October 16, 2014 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 44 • No. 42 • October 16-22, 2014

Bay Oakland could beat SF to having out mayor Guardian abruptly shuts down by Seth Hemmelgarn

he San Francisco Bay Guardian, the alternative weekly that had published for 48 years and was known for its coverage and support of LGBT rights, immigration reform, and progressive issues, abruptly shut down this week. Bay Guardian The announcement publisher Marke surprised the paper’s Bieschke queer publisher, Marke Bieschke, who said Tuesday that he was in “shock” at the decision announced earlier that day by the San Francisco Media Company, the paper’s owners. Bieschke said he hopes to keep the publication alive “somehow.” See page 7 >>

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan speaks to supporters at a recent event. Jane Philomen Cleland

by Matthew S. Bajko

akland voters could make history in November by electing the Bay Area’s first out mayor to serve a full term, should lesbian at-large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan win the race as polling has suggested. No other city in the region with an elected mayor, as opposed to having the position rotate amongst city council members, has had a person from its LGBT community win the seat and serve out a full four years. The closest an out mayoral candidate came

B.A.R. election endorsements SAN FRANCISCO RACES State Assembly Dist. 17: David Chiu Dist. 19: Phil Ting Board of Supervisors Dist. 2: Mark Farrell Dist. 4: Katy Tang Dist. 6: Jane Kim Dist. 8: Scott Wiener Dist. 10: Malia Cohen SF School Board Mark Murphy Jamie Rafaela Wolfe Emily Murase SF Community College Board Two-Year Term William Walker BART Board, Dist. 8: James Fang Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu Public Defender Jeff Adachi Judges SF Superior Court Office 20: Daniel Flores

Oakland mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan, right, talks with Jai Jennifer at a mixer last weekend.

OTHER BAY AREA RACES Oakland Mayor: Jean Quan Oakland City Council, Dist. 2: Abel Guillen Berkeley City Council, Dist. 7: Kriss Worthington Berkeley City Council, Dist. 8: Lori Droste Emeryville City Council: John Bauters El Cerrito City Council: Gabriel Quinto Peralta Community College, Area 7: Richard Fuentes East Bay Municipal Utility Dist., Ward 3: Marguerite Young East Bay Municipal Utility Dist., Ward 4: Andy Katz Richmond City Council: Jovanka Beckles San Mateo County Harbor Commission: Robert Bernardo CALIFORNIA GENERAL ELECTION Governor: Jerry Brown Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom Attorney General: Kamala Harris Secretary of State: Alex Padilla Treasurer: John Chiang

Controller: Betty Yee Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson Board of Equalization District 2: Fiona Ma State Assembly (Bay Area) Dist. 15: Elizabeth Echols Dist. 18: Rob Bonta Dist. 24: Rich Gordon Dist. 28: Evan Low Congress (Bay Area) Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 3: John Garamendi Dist. 5: Mike Thompson Dist. 10: Michael Eggman Dist. 11: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 12: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 13: Barbara Lee Dist. 14: Jackie Speier Dist. 15: Eric Swalwell Dist. 17: Mike Honda Dist. 18: Anna Eshoo Dist. 19: Zoe Lofgren CALIFORNIA PROPS Yes on Props 1, 2, 45, 46, 47, 48 SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Yes on Props A, C, D, E, F, I, J K, No on Props B, G, H, L

Remember to vote on November 4!

Oakland mayoral candidate Libby Schaaf

Jane Philomen Cleland

to winning their race was gay former Vallejo City Councilman Gary Cloutier, who at first appeared to have won the November 2007 election and went on to serve as mayor for seven days. But his opponent Osby Davis sought a recount, which found him to be the winner by three votes, and was sworn in as mayor that December. In San Francisco voters have repeatedly rejected out mayoral candidates, although gay former Supervisor Tom Ammiano, now a state Assemblyman, came close to defeating thenMayor Willie Brown in a dramatic write-in campaign during the 1999 mayoral race.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Now it is Kaplan who is riding a wave of frustration with her city’s current mayor, Jean Quan, who could finally break through one of the remaining glass ceilings in local LGBT politics. She has garnered backing from the statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California, and the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund has made her race one of its top priorities this fall. Polls have shown Kaplan with significant support among voters. One released last month by the nonprofit Jobs and Housing

Former Soviet country OKs civil partnerships by Heather Cassell

n a very close vote, lawmakers in Estonia, formerly part of the old Soviet Union, passed a civil partnership bill. The vote in parliament was 4038. Twenty-three lawmakers were absent or abstained during the October 9 vote. The bill, which was introduced this spring by 40 members of parliament representing three of the Courtesy Twitter country’s four political parties, recognizes civil unions of all couples The Estonia Parliament voted on the Civil regardless of gender. Partnership Act last week. Conservative members of parliament strongly opposed the bill, which was fiercely debated. Estonian couples who enter into civil unions The bill was supported by President Toomas will have nearly the same rights as married Hendrik Ilves, who immediately signed it into couples, including financial, social, and health law, reported Estonian Public Broadcasting. benefits provided by the government and “The fundamental document of democratic legal protection for children. However, the bill Estonia – our constitution – requires equal didn’t grant adoption rights for couples in civil treatment of all people,” wrote Ilves on Faceunions, with one exception. The bill allowed for book. “Estonian society will not survive intolone partner joined in the union to adopt the erance of its own people. There are too few of biological child of the other partner. us to discriminate against anyone.” The law should go into effect January 2016, but Estonia has a population of about 1.3 milEPB reported that some implementing acts have lion, according to Wikipedia. See page 10 >>

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

or G et m or e ba n G f o r yo u r b u ck

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Queer poet to share creative expression during SF visit by Elliot Owen

ward-winning poet Andrea Gibson is in San Francisco this week for two appearances, both of which are expected to be well-attended. Gibson, who identifies as queer/genderqueer and uses gender-neutral pronouns, will make their first stop at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m. for a conversation about creativity facilitated by Ahmunet Jessica Jordan. Gibson’s second stop is Nourse Theater for a California Institute of Integral Studies-sponsored event on Friday, October 17 at 8 p.m. As part of CIIS’ commitment to hosting conversations that address race, class, and gender, Gibson’s performance feature is expected to touch on issues of war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love, and spirituality – all subjects, Gibson told the Bay Area Reporter, that inspire flurries of creative expression within them “the most quickly and the most often.” Karim Baer, director of public programs at CIIS, told the B.A.R. why it’s important for the institute to provide a platform for artists and activists like Gibson. “Our mission is to inspire personal and social transformation,” Baer said, “and Andrea Gibson’s

work embodies not only deep sentiments of love and reverence, but also provokes critical thought on race, class, privilege, war and so many other injustices in our society. I can’t think of a better poet to feature as we work to use the arts as a catalyst for social change.” And, Gibson said, they also intend to integrate “lots of love, lots of feminism, lots of crying, and lots of laughter” during the event, which costs between $27-$65 to attend. Gibson, 39, was born into a working class Baptist family in Calais, Maine, a rural community with a current population of just over 3,000. In 1999, they moved to Colorado where they discovered spoken word as an art form, and ran with it. Gibson currently lives in Boulder, Colorado. “I love the energy of spoken word,” Gibson said, “the vulnerability and uncensored emotion. I love how much presence it asks of an audience, and how the audience in many ways pulls the poem out of the poet. Additionally, the spoken word movement is essentially a social justice movement and I discovered it during the same time I was getting really passionate about looking for ways to be of service in the world. Combine all of that with a ferocious terror of public speaking, and this is what I find myself doing.”

Maria Del Naja

Poet Andrea Gibson makes two appearances in San Francisco this week.

Gibson’s accomplishments include being a four-time Denver Grand Slam champion, a fourth place finish out of 350 poets at the 2004 National Poetry Slam, a third place finish at the 2006 and 2007 Individual World Poetry Slams, and a first place finish at the inaugural Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2008. With five full-length albums and two books under their belt, Gibson’s works have been featured on the BBC, Air America, Free Speech TV

and in 2010, was read aloud in place of a morning prayer at the Utah State Legislature, according to Gibson’s website. Gibson creates art to make people feel, to provoke and elicit change that first starts in the heart. After the heart is touched, Gibson said, the mind eventually catches up, a onetwo punch that’s impact cannot be unstated. Shifting normalized ideas grounded in bigotry and ignorance, after all, is central to Gibson’s work – and Gibson uses their own experience to do that. “I think it’s incredibly healing to speak your truth,” Gibson said, “and to speak it out loud to a room full of open-hearted people. That is truly medicine to me, to my nervous system, to my spirit, to my sense of safety in the world. And to be part of a movement that’s rooted in speaking what’s true, and is also invested in speaking that truth in a way that is beautiful; it all feels like necessary goodness, necessary inspiration, and it honestly rallies me to feel and live in a way I’m not certain I would have learned how to live otherwise.” It’s no doubt that Gibson is a reference point, an inspiration, a touchstone for many within the LGBTQ community, especially queer youth. And like every LGBTQ person, Gibson was once a fledgling version of themselves undergoing the often

arduous process of settling into a self-determined identity. The three things, Gibson said, they would tell their younger self would be: “One, feel into the scary feelings. They are worse the more you try to avoid them. Two, let yourself be awkward. In fact, let yourself be the most awkward. Three, remember, it will always be livable, even when it’s not.” And for the queer artists seeking parity between creative output and financial security, Gibson offered this, inspirational knowledge they will no doubt build upon at both appearances this week: “Keep constant faith in art and community,” Gibson said. “Register success by how open your heart feels. Listen more often than you speak. Remember the queer artists who came before you, who kept you alive when you were young and becoming and growing into your own light. Work hard at whatever it is you love.”t For Gibson’s October 16 event, tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. To purchase tickets to either event, visit http://www. ciis.edu/Public_Programs/Public_ Programs_Events/Gibson_FA14_ (performance).html. The LGBT center is located at 1800 Market Street. The Nourse Theater is at 201-299 Hayes Street.

Breast cancer group decries pink marketing by David-Elijah Nahmod

ctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but one local agency has called out several national marketing campaigns and offered a sweeping critique of so-called pink ribbon culture, saying it is a distraction that exploits women. San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action has issued a detailed statement of how the ubiquitous pink ribbons – the symbol for breast cancer awareness and support – are nothing more than a public relations campaign for companies that profit off of breast cancer. Pink ribbons, BCA claims, do nothing to promote better health

or to save women’s lives. BCA’s present campaign is a continuation of its award-winning “Think Before You Pink” campaign – the tagline this year is “Stop the Distraction.” “Pink ribbons is one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time,” BCA executive Director Karuna Jaggar told the Bay Area Reporter. “Everyone knows that it stands for breast cancer, but few people know that it’s a co-option by corporations of an idea which came from a grassroots activist.” Organizations like the National Football League have joined the pink ribbon campaign in recent years, with players wearing pink

shoes, pink wristbands, and other gear on game days throughout the month. BCA claims the NFL is spreading misinformation about breast cancer by repeating disproven and misleading advice about mammography screening in its “Crucial Catch” campaign. A visit to the NFL’s website shows a pink ribbon and NFL logo prominently displayed on the page. Other companies flog everything from pink ribbon trinkets to Tshirts during October. Jaggar referred to the pink ribbon campaign as “cause marketing.” “Companies make money by putting pink ribbons on their products, thereby gaining consumer loyalty to a company the public thinks is doing good,” Jaggar said. “The companies sell more products when a pink ribbon is on it. Does this work for women with breast cancer? It works for the companies. Anyone can put a pink ribbon on anything, a handgun, a Port-a-Potty.” Jaggar said there is no transparency about where money raised by the pink ribbon campaigns goes, and that little goes toward research or prevention. “Pink ribbons have hijacked the breast cancer movement by focusing on awareness,” she said. “It distracts from research on treatment and causes. It’s an outrage that after all the billions spent on pink ribbon

NASCAR’s “Check your Headlights” breast cancer awareness T-shirt

products, 40,000 women a year are still dying from breast cancer.” Another issue is that the Pink Ribbon campaign tries to force women to have a “positive and peppy” attitude about the disease and attempts to cover up the harsh realities that come with a life threatening illness, Jaggar said. Some of the campaigns sexualize and objectify women in a degrading way, such as the “Save the Boobies” campaign on Facebook, the “Save the Tatas” Tshirts now on sale at Amazon.com, and NASCAR’s “Check your Headlights” T-shirts. “We’re talking about a deadly disease,” said Jaggar. “At the end of the day we need to honor what breast cancer really feels like.” Jaggar wants to see more of a

focus on the possible environmental causes of breast cancer, treatments that save lives without mutilating women’s bodies, and preventative medicine. And in some cases, the marketing campaigns may prove harmful. For example, Jaggar said that Alhambra Water is selling plastic polycarbonate water bottles that contain BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical linked to breast cancer. In addition to the NFL and Alhambra, BCA has called out several other companies, including Kohl’s “Pink Elephant in the Room” promotion; Hooters, which perpetuates the story of what BCA calls “triumphant survivorship based on positive thinking, beauty tips, and sanitized, carefully chosen images of women;” and Oriental Trading Company, which BCA says is “spreading empty awareness via its endless supply of plastic pink ribbon trinkets – the company pockets all the money from these sales.” None of the companies mentioned in BCA’s campaign returned messages seeking comment. “Pink ribbon culture has failed to address and end the breast cancer epidemic and achieve health justice for all women despite more than 20 years of pink ribbon marketing and awareness campaigns,” Jaggar said. For more information, visit www. bcaction.org/stopthedistraction.t

Witnesses testify against alleged fake cop by Seth Hemmelgarn

San Francisco man who’s accused of pretending to be a cop and forcing other men to engage in sexual acts with him faced testimony in recent days from most of his seven alleged victims. Jeffrey Bugai, 35, faces 39 counts including sodomy by anesthesia or a controlled substance, forcible oral copulation, and impersonating a public officer. Bugai has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Several men testified they had believed Bugai was a cop before he took them to an apartment and made them drink something they

suspect was drugged. The testimony came during a preliminary hearing held over recent days. Superior Court Judge Gerardo Sandoval was likely to hold Bugai for trial on at least some of the charges, but he had not yet ruled as the Bay Area Reporter went to press Wednesday. According to court documents and testimony, Bugai often dressed like a police officer and drove a vehicle that resembled a police patrol car. All of the men, who appeared to be in their late 20s to early 30s, spoke through Spanish interpreters. Most of the men also said they had See page 10 >>

Courtesy SFPD

Jeffrey Bugai, a.k.a. Jeffrey Thomas

SmArT, eFFeCTive LeADerSHiP Vote with pride By noVeMBer 4

daVid Chiu

SCott wiener▼

ASSembly, DISTrIcT 17

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Supervisor, District 2: Mark Farrell

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PROP 47: Reform Sentencing

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PROP G: No Position

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PROP 48: Approve Tribal Gaming Compromise

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PROP I: For Playgrounds

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PROP J: Raise Minimum Wage

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PROP K: Affordable Housing

PROP L: Outdated Transit Policies

Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom Secretary of State: Alex Padilla Controller: Betty Yee

aSSembly candidateS State Assembly, District 17:

Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones

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State Assembly, District 19: Phil Ting

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Volume 44, Number 42 October 16-22, 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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Bay Area Reporter 44 Gough Street, Suite 204 San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com A division of BAR Media, Inc. © 2014 President: Michael M. Yamashita Chairman: Thomas E. Horn VP and CFO: Patrick G. Brown Secretary: Todd A. Vogt

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Thanks, supremes

federal judge in Alaska struck down that state’s marriage ban over the weekend, effectively adding another state to the same-sex marriage column after dizzying developments that started when the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not accept any of the seven appeals from five states, effectively bringing marriage equality to not only those states – Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Utah – but also the remaining states in those federal court circuits. As we go to press, same-sex marriage is legal in 30 states plus the District of Columbia. Although there are related appeals pending in five of those states, marriage equality is expected to arrive soon. The political developments have been fascinating to observe and started with the muted response from most mainstream Republicans. Those on the tea party fringe, however, were in a huff. So here are some suggestions for a few of them. To twice-failed presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who’s threatened to leave the GOP over same-sex marriage: please do. And take “man on dog” Rick Santorum with you. The party needs to shed itself of people like you, who rely on faith for everything but love. In fact, we think the Republican Party would evolve faster on this issue if it didn’t have homophobes like you two in it. On the American Family Association’s radio program last week, Huckabee said he would become an independent if the Republican Party “abdicates” on same-sex marriage. He said the party would lose “a whole bunch of God-fearing Bible-believing people” over the marriage equality issue. For his part, Santorum, also a two-time loser since he lost his 2006 Senate re-election bid and the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, hasn’t threatened to leave the party, but the party is leaving him behind. His home state now has marriage equality. To Texas Republican Senator (and future failed presidential candidate)

Ted Cruz, who said he wants a federal constitutional amendment to prevent the federal government or the courts from “attacking or striking down state marriage laws,” we have four words: been there, done that. Ten years ago, we were dismayed by the blatant politics behind the 11 state constitutional amendments on ballots aimed at helping George W. Bush win re-election (thanks, Karl Rove). In addition to Rove, one of the people behind that strategy was none other than Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, who in 2010 came out as gay. While we have our issues with Mehlman and still don’t think he’s adequately explained why he did so much to hurt so many gay and lesbian couples back when he was in the closet, we do appreciate the work he’s done within the GOP since he came out to bring about change – work that culminated with securing Republican votes in the New York Legislature to pass a marriage equality law in 2011. Bush’s Federal Marriage Amendment never did pass Congress. Mr. Cruz, you just don’t get it. The country has reached the point of no return on marriage equality. It is here to stay and will only continue to be legalized in the remaining states. Even if other federal circuits decide to uphold marriage bans in some of those remaining states and the U.S. Supreme Court does eventually hear a case, the message the justices sent last

week was crystal clear: marriage is a fundamental right. If they didn’t believe that, surely they would have accepted one of the several cases before them. They did not, knowing full well the implications of their decision. And another thing, Ted. Unlike 2004 and 2006, years that saw all those same-sex marriage bans on state ballots, public opinion has changed substantially. As a result, political winds have shifted – Republicans are more likely to come out in support of marriage equality than support a retrograde idea like a federal constitutional amendment. Back when Bush mentioned the need for such an amendment during his 2004 State of the Union speech, there was a mayor sitting in the gallery listening to those hateful words. His name was Gavin Newsom and he had just been sworn in as mayor of San Francisco. After Bush’s speech, Newsom came home and ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That jump-started the marriage equality movement and there’s no going back. It’s not the federal courts that are to blame. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act last year in United States v. Windsor, federal judges found that they couldn’t square state marriage bans with the Supreme Court decision and began ruling that they are unconstitutional. In his statement, Cruz was critical of the Supreme Court for its decision not to hear any of the cases it had received. But the justices certainly had that option, which they regularly employ. Far from being “judicial activism at its worst,” as Cruz said, the high court actually followed its own precedent in that it usually doesn’t hear cases where the circuit courts are in agreement, as was the case with the seven appeals. At any rate, we’ll be watching to see what Cruz does when Congress returns from its recess. But we’re certain that his proposed amendment will go nowhere. Public support is largely lacking, Congress will never pass it, and even if it did, two-thirds of the states would not approve it. Any amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage is dead on arrival, sort of like Cruz’s presidential aspirations.t

