November 6, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Bad night for out candidates Schaaf wins Oakland mayor’s race

by Cynthia Laird

O

akland native Libby Schaaf held on to a sizable early lead in the Oakland mayor’s race, Tuesday night, handing apparent defeat to Rebecca Kaplan, her City Council colleague Jane Philomen Cleland who was hoping to Libby Schaaf make history as the Bay Area’s first out elected mayor to serve a full term.

According to unofficial returns under ranked choice voting, Schaaf captured 62 percent of the vote, while Kaplan was in second place with 37 percent of the vote. The initial ranked choice results had Mayor Jean Quan eliminated.

By Wednesday afternoon, Quan had conceded the race, congratulating Schaaf in a Twitter message.

Additional vote totals are expected to be released beginning Thursday as more ballots are counted. But on Wednesday, Quan indicated she would help with a smooth transition and referred to Schaaf as mayor-elect, according to media reports.

Schaaf, 48, declared victory late Tuesday, although Kaplan had not conceded due to the remaining outstanding ballots.

“I’m incredibly encouraged to come out of the gate so strong,” Schaaf told the Bay Area Reporter at her election night party that was packed with about 200 people. “I’m feeling so proud of this campaign.”

The results, if they hold up, would be a blow to Kaplan, 44, who was ahead in several pre-election polls in the crowded 15-candidate field and parlayed her upbeat personality into a campaign that promoted public safety, jobs, and retaining the city’s pro sports teams. This was her second try at winning the mayor’s race.

Schaaf ran on a platform of strengthening the police force, transparent government, and creating better-paying jobs.

Kaplan was in good spirits Tuesday night, even though the first set of returns had her in fourth place. Later that evening, however, the numbers improved but she still couldn’t overtake Schaaf ’s early lead.

“We come together to move Oakland forward,” Kaplan told supporters at her party at Everett and Jones Restaurant. “It’s a blessing See page 10 >>

Vol. 44 • No. 45 • November 6-12, 2014

Campos trails in SF Assembly race

by Matthew S. Bajko

tional 8,000 vote-by-mail ballots received on Election an Francisco’s LGBT comDay were to be tabulated by munity faced the possibility late Wednesday afternoon. of seeing the city’s Assembly It still had 42,000 voteDistrict 17 seat long held by out by-mail ballots that were leaders be won by a straight candropped off at polling places, didate, based on unofficial returns and approximately 11,000 Wednesday morning. provisional ballots cast at Gay District 9 Supervisor polling places, to review and David Campos, running to sucprepare to count. The deceed termed out gay Assemblypartment expects to have all man Tom Ammiano (D-San vote-by-mail ballots counted Rick Gerharter Francisco), who had endorsed

by Sunday, November 9, and him in the race, was trailing his Board of Supervisors President the valid provisional ballots Rick Gerharter straight opponent, Board PresiDavid Chiu hugs a supporter counted and reported by Frident David Chiu, by 2,397 votes. Supervisor David Campos Tuesday night after early day, November 14. returns showed him ahead in the Chiu, who represents District 3 looks at election results in the “We are pleased with the centered in the city’s Chinatown Assembly race Tuesday at El Rio. Assembly race. initial results but there are and North Beach neighborhoods, tens of thousands of ballots was in first place with 51.37 perremaining to be counted. We cent of the vote. With 48.63 perby elections officials, both candidates are are cautiously optimistic but cent of the vote was Campos, who represents waiting to see additional vote tallies before we are waiting. We are in a waiting mode,” the Mission district at City Hall. they declare victory or concede. According Chiu told the Bay Area Reporter Wednesday Yet with numerous ballots still be counted to the Department of Elections, an addiSee page 9 >>

S

SF housing, soda tax measures lose

by Seth Hemmelgarn

M

easures designed to curb speculation by landlords in San Francisco and cut consumption of sugary beverages went down to defeat, according to preliminary Election Day results available Wednesday morning.

As of November 5, the data showed Proposition G losing by about 54 percent to 46 percent.

Prop G was meant to address skyrocketing rents and housing costs by imposing a tax on the total sale price of certain multi-unit residential properties that are sold within five years of purchase or transfer of as much as 24 percent. The exact percentage scales down to 14 percent the fifth year. The city already collects a transfer tax on sales of most real property in San Francisco, the exact amount depending on the sales price. Real estate groups were among the proposal’s strongest opponents. The progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club was among Prop G’s main backers.

The Yes on G campaign had close to 350 volunteers, according to the campaign’s volunteer coordinator Gwynn MacKellen.

“It was really great people working really hard to put this through. And a lot of support from the community. So I’m really proud of the campaign we ran,” MacKellen said at a campaign gathering at Virgil’s Sea Room Tuesday night.

But as the hour crept to midnight, Prop G was falling short of what it needed to pass.

Peter Menchini

Supporters of Proposition G, the antispeculation tax, were in for a long night at Virgil’s Sea Room as unofficial returns had the measure losing.

“I’m excited to see how it goes throughout the night. It’s scary to be behind. And I’m concerned about what this means for the future of our city,” MacKellen said. “But I’m still hopeful.”

Proposition E, which was also defeated after facing stiff opposition from the soda industry, was designed to reduce diabetes and obesity rates by curbing consumption.

The proposal gained support from about 55 percent of the people who voted, but it needed

approval from two-thirds to pass. It would have imposed a 2-cent per ounce tax on all sugar-sweetened beverages. The revenues generated by the tax, estimated from $35 million to $54 million, would have been earmarked to fund health, nutrition, physical education, and active recreation programs.

The No on E campaign released a statement Tuesday night in which spokesman Roger Salazar said, “Voters know that a new tax on beverages like juice drinks and soda would have driven up grocery prices, and made it more expensive to live and work in San Francisco.

Tonight, San Franciscans have made it clear that they can decide for themselves what to eat and drink. It’s time for our elected leaders to focus on issues like affordability, public safety, homelessness and keeping streets and parks clean.”

Prop E backers gathered at the Valley Tavern, where it was crowded and the mood was pleasant and calm, even as the proponents acknowledged that Prop E wasn’t going to get the two-thirds majority that it needed to pass.

Just an hour after polls closed, Scott Wiener, a major proponent of Prop E, predicted results.

“It doesn’t look like Prop E is going to pass, but it probably will get a majority, which is a pretty significant feat since we had $10 million against us,” Wiener said, referring to funds that poured into the No on E camp from the American Beverage Association.

See page 9 >>

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<< Election 2014

2 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

t

Brown wins historic fourth term

by Seth Hemmelgarn

B

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ucking a national trend that saw Democratic losses in other states, Governor Jerry Brown won an unprecedented fourth term Tuesday, as unofficial returns showed him trouncing Republican newcomer Neel Kashkari by almost 59 percent to about 41 percent as of Wednesday morning. Almost 5.2 million votes were cast in the race.

Brown, a supporter of LGBT rights, said in a Facebook post late Tuesday night, “I’m very grateful to the people of California for giving me their confidence this fourth time. Here in California, where once they called us a failed state, we’re now showing the way.”

The governor served two terms from 1975-1983 and was re-elected in 2010.

In recent years, Brown signed into law several pro-gay bills, including those meant to protect LGBT students from bullying and discrimination. He also declined to defend the state’s Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban in court. (The U.S. Supreme Court killed the ban on a technicality in 2013.)

Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who as San Francisco mayor defied state law in 2004 by ordering city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, was also victorious over his challenger, Republican Ron Nehring. Preliminary data showed him winning almost 56 percent to approximately 44 percent.

Democrat Kamala Harris won a second term as attorney general over relatively unknown Republican challenger Ronald Gold by a vote of about 56 percent to nearly 44 percent, unofficial returns showed. Like Brown, Harris refused to back Prop 8 in court.

Another winning straight ally was Democrat Betty Yee, who will be the new state controller. As a member of the state Board of Equalization, Yee has worked to equalize the state tax system for same-sex couples. As of Wednesday morning, Yee was beating Republican Ashley Swearengin by about 53 percent to 47 percent.

Two Democrats had fought to be the state’s superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan office.

Early returns showed incumbent Tom Torlakson defeating Marshall Tuck by just over 52 percent to almost 48 percent.

In a statement late Tuesday night, Torlakson said, “There are still many votes to count. But it looks like tonight is a win for the people who do more than talk about improving education - tonight is a win for the people who do something about it.”

In other statewide races, Democrats beat their Republican opponents, according to rounded percentages Wednesday morning: In the race for secretary of state, Alex Padilla won over Pete Peterson, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent; incumbent Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones defeated Ted Gaines, 56 percent to 44 percent; and John Chi-

Rick Gerharter

Governor Jerry Brown

Rick Gerharter

Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

ang won in his bid to be treasurer over Greg Conlon, 58 percent to 42 percent. Democrat Fiona Ma also defeated Republican James Theis in her bid for the District 2 seat on the state Board of Equalization by about 67 percent to 33 percent.

In all, it was a clean sweep for statewide elected officials in deep blue California.

State ballot measures

Brown did virtually no campaigning in the governor’s race, but he did work to win votes for Propositions 1 and 2. Unofficial returns Wednesday morning showed the effort paid off. Prop 1, which authorizes the issuance of $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds to fund water infrastructure projects throughout California, won by a vote of almost 67 to 33 percent. The measure addresses water conservation and storage issues that are meant to mitigate the crisis during years of severe drought.

Prop 2, which amends the state constitution to change state debt and reserve practices, received approval from the people who went to the polls by a rate of about 69 percent to 31 percent. The measure creates a “rainy day” fund that requires the state to put aside money to pay down state debt in good years when tax revenues are strong and provides a reserve to be used to protect essential services such as public safety and schools during the lean years.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón saw victory with Proposition 47, a proposal he’d backed to reduce simple drug possession and petty crimes to misdemeanors and make other criminal justice reforms. Prop 47 passed by about 58.5 percent to 41.5 percent, according to preliminary results.

“Today, Californians demonstrated their unwillingness to continue footing the bill for a ballooning prison system that has nearly bankrupted the state and torn the fabric of those communities hit hardest by drug abuse,” Gascón said in a statement Tuesday. “They chose instead to put their trust in evidence-based practices, and to reinvest the hundreds of millions of dollars we will save in K-12 programs, victim ser-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Controller-elect Betty Yee

vices, mental health and drug abuse treatment. We must devote our resources to keeping violent criminals off the streets, not cycling addicts in and out of jail. ... Californians just took a historic step to transform our justice system into one that prioritizes prevention, effective rehabilitation, and sentences that stop the cycle of crime.”

Other statewide ballot measures saw defeat, unofficial returns Wednesday morning showed.

Proposition 45 would have allowed the state insurance commissioner to reject health insurance price increases found to be unreasonable. It was defeated, with about 60 percent of those casting their votes opposing it and 40 percent voting in favor.

Another measure, Proposition 46, would have required drug testing for doctors. It also would have raised the cap on medical malpractice damages for non-economic injury such as pain and suffering from $250,000 to $1.1 million and adjusted annually for inflation. The measure lost by approximately 67 percent to 33 percent.

Finally, Proposition 48 would have allowed the North Fork Tribe near Yosemite and the Wiyot Tribe near Humboldt Bay to create a single gaming project on federally held Indian land in the Central Valley.

The proposal was defeated by about 61 percent to 39 percent.t

t

Election 2014>>

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Bay Area sees first HIV-positive elected leader

by Matthew S. Bajko

B

y winning a seat on the El Cerrito City Council this week, Gabriel Quinto becomes the first known HIV-positive person elected to public office in the Bay Area.

He was one of several gay and lesbian candidates capturing city council seats Tuesday night in the East Bay. Voters in Richmond, Berkeley, and Oakland also elected out council members, while gay candidates in Emeryville and Campbell in the South Bay were headed for defeat.

Quinto, 53, is also the first out LGBT and first Filipino American to win a seat on the council in El Cerrito, which is part of western Contra Costa County. One of three people seeking two seats on Tuesday’s ballot, Quinto placed second with 31.57 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial returns.

“I am elated about this,” Quinto told the Bay Area Reporter by phone Wednesday morning.

Admitting that he was also “exhausted” from the campaign, Quinto said he plans to take a respite ahead of his swearing in ceremony set to take place Tuesday, December 2 at the start of that evening’s council meeting. He pledged to use his council seat as a platform to talk about HIV as well as other health concerns and issues his constituents are confronting.

“As a council member-elect I know what a huge responsibility it is and I will make sure I will talk about this and talk about health issues that

Jane Philomen Cleland

El Cerrito Councilman-elect Gabriel Quinto

folks in our community are dealing with,” said Quinto, who lives with his partner of 17 years, Glen Nethercut. “As someone who is not supposed to be here right now, and being a longtime survivor, it is just icing on the cake to know that.

“And it was a test to see that my health can withstand this and a grueling campaign,” he added. “I have been testing myself time and time again to see if I can do this and I know I can.”

In Richmond Jovanka Beckles, 51, a black Latina lesbian who has faced repeated homophobic remarks at meetings since joining the council four years ago, sailed to another term Tuesday night. She

Jane Philomen Cleland

Abel Guillen is holding on to a lead in the Oakland District 2 race.

placed second with 16.21 percent of the vote in the nine-person race for three council seats up for grabs.

Oakland City Council District 2 candidate Abel Guillen, who identifies as Two Spirit, was holding on to a 92-vote lead Wednesday over his closest competitor, former local CBS news anchor Dana King, to represent several neighborhoods bordering the city’s Lake Merritt.

“I understand there are lots of votes to count but I feel good about where I am,” he told the B.A.R. by phone Wednesday morning.

Asked about what he thought helped his campaign, he said, “I think people voted on the issues and

Jane Philomen Cleland

Lori Droste trails slightly in the Berkeley District 8 race.

not on sound bites or negative ads.

And we built a coalition in District 2 from the hills to the flats and I think that made a difference.

“I’m grateful that my message of a safer Oakland and a stronger Oakland resonated with the residents of District 2,” Guillen added.

In Berkeley, gay incumbent City Councilman Kriss Worthington appeared assured of victory in his newly redrawn District 7 seat. As of Wednesday morning he had 55.32 percent of the vote, while his challenger Sean Barry had captured 44.68 percent of the vote.

And gay candidate George Beier, seeking the District 8 seat, was holding on to a 25-vote lead over his

closest challenger, lesbian city council candidate Lori Droste. Based on the instant-voter runoff tabulations Wednesday morning, Beier was in first place with 50.50 percent of the vote, with Droste garnering 49.50 percent of the vote.

With absentee votes to be tabulated, Droste said she was waiting to see the updated vote counts before conceding defeat.

“It has been a very civil and respectful race and I am excited about our prospects, but it is still up in the air,” she said.

Two other gay council candidates came up short Tuesday night. In Emeryville John Bauters landed in third place among the four candidates seeking two council seats up for grabs.

He captured 25.78 percent of the vote, while the winners who ran as a ticket, Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue, had 33.07 percent and 30.43 percent of the vote, respectively. Disgraced former councilman Ken Bukowski landed in last place with 10.54 percent of the vote.

More surprising was gay Campbell City Councilman Rich Waterman’s showing in his bid for re-election.

As of Wednesday morning he was in fourth place with 17.73 percent of the vote among six candidates seeking three seats on the ballot.

Waterman, an accountant who has been serving as mayor this year, was 45 votes behind the third-place finisher in the race according to the unofficial returns.t

Out SF education candidates fall short

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he four out candidates running for education posts in San Francisco all came up short in Tuesday’s election.

Thus, the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education will continue to lack an LGBT member. The last person from the city’s LGBT community to serve on the school board left office in early January 2009.

And the San Francisco Community College Board of Trustees will see its LGBT members be reduced from two to one due to the departure of gay trustee Lawrence Wong, who opted not to seek re-election this year. Neither of the gay men running for college board seats won their races this week.

Gay activist Dan Choi, one of seven people running in the race for three four-year seats on the college board, landed in last place with 5.67 percent of the vote. Incumbent board member Anita Grier also came up short, according to unofficial returns Wednesday morning, landing in fourth place with 15.66 percent of the vote.

Haight neighborhood leader Thea Selby was in first place with

Steven Underhill

Courtesy William Walker

Peter Menchini

College board candidate Dan Choi fell short in Tuesday’s election.

College board candidate William Walker was defeated in Tuesday’s election.

San Francisco school board candidate Mark Murphy was defeated in Tuesday’s election.

18.42 percent of the vote and Brigitte Davila was in second with 17.37 percent. Holding on to his seat in third place was incumbent trustee John Rizzo with 16.22 percent.

In the race for a two-year term on the college board, to fill a vacancy created when former trustee Chris Jackson resigned, gay former student college board trustee William Walker fell short. He landed in second place with 39.27 percent of the vote behind first-place finisher Amy Bacharach,

who had 45.65 percent of the vote.

“Second time wasn’t a charm, but I have a very loving family, a rewarding and challenging career, and I live in one of the best places on earth,” Walker wrote on his Facebook page early Wednesday morning. “The college board for the first time in my memorable life, will not have African American representation. I think the college has a very tough task at hand in regard to serving underrepresented communities with

scarce resources while changing its culture to really address issues of equity for CCSF students.”

SF school board

In the race for three seats on the school board, incumbents Emily Murase, with 18.80 percent of the vote, and Hydra Mendoza, with 12.11 percent of the vote, and challenger Shamann Walton, with 16.05 percent, were the top three finishers as of Wednesday morning.

But with thousands of ballots still be counted in San Francisco, those results could change. Stevon Cook, with 11.52 percent, and Trevor McNeil, with 11.89 percent, are still within fighting chance of winning a seat.

The additional ballot votes will not help the two out contenders.

Mark Murphy, a gay man who is a communications and marketing consultant, ended up in last place among the nine candidates. Making his first bid for public office, Murphy received 6.12 percent of the vote.

“It is a really challenging venture running for the school board,” said Murphy in a phone interview Wednesday morning. “I am extremely proud of the work I did in my first campaign and the support I did get last night.”

In eighth place was Jamie Rafaela Wolfe, a transgender woman who works at a nonprofit school for children with emotional and developmental issues. She netted 6.37 percent of the vote in her second bid for a school board seat.

“Meeting so many people was a pleasure and an honor. I am hoping to have some personal space after this,” Wolfe said Tuesday night, adding that she was “thrilled with the campaign I ran.”t

Lesbian wins Massachusetts AG race

by Lisa Keen

L

esbian attorney Maura Healey made history Tuesday night, winning election as Massachusetts attorney general and becoming the first openly gay person to be elected as attorney general of any state.

But Republican Mike Michaud’s chances of becoming the first gay person to be elected governor of any state fell short.

There were mixed results for other LGBT candidates Tuesday night. One of the House’s six open LGBT members lost re-election,

and – so far – three of four challengers seeking election to the House lost their campaigns. Election totals are not yet final for Republican Carl DeMaio’s congressional bid in San Diego, but as of early this morning, results showed DeMaio leading with 50.3 percent.

Healey makes history

In Massachusetts, Healey, who served as a deputy attorney general and led that office’s lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act, won another stunning victory Tuesday night. A first-time candidate for

political office, Healey, 43, trounced her Republican opponent by a margin of 63 percent to 37 percent.

She won her primary in September against a Democrat who won the endorsement of both the state party and Massachusetts’ pro-gay Governor Deval Patrick.

“When I entered this race, I was a newcomer. I’d never raised a dollar. I’d never asked for a vote,” said Healey, during her victory speech Tuesday night. “But I’ll tell you what: I wasn’t new to being an unSee page 9 >>

Associated Press

Attorney General-elect Maura Healey celebrates her victory on election night.

<< Open Forum

t Why Cook’s coming out is important

4 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

Volume 44, Number 45 November 6-12, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Elliot Owen • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.861.5019 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Lance Roberts NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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A

pple CEO Tim Cook, who came out as a gay man in a Bloomberg Businesweek op-ed last week, shifted the conversation about what it means to be out. Rumored for years to be gay, Cook, who took over running one of the world’s most profitable companies after founder Steve Jobs died in 2011, wrote that he’s never really been closeted while at Apple.

“For years, I’ve been open with many people about my sexual orientation,” Cook wrote. “Plenty of colleagues at Apple know I’m gay, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the way they treat me.”

Despite what Cook described as his openness on the job, he hadn’t taken the next step: emphatically coming out to everyone. “While I have never denied my sexuality, I haven’t publicly acknowledged it either,” he wrote. “So let me be clear: I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.” And that’s why his announcement is so important. These days, LGBT people are usually out to friends and family, but they have not taken the step of outing themselves publicly. The late Supervisor Harvey Milk implored gay people to come out, because he knew – even back in the 1970s – that being out and proud makes a world of difference.

When people know someone who is LGBT they are more likely to support equality issues, from family to the workplace. In Cook’s case, he wasn’t living a lie per se, but he wasn’t being completely out either by allowing for some ambiguity about his personal life. For those who are deeply closeted, living a double life is emotionally exhausting; coming out is freeing, as pro basketball player Jason Collins acknowledged when he came out last year.

Yet Cook also acknowledged that working at – and running – a company like Apple is different from many other businesses. Apple “loves creativity and innovation and knows it can only flourish when you embrace people’s differences,” Cook wrote.

“Not everyone is so lucky.”

Similar to the conundrum over pro athletes coming out, a very small

number of corner offices of Fortune 500 firms are inhabited by LGBT folks. Putting aside the big companies, out business executives aren’t even common in smaller public companies.

One who is, Trevor Burgess, is the chief executive of C1 Financial in Florida. But we only heard about Burgess because the New York Times reached out to him in its coverage of Cook’s coming out.

Ultimately the decision to come out in this context is an economic issue; most people won’t risk their careers. In Cook’s case, he determined his coming out wouldn’t hurt the company and offers him a unique opportunity to take a stand. But it won’t get better until more people come out at work, and that won’t change until corporate policies make it safe for employees to do so.

