LGBT Iraqis,” Stern said. “It has raised issues of LGBTI Iraqis in bilateral affairs going back seven years. It’s funded the evacuation of LGBTI Iraqis. It has supported the effort of a broad range of Iraqi organizations to address gender-based violence.” However, she believed the U.S. and other governments could do more. Some of her recommendations were included in the recently published report about LGBT Iraqis. Additionally, Stern suggested that the U.K. and U.S. should put pressure upon the Iraqi government to halt sweeps of radio stations that are speaking out for human rights and illegal raids by militias, as some examples. “I think so long as people are being murdered based on their actual or perceived sexual lives or identities then it will never be enough. The government actions will never be enough, because government action will only be enough when the problem ceases to exist,” said Stern.

Revealing what was being done

The B.A.R. found all but one of the documents included in the redacted U.S. FOIA report on WikiLeaks, as well as another document that wasn’t included in the report that addressed the situation of LGBT Iraqis in Iraq. All but one of the reports was unredacted. The documents show that there was heightened concern about LGBT Iraqis by the Ministry of Human Rights in Iraq, and governments in the U.K. and U.S. during the spring of 2009, but untangling facts proved to be a challenge. In the reports, officials of the three governments confirmed a rash of murders of gay men were at the hands of militias. This was after reports of kidnappings of gay Iraqi men by militias who tortured them – even gluing their anuses shut and feeding them laxatives until they died – surfaced in American and Iraqi media in 2009. It was these reports that prompted Petrelis to file a FOIA request in a quest to find out what the U.K. and U.S. were doing in Iraq, particularly what they were doing to protect LGBT Iraqis, he said. “At the time we had many more troops there and greater influence in Iraq,” said Petrelis, who in 2009 was working with other LGBT global advocates to “have the foreign governments put pressure on the Iraqis to protect the gays.” However, Wijdan Selim, the minister of human rights of Iraq, confirmed in the report that claims of more than 100 LGBT Iraqis sitting on death row that came from Iraq LGBT, a UK-based organization that is now defunct, weren’t valid. Additionally, evidence of claims from the same organization that individuals were convicted of homosexuality wasn’t found in an investigation, she said in a 2009 report. Representatives of Iraq, the U.K. and the U.S. attributed a “spate of murders of homosexual men in Baghdad” early in April 2009, to militias responding to religious leaders’ calls to “eradicate homosexuality” or for families to reclaim so-called family honor. Selim, who was identified as a Christian in another report in De-

Courtesy IGLHRC

IGLHRC Executive Director Jessica Stern

cember 2009, raised concerns about Iraqi Security Forces and the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq and the effect it would have on the little progress made toward human rights, including LGBTs. Some of the ISF members sided with religious leaders and militias on the gay issue, in spite of homosexuality not being illegal for adults in Iraq, she informed U.K. and U.S. officials during a meeting in April, according to the July 10, 2009 report. But the law is vague, being left open to interpretation; for example by some Iraqi religious leaders and communities who consider homosexuality a crime under Islamic (Sharia) law.

Extremist religious leaders and militias, such as the Jaysh al-Mahdi and the Badr Brigade, were already campaigning for people to turn in anyone they believed to be homosexual. Muqtada al-Sadr, a leader of the Jaysh al-Mahdi, “ordered that the ‘depravity’ of homosexuality be eradicated,” on May 29, according to a July 10, 2009 state department email. Police were infiltrated with followers of the extremist militias. In portions of the redacted reports, Selim pointed to the increasing rise of “Islamization of Iraqi society,” during a December 14, 2009 meeting with Jeffrey Feltman, then assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. LGBT Iraqis told Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) officials that they feel the “Islamization of Iraqi society discriminates against them,” as one of the main concerns that LGBTs cited. Selim warned government leaders that ISF was “still responsible for abuses and often denied ministry inspectors access to their detention facilities,” according to the report. Furthermore, without the coalition forces aiding her access to institutions, such as prisons, ISF authorities will block her abilities to conduct inspections. However, Selim expressed concern, along with other ministries of human rights, including the Kurds,

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8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

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ay Games 9 in Cleveland and Akron last year were the smallest Gay Games in several quadrennial cycles – but they were also by far and away the most financially successful. In their final financial report this week, GG9 organizers announced the $6.8 million event finished with a surplus of more than $147,000, which is being given to two local umbrella LGBT benefit funds. Eighty percent of the surplus, $120,000, will be given to the newly created Gay Games LGBT Legacy Fund of the Cleveland Foundation. Another 20 percent, or $27,000, goes to the Gay Community Endowment Fund of the Akron Community Foundation. “There could be a few more minor expenses left. So we kept a few thousand in the bank to take care of those,” said Thomas Nobbe, executive director of GG9. Kent State University last year released a report that indicated the games, which involved 30,000 participants, volunteers, and visitors, had a regional economic impact of $52.1 million. No wonder bidding for the Gay Games has been so competitive. GG9 was the third smallest Gay Games ever, drawing about 7,000 athletes and artists to participate. That ranks it ahead of Gay Games I and II in San Francisco and just a whisker behind Gay Games III in Vancouver. Cleveland’s immediate predecessor, Gay Games VIII in Cologne, drew about 9,000; all other Gay Games have drawn more than 10,000. But financially, the Cleveland and

Gay Games 9 Executive Director Thomas Nobbe

Akron Gay Games dwarf all others, most of which finished in the red. The first two Gay Games turned modest profits, and organizers of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago worked for a year after the event’s close to overcome a six-digit deficit caused by a 100-degree heat wave to finish barely in the black. The Cologne Gay Games lost about $280,000 and all of the other Gay Games – Vancouver in 1990, New York City in 1994, Amsterdam in 1998 and Sydney in 2002 – lost in the millions. Those seven-digit losses, as well as a tightening post-9/11 global economy, led the Federation of Gay Games the last few cycles to take a more aggressive approach with hosts on holding down expenses – particularly with opening and closing ceremonies. The Gay Games are a participant-driven event rather than spectator driven, so ticket sales have never been able to support lav-

ish Olympic-style ceremonies and hosts’ overly optimistic expectations. Organizers said GG9 spent $600,000 on marketing and about $650,000 on ceremonies. Government in-kind donations and support – such as the free use for 12 days of the Cleveland Convention Center and road closures in Akron for the marathon – were key revenue sources, as well as substantial corporate, small business, and individual donations and sponsorships. Marketing proved to be one of the biggest challenges for organizers, as indicated by the less-than-expected registration numbers. “It was a difficult sell trying to get people to come,” Nobbe said. “There were people who didn’t know anything about the Gay Games or about Cleveland and Akron. We knew we were going to provide a fabulous experience. I think we did a very good job with the dollars we had. We were not able to do a lot of things that a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign can do. There are so many more choices now than in the past.” Nobbe said GG9 marketers faced competition from the rise of more single sports and multisport local and national LGBT events such as Las Vegas’ annual Sin City Shootout. “It’s a tougher decision now whether to go to a Gay Games or two other events in their sport,” Nobbe said. “It’s no longer the only game in town. It’s harder to choose. Also we got some pushback on the length of the games. The volleyball people and swimmers, for instance, are used to a long weekend instead of a long week. We’ll see what happens in Paris.” Rob Smitherman, the associate executive director, has been in See page 9 >>

Out singer Lesley Gore dies by Ed Walsh

ervices are being held in New York Thursday for 1960s music icon Lesley Gore, best known for the hit, “It’s My Party,” which she recorded when she was just 16. Gore died of lung cancer Monday, February 16. She was 68. She is survived by her partner of 33 years, Lois Sasson. “She was a wonderful human being – caring, giving, a great feminist, great woman, great human being, great humanitarian,” Sasson, a New York jewelry designer, told the Associated Press. While Gore enjoyed a dramatic overnight success with “It’s My Party,” her coming out as a lesbian was decidedly subtler. She told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview in 2011 that she had been out to her colleagues and friends since she was in her 20s, but she never really took a more public stance until she hosted the PBS show, In the Life, in 2004. For the first time, she gave an interview in the show in which she said “we” instead of “they” when re-

Ed Walsh

Singer Lesley Gore, shown here at the Palm Springs Follies in 2011.

ferring to gay people. Gore told the B.A.R., “I am very proud of being gay and I am very proud of the wonderful friends I have made and so I think it’s important to stand up and be very proud together.” Gore’s “overnight” success actually took a week. In 1963 famed music

producer Quincy Jones heard some test recordings the teenager made while taking singing lessons and asked her to record “It’s My Party.” “Exactly seven days later I heard it on a New York radio station for the first time,” Gore told the B.A.R. “About six weeks after that it was the number one song in the nation.” Gore’s other big hits included “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” which was the sequel to “It’s My Party,” as well as the very upbeat “Sunshine and Lollipops.” Gore told the B.A.R. that her favorite song was the feminist anthem “You Don’t Own Me.” Gore tried her hand at acting in the 1960s Batman TV series. She played Catwoman’s sidekick. She and her brother, Michael, wrote “Out Here on My Own,” for the 1980 movie Fame. Gore may live on in the theater for many years to come. In 2011, she told the B.A.R. that she was looking forward to producing a musical based on her life. At the time of her death, she reportedly was working with playwright Mark Hampton on that production.t

Obituaries >> Walter E. Haught

Bradford Hume

September 9, 1927 – January 15, 2015

September 21, 1965 – January 2015

It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of Walter E. Haught, who passed on January 15, 2015 at San Francisco General Hospital. Born in Ohio September 9, 1927, Walter moved to the Bay Area in 1950. An accomplished pilot both with the U.S. Air Force and United Airlines, a generous and gentle soul with a great sense of humor and a sharp wit, Walter will be deeply missed by the many people whose lives he touched, but none more than by those who loved him. Walter is survived by Michael, his partner of 20 years.

Bradford Hume, born September 21, 1965, in Phoenix, Arizona, passed away in January 2015. He lived many places, including Philadelphia, Cairo, and San Francisco. He studied nursing at the University of Arizona and at City College of San Francisco. His drag persona, Gina Lotrimin, wore a red bouffant wig and brandished a riding crop. While activities in recent years were limited by illness, Brad had a long history of advocacy and service. He served on the HIV Health Services Planning

Council and the Housing Rights Committee. He volunteered with Maitri and the public library adult literacy program. He was a board member of Dolores Street Community Services. He fostered dogs through Wonder Dog Rescue and Rocket Dog Rescue. He was the guardian of dog Simon, who passed away. He fostered dog Arthur, who found his forever home with Brad’s mother, Nancy Hume. In addition to his mother, Brad is survived by his brother, Stephen Hume, sister-in-law, Nancy Hume, dog, Monkey (nee Chester), and many friends. A celebration of life will take place on February 28. Gather at Collingwood dog park at noon. At 1 p.m. we will walk to 18th and Castro to place pictures, flowers, and candles. RSVP to mason@dscs. org, (415) 235-2181.

t <<

Community News>>

Pink Saturday

From page 1

cials on “how Pink Saturday will be managed and by whom. I’m optimistic that we will have a path forward.”

Marriage decision’s impact

Many in the neighborhood are expressing support for the Sisters’ move. Daniel Bergerac, who’s president of the Castro Merchants group and co-owns Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub near Castro and 18th streets, said he respects the Sisters’ decision, but he’s “very concerned” about crowds flocking to the neighborhood even if there is no Pink Saturday. “I think this year’s Pride is going to be very well-attended,” said Bergerac, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether same-sex marriage should be legal in all 50 states. There will either be “a party or a protest,” he said, and even if there’s no scheduled event, the large crowds “that are genetically preprogramed to come to the Castro on the Saturday night prior to Pride” will appear. Bergerac, who lives above the dog washing service, said he’s stood in front of his door during Pink Saturday to prevent people from urinating in his doorway and breaking windows. “My preference” would be for gates and security personnel to “weed out troublemakers,” he said,

Out in the World

From page 7

that pushing the LGBT issue would increase violence against the vulnerable community. Overall, there wasn’t a desire within Iraq to raise the LGBT issue or to help LGBTs for fear of a backlash. MoHR was also overwhelmed with other pressing issues, such as sex trafficking, according to the reports. Mohanad Lateef, a 45-year-old gay Iraqi photographer who escaped to the U.S., agreed, pointing out in an interview that, “It’s difficult to protect a minority when you are not protecting the majority.” Selim informed Feltman that “her ministry is working to ensure the rights of all Iraqis,” but she warned, “raising the specific issue of LGBT murders would only make this community a bigger target for extremists,” during the December 14, 2009 meeting, according to the report. There was some progress on human rights issues. The education system was teaching human rights courses at multiple levels, but at the

Jock Talk

From page 8

charge of sports operations for the past three Gay Games but assumed an expanded role this time around. “Rob in particular was a huge squire of our budget, with keeping everything in line,” Nobbe said. Explained Smitherman, “A big part of our success was our organization. Corporate sponsorships, small business sponsorships, and individual contributions – the success of that campaign was just amazing. We had to amend the business plan with fewer registrants. The revenue side is such a big piece of the puzzle.” And therein lies one of the major challenges that will face Paris for Gay Games X in 2018. The budgets of all of the Gay Games held in the United States have relied heavily on donations and sponsorships from the private sector; those outside the United States have had to rely more heavily on support from politically unpredictable governments, and have had difficulty in landing sponsorships. For them to succeed, the Federation of Gay Games will have to develop more major sponsorships it can bring from one Gay Games to the next. Personally, although overall I am a huge supporter of the Gay Games and wish them well, I think Cleve-

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

and a “full police presence.” However, “I just don’t know what a good solution is,” said Bergerac. “I don’t want it to be a police state, yet at the same time I don’t want Sisters getting beaten up.” Greg Carey, chair of the Castro Community on Patrol volunteer group, said with “large numbers of people” still likely to come to the neighborhood, there will still need to be “a layer of security there that the public will respect and not see as a police action.” Like others, Carey’s concerned about “non-LGBT troublemakers.” “Maybe if there’s not a party, maybe they won’t show up, but I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “That’s my biggest concern, is people intent on causing harm to LGBT people” and making it “open hunting season.” Carey noted the police presence and other forms of security at the event in past years, and he said his group would need to see any new plans, including security, “to see whether it’s advisable for us to have volunteers in the event.” The Sisters put an “amazing” amount of work into the festival, said Carey, and “I’m not sure other organizations are as well-equipped” to handle “the behind-the-scenes logistics.” Pink Saturday has often been mistaken as an official Pride event, but Pride festivities are organized by

the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. George Ridgely, Pride’s executive director, said his organization doesn’t “have the resources to take on an event” the size of Pink Saturday as his group works on its own parade and two-day festival. “I don’t see a way that we could take it on,” he said.

same time Islamic religious education also had become a part of Iraq’s public education system, Selim pointed out. Selim wasn’t convinced by Feltman’s reassurance that she wouldn’t lose support when the coalition forces withdrew. Lack of support by the U.K. and U.S. was already occurring. She expressed frustration with lack of support from the two countries and that her warnings weren’t being heeded by the government of Iraq. The WikiLeaks reports revealed that the U.S. was concerned about what was happening in Iraq, especially with the LGBT community. However, officials concealed that concern and the actions taken at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to get LGBTs out of the country in April and May 2009. Neither LGB members of Congress nor the State Department responded to multiple requests for comment. “I’m disappointed that the U.S.

State Department has not released more comprehensive information about what they were doing at the time to protect [LGBT] Iraqis,” said Petrelis, critical of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, who were in their first year of office at the time. “You don’t get any sense of what our government was doing to protect the gays at the time,” Petrelis said, after reading the unredacted WikiLeaks reports. The blacked out information wasn’t what he considered critical to national security. “We don’t have a sense that they were putting the full force of the U.S. government behind protecting the gays,” he said. Human rights experts and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (António Guterres) wouldn’t comment on the U.K. and U.S. policies in Iraq then or now, but they acknowledged their concerns for LGBT Iraqis. The UNHCR added its willingness to help LGBT Iraqis leave the country, if necessary. See page 10 >>

land marketers missed the mark in their efforts for Gay Games 9. They used too few images of women in their marketing materials, and too often their messages and images focused on the competitive, elitist aspects of sports. Nine days at a Gay Games should not be seen as a burden – it should

be seen as an investment and a commitment in building a family within a sports team. It should be marketed as a life-changing, team-bonding, community-building opportunity that comes along every four years. It’s not about winning – it’s about participating. It’s not about you or me. It’s about us.t

Disappointment and caution

‘Out of hand’

Judith Hoyem, 78, who’s lived near 17th and Castro streets for 44 years, said Pink Saturday had gotten “out of hand,” and she supports the Sisters’ decision. “It became a very unpleasant event that was happening with people not having anything to do,” said Hoyem. When the party originally started, “it was actually kind of nice. ... It was a small event, and it was local, and it wasn’t drawing crowds of people. I don’t know what happened, but it became just so outrageous.” She added that lately, “I didn’t think it was a good party, it was just a crowd. That in itself is a dangerous situation.” Hoyem wouldn’t support the city organizing another party to replace Pink Saturday, but if something is planned, “I really would like to see it be local.” She’s not too concerned about the lack of an event if large masses of people who are in the city for Pride

come to the neighborhood. “I think it needs to be very well announced that there’s no event,” she said, and “if people come and see that nothing’s happening, maybe they’ll just go away.” The Castro’s streets used to be closed off each Halloween, but that was stopped in 2007 after that party raised increasing safety concerns. “Halloween stopped,” said Hoyem, and “there’s no reason” for Pink Saturday not to end, too, although the first year without it “might be tricky.” Many feel the crowds at each Pink Saturday got rowdier as the evening progressed, and the discussion over

the party’s future in recent months has included the idea of starting and ending the event earlier. Asked why the Sisters didn’t try that option before pulling out of the event, Soul, who coordinated the festival from 2012 through 2014, said problems included “conflicts with the timing of the Dyke March,” the annual event that kicked off Pink Saturday. Soul reiterated that there is no “clear leadership” to guide the Sisters’ organizing. “We keep trying different scenarios every year,” Soul said, but each year, it’s been “a matter of convincing enough people in the order to continue producing” the party.t

Starting February 21, 2015 The 415/628 Area Code Overlay BEGINS! Follow These 3 Easy Steps: For 415 Area Code Numbers

For 628 Area Code Numbers

• Your cost per call will not change. • Your local calling area will not change. • Continue to dial 9-1-1 for Emergencies.