Supporting the growth of LGBTQ Jewish leadership by Ilan Kayatsky

stand their individual and collective journeys as community leaders. Over espite boasting large Jewish the course of nine workshops, parand LGBTQ populations, the ticipants learned about the Jewish Bay Area has so far failed to produce community from local agency exmany out-and-proud leaders who ecutives, rabbis, change-agents, and successfully straddle both comother experts, and worked on specific munities. This is a shame, as each leadership skills like conflict managecommunity would benefit from ment, public speaking, and fundraisthe integration of the other into its Courtesy Ilan Kayatsky ing. Each participant was paired with leadership and professional base. a mentor who is active in the LGBTQ Ilan Kayatsky In order to address this gap, and/or Jewish community. members of the Bay Area’s orgaFollowing a successful program, nized Jewish community have recently begun the federation is thrilled to have a dya process of recruiting and training LGBTQ namic group of LGBTQ-Jewish maemerging leaders to become central players in chers that is ready to join the prothe Jewish community’s decision-making. verbial decision-making tables Last fall, the San Francisco-based Jewish and help achieve true representaCommunity Federation and Endowment tion of the diversity of our Jewish Fund, in partnership with Keshet and the community. Katherine Tick, the LGBT alliance, launched a seminal new profederation’s director of leadergram to recruit and develop new LGBTQ ship development, also noted: Jewish leaders – LGBTQ Pathways to Jewish “It’s been a great joy to observe Leadership. the self-discovery participants A year later, as the federation now recruits have made about their own Jewfor the program’s second cohort, participants ish identities, their leadership skills, and their are looking back at a fruitful inaugural year process of becoming genuine stakeholders in that dazzled all involved with a diverse, intelthe community.” ligent, engaged group of doers. Sharon Turner, a participant, shared: “I’ve Between November 2013 and July 2014, 12 thought more about who I am as a queer Jew adults (ages 23-41) joined together regularly than I would have without this program. It’s for intensive learning and sharing in various just made me think more consciously about Jewish and LGBTQ venues throughout San my Jewish identify and how I want to raise my Francisco. Each came from a different backdaughter.” ground – some were Jewish communal proThe Pathways program is the result of a fessionals, some just beginning their careers, seminal 2010 study by Jewish Mosaic: The some married, some parents – but all identiNational Center for Sexual and Gender Dified as both Jewish and LGBTQ. versity, titled “LGBT Alliance Study, a Needs The program began with a retreat that gave Assessment of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewparticipants an opportunity to get to know one ish Community,” which focused on gaining a another and a forum for beginning to underbetter understanding of what is meaningful to

LGBTQ Jews in terms of their Jewish identities; the ways in which LGBTQ Jews currently interact – or don’t interact – with the organized Jewish community; and, what LGBTQ Jews want and need from the Jewish community in terms of services, programs, and inclusion. “We need to ensure that we have more of a pipeline for people like me – young adults who are wandering around in the LGBTQ Jewish community looking for, or making flirting glances at, leadership roles, but who don’t have the opportunities like I had to jump in. This isn’t about tokenism or a feel-good project. The Pathways program is a way for the Jewish community to invest in LGBTQ leaders,” noted Sam Goldman, Pathways alum and co-chair of the federation’s LGBT Alliance. The next cohort will begin on November 16. Joining the thought-leadership partnership this year is Angie Dalfen, a graduate of last year’s program, and Arthur Slepian, the director of A Wider Bridge, a federation grantee that builds LGBTQ connections with Israel. Ideal candidates are LGBTQ Jewish individuals with leadership potential who are in need of some skill development and are enthusiastic about learning more about our Jewish community and their engagement therein. For more information or to apply, visit http://www.jewishfed.org/how-we-help/leadership-development/lgbtq-pathways-jewishleadership, or contact Katherine Tick, director of leadership development at the federation, at (415) 512-6265 or KatherineT@sfjcf.org.t Ilan Kayatsky is the senior director of communications at the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.

Community News>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Jim Oswald

Journalists honored at NLGJA gala T

he northern California chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association honored several people at its annual Fall Honors reception October 9 at Bloomberg West. From left, Dave Earl, whose late partner, Stu Smith, was honored posthumously with the In Memoriam Award; Bay Area Reporter assistant editor Matthew S. Bajko, who received an Excellence in Journalism Award; Jason Holstein, Golden Gate Business Association; NLGJA Nor Cal board member Bonnie Osborn; Paul

Pendergast, Pendergast Consulting Group and GGBA board member; Maria De La O, NLGJA Nor Cal chapter president; KGO/ABC7 freelance reporter Sergio V. Quintana, who received an Excellence in Journalism Award; Michael Gentleman, performance improvement consultant at Kaiser Permanente and GGBA secretary; and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism student Susan Cohen, an ally who received the 2014 Bob Ross Student Scholarship.

LGBT center launches economic justice week

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415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA

compiled by Cynthia Laird

he San Francisco LGBT Community Center will launch a week of programs and events examining how the economic landscape in the city continues to affect the LGBTQ community, particularly around housing and employment. Themed “Beyond Survival,” the economic justice week runs from October 19-25, and will include an award reception (October 21, 6 to 8 p.m.), and a career fair (October 22, noon to 3 p.m.). One of the highlights will be a public forum entitled “The State of Affordable Housing for LGBT San Franciscans” Monday, October 20 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The town hall, held in partnership with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBT Advisory Committee, will bring together community stakeholders, housing experts, and city representatives to facilitate a conversation about the housing affordability and its effect on the community. It will also feature information on the city’s below-marketrate rental policy as well as how to access and participate in the city’s first-time and inclusionary home ownership programs. Bevan Dufty, the director of the city’s Housing, Opportunity, Partnerships, and Engagement program, will moderate the panel. Other scheduled panelists include Jeff Buckley, senior adviser for Mayor Ed Lee; Kate Hartly, deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development; Clair Farley, associate director of economic development at the LGBT center; Bill Hirsh, executive director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel; Oona Hanawalt and Alison Panko, a San Francisco LGBT couple facing eviction (who shared their story with the Bay Area Reporter this summer); and Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a longtime queer economic justice and housing activist. All events take place at the LGBT center, 1800 Market Street. For a full list, visit www.sfcenter.org.

Castro Lions pledge matching grant to LGBT center

In other LGBT community center news, the Castro Lions Club has pledged a $45,000 matching grant to the nonprofit, and both groups are asking donors to make a donation between now and December 31

Rick Gerharter

Tenants and partners Oona Hanawalt, left, and Alison Panko shared their story with the Bay Area Reporter this summer and will be featured on a panel about affordable housing.

to help the center raise $45,000. Gary Nathan, Castro Lions president, told the Bay Area Reporter that the “whole idea is to get people thinking about the center again.” “It helps LGBTQ youth, seniors, and the transgender community,” Nathan pointed out, adding that the funds come from Kim de Steiguer, a gay man who died of AIDS complications several years ago and wanted his money to help the community. Roberto Ordeñana, the LGBT center’s development director, told the B.A.R. he is confident the center will meet its goal. Donors can include those renewing membership, new members, or others who donate to the center between now and the deadline. According to the center, the funds will support a broad range of services, including youth, economic development, and community and cultural programs. To donate, go to www.sfcenter. org and click on the “Donate” button. People can also contribute by attending the center’s annual Bold Awards, which will take place November 13.Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased at www.sflgbtcenter.eventbrite.com.

Wiener holds pumpkin carving contest

Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener will hold a pumpkin carving contest and community fair Sunday, October 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the site of the new Noe Valley Town Square, 3861 24th Street. In a news release, Wiener said he is having the event to say thank you to neighbors, parents, dog lovers, kids, and supporters. The day will

include a light lunch and non-alcoholic beverages. People are asked to bring their creative carving ideas, as a celebrity panel of judges will oversee the pumpkin contest. People are asked to register for the free event to make sure there are enough pumpkins and can sign up at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/supervisor-wieners-pumpkin-carvingcontest-community-fair-2014-tickets-13597742213?ref=ebtn.

AHF to leave Church Street space

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which runs a pharmacy and thrift shop in San Francisco’s Duboce Triangle neighborhood, is expected to leave its space at 100 Church Street after a settlement was reached in the eviction lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Maitri hospice, which owns the space. Maitri filed the unlawful detainer complaint against the Los Angelesbased AHF June 27, claiming that the foundation didn’t pay rent from September 2013 to just days before the lawsuit was filed. In a response filed in September, AHF said it paid about $184,000 due in rent June 24, a figure almost $80,000 lower than what Maitri said it was owed. The settlement was filed in San Francisco Superior Court October 6. Maitri Executive Director Michael Smithwick said he couldn’t comment on details of the settlement, including how much AHF would pay Maitri. AHF’s pharmacy and Out of the Closet thrift store are expected to vacate the space by November 15. The hospice, which provides 24hour residential care to people living with AIDS, would like to find another nonprofit to fill the vacancy “as soon as possible,” “ideally” one “that is somewhat aligned with our See page 9 >>

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<< Commentary

6 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

For better, for worse by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

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ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS TERRY MURPHY 760-832-3758

his has been a big year for marriage equality. The dominos have been falling with regularity, and a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court to let stand five appellate rulings cleared the way for marriage in five states, as well as several others within the 4th, 7th, and 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Indeed, marriage licenses for same-sex couples are now – as of this writing – available in 30 states. Polls have shown, too, that the majority of people have approved of same-sex marriage since 2011 or so. Fox News in recent days challenged longtime anti-gay and anti-trans crusader Tony Perkins on his claims against marriage equality. The Republican Party has removed same-sex marriage as a platform issue. It is quickly becoming a non-issue for much of the country. In 1992, the marriage battle in the United States was in its infancy. It would be another year before the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that Hawaii’s statute against samesex marriage was unconstitutional unless the state could show a “compelling state interest” for such a ban. It would be four years before President Bill Clinton would sign the Defense of Marriage Act into law. That was the year I got married. It was not then a same-sex marriage, but it clearly is now. For those of us who are transgender, the issue of marriage is a bit muddier. In 1999, one of the first cases involving a same-sex marriage went through the Texas Court of Appeals. That case, Littleton v. Prange, involved a transgender woman and her then-deceased male spouse, with the court invalidating her marriage. The court decided then that sex is determined at birth and fixed. It wasn’t until this year that a separate appeals court in Texas noted that state law has changed and now recognizes gender reassignment as valid. So as a married transgender woman, I am pleased as punch to see marriage equality quickly becoming a done deal across so much of the United States. I’m sure that there will be pockets of resistance

CA BRE# 01346949

Oakland mayor

From page 1

Coalition found Kaplan with 61 percent of the vote and Quan with 39 percent under the city’s rankedchoice voting system. The poll of 400 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent. Wednesday the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce released a new poll conducted in early October that showed Kaplan would win the race with nearly 59 percent and City Councilwoman Libby Schaaf placing second with more than 41 percent under the instantrunoff voting process. Quan landed in third place with 28.4 percent in the poll, which was based on the responses from 500 voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent. Four years ago Kaplan came in second place to Quan in the mayoral race. Although she had pledged not to mount a bid to oust Quan as mayor, it was widely expected that Kaplan would break that promise and run this year. In June Kaplan announced her decision to do so. “I was waiting to see if she would pull it together,” Kaplan told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent editorial board meeting. “I don’t hate her. This is not about animus.”

Christine Smith

for a long time yet, but I think even the staunchest anti-marriage activists see the writing on the wall. There’s more to my feelings on the marriage issue, though, and this is where I might surprise people. You see, even with my own marriage being potentially in legal peril during the era of California’s Proposition 22 and Proposition 8 marriage bans, I question how we ended up with marriage as such a large part of the LGBT community’s struggle for equality. With the victories of recent weeks on our minds, this really is a good time to assess where we put our resources. With the potential of less time, attention, and money being given to the marriage issue, I might suggest some other areas that could use the attention of those looking to remain involved in the fight for LGBT rights. Of course, my list will be very transgender-focused. I’ll be clear: these are issues that affect those I care about. I am biased. That said, I think these are things that should concern us all. What’s more, while resources can sometimes be limited, rights are not finite. Just because one group has them does not mean another will not – no matter what some among the religious right might think. Transgender people are still being killed with alarming frequency. With Transgender Day of Remembrance just around the corner, I have to wonder how much even a fraction of the millions of dollars raised to fight for marriage equality could be used to save transgender lives and prevent She was motivated to seek the mayoral office again, said Kaplan, due to the numerous calls of complaint from constituents about Quan’s administration. “As the at-large council member I am the person people are told to call when they have a problem at City Hall,” said Kaplan, 44, who married her wife, Pamela Rosin, this summer. “People call me to complain the mayor was rude to them or her staff won’t call them back.” Kaplan also criticized Quan’s handling of LGBT issues during her first term, pointing to the mayor’s not appropriating city funds toward Oakland’s revived Pride festival and underfunding of programs for LGBT youth last summer. “It has been really appalling to see all the straight people in Oakland city government that fancies themselves allies but don’t do anything,” said Kaplan. “It’s been interesting to see even though Oakland has a large LGBT community it doesn’t seem straight officials respond to that.” Should she be elected mayor, Kaplan pledged to make funding for Pride and LGBT youth programs part of her baseline budget. She also said she would appoint a member of her staff as an official liaison to the LGBT community. “My presence will do some work

anti-transgender violence. Work on issues of racial equality and visibility within the community is needed, with a focus on helping people of color. The vast majority of anti-transgender murders are young African American transgender women, and it would only make sense to me to put resources in the hands of those most in need of them. Or perhaps funds could be used to combat suicide. An American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law study showed that 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide. That’s nine times the national average. The numbers are better for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, but still beat the national average. It is hard to say, “until death do us part” when we’re still dying so often. I should note too that 69 percent of transgender people who are homeless attempt suicide. The money spent fighting the marriage battle could do a lot to address issues with homelessness in both the transgender and larger LGBT community. With the marriage battle winding down – as it seems to be – perhaps we can see our organizations fighting these and other battles. Bisexuals, too, are often overlooked in the larger community. Of course, just because it is winding down doesn’t mean it is over. There are still 20 more states to go, and some of them are going to be uphill battles, no doubt. There could still be a Supreme Court challenge in the future. Until it’s finally decided across the whole nation, marriage equality will still be an issue. Still, this is a good time when we can reflect and consider what is next. The battle for marriage equality is by no means the end of our struggles, no more than the overturning of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was our last battlefield. Heck, transgender people cannot serve openly in the military regardless of DADT. So this to me is a dialogue I think our community and its organizations need to have, now. We need to consider carefully what is next, and where we move now as we reach beyond same-sex marriage.t Gwen Smith wants it all, and wants it now. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

to change the tone, but I wouldn’t leave it at that,” said Kaplan. During her own editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. Quan dismissed Kaplan’s attacks on her LGBT record, saying that, “Rebecca’s truthfulness is something to be desired.” The mayor, who turns 65 next week, pointed out she has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Oakland Pride committee from corporate sponsors and started a breakfast event the morning of the LGBT celebration to bring in even more funds. The lack of LGBT youth funding, said Quan, was due to poor evaluations of the programs that had received city funds. In the end, the funding dispute led to applications from better programs, she added. “It is not that we are clueless, but See page 10 >>

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online columns, Political Notes and Wedding Bells Ring, and the Jock Talk column. www.ebar.com.

Politics>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

CA military group a no-show at Castro fair by Matthew S. Bajko

he California State Military Reserve, which protested its not being allowed to recruit members at San Francisco’s Pride festival this year, had said it would have a booth at the Castro Street Fair earlier this month. The promise was made at the end of a guest opinion piece that ran in the June 19 issue of the Bay Area Reporter critical of Pride’s banning military recruiters from the festival grounds. The military reserve is an allvolunteer, unarmed force that acts as the state’s militia and assists with the California National Guard during emergency events, such as earthquakes or wildfires, when called up by the governor. It does not bar anyone from being a member based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In response to a question from the B.A.R. asking why the state group did not have a booth at the Castro fair, Darrin Bender, a lieutenant colonel in the state military reserve, apologized for the group’s failure to be at the annual street festival celebrating the city’s gayborhood. “It was not a deliberate decision. We planned on being there, but didn’t follow through. I apologize for letting this slip,” wrote Bender in an emailed response. “Improving our relationship with the LGBT community in San Francisco is a priority.” The group’s being a no-show at the October 5 event prompted one Pride board member to complain to the B.A.R. about its absence. “It is a great example of military propaganda to attack SF Pride and to then never show up,” said John Caldera, who is also the vice president of San Francisco Veterans For Peace, Chapter 69. “One way or another, the military will come up with an excuse.” Caldera’s group had its first booth at the Castro Street Fair this year “to

Bay Guardian

From page 1

In a widely distributed email Tuesday, SF Media Company publisher Glenn Zuehls said the Bay Guardian “is not a viable business and has not been for many years.” The company, which also owns the daily San Francisco Examiner and the alternative SF Weekly, bought the Bay Guardian in 2012. “The amount of money that the Bay Guardian loses each week is causing damage to the heart of the company and cannot justify its continued publication,” Zuehls, who joined the company in June, said in his email. Asked in an interview Tuesday how much the Bay Guardian’s been losing, Zuehls said, “I’m not going to go into financial figures. We just haven’t been profitable for years. That was the only route we had, to shut it down. Having any newspaper from San Francisco disappear is not a good thing,” but “when you’re losing money, you’re taking the money from somewhere else.” He said, “The voice of the Guardian is something very, very special,” and the paper has “made a difference in this city,” but “the thing is, somebody had to pay for it.” Bieschke said he was shocked by the move, but “quite honestly, we kind of knew this was going to be unsustainable.”

‘Unicorns and lollipops’

Bieschke indicated he has felt uneasy about SF Media Co. ever since it bought the paper, and his concerns had grown after Zuehls arrived several months ago. “Decisions were being made

offer a counter-recruitment presence,” he explained, “and we could not have been happier.”

SF Chron editor donates to Wiener

Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener received a small assist in his re-election bid from a San Francisco Chronicle editor who donated $100 to his campaign, his most recent disclosure filings show. On September 25 Katherine Morgan, who was listed by Wiener’s campaign as a “journalist” at the city’s mainstream paper, made the donation. The descriptor is a bit of a misnomer, however, as Morgan is an assistant managing editor who oversees the Chronicle’s style, food, and travel coverage. Morgan’s duties at the paper, which endorsed Wiener in the race, have nothing to do with its election coverage, managing editor Audrey Cooper told the B.A.R., and her donation is allowed under the Chronicle’s ethics policy. “Our newsroom ethics policy discourages political activism when it could create the appearance or actual conflict of interest, but allows exceptions for reporters and editors who have nothing to do with political coverage,” explained Cooper. Wiener is facing a quartet of lesser-known opponents for his seat covering the city’s gay Castro district as well as Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park. He reported raising $98,661 this year as of September 30 for his re-election race, with more than $116,000 remaining in his campaign coffers. His most well known challenger, gay activist and blogger Michael Petrelis, reported raising $2,751 during the first nine months of 2014 and had nearly $1,250 remaining as of October 1. without us,” Bieschke said, and he pointed to a meeting with Zuehls a couple weeks ago where “I was basically just yelled at for an hour.” He said at the meeting, where others were also present, Zuehls told him “when it comes to finances, we were living in the land of unicorns and lollipops.” Bieschke said the comment came after he’d questioned a printing change. That “drew his ire, and I was called onto the carpet,” he said. Zuehls told him “he appreciated my passion,” but “he couldn’t really agree with our message.” “I didn’t feel like it was homophobic,” Bieschke said of the “unicorns and lollipops” remark, but “I can see how it could be read as that.” He said he felt the remark was more “condescending” and a referral to “our progressive idealism.” He didn’t ask Zuehls to explain his comment. “It was 7:30 in the morning,” he said. “I had just gotten in from DJ’ing [drag queen] Juanita Moore’s party, and I was trying not to throw up.” Asked about the “unicorns and lollipops” remark, Zuehls said, “Excuse me? You’re taking words out of context. ... Marke can comment on whatever he wants to comment on. I’ll comment on your questions.” He said he didn’t have the conversation “taped or in front of me.” It seems clear SF Media Co. had had an uncomfortable relationship with the Bay Guardian. “We just were not a right fit with the kind of corporate, old school, boys’ club style of management and approach to finances,” Bieschke said. “It was a very bottom line approach. I felt like our progressive message

Another out opponent, John Nulty, reported raising $2,065 with $1,104 remaining as of the latest filing deadline. Nudist George Davis raised $1,200 in 2014 and spent nearly all of it, according to his filing, while Tommy Basso has yet to report raising any money.

