November 5, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 45 • No. 45 • November 5-11, 2015

Election alters balance of power at SF City Hall

Jane Philomen Cleland

Sheriff-elect Vicki Hennessy celebrated her victory Tuesday night.

Hennessy easily wins sheriff’s race by Seth Hemmelgarn

icki Hennessy trounced San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi in Tuesday’s election, ending a bumpy tenure for the incumbent. Hennessy, a former interim sheriff and retired deputy captain, received 61.1 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning, easily defeating Mirkarimi, who had 32.9 percent, according to unofficial returns. The race was called by 10 p.m. Tuesday, although there are still some ballots to be counted. John C. Robinson, a retired sheriff ’s deputy, trailed far behind, at 5.9 percent. At her election party at the South of Market restaurant Don Ramon’s Tuesday night, after her victory had become clear, Hennessy, the city’s first female sheriff, said she planned to take a vacation, “then hopefully work on a transition plan.” The sheriff’s department is primarily responsible for overseeing the jails, but also performs other duties, such as security in courtrooms and San Francisco General Hospital. See page 17 >>

Jane Philomen Cleland

Aaron Peskin celebrated his return to the Board of Supervisors at an election party Tuesday night. Unofficial returns show him with a solid lead over Supervisor Julie Christensen.

by Matthew S. Bajko

ayor Ed Lee coasted to victory Tuesday night, easily winning a second four-year term in Room 200 at City Hall. But the moderate former bureaucrat awoke Wednesday to find the balance of power on the Board of Supervisors tipped toward the city’s progressive political camp due to Aaron Peskin’s commanding victory in the race for the

Khaled Sayed

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who spoke to supporters Tuesday night, easily won re-election as he had no major opponents.

District 3 supervisor seat. Peskin, who previously served two terms as District 3 supervisor as well as president of the board, ousted Julie Christensen, Lee’s appointee to fill the vacancy created by the election last fall of Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). More than $2 million was spent on the contest to represent the city’s North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods due to its deciding control of the board. With Christensen, mod-

erates currently hold a 6-5 majority. But that will flip come January to a 6-5 progressive majority after Peskin garnered 52.99 percent of the vote in the November 3 election, according to unofficial returns Wednesday morning. It was enough to avoid having the race be decided by the city’s ranked-choice voting system. “I have mellowed with age but am still passionate about the issues I have been hearing See page 17 >>

Victory and defeat for gays in local races in U.S. by Lisa Keen

here were anti-gay smear campaigns and surprise victories in conservative strongholds, as 30 of 48 out LGBT candidates won election Tuesday night in local races around the country. In Salt Lake City, Jackie Biskupski appears to have become the first out lesbian to be elected mayor of the conservative Mormon stronghold, taking 52 percent of the vote, according to preliminary returns. Incumbent Mayor Ralph Becker has refused to concede the race so far, even though Biskupski also beat him soundly during the primary in August. The Salt Lake City Tribune endorsed Biskupski, citing her 13 years in the state Legislature and current work in the sheriff ’s office. She proudly included her

work for LGBTQ citizens in her campaign material. Many of her supporters and campaign workers wore long, curly blond wigs in an affectionate mocking of Biskupski’s wildly curly mop. Also in Salt Lake City, Derek Kitchen, one of the plaintiffs in that state’s lawsuit seeking the right to marry, appears to have won his bid to join the City Council, with 52 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns. And in South Bend, Indiana, incumbent Mayor Pete Buttigieg won 80 percent of the vote for a second term Tuesday, less than five months after coming out as gay. The Associated Press said there was only “scant discussion” of his sexual orientation by his opponent during the campaign. In Indianapolis, the city’s first openly gay city

councilmember, Zach Adamson, won re-election Tuesday. Since his first election, Adamson garnered considerable media attention when he and his partner traveled to Washington, D.C., to marry because they couldn’t get a license in Indiana. And earlier this year, Adamson joined the council majority in urging the state Legislature to repeal its law allowing discrimination against LGBT people by claiming a religious motivation. Other hopes of “firsts” in conservative areas were denied Tuesday. Jocelyn Pritchett, a Democrat from Jackson, Mississippi, was the first out LGBT candidate for a statewide position in that state. She ran against incumbent Republican Stacey Pickering for the job of state auditor. According to campaign finance See page 17 >>

Courtesy Biskupski for Mayor

Jackie Biskupski has apparently won the Salt Lake City mayor’s race, according to unofficial returns.

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Election 2015>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

SF voters reject Mission housing, Airbnb measures by Matthew S. Bajko

an Francisco voters Tuesday rejected a moratorium on luxury housing in the Mission and a measure aimed at restricting the use of short-term housing rental site Airbnb. But they did pass a $310 million affordable housing bond and signed off on the San Francisco Giants baseball team’s redevelopment plan for a site adjacent to its waterfront AT&T Park that includes a 40 percent set aside of below-market-rate housing units. The election results are a boost to Mayor Ed Lee’s push to construct or rehabilitate 10,000 units for lowincome and working-class families by 2020. Yet they are unlikely to end the bitter debates over the gentrification of the Latino Mission district and property owners turning their homes into de facto hotels. “Our marching orders from last night are to work night and day to address displacement and keep people stable in their housing and to build more affordable housing,” said gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was a vocal critic of both the Mission and Airbnb ballot measures. According to the unofficial returns Wednesday morning, 57.35 percent of voters rejected Proposition I, which would have imposed a moratorium on housing and business development projects in the Mission for at least 18 months. It was meant to hit the pause button on projects that neighborhood leaders contend will further gentrify out Latino residents of the Mission, which has lost 27 percent of its Latino/Hispanic population since 2000, according to a report released

Jane Philomen Cleland

Political consultant Nicole Derse gives Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty a hug at the No on F election night party at Oasis.

last week by the city’s Budget and Legislative Analyst. Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Mission, worked with a coalition of neighborhood groups to place Prop I on the ballot after the Board of Supervisors failed to support it this summer. “Whatever happens, the Mission isn’t going away. It’s just the beginning,” Campos tweeted Tuesday night. A spokesman for the controversial 1979 Mission housing development at 16th and Mission above the BART station, hailed Prop I’s defeat in a statement released Wednesday morning. “We are very encouraged that San Franciscans voted down Prop I and sent a clear message that building housing is the answer to the housing crisis. We remain committed to the completion of 1979 Mission and are proceeding through the planning process,” stated Joe Arellano.

As for Proposition F, it was defeated with 55.06 percent of voters against it. It would have limited homeowners who rent out rooms, whether hosted or shared, to doing so 75 nights per year. The measure would also have prohibited the listing of in-law units as short-term rentals and allowed people to sue their neighbors who use hosting platforms. Opponents argued Prop F violated people’s privacy rights due to its reporting requirements and would financially hurt residents struggling to afford San Francisco’s sky-high housing costs. Airbnb spent more than $8 million to defeat the measure, fearful it would lead other cities to adopt similar restrictions in using the site. “Tonight, voters stood up for middle class families’ right to share their home and opposed an extreme, hotel industry-backed measure,” Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy and public affairs, wrote in a blog post on the company’s website. He added, “San Francisco has experienced affordability issues for decades and our community wants to be part of the solution. This city is our home, and no matter where you stood on Proposition F, we want to work with you to make San Francisco stronger for everyone.” Backers of Prop F have vowed to revive it on next year’s ballot. And they are asking Airbnb to take action against those landlords and property owners who are using the site illegally. “Even though Prop F was defeated last night, it’s clear that San Francisco gets this issue and wants an end to the abuse of short-term rentals – your $10 See page 18 >>

Voters support help for SF ‘legacy’ businesses by Matthew S. Bajko

establishments that qualified to be on it. Under Prop J, legacy businesses are eligible to receive an annual grant of up to $500 per employee. The city controller has estimated the program will cost the city between $2.1 million to $3.7 million annually to begin with and grow to $54 million to $94 million by 2040. All 11 members of the Board of Supervisors supported Prop J. They noted that the measure’s costs amount to less than 1 percent of the city’s budget and argued the expenses would be recouped from the economic benefits of having the local businesses remain open.

an Francisco voters adopted a local ballot measure in Tuesday’s election that provides financial assistance to keep the city’s “legacy” businesses open amid increased economic pressures. Longtime LGBT businesses could particularly benefit by the passage of Proposition J, which passed with 56.71 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial returns Wednesday morning. As noted in the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column Monday, in recent years the city has been losing its gay nightlife venues, LGBT-owned eateries and more traditional brick-and-mortar retail shops in the gay Castro district. The pace of gay-owned business closings, as well as LGBT nonprofits relocating across the bay to Oakland, seems to have increased of late due to rising rents for commercial spaces. In response to the difficulties many longtime businesses in the city are confronting, gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos pushed for passage of Prop J, which creates a Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund. It allows the city to provide grants to legacy businesses and to building owners who lease space to those businesses for terms of at least 10 years. “So proud to see Prop J, our legacy business proposal, passing,” Campos tweeted Wednesday morning. “Thank you SF voters for helping save our legacy businesses!”

Rick Gerharter

The Nob Hill Theatre on Bush Street is one of many longtime gay businesses that could benefit from the passage of Proposition J.

The measure defines a legacy business as those that have operated in San Francisco for more than 20 years. It also includes nonprofits that have been operating in the city for at least two decades. To benefit from the measure, a legacy business has to show it has “significantly contributed to the history or identity of a neighborhood.” And it needs to show that, if excluded from the city’s Legacy Business Registry, it risks being displaced “because of increased rents or lease terminations.” The city established the Legacy Business Registry in March, but it did not include funding for those

Clean power, family leave measures pass

Also passed Tuesday was the City Hall supported Proposition H, which aligns CleanPowerSF, the long-stalled city program to sell energy from renewable power sources, with how the state defines clean energy sources. It garnered 79.51 percent of the vote. A competing measure, Proposition G, which had been put on the ballot by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, which represents employees at power utility PG&E, and would have restricted how the city program defines “renewable, greenhouse-gas free electricity” was defeated. It received 76.79 percent of the no vote. Prop H had been expected to pass due to a last minute compromise between city leaders and the union. See page 16 >>

<< Open Forum

t Trans ruling bodes ill for CA initiative

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Volume 45, Number 45 November 5-11, 2015 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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key ruling by U.S. Department of Education officials should give public educators pause when determining access to locker rooms and other facilities for transgender students. And it should cause Californians to reconsider before signing petitions for an anti-trans initiative that would restrict access to public restrooms, including those in public schools. In the Illinois case, Palatine High School District 211 was found discriminating against a female student on the basis of her sex. The education department issued its findings after a lengthy investigation that concluded the district violated federal law for denying the student access to a gender-appropriate locker room for changing clothes, simply because the student is transgender. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which brought the case, the education department made clear this week that the school district “is engaging in harmful discrimination.” The district thought it had found a solution when it required the student to change clothes behind a privacy curtain. But the education department disagreed, saying that the separate changing room, which the ACLU said was a long way from the locker room, violated Title IX because it separated and stigmatized the student solely because she is a trans teenager. “The investigation made clear that the district’s claims about any problems resulting from ending the discrimination were unsupported both because the other students were not concerned about the issue and because, in general, girls do not fully undress when getting ready for gym or many sporting activities,” the ACLU said in a statement. “And to the extent that any girl wanted extra privacy, the district should offer them private areas to dress rather than isolating students who are transgender.” The education department’s ruling was significant because it was the first of its kind on the rights of transgender students. And this issue is not going away. More that ever, young people are determining their gender identity at earlier ages, and many of them have the support of their parents, so school administrators and others are going to have to accommodate students without discriminating against them.

And shielding a trans student from nents will exploit at every turn. The the rest of the class is not acceptable, restroom myth has been promoted the federal government has decided. to convince people to fear “boys” Here in California, the anti-LGBT or “men in dresses” using female group called Privacy for All is in the facilities. process of collecting signatures for Until neighbors, co-workers, a 2016 ballot initiative that would and families know transgender prohibit transgender people from people these specious arguments using public restrooms in governabout who can use which restroom Rick Gerharter ment buildings. It’s called “Limits will remain a potent weapon. The on Use of Facilities in Government California irony of Privacy for All, as Equality Buildings and Businesses” and one Attorney General California’s Rick Zbur said a few of the more onerous parts of the Kamala Harris months ago, is that it undermines measure would allow anyone ofits very name by seeking to invade fended by the presence of the most basic dignity of not only an individual in a restroom to sue trans people, but people of all orientations and that person for $4,000 in damages, identities. as well as attorney’s fees. This week’s decision in Illinois should raise State Attorney General Kamala questions about whether such an initiative Harris approved the initiative for would be legal in California. Earlier this year signature gathering back in June; Harris went to court to stop, before the sigproponents have until December 20 nature-gathering phase, a ballot proposal that to gather 365,880 valid signatures would require gays to be put to death. to qualify it for the November The U.S. Department of Education’s find2016 ballot. ing isn’t the first time that Title IX has been The defeat Tuesday of an used successfully in transgender discriminaanti-LGBT discrimination law in tion cases, and we’d like to see Harris apply Houston reinforces the reality of the same logic to the ballot measure being a backlash and the false arguments our oppoproposed in California.t

Time for action, no time to lament by Karla Alegria

tions and hidden history that affect my daily life – where I come from y granny was a single mom as a woman, as a Salvadoran imwith nine children ranging migrant, as a queer person of color. from pre-teen to their 30s by the It’s impossible to ignore these things time I came along. Mom was also once you see them! Three years ago on her own, with me. They rented if I’d heard about Nestora Salgado, a house and together supported the imprisoned in Mexico, or Marissa family. Grandma, the expert cook, Alexander, the African American with her food stand in El Mercado mother given a 20-year sentence for de San Martin, a small city on the self-defense, I might have thought, Karla Alegria outskirts of San Salvador, and my “What a sad story but I can’t do anymom with her factory job. thing about it.” The Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) was Class-consciousness was not on my radar going strong and unionists fought for better then. But the Radical Women Manifesto pay and working conditions. Texas Instrutaught me that we really do have inalienable ments shut down its factory, mom lost her job. rights and that it is possible to fight for them Work was scarce; it was time for a last resort. – if you’re not alone. I learned the true history For mom, that meant going to the United of the civil rights movement in the U.S. and States to find work to support the family. I was women’s decisive role in it. And became conalmost 5 and did not see her again for another scious for the first time that I was part four years. In 1989, my aunt and I set out on of a huge working class. a road trip to the U.S. She had a toddler and That’s when I grasped that would not see him again until he was 14. standing up against social inCapitalism blames gay marriage for destroyjustice like bigotry against iming families. I blame capitalism! Families are migrants, police violence, and separated daily on both sides of the border racism was just plain necessary. because of desperate economic conditions creMy activism today comes from ated by so-called free trade agreements like the a personal sense of responsibilCentral America Free Trade Agreement and ity for dispelling the lies that are the North American Free Trade Agreement told to prevent us from uniting that benefit only those at the top. In countries against our tiny ruling class that like El Salvador it is difficult enough to find could care less about the most afflicted. work that pays a living wage. Harder if you’re As a person of color and an immigrant, one older than 35. And forget about it all together of the things I appreciate most about my poif you’re a woman over 35. litical involvement with Radical Women and More and more, the only way out is for Freedom Socialist Party has been the Comrades people to emigrate to where the jobs are. When of Color Caucus – we call it the CCC – which they arrive they are often treated as subhuman functions within both organizations, nationally. invaders. I’ve learned so much in this caucus. For examWhen I first came upon Radical Women I had ple, I have legal immigration status and grew up only a faint interest in politics. I never expected with it. But in the CCC I learned how miserable to learn so much, so fast, about the social condithe lives of undocumented immigrants are, and

how pivotal it is for RW and FSP to defend undocumented workers and their families. Being a woman living under capitalism is tremendously hard. Being a woman of color is very much harder. Analyzing and organizing around these realities, learning and teaching the skills of leadership so necessary for our urgent fight – this is what the CCC does. We are true comrades, of color, loudly denouncing and fighting the brutality of the profiteers, in a country we cannot forget was founded on hundreds of years of racist slavery. The most important lesson I have learned since becoming an activist is that this is no time to lament. It is a time to unearth our true history as a country and use our power as a class. A time for action!t Karla Alegria is a technical support worker, a queer Salvadoran immigrant raised in Los Angeles, and an organizer in defense of Nestora Salgado. This essay is reprinted from a new anthology, Talking Back: Voices of Color (Red Letter Press, 2015), which presents an unusually diverse group of writers speaking out on issues affecting communities of color. All the book’s contributors are involved in community organizing and many are LGBTQ. Their identities include Asian/Pacific American, Black, indigenous North American and Aboriginal Australian, Latino, Palestinian, immigrant, feminist, youth, elder, student, socialist, unionist, former prisoner, and more. The 240-page book costs $15 ($6.99 for e-book) and is available from Marcus Books, http://www.RedLetterPress.org, http://www.Amazon.com, Google Play, and other booksellers.

Politics>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

New East Bay housing complex opens E

Jane Philomen Cleland

l Cerrito City Councilman Gabriel Quinto stood in the courtyard of the new Ohlone Gardens moderate-income apartment complex that officially opened October 28 in the East Bay City. Quinto, a gay man living with HIV, said that the 57 units are already full and include people with HIV/AIDS, other disabilities, and families. The Resources for Community Development project was funded in part by Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the City of El Cerrito. Quinto, who has made affordable housing a priority since being elected last year, called the project “one step in the right direction.”

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Palm Springs elects gay men in mayor, council races by Matthew S. Bajko

n an apparent mood to clean house after months of scandal swirling around City Hall, Palm Springs voters Tuesday elected three newcomers, all gay men, in the races for mayor and two City Council seats. In a contest dominated by the ethical scandal involving outgoing gay Mayor Steve Pougnet, centered on his ties to a local developer, the winner in the eight-person contest to succeed him was gay retired Navy Commander Robert “Rob” Moon. According to unofficial returns Wednesday morning, with all precincts reporting, Moon had placed first with nearly 37 percent or 3,529 votes. “We had no paid consultants, no paid staff. We had 75, 80 people who came in everyday for the last eight months and worked their hearts out for us,” Moon told his supporters at his election night party, as seen in a video posted online by the Desert Sun. “Just because they believed in us. It is the most amazing feeling in the world and I can’t thank you enough.” Moon, who has been with his husband, Bob Hammack, for 34 years, defeated lesbian City Councilwoman Ginny Foat, who came in second with 25 percent or 2,420 votes. Foat, the city’s sole female council member, had secured endorsements from a number of LGBT groups, such as the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, LGBT statewide advocacy group Equality California, and the Desert Stonewall Democrats. But she faced questions during the campaign about her own votes on certain development deals backed by Pougnet. She will remain on the council for the next two years, as her term doesn’t expire until December 2017. Also in the mayoral race was former mayor Ron Oden, whose election in 2003 marked the first time a gay African American candidate had been elected mayor of the Coachella Valley city. But Oden only served one mayoral term as he opted not to seek re-election. He placed third in Tuesday’s mayoral race, with 1,258 votes or 11 percent. In the race for two seats on the city council, incumbent City Councilman Paul Lewin, a straight LGBT ally, appears to have lost his bid for a second four-year term. As with Foat, Lewin was hit with campaign ads that painted him as being part of the problem at City Hall. The victors in the six-person council contest, should the current vote tally stand, are two gay men who both have ties to the Bay Area. Holding on to a 20-vote lead over

Courtesy Geoff Kors

Palm Springs City Councilman-elect Geoff Kors, left, celebrated with campaign volunteers Lisa Middleton and Brian Rix at his election night party Tuesday.