Part of the reason many choose workplace invisibility may be gleamed from one sentence in Cook’s essay: “I don’t consider myself an activist.” It’s that label that – rightly or wrongly – scares some LGBT folks who are not yet publicly out. For so many years, gay activists have pushed the fight for civil rights. But many LGBT folks don’t consider themselves activists in the traditional sense of raising hell. Business executives typically travel on a different path, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t embrace all of themselves. As Cook and others have demonstrated, you don’t have to carry a “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used to It” ban-

ner. We’ve noted before that it takes all kinds of out people to make change: those who organize rallies; those who lobby lawmakers; those who work behind the scenes in government, business, or sports; and those who live their everyday lives openly.

Cook may not think of himself as an activist, but he took an active step last week that will have wide ramifications. While Apple is a global company, some countries where Apple operates repress LGBT rights or even basic rights like freedom of speech, including many in Asia, where Apple does 27 percent of its business, the Times noted.

Predictably, Russia reacted to Cook’s news by removing a memorial to Jobs that was erected by a group of companies outside a St. Petersburg college. Citing the gay propaganda law, the companies, called ZEFS, said the memorial – a giant iPhone – now violates the law.

It’s unlikely that all those Russians who have iPhones will stop using them, so the action rings hollow.

Finally, when high-ranking people are out, the mainstream media shouldn’t continue to “in” them by omitting how they identify. Last Sunday’s Times magazine had a Q&A with Megan Smith, the Obama administration’s new chief technology officer. Long an out lesbian, Smith is well-known in tech circles and in the Bay Area, where she once worked at Google. Heck, she was CEO of Planet Out and founded Gay.com. But readers of that Times column would never know it, as it didn’t say she’s a lesbian or include that information in any of the questions. It was a glaring oversight. Contrast that with a recent profile about Smith that appeared on NPR, also about her new gig. It matter-of-factly stated that Smith is a lesbian, along with other information.

Congratulations to Cook, who came out in his own way. As he noted, his move will undoubtedly help others: “So if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling with who he or she is, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy.”

We hope more LGBT people will follow his lead, and realize that while there is that privacy trade-off, coming out is the right thing to do.t

Keep the Bay Guardian legacy alive

by Marke Bieschke

I

n 1973, a breathless, pony-tailed Harvey Milk dropped into the Bay Guardian’s offices unannounced, seeking support for his first supervisorial race as an openly gay candidate.

Guardian founder Bruce Brugmann notoriously advised him to brush up on his strategy – and trim his mustache. The Guardian gave him its “Romantic Endorsement,” and he got 17,000 votes.

Five years later, after being elected with the full support of the Guardian behind him, clean-shaven Supervisor Milk came to the Guardian offices on another mission: He was feeling bullied by other city supervisors after pushing policy changes for fair housing and taxation. Milk hoped to work more closely with the Guardian to get his message out. “I want to be your Deep Throat at City Hall,” he told Brugmann, and they both laughed. Milk was assassinated three days later.

Last month, after 48 years of continuous operation as a progressive, alternative weekly paper, the Guardian was abruptly shut down

by Canadian-owned San Francisco Media Co., which had recently purchased the paper when Brugmann retired.

In those 48 years, the Guardian nurtured dozens of young, progressive Milk types, and also held politicians accountable when it came to advancing a queer agenda, which was always understood as a humane intertwining of economic justice, social empowerment, and sexual freedom. The paper supported the gay liberation movement since the beginning, and persistently strove to increase its economic, ethnic, and gender inclusiveness.

As the last publisher of the Bay Guardian – a queer who worked his way up from the streets

Marke Bieschke

of San Francisco – I found the radical ideals of the Guardian integral to my personal journey, since moving here with nothing but a backpack and a goofy mustache of my own, 20 years ago.

The closure of the Bay Guardian comes at a time of crisis in Bay Area media, especially queer media.

Multinational conglomerates have seized the newspaper and web industry here, and much of the promise of independent blogs and websites has collapsed into click-hungry sensationalism, snark, and shirtlessness. Magazines baldly collude with advertisers to push advertorial content and suppress alternative viewpoints. Phony enthusiasm rules. And the attitude that “bland sells better” has resulted in a depressing conformism, just when American

society seems to be reawakening to socioeconomic injustices and hungry for alternative forms of representation. (Most young LGBT people I know get their news from the outrage-powered social media feeds of RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants, which is both exhilarating and terrifying – and may point the way to a future for viable queer media.)

Shouts out to the Bay Area Reporter and East Bay Express for continued dedication to local investigative journalism, lively culture writing, and robust arts coverage. But the closure of the Bay Guardian leaves a serious void when it comes to a strong, progressive voice that embraces all orientations and demographics, one that holds City Hall’s feet to the flames and provides a platform for underrepresented communities while continuing decades-long, nuanced dialogues on art, music, education, immigration, labor, the environment, and the impact of technology. Who would young Harvey Milk turn to now for an endorsement, not to mention this week’s underground party picks?

The Bay Guardian will live on. Guardian staff and I, along with former Guardian editor Tim Redmond’s 48 Hills blog, are actively working to rescue 48 years of incredible paper and digital archives and make them accessible to all. We’ve started a “Save the Bay Guardian” fundraising campaign (http://www.tinyurl. com/savethebayguardian) in order to publish a commemorative edition with local nonprofit SF Public Press and look to the future of independent, alternative media in the Bay Area. Share your ideas with us at http://www. facebook.com/GuardianInExile, and join us to keep the provocative, independent spirit of Bay Area media alive for the next generation.t Marke Bieschke is the former publisher of the Bay Guardian and co-author of Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens.

t

Politics>>

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Low becomes youngest out legislator in CA history

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Rick Gerharter

Assemblyman-elect Evan Low

Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman

by Matthew S. Bajko

G

ay Campbell City Councilman Evan Low made history Tuesday night by winning a state Assembly seat to become the youngest out legislator in California history.

At 31, Low is also the youngest Asian American to be elected to the Legislature’s lower chamber. The rising Democratic politician easily won the 28th Assembly District seat covering portions of west San Jose and several Peninsula cities.

Low, whose boss Assemblyman Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) currently holds the seat but is termed out this fall, bested his Republican opponent, Saratoga Councilman Chuck Page, with 58 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns Wednesday morning. Due to a change in the state’s term limits law, Low potentially could serve 12 years in the Assembly seat.

So assured of his victory in the race, Low’s campaign issued a statement to reporters at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, just two hours after the polls opened, declaring he had won.

“I am honored to have earned the support, trust and confidence of the voters in Silicon Valley to send me to Sacramento,” stated Low. “My focus in our Capitol will be on partnership over partisanship. Thank you again for allowing me to continue my public service.”

When he takes his oath of office in December, Low will likely be joining a diminished California Legislative LGBT Caucus. Two of the caucus’ current eight members – gay Assemblymen John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles), who had served as speaker, and Tom Ammiano (DSan Francisco) – are leaving due to term limits.

And it appears that gay San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, who was Ammiano’s pick to succeed him, could be headed to defeat. As of Wednesday morning Campos was trailing his straight opponent, Supervisor David Chiu, in the bitterly fought contest. (See story, page 1.)

The three incumbent out Assembly members on Tuesday’s ballot all easily sailed to victory. In the 24th Assembly District race on the Peninsula, gay Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park) defeated his opponent, Republican Diane Grabl, with 68 percent of the vote to

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online column, Political Notes; and the Jock Talk and Out in the World columns. www.ebar.com.

capture his third and final two-year term.

Lesbian Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) bested her GOP challenger, Barbara Decker, with 60 percent of the vote for her final two-year term representing the 78th Assembly District.

And lesbian Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) won re-election with 60 percent of the vote against her challenger, Republican Sol Jobrack, to a second two-year term in the 13th Assembly District seat in the Central Valley, As expected, the lone gay GOP Assembly candidate on the ballot Tuesday, Los Angeles lawyer Brad Torgan, was unable to defeat incumbent Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), who claimed victory with 71 percent of the vote for a second term representing the 50th Assembly District covering West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Malibu.

Bi woman ousts gay harbor district commissioner

In the race for two four-year terms on the San Mateo County Harbor Commission, gay incumbent commissioner Robert Bernardo failed to win re-election to a second term. While his colleague, James Tucker, won re-election, the top vote winner in the race based on unofficial returns Wednesday morning was bisexual marine biologist Nicole David.

David captured 31 percent and Tucker received 23.54 percent of the vote in the six-person race for the two seats up for grabs. Wednesday morning David posted a photo of a beach with the words “Thank You” scrawled in the sand onto her Facebook page.

“My sincerest thanks to all my family, friends and supporters who helped me win this important race,” wrote David, who was supported by lesbian harbor commissioner Sabrina Brennan in the heated contest. “Many thanks for helping me spread the word and for giving me the support that kept me going.

I feel extremely proud to have had your backing and guidance along the way.”

Bernardo, the focus of negative attacks that painted him as unsuited for the commission, fell short by 338 votes to land in third place with 23.21 percent.

He conceded at roughly 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, taking to Facebook to thank his supporters and to congratulate the winners of the “hardfought campaign.”

“Serving the community in an elected capacity has always been a dream of mine, and I still can’t be-

Courtesy Nicole David

Nicole David won a seat on the San Mateo County Harbor Commission.

lieve that I am one of the lucky few who got to actually live that dream.

Being a politician was a lot of fun and a lot of responsibility,” wrote Bernardo. “It was an honor to also serve as the county’s first openly gay, Filipino, Jewish elected official – and there may never be another one who fits in all three categories at the same time!”

Out candidates losing in East Bay special districts

In a number of races for special districts in the East Bay, out candidates were losing their contests, according to the latest vote tallies Wednesday morning.

Gay Oakland resident Richard Fuentes lost his bid for the Peralta Community College District board’s Area 7 seat. He placed second with 47.51 percent behind the winner of the race, Julina Bonilla, who garnered 51.42 percent of the vote, to succeed Abel Guillen, who identifies as Two Spirit and won an Oakland City Council seat Tuesday night. (See story, page 3.)

Marguerite Young, a lesbian single mom running for the Ward 3 seat on the East Bay Municipal Utility District board, appears headed for defeat in her race against the incumbent, Katy Foulkes, who was holding on to a 147-vote lead as of Wednesday morning.

Dollene Jones, a lesbian running for the AC Transit board’s at-large seat, also came up short, placing second in her race with roughly 30 percent of the vote.

It was not a total wash for out candidates running in down ticket races Tuesday. Valerie Cuevas, a lesbian running for the West Contra Costa school board, was among the top finishers for three seats on the district’s governing body. With 13.24 percent of the vote, Cuevas was holding on to the third spot in the race with a 944-vote advantage over the fourth place finisher.

Bisexual EBMUD Board Member Andy Katz was unopposed for his Ward 4 seat.

And queer Berkeley Rent Board candidate James Chang won Tuesday, as he was one of five candidates seeking five seats on the oversight panel. He placed second in the race with 20.63 percent of the vote.t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column looked at two voter guides sent to LGBT households in CA. Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

Gay SF family presents cabaret show

t

by Matthew S. Bajko

York City, the cabaret show will be his stage debut. wo years of planning While he loved to sing as and hard work, as well as a kid, he hid it from family countless hours of rehearsand friends for fear of being als, will come to fruition this laughed at.

Saturday when one gay San “I am a late starter and Francisco family recounts its now playing catch up. I was personal story via a cabaret 24 when I started to study show titled The Book of Ava: seriously,” he said.

The Birth of a Family.

The family has spent sevWritten and performed eral thousand dollars on the

by Frank Silletti and his show to cover the cost of 10-year-old daughter, Ava renting out the performance Vukic, whom he adopted space and other expenses at birth with his husband, involved.

Rick Gerharter Sonny Vukic, the 90-minute “I hope it shows,” said show touches upon the is- Ava Vukic and her father, Frank Silletti, will Silletti, who hand sewed the sues of adoption and mar- perform a cabaret show The Book of Ava: The costumes that Ava will be riage equality and delves into Birth of a Family. wearing. what constitutes a family.

Their goal is to bring the “The story came so quickpened to us in our life.” show next to Phoenix so ly because everything in our life has As for the show’s message, Ava said Ava’s mother and other relatives been connected to music. Ava from she hopes the audience comes away there can see it. Eventually, they day one has been so musical, singing knowing “that families that are differwould like to perform it in Los Anbefore she could even talk,” said Silent from theirs are basically the exact geles, San Diego, Palm Springs, and letti, 53, who works for a restaurant same. There really isn’t any difference in New York City. in Fisherman’s Wharf. “It touches ... all families are equally awesome.”

“We just want to get as many upon all the political themes we are Ava has attended a variety of musipeople as we can to see it,” said Silfacing as a family, but in a very encal camps and classes for children over letti. “But our dream is to perform it tertaining and musical way.” the years, such as the SF Children’s in New York and do it a couple more The show is built around a selection Musical Theater and Linda Bulgo’s nights in San Francisco.” of 26 songs from the great American Musical Productions. She plans to Added Ava, “It’s going to be great. songbook, with Silletti and Ava Vukic continue singing, dancing. and acting We have worked really hard.” sharing the stage and spotlight, as as well as learn to play piano.

The Book of Ava has its world preSonny Vukic, 47, only makes a cameo “I just like to do it a lot,” she said, miere at 7 p.m. Saturday, November appearance since he doesn’t sing. nodding in the affirmative when 8 at Society Cabaret located in the “Really it is just a family story,” asked if she loves the limelight. “It Rex Hotel, 562 Sutter Street in San said Silletti. “We are not preaching kind of feels natural to do it.”

Francisco. Tickets cost $30 to $60 or hitting anybody over the head.

For Silletti, who attended the per person and can be purchased at We are just singing about what hapAcademy of Dramatic Arts in New the door, which opens at 6 p.m.t

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Survey of Castro shoppers begins

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

survey of patrons in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood launches this weekend as part of an effort to improve the retail options in the gay business district.

It is part of the work to develop what has been dubbed the “Castro and Upper Market Retail Strategy.”

Its purpose is to create a plan for how to attract businesses to fill the various vacant retail spaces dotting the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street and along Market Street between Castro and Octavia.

According to the project’s website, the gayborhood’s retail vacancy rate is 6.9 percent, nearly double the city’s average of 3.8 percent. The number is fluid, however, as Castro businesses shutter and new tenants announce plans to open in the area.

Nor does it include the ground floor retail spaces, many of which have already been leased, in several new multi-unit housing complexes that have opened or are under construction along Market Street.

“We are trying to get an understanding of shopping preferences and perceptions of the shopping experience in the Castro Upper Market corridor,” said Danny Yadegar, a gay San Francisco native and sixyear Duboce Triangle resident and urban planner who is the project coordinator. “The goal is to help fill vacancies and attract exciting new businesses to the district.”

As the Bay Area Reporter’s business column reported in August, the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District is leading the effort to create the strategy and is working with the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, the Castro/ Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, and the Castro Merchants group to develop it.

The project is being paid for with $87,200 raised through a grant from the city and donations from neighborhood groups and develop-

Rick Gerharter

One vacant Castro retail space could be turned into a location for national chain Soulcycle, which is seeking city approval to offer spin classes in the iconic building.

ers. San Francisco-based firm Seifel Consulting is conducting the study.

Volunteers will be hitting the streets from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. this Saturday, November 8, and again from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, to ask shoppers to fill out a short questionnaire. Wearing green shirts with the tagline “What’s In Store For Castro Upper Market,” they will be stationed near the Church and Castro Muni stations as well as roving the business strip.

Focus groups were held with merchants this fall to gather their input, and a separate survey is being conducted of business owners in the Castro. Input was also gathered during this year’s Castro Street Fair, where the retail strategy had a booth and spoke with several hundred people.

Already several trends have emerged from those preliminary discussions, said Yadegar. High on the list of new stores people mention they would like to see open in the Castro are a fish market, a traditional bakery, and art galleries.

As for dining and nightlife options, Yadegar said many people

have said they want more diversity in live performances, a beer garden, ice cream shop, and a vegan restaurant. More patio seating at restaurants is also frequently mentioned, he said.

“This project is proactive instead of being defensive of what we don’t want,” Yadegar said.

A final report based on the survey feedback and input from neighborhood groups is to be presented to the public in July.

For more information, or to take the patron survey online, visit http://www.castroretail.com/.t

Correction In the October 30 article, “AIDS groups, app reps discuss outreach,” an emailed comment was misattributed. It should have been attributed to Grindr founder and CEO Joel Simkhai, who said the new partnership with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and others “is just an extension of the great work we’ve already done.”

The online version has been corrected.

<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

AHF clinic will offer PrEP prescriptions

t

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he head of Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation may be against PrEP, but its new health care center in the Castro will provide prescriptions for Truvada, the medication used to prevent HIV, agency officials said.

PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, is a once-a-day pill, Truvada, which has been found to reduce the risk of HIV infection in several studies. AHF President Michael Weinstein has been critical of widespread use of PrEP and the agency’s position, according to a controversial ad it ran in August, is that “scientific data do not support the large-scale use of Truvada as a communitywide health intervention.”

But AHF spokesman Ged Kenslea told the Bay Area Reporter that AHF would stock Truvada in its pharmacy around the corner from the clinic, at 4071 18th Street.

“PrEP requires a prescription from a physician,” Kenslea said. “Customers who wish to, and have valid prescriptions from AHF or other physicians, may have their prescription for PrEP filled at any AHF pharmacy location.”

Kenslea further stated that AHF would neither encourage nor discourage the use of PrEP. “We believe that any discussion about PrEP should be between a medical provider and patient,” he said.

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Dr. Lisha Wilson, left, Bay Area medical director for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Dale R. Gluth, AHF Bay Area regional director, cut the ribbon opening the AHF Healthcare Center in the Castro.

“AHF does oppose the deployment of PrEP as a community-wide public health tool endorsed by government bodies like the CDC, as the very same data that shows potential efficacy of HIV prevention of over 90 percent also show significant shortcomings in patient adherence,” Kenslea added, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We believe PrEP as a prevention strategy won’t work if people do not take the drug as prescribed, and nearly every major study demonstrating the medication’s efficacy

has also revealed significant shortcomings in patient adherence.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead Sciences’ Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine) for PrEP in July 2012. In May the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people at “substantial risk” should consider PrEP to prevent HIV infection. The World Health Organization last month also recommended PrEP as an option for at-risk gay men.

See page 10 >>

Pharmacy students offer outreach to HIVers compiled by Cynthia Laird

Pharmacy students can help evaluate people’s Medicare Part D coverage, along with other services.

Kenneth Gardner, a health insurance specialist for CMS, said there will be pharmacists with special expertise in HIV-related medications, and a physician who specializes in treating people living with HIV. All Medicare beneficiaries are welcome, regardless of HIV status.

Appointments are not required, but they are recommended if someone wants the full medication review. To make an appointment, call (415) 292-1200.

AEF holiday dinner canceled again

Randy Brad Dolphin

Jimmy Dale Langham

January 12, 1954 – October 5, 2014

March 22, 1962 – October 24, 2014

Randy Brad Dolphin was born January 12, 1954, in Boise, Idaho. Randy’s beautiful spirit left his body and went into the Universe on October 5, 2014. He worked for over 30 years for Ford as a parts counter person. He served in the U.S. Navy as a corpsman. Randy loved fishing, darts, beer, Candy Crush, and other online games.

He liked hanging out with his friends in Idaho, and his new friends he made in San Francisco. He was a simple person, and one of the kindest men in the world. He leaves behind his friend of four decades and his wife of one year and four months, Veronika Fimbres; my daughter Amoreena Kinzie; his ex-wife Sayoko Dolphin; their two daughters, Michelle Dolphin-Stuart, Jaime Dolphin-Harken; and his sister, Sue Dolphin Plummer. He leaves behind grandkids Ty Mills, Jacob Stuart, and Alexia Harken.

Also, nieces Alicyn Whitley and Evelyn Rose Dolphin Plummer. His cremains will be buried with military honors at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, California, November 13 at 1300. In lieu of flowers, Veronika asks that you give to the AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco. A memorial will be held at a later date.

Jimmy – never a James – Dale Langham was born in Mississippi, but considered New Orleans as his home. As a young man he worked his way through college to receive a degree in advertising and design, and moved to New Orleans where he worked as a graphic artist for several years until he met his longtime partner and spouse, Donald Ferguson.

Jimmy and Donald moved together to New York City where they spent 10 years.

Jimmy was the chief graphics designer for Donald’s public relations firm, Geduldig and Ferguson. When that firm merged with a global PR firm in 2004, Jimmy and Donald were relocated to San Francisco for four years, and then retired to Palm Springs, California in 2008.

They kept a second home in New Orleans until after Hurricane Katrina, but have made multiple visits yearly to Jimmy’s favorite place.

Jimmy and Donald were together for 23 years, legally marrying November 1, 2008.

In addition to his loving partner and spouse Donald, Jimmy is survived by his mother, Mary Lou Hughes; his older sister Pam (David) Walker and younger sister Donna Hays; has three nephews, Donovan

and Christopher Hays and Tyler Langham; and a niece, Madison Olivia Cliburn. He is also survived by all of the members of the Ferguson family who embraced him fully, and his many San Francisco and Palm Springs friends and friends throughout the country.

Jimmy loved to party and loved life and friends. His favorite quote was: “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”

The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life. May he rest in peace.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in his name to the LGBT Community Center of the Desert at http://www.thecenterps.org.

S

tudents at the University of the Pacific Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences will provide medication reviews, vaccinations, and other services for Medicare beneficiaries living with HIV and others at a community event Sunday, November 9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California Street (at Presidio) in San Francisco.

There is no cost to attend the outreach event, which is being held in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The AIDS Emergency Fund’s holiday dinner for people living with HIV/AIDS has been canceled for the second year in a row due to the ongoing renovation and remodeling project at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, which has hosted the event since 1988.

“We were hoping for an alternate location again this year, but there are so few low-cost venues that can accommodate so many people on Christmas Eve,” said Neil Figurelli, head of the all-volunteer committee See page 10 >>

Obituaries >>

Alan Lit October 26, 2014 Alan Lit died October 26, 2014. He was formerly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Father of Moriah Lit. Brother of Harvey Lit (Ramona Ferman-Lit) and Harry Lit (Allen Eggman), son of Sylvia (nee Hoffman). He was predeceased in death by his father, Morris Lit, and brother, Stuart Lit, Esq. Relatives and friends are invited to services, Sunday, 11 a.m., Joseph Levine and Sons Memorial Chapel, 4737 Street Road, Trevose, Pennsylvania. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. Contributions in his memory may be made to Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches, 631 US Hwy 1, Suite 304, North Palm Beach, Florida 33408.

t <<

Election 2014>>

SF measures

From page 1

A similar soda tax did pass in Berkeley, and Wiener said he was happy about that.