A fun place to play… a fab place to stay!

Fundraiser for East Bay lesbian council candidates A fun A group calling itself BBOLD, which stands for Bold Baby 2 Old Lesbian Dykes, is hosting a fundraiser this weekend for two lesbian council candidates in the East Bay. The event will raise money for Richmond City Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles, who currently serves as vice mayor and is seeking re-election to a second term, and Lori Droste, who is seeking a seat on the Berkeley City Council. Beckles garnered media attention this summer for being subjected to homophobic comments during her council’s public meetings, while Droste is mounting her first bid for public office. The candidate meet-and-greet will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, October 19 at the Strawberry Creek Lodge Community Dining Room, located at 1320 Addison Street in Berkeley. Attendees are asked to bring a potluck dish. For more information visit h t t p s : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / events/910740188954077/.t

place to play… A funtoplace a fab place stay! to play…

Courtesyto CSMRsoldier.com a fab place stay!

Specialist (CA) Hector Gomez at the California State Military Reserve recruiting booth on Memorial Day 2013 at the USS Iowa in A place to play… Sanfun Pedro, California; the group had promised to have a booth at this month’s Castro Street Fair but not show up. a fab place todid stay!

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was looked on with suspicion, and I felt like we were the queer ones, and they didn’t know what to do” with the paper.

‘Best’ is last

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Bieschke said the latest edition of the paper’s “Best of the Bay” issue, which came out Wednesday, had been “hugely successful” and brought in $112,000 worth of ad revenue. The staff had planned to celebrate Tuesday. Word then came Monday that a staff meeting was planned for 10 a.m. Tuesday. “We were hoping that it would have been like bagels and champagne, ‘Let’s celebrate,’” Bieschke said. Instead, Zuehls and general manager Pat Brown “came in and Glenn said that the ‘Best of ’ issue would be the last.” Zuehls said that Bay Guardian employees “definitely” would be paid. Asked about whether SF Media Co. had ever considered folding the Bay Guardian into SF Weekly, Zuehls said, “We looked at all options but [the Guardian’s] voice is so strong. ... We didn’t think it makes sense either for our customers or for the Guardian itself.” Just hours after the announcement, Bieschke said staff at the paper “are hoping to find a buyer who will help us survive, possibly in print form, or possibly in an online form.” He said, “We don’t have anyone yet in mind” for potential buyers, but “I think we have a number of possibilities.” Bieschke doesn’t count himself among them, though. “I have no money,” he said. “I’m a writer. I wish I could, but right now, See page 8 >>

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<< LGBT History Month

8 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

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‘Moms’ Mabley considered pioneer for female comedians by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

egendary American vaudeville entertainer-turned-comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley became famous for her persona as a frumpy, middle-aged woman in a housedress and floppy hat delivering hilarious stand-up comedy routines, often with wry political commentary tucked inside. Through her early years of performing at famous African American theaters along the so-called Chitlin’ circuit, including the Apollo Theater in Harlem, to appearances in the 1960s and early 1970s on television programs like the Ed Sullivan Show, she often boasted about her attraction to young virile men. “The only thing that an old man can do for me is tell me where to find a young one,” she frequently told audiences. But those who knew her off stage have said she quickly shed her matronly housedress and hat after her performances and changed into stylish slacks and shirts that were commonly worn by her fellow male performers. “I met her at the Apollo Theater,” said Norma Miller, a dancer, choreographer, actor and fellow comedian who talked about Mabley in a 2013 HBO documentary film about the comedian directed by Whoopi Goldberg. “And she and I shared a dressing room for two weeks – she and I and her girlfriend,” Miller said. “She was real. I mean she was Moms on stage but when she walked off that stage she was Mr. Moms,” said Miller. “And there was no question about it.” Added Miller, “We never called Moms a homosexual. That word never fit her. We never called her gay. We called her Mr. Moms.” The documentary in which Miller, 86, spoke about Mabley includes numerous film clips of Mabley performing on the vaudeville stage. It also includes scenes of her signature standup comic routines, including some on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS in the 1960s. In researching Mabley’s background, Goldberg unearthed private photos of Mabley in what appeared to be the 1930s or 1940s in which she dressed in men’s clothes with short hair, giving her an androgynous look. “See, in that time period it was nobody’s business,” Goldberg said

Bay Guardian

From page 7

no one on the staff is in a position to make an offer.” The paper has seven staffers. Two have been offered positions “elsewhere in the company,” Bieschke said, but he wasn’t “at liberty to say” who’s gotten offers. “Obviously,” finding a buyer

Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley became famous for her persona as a frumpy, middle-aged woman in a housedress.

in the documentary, Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley: The Original Queen of Comedy. “And I will assume that when Moms came out of costume – because that’s what the hat and the shoes and the housedress was – and put on that silk shirt with those pants and that fedora and had those women on her arm – I think everybody was like, ‘OK,’” said Goldberg. “And so I think that she was a woman among men and who was equal to those men,” Goldberg said. “And they treated her like a man. And I think that is what helped give her the longevity.” Marc Powers, director of marketing for Washington, D.C.’s Howard Theatre, told the Washington Blade in a 2012 interview that Mabley socialized with a circle of lesbian and gay friends in Washington when she performed at the Howard in the 1940s. On one occasion during that period, following her show at the Howard, Mabley organized a “gay” party at a nearby nightclub that was raided by police, according to Powers. “When that got shut down they were like, ‘Damn, where are we going to go? Might as well just go back to the Howard!’” Powers said. Arizona State University Professor Bambi Haggins analyzed Mabley’s career in her 2007 book Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America. Haggins, who appears in the Goldberg documentary and who spoke with the Blade for this article, points to what she calls Mabley’s contradic-

tory persona on and off the stage and in her sexuality. Haggins notes that, according to biographical information on Mabley, the entertainer clearly had romantic relationships with men. Following her death in 1975 at the age of 81, Jet magazine reported Mabley had three daughters and a son and left an estate worth more than a half-million dollars. Haggins and others who examined Mabley’s life and career note that reports of her relationships with men and women date back to the 1920s, indicating she may have been bisexual. Much about Mabley’s private life remains a mystery, Goldberg stated in the HBO documentary. What is known, according to entertainment industry observers, is that Moms Mabley was a cutting-edge, groundbreaking female stand-up comic and an accomplished overall entertainer both on stage and in film, television and in the more than 20 record albums she made of her comedy routines. Her less than subtle references to sex and her fiery demeanor set the stage for other female comics, such as the late Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers, who died last month, to follow in her footsteps, Goldberg and others have said. “I think what’s fascinating about Moms is she was able to use what people thought she was from her appearance to say something about so many other issues – from the harrowing experiences that black people were having in the South to the civil rights movement to the way she talked about LBJ and Lady Bird and JFK and Jackie,” Haggins said. Haggins was referring to invitations Mabley received to perform at the White House during the Kennedy administration and at least one White House visit during the Johnson administration in the 1960s. “Moms comes along in the late 1920s as a young woman dressed with that hat and the house coat and the big shoes and she takes that persona all the way to 1975,” Goldberg said in the documentary. “She honed that woman and she grew into that woman at a time when there were no women stand-ups – there were none. There was only Moms.”t Lou Chibbaro Jr. is senior news reporter for the Washington Blade. Reach him at lchibbaro@ washblade.com.

“within the year would be ideal,” he said. He added, “I feel like maybe this was a good parting of ways so that we could retain our high standards of news, arts, and culture coverage.” The Bay Guardian had a print circulation of 50,000, along with 400,000 page views on its website each month, according to Bieschke, whose promotion to the paper’s top

post in July 2013 was believed to make him the first out publisher of a non-LGBT paper in San Francisco.

A celebration of his life will be held 2 p.m., Saturday, October 18 at Passalacqua Funeral Chapel, 901 West Second Street, Benicia, California. His ashes will be scattered off the coast of Marin County. The family prefers donations to ARF of Walnut Creek or the Humane Society of the North Bay. Please visit the online tribute at www.passalacquafuneralchapel.com.

meaningful action. It seemed as though there were nothing he could not do or could not accomplish. To name only a few of Will’s passions, interests, and missions: marathon runner (nearly 40), committed environmentalist, vegan, scholar, licensed solar contractor and champion, hands-on technician, electric vehicle charging infrastructure installer, sustainable landscaper, energy efficiency expert, business owner and electric transportation advocate. Will divided his time between Pomona and San Francisco. He was a member of the LGBT-friendly temples Beth Chayim Chadashim and Congregation Sha’ar Zahav. Will was a beloved son, brother, and uncle. Will’s brilliance and dedication inspired us. He was fearless; he turned possibilities into realities. We will miss him. There will be a San Francisco memorial. Details by email, WilliamKorthofMemorialSF@gmail.com.

‘Sidelined’

Bieschke said even though he was the publisher and executive editor, he’d been “sidelined” when it came to “any financial information” pertaining to the Bay Guardian and “larger See page 10 >>

Obituaries >> Darrel D. Johnson

October 21, 1942 – September 7, 2014 Darrel D. Johnson, 71, passed away suddenly in a local hospital. He was born in Norfolk, Nebraska, lived several years in Marin County before spending the last four years in Walnut Creek. Darrel earned his bachelor’s degree from Hastings College and worked for more than 29 years as a legal coordinator for Catholic Healthcare West. He was an avid sports fan, especially his beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers. He is survived by his sister Joyce Johnson of Colorado; his dear friend Maria Maddry; and other close friends and extended family. He was preceded in death by his former partner, David Kliskey, and his cat, Mau, and his dogs, Tiger and Miguel.

William Robert Korthof 1978 – 2014

William Robert Korthof was only 36 years old on October 2, 2014 when he was tragically and instantly killed as a passenger on a motorcycle during a fatal collision with a car. Though his life was all-toobrief, that life was packed with diverse and

LGBT History Month>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

LGBT athletes: Making an impact, on and off the field by Ross Forman

sera Tuaolo walked onto the fabled grass at Lambeau Field September 14 to sing the national anthem before the Green Bay Packers’ home opener against the New York Jets. He wore a green Packers jersey with No. 98 on it and admittedly was both excited and nervous. In addition to his performance, the team’s pregame ceremony included a video tribute to the 200th anniversary of the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and there was a fly-over before the game and a standing-room-only crowd. The Packers went on to win 31-24. Tuaolo was doing something he had done before – in that same setting, wearing the same uniform. Tuaolo, who played in the NFL from 1991-99, spent two seasons with the Packers in the early 1990s – and he sang the national anthem at Lambeau October 17, 1991, as a rookie before a game against the Chicago Bears. Tuaolo, who played at Oregon State University before being selected by Green Bay in the second-round of the 1991 NFL draft, was deep in the closet during the 1991 performance. He is now a proud gay man – and the Packers still wanted him back, to sing and to honor him and other former players during the team’s alumni weekend. It was Tuaolo’s first trip back to Lambeau Field since coming out publicly as gay in 1999. “It was very special, and walking into that stadium as an openly gay man was absolutely amazing,” he said. “And to see and hear the support of [about] 80,000 fans was overwhelming and very emotional.” The moment also was very surreal for the former gridiron star, whose career included time with five teams before he stepped off the field after the 1999 season with the Carolina Panthers. “That probably was one of the best [renditions of the] national anthem I’ve ever done,” said Tuaolo, who left the field to cheers and countless high-fives from fans. “It was really nice for people to see me for who I really am.” Tuaolo, now 46 and living in Minnesota, has seemingly come full-circle. He’s no longer hiding his sexual orientation behind his pads, weighed down by fear, nerves, and perhaps guilt. His smile is now everpresent and sincere. “We’re now definitely living in a different time, [largely] due to education that the LGBT community has put out there,” he said. Tuaolo, who was born in Honolulu, is one of the most prominent figures in the LGBT sports community. He’s an advocate, outspoken in support of all gay rights and one of the few gays who also can call themselves a professional athlete.

One of the first

In football, for instance, that list starts with David Kopay, who in

News Briefs

From page 5

mission,” Smithwick said. Besides the Church Street pharmacy, AHF also has another pharmacy on 18th Street in the Castro. The foundation will move the Church Street pharmacy to 18th Street. The nonprofit is planning an HIV treatment center for 518 Castro Street, and has sued the city and District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener over whether the new location should be subject to formula retail rules. Following such guidelines is likely to slow down the process. That lawsuit is pending. A grand opening of the new Castro space is planned for October 24. AHF operates three Out of the Closet shops in San Francisco. Ged Kenslea, an AHF spokesman, said

1975 became one of the first pro athletes to come out. He was an All-American running back at the University of Washington in 1961 who then was signed by the San Francisco 49ers. He played professional football from 1964-72. His 1977 biography, The David Kopay Story, was a bestseller – and a key factor in Tuaolo’s life, among others. “David Kopay didn’t realize that what he did [by coming out] in the 1970s helped so many, [including] myself, Michael Sam and so, so many others. And I hope when I came out, it too helped others,” Tuaolo said. Other high-level, now-out football players include Justin Fashanu, Kwame Harris, Conner Mertens, Michael Sam, Roy Simmons, Jerry Smith, and Wade Davis. All – except Mertens, who is a current college player, and Sam, who could become the first out active NFL player – came out after retiring from the sport. Davis, who played preseason games in the NFL and then in NFL Europe, is now the executive director of the You Can Play project, a social activism campaign dedicated to eliminating homophobia in sports, based around the slogan, “If you can play, you can play.” The You Can Play campaign was launched March 4, 2012, in honor of the death of Brendan Burke, a gay team manager for the Miami University (Ohio) hockey team and the son of longtime NHL executive Brian Burke.

The journey

The mainstream sports world has a long history linked to the gay community, dating back decades. But mainstream sports also has, without question, been the tallest mountain for the LGBT community to scale. A year after Kopay came out, an English figure skater, John Curry, came out and became the first openly gay athlete to win Olympic gold. Then, in 1977, Renee Richards won a lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association because she was barred as a transwoman from competing as a woman in the 1976 U.S. Open. In 1981, Billie Jean King was outed by her ex-lover, Marilyn Barnett. That same year, fellow tennis sensation Martina Navratilova came out as a lesbian in an article in the New York Daily News. King and Navratilova are two of the greatest tennis players of all time. In 1982, the inaugural multisport Gay Games was held in San Francisco. It was started by a gay former U.S. Olympic decathlete, Dr. Tom Waddell. “In the gay community, people such as David Kopay, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King and so many others ... it is absolutely necessary for us to remember all of those people who were the trailblazers, those people who laid down their lives, their blood so the younger merchandise from the Church Street location is being sold at discounted rates and staff will be absorbed into the other shops. Another lawsuit in which Maitri makes similar rent claims against AHF is pending. A settlement conference in that case is set for October 29.

LGBT history at Oakland senior living facility

Karen Sundheim, program manager for the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library, will give a visual presentation on LGBT history Thursday, October 23 at 3:30 p.m. at Lake Merritt Independent Senior Living, 1800 Madison Street in Oakland. The event is part of the Lake Merritt’s conservation series in which community leaders and experts in a variety of fields give presentations

Windy City Times

Former pro football player Esera Tuaolo, who came out after he retired, continues to advocate for inclusion in sports.

generation can be who they are,” Tuaolo said. “David Kopay is my hero, my rock. If I didn’t read his book in 1996, I probably would be dead right now – and I’m not joking about that. For him to have been brave in the 1970s and try to educate people, he really was the brave one, amid death threats and so much more.” Tuaolo met Kopay for the first time shortly after coming out. It was at Kopay’s southern California home, “and I cried like a little baby because the impact he had on my life was absolutely amazing. I could never re-pay him for what he did – for me and so many others. “David Kopay deserves so much more respect and admiration [from the gay community] than what he now gets,” Tuaolo added. Kopay, who was born in Chicago, was a running back at the University of Washington. In his pro career, he rushed for 876 career yards and scored three touchdowns. Kopay’s career included stints with five teams, most notably the 49ers. The 1990s featured the coming out of former NFL player Roy Simmons and former Major League Baseball player Glenn Burke. Burke died of complications from AIDS two years after coming out, yet his legacy is seen almost daily in the sports world and beyond – he is credited with inventing the high-five. Burke also was honored at the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Olympic diver Greg Louganis came out in 1994 and a year later, Ian Roberts, one of Australia’s most popular rugby players, came out. In 1996, elite-level figure skater Rudy Galindo did the same. In 1998, LPGA Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan came out as a lesbian and, that same year, Billy Bean also came out as gay. Bean played pro baseball from 1987-1995, and earlier in 2014 he was hired by MLB as its new ambassador for inclusion. “As a community, we definitely have evolved, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. But it’s still to the community. The event is free and open to the public. Sundheim’s presentation will be illustrated with photographs from the Hormel center’s extensive archival collection and will focus on important achievements in LGBT history and the arts in the U.S., with particular emphasis on the Bay Area. For more information, call (510) 903-3600 or visit www.thelakemerritt.com.