Lewin is gay Planning Commissioner J.R. Roberts, who in the late 1990s was elected to Sausalito’s city council and served a stint as mayor before moving to Palm Springs in 2001. Based on the unofficial returns, Roberts had captured nearly 24 percent or 4,001 votes, while Lewin trailed behind in third place with 3,981 votes. Roberts, who has served on the planning commission since 2011, had pledged voters that he would “bring a new perspective to the government of our city with integrity, honesty and transparency.” The clear winner in the council race was first place finisher Geoff Kors, a former San Francisco resident who moved to Palm Springs in 2011 after resigning as EQCA’s executive director. He garnered 6,126 votes, or slightly more than 36 percent of the vote. Kors, whose husband, James Williamson, was elected last fall to the Palm Springs school board, currently works for the National Center for Lesbian Rights as a senior legislative and policy strategist. He will be replacing gay City Councilman Rick Hutcheson, who opted not to seek a third term this year. “I think, first, we had a great campaign team who really worked hard and we had a very detailed plan on what we wanted to accomplish for the city,” Kors told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview Wednesday morning. In terms of ethics and transparency, Kors said he felt they were “one of the, if not the, top issues in the race.” Pougnet, elected in 2007, had been expected to seek a third term as mayor this year. But he announced in May that he would instead step down. His announcement came weeks after the Desert Sun broke the news that Pougnet had voted to support a land sale sought by a local developer who had hired the mayor as a consultant. The news sparked an on-

going political ethics scandal, with Pougnet admitting he had “made a mistake” in not recusing himself from the vote. But Pougnet also insisted that he had informed his family months prior to the newspaper’s reporting that he had decided to step down as mayor when his term ends in December. The state Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating Pougnet, and last month, agents from the F.B.I. and the Riverside County District Attorney’s office raided City Hall and seized documents from Pougnet’s home. The questions around City Hall corruption became a focal point in the races for both mayor and the two City Council seats. It was the main talking point at candidate forums and popped up in the political hit pieces directed at Foat and Lewin. As of Wednesday morning, there were still 3,500 vote-by-mail ballots and another 1,600 provisional ballots to count in the race. Thus, there is still a chance that Lewin could pull ahead and win re-election. Nor had Foat conceded her race Tuesday night. Elections officials are expected to report revised vote tallies Friday, as the city kicks off its annual Pride weekend festivities. Moon will be the third consecutive out mayor to lead the southern California desert vacation destination. Palm Springs is home to many gay and lesbian retirees – LGBT residents are thought to account for more than half of the city’s 47,000 residents – who make up a critical voting bloc in local races. Palm Springs is also a magnet for LGBT tourists, though its image as a welcoming gay resort town has taken a hit this year due to reports of two gay bashings, the most recent occurring Sunday night. Public safety is likely to be a top concern for Moon once he is sworn in as mayor December 2. The mayor of Palm Springs is a voting member on the City Council along with four councilmembers. Thus, with the elections of Moon, Kors, and Roberts, along with Foat, the lone woman See page 17 >>

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<< Election 2015

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Randolph secures seat on SF college board by Matthew S. Bajko

ay incumbent City College of San Francisco trustee Alex Randolph handily won his race Tuesday to hold on to his seat on the oversight body for the troubled community college district. His victory is an early wedding gift, as Randolph is set to marry his longtime partner, Trevor Nguyen, next week in Hawaii. Tapped by Mayor Ed Lee in April to fill the board vacancy created when longtime trustee Natalie Berg stepped down due to personal reasons, Randolph received 47.53 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial returns Wednesday morning. He was seeking to serve

out the remainder of Berg’s term, which expires in 2016. “I am excited about the win but I am also excited about my wedding,” Randolph told the Bay Area Reporter Wednesday morning. His victory also sets him up as the frontrunner in the race next fall to win a full four-year term on the college board. “I think getting to work on day one, working really hard and running a true citywide campaign,” said Randolph when asked what he felt led to his victory in his first bid for political office. “Meeting with everybody and really showing people that I am genuinely interested in moving City College forward.” The race had pitted two gay men

tion is a racial minority. But opponents of the measure, the Campaign for Houston, portrayed the ordinance as “the Bathroom Bill” and pounded the airwaves with an ad showing a man following a young girl into a public bathroom stall. The voiceover warned that a vote for HERO would mean “any man at any time could enter a woman’s

bathroom by simply claiming to be a woman that day.” “Even registered sex offenders could follow women or young girls into the bathroom and, if a business tried to stop them, they’d be fined,” said the ad. Supporters of the ordinance tried to counter the message with their own ad, showing a retired

Khaled Sayed

City College trustee Alex Randolph spoke to supporters at an election party Tuesday.

against a straight woman who came up short last year in her bid to serve on the oversight body for the community college. Tom Temprano, a gay nightlife promoter and Mission bar owner, placed second in the race with 23.52 percent of the vote. Landing in third was Wendy Aragon, who works in the construction industry, with 19.11 percent of the vote. A fourth candidate, Jason Zeng, came in fourth with 9.25 percent of the vote. At his election night party Temprano told the crowd that Tuesday would not be “the last time you’ll see my name on a ballot.” In an interview See page 15 >>

Houston voters repeal anti-LGBT bias law by Lisa Keen

n a tough blow to LGBT people everywhere, Houston voters on Tuesday repealed a year-old nondiscrimination ordinance – rejection that appeared to be largely driven by unfounded fears that it would enable sexual predators to enter women’s restrooms to assault young girls.

Unofficial returns showed the vote was 39 percent for and 61 percent against Proposition 1, asking whether voters wanted to retain the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO. The law, passed by the City Council in May 2014, prohibited discrimination against a wide range of minorities in a city where more than 50 percent of the popula-

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Proposition 1 supporters waited for election returns Tuesday night in Houston.

Houston police officer and “father of four girls” saying, “It’s already illegal for men to go into women’s restrooms to harm someone.” They also warned that, if Houston repealed the ordinance, it would likely mean a loss of major employers for the city and the possible loss of such high profile events as the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to be played there in 2017. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, the first out mayor of any major city in the country, championed the ordinance from the beginning and blamed its rejection on “a campaign of fear-mongering and deliberate lies.” She also made clear during the campaign that she felt the effort to repeal the ordinance was an attack on her. Tuesday’s vote was a particularly stinging loss for Parker, who is finishing up her term-limited third term as mayor. At a gathering of Yes on 1 supporters Tuesday night, Parker reiterated those feelings, noting that, during her 40 years as a political activist, she has watched the city vote four times to deny equal rights to lesbians and gays. “No one’s rights should be subject to a popular vote,” said Parker. “It is insulting, it is demeaning, and it is just wrong.” She said opponents of the ordinance ran a “calculated campaign of lies designed to demonize a little understood minority.” Parker said opponents – whom she characterized as “right-wing ideologues and religious right” – “just kept spewing an ugly wad of lies from our TV screens and from pulpits.” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) portrayed the repeal effort as pushback by churches to “stand up” in “a Christian nation.” And he sought to extend the political implications of the vote. Speaking to opponents of the ordinance at their victory rally Tuesday night, Patrick said the vote was a message to “those who supported this, including Hillary Clinton, who wants to be the next president, that you’re out of touch with America, you’re out of touch with your own party, you’re out of touch with common sense, you’re out of touch with common decency.” See page 16 >>

Community News>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF Pride shooting case heads to trial by Seth Hemmelgarn

to the scene was thenSan Francisco Police rganizers of San FranDeputy Chief John Lofcisco’s LGBT Pride tus. ... That one of the celebration, who are being first responders was one sued by a gay man who was of the highest ranking shot at the 2013 festival, are police personnel in the headed to trial after lastcity is likewise an indiminute settlement talks cation of the extent of Courtesy Trevor Gardner collapsed Tuesday. the police presence” at Trevor Gardner, 25, of the event. SF Pride plaintiff Los Angeles, filed his law- Trevor Gardner Franklin also noted suit in 2014 claiming that in his declaration that lax security was to blame Gardner was shot at for the incident, in which he was 6:35 p.m., minutes after the event shot in the leg. had officially ended. Much of the trial, which is exSF Pride “would not reasonably pected to start next week and which deploy crowd control measures to Gardner’s attorney has estimated keep persons out of an event that will take five weeks, is set to involve had concluded,” he said. exactly what San Francisco LGBT In July, SF Pride filed a motion for Pride Celebration Committee ofsummary judgment asking for the ficials could realistically do to boost case to be decided without going to security, according to court docutrial. ments. Discussion will likely include But in an order signed in Octometal detectors, which SF Pride ber, Superior Court Judge Ernest H. doesn’t currently employ. Goldsmith firmly denied SF Pride’s In an October 1 declaration, request, and suggested the organizaForrest Franklin, who SF Pride has tion should require metal detectors looked to as a security expert in the and check people’s bags, among case, pointed to differences between other measures. the San Francisco and Los Angeles “The causal link between defenPride festivals and sought to exdant’s security failures and plainplain why certain security measures tiff ’s injury is robust,” Goldsmith would be impractical here. wrote. At the Los Angeles party, attendGardner is expected to testify in ees “allegedly” have to go through the trial, as are SF Pride and police metal detectors, he said. officials, witnesses to the shooting, San Francisco’s Pride is “many Gardner’s doctors, and security times larger than any other similar experts. event, including the Los Angeles Caruana has also sought to get Pride event,” Franklin said, and it’s police Chief Greg Suhr to testify in “held within a large footprint of the case, according to the court docthe city, covering many city blocks,” uments, but the city has rebuffed while the Los Angeles festival “is that effort. held within a single site.” The San Francisco celebration Testy emails footprint “encompasses numerous The records also show that there privately-owned properties, includhave been some testy email exchanging commercial properties, parking es between attorneys in the case. garages, long-term hotels, and other In an October 26 message, Ryan properties in which individuals Lapine, Gardner’s attorney, said would likely to be present irrespecsomeone in Caruana’s office had tive of the occurrences of any San “made grossly unprofessional ad Francisco Pride event.” hominem attacks on me.” In documents filed Tuesday, Caruana responded, “This ongoMaria Caruana, Pride’s attorney, ing discussion” about the staffer “is made similar comments. without merit and a typical waste of During the discovery process, my time from your office. ... Please where opposing attorneys share instop writing me about insignificant formation with each other, Gardner issues. Stated another way: Cease has brought up witnesses related to and desist with this drama.” Los Angeles’ Pride event, “which is In his next email, Lapine said, fundamentally different” from San “Please adopt a professional tone in Francisco’s festival, Caruana said. your written communications. Your Among other issues, LA Pride statement ... does not comport with “occurs inside an enclosed park,” the requirements of civility imposed while San Francisco’s celebration on all officers of the court.” “includes a parade and occurs in a 7 The trial almost started Tuesday, x 4 city block area.” when presiding Superior Court The Los Angeles event has at Judge John K. Stewart assigned the most drawn 90,000 people in recent case to Superior Court Judge Angela years, while at least 500,000 come to Bradstreet, a lesbian. But Lapine obSan Francisco’s Pride, Caruana said, jected to Bradstreet overseeing the citing a witness deposition. case, saying his team didn’t believe it Franklin talked more about metal could have “a fair trial due to prejudetectors in his declaration. dice” under her. “Metal detectors and similar peOutside the courtroom, Lapine rimeter security measures are no declined to comment on why exguarantee against the presence of actly he didn’t want Bradstreet to weapons,” he said. oversee the case. “In addition,” Franklin said, “simStewart is expected to assign a ple math extrapolation supports the judge Monday. premise that screening the hundreds Lapine and Caruana both said of thousands of persons expected they couldn’t comment on what under the permit language would the main obstacle to settling the require several nonstop 24-hour case had been. Settlement talks are days to process, assuming all gates confidential. were equipped [and] staffed ... .” Gardner, who was accompanied He also said the shooting, in in court by his parents, declined which no arrests have been reported, to comment on the case. SF Pride “is consistent with gang violence,” Executive Director George Ridgely, and those “incidents are extremely who was also in court, declined to difficult to control.” comment, as well. Gardner alleges that after the Eric Ryan, who was also shot in shooting “he was left to bleed out,” the 2013 incident at Pride, has also Franklin said, but based on his refiled a lawsuit against SF Pride. view, he said police “were on the In his 2014 complaint, Gardner scene within three minutes of the said he was seeking “not less than shooting. In fact, the first responder $10 million.” t

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<< Community News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Pacific Center seeks funds for youth groups by Seth Hemmelgarn

erkeley’s Pacific Center for Human Growth is trying to raise money for its youth program after seeing cuts from major funding sources. The nonprofit, which has had to reduce weekly youth sessions from three to one, needs to raise at least $40,000 to $50,000 in the next three or four months to reach its “bare bones” budget of $65,702, according to its FundRazr campaign site. As of Monday, $800 had come in. “Pacific Center has been around since 1973,” Executive Director Leslie Ewing said in an interview. “I know a lot of people have passed through these doors, and a lot of people have benefited from our youth program, so we’re asking them to help us now. It’s just that simple.” The city is providing only about half of the $50,000 the center had sought for the drop-in therapy program this year, and a foundation

that’s previously backed the work isn’t providing money for now. Ewing said the program usually serves from 50 to 60 people ages 13 to 19 each year. “About half are from Berkeley, and the rest are from Oakland, for the most part,” she said. The youth program, which started about 20 years ago as an afterschool “safe space,” helps youth who are “dealing with issues of gender identity and orientation that are beyond what any other generation has ever had to consider,” and that’s happening “in numbers that we have not seen before,” Ewing said. The organization is close to Berkeley’s People’s Park, and “we get a lot of youth who are coming through” who’ve “run out of money” and are seeking housing, she added. The center provides housing referrals and other assistance. The full funding pays for providing stipends to the therapists who run groups, as well as food for the youth, educational materials,

Pacific Center Executive Director Leslie Ewing

and field trips like the gay prom in Hayward. “There’s really no villain in this as far as our funders are concerned,” Ewing said. The city had wanted Pacific Center to serve more youth, but she said that increase would mean her organization would have to pay for administrative work to gather and analyze data, among other costs. Additionally, Ewing said, a foun-

dation that had provided $20,000 has a policy of having grantees “rest” one year for every three years. She declined to share the foundation’s name. The center, which has a budget of about $750,000, has sought money from other sources, but Ewing said, “it’s a matter of timing.” With grant applications, “you’re usually working six months out” from the time of the request until the funds start to arrive, she said. Ewing expressed confidence the nonprofit would be able to get full funding for the program next year. Until then, “We are not going to desert these young people who will come to us,” Ewing said. “We will find a way.” Out City Councilmembers Lori Droste, Darryl Moore, and Kriss Worthington had “fought hard” for Pacific Center to get all the money it wanted, Ewing said. Worthington said, “For decades, it’s been a very powerful growth experience for a lot of young LGBT

kids, and I’ve watched them, and I meet with them every year or two and talk with them about their hopes and dreams and fears. It’s just such an incredible emotional experience to see these young people meeting other people that are struggling” with something similar “and finding the affirmation and support they so urgently deserve and need.” Citing recent improvements in Berkeley’s economy, he said, “I think in June, when the budget comes back, we have a better chance” of getting the program “fully funded.” Worthington, who said with a salary in the “high 20s,” he’s “struggling” to pay bills himself, and hasn’t personally contributed to the fundraising campaign. Donations for the center’s youth program can be made at https:// fundrazr.com/campaigns/213Vq1/ em/15Evac?utm_campaign=newcontact-follower&utm_ medium=email&utm_source=102015.t

Trans film festival has diverse selections by Khaled Sayed

documentary about a local transgender pioneer is among the highlights of this year’s 14th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, which opens next week. Major!, a documentary about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, will be a feature presentation at the film festival, said artistic director Shawna Virago. Griffin-Gracy, a Stonewall veteran and Bay Area resident, is a formerly incarcerated woman who’s

been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 40 years. Griffin-Gracy, 75, recently retired as executive director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, better known as TGI Justice. The film is directed by Annalise Ophelian. The opening night gala, Thursday, November 12, will feature a collection of local and international shorts at the Roxie Theatre. The festival, which runs through Sunday, November 15, will also be

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screening a variety of feature and short films, from animation to music videos to documentaries. It will include internationally awardwinning work from around the globe, including Brazil, Nepal, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, Canada, Germany, and the U.S. There will also be special question and answer sessions with some of the filmmakers. Virago, a trans woman, pointed out the festival is the world’s first and largest screening transgender films. “We started at a time when there were practically no venues or opportunities for transgender and gender variant artists,” Virago said. “We still keep the torch burning for transgender filmmakers to tell stories that are authentic to their lives and communities.” Virago explained that the film festival started in 1997 under the name Tranny Fest by two friends of hers, Christopher Lee and Alex Austin. Lee, who was also known as Christoph, died by suicide in December 2012. “I was invited to give a rousing political speech at the first screening,” Virago said. “In 2003 I became the artistic director.” Virago said that when she thinks back to the late 1990s when the film festival started, she could never have imagined the public scope transgender issues have received. It became an annual event after five years. “Some things are better,” Virago said. “But for too many transgender people the same old oppressions still exist: racism, police abuse, lack of economic opportunities.” The film festival usually receives between 125 and 150 submissions.

Courtesy SF Transgender Film Festival

In a scene from Major!, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy waves to the crowd during the 2014 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade, when she was a community grand marshal.

About 50 films are screened. “It is easier to make films now because of the use of digital technologies, but it is still difficult to get distribution. That being said, my favorite films are the DIY films made on a shoestring budget,” she said, referring to do-it-yourself projects. Other highlights include Stealth, the heartwarming story of Sammy, a transgender tween who was assigned male at birth and is now living as a girl with the support of her mother and doctor. The film Passing is a Canadian documentary that profiles the lives of three men of color who have undergone gender transition from female to male. The film explores what life is like living as a black man, when no one knows you’re transgender. Technical Difficulties of Intimacy stars transgender icon Buck Angel and is a romantic comedy that riffs on the classic Rock Hudson-Doris

Day movies of the 1960s with a very queer twist. Virago said she’s looking forward to this year’s festival offerings. “We are a small team,” Virago said. “There’s myself and Eric Garcia, our festival coordinator. We do the bulk of the work and we also have a screening committee that helps out, plus volunteers at the festival. You could say it’s a labor of love.”t The November 12 opening gala starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Roxie Theatre, 3117 16th Street. The November 13 screening of Major! takes place at 7 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street. Screenings November 13-15 are at the Roxie. For the full lineup and other information, visit www. sftff.org. Tickets range from $12$15, except for Friday’s 9:30 p.m. screening, which is only $5.

Gay artist inducted into CA Hall of Fame

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

rtist David Hockney is introduced by Governor Jerry Brown at the ninth California Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at the California Museum in Sacramento October 28. Hockney, a gay man, is the first LGBT person Brown has inducted into the Hall, and joins two lesbians, a gay man, and a female inductee who’s had same-sex relationships but doesn’t identify as a lesbian. Others inducted during the gala ceremony last week included NBC News anchor Lester Holt, actor Robert Downey Jr., former Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, and former Olympic ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi. Posthumous inductees included Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, actor Bruce Lee, and musician Buck Owens. The museum now features a new exhibit of artifacts on loan from the new inductees through August 28.