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

STDs

From page 1

Nationwide data on STDs lags a year behind the local health department’s surveillance reports. Federal data for 2013 showed mixed results in the effort to curtail infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,401,906 chlamydia cases in 2013, resulting in a rate of 446.6 per 100,000 people. That marked a slight 1.5 percent decrease from 2012. As for gonorrhea, there were 333,004 reported cases in 2013, equaling a rate of 106.1 per 100,000 people, “overall remaining stable from 2012,” noted the CDC. According to the data for 2013, there were 17,357 reported cases of early syphilis. The total results in a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 people, a 10 percent increase from 2012. The rate had increased 11 percent in 2012 from the year prior. “Gay and bisexual men continue to be most affected,” noted the CDC in an advisory it sent out in December. The rate of primary and secondary syphilis in 2013 was the highest recorded rate since 1996, according to the National Coalition of STD Directors. In addition, the 10 percent increase in syphilis rates in 2013 was the result of increases in men, mainly gay and bisexual men. According to the coalition, there was no overall increase seen in women in 2013. Syphilis and HIV co-infection among men who have sex with men is also very common, with 52 percent of MSM with primary and secondary syphilis co-infected with HIV, reported the coalition. “This second year of double digit increases of syphilis rates is completely unacceptable and also significantly intersects with our HIV epidemic,”

Out in the World

From page 9

However, the U.K. FOIA report shows that the country was working with human rights and global LGBT rights groups, including the LGBT Iraqi group, to grasp the alleged human rights violations against LGBT Iraqis and how to best handle it. The U.K. report also showed that the Dutch government also expressed concern about the homophobic murders of Iraqi LGBTs and was working with the U.K. to attempt to solve the issue. The U.K. report showed that the country was involved in the conversation in 2009. “There is still every reason for human rights advocates and gay activists to say we want gay people protected in Iraq,” argued Petrelis. Petrelis believes then and now that there is “every reason for American gays to be concerned about our State Department and what it did or did not do in 2009.” In his mind, an informed LGBT community and

Political Notebook

From page 5

volunteer organizations committee, which reviews chartership applications. Should the committee vote in approval then the matter will be put to a vote before the delegates to the party convention. Close to 40 of the party delegates are Log Cabin members. “The committee that approves that is stacked favorably for us, in that regard,” said Moran, who is a member of it. “The onus falls on us as an organization to provide an application package that is clean, well organized, and every T is crossed and every I is dotted.” Kevin Krick, president of the Marin Log Cabin chapter and chair of the Marin County Republican Central Committee, said he is “very optimistic” of the group’s chances. “We have our paperwork in order,” said Krick, who is also the Bay Area regional vice chair for the California Republican Party. “Do I

stated William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. “This continues to affect populations already disproportionately impacted by all STDs, including HIV, most notably gay men and other men who have sex with men.” Locally, health officials point to several factors behind the continued increases in STDs. Many HIV-positive men forgo using condoms by choosing to only partner with other HIV-positive men, a practice known as sero-sorting, thus increasing their risks for contracting STDs from their sex partners. Negative men using pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP for short, to protect themselves from contracting HIV put themselves at risk for STD transmission if they also forgo using condoms, note health officials. While the use of PrEP in San Francisco “took off in 2014,” said Cohen, there is no evidence linking it to the rise in local STD rates. “I think that from what we have seen in randomized, controlled PrEP trials, and from early experience in real world settings, risk behaviors do not change among people using PrEP overall,” said Cohen. The health department’s STD control branch remains “supportive” of PrEP as part of the city’s “overall HIV prevention strategy,” stressed Cohen. But users of the once-a-day-pill need to be reminded it does not prevent the transmission of STDs like syphilis and gonorrhea. “I think the fact that the whole toolkit of biomedical HIV prevention strategies we have, which includes PrEP, have no protection against STDs is really important for people to keep in mind,” she said. Local health officials continue to recommend that all sexually active people be tested for STDs every three to six months.t allies can help the government help protect LGBT Iraqis.t Next week, LGBT Iraqis who are now in the U.S. discuss their homeland. To read the FOIA reports, visit https://docs.google.com/ file/d/0B1B-q9WCAYaNNmU5MjBmZDEtYjdjZC00NDAxLTkwYTgtNDQ4MGEzNWZlNzVl/ edit?ddrp=1&hl=en# and https:// docs.google.com/file/d/0B1Bq9WCAYaNNzdlZDExYjQtOTU5Zi00N2ZjLWI1NTUtNWNiYWViYjIyYmYw/edit?ddrp=1&hl=en# for U.K.; visit https://drive.google. com/file/d/0B1B-q9WCAYaNYnlvUjVwQ0dxMjg/view?usp=sharing for U.S. To sign the petition urging congress to take action in support of LGBT Iraqis, visit http://iglhrc. org/action/iraq-lgbt-congress. Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-2213541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

think it is going to happen? Yes.” It is unclear if any of the statewide Log Cabin chapters – the organization has established chapters in 24 states and the District of Columbia – are currently officially sanctioned by their state GOP. Log Cabin Republicans national Executive Director Gregory T. Angelo referred the Bay Area Reporter to California leaders in response to questions. Moran said he believes there are at least one or possibly two Log Cabin state chapters that are officially sanctioned by their state Republican Party. “I am not sure which ones but I do not believe we are the first,” said Moran. Receiving chartership status for Log Cabin California will be a capstone to Moran’s six years as chairman. He is stepping down this month, with his successor to be elected during the convention weekend. “I can’t tell you who yet. I have appointed a committee that is putting together the slate,” he said.t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036269500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO KOOKIES, 421 KIRKHAM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAYMOND CHIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036265500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YONG FA, 5151 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed CAN QUAN ZHOU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036265600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIAM ORCHID THAI MASSAGE, 39 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MONTAKARN PHUKAB. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036265000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TIGER N PEPPER, 424 STAPLES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLESIE YONN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/23/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036268000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAMER1, 21 COLUMBIA SQ, #214, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CAMERON MOBERG. 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 01/26/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036258000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SILVER COMPUTERS, 6835 GEARY BLVD, #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EUGENE ABEZGAUZ. 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 01/20/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036233900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036263000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036274300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JWDESIGNCO, 475 CONNECTICUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JULIE WERTZ DESIGN CO., LLC (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 01/22/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EUROPEAN WAX CENTER, 2675 GEARY BLVD., #E-102, SAN FRANCISCO CA, 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability corporation, and is signed TCTSF VENTURES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036282100

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036245400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOULWORKS, 2920 WEBSTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARISAN FUNK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036229800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MREMBO KINGDOM MK, 5532 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN TREMEROLI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/05/2015. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036281200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VRIHEAS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT; MVELECTRIC, 467 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS M. VRIHEAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/91. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036270700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JSERVICES99, 1336 SHAFTER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JONATHAN MENDOZA ESTRADA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036267600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALI STAR IMPORTS, 565 GEARY ST, #512, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JALIL MAHDI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036276800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: I LUV MY BODY FITNESS LLC, 901 MINNESOTA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed I LUV MY BODY FITNESS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/07/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036273600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BE FIT, 420 SEVERN LANE, HILLSBOROUGH, CA 94010. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BE FIT SF LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036271100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEESEPUD, 2154 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NXT GROUP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032656300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: PACIFIC VIEW CLEANERS, 6907 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by SUPPAKIT MANEEROJ. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/10.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036291000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CBPOTTER PRODUCTIONS, 1049 MARKET ST, #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHAD BENJAMIN POTTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/05/15.

FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036299300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GUERRA CONSIGLIERI, 60 RAUSCH ST, #208, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JASMIN BARRAZA-GUERRA. 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 01/07/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PALOMETA, 1139 DIVISADERO ST, #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GAGAN KANWAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STUDIO MAVEN, 730 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AUDREY BAUER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036238700

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036246500

FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036266400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COOKIE LOVE, 1488 PINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIKA ANN OLSON. 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 01/08/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036257800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLOWERS INDEED! 510 LANSDALE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GREGORY CANNON LUM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036263800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ZILK STUDIO, 3833 LAWTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed ZARISHEILI ORTEGA MELENDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/22/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036261500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BASS & REINER, 3265 17TH ST, #402, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MARIEL BAYONA; CHRIS GRUNDER; CLEA MASSIANI; EMILY REYNOLDS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036261600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PESBAS QUICK FOOD, 393 EDDY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed KHALED OMER; MOHAMMED A. ALMORAISSI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036281000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INVENTION STORE, 3 LIBERTY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INVENT (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/15.

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036278400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VIEWPOINT LAW GROUP, 100 PINE ST, #1250, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL J. NEIBERGS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/15.

FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036291800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PLACHUTIN CONSULTING; YERBA BUENA DARTS, 879 42ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOANNE PLACHUTIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/06/15.

FEB 12, 19, 26 MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036290900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COZY CASTRO, 129 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CORINNE SUE WICK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/0515.

FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036275902

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TYCOON CAFE & RESTAURANT, 620 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ANCHALEE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AVENUE, 3361 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BING CONSULTING SERVICES (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/30/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FAR & AWAY CO; FAR AND AWAY CO, 59 W. VIEW AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ADRIAN M. SYMCOX. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/04/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/29/15.

JAN 29, FEB 05, 12, 19, 2015

FEB 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015

FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015

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February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

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FEB 12, 19, 26, MAR 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036303500

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FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036310000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY CENTER; PACIFIC CBT, 1801 BUSH ST #206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN R. MONTOPOLI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036298000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036312000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLAUDIO MARTONFFY DESIGN, 120 PIERCE ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CLAUDIO MARTONFFY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/17/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036306300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAMAS SELF CARE, 1340 DE HARO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATHLEEN CARIFFE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036304000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAJAYDEN MANAGEMENT GROUP, 660 4TH ST #533, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WAYNE BURGESS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/12/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036307700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALEX’S TIRE AND ALIGNMENT, INC, 38 OTIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALEX’S TIRE AND ALIGNMENT, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/12/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036297900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as:, 1812 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is V1 WIRELESS conducted by a corporation, and is signed V1 WIRELESS 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 02/09/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036297600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: V1 WIRELESS, 863 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed V1 WIRELESS 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 02/09/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036297400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: V1 WIRELESS, 440 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed V1 WIRELESS 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 02/09/15.

FEB 19, 26, MAR 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036306400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACQUOLINA, 1600 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MARUDA, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/13/15.

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The

Vol. 45 • No. 8 • February 19-25, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

atti LuPone P

takes a musical journey

by Adam Sandel

roadway legend Patti LuPone last came to San Francisco in 2013, when she performed an abbreviated cabaret version of her concert Far Away Places at the intimate Rrazz Room. Now the two-time Tony Award-winner with the powerhouse pipes is coming back. She’ll perform the complete two-act concert, with a five-piece band, at Davies Symphony Hall on Mon., Feb. 23. See page 14 >>

Richard Termine

From the dungeon to the stage by Richard Dodds

he annals on the topic are admittedly spotty, but Home Street Home may be the first Broadway-intended musical to have its production meetings in a BDSM dungeon. When Tony Award-winner Jeff Marx (Avenue Q), punk rock star Fat Mike Burnett of NOFX, and professional dominatrix Goddess Soma Snakeoil decided to discuss a possible collaboration, Soma suggested a meeting at her studio – without mentioning to Marx the nature of her for-hire Los Angeles facility. See page 22 >>

Broadway composer Jeff Marx and punk rocker Fat Mike flank Goddess Soma Snakeoil, an unlikely trio who have created the musical Home Street Home having its official launch in San Francisco.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Shervin Lainez

T HE T HR I LL OF DISCOVERY PA C I F I C O R C H I D E X P O S I T I O N

FEBRUARY 20 - 22

G A L A B E N E F I T P R E V I E W: T H U R S . , F E B .19 RARE & NEVER BEFORE SEEN ORCHIDS FORT MA SO N CENTE R’S FESTIVAL PAV IL IO N, S AN FRANCIS CO

orchidsanfrancisco.org

<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Of arts critics & dedicated fans by Roberto Friedman

aybe it’s because we’re in the midst of San Francisco Ballet season again, but recently we dreamed about the late B.A.R. dance and music critic Stephanie von Buchau. She was dressed not as she did in real life (think Grateful Dead tour T-shirts), but resplendent in fine draperies as if she were a Spanish Reina straight out of Velasquez. We have no idea why our dreaming mind costumed her in this way, unless it was a reference to her famous Grand Tour across Europe as a young woman. Von Buchau and Out There used to gossip. We’d chortle and hoot over our favorite ballerinos, how beautiful they were in life and limb, like thoroughbred racehorses. She would also share dirty jokes that her father told her, we mean weekly, because she loved to get a rise out of us. The queen of syndicated reviews, she always told us that we were her

favorite editor. We thought she was just blowing smoke up the OT posterior. Then she passed, and some of her other editors confirmed she’d characterized us the same way. But of course she had good taste. Recently the San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman summoned the memory of Stephanie in a Sunday piece as well. “San Francisco operagoers of a certain vintage still recall a famous incident when the imperious [San Francisco Opera] general director Kurt Herbert Adler tried to bar Stephanie von Buchau – an outspoken and terrifyingly knowledgeable critic – from the War Memorial Opera House because she had dared to cast doubt on the conducting abilities of Mstislav Rostropovich. Adler was compelled to back down, but not before he’d been made to look very silly.” One didn’t mess with Stephanie. We all need our critics to give perspective, to offer frank consumer advice, to rave when appropriate,

but also to give pause. We pray to the goddesses and muses of Arts & Culture you won’t find our columnists platitudinous, or our reportage all happy news. Good criticism observes the positives and the negatives, but that’s not all.

Flower power

Our predecessor in this column could be quite colorful about his nemesis, the SFB and SFO patron who made it his business to chuck bouquets at leading ladies during their curtain calls. Original Out There referred to this person as the Flower-Thrower, or sometimes as the Weed-Flinger. A recent thumbsucker in The New York Times about the phenom got the party started again with our correspondent the Boston Bonnet. “Mr. Bobby, the NYT article perfectly describes the F-T’s genealogy. I have to admit that in my youth I tossed cheap bouquets at divas,” the BB divulged, “usually Beverly Sills and Shirley Verrett, at the Boston Opera. It is a lost art, alas, which the FT practiced badly.” “Tiptoeing (on Point) Through the Tulips – The Rules and Hazards of Presenting Flowers in Ballet” by NYT reporter Roslyn Sulcas was full of colorful background, such as, “‘Back in the day, the fans used to queue overnight for tickets, and there was a very striking woman, dressed in a black velvet cloak, who used to run the queue, collect money for flowers and organize throws from the amphitheater,’ Mr. Welford said, referring to the tradition of pelting dancers with loose flowers from the topmost part of the theater.

Patti LuPone

From page 13

Far Away Places is LuPone’s musical journey of songs by an eclectic list of songwriters including Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Willie Nelson, Kurt Weill, Edith Piaf, and the Bee Gees. She’s currently appearing in L.A. Opera’s West Coast premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles (through March 1). But she recently took time out of her whirlwind schedule for a phone interview to discuss the highlights of her storied career, and her upcoming San Francisco appearance. LuPone has performed various versions of Far Away Places in tiny cabarets and at Carnegie Hall, but she isn’t daunted by the challenge of adjusting

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San Francisco Ballet dancer Davit Karapetyan in Alexei Ratmansky’s Shostakovich Trilogy, returning to the SFB stage this season.

“So what’s it like to get hit by streams of flowers coming at you from four stories up? ‘Pretty scary, but kind of lovely,’ said Leanne Benjamin, a former Royal Ballet principal who retired (amid showers of blooms) last year. ‘But my gratitude was mixed with worry about what would happen to them. Would they go into a vase?’ “In Margot Fonteyn’s autobiography, she tells of a moment during a Royal Ballet visit to Russia when she was struck in the chest ‘by a remarkably solid and heavy water lily’ after performing Ondine. ‘It was an appropriate flower,’ Fonteyn writes with a certain sang-froid, ‘but I wished they would stick to daisies and cornflowers.’ “Fonteyn also recounts: ‘A frontrow enthusiast found he could lob his little bunches of flowers over the orchestra pit more successfully

if they were weighted. I had to keep a very wary eye on his missiles as I was bowing and smiling graciously in front of the curtain.’’’ It’s hard out there for a prima ballerina, especially with rabid fans in the footlights. SvB was one of the biggest aficianados. Finally, happy Chinese New Year 2015 to all of our dear readers on whatever calendars. A bit of a ram, OT sampled the Year of the Sheep signature menu at Hakkasan in time for the upcoming celebrations. As always, the offerings are delectable and symbolic. A platter of dim sum is meant to bring blessings descending upon your house. Spicy lamb lumin wrap was designed for revelry. Other courses symbolize prosperity (golden fried prawns), honor (sha cha mock duck), health and wealth (abalone and dry shrimp fried rice). These Chinese New Year signature dishes are our kind of fortune cookie! Joke!t

her performance to fit the venue. “It’s all a challenge, just to step on stage,” she says. “There are always nerves until there aren’t. The key is to understand how to fill a space regardless of its size. I like playing big theatres because I have a big voice. If it’s a space with great acoustics, like Davies Hall, that makes it easy.” The Broadway baby has played several San Francisco engagements over the years, including the preBroadway run of Evita (which earned her a Tony and made her a star), and several SF Symphony gigs, including the 2001 concert version of Sweeney Todd, which was filmed for PBS. Yet she doesn’t notice a particular difference between San Francisco audiences and those in New York. “If you do a good show, every audience responds. If the show is good, they let you know. If it’s not, they let you know.” Speaking of not knowing how an audience will respond, LuPone cites the first performance of the nowlegendary musical Les Miserables, in which she created the role of Fantine. “When we opened at the Barbican Centre in London, the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, [director] Trevor Nunn told us, ‘Don’t expect anything. They’re not used to seeing musicals here.’ And at the end, they were on their feet cheering. You never know what to expect.” Known as much for her dramatic roles as her musical theatre tours de force, LuPone recently appeared on Broadway in David Mamet’s play The Anarchist, and in her Tony-nominated turn in the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Growing up on Long Island, the 5’2” LuPone was most inspired by two other diminutive divas: Bette Davis and Edith Piaf. “The power of their performances was incredible,” she says. “They were not the most beautiful women, but they both had tremendous power.” In her best-selling memoir Patti LuPone: A Memoir, she details the ups and downs of her many performances with a candor seldom found in celebrity autobiographies. In our conversation, she admits that some

of her roles were especially demanding. “Evita, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy [for which she won her second Tony] were the most challenging,” she says. “Mama Rose in Gypsy was the most physically challenging role, because it needs every ounce of energy you’ve got.” LuPone is most proud of her New York concert performance of Sweeney Todd in 2000. “It was the quintessential New York moment: performing the music of Broadway’s greatest composer, Stephen Sondheim, at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, with the New York Philharmonic. That was my proudest moment.” Yet she has no dream roles on her bucket list. “I gave up wishing for roles a long time ago,” she says. “I realized that the roles that come are the ones that should.” Her all-too-rare but always welcome television appearances include recent roles on Law & Order SVU, playing herself on HBO’s Girls, and most memorably as the Bible-thumping next-door neighbor on last season’s American Horror Story: Coven. “That was great,” she says. “How can you complain about shooting a TV show in New Orleans? We had a great director, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and a wonderful cast. I was very proud to be a part of it. I was the only one on the show not to play a witch, but I’m going to be in the second season of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful. I play a 200-year-old witch who harnesses Vanessa’s energy.” The quintessential Broadway star is looking forward to returning to Northern California. “I love San Francisco, and the area north of there,” she says. “I love Mendocino. Some day I want to spend an entire summer there.”t Patti LuPone: Far Away Places, conceived and directed by Scott Wittman; musical arrangements by Joseph Thalken. Mon., Feb. 23 at 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Tickets: (415) 864-6000 or sfsymphony.org/BuyTickets/2014-2015/Patti-LuPoneFar-Away-Places.aspx.