Get ‘Un-Qorked’ at Queer LifeSpace benefit

Queer LifeSpace, an LGBT therapy collective, will hold its Q-Ball, “Queers Un-Qorked” benefit Thursday, October 23 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission Street in San Francisco. The evening promises to be a magical one that supports queer-fo-

Ross Forman

Gay NFL player Michael Sam has yet to step on a football field, but he’s on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad and may see action this season.

better than 15 or 20 years ago,” Tuaolo said. “Every time a pro athlete comes out, as well as college and high school athletes, it definitely helps the cause.” The coming outs continued at a faster pace in the 2000s, as well as the denials that someone is gay. Former New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza, for instance, held a press conference to announce he is straight. In 2004, golf sensation Rosie Jones came out, and the following year basketball star Sheryl Swoopes did the same. (Years later, Swoopes revealed she was engaged to a man.) In 2007, John Amaechi became the first former NBA player to come out. And when fellow former NBA player Tim Hardaway told a radio station “I hate gay people,” it led to swift consequences, including firing by the basketball team he was coaching. In 2008, the gay world was awash in Matthew Mitcham mania as the Australian, who was the only out gay man competing at the Beijing Summer Olympics, captured gold. Then, in 2009, Sherri Murrell became the first out lesbian coach in NCAA Division I basketball. “It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come” for gays in the sports world, Tuaolo said. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve definitely come forward and the response from society as a whole is that it is not an LGBT issue anymore; it is an equality issue.” Since 2010, it truly has been a flood of LGBTs-in-sports – and unprecedented support for LGBT rights by straight allies in sports, such as Ben Cohen and Hudson Taylor, who each launched organizations in 2011. Kye Allums was the first out transgender person to play for a women’s college basketball team, and Fallon Fox is a trans mixed martial-arts competitor. In professional women’s sports, it has always been slightly easier to be out, but still a long road. Leigh-Ann Naidoo was out as a women’s beach volleyball player for South Africa

in the 2004 Olympics, and Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach are now out soccer players. Speaking of soccer, Robbie Rogers last year became the first gay active male soccer player in the United States. Jason Collins made history when he came out on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and later, when he was picked up by the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, he became the first openly gay male player in one of the nation’s four major men’s sports. In 2011, Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir finally confirmed what had long been speculated – that he is gay. Coming-outs over the past few years have also included pro-sports team presidents (Rick Welts), prominent sports writers (Steve Buckley), and more. Lesbian businesswoman Laura Ricketts was already out when her family purchased the Chicago Cubs baseball team. In early 2014, the aforementioned Sam came out. A former college football standout, he is hoping to become the first active, out NFL player. Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams, ultimately released by the Rams and then signed to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad. Sam dreams of stepping onto an NFL field. “When I see Michael Sam coming out, I think it’s definitely a step forward for the LGBT community in the sports realm,” Tuaolo said. “When did you think that an openly gay man would be drafted into the NFL? That’s progress. “It was amazing that Michael Sam came out, but look, if he hadn’t come out [before being drafted, Sam] would have been a first- or second-round [draft] pick, flat out. But, him coming out and living his truth, [pushed him into] the last round of the draft, which I thought was ridiculous,” Tuaolo said. “That was a step backwards, especially for the in-the-closet college athlete who wanted to come out. Now they likely are questioning whether or not they should come out because if that’s what happened to Michael Sam, that probably will happen to me, too. “That said, we are moving forward in the right direction,” he added. So where will the LGBT community stand in sports in, say, five years? It won’t be an issue at all, Tuaolo contended. LGBTs will be playing in the major, male team sports, and coming-outs won’t be national news. “Back in the day, being gay in sports was a shameful and a bad thing,” Tuaolo said. “But slowly it has progressed so that being gay is not a bad thing, not a shameful thing.”t Ross Forman is a sports reporter for the Windy City Times. He also covers the sports beat for other mainstream media, and is involved as an official and participant in gay and straight sports leagues.

cused mental health care and honors local LGBTQ leaders. Top Castro restaurants will donate hors d’oeuvres. Beverages will include the “Queertini.” There will be a queer youth poetry slam, silent auction, and live jazz by Daria Johnson 4. Honorees are Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, who will receive the Community Advocate Award; Cheryl Dunye, who will receive the Queer Artist on the Ground Award; and Benji Delgadillo, who will receive the Queer Youth Visibility Award. Tickets are $30 or there’s a twoticket special for $25. Proceeds benefit Queer LifeSpace. For tickets or more information, visit www.queerlifespace.org.

open house Thursday, October 23 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at its offices, 730 Polk Street in San Francisco. The nonprofit provides meals and groceries to the critically ill, including people living with HIV/ AIDS. According to an email, the open house will celebrate the agency’s recent expansion of client services; include tours of the kitchen, greenhouse, and grocery center; and a tasting menu of client meals. People will also hear early findings of Project Open Hand’s Food = Medicine pilot study. Space is limited. Those planning to attend should RSVP to Hannah Levinson at hlevinson@openhand. org or call (4150 447-2494.t

Project Open Hand open house

Seth Hemmelgarn contributed to this report.

Project Open Hand will hold an

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

10 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Bay Guardian

From page 8

financial information about the company,” so he couldn’t comment on the paper or the company’s viability. “As far as I knew, the Guardian was healthy financially,” Bieschke said. Zuehls wouldn’t comment on Bieschke being shut out of financial information, and he chastised the Bay Area Reporter for making such inquiries. “All the things you’re asking about Marke are statements he’s making. ... It’s hearsay. Any good reporter wouldn’t do that,” Zuehls said, adding that he wouldn’t “speculate” on what Bieschke meant. Bieschke also said his paper hadn’t had “enough sales reps,” and he hadn’t been “empowered to hire more.” In response, Zuehls said, “That’s one person’s opinion.” He said the company’s sales representatives are “selling all three” publications, and he indicated he had worked to encourage that. Zuehls said he’d made more than 30 calls to prospective advertisers and

Out in the World

From page 1

to be passed first, requiring 51 to 101 members of parliament to be in favor. That could be a problem with elections looming in March and experts believe the law will be a “defining element shaping the landscape in the long-running culture wars,” reported the media outlet. Supporters praised the bill’s passage. Kari Kasper, director of the Estonian Human Rights Center, applauded the passage of the bill calling it a “leap toward a society that is freer, more equal and values human rights for all.” Representatives in the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn praised the passage of the bill. “The U.S. government supports equal treatment under the law for

Oakland mayor

From page 6

we are doing more to improve,” Quan said. She also pointed to her requiring LGBT sensitivity training for police and her naming various LGBT Oaklanders to oversight bodies such as the city’s planning and port commissions. “I probably appointed more LGBT appointees to commissions and boards than any other mayor. It has been one of my priorities,” said Quan. “At one point the planning commission was majority LGBT.” Quan told the B.A.R., which en-

Witnesses

From page 2

been drinking before they went to the apartment with Bugai. Identified during the preliminary hearing as Miguel M., one alleged victim, 26, said he met Bugai at El Trebol bar, 3149 22nd Street, in the Mission district, around December 31, 2007. He got into a cab with Bugai, thinking he was getting a ride home. Miguel said when they got to the apartment, Bugai gave him a glass of what looked and tasted like water, but after that, he testified, “I did not know anything anymore until I had him on top of me without any clothes.” Bugai was performing oral sex on him, Miguel told the court. He shook his head and rubbed his forehead as he described Bugai taking his penis and penetrating himself with it. He said he unsuccessfully tried to push him away and told him “No” during the incident, but “I had no strength.” “When everything finished, I stood up,” Miguel said. “I wanted to

“most of them didn’t want to let the progressive message be associated with the Guardof the Guardian die especialian.” He added, “More than ly now during an election, so anything, we need some bigyou will see us in some way ger customers, and we can’t shape or form somehow.” seem to get them with that B.A.R. ties to product, and it shows with SF Media Co. our financial statements.” He Although the B.A.R. is indeclined to give examples of dependently owned by BAR any of the advertisers he was Media Inc., two of its indireferring to. vidual investing partners are He did say, however, that former Examiner publisher he had given the paper editoTodd Vogt and Brown, genrial freedom. Cynthia Laird eral manager of SF Media Co. “I’ve never questioned one In May, Vogt’s business story, one cover, anything,” The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s last issue came out Wednesday. partners bought out his ownZuehls said. ership stake in SF Media Co. Bieschke indicated his and he was forced from the agreement, saying, “The San that the Bay Guardian has closed. company. Zuehls was then brought Francisco Media Company never It’s something like a death in the in to run the day-to-day operations. influenced our coverage. They family,” Ammiano said. “It’s the The B.A.R. remains majoritykept their hands off ” the editorial progressive family that has to come LGBT owned. Publisher Michael content. together and figure out what this Yamashita and the Bob Ross FounIn a statement, gay former San will mean.” dation, of which former B.A.R. Francisco supervisor and current Zuehls said, “It would be the publisher Thomas E. Horn is truststate Assemblyman Tom Ammiahappiest day in my life” if someone ee, control 51 percent of BAR Media no (D), cited the paper’s “strong” called him and wanted to buy the Inc., while Vogt and Brown have a support of LGBT rights, prison Bay Guardian, but he said so far, combined 49 percent stake of the reform, and other issues. those inquiries haven’t come. company.t “I can hardly believe the news Bieschke said, “We’re not going to Homosexuality is legal in Kyrgyzstan, which is a mostly Muslim nation where Russian is widely spoken, reported multiple media outlets. “The Kyrgyz bill is harsher than Russia’s law, because it would apply to all types of communication, not just statements made in the presence of minors,” said a representative of 76crimes.com, a website that monitors anti-gay laws in 76 countries. The U.S. embassy in Kyrgyzstan issued a warning to the central Asian nation. “No one should be silenced or imprisoned because of who they are or whom they love. Laws that discriminate against one group of people threaten the fundamental rights of all people,” a representative of the embassy said in a statement.t

Another country that used to be

part of the Soviet Union took the opposite approach when members of the Kyrgyzstan Parliament last week took the first step in passing a harsh anti-gay propaganda law. The bill needs two more readings before it will be sent to President Almazbek Atambayev’s desk for his signature. The bill proposes “tougher punishment for ‘popularizing homosexual relations’ and ‘propaganda of a homosexual way of life,” reported Reuters. Anyone found guilty of spreading “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” face fines or prison terms up to one year. LGBT organizations would also be banned under the proposed bill. The legislature’s human rights committee in parliament cleared the bill last June. Last week’s legislative vote shows Kyrgyzstan is moving to align itself closely with Russia by criminalizing people saying or writing anything positive about same-sex relationships.

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-2213541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

dorsed her re-election bid last week, that she believes she will split the city’s LGBT vote with Kaplan. Early on she secured support from a host of LGBT officials and leaders and was able to block Kaplan from landing the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club’s endorsement in the race. And she remains confident as more voters pay attention to the race and see the progress Oakland has made in the last four years they will support her re-election bid. “The recent polls show more people think we are going in the right direction. It is just not associated with me yet,” said Quan. “I am not sure if that is because of the media or because

I am an Asian woman. The people I talk to think the city is doing better. There is a little bit of optimism.” Yet Schaaf, 48, told the B.A.R. editorial board that Quan’s days as mayor are numbered. “The anyone but Jean campaign has already been won,” said Schaaf, who received a big boost this month when Governor Jerry Brown, her former boss and Oakland’s former mayor, endorsed her mayoral bid. “Now the challenge for me, if you look at the polls, I am the person most in striking distance to outpace Rebecca.” Compared to her council colleague, said Schaaf, “I am much more of a straight shooter. I have a

backbone. I keep my word.” All of the polling so far in the race, said Schaaf, shows Oakland voters clamoring for change. And with a large pool of voters still undecided on whom to back for mayor – nearly a quarter of respondents in the latest poll – she said there is an opening for her to emerge the winner next month. “It looks like the current mayor won’t win, though don’t undercount her as she is an excellent campaigner,” said Schaaf. “Definitely, it looks like Rebecca’s to lose. But not all of her affection is translating to the mayor’s race. My challenge is I am not well known.”t

go away.” Bugai eventually let him go. Another alleged victim, Tomas G., said he’d met Bugai “something like” last year as he walked near 22nd and Mission streets, close to El Trebol. Bugai stopped his car. “He got out of the car and he told me to get inside the car,” Tomas said. The word “Police” was on the back of his clothing. When they got to the apartment, “he gave me some kind of drink. I don’t know what it was, a drug or something like that,” Tomas testified, adding that it tasted like vodka. Tomas told him he tried to say no when Bugai told him “take this, take this,” but he drank it. He said Bugai led him to a bedroom telling him “there were some women that were older but who had money” waiting. He said he didn’t remember anything after that until “the following day when I woke up naked on the floor” with Bugai, who was also naked, next to him. He said Bugai grabbed his penis and began to perform oral sex.

“I did not want it, but I was very weak,” Tomas said. “I was very weak, and I could not stand up.” Alleged victim Luis R., who wept during his testimony, said that in late 2008 Bugai had handcuffed him and a friend after meeting them at El Trebol and taken them to the apartment after telling him he was a cop. Bugai eventually “threw me to the ground,” and told him, “All illegals are weaklings and they shouldn’t be here,” and touched Luis’s penis through his pants as he tried to pull Luis’s pants down. Luis said he fled the apartment after hitting Bugai with a ratchet. In November 2013, Luis went to police after seeing Bugai outside a bank. The other men came forward following media coverage of his report. Another alleged victim, Faviel C., testified that he left El Trebol with Bugai in December 2013, thinking he was getting a ride home, “because he was a police officer” with a gun and other tools. When they got to the apartment,

Faviel said, he watched Bugai put bullets into the gun. Soon after that, Bugai lay on top of him, restrained his hands, and performed oral sex on him. Alleged victim Juan C. said he’d given Bugai $180 in February near 25th and Mission streets. “I had some beers in my hand in a bag,” Juan said. “He said that was illegal, and he was going to give me a ticket.” Deputy Public Defender Phoenix Streets has said the charges against Bugai “are not true, and we’re going to be able to prove they’re not true.” Bugai, who showed no obvious emotion as the men testified against him, changed his name to Jeffrey Thomas in 2011, according to court documents. He has been in custody since his July arrest, and his bail is $3 million. A final victim was set to testify Wednesday morning. The preliminary hearing started Thursday, October 9. Assistant District Attorney Sharon Reardon is prosecuting the case.t

all groups and believes the new cohabitation bill extends important rights and protections to unmarried couples and their families,” embassy officials said in a statement. Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union for nearly five decades until it regained independence in 1991. The country is considered to be one of the most Westernoriented of the former republics with a history of cooperating with its Nordic neighbors more than with its other Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania, according to ABC News. In spite of Estonia’s liberal leanings, tolerance of LGBTs in the small Baltic nation isn’t high, particularly in the more traditional rural areas and among the small ethnic-Russian community.

Kyrgyzstan advances anti-gay bill

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550643 In the matter of the application of: PATRICIA RAMOS, 334 NOE ST, #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner PATRICIA RAMOS is requesting that the name PATRICIA RAMOS, be changed to NINA RAMOS HARRISON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 11th of December, 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036037700

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ERIK ALMAS CELLARS, 1110 PAGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ERIK ALMAS PHOTOGRAPHY, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036047000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BTL TRADE, INC., 71 APOLLO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BTL, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12//14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036047800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALING THE BODY AND SOUL, 501 CRESCENT WAY #5202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed MOJGAN DAVACHI & SEYED MIRARABSHAHI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/17/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/17/14.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ONYA CELLARS, 2455 THIRD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed J2 WINERY 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 09/18/14.

SEPT 25, OCT 02, 09, 16, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036065000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE STATE GARAGE, 818 LEAVENWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109 . This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALAIN ETCHEVERRY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036065600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEN BEAUTY SPA, 1734 LOMBARD ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BICH TNGOC HUYNH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/29/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036058000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: F & S TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, 240 GRAFTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAM GUOCHENG YU & FENGLI MA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/24/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014

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Legal Notices>> 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-036058800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUPER SAVE SUPERMARKET, 4517 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AOE SUPERMARKET, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/24/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036054200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA CHIDA, 2948 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LA CHIDA 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 09/22/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036059500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OZ; OZ PIZZA; 508 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KAYSEKI, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/25/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036051300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WISE CORPS, 6555 DANA CT, CASTRO VALLEY, CA 94552. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MODO CORPUS, LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/14.

OCT 02, 09, 16, 23, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036035600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JDESIGNBUILD, 77 LEESE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUSTIN WALSH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/28/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/10/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036062900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MPOWER CONSULTING, 1045 LAKE ST, #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MELINDA LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/26/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036052800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 500 ENTERTAINMENT, 17 PROSPECT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/19/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/19/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036044500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BENT, 759 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAYLOR CUFFARO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/16/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036068000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAFFI’S JEWELRY, 888 BRANNAN ST, #2015 #126, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFFI KHATCHADURIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/30/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014

October 16-22, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036070600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PROCAM PRODUCTIONS, 222 MONCADA WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL ANDERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/99. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/01/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036073300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUNTIE LAN’S, 1031 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAN FONG ENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/14.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036040500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO FARMERS MARKET, 4929 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DALY CITY MARKET (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/14.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOG CITY MULTIMEDIA, 50 SAN GABRIEL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FOG CITY MULTIMEDIA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/30/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/30/14.

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OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067300

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036067800

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OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 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.

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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 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035412000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SEN BEAUTY & SPA, 1734 A LOMBARD ST., CA 94123. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by HAI TUAN NGO & BINH LE TANG. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/13.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035412000 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SEN BEAUTY & SPA, 1734 A LOMBARD ST., CA 94123. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by HAI TUAN NGO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/02/13.

OCT 09, 16, 23, 30, 2014

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Living large

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Out &About

O&A

The

Vol. 44 • No. 42 • October 16-22, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts

Light in the heart of the blight ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff talks to reporters from the scaffolding in what will be the lobby of the renovated Strand Theater.

by Richard Dodds

n a sleeveless patterned sundress, incongruously set off by a pair of heavy-duty hiking boots, Carey Perloff enthusiastically guided a contingent of hard-hatted journalists through the emerging reality of the revamped Strand Theater. Right now, it’s mostly scaffolding and concrete outlines, but you can see what ACT’s audacious undertaking amid the long-blighted Mid-Market corridor will look like. Perloff, ACT’s artistic director, is famous for her contagious enthusiasms, and it’s easy to get swept up in her glowing predictions. But now there is the physical evidence to support the vision. See page 20 >>

Provocative women Richard Dodds

by Sura Wood

wo new exhibitions put female artists front and center, where they belong and deserve to be in far greater numbers. See page 20 >>

“Dorothea Tanning 2” (2014), oil on paper by Annie Kevans.

“Diane Arbus” (2014) by Annie Kevans.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

Courtesy Jenkins Johnson Gallery

ALONZO KING LINES BALLET NOVEMBER 14-23, 2014 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater 415.978.2787 • linesballet.org

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Aromatherapy reading by Roberto Friedman

state of dreaming imagination. Smell is an invitation to a journey; it allows us to leave the ordinary course of things and go on a trip, to absent ourselves.” Its ephemeral nature is key to its power. “Fragrance is fleeting and elusive, and enters us stealthily, at the edge of consciousness, transforming mood, unearthing long-forgotten memories, influencing us without our conscious asset.” Sounds like the most exciting lover. The book includes “recipes” for herbal extracts and tinctures, aroma lore, and tidy illustrations.

s we’ve no doubt told you before, Out There is a most promiscuous reader. We’re slutty for words on paper, preferably between hard covers. Here’s a little of what we’ve had in our hot little hands lately. Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent by Mandy Aftel (Riverhead) is a treatise on the history of created scent by the Berkeley author who has been called “the Alice Waters of American natural perfume.” The artisan perfumer traces the importance of fragrance through history by discoursing on five landmark scents: cinnamon, mint, frankincense, ambergris and jasmine. In each case, she attends to the importance of the spice in ancient times, and its degraded, synthetic form in contemporary life. Of cinnamon, “the titan of the spice trade,” for example, she quotes author Timothy Morton in The Poetics of Spice: “Yesterday’s banquet ingredient becomes today’s Dunkin’ Donuts apple cinnamon item.” Alas. Aftel makes a strong case for the powerful sense properties of scent. “As with music, the intangibility of scent allows us to experience it in a

Maggie’s farm

The New York Times Book Review ran in full the title story from The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher (Henry Holt & Company), a collection of fiction by acclaimed author Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies). It’s a potent piece of “what if ” storytelling, positing a quite plausible scenario in which an IRA operative takes aim at the Tory prime minister as she leaves a London hospital after eye surgery. The medical procedure actually happened (August 6, 1983); the assassination did not. But the grievances against Mrs. Thatcher in the UK

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were real, many and varied, not just on the part of Irish nationalists, but also from progressives, unions, coal miners, workers, the poor and the disenfranchised. From everyone, in fact, who wasn’t a Tory. As the unnamed narrator says in “Assassination,” “It’s the fake femininity I can’t stand, and the counterfeit voice. The way she boasts about her dad the grocer and what he taught her, but you know she would change it all if she could, and be born to rich people. It’s the way she loves the rich, the way she worships them. It’s her philistinism, her ignorance, and the way she revels in her ignorance. It’s her lack of pity. Why does she need an eye operation? Is it because she can’t cry?” Oh, tell us how you really feel. You mean it wasn’t just how she carried her pocketbook like a shield, or the way she walked with a trademark toddle?