Sacramento Bee pool photo

Community News>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Mobile shower program adds Castro stop by Sari Staver

ava Mae, the local nonprofit providing mobile showers and toilets to people who are homeless, has launched an ambitious expansion plan. The organization, whose name is a play on the Spanish phrase “wash me,” recently added a regular stop in the Castro, and has announced plans to more than double its local capacity and add additional services. It is a project of the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based foundation that provides fiscal sponsorship to implement programs that accelerate positive social change. Beginning in late October, Lava Mae began regular service on Wednesday afternoons in the Castro, where its bright blue bus is parked in front of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church at 100 Diamond Street, near 18th Street. The bus arrives at approximately 1:30 p.m. – guests are served beginning at 2 – and can accommodate several dozen people during its four-hour stop, said Michael McDowell, mobile services manager. Michael Poma, the gay parish manager at Most Holy Redeemer, initiated the Castro stop last year. “It’s a perfect fit for us,” Poma told the Bay Area Reporter. When Poma first read about Lava Mae last year, he immediately contacted the organization to see about a collaboration. “They were over here talking to us the same week,” he said. Lava Mae’s future plans include offering guests clean socks and other clothing and toiletries and medical and social services in “pop up care villages” that accompany the bus, founder and CEO Doniece Sandoval said in an interview with the B.A.R. Future expansion is planned throughout the state, with a pilot

program planned for San Jose. Lava Mae put its first retrofitted Muni bus on the road in June 2014, said Sandoval. It plans to add several more buses and a trailer to the fleet, she added. The buses each have two spacious private showers and toilets that are cleaned between each guest, said Sandoval. Currently, they are available at five locations throughout the city (see sidebar for schedule) in the Mission, the Tenderloin, and Civic Center. The group’s rapid growth is reflected in its annual budget, which at $825,000 this year, is up from $350,000 in 2014, said Sandoval. Sandoval receives “minimum wage” but donates it back to Lava Mae, she said. There are now seven full-time employees, with two openings currently for positions as bus ambassadors. Two grants from Google, totaling $600,000, are enabling staff to conduct studies with their guests to guide future growth. Lava Mae has gone from providing 40 showers a week in 2014 to more than 200 this year, with growth increasing every week as word spreads about the service, which is free. For the past 14 years, MHR, as the church is also known, has supported the Wednesday Night Supper program, where volunteers serve a hot meal to over 100 guests a week, Poma said. Although the Lava Mae program has only been in operation two weeks, Poma said he has already received “enthusiastic feedback” from a number of regular dinner guests. Although the Wednesday supper program is not focused on exclusively serving the gay community, at least half the dinner guests probably identify as LGBT, Poma said. When the program first began, it was intended to serve young LGBT homeless people who live in the Castro, he added. While anyone is welcome at the

Lava Mae schedule

ava Mae, the mobile hygiene program for the homeless, operates throughout the week in various San Francisco locations. The schedule, according to its website, is as follows.

Sari Staver

Most Holy Redeemer parish manager Mike Poma, left, talked with Michael McMorrow, Lava Mae mobile services manager, in front of the Lava Mae bus.

program, Poma said that people must be on the formal list of “regulars” to be guaranteed a dinner, because the facility has a capacity of 112. Most weeks, they are at or near capacity. “Nobody is turned away without something,” he said, noting that volunteers also prepare approximately 250 sack lunches, which are distributed to dinner guests for the following day or to people who couldn’t be accommodated, in lieu of a hot meal. Poma emphasized that the Wednesday suppers have never been advertised, “because we don’t want an influx of people” who we are unable to accommodate. Last Wednesday, the B.A.R. spoke with staff, volunteers, and guests at the Lava Mae stop at MHR. Leah Filler, Lava Mae’s director of community engagement, said that she was the first person hired by founder Sandoval. “I had been working as a restaurant server, just out of college, who hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do,” she said. “When I first read about what Doniece was doing, I called her and said, ‘sign me up.’ I want to help.” Filler said the Lava Mae program

has received hundreds of inquiries from around the world, hoping to replicate the program. It hopes to produce an online tool kit to help people in other locations to provide similar services, she said. First in line for a shower that day was Jimmy, who asked that his last name not be used, a 57-year-old homeless man, originally from New Jersey. He usually sleeps in nearby Jane Warner Plaza because, he explained, the property belongs to Muni and the police “can’t touch us there.” Jimmy said he often showers at a community center in the Mission, so when he heard of Lava Mae, he urged the staff at Most Holy Redeemer to try to arrange for a Castro stop. “Food is easier to find than a shower,” he said. “This is great, really great and very much appreciated.” Jimmy said he prefers sleeping outdoors to staying in a shelter, “which often has bed bugs,” he said. “The worst part,” about living outdoors, he added, “is not having a shower.” Jimmy said that programs like Lava Mae are needed more than ever because the number of homeless people continues to increase.

Tuesday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the San Francisco Public Library, Fulton Street at Hyde. Wednesday 8:30 a.m. to noon at Youth With a Mission, or YWAM, in the Tenderloin, 357 Ellis Street between Taylor and Jones. 2 to 5 p.m. in front of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street in the Castro. Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, 730 Polk Street. Friday 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at YWAM in the Tenderloin, 357 Ellis Street. Saturday 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, 16th and Capp streets.

“It’s the meth,” he said referring to the commonly used street drug methamphetamine. “It’s stronger, it’s cheaper, and people are getting sicker,” he said. As for Lava Mae, Sandoval said the service is needed. “When you think about the challenges to access water, you think about third world countries ... you don’t think of the United States,” she said. But thousands of San Franciscans, and hundreds of thousands of homeless throughout the country are now struggling “just to get clean,” she said. “This is no small task.”t

YOU’LL FALL head over HEALDSBURG

In the famed Sonoma County wine country. Local hospitality meets San Francisco chic. Bakeries, bistros, tasting rooms and 5-star restaurants. Stylish boutiques, art galleries and antique shops. Picnic baskets brimming with local farmers’ market delicacies. www.healdsburg.com

Taste the wine country the way Northern Californians do. And like everyone who visits, you’ll fall head over Healdsburg.

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Community News>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Nonprofit groups can apply for window space compiled by Cynthia Laird

t’s that time of year again, when the organizers of the free community window space at Walgreens are soliciting local nonprofits to apply to promote their fundraisers or other events in 2016. T.J. Lee has taken over management of the window space, which has been generously donated by the Walgreens store at 18th and Castro streets since 2009. Lee said that there are a limited number of reservations for free 13-day time slots in the nonprofit windows that are available on a firstcome basis. He added that the limited number is due to the closure of nonprofit window space located at California Check Cashing. Interested nonprofit officials should contact Lee at tj@ourtownsf. org with three dates they would like, in order of preference, for next year. Current 2015 window space recipients are not eligible for 2016 placement. Nonprofit officials should also include the dates of their organizations’ major 2016 events so that they can be posted on the Our Town SF website. Groups included on www. OurTownSF.org are eligible for a reservation in the Walgreens windows, which enjoy an abundance of traffic. The website promotes San Francisco’s LGBT nonprofit service providers, arts, and athletic groups.

College board

From page 6

Wednesday with the B.A.R. Temprano would not commit to running again next year for a college board seat. “I haven’t made any decisions about the future. I do know I have an incredible group of supporters and volunteers ready to go,” said Temprano. He also congratulated Randolph on running “a great campaign. It was a very civil campaign focused on issues. I am looking forward to seeing what he does in the next year on the board.” In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Aragon thanked her supporters for once again assisting her in the “hard fought” race for a seat on the college board. “This campaign wasn’t just for me, it was for the faculty, the students, and the communities whose lives are impacted by our City College every day. These are the people who I ran this campaign for,” she wrote. Since 2013 City College has been in a bruising battle to remain open after the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges threatened to revoke the community college’s accreditation. The decision set off a fierce political

Obituaries >> Jim Remer May 21, 1946 – September 23, 2015

A celebration of the life of Jim Remer will be held Saturday, November 14 from noon to 3 p.m. at Saint Mark’s Lutheran Church, in the social hall, 1111 O’Farrell Street (near Franklin and Van Ness). Mr. Remer died September 23, 2015. He was 69. Mr. Remer had many affiliations during his life. He was a member of Dignity/USA, a group for LGBT Catholics, and was a founding member of Dignity/San Francisco and also served as its treasurer. He was active in Saint Francis Lutheran Church. Friends said that Mr. Remer was also involved with the Leather Alliance, and received the Frank Benoit

Two entities, one in San Francisco and one in Oakland, are seeking donations to help feed LGBT seniors and families in need as the holiday

season nears. First, Openhouse, which provides services to LGBT seniors in San Francisco, is seeking donations of $10-$50 for its Fall Feast. Each year the agency serves more than 1,300 meals to LGBT seniors, but the Fall Feast, scheduled for Sunday, November 15, is its most popular and is expected to attract 175 people. Agency officials said they need to raise $2,500 for the dinner. To make a donation, visit the Indiegogo page set up for the event at http://igg.me/at/openhouse. Over in Oakland, Councilman Abel Guillen is seeking donations of $50 to help low-income families in District 2 have a joyful Thanksgiving. Guillen, who was elected to represent the district last year, and his staff are putting together a Thanksgiving basket giveaway for 500 underserved families in the city’s Chinatown and East Lake neighborhoods. “Although the local economy has largely recovered for many of us, there are still all too many parents and their children struggling to get by – often burdened by unemployment or stuck in low-paying jobs, facing skyrocketing housing costs, health problems or disabilities, and other stressful difficulties – including hunger,” Guillen said in an email. He said the goal is to reach 2,000 people and provide the ingredients for a festive, nourishing Thanksgiving dinner. Each qualified family will receive a basket with a large turkey and holiday fixings. To make a donation, visit https://

fight that reverberated throughout California and caught the attention of lawmakers in Washington, D.C. Earlier this year the accreditation committee granted “restoration” status to CCSF, giving it two years to fully comply with the requirements needed to be in good standing. In the meantime, a city lawsuit against the commission has brought judicial scrutiny to it and legislative calls to replace the body with a different commission. The college’s elected oversight body only recently regained the authority it was stripped of two years ago. Gay board member Rafael Mandelman, who remained neutral in the race, is now serving as president, working with interim Chancellor Susan Lamb, a lesbian, to address City College’s ongoing fiscal and enrollment issues. Over the next year Randolph said his focus will be working with the board and college leadership on fully regaining its accreditation. “Our top three goals are: one to make it through accreditation and make sure City College stays open and accredited,” he said. “Number two to raise our enrollment and really focus on getting people back to City College. Number three is to make sure we

are in a good place with our finances.” The more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club backed Randolph, who served on its board, while the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club had endorsed Temprano, its former president. Aragon had the support of a number of local unions and won the endorsement of the San Francisco Labor Council. One question Randolph faced in the race was how long he plans to serve on the college district board. Should he be elected, Randolph had pledged to run next fall for a full four-year term on the board. Yet there is a chance that Randolph could land on the Board of Supervisors come 2017. Should gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener be elected next November to the city’s state Senate seat, many suspect that Lee would tap Randolph to succeed Wiener and serve out the remaining two years of his supervisor term. Asked about such a possibility during an editorial board meeting with the B.A.R., Randolph sidestepped the question. He repeated his pledge that he intends to seek a full four-year term on the community college board in 2016. See page 18 >>

Award in 2013. He was in the InterClub Fund of San Francisco and also active in the Imperial Court of San Francisco, as well as several healthrelated support groups and countless others. Memorial organizers said the event is potluck and that people should bring food that does not require heating or refrigeration. For more information, people can call or text Paul at (415) 517-4647.

at age 88 on October 22, 2015. Ruth’s San Francisco relatives include son, Charles; son-in-law, Jim Emery; and granddaughters Nora Emery Spiegel (Hofstra University) and Frances Spiegel (UC Hastings College of Law, 2010). Ruth retired as managing editor of the Smithsonian Institution Press after the September 11 attack on Washington, and moved to San Francisco to help raise her granddaughter, Nora. She proudly purchased the family’s burial plot in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. and had its corners marked with four pink granite triangles. A Washington PFLAG member, she was buried there October 25 near Leonard Matlovich, Frank Kameny, Clyde Tolson, some of Harvey Milk’s ashes, J. Edgar Hoover, and others. Memorial service to occur Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 2016 at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco.

To become listed on the site, fill out the form on the “Contact” tab. Lee also reminded potential applicants that nothing pornographic, political, or provocative is allowed. “Past experience demonstrates that displays with artistic creativity get the most attention of passersby,” he added.

SF Pride holds holiday food, toy drive

The organization that oversees San Francisco Pride will be holding its third annual holiday food and toy drive to benefit the local community through two of its community partners, the Homeless Children’s Network and City of Refuge. New toys and dry or canned food donations will be accepted at the office of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, 30 Pearl Street, Fourth Floor, beginning Wednesday, November 11, at the members’ meeting at 7 p.m. People can continue to drop off donations at the Pride office through Wednesday, December 9. To end the drive, SF Pride will have a booth at the corner of Dolores and Market streets Friday, December 11 from noon to 4 p.m.

SF, East Bay seek Thanksgiving donations

Ruth Helen Weinstein Spiegel October 22, 2015

Ruth Helen Weinstein Spiegel lived in San Francisco for almost a decade starting in 2001, and died outside Washington, D.C.

www.tilt.com/campaigns/thanksg iv ing-tur ke y-donat ions-forbasket-giveaway/. Guillen hopes to raise $20,000.

SF HRC panel to hold forum on trans health care access

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBT Advisory Committee, in partnership with the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, will host a public forum on health care accessibility for transgender patients, especially those relying on Medicare and Medi-Cal. The forum, which is free and open to the public, will be Tuesday, November 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the LGBT center, 1800 Market Street. Panelists will include advocates, policymakers, and health care providers who are working on the front lines of improving access to health care for trans people. Theresa Sparks, HRC executive director, and Cecilia Chung, a city health commissioner and senior strategist at the Transgender Law Center, will moderate. Confirmed panelists include Sarah Demarest, an attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid; Dr. Maurice Garcia, assistant clinical professor in residence and urological surgeon at UCSF; Julie Graham, gender services specialist at the San Francisco Department of Public Health; and Anand Kalra, health programs manager at TLC. “The forum will facilitate public discourse surrounding the accessibility of transition-related health care in San Francisco,” Sparks said in a news release. “It is a chance for members of the community to ask questions of, and have their voices heard by, city representatives and those working on the front lines to expand health care access for members of the transgender community.”

Candidate training for East Bay residents

The Alameda County Demo-

cratic Central Committee will hold a candidate training to help candidates in Democratic campaigns in the East Bay county. The training takes place Saturday, November 14 in San Leandro. Registration is $50 and includes breakfast, lunch, and all training materials. Sign-up for the session is firstcome, first-served and preference is given to those people running in June 2016 races. To register, visit https://secure. actblue.com/contribute/page/ candidatetraining2015.

CA Men’s Gathering coming up

The California Men’s Gathering will hold its fall event November 20-22 and interested men can now register. The retreat will be held at Camp Stevens, in Julian, California. It’s a mountain getaway just an hour east of San Diego in the Cuyamaca Mountains. The cost is a $250 flat fee that includes food, lodging, workshops, activities, and community gatherings. Limited financial aid is available. The event begins at dinnertime Friday and ends Sunday at 3 p.m., although there is an option of staying over until Monday morning free of charge. The men’s gatherings, held in the spring, summer, and fall, are extended weekend retreats where men explore different ways of looking at life and expand concepts of self while having a lot of fun at the same time. The theme of the fall gathering is “True North.” Activities include hiking, yoga, stargazing, a no-talent show, dance, archery, massage, meditation, and more, all in an intentional community of men. The majority of attendees are gay men, but all men are welcome. Gatherings are alcohol- and drug-free. To sign up or for more information, visit www.thecmg.org/fall.t

<< Sports

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Royals were the gay favorite in World Series by Roger Brigham

lite athletes celebrate inspiring milestones and record-breaking performances. Over-the-hill athletes nurture anniversary memories and regretful recollections. Thus this week the enduring Tim Duncan recorded his 954th victory with the San Antonio Spurs, the most any player has had with one NBA team; oftcrowned LeBron James, the once and current Cleveland Cavalier, became the youngest NBA player ever to reach 25,000 points in scoring; and Golden State’s Stephen Curry opened the defense of his team’s title and his MVP crown by stunning the league with 148 points in the first four victorious games – the most for a season-opening performance by any player since Michael Jordan graced the courts.

Me? I was noting that five years ago I started dialysis treatments, effectively knocking me out of ever competing on the wrestling mat again until after I get a new kidney – if then. We also saw the Kansas City Royals make up for last year’s MadBum collapse against the San Francisco Giants by eliminating the New York Mets in five games to win the team’s first World Series championship in three decades. It was a victory savored by many LGBT fans for three reasons. First, some of the news coverage of the games by ESPN.com was provided by a transgender journalist, Christine Kahrl, and when’s the last time we could say that? Second, the Royals became the first MLB team to win the championship with an openly gay executive in the front office – Matt Schulte, the marketing coordinator who was

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The Kansas City Royals celebrated their World Series win Sunday over the New York Mets.

Gay Royals marketing coordinator Matt Schulte

inspired by the team’s playoff run the previous year to come out of the closet. Finally, there was the shutting down and shutting up of Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy. The soon-to-be free agent, who raised queer hackles last spring when he chose a team visit with MLB’s ambassador of inclusion, Billy Bean, to inform the world that his Christian values would not allow him to accept the “gay lifestyle,” had risen from career mediocrity to torch the ball with a historic home run barrage through the playoffs. God bless them, the Royals put a stop to that and Murphy obliged with spectacularly bad defense, rendering him to the John Rocker pile of irrelevance and sparing us an off season of his banter. I am left now to ponder how 10

years from now Chase Utley (an anagram for “Heal Cut Ye”) and his Los Angeles Dodger teammates will remember the past few weeks. Their glorious cash-driven regular season crashed as it always does this decade with postseason frustration, causing the team to part ways with manager Don Mattingly. The nadir came when Utley, brought in mid-season to be an “impact” player, raced past second base on a routine grounder, launched himself into Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in the National League division championships, slamming Tejada to the ground and breaking his leg, knocking him out of the series. In a bizarro world sequence, the umpires then ruled that Utley, who never touched second, was safe. The Dodgers rallied that inning and won the game before falling to their in-

evitable fate. Utley was eventually given a twogame suspension for his violence, which he has appealed. Apologists defended his play as “hard nosed,” “old school,” and “a legitimate baseball play.” Rubbish. What Utley did had nothing to do with baseball and has no place in the sport. It was all about an insecure has-been losing all perspective and self-control in an ego-obsessed drive for relevance and acclaim. It deprived all of us from seeing the Royals and Mets from facing each other at full strength. I prefer the memories from last year, with the Giants and Royals’ slugging it out through seven games. For now, let’s toast the Royals victory and hope for a 2014 rematch in 2016.t

supporting the ordinance, had received $1.7 million in contributions and $1.3 million in expenditures. According to city campaign finance records, the Human Rights Campaign contributed more than $400,000 to pro-ordinance campaign, Houston Unites Against Discrimination. HRC spokesman Stephen Peters said the group also contributed more than $300,000 through in-kind resources, “like staff time working on the campaign, phone banks, and mail and phones to mobilize Houston voters.” “HRC has deployed 34 staff members to Texas, the largest amount we’ve deployed for a single campaign,” said Peters. The pro-gay national conservative social welfare group American Unity Fund gave $250,000 to Yes on Prop 1.