Other SF props

Other San Francisco ballot measures had better luck.

Proposition J, which would raise the city’s minimum wage, passed by about 77 percent to 23 percent, according to unofficial returns.

Under the measure, San Francisco’s minimum wage would gradually increase from its current $10.74 per hour to $15 in 2018. It will be adjusted annually for inflation.

“Tonight, San Francisco voters sent a message loudly and clearly to the nation that we can take on the growing gap between rich and poor, we can give a well-deserved raise to our lowest-wage workers, and we can do it in a way that protects jobs and small business,” Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Tuesday. “Tonight, I’m very proud that San Francisco came together – business, labor and nonprofit leaders – to pass a consensus measure that will now give our city the high-

<<

Assembly race

From page 1

morning. “We hope to have a better sense later today, but certainly within the next few days, we will have a clear understanding of the outcome.”

At his election night party at Mission bar El Rio, Campos told his hundreds of supporters who had gathered to await election results that he was not ready to concede the race.

“We are still watching these election results,” said Campos. “We are going to wait and see what happens.

There are thousands of more ballots to be counted.”

He sounded a defiant tone, declaring that no matter the outcome of the race his campaign had sent a message to City Hall.

“Progressive politics are alive in San Francisco,” said Campos to enthusiastic applause. “We aren’t going anywhere; you are going to have to deal with us.”

<<

National races

From page 3

derdog. And I wasn’t new to the work of the attorney general.”

In thanking her family, Healey did not mention her partner, state appeals court Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian. That is probably because the Boston Globe did an article early in the campaign questioning the propriety of Healey holding campaign meetings at the home she shares with Wolohojian. State law prohibits judges from supporting political campaigns. Healey did, however, say to her cheering audience, “For those who can’t be here tonight, I love you.”

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin issued a statement Tuesday night, saying, “Maura Healey is one of the staunchest advocates for equality we have in this country, and we join her in celebrating her historic victory tonight. As the nation’s first openly gay attorney general, she is an inspirational trailblazer and will fight to guarantee civil rights and legal equality for all people of Massachusetts.”

Michaud struggles

In Maine, Michaud got a significant campaign boost one week before the election when third party candidate Eliot Cutler, a staunchly pro-gay contender, told his supporters to vote for whomever they thought could win. That was seen as a big chance for Michaud to pick up some, if not all, of the 15 percent of the vote Cutler had been taking in the polls. Michaud also had the

est minimum wage in America.”

Proposition I, which passed almost 55 percent to 45 percent, preliminary results showed, would amend the Park Code to permit the city to install an artificial turf at athletic fields in Golden Gate Park and install lighting.

Another measure, Proposition H, would have kept the fields the same. It failed by approximately 54 percent to 46 percent, according to unofficial returns.

Data available Wednesday morning showed voters passed Proposition F by about 72 percent to 28 percent. The proposal would increase the height limit for buildings on the 28-acre, city-owned development site in the Pier 70 area from 40 feet to 90 feet. Prop F would also make it city policy that the final project contain nine acres of waterfront parks and recreation areas; and that about 1,000 to 2,000 new residential units be constructed; with 30 percent at below-market-rate, among other provisions.

In a statement Wednesday, Alexa Arena, a senior vice president for project developer Forest City, said, “We’re excited for the neighborhood and the city to take the next

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

step towards revitalizing Pier 70.

It’s a clear signal from voters about the need for more housing, jobs and parks, and for preserving San Francisco’s history.”

Backers of some local transportation measures also saw victory Tuesday night, unofficial returns showed.

Proposition A, the San Francisco Transportation and Road Improvement Bond, was sponsored and strongly supported by Lee. The measure, which won by approximately 71 percent to 29 percent, according to data available Wednesday, would permit the city to borrow up to $500 million through the issuance of General Obligation bonds for Muni upgrades. It would represent the first major investment toward an estimated $10 billion in infrastructure projects to be undertaken by the city over the next 15 years that seeks to improve Muni reliability and accessibility, among other aims.

Wiener sponsored Proposition B, which voters approved by about 61 percent to 39 percent, unofficial returns showed. The proposal would be a voter-mandated setaside of general fund monies. Muni

is governed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and funded, in part, by a transfer of general fund revenue, the amount of which is set by the City Charter and referred to as “the base line,” which this year amounts to $247.9 million.

Wiener’s proposal would require the city to increase the base amount by a percentage equal to the city’s annual population increase.

Proposition L, which was put on the ballot, in part, as a counterproposal to Prop B, would have mandated the Municipal Transportation Agency to set hours and rates for parking meters, and freeze fees charged at the parking garages, among other actions. The proposition was defeated by about 62 percent to 38 percent, according to preliminary results.

Children were at the heart of the successful Proposition C, which unofficial returns showed passing by around 73 percent to 27 percent.

The Charter Amendment would, among other provisions, extend the city’s Children’s Fund until 2041 and increase slightly the amount of the fund gradually over the next four years and also extend the age

Incumbent SF supes win re-election

All five of the incumbent supervisors running in even-numbered districts won re-election Tuesday.

District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang ran unopposed, while District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell soundly defeated his challenger by capturing 80.25 percent of the vote.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener trounced the four protest candidates he faced by garnering 77.44 percent of the vote. In a message to his supporters on Facebook, Wiener noted his vote tally was the largest winning percentage any District 8 candidate has received.

“It’s been an incredible honor to hold this public trust, and I’m humbled that the voters have chosen to return me to City Hall for another term,” wrote Wiener. “I will continue to work hard every day to earn that trust by addressing our city’s challenges and working with the community to move San Francisco benefit of several high profile rallies, with President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and first lady Michelle Obama.

But at midnight Tuesday, Michaud had picked up only 7 percent of Cutler’s vote, at best. Eight percent of Cutler’s supporters voted for him. And a CNN exit poll suggests that Michaud’s being gay may have had some influence in a very close race with right-wing Republican Governor Paul LePage.

CNN asked two gay-related questions in its exit poll in Maine. One question asked whether the voter had a close friend or family member who was gay: 68 percent said yes, 32 percent said no. Of those who said yes, 51 percent voted for Michaud, 38 percent for LePage, and 11 percent for Cutler. Of those who said no, 54 percent voted for LePage, 36 percent for Michaud, and 9 percent for Cutler.

The second question asked whether the voter supported allowing same-sex couples to marry: 68 percent said yes, 30 percent said no. Of those who supported marriage equality, 58 percent voted for Michaud, 30 percent for LePage, 12 percent for Cutler. Of those who opposed marriage equality, 77 percent voted for LePage, 15 percent for Michaud, and 8 percent for Cutler.

Michaud came out as gay one year ago in an op-ed, saying he didn’t want his campaign for governor to be undermined by “whisper campaigns.”

As of early Wednesday morning, LePage was declared the victor

Jane Philomen Cleland

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, right, shown here with Cleve Jones at the party celebrating the sidewalk widening project in the Castro, easily won re-election Tuesday.

in a positive direction. Thank you.”

Gay blogger and LGBT global rights activist Michael Petrelis netted 1,495 votes to land in second

place. Tom Wayne Basso, whose family owned a now-closed Noe Valley eatery, was in third with 5.71 percent of the vote.

with 48.1 percent of the vote, to Michaud’s 43.5 percent, and Cutler’s 8.3 percent.

52, who was seen as having a strong chance of winning an open seat in Massachusetts, fell far short, winning only 41 percent of the vote to Democrat Seth Moulton’s 55 percent. National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown blogged against Tisei and urged NOM supporters to vote for Tisei’s Democratic opponent, even though Moulton holds the same positions as Tisei on marriage. Former Congressman Barney Frank also endorsed Moulton.

Results for DeMaio’s effort to unseat a popular pro-gay Democrat, Scott Peters, showed him with 50.3 percent of the vote and Peters with 49.7 percent – fewer than 800 votes apart, according to the San Diego Tribune. The county elections office said it would have final tallies Thursday, and Peters has not conceded. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) attended a fundraiser for DeMaio but NOM’s Brown robocalled against him. DeMaio, 40, may have benefited from a national wave of support for Republicans, a trend big enough, apparently, to overcome a setback in which a former campaign aide claimed that DeMaio sexually harassed him. (San Diego County prosecutors announced just before the election that they would not be pressing charges.) DeMaio, a former member of the San Diego City Council, also appears to be beating the incumbent who won endorsement from HRC.

Congressional Caucus still six

All six incumbent LGB members of the House of Representatives won re-election Tuesday. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, 48, of New York’s 18th Congressional District had the toughest victory, appearing early on to trail his Republican opponent by 12 points. But as more results came in, Maloney was able to overcome what was otherwise a strong Republican tide across the country at all levels Tuesday. The latest results from the New York State Elections Division, as of noon Wednesday, show Maloney with 47.58 percent and Republican Nan Hayworth with 46.01 percent, with a little more than 1,000 districts yet to report.

At press time, three of the four gay candidates who made challenges to incumbent members of the House of Representatives had lost: American Idol celebrity Clay Aiken, 35, took only 41 percent of the vote in his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District. Ellmers has had a zero rating from HRC for her two terms.

Sean Eldridge, 28, spouse of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, won a New York Times endorsement but only 21 percent of the vote against Republican incumbent Chris Gibson for New York’s 19th Congressional District.

Gay Republican Richard Tisei,

Other high profile LGBT candidates

In Massachusetts, Steve Kerrigan,

group served to include youth aged 18-24.

Elections data available Wednesday also showed voters had approved Proposition D, a measure that deals with benefits, by approximately 55 percent to 45 percent. A small number of employees of the former Redevelopment Agency may become city employees. This proposition would bring their health care benefits in line with city employees of equal service similarly situated.

Proposition K passed by about 65 percent to 35 percent, according to preliminary results. The measure sets as goals that the city will help construct or rehabilitate at least 30,000 homes by 2020; that more than 50 percent of the housing will be affordable for middle-class households, with at least 33 percent affordable for low- and moderateincome households; and that the city will attempt to ensure that 33 percent of new housing in areas that are rezoned to provide more residential development is affordable to low- and moderate-income households.t Yael Chanoff contributed to this report.

Nude activist George Davis took fourth with 4.88 percent; and community activist John Nulty, who identifies as homosexual, was last with 4.77 percent.

In the race for the District 6 supervisor seat, incumbent Supervisor Jane Kim sailed to victory with 67.18 percent of the vote. Gay Rincon Hill resident Jamie Whitaker came in second with 11.51 percent, while neighborhood activist Michael Nulty, who like his twin brother identifies as homosexual, was third with 11.33 percent. Republican David Carlos Salaverry was last with 9.98 percent of the vote.

As for the District 10 race, incumbent Supervisor Malia Cohen emerged victorious after one round of the instant-runoff vote system with 51 percent of the vote. Far behind in second place was Potrero Hill neighborhood leader Tony Kelly with 28 percent, and in third place was Marlene Tran with 21 percent.t a gay former aide to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, ran for lieutenant governor and shared the ticket with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley. Although Coakley trailed Republican Charlie Baker by less than two points, she conceded the race.

In California, former state Senator Sheila Kuehl, 73, won her highly contested race against Bobby Shriver, a nephew of the late President Kennedy. Shriver had taken the support of some of Hollywood’s more prominent movie moguls, like David Geffen.

But Kuehl took 58.5 percent of the vote to secure the District 3 seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. If elected to the seat, she would become the first out person to serve on the board.

In Washington, D.C., popular gay D.C. Councilman David Catania, 46, a former Republican who ran as an independent, won only 35 percent of the vote, coming in second to Democrat Muriel Bowser in the mayor’s race. Catania has been haunted somewhat by the fact that D.C. is a heavily Democratic city and by the fact that the Republican candidate was a former councilmember popular with both gays and straights. Bowser won the endorsement of the local gay Democratic club.

And in Idaho, a long-shot gay candidate for governor, Steve Pankey of the Constitution Party, came in fifth out of six candidates, earning less than 1 percent of the vote.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

<<

<<

AHF clinic

From page 8

Ribbon-cutting

AHF recently had a ribbon-cutting ceremony and party to open the new health center, which includes an AHF Men’s Wellness Center, located at 518 Castro Street, just about a block down from where the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s new health and wellness center at 474 Castro Street is expected to open next year.

The October 24 grand opening of the center has been an uphill battle for AHF, a nonprofit that provides medical care and services to people living with HIV/AIDS. It had faced opposition as it prepared to move its San Francisco clinic and pharmacy to the heart of the Castro. AHF had operated a clinic and pharmacy in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood since 2009 but recently vacated the 100 Church Street space after set-

<<

Legal Notices>>

Oakland

From page 1

to be part of leading this great city.”

Quan, 65, who had trailed in preelection polling, remained upbeat Tuesday night.

“We really feel good about the absentee ballots,” she said at her party at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant.

“We’re building momentum.”

But the momentum appeared to be with Schaaf, who had been endorsed

by Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Schaaf is a strong ally of the LGBT community, and told the B.A.R. in an editorial meeting prior to the election that she would make sure LGBT leaders are visible as part of city government.

The mayor’s race split Oakland’s large LGBT community, as in addition to Kaplan being a member of the community, Schaaf and Quan had out people running their campaigns and LGBT supporters. None

News Briefs

From page 8

that plans and executes the dinner.

Typically, more than 1,100 people attend the dinner, which has three seatings and entertainment by some of the city’s most popular performers.

AEF Executive Director Mike Smith noted that with donated food and labor, the event can be produced for about $10,000.

“A hotel venue would cost 10 times that, and church spaces are being used that day for services or don’t have big enough kitchens for prep,” Smith said in a news release.

Figurelli said he was heartbroken that the event had to be canceled again.

The War Memorial building is scheduled to re-open in early 2015, and staff have assured AEF that next year’s dinner can return to its original home.

‘Facing HIV Together’ retreat

A retreat that will focus on the power of community in dealing with HIV will be held next month and registration is now open.

“Honoring Our Experience: The Healing Power of Community – Facing HIV Together” will be held Friday, December 5 through Sunday, December 7 at the Saratoga Springs Retreat Center, 10243 Saratoga Springs Road in Upper Lake, California.

Facilitator Gregg Cassin, who has been leading retreats and workshops for the LGBT, HIV, and youth communities for over 25 years, said that people would share their experiences amid a peaceful setting. Women, people of color, transgender people, young adults, and elders are welcome, along with HIV-positive and HIV-negative people.

The cost for the retreat is sliding scale $199-$449, based on ability to

t

Jane Philomen Cleland Jane Philomen Cleland

Rebecca Kaplan speaks to supporters on election night.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was behind in early, unofficial returns.

of the candidates could muster the endorsement of the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, and local newspapers split their endorsements. Schaaf received the backing of the East Bay Express and Kaplan got the endorsement of the now-defunct San Francisco Bay Guardian.

The B.A.R. endorsed Quan.

Progressive candidate Dan Siegel

also had some LGBT support but trailed throughout the evening.

Tuesday’s results could change under ranked choice voting. Four years ago, Don Perata was the leader after first-place ballots were counted. But once the ranked choice tabulations kicked in, Quan overtook his lead and ended up the winner.

Kaplan finished in third place.t

tling an eviction lawsuit with Maitri Hospice, which owns the property.

In August, AHF sued gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener and the city of San Francisco over legislation meant to tighten formula retail rules. AHF operates 34 pharmacies in 10 states. Under the city rules, any business with 11 or more locations in the U.S. needs to seek a conditional use permit. That lawsuit is pending. Wiener previously told the B.A.R. that the suit is “baseless.”

AHF eventually won approval for the health care center and had the grand opening reception, which was attended by about 100 people.

Members of Cheer San Francisco, an LGBT-identified cheerleading squad, danced and waved their pompons, chanting, “They’re good work is never done, providing care for everyone,” as attendees sang along.

“I so appreciate seeing so many people here,” said Dr. Lisha Wilson,

AHF’s Bay Area medical director.

“A lot of people were opposed to us being here, so it’s exciting to see it all come together. I’ve been with AIDS Healthcare Foundation for 12 years, and I so love what I do. I appreciate the care provided for communities of color. We have a very special relationship with our patients.”

Mental health providers were among the attendees.

“This opening is meaningful for me,” said Frank DePelisi, a practicing psychologist. “Being able to provide mental health support is such an integral part of treatment.

I’ve enjoyed working with AIDS Healthcare Foundation because of their mission.”

DePelisi said that patients were seen regardless of ability to pay.

The men’s wellness center offers free HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment in one location.t

pay. It includes six meals, lodging, taxes, and all fees. Registration is limited to the first 60 participants.

For more information, including information on financial assistance, visit www.saratogasprings.com/retreats/healingpower.html.

Organizations must be nonprofit and headquartered in the U.S. with an interest in public health, including but not limited to providing social services, education, or advocacy for underserved or hard to reach populations. Applicants should have clearly defined goals and objectives, a strong community network to implement a successful PrEP education program, and educational concepts that could be replicated across the nation.

Agencies that provide direct patient care, and not just sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, are eligible on a case-bycase basis as long as the request is submitted by the non-direct patient care part of the organization.

The application deadline is November 21 for funding in the first quarter of 2015; award notifications will be made February 1.

Interested organizations should email grants@gilead.com to obtain the proposal form with further instructions. Applications to the corporate grants program is not a promise of funding, and Gilead reserves the right to approve or disapprove any application.

HIV mobilization meeting

San Francisco grassroots group Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), the HIV and Aging Action Collaborative, and Acria, an HIV research organization in New York City, will have a national HIV and aging community mobilization meeting Friday, November 14 from noon to 2 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street. Lunch will be served.

The meeting will discuss how to address the needs of older adults living with HIV in the Bay Area, as well as share resources and connect with local HIV and aging providers.

There is no cost to attend. Those interested in participating should RSVP by November 7 to Hanna Tessema at htessema@acria.org.

Gilead announces funding opportunity for nonprofits

In an effort to support the efforts of community-based organizations to educate their clients about the role of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) as part of comprehensive HIV prevention, Gilead Sciences, the makers of Truvada (tenofovir plus emtricitabine) have announced funding opportunities for nonprofit groups.

According to an announcement flier, Gilead is particularly looking to support organizations focused on high-risk populations such as young adult men who have sex with men of all races, Latinos, transgender women, and African American heterosexuals. The flier states that Gilead will consider a “wide range of ideas” to reach these groups.

GGBA celebrates 40th anniversary

The Golden Gate Business Association, the nation’s first LGBT chamber of commerce, will mark its 40th anniversary with a grand reception Monday, November 10 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue.

The party will celebrate GGBA’s accomplishments over the past 40 years, recognize achievements by local LGBT entrepreneurs, and honor past presidents, board members, and staff of the organization.

Tickets are $100 at the door. For more information, visit www.ggba. com.t

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF WILLIAM S. ROBINSON IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-14-298188 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of WILLIAM S. ROBINSON. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JEFF ALTMAN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JEFF ALTMAN 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: Nov 19, 2014, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

You may examine the file kept by the court.

If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: PATRICIA A. MAYER, #133171, LAW OFFICES OF JULIA P. WALD, 1108 FIFTH AVE #202, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901; Ph. (415) 482-7555.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550635 In the matter of the application of: VAN MATTHEW PRATHER, 584 CASTRO ST, #683, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner VAN MATTHEW PRATHER, is requesting that the name VAN MATTHEW PRATHER, be changed to AELGYRR MATHUIN SONSTEGARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 18th of December 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 16, 23, 30, NOV 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036082800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER GARAGE SALE, 1343 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VENA SHOTIVEYARATANA. 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 10/08/14.

OCT 16, 23, 30, NOV 06, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036087500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: COLLINS AND ASSOCIATES, 49 MISSOURI STREET, #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CARY S. COLLINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/08/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/14/14.

OCT 16, 23, 30, NOV 06, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036080000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DE ROSA BROS. PARKING, 916 CHESTNUT, ALAMEDA, CA 94501. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JASON PAICH. 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 10/07/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036093800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PACIFIC BAY PIPING SYSTEMS, 161 UNIVERSITY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WEN MIN JIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036095700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WALLS BY JOSEPH, 423 LAGUNA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH A. FERRUCCIO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/02/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036093700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LITTLE JUNGLE, 113 PRECITA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NELLY VARGAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/14.

OCT 23, 30 NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036090900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NECTAR VENTURES, 546 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117.

This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ELIZABETH WARBURTON & WILLIAM STARK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21//14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/15/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036092200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HITITUP, 28 MINERVA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FAST N FRESH LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/16/14.

OCT 23, 30, NOV 06, 13, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036108300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOOD EARTH CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, 801 HOWARD ST #811, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REGINA MARIE REGAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/10/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/23/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036116400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PURPLE MAROON, 1167 CAYUGA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPHINE TCHANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/24/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036075600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 201AM, 40 RICH ST #C, GREENBRAE, CA 94904. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM D. MELVIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/11/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036115700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WALKING ORANGE, 19 NORTHGATE AVE #1, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed GUO CHEN & KEER CHEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036107000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AL’S PLACE, 1499 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TATR LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/22/14.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550693 In the matter of the application of: LUIS FERNANDO AVIÑA-ORNELAS, 529 LAIDLEY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LUIS FERNANDO AVIÑA-ORNELAS, is requesting that the name LUIS FERNANDO AVIÑA-ORNELAS, AKA FERNANDO EDUARDO AVINA, AKA FERNANDO EDUARDO AVINA-ORNELAS, AKA LUIS AVINA-ORNELAS, be changed to LUIS FERNANDO AVINA-ORNELAS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 13th of January 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036127200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DETAIL GARDENING, 2141 GEARY BLVD #303, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIK ING. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/13/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036115800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AN EYE FOR ART, 621 BANKS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTINA MARIA MADRID MILLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/20/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/14.