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In “Final Edition,” a chapter of his “spiritual autobiography” Darling (Penguin), essayist Richard Rodriguez tells the story of the continuing diminishment of San Francisco daily newspapers. First, some his-

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tory: “The de Young brothers named their newspaper the Daily Dramatic Chronicle because stranded young men seek entertainment. The city very early developed a taste for limelight that was as urgent as its taste for red light. In 1865 there were competing opera houses in the city; there were six or seven or 12 theaters.” Then, some drama: “In 1884 Michael [de Young] was shot by Adolph Spreckels, the brother of a rival newspaper publisher and the son of the sugar magnate Claus Spreckels, after the Chronicle accused the Spreckels Sugar Company of labor practices in Hawaii amounting to slavery. De Young was not mortally wounded, and Spreckels was acquitted on a claim of reasonable cause.” Finally, the grim present: “We live in the America of USA Today, which appears, unsolicited, in a plastic chrysalis suspended from your doorknob at the Nebraska Holiday Inn or the Maine Marriott. We check the airport weather. We fly from one CNN Headline News monitor to another. We end up where we started.” Pressing problems.

Only connect

Because it’s rare to find a film that explores gay stories and traditional Chinese culture at the same time, we pass along this promo blurb about Lilting, opening on Fri., Oct. 17, at Landmark Theatres in San Francisco and Berkeley. “Set in contemporary London, Lilting tells the story of a Cambodian-Chinese mother mourning the untimely death of her son. Her world is suddenly disrupted by the presence of a stranger. Though they don’t share a common language, a translator helps piece together the memories of a man they both loved. Lilting is a touching film about unlikely connections and the tragedies that bring us together even though we may be worlds apart. Starring Ben Whishaw (I’m Not There, Brideshead Revisited, Cloud Atlas, and Q in Skyfall) and Cheng Pei Pei (Asian cinema martial arts legend and Hong Kong’s first action heroine, widely known as Jade Fox in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), and also starring Andrew Leung. Director Hong Khaou was named one of the ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ in Screen International.” It’s on our must-see list.t

Theatre>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Fat chance by Richard Dodds

amuel D. Hunter’s The Whale starts off more like a minnow, as a series of short scenes, and the blackouts between them, unfold without obvious dramatic payoff. But the format has a purpose, as the cumulative effect brings forth an emotional wallop worthy of its title seagoing creature. While Moby Dick and the Biblical story of Jonah are invoked, The Whale also refers to the central character, a protagonist quite unlike any that you may have seen on stage before. Charlie, largely couch-bound and weighing in at nearly 600 lbs., is quick to agree with anyone who calls him repulsive. And playwright Hunter (A Bright New Boise) has provided us with graphic evidence to support that estimation. But Charlie is a far more complex and unexpectedly sympathetic character than initial impressions would suggest. At Marin Theatre Company, where The Whale is having its Bay Area debut, Charlie is brought to life in an often-excruciating but ultimately triumphant performance by Nicolas Pelczar that goes beyond anything to be realistically asked of an actor. Costumed in an enormous fat

suit that he wears like a second skin, Pelczar heaves himself with great struggle amid fits of wheezes whenever he must leave his sagging homestead of a couch. But when he is settled, perhaps sated by a tub of fried chicken, Charlie can display empathetic charm as he teaches an online writing course, or be philosophically forthright about his condition and the reasons for it. In the face of insult, he can see a bright side. On her “hate blog,” his longestranged daughter has written that “there will be a grease fire in hell” when he dies. “She’s a strong writer,” he muses. Married briefly, Charlie left his wife and gave up custody of his daughter when he fell in love with another man. But that man is dead, basically from a slow starvation as Mormon guilt reclaimed his soul. Now Charlie is killing himself with food, despite the interventions of a nurse friend who wants him to go to the hospital and, ironically, a callow Mormon missionary who gets much more than he bargained for when he tries to preach the gospel according to Joseph Smith. His prickly teen daughter becomes a regular visitor as well, and eventually his ex-wife shows up in alternating spasms of

anger and concern as Charlie’s final lunge for redemption is revealed. Director Jasson Minadakis lets the play build gradually, trusting that possible bemusement will give way to growing involvement that is more powerful for the patient approach. Pelczar’s Charlie is surrounded by vivid performances, with a frighteningly feisty Cristina Oeschger as his angry daughter, a no-nonsense Liz Sklar as the hovering nurse, an invitingly befuddled Adam Magill as the Mormon missionary, and a particularly heartfelt Michelle Maxson in the brief role of Charlie’s ex-wife. The list of technical credits includes the unusual designation of a “breath and physicality coach,” but Vicki Shaghoian’s work with Pelczar has intense effect. There’s also a “fat-suit construction” credit to CMC & Design, and admirably it looks more like fat than a suit. All the pieces of this production have aligned with Hunter’s words to bring The Whale to a place of rare theatrical magnitude.t Kevin Berne

The Whale will run through Oct. 26 at Marin Theatre Company. Tickets are $40-$53. Call 388-5208 or go to marintheatre.org.

Nicolas Pelczar plays a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his angry daughter (Cristina Oeschger) in a scene from The Whale at Marin Theatre Company.

Dressed to kill & thrill

/lgbtsf Lois Tema

J. Conrad Frank, left, plays fading diva Angela Arden, and Ali Haas and Devin S. O’Brien are her bemused children, in Die Mommie Die! at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

by Richard Dodds

ike a gathering of cumulonimbus clouds, Angela Arden seems to make each entrance billowing in ever more chiffon. As Die Mommie Die! reaches its final scene, it takes an entire couch to accommodate her gown’s overflow. It’s one way to command a room, and perhaps, in Angela’s case, one of the few remaining ways, as her days as a celebrity songbird are long past. The wondrous gowns are credited to Mr. David, but it takes a diva to know how to work them. J. Conrad Frank has been plying the diva trade for some time in the guise of Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, and with his sumptuously wicked performance as Angela Arden, he takes diva-hood to new heights. Charles Busch wrote the play as a vehicle for himself, and his canny performance can be seen in the movie version, but with no aspersions to Busch, Frank quickly makes us forget that anyone else has ever played the role. New Conservatory Theatre Center has surrounded Angela in the bad-taste luxury she deserves in Kuo-Hao Lo’s gilded interpretation

of a late-1960s Hollywood home. But it’s not exactly a home sweet home, as the family that occupies it is in a near-constant state of warfare. While her husband and daughter mock Angela’s comeback plans (her son, on the other hand, likes to wear her gowns), she takes refuge in “tennis lessons” provided by a studly unemployed actor (who also finds time to hit a few balls in the direction of son and daughter). Die Mommie Die! takes its inspiration from the movies that provided late-career exposure to the likes of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, and Lana Turner, and their various screen personalities take their turns bubbling up in Frank’s performance. The writing isn’t always as sharp when Angela Arden isn’t front and center, but as Busch’s script goes its own merry way, director F. Allen Sawyer is adept at mining most of the comic tendrils. Angela is married to an old-school movie producer, and it’s a marriage she wishes to terminate in one way or another. Joe Wicht provides the appropriate crude bluster as Sol, who doesn’t understand why the public no longer wants Biblical epics. Angela

and Sol’s daughter is a daddy’s girl en extremis, but when Edith isn’t purring to Papa, she’s a proper harridan in Ali Haas’ high-pitched performance. On the other hand, brother Lance is a delicate flower, and Devin S. O’Brien finds a comic subtlety in the role of this Mama’s boy. Marie O’Donnell plays the housekeeper, given to odd pro-Nixon outbursts, in an appealing variation on the no-nonsense Thelma Ritter school of acting. Less successful in hooking into the Mommie mood is Justin Liszanckie, who comes across as starchy and flat as the household gigolo. Even as Busch paints his play in broad strokes, it’s clear that the director, the cast, and the designers have paid attention to details. There’s no getting around the fact that Die Mommie Die! was tailored by the playwright to his own skills as a performer. Those are hard heels to fill, but J. Conrad Frank joyously and confidently launches us into his very own diva orbit.t Die Mommie Die! will run through Nov. 2 at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Tickets are $24-$45. Call 861-8972 or go to nctcsf.org.

ADVERTISE! The Bay Area Reporter reaches more LGBT consumers than any other advertising medium in the nine county San Francisco Bay Area. We’re also proud to be the only LGBT print publication with both an audited and verified circulation. Call (415) 861-5019 to market your business to more than 120,000 Bay Area readers.

<< Film

16 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Humiliating hazing over a drum kit by David Lamble

urvivors of abusive relationships develop their own peculiar coping skills – among other things, a thick hide, and sometimes, paradoxically, an unusually tender heart. In Whiplash, a terrific psychological thriller set in the emotionally shark-infested waters of an elite New York music academy, Andrew, an aspiring jazz drummer, finds a teacher/mentor, Terence Fletcher, who offers keys to the kingdom at a steep price. “Here, kid, join my little coven of talented but mostly spineless wimps, and I’ll not only turn you into a seasoned pro on the horn – a future Buddy Rich or Charlie Parker, perhaps – but make a man of you in the bargain.” The bargain Andrew (Miles Teller, tougher than he first appears) strikes with Fletcher (a witty, guilttripping sadist from the bully-boy trick-bag of veteran J.K. Simmons) ranges from enduring profanitylaced lectures to actual physical pummelings in the classroom. It’s those first slaps across the boy’s face that clue us into the knowledge that writer/director Damien Chazelle isn’t re-making Mr. Holland’s Opus. Actually, the words inflict greater damage, as evidenced by this early classroom tirade: “We’ll stay here as long as it takes until one of you faggots can play this right. Yes, cocksuckers, we’re going to be here all night until someone can shit it out exactly right!” Yes, the sadism in this movie is not addressed only to our human punching-bag hero, but also towards any LGBT filmgoer who thought

Sony Pictures Classics

Andrew (Miles Teller) plays drums for Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) in director Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash.

that screenwriting software had been equipped with GLAAD language advisories. Frankly, Fletcher would be astonished if Andrew were actually gay. In fact, this straight-shooter comes with the obligatory long-suffering girlfriend, in this case Melissa Benoist’s Nicole, whose sole reason for existing is to listen to Andrew spew forth what he thinks he’s getting as Fletcher’s student “bitch boy.” Andrew: “I want to be great.” Nicole: “And you’re not.” Andrew: “I want to be one of the greats. And because I’m doing this, it’s going to take up more time, which is why I don’t feel like we should be together.”

The above exchange is another illustration of the truth that when women and gays are not the subject of a Hollywood drama, they almost literally disappear from the filmmakers’ ideological baggage. That said, Whiplash is as absorbing and thrill-packed as an old-fashioned, 12-round heavyweight boxing barnburner. The kid is a glutton for punishment, and all through the early rounds, we expect he’ll be defeated by his wily opponent’s verbal rabbit-punches. “That’s not your boyfriend’s dick, do not come early!” One reason why the kid keeps fighting off the ropes, enduring endless humiliation and low blows

from the champ, with the added indignity of reaching for his dreams with a cheap little Best Buy drumkit and a crappy little boom-box to play back his rehearsals, is his ongoing struggle to overcome the flopsweats of his dad’s (Paul Reiser) failures as a writer. Dad: “So how’s it going with that studio band?” Andrew: “Good, I think he likes me more now. I’m part of the top jazz orchestra in the country.” But, as with the girlfriend, Dad is little more than a device, an indication that other people still exist, that during Andrew and Fletcher’s angry taffy-pull, New York was not taken

out by a neutron bomb. Teller brings a couple of useful experiences to his turn as the putupon aspiring musician. He played the drums in his high school band, and fatefully, survived a bad car crash, as did his close male buddy a year later. His face bears the physical scars, while projecting a ferocious intelligence and the implication that he would be a hell of an opponent if you were to meet him in the ring. Whiplash also offers a peek or two at the actual process of musicmaking at one of those snobby Manhattan schools. It isn’t only Fletcher who’s rough on our boy. At times, the whole world seems to be conspiring to reduce him to a bug splattered on a windshield, as in the scene where Andrew wrecks his car while in a Fletcher-induced state of panic. Ultimately, this music-school Raging Bull is only for those who have fully absorbed the meaning of the adage “One must suffer for one’s art,” or as Fletcher puts it at the climax of one his more brutal tutorials, “Are you one of those single-tear people? You’re a worthless, slobbering pansy-ass who is now weeping and slobbering over a drum set like a nine-year-old girl!” Ironically, the cast and filmmakers will probably be equally happy whether you are seduced or appalled by their thesis that the happiest boy is the one who just barely escapes having his soul totally crushed by his cruel god of a teacher. As Fletcher explains, “I pushed beyond what is actually expected of them. I believe that is an absolute necessity. No words in the English language are more harmful than ‘Good job!’”t

Italian masterpieces in four flavors by David Lamble

his weekend, the sharp-as-nails Castro Theatre programing staff offers a four-film, day-long marathon tribute to the still-active Italian master filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. The program comes with a shout-out to techno nerds, since it throws around terms like restoration, 3D, and 4K. Golly gee whiz, Mr. Science! Bertolucci is a contemporary Italian genius, a fitting successor to 1950s auteurs Fellini and Antonioni whose more recent work includes the astonishing youth romantic triangle/comedy The Dreamers (2002). This tribute includes the quartet of early films that first fueled his reputation and that are still a mainstay of modern film-school courses. (All screen on Saturday, Oct. 18.) The Conformist (1970) I’ll probably never be able to watch or even see in print the name of the brilliant screen actor Jean-Louis Trintig-

nant without recalling images of his deeply closeted fascist bureaucrat murdering his former friend and mentor. It’s not often that repressed homosexuality dukes it out on the screen with right-wing assassination squads, in an achingly beautiful if deadly crescendo of red (blood) on white (snow). (12:30 p.m.) The Sheltering Sky (1990) Gay novelist Paul Bowles’ tortured tale of three Americans adrift in postWWII North Africa is powerfully re-imagined with a stellar cast, including Debra Winger and John Malkovich. I highly recommend the captivatingly claustrophobic Bowles novel, which I read practically in one sitting. There may not be a more insightful and sexually honest account of a fatal encounter between firstand third-world cultures. (3 p.m.) The Last Emperor (1987) This tragic story of a child prince, crowned Emperor of China at three and overthrown by the Commu-

nist Revolution while still a young man, is presented in a newly restored print, and in 3D. Acclaimed Chinese-American actress Joan Chen appears in person at the screening. (6 p.m.) Last Tango in Paris (1976) Marlon Brando’s greatest post-Godfather achievement was a favorite of New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, who wrote, “Working with Brando, Bertolucci achieves realism with the terror of actual experience.” Despite extensive cuts, this masterpiece has lost little of its sensational erotic frisson. With Maria Schneider as Brando’s bed partner. The story is intercut with a daffy subplot in which a pretentious young filmmaker – a deft turn by one-time 400 Blows child star Jean-Pierre Leaud – flounders comically. (9:30 p.m.)t Details & tickets for this special day-long event can be found at CinemaItaliaSF.com.

Jean-Louis Trintignant in Bertolucci’s The Conformist.

photo

Scene from Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.

Bernardo Bertolucci was born in 1940 in Parma, Italy.

Music>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Busting the ivories

Courtesy SFS

Guest conductor Juraj Valčuha returned last week to Davies Symphony Hall.

by Philip Campbell

ats and batons are still swinging furiously, both exciting and amazing San Francisco sports and music fans, as the SF Giants and SF Symphony rave on in an Oktoberfest to remember. Last week at Davies Symphony Hall, Slovakian guest conductor Juraj Valčuha, Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino, returned to the podium after his first appearances here, when he made his debut as a Shenson Young Artist. Valčuha conducted the music of Béla Bartók’s ballet score The Wooden Prince on his first visit to DSH in 2013, and he returned with an even more ambitious Bartók ballet, leading a complete performance of The Miraculous Mandarin. When we say complete, we mean complete and not the more familiar Suite, with the optional organ part included, and the SFS Chorus unseen, but ethereally heard, behind the Terrace seating. The concert began with a blazing and tightly controlled race through American composer Steven Stucky’s Jeu de timbres, which really amounted to little more than a furiously energetic overture. I liked it, and so did the game audience, but it isn’t easy analyzing response to a piece that flies by so quickly. The bright orchestration and dynamism reminded me a little of John Adams, but this was an especially Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The Bartók, on the other hand, might have been more involving had it not been presented in the full 30-minute version. There were surprising interludes of sagging vitality and mushy detail, revived by the excellent solo playing and edgy strings. We were glad to hear the vivid and often violent sound world of the ballet brought to life, but without dancers to act things out, this should have moved more intensely. The wild punctuations by the brass and tympani certainly added visceral life, and the Chorus (they were robbed of a bow at the end) lent a fabulously eerie feeling. Valčuha can keep coming back with all the Bartók he likes as far as I’m concerned, and the SFS has wisely added big-name star instrumental soloists to every bill he conducts. The patrons have little to complain of when they are primarily there for the concerto presentations, and music-lovers craving more offbeat fare are satisfied as well. Last week it was the return of local piano titan Garrick Ohlsson, with a smashing and coolly elegant rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s fiendish knuckle-buster, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Opus 30 (1909). As I waited in my seat during intermission for the performance to follow, wearing my lucky orange tie for the Giants, a patron stopped by and

Paul Body

Piano titan Garrick Ohlsson offered elegant Rachmaninoff.

gave me the game’s winning score. Garrick Ohlsson didn’t need a charm or any help from me to win his battle. I mention the date of the composition because there are so many surprisingly modern touches in Rachmaninoff ’s language and orchestration. His music sounds so much more modern than early in the last century, and a generation of film composers in Hollywood’s Golden Age certainly didn’t find him old-fashioned. Those huge moments of crescendo and release, so characteristic of the composer’s architecture, and his astonishing gift for melody, can elicit tears from normally staid listeners, and even the less emotional among us are usually stirred to cheers and standing ovations. Ohlsson didn’t play the Third for sentimental or even particularly passionate effects. He demonstrated instead how great a symphonist Rachmaninoff really was, and he spent most of his own awesome energy perfectly delineating every note in the scary difficult score. I prefer the maturity and precision of his approach after a lifetime of enduring too many syrupy and selfindulgent pianists as they play the piece in the role of the “great artist.” There may always be a place for such grandstanding if the performer can deliver on the promise, but Ohlsson staked his claim to fame without theatrics. His limpid shaping, clear and resonant detail and mindboggling dexterity resulted in a big (close to 45 minutes), bold and beautiful reading. It powered the audience OFFinto a spontaneous ovation lasting long enough WITH to warrant an encore. Where the star found enough energy to present such a ravishing Debussy Clair de Lune after such a workout remains a mystery, but the audience sighed with thanks for the additional gift.t

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MARTHA WASH

TIM HOCKENBERRY

JEFFREY JOHNSON

October 23 - 24

October 25 - 26

November 1 - 2

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

Info on upcoming concerts: sfsymphony.org.