A political action committee called the Annise Parker Campaign gave $95,000. Houston is the fourth most populous city in the nation and the only one that lacks a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance. It is also an old, bloody battleground for gays. In 1985, 28 percent of registered voters rejected two laws – one to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in city employment and another to records about city hiring based on sexual orientation. Both were defeated with 82 percent of the vote. In 2001, 52 percent of Houston voters approved a change to the city charter to prohibit any “privilege” based on sexual orientation and to deny domestic partners of city employees the benefits provided to the spouses of married city employees.t

sometime next year. All households in San Francisco will be placed into the CleanPowerSF program unless they opt out. Under Prop H, the city will use the state’s definition of “eligible renewable energy resources” when referring to terms such as “clean energy,” “green energy,” and “renewable greenhouse gas-free energy.” It restricts PG&E from including nuclear power as a green energy source. “San Francisco made the right choice in passing Prop. H, so that we are able to hold city leaders accountable when they enroll us in CleanPowerSF,” stated Hunter Stern of Truth in Energy, a chief supporter of Prop. H. “Prop. H is all about transparency in the new city-run power program – so customers can make informed choices.” Voters passed two other ballot measures impacting bureaucratic policies at City Hall. Proposition B, which received 66.34 percent of the vote, amends the city’s charter to allow city employees whose spouse or partner is also a city employee to receive paid leave for up to 12 weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child. The measure is expected to cost the city between $570,000 and $1.1

million annually, according to the city controller, depending on how many employees take advantage of it. The San Francisco Ethics Commission’s Proposition C passed with 74.54 percent of voters supporting it. It requires anyone who spends $2,500 or more in a month to influence decision-making at City Hall to register as an “expenditure lobbyist” with the Ethics Commission, pay a $500 registration fee, and file monthly disclosures regarding their lobbying activities. Voters, however, rejected Proposition E, which netted 66.65 percent of the no vote. It would have required the city to broadcast all meetings of policy bodies live on the Internet. It would also have allowed for public comments to be submitted electronically in a video or audio format to be played during meetings and permitted requests that discussion of a particular agenda item begin at a specific time. Opponents of the measure argued it would be too unwieldy to implement and allow for right-wing groups to hijack public meetings, as it did not place any restrictions on who could submit public comments via video.t

Houston

From page 6

Echoing a buzz phrase often used by Republican presidential frontrunner Ben Carson, Patrick applauded Houston voters for leading the effort to “end this constant political correctness attack on what we know in our heart and our gut as Americans is not right.” The Houston Chronicle reported that voter turnout Tuesday broke all records since 2003, drawing nearly 27 percent of voters to the polls. As of the last filing deadline, Campaign for Houston, the group that wants to repeal the ordinance, reported raising only $62,000 and spending $88,000. Houston Unites Against Discrimination, the group

Voters

From page 3

But their agreement to support a revised Prop H came too late to pull Prop G off the ballot. The long stalled CleanPowerSF program is now expected to launch

t <<

Election 2015>>

Sheriff

From page 1

Hennessy said another priority would be to check the status of various initiatives, including the changes for transgender inmates in the city’s jail that Mirkarimi has been working on. He recently announced plans to expand educational and other programming for trans inmates and house them based on their gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth, meaning transgender women would no longer be housed with men in jail. Hennessy supports the changes, but has said Mirkarimi should have done more to get buy-in from staff. “It’s hard to say” when the policy update would be completely in place without knowing exactly how far along the process is, Hennessy said Tuesday. Implementing changes in the policy “definitely will be on the front burner,” she added. At his party at the Mission district eatery Puerto Alegre Number 2, Mirkarimi expressed gratitude for his “awesome supporters” and said there was “a really heartfelt congre-

Political Notebook

From page 5

on the body, there will be just one straight member on the reconfigured council come next month. Kors and Roberts will also take their oaths of office December 2. As the Political Notebook reported last week, Kors intends to push for the creation of an ethics and sunshine

U.S. races

From page 1

reports, Pritchett raised more than $146,000 in her bid, compared to Pickering’s $300,000. She won the endorsement of the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, which noted that the incumbent was under federal investigation for his management of state contracts and his campaign finances. Pritchett, noted the paper, was a “credible” candidate with 25 years working with state and federal contracts. It did not mention that she had the endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Prichett took only 36 percent of the vote to Pickering’s 63 percent, preliminary figures showed. And in neighboring North Carolina, three-term incumbent gay Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt lost his re-election campaign in Chapel Hill. Kleinschmidt, only the third openly gay elected official in the state, won

SF City Hall

From page 1

about from thousands of constituents,” Peskin said in an election night interview with ABC 7. Christensen, a longtime community activist in North Beach but a novice in terms of running for political office, came in second with 43.16 percent of the vote, unofficial returns showed. A third challenger in the race, Wilma Pang, netted 3.74 percent of the vote. The campaign had divided the city’s LGBT community, with the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club solidly behind Peskin’s bid. The club was even accused of withholding its endorsement of scandal-plagued Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for fear his being on its slate cards could damage Peskin’s chances. (Longtime Milk club members pushed through a revote on the endorsement in the sheriff ’s race. Mirkarimi ended up with the club’s backing, but his image was still missing on Milk’s slate cards mailed to voters and he was ousted from office Tuesday.) “District 3 has a new Supervisor

gation of people here tonight.” There’s been some question as to whether his plan for housing transgender inmates has been finalized. “It is on my end,” Mirkarimi said, although meetings with union representatives are ongoing. He expects the process will be finished by the time Hennessy takes office in January, and he said he and his supporters would “continue to advocate” for it “during my administration and beyond.” Mirkarimi, who was a supervisor for eight years before he was sheriff, didn’t say what he’s going to do next. His defeat this week wasn’t a surprise. He had been embroiled in controversy since just after he was elected to the sheriff’s post in November 2011. Mirkarimi, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to a false imprisonment charge stemming from a fight with his wife, Eliana Lopez, escaped being officially removed from office when four Board of Supervisors members voted in October 2012 not to sustain Mayor Ed Lee’s official misconduct charges against him. He won a judge’s order this spring to expunge his conviction from his record. Lee, who according to preliminary re-

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

sults easily won his re-election bid this week, had appointed Hennessy to serve as interim sheriff while his case against Mirkarimi was pending. Even after city supervisors allowed him to keep his job, Mirkarimi’s troubles continued. Making international headlines was the killing in July of a woman on a city pier, allegedly by a man in the country illegally who had been released from custody by the sheriff ’s department after a long

ago drug possession charge against him was dismissed. Due to the city’s sanctuary city policy, the sheriff ’s department released the individual without alerting federal immigration authorities, a decision that came under blistering criticism from Lee and other officials. There were also personal lapses, including Mirkarimi not passing a firearms test so that he can carry a gun, and his driver’s license being suspended after a minor accident in

a city vehicle. At Hennessy’s party Tuesday, supporter Mauri Schwartz expressed relief at Mirkarimi’s defeat. Now, “there’s an adult in the room,” said Schwartz, who’s straight and didn’t want her age published. Matthew Rivette, 56, who worked in the sheriff’s department for 26 years before retiring, said, “I’m so happy for our city to have a good sheriff,” and he predicted there would be “no scandals” with Hennessy in charge. Referring to the transgender policy, Rivette, who’s gay, said, “The housing issue is going to be very tricky.” He expressed concern that female-to-male trans inmates who choose to be placed with male prisoners “could end up being raped.” (The jail population generally sees few male transgender inmates). Despite his concerns, Rivette was confident that Hennessy would “come up with something.” Gay resident Tom Taylor, 51, said he was “disappointed” at Mirkarimi’s defeat but it had been “a community-driven campaign with loyal supporters that came and worked for us every day. ... I’m sure there will be a silver lining and other opportunities for the sheriff.”t

task force to review ethical issues at City Hall. “My sense, talking to so many voters, it was less about needing new people than it was about what is the plan to move the city forward differently,” said Kors. “A lot of people put blame on the mayor for the FBI investigation. What people were constantly asking me was how are you going to avoid it happening again?”

SF BART directors to discuss system’s future

The Bay Area’s main transit system, BART, is clocking record ridership, expanding south to San Jose, and facing calls to build affordable housing on land next to its stations. Amid these growing pains, the system is also confronting renewed demands to improve its service, and stations, in San Francisco. Some

would also like to see BART build a second transbay tunnel with service in the city’s South of Market area, while others continue to call for expansion of the transit system to the city’s western neighborhoods. The city’s two representatives on the BART Board of Directors, longtime gay BART board member Tom Radulovich and freshman board member Nick Josefowitz, elected

last year, will address those issues next week at a talk hosted by SPUR, the regional planning advocacy group. The talk will take place at 6 p.m. Monday, November 9 at SPUR’s Urban Center, located at 654 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is free for SPUR members, $10 for non-members. For more information, email info@ spur.org or call (415) 781-8726.t

only 45 percent of the vote, unofficial returns showed. His challenger described herself as a “moderate Democrat” and seemed to capitalize on an anti-incumbent trend. Gay Chapel Hill Councilman Lee Storrow also lost his re-election bid, garnering only 10 percent of the vote, according to preliminary figures. Gay incumbent Houston Councilman Lane Lewis lost his seat Tuesday night, coming in sixth out of eight candidates for one at-large office. But fellow gay councilmembers Mike Laster and Robert Gallegos came in first for their districts. Anti-incumbency was not the mood in Charlotte, North Carolina, where two gay councilmembers easily won re-election. Lesbian LaWana Mayfield secured a third term with 76 percent of the vote, while her fellow gay councilmember, Al Austin, won re-election with 79 percent, according to unofficial figures. During his campaign, Austin was

asked by the Charlotte Observer whether he would support expansion of the city’s non-discrimination ordinance, “including a provision that would allow transgender residents to use the bathroom of their choice.” Austin said yes and added, “There are many more incidents of members of the transgender community who experience assault and battery when they are not allowed to use the bathroom with which they self-identify.” Ginny Deerin, one of six candidates for mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, was hit with a much more direct anti-gay campaign. The founder of an after-school program for kids from low-income families, Deerin was also the former campaign manager for the city’s popular retiring mayor and in good position to win. But one week before voting, someone mailed out postcards that informed voters that Deerin is gay, according to the Charleston City

Paper. The rainbow-colored card purported to come from the “Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Association” – an organization that does not exist in Charleston or South Carolina. Deerin’s campaign called it a “vile last-minute personal attack from an anonymous group.” And Deerin received only 17 percent of votes, coming in third overall. Anti-gay tactics may have been in play in another campaign, in New York, but to no avail. Steve Napier became the first openly gay elected official in Cohoes, New York, taking 49 percent of the vote in a three-way race, according to preliminary figures. Democrat Napier won a seat on the town’s Common Council despite his opponent’s decision to note on a campaign flier that she was married to a man named Dave and has two sons, while Napier was married to a man named Jeremy and had no children. The local newspaper, the Times Union, called

candidate Sharon Gariepy out on her attempt to highlight Napier’s sexual orientation for her own personal gain. “At worst,” said the paper, “it’s a deliberate attempt to suggest that Napier’s marriage is inferior, or to warn voters ... that [Napier] is married to another man.” Gariepy said she supports marriage for gay couples and didn’t intend any negative intent from including that on her campaign flier. Two gay Republicans won Tuesday: Reed Gusciora won a state assembly seat in New Jersey. And Michael Esteve became the first openly gay Republican to win an elected office in Maryland, winning a seat on the Bowie City Council. According to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, there were 472 openly LGBT elected officials going into Tuesday’s voting. Most of those, 286, are local elected officials. Another 179 hold statewide offices, and seven are members of Congress.t

tonight. We did it!! Aaron Peskin will be (once again) an independent progressive voice for the people of San Francisco. This is a huge victory for us all,” wrote Milk club Co-President Peter Gallotta in a Facebook post. The more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, along with the Bay Area Reporter, had endorsed Christensen in the race. Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a member of the board’s moderate bloc who has had his political fights with Peskin in the past, told the B.A.R. he believes the two can work together on the board. “I am an optimist and I also have known Aaron Peskin for a long time. I believe Aaron is going to work very hard to collaborate with all of us and with the mayor to try to move forward with solutions for the problems facing the city,” said Wiener. “I have had my political differences with Aaron, but we have always gotten along personally.” Peskin will need to run next year for a full four-year-term. As for Lee, he easily won reelection against the handful of littleknown candidates who ran against him. He placed first with 56.7 per-

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi shared a laugh with his wife, Eliana Lopez, following remarks to supporters at his election night party.

Jane Philomen Cleland

District 3 Supervisor Julie Christensen spoke to supporters Tuesday night she came up short in her bid to finish the final year of her term.

cent of the vote. His closest challenger was Latino community activist Francisco Herrera, who came in second with 14.68 percent. Amy Farah Weiss, a self-described YIMBY for YesIn-My-Back-Yard, took third with 11.59 percent, while San Francisco Examiner writer Stuart Schuffman,

better known as Broke Ass Stuart, landed in fourth with 9.48 percent of the vote. The three other citywide electeds on Tuesday’s ballot all cakewalked to victory, as none had an opponent. Gay San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, who has not faced an opponent in his last three elections,

won a third full four-year term with 98.67 percent of the vote. Cisneros, who recently marked his first wedding anniversary with his husband, Mark Kelleher, is the only LGBT person to hold one of the city’s seven elected executive positions. The Latino politician has held the post, which is not term limited, since 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him to fill a vacancy. In 2005 he was elected by the voters to a full four-year term and was re-elected in 2009. In 2013 he won election to a two-year term due to a voter-approved switch to the city’s election timetable that aligned both the treasurer and city attorney elections with races for mayor, district attorney, and sheriff beginning in 2015. The two other Latino citywide officeholders who sailed to re-election Tuesday were City Attorney Dennis Herrera, first elected in 2001, and District Attorney George Gascón, first elected in 2011 after being appointed in January that year by Newsom to fill a vacancy. Herrera received 98.75 percent of the vote, while Gascón garnered 98.26 percent.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Mission, Airbnb

From page 3

million campaign can’t hide that fact,” wrote Quintin Mecke, a campaign consultant for ShareBetter SF, which backed Prop F, in an open letter to Airbnb he posted Wednesday morning. “The ball is in your court Airbnb – you can take a huge step forward and show you really care about San Francisco (paying your taxes doesn’t count) by agreeing to only list legally registered short-term rentals on your website. While not the only solution needed, it would at least show that you care more about what’s happening with housing in the city than protecting your business model and your corporate profit.” Prop F opponents, such as Wiener, counter that the city’s newly enacted regulations on short-term rentals should be allowed time to be implemented. “There is enormous and very understandable frustration around the housing crisis and we all need to work hard to address it,” said Wiener. “The voters understood that Props F and I were not solutions. They were not going to help any of our housing problems.” Voters did support three other ballot measures aimed at addressing the city’s housing crisis. Proposition A, the $310 million affordable housing bond, which needed a twothirds majority to pass, received 73.49 percent of the vote. It will finance the construction, development, acquisition, and preservation of housing affordable to low- and middle-income households with priority given to working families, veterans, seniors, and disabled people. It will also help finance the reconstruction of the city’s dilapidated public housing and fund a middle-income rental program. There was also wide support for Proposition D, which grants city backing to the San Francisco Giant’s redevelopment plans for Mission Rock, the port-owned parking lot and pier adjacent to the waterfront AT&T Park. It passed with 73.37 percent of voters in support. Although the team had sought permission to exceed height limits at the site, most opposition melted away after the baseball team agreed to increase the set aside for affordable units to 33 percent and then upped the percentage to 40 percent. Proposition K, authored by District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, also passed with 73.28 percent support. It directs the city to use its surplus property for building affordable housing for the homeless, very lowincome residents, and for those with incomes up to 120 percent of the area median income. Projects with more than 200 units will need to set aside some of the housing for households earning up to 150 percent or more of the area median income.t

College board

From page 15

“Where I can best serve my community right now is on the City College board,” said Randolph. Asked this week how he liked being a candidate for political office versus his previous role as managing other candidate’s campaigns, Randolph said he had a “a wonderful experience” on the campaign trail this year. “It is definitely different,” he said. “The last six months were really enjoyable spending time out on the campaign trail and talking about our vision for city college; how I am and the other trustees on the board are working together to ensure we serve our students.” It was also “humbling to meet students out there and listening to their concerns and stories,” added Randolph. “It reinvigorated me about why I was running. City College is such a special place for a lot of people in San Francisco.”t

Legal Notices>> NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF BULK SALE

(Notice pursuant to UCC Sec. 6105 and 6106.2) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a bulk sale is about to be made. The name, business address of the Seller, is: MURA 450 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133 Doing Business as: MURA. All other business name and address used by the Seller within three years, as stated by the Seller, is MURA, MURA SUSHI and MURA RESTAURANT. The location in California of the chief executive office of the Seller is: 450 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133. The names and address of the Buyers are: XIAOYI ZHENG and ZIJUN WU, 450 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133. The assets being sold is generally described as: All stock-in-trade, fixtures, equipment, leasehold, and leasehold improvement of MURA restaurant business and are located at: 450 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133. The bulk sale is intended to be consummated at the office of: To & Associates, Attorneys At Law 311 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118 and the anticipated sale date is 11/19//2015. The bulk sale is subject to California Uniform Commercial Code Section 6106.2 The name and address of the person with whom claims may be filed is: To & Associates, Attorneys At Law 311 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118, and the last date for filing claims shall be 11/18/2015, which is the business day before the anticipated sale date specified above. Dated: 10-18-2015 Kit To, Esq. /s/ Kit V. To, Attorney at To & Associates.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036693800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: QIAN XI MOVING COMPANY, 220 LOBOS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHUAN SU XING. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/22/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036726700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MING CHI ASSOCIATES, 1599 HAYES ST P-101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHIYAN WANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036703100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AJK MERCHANT SERVICES, 130 WAYLAND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZUHDI JAMAL KHALIL. 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 09/28/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036725200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AYNI LAW GROUP, 405 SANSOME ST 2ND FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CONNIE CHAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036725000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STICKBOOK STUDIOS, 821 LEAVENWORTH ST #34, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY CATHERINE LEWIS EASTMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036706100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALLSTARS CAFE, 98 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARREN LE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/30/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036702400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRECISION APPLIANCE REPAIR, 1776 SUTTER ST #210, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDUARD KORENBLIT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036723800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUNSET DENTISTRY, 919 IRVING ST #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SOPHYA N. MORGHEM DMD, MS CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/15.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036722700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HARENDONG USA, 1886 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NOVO INTERNATIONAL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036710200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE FINE MOUSSE, 1098 JACKSON, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PROOST LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036723200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE NEEDLEPOINT, 3310 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed GOLDEN GATE DESIGN AND NEEDLEWORK LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/26/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036723700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FIZZEE’S BAR & GRILL, 3954 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FIZZEE’S, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/08/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036721000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HIGH ZONE PROJECT; LEDUS HUB, 515 JOHN MUIR DR #A323, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FASHION BAG CO. LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/07/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 5, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036679900

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SAN FRANCISCO IN FLOOR HEATING AND HYDRO SOLAR SYSTEMS, 518 24TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by RICHARD D. SEAMAN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/15/2015.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551615

In the matter of the application of: AMANDA MARIE MURPHY, 3367 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner AMANDA MARIE MURPHY, is requesting that the name AMANDA MARIE MURPHY, be changed to MANDY MURPHY CARROLL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 24th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551620

In the matter of the application of: YING JIE ZHENG, 605 BRUNSWICK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YING JIE ZHENG, is requesting that the name YING JIE ZHENG, be changed to JESSIE JIE ZHENG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 10th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551516

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HALLER ARCHITECHTURE & DESIGN, 1211 FOLSOM ST 3RD FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HALLER DESIGN STUDIO, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/16/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/15.