NOV 06,13, 20, 27, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550676 In the matter of the application of: JEONG JA CHO, C/O KATHERINE M. LEWIS #247258, VAN DER HOUT, BRIGAGLIANO & NIGHTINGALE LLP, 180 SUTTER ST #500, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JEONG JA CHO, is requesting that the name JEONG JA CHO, be changed to JEONG TOBIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 30th of December 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550606 In the matter of the application of: ELIZABETH HANLEY, 330 VIRGINIA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ELIZABETH HANLEY, is requesting that the name ROSEMUND WREN DOUGLASS, be changed to ROSEMUND WREN HANLEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 2nd of December 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 30, NOV 06, 13, 20, 2014

November 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036128900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACORN COFFEE CO., 448 VICKSBURG ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS JAMES DOMBROWSKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036126500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LESLIE KARAS DESIGN, 1745 PACIFIC AVE #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LESLIE KARAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/30/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036115400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BUBBLE UP, 1364 CHURCH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LARRY TOY. 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 10/27/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036125700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NATIONAL SOCIAL ANXIETY CENTER-SF, 1801 BUSH ST BOX #18, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN R. MONTOPOLI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036109500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOME CAFE, 1222 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 1ST, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/23/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/23/14.

NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036109600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ONE UP, 1232 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SUNSET DRIFT IN LOUNGE, INC. (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/23/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/23/14.

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NOV 06, 13, 20, 27, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036131300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLESH AND SPIRIT COMMUNITY, 924 PRESIDIO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

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See Our Progress in the Bay Area.

Michael Kaufmann, Castro Neighborhood Resident

Replaced approximately 15 miles of gas pipeline

Invested

more than $1 billion into electrical improvements

“PG&E” refers to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation. ©2014 Pacific Gas and Electric Company. All rights reserved. Paid for by PG&E shareholders.

cOnnected more than 62,000 rooftop solar installations

Together, Building a Better California pge.com/SeeOurProgress

Lucy show

20

Arabian moods

NPH 4ever

Out &About

16

O&A

15

18

The

goes r qu iC curiouser e

Vol. 44 • No. 45 • November 6-12, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

curiouser &

by Richard Dodds

A

tissue box was quickly produced as Michel Laprise, the writer-director of Cirque du Soleil’s newest spectacle, began to choke up. The unexpected display of emotion came from recalling how he gained the trust of acrobatic acts of varied backgrounds, nationalities, and temperaments before being recruited for Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities. A previous Cirque director had talked about the challenge of prying loose from these performers the sense of ownership over their acts so they could be integrated into an overall vision, and the topic began the detour into tears.

See page 22 >>

Contortionists become sea serpents who invade an inventor’s lab in a scene from Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios.

Marin Girard/shootstudio.ca

Gabriel (Fabio Audi) and Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) in writer/director Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks.

Bright, handsome, gay & blind

by David Lamble

B

ay Area queer film fans got a peek at the work of a daring young LGBT director in 2010. Writer/director Daniel Ribeiro is a

young artist from a huge country, Brazil, that is in its own way as exceptional as the US. His short Eu Nao Quero Voltar Sozinho plops us down inside the complicated world of a young blind teen who feels he’s being smothered by an overprotective mom. The feature-length

version, opening Friday at Landmark Theatres in San Francisco and Berkeley, preserves the short’s unique vision while providing fascinating clues about how our senses shape and inform our sexuality.

See page 22 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Strand Releasing

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

Garden of transgender delights

by Roberto Friedman

ing youth through the adventures that led to her become SF’s toast of the town in the early 1970s.

The fest also celebrates a local drag legend with Heklina, directed by Brian Favorite. “From Heklina’s early years in Iceland to his emergence as a premiere performer in the drag scene in San Francisco and beyond, this film asks: What motivates Heklina to create?” WWHD? Tickets: brownpapertickets.com.

Info: sftff.org.

T

he 13th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival, North America’s first and the world’s longest-running transgender film fest, is coming up Nov. 7-9 at the Roxie Theater.

This year’s edition offers features and shorts from Nepal, Australia, England, Canada, Northern Ireland, and of course, the U.S. Artistic Director Shawna Virago shared some of the deets.

The SFTFF will present Black Is Blue by acclaimed director Cheryl Dunye on Fri., Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. In it, according to the program blurb, a “stealth trans man security guard” is forced to resolve some unanticipated inner conflicts from the past.

In Butterfly, a transgender couple, Adrianne and Karl, are both diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

In Flying Solo, Robina Asti, 92, a WWII veteran and pilot, tells her story of living as a transgender woman since 1976, and of her fight to be treated like any other widow.

A grieving Chicana mother confronts an uninvited family member before her Día de los Muertos celebration in You’re Dead to Me. Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight: The Vicki Marlane Story, directed by Michelle Lawler, chronicles the remarkable experiences of Vicki Marlane, from her roller-skating and cross-dress-

Food & wine

Elizabeth Strong

Life may not be a bowl of cherries, but for Out There, it is a good bottle of red and a media luncheon.

Follow along as we slurp and gobble.

Last month the specialty Italian food purveyor A.G. Ferrari invited us to a preview lunch at their updated SoMa store, in advance of its grand re-opening. Under three generations of family ownership, A.G. Ferrari has delivered a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Italian alimentari, with artisanal and imported products, prepared foods, boutique wine selections, and seasonal goods in its six Bay Area locations, including one in the Castro. OT got a taste of new menu offerings from in-house chef Ira Myer, expertly paired with unique Italian wine varietals by sommelier Tim Baumann.

Here was the bill of fare: Jerusalem artichoke gratin; fennel, orange

OFFICIAL BRAZILIAN ENTRY • FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM • 87th ACADEMY AWARDS

Scene from director Cheryl Dunye’s film Black Is Blue, coming to the 13th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival.

& hazelnut salad; roasted eggplant caponata; cannellini beans with roasted tomatoes; and grilled vegetable medley; paired with La Farra, a Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore. Then, ricotta & beef polpette, paired with De Conciliis, “Donna Luna” Paestum, Cilento Aglianico; roasted broccolini; and chicken Milanese, paired with Palazzone, Terre Vineate, Orvieto Classico Superiore.

Sandwiches were up next: tre (roast pork), paired with Giuseppe Gabbas, “LilLove,” Cannonau di Sardinia; sette (proscuitto & burrata) and quinoa salad with grilled squash, paired with Cantina Andriano, Lagrein Rose; sedici (asparagus), with Cantina del Tabruno, Falanghina; quattordici (turkey & fig) and roasted cauliflower, paired with Venturini, Valpolicella Classico. Our expert tasting panel would return to Ferrari for any of the above. We found Myer’s creations delicious, and Baumann’s pairings inspired. The asparagus sandwich alone would have driven most sommeliers into crazy despair, but he came up with the Falanghina, an ancient varietal that he said could “stand up to anything.”

Ferrari sent us home with its own brand of cavaturi and salsa all’arrabbiata, along with Tartuflanghe sale con tartufo blanco, Le Tamerici gelatina di prosecco, and Baratti & Milano cioccolato extra fondente. We cooked the pasta, which plumped up alarmingly, and served it with the spicy salsa, sprinkled with just a bit of the salt with white truffle. What a feast.

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Specialty Italian food purveyor A.G. Ferrari’s updated SoMa store.

Then we attended an unusual winetasting/jazz concert event at SFJazz Center, in which Luminary winemakers offered their 2012 debut release while a jazz combo led by inspired vocalist Pamela Rose made music. This proved to be a combination of pleasures that could serve as a template for all future concerts. The Luminary red blend combines wine from estate vineyards in five different locales. It’s composed of 55% cabernet sauvignon from Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa, CA; 19% syrah from Double Canyon in Horse Heaven Hills, WA; 8% syrah from Chamisal Vineyards in Edna Valley, CA; 16% zinfandel from Seghesio Family Vineyards in Alexander Valley, CA; and 2% merlot from Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa. The result is a bright, structured wine with layers of fruit, smoke and spice, eminently drinkable. Cheers from OT.t

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Fighting for Congo

Netflix

Scene from Orlando von Einsiedel’s debut feature Virunga.

by Erin Blackwell

V

Artist: Heather

t

irunga is 100 minutes of passionate documentary bursting at the frames to communicate to the world at large (including us jaded sophisticates) that what’s at stake in Congo’s biggest national park is nothing less than the future of environmental justice. What’s going down in Virunga, a World Heritage Site, is no different from the fracking debacle, or the shameful topless Appalachians, or the dreaded Alaska pipeline. Do the planet a favor and at least watch Orlando von Einsiedel’s debut feature Virunga on Netflix, starting Friday.

Virunga tells many interlocking stories simultaneously, being by turns history lesson, investigative journalism, nature documentary, and travelogue. This kaleidoscopic treatment is good for holding the attention of multitaskers, but might tax the comprehension of the more linear-minded, especially those ignorant of Congo history. A good place to start is Adam Hochschild’s 1998 bestseller King Leopold’s Ghost. This primer in corporate evil circa 1885 details the savagery with which Leopold II, King of the Bel-

gians, carved out an African colony for his own personal enrichment with the complicity of European and U.S. governments. Perhaps you’ve seen those photos of Africans with stumps instead of hands? This is that guy.

The resource grab started by Leopold continues today. Emmanuel de Merode, chief warden of Virunga National Park, is a Ph.D. in anthropology specializing in human ecology and an ardent conservationist.

He is also a law enforcement officer in charge of a small army sworn to defend the park and its wildlife. Six months ago he took two bullets for the cause, one in the stomach, one in the chest. “It is a war,” he said over strawberries at the publicist’s. “We live in a state of war. We’re at the center of it. You make a decision when you become a ranger. As the French say, C’est le risque du métier. [It comes with the territory.]” So far, 130 rangers have died in the line of duty.

The interview with de Merode and von Einsiedel was conducted half in English, half in French. It was all very pleasant and upmarket. The difference from almost every other See page 15 >>

t

Theatre>>

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Crash course in ‘I Love Lucy’

by Richard Dodds

S

he is playing, arguably, the most beloved character in television history, but Thea Brooks was not on intimate terms with Lucy Ricardo when she was cast in I Love Lucy Live on Stage. In fact, growing up in rural Vermont with hippie-esque parents, television was considered intellectual cotton candy. “I’ve been watching more television over the past few years, and it’s hard,” she said, “because I still have this voice in my head saying this is going to rot your brain.”

But when Brooks did get cast in I Love Lucy Live on Stage, arriving at the Curran Theatre on Nov. 11 as part of a national tour, the producers sent her a gift package of 190 episodes that make up the entire six-season run. “I’m still working my way through them,” she admitted in a phone call from Vermont during a break in the tour. But as for the two episodes that provide the core of the Lucy Live experience, she said, “I’ve watched them over and over ad nauseam, probably at least a hundred times if not more.”

Brooks, whose varied resume ranges from series TV to experimental theater to musical comedy to a dark alt-rock album, was able to develop her own system of learning Lucy-isms that generations of fans know so well. “One of my favorite things to do was to place my iPad against a mirror facing me so I could watch the episode and then simulate it in the mirror,” she said.

“Once we got it up on its feet, there were things that the director wanted

Before being cast as Lucy Ricardo, Thea Brooks has had a varied career ranging from rock music to slapstick comedy.

Ed Krieger

Euriamis Losada and Thea Brooks play Ricky and Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy Live on Stage, an SF-bound show that required Brooks to brush up on her Lucille Ball.

me to do, and in my naturally rebellious nature, I’d say I have to find what I find humorous or it will never translate. But Rick Sparks is just one of those warm and wonderful people, and he actually gave me a ton of leeway.”

The concept behind the production is to treat the theater audience as if it were a television studio audience in 1953 watching as the I Love Lucy episodes were filmed. A host explains how the process will evolve, and there are breaks for scene and costume changes, pickup shots,

bloopers, and advertising jingles.

Live musicians replicate the Ricky Ricardo Orchestra at the fictional Tropicana nightclub, where some of the scenes take place, although most of the action unfolds in a meticulous recreation of the Ricardos’ iconic apartment.

The two episodes being used in the production are The Benefit and Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined, both of which focus on Lucy’s persistently unsuccessful efforts to join her husband in show business. Lucy Live was born in 2011, and following ex-

tended runs in Los Angeles and Chicago, began a national tour last year.

After a summer hiatus, a mostly new cast took over in September, with Brooks as Lucy, Euriamis Losada as Ricky, Lori Hammel as Ethel Mertz, and tour holdover Kevin Remington as Fred Mertz – the roles created

by Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley.

Learning about Lucy Ricardo, for Brooks, also meant learning about Lucille Ball. “I do feel a deep connection with her in terms of her comedy, and I love broad slapstick stylings,” she said. “I think the reallife relationship between Lucy and Desi is fascinating, but I’m really not supposed to go into that very much.”

While the producers of Lucy Live have rights to the series’ scripts and their characters, the rights to the personae of the actors who played them are not part of the package, and their names are never mentioned in the stage production. “But there are certain moments that we built in when they’re not playing scenes,” Brooks said. “Like there is a moment when I see Desi talking with one of the other girls on the set.

They’re tiny moments that nobody’s supposed to know about, but you might catch them if you look hard.”

Landing the role of Lucy Ricardo was both a long shot and a long haul for Brooks. “I happened to be in-between representation because I had an agent who was sent to jail for stealing money from his top clients,” she said. “Luckily or unluckily, I never made him any money he could steal.” So Brooks showed up cold at open auditions with a hundred or so other aspirants. “After six callbacks, and three or four months, I landed the part.”

While Brooks will be touring the country into next year in Lucy Live, she’s conflicted about what may come next. “I’m about to turn 30, and I still don’t know where I fit in this industry,” she said. “This is an age when a lot of people drop out. But Lucille Ball didn’t find her groove until I Love Lucy, when she was already 40. I find that very reassuring.”t I Love Lucy Live on Stage will run Nov. 11-23 at the Curran Theatre.

Tickets are $45-$135. Call (888) 7461799 or go to shnsf.com.

Evolving with Gustav Mahler

by Philip Campbell

O

ne ambitious part of the celebrations surrounding Michael Tilson Thomas and his remarkable 20th year as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony includes an anniversary concert tour of American cities, many visited before, starting November 12 at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, MO. The featured works are typical of the maestro’s current and ongoing musical passions, and each city will enjoy a varied taste of how the orchestra has developed after two decades of a thriving partnership with born-again San Franciscan MTT. The nine-concert circuit continues through Ann Arbor, Cleveland, Boston, Princeton and New York City, and ends November 22 in Miami.

The programs mostly feature pieces previously performed in Davies Symphony Hall: Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with Gil Shaham, Samuel Adams’ Drift and Providence with the composer performing on electronica, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, and Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1. They will also be heard before the tour in some rather special “dress rehearsals” at DSH. Anyone

<<

Virunga

From page 14

arts interview I’ve done is, these guys daily risk their lives to defend the right of a national park to resist exploitation of its natural resources: vegetable, animal, and mineral.

Imagine rangers with rifles in the Grand Canyon. Imagine paramilitaries with tanks in Yosemite. Conservationists in the U.S. have lost so many battles without a shot being fired, it takes a minute to realize the implicit violence of Grand Theft Natural Resource.

who wants to reacquaint with rapid shifts from scene to scene can prove the undoing of a perthe musical selections or see viformance of the huge and inolinist Gil Shaham and Samuel triguing score. Narrowly avoiding Adams, son of renowned comthe kitsch and vulgarity Mahler poser John Adams, in the flesh has been accused of, MTT went can attend regular SFS subwith the composer’s mighty flow scription concerts starting this of inspiration and allowed the week and continuing through big phrases to blossom fully bethe next. fore turning to the next bizarre Last week offered the latdreamscape. It wasn’t hard to est opportunity to experience hear the influential touches that MTT’s ongoing and ceaselessly seduced generations of film comevolving relationship with composers, from Erich Korngold to poser Gustav Mahler. A knockJohn Williams. your-socks-off performance of The Finale was simply magthe challenging and quixotic nificent, and yes, as bright as day.

Seventh will only be repeated Kristen Loken The entire orchestra couldn’t in Michigan, New Jersey and help but smile and share in the New York, but judging from the San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas conducts. conductor’s triumphant energy. recent response, concertgoers Their ensemble playing was there had better get to the box wonderful and deeply comoffice fast. a dark piece that builds on a long lighting and fantastic decorations mitted. The soloists were also suThe multi-award-winning first movement, continues through from the Día de los Muertos (Day perb. The immediate standing ovaMahler Project, launched in 2001, episodic “night pieces,” and ends of the Dead) festivities that aftertion was not only anticipated, but yielded an amazing recorded legacy in “bright day” (the composer’s noon. It was lucky, also, to be sitting heartfelt. There should be plenty of on the in-house SFS Media label and words). At this point in MTT’s in one of the Hall’s elusive acoustic cheering heard on the road. alerted an international audience to scholarship, the score is less dark sweet-spots, where every strand of After 20 years of collaboration, the exciting musicianship of MTT than mysterious, and ominous only the orchestral fabric was highlighted the maestro and his stalwart alland the orchestra. The recordings in the way shadows in the woods and still blended into a rich and fullstar band are embarking on a wellare from live performances, and all might seem. bodied sound. deserved victory lap with the latest share from that fabulous extra frisThe night pieces remain phantasMTT’s positioning of the players American tour. We won’t celebrate son of spontaneity. It is always worth magorical and thrilling, still mysteand his expert control and underthem home with a ticker-tape pahearing MTT’s latest thoughts on rious, but not any more frightening standing set the seal on a perforrade like for the Giants, but we’re Mahler’s absorbing masterworks for than papier-mâché skulls. It was fun mance that shed new illumination every bit as appreciative of their that reason alone. to hear them the night after Hallowon a moody and difficult piece. The achievements.t The Seventh is usually considered een in a DSH still filled with orange tempo changes are dizzying, and the The third man I was attempting to interview simultaneously was André Bauma, a park ranger tasked with being, as he says, a mother to young gorillas orphaned by war or poaching. Bauma’s work with the endangered Mountain Gorilla is spectacular, and the species itself is worthy of its own film, but perhaps to present these great apes, so near and yet so far from human, in isolation from Congo’s resource war would misleadingly fragment their reality. How humans exploit each other (war and slavery) is all mixed up with how we exploit the planet

(pollution and habitat loss) and our fellow animals (slaughter and extinction).

The fourth main player in Virunga, a young French investigative journalist named Melanie Gouby, has since left Congo and wasn’t here to pitch the film. She strapped on a concealed microphone to interview operatives for U.K. oil giant SoCo, using her feminine wiles and heavily accented English to lull her unsuspecting subjects into telling the truth over a well-liquored dinner. One guy’s a manager, the other a security subcontractor.

They drunkenly empty their racist, neo-colonialist, anti-animal brainpans, saying, “That park’s a fucking mine,” and, “Who gives a fuck about a fucking monkey?” and, “The best for everyone would be to recolonize these countries.” Also wearing a concealed mike is Rodrigue Katembo, who gets the local powerbrokers to admit they’re in it for an infinitesimal slice of a mega-payoff.

Katembo, a child soldier turned ranger, has a haunted look verging on tears. After the filming, he was arrested and tortured, but has since returned to his post.

Thank Goddess for the rangers and their cool-headed commander Emmanuel de Merode, a human who makes me less ashamed to be a member of my species. A member of the Belgian royal family, which I guess means he’s somehow descended from that excrescence Leopold, he assures me he’s not working off any Belgian karmic debt, but feels a responsibility as a human.

“We need to take a hard look at the reasons for the conflict in Congo.

That is, the illegal exploitation of natural resources. This is unacceptable on a worldwide level.” Truth.t

<< Fine Art

16 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

1,001 nights in Arabian art

t

by Sura Wood

R

eaching back more than a million years into the past and literally sifting through the sands of time, Roads of Arabia at the Asian Art Museum is the show of the year for any self-respecting archaeology buff. Theatrically staged, almost like a modernist play, in darkened galleries with spotlights cast on emissaries from ancient worlds, this stunning traveling exhibition explores the heritage of the Arabian peninsula, a cultural crossroads for religious pilgrimage, migration, and trade, especially in incense, of which it was the dominant supplier, as well as the scene of the rise of Islam and the founding of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Featuring some 200 objects, many of them relatively recent finds unearthed at archaeological sites during the last half-century, the show includes enigmatic steles, utilitarian artifacts and dramatic statuary, Stone Age implements from the Paleolithic era, a sea of irregularly shaped, Arabic-inscribed basalt tombstones from a destroyed al-Ma’la cemetery north of Mecca that are installed in a museum courtyard, and a set of imposing 17th-century gilded doors that formed the original gateway to the Ka’aba, Islam’s holiest sanctuary. The exhibition, a portal to a relatively untapped region, hurtles through multiple epochs and exotic places like a time machine, while the area’s history, limned in text panels and maps that help orient visitors, consistently fascinates. Picture sitting at Scheherazade’s knee, listening in on her tales of long ago, faraway kingdoms and vanished cities whose inhabitants and untold riches disappeared without a trace. Take the solemn gold funerary mask (1st century CE) discovered at Thaj near Gerrha, a port believed to have been located on the Arabian Gulf coast where, archaeologists speculate, a dazzling civilization flourished and wealthy residents were awash in luxury. Nothing tangible remains of the peoples who lived there save

Courtesy of National Museum of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh

Courtesy of Tayma Museum

Funerary mask (1st century CE), gold. Thaj city, Tell alZayer site, Saudi Arabia.

Head of a statue (400-100 BCE), sandstone. Tayma city, Saudi Arabia

for references in scholarly texts. The mammoth exhibition catalogue is an excellent resource for these and other bewitching stories.

The show should inspire wonderment in anyone who ventures out to see it, a sensation that’s particularly acute when encountering three colossal statues (not displayed together) discovered in al-Ula in Northwestern Arabia. The red sandstone giants, which tower at over seven-feet-tall and have suffered varying degrees of damage across the centuries, were sentinels – one might possibly have represented a ruler – at the Temple of Kuraybah at Dedan (400-200 BCE). With their ramrod posture, belted skirts and hair swept back in a pageboy style, they’re reminiscent of similar Egyptian statuary, though their physiognomy is bulky and muscle-bound compared to that of their attenuated Egyptian counterparts. Even when sculptures are broken, the integrity of the artistry survives. A head of a royal statue from the Lihyanite dynasty, for example, thought to have been carved from a single block of stone 12-feet-high, has a smashed nose that doesn’t lessen the intensity of its penetrating stare or the expressiveness of its features.