Theatre>>

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

The mostly fabulous life of Sylvester by Richard Dodds

“

hat did your family say when they found out you were going to be a drag queen?” “I’m not a drag queen. I’m Sylvester.” That 1986 exchange between Joan Rivers and Sylvester can easily be found on YouTube, and the singer’s response is repeated in Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical. By the end of the fast-paced musical biography, we are happily convinced that he was indeed his own fabulous creation. But you might know that already. Mighty Real was first seen last year in New York, but its San Francisco run at Brava Theatre Center feels more like a homecoming than a follow-up engagement. Sylvester James Jr. was born in Los Angeles, but it was in our city that he could personally flourish, develop a career that followed no previously established groove, and where he drew his last breath less than two years after his appearance on Joan Rivers’ talk show. The new musical posits that Sylvester has been granted one more night to tell us his story in his own words. And, of course, through his music. Outfitted in a fur coat, sequined top, and leather pants, Sylvester makes his entrance in the form of Anthony Wayne, a youthful Broadway veteran who authored the show and co-directed it with Kend-

Joan Marcus

Anthony Wayne stars as disco legend Sylvester in the musical biography Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, now playing at Brava Theatre Center.

rell Bowman (also the costume designer). “I’m going to take you on a journey of fantastic highs and some interesting lows,” Wayne, as Sylvester, tells us at the start. It is necessarily a shorthand version of Sylvester’s life, a mix of the

revelatory and platitudinous, but Wayne effectively communicates the key junctures. As a singer, Wayne can certainly take his voice to stratospheric levels, but the texture and warmth that Sylvester projected can get lost in the heavily amplified show.

It’s also a problem because Sylvester’s two most recognizable disco hits are saved for the finale, with less distinguished songs from his catalog providing much of the show’s middle. But Wayne is not the only performer who gets to sing, and some

Is there an Oscar curse? by Tavo Amador

espite the ever-increasing plethora of movie awards, the Oscar remains the most coveted film prize. Winning is presumed to launch, revitalize, or sustain a career. But it doesn’t always work that way. The recent death of one-time MGM star Luise Rainer (1910-2014), the first to win consecutive acting Academy Awards, resurrected stories of an Oscar “curse.” “For my second and third pictures, I won Academy Awards. Nothing worse could have happened to me,” Rainer said. Because of the wins, she claimed that the studio “thought they could throw me into anything.” She won for playing Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) – famous for her smilingthrough-the-tears telephone scene – and as the nearly silent O-Lan in The Good Earth (1937). Both were prestige pictures, but her five subsequent MGM films were comparable to those given to other studio stars, like Joan Crawford. Rainer’s acting style quickly lost favor with the public. That, not her winning two Oscars, curtailed her career. Rainer may be the best-known winner to get so little from the award, but she wasn’t the first. Mary Pickford (1892-1979), probably the most popular star in history, successfully made the transition from silents to talkies, winning the Best Actress Oscar for Coquette (1929). But audiences didn’t like her in sophisticated, adult roles – she had played children in many of her earlier films. She and then-husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., failed with The Taming of the Shrew (1929), and she made just three more films before retiring in 1933, only 41. The well-established Emil Jannings (1884-1950) was the first Best Actor Oscar winner, for The Way of All Flesh (1927) and The Last Command (1928). He had another triumph, as Marlene Dietrich’s hapless victim in The Blue Angel (1930), but, perhaps because of his heavy accent, worked only in his native Germany, where he dedicated himself to sup-

Actress Luise Rainer in 2011, in Berlin, Germany.

porting the Nazis, and, after 1945, didn’t make another movie. Helen Hayes (1900-93) collected the Best Actress prize for 1931’s The Sin of Madelon Claudet, had hits opposite Ronald Coleman in Arrowsmith (1931) and Gary Cooper in A Farewell to Arms (1932), but the public and critics lamented her lack of glamour. She made seven more films, the last in 1935, turned to Broadway and became “the First Lady of the American Theatre.” She appeared on the screen periodically, notably in My Son John (1952), as the dowager empress in Anastasia (1956), and in Airport (1980), for which she earned

Ronald Coleman as a young actor.

the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Often, the Academy bestows its award as belated recognition, capping a career that was essentially over, and the win is misperceived as a “curse.” This happened to Ronald Coleman (1891-1958), winner of the Best Actor Oscar for 1947’s A Double Life. He had been popular in silents, became an even bigger star in talkies, but after his win, waited three years for another picture, worked on television, and had cameos in 1956’s Around the World in 80 Days and in 1957’s The Story of Mankind. Similarly, Susan Hayward (1917-75) grabbed the little man on her fourth Best Actress nomination,

for 1958’s I Want To Live, approximately her 50th picture in a career than began in 1937. She made only eight more movies through 1964, none of them distinguished, then returned in supporting roles in The Honey Pot and in The Valley of the Dolls (1967), which she stole from the leads. It was her last movie. Middle-aged actresses who don’t fit the conventional beauty mold seldom get a lift from winning. Shirley Booth (1898-1992) repeated her stage triumph in gay playwright William Inge’s Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), wining the Best Actress Oscar for what was essentially her screen debut. She made only

of the brightest musical moments come early on in the form of hit songs by other artists who Sylvester tells us helped inform his musical identity. Anastasia McCleskey, Jacqueline B. Arnold, and Deanne Stewart take turns performing such songs as “Respect,” “Proud Mary,” and “Lady Marmalade” in the styles of the original artists, and McCleskey and Arnold also play Sylvester’s backup duo Two Tons o’ Fun – later known as the Weather Girls, and, yes, “It’s Raining Men” is in the show. A five-piece onstage band provides versatile accompaniment. Sylvester made his last major public appearance in a wheelchair at the 1988 Gay Freedom Parade leading the People with AIDS contingent. When the onstage Sylvester began recalling this moment, there were bursts of applause from some in the audience who may well have experienced the moment first hand. But a musical with “fabulous” in its subtitle isn’t likely to end on a somber note, and it takes no coaxing to get the crowd on its feet as “Dance (Disco Heat)” and then “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” get fullthrottle treatments. The musical makes it clear that that’s the way Sylvester would have wanted it.t Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical will run through March 1 at Brava Theatre Center. Tickets are $30-$65. Call 641-7657 or go to brava.org.

three more pictures, including the movie version of gay author Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker (1958). Booth was a plain, heavyset character actress, and good roles for her were scarce. She found true stardom on television as Hazel (196166). Anna Magnani (1908-73) was one of Italy’s most admired actresses, and became an international star with her unforgettable performance in Roberto Rossellini’s Rome: Open City (1945). Gay dramatist Tennessee Williams wrote The Rose Tattoo for her, but she refused to appear on Broadway in it because her English was limited. She won the Best Actress Oscar for the 1955 film version, but made only three more Hollywood pictures, earning a nomination for Wild Is the Wind (1957), mesmerizing opposite Marlon Brando in Williams’ The Fugitive Kind (1960), and wasted in 1969’s The Secret of Santa Vittoria. Even roles in Italian movies were few. Magnani wasn’t nubile when Hollywood recognized her. Critics admired her, but audiences were more interested in younger, more typically sexy Italian actresses like Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. More recently, Liza Minnelli’s (b. 1946) win for Cabaret (1972) failed to lead to major screen stardom, in part because musicals went out of fashion, and in part because she made poor choices. Louise Fletcher’s (b. 1924) triumph as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) didn’t result in more great roles – again, probably because she was middle-aged. She has, however, worked steadily. Then, of course, there is Roberto Benigni (b. 1952), the unlikely Best Actor winner for La Vita e Bella (1998). Not surprisingly, international stardom didn’t come. He appeared in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love (2012), but who remembers him? Despite these cautionary examples, collecting an Oscar is a good thing. There is no “curse.” But winning doesn’t guarantee a great career or ongoing stardom.t

<< Music

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Blomstedt fortnight captivates by Philip Campbell

erbert Blomstedt, esteemed former Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and Conductor Laureate ever since his departure from Davies Symphony Hall two decades ago, is currently at the halfway mark of his latest annual return visit. The fortnights he usually spends here have become comfortably predictable, and a programming pattern has emerged, with selections often chosen from the greatest hits he created during his treasurable and orchestra-building tenure. Unsurprisingly, the Americanborn conductor raised and educated in Sweden has a fairly definitive grasp of the Nordic repertoire and an international reputation for his clear and unfussy (composer-intentions-friendly) approach to the core European catalogue of classics. Blomstedt is renowned for his leadership of Sibelius and Carl Nielsen symphonies, many recorded on award-winning discs with the SFS, and he is supremely admired for his interpretations of Bruckner and Beethoven. Last week’s concerts at DSH featured soloist Peter Serkin (he made his own debut here in 1971!) performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, with the second half of the bill given to a spacious and exalted rendition of the Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D Major. The packed house last Saturday night, Valentine’s Day, received the maestro and his guest artist affectionately. For those too young to re-

Courtesy SFS

Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt returns to Davies Symphony Hall.

member Blomstedt’s original career in the Bay Area, it afforded a chance to encounter old-school musical tradition at its best. Serkin continued to exhibit his own kind of musical-royalty heritage with a precise and plainly articulated approach to the Mozart, bolstered and complemented by Blomstedt’s warm and richly textured accompaniment. Details emerged especially in the strings, which helped showcase Serkin’s strength to full advantage, and also remind us of the composer’s genius with orchestration.

The concert had begun a surprising 15 minutes late – you had better believe it wasn’t due to the maestro – but the fleet and thoroughly satisfying Mozart performance satisfied the crowd enough to cover the late start and the inclusion of only one piece on the first half of the bill. After intermission, Blomstedt returned to the podium, ramrod straight as ever and clearly ready to settle in for the demanding arc of the magnificent Sibelius Second. Ye gods, the maestro is pushing 90, and he doesn’t look appreciably

different than when he was Music Director 30 years ago. It must have something to do with pursuing your passion, or upper-body strength, or clean-living, or all of the above, but whatever his secret to vibrant longevity, the maestro’s audiences reap the benefit. The Sibelius Second is a vast and gorgeously melodic piece, filled with reminiscences of great Russian composers like Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, but infused and enlivened by the composer’s quirky rhythms and harmonies. Sibelius

also had a gift for writing a stirring anthem, and the Second grows throughout its span to a thrilling Finale, guaranteed to urge any audience to cheers. So many younger faces in the audience – and indeed, among the orchestra – might not know the kind of epic grandeur Blomstedt is capable of, but after his marvelously assured leadership last week, it is safe to say they got the picture. The orchestra, including many stunning solo contributors, supported the maestro’s clear-eyed and boldly heroic vision with breathtaking ensemble and concentration. It was a mighty and well-earned ovation. This week, Blomstedt returns with an all-Brahms concert featuring the glorious A German Requiem. Hunt down a copy of his recording with the SFS from the last year of his contract in SF, and understand what is so enduringly important about Blomstedt’s vision. The simplest yet richest and most non-dogmatic of religious works becomes a moving testament to the human condition that also eloquently summarizes the conductor’s artistry. Ragnar Bohlin’s SFS Chorus will be appearing with baritone soloist Christian Gerhaher and soprano Ruth Ziesak, but as long as we’re strolling down memory lane, it would be kind of cool if former Chorus Director Vance George were in the house. After all, he won the 1995 Grammy Award with Blomstedt for Best Choral Performance for their recorded collaboration with the SFS on Deutsche Grammophon,t

Trials of Job, set in Northern Russia

Anna Matveeva, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Aleksei Serebriakov as Kolya in director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan.

Anna Matveeva, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Serguei Pokhodaev as Roma in director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan.

by David Lamble

f I had a vote, my choice to win this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar would be Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s bleak yet extraordinarily moving tale of an alcoholic owner of a small autorepair business, Leviathan. Even the title hints of Job and assorted Biblical curses. Leviathan unfolds along the frozen wastelands of Russia’s forbidding northern provinces – the top tier of my dining-room world map – just outside a tiny hamlet bordering the Barents Sea, an incredibly lonely spot, great for whale-spotting, or for the unraveling of a small human family. This family – Kolya (Aleksei Serebriakov), his wife Lilya (Elena Liadova) and a teenage son Roma (Serguei Pokhodaev) from an earlier marriage – bear a curse: a hard-drinking, uber-venal local

mayor, Vadim (Roman Madianov), has his eye on everything they possess: their land, their small house and Kolya’s repair shop, just scraping by. Kolya’s “ace-in-the-hole” is an old Army pal, Roman (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), a prosperous Muscovite and a powerful lawyer to boot. The two old buddies decide to dig up some dirt on the mayor, and before you can say Vladimir V. Putin, the doomsday plot is underway, with consequences none could foresee. God, how long has it been since I’ve seen a Russian film with bite, a drama whose emotional impact didn’t vanish before I’ve left the building? In the early 1980s, I recall sitting through another, similarly claustrophobic Russian family drama in the waning days of the old Soviet Union. With a swagger that befits the grandiosity of the old U.S.S.R. Communist Party in-

ner circle, the old-lion patriarch of that film hurled drunken abuse at his shrew of a wife for two hours and change. By the time the credits rolled, I felt as if I’d been released from a dark, dank prison, or from a Siberian winter. Director Zvyagintsev is, not surprisingly, from Novosibirsk, Siberia. He’s best known in the West for his 2003 drama The Return, in which a father, away from home on mysterious business for a dozen years, suddenly reappears to take his teenage sons on a camping trip to a small island where the boys undergo an invigorating series of tests to their budding manhood. So what actually happens over the 140 minutes in which Zvyagintsev (and co-writer Oleg Negin) uncork their Hobbesian-style drama in Leviathan? A lot of drinking. I thought I’d hurl something at the screen if our uncouth hero emptied even one

more of his seemingly bottomless supply of vodka bottles. Virtually everyone in the cast is sloppy drunk or deeply co-dependent; dramatically, this works because, ironically, boorish characters like the mayor are easier to take for long stretches if we can maintain an ever-so-slight sense of superiority. Suffice it to say, with Thomas Hobbes as their philosophical north star, all good deeds will be punished and at least one “innocent” party will be sacrificed to the gods – or in this case, the more appropriate metaphor would be, tossed to the wolves. This drinking man’s drama, set in environs so cold you’d think that even pure alcohol would freeze on its way to the glass, comes across in much of this season’s Oscar chat as an almost textbook illustration of the loutish political style of today’s Russia. It’s easy to see why its home-country fans might feel a tad uneasy if Leviathan notched Oscar gold, thus turning a spotlight on the Putinesque crony-capitalism vices of the mayor and his henchmen, much the way Federico Fellini used diving into public fountains

and drunken revelry to characterize the lothario-playboy lifestyle of early-60s Rome in La Dolce Vita. What would an American Leviathan look like? Sadly, we’ll probably never find out, since the American actors temperamentally and physically best-suited for the task, James Gandolfini and Philip Seymour Hoffman, have left us way too soon. Trace elements can be found in their better works: The Sopranos, Enough Said, In the Loop, Happiness and The Savages. Zvyagintsev has a keen eye for what might pass for tensionreleasing comic relief in a comparable American film, like the ongoing domestic guerrilla war between Kolya’s foul-mouthed teenage son and the second wife the kid can’t accept as a legitimate stepmom. In Leviathan, these episodes constitute a poignant, like-father, like-son preview of coming attractions. In his director’s statement, Zvyagintsev describes his ongoing fascination with Hobbes’ take on “man’s deal with the devil, [who is] a monster created by man to prevent ‘the war of all against all.’” “And the Oscar goes to...”t

Music>>

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Hot men sing by Gregg Shapiro

traight Icelandic otter Ásgeir, who co-stars alongside gay singersongwriter John Grant in the music video for his song “King and Cross,” is so hot he could almost single-handedly heat up his homeland with his domestic debut disc In the Silence (Columbia/One Little Indian). Stationed somewhere between the loveliest moments of fellow Icelanders Björk and Sigur Rós, Ásgeir is poised to make it big here in the States. Aside from his guaranteed following in the Lumbersexual community, Ásgeir will appeal to everyone who digs a singer unafraid to explore his falsetto range (“Torrent”), incorporate synth beats (“Head in the Snow”), recall Simon & Garfunkel (“Summer Guest”) and unhinge a funky beat (“King and Cross”). One thing you can say for certain about music legend Bryan Ferry is that he’s unpredictable. After releasing a handful of albums in which cover tunes (standards and Bob Dylan) figured prominently, he released the dazzling Olympia in 2010, an album of original tunes on par with his 1980s masterpieces Boys and Girls and Bête Noir. In 2012, he gave himself the standards treatment with The Jazz Age, credited to the Bryan Ferry Orchestra, performing instrumental 1920s jazz interpretations of songs from Ferry’s solo career and as Roxy Music frontman. The amazing Avonmore (BMG Rights Management) is closer in spirit to Olympia, even opening, as Olympia did, with a song that echoes Ferry’s Roxy Music roots. That song, “Loop De Li,” as well as “Midnight Train,” “Driving Me Wild,” “One Night Stand” and the dance-floor-destined title track, all make Avenmore a welcome addition to Ferry’s canon. Don’t miss Ferry’s version of Robert Palmer’s “Johnny and Mary.” Young women may have ruled the airwaves in 2014, but one man, Ed Sheeran, managed to hold his own against the opposite gender. From the David Gray tradition, in which a singer-songwriter effortlessly integrates electronic elements into his songs, Sheeran’s second full-length disc X (Atlantic) alternates between acoustic folkie tunes (“I’m a Mess,” “Tenerife Sea”) and full-on hip-hop hipness (“Sing,” “Runaway”) with unbridled success. Add Andrew McMahon’s name to that list of performers who sim-

ply have too much talent and too much to say to limit their output to one venue. McMahon, who is linked to both Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin, calls his latest project Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. If you feel like “dancing to someone else’s song,” AMITW’s eponymous debut on Vanguard gives you more than enough opportunities to do so. Songs “High Dive,” “Canyon Moon,” “Black and White Movies” and “Driving Through a Dream” sound heavily influenced by 80s pop hits and have plenty of beats to spare, while “Rainy Girl” sounds like a lost and found tune from the 1970s. Yes! (Atlantic) is the right name, including the exclamation mark, for the latest album by Jason Mraz. In a fitting follow-up to 2012’s Love Is a Four Letter Word, Mraz, a ladykiller on par with John Mayer, is growing up before our eyes and ears, offering increasingly mature songs. Whether he’s covering Boyz II Men (“It’s Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday”) or crooning his own co-compositions (“Hello, You Beautiful Thing,” “Long Drive,” “Back to the Earth”), you won’t be disappointed if you say yes to this album. Gavin DeGraw, a contemporary of Mraz’s, puts his best foot forward with the compilation Finest Hour: The Best of Gavin DeGraw (RCA). Narrowing its focus to hit songs from three of DeGraw’s five studio albums as well as a pair of soundtrack selections, Finest Hour also dares to present different versions of two songs, “In Love with a Girl” and the title tune. This 11-track collection is a decent representation of what DeGraw has to offer listeners. Paolo Nutini’s funkiest and freshest effort to date, Caustic Love (Atlantic) brings sexy back in ways

that would make Justin Timberlake’s mouth water. “Let Me Down Easy” features an interesting use of a sample by Bettye LaVette, turning it into a duet. If you didn’t know that soulscorcher “One Day” was a new tune, you’d swear it was from 1966. “Iron Sky,” the duet “Fashion” featuring a rap by Janelle Monae, “Cherry Blossom” and “Someone Like You” are all outstanding. Even the interludes, which are so often a throwaway, are worth a listen. If you think the cover art for Chad Vangaalen’s Shrink Dust album is disturbing, just wait until you get a load of songs such as “Cut Off My Hands,” “Monster,” and “Leaning on Bells.” Once you catch on that some of these songs are intended to be part of the soundtrack for a sci-fi film by VanGaalen, they might be easier to digest. Shrink Dust may cause some listeners to shrink away from it, but for those looking for something way out of the ordinary, this is it. Sadly, not hot is Neil Young’s self-indulgent Storytone (Reprise). Anyone familiar with Young’s work knows he’s capable of beauty. “Philadelphia,” his song from the movie of the same name, is one example, as is “After the Goldrush.” To be fair, the second orchestral disc of Storytone is a “rare beauty.” It’s just that the lyrics, to “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?” for example, just aren’t up to snuff, holding back the whole ambiBAR 3.75x5 online appointment ad v3.indd tious project.t