In the matter of the application of: D MICHELE RAGLAND DILWORTH, 576 EUREKA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner D MICHELE RAGLAND DILWORTH, is requesting that the name D MICHELE RAGLAND DILWORTH aka DEBORAH MICHELE RAGLAND DILWORTH aka D MICHELE RAGLAND-DILWORTH aka DEBORAH MICHELE RAGLAND-DILWORTH aka DEBORAH MICHELE RAGLAND, be changed to MICHELE RAGLAND DILWORTH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 3rd of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036715600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036711200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POINTS AND PINTS, 355 BERRY ST #210, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RANDOM THEORY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/15.

OCT 15, 22, 29, NOV 05, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036736100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CARS BEAUTY; WATERLESS CAR WASH; 2315 20TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUIRONG MA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/19/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/19/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036734600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN STATE PLUMBING, 1675 EDDY ST #304, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAN YI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/16/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036733400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 926 RACING, 742 KIRKWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARLOS M. JIMENEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/15

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036726300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOUNDATION CONSULTING, 5214F DIAMOND HGTS BLVD #808, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICOLE BARAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/09/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036727400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BLUE POPPY CONFECTIONS, 1914 47TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PEGGY INGALLS & JENNIFFER INGALLS. 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 10/13/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036729200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIPPLE, 268 BUSH ST #2724, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RIPPLE LABS INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/13/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036733900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOTEL VIA, 138 KING ST SUITE B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed COGAG GROUP. 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 10/16/15.

OCT 22, 29, NOV 05, 12, 2015 REQUESTING SUB-BIDS FROM QUALIFIED LBE/MBE/WBE/OBE

Subcontractors/Vendors for: City & County of San Francisco Bid Deadline – November 10, 2015 Audit Services For information on the availability of plans and specifications and the bidder’s policy concerning assistance to subcontractors in obtaining bonds, lines of credit, and/or insurance, please contact our office. Crowe Horwath LLP, Anna Mardayan, 575 Market St, #3300, San Francisco, CA 94105 818.325.8467 (telephone number), 818.325.8567 (fax number) anna. mardayan@crowehorwath.com

OCTOBER 29, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551608

In the matter of the application of: MIRNA ELIZABETH ZEPEDA ZEPEDA, 1783 PALOU AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MIRNA ELIZABETH ZEPEDA ZEPEDA, is requesting that the name MIRNA ELIZABETH ZEPEDA ZEPEDA aka MIRNA E. ZEPEDA ZEPEDA aka MIRNA ELIZABETH ZEPEDA aka MIRNA E. ZEPEDA aka MIRNA ELIZABETH aka MIRNA ZEPEDA aka ELIZABETH ZEPEDA, be changed to ELIZABETH SANTELIZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 10th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551607

In the matter of the application of: DAYSI ARACELY ZEPEDA DIAZ, 1783 PALOU AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DAYSI ARACELY ZEPEDA DIAZ, is requesting that the name DAYSI ARACELY ZEPEDA DIAZ aka DAYSI ZEPEDA aka DAYSI A. ZEPEDA DIAZ aka DAYSI ZEPEDA DIAZ aka DAYSI Z. DIAZ aka DAYSI DIAZ aka DAYSI A. ZEPEDA, be changed to DAYSI SANTELIZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 10th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551631

In the matter of the application of: ROBERT THOMAS MCCULLOUGH, 96 CRESTLINE DR #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROBERT THOMAS MCCULLOUGH, is requesting that the name ROBERT THOMAS MCCULLOUGH, be changed to MICHELLE MCCULLOUGH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 24th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036745600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: T & C REALTY INVESTMENT, 2147 14TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WAI CHUCK TAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036741200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CIRQ, 355 SERRANO DR #1A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRYAN DICKINSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/21/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals on or about October 26, 2015 for Consulting Services for Enterprise Asset Management System to provide a broad range of specialized Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system support services to BART, including technological support as well as review of BART’s compliance with applicable regulations and the business soundness of its EAM strategy with proposals due by 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, December 8, 2015.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED

The request for Consulting Services for Enterprise Asset Management System shall be for three (3) years, with two (2) 1 year options, exercisable by the District at its sole discretion, to extend the term of this Agreement for one (1) year each. It is anticipated that up to three (3) Agreements will be awarded as a result of this RFP, at a cost not to exceed Two Million Dollars ($2,000,000) each, or a total not to exceed Six Million Dollars ($6,000,000); however, there is no guaranteed minimum level of compensation as more particularly described in the RFP No. 6M4434.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS

Prospective Proposers who are not currently registered on the BART Procurement Portal to do business with BART are required to register on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https:// suppliers.bart.gov in order to obtain Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on-line and be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation. If a Prospective Proposer is a partnership or joint venture, such entity must register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s Tax Identification Number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an On-Line Planholder under the entity’s name, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement. PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ON-LINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. A Pre-Proposal Conference will be held on Wednesday, November 18, 2015. The meeting will convene promptly at 10 a.m. at the District’s Offices, at Conference Room 1600, 16th Floor at 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Participation will be explained. All questions regarding these programs should be directed to Alma Basurto, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-6388. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting. Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a proposal shall constitute a firm offer to the District for One Hundred and Eighty (180) calendar days from date of proposal submission. Dated at Oakland, California this 26th day of October, 2015. /s/ Jacqueline R. Edwards Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 11/5/15 CNS-2810263# BAY AREA REPORTER

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Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF KEVIN MICHAEL SHEA IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-15-299254

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of KEVIN MICHAEL SHEA. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JOHN J. CULLEN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JOHN J. CULLEN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: NOVEMBER 23, 2015, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: JOHN J. CULLEN #42766, LAW OFFICES OF CULLEN & WOOD, 1 ESTABUENO DR, ORINDA, CA; Ph. (925) 938-2337.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036747100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRENE AVETYAN CONSULTING; IA EXPORT SERVICES; 759 17TH AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IRENE AVETYAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036743000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE BIG TEASE, 447 SUTTER #428, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MITRA MASSIH. 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 10/22/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036737100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WILD RUMPUS 2, 1226 20TH AVE #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SOPHIE HUET. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/20/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036734000

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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551550

In the matter of the application of: CHUN FEN WANG & XIANG YANG HUANG, 1345 TURK ST #112, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHUN FEN WANG & XIANG YANG HUANG, is requesting that the name GUANG MEI HUANG, be changed to CHRISTINE GUANGMEI HUANG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 24th of December 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036742300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY-LA EXPRESS MOVING; NIMBUS MOVING & STORAGE; 1388 HAIGHT ST #57, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAPIEN ENTERPRISES INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/15.

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OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036741600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOFFS HANDYMAN; CASTRO HANDYMAN; 227 ROMAIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HOFFS HANDYMAN (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036743800

In the matter of the application of: LINDA MARGARET BERTHA GILLESPIE, 115 ANDOVER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LINDA MARGARET BERTHA GILLESPIE, is requesting that the name LINDA MARGARET BERTHA GILLESPIE, be changed to ELGY GILLESPIE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514, Dept. 514 on the 21st of January 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036750400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CITYDENT, 15 CHICAGO WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANTHONY 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 10/28/15.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036756400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CURB APPEAL ADDRESSING, 660 4TH ST #126, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL PHELAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/15.

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036756700

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAINBOW HANDYMAN, 227 ROMAIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HOFFS HANDYMAN (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 10/23/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551567

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036760200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WILL SWAGGER, 107 COLLINGWOOD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM R. MARTIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KIRLEY PLUS, 1521 COLE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed X KEITH KIRLEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ESSENTIAL SKIN CARE CLINIC BY ROSA, 3303 BUCHANAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed ROBERT MUSGRAVE & ROSA MUSGRAVE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036735000

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036749900

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036759200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAGE BAKEHOUSE, 1905 LAGUNA ST #307, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TIAN YUN CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC, 1752 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed VICTOR SHU & LIJUAN LIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/28/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LARED, 450 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF BAY GROUP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/11/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036739600

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036749600

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036748400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ON MARS SALON, 210 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUMMER MURASE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/21/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JOHANNA’S HOUSE CLEANING, 162 EDINBURGH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed HAROLD MARTINEZ & ADDONIS MARTINEZ. 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 10/28/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: H2 AND CO, 2776 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HEATHER LUPLOW HARTLE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/15.

OCT 29, NOV 05, 12, 19, 2015

NOV 05, 12, 19, 26 2015

35 PUC # 176618

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Out &About

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O&A

Vol. 45 • No. 45 • November 5-11, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

by Sura Wood

t wasn’t long after Japan was forced to open its ports in 1853, following 200 years of being an island unto itself, that its rich artistic traditions infiltrated Western culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. American and European artists, on the hunt for novel techniques and alternative approaches that would set them apart, were influenced by Japan’s two-dimensional designs, clean lines, geometric patterns, dynamic compositions and coloration, elements that helped define what we now think of as modernism and contributed to movements such as Impressionism, PostImpressionism and Art Nouveau. See page 29 >>

Helen Burnham, the Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, points out the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e prints in John La Farge’s “A Hillside Study (Two Trees),” part of Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh and other Western Artists, now at the Asian Art Museum. Rick Gerharter

The Roxie discovers France by Erin Blackwell

he French invented melodrama on the eve of their 1789 revolution to cope with the emotional demands of the rising bourgeoisie. Previously, the monarchy had maintained a firm grip on subject matter and style. Royal taste ran to imitation Greek tragedy with a focus on erotic passion, and even in the matter of comedy, exemplified by Molière, an exacting regime of rhymed alexandrine couplets and impeccably logical absurdities. Never definitively overthrown, the classical aspiration to exquisite spiritual precision informs French culture to this day. You can observe it at work in the Roxie Theatre’s weekend potpourri of French melodramas, The French Had See page 25 >> a Name for It 2, opening Friday.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Visit now! Closes November 29. Plunge into the underwater world of whales. Get tickets at calacademy.org 15 CAS Whales Strip Ad_ san fran 9.75x2_VisitNow.indd 1

9/29/15 10:46 AM

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Hard bodies & a hotel stay by Roberto Friedman

Autumn Concert Michael Morgan, Guest Conductor Tickets & Info: http://BARS-SF.ORG

Saturday, November 7, 8pm

Everett Middle School Auditorium 450 Church St. (between 16 & 17th St.) Stillwell Music for a Forgotten City Dvork Cello Concerto Joseph Johnson, cello Kalinnikov Symphony No. 1

The Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides a safe and supportive environment for musicians of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions. BARS makes cultural, social, and educational contributions to the San Francisco Bay Area by performing ambitious repertoire to a high standard. Rev1-2pub-BBB_BAR_100115.pdf

CMY

9/25/15

4:04 PM

Napa sojourn

Last weekend Out There was he popular 2016 Barihunks invited for a rejuvenating overCharity Calendar is out. Now night stay at the Westin Verasa in its fifth edition, the calendar Napa. After drinks at the hofeatures 18 hot & hunky singers tel’s café and bar Bank, genial of opera and musical theater in general manager Don Shindle provocative poses. Our Barihunks gave us a tour of the grounds contact Jack Michaels reports, and the adjacent Napa River “We didn’t get our usual Bay Area Bypass, an ingenious piece of model, Zachary Gordin, this civil engineering designed to year. He’s promised to be back in steer any flooding of the Napa it next year – and we’re lobbying River away from inhabited Hadleigh Adams as well! Noneland. Beautiful wooden floodtheless, we got 18 amazing men gates are at the ready, so bring from nine countries. it on, El Nino! “Marco Vassalli, who is promWe were treated to dinner inently featured in the calendar, at the hotel’s Michelin starwill be making his US debut in winning La Toque restaurant, San Francisco under the auspices where Chef Ken Frank offers a of Musica Marin on Jan. 23 & menu of contemporary French 25, 2016 [locations to be ancuisine. Hang onto your hat nounced]. Although the entire when you hear what we had program has not been finalized, I (with accompanying wines): can tell you that he’ll be singing apple and onion tarte tatin Courtesy Barihunks the world premiere of two new with Roquefort cream (with works for string quartet and bari- Barihunks calendar men German baritones a Pallas late-harvest tokaji); tone by gay composer Clint Bor- Marco Vassalli and Malte Roesner take a grilled octopus with za’atar, zoni. One is based on Hermann break. toasted almonds, dates, cauliHesse’s poem Stufen, and the flower and pickled lime yogurt other on Hilde Domin’s Magere (Vacqueyras blanc); Suquet de forming Schubert’s Winterreise Kost. He’ll also be performing SamPeix with picada and Pacific coast in Braunschweig and Königsluter. uel Barber’s Dover Beach, Opus 3, rockfish (Brunello di Montalcino); His recordings include Lehar’s Der also scored for string quartet and prime rib eye with Fiscalini chedGraf von Luxemburg, Gounod’s La baritone.” dar, pearl tapioca and Rutherford nonne sanglante, Wagner’s Parsifal Vassalli is currently perred wine sauce (Caravina cabernet and his solo album of Italian forming in Leonard Bersauvignon); and triple-baked butter songs, Viaggio D’Amore. nstein’s Candide at the crunch cake with apples and vanilla He is openly gay, yay! Staatsoper Hannover. A mascarpone sorbet (chenin blanc This year the calendar German singer born of ice wine). proceeds will be used to Italian roots, he grew up The next morning our perspicafund the creation of the on Lake Constance and cious plus one Pepi participated in Foundation for the Adbegan his studies at the an outdoor yoga session with the vancement of Baritones Hochschule für Musik Westin’s in-house yoga concierge, [F.A.B.] to fund baritone in Cologne, where he Kate Bock, on the patio, a pretty and bass cash prizes at studied with the famed nifty perk for all hotel guests. They song competitions, comsoprano Edda Moser. He has esprovide the yoga mats: you bring mission music for baritones and tablished himself as a refined singer the stretch. And here’s the beauty basses, and be used to fund other of sacred music, having performed part of the whole little getaway: the projects featuring low male voices. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, St. Westin press kit came embedded in The calendar is available at LULU. John’s Passion, Magnificat, Christa wine cork!t com. mas Oratorio, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and Duruflé’s Requiem. On the stage, Vassalli has performed Damilo in Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Dr. Falke in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande, Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and von Eschenbach Courtesy Westin Verasa Napa in Wagner’s Tannhäuser. In 2016, Lobby of the Westin Verasa Napa, with Bank café and bar in the left he will sing Roman Cykowski in background. the Comedien Harmonistas at the Theater Osnambrück before per-

Front page nudes by Ernie Alderete

he new release from Bruno Gmunder Full Frontal by Dylan Rosser is anything butt! The cover is stupendous, which is the way it should be, because we do tend to judge a book by its cover. It’s of a lovely European-looking guy with a shaved head and only the lightest 5 o’clock shadow framing his handsome face. He’s seated on the floor, naked of course, elbows resting on his knees. His body is virtually hairless, his legs are free of hair, no chest hair is apparent. It’s a truly lovely image, but the images inside never reach the same level of physical perfection. One picture isn’t a frontal at all. It’s a guy from behind, from below the shoulders to just below his ass. Dismembered

body parts hold little attraction for me. The ass is of interest only

if I know who it belongs to, if there is at least a face attached to it somehow. Maybe we see the guy from behind and he turns around so both his face and ass are in view, something more inventive than a straight ass shot. There is a very impressive picture of a gorgeous guy with small pale blue eyes. He has a beautiful diamond earring in the only ear we can see, as he’s presented in profile. His hairy chest and the start of what looks like what will become a fine wrap-around beard frame an exquisite face. But we only see him from just below his nipples on up. I would love to see everything he has to offer. There’s a couple of pictures of naked couples facing each other, but that isn’t full frontal, either. Just sayin’.t

Theatre>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Cruising with Noel Coward by Richard Dodds

he best song in Noel Coward’s Sail Away comes at the very end, and it pretty much tells us that the characters we have been watching for the past two-plus hours aren’t actually worth our time. “Why Do the Wrong People Travel?” lets a cruise ship’s social director display her contempt for her disembarking charges. Had it been placed earlier in the musical, it would have given more context to the sort-of softening that the hardened character finds at the end. But this is not the show’s pre-Broadway run in Boston or Philadelphia, where my advice could be heard, and ignored, by Coward, but at 42nd Street Moon, which we count on to present it like it was. The musical, designed by Coward to showcase more his songwriting skills than witty dialogue, didn’t have much time to get it right before landing on Broadway in 1961. After tepid response out of town to the romantic lead played by Jean Fenn and enthusiastic response to the comic

lead played by Elaine Stritch, Coward discharged Fenn and conflated both romance and comedy into Stritch’s character with just three weeks before opening night on Broadway. We end up with a character of curious behavior and thin motivation. But it served Elaine Stritch well enough, boosting her profile and giving her good stories for her one-woman show decades later. 42nd Street Moon’s production of Sail Away at the Eureka Theatre is not one of the company’s stronger efforts. Even within the confines of its stripped-down production philosophy, the set is pretty much only a puckered backdrop representing a ship, and with dowdy costumes that are not even a rube’s notion of tourist garb. But the bigger problem is with the thin characters that Coward created, and much of the cast’s inability to put more flesh on their bones. “I have used a revue formula with a mere thread of a story running through it,” Coward himself would later say. But no matter how good the

David Allen

Allison F. Rich plays a quirky cruise-ship social director in Noel Coward’s Sail Away, which 42nd Street Moon is presenting in San Francisco for the first time.

songs, and there are a few good ones here, they don’t resonate much when our stakes in the characters are so low. Some have a pleasantly generic romantic edge, with such titles as “Later than Spring” and “Don’t Turn Away from Love,” but the best are the comic novelty songs. Coward creates clever lyrics for the

foreign-phrasebook song “Useless Useful Phrases,” and “The Little One’s ABC” is a kind of wicked inverse of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Do Re Mi.” These songs, along with “Why Do the Wrong People Travel?,” show Allison F. Rich at her best as social director Mimi Paragon. In the dialogue scenes, perhaps Stritch, with the sheer force of her Stritchiness, was able to create a coherent character, but Rich’s version of Mimi can look drug-crazed with flashes of sensitivity, along with a cruel streak flecked with not-so-clever ripostes. Most of the other characters come across as a bland bunch, with some exceptions provided by Darlene Popovic as a famous romantic novelist, Khalia Davis as her spunky goddaughter, Davern Wright as a drolly deadpan reluctant traveler, and Lucas Coleman as a stalwart romantic lead. Davis and Nathaniel Rothrock enliven the proceedings with their song-and-dance routine to “Beatnik Love Song,” a small nod to modernity, which also best shows

off Brittany Danielle’s choreography. And note should be made of 11-year-old Jordan Martin, who is realistically obnoxious as a generally despised hellion, but who surprises with his strong voice and sure way with some fairly grownup lyrics in the “ABC” song. Pianist and musical director Dave Dobrusky is joined by Nick Di Scala on woodwinds to provide steady accompaniment, but Greg MacKellan has directed the show without the sparkle that often brightens 42nd Street Moon’s forays into lesser-seen musicals. Sail Away is an awkward property. It’s not as abject-silly as some older musicals for which that silliness becomes part of the fun, and in which choice songs are often heard. But Coward’s efforts are neither throwback silly nor sharp enough to be a musical to help usher in the 1960s.t

ter officer whose airships wipe out Vietnamese villages to a spectacular recorded crescendo. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!” The Thin Red Line (1998) Terrence Malick’s spectacular version of a pivotal moment in the battle for the Pacific gets a 170-min. restoration. (both 11/14) Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Late director Chantal Ackerman’s 201-min. study of a middle-aged widow whose domestic chores come to seem heroic. The Seven Samurai (1954) Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s epic look at 16th-century warriors sworn to protect their small villages from bandits. The Seventh Seal (1957) This Ingmar Bergman classic put postWWII Swedish cinema on the arthouse map and made an overnight star of his taciturn lead, Max von Sydow, as a knight returning from the Crusades who plays chess with Death. (all three, 11/15) The State of Things (1982) Wenders honors American horror master Roger Corman with this tale of the fallout when a film crew arrives in Portugal to remake Corman’s sci-fi B-movie The Day the World Ended. Also Wenders’ take on the American crime writer Dashiell Hammett. Paris, Texas (1984) It begins as a buddy film with the reunion of two brothers, Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) and Walt (Dean Stockwell). Believing his brother dead, Walt is shocked to get a call from South Texas indicating that Travis is alive but not exactly well. The two have some awkward, fumbling moments. Travis appears to be amnesiac, and Walt reminds him that he has a young son, Hunter (Hunter

Carson), and once had a wife, Jane (Nastassja Kinski). Wenders and co-writer Sam Shepard admitted in interviews that they didn’t know how to end this existential modern Western. (both 11/16) Junun (2015) Paul Thomas Anderson celebrates his artistic partnership with composer Jonny Greenwood. (11/18) Commando (1985) Before he was our governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an explosive action hero. In this 90-minute treasure, Arnold blows up an entire island (preceded by classic Arnold film trailers). Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) Sylvester Stallone returns with this James Cameron-penned action bloodfest. (both 11/20) Addams Family Values Peaches Christ host two spectacular stage shows (3 & 8 p.m.) to showcase the screening of Barry Sonnenfeld’s campy romp featuring the droll talents of Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack, Christina Ricci, Carol Kane, Peter McNichol, Christine Baranski, Nathan Lane, Peter Graves and David Hyde Pierce. (11/21) Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese’s top crime saga gets a 25th anniversary restoration. The story of how the charming lifetime crook Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) waltzes in and out of harm’s way with lethal mobsters and the law never gets old. Based on a spectacular robbery at NYC’s JFK Airport. Scorsese was Oscar-nominated for commanding a spectacular cast including Oscarwinning Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. Carlito’s Way (1993) Al Pacino excels as the recently released Carlito, who goes legit after five years in the pen. Carlito’s lawyer Dave Kleinfeld is another spot-on turn from Sean Penn. Director Brian De Palma is this rich crime circus’ ringmaster. (both 11/22) Wings of Desire (1987) Wenders’ dreamlike fairy tale involves angels who swoop down over West Berlin observing humans and wondering what it would be like to lose their wings and turn into mortals. Inspired by the poems of Rilke, and featuring the extraordinary German actor Bruno Ganz and a mustsee cameo by Peter Falk as himself. The film has a unique color scheme where the angels appear in B&W while humans burst out in color. Faraway, So Close! (1993) Wenders returns to the theme of See page 25 >>

Sail Away will run at the Eureka Theatre through Nov. 15. Tickets are $25-$75. Call (415) 255-8207 or go to 42ndstmoon.org.