Trade routes that expanded commerce also opened the door to outside cultural influences such as the

naturalistic Greco-Roman style manifested in the bronze “Head of a Lion” (2nd century CE), a roaring, life-like rendering down to a detailed mane, inlaid eyes and whiskers. It was found, like a number of objects here, along an incense road.

Also bearing a Western imprint is the bronze head of a man once attached to a life-size statue. It has a distinctive face caved in and deformed on one side, and sculpted rows of curled hair, a coif resembling a barrister’s wig that’s associated with Roman women of the 1st century BC and Greco-Egyptian sculptures of the Ptolemaic period.

But for sheer mystery it’s difficult to match the trio of spare, haunting anthropomorphic sandstone stelae, willowy and ranging from five to almost 10 feet in height. Most likely related to religious or burial rites and dating back to the 4th millennium BC – or 6,000 years ago, on the cusp of the Bronze Age – they are some of the earliest artifacts to emerge from excavation, and were part of a group of several dozen such intriguing, low-relief figures discovered in an area extending from Southern Jordan to Yemen.

Human in form yet godlike, vertical and nearly flat as pancakes, primitive but prescient, their minimalist design feels eerily modern. With elongated features delineated with a

Courtesy of Department of Archaeology Museum, King Saud University, Riyadh

Statuette of Heracles (1st-3rd century CE), bronze. Qaryat al-Faw site, Saudi Arabia.

single line or indentation, they suggest an early incarnation of Modigliani come to life in stone.

Abdulaziz ibn Abdulrahman ibn Faysal al-Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia, who established the present-day realm in 1932, gets his own gallery. That may be only fitting for a royal of his magnitude, but the offerings are on the meager side; the

imperial sword and its golden hilt, the kingly robe, a stained glove, and a wooden, leather-topped falcon perch. It’s a weak final leg in an otherwise memorable voyage that loses some of its magic as it moves closer to the present; sometimes it’s better to linger in the past.t Through Jan. 18, 2015.

Sins of apartheid

by David Lamble

W

hat’s a critic to do when faced with an 80-minute pill of a documentary whose off-putting mix of lurid violence and mindnumbing talking heads almost buries its quasi-fascinating premise?

It’s that the intervention of an obscure French commodities trader in the late 1980s helped jumpstart freedom for Nelson Mandela and the end to the vicious system of racial apartheid in South Africa. The late New York Times critic Vincent Canby once confided as to how he reviewed films he couldn’t sit through: by telling his readers what transpired on screen before he left the theatre. Roughly 24 minutes into a disc of Plot for Peace (opening Friday at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas), I wearily reached for the stop button. What was the problem?

First of all, filmmakers Mandy Jacobson and Carlos Agullo illustrate the very real sins of apartheid with non-contextualized clips of thuggish white South African stormtroopers inflicting murderous beatings on unarmed blacks in Soweto. If this doc is meant as anything more than an exercise in nostalgia for surviving adults from that era (Reagan’s second term), say a primer for today’s texting generation, then this horrendous slice of reality should be properly introduced. Otherwise, even intelligent

Scene from filmmakers Mandy Jacobson and Carlos Agullo’s Plot for Peace.

high schoolers, for whom the sins of apartheid are perhaps no more relevant than the excesses of the Borgia popes, may feel lost at sea, and will revert to their small-screen world.

Telling the story of the trader Jean-Yves Ollivier through several dozen talking heads is fitfully engaging, but suffers from the fact that some of the more esoteric details of the war between Cuban and South

African forces in Angola have probably been best-known, up to now, to subscribers of Foreign Affairs magazine.

In the news biz, the phrase “burying the lead” refers to a story so poorly constructed that the reader hasn’t a clue as to why she is reading it until the last paragraph. Most of the time, readers lose interest, as I did, long before they get to the

big reveal. Having a moving segment of Nelson Mandela greeting delirious South African crowds just before he became the nation’s first elected black leader doesn’t excuse the 70-minute non-sequitur that proceeds it.

Plot for Peace does provide African geo-politics buffs a fascinating glimpse into recent history involving some of the continent’s most in-

fluential leaders, along with a couple of scruffy, mufti-attired guerrilla warlords. The focus on the Cuban/ South African war, scantily reported on in the U.S. outside of the NY Times and Pacifica Radio, brings us tantalizingly close to grasping what appeared at the time to be the madly irrational policy of Cuban supreme leader Fidel Castro to put Cuban troops in Angola. Plot for Peace hints at the true story, which probably merits its own film.

The best quote slips early from the mouth of the film’s putative hero, “Monsieur Jacques.” “In 1981, arriving in South Africa felt like visiting another planet. I wondered how the whites did not realize that, unless they changed and accepted to share the country, they were headed for disaster.” Paradoxically, the film’s merits illustrate how this was a first draft of a doc, not a finished product. The failures of Plot for Peace make for a kind of ringing endorsement of old-fashioned “voice of God” narrated docs in the tradition of Edward R. Murrow at CBS, or today’s Frontline series on PBS. P.S. I finally finished watching the whole film, very late at night, while consuming a microwaved beef pot pie.

P.S.S. The filmmakers are expected to appear at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas in SF this Friday night, Nov. 7, for a Q&A after the 7:20 p.m. show and to introduce the 9:55 p.m. show.t

t

Music>>

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Reinterpretations rock

by Gregg Shapiro

T

he Flaming Lips scorch our ears and fry our brains on With a Little Help from My Fwends (Warner Bros.). The band turns its attention to the Fab Four with its visceral reinvention of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Joined by a stellar assortment of “fwends” like Tegan and Sara, My Morning Jacket, Miley Cyrus and Moby, the Flaming Lips take the psychedelic groundwork laid by the Beatles and launch it into the stratosphere. Cover versions of songs are meant to give the listener a fresh perspective on something familiar. Kudos to the Flaming Lips for doing just that and leaving their imprint at the same time.

On Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro (Masterworks), pianist Billy Childs gathers a remarkable array of artists to pay tribute to the late singer/songwriter Laura Nyro. Produced by Larry Klein, the album opens with the native New Yorker’s “New York Tendaberry,” featuring opera diva Renee Fleming and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Fleming is the perfect choice for the song that showed off Nyro’s range. Lisa Fischer, featured in the Oscar-winning doc Twenty Feet from Stardom, strikes gold on the title track, Ledisi gets listeners high on “Stoned Soul Picnic,” and Shawn Colvin and Chris Botti turn the jubilant “Save the Country” into a mournful call to action.

Cheek to Cheek (Streamline/Columbia/Interscope), by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, has its charms.

Bennett’s voice is almost shot (he’s 88), so the star here is Gaga. Hearing her perform standards “Lush Life,” “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” and “But Beautiful” confirms that she’s a gifted vocalist, more Christina than Britney.

Better known as an actress, Minnie Driver has released three albums in 10 years, the third being Ask Me To Dance (Zoe), the best of the lot.

The 10 tunes Driver selected to cover shine a light on her good musical taste, beginning with Elliott Smith’s “Waltz #2 (XO).” She puts the brakes on the Cure’s “Close to Me” and Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster (Jammin’),” finding something new to say with the tunes. Her rendition of Crowded House’s “Better Be Home Soon” makes a pretty song even prettier, while the mood of Paul

Weller’s “Wild Wood” is changed considerably. Also noteworthy are Driver’s reading of Neil Young’s “Tell Me Why,” and the guitar/fiddle arrangement on John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness.”

If you’re a gay man of a certain age, you know Bryan Adams as the guy who sang the disco hit “Let Me Take You Dancing.” Adams reinvented himself through the 1980s and became one of the era’s biggestselling artists. On Tracks of My Years (Verve), Adams pays tribute to the artists who made him who he is, and there’s not a disco track here. Adams opens with Beatles tune “Any Time at All,” and continues with tunes made famous by Ray Charles (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”), the Manhattans (“Kiss and Say Goodbye”), CCR (“Down on the Corner”), Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”), Frankie Valli (“Sunny”), Beach Boys (“God Only Knows”), the Association (“Never My Love”) and Smokey Robinson (“Tracks of My Tears”), all sung in his trademark growl.

Isabel Rose may not be the best singer, but she has impeccable taste in music, as she proves on the campy Trouble in Paradise (Jubilee). She gives renditions of 10cc’s “Things We Do for Love,” Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn,” the Neil Sedakapenned Captain & Tenille hit “Love Will Keep Us Together,” and a cover of the Supremes’ “Reflections” in a remix by the late Frankie Knuckles.

Audra McDonald won a Tony Award for her portrayal of jazz legend Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Recorded before a live audience in May at the Circle in the Square Theater in NY, the double-disc Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (PS Classics) takes cast recordings to a new level. Singer/songwriter Annie Ross pays homage to Holiday on To Lady with Love (Red Anchor), backed by guitarists Bucky and John Pizzarelli.

A bonus DVD features interviews with Ross and the Pizzarellis talking about Holiday.

Eartha Kitt gets the tribute treatment from Rene Marie on I Wanna Be Evil (Motema). The disc contains Marie’s interpretations of “C’est ci Bon,” “Peel Me a Grape,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and “Santa Baby.” On Save Your Love for Me (Felton Entertainment), Cynthia Felton sings Nancy Wilson classics

“Guess Who I Saw Today,” “Never Will I Marry,” “I Wish You Love,” and the title tune.

The variety of artists featured on the compilation Link of Chain: A Songwriters’ Tribute to Chris Smither (Signature Sounds), including queer performers Mary Gauthier and Patty Larkin, as well as Bonnie Raitt, Loudon Wainwright III and Josh Ritter, may play a role in bringing Smither’s work to a larger audience.t

<< Out&About

18 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

O&A

Testament @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre presents Seana McKenna in Colm Tóibín’s lyrical solo play about a mother whose son's been taken by fanatics. $20-$120. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun matinees. Thru Nov. 23. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. act-sf.org

Out &About

Fri 7 Fri 7 Shakespeare’s R&J

Whetting appetites Lois Tema

by Jim Provenzano

A

nd here we are, heading into November with some welcome wet weather and brisk breezes, a few literary giants, a classic musical and some dramas with a twist; oh, and Carol Channing! I mean, really, if she’s not amusing enough for you, you might as well already go into hibernation.

Thu 6 Absolutely Fabulous @ Stage Werx Live stage versions of three episodes (one each night) of Jennifer Saunder's BBC comedy show. $15-$25. Thu 8pm.

Fri 11pm. Nov. 6 & 7, 13 & 14. Dec. 4 & 5, 11 & 12. 446 Valencia St. www.stagewerx.org

Author Events @ Modern Times Bookstore Nov. 6, 7pm: Tom Gallagher, author of Sub: My Years Underground in America's Schools. Nov. 7, 7pm: Nora Barrows-Friedman In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize for Justice in Palestine. Nov. 8, 12pm-4pm: Store Yard Sale and fundraiser. Nov. 8, 7pm: Marjorie Cohn, Drones and Targeted Killing. Nov. 9, 3:30pm: musician Victor Krummenacher Band. Nov. 11, 6:30pm: Havana medical writer Nancy Alonso. Nov. 12, 6:30pm: film screening of Forward Ever: The Killing of a Revolution. Nov. 13, 7pm: Martha Shelley on her novel The Stars in Their Courses. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Katie Gilmartin @ Books Inc. Author of Blackmail, My Love: A Murder Mystery is set in 1950s queer underground San Francisco. 7:30pm.

2275 Market St. www.booksinc.net

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Nov. 6: Mary Woronov in person at a screening of The Chelsea Girls (7pm).

Nov. 7: The Notebook (7:20) and Minnie and Moskowitz (9:45). Nov. 8: SF International South Asian Film Festival (Nov. 6-9 and 15). Nov. 9: Mean Girls with Peaches Christ (3pm) and Ross Mathews live (8pm), both part of Bear Pride events. Nov. 11: The Best Years of Our Lives (5pm) and First Blood (9:10). Nov. 12: The Graduate (7pm) and Rushmore (9pm). Nov. 13: 20,000 Days on Earth (7pm) and Tracks (8:50). $12-$15. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. castrotheatre.com

Wed 12

Ego, Insufficiency @ Z Space Director Andy Jorden stages two plays

by Dr. Carl Djerassi, accomplished author, playwright, and scientist (inventor of the birth control pill), on the anniversary of the playwright's 90th birthday. $20-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Nov. 7. 470 Florida St. (866) 8114111. www.zspace.org

Hella Gay Comedy Festival @ Various Venues Lesbian, gay and straight-ally comics perform nightly at a variety of venues (Club OMG, Magnet, Supperclub).

Thru Nov. www.hellagaycomedy.com

Literary Death Match @ Contemporary Jewish Museum The raucously witty Literary Death Match teams up with Reboot’s Unscrolled for a night of laughter and unusual Torah commentary.

Contestants include Davy Rothbart, Karen Leibowitz, Joel Stein, and Gabe Delahaye. Hosted by Adrian Todd Zuniga; judges include Rabbi David Kasher, Rebecca Bortman, and Oscar Villalon. $5-$10. 6:30-8:30pm. 736 Mission St. www.thecjm.org

Anne Rice

Reading Trans Identity @ GLBT History Museum Scholars Dr. Ardel Thomas and Ms. Bob Davis discuss archival investigation of crossdressing and trans identity. 7pm. ($5/free for members). 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

SF Dance Film Festival @ Brava Theater 5th annual four-day festival of innovative, new and classic dance films about Alonzo King, Paul Taylor, pop and ballet works, plus panels, workshops and awards. $13-$250 (patron pass). Thru Nov. 9. 2781 24th St. (some events elsewhere). www.sfdancefilmfest.org

SF Olympians Festival @ Exit Theatre The Monster Compendium, a marathon of staged readings of new works dealing with mythological creatures in a variety of settings. $10.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 156 Eddy St. 673-3847. www.theexit.org

Shocktoberfest @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers' 15th annual Halloween season shock theatre presents the new horror, song and puppet-filled show, The Bloody Denutante, Isabel's Zombie Holocaust and other acts. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Party People @ Berkeley Repertory

Keith Haring: The Political Line @ de Young Museum

Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz's music and theatre stage adaptation of Black Panthers and Young Lords veterans who reunite at a young activist art opening. $29-$79.

Tue-Sat 8pm (Wed & Sun 7pm). Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 23. 2025 Addison st. (510) 647-2900. www.berkeleyrep.org

New exhibit of 130 large-scale paintings, sculptures and retrieved subway drawings by the late great gay graffiti artist who came to global fame. Free-$26-$41. Tue-Sun 9:30am5:15pm. Thru Feb. 16. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive.

750-3600. www.famsf.org

Queerly Oakland @ The New Parkway Cinema Queer Women of Color Media Arts Projects's evening of six short films by and about local lesbian women, with director Q&As. Free. 6pm-8pm. 474 24th St. at Telegraph, Oakland. www.thenewparkway.com

77% @ Tides Theater

Red Wolf @ The Flight Deck, Oakland

Rinne Groff's drama about a highpowered businesswoman, her stayat-home dad husband who fight over whether to have another child. $20.

Thu 7pm, Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm.

Thru Nov. 22. 533 Sutter St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Amy Sass and Anthony Clarvoe's very sexually-charged take on the Red Riding Hood tale. (Adults only). $15-$40. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm Sun 7pm. Thru Nov. 8. 1540 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 473-8867. www.raggedwing.org

Blood Wedding @ Exit Stage Left

Shakespeare's R&J @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Bigger Than a Breadbox Theatre Company's staging of Federico Garcia Lorca's tragic drama about conflicts when a groom runs off with another woman. $15-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 156 Eddy St. btabtheatreco.org

Breakfast With Mugabe @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley West Coast premiere of Fraser Grace's provocative drama about the Zimbabwe president's MacBeth-ish haunts and therapy sessions. $35-$50. Tue 7pm.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 7. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Carl Linkhart @ Glamarama, Oakland Opening reception for Dreamscape: The Night Vision of Carl Linkhart, a new exhibit of unusual surreal paintings, with a live performance by the artist as Carl With Records. 6pm9pm. Thru Jan. 11. 6399 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.carllinkhart.com www.glamarama.com John Hurley and Bianca Marroquin star in the touring company of the Tony Award-winning musical about jazz-era Chicago criminals. $60-$210. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru Nov. 16. 1192 Market St. shnsf.com

The prolific solo performer returns with two of his shows in repertory: Not a Genuine Black Man (Thu & Fri 8pm) and The Waiting Period (Sat 5pm). $30-$100. Thru Nov. 22. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. themarsh.com

42nd Street Moon's new production of Sandy Wilson's send-up of 1920s musical comedies, with three girls on the Riviera in search of love and adventure. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm.

Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov. 16. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndStMoon.org

Herb Gardner's comedy about a single father who might lose his precocious son. $10-$30. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm.

3683 Quail Ave., Castro Valley. (510) 733-5483. www.chantcleers.org

Chicago @ Orpheum Theatre

Brian Copeland @ The Marsh

The Boy Friend @ Eureka Theatre

1,000 Clowns @ Chanticleers Theatre, Castro Valley

Dia le los Muertos @ SOMArts Cultural Center Visions at Twilight, a group exhibit of Mexican Day of the Dead-inspired art, shrines and installations. Exhibit Thru Nov. 8. 934 Brannan St. somarts.org

Dracula @ Smith Center, Ohlone College, Fremont The college theatre department performs Stephen C. Wathen's stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. $12-$15. Nov. 6-8 and 13-15 at 8pm. ASL-interpreted Nov 7.

43600 Mission Blvd., Fremont. www.smithcenter.com

Ideation @ SF Playhouse Aaron Loeb's darkly comic play about corporate consultants undergoing a dubious project. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 8. 450 Post St. 6779596. www.SFplayhouse.org

Muisi-kongo Malonga @ CounterPulse The African dance-theatre ensemble performs Kimpa Vita!, the story of martyred mothers in Kongolese culture. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov. 16. 1310 Mission St. at 9th. www.counterpulse.org

Oakland East Bay Symphony @ Paramount Theatre West Coast premiere of Chris Brubeck and Guillaume Saint-James's Brothers in Arts and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. $20-$70. 8pm.

2025 Broadway. Also simulcast and projected at the First Fridays Great Wall film showing, 400 West Grand Ave. (510) 444-0802. www.oebs.org

t

Joe Calarco's hit gay retake on Romeo and Juliet returns, this time set in dangerously antigay modern-day Egypt; staged by Ben Randle. $25$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 14. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Shock and Awww @ Shelton Theatre Left Coast Theatre Company's minifestival of six LGBT-themed one-act plays about love, dating and sex,

by Chris Maltby, Ron Burch, Joseph Frank, Jami Brandli, Dave Carley and Kristian O'Hare. $19-$38. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 22. 533 Sutter St. www.LCTC-SF.org

Transgender Film Festival @ Roxie Theater

Mary Poppins @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse's lighthearted production of Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman and Julian Fellowes' musical adaptation of P.L. Travers' book and the Disney film. $17-$60. Fri 7pm. Sat 1pm & 6pm.

Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru Dec. 7. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.BerkeleyPlayhouse.org

Open Studios @ Citywide The fall annual artists' walking tour invites patrons to visit artists in their studios, including Talavera-Ballon Studio (3712 25th St.), David Barnett and Charlene Eldon (1370 Noe St.) and many others. 11am-6pm.

Also Nov. 9. www.artspan.org/sfopenstudios

Safeway Holiday Ice Rink @ Union Square The seventh annual ice skating festivities, including special events, continues thru Jan 19. $7-$11. Skate rentals $6. Powell St. at Geary. 7812688. www.unionsquareicerink.com

The Tempest @ Buriel Clay Theatre African American Shakespeare Company's modern-day production of the Bard's classic, with toxic waste and environmentalism added to the stormy mix. $15-$34. Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Nov. 9. AAACC, 762 Fulton St. www.african-americanshakes.org

Thu 6

Annual collection of trans-themed feature and short films. $12-$15. Thru Nov. 9. 3117 16th St. at Valencia. www.SFTFF.org

Sat 8 Arnold Newman: Masterclass @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Exhibit of prints by the influential photographer. Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.).

421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

The Book of Ava @ Hotel Rex Cabaret show with Frank Silletti and Ava Vukic, a gay father and his tenyear-old daughter. $25-$45. 7pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Carol Channing, Tommy Tune @ Curran Theatre The Broadway legends share an onstage talk about Channing's lengthy and stellar career. $65-$140. 8pm.

445 Geary St. www.shnsf.com

Deathtrap @ Lesher Theatre, Walnut Creek Ira Levin's comedic thriller is performed by Center Repertory theatre company. $33-$58. Tue 7:30pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469. www.CenterRep.org

Gabe Delahaye at Literary Death Match

Sun 9 Carly Ozard @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The talented Bay Area vocalist performs Midler on the Roof: One Singer's Journey of Divine Intervention, her song tribute to Bette Midler. $25-$40. 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.carlyozard.com

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

Roads of Arabia @ Asian Art Museum Roads of Arabia : Archeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (thru Jan. 18); Dual Natures in Ceramics : Eight Contemporary Artists from Korea (thru Feb. 22). Other fascinating exhibits as well. Free(members, kids 12 and under)-$15. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

FRIDAY November 7th

t Out&About>>

Who We Are! - 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. Drum Celebration- FREE

Mean Girls @ Castro Theatre

TICKETS

Peaches Christ hosts a screening of the classic 90s flick, and a Q&A with actor Daniel Franzese (Damian); part of Bear Pride week fun. $15-$25. 3pm.

429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist. com www.castrotheatre.com

* $25 3-Day Pass Tickets

Available at brownpapertickets.com.

Search for “Black Repertory Group”

Dias de Los Muertos 20th Anniversary, a group exhibit of the Mexican-themed art (thru Jan. 4).

Judy Chicago: A Butterfly for Oakland, a collection of slides and films of her 1974 Lake Merritt pyrotechnical installation; part of a nationwide group of exhibits celebrating the pioneering feminist artist's 75th birthday (thru Nov. 30). Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California (thru April 12). Free/$15.

Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Mon 10 All Aboard @ Walt Disney Museum A Celebration of Walt Disney's Trains, thru Feb. 9, plus classic art work and ephemera from the park and animated films. Free/$20. Open daily 10am-6pm. 104 Montgomery St., the Presidio. 345-6800. www.waltdisney.org

Among Dreams @ LGBT Center Chelsea Rae Klein's multimedia exhibit of works that interpret the once-closeted lives of LGBT military members, and the anniversary of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. An online archive of the exhibit includes bios, photos and multimedia. Thru Nov. 11. 1800 Market St. www.amongdreams.com www.sfcenter.org

Butch @ Austin Gallery Butch: Not Like Other Girls, the local installation of Los Angeles-based SD Holman's touring photo exhibit of butch women. By appointment thru Nov. 18. 799 Castro St. 282-4511. www.austinlawgroup.com

Skulls @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth, including the new popular exhibit of animal and human skulls (thru Nov. 30). Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$35. MonSat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. calacademy.org

Theatre Bay Area Awards @ Geary Theatre Annual awards ceremony for the Bay Area Theatre artists in a variety of categories, plus Legacy Awards. $35$125. 7pm. 415 Geary St. Post-event at Ruby Skye ($10). www.act-sf.org/tba

Woods to Wildflowers @ SF Botanical Gardens See blooming floral displays, trees and exhibits. Also, daily walking tours and more, at outdoor exhibits of hundreds of species of native wildflowers in a century-old grove of towering Coast Redwoods. Free-$15. Daily. Golden Gate Park. 661-1316. www.SFBotanicalGarden.org

Tue 11 Alien She @ YBCA The first exhibition to showcase the impact and ephemera of the Roit Grrrl movement and culture. Free-$15.

Exhibit Tue-Sun 12pm-6pm. Thru Jan. 25. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

- 7:30 - 8:00 p.m. VIP Soul Food & Champagne Reception

WOW!

- 8:00 p.m. -

Our Golden Anniversary - we made it to our 50th Season of uninterrupted service!

The festively gay TV celebrity performs his oh-so-gay comedy show as part of Bear Pride events. $25-$40.

8pm. 429 Castro st. www.castrotheatre.com

Fri 7

Chicago

Most humbly, our most earnest desire is that you accept our invitation to attend a celebration event of Black Repertory Group's 50th Season.

Please come to one or all of our opening celebration dates at the Berkeley Black Repertory Group!

Anthony Friedkin: FOUNDERS The Gay BIREL & NORA VAUGHN Essay @ de Young Museum

- 7:00 p.m. -

Thu 13

Dru

- 7:00 p.m. Awards/Community Awards/Community * $50 3-Day Pass Jubilee VIP Tickets Recognition SATURDAY SUNDAY Awar * $25 3-Day Pass Tickets Recognition Awar *Available $25 3-Day Pass Tickets Celebrating & at brownpapertickets.com.

November 8th November 9th November 6-12, 2014 B ay- A rea R eporter 19 • • Celebrating 7:30 8:00 p.m. in & Fi Available at brownpapertickets.com.

-VIP 7:30Soul - 8:00 p.m.

Food &How We VIP Soul Food & Champagne Reception Champagne Reception

Search for “Black Repertory Group” We Group” Roll!

Search for “BlackHow Repertory

WOW! WOW!

Give Thanks!

- 2:00 - 6:00p.m. Panel Discussion, “Cops & Robbers” Play, Drumming - FREE Our Golden Anniversary

- 8:00 p.m. -

BLACK REPERTORYThe GROUP Gospel - 8:00 - - 2:00 - 4: p.m.

30 p.m.

- we Golden made it Anniversary to our 50th - 8:00 p.m. Awards/Community Our -Season we made it to our 50th Recognition of uninterrupted Awards Ceremony

* $50 3-Day Pass Jubilee VIP Tickets

Ross Mathews @ Castro Theatre

Songs and Sorrows @ Oakland Museum

- 7:00 p.m. -

3

TICKETS TICKETS * $50 3-Day Pass Jubilee VIP Tickets

Season uninterrupted service! ofCelebrating & Acknowledging Acheivers service!

Tribute

led by Martha Knox Director of The Black Repertory Group Choir

We did it Together

50 Years!

in Film, Stage, Media

Harry our Karsten, Danny Glover, David E. Talbert Most humbly, most Most most Michael Paseornek, earnesthumbly, desire isour that you Sam Mills, Ishmael Reed Ntozake earnest desire is thatShange, you Joan California Cooper accept our invitation Evans, Sid & Betty Burston, Paula Martin, accept ourMari invitation to attend aGeneva celebration event Black Repertory Baskerville, , Dr.ofSid & Betty Burstot, to attendBernard a celebration event Black Boudreaux, LindaofHowe, Dr.Repertory Mike Howe Group's 50th Season.

Group's Season.

Mary 50th & Willie Ratcliff, AmeliaPlease Ward, Paul Cobb, Dr. Harold come to one or all Orr, Dr. Lisa Benton, Dr. CecilPlease Williams, Dr. Arnold Perkins, come to one or all of our opening celebraMr. Michael Shaw, Dr. Nora Ebio, Jacques Pryor, Wanda Sabir of ourdates opening tion at thecelebra- until 2tion a.m.dates at the Berkeley Black Berkeley Black Repertory The Gold Party Group!

Repertory Group!

GOLD Attire , 21+

VIP Soul Food &

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L OFeaturing: ERS "BLACK &N BREATHING" Please join us for our 3-day kickoff Featuring: ByD.J. J.'California' Cooper RICK PATRICK of our season-long celebration!

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FOUNDERS BIREL & NORA VAUGHN Theme: Soul Food & ChampagneTHANK YOU SPONSORS: BART | KBLX | FOUNDERS BIREL & NORA VAUGHN THANK YOU SPONSORS: BART | KBLX | K "BLACK & BREATHING" Bla Featuring: Songs by Bla D.J. RICK PATRICK The Dynamic Faye Carol THE WORLD FAMOUS Jazz Songstress Joyce Grant LONERS WINE IN THE THE WOMAN AT THE MULATTO RICK & RUSS SHOW Dr. Malaika Scott LONERS WINE IN THE THE WOMAN AT THE MULATTO Feb. 13-28 Nov. 9-17 WILDERNESS WELL 15-Feb.1 Artistic Jan. Executive Director Ms. Sean Davis Feb. 13-28

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Black Repertory Group Theater 3201 Adeline Street Berkeley, CA 94703 Exhibit of photos, and an50th audiovisual MAINSTAGE SEASON (510) 652-2120 | http://www.blackrepertorygroup.com 20th Century Salon OF 2014/2015 TICKETS FOR ALL PERFORMANCES AVAILABLE @BROWNPAPER installation, by the Los Angeles artist TICKETS FOR ALL PERFORMANCES AVAILABLE @BROWNPAPER Photography: LONERS WINE IN THE A Tribute THE WOMAN AT THE MULATTO THE AMEN CORNER PURLIE VICTORIOUS who focused on gay underground Feb. 13-28 April 10-May 10 June 12-21 Nov. 9-17 WILDERNESS WELL Jan. 15-Feb.1 @ Robert Tat Gallery culture of the late 1960s and early Nov. 28-Dec. 6 Group exhibit of vintage photography '70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015. by famous artists like Ansel Adams, Lines on the Horizon : Native American Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston Art from the Weisel Family Collection, TICKETS PERFORMANCES AVAILABLE @BROWNPAPERTICKETS.COM and others. Thru Nov. 29.FOR 49 ALL Geary St. thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10. Tue-Sun 781-1122. www.roberttat.com 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, TICKETS FOR ALL PERFORMANCES 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive.

AVAILABLE @ BROWNPAPERTICKETS.COM Aquascapes www.deyoungmuseum.org

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the "Godfather of Skate."

Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday's Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

I Love Lucy @ Curran Theatre Live recreation of two episodes from the Lucille Ball and Ricky Ricardo studio tapings, including bloopers and vintage advertising breaks (95 minutes; no intermission). $45-$115.

Tue-Thu 7:30pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru Nov. 23. 445 Geary St. (888) 746-1799. www.shnsf.com

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center Weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let's Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group.

Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www.letskickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

Norma I. Quintana, Najib Joe Hakim @ RayKo Photo Center Dual exhibit of Hakim's photos of Little Palestine by the Bay, and Quintana's Circus: A Traveling Life.

Tue-Thu 10am-10pm. Fri-Sun 10am8pm. Thru Nov. 29. 428 Third St. 4953773. www.raykophoto.com

Wed 12 Anne Rice @ Books Inc, Opera Plaza The bestselling author signs copies of her latest, Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles (signing only; purchase required, lineup is first come, first served). 7pm. 601 Van Ness Ave. 7761111. www.booksinc.net

At Large: Ai Weiwei @ Alcatraz Island The internationally acclaimed Chinese sculpture's exhibit of seven sitespecific multimedia installations; the largest art exhibit ever hosted by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. $18-$30. Daily except major holidays thru April 26, 2015. www.AiWeiWeiAlcatraz.org

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays.

JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

@ Conservatory of Flowers

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

Bold Awards @ GLBT Center Juanita More!, Rob Evans and Terry Michaeu and the SF Human Rights Commision are honored at this LGBT awards ceremony and reception. $35$250. 6pm-10pm. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

Gay Tourism, Urban Development @ GLBT History Museum John Ballesteros (SF Travel Assoc.) and Brian Basinger (AIDS Housing Alliance) discuss how tourism has shaped the gay community and gentrification's effects. 7pm. Also, 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out, an exhibit focusing on San Francisco's emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE magazine feature "Homosexuality in America." Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members). 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Puppet Up! Uncensored @ Marines' Memorial Theatre Henson Alternative's adults-only C puppet show with a comic improvised edge. $40-$50. Thru Nov. 23. 609 M Sutter St. (888) 746-1799.

Y www.puppetup.com www.shnsf.com

S. Chris Shirley @ Books Inc. Castro

CM

MY

Award-winning writer-director reads CY from and discusses his debut novel CMY Playing by the Book, his acclaimed college student gay coming-of-age K novel. 7pm. 2275 Market St. 8646777. www.schrisshirley.com www.booksinc.net

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

Stranger Than Life @ Cartoon Art Museum The Cartoons and Comics of M.K. Brown (thru Feb 15). Other exhibits and events. Free-$8. Tue-Sun 11am5pm. 655 Mission St. 227-8666. www.cartoonart.org To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

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<< TV

20 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

It’s beginning to look a lot like NPH

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by Victoria A. Brownworth

T

hree of our favorite (and scariest) holidays are over: Halloween, Dia de los Muertos and Election Day. And now, apparently, it’s Christmas. Even though there’s still leftover Halloween candy on the living room table.

On Halloween night, ABC Nightly News reported how stores all WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS over America are “jump-starting” stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com the holiday shopping season. The reporter stood in front of overdecorated Christmas trees in a New York department store while kids were just getting ready for trick-ortreating. Halloween night, we saw ads from four major chain stores replete with snow and Christmas shopping. Snow. While it was still Halloween. Uh, Christmas is almost two months away.

We hate this. We don’t want to be hearing Christmas carols in October. Or even November. We don’t want to hear them before Thanksgiving, which is not, contrary to some retailers’ perception, all about shopping. We get that we live in a consumer culture. But maybe we need to scale it back. Because it’s, you know, awful.

Plus, this rushing of the seasons also means we have to hear the Right whine delusionally about the “war on Christmas” for much longer. How can there be a war on Christmas when the holiday is ubiquitous for nearly two full months?

That’s our TV rant for today, folks.

Prep for “Jingle Bells,” Burl Ives and George Michaels before he was a registered sex offender for the next seven weeks. Oy. Why can’t Christmas be more like Halloween?

Halloween on the tube never overstays its welcome. We get about two BAR 3.75x5 online appointment ad v3.indd 1 8/15/14 10:17 AM weeks of it on scripted TV. There’s Martha Stewart and the Martha Stewart wannabes showing you how real Halloween decor is done, my dear. There are all the shows doing prep for makeup and costuming. Then, finally, we get the morning shows and talk shows THE RICHMOND/ERMET AIDS FOUNDATION PROUDLY PRESENTS dressing up their anchors and hosts on Halloween only, not for days in ✵ advance. Today won Halloween this year with its SNL Today show. Now if SNL could just win SNL, it would all be good. More on SNL later.

Halloween doesn’t drag on and on. It knows when to finish.

We were forced to stay in this Halloween, kept company by the tube while our beloved dealt with trick-or-treaters. We really enjoyed seeing so many people of color doing Halloween, like on Black-ish and Cristella. Gosh, it almost looked like real America. That only took how many decades? We decided to watch the lesbian episodes of Lifetime’s MARINES MEMORIAL THEATRE (don’t judge us) Witches of East End. Because Julia Ormond’s JoanFEATURING: THE BROADWAY TOURING CAST OF na Beauchamp is just breathtaking, and we were in the mood for lesbian witches on Halloween.

The cast of MeshugaNutcraker PLUS It must always be Halloween or Dia de los Muertos at Ryan Murphy’s house, because this season of American Horror Story is the most creepy and complex yet. Freak Show even bests Asylum, not for terror, but for under-your-skin-ness. AHS American Idol, B’ star Broadway/TV star TV/Cabaret star Broadway star is fabulous TV. Gay showrunner JASON BROCK DAVIS GAINES LA TOYA LONDON JAI RODRIGUEZ Ryan Murphy has pretty much invented the whole “limited series” Tickets & Info at ✵ concept that is fast becoming a new www.helpisontheway.org or 415.273.1620 standard on TV. Murphy also wrote and directed the premiere episodes SPONSORED BY: this season. Tidbit: Murphy and his husband David Miller just had their second son via surrogate last week.

This season of AHS, even more

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TV’s gay It Boy, Neil Patrick Harris, will join the cast of American Horror Story: Freak Show.

than previous seasons, there is a real subtlety in the Monsters Among Us concept that resonates beyond the theme of the Freak Show. The subtextual elements of this show are so parallel to LGBT lives then and even now (Freak Show is set in 1952). Sex plays an important role: both the sex people have, and the sex they don’t have. The miasma of that slightly paranoiac 1950s Us vs.

Them social construct envelops everyone, and while the period is deftly portrayed here, we also see the clear parallel to our own time.

On Oct. 29 it was announced that TV’s gay It Boy, Neil Patrick Harris, would join the cast of AHS for the final few episodes, as will Harris’ husband, actor David Burtka. Harris is in the midst of his book tour and fresh from his Tony Award win for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He’s also just been announced as the host for the 2015 Oscars, and is currently co-starring in the hit film Gone Girl.

On Oct. 27, NBC announced Harris would be hosting a variety show for the network next season. The show will be based on the U.K.’s Saturday Night Takeaway, but the NBC version will neither use the original title nor air on Saturdays. But it will be an hour long and most likely will be based in New York. Harris is as ubiquitous as Christmas before December.

One of the creepiest characters we ever saw Harris play was a sociopathic killer on Law & Order: Criminal Intent a decade ago. We can only imagine what he will do with Freak Show. Murphy told reporters that Harris had some specific ideas he wanted to explore and that the two were collaborating on what Harris’ FS character will be like. We can’t help liking Harris, and look forward to him on AHS. We appreciate how Harris spreads his gayness everywhere, touching every aspect of popular culture and forcing America to accept that the gay won’t go away.

Almost as ubiquitous as Harris, with her millions of Twitter followers and her vivid digital foot-

print, Ellen DeGeneres, the lesbian everybody loves, just launched a new YouTube channel in collaboration with Warner Bros. Ellentube is so user-friendly, it may be the real homosexual agenda everybody is always alluding to. Millions are already signing up to watch.

Speaking of Ellen, her wife, Portia de Rossi, is chewing the scenery on ABC’s Scandal this season as Elizabeth North, head of the RNC (Cyrus calls her Lizzie Bear). We think there would be real problems for 2016 if Lizzie existed in real life, since she’s ruthless. Meanwhile, the rumors keep swirling that Portia and Ellen are having marital difficulties. On Halloween, RadarOnline reported that the couple had a public fight about Portia’s Scandal role, which apparently Ellen insists Portia never would have without Ellen pulling strings with Shonda Rhimes. We hate hearing such rumors about America’s lesbian sweetheart. But our memo to Miz de Rossi is: Even if your wife got the role for you, you still have to play it. And you are fantastic. It’s not just the slicked-back hair, pencil skirts and machinations with the gay escort to undercut Cyrus’ power, it’s you.

Grimm tales

We were prepped to hate NBC’s Constantine because of the hype that the show, based on the comic series Hellblazer, had edited out the protagonist’s bisexuality. It debuted Oct. 24, and it is really good. NBC has paired it with Grimm, which has a strong queer presence. Last season Grimm added the character of Trubel, an androgynous 20something whom Nick and Juliet take in to keep her out of trouble. Young lesbians all over America (and some not-so-young) are tuning in just to watch her. Actress Jacqueline Toboni was still at the U. of Michigan when she was cast in the role.

According to EW, the 22-year-old Toboni had studied drama at the Young Conservatory at ACT in SF, but had no professional experience.

But she read for exec producer Jim Kouf, and her reading blew him away. We love stories like this. We See page 21 >>

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Books>>

November 6-12, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Early gay novel returns

by Tim Pfaff

I

f I were Tim Cook rather than Tim Pfaff, I’d consider having Apple pick up the tab – and actually pay the publisher – for anyone who wanted to download the iBook of Sanford Friedman’s Totempole to support the gay novel’s tenuous new existence in the brave new world of the e-book. Call it putting your money where your mouth is. New York Review of Books has just taken the trouble to republish, also in a hold-in-both-hands paper book, Totempole (which, BTW, first appeared in 1965, five years after Cook did) alongside its firstever publication of Conversations with Beethoven, a brilliant piece of speculative biographical fiction and the final novel by Friedman, who died in 2010 and is in considerable danger of falling again back into criminally underserved obscurity.

Go Tim. In the gay-fiction genre, Totempole is to The Lord Won’t Mind what The Scarlet Letter is to Peyton Place.

Why its reappearance in 2014 comes as such a surprise is anybody’s guess. It was published twice in Friedman’s lifetime, and one of its chapters, “Ocean,” won an O. Henry Award. Reviews were mixed, at the predictable extremes, and the novel slipped back into the dim world of “cult” fiction. While it’s by no means a first in terms of a gay writer’s giving center stage to a gay character in fiction, it stands nearly alone in its unblinking view, from the inside, of a homosexual man coming of age in

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Lavender Tube

From page 20

also love Toboni. Trubel (short for Theresa Rubel) wears a lot of leather, jack boots, sports a very short haircut, rides a bike everywhere and eats like a machine. She’s a real grrl, and she’s added another dimension to an already stellar cast.

Grimm is the lead-in for Constantine, which is certainly violent. The debut episode began with Constantine (played with a blend of ennui and élan by Welsh actor Matt Ryan) screaming through some electroshock therapy. But we are seeing a possibility for some homoeroticism in Constantine’s future. Constantine hangs out with men a lot, and while he is seriously sexy, he’s not pursuing anyone, although women pursue him.

The whole comics-to-TV thing is very hot this year. One of the best new shows is Fox’s Gotham, and the CW’s new drama The Flash was the most-watched telecast in the history of the network.

Gay showrunner Greg Berlanti has two new shows this season: The Flash, which he developed, and NBC’s The Mysteries of Laura, which he exec produces, and which was just picked up for a full season.

We find MOL very enjoyable and a perfect vehicle for Debra Messing’s comedic talents. The show also has a gay character in Max. The Flash works in tandem with last season’s CW hit, Arrow. Like Gotham and Arrow, The Flash stars a tragic figure. Barry Allen, the Flash, witnessed his mother’s murder. Obsession with finding her killer drives him to discover what caused the strange circumstances of her death, for which his father was wrongly accused. Allen is played

by Grant Gustin, who debuted the role on Arrow and co-starred on the CW’s updated 90210. Gustin also co-starred on Glee as Sebastian Smythe, the guy who kept trying to get between Blaine and Kurt.

Berlanti was definitive prior to the debut of The Flash that there would be gay characters on the show. So no

post-WWII America. And much of it is far more universal than that.

Even such canonical gay classics as Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room – toss in Edmund White’s comparatively more close-to-thebone A Boy’s Own Story – can seem like literary dances of the seven veils compared to the stuff of gay life on which Friedman shines a light.

Early – earliest-memory early – childhood fascination with Daddy’s ding-dong. The erection-inducing stuff that clings to nearly every aspect of swimming in public places.

The scouring of dictionaries and textbooks for explanations of (even references to) all the aspects of sex you have names for. The discovery of masturbation and the primal fear caused by being told it causes insanity. The camp counselor: “Uncle Hank,” who’s 19. (I never even went to camp per se, and I can entertain the complete panopticon of the American camp-counselor fantasy.)

The first milky ejaculate. The first case of crabs. The beloved college roommate spurned out of fear of personal exposure. The stare-atyour-shoes, red-faced purchase of Trojans at the pharmacy. I Hear America Singing.

Beware only one thing in the promo materials, which suggest that the novel climaxes with the protagonist Stephen Wolfe’s soldierly wartime romance with a North Korean in the last century’s most-forgotten war. It’s there, it’s climactic, and it’s worth the wait, but in a discomfiting reflection of the countercurrents

of real life, you don’t know it’s romance until halfway through the novel’s novellalength final chapter, “Rats.”

Before it come the experiences, with their totemic animals, of “Kleine” (he’s Jewish, with parents you won’t soon forget), Stevie, Stephen, Steve, Corporal, Teacher, each illuminated with age-appropriate language.

Self-identified as an actor from his earliest days at camp, when the pre-drag allure of the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd first excite him, “Stephen soon discovered that actors were granted license – exceptional social license – forbidden to ordinary human beings,” Friedman writes. The book’s trajectory takes him from being a shadow puppet in his own life story to a bona fide “actor,” in the non-dramatic sense, in his real life.

Along the way, the outsider identity – as least as long as it’s necessary – is limned in minute detail.