094230.01_HNSF - Bay Area Reporter_10-16 ROUND #: MECH

<< Music

18 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Music & equality matter by David-Elijah Nahmod

s a rule, Dame Annie Lennox prefers not to use her prestigious title. Knighted by the Queen in 2010, the Scottish native became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire not for her music, but for her work in combating AIDS and poverty in Africa. She admitted, in a recent phone chat with the B.A.R., that she uses her title primarily in support of the social justice causes she believes in. Lennox has lived her life immersed in music and humanitarian causes, which has included a lifelong commitment to LGBT equality. She has won four Grammy Awards, among many other prestigious recognitions for her incomparable music career. She was also named 2009 Woman of Peace, an honor bestowed upon her by 22 Nobel Peace Laureates. Nostalgia, Lennox’s new CD, might have been recorded in a smoke-filled New York jazz club during the mid-1950s. Songs like the Billie Holiday standard “Strange Fruit” or the dark, haunting “I Cover the Waterfront” are tunes that few younger listeners might know. This is the music of long ago, and Lennox does a magnificent job of taking us back to another time and place. She pours her heart and soul into every song. Here, speaking to the B.A.R. via phone from the UK, is Annie Lennox.

David-Elijah Nahmod: How does it feel to be known as Dame Annie Lennox? Annie Lennox: It was great getting that acknowledgement for getting people focused on HIV and AIDS. There are so many issues that need attention: people don’t know that babies can be born with HIV, so I was pleased that this was the issue I was acknowledged for. I have the opportunity to address the issues that appeal to me. But there are so many extraordinary ordinary people not getting credit for what they do. Can you talk about your longstanding support for LGBT equality? I don’t like labels. I don’t want to be labeled, defined and reduced because of my orientation, and neither should anyone else. I never thought anyone should make a distinction, I would love my children no matter what their orientation. How cruel things have been historically. I think of Quentin Crisp, an exquisite maverick. He was so courageous and gentle, and dared to be himself. Imagine being afraid to go out because people might assault you for who you are. Have you ever worried about anti-gay backlash? I’m not worried about my music career. People’s perceptions can be twisted, what you say can be misrepresented. I try to have a balance, I don’t want to be controversial just for the sake of being controversial.

I’m an intelligent person, and I want people to see that. Let’s talk about your new CD, Nostalgia. I wanted to cast a spell, to draw listeners into another era. I’m sharing my take on the songs. I’m accessing something in them, I’m trying to communicate this on a deep level. These songs were not part of the wallpaper of my life, I came to them pretty late. I wanted to explore them. The songs are very romantic. The world we live in is a very harsh place. We’re not gentle. You never hear a man singing to a woman as in songs like “Memphis in June.” It takes you back to those times, those sensibilities of the tenderness in our culture. Why do we have to be so hard? Nostalgia is quite a change of pace for you. It’s not what people expect from today’s pop music. The origin of these songs is the blues. Blues come from something beautiful and painful, and it’s the mixture of the two things. And that’s an area I know very well. I thought, if I’m going to try this I’m going to get right to the nub of the song. You commune with the song, and if the melody is speaking back to you, it guides you to where you need to go with it.t Look for Annie Lennox’s Nostalgia at Amazon, released Oct. 21.

Annie Lennox: “I wanted to cast a spell.”

Superstars of the repertoire by Tim Pfaff

he two hottest properties in opera today are Jonas Kaufmann and Joyce DiDonato. If the Royal Opera, Covent Garden – which loves only Placido Domingo more – cast the three of them in Rigoletto, the Queen herself might have to know one of the potentates of Google to score a ticket. So now the tenor and the mezzo can pretty much do what they want, as long as they watch their weight and keep fans’ attention off their respective marital statuses. So Kaufmann has released You Mean the World to Me (Sony), a CD of popular German songs from the Berlin of the 1920s and 30s, while DiDonato is on a CD tour for her new Stella di Napoli (Erato), a collection of opera arias history has largely passed by. And boy, do they both look fabulous in album-cover photos that, for a refreshing change, perfectly signal their contents. But don’t even think the word crossover. What the CDs have in common is the singers’ stepping off into lesser-known (if only today) repertoires. In the last century, a tenor of Kaufmann’s type would be expected to sing these songs, and German-speaking concert audiences today seem no less enthusiastic about them. The century before that, singers of a caliber we can only guess at today would have been oneupping one another with arias like the ones DiDonato makes child’s play of. She’s holding up her end of a different tradition: mining the past for gems in the same way important singers of our time, from Maria Callas to Cecilia Bartoli, have. Yet the two CDs, of equal seriousness and fun, could hardly be more different. The tone of Kaufmann’s is relaxed, the ol’ soft shoe, compared with DiDonato’s dazzling arrival en pointe – which, as pianist Stephen Hough points out, also requires deep relaxation, if perhaps of another kind. On Stella, Donizetti does the heavy lifting; think about that for a minute. The real juice on this program comes from him, Bellini and Rossini, particularly the big scene

(and most catchy tune) from Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, a step above DiDonato’s already exemplary performances at the Met (on an Erato DVD) and Covent Garden. Still, arias by Pacini – not Puccini, but Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867) – frame the CD, which takes its name from the 1841 opera of that title. The disc starts with an almost literal bang: a big, noisy chord from Orchestra of the Opera of Lyon, conducted by Riccardo Minasi. Those pieces, and all the music in-between, elicit singing of the highest accomplishment from DiDonato, who seems only to gain in technical mastery over the years. The muscles of her diaphragm could stop the advance of ISIS, but what you hear is singing of the utmost delicacy and feeling. And if you want to savor vocal roulades, look no farther than her ear-defying fioriture in “Riedi ai solgio” from Rossini’s Zelmira, where it sounds like the ornaments are ornamented. If a recording could land this material back in the repertoire, this one would. If you’re a DiDonato devotee, I’m singing to the choir. Here’s what gives me the creeps. All the stupendous vocalism inevitably draws attention to the voice itself – an instrument from which no one wants a single thing more, but whose allure has never been refulgent sound alone. We’re not short of glorious mezzos these days, as San Francisco has just heard. This much-loved singer with absolutely nothing left to prove appears to be competing with Bartoli, a singer who stunned us all in her early years with agile singing at its most natural and least affected who, over the years since, has gone off all the rails except the musicological ones. If DiDonato wants to go toe-to-toe with her, how about the “Bartoli” Norma, an assignment Bartoli, on Decca, made a convincing case for despite singing of unlistenable affectation? Kaufmann might be DiDonato’s Pollione; who knows? If not Norma exactly, it’s music of that stature where a talent of DiDonato’s caliber belongs, the more so with the bloom coming off the rose. That said, at the frenzied end of Stella,

I was jonesing for her encore du jour, “Over the Rainbow,” with its wonderful directness, simplicity and sincerity. Barring that, it calms me down no end that, as I write, she’s singing Handel’s Alcina – core repertoire for her, despite people’s fears that if was too high for her – in London. You Mean the World to Me works precisely because Kaufmann woos rather than wows. It’s a voice you can drown in, used with unfailing intelligence and taste. His forbears in this music are Richard Tauber and Fritz Wunderlich, the latter of whom also enjoyed a voice of almost unnatural beauty and evinced devotion to everything he sang. It’s Kaufmann’s gift, too; you enjoy his singing because he so manifestly does. Nay-sayers (and there are some) will cry “crooning,” but Kaufmann’s exquisite mezza da voce – try all of “My Little Nest of Heavenly Love” from Lehar’s Frasquita, sung in perfectly clear English, or the floating pianissimo that ends Stolz’s truly dreamy “Im Traum hast du mir alles erlaubt” – just liquefies you. And for the full-voiced Kaufmann at its most virile, there’s Eduard Kuenneke’s “Das Lied vom Leben des Schrenk,” music as difficult as any Kaufmann has sung, and just staggering in impact. This is music Christopher Isherwood would have heard in Berlin, as he would have heard it. The songs are sung with their original accompaniments, which matters. For the specific sound, or Klang, of the radio studio in Berlin of the 20s and 30s, it’s hard to beat that “Im Traum,” and, throughout, the Berlin Radio-Symphony Orchestra, under Jochen Rieder, nail the idiom. And if it’s a touch of the serious you hanker for with your Schlag, the melting duet “Glueck, das mir verlieb,” from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt (with the terrific Julia Kleiter as Marietta), will transport you. If you want to pay more, Sony offers a deluxe box set that includes posters of Jonas, and in late October there will be a DVD of this music from a live concert from Berlin. But there’s nothing missing here.t

Books>>

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

How a life became art by Tavo Amador

f doubts remain about who America’s greatest playwright is, John Lahr’s masterful Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh (Norton, $39.95) will end them. He expertly shows how the openly gay Williams (1911-83), an extraordinarily autobiographical writer, transformed his life into groundbreaking theatre, unforgettably giving voice to all the turbulence, pain, beauty, hopes, and fears that tormented him. At his best, he made the personal universal. Lahr, theatre critic for The New Yorker, illuminates how Williams exposed his innermost anxieties. He was simultaneously vulnerable and courageous. Lahr’s volume was originally intended to complete the work of Lyle Leverich’s extraordinary Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams (1995), which ended with the triumphant 1945 Broadway opening of The Glass Menagerie. Sadly, Leverich, Williams’ authorized biographer, died before starting the second book. (Full disclosure: Leverich was a close friend.) Lahr’s work stands alone, but focuses on Williams’ life from 1940. Williams’ hits alternated with misses. Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961) were revolutionary and commercially viable. But Battle of Angels (1940) closed after a disastrous Boston preview; retitled Orpheus Descending (1957), it failed on Broadway; Summer and Smoke (1948) flopped, but was successfully revived in 1952, making a star of Geraldine Page. The Rose Tattoo (1951) won the Best Play Tony, but lost money. Camino Real (1953) confused critics and audiences. It had a brief run. After Iguana, Williams never had another success. Lahr’s discussions of the plays, their development, the egos involved, and the struggles Williams endured balancing artistic integrity with popular appeal are fascinating. He astutely assesses Elia Kazan’s collaborations with Williams. Kazan directed Streetcar, Camino, Cat and Youth, improving them all. Later, in the published versions, Williams often reverted to his original concepts. Kazan also directed the 1951 movie of Streetcar and the controversial Baby Doll (1956), based on a oneact play by Williams. Williams’ relationships with his lovers became themes in his works. His passionate, violent affair with handsome Pancho Rodriguez was unforgettably reimagined in Streetcar’s battle between Blanche and Stanley. The sexual pleasure he got from Frank Merlo, whom Williams nicknamed “The Horse,” and who was his longest-lasting lover, is crucial to Tattoo, whose widowed heroine mourns her husband’s carnal prowess. His ongoing conflict between self-destruction and creativity was powerfully evoked in Cat. His initial portrait of his frigid, desperate mother in Menagerie was revised – she became the monstrous Violet Venable in the gripping one-act play Suddenly Last Summer (1958), in which her homosexual poet son is cannibalized. Alexandra del Lago in Youth embodies Williams’ terror of never having another hit, and his joy in finding unexpected acclaim. In Iguana, he hauntingly articulated his longing for “purity,” and his “shameful” surrender to sexual

pleasure and alcohol. Lahr’s account of Iguana is riveting. Williams created the lead character, Hannah Jelkes, for Katharine Hepburn, who originally wasn’t interested, but later wanted very much to play her – but only for six months. Neophyte producer Charles Bowden insisted on a year’s commitment. She refused. Consequently, Margaret Leighton essayed her, winning a Tony for her incandescent performance. Williams and Bowden then signed Bette Davis, who hadn’t appeared in a Broadway play for decades, for the secondary role of Maxine, contingent upon the part being expanded. Davis, miscast, floundered. She responded with vicious tirades, abusive outbursts, outrageous demands, and bullying behavior. The constant havoc became so unbearable that co-star Patrick O’Neal nearly strangled her to death during a rehearsal. Lahr superbly reassesses the later plays, jubilantly trashed by critics. He makes a compelling case that The Gnadiges Fraulein (1966) and In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1968) are worthwhile achievements, proof of Williams’ ability to change. He gets to the truth behind Williams’ self-created mythology. For example, he shows that while Williams loved and provided for his lobotomized sister Rose, he wasn’t always kind to her, and never forgave himself for his early cruelty. He discloses Williams’ changing perspective of his fearsome father Cornelius, and reveals that his beloved grandfather, the Reverend Walter Dakin, was blackmailed because of homosexual liaisons. His recounting of Merlo’s premature death and his complicated relationship with Williams is sensitive and moving. Lahr writes sympathetically of Williams’ ever-increasing reliance on alcohol and prescription drugs. That dependence forced his brother Dakin to forcibly institutionalize him, thereby saving his life. Wil-

liams denied needing such help, however, and disinherited his sibling. Lahr gives a balanced account of the impact psychiatrist Lawrence Kubie had on him. Sadly, by 1970, Williams’ alcohol- and drug-induced paranoia escalated. Enabled by his manipulative confidant Lady Maria St. Just (who was called “none of those” by Margot Peters), he fired his longtime agent Audrey Wood, whose early support had been crucial to his success. (St. Just would later use her position as Rose’s guardian to delay publication of Tom.) Although Lahr excels at the historical context in which Williams found acclaim and, later, failure, he doesn’t link the latter to the era’s rampant homophobia. Additionally, with few exceptions, he says little about the movies based on Williams’ writings – 16 were released from 1950 to 2008. Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Anna Magnani, and Ed Begley won Oscars for their characterizations in those pictures, and Elizabeth Taylor (twice), Page (twice), Marlon Brando, Marisa Pavan, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock, Paul Newman, Hepburn, Lotte Lenya, Una Merkel, Shirley Knight, and Grayson Hall earned nominations for their performances, an unprecedented record. Nonetheless, Lahr’s achievement is monumental. Williams wasn’t always likeable, good, or admirable. He was self-centered. No individual mattered as much as his work. Writing gave him his identity, his solace, his escape from demons. It enabled him to turn the mundane into art. His legacy can be measured in many ways, but one indication is enough: his plays have been translated into more languages, produced and revived more frequently than any English-language writer except Shakespeare. Once Williams found his voice, the world listened. It still does.t

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<< Theatre

20 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Courtesy San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

In the 1940s, the Strand Theater was offering bingo along with B movies to draw crowds.

Richard Dodds

The letters from the Strand’s old marquee will help decorate the lobby of ACT’s new Mid-Market performance space.

Strand Theater

From page 13

“This was the Great White Way of San Francisco,” Perloff said of Market Street, “and then it all went away.” The Strand was one of the many movie houses that studded the thoroughfare with such names as the Embassy, the Fox, the Imperial, the Egyptian, the St. Francis, the Pompeii, the Esquire, and the Granada. Although it was never considered one of the city’s more magnificent movie houses, the theater that opened as the Jewel in 1917 survived longer than any of the above. True, by the time it closed after police raids in 2003 after 86 years of operation, it was a porn house, but its state of suspended animation since then provided the theatrical skeleton for ACT’s $33.3 million project. With about 87% of that amount

already raised through individual, corporate, and foundation grants, the project has also benefited from both federal and regional tax credits, low-interest loans, and the mayor’s blessings. While fundraising continues, the first production at the revamped Strand is set, with Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information to open in the spring as part of ACT’s subscription series that otherwise takes place at the Geary Theater. “For a theater this small, it has a spacious stage and a high ceiling,” Perloff said. “For the unreinforced human voice, it will be wonderful. It’s a particularly good space for dance. We wanted to create a space that is welcoming to many arts disciplines from many different arts organizations.” It will provide a regular home for MFA productions coming out of ACT’s student program.

The original configuration of the Strand was long and narrow, with the balcony stretching back far from the stage. “It was a little creepy,” Perloff said. “We have bifurcated the space, and that gives us another space for performances and meetings on the second level, where the rear of the balcony used to be.” Originally seating 800, the new auditorium will seat 220 to 285, depending on whether it’s in a theatrical or cabaret configuration. Its not being on a local or national historic register allowed architects from Skidmore Owings & Marshall to radically alter the building, which will now include a mostly glass front wall with views of City Hall, though the original facade is being maintained on the upper levels of the building. A large LED screen, visible from the street, will become the back wall of a lobby that will be equipped with a cafe open during the day and at performances, and decorated with the letters that spelled Strand on the former marquee.

Galleries

From page 13

Annie Kevans: Women and the History of Art at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery addresses the disparity between the representation of female artists and their male counterparts in public consciousness and the sexist annals of art history. Kevans, a hot British painter in her early 40s, was spurred to tackle this subject, in part, by discovering that only 5% of London galleries allocate equal space to male and female artists. Generally speaking, the majority of precious exhibition real estate, in both museums and galleries, remains the province of men. Fine art is certainly not the only maledominated arena – the film industry and the paucity of female directors comes to mind – but that doesn’t make the statistics any less disgraceful in our supposedly enlightened modern era. The show, a portion of a larger ongoing project, is comprised of 23 straightforward, uniformly-sized, bust-length, oil-on-paper portraits of accomplished but overlooked or underappreciated women artists from the 16th century onward who were recognized in their lifetimes but then largely forgotten. (Frida Kahlo, Diane Arbus, Eve Hesse and Mary Casatt are among the exceptions.) The artwork, based on the artists’ self-portraits, composites of existing images, or the product of Kevans’ imagination, is traditional, but it’s the women’s stories, outlined in brief bios accompanying the pictures, that give the show its weight and provocative edge. Kevans is no stranger to thoughtprovoking work. Her previous series include Boys, portraying youths who grew into ruthless dictators;

Courtesy the artist

“Father Juan Crespi,” from What Is Missing? (detail) by Maya Lin.