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<< Books

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Considering the collector by Brian Bromberger

Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, A Biography by Philip Gefter (Liveright Publishing/ W.W. Norton & Co., $35) t Sam Wagstaff ’s memorial in 1987, Pierre Apraxine, curator of the Gilman Paper Company Photography Collection, eulogized his legacy. “Sam taught us all his life that it is less the object at which we look that gives value to our experience, than the intensity with which we look at it. It is the intensity of the

pure act of seeing which illuminated Sam’s life.” Twenty-eight years after his death from AIDS, many would not recognize his name. In his new biography, Philip Gefter ties Wagstaff, curator, collector, patron, with his principal discovery, the nowiconic photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Because Mapplethorpe was such an essential component of Wagstaff ’s life, Gefter has written close to a dual biography. Wagstaff was born into uppercrust New York society, which he later satirized as the fancy-pants world, in 1922. His father was a

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lawyer, and his mother a social status-climber. They divorced when Sam was 10. His father more or less abandoned the family. His mother Olga remarried Donald Newhall, whose family was richer than even the Wagstaffs. A society magazine named Sam one of the 10 most attractive bachelors in New York. During WWII, Wagstaff served in the Navy. He was on board a ship at D-Day. After his military service, he worked in advertising. Finding it unsatisfying, he returned to school, studying art history. He became curator at Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut, where he organized the landmark exhibit Black, White, and Gray, the first major survey of Minimalist art. He left Wadsworth after being passed over as museum director and headed for the Detroit Institute of Arts. Here he became an advocate for Pop Art, having known and worked with Warhol. He commissioned a sculpture from the land/earth artist Michael Helzer called “Dragged Mass Displacement,” which disastrously produced a huge ditch on the museum grounds, resulting in Wagstaff quitting and returning to New York. In 1972 he met Robert Mapplethorpe, half his age, a photographer making collages out of porno pictures coupled with Catholic iconography. Mapplethorpe photographed himself naked, in jewelry and sexual paraphernalia. He lived at the Chelsea Hotel with his ex-girlfriend, the soon-to-be famous poet/rock star Patti Smith. Wagstaff claimed his interest in photography began when he saw the Flatiron photographs by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art. But Gefter implies that his fascination with photography actually began during his affair with Mapplethorpe, so that Mapplethorpe would continue the relationship. The relationship was open from the

start, and Robert did not live with Wagstaff, though he phoned him daily to recount his sexual exploits. Later the relationship evolved into a “benevolent father and his contemptuous son” arrangement, with Mapplethorpe eager to accept Wagstaff’s gifts, cash or a $15,000 loft. Wagstaff had embraced the hippie ethos in Detroit, including recreational drug use and the sexual freedom of the late 60s, which gave him permission to explore his homosexuality. It was only after his mother’s death and the financial security she bequeathed to him that the debonair Wagstaff embraced sexual liberation, though he never fully came out of the closet. Wagstaff was drawn to Mapplethorpe’s ease about his homosexuality, both in his work and life. But Wagstaff lived a don’t-ask, don’t-tell existence, constantly fearful of being found out. Only at the bitter end could he acknowledge his AIDS to his friends.

Wagstaff amassed a huge and eccentric photograph collection stretching from classical 19th-century themes to sadomasochistic images. In 1984 he sold his collection to the J. Paul Getty Museum for $5 million. Gefter advances the argument that Wagstaff was a pivotal figure in promoting photography as an art-form. In the early 1970s, photography was not taken seriously in the museum world, “lacking the ideological grandeur and artistic validity of ‘pure’ painting.” Wagstaff ’s curatorial experience, extensive arthistorical knowledge, and belief in the medium changed minds in influential circles so they reevaluated their regard for the field. Much of the book is devoted to Wagstaff ’s collection, which might be of interest to the photography aficionado. Gefter shows how Wagstaff used art as a way to attack society’s prejudice and defend his own nonconformity. Homosexuality factored into his collecting in his sensitivity to the arcane, disregarded, and overlooked. Gefter observes that Wagstaff ’s obsession with photography may have been due to the fact that he could stare at a picture in a manner he could not do at someone in the street, or at a stranger to whom he was attracted. Melancholy pervades the book. Gefter makes clear that Wagstaff paid a heavy emotional price for his success. He deserves to be remembered for transforming photography into the established art-form it is today.t

Life skills by Jim Piechota

How To Grow Up by Michelle Tea; Plume Books, $16 n the part memoir/part essay collection How To Grow Up, prolific San Francisco writer Michelle Tea circumnavigates her harried, younger, pre-domestic-bliss years to unveil a talented woman who has come a long way. Here, at the mercy of a jumpy chronological timeline, she admits to her own personal journey toward adulthood as something she’d been perennially “fighting off with the gusto of a pack of Lost Boys forever partying down in Neverland.” She escorts readers through years of struggle living in crumbling San Francisco Victorians with messy slacker roommates, and in a North Beach studio managed by a landlord who “strangled ducks for dinner on his back porch right behind our bedroom.” Other essays detail her sartorial choices from childhood through the 1980s, and on to trips to Barney’s to fawn over leather hoodies. The end of a long-term monogamous relationship signaled a sexual awakening for her, enabled by a slutty gay friend who “understood that the thrill of sex was a natural high.” Her troubles didn’t end there as she questionably pursued an affair with an East Coast recovering junkie on opiate blockers who attempted to deal the drugs at the local bus station. Tea writes with the passion for life one obtains after years of surviving hand-to-mouth with only booze and drugs for sustenance, which she details in chapters that sing with authenticity and unfettered candor. She also gives advice, and although there’s nothing earth-shatteringly new offered, the wake-up call is

welcome and often strikingly funny in a biting kind of way: “Don’t date people who sell pills in bus stations.” “No more sex addicts.” “Drinking fermented beverages really puts you at a disadvantage in an argument.” We get it. Once full of bad habits, drugs and drinking, the “grown up” version of Michelle Tea, at 43, now writes of dignity, body confidence, true love, newfound hope and wedding bells with beau Dashiell, and getting over the slump of immaturity that, for some, can take a lifetime. By turns self-conscious and juvenile, loudmouthed and lyrical, the author summons the demons of her past to gather around for one final vanquishing in an effort to usher in the prime-time years of her adulthood. Host of the monthly Radar Reading Series at the San Francisco Public Library and the author of the forthcoming sequel to her youngadult fiction Mermaid in Chelsea Creek, Girl at the Bottom of the Sea, Tea is brave enough to tell her story of growing up with a straight face, and relieved to have survived it all in order to share it with humor, bracing honesty, and grace.t

DVD>>

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

The devil made me do it by David Lamble

s a kid growing up during the final days of Hollywood’s studio system, I endured more than my share of “God-orama” Biblical epics: pretentious, ponderous, windy crimes against celluloid, usually produced by that old fraud C.B. DeMille, but occasionally emanating from the normally reliable John Huston. Once I was free to make my own choices at the movies, God was banished, to be replaced, oddly enough, by his chief rival. This was no conscious act of rebellion, just the circumstance that the best films often came with the devil in their titles. It was probably the Irish genius George Bernard Shaw who fed this unholy fascination in the form of a nifty B&W adaptation of his play The Devil’s Disciple, with its satirical swipes against God and country, both the British Empire and the colonial upstarts. In addition to holding little sacred, the devil films occasionally featured handsome men behaving in a suspiciously intimate fashion for the times. Ride with the Devil (1999) Ang Lee’s intimate low-budget epic presents a battlefield’s worth of gorgeous man-boys out to slay each other in the name of Southern honor. Loosely adapting from Daniel Woodrell’s Civil War novel Woe to Live On, Lee imposes his own “homo-izing” stamp on the material. The film’s set-piece is the Lawrence, Kansas Massacre segment, where Dixie-leaning rebels (“Bushwackers”), under guerrilla leader William Quantrill, set out to murder every able-bodied Union-supporting man and boy in sight (“Jayhawkers”). It’s soon apparent that the story’s hero, Jake Rodel (Tobey Maguire), will face a tough choice of which rebel faction to fight with: either the one with his childhood buddy, the ferocious freed slave Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright), or a rag-tag gang led by the psychotic if gorgeous Southern guerilla Pitt Mackeson, fiendishly realized by the then-22, skinny, handsome Irish actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Late in the second act, Rodel and Holt have ducked into an 1860s version of Howard Johnson’s to get themselves eggs and coffee. Their meal is rudely interrupted when Mackeson, all dandied up like a Civil War-era Elvis impersonator, bursts into the joint ready to take some death-squad revenge on a couple of Yankee sympathizers, an old man and a pre-pubescent boy. Mackeson: “Bring those two outside. I want to show them something!” Rodel: “We’ll see to them once we’ve had our vitals.” “Why, you little Dutch son-of-abitch, you do what I tell ya, or I’ll kill ya!” Rodel pulls out a long-barreled pistol, and aims at Mackeson’s hatefilled face. “And when do you plan to do this mean thing to me, Mackeson? Is this very moment convenient for you? It is for me.” Mackeson pauses for what seems like an eternity on screen, then sneers, “The hell with it! There’s plenty more of those Jayhawkers to kill, anyhow!” He flounces out of the saloon, swinging his hips and giving a defiant twirling motion with his right hand. At the door, the desperado turns and snarls, “I’ll see you back in Missouri, you tiny little sack of shit!”

What we have here is a master filmmaker pushing a pivotal scene “over-the-top” right to its breaking point in a way that works for viewers, queer and non-queer alike. On his DVD commentary track, Ang Lee mockingly repeats juicy tidbits from Mackeson’s rant. Homo subtext and history have seldom been more artfully combined, in a thrilling drama that’s become my Gone with the Wind. (The Criterion Collection, Ang Lee Director’s Cut) The Devil, Probably (1977) This late-career work, the 13th featurelength film from French genius Robert Bresson, follows the last days of a disgruntled boy-man. Firsttime film actor Antoine Monnier’s feminine good looks add an extra degree of poignancy to the plight of his intelligent if feckless city boy. Monnier’s Charles drifts along with his cadre of hip young friends until one day, his first session with an overbearing shrink plants an unfortunate idea inside his comely head. Charles: “I’m not depressed. I just want the right to be myself. I don’t want to be forced to replace my true desires with false ones. I don’t want to be a slave or a specialist.” Psychiatrist: “Were you beaten as a child? Try to remember.” “I was spanked.” “Do you know that the feeling of being crushed by the society you live in might well be the result of that spanking you got as a child? That, together with the painful dream of being murdered for a good cause, would point to the development of psychomotor symptoms and explain the root of your disgust and your wish to die.” “But I don’t wish to die.” “What? Of course you do!” “I hate life, but I hate death, too. I find it appalling!” This scene – the polar opposite of Timothy Hutton’s journey with his movie-assigned shrink (Judd Hirsch) in Robert Redford’s family drama Ordinary People, from around the same period – demonstrates in an underplayed, witty way how a vulnerable youth can have the wrong thoughts planted in his head by a psychiatrist too in love with his own power to notice the harm he’s causing. The Devil, Probably is a fantastic example of French cinema in the transition from the early-60s New Wave geniuses to our own more uncertain times. A beautiful boy heading over a cliff, classic! The Devil’s Playground (1978) About the same time, Australian director Fred Schepisi used the growing visibility of the Aussie New Wave to provide a no-holds-barred look at the unusual pressures facing teenage boys with a penchant for the priesthood. This dark comedy works on two levels, examining the equally fraught worlds of the students and of their priests-teachersmentors. This one has aged well,

and is only enhanced by what we now know about the priest-boy scandals. (Allied Artists Classics)

Devil’s Playground (2001) Lucy Walker’s bracing doc on the joys and perils of Amish youth starts off with the peculiar custom of “Rumspringa,” where at 16, boys and girls from the most conservative of Christian communities are allowed to run wild, sow their wild oats. Walker discovers that, as often is the case, Amish boys are distinctly more advantaged than the girls, in their access to cars and other recreational “toys” flaunted by their neighbors, “the English,” a term the Amish apply to virtually everyone outside of their community. (Wellspring Media) The Devil’s Backbone (2001) Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro concocts a sly ghost story inside the confines of a pre-WWII Span-

ish boys school. Carlos (Fernando Tielve), a young boy who at the film’s beginning does not yet know he’s an orphan, is dropped off at a rundown rural school by a man he imagines to be his tutor, but who in fact is a former soldier on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War. At first the butt of cruel jokes by other boys who resent his bourgeois background and slightly sissy manner, Carlos must accept a duel challenge: a turf fight with the school’s unofficial student leader, and the prospect that the place may be haunted by the ghost of a murdered boy. With Marisa Paredes (The Flower of My Secret), Frederico Luppi (Men with Guns) and Eduardo Noriega (Open Your Eyes). (Sony Pictures Classics) The Devil’s Disciple (1959) Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier headline this contrarian-slanted drama adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, depicting how British bungling cost them their prized North American colonies. A darkly funny treat.t

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<< Out&About

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Out &About

O&A

Fri 20 Abundance @ Shelton Theatre Pultizer Prize winner Beth Henley’s tenderhearted drama about two 1860s mail order brides in the Old West gets a local production. $38. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Mar. 14. 533 Sutter St. (800) 8383006. sheltontheater.org

Antigone @ Exit on Taylor

Sun 22 Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Influential by Jim Provenzano

ood ideas are spreading like measles; don’t listen to the quacks, the nut jobs, the loony toonies, that is, unless you like the sound of their crazy music.

Thu 19 Comedy Returns @ El Rio The monthly night of mirth this time includes Maureen Langan, Dan St. Paul, Carla Clayy, Bob McIntyre, and Lisa Geduldig. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. elriosf.com

Full Frontal Comedy @ The Lookout Valerie Branch and Yuri Kagan cohost a new monthly comedy night (3rd Thursdays), with Lydia Popovich, Kelly Anneken and Ginger Snap; proceeds benefit Margaret Cho’s #berobin charity. $5. 8pm. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Gregory Alan Isakov @ The Fillmore The lyrical South African singersongwriter performs with The Shook Twins. $25. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. www.thefillmore.com

Jesse DeNatale @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Folk singer-songwriter performs at the downtown museum. $5. 6:30pm. 736 Mission St. 655-7800. thecjm.org

Kyle Abraham @ YBCA Pavement, the Pittsburgh-based choreographer’s vibrant and powerful dance work about urban culture, gang and police violence, with a hybrid score of Baroque and R&B music. $25. Thru Feb 21. 8pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

New Frequencies @ YBCA Jazz music mini-festival, with dozens of singers and musicians. Multiple nights thru Feb. $15-$35. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Newsies @ Orpheum Theatre’ The broadway musical hit based on the film about young paperboys who went on a historic strike. Opening night ticket purchases include a Newsies bobblehead! $70-$250. Wed-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat, Sun 2pm. Thru Mar. 15. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Pacific Orchid Expo @ Festival Pavilion The annual large-scale floral exhibit of exptic beautiful orchids. $11-$60. Gala benefit preview Feb 19 (6:3010pm). General public Feb 20-22 (10am-5pm). Fort Mason, Marina Blvd. at Buchanan. (650) 548-6700. www.orchidsanfrancisco.org www.fortmason.org

Paula West @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The talented jazz vocalist performs a six-week engagement at the upscale intimate nightclub/cabaret, performing an eclectic array of songs, from Bob Dylan, Talking Heads and Harry Nilsson to jazz classics. $35-$50. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm & 10pm. Sun 7pm. Thru March 22. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. ticketweb.com

Cutting Ball Theater’s production of Daniel Sullivan’s new translation of Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy, with music and movement. $10-$50. Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm. Thru Mar. 22. 277 Taylor St. 5251205. www.cuttingball.com

The Book Club Play @ Center Repertory, Walnut Creek Karen Zacarias’ comedy about a small book club that gets invaded by a foreign film crew. $33-$58. Tue & Wed 7:30pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru Feb. 28. 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469. www.CenterRep.org

Dance and Diaspora @ ODC Theater Double bill featuring works by Jill Parker & The Foxglove Sweethearts and Danica Sena. $25-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. odcdance.org

Dead Man Walking @ YBCA Theatre Opera Parallele’s production of Jake Heggie’s acclaimed work (with libretto by Terence McNally) about a death row inmate. $45-$125. 8pm. Also Feb 21, 8pm and Feb 22, 2pm. 701 Mission St. www.operaparallele.org www.ybca.org

Doubt: A Parable @ Contra Costa Civic Theatre Steve Rhyne and Scarlett Hepworth costar in Contra Costa Civic Theatre’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about repressed sex crimes in a cloistered religious community. $11-$28. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 8. 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. (510) 5249012. www.ccct.org

Harbor @ New Conservatory Theatre Center West Coast premiere of Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin’s gay-themed comedy about an East Coast family’s tumultuous conflicts. $25-$45. Thru March 1. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical @ Brava Theatre

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre and the Guthrie Theater present Anne Washburn’s imaginative hit comedy about a post-apocalptic Northern California family whose vague memories of an episode from The Simpsons has become one of their fireside folk tales. Special nights thru the run (including Out at A.C.T. Mar. 4). $20-$120. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Mar. 15. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

New and Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Feb. 19: Out of the Past (2pm, 7pm) and Against All Odds (4:30, 8:50). Feb 20-24: The Sing-Along Little Mermaid. Feb 25: The Exorcist and The Babadook. Feb. 26: The Sacrifice. Most tickets $11. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Josh Kornbluth @ The Marsh Berkeley

We Are Proud to Present… @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Haiku Tunnel, the solo performer’s popular comic show about the foibles of office temping, re-opens at the East Bay venue. $20-$100. Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru Mar. 28. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrkia, Between the Years 1884 -1915, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Obie Award-winning, hilarious, imaginative and incendiary exploration of race, power and narrative in America, where six naïve students present their interpretation of 19thcentury genocide. $20-$25. 7pm. Thu 7pm, Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 7. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 214-3780. www.justtheater.org

A Lie of the Mind @ Magic Theatre Sam Shepard’s grim, epic and darkly funny 1985 family drama gets a new production. $20-$60. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2:30pm. Thru March 1. Bldg. D, Fort Mason, Marina Blvd. at Buchanan. 441-8822. www.magictheatre.com

Noisepop @ Multiple Venues The annual music festival has expanded, with music, films about music, parties and special events, including at festival headquarters and shows at the re-opened Swedish American Hall; thru March 1. www.noisepop.com