Perhaps some gay San Franciscans, only too happy to celebrate the Giants, will recognize this: “For Stephen baseball was not a game, it was a tribal initiation. Ever since he could remember, every autumn there was an unofficial national holiday that would last as long as a week sometimes during which every adult male, including the Presi-

editing of the characters’ sexuality, like on Constantine.

Berlanti has several other projects in play. Next season he’s doing Supergirl for CBS, and he just sold Riverdale, based on the Archie comics, to Fox. That series will include Archie comics’ first gay character, and will be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who has worked on both Glee and Looking. So the comic thing will continue, and Berlanti is apparently now the king of it. The gay king of it. Which is just fine, as long as he makes Supergirl a lesbian who looks just like Grimm’s Trubel.

Or like Arrow’s Bex Taylor-Klaus.

Speaking of trouble, we are pretty disappointed with ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for breaking up Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) last episode. These two have been the longest-running lesbian couple on prime time, and we love them. But then the Seattle Grace duo ended up in couple’s counseling, which most of us know is the death knell for a relationship.

They also had the worst therapist ever. At the end of a 30-day no-sex, no-speaking-to-each-other “break,” Arizona, who we thought was going to leave Callie, told her she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her. But Callie, who had feared Arizona would leave her, decided she didn’t want to stay married. As one lesbian we know said, “I felt like I had to have a strong drink after this happened.”

We understand the whole concept of keeping characters fresh on long-running shows, and GA is in its 11th season. But viewers love Callie and Arizona precisely because they’ve been through so much and stuck it out. And there are almost no lesbians in prime time because the lesbians keep going off with men or just going off. And that’s what Callie is doing. She’s headed back to her bisexual roots. Because women with men is so original. We expect more of a Shonda Rhimes show. These are the shows that have brought everything to the table, including a gay White House Chief of Staff and a white president with a black

mistress. So why couldn’t there be an actual lesbian couple who stayed together?

We also hate the new CBS comedy The McCarthys, which debuted on Mischief Night, sans mischief.

This is another show with a good idea gone horribly (or predictably) wrong. It’s got a great cast, which includes Laurie Metcalf and Tyler Ritter, but it’s one more back-tothe-future gay sitcom. We know a lot of millennials stay at home with their parents till they’re 30. We know that some gay men are overly fond of their mothers. But we also know that in 2014, when there are so few gay characters on TV, putting a 20something who lives in Boston at the center of a sitcom where his being gay is the main trope, we need a little more. Actually, we need a lot more.

That’s not the case for Ronny McCarthy (Tyler Ritter). He likes to hang out with Mom and watch TV, like an episode of Leave It to Beaver when the Beav is home sick from school. He lives in Boston, but doesn’t know the Celtics are the basketball team. We don’t even understand this show. Who are these people and why, in a city like Boston, are they attached at the hip? Doesn’t Ronny know any gay people? So why doesn’t Ronny (who is, after all, played by the 29-year-old and pretty adorable Ritter) want to go be gay with someone instead of watching Lifetime with Mom? The neutered gay man is still a very popular meme on the tube. Which is why we love How to Get Away with Murder and its just-short-of-porn gay sex every week. Finally, gay men in their 20s tearing each others’ clothes off. You know, like real life. The McCarthys doesn’t just fail with its gay character, though, it fails the entire family.

Speaking of CBS sitcoms, Sean Hayes (who just got engaged to his longtime partner Scott Icenogle) is now a series regular on The Millers, which is one of the funniest sitcoms on the tube. Hayes plays Kip Withers, who is a bit like Hayes’ old standby role of Just Jack on Will & Grace, but at least here it works. His

dent, suspended work and went or listened to the World Series. But somehow, despite all this, Stephen was afraid of baseballs, afraid of being hit. To Stephen the crack of the bat connecting with a ball was as overwhelming as a crack of lightning, and consequently he always struck out.”

Friedman doesn’t soft-pedal the crises of growing up gay, even throwing in a dash of transitory Kierkegaardian religious refuge-conversion along the way. But neither is Stephen martyred for the cause of being gay, or for that matter partic-

ularly shamed by his world, which, like the reader, is continually won over by his essential goodness.

Rice queens, though, would do well to bring canisters of oxygen for the ascent of that final episode, “Rats.” The suspense-riddled saga of Stephen’s necessarily clandestine romance with the widower Sun Bo causes frequent holdings of breath, but nothing else is quite so devastating, initially at least, as the revelation, largely by the North Korean prisoner-of-war doctor, of the cultural divide that separates them more decisively than the fences do.

But even that does not spell doom. At the literal climax of their final episode of love-making, Friedman – whose writing about sex never makes you wish he hadn’t – writes that Stephen “laughed and laughed and went on laughing, and as he did he suddenly remembered the myth of Zarathustra, about whom it was said that when he was born, instead of crying, he burst into laughter. Stephen had never fully understood the myth before, but now he did – now, in the midst of his ecstatic joy, he realized he was being born.”

It won’t come as a spoiler to note that, in the book’s final paragraph, Stephen, coming home, sees “the underspanning of the Golden Gate Bridge.”t

new straight-lady pal 20 years after Karen is Carol (Margo Martindale), the Miller family matriarch.

Finally, if SNL hadn’t brought in Chris Rock and Prince for the Nov. 1 show, we would have said, bury it already. But there is no one funnier than Chris Rock, and Prince is, well, Prince. But we’re pretty over this show. We saw a vintage episode last week from 1990 with one of the show’s best casts: the late Jan Hooks and Phil Hartmann, Nora Dunn, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey and Jon

Lovitz. Phenomenal. Every skit was pitch-perfect. The host was (a very young) Tom Hanks, the musical guests a not-yet-desiccated Aerosmith. What’s wrong with SNL at 40 is it’s only sporadically funny and has lost its political edge. Blaming Obama for Ebola isn’t wit, it’s rightwing rhetoric.

So to see comics brought to vivid life, to see Christmas come early, and for Neil Patrick Harris everywhere and all the time, you know you really must stay tuned.t

<< Theatre

22 • Bay Area Reporter • November 6-12, 2014

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Cirque du Soleil

From page 13

“I want to show you something,” Laprise said, grabbing a magazine with a full-page photo of Roman and Lena Tereshchenko, a married Ukrainian couple who are fiercely engaged with the camera, and who perform what is known as the Russian Cradle routine. “See this guy, the drama he has, he learned it in the process of this show,” Laprise said as he ran his hand across the glossy page. “And his wife, when we started, was always looking down at the floor, so I wrote a scene where she would have the lead, so this is new in their lives and you can see it in them. How do you reinvent with them? First you have to love them.”

The word “reinvention” comes up several times as Laprise, a native of Quebec City, talks about Kurios, pitching its Grand Chapiteau near AT&T Park beginning Nov. 14.

“This is Cirque’s 30th year, and I’ve seen a lot of our stuff, and we need to reinvent ourselves,” he said. “So this is not a project for me. This is a mission.”

Kurios, which premiered in Cirque’s hometown of Montreal last spring, breaks from the amorphous fantasy worlds of many previous Cirque shows. It is rooted in an inventor’s laboratory at the turn of the 20th century, in the golden age of invention. “It was also the golden age of illusionism,” Laprise said, “because people would go see a show and they would see a woman levitate and say maybe it is possible, because last week I heard an orchestra in that thing they call the gramophone.”

The central character in Kurios has built a machine that can give life

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Steampunk designs infuse Kurios, Cirque du Soleil’s newest show, which is set during the golden age of inventions.

to inanimate objects, and that opens a world of creative possibilities in the world according to Cirque.

“Steampunk” is a word that has often been used to describe the look and feel of the show, and Laprise surprised his design collaborators when he explained how he wanted that spirit to be invoked.

“The show is super low-tech,” he said. “At Cirque, we have a lot of material means, but I said I don’t want it to be about that. It’s crazy, yes, but I want to put the imagination in front. There’s technology, but it’s not technology that says, ‘Oh, I’m technological.’ It’s hidden.”

Laprise has been with Cirque for 14 years, first working in casting before moving into the company’s special-events division, where he

created spectacles for such disparate clients as Madonna, Fiat Motors, Microsoft, and the Montreal Outgames. “I was crazily committed, and after I did the big show for Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, they said, ‘Okay, now you’re ready.’”

Kurios is Laprise’s first full-scale show for Cirque, and he is the first director who has risen up through the company’s ranks.

This gave him a home-field advantage, something that directors hired for single shows don’t have.

“I knew this world, and I was stubborn. When someone would tell me it’s not possible, I’d say I don’t want to hear that. In the bike act, I said don’t build a big steel bike. I want a real bike because it’s more authentic, but it was harder for the performer

Michel Laprise, a 14-year veteran of Cirque du Soleil, is making his debut as a writerdirector with Kurios.

because she goes aerial and then like a trapeze, and spinning and stuff.

They were new movements, so you have to try and fail and do it again.

Her body was covered in bruises, but now the scene is so beautiful, and she’s so comfortable in the air.”

Laprise talked about several more of the aerial and acrobatic acts, returning to the notion of the careful handling these artists need to pull them into the world he has imagined for them. “For a lot of outside directors, it takes a year to understand the reality and psychology of acrobats, because it’s not like a Broadway singer or dancer who will say, ‘Okay, where do I come in?’ You don’t work like that with acrobats, because in their world we are the handicapped people.”

Laprise is, in fact, married to a Cirque acrobat, Kevin Atherton, who, with his twin brother, is cur-

t

rently performing in one of Cirque’s Las Vegas shows. They met through Cirque du Soleil 14 years ago, but Laprise said they are in the process of getting divorced. “It’s okay,” Laprise said. “I will always love him.”

While he now loves Quebec City, as a nonconforming gay kid growing up there, he hated it. “In the 1960s and 70s, everybody was middle-class, white, Catholic, and bought the same pair of shoes at the same time. It was important for me to get out. I was like Madame Bovary.”

Stage was the escape, taking him to Montreal, where he studied at the National Theatre School before becoming an actor, director, and artistic director of his own company.

“My things were working well, but I wanted to do something different,” Laprise said. “I arrived at Cirque and fell in love with the company.”

In his first few months, he kept quiet about being gay. “The Russians and stuff,” he said. “Many of our acts come from a more homophobic culture, but then they come to Cirque and they are in touch with gays and lesbians, and they say, ‘Okay, fine.’ Cirque is a very gayfriendly company, so we’re good at bringing people together.”

With Kurios up and running, Laprise has been told to take a breath.

“But this week I started to work on two new things,” he said. “I like to break the rules, and I say, ‘Why should I breathe? No one has died.’

But Kurios will be a hard act to follow.”t Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities will run Nov. 14-Jan. 18 in the Grand Chapiteau adjacent to AT&T Park.

Tickets are $53-$135. Call (800) 450-1480 or go to cirquedusoleil. com/kurios.

The Way He Looks

From page 13

The Way He Looks opens on two best friends lying lazily by a pool.

Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) is bright, handsome and blind from birth.

Giovana (Tess Amorim) is Leo’s guide and platonic girlfriend. Writer/director Ribeiro’s sassy-smart script kicks off with a private chat between these two sweet, naive kids just before a seismic event, a new boy in class, threatens their friendship. Lying on her stomach baking in the sun, Giovana teases the blind boy, who in the course of their conversation becomes agitated and leaps into the pool.

“Will you spend the rest of your life without ever kissing anyone, Leo? You won’t change that by listening to Beethoven your entire vacation! You should kiss any girl, and get it over with!”

“Why I don’t I kiss you, then?”

Things get sticky when the new boy, the radiant, curly-haired Gabriel (Fabio Audi), becomes a classmate, then replaces Giovana as Leo’s best bud. A highlight is an erotic post-pool shower scene between the boys. Director Ribeiro seamlessly charts the baby steps by which new alliances are formed among school chums, and how puberty can drastically up-end old bonds.

This may be the first feature to trace with humor and compassion how hard it is to be gay, blind and in love with a boy you’ve never actually seen.

The film also describes how a childhood playmate can recover from bruised feelings and forge a more mature relationship with a friend who’s changing so quickly his whole personality appears to be on roller skates. Midway through the story, Giovana stifles her hurt feelings and protects Leo from an especially mean party prank. A smartass blond boy uses a game of spin-thebottle to inflict a unique humiliation on the blind kid, maneuvering Leo to the brink of kissing a dog at a party, an actual canine. (By the

The Way He Looks writer/ director Daniel Ribeiro.

Strand Releasing

Gabriel (Fabio Audi) and Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) in writer/director Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks.

way, in The Way He Looks, even the mean-boy bullies are cute as hell.)

In June 2014, filmmaker Daniel Ribeiro, boyishly handsome at 32, arrived at my Market Street flat to describe the special world he and his actors (the same cast from the short) created in The Way He Looks.

David Lamble: What’s the title of your 2010 short?

Daniel Ribeiro: I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone. I didn’t come here with that film, but I did come in 2008 with a short about 20-something boyfriends planning on moving in together. Then the parents of one of them dies, and he has to start taking care of his 10-year-old brother. So they become a new family, a gay couple raising a 10-year-old.

And the couple breaks up in the end.

It’s very open because they decide to take a honeymoon trip, and in the end one of the guys goes by himself. I don’t think they break up. I always tell people, “If you’re a romantic, you’ll think they’ll be together. If you’re not, you’ll think they’ll break up.”

Then I did [the short] I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone, which is almost the same story as The Way He Looks. Ghilherme, the actor who plays the blind kid, was very young when we shot, 14 or 15, and he grew a little bit but not so much that we couldn’t keep him in the feature.

The amount that he grew was good because I could adapt the story to a little bit of an advanced stage. We have the sexuality, we see more of the things when you’re a bit older,16 or 17.

That’s when sexuality presses in on you hard. You have a good supporting cast: the blonde bully kid, he’s very sexy, impudent, a lot of fun. Even your background cast is alive, intelligent, provocative and sexy.

To me, casting is very important, so we took a long time to find the cast. And the most important thing is chemistry, so we did a test with all of them together where we switched the background cast around. This is important because sometimes you have a great actor who just doesn’t fit

into the cast, so it doesn’t work. The 2010 short was so popular in Brazil that when we were casting the extras, we created a Facebook page and asked, “Who wants to be in the [feature] film?” So the kids in the film’s school are fans from the short. If you watch carefully you can see that they match very well, and have personal stories that went beyond what we see in the film.

I particularly like that the film opens with a boy and a girl by a pool, which adds to the ambiguity of their relationship, because they’re half-naked, so you don’t know who they’ll turn out to be.

Where was it shot?

In Sao Paulo, but it’s not the Sao Paulo that we usually see in movies, a chaotic city with big buildings. It’s an ugly city, it’s 12 million people, the biggest city in Brazil and South America.

Everything was built yesterday.

Yes, I wanted to make a film that was very universal in a way, so the locations we picked are very bland and suburban.

Finally, how has the environment for gays in Brazil changed in recent years?

It’s become more visible. Beginning in the 90s, TV and films have played a large role in that increasing visibility. We have been influenced

by American television, also by our own soap operas, which have gay characters. Teenagers grow up now knowing it’s a natural thing. It’s not easy, like everybody’s open, but it’s not impossible.

I was a teenager in the 90s, and for me it was very hard. I remember [the British film] Beautiful Thing [1996, written by Jonathan Harvey, based on his play], a film that was very important to me because I was the age of the characters [two adolescent boys who are romantically involved while living in a English housing project]. I remember a TV soap opera with two young gay characters who were viewed as friends from the beginning, so everybody liked them by the time the show’s writer had them come out.

Now you go to schools and there are a lot more gay teens who are comfortable with the way they look and dress. So kids today, especially in Sao Paulo, but perhaps even in the north of the country, have far more things to support them coming out.t

26

28

On the Tab

NIGHTLIFE DINING

29

Karrnal

SPIRITS

Ross Mathews

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 45 • November 6-12, 2014

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Stacy Sullivan

THE DIVINE MISS CARLY ‘MIDLER ON THE ROOF’ AT FEINSTEIN’S

by David-Elijah Nahmod

F

or singer Carly Ozard, a Bay Area native, Bette Midler and her music was the path to survival during a childhood in which she endured bullying. Ozard will be performing many of Bette’s songs when she performs Midler on the Roof: One Singer’s Journey of Divine Intervention at Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Sunday, November 9.

Bette Midler is perhaps the first performer to have been acknowledged by the mainstream media as a gay icon. While Judy, Cher and Barbra may have preceded The Divine Miss M, they were very much mainstream superstars with a decidedly mixed fan base. Bette became a star specifically as a result of her outrageous performances at The Continental Baths, a popular gay bathhouse in New York City around four decades ago. Her stage presence was like no other: she mixed ribald sexual humor with plaintive ballads.

Midler was, and is, one of a kind. As the decades passed she became an internationally known concert act, enjoying a career which included hit records and top-grossing films.

See page 25 >>

Gareth Gooch

Always Orange W

hat a wild week it was! Wednesday night, the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory led to street celebrations in the Castro that were limited to toilet paper fun (unlike the violence and rampant vandalism in the Mission). Friday saw some much-needed rain that didn’t deter hundreds of thousands of Giants fans from attending the parade and Civic Center celebration. And then Halloween itself was enjoyed by festively garbed folks all over the Bay Area, with Day of the Dead celebrations in the calmed Mission.

Even after the holidays and parties, orange lingers here and there.

For more photos, see page 24 >>

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Great Gifts!

SoapFetish.com . . . where getting clean gets a little bit dirty!

Shower fun!

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 6-12, 2014

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Steven Underill

Gareth Gooch Steven Underill

Steven Underill

Gareth Gooch

fans celebrate in the castro after the Giants win the world series

Steven Underill Steven Underill

Steven Underill

Steven Underill

Steven Underill

Steven Underill

Hundreds of thousands crowd Civic Center to cheer our local champions

More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.

See more of Gareth Gooch’s images at www.garethgoochphotography.com.

See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Serving the Castro since 1981

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GET HIM ON THE LINE Carly Ozard

<<

Divine Miss Carly

would be in tears much of the time.

It was usually because of my singing and I just didn’t fit well into the world of reality because fantasy was my world.

Things didn’t get any better.

When one was taken care of, another new one would come in and become a replacement. I had a stalker in college. I had to go to court. He threatened my life and career every day for five years. All he harped on was my weight and he continuously kept going after anything I got in my career. Craigslist, My Space, snail mail, slander and death threats, I got it all and it never stopped. It was the first stages of cyberbullying where the cops couldn’t do anything.

After throwing down a huge file of evidence, and when an accomplice of his came forward accidentally, a judge issued a restraining order. I didn’t feel safe at college or at home.

Many of my friends couldn’t handle what was happening to me and few actually showed up. The public humiliation and fear he created haunts me to this day. A restraining order isn’t enough. Where were the teachers? Where were the parents? Where were the friends?

love every single song. Other favorite Bette numbers are “Chapel of Love,” “Friends,” the entire Beaches soundtrack. “Stay With Me” gives me chills: she kicks that song’s ass.

Did you have a supportive family?

My parents were very supportive; they never missed a performance.

They taught me at a young age to treat people as I would want to be treated. Because I did theater when I was 8, my mom and dad taught me that there were many different kinds of people in the world, some who were straight, gay or bi, and that it was all okay. I didn’t have any hate in my household, and I didn’t understand it when I’d see it in casts of various shows or at school.

How and when did you discover Bette Midler and what does her music mean to you?

I discovered Bette at a very early age. I saw that someone dressed as a mermaid while singing fun songs was being adored and so that meant there was hope for this baby drag queen.

Bette was a belter. Belting excited me. She would sing covers and not have to write her own stuff. She was an interpreter. She was paid to be a quintessential cabaret artist. That’s who I am and want to be in my own way.

How does Midler influence your life as an adult?

She is a class act. She gives back to her community and always appears to be kind and generous and just genuine and sure of who she is.

Can you describe how the bullying you endured manifested itself?

I was always theatrical, even as a young child. I was in a world of dress-up and show tunes and Disney. I was made fun of constantly.

My spirit was killed at a young age and it never ended. Elementary school and middle school and even college; I had at least one the whole time. They would just fixate, and teachers wouldn’t do much and I

What are your favorite Bette Songs and why?

I am one of the few people who absolutely adores the Bette of Roses album. There’s a New York Citybased performer/director named Lennie Watts who used to do a cabaret series called Under the Covers featuring various artists covering their favorite albums in their own way. That would be the one I do. I

From page 23

Miss M’s larger than life, sexuallycharged persona proved to be a role model for many. It was okay to be yourself, she seemed to be saying.

It was okay to stand tall, be strong, and to laugh at yourself. It was okay to be who you are. This was a message that resonated with many who, through Midler, found solace and strength. As Bette’s star shone bigger and brighter, the message was heard beyond her gay male following.

David-Elijah Nahmod: Can you tell us who Carly Ozard is?

Carly Ozard: I’m an entertainer, humanitarian, LGBT activist and animal lover. Aspirations for solo singing career as well as recording artist, cabaret and Broadway-as long as there’s music and I am singing it. I grew up in Belmont on the Peninsula. Unfortunately, I “did time” at Notre Dame De Namur University where there was little support for my growth as an artist.

I was very stunted in that department. I paid tuition to feel misunderstood and invalidated.

Have you ever met Miss M? Do you know if she’s aware of your show?

I have not met her, but my dream is to sing with her someday. I would love to have her, with Julie Gold, who wrote “From a Distance,” in the same room where we could record and film it to promote anti-bullying. I think we could make it a more contemporary arrangement and it would be really something; just putting it out there in the universe. If anyone could make this happen I would love you forever.

I believe that the Divine Miss M knows about my show because my New York publicists Richard Skipper and Abbe Buck, along with my music producer Chris Young, have reached out to her assistant and publicist. Also, $5 of each ticket from my last show at Triad went to the NY Restoration Project, which is Bette Midler’s organization. I do believe she’s aware.

What are your ultimate career goals?

Recording artist, working with DJs, collaborating with songwriters to find hits, Billboard, Broadway, then back to cabaret.

Anything you’d like to add?