The Muses of Jean Paul Gaultier; and All the Presidents’ Girls, which resurrects the mistresses and slaves of past presidents. Here, she advances a feminist critique without being pedantic, providing a corrective to a record primarily authored by men who saw fit to leave women out of the canon. Some of the artists, such as Frida Kahlo, initially achieved recognition through their associations with or marriage to famous male artists. Kahlo, as Kevans points out, was better-known as Diego Rivera’s wife until feminism came along in the 1970s and helped elevate her stature. Having a

well-known husband wasn’t always a plus. Impressionist Marie Bracquemond pursued her craft and made her mark despite jealousy and competitiveness from her husband, Felix, a fellow painter who disapproved of Impressionism and was a bit of a pill. Evidently, there was room for only one star in the family. Renowned 16th-century Italian painter Lavinia Fontana charged exorbitant fees for her altarpieces and portraits of popes, all while raising 11 children. The first woman painter to be admitted to the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, Suzanne Valadon would have been a circus

“Just because this is smaller than the Geary doesn’t mean that the Strand will only be for smaller or experimental works,” said Perloff, with classics possibly showing up at times at the Strand while the new and the different may wind up at the Geary. But the vibe will be different. “In the Geary, we have a Cadillac theater,” Perloff said, “and when we rebuilt it after the 1989 earthquake, we made sure it had the newest technology. So we already have that. The Strand is about intimacy and keeping it simple.” Rhino’s new season Theatre Rhinoceros will open its 2014-15 season with a new musical about a subject that doesn’t immediately suggest musicalization. But then again, The Battle of Midway: Live! Onstage! comes from the pen of Rhino Artistic Director John Fisher, who first made a commercial splash in 1994 with Medea: The Musical. Co-authored with Don Seaver, the story of the famous World War II naval battle serves as the basis for the “queer-camp musical comedy” to run Nov. 14-30 at ACT’s Costume Shop. Following a New Year’s Eve performance of Shopping: The Musiacrobat if she hadn’t fallen from the flying trapeze. She’s still betterknown as muse to Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas, though the latter artist supported her talent and made his studio available to her. Many women faced obstacles their male peers did not, but somehow prevailed. African-American sculptor Edmonia Lewis (18431911), who often depicted Abolitionists and civil rights leaders, was not only accused of murder when she was a college student, but was also labeled a hoax. Undeterred by sexism or racism, she was a financial success by 22, and disproved her critics by carving a block of marble in front of an audience. Artemesia Gentileschi, an important 16thcentury Italian Baroque painter and polemical figure among feminist historians, produced passionate paintings characterized by strong bonds between women. Gentileschi approached her subjects in startling ways, often giving women the dominant power position. Real life was a different story. Apprenticed early on to Agostino Tassi, an artist and convicted murderer who raped her, she was tortured before testifying at his trial; he was acquitted. History and the art world haven’t given most of these successful women their due. Kevans means to change that. (Through Dec. 23.) Maya Lin, on the other hand, was reluctantly thrust into the spotlight when her controversial design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. made the press-shy, Chinese-American, Yaleeducated architect/artist famous and landed her in the middle of a firestorm at the age of 21. That was 1982, and since then, she has forged a body of work that addresses space and the environment, and has in-

cal at the Eureka Theatre, Rhino’s season will continue with David Mamet’s The Anarchist on Jan. 2-17, also at the Eureka. The verbal pas de deux between a lesbian anarchist and the parole officer with the power to release her was seen on Broadway in 2012 with Patti LuPone and Debra Winger as prisoner and officer. The season continues with the story of Alan Turing, a hero in British intelligence during WWII who became a victim of draconian anti-homosexuality laws in the early 1950s. Hugh Blakemore’s 1986 play Breaking the Code will run March 4-22 at the Eureka. In 1998, Fisher staged a sprawling production of Titus! in Yerba Buena Gardens. It was an over-thetop sendup of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and he’ll return to the park for a musical interpretation of another of Shakespeare’s more troublesome plays. Timon! The Musical!, adapted from Timon of Athens, about a foolish philanthropist and his greedy minions, will have an outdoor run May 29-31. Subscription tickets for the fiveshow series are $105-$125, and are available at 552-4100 or at therhino. org.t cluded the designing of sculptural memorials. Part of her last memorial, which is to the earth we used to know and would like to sustain, is now on display at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, a building named for the founder of the Sierra Club Foundation. Art/Act: Maya Lin, a show that’s minimalist in every sense of the word, is more a didactic primer on environmental awareness and active steps to take to save the planet and mitigate human impact than a conventional art exhibition. It features an elegant bas-relief of the footprint of San Francisco Bay made of reclaimed silver; a wire wall-hanging mapping the topography between the Golden Gate Bridge and Angel Island; and the winding path of the Tuolomne River delineated on a wall by hundreds of fabricated steel pins. What is Missing?, Lin’s first interactive multimedia artwork and her final memorial, asks viewers to contemplate the fragility of the Bay Area and beyond. A pair of slick digital displays allows visitors to click on a map and read stories from people who have noticed absences from the natural world, and to contribute their own accounts. The most affecting installation is a 20-minute loop of gauzy film clips that illustrate some of what’s gone missing – red wolves, rhinos, elephants, tigers, krill, the ability to see stars in the night sky, forests, animal migration routes – and the diminishing numbers and outright disappearance of creatures with whom we share the earth. Lin is clearly passionate about the subject and wants to share her sense of urgency, but the exhibition, which feels sparse and somehow incomplete, is more instructive than moving. Metaphor, a powerful and effective tool for reaching people, is what’s missing from this show.t

Out&About>>

Sat 18

Hula Guys

O&A Out &About

Seasonalities by Jim Provenzano

ick your faves, as fall arts events are fleeting by faster than you think.

Thu 16 Australian Ballet @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake (a modern day British royals version) is performed with the Berkeley Symphony. $40-$156. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 3pm. Thru Oct. 19. UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Author Events @ Modern Times Bookstore Oct. 16: Carmen de Monteflores on Jibara!, her essays on Puerto Rican culture and history. 3pm-5pm. Oct. 18: Litcrawl reading, 7:30pm. Oct. 19: Ruth Mahaney birthday fundraiser (12pm). Oct. 23: Gentrification Forum with Richard A. Walker, Brent Plater and Diane Serafini, 7:30pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Brian Copeland @ The Marsh 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

Die, Mommy, Die! @ New Conservatory Theatre Center J. Conrad Frank (Katya SmirnoffSkyy) stars in the local production of Charles Busch’s campy comic play about a Hollywood family’s tragicomic exploits. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 2. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. nctcsf.org

Do I Hear a Waltz? @ Eureka Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s production of the rarely seen Rodgers-SondheimLaurents musical, about a lonely tourist in Venice, stars Tony nominee Emily Skinner. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. 42ndStMoon.org

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) 811-4111. zspace.org

Gerald Casel Dance @ Joe Goode Annex Visiter, a new dance, is performed by Casel’s company, with live music by Tim Russell. $20. Thu-Sat 8pm. 401 Alabama St. www.geraldcasel.com www.visiter.brownpapertickets.com

Marin AIDS Project Gala @ Marin Yacht Club Fundraiser and party for the Marin AIDS nonprofit’s 30th anniversary, with honored guest Rev. Jane Spahr, board members and staff, volunteers, Cheer SF, and a live band. $30-$40. 5:30pm-8pm. 24 Summit Ave., San Rafael. 457-2487. www. MarinAIDSproject.org

October 16-22, 2014 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

Reel Abilities Film Festival @ Various Venues

Cops and Robbers @ The Marsh, Berkeley

Dia le los Muertos @ SOMArts Cultural Center

The annual festival of films by and about people with disabilities includes screenings of films and discussions about several subjects. Free-$10-$25. Various times. Thru Oct. 19. Creative Growth Center, Oakland; de Young Museum, SF; New People Cinema, SF; New Parkway Theatre, Oakland. www.bayareareelabilities.org

Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira’s compelling multi-character solo show about his life in the worlds of hip hop (he’s toured with Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes and others) and law enforcement. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Oct. 19. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Group exhibit of Mexican Day of the Dead-inspired art, shrines and installations. Special events thru the run. Thru Nov. 8. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Tony DeSare @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Glass Pumpkin Patch @ Cohn-Stone Studios, Richmond

The talented vocalist performs classic songs by Ellington, Cole Porter, even Willie Nelson. $40-$55 ($20 food/bev. Min.). 8pm. Also Oct. 17. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Lest We Forget @ YBCA Remembering Radical San Francisco, a films series of documentaries thru Oct. 26. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Oct. 16: Magic in the Moonlight (5pm, 7pm, 9pm). Oct. 17: The Dark Knight (7pm) and Reign of Fire (9:45). Oct. 18: Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, with Joan Chen appearing (www.cinemaitaliasf. com). Oct. 19: How to Marry A Millionaire (3pm, 7pm) and Written on the Wind (5pm, 8:50). Oct. 21: Alphaville (7pm) and Orpheus (8:55). Oct. 22: A Most Wanted Man (2:30, 7pm) and The Pawnbroker (4:45, 9:20). Oct. 23: The Black Cat (8pm) and The Raven (6:45, 9:20). $12. 429 Castro St. 621-6120. castrotheatre.com

Pastorella @ Exit Theatre Stuart Bousel’s comic intrigue play about actors (gay and straight) wrapped up in backstage romances and obsessions. $20. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Oct. 25. 156 Eddy St. theexit.org

Queers, Redevelopment and Racial Displacement @ GLBT History Museum Oct. 16: screenings of Take This Hammer and Viva 16. 7pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Shocktoberfest @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ 15th annual Halloween season shock theatre presents the new horror, song and puppet-filled show, The Bloody Debutante, Isabel’s Zombie Holocaust and other acts. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. (special Tue & Wed shows Oct. 28 & 29). Thru Nov. 22. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Yeast Nation @ Victoria Theatre Ray of Light Theatre company’s West Coast premiere of Tony Award winners Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman ( Urinetown ) lively new comic rock musical, set three billion years ago, about yeasts. Yup, yeasts. $25-$36. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Nov. 1. 2961 16th St. at Mission. rayoflighttheatre.com

Fri 17 An Audience With Meow Meow @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre Musical comedy features songs, sequins, satire and star Meow Meow. $29-$89. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Oct. 19. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. BerkeleyRep.org

Arab Film Festival @ Various Cinemas Screenings of feature, short and documentary films about several Arab cultures. Opening night at the Castro Theatre. $10-$12. Thru Oct. 23. www.arabfilmfestival.org

Classic Films @ BAM/PFA Screening of cinematic classics; Stanley Kubrick films thru Oct. 31, avante-garde cinema (Wed thru Oct. 29), Activate Yourself: Free Speech Movement (Tue & Thu thru Oct. 30). $7. Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

25th annual exhibit and sale of beautiful gourd-shaped glass sculptures will be the last, ending a quarter century of pumpkiny decorative beauty. Harvest your faves Fri. & Sat., 10am-4pm thru Oct. 26. 560 South 31st Street, Richmond. (510) 234-9690. www.cohnstone.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

Kegan Marling @ CounterPulse Jump Ship Mid-way, Marling and Mica Sigourney’s cabaret performance of drunk boys, Freddie Mercury and lots of glitter. $15-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 9pm. Thru Oct.19. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org

Litquake @ Multiple Venues 15th annual large-scale nine-day literary festival of readings, panels, and special events with local and award-winning authors. Oct. 18 closing night Lit Crawl includes multiple venue readings along Valencia Street and nearby. www.litquake.org

Lovebirds @ The Marsh, Berkeley Marga Gomez’ hit solo show, about the various lives of nightclub patrons as told by an ageless photographer, returns, now at the Marsh’s Berkeley stage. $20-$100. Fridays 8pm; Saturday 8:30pm. Thru Oct. 18. 2120 Alston Way, Berkeley. themarsh.org

Party People @ Berkeley Repertory 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. 16. 2025 Addison st. (510) 647-2900. www.berkeleyrep.org

Terror-Rama @ Exit Theater Awesome Theatre’s production of Nicholas C. Pappas and Anthony R. Miller’s satirical clash of modern day feminism vs. ‘70s-era slasher flicks. $20. 8pm. Fri & Sat thru Nov 1. 156 Eddy St. www.awesometheatre.org

Welcome, Foolish Mortals @ Glamarama, Oakland Fun and spooky group exhibit of artwork inspired by Disney’s Haunted Mansions, curated by Flyyn DeMarco. Exhibit thru Nov. 3. 6399 Telegraph Ave. (510) 655-4526. glamarama.com

Sat 18 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. amongdreams.com sfcenter.org

The Chat Noir @ Modern Eden Gallery Opening reception for a group exhibit of realist and dreamlike paintings of black cats. 6pm-10pm. Thru Nov. 1. 801 Greenwich St. www.moderneden.com

Hula Guys @ Palace of Fine Arts Theatre Robert Cazimero, one of Hawai’i’s most treasured entertainers, brings Nā Kamalei O Līlīlehua to San Francisco to join forces with Patrick Makuakane’s Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu in a rare hula show featuring the men of two groundbreaking hālau. (full company concerts Oct. 25 & 26). $35-$45. 2pm & 7pm. 3301 Lyon St. 392-4400. www.cityboxoffice.com www.NaLeiHulu.org

Lit Crawl @ Valencia Street Venues The festive three-section closing night event for Litquake includes dozens of readings at cafes, bars, galleries and barber shops along and near Valencia St. 6pm, 7pm and 8pm times. www.litcrawl.org

My Mother on Broadway @ The Garage Local choreographer Pearl Miller shares on onstage talk with her mother about her Broadway musical experiences, including the film All That Jazz. $10-$20. 8pm. 715 Bryant St. www.brownpapertickets.com

Peter Berlin @ Magnet Exhibit of photographs and autoportraits by the reclusive ‘70s art porn model; curated by Eric Smith and Mark Garrett. Special talk with Berlin Oct. 18, 7pm. Thru Oct. 31. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Potrero Hill Festival @ 20th St. 25th annual outdoor array of food, drinks, crafts and arts, live music. 11am-4pm. 20th Street bet. Wisconsin and missouri. www.potrerofestival.com

Semi-Famous @ The Marsh Don Reed’s new solo show, SemiFamous: Hollywood Hell Tales From the Middle, includes tales of panicridden auditions and almost being shot by the Secret Service. $20-$100. Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Oct. 19. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

SF Hiking Club @ San Bruno Mountain Join GLBT hikers for a 6-mile hike on San Bruno Mountain. Hike the Summit Loop Trail to the top for great views. Carpool meets at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores, 9:30am. 740-9888. www.sfhiking.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

Trolley Dances @ Muni Trains The 11th annual site-specific dance show brings half a dozen local companies into works set on and around local Muni train stops and in cars. $2.25. Tours 11am-2:45pm. Start at Church Produce, 1798 Church St. at 30th. www.epiphanydance.org

Sun 19 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum New 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

Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales @ Walt Disney Museum Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales: The Art of Marc Davis, including original drawings of Cruella DeVille, Tinkerbell and other iconic characters; thru Nov. 4. 104 Montgomery St. waltdisney.org

Mon 20 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry interviews local and visiting community members of note. 11:30am & 10:30pm. Also Sat & Sun, 10:30pm. Channel 104.

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

Tue 21 Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni’s A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBT-inclusive theatre company’s music and variety show, includes raffles and tickets to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. circleoflifetheatre.org

Hell in the Armory @ SF Armory Kink.com presents an adults-only Halloween-themed haunted house tour in their basement, Thru Nov. 1. $45. Various times. 1800 Mission St. www.HellintheArmory.com

Jason Mecier @ Glamarama The prolific mosaic artist’s new exhibit of selected celebrity portraits (many seen on TV and in films) must be seen up close to be truly appreciated. Thru Nov. 9. 304 Valencia St. 861-4526. www.jasonmecier.com www.glamarama.com

Wed 22 Art/Act: Maya Lin @ David Brower Center Exhibit of new works by the sculptor/ designer (Vietnam Memorial). Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Sun 10am-1pm. Thru Feb 4, 2015. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.browercenter.org

Christopher Lowen Agee @ GLBT History Museum Author of The Streets of San Francisco discusses the political history of the Bay Area in context of LGBTQ rights and liberalism, and the historic “Gayola” scandal. 7pm. 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Thu 23 Armistead Maupin @ SF Public Library The celebrated local author of the bestselling Tales of the City series has an onstage discussion about his books (the first of which is the tenth annual One City One Book selection) with local gay author K.M. Soehnlein ( The World of Normal Boys). 6pm. Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St. lower level. www.sfpl.org

Conversation Series @ Lake Merritt Senior Living SF Public Library’s Karen Sunheim shares a slideshow and talk about Bay Area LGBT history, with items from the Hormel Collection’s archives. 3:30pm. 1800 Madison St., Oakland. www.thelakemerritt.com

Fri 17

Glass Pumpkin Patch

<< Music

22 • Bay Area Reporter • October 16-22, 2014

Happiness is a chat with Storm Large by Gregg Shapiro

“We’re playing with symphonies now, you can’t keep calling us that.” Meanwhile I was touring with Pink Martini, and in France they say, “Le Bonheur.” Boner! I get to say dick twice! Hap-penis! That became the name of the band. The happiness and joy of love is also the anguish and longing. Love songs don’t often spring from a satisfied place. The best love songs are when love is over, when you’ve completely fucked up a perfectly good relationship and you wake up in a bunch of beer bottles, and you say, “Oh no, what have I done?” Then people pick up guitars or go to the piano, and they bleed. Those are the songs that get me. The legend of the Bad Brains song “Sacred Love” is that HR recorded that song for his girlfriend from jail! When I was 15, I was like, “That is the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t wait to have a boyfriend who goes to jail and calls me and sings!”

he title of Storm Large’s new album Le Bonheur (Heinz), loosely translated from the French, means happiness. According to Large, the title has other meanings as well, which she explains in the interview below. A larger-than-life diva and longtime friend to the LGBT community, Large recently completed a stint as a vocalist for Pink Martini. On her own again backed by her band Le Bonheur, Large’s new album features the singer interpreting 20th-century standards, along with a pair of originals that fit right in. Large plays Feinsteins at the Nikko in SF on Oct. 18-19. Gregg Shapiro: What was it like to become the co-lead singer, alongside China Forbes, for Pink Martini? Storm Large: It was a huge step up for me in my career. It was also, personally, very challenging. I’m very good friends with China. When Thomas [Lauderdale of Pink Martini] asked me to fill in for her, I felt like I was betraying a friend. I said, “Your fans will think I’m some hussy coming in and taking their diva’s place.” Thomas said, “No, we have all these gigs, and China can’t do them. I’ll explain to the audience what the deal is.” The Pink Martini fans have been so gracious with me. Those are big shoes to fill. I don’t think this happens with men that much, but with two female lead singers, it’s widely assumed that we hate each other, that there’s a catfight element. There is a brilliant variety of music on your new album, from Bad Brains to Black Sabbath, Cole Porter to Tom Waits, Randy Newman to Lou Reed. How did you select the material? Those are just a handful of my favorite songs that evoke a tickle in my heart. Bad Brains’ “Sacred Love,” I wore that album I Against I out. I wore out the Lou Reed album. I wore out Tom Waits. Those are albums through my childhood that saved my life, helped me realize I’m not the only person who feels this way. The album also includes original compositions. I felt that they harmonized with the vibe of the record. I wrote “Stand Up for Me” for gay rights, as an anthem for the right to love and

How’s that working out for you? Oh, it’s great! I’ve had a great track record. You can read about it in my next book. You wrote a memoir a few years ago. If there’s a movie version of your book, who would you want to play you? Oh, my God, I don’t know. Brad Pitt. Storm Large, seen here playing with the Oregon Symphony, is coming to San Francisco.

the right to marry. You also do a gorgeous duet with queer singersongwriter Holcombe Waller on “Unchained Melody.” I asked Holcombe to sing with me the first time I sang with the Oregon Symphony. I’ve known Holcombe since we lived in SF, I’ve sung with his band. I wanted to put him in front of thousands of people. I love to champion my friends. We were like, “What are we going to do?” I said, “There’s this great version of ‘Unchained Melody’ by Harry Belafonte that I’ve always loved.” It’s a simple version with a guitar and Harry Belafonte’s smoked chipotle chocolate voice. You found a dark layer in your interpretation of Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

love to fuck with all of that! Some people are like, “How come Storm Large is singing with symphonies? She’s a dirty punk. She’s a poseur. She’s a tourist.” I’m like, “Look, it’s music. It’s like fire. You can’t contain it, you can’t shape it.” If you look at Cole Porter’s songs, a lot of them are twisted. Just because your grandparents snapped their fingers along to some of his numbers, this shit is messed up. I mean “Miss Otis Regrets!” It’s so awesome. I’m just giving him a little nudge in a dark direction. James Beaton, my collaborator, re-harmonized that song. It brings out the obsession. People are very precious about classics and their favorite songs. They like what they like, they don’t like any variance. I

I don’t think he’s tall enough. Then I don’t know. Maybe the young me: Elle Fanning. But she’s way prettier. Somebody kind of chubby and blonde. I was a little chunk when I was a teenager.