Oakland East Bay Symphony with Mads Tolling @ Paramount Theatre, Oakland The Grammy Award-winning composer/violinisit performs his own concerto, Begejstring (“Excitement”), and works by Barber and Haydn with the symphony, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus. $20-$70. 8pm. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 4440802. www.oebs.org

Rirkrit Tiravanija: The Way Things Go @ YBCA A Special Curatorial Project … uncovers narratives, reveals personal stories, and shares vignettes that lead to a larger understanding of the migration of people in the production of material culture. Free/$12-$15. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. Thru June 21. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Sets @ Southern Exposure Christy Chan, Chris Kallmyer and Olivia Mole are artists-in-residence in two-week sets, where each perform and create video, installation and other media works. Special performances through the series. Thru March 7. Tue-Sat 12pm-6pm. 3030 20th St. 863-2141. www.soex.org

Stereotypo @ The Marsh Don Reed’s new solo show, subtitled Rants and Rumblings at the DMV showcases the banal automotive office as a showcase of diverse characters. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Theu Mar. 28. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Sunday in the Park with George @ Lohman Theatre, Los Altos Hills

Broadway actor-singer Anthony Wayne stars as Sylvester, the gay disco icon in this musical biographical show. $30-$100. Wed-Sun 8pm. Sun 3pm. (Feb 14 special disco after-show party with the cast.) Thru March 1. 2781 24th St. www.brava.org www.fabuloussylvester.com

Sun 22 Seduction: Japan’s Floating World

Refuge in Refuse @ SOMArts Cultural Center

Foodies, the Musical @ Shelton Theater

Homesteading Art & Culture Project, a multimedia exhibit of art works created from dumped materials at Albany Bulb recycling landfill. Special events thru run. Reg. hours Tue-Fri 12pm-7pm. Sat 12pm5pm. Thru Mar. 14. www.somarts.org

Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue of songs and sketches about food. $32-$34. Fri & Sat 8pm. Open run. 533 Sutter St. (800) 838-3006. www.foodiesthemusical.com

Socially Conscious Abstraction @ SMAart Gallery

Opening night party with Top Ten social; post-show event after Kyle Abraham Dance. Free/$15. 9:30pm. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Group exhibit of ceramic and mixed media sculptures that visualize social issues. Tue-Sat 11:30am-5:30pm. Thru Mar. 5. 1045 Sutter St. 962-7877. www.smaartgallery.com

Unusual Movies @ Oddball Films Weekly screenings of strange and obscure short films. $10. 8pm Also Fridays. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Future Soul 2015 @ YBCA

I Am My Own Wife @ Cinnabar Theatre, Petaluma Steven Abbott portrays 32 characters in Dough Wright’s Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play about a “deviant” German who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 22. 3333 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma. (707) 7638920. www.cinnabartheater.org

Foothill Music Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical about art, and a fictional version of painter Georges Seurat and his modernday great-grandson. $12-$32. Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru March 8. 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. (650) 949-7360. www.foothillmusicals.com

Tree @ SF Playhouse Local production of Julie Hébert’s award-winning drama about race, family and heritage; a Southern white woman arrives at the home of a Black Chicago man, claiming to be his half-sister. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru March 7. 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story) @ Berkeley Repertory World premiere of KJ Sanchez’ captivating docudrama about players and rabid fans of football; directed by Tony Taccone. $29-$79. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru March 1. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2918. www.berkeleyrep.org

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse’s production of the Tony Award-winning musical based on the Charles M. Schulz comic characters. $5-$60. Fri 7pm. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru Mar. 15. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. berkeleyplayhouse.org

Sat 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.). 4214222. beachblanketbabylon.com

Enemies: Foreign and Domestic @ Berkeley City Club Central Works’ theatre company’s 25th season opens with Patricia Milton’s political comedy set around a family gathering. $15-$28. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 29. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Feisty Old Jew @ The Marsh Berkeley Charlie Varon’s hit solo show, about a fictional elder man who’s not adapting well to the 21st century, returns. $25-$100. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5pm. Thru Mar. 22. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Fool La La! @ The Marsh, Berkeley Unique Derique’s holiday clowning show’s fun for kids and adults alike. $15-$35. Daily 2pm, extended thru Feb 28. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Hostel Comedy @ Piano Fight Andrew Roberts’ weekly comedy show with visiting comics and backpacking tourists telling funny stories. Free. 7pm. Thru April 25. 144 Taylor St. www.pianofight.com

Imogen Cunningham @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Exhibit of the renowned photographers Paris in the Sixties series. Tue.-Thu. 4pm-8:30pm. Sat & Sun 12pm-4pm. Thru Feb. 28. 50 Scott St. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

The Lyons @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Aurora Theatre Company’s production of Nicky Silver’s Broadway hit dramedy about a family forced to gather when one of their own is hospitalized. $35-$60. Tue 7pm. WedSat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Mar. 8. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

The Pianist of Willesden Lane @ Berkeley Rep Mona Gobalek returns in Hershey Felder’s acclaimed solo music drama (based on Golabek and Lee Cohen’s book) about a young Jewish musician in 1938 Vienna and wartime London. $41-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 7pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Feb 22. Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.BerkeleyRep.org

Out&About>>

Radical Women @ Rafiki Wellness Center Black History Month panel about race and resistance to police violence, with Duciana Thomas (Sisterhood and solidarity), Steena Wright (Black Woman Coalition); $2-$8, dinner 8pm. 601 Cesar Chavez St. 864-1278. www.radicalwomen.org

Robert Altman Films @ YBCA New documentaries and rarities by/ about the innovative film director. Free/$10. Feb. 21 , 7:30pm: Corn’sA-Poppin’ an early film co-written by Altman. Thru Feb. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

SF Hiking Club @ Marin Headlands Join GLBT hikers for an eight-mile hike in the Marin Headlands. Explore beautiful Oakwood Valley, then up to the top of the Miwok Trail with stunning views in all directions, Wolf Ridge Trail, and completing the loop up the Tennessee Valley back to the start. Spectacular wilderness a few miles from San Francisco. Bring water, lunch, sturdy hiking boots, layers, hat, sunscreen. Carpool meets at 9:15 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. (510) 985-0804. www.sfhiking.com

The Waiting Period @ The Marsh

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Celebrating AIGA @ Museum of Craft and Design

Mon 23

Dogpatch warehouse is now a museum store, gallery and program space. Exhibits include Celebrating AIGA (the American professional organization for design). Mon-Fri 9:30am-5:30pm. 2569 Third St. 7730303. www.sfmcd.org

Fertile Ground @ Oakland Museum Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California (thru April 12). Also, photographer Marion Gray: Within the Light thru June 21; Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact thru Sept 20. Lunar New Year (Year of the Sheep) celebration Feb 22, 12pm-4:30pm. Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Heather Edgar @ NIAD Art Center, Richmond All Things Considered: The Work Of Heather Edgar (thru Feb 28). Exhibits of art made by developmentally disabled people. Also, exhibit sof works by Amelia Oie, Shantee Robinson and others. Mon-Fri 10am4pm. 551 23rd St. Richmond. (510) 620-0290. www.niadart.org

Margaret Keane @ Keane Eyes Gallery Paintings, prints and other items by the creator of the famous kitschy “big eyes” paintings of children and animals; featured in the new Tim Burton film. By appointment. 3040 Larkin St. 922-9309. keane-eyes.com

The performing arts space (The Garage Theater), moved from SoMa, shows off its new 49-seat performance and rehearsal space (formerly Kunst-Stoff). 4:30pm: Zumbia class, 5:15pm: Crazy Sexy Fitness. 6pm reception with Kinetech Arts & Flamenco Theatre SF. 1 Grove St. www.safehousearts.org

Fight the Power @ AAACC Photojournalist Jeffrey Blankfort’s exhibit of powerful imagery chronicling African American and Palestinian protests, including iconic images of the Black Panther Party. Thru Feb. 28. African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St. www.aaacc.org

Wilde Chats @ Sweet Inspirations

Reaction @ Gallery Route One, Point Reyes

Community Initiative’s weekly informal discussion group at the dessert shop. 10:30am-12pm. 2239 Market St. 621-8664. www.sweetinspirationbakery.com

Juried group exhibit of landscapes, portraits and works by local artists. Thru Feb. Reg hours Wed-Mon 11am5pm. 11101 Highway One, Point Reyes Station. www.galleryrouteone.org

The Tony Award-winning Broadway legend performs Far Away Places, her concert of songs by Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Willie Nelson, Kurt Weill, Edith Piaf, Frederick Hollander, and even the BeeGees. $39-$69. 8pm. 201 Van Ness Ave at Grove. 864-6000. sfsymphony.org

Queer Past Becomes Present @ GLBT History Museum New and mini-exhibits about Bay Area LGBTQ people and communities. Free (members)-$5. Reg hours: Mon, Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Various Exhibits @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Tue 24 Book Club @ Magnet Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It, the book about Japanese gay comics, is discussed, with editor Graham Kolbeins. 7:309pm. 4122 18th St. magnetsf.org

Fri 20 Sunday in the Park With George David Allen

Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley 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

Aquascapes @ Conservatory of Flowers Fascinating new exhibit of underwater plant sculptures that resemble miniature outdoor English, Asian and classic gardens (thru April 12). Permanent floral exhibits as well. Free-$8. Tue-Sun 10am-4pm. Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo @ Marin Auditorium, San Rafael The celebrated all-male genderbending ballet company performs. $20-$60. 3pm. Marin Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 473-6800. www.marincenter.org

Fight the Power

Patti LuPone @ Davies Symphony Hall

Grand Opening @ SAFEhouse Arts

Brian Copeland returns with his popular solo show, about the tensions of considering suicide, and waiting for approval to buy a gun. $30-$100. Saturdays 5pm. Extended thru Mar. 14. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Sun 22

Houghton Hall: Portrait of an English House @ Legion of Honor Exhibition drawn from the collections of a quintessential English country house. Built in Norfolk in the 1720s for England’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall features suites of grand rooms conceived by architect William Kent as settings for Walpole’s old master paintings, furniture, tapestries and Roman antiquities. $10-$18. TueSat 9:30am-5:115pm. 34th Ave. at Clement. www.legionofhonor.org

Seduction: Japan’s Floating World @ Asian Art Museum

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

The Griots of Oakland @ CIIS Multimedia exhibit of visuals and storytelling by young African American men of the East Bay. Thru June 20. 1453 Mission St. www.ciis.edu

It’s Everything @ KOFY-TV

New exhibit of ancient art from the John C. Weber Collection. Thru May 10. Also, The Printer’s Eye: Ukiyo-e, from the Grabhorn Collection. Other fascinating exhibits as well. Free (members, kids 12 and under)-$15. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

Local nightlife host and singer BeBe Sweetbriar’s new streaming web talk show welcomes local celebrities. 7pm. Audience welcome at KOFY-TV, 2500 Marin St. www.BeBeSweetbriar.com

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint

Science Exhibits @ The Exploratorium

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

Visit the fascinating science museum in its new Embarcadero location. Free-$25. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm10pm, 18+). 528-4893. www.exploratorium.edu

Jeffrey Blankfort

Slinging Satire @ Cartoon Art Museum

Lava Thomas @ Museum of the African Diaspora

Slinging Satire: Masters of Political Cartoons, a timely exhibit of recent works by Mark Fiore, David Horsey, Matt Wuerker, Mat Bors, Jen Sorensen and Tom Tomorrow, plus many others, in left- and rightwing politics, print, web and multimedia formats. Thru Mar. 9. Other exhibits and events. Free-$8. Tue-Sun 11am5pm. 655 Mission St. 227-8666. www.cartoonart.org

Exhibit of contemporary works. Also, The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, and historic exhibits of African cultures. Free/$10. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Wed 25 Art/Act: Maya Lin @ David Brower Center Exhibit of new works by the sculptor/ designer (Vietnam Memorial). MonFri 9am-5pm. Sun 10am-1pm. Thru Feb 4. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.browercenter.org

At Large: Ai Weiwei @ Alcatraz Island The internationally acclaimed Chinese sculptor’s exhibit of seven site-specific multimedia installations; the largest art exhibit ever hosted by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. $18-$30. Daily thru April 26. Ferries to and from Pier 33 at Embarcadero. www.AiWeiWeiAlcatraz.org www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/ ai-weiwei.aspx

Twenty Favorite Photographs @ Robert Tat Gallery Popular photographs selected by the gallery’s collectors, including Imogen Cunningham, James Bidgood, Walker Evans, Aaron Siskind and others. Thru Feb. 28. 49 Geary St. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Tue 24

Massive Manga @ Book Club

Thu 26 Carolyn Meyer @ ArtHaus Exhibit of the artist’s modern urban landscape paintings of San Francisco and New York. Also a group exhibit. Reg. hours Tue-Fri 11am-6pm. Sat 12pm5pm. 411 Brannan St. at 3rd. 977-0223. www.arthaus-sf.com

Fotanicals @ SF Botanical Gardens Fotanicals: the Secret Language of Flowers, an exhibition of photographs by artist joSon. Also, see blooming floral displays, including new Magnolia blossoms (51 species and 33 cultivars!), plus trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 661-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Jewish Music Festival @ Various Venues 30th anniversary of the music festival, featuring choral works, jazz, traditional, even dancing and orchestral works, performed in SF, Berkeley and Oakland. Thru March 22. www.jewishmusicfestival.org

Letters to Afar, Poland and Palestine: Two Lands and Two Skies @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Dua exhibit of new Jewish cultural documentation (thru May 24); opening reception 5:30pm with Klezmer music, pop-up food and a wine bar. Also, J. Otto Seibold and Mr. Lunch, an exhibit of works by the beloved children’s book author (thru Mar. 8). Also, Havruta in Contemporary Art (thru April 14). Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. thecjm.org

San Francisco Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel Theatre David Facer’s solo magic show, The World of Paradox, entertains and beguiles. $40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Open-ended run. 433 Powell St. at Post. www.MagicParlor.blogspot.com To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< DVD

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Celebrations & drag burlesque by David-Elijah Nahmod

ay-owned Ariztical Films brings two decidedly different gay independent films to the DVD market. Birthday Cake is now available, while the fascinatingly bizarre Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel will be released on March 31. Birthday Cake is a sequel to Groom’s Cake, a short film that, we’re told, was an audience favorite at film festivals. In Birthday Cake, General Hospital’s Rib Hillis costars with writer-director Chad Darnell as Steve and Daniel, the loving gay couple who were married in the first film. In Birthday Cake, the guys are throwing a big birthday bash for their one-year-old daughter. Since they both work in the Hollywood film industry, they can’t resist the urge to make a documentary film about the party. As the camera crew follows the proud papas around, the quasi-comic drama unfolds. One of Birthday Cake’s weak points is Chad Darnell. He’s not a particularly strong actor, yet he pulled triple-duty on the Birthday Cake set, as the author, auteur, and one of the leads. He may have bitten off a bit more than he can chew. The script is weak in parts. Pre-

senting Steve and Daniel as a Hollywood power couple gives the proceedings a feeling of falseness. Birthday Cake purports to be a warm-hearted comedydrama about a gay family, but by setting the story in the world of show business, Darnell presents a world that most viewers will be unable to relate to. Helen Shaver, a brilliant actress fondly remembered for her role in the classic lesbian love story Desert Hearts (1985), steals Birthday Cake about halfway through the film. As Judith, Daniel’s conservative Christian mom, she delivers a powerful monologue that forces Daniel to face the truth: she didn’t push him away, it was the other way around. Judith has struggled for years to balance her religious convictions with her genuine love for her son. She didn’t turn away, she let him go, because it was he who didn’t want her. It’s an intense and powerful scene, a glimpse of how brilliant Birthday Cake could have been.

Another great dramatic moment comes when Steve throws his homophobic mother out of their house after she tells him that he and Daniel aren’t really married. Unfortunately, these wonderful sequences are diluted by the rest of the film’s silly, often stereotypical humor. Perhaps Darnell’s forte lies in drama. When he stops trying so hard to be funny and focuses

on real character development and human interaction, Birthday Cake manages to shine brightly, albeit briefly. Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel is a wildly bizarre homage to John Waters and Joan Crawford. Marc Kenison stars as Waxie, a female burlesque stripper. Kenison plays the role in drag, but with his bald head fully exposed, along with his

prominent mustache. The film, shot in Seattle, follows Waxie’s search for true love. She marries gorgeous, long-haired Caine (John Osebold), who leaves her a widow with two young children, including a son who’s played by a woman. Later, Waxie falls in love with sexy artist Cliff (Sage Price), who breaks up with her “because I prefer being a homosexual.” Waxie is devastated. Will she ever find true love and happiness? This gender-bending film is performed at a hysterically over-the-top fever pitch. Regardless of which gender they actually are or which gender they’re playing, the cast performs as though all were in drag. There’s a self-awareness to the onscreen histrionics that makes Waxie’s search a delight to watch. Kenison is a superb actor who channels Crawford, Davis and Divine, all while winking cheerfully at his audience. If Waters were still making the kinds of films he and Divine produced during their early days, Waxie Moon in Fallen Jewel would be the result.t

Home Street Home

From page 13

“Imagine how foreign it was to me the first time I walked in,” said Marx, who won a Tony in 2004 as a co-author of the Avenue Q score. “It was my first time walking into a dungeon surrounded by floggers and whips and handcuffs and devices, and I’m not kidding at all.” Goddess Soma added, “Now he has a collar that he and his boyfriend play with.” To which Marx explained, “We haven’t really gotten deeper into BDSM practices, but we’re not scared of it anymore. And this is something the show does so successfully, providing an entree to that scene of BDSM relationships, and seeing what’s absolutely beautiful about it.” The BDSM world is one of the main themes running through Home Street Home, which will have its first fully staged production Feb. 20-March 1 at Z Space. “Let’s Get Hurt,” a song of BDSM possibilities set to a jaunty melody, illustrates that, but the dominant story concerns a teenage girl running away from an abusive home who finds a new family with punk street kids. Set to an alt-pop sound, the song “Monsters” provides a childlike take on the world she is escaping. While composer Fat Mike and his band NOFX are definitely labeled

Magdalena Wosinska

Punk rocker Fat Mike of the band NOFX and professional dominatrix Goddess Soma Snakeoil are partners in life, in BDSM, and now in the theater as co-creators of Home Street Home.

as punk rockers (and have sold millions of records in their 32-yearsand-counting existence), Fat Mike’s melodies for Home Street Home veer more toward theatrical accessibility than head-banging discord. “Every one of the songs is just appealing and funny and beautiful,” Marx said. “The sound and feel of it are not as alien as you might expect. It’s about as out-there as Rocky Horror or Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” “It’s Not Easy Being Gay” is another song from the score, evoking a Muppet connection that isn’t too surprising since Avenue Q was an

adult riff on the Muppets and Sesame Street. “In both the main story and the secondary story of Home Street Home, the couples are both in gay relationships,” Marx said. “One is a polyamorous lesbian relationship, and the other is about two gay men, a teenaged prostitute and his client.” While Marx is gay, Soma identifies as pansexual and is now partnered with fellow BDSM devotee Fat Mike. “I have a daughter who is 15, and he has a daughter who is 10, so that’s our blended vanilla family, and we also have our BDSM family, and it’s exciting because we get to work together with our BDSM family on a project that is so much about family.” It’s been more than four years since Marx first stepped into Dungeon Snakeoil, billed on its website as a “boutique” facility conveniently located near a Starbucks and a retro hamburger joint. The collaboration was first seeded when Fat Mike and Soma went to see a touring company of Avenue Q in Los Angeles. “Mike’s band finishes up its shows with a song from Avenue Q, ‘Everybody’s a Little Bit Racist,’ which they sort of act out while they dance around,” Soma said. “We told Jeff about that, and then it was pretty great taking him to his first punk show, and he’s watching everyone dance around and crowd-surfing and everything.” At a party Marx threw for the Avenue Q cast while it was in LA, Mike and Soma talked to him about a musical they were working on and sent