Castro Theatre enlivens November by David Lamble

he Castro Theatre outdoes itself with a post-election collection of double bills and special tributes that may keep you on-hand well into the Christmas shopping season. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock’s truly original creep-fest was a smash hit in its day, helped define the emerging horror genre, was shot in B&W because Hitch thought the bloody motel shower scene would be way over-the-top garish in notso-subtle Technicolor, made its sexy young mad killer a box-office sensation, and caused Anthony Perkins to be forever thought of as Norman Bates. It’s a thriller that retains its original bite. In its day, the picture reportedly made many filmgoers shower-phobic. Featuring Hitch’s best supporting ensemble: Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John Gavin and John McIntire. Dressed to Kill (1980) Early in his career Brian De Palma was taunted by some critics for his Hitchcock obsession, but as this sublime thriller demonstrates, he understood how to up the ante on some of the master’s best tricks. The slick plot has a serial killer on the prowl after two different victims: a sexually frustrated housewife and a wily prostitute. Keith Gordon, himself a future director (The Chocolate War), is enchanting as the first victim’s son, who joins forces with the hooker to trap the killer. (both 11/6) Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) Right before America’s entry into WWII, young Walt teamed up with Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski to illustrate eight classic compositions. The film makes deft use of then still-youthful Mickey Mouse as “the Sorcerer’s Apprentice”; employs dancing hippos and alligators for “The Dance of the Hours”; “Rite of Spring” shows dinosaurs roaming our young planet; and “Night on Bald Mountain” is still quite scary. The program runs 215 minutes with a newly produced short. (11/8) Kings of the Road (1976) Taking his title from the Roger Miller country-music hit, director Wim Wenders explores the psychic problems of post-war Germans (Wenders was born in Dusseldorf on Aug. 14, 1945) who feel both drawn to and smothered by American culture. As one character bitterly puts it, “The Yanks have colonized our subconscious.” The American Friend (1977) Wenders continues considering

Dennis Hopper stars in director Wim Wenders’ The American Friend.

American domination of post-war Germany by introducing gangster and noir themes. Dennis Hopper appears as the sly American Tom Ripley, drawn from the work of noir master Patricia Highsmith. Matt Damon played Ripley in British director Anthony Minghella’s disturbing remake. (both 11/9) The Last One Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a fundraiser. (11/10) The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) Director/co-writer Marielle Heller’s film is based on Phoebe Gloekner’s 2002 graphic novel whose chirpy 15-year-old heroine proclaims her battle plan for surviving the season in 1976 San Francisco, a city just past the “Summer of Love” but still chock-full of hypersexed teenage boys. As Minnie goes tripping down the block in visual tandem with her animated twin, Diary gives tacit permission to an online generation of girls eager to trade chat rooms for the adventures and perils of the streets. The film’s “Mrs. Robinson” moment is still capable of rocking the boat in an AIDS-era America. Mom (Kristen Wiig) is having her own affair with 30-something Monroe (a very cute Alexander Skarsgard). Feeling her oats, she gives Minnie permission to go after those silly bellbottom-wearing boys at her high school. “I don’t want to brag, but I was quite a piece when I was your age. What’s wrong with you? I thought you’d be more into boys. You have that kind of power, you know. You just don’t know it yet.” Dazed and Confused (1993) It’s the last day of school in 1976 Austin, Texas, chock-full of adolescent hormones. Texan Richard Linklater gets the feel, slang and energy of a group of Texas kids who won’t stop until they’ve exhausted every option. The attractive ensemble includes future

indie-film stalwarts Rory Cochrane, Milla Jovovich, Marissa Ribisi, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, and Parker Posey. (both 11/11) Warren Miller’s Chasing Shadows A collection of shorts promoting skiing and snowboarding. (11/12) The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival Features a screening of Major!, the life story of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a 73-year-old Bay Area transgender icon. (11/13) Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola based this savage epic about America’s Vietnam quagmire on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Martin Sheen plays a beleaguered junior officer assigned the task of reining in an American commander who’s gone native (Marlon Brando), or “terminating him with extreme prejudice.” Coppola put himself in hock emotionally and financially to complete his career opus. A series of loosely linked set-pieces, the film is at its best when it marshals music and carnage with operatic gusto. Robert Duvall has never been better than as the American helicop-

An angel contemplates mortality in director Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire.

<< Books

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

LGBT poetry roundup

by Jim Piechota

What Can I Ask by Elana Dykewomon; A Midsummer Night’s Press, $18.95 Reconnaissance by Carl Phillips; Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23 What the Night Numbered by Bradford Tice; Trio House Press, $16 Our Lady of the Crossword by Rigoberto Gonzalez; A Midsummer Night’s Press, $11.95

eaders who enjoy the flow of words, the unsuspecting heft of intricate phrasing, and a moment or an emotion conveyed in the space of a simple page will surely enjoy four newly-published poetry offerings. The latest title in A Midsummer Night’s Press’ Sapphic Classics series is What Can I Ask, a collection of new and selected poems from Oakland-based lesbian and activist Elana Dykewomon. In her introduction, Jewelle Gomez, also a local writer and activist, applauds the collection for its ability to “rekindle the spark for the lapsed poetry reader/revolutionaries of our generation and with any luck ignite a new fire in the next.” Ten new works of poetry open the volume, each with profound intent, as in “California,” which describes the terror of the earthquake that is destined to decimate the land, leaving “us stuck/while what is wild/moves up/ without considering/perch.” Sections of selections follow, some reflecting on the nature of foolishness within the trappings of love, or on a friend’s impending surgery, or on an unborn niece. A particularly intense 11-part poem focuses on the dynamic of the author as a “fat womon,” and brilliantly touches on themes of body

image, self-love, self-hatred, dieting, food, and “this unease about our consumerism.” An intimately personal closing essay beautifully describes Dykewomon’s history as a Jewish lesbian struggling with suicidal ideation in her early teens, how and why she adopted her present surname, and how, when alone at night, surrounded by other contemporaries’ manuscripts, she appreciates “the sensation of being rocked in the hammock of lesbian words.” Carl Phillips, a prolific poet with 12 books in his oeuvre, in Reconnaissance presents a collection of more than 30 prose pieces elegantly structured and suffused with meaning and consequence. Meditations on the humanity of patience, trouble, truth, love as a “submission of power,” and forgiveness give way to beautiful and powerful poems on trust and raw longing. Phillips’ poetry is meant to be savored slowly and pondered by the reader. He infuses thoughtfulness and weighty emotion into each piece, as in “Discipline,” which laments: “You are the knife, and you are also what the

knife has opened, says the wind.” Some sections are more easily digested than others. There are several works that take time, patience, and several re-readings to appreciate. But that may just be a reflection of Phillips’ subject matter and how the multi-layered canals of pleasure and pain within the human experience require a certain investment of attention and appreciation. His words beckon the reader to yield to their influence: “It could be hunger, it could be sex,” he writes, “that smell, or fearfulness, or just fear itself – tenderer hand than ours, soundlessly, as they at last unyoke us.” Dedicated to “the Stonewall girls,” award-winning poet Bradford Tice’s four-part poetry collection What the Night Numbered memorializes gay liberation through the beauty of language and art. In the opener “Two Falsehoods,” he describes the Stonewall riots as a “hot summer night in 69 when drag queens in calf-high patent leather boots, moptops and hot pants formed a cancan line, high-kicked the police into submission.” Tice also delves into the myths of

Cupid, who watches porn in public and describes love as having a “hefty tax, but if you know how, you can lean on the soft throat of that thing, press in until you feel the airway give, until the eyes go large, tear up, until they’re ready to scream for the love that’s seated on their chest.” Psyche enjoys the company of a gaggle called “the Golden Rats,” yet questions, “Why do you call yourself rats? Why golden? Because we are glitter washed in the sewers.” The amount of creativity and inventive, condensed storytelling here is impressive, yet for all the serious wordplay, there is also bountiful humor, as found in the poems “Cupid Bottoms for Psyche” and “How Queens Lose Their Looks.” Each work becomes braided into larger themes of liberation and gay freedom and equality. “Vulgarity is a prayer we whisper to the bone of our pelvis,” Tice writes in “The Wedding Night.” “Mine, honey, is tired of listening.” This is a fabulous and awe-inspiring collection not to be missed. Author of 15 books and a Lambda Literary Award winner, Rigober-

to Gonzalez’s latest collection Our Lady of the Crossword is a tiny book able to be snuggled into a side pocket and brandishes remarkably fierce cover art by Fabian Chairez Martinez. Though there are only 42 pages here and 10 poems to savor, this potent chapbook packs a punch. The subject matter that Gonzalez ponders ranges from a father’s sacred word puzzles to a mother who doubts the survival of a son who has fled Mexico for Manhattan “for God-knows-what.” There’s also an ode to Mexican television in the 1980s, where the first male-to-male kiss involved a “dainty boy with a nightingale throat, his pixie cut exotic, his androgyny hypnotic.” Gonzalez’s Latin cultural heritage is splashed across each page in this dazzling assortment of sizzling narratives, prayers for drag queens worldwide, and beautifully-wrought reminders that there’s “nothing weird watching shark and leopard dance so gaily every evening.” This foursome feast of poetry will satisfy a variety of tastes and demonstrate the enduring power of gay poetry.t

Being gay in a treacherous Iraq by Brian Bromberger

God in Pink by Hasan Namir; Arsenal Pulp Press, $15.95

espite the enormous strides LGBTQ people have made in America especially this year, we still haven’t reached complete equality and universal social acceptance. Yet compared to other countries in the world, the U.S. is a gay and lesbian mecca, even nirvana, when one considers the horrendous state of affairs elsewhere, say in Iraq. Hasan Namir, an Iraqiborn author now living in Vancouver, has explored the anguish and perseverance of the gay Muslim experience in Iraq in his new novel God in Pink. The plight of gay and lesbian

Iraqis has been much in the news in the last five years, mainly because they are at great risk for being killed, having little to no family or community support and no legal rights or government protection. LGBTQ Iraqis are hated by both the Islamic State (ISIS) forces and the pro-government militias, especially the infamous Shiite Asaib Ahl alHaq, currently engaging in a civil war. This places them in a no-win situation. Among the terrible tortures/deaths inflicted on them: gang rape, beheading (with their heads tossed onto garbage dumps), bludgeoning (i.e., beaten with concrete blocks), stoning, being thrown from the rooftop of high-rise buildings, and the most ghastly of all, hav-

ing their anuses closed up with a crazy glue-type substance that can only be removed by surgery, then being forced to drink a laxative causing diarrhea resulting in a painful death. Because coming out can be fatal, gay and lesbian Iraqis are virtually publicly invisible, which is why former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his infamous comment years ago that “there are no gays in Iraq.” God in Pink is set in war-torn Baghdad in 2003 during the USled invasion. Ramy is a closeted university student whose parents have died and who lives with his fundamentalist brother (a professor of English at Baghdad University, educated at Oxford) and sister-in-law, who keep strict watch over him. Suspicious of his sexuality, they are forcing him to find a wife while Ramy is searching for a possible boyfriend, trying to balance his sexuality, religion, and culture. To further the latter goal, he seeks counsel from a sheikh/teacher at his local mosque, not sure whether he can trust him and disclose his secret. The novel shifts back and forth from Ramy’s life to that of Ammar, the seemingly liberal sheikh, as he struggles with Islamic prohibitions against homosexuality and his own sexual identity issues. Magical, realistic, almost melodramatic sequences featuring a gay angel Gabriel (a significant character in the Qur’an) as well as werdy (the color pink) are used to highlight the conflict engendered by a reactionary society. Will Ramy find a male lover, and can such a relationship survive cultural prohibitions and sanctions? Will he marry one of the three women his brother

has picked out as a possible wife for him, often the only way gay men in Iraq can escape detection? Namir is not focused on political issues, though they provide a menacing ambience to the book. While his is clearly a message novel, Namir avoids didacticism. What makes his story scary is that the principal terror of being outed comes from one’s own family. To reclaim the family honor, assassins can be hired to kill their own gay relative. Namir is quite effective at describing the normal daily life/routine of a university student punctuated by moments of anguish bordering on heartbreak. He can’t let his guard down once, even in the safety of his own home. Nor can he reveal hints of his true self in public (long hair is prohibited) or display any signs of suspect overt affection without incurring the wrath of military police. Even to meet fellow gay men in a club can be perilous

if he doesn’t follow rigid, coded behavior guidelines. The only risk-free place is one’s imagination, where one can fantasize about living freely the way one wants, which is why there are so many lengthy (day)dream and vision scenes in the book, though they tend to slow down the narrative power of both Ramy’s and Ammar’s dilemmas. Still, one poignant passage evokes the stress and trauma of LGBTQs in Iraq even as they attempt to fit in a theocracy: “God, I am your creation and yours alone. Since the day I was born, I knew I was not the Iraqi that everyone else tries to be. I am a homosexual, and I can’t change that. God, my love for You is strong, but everyone has stood against me. I know You love me and love everyone like me, despite what they say. Please give us light. Please let us be free.” Sadly, this quote could be uttered by many Christian LGBTQs in parts of the US and other countries in the world. While flawed in its execution, God in Pink does succeed in showing us how devastating punitive, religiously-inspired anti-gay abuse (physical and emotional) can be, not only on an LGBTQ individual, but on their families and spouses, whose unhappiness can be as profound as their closeted, unfulfilled partners. As with any violent discrimination/homophobia, the entire society pays a heavy price. One can only hope that a courageous and talented voice like Namir’s can hold a mirror up to Iraqi citizens so they can at least start seeing their fellow gay and lesbian citizens as valued human beings and not evil sinners to be ostracized, oppressed, silenced, and murdered.t

t <<

Film>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

French Noir

From page 21

Unlike the Pacific Film Archive, which has archive built into its name, the Roxie prides itself on a street-urchin moxie that has seen it through 100+ years of continuous programming. Most recently, it has survived the toxic influx of Silicon refugees, which has otherwise eviscerated every cultural outpost around Valencia and 16th Streets. Vive la Roxie! Just don’t expect archival-quality anything. The subtitles are iffy, the program notes slapdash, nobody knows how to speak or pronounce French let alone proofread it, or evinces the slightest notion where the French learned to construct complex critical narratives. At the Roxie, it’s news the French even know how to act. C’est la vie. If anything got the French through the Nazi occupation, it was their fundamentally pragmatic approach to existence. If they survived Hitler, they’ll survive programmers Don Malcolm and Elliot Lavine. The middle-brow, macho duo are selling their dozen French classics as the cinematic version of a burlesque show. The actresses are “titillating, sexy, orgiastic,” while the men are, well, you know, men. While not entirely surprising, this adolescent-boy approach to “naughty” Gallic culture is embarrassing in a town with its own Alliance Française, not to mention Consulate. Cool off, boys, take the thesaurus off the shelf, and sharpen your adjectives. The term Noir, in its application to film, has been stretched past the breaking point. Never mind, it’s marketable. When dealing with the French, however, a sense of aesthetic history would pay off big-time. Arguably, Racine (1639-99), the exemplar of classical French tragedy, wrote Noir. Molière’s Don Juan (1665) is Noir. Zola (1840-1902) certainly wrote Noir. France’s favorite American writer, Edgar Allen Poe (180949), wrote Noir. Noir is trickledown tragedy, coming back to poison the well of naively optimistic melodrama and its nauseatingly happy endings. When the French slapped the word Noir on a handful of U.S. films including Laura (1944), they were celebrating the injection of Old European despair into Hollywood product. The dozen films in the Roxie’s weekend festival chronologically begin with Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece, Le Corbeau (1943), whose title is a nod to Poe. A small town is driven mad by a series of poison-pen letters, all handwritten in caps and obsessed with a bourgeois interloper, a doctor with a bad habit of saving women in the throes of difficult childbirth but

Castro Theatre

From page 23

angels through a glass darkly. Six years later, the angel Cassiel (Otto Sander) loses his wings, but not for love. Cassiel finds himself working for a Berlin gangster in the black market. Ganz and Falk reprise their roles from Wings, and are joined by an international cast including Willem Dafoe, pop star Lou Reed, and maverick Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev. (both 11/23) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Woody Allen won a Best Screenplay Oscar for this comic observation of an extended New York clan with three special roles: Hannah (Mia Farrow), Dianne Wiest (Oscar winner) as Hannah’s dysfunctional sister, and Michael Caine (Oscar for Best Supporting Actor). A close look will reveal Woody’s present wife, Soon-Yi Previn, as a kid in the

losing the babies. Whence, the accusation of abortionist. Fastidious Pierre Fresnay’s real crime is being irresistible to the ladies, attached or otherwise. Based on a real incident dating to 1917, Le Corbeau plays like an Agatha Christie wherein first one, then another character is on the hot seat. Panique (1946), directed by Julien Duvivier and starring the great character actor Michel Simon, similarly accuses an entire Parisian quartier of scapegoating a bourgeois transplant whose only crime is aloofness. Simon’s character falls hard for an ex-con (Viviane Romance) who did time for her man and is still erotically enslaved to that small-time sociopath. The film opens and closes with a busker singing “L’Amour, l’amour” with chilling irony.