If you’re a songwriter, send me your music. If you are being bullied, don’t stop searching until you find a way out. There are resources for everyone. Ask for help until the right people say yes.t Carly Ozard performs ‘Midler on the Roof: One Singer’s Journey of Divine Intervention,’ Sunday, November 9 at 7pm. Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason. $25-40. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Try it for free

415-430-1127 More local numbers: 1-800-777-8000 Ahora en Español/18+ www.guyspyvoice.com

<< On the Tab

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 6-12, 2014

eON THE T–AB f November 6 13

★

Thu 6 Bear Pride Week @ Various Venues Five-day funfest for local and visiting bears; shows, club nights and parties.

Thru Nov. 10. www.bearracuda.com

Bike Thief @ Neck of the Woods Folk-arty Portland band performs as part of their U.S. tour. Edwards Crossing headlines, Le Fomo also plays. $8.

8:30pm. 406 Clement St. 387-6343. www.neckofthewoodssf.com

Club Yass @ City Nights Frisco Robbie presents a new 18+ LGBT weekly night, with live sets by guest performers, DJ TwistMix, with a Latin room up front, gogo guys and gals. $10. 9:30-3am. 546-7938. www.sfclubs.com

Current @ 1015 Arts nightlife event with more than 40 dancers, jewelers, visual artists and other showcasing their work. 7pm.

1015 Folsom St. www.RAWartists.org

Hella Gay Comedy Festival @ Various Venues

The Book of Ava @ Hotel Rex Cabaret show with Frank Silletti and Ava Vukic, a gay father and his tenyear-old daughter. $25-$45. 7pm.

562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland

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

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge The intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Fri 7 Bear's Den @ Great American Music Hall The critically acclaimed British folk-pop trio (whose last SF show sold out) perform new music. Dan Mangan & Blacksmith, Christof open. $16-$41 (with dinner). 9pm. 859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.bearsdenmusic.co.uk www.gamh.com

Get groovin' at the weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am.

510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night.

9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Lilith Bear @ Truck

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

Live music with Munecas and Year of the Fist, plus drag with Lil Miss Hot Mess, Suppositori Spelling, Persia, Jem Jehova and others. Part of Bear Pride week. $5-$7. 8pm-2am. 1900 Folsom St. www.trucksf.com

Pound Puppy @ The Eagle The canine fun night celebrates its first anniversary, with DJs Chip Mint, Taco Tuesdays and guest Matrixxman, hotty gogos, cuts by dreamboat Tony DiCaro.

10pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.eagle-sf.com

Resilient @ Truck The monthly social event (2nd Saturdays) by and for HIV+ guys and allies, moves to SoMa. 5pm-9pm. 1900 Folsom St. www.youareresilient.com www.trucksf.com

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Nov. 6: Bio-techno night, with living roof tours, artist Walter Kitundu, and Bearracuda DJs. Nov. 13: Elemental, with DJ Omarand Califronia College of the Arts displays and workshops, plus gems and mineral displays. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Old Man Canyon @ Hotel Utah The folk-rock band performs. $8-$10.

9pm. 500 4th St. www.hotelutah.com

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

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

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

Tue 11 The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. Nov. 4: Jason Stuart headlines. one-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Fri 7

Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. Nov 6, a Chicago musical tribute. Nov 13: The Little Miss Monster contest, with $150 grand prize! $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

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

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room

The Monster Show @ The Edge

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

Julian Casablancas and his retro punk rock-psychadelic band performs. $32-$35. 8pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. 6735716. www.theregencyballroom.com

Mon 10

Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts.

10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room

The Voids @ Regency Center

Andy Cross hosts a night for daddies and those who love 'em, with gogos, bookblacks and DJ Juan. 9pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Heklina hosts a new weekly '90s-themed video, dancin', drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks!

'90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Daddy @ Powerhouse

Lesbian, gay and straight-ally comics perform nightly at a variety of venues (Club OMG, Magnet, Supperclub).

Thru Nov. www.hellagaycomedy.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Jock @ The Lookout

Bear’s Den @ Great American Music Hall

Digital Wildlife @ Café Flore Justime, CBass and Miles Cooper DJ groovy tunes at the new weekly intimate night at the café. Donations this week go to LYRIC. 9pm-2am.

2298 Market St. www.cafeflore.com

Laura Benanti @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The Tony Award-winning musical theatre actress ( Gypsy, and Nine, Into the Woods) and star of ABC's Nashville (Sadie Stone) performs her terrific cabaret concert. $40-$55.

8pm. Also Nov. 8 at 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.ticketweb.com

Point Break Live @ DNA Lounge The hilarious stage re-enactment – with audience participation and lots of splashing stuff– returns, dudes. $20-$50. 7:30-10pm. 375 11th St. www.DNAlounge.com

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

Sat 8 Bearracuda @ Public Works Bear Pride week comes to a dancing head at the big SoMa club, with DJs Wayne G and Paul Goodyear, live set with Debby Holiday. $15. 9pm-3am.

161 Erie St. www.bearracuda.com

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

Sun 9 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

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

Big Top @ Beaux Joshua J.'s homo disco circus night returns, now weekly, with guest DJs and performers, hot gogos. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.BeauxSF.com

The Blues Broads @ Freight & Salvage, Berkeley The women's quartet performs at a 20th anniversary benefit for East Bay Innovations. $23-$27. 2pm. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 644-2020. www.ticketfly.com

Carly Ozard @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The talented Bay Area vocalist performs Midler on the Roof: One Singer's Journey of Divine Intervention, her song tribute to Bette Midler. $25-$40. 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.carlyozard.com

Jeff Bridges & The Abiders @ Great American Music Hall The veteran actor performs with his band. $65-$90 (with dinner). 8pm.

859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.gamh.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down at the strip joint while onstage strippers entertain. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

t

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

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

Trivia Night @ Harvey's BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. Oct. 8 is a special birthday party for gay rights activist Cleve Jones. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

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

Thu 13 Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Billy Santoro leads the highly interactive sex session in the famed strip joint's downstairs arcade (before his onstage shows Nov 14 & 15) 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Lights @ Regency Center The pop group performs new music from Little Machines. Wild Party opens. $20-$23. 8pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. 673-5716. www.iamlights.com www.theregencyballroom.com

Piano Bar @ Beaux Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

Wed 12 Bromance @ Beaux DJ Kidd Sysko spins tunes for the bro-tastic midweek night, with $2 beer pitchers, beer pong, $1 shots served by undie-clad guys. It's like a frat house without the closet cases.

8:30-10pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Fri 7 Laura Benanti @ Feinstein’s

Dare 2 Bare @ Club OMG New weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, no cover, and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge San Francisco's most fabulicious drag show features Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre.

9:30-11:30pm. 133 Turk St. 441-2922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Follies & Dollies @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Ana Mae Coxxx hosts a 70s and 80s-themed drag night. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. www.whitehorsebar.com

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe Enjoy amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am.

2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

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November 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Rainbow Lines

by Donna Sachet

A

fter what seems like years, but was actually months, Castro Street has received its much anticipated, exhaustively discussed, and dramatically executed refurbishing!

Merchants, residents, and visitors are all delighted. Last Thursday, sandwiched between the impromptu Giants World Series celebration on Wednesday and Halloween on Friday, the Castro/Upper Market Central Business District hosted a ribbon-cutting to celebrate this auspicious occasion.

Castro and 18th were closed to traffic from 6-8 PM and a stage was assembled on the back of a truck, under the inimitable supervision of Audrey Joseph, with sound system, lights, and a huge rainbow banner, provided by the original rainbow flag Gilbert Baker, which served as the ribbon to cut to open the revamped street. First, the Lesbian/ Gay Freedom Band marched and played, as only they can, from the Castro Theatre to 18th Street, picking up celebrants along the way.

Then, Supervisor Scott Wiener and Castro District Executive Director Andrea Aiello welcomed everyone from the stage, giving a short history of the process that brought us to tonight. We were pleased to emcee the first part of the program, bringing Sister MaeJoy B. Withu and several of her fellow members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to the stage for the official blessing. In the tradition of the Sisters, this was no vanilla blessing, but rather poked a little fun at the various delays and missteps along the way, while encouraging us to look back with gratitude and forward with optimism.

Next, members of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus sang a couple of tunes, full of humor and whimsy, under the direction of Tim Seelig.

Let’s face it, no LGBT event is complete without the presence of these two-time-honored groups! After a stirring group rendition of the Gay National Anthem (otherwise known as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”), legendary community activist Cleve Jones introduced elected officials Mayor Ed Lee and State Senator Mark Leno as they joined Scott and Director of Public Works Mohammed Nuru for the official ribboncutting. Needless to say, the crowd went wild. After that, it was time for musical entertainment from Matt Alber, Gypsy Love, and Amoray (giving us a tribute to the iconic Sylvester), and finishing off with music from DJ Liam Shy. The next time you are in the Castro, take note of the many enhancements, including wider sidewalks, rainbow-striped crosswalks, new tree plantings, modified seating benches, the Rainbow Honor Walk,

historic plaques, sleek light poles with enhanced lighting, and repaved streets, all with careful adherence to ADA requirements to keep the Castro welcoming to everyone.

We know that no project will ever please every resident, merchant, or visitor, but we should be very proud that the City directed so much funding to our neighborhood, augmented by the Castro/Upper Market Central Business District and other organizations, to ensure a more attractive and easy to maneuver experience. Now, let’s patronize those businesses that endured this laborious process. Let’s eat, drink, and buy in the Castro, where practically everything is available from friendly locals who will be delighted to see you.

Although our heart belongs right here in the LGBT Community which has supported and encouraged us in so many ways, once in a while an opportunity arises to step into a different environment, yet one with a similar viewpoint. At the personal invitation of Sophie Azouaou, we attended Saturday night’s inaugural fundraising gala for Rooms That Rock 4 Chemo at the Hotel Nikko. If you’ve ever spent time in a hospital, you know how dreary they can be; Nancy Ballard observed that reality and committed to making a difference for those with serious medical conditions facing frequent treatments in dull and often depressing settings.

Since 2011, this organization which she founded has transformed hundreds of chemotherapy rooms in the United States and El Salvador to reflect a more positive, beautiful setting for the treatment and recovery of cancer patients. Just as we have often added glitter, glamor, and gaiety to some of the least attractive aspects of life, so this group has eased the lives of many with more welcoming and positive environments. This event was a sell-out, bringing together a wide slice of San Francisco for a night of remarkably generous fundraising.

After a cocktail hour surrounded by silent auction items, the crowd of over 400 sat for dinner, serenaded by violinist Lea Bourgade and singers Jason Brock and Marta Lledo.

Don Sanchez, formerly of KGOTV, emceed with flare and auctioneer Abra Annes of KLM Auctions pulled in tremendous results. Even after lively bidding for 10 packages, including trips, meals, sports events, and more, the “fund a need” portion of the auction raised over $50,000, starting with a startling bid of $25,000 from Richard Blum. Our table, including Dr. Nourredine Asouaou, William & Carolyn Lee, Maria Ehmer Barrios, Angella Sprauve, Raghu Shivaram & Beth Schnitzer, and Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler, proved the perfect place

to take in all the action.

Other notable guests included Senator Dianne Feinstein, State Assembly member Fiona Ma, Mayor Willie Brown (who spoke warmly on stage about the organization) & Sonya Molodetskaya, Joel Goodrich, and Nob Hill Gazette publisher Lois Lehrman. The focal point of the evening was a fashion show by Vasily Vein, whose clothes appeared on many in the audience as well. The collection featured bold evening designs, full of luxurious fabrics, intricate laces, and bodyhugging silhouettes. The evening concluded with frenetic breakdancing by a group discovered on the streets of the City. Much hobnobbing occurred as the attendees scattered, informed of a new organization and amazed at this first fundraising gala.

Next Monday, November 10, the Golden Gate Business Association, the nation’s first LGBT Chamber of Commerce, celebrates its 40th anniversary from 5-7:30 P.M. at the San Francisco Opera House. On Thursday, November 13, the LGBT Community Center presents the 2014 Bold Awards at 6 P.M., honoring Juanita More!, Rob Evans & Terry Micheau, and the SF Human Rights Commission. And then, the holiday celebrations commence!

After much consternation, the 22nd annual Songs of the Season has found a home and you are reading it here first! Mon.-Wed., Dec. 1-3, at 8 P.M., join us at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel’s Franciscan Room off the lobby as we raise money for the AIDS Emergency Room with three nights of music and laughter.

Other holiday events will appear in this column as they draw near.

It looks like another festive season packed with opportunities to enjoy entertainment with friends and family.t

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28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 6-12, 2014

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BaitBuddies

You show me mine, I’ll show you yours; Michael Keys and Evan Mercy go in for a little cross-handed playing in SandBox Buddies.

Straight up horny

by John F. Karr

S

pencer Todd, an openly straight performer in gay porn, answered some questions in a Just Us Boys interview thusly: Q: Why did you decide to work in the gay porn industry?

Spencer Todd: The money is great.

Q: How do you prepare yourself for a scene?

ST: I think about my girlfriend.

Q: Do you prefer to have scene partners that (sic) are straight or gay?

ST: Straight, because I know they’re not enjoying it either.

BaitBuddies

Do you believe str8 guys Michael Keys and Evan Mercy haven’t ever done it together before SandBox Buddies?

And here’s Paddy O’Brian, interviewed at men.com.

Why’d he start appearing gay porn?

“Money!”

What about getting fucked?

“It hurts,” he declared, and then, shouldering his responsibility, he offered, “But I’m an entertainer….. you can get used to anything.”

So, there’s nothing strange about a str8 guy making it with other guys if he’s paid?

“It’s work. It’s just a normal job to us,” he said, suddenly speaking for all Gay for Pay (G4P) or bi performers.

What bearing do these two guys have on today’s movie? They’re comparisons to the sole performers in BaitBuddies’ SandBox Buddies, Evan Mercy and Michael Keys, who are either among the most natural, spontaneous actors I’ve seen, or are telling the truth about being str8.

Watching them sliding down the

in his ass.” Michael takes just the slippery shores of sexual fluidity is dildo’s head, while Evan takes four great indoor sport. inches more than that, and they’re They’ve been more than best both jacking off while pronged on a buddies, they say, “since the sanddouble-header when they cum. box.” Because of difficulties within Their third scene is for Michael to Evan’s home, Michael’s family fuck Evan. It launches with a delitook him in when he was cious 69. They seem practiced. All eight or nine. The two those adolescent nights in the same same-aged boys slept tofarmhouse bed, I’d guess. Evan sits gether; that’s not surall the way down on Michael’s cock prising, as they were just a bit too easily for a first-timer. farmboys in rural You’ll be let down by this scene Kentucky. They were if you’re expecting anything sexy.

21 when SandBox There’s actually very little that’s sexy Buddies was made, and in any of the scenes, what with the call themselves brothers. They’re teasing banter and the quips. But if close as twins. They got matching you wanna witness some believable tattoos while in a strip club, and sexploration, the guys are curiously have many a time picked up what fun to spend some time with.

Evan distractingly calls “hos,” for They were surprised that manthree-ways. So, if they haven’t had on-man sex was pleasurable, and sex together, as they claim, they’re neither of them regrets having acquainted with each other’s bodplayed palsie with his pal. The filmies. maker asks if they’ll do any of this BaitBuddies is one of the more off-camera. Michael says, “Maybe,” fraudulent sites around. Two supbut hot britches Evan revealingly posedly str8 guys show up to film a says, “It’s too soon to talk about.” He three-way with a girl. But she’s a nothinks cash will be motivating. show. Would they make out with And, indeed it was, at least for a each other for double the pay? Most while. Shortly after filming SandBox guys pretend to deliberate, protest Buddies, Michael filmed a single too much, and acquiesce. Evan and gay scene, and then disappeared.

Michael look at each other with a Evan had filmed as many as a dozen ‘Hell, why not?’ shrug, and massage scenes within the year after his Baittheir cocks through their pants.

Buddies debut—mostly for streamWith ginger hair and green eyes, ing sites that specialize in ostensible Evan’s pretty. He’s sturdy and comstr8 boys. Those scenes were pretty pactly muscled, with a long, smooth good—I watched a few, and not dick and shaved crotch. Michael’s strictly for research. He’s a tough lita brunet, not as muscular as Evan, tle fucker, and relishes cocksucking but well-toned. and ass play. But that was all in 2012.

When they’re first offered more I don’t think he’s been seen since. cash, Evan wants to know what the I wonder who’s kissing him now. catch is. After being told it was playWonder who he wants to plow. ing with each other, he slyly conWonder if he’ll ever come on to me. fesses, “The catch is what’s turning I wonder who he’s kissing now.t me on.”

When they get naked, they gab unselfconsciously, Evan helicopwww.Pornteam.com tering his cock without mercy. They handle each other’s cock with genuine curiosity, and jerk each other off. There’s very little that’s tentative when Evan does a fine job going down on Michael. They kibbutz a lot—it’s a game to them.

Must be a fun one, as it makes Evan cum twice.

They schedule a second filming, this time to get dildos up their butts.

They have their first enemas (offscreen), which Michael thought was weird. Evan declares he’s never had anything in BrokeStraightBoys his ass, but I didn’t think Ginger cutie Spencer Todd makes “work” Michael was joking when look like fun, but isn’t enjoying it. he said, “He likes things

t

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November 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Ross Mathews He’s comically delicious

by Jim Gladstone

O

n Sunday night, San Francisco Bear Pride closes out a week of entertainment with a live appearance at the Castro Theater

by Ross Mathews. The 35-year-old Washington native’s bubbly fanboy enthusiasm first came to public notice in 2001, when he parlayed his backstage internship on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show into a regularly featured role as an on-air correspondent, filing infectiously effervescent reports from movie premieres, the Academy Awards, and other showbiz events.

Since then, he’s contributed to The Insider, been a member of the E! Network red carpet team, served as a panelist on Chelsea Lately, and—for two seasons—hosted his own E! celebrity talk show, Hello Ross!

Last year also saw the publication of Mathews’ memoir, Man Up!: Tales of My Delusional SelfConfidence, in part an earnest Gen Y coming-of-age story that’s remarkably effective in capturing his chuckling, sweet-natured spirit on paper.

Just three days before his Castro appearance, Mathews will debut a new podcast, Straight Talk: LOL’S & Advice From Your Gay BFF, proffering relationship advice, “baller on a budget” design tips, and other sage guidance. The Castro event will feature a live version of the podcast along with a lengthy Q&A period— It’s the first event in a planned live tour. “I’m going to spend about half my time in the audience,” promises Mathews. “So you can ask whatever you want, no matter how ridiculous. I have an opinion on everything.”

We got in a few questions in advance of the show:

got to do a tour. I had never been to California, and as a kid who always knew he wanted to be in Hollywood and be around celebrities, I was so excited. One of my strongest memories was that we had clam chowder in bread bowls near Fisherman’s Wharf. I was like, ‘Wait—this is a bowl you can eat?! This is my kind of town!’

You’ve said you wanted to be a talk show host since childhood. Who was your role model?

To be honest, Howard Stern is a real inspiration to me and I respect him enormously. As different as we might seem, what I’ve always admired about him is that he’s this unconventional person who went out there, planted his flag, and said ‘This is my point of view, and I am going to show you the world through that point of view.’ Rosie O’Donnell did a good job of that, too.

What’s your approach to conducting an interview?

There are a lot of people on TV who do celebrity interviews, whether it’s on Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight, but so many of them are really annoyingly polished.

I really am myself. I’m a fan, and I’m unapologetically dorkish. The best interviewees are the ones who can relax and not be too guarded. I’m not trying to get a scoop, but I’m not just a way to promote your new project. My goal is to have a real, genuine moment.

I was doing the red carpet at the

You recently helped start a new online home design store. Why the unexpected career move?

Hey, I always believe that if you want to change lanes, you should just turn on the blinker and do it. The website, www.Swank.la, is something I started about a year ago with a friend after my partner [stylist Salvador Camarena] did a big redecorating project at our place in Palm Springs. I was really frustrated with how difficult it was to find great tiling, especially at reasonable prices. Home Depot and Lowe’s just seemed to have every shade of oatmeal. I’m really just a small part of the business, but it’s a great resource for finding great prices on really cool surfaces.

Given that you’re visiting for Bear Pride, can you tell us whether you prefer your surfaces smooth or hairy?

Hey, I’ll take whatever I can get. I’ve been to a whole lot of bear events, but mostly by accident! Not long ago, we were visiting friends who have a place at the Russian River and it turned out to be Lazy Bear Weekend.

But I don’t think I really qualify as a bear. If I was, I guess I’d be the one in the ads for Snuggle fabric softener. If bears are into me, they’re not telling me about it. Nobody’s hitting on this! But maybe they all know about my Salvador.

You’re based in L.A. Do you get to visit San Francisco much?

We come up for the weekend sometimes. To be honest [giggles], sometimes we just get inspired by a hotel deal we find on Groupon.

The first time I came to San Francisco was with in my sophomore year of high school. I was an alto in our school choir and we Ross Mathews

Emmy Awards for E! and I literally bumped into Lena Dunham before she walked. And I loooove her—I follow her on Instagram—I wanted to talk, but I just had to turn away.

I didn’t want to have a conversation with her until we were on camera, because I was so excited and I wanted to share that with the viewers.

In general, I don’t go to a lot of Hollywood parties. I don’t really want to be on the inside, with unlimited access. And besides, I have an early bedtime. I like to be under the covers watching The Good Wife or Scandal on Amazon Prime by around 9:45.

So what can we expect from your gig at the Castro?

Well, there will be plenty of Hollywood and celebrity talk, but I also will be dispensing advice. I’ll take all kinds of relationship questions, but one thing I’ll do for sure is teach the audience how to do online profile pictures right. I mean you want to look good. But you don’t want to look so good that when a date comes into the bar to meet you, he walks right by looking for that other guy from the picture. So we’ll be working on that.

So, from Howard Stern to Dear Abby, huh? What’s next in your career? Any inclination to become an actor?

You know, every Oprah has her Color Purple. If anyone is casting a biopic of the Pillsbury Doughboy, I’m available.t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 6-12, 2014

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Shooting Stars

November 6-12, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

photos by steven underhill Halloween

D

espite a bit of rain, Halloween proved to be a festive occasion at Castro bars and in the newly expanded sidewalks of the neighborhood. Recent drag shows Birdcage Follies and the new Showboys burlesque show at the Nob Hill Theatre included spooky themes.

More event photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.

See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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