Songwriter Jeff Marx, posing with a puppet from Avenue Q, was not versed in the world of BDSM when he began his collaboration on Home Street Home.

him what they had written so far. “I loved it,” Marx said. “I mean, I fucking love it, and I asked how I could help get this out into the world.” With Marx as both a producer and co-author, Home Street Home has gone through years of suggestions, rewrites, table reads, and workshops. “We kept it under wraps,” Marx said, “because in this day of the Internet, especially in theater-industry gossip, it’s easy for people to start making judgments when a show is still in its infancy.” Home Street Home had its most public viewing this past summer in a workshop at the O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut, where Avenue Q was also incubated. “A lot of the theatergoers there were in their 60s and 70s, a much older audience than who we would expect to see this show, and they loved it,” Marx said. “What we really found during that time is, yeah, we’re deal-

ing with things like BDSM and cutting and living on the streets, but it’s a very human show, and anyone can relate to it.” The San Francisco production marks its formal debut, and is the first time the show will be seen with full scenery, lighting, and a live band. The director is Richard Israel, a mainstream Los Angeles stage director whom Marx first encountered when Israel directed a Hollywood production of Avenue Q that Marx thought took the show a step beyond even what the Broadway team had originally achieved. “I feel sure that San Francisco will be our last stop before we’re ready to take it to New York,” Marx said. “It’s been the unlikely combination of the three of us who have pushed and pulled each other to create what I think is a very special show. Now we just can’t wait to show it to the world.”t Home Street Home will run Feb. 20-March 1 at Z Space. Tickets are $50-$75. Call (866) 811-4111 or go to homestreethomeonstage.com.

confidential and will be used only to contact winners of a random drawing for several valuable prizes. You must complete at least 75 percent of the survey to qualify for the prize drawings. One survey per person/email allowed and must be submitted by midnight (Pacific Time) February 28, 2015. Mail to Besties, 44 Gough St. #204, San Francisco, CA 94103 or email to besties@ebar.com. Survey results will be published in the April 2, 2015 issue of the B.A.R. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact our office at (415) 861-5019.

hank you for taking time to complete this survey by the Bay Area Reporter. Your opinion and answers are important to us. For this fifth annual readers’ poll, we’ve changed the format and now include nominees for each category, along with a write-in designation if you think another business or individual should be nominated. This year’s nominees are a mix of previous winners and new entries. The survey should only take 10-15 minutes of your time. Your identity and answers are completely

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Best Bookstore

COMMUNITY Best LGBT Event  Castro Street Fair  Folsom Street Fair  Oakland Pride  San Francisco Pride  Silicon Valley Pride

✎

Best LGBT Fundraiser  Casino Night (Horizons

Foundation)

 Help is On the Way (REAF)  Light in the Grove (National AIDS

Memorial Grove)

 Santa Skivvies Run (SFAF)  Soiree (LGBT Community Center)  Unmasked (GLBT Historical

Society)

✎

Best Blog/Website  Accidental Bear  The Bold Italic  Ebar.com  SFist

✎

Best LGBT Nonprofit  AIDS Emergency Fund  Imperial Council of San Francisco  Openhouse  Project Open Hand  Transgender Law Center

✎

Best LGBT Sports League  Golden Gate Wrestling Club  SF Fog Rugby Club  SF Frontrunners  SF Gay Basketball Association  SF Gay Softball League  SF Pool Association  SF Tsunami Swim Club

✎

Best LGBTQ Activist  Tez Anderson (Let’s Kick ASS)  B. Cole (Brown Boi Project)  Alicia Garza (#Black Lives Matter)  Aja Monet (Tenderloin Pride)

✎

Best LGBTQ Youth Activist (Under 25)  Angel VanStark (Campaign for

Presidential Youth Commission)  Alex Neumann (San Mateo County LGBT Commission) ✎

SHOPPING/ SERVICES Best Place to Pamper Your Pets  Animal House  Bernal Beast  Best in Show  Groomingdales (Burlingame)  Mr. Muggles’ Dogs  Mudpuppy’s Tub & Scrub  Noe Valley Pet Company  VIP Pet Grooming

✎

Best Veterinarian  Mission Pet Hospital  San Francisco Veterinary House

Calls

 Seven Hills Veterinary Hospital

 Aardvark  Alley Cat Books  Books Inc.  Booksmith  Green Apple

✎

Best Bicycle Shop  Box Dog Bikes  Freewheel Bike Shop  Market Street Bikes  Mission Bicycle Company  Valencia Cyclery

✎

Best Vintage Clothing/ Consignment  Buffalo Exchange  Sui Generis  Wasteland

✎

Best Thrift Store

Best Dog Park

 Community Thrift  Goodwill  Out of the Closet

 Bernal Heights Dog Park  Corona Heights Dog Park  Duboce Park  Point Isabel (Richmond)

✎

Best Dentist  Financial District Dental Care  Michael Perona, DDS  Aaron Rose, DDS

✎

Best Art Supplies  Blick  Discount Fabrics  Flax  Just for Fun and Scribbledoodles

✎

Best Retirement Community

Best Health Care Provider

 Fountaingrove Lodge  San Francisco Towers  The Sequoias – San Francisco

 Brown & Toland  CPMC/Sutter Health  Kaiser  UCSF

✎

Best Medical Marijuana Dispensary  Apothecarium  Compassionate Health  Green Cross  Green Door

✎

Best Tax Preparer  H&R Block  Jackson Hewitt  Johnston Tax Group

✎

Best Bank

✎

Best Place to Buy a Car  Fiat of San Francisco  One Toyota (Oakland)  Volkswagen San Francisco

WEDDINGS Best Formalwear for Women  Kipper Clothiers  Macy’s  Saint Harridan  Tomboy Tailors

✎

Best Small Live Music Venue

✎

Best Place to Buy Rings  D&H Sustainable Jewelers  Gallery of Jewels  Tiffany

✎

 Martuni’s  The New Parish (Oakland)  Thee Parkside  Rickshaw Stop  El Rio  SF Eagle

✎

Best Theatre Company

Best Wedding Photographer  Rick Gerharter  Gareth Gooch  Georg Lester  Steven Underhill

 American Conservatory Theatre  Berkeley Repertory Theatre  New Conservatory Theatre  Ray of Light Theatre  Theatre Rhinoceros

✎

Best Caterer

Best Museum

 J Jardine  Molto Benne Catering  Taste Catering

✎

Best Honeymoon Destination  Hawaii  Key West  Monterey/Carmel  Provincetown  Puerto Vallarta

Best Auto Mechanic

Best Domestic Travel Destination

Best Real Estate Firm

 Palm Springs  Las Vegas  New York City  Seattle  Washington, D.C.

 Hill & Company  Swann Group  Vanguard Properties  Zephyr Real Estate

Best Foreign Travel Destination

✎

 SF Federal Credit Union  Sterling Bank and Trust  Union Bank  Wells Fargo

 Barcelona, Spain  London, England  Paris, France  Rome, Italy  Thailand

✎

 The Chapel  The Fillmore  Great American Music Hall  Masonic Hall  Regency Center  Warfield

 Macy’s  Men’s Wearhouse  Sui Generis

✎

Best Large Live Music Venue

Best Formalwear for Men

✎

 Cowden Automotive  John Gardner Automotive  Luscious Garage

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BESTIES 2015 SPONSORS: Palm Springs, CA

 Asian Art Museum  Contemporary Jewish Museum  GLBT History Museum  Legion of Honor  Museum of the African Diaspora  Walt Disney Family Museum  de Young Museum

✎

Best Modern Dance Company  AXIS Dance Company  Jess Curtis/Gravity  Joe Goode Performance Group  Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero  Katie Faulkner/little seismic  ODC Dance  Sean Dorsey Dance

✎

Best Ballet Company  Alonzo King Lines Ballet  Ballet San Jose  Post/Ballet  San Francisco Ballet  Smuin Ballet

✎

Best Nature/Science Museum

Best Mixed Drink

Best Place to Meet Men

Best Sports Bar

Best DJ Duo/Group

 California Academy of Sciences  Exploratorium  SF Botanical Gardens  SF Conservatory of Flowers

 Alembic  Blackbird  The Hideout at Dalva  Lolo  Martuni’s  Tacolicious  Twin Peaks  Virgil’s Sea Room

 440 Castro  Powerhouse  Lone Star Saloon  Lookout  SF Eagle  Truck

 440 Castro  The Edge  Hi Tops  Pilsner Inn

 BAAAHS (Big-Ass Amazingly

✎

Best Theme Night

✎

Best Place to Meet Transgender People

✎

Best Classical Venue  Davies Symphony Hall  Old First Church  SF Conservatory of Music  War Memorial Opera House

✎

Best Beer Selection  Brewcade  Caskhouse  City Beer Store  Monk’s Kettle  Pilsner Inn  SF Eagle  Toronado

✎

RESTAURANTS Best Breakfast  Crepevine  It’s Tops  Orphan Andy’s  Sparky’s  Stacks

✎

Best Brunch  Balançoire  Cassava  Foreign Cinema  Hi Tops  Squat & Gobble  Starbelly  Zuni Cafe

Best Wine Bar  20 Spot  Biondivino  Blush  City Club  Noeteca  Swirl  St Vincent

✎

 Harvey’s  Hi Tops  Lookout  Truck

✎

Charlie’s Lounge

 Glamazone – The Cafe  Monster Show – The Edge  Mother – SF Oasis  Some Thing – The Stud  Sunday’s A Drag – Sir Francis

Drake Hotel

 1015 Folsom  Beatbox  EndUp  Mezzanine  Mighty  Public Works  Space 550

venues)

✎

Best Castro Bar

✎

Best SoMa Bar

Best Monthly Nightlife Event

✎

Best Outdoor Patio  Café Flore  Catch  Fable  Flippers  Starbelly

✎

Best Coffee Shop  Dolores Park Cafe  Four Barrel  Illy  Morning Due  Peet’s  Philz  Ritual Roasters  Spike’s

✎

Best Late Night Restaurant  Grubstake  Orphan Andy’s  Sparky’s  Tempest  Tommy’s Joynt

✎

Best Happy Hour Bites  Blackbird  Dosa  Hi-Tops  Nopa  Pesce

Beatbox

 Gym Class – Hi Tops

 Beatpig – Powerhouse  Go Bang! – The Stud  Comedy Returns – El Rio  Hardbox – Powerhouse

✎

Best Game Night  Bottoms Up Bingo – Hi Tops  Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night – Wild

Side West

 No No Bingo – Virgil’s Sea Room  Name That Beat – Toad Hall  Trivia Night – Harvey’s

✎

Best Stray (Straight/Gay) Bar

Best Nightlife Event (non-weekly/non-monthly)

 Blackbird  Brewcade  EndUp  Wild Side West  Virgil’s Sea Room

✎

Best Cabaret Venue  Feinstein’s at the Nikko  Hotel Rex  Martuni’s  SF Oasis  Starlight Room

✎

Best Women’s Event  13 Licks – Qbar  B.P.M. – Club BnB, Oakland  Cock Block – Rickshaw Stop  Darling Nikki – Slate  Mango – El Rio  Pussy Party – Beaux  Riot Grrr – Lone Star Saloon  Ships in the Night – The New

Parish, Oakland

 Uhaul – Beatbox

✎

 Paul William  Josh Colwell  Brian Hawn  Simon Palczynski  Andrew Slade

Best Gogo Gal

 Brewcade  Club BnB (Oakland)  SF Oasis

✎

 Bearracuda – various venues  Chaos – Beatbox  Comfort & Joy – various venues  Hard French – El Rio  Industry – various venues  Magnitude – various venues

✎

Best (non-contest) Leather Event at a Bar  Code – The Edge  Daddy – Powerhouse  Lick It – Powerhouse  Sadistic Saturday – SF Eagle

✎

Best Neighborhood Bar  El Rio  Pilsner Inn  The Stud  Trax  Wild Side West

✎

 Lucy Dorado  Jella GoGo  Nina Makalena  Chloe Rainwater

✎

BAR FOLK Best Bartender  Andy Anderson – 440  Steve Dalton – SF Eagle  Jose Guevara – Powerhouse  Chris Jansen – Rickshaw Stop  Bruce Jennison – Lone Star  Erick Lopez – The Edge  Michael Tempesta – Midnight Sun

✎

Best Female Cabaret Performer  Leanne Borghesi  The Coker Sisters  Sony Holland  Veronica Klaus  Katya Smirnoff-Skky  Paula West  Wesla Whitfield

✎

 Andy Cross – Daddy (Powerhouse)  Cookie Dough – The Monster

✎

 Club BnB (Bench and Bar)  Club 21  Club 1220  White Horse Bar  World Famous Turf Club

Best Gogo Guy

Best New Bar or Nightclub

 Big Top – Beaux  The Monster Show – The Edge  Mother – SF Oasis  Sundance Saloon – Space 550/

✎

Best East Bay Bar

✎

 Michael Brandon – Sadistic

✎

 B Patisserie  Craftsman and Wolves  Cream  Frozen Kuhsterd  Illy Cafe  Sweet Inspirations  Tartine Bakery

Center for the Arts

 Cookie Dough  D’Arcy Drollinger  Heklina  Juanita More  Sister Roma  Khmera Rouge  Donna Sachet  BeBe Sweetbriar  Grace Towers

✎

Best Weekly Nightlife Event

 440 Castro  Badlands  Beaux  The Edge  Lookout

 Hole in the Wall  Lone Star Saloon  Powerhouse  SF Eagle  The Stud

Sciences

 Opening Parties – Yerba Buena

Best Event host/MC

 Canela  Chow  Firewood Cafe  Hecho  Pesce  Poesia  Urchin Bistro

Best Dessert

(Juanita More; various venues)

 Kink.com Parties – Armory  Nightlife – California Academy of

Best Drag Queen

✎

 Comedy Returns – El Rio  Funny Fun – Club 21, Oakland  Funny Tuesdays – Harvey’s  Hella Gay Comedy (various

NIGHTLIFE BARS

✎

 Dragula – Oasis (formerly at Eagle)  Fridays – de Young Museum  Halloween Runway Massacre

Best Comedy Night

 Bar Tartine  Café Flore  Green Chile Kitchen  Harvey’s  Mama Ji’s  Super Duper

 Cubcake – Lone Star Saloon  Frolic – The Stud  Mazel Top – SF Oasis  Pound Puppy – SF Eagle  ShangriLa – EndUp

Best Drag Show

✎

Best Lunch

✎

Best Unusual Nightlife Events

Best Dance Floor

Best Bar Menu

✎

 Dream Queens Revue – Aunt

✎

Best Dinner

 Asia SF  Aunt Charlie’s Lounge  Balançoire  Diva’s  SF Oasis

Awesome Homosexual Sheep)

 Go Bang!  Honey Soundsystem  Hard French

Saturdays (Eagle) Show (Edge)

 Heklina – Mother (Oasis)  Lance Holman – Lick It

(Powerhouse)

 Juanita More – Booty Call (Qbar)  Gehno Aviance Sanchez – Hardbox

(Powerhouse)  Grace Towers – Bulge (Powerhouse) ✎

Best Male Cabaret Performer  Jason Brock  Jesse Cortez  Tim Hockenberry  Mark Johnson  Joe Wicht

✎

Best LGBT Band  Double Duchess  The Klipptones  Pepperspray  Tom Shaw Trio  Whoa Nellies

✎

Best Female Comic  Yayne Abeba  Diane Amos  Lisa Geduldig  Marga Gomez  Natasha Muse  Karen Ripley

✎

Best Male Comic

SEX

 Charlie Ballard  Yuri Kagan  Nick Leonard  Justin Lucas  Sampson McCormick  Ronn Vigh

Best Sex Venue

✎

 Blow Buddies  Eros  Steamworks (Berkeley)  Watergarden (San Jose)  Nob Hill Theatre

Best Male DJ

Best Place to Buy Sex Toys

 Paul Goodyear  David Harness  DJ Hawthorne  Tristan Jaxx  Bus Station John  Justime  Guy Ruben

 Does Your Mother Know?  Folsom Gulch  Good Vibrations  Mr S  Rock Hard

✎

Best Local Gay Male Porn Actor

Best Female DJ  Candy  Jibbz  Ms. Jackson  Kimba  Motive  Page Hodel  Jenna Riot  Olga T  ShOOey

✎

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PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 08 • February 19-25, 2015

Sherry Vine Silly satirical songs from the sassy singer by David-Elijah Nahmod

ometimes stardom comes to fledgling performers in the most unexpected ways. For actor Keith Levy, celebrity came when he donned a dress and started singing. “Sherry Vine was a character I created in 1991 in Los Angeles,” Levy said. “I was auditioning for commercial/film/ TV roles and studying theater and looking for a performance outlet.” See page 26 >>

courtesy Yuri Kagan

Sherry Vine

Behind the bar An excerpt from ‘Vodka and Limelight’ by Yuri Kagan

t’s my first opening shift as a bartender. This is coincidentally the first time that I have ever been in the bar completely alone. There are no customers or coworkers in here. It’s just the booze, the empty barstools and me. There are no lurkers in the shadows of the bar, sipping whatever strange concoction it is that they drink. There aren’t any weird rent boy situations sitting at any of the stations, hoping to pick up their next John or daddy. See page 27 >> Gay comic Yuri Kagan is his early bartending days

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Sherry Vine

From page 25

Levy said that he’d always been attracted to the idea of doing drag but wanted to do more than just lip synch records. The inspiration for Sherry came after he saw performances by Vaginal Creme Davis and Jackie Beat, who have decidedly different stage personas from most other drag queens. Just who is Sherry Vine, we wondered? “Sherry was a down-on-her luck showgirl with a heart of gold,” Levy explained. “I knew I wanted to sing live and had been doing parodies out of drag for years. My biggest influence growing up was Carol Burnett, so Sherry is a mixture of comedy and trash and a sprinkle of Mrs. Wiggins.” Sherry Vine has since become a popular fixture on the New York City and Fire Island drag circuits. Singing parodies of popular tunes is her trademark. Madonna, Britney Spears, Rhianna, Adele, Lady Gaga, they’ve all gotten the Sherry Vine treatment. “It’s funny that people think I must hate Gaga or the other artists I parody, but the opposite is true,” Levy said. “I’m a big Gaga fan. I’m her oldest monster! I live for Madonna! It’s just the song I’m parodying. I’m not making fun of the artist!” Sherry Vine had her own series on Here TV: She’s Living For This ran for two seasons. “It was a variety show,” Levy said. “Total Carol Burnett meets Saturday Night Live meets Laugh-in!” Some of drag’s biggest names graced the show’s soundstages: Jackie Beat, Lady Bunny, Bianca Del Rio, Candis Cayne, Varla Jean Merman, and even one non-drag icon: Blondie’s Debbie Harry. The show lives on over at Hulu and on YouTube, where

Sherry Vine

Sherry Vine’s YouTube page has gotten over 13,500,000 hits. “It makes me feel gay!” exclaimed Sherry Vine’s alter ego, speaking of her impressively high channel views. “I’m so proud of all the people who worked on those videos; it really is a family and a team.” Sherry Vine has performed in San Francisco before, and is close friends with Heklina. The two have worked together at Trannyshack. But the Oasis show marks Sherry Vine’s solo debut in the City. “I did shows with Trannyshack from the very beginning,” Levy said. “It was such an exciting time because there were no rules for drag and it was a full rainbow of different looks and shows. I love working with Heklina!” So what exactly will Sherry’s Oasis show entail? “I have my classic parodies that a lot of people have seen live or in my YouTube videos,” Levy explained. “But I also have plenty of new ones no one out there has seen: Taylor Swift, Katy Perry. I try to stay current and am constantly working on new parodies, I mean constantly!” Levy said Sherry has tried to parody songs she doesn’t care for, but that it didn’t work; it was impossible to even listen to the songs. Levy tells us that Sherry’s solo debut at Oasis will also be a celebration; the performance takes place on Levy/Sherry’s birthday. “I’m really excited!” Levy exclaimed. “I can’t believe that I’ve never done a solo show there! It’s about fucking time! I am going to bring it good, San Fran, so get ready! I just want people to laugh. That’s all I care about in life.”t Sherry Vine’s Birthday Bash, Monday, February 23, 8pm. $20. Oasis, 298 11th St. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com www.sherryvine.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

courtesy Yuri Kagan

Yuri Kagan, on the plank at a certain Castro bar.