LESLIE JORDAN

SPENCER DAY

ANA

GASTEYER

November 13 - 14

November 9 - 10

December 4 - 5

For tickets:www.feinsteinsSF.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556

100537.01_HNSF_2015_Bay_Area_Reporter_11-05_02 ROUND #: MECH Trim: 5.75in x 7.625in Bleed: none Live: 5.75in x 7.625in Color Space: CMYK Fonts: Futura Publication Name: Bay Area Reporter PM: PM AS: RB AD: PA: JR Date: 10/26/15 Loaded Date:10/26/15

A second film by prolific Noir novelist Georges Simenon, La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (1952) vivisects the failed marriage of cold-blooded businessman Jean Gabin to spoiled, sentimental, self-righteous Danielle Darrieux as a series of flashbacks from Gabin’s hospital death-bed. The final film, Le Septieme Juré (1962), is also the most recent. This variation on the theme of Camus’ L’Etranger (1942) demonstrates how a conformist can kill a woman with impunity and even serve on the jury of the murder trial. Existence, as the Existentialists say, is what you make it.t Thanksgiving Day segment. Broadway Danny Rose (1991) Woody’s turn as the world’s least successful talent agent is complemented by some Thanksgiving Day Parade floats, and the usual strong support from Farrow as a toughtalking ex-mob girlfriend. Veteran Gotham comics reminisce about Danny Rose and his awful career (preceded by the short The Thanksgiving Prayer). (both 11/25) Sing-along Sound of Music (1965) The Castro brings back its most popular audience-participation program. (11/27-28, 12/3-4, 6) Until the End of the World: Director’s Cut (1991) Wenders’ meditation on humans coping with images features his usual international cast: William Hurt, Max von Sydow, Jeanne Moreau. With music by Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Patti Smith and U2. (11/20; 295 minutes with intermission)t

<< Books

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

Career glamazon by Jim Piechota

The Diva Rules by Michelle Visage; Chronicle Books, $19.95 n his gushing introduction to The Diva Rules, RuPaul Charles graciously applauds his longtime friend, co-star, and ever-morphing “le cameleon brillante” Michelle Visage. He calls her “a compassionate defender of the disenfranchised” and a female drag queen who has “walked the walk,” enabling the contestants on LOGO TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race to unreservedly trust her opinion and her often biting critiques. But exactly who is this stunning starlet? Where did she come from, and what does she have to say? Visage’s book, a pink, glossy production mixing autobiography with self-help, slaps the face of the reader who dares not to recognize her name or her legacy. “I may be a proud no-nonsense bitch who will always call you on your bullshit when I see it,” she cautions. “But it comes from a place of love, respect, and admiration.” With much of the same bravado employed by her best buddy RuPaul, Visage encourages her fans to step up, out, and into the limelight, and

be fearless in the face of adversity, to always do their best on whatever stage, and to “work it harder, better, and smarter than anyone else.” Divided into 25 chapters, each named for a rule to live by, Visage’s book doles out some old chestnuts alongside a few more contemporary morsels of wisdom. She spells out the difference between being a diva (“gets shit done while staying true to who they are”) and a bitch (“an asshole with an attitude”), the plusses of embracing one’s misfit personality and keeping one’s online presence fun yet sensible. Sprinkled throughout the pages of advice are anecdotes from her colorful past. Stories about her adoptive childhood in New Jersey, her reunion with her biological mother and father, and random bad decisions like attending the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York complement stories of learning to “throw serious shade” and “master my side-eye,” choreographing Vogue battles, intermittent stardom with girl-group Seduction and S.O.U.L. System, and gigs with VH-1, The RuPaul Show, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Photographs are generous and

revealing throughout (her headshot for a QVC audition is priceless), and Visage doesn’t skimp on the intimate details of her ascent to celebrity status, including some juicy insider gossip. The best advice she gives comes late in the book, in a section called “The Dos and OhNo-She-Better-Don’ts of Working a Crowd,” which reminds those wishing to call positive attention to themselves to read the room carefully, visualize success, and make an entrance, while not lingering too long. Along those same lines are things to do when feeling overwhelmed and overlooked, which can apply to just about everyone. The greatest takeaway (besides investing in a Hitachi Magic Wand, ladies) is to get and remain fabulous, but to “use your head” at all times. Did I mention Visage has a potty mouth? This quality, which becomes more grating as the book progresses,

Visage insists on classing it up, the vulgar talk and generous use of profanity wear thin. Tough and fearless doesn’t mean abrasive and balls-out vulgarity. Coaching the younger generation to strive for the best that they can be is honorable, but some of this advice (using cutthroat cunning and always putting yourself first) will spawn a new generation of arrogance. There’s a way to instill empowerment to the younger set without pulling the cocky card every time. Yet, true to who she is (born Michelle Lynn Shupack, 1968), Visage’s glamour, excess, popularity, and spectacle get attention, and this book – proactive advice delivered with brassy grit – will no doubt do the same.t makes it not quite appropriate for pre-teen readers eager to douse themselves in glitter, eyeliner, and tulle, then sneak into the local drag show. In staying honest to her character, yes, a little expletive here and there meets the demand for personal truth, but if

Michelle Visage will read from her book at Oasis nightclub, 298 11th St., SF, on Sun., Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. She will be a guest host at the Faux Queen Contest at Oasis, 6 p.m. the same day. Tickets: sfoasis.com.

Recording artists go solo by Gregg Shapiro

ock music has a long history of musicians establishing themselves in bands before achieving greatness as a solo artist. One of the earliest and best examples of this is Van Morrison. With his band Them, Morrison made his mark with enduring tunes such as “Gloria” (later reinvented by Patti Smith) and “Here Comes the Night.” Both of those songs, along with 35 others, have been compiled on the double-disc set The Essential Van Morrison (Exile/Legacy). Morri-

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF

I AM DIVINE

son’s solo work often retained some of the trademark soulfulness found on those early Them recordings, heard clearly on “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Wild Night,” “Domino” and “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile).” But there was far more to Morrison, exemplified in classics such as “Crazy Love,” “Moondance,” “Astral Weeks,” “Tupelo Honey,” and later selections such as “Have I Told You Lately,” “Someone Like You” and “Days Like This.” Gregg Allman hasn’t had it easy. In addition to the 1971 death of brother Duane with whom he performed as part of legendary Southern rock unit the Allman Brothers Band, the now-sober Allman battled addictions and was also briefly married to someone named Cher. Talk about a survivor! Back to Macon, GA (Rounder/Blackbird), recorded in January 2014, is a live set consisting of two CDs and one DVD. Backed by his band, Allman sings and plays guitar and keyboards on original songs from his solo career, cover tunes, and Allman brothers standards such as “Melissa,” “Mid-

night Rider” and “Whipping Post.” Sarah Cracknell is the distinctive voice of UK electro-pop band Saint Etienne, famous for songs such as “Like a Motorway,” “Nothing Can Stop Us,” “Hug My Soul,” “You’re in a Bad Way” and a brilliant cover of

I am the future of the LGBT community. I’m gay.

I’m 22 years old and I’m an exchange student from Spain. Going to college here means a fun time, lots of hard work and getting to see new things. It also means a chance to really be myself. My parents are supportive of my sexuality, and my host family here is a couple with two teenage boys. Nobody cares if they’re gay or straight. I’m excited to be part of a world where that can be true.

“RIVETING & INSIGHTFUL” — INDIEWIRE

“SAVVY, ROLLICKING, EYE-POPPING” — VANITY FAIR

I am the future of the LGBT community. And I read about that future every day on my Android tablet. Because that’s where I want it to be.

STARTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6

SAN FRANCISCO BERKELEY LANDMARK CLAY LANDMARK SHATTUCK 2261 Fillmore St 2230 Shattuck Ave (415) 561-9921 (510) 644-2992 Q&A’s with TAB HUNTER at the LANDMARK CLAY Fri 11/6 at the 7pm show. Sat 11/7 at the 2pm show.

TABHUNTERCONFIDENTIAL.COM

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

Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” On Red Kite (Cherry Red), her second solo album and first in almost 20 years, Cracknell puts some sonic distance between herself and her bandmates. “Hearts Are for Breaking” is the most rhythmic tune on the disc, and its beat owes more to 1960s dance music than that of the 90s or 00s. The remaining 11 songs (10 of which were co-written by Cracknell) definitely favor a retro-pop sound, with the best among them being the country-tinged “Nothing Left To Talk About,” the dreamy “In the Dark,” the lush “Take the Silver,” the haunting “I Close My Eyes” and the timeless “It’s Never Too Late.” Shana Halligan’s name and voice will be recognizable to those familiar with her previous project, the trip-hop duo Bitter:Sweet. Halligan comes into her own on the aptly titled solo disc Back to Me (Plug Research). Halligan doesn’t entirely abandon her electro-hop roots on songs such as “Tired of Alone,” “Something Real,” “Freak” and “If I Knew.” But it’s on the songs where she really stretches her creative muscles, including the title track, “Can’t Live Without Your Love,” and a fresh cover of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” that Shana shines.

With Momentary Masters (Vagrant), Albert Hammond, Jr. of the Strokes has released his most satisfying solo album to date. There are enough songs here, such as “Side Boob,” “Caught By My Shadow” and “Touche,” to make sure that we don’t forget Hammond’s musical roots are in one of the most influential bands from the indie-rock revival of the early 2000s. But what sets the disc apart is the way Hammond explores new and unexpected sounds, from the Vampire Weekend-esque “Born Slippy” and “Coming To Getcha” to the New Order-ly funk of “Power Hungry” and the dance rock of “Drunched in Crumbs.” Hammond’s cover of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” is inspired. Arriving seven years after his acclaimed The Evangelist disc, Songs To See page 27 >>

DVD>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Orphan beauty by David Lamble

n Michael J. Saul’s offbeat coming-of-age tale The Surface, a long-haired, 20something gay orphan impulsively buys an 8mm movie camera at an elderly neighbor’s final yard sale. “Funny, you kids use your phones to shoot HD video, and then you try to make it look like old film. You might just as well start with the real thing.” They both laugh. “You know anything about editing the film?” “Yeah, the editor’s in one of those boxes over there. Ten dollars. Look, take the camera, if I haven’t sold the editor in a few weeks, I’ll give it to you.” Evan’s (Australian newcomer Harry Hains) impromptu chat with a man old enough to be his greatgrandfather jumpstarts an obsession with personal filmmaking as the lanky college dropout uses the old man’s retro tool to begin a library of his own. Hains nimbly evokes Evan’s femme and butch sides, accented by shorts and clunky flip-flop sandals. The seductive time-warp chat with his neighbor reminds Evan just how disagreeable his current relationship with bitchy boyfriend Chris has become, and how he has used the crutch of Chris’ inherited money to avoid getting on with his adult life, sans wealthy lover, but finally with a purpose that just might turn into both an avocation and a grownup profession. Filmmaker Saul adroitly captures his stunningly gorgeous actor/ models against an equally beautiful ex-urban enclave, a world of lovely people relaxing in barely understated luxury surroundings: wellmanicured lawns and seductively comfortable outdoor swimming pools. This beauty-on-beauty leads to Evan’s stream-of-consciousness internal monologue about just what a lovely/lonely kept boy might need to flee a suffocating relationship in order to finally grow up and save his soul. “Most people know where they come from. They have ancestors. They have family in another town, or another country, or down the street. They have family reunions, swap treasured family recipes, draw complicated genealogical histories. But not me! My family could be liv-

ing next door to me and I’d never know it. You may as well be strangers in the street.” The Surface is precisely the kind of tres sensitive, introspective film that prompts sarcastic, snotty reviews in some quarters. Pretty

boys with souls? Suffering from existential loneliness and dread? The seductive, skin-deep beauty that can make it possible to fund and shoot this very delicate, philosophical film can also provide hooks with which to attack the final result. The Surface is just the kind of small but vital bit of pensive filmmaking that can get lost at a big festival (it debuted at the Castro Theatre during 2015 Frameline). Its message may find its real audiences on a series of small screens. “I often wonder what it would be like to see myself as a child, being cared for by strangers. Would I look happy or just confused? There seems to be an upside to having no family connections. There are no parental expectations, discussions of physical traits I assumed from my father or grandfather, no warnings of deadly illnesses that run through my family, no need to send aunt somebody a birthday card. I was born and abandoned, like any animal. Everything that is mine is mine!”t

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER presents

S S E R T S N MO

Solo artists

From page 26

Play (Tapete) is the sixth solo disc in 25 years by Robert Forster of celebrated Australian band the Go-Betweens. Forster burns down the house on “Learn To Burn,” where he sounds remarkably like David Byrne. This song is among the first to signal a change in Forster’s musical mood, which also comes through on “Let Me Imagine You,” “A Poet Walks,” “I’m So Happy for You” and the twangy “I Love Myself (and I Always Have).” Bob Forrest, ex-lead vocalist of L.A. punk rock band Thelonious Monster, has been clean and sober for almost 20 years. He has made a name for himself in the world of recovery, appearing as a drug counselor alongside Dr. Drew on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab. His suitably titled new album Survival Songs (Six Degrees) doesn’t mince words about his experiences, on songs such as “Looking to the West,” “Cereal Song,” “Body & Soul” and “OffStreet Parking.” The disc, featuring The Geraldine Fibbers’ Carla Bozulich on backing vocals, is a visceral and difficult experience, but one that should be heard.t

“Eugene O’Neill channels Norman Rockwell” San Francisco Chronicle

“SWEET . . . ROMANTIC . . . O’NEILL’S COMEDY LOVINGLY REVIVED” Bay Area News Group

“Lively, lovely . . . UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL!” Theatredogs.net

ACT-SF.ORG | 415.749.2228

<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 5-11, 2015

O&A

Fri 6

Dance Theatre of San Francisco @ Cowell Theater

Out &About

Leaverage by Jim Provenzano

ike autumn leaves, the colorful array of dance, theatre and art entertainments are in abundance. Rake in the talent and jump into the pile, with more listings online at www.ebar.com. For nightclub events, see On the Tab on page 34.

Thu 5 Ah, Wilderness! @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s lighthearted family comedy about young love, poetry, small town gossip, and coming of age at the turn of the century. $20-$100. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Nov. 8. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

The Broken Knife @ ODC Theater 13th Floor performs Jenny McAllister’s graphic novel for the stage, a stylized dance-play about gods’ power struggles and mortals’ retaliation in an epic test of wills. $15-$45. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov. 15. 3153 17th St. www.13thfloortheater.org

Curse of the Cobra @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ new Halloween season spine-tingling show offers terror and titillation! $25-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 21. 575 10th St. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan @ Exit Studio The local stand-up comic performs her new solo show, Nerd Nation. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 21. 156 Eddy St. www.divafest.info

Degenerate Art Ensemble @ YBCA Forum Predator Songstress, a dance-theatremultimedia performance fairy tale about an anti-heroine in search of her stolen voice. $20-$35. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru Nov. 7. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Drew Barrymore @ Castro Theatre The popular actress discusses her memoir, Wildflower, with Lydia Keisling. $38 includes signed book. 7pm. 429 Castro St. www.booksinc.net

Isabelle Allende @ Nourse Theatre The bestselling author discusses her latest novel The Japanese Lover, with journalist rose Aquilar. $28 includes a signed book. 7:30pm. 275 Hayes St. www.booksinc.net www.cityarts.net

Monstress @ Strand Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s staging of Philip Kan Gotanda and Sean San José’s drama about FilipinoAmerican Bay Area life and struggles. $20-$100. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Wed & Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Nov. 22. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Nov. 5: Drew Barrymore discusses her new book Wildflower (7pm). Nov. 6: Hitchcock’s Psycho (7pm) and DePalma’s Dressed to Kill (9:05). Nov. 7: Scary Cow Short Film Festival. Nov. 8: Disney’s Fantasia (2:30, 7pm). Nov. 9: Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road (4pm) and The American Friend (9:05). Nov. 10: The Last One (7pm). Nov. 11: The Diary of a Teenage Girl (7pm) and Dazed and Confused (9pm). Nov. 12: snowboard doc Chasing Shadows (8pm). $10-$15. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

The Pandora Experiment @ Exit Theatre Christian Cagigal’s unique and mysterious solo show with magic, illusions and spooky themes, returns in a new version. $20-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 21. 156 Eddy St. www.theexit.org

Pound @ Brava Theater Center Marga Gomez’ hilarious satire solo show skewers lesbian cinema depictions with a cast of crazy characters. $15-$20. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. 18+ only! Thru Nov. 15. Upstairs Studio, 2781 24th St. at York www.brava.org

Riverdance @ Golden Gate Theatre The Irish step dance company returns for its 20th-anniversary tour. $40$160. Thru Nov. 8. 1 Taylor St. www.shnsf.com

The Rocky Horror Show @ Victoria Theatre D’Arcy Drollinger stars in Ray of Light Theatre’s production of Richard O’Brien’s classic trans-comic cult classic musical. $25-$36. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm & 11pm. Thru Nov. 7. 2961 16th St. at Mission. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Sail Away @ Eureka Theatre Noel Coward’s witty 1961 musical comedy, set on a cruise ship, gets a deft restaging by 42nd Street Moon. $25-$75. Wed & thu 7pm. Fri 8pm, Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov. 15. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Stacy Schiff @ Books Inc., Berkeley The Pulitzer Prize-winning author ( Cleopatra ) discusses her new book, The Witches: Salem, 1692. 7pm. 1491 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.booksinc.net

Fri 6

Nicki Green, Caitlin Rose Sweet @ SMAart Gallery

Alonzo King Lines Ballet @ YBCA Theater

Opening reception for a dual exhibit of ceramics visualizing queer bodies as vessels of nature. 6pm. Reg. hours Tue-Sat 11:30am-5:30pm. Thru Nov. 21. 1045 Sutter St. www.smaartgallery.com

The acclaimed local company performs a new work with music by Grammy-winning singer Lisa Fischer. $30-$100 (opening night reception). 8pm. Wed-Sun various times thru Nov. 15. 700 Howard St. 978-2787. www.linesballet.org

Another Hole in the Head Fest @ New People’s Cinema 12th annual festival of unusual independent horror, science fiction and fantasy films. Thru Nov. 16. 1746 Post St. at Webster. 552-5580. www.sfindie.com

Bridge Project @ Joe Goode Annex Hope Mohr Dance, Deborah Hay, Alva Noe, Michele Steinwald and other artists in dances, panels and discussions about the intersection of language and movement (moved location). $10-$50-$125 (group full pass). 8pm. Nov. 7, 6pm. Nov 8, 7pm. 401 Alabama St. www.counterpulse.org

Dance Theatre of San Francisco @ Cowell Theater The company’s fall season includes premieres by Amy Seiwert, Dexandro ‘D’ Montalvo and a reprisal of Robert Moses’ Toward September. $25-$45. Fri & Sat 8pm, Sun 7:30pm. Thru Nov. 8. Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd. 345-7500. www.dancetheatresf.org

Dig These Apples @ Il Pirata Comedy night with Aundre The Wonder Woman, with Chey Bell, Big Tree, Jay Rich and Jesus U Bettawork. 9:30pm. 2007 16th St. www.ilpiratasf.com

J. Randy Taraborrelli @ Books Inc. The author of Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story discusses his book about the pop singer. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