Behind the Bar

From page 25

The only things to keep me company are cameras set up throughout the bar to monitor my every move while working, but I am used to that. Being alone in this place is an awkward sensation, one difficult to describe. It’s like the episode of The Brady Bunch, where they end up in a ghost town. For some reason, the concept of being alone in this place always has freaked me out, in the same way that little kids fear the deep end of the pool. It’s like seeing the place without its makeup of music and superficial drunken gays as far as the eyes can see. As an opening bartender, there is often a period of time, for about two to three hours on occasion, where I am the only person in the big empty enigma of the Labyrinth. Often, the shift starts slow. As the afternoon progresses, the place sifts through random crazy daytime drunks, harmless people coming in to use the bathroom or get change for parking. In San Francisco, parking is so expensive that change is often a whole roll of quarters. After about two hours of trying to make an empty bar look like a happening place, a guy walks into the bar very slowly. I can’t tell if he is swaggering with some odd style, is cracked out, actually has something wrong with one of his feet, or all of the above. This man has this odd limp where he moves one foot and slowly drags the other behind, like Igor from Frankenstein. This guy looks nothing like LL Cool J, isn’t attractive, nor does he have rippling abs that you can see through his shirt. And, best of all, he doesn’t seem like he will suddenly break into rap. I just assume that there actually is something wrong with his feet. He slowly slumps up to the bar, plops his tired ole self down on a chair and just sits there. He is wearing a Padres baseball cap, with stringy grey hair hanging from it like a mop, complimented with a tie-died tee- shirt with a Bob Dylan quote written on it, and a dark blue James Dean jacket that has a little green pin on it. The pin reads: “Ass, grass or cash, nobody rides for free.” He also has an equality symbolpendant around his neck. His cheeks are sunken in slightly and covered with mostly salt and lightly peppered hair that looks like sand on the bottom-half of his face. His lips are skinny, yet visibly chapped, and his skin has almost

the pigment- less look, like that of a vampire. (I wonder if he even has a reflection.) His eyes, probably once blue, are grey and look like they have lived some journey. He looks like he is in his seventies, but his demeanor tells me that he is decades younger than that. As he pulls up a stool and sits down, he picks up a napkin, as though to make a spot for an invisible future drink. Once he does this, he looks up at me. Then sitting there, fixated on the napkin in his hand, he begins to fidget with it. He goes on to turn this little napkin into some sort of origami something or other. He folds it in fourths then puts it in his pocket. I say “Hello!” three more times. He undoes his little paper crane and starts the napkin folding process without once looking up at me. In my head, I am not sure if he is bat-shit crazy or just a lonely guy. Then I ask him if he is okay. He is quiet, takes out a five-dollar bill and asks for a Bud Light, he calls it “the piss of champions.” As I hand him the beer, he starts to fidget again. He then looks up at me with this smile, which reveals all his dental work, or lack thereof. The man has a mouth full of porcelain caps, where you can literally see the silver at the bottoms of every tooth. His smile says “Tijuana” all the way. He reaches out for my hand, as though we are old friends and I am about to console him on some problem. I can truly feel his loneliness at this moment. I feel sorry for him, even though I know nothing about him or even what plagues him. I want to tell him that he’s not at Cheers, because unlike Sam, I drink, but keep that thought to myself. Not knowing what to do, I put my hand out. He holds my hand as though he has never held one before. He smiles, staring deeply into my eyes. It’s one of those gazes, where someone looks into your eyes for a tiny bit longer than normal, long enough to make me feel uncomfortable. Through his eyes, I can feel the weight of the world and see how fed up this being is with life’s cruel deck of cards he has been handed. He then asks me my name. As I start to tell him, he cuts me off with a... “You’re beautiful.” Not knowing what to say, and being horrible at taking compliments, I change the topic. I am now trying to pull my hand out of his withered old hand, that is now clamped on to mine, making me feel like a car with too many parking tickets.

In the back of my head, I feel like another beer. he is somehow trying to suck the As I come back with the beer he youth essence. It’s a weird thought once again mutters, “They’re all dead,” that I constantly have in these situthen politely tells me, “Fuck off, you ations. Still alone, I ask him where don’t know me, you don’t know.” he hails from. He is silent and looks He had me in his corner right undown at his beer. til now. I don’t know how to handle I walk away for a few minutes to him. He is sort of creating a scene, as help the two new patrons who just my little crowd of customers slowly walked in. About ten minutes later, I forms. come back to ask this man if he is all right and maybe if he needs a refresher. He begins to tell me about how he lived in San Francisco, “before my time,” although he makes it sound like it was yesterday. “You know, you look a lot like a bartender I used to go to here. He was my bartender.” I don’t know what to say so I just give a blank, “Okay!” “He’s dead.” He was totally killing the high I came in to work with. “It was years ago...It was a different place then. I knew Harvey Milk! We used to go to his camera shop!” He explains this to me defensively and in an oddly loud tone. He then smiles at me and again tells me of how handsome he thinks I am. He asks me if I have any friends. I smile and reply as cleverly as possible, “Everyone around here Yuri Kagan’s memoir, is my friend.” Vodka and Limelight As I turn away with a Kathy Lee Gifford style half-smile of fakeness, I keep it intact while I pretend to be preoccupied with reI try to change the topics to haporganizing glasses at my station. py funny sexual innuendos that any He then says something, a rered-blooded gay man can enjoy for sponse that I will never forget. shits and giggles, but nothing seems “I used to have friends... They’re to work. all dead. Do you know what that’s Eventually the guy gets up from like?” his barstool, falls over, trips on his His words are somehow cutting own foot, then flips me the bird as through me and adding to the awkhe walks out the door. wardness. Maybe he sensed the cynicism in As he twiddles with a new napkin my eyes. I do realize that I am judgthis time, he hands me money for ing much of his character based on his

dilated pupils and odd mannerisms. As he walks out, I realize that the reason he makes me feel so uncomfortable is because we all could be him in the right circumstance. Any gay man could easily understand the hostility and invisible axe this poor man must be carrying with him day in and out. The unspoken fears that, we, as gay men all share, and the concept of being both positive and negative men. This man is a one in a million person in this city; a gay needle in a haystack. This guy is the first of many I’ll meet like him, or at least that is what my coworkers tell me. These guys all share the same scenario, some less crazy than others. These men all would tell me about their pasts. They all “knew Harvey Milk.” They all remember a romanticized version of the Castro and San Francisco that has been dead longer than I have been alive. The version of the city I live in is far different from the one they knew. While I am thankful for the sacrifices of those before me, so that I could live as I do, I am just saying, things have changed. The world I live in is simply different. They may have known Harvey Milk, but I know Harvita Melk, a Latina Drag Queen who performs Selena songs. t Read more of Yuri’s memoir at www.vodkaandlimelight.com Former bartender Yuri Kagan and Valerie Branch cohost Full Frontal Comedy, a new monthly comedy night (3rd Thursdays), with Lydia Popovich, Kelly Anneken and Ginger Snap; proceeds benefit Margaret Cho’s #berobin charity. $5. Feb 19, 8pm. The Lookout, 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Carmen Leilani

Yuri Kagan

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

The 15 Association 35 Years of BDSM Camaraderie

Rich Stadtmiller

Celebrants at last year’s 15 Association dinner.

15 Association members at a 2013 dinner.

by Race Bannon

35 years of continuous BDSM play parties. I was only eight years old when the club was formed. The fact that there is still a club for both older members and the new guys that just fell off the vanilla truck is amazing. The fact that after 35 years the club is stronger than when is started is downright revolutionary.” And strong it is. The current Chairman of the 15 Association, Steven Gaynes, offered these com-

ithin the gay men’s BDSM scene there are few institutions that have withstood the test of time as leather and kink trends and demographics have shifted and changed. With the upcoming 35th anniversary celebration of The 15 Association’s founding, the San Francisco Bay Area is lucky to be home to one of the longest standing clubs of its kind in the world. The 15 Association was founded in February 1980 by a few men who felt the need to form a group for those men serious about their S&M (the preferred term at the time) play. In an October 1980 issue of Man2Man, a publication for which Jack Fristscher served as Editor, Dave Lewis, the person generally credited with the initial impetus behind founding The 15 Association, said “Last year I was asking why somebody didn’t pull together a back-tobasics S&M group. One of my buddies grabbed me by the keys and said, ‘You’re somebody. You do it.’ So I figured two adages: ‘Fools Rush In’ and ‘Nothing Ventured.’ We ventured. A group of very serious S&M men began to gather around the concept; an S&M action group. We decided to start it with 15 committed, dedicated, experienced men. That’s the origin of our name.” Clubs members were vehement when anyone expressed interest in their club at the time, as they are today, that it is for the serious S&M practitioner. In the same Man2Man article, the focus of the club was described like this: “It’s on the bodies and minds called to the lifestyle, headstyle, and sex-style of S&M responsibly framed in a sane fraternity of men who pride themselves on their versatility of scenes and roles.” In spite of the club making it clear that membership in their club was open only to those with a serious, not passing, interest in S&M, within seven months of the club’s founding the world beat a path to their post office box, as they were inundated with more than 1,500 inquiries by mail. 1,500! That was in an era when you had to expend some effort to write or type a letter and mail it. Evidently

The 15 Association had struck a nerve and tapped into an unfulfilled need for gay men into such styles of erotic play. Let me say here that even though The 15 Association is absolutely for men with a serious passion for BDSM, do not hesitate to consider contacting them if you are newer to BDSM. I’ve interacted with club members for years and they are quite welcoming of the newcomer to the scene as long as those newcomers are respectful of the club and its foundation principles and guidelines. Peter Fiske is a club Chairman Emeritus, a past chairman who is honored for his service to the association, and he is still active in the club today. He reflects on the history and value of the club this way. “The roots of The 15 Association go back to the 1970s and the Society of Janus and Chicago Hellfire Club. Since February 1980, the 15 has stayed true to the founding mission to be a sexual and social fraternity for gay men into leather, fetish and kink. The club’s Boot Camp run is now in its 27th year and the play parties have continued for most of the last 35 years and been attended and enjoyed by literally thousands of men. With nearly 200 members, the 15 can look forward to many more years of hot men, safe and hot play, and servicing the community. The brotherhood and friendships of the 15 bind us all together and keep us strong.” While many of the original or longstanding members of the club are still active, the club continues to draw new members and friends to the club. Eric See is a relatively new member having begun his involvement in 2007. He expressed the importance of the club in his own life this way. “I was introduced to The 15 Association in 2007 as someone brand new to the men’s kink/leather community,” said See. “The 15 was the first club I joined and has been my home ever since. The men of the 15 took me in and mentored me, supported me, and have been vital to my development (and my sex life) ever since. And now I’m the ViceChairman of the club and organizing the weekend celebration. I feel honored to be a part of celebrating

ments that highlight the fact that the club has remained relevant and vibrant even as other clubs and groups have come and gone. “We enter our 35th year with the association stronger then it’s ever been, with membership the largest at around 175 men, with the most cohesive fraternal committee and new energy coming into the association all the time.” “I have been privileged enough to

have been part of The 15 Association leadership for the last 15 years. In that time the group has put on monthly parties ten months a year and our yearly run Boot Camp. We have always gotten support from our members and guests to make the parties successful. We have provided a safe space for beginner and experienced players to meet up, socialize and play. We have several men who met their husbands, boys and slaves at our parties.” “The fact that there are SMBD parties in San Francisco on a regular basis is our activism. As long as we are free to have SMBD play parties, then our sexual freedom is still intact. The group has stood up against ageism, body-fascism, and transphobia and the club looks more to character, skill and enthusiasm as our standards.” My own observation is that the men of The 15 Association have consistently shown themselves to be honorable, passionate, caring and approachable. For any local gay man, or for those who travel to the Bay Area, visit the club’s website, www.the15association.org, and find out about them, their play parties and events. Contact them if you’re seeking a group of men with whom you can share your passion for responsible BDSM. The 15 Association will be officially celebrating its anniversary the weekend of February 27-March 1 with play parties and an anniversary dinner held at the Verdi Club with catering by Chef Sean Gawel. Those men wishing to attend a play party or the dinner can visit the club’s website for details.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him at www.bannon.com.

Leather Events, February 20 – March 8, 2015 Fri 20

Fri 27

Mon 2

Transmission @ SF Citadel

4th Annual Community Roast/Tribute-Donna Sachet @ Beatbox

Ride Mondays @ Eros

Play event celebrating kinky transpeople and their lovers, allies and friends. 181 Eddy St., 8pm, $25. www.sfcitadel.org

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Mon 23 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Tue 24 GameGear @ Wicked Grounds Game night hosted by Rubber Men of San Francisco. 289 8th St., 7:30pm. www.rmsf.org

Wed 25 Leathermen’s Discussion Group @ Mr. S Leather Puppy play with Brue. 385A 8th St., 7:30pm. www.sfldg.org

Leather/Gear Buddies @ Blow Buddies Erotic fun for leather and gear guys, $15, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Save the date and plan on one helluva evening of entertainment and tributes to our one and only lady in red. 314 11th St., $20 suggested donation, 7pm.

The 15 Association Men’s Play Party @ SF Citadel 35th Anniversary Weekend men’s BDSM play party. 181 Eddy St., 8pm. www.the15sf.org

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Sat 28 The 15 Association Anniversary Weekend Dinner @ Club Verdi 35th Anniversary Weekend club dinner. See website for details. www.the15sf.org

CODE @ The Edge Bringing leather back to the Castro. 4149 18th St., 9pm. www.edgesf.com

Sun 1 The 15 Association Men’s Play Party @ Alchemy 35th Anniversary Weekend men’s BDSM play party. 1060 Folsom St, 2pm. www.the15sf.org

A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Thu 5 – Sun 8 Leather Alliance Weekend 2015@ Various Locations Huge weekend of seminars, Mr. SF Leather contest, Community Awards Dinner, and the Victory Beer Bust. See website for details and schedule. www. leatherallianceweekend.org

Fri 6 SCCLA Bar Schmooz @ Renegades Bar Informal social where friends, prospective members and anyone else who wants to relax, laugh, talk and hang out with like minded people, 501 W. Taylor St., San Jose, 9pm.

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

/lgbtsf Arkanassay

Celebrants at 2014’s Gender Schmear party.

Gender blender

Keshet’s Gender Schmear celebrates Purim by David-Elijah Nahmod

n February 26, Keshet, the San Francisco social networking and support organization for LGBT Jews, their friends, families, and allies, invites the community to attend Gender Shmear, Keshet’s annual Purim celebration. So what’s Purim? According to Keshet’s Rebecca Cariati, the Jewish holiday Purim is about “the transformation that’s possible when revealing the hidden, the covert, the hush-hush. On Purim, Jews are invited to reconcile the hidden pieces of ourselves with the revealed parts to become more whole, more true to ourselves and those who love us.” On Purim, Jews attend Synagogue and read the story of Esther, the ancient Jewess who saved her people from imminent death in Persia, where the Jews were being persecuted by King Haman. “Gender Shmear is a sexy, saucy, joyous, juicy, schmoozy, Jewsy Purim party,” Cariati promises. She said that the party will include food, drink, dancing, a photo booth, and a costume contest. “There will be LGBTQ Jews as far as the eyes can see,” Cariati said. “Gender Smear invites us to get in touch with the taboo or undisclosed parts or ourselves, make them visible, and celebrate our whole selves through costume and cabaret.” Cariati explained the origins of the party’s name. “Gender Shmear is playful and speaks to the queerness of the event,” she said. “It harkens back to knowing that Purim has always been about the blurring of boundaries. Keshet chose the Yiddish word Shmear, as it is one of the many languages spoken by Jews past and present.” In Jewish vernacular, Shmear means “spread,” as anyone Jewish or not, may know from enjoying a good “schmear” of cream cheese on a bagel with lox. One of the Hard French music crew DJ Brown Amy will be spinning Motown, along with ‘60s and ‘70s funk and soul. Costumes are very much encouraged. The accompanying photos show a wide range of gender-bending options. “Whether your Jewish, Queerish, or something else entirely, you’ll feel like a Purim Queen before the night is through!” said Cariati.t

Arkanassay

A costume contest, games and fun at 2014’s Gender Schmear party.

Gender Shmear, Thursday, February 26, 7pm to 11pm at Minna Gallery, 111 Minna St. $1072--no one turned away for lack of funds. www.keshetonline.org

WARNING HOT GUYS! San Francisco

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FREE to listen and reply to ads! FREE CODE: Reporter

For other local numbers call:

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<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Bf eON THE T–A 26 February 19

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

Manimal @ Beaux

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

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

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

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

Paula West @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The talented jazz vocalist performs a six-week engagement at the upscale intimate nightclub/cabaret, performing an eclectic array of songs, from Bob Dylan, Talking Heads and Harry Nilsson to jazz classics. $35$50. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm & 10pm. Sun 7pm. Thru March 22. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Sexitude @ Oasis

Fri 20 Dai Burger, part of Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

he Academy of drag and gogo, drinks and giggles, rolls out the red carpet; our queer calendar of fey fun follows.

Thu 19 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

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre The cruisy interactive play party in the downstairs arcade at the famed strip joint, this week with Max Cameron. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio The monthly night of mirth this time includes Maureen Langan, Dan St. Paul, Carla Clayy, Bob McIntyre, and Lisa Geduldig. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. at Precita. www.elriosf.com

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

Full Frontal Comedy @ The Lookout Valerie Branch and Yuri Kagan cohost a new monthly comedy night (3rd Thursdays), with Lydia Popovich, Kelly Anneken and Ginger Snap; proceeds benefit Margaret Cho's #berobin charity. $5. 8pm. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

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

Kittens @ Oasis The new weekly night for queer guys and their frisky pals, with DJ Sergio Fedasz. $5. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

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

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

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

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Feb. 19: Noise Pop Festival shares DJs Dawn Golden and Awesome Tapes from Africa, audio booths and animal specimens and more. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

The lyrical South African singersongwriter performs with The Shook Twins. $25. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. www.thefillmore.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Sing your heart out at the free lively night. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Fri 20 Baloney @ Oasis

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland

Some Thing @ The Stud

Gameboi @ Rickshaw Stop

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

Mica Sigourney and pals' weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Pop, dance, k-pop and other genres at the monthly gay Asian and friends night. $8-$15. 9:30pm-2am. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness Ave. 861-2011. www.rickshawstop.com

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Headphone Boylesque @ Oasis

The queer hip hop dance party features rapper Dai Burger. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

LA's entertainment cabaret show, with music, comedy, monologues and more. $5. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Let Vale

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

With tasty tidbits of LGBT News & Entertainment!

Fri 20 Baloney @ Oasis Enjoy a fun sexy choreographed gay male burlesque show by and with Rory Davis and Michael Phillis (choreographers of countless local nightlife events), plus seven other dancing hunks. $20. 8pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

24/7

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

edgeonthen

Future Soul 2015 @ YBCA Opening night party with Top Ten social; post-show event after Kyle Abraham Dance. Free/$15. 9:30pm. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

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

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

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

Gehno Aviance's hard dance night with Mr. Powerhouse 2015 Daniel DeLage and the Bare Chest Calendar men, with capoeira demos, DJ Guy Ruben, prizes and a free drink to show you're "commando." 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

The arcade beer bar presents Ruhstaller Brewing and special beers. 6pm. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Midnight Show @ Divas

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe

Hardball @ Powerhouse

Game Night @ Brewcade

Karaoke Night @ Club BnB, Oakland

D'Arcy Drollinger's aerobic dance class, with cocktails and disco fun. $7. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

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

Gregory Alan Isakov @ The Fillmore

Enjoy a special Brazilian carnival night (capoiera, samba dancers, drumming) at the festive gogofilled dance club, with host Lulu, and Latin pop dance hits with DJs Speedy Douglas Romero and Fabricio; no cover before 10pm. $6-$12. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Zap Mama & Antibalas @ The Fillmore

Mother @ Oasis

Afrobeat and polyphonic women's vocals blend together in a rousing concert with these two bands. $35. 9pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. www.thefillmore.com

Heklina's new weekly drag show night at the fabulous renovated SoMa nightclub; plus DJGuy Ruben. Feb 22: a pre-Oscar tribute to Ladies of the Silver Screen. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Sat 21

Sun 22

Bearracuda @ Beatbox

Academy Awards Party @ Oasis

Bid DJ Matt Consola farewell at the ursine dance night. $10. 10pm-2am. 314 11th St. www.bearracuda.com

Watch the Oscars telecast at the new nightclub; champagne toast, nibbly things; upscale attire, please. Red carpet fun with D'Arcy and Heklina begins at 4pm. $20. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.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

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

On the Tab>>

February 19-25, 2015 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ 31

Academy of Friends Gala @ Design Center Galleria

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland

The 35th annual fundraiser for Bay Area HIV/AIDS services includes plenty of food, wine, champagne and an Oscar-viewing that can't be beat, with a special Pan Pacific Exposition Centennial theme. $250-$300 and up. 5pm-11:30pm. 101 Henry Adams St. 490-5800. www.academyoffriends.org

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

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

Looking @ Midnight Sun

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

Viewing parties for the second season of HBO's San Francisco-set gay dramedy series. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

Strip down with the strippers at the cruisy adult theatre and arcade; free beverages. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Red Carpet Wine Walk @ Rialto Cinema, Sebastopol

Mash Up Mondays @ Club BnB, Oakland

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

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

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

Enjoy an Oscar party at this benefit for Food for Thought, Sonoma County's AIDS Food Bank, with wine walk 3:30pm, gala 4:30pm. $25-$45. 6868 McKinley St., Sebastopol. (707) 5254840. www.FFTfoodbank.org www.rialtocinemas.com

EDGE be YOUR entine!

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

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Weekly Karaoke and open mic night; RuPaul's Drag Race screenings, too. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 7597340. www.club-bnb.com

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

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Opulence @ Beaux

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's

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

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

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room

New weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

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

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

Red Hots Burlesque @ Oasis The saucy women's burlesque revue has moved to the new SoMa nightclub; different musical guests each week. $10-$20. Wednesdays at 8:30pm-11:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

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

Surfer Blood @ Rickshaw Stop The popular band perform with Besties, Talk in Tongues, Hot Flash Heat Wave. $16-$18. 8pm- 155 Fell St. at Van Ness Ave. 861-2011. www.rickshawstop.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

Fri 20 Zap Mama @ The Fillmore

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

Sherry Vine @ Oasis New York's sassy queen returns to celebrate her birthday and perform her first local solo show. $20. 8pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www. sfoasis.com

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

net.com

Tue 24 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 Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Brunch Sundays/ Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Cookie Dough Fundraiser @ Azucar Lounge Beer bust raises funds for medical expenses for the late drag performer, aka Eddie Bell, and his surviving partner Michael Chu (DJ MC2). $15. 3:30pm-6:30pm. Also March 1. 299 9th St. at Folsom. www.azucarsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 Dance it up at the popular twiceweekly country-western dance night that includes line-dancing, two-stepping and lessons. $5. 5pm10:30pm. Also Thursdays 6:30pm10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. at Industrial. www.sundancesaloon.org

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

Mon 23 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

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

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

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

Wed 25 Booty Call @ QBar Juanita More! and her weekly intimate dance party. $10-$15. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

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

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge San Francisco's most fabulicious drag show celebrates its eighth anniversary this month, featuring Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. No cover. 9:30-11:30pm. 133 Turk St. 441-2922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Hip Hop Night @ Club BnB Oakland Live music and DJed dancing. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

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

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 26 Andy Grammer, Alex & Sierra @ The Fillmore Vocals and folk rock/pop, also with Paradise Fears and Rachel Platten. $20. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. www.thefillmore.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Feb 26: Lunar New Year Nightlife, with DJ Kingmost, martial arts performance by Jing Mo Athletic Association; see live goats to honor the Year of the Goat. $10-$12. 6pm10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org Want your nightlife event listed? Yes, you do. Email events@ebar. com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 19-25, 2015

Max Cameron

Local Hookies winner at Nob Hill Theatre

by Cornelius Washington

natural man in a world of overpumped, over-inked, overpierced and contrived bodies and personalities, Max Cameron stands out as one of the most normal, hardest-working and articulate sex stars in the industry. Cameron just won the San Francisco edition of the Hookies Awards at an event held at The Powerhouse Bar. You can get even more interactive. Leave your inhibitions, cell phones and your attitudes behind and join him at The Nob Hill Theater’s scandalous (and legendary) Circle Jerk with A Porn Star event February 19 in their notorious downstairs playroom. The ever-active and constantly booked porn stud squeezed in a last-minute interview with the Bay Area Reporter, where we got the scoop! Cornelius Washington: Is this your first time performing at The Nob Hill Theater? What are your expectations and/or fantasies? Max Cameron: This will be my sixth time performing at NHT. I’m expecting a bunch of fun surprises in the form of friends/costars that will hopefully be making appearances! What do you wear to dance that makes you feel your most powerful? Nothing? Being nude I suppose if the most “liberating.” Do you see all-male live sex shows coming back in fashion, thanks to the success of the Magic Mike and La Bare films? I’m not sure. Describe your fitness regime. I’m very active. I’m on a fiveday split: Mondays are legs and abs, Tuesday is chest and cardio, Wednesdays are off, Thursdays are back and abs, Friday is shoulders/ cardio, Saturday is arms/cardio. In addition to my gym routine, I practice soccer two days a week with games on Sundays. What is the first adult film you ever viewed? It has been so long ago that I don’t remember the name of it. It belonged to my friend’s brother and we all had a circle jerk when we watched it. It was pretty hot! What inspired you to begin an adult film career? I was kind of thrown into the fire, so to speak. My ex-boyfriend had been doing porn for some time

courtesy HotHouse

Max Cameron

and invited me along to a shoot, and things just went from there. Is working in adult film a second “coming out” for you? It definitely is a second coming out for me. I’m not one to really draw attention to myself in my private life, and thus really don’t talk about porn outside of my closeknit group of friends. As far as my family is concerned, only my sister and brother-inlaw know about my moonlighting as a performer. My mom would probably keel over and die if she knew, so in that sense, I am “closeted.” What’s the best and worst advice about the industry you’ve ever received from someone in the industry? The worst advice I got was to start in the industry with condomless porn (bareback). While most stu-

dios overlook that, there are a few who will not work with you under any circumstance if you have done condomless porn. So that is one regrettable piece of advice. The good advice came from the same person, however, warning me of the pitfalls of becoming exclusive with said company. As someone just starting out in the industry, I was offered exclusivity, but turned it down. I feel like I would have significantly decreased my opportunities with other studios, and am elated that I was able to work with so many great ones in just my first year. Describe your first adult film experience, as a performer. It was terrifying! I was tagging along on a shoot, and thought that I had been given the option to decide, See page 34 >>

courtesy Deviant Otter

Bravo Delta, Devin Totter and Max Cameron in Deviant Otter’s Starfucked.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

That’s Brentertainment Banks and Brian Bonds, playing nastier than any couple so far, spitting in each other’s mouths and licking black boots. These scenes, in turn, are kind of upstaged by David Benjamin, who really mauls appealing Shawn Wolfe, and then pounds him with a dildo while shoving another up his own ass! Well, did you evah. Brent’s most recent movie, directed by Bruno Bond, is in a classic Falcon trope. Best in Show for Poolside 1 goes to Brent with Darius Ferdynand. Filmed under brilliant sunshine, the guys are positively golden. It’s a surprise when usual bottom Brent tops Darius, with the handsome and well-built Brit bouncing back hard on Brent’s cock. And it’s no surprise when Darius flips Brent, and, both men sweaty and glistening in the bright light, blasts his hole like dy-

The face of pleasure; Brent Corrigan’s back, bottoming and topping.

by John F. Karr

ast October, Brent Corrigan ended a four-year absence from porn (he’d been pursuing roles in mainstream film) by becoming an exclusive performer with the Falcon group. I was glad to see him again. I’d always found his performances

fervent, his face and form angelic, his asshole as gracious as Kitty Carlisle Hart, and his cock—well, its size, shape and complexion made it the kind of penis you wanted to take home to meet your mother. Viewing Brent’s scenes made me nostalgic for the golden days of Brent’s boyhood. The new, more

FalconStudios

Andrew Stark gives it to Brent Corrigan in America’s Finest.

FalconStudios

Sean Zevran makes Ryan Rose sing loud, in America’s Finest.

mature looking Brent –he’s now 28 years old– has a touch of resignation, and his angelic face has filled out into a somewhat generic manhood. He’s certainly giving his all, but his all isn’t quite as giving as it once was—although, as ever, we’re blessed by the sight of his tight nuts, and the sudden sprouts of his tiny, erect nips. Viewing the scenes also made me marvel at the slick polish of Raging Hot Falcon (RHF) product. Today’s little cameras slide up so close to the Points of Interest, and the picture they record is brilliant and sharply focused. Whatever I may say about RHF movies, they’re certainly flattering to the eye; perhaps not the ear, though. It’s the same old music by Rock Hard that chugs along generically in these flicks. Another thing I marvel at is this RHF cost-cutting measure. Its directors are now not only their own cinematographers, but their own editors as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if company prez Chris Ward didn’t have them signed up for music classes, so they could compose their own scores, too. All three of Brent’s movies have good, focused sex. The first one was the Edge title, Jacked, directed by Nick Foxx. I have only one complaint about the movie. All four of its scenes take place in a locker room that’s spotlessly new and positively sterile. It’s a really clean dirty movie. Fortunately, despite the sterile environment of Jacked, its sex hasn’t been sterilized. Not a bit. The movie’s distinguished by several excitingly explicit RCs, as well as oral cum shots in three of its four scenes. Sean Zevran’s especially good at topping Brent, making him spurt all over, before giving him a mouthful of juicy Zevran cum. The scene’s a scorcher. Ryan Rose tops Brenner Bolton, an attractive, clean-cut kid with a touch of sass. Nick Sterling, looking more manly with every feature, tops Josh Connors, and finally, the ever salacious Brian Bonds heartily bops Brent’s butt—two ginger boys, two rosy cocks. Boy, what a glazing Bonds lays down on Brent’s face. Brent’s next film was the Monster Bang America’s Finest, co-directed by Nick Foxx and Trenton Ducatti. The entire cast is made up of Falcon Exclusives—they’re quite a line up—and the guys are decidedly brash and aggressive in five scenes. Derek Atlas takes down Johnny V in a feisty match, and of course, there’s Brent, paired with Andrew Stark in the opening, and slamming himself down hard on Stark’s cock. Atta boy, Brent, suck Stark’s semen down your throat. This hot opener is slightly upstaged by the movie’s pair of Take It Like Ya Give It scenes. Ryan Rose and Sean Zevran flip it, as do Boomer

namite. Ryan Ross tops cute Anthony Verusso; Derek Atlas—a welcome hairy chest amongst the movie’s sea of smooth—tops Josh Connors, and Lucas Knight’s insertion makes Brenner Bolton gasp, “Oh my god, it’s fuckin’ big!” In an interview posted at the Falcon blog, Brent reveals that unlike the preppy, spunky-clean stuff he’s been filming, his ultimate sex scene would be filthy. That’s his word, “filthy.” And hopefully, he says, interracial. Wouldn’t it be fun if his RHF directors paid heed? No matter what your taste among the overlapping identities of RHF brands, you can’t go wrong with the stuff. It may not run deep, but it looks great and does the trick.t www.FalconStudios.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 12-18, 2015

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Max Cameron

From page 32

on location if I wanted to participate. When we got there, the director was giving me all these instructions as to how he wanted the scene to play out, and told myself, “Well, here goes!” I was totally caught off guard, but it turned out to be a pretty hot scene. So far, who’s your favorite scene partner? Hands down, Rocco Steele. We had this electrifying chemistry between the two of us, and our scene was so natural and real-feeling. He’s a real sweet guy off-camera as well; just an all-around great guy – and crazy sexy to boot! Physically, what’s the difference between film sex and real life sex? Sex in my personal life is quite a bit different. For me, in my per-

sonal life, sex is much more sensual, personal, and intimate. But don’t get me wrong, that intimacy and sensuality can culminate into crazy sessions! I feel like, on set, you need to constantly be aware of where the camera is, being conscious of angles, shadows, etc. There have definitely been times where I have completely forgotten about the lights, camera and production assistants, but those are few and far between. It is, after all, my (our) job to make the finished product the most polished, pleasing, and hot production we can, and often times that requires doing things that you naturally would not. What’s your favorite sexual position? There are a lot of factors that go into that: penis contours/ shape, top/bottom, etc. As a bottom, I like cowboy(girl), because I also love kissing and looking into

my partner’s eyes. As a top, probably doggy. To be honest, my ideal position would be “Lucky Pierre,” sandwiched between two guys. What do you bring to adult films that no one else does? I try to bring an air of professionalism to anything I am part of, big or small. The finished product is ultimately a reflection of you, and I want that to be shown in the best light possible; oh, and my soccer butt. What body part, other than the obvious, do you find yourself using more onscreen than in your real life? My nipples are definitely used much more on-screen than off. Physically, I’m not hard-wired, and to be honest, nipple play does very little for me (sorry guys!), but it does look sexy as hell, which I think is the reason behind its use in my films.

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Max Cameron (left) at the Hookies preliminary contest at the Powerhouse.

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HOT*CKSKR*24HRS –

Where do you see all-male adult film going in the 21st Century? With the introduction of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), I think the adult entertainment industry has gained and incredibly powerful tool in HIV prevention. Its efficacy is over 99%, significantly more than a condom. Having said that, I think we will see a lot more studios going the condomless route. I think that is just a reflection of the paradigm shift of our personal lives (more people using alternative, more effective measures for safer sex). Barebacking: pro or con? As someone on PrEP for over two years, I personally prefer condomless (bareback) sex. It just feels better and, in my opinion, is more intimate. Professionally, having to bottom for hours on end with a condom can get very irritating and sore, physically. Some may say that we expose ourselves to other STIs, but the truth of the matter is that the rick increase is negligible, at best. Furthermore, those on PrEP are required to be tested every three months, much more frequently than most not on PrEP. In your Deviant Otter scene, Starfucked, you not only flipflopped numerous times, but, went from safe to bareback sex. Who created the scene’s concept? How did you feel about doing it? Have there been any ramifications? That scene was literally a year or more in the making. I quickly became friends with Bravo Delta and Devin Totter (independently of one another) and wanted to meet both. Devin finally invited me out to shoot a few scenes, and one night out, grabbed some drinks with Bravo, where we discussed finally shooting a scene together. Deviant Otter shoots mostly

condomless scenes, and Bravo, being an ex-Cocky Boys exclusive, felt obligated to wear a condom (they are one of the companies who have a zero-tolerance policy with condomless sex), in addition to his own personal stance as he was not yet on PrEP. We thought we might convince him seeing as both Devin and I are on PrEP, but he was just more comfortable using a condom, which we obviously respected. It was really a non-issue. This, in a way, ties into how I think the industry might be changing in the future, allowing for more personal choice. Following up, what’s your opinion of “bottom stigma”? Be proud to be a bottom! Look, there are times I feel like bottoming, and times I feel like topping the hell out of someone. I say, to each their own. In your next scene scene, who would be your fantasy scene partner and director, and what would you do with the former? Well, fortunately, I will be shooting with my dream scene partner and boyfriend, Jackson Fillmore in March with Lucas Entertainment. I can’t wait! This will definitely be one of those scenes that will be so organic, and titillating! Definitely look out for more of him, too. As far as a non-boyfriend scene, I’d love to work with Nick Sterling, Eddy CeeTee, Aleks Buldocek or Tim Kruger, with the talented Mr. Pam behind the camera. Actually, can I have a big, group scene with them all? Mr. Pam? Circle Jerk With a Porn Star features Max Cameron at the Nob Hill Theatre. $10. Feb. 19, 9pm. 729 Bush St. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com Follow Max at twitter.com/xxxmaxcameron

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

February 19-25, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by Steven Underhill Imperial Court 50th

he 50th anniversary gala of the Imperial Court was a glamorous moment in history come to life at San Francisco’s City Hall Rotunda on Feb. 15. Dozens of Empresses and Emperors from San Francisco and around the country enjoyed a sit-down dinner with live music (including The Klipptones, and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus), a grand procession of elected royalty, and the presentation of newly crowned Empress Khmera Rouge and Emperor Kevin Lisle. Look for more coverage and photos in Donna’ Sachet’s On the Town column next week. www.imperialcouncilsf.org Visit BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ lgbtsf.nightlife. More Steven Underhill photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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