The Kid Thing @ New Conservatory Theatre Center The local theatre company presents Sarah Gubbins’ witty play about the problems two lesbian couples face with an impending pregnancy. $25$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 13. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Material of Survival @ Magnet Opening reception for artist Grahame Perry’s exhibit of works portraying the longterm struggle of HIV, shown in the new health space, including Every AIDS Obiturary, a montage of 100s of B.A.R. obits. 8pm-10pm. Thru Nov. 470 Castro St. www.j.mp/hiv-survive www.magnetsf.org

The Monster-Builder @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Bay Area premiere of Amy Freed’s dark drama about post-modern megaarchitect Gregor Zubrowski, and design theft. $3-$50. Tue 7pm, WedSat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 6. 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Pirates of Penzance @ Arts Passage Gilbert & Sullivan’s bouyant musical operetta gets an energetic new staging. $25-$65. Tue-Thu-Sat 8pm; Wed & Sun 7pm; Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 20. Osher Studio, 2055 Center St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

QWOCMAP @ New Parkway Theater, Oakland Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project screens short films by local LGBTQ artists. Donations. 6pm. 474 24th St., Oakland. www.qwocmap.org

Shakespeare Goes to War @ Thick House John Fisher wrote, directed and costars in the new comedy-drama about a teacher who inspires a student in the 1970s, World War II prison camps, the anti-gay Briggs Initiative, and The Bard. $10-$35. Tue 7pm (Nov. 17 & 24 only). Wed & Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru Nov. 28. 1695 18th St. at Arkansas. (800) 838-3006. www.TheRhino.org

The Slut-kerchief Project @ Center for Sex & Culture

Gloria Steinem @ Nourse Theatre

Opening reception for Geana Sieburger and photographer Rosey Lakos project of modern depictions of the century-old meaning of a piece of fabric as denoting a “slut.” Reception 6pm-9pm. Thru Nov. 29. 1349 Mission St. www.slutkerchiefproject.com www.sexandculture.org

The veteran feminist, editor and author discusses her new memoir, My Life on the Road, with Chinaka Hodge. $38. 7:30pm. 275 Hayes St. www.booksinc.net www.cityarts.net

Sat 7

Alexander String Quartet @ Herbst Theatre

Ada and the Memory Machine @ Berkeley City Club Central Works’ production of Lauren Gunderson’s play about Ada Lovelance, 19th-century countess, metaphysician, daughter of Lord Byron, and the world’s first computer programmer; performed with original live music by The Kilbanes. $15-$28. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Nov. 22. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 5581381. www.centralworks.org

Carl Linkhart @ Glama-Rama Salon The Vault of Broken Dreams, an exhibit of creative unusual paintings from the artist also known as Carl With Records, an early Angel of Light and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence. Reception Sat., Nov. 7, 7:30pm. On view thru Jan. 3. 304 Valencia St. 8614526. www.glamarama.com

Daily and Transcendent @ SF Public Library Dual exhibit of LGBT-themed photos by veteran photographers Jane Philomen Cleland and Rick Gerharter. Jewett Gallery, lower level. 100 Larkin st. Thru Jan. 3. www.sfpl.org

Jonathan Groff @ Curran Theatre Author and editor Kevin Sessums interviews the Tony-nominated actor ( Looking, Hamilton, Spring Awakening, Glee ) in the first of the theatre’s onstage conversation series. $25. 8pm. 445 Geary St. www.SFcurran.com

Office Space @ YBCA Group exhibit of compelling visual art that visualizes 21st-century labor practices. Opening night events Nov. 7, 6pm. Thru Feb. 14. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Roberta Gregory & Donna Barr @ Isotope Comics The two award-winning comic artists discuss their new works. 3pm-6pm. 326 Fell st. www.isotopecomics.com

Sun 8 Jewel City @ de Young Museum Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition ; thru Jan. 10. Also, Portals of the Past: Photographs of Willard Worden (thru Feb. 14); Royal Hawaiian Featherwork (thru Feb. 28); Between Life and Death: Robert Motherwell’s Elegies (thru Mar. 6). Other exhibits of modern art as well. Free/$25. Thru Sept. 20 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.famsf.org

SF Hiking Club @ Olompali State Park Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike at Olompali State Historic Park, an area once occupied by the Miwok people, near Novato. Carpool meets 8:45 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 5056258. www.sfhiking.com

Mon 9 Reigning Queens @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit of 1970s San Francisco drag ball photos by Roz Joseph; with curator Joey Plaster, DJ Irwin Swirnoff. Thru Feb. 2016. Reg, hours Mon, WedSat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Tue 10 The acclaimed music ensemble performs works by Schumann, Schnittke and Brahms. $40-$65. 7:30pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. sfperformances.org

Dan Savage & Michelle Tea @ Nourse Theatre The bestselling gay and lesbian author/columnists share an onstage discussion. $29. 7:30pm. 275 Hayes St. www.cityarts.net

DanceFAR @ YBCA Dance concert with works by American Ballet Theatre principals Marcelo Gomes and Stella Abrera, San Francisco Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Art of Teknique, Diablo Ballet, Garrett + Moulton Productions, LEVYdance, SFDanceworks, Silicon Valley Ballet, and Smuin Ballet, with an after-party in the Forum; proceeds benefit Cancer Prevention Institute of California. $65-$250. 7pm. 701 Mission St. www.dancefar.org

If/Then @ Orpheum Theatre Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp and Lachanze star in the national touring company of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Tony-nominated hit Broadway musical about parallel lives, chance and possibilities in contemporary New York City. $40-$212. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 6. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. ifthenthemusical.com www.shnsf.com

Radar Reading @ SF Public Library Juliana Delgado Lopera hosts the eclectic reading series, this time with LGBTQ writers Arisa White, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Natty Soltesz and Wendy C Ortiz. Free. 6pm. 100 Larkin St. radarproductions.org

Wed 11 Alison Saar @ MOAD New exhibit, Bearing, the acclaimed artist’s sculptures of Black women as a centerpiece. Free-$10. Thru April 3. Museum of the African Diaspora, 635 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

LGBT Book Club @ Books Inc. Monthly discussion group; this month, Sean Strub’s Body Counts: A Memoir of Activism, Sex and Survival. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

Thu 12 5+5 Gay Poets Dead and Alive @ SF Public Library, Alley Cat Books The Gay Ancestors Project presents two readings, with a diverse array of gay and trans authors: Nov 12: Bruce Snider, Wonder Dave, Roberto F. Santiago and Joe Wadlington (6pm. 100 Larkin St. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, www.sfpl.org) and Nov. 13 (Snider, Santiago, Merchant, Wadlington and Ari Banias), 7pm, 3036 24th St. alleycatbookshop.com

Stephanie Gayle @ Books Inc. The author of Idyll Threats discusses her new mystery. 7pm. 2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

Transgender Film Festival @ Roxie Theater 14th annual (also first and longestrunning) fest of short, documentary and feature films by, for and about transgender people from around the world. $5-$15. 7:30pm. Nov 13 at Castro Theatre (429 Castro St.), 7pm and Roxie 9pm. Nov. 14, 7:30 & 9:30pm. Nov. 15, 2pm & 4pm. 3117 16th St. www.sftff.org

Fine Art>>

November 5-11, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Painted horse escaping from votive plaque” (1834) by Totoya Hokkei (Japanese, 1780-1850). Woodblock print; ink and color on paper.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Suido Bridge and Surugadai” (1857) from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Utagawa Hiroshige I (Japanese, 17971858). Woodblock print; ink and color on paper.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“The Jockey” (1889) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 18641901). Lithograph; color on paper.

Looking East

From page 21

Though Japanese artists traveled to the West and were influenced by their Occidental cousins, Looking East, a new touring exhibition of 170 mostly Western artworks now at the Asian Art Museum, focuses on the East-to-West transmission rather than cross-pollination. The Japonisme phenomenon enthralled many artists, including Mary Cassatt, Van Gogh and Monet, all of whom were avid collectors of Japanese prints, and its cachet attracted tastemakers and regular folks with a yen for the exotic, who bought cards and other accouterments like the snazzy but not-too-dear desk set from Louis Comfort Tiffany. Westerners liberally borrowed Japanese motifs and styles, their bright color combinations, unusual points of view, asymmetry, and abstraction, as well as a proclivity for creating works in series format, which captured the mutability of an image or place like Mt. Fuji or Edo at different times of day and transiting through the changing seasons, a practice picked up by Monet. Note his multiple renditions of seascapes and water lilies, i.e., “The Water Lily Pond” (1900) seen here, one of numerous paintings of the artist’s Japanese-style garden and its curving footbridge at his home at Giverny. Artists are like sponges – absorbing, interpreting and responding to a complex multitude of cultural currents and works by each other. It’s a process that’s often subtle and rarely linear; untangling what moved them and affected their aesthetic choices is a tricky enterprise. Graphic artist Otto Eckmann borrowed not only from Japanese woodblock prints and hanging scroll paintings, but also from medieval German tropes for his design of the iconic vertical Art Nouveau tapestry “Five Swans” (1897), in which a procession of elegant, longnecked swans in an autumnal wood swim down a winding, teal-colored waterway. Even though Renoir did not share some of his fellow artists’ affinity for Japonisme, “The Pinned Hat” (1898), his color lithograph of the daughter and niece of Impressionist Berthe Morisot, is included, primarily because it depicts the intimate domain of women and children, a province not only of ukiyoe prints, but a subject portrayed throughout the annals of art history. But you don’t have to wholly buy into the show’s premise to enjoy the art. To stand in front of “Camille Monet and a child in the artist’s garden in Argenteuil” (1875), Monet’s tender portrait of an Eden erupting in spring flowers, is to remember the feeling of falling in love. An iridescent Prussian blue glass vase (ca. 1927) by Frederick Carder, a sleek emblem of high modernism, is swoon-worthy. In “Night” (1890) by William Edward Norton, moonlight in reflected on the water as the last remnants of dusk ebb away, and silhouettes of ships, like giant faceless beasts, lurk in the harbor. Japanese prints echoing similar nocturnal themes, like Utagawa Hiroshige’s mystical “Pine of Success and Oumayagashi, Asakusa River” (1856), hang nearby. The exhibition, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has the finest collection of Japanese art outside of that country, and a none-too-shabby inventory of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces, pairs examples of Japanese and Western works to advance its thesis, and it can be a bit of a stretch. Though he never visited the country, Vincent Van Gogh was known to carefully copy woodblock prints by Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen, and in a quartet of paintings on view he emulates the masters whom he admired with an adherent’s devotion. But the connection between Van Gogh’s “Postman Joseph Roulin” (1888), a rustic portrait of a humble if weath-

ered civil servant with craggy features, gnarled hands and rumpled blue uniform, and the blunt, fiercely expressive portraits of Kabuki performers in full regalia by Utagawa Toyokuni and Utagawa Kunisada displayed on either side of it, is tenuous at best. Courtesans were so prevalent in the Japanese art disseminated during this period that some Westerners thought the country was teeming with them. No stranger to the demimonde, Toulouse-Lautrec’s frank images of the daily lives of prostitutes in “Woman in Bed, Profile” (1896), a lithograph with bleached reds and the creamy lemon tones of a morning after, may have been inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro’s woodblock prints of denizens of the Yoshiwara red light district, daring content by Western standards. Like Utamaro, he moved into a brothel to observe his objects of fascination at close hand.

Less risqué but no less beguiling is the cosmopolitan ambience of Bonnard’s “The Square at Evening,” a delicious conjuring of Parisian nightlife at the turn of the century, and Robert Earle Henri’s equally convivial “Sidewalk Café” (1899). With their dark, shadowy backgrounds and smartly dressed diners outfitted with startling flashes of firebird red and shimmering white, they have the strong color contrasts, asymmetric compositions and sophisticated urbanity associated with the vivid pictorial qualities of ukiyo-e prints. Wherever Henri, an American, and Bonnard, who was drawn to the Japanese prints he first encountered in 1890, derived their divine inspiration, the understated glamour of these scenes entices viewers to join the party.t

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PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 45 • November 5-11, 2015

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Ji Ji Lee

BenDeLaCrème

‘Cosmos’ camps out at Oasis

by Jim Gladstone

“I

’m finally getting out of the Race frenzy,” says Ben Putnam, aka Ben DeLaCrème, the 34-year-old Seattle-based drag performer who brings his full-length solo act, Cosmos: Space. Time. Splash of Cran to Oasis from November 12-14. See page 32 >>

BenDeLaCrème

Sing Along With Matt Matt Yee’s Hilarious Adult Sing-a-Long by David-Elijah Nahmod

ou may need to bring your ID. Matt Yee’s outrageously funny act is definitely not considered acceptable during “family hour.” The self-described “gaysian” entertainer has been known to whoop his audiences up into a frenzy of naughty laughter. See page 32 >> Matt Yee on one of his many gay cruise gigs.

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32 • Bay Area Reporter • November 5-11, 2015

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care if you suck. We don’t care if you don’t know the words. All we care is that you sing loud. And please bring 16TH ST your sense of humor. Leave your poOnce upon a time, Yee said, he litical correctness at home when you was a suit working in a law firm. drop the kids off at the pool. This is “Law practice was about fixing an adult show!” other people’s problems,” 17TH ST It appears to be workhe recalled of his former ing. Yee has attracted quite profession. “I don’t even a fan base, which includes like having problems of Broadway legends Chita my own, so fixing other Rivera and Idina Menzel, people’s problems wasn’t both of whom have sung my cup of tea. I’d much with him. rather make people happy “I’m constantly amazed by what I do now, creating to see celebrities like Methat environment where gan Hilty and Cheyenne people laugh, sing, and just Jackson in the audience,” be themselves with everyYee said. “When Patti Luone else.” Pone said onstage to a full The corporate life, Yee house, ‘Let’s get this over tells us, was more his parwith; I wanna go see Matt ents’ thing. Yee,’ I just peed in my “I went to very expenpants.” sive schools back east and Yee is enjoying the ride. needed to figure out the “I love being me,” he ‘gaysian’ thing,” the Hosaid. “I love being Matt nolulu native said. “My Yee. It’s taken some time parents didn’t get it at all. for me to get to this place, They wanted me to be a to not be what someone lawyer and marry Chinese else or what society wants and make Chinese babies.” you to be. But I am not a Mom and Dad urged the reaction to the religious younger Yee to marry his right or anyone else. I own kind. am who I am, 12-inch “So I did,” said Yee. “I penis and all. I love makmarried a man!” ing people happy. I love Yee cites his twelve-inch breaking down boundarpenis as one of the driving ies so we end up just havforces in his desire to pering a great time without form. worrying how we look, “Performing makes me how much we weigh, or incredibly attractive as a what our backgrounds jumbo Gaysian man to happen to be. I just sort of twinkies,” he explained. Top: Matt Yee at the piano, entertaining fans. do it in a really politically “It’s been an unexpected Bottom: In Hawaii, Matt Yee’s rainbow-happy. inappropriate way.”t bonus. I love seeing that special joy on their faces. I “Though people do laugh a lot Sing Along with Matt Yee on Frialso love to sing and play the piano during my show,” he assured. “They day & Saturday, November 6 & 7 at and tell really bad jokes.” 8pm at Oasis. $17 in advance, $22 also gag once in a while. I play the Yee describes his musical style as at the door. www.sfoasis.com crowd. Just know that we don’t care if being “all over the place.” you don’t know how to sing. We don’t “I like many different styles,” he

From page 31

CASTRO ST

lamednoe.com

BenDeLaCrème performs ‘Cosmos: Space. Time. Splash of Cran’ at Oasis. $25 and up. 7:30pm & 10pm. November 12-14. 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

15TH ST

Sing Along With Matt NOE ST

Serving the Castro288 Noe Street, SF since 1981 (415) 431-7210

“It’s a cabaret show format, with singing, and video, and comedy in which DeLa is supposedly explaining astrophysics, outer space, and all sorts of science, but at the heart of it is the question of where each of us fit into the larger world.” “When I first started doing drag, I was young, effeminate and feeling pretty powerless in day to day life. When you first become a beautiful drag queen you get drunk with power and get snarky, and rude. But at some point, I started to feel like the drag character was seeping into me and I was becoming bitchy and angry and unhappy. So, I decided to become the inverse of that.” Instead of wicked sniping, DeLa takes cues from two of Putnam’s personal drag favorites, Varla Jean Merman and Coco Peru. “Instead of being mean and bitter character, I want to be sillier and happier and more candy-colored than reality. I feel like I’m just settling into the part of BenDeLaCrème. It’s what I’ve been working toward for my whole life. I think a drag performer can be a sort of Ji Ji Lee spiritual leader for the community.”t

said. “But my home is Pop. I always loved Carole King, Elton John, Billy Joel, and their progeny like Taylor Swift. Plus a little Broadway never hurt.” But don’t call Yee a comedian.

Keith San

CAFE

“Terminally Delightful was quite I loved.” DeLa feverishly emceed, autobiographical, as first shows made club appearances, promoted tend to be,” recalls Putnam, who drag and burlesque shows, first in grew up in Connecticut where inkChicago and then in Seattle after relings of future dragdom emerged at locating in 2006. “At some point, I rean early age. alized it was all working out—I could “I was one of those kids who, actually leave my job bartending.” when I was seven and eight, would use bath towels to create wigs and dresses. I also started stealing and playing with my Mom’s makeup when I was pretty young. When we played Get Smart, I was always Agent 99.” “I guess my first public appearance in drag was going as Marcia Brady for Halloween when I was 14. But I got serious about when I moved to Chicago for art school when I was 21. I started entering amateur competitions.” And winning. “I felt very fortunate,” Putnam reflects, “I thought, hey, there’s a container for this, for everything I’ve been interested in since I was a kid. For such a long time I’d been drawn to makeup and costuming and camp –way before I even really knew what camp was. For me, doing drag was a clear calling.” “In the beginning, I thought, there’s no feasible job as a drag queen, but I’ll do this as Ben DeLaCrème much as I can and wait tables and tend bar. I thought maybe someday I’d be a In Cosmos –which spoofs the PBS science series– there’s not so restaurant owner.” much autobiographical storytelling, “I was fiendishly single-minded, thea but Putnam’s personal ethos shines not so much trying toServing make drag Castro throughout. career, but about just doingsince what 1981

The distinctively ditzy BenDeLaCrème proved a breakout star on the 2014 sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race along with Adore Delano, Courtney Act, and season winner Bianca del Rio. After each season’s Race crosses its TV finish line, contestants find themselves reaping the benefits of mass media exposure in an incredibly hectic, more-than-year-long whirlwind of group performances and club gigs around the world. “It’s been awesome,” says Putnam, “but you only get to do a couple of numbers at those events, and I’ve been looking forward to doing a full show of my own.” From the political and philosophical underpinnings of his superficially silly humor, to his unusual portmanteau billing –which alloys his off-stage male name, Ben, to his female character name, DeLa (pronounced like Ms. Reese) and

tops it witha dollop of Crème for general fabulousness– Putnam is a deliberate and thoughtful writer/ performer. “I generate a lot of impromptu material when I host shows or play clubs, but solo pieces, Terminally Delightfully and now Cosmos, are way more structured.” “I tend to make things over a long period of time. I go back and forth, come at things from different angles. I’ll take notes when I’m out drinking with friends and jot down little observations, but the real work is when I sit at my computer and write for hours.” While DeLa regularly addresses her fans as “Treasures,” Ben refuses to treat his material as such. “I edit everything relentlessly. I’ll write pages and pages and end up whittling them down to two good jokes. I’m never precious about my material. Its important to realize that if something you write is bad or just doesn’t seem to be working, it’s not a reflection of who you are. It’s part of the process.”

BenDeLaCremé

From page 31

M AR