The title of the disc translates to “happiness.” But happiness is in kind of a short supply in these songs. Le Bonheur is kind of a quintuple entendre. I affectionately call my band the Boners. The band was like,

What can people expect from one of your concerts? I can’t shut the fuck up, as you can tell. I play songs and tell stories. I try to keep it clean, especially if there are kids in the audience. I was playing in Bend, Oregon, and there were two kids in front of me. One was like eight and one was maybe 11, and I was like, “Oh, fuck!” I kept looking at the little girl, thinking, “Look kid, here’s the thing. There’s 800 people here tonight, but you’re going to be my moral compass. If I say something upsetting, I’m just going to watch you.” But it was great. I got a big hug afterwards from the little girl. Her mom said, “I knew what we were getting into. They love you and think you’re great.” I managed to not swear too much.t

former clients. The soft-core sex in the movie is designed to startle us, whether it be full-frontal nudity, masturbation, S&M, or sexual assault. Yet Sagat brings an authenticity that prevents

these scenes from being just lewd. The gay men here are honestly portrayed, not heroes, and even when they are botching up their lives, their unconventional sexual desires reveal intimacy. For literary fans, novelist Dennis Cooper, in a snarky cameo, plays an elderly art collector who has paid for Emmanuel’s services, but now verbally humiliates him, calling him bad art and kitsch. Honoré has been publicized as a visionary talent, but MAB doesn’t show those gifts. The movie meanders, but has a lyrical sensibility that is often seductive. It wants to say something profound about longing, but never quite succeeds. Still, MAB has its primary asset in Sagat. He has the potential to be one of the rare porn performers to cross over into mainstream films. But if he wants to be taken seriously for his acting, he might want to leave his clothes on in his next project.t

Body heat by Brian Bromberger

“ wanted above all to film bodies,” writes the director/writer Christophe Honoré in the press notes for his titillating film Man at Bath, recently released on DVD by TLA/ Canteen films. There’s no doubt he succeeds in that goal, with hot and steamy scenes featuring the masculine eye-candy extraordinaire Francois Sagat, a famous French porn star trying to make his transition to legitimate screen-acting. Sagat portrays Emmanuel, a gay hustler living with his boyfriend Omar (Omar Ben Sellem) in the Gennevilliers suburb of Paris. Omar, a filmmaker (and probable stand-in for Honoré), is preparing to leave for New York to do promo work for his new film, with real-life actress Chiara Mastroianni. They quarrel, and Emmanuel essentially rapes Omar, who tells him to be gone by the time he returns. MAB is the sexually explicit story of their separation and their erotic encounters as they explore other relationships despite still having passion for each other. MAB is experimental, with mini-

mal plot and character development, spare dialogue, little cohesion, and much improvisation, especially the New York sequences photographed by Omar’s hand-held digital camera. These scenes feature Mastroianni lecturing students at the School of Visual Arts and on escapades through Manhattan. Omar has a fling with Dustin, a Canadian film student. The sex scenes are awkward and poorly lit, and the actor playing Dustin looks uncomfortable. They reminded me of the amateur videos one might find on XTube. In fact, the whole New York plot could be eliminated. It feels as if it’s a separate story. This 72-minute feature could be turned into a more effective short film focusing on Gennevilliers alone. Gennevilliers is a multi-racial area where social outsiders of all stripes intermingle. The title MAB comes from a painting by a former Gennevilliers resident, the Impressionist artist Gustave Caillehotte, showing a naked man from behind, drying himself with a towel. Sagat, whose debut scene has him emerging naked from the shower, has little to say. But he has an elec-

trifying physical presence. He is naked or sexually engaged throughout the entire film. His muscular, statuesque derriere bears a resemblance to that of Michelangelo’s David. Emmanuel, desperate for money, agrees to show his butt to a woman for $20. She then strips and reveals her behind to him, when suddenly her boyfriend appears. Later, all three wind up in bed together. The best sequence in the whole picture is Emmanuel dancing in the apartment to singer Nancy Wilson’s “How Insensitive,” with a mop as a prop, and I can assure you will never look at your mop in the same way again! The film depends on Sagat’s intense performance as he misses Omar, realizes how much he loves him, yet must build a new, separate life. Most of the film depicts Emmanuel’s aimless lifestyle, as he visits or runs into

Martha Wash

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PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 42 • October 16-22, 2014

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LEATHER

t o l a Fangs Dragula’s ghoulish glamour by Jim Provenzano

n a festive jump on the Halloween season, the latest edition of the Los Angeles-based Dragula returns to the Eagle Tavern. Jamie Houchins, half of the Boulet Brothers drag duo, discussed his fangtastic drag night.

ViVi The Force getting crowned at a recent edition of Dragula

See page 24 >>

SIMPLY SIMON

THE GORGEOUS GO-TO GOGO GUY by Cornelius Washington

t last year’s Folsom Street Festival, while reveling in the wildlife going on all around us, my Editor and I spotted a stud rockin’ it on a go-go box. The dancer wore black leather boots, a jock strap, an Air Force cap, aviators and a big smile. The photographers swarmed about him. Not to be outdone, I of course joined the fray. Over the next year, Simon Palczynski the dancer, with the body and the beard, has appeared in this publication a few times. When not working by day as a marketing strategist, the 32-year-old Austrian-born hunk can be found dancing all over the Bay Area. From his back-up dancing at Trannyshack to his sexy shaking at Club OMG, The Powerhouse and other nightclubs, the reaction to him is the same: everyone loves him. This week, we’ve decided to give you a closer look into one of San Francisco’s most popular performers, giving you one more excellent reason to get off of the Internet, get out of the house and get into some fun. See page 26 >> Joe Mazza

Simon Palczynski

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

ALONZO KING LINES BALLET NOVEMBER 14-23, 2014 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater 415.978.2787 • linesballet.org

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 16-22, 2014

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Fangs A Lot

Dragula first premiered at LA’s Faultline, a sort of sister leather bar to The Eagle. “We’ve done all of them there, except for New Year’s Eve, which we’ll do elsewhere,” said Houchins. “We always intended to bring it to San Francisco, because we knew there would be a fun roving version,” said Houchins. “There are different kinds of performers out there who don’t get the opportunities to perform. We bring in people from different cities who may not be as famous as those who get on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Dragula celebrates everything that we love, and nontraditional forms of drag.” The Dragula crew does include some contestants from that show, like Laganja Estranga, as well as vocalist Prince Poppycock, who was also a fabulous contestant on another show, America’s Got Talent. Houchins said that some of his fellow performers travel between cities, like Trannyshack MC Heklina, of course. St. Peter DeVille, one of the performers who’s been to the SF shows, has helped establish the glam-ghoul “look” of the event. The events at The Eagle have begun to take place every other month. “There’s so much happening with

our events, we have to space it out,” said Houchins of he and his collaborator/co-producer Christos’ busy schedule. For non-Los Angeles readers, The Boulet Brothers aren’t actually brothers, but are among the more well-known nightlife promoters in Southern California. “Usually people don’t even refer to use us individually,” said Houchins. “It’s just a name we’ve been performing under forever, and it’s just become our history.” The Boulets, most often dressed in matching couture drag and eerie glam makeup, which he dubbed “Sexra Terrestrial,” host the Dragula pageant, introduce the performers, and the male strip contest. “We’re sort of like a Siamese act together,” said Houchins of his 14-year kinship with Christos. The gender-bending spooky style is a combination of the Boulets’ favorites, “Vampirella, Rocky Horror, and a little bit of camp,” said Houchins. “When we first brought it to San Francisco, a lot of people thought it would be so serious. They didn’t expect the camp aspect. All our shows are very silly and fun.” That the LA and SF events are both held in leather bars is no accident. “We want to combine our elements of ‘drag, filth, leather and glamour,” said Houchins. “We want it

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Gender-bending drag at Dragula.

The Boulet Brothers at a recent Dragula SF at The Eagle.

From page 23

to feel like a John Waters movie, with leather daddies and queens. Some of the leather bars haven’t really adapted to the new era of club-goers. I feel like our parties are what they need.” Along with the drag fun, Houchins placates the popularity for amateur beefcake with male strip and beer-chugging contests. “It’s very collegiate,” he chuckled. “It’s always wild when we bring the sex and the fun out.” This time, Dragula’s extra-special them takes on Disney, with a demented twist. Houchins suggests that guests with a creative spirit not limit themselves to classic villains, but “an undead Snow White, an evil Tinkerbell; people come up with some wild costumes.” Even if patrons don’t don drag or leather, they can have and be part of the amusements. “There’s no standing around at our club,” said Houchins. “Queens really participate.” “We really try to celebrate the best of drag, both older queens and upcoming ones,” said Houchins. As for the Bay Area link, “We really clicked with Heklina, and with queens who deserve their own space and don’t need a TV show.”t Dragula invades the SF Eagle, Saturday, October 18. 9:30pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

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A muscley gogo guy gets some up-close appreciation.

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Alien arm wrestling at Dragula

A gogo guy and a toothy fan.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Heklina’s Halloween Hip O

ne of the local hosts of Dragula is the irrepressible Heklina. Fresh from her and other queens’ collective victory in the ‘real name’ controversy with Facebook, the Trannyshack guru answered a few questions. You’ve brought Trannyshack to Los Angeles and other cities. What are some differences with the L.A. scene, specifically when you host events, and the kind of drag down in Southern California? First off, I have to say I have never been one of those ‘San Francisco versus L.A.’ kind of people. I love L.A. and have a ton of friends there. Having said that, I noticed

immediately that L.A. likes their stuff a bit slicker than S.F. I even had to tailor my marketing materials to be less “grungy.” The drag in Los Angeles has really grown in leaps and bounds. It used to seem there were no sick and twisted queens down there except for Squeaky Blonde and Fade Dra, but now there are a ton. The Boulet Brothers really cultivate that aesthetic, which I love. You’ve done horror and Halloween-themed Trannyshack events, and sell-out shows with Peaches Christ. What’s the appeal of drag and horror, and the combination? I can only speak for myself. I have

always been drawn to the darker side of things, or the “otherness.” The occult, punk rock, horror movies, cult movies, and stuff like that have always been interesting to me, because they hold things up to be examined that most people don’t want to look at or be reminded of. The only way to take power out of something, anything, is to embrace it and stare it straight in the face. I guess I tend to look at everything in an abstract way. I think the latest Drew Barrymore movie or whatever is way more frightening than any horror movie could be. From a purely drag standpoint, the appeal is obvious; dressing up like the Bride of Frankenstein, Elvira, or a

drag version of Leatherface is just irresistible. The upcoming Dragula has a Disney theme. Who are your favorite Disney characters, good or evil, and what might we expect from this Dragula? My favorite Disney characters are, of course, the evil ones. Ursula the Sea Witch, Cruella de Ville, the evil queen from Snow White. What you can expect from this Dragula is me trying to come up with some sort of look. A bunch of these bitches have already stolen some of the best looks! Since it reopened, The Eagle has

been a great venue for drag and fun kink events.What is it about this combination that makes Dragula events fun? Whenever you pool together people in “fringe” subcultures, it makes for a fun night. I’ve always thought drag queens bond well with leather queens, porn stars, hookers, etc. We fit in by the very act of not fitting in. What’s the strangest thing, or outfit you’ve seen at a Dragula event? A brilliant queen named She wore one of the best outfits, (see photo). Unbelievably, she did not win the midnight drag pageant that night!

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Heklina performs at a recent Dragula.

Heklina (left) with She

The Boulet Brothers (left, right) flank Heklina and Peaches Christ at the most recent Dragula at The Eagle.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 16-22, 2014

WARNING HOT GUYS! San Francisco

415.430.1199 Oakland

510.343.1122 San Jose

408.514.1111

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

For other local numbers call:

1-888-MegaMates

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

Cornelius Washington BARtab

Simon Palczynski at the 2014 Folsom Street Fair.

Simon Palczynski at 2013’s Folsom Street Fair.

2586

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

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Simon as Bam Bam in a Trannyshack number at DNA Lounge.

Simon in a Queens of the Castro number at The Castro Theatre.

Simply Simon From page 23

Cornelius Washington: What are your physical stats? Simon Palczynski: I’m between 5’6 and 5’7 (it depends on my mood), 152 lbs. I guess I classify as a Pocket Gay. What helped you decide to begin your gogo dancing career? That’s simple: I just love to dance. And before gogo dancing I always jumped on boxes in the club. So at one point I told myself, why not making money with it? How long have you been in San Francisco? I’m having my ten-year anniversary this fall. It’s crazy how fast time flies by. It still feels like yesterday, when I came here for the first time.

Simon gets generous tips at Club OMG.

What initially led you to come to SF? First it was love with a guy, and then I fell in love with the city. Where are you from?

I’m originally from Vienna, Austria. I spent most of my life there, until I moved to San Francisco. So, I have not lived anywhere else other than Vienna. What was life like there for you, especially for someone who loves to dance? When I was in elementary school, I went a jazz dance class, which I loved. It was just two or three boys and ten girls. But, it was a lot of fun and I knew right then that I loved dancing. Unfortunately, I didn’t pursue anything further in that area (which I still regret until this day). I guess that’s why I’m doing gogo dancing now. It’s a bit of living my dream. Your Joe Mazza pictures are sexy. How did you come to work with him? Thank you very much! I’m really proud of what we have done, so far. I had followed and loved his photos for a while. After my last relationship ended, I changed my life quite a lot, with a different workout routine and diet and, at one point, I thought to myself that I was in the best shape I had ever been and that I would like to have photos of that to remember, when I’m old and out of shape. So,

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Martha Wash; still reigning by Josh Klipp

artha Wash has stories to tell – from the young woman who walked into a life-changing audition, to an adulthood of standing up for many whose voices went unacknowledged, including her own. It can never be said that Martha Wash has not sung every moment of her multi-decade career from every ounce of her being and with all the love in her heart with the hopes of making even one small difference. Indeed she has done just that. The two-time Grammy-nominated icon Martha Wash brings her unrelenting determination to change the world one song at a time to Feinstein’s at the Nikko on Thursday October 23 and Friday October 24. And every song Ms. Wash sings – whether an original or a cover – has purpose, meaning, and sometimes a little history. “Many years ago, after an autograph signing,” Martha reminisces in a phone interview, “a lady with a young boy of maybe five or six years old approached the table and told me that my song “Carry On” helped her cope with her son’s HIV. That’s big, that’s really big.” As she speaks, she tries to cover, but I can hear the legend choking back tears, even after all this time. The bigness of Wash’s heart is matched only by the expanse of her voice. Raised in San Francisco churches and brought to national attention when she sang backup for the legendary Sylvester, Martha remembers the day she met the man who would change her life. “He was ahead of his time,” re-

calls Wash. “I’d seen his show a couple years earlier and loved it, but I didn’t have a clue who he was. He’d just auditioned two tall white girls before me and, after I auditioned, he told them they could leave. Then he asked me if I knew of another girl as large as I was who could sing, and I said yes. That’s how it started.” She and that other girl, Izora Rhodes, not only laid down the yellow brick road of vocal gold for Sylvester, they went on to form the duo Two Tons of Fun, renamed The Weather Girls when they released the multi-platinum single “It’s Raining Men” – a song which firmly cemented their place in gay culture. “Gay men really snatched that song and ran away with it!” Wash laughs. “They’ve been my number one supporters continuing over all these decades.” Martha Wash’s success has not taken her even one small step away from the oft- marginalized communities who adore her. If anything, it drives her to work for them even harder. “Glitz and glamour is an illusion,” she says. “I’ve had so many ups and downs. There were times in my career that people weren’t calling. But music is my contribution to the world, hopefully through the people I touch.” More than one person found Ms. Wash to let her know that her message and voice buoyed them through hard times. “This young man came up to me at a club once and… I’m trying to remember the song he mentioned that helped him… But what he told me was that he had considered sui-

cide, and something about my music got him through that. See, you never know what the next person is going through. You don’t live their life, and we need to be careful about being judgmental and harsh on other people when we don’t know their situation. So we may all come out of this a little scarred, but we can make it through. That’s what I hope my music continues to convey.” The mighty Martha Wash doesn’t keep performing, recording, and releasing albums because she has anything to prove. She’s already rained hits all over the Billboard charts, made millions of club goers sweat on the dance floor, and struck back when C+C music factory used a lipsynching French model for her uncredited powerful vocal runs in their string of 90’s club hits. Her new album, Something Good, is track after exuberant track of the authentic passion that can only be wrought out by an artist who knows they have done and continue to do exactly what they were put on this earth to do. The infectious title song “Something Good” is so spirit-raising that Ms. Wash could be singing a biscuit recipe and we’d all still dance until we drop. Her cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” will make even the quietest church mouse raise their voice to the sky in anthem to the tenacity of dreams. And her gorgeous ballad “Proud” fills the heart and spills over in reminder of the strength we are capable of giving to one another. “We don’t live in a world by ourselves,” Ms. Wash says. “We’re here on earth to help one another, even if we don’t know when we’re helping someone. It can be large or it can be small, but we’re here for each other.” For nearly 40 years, Martha Wash has given her music in service

Josh DeHonney

Martha Wash

and with grit and determination. Whether it’s proving that powerful women can be plus-sized, telling the world that gay is okay, or just keeping one young man from the pit of despair. “What song would I dedicate to my San Francisco audience?” she repeats back, “I like people to have their own interpretation and experience from my songs, but…I’ll give you two: “Carry On” and “Dream On,” because you need to deal with the circumstances that you’re in now, know that you’ll come out of it and, after you do, keep dreaming –

Martha Wash, Sylvester and Izora Rhodes in an early publicity shot.

The Weather Girls’ other top-selling songs.

I wrote him and asked if he was interested in doing something with me. We met for coffee and talked to see if it could work and, luckily, we got along really well. Joe has the gift to make you feel really comfortable and relaxed, which I think you can see in all of his photos.

Yes. I was very nervous. I totally remember everything. My good friend DJ Christopher B was spinning at the Lookout and he asked me and a friend if we’d be up for gogo dancing there. I had all these different thoughts; what if people ignored me? If I just sucked? Luckily, my boyfriend at the time and a lot of my friends were there, so I had great support. One thing you need to know about me is that I don’t drink. So I can’t just pour down any fear.

Your beard looks like a natural extension of you, whereas so many others’ look like a overworked trend. How do you take care of it? How often do you trim it? I have a really simple routine with my beard. Sometimes, I let it grow for a while before I trim it off again, sometimes trim it regularly, once a week. Other times, I dye it blond. I really do a lot, depending on my mood. Plus, I love to surprise people with my look. Is dancing nearly nude a more sensual or sexual experience for you? I’d say neither. I love moving my body and people seem to enjoy it. It’s really nothing sexual to me. You could say it’s a happy experience. You wear the most amazing costumes. What inspires you to make and wear them? To be honest, for gogo danc-

ing it tends to be skimpy with lots of jockstraps. It’s Heklina’s Trannyshack when I dance backup and get to wear super fun costumes and become somebody totally different What have you not worn that you’d kill to wear? Spontaneously, I would say dancing in heels. I just haven’t gotten to do it. But I like the contrast between masculinity and femininity. There is something hot about it. Why do you think that your dancing is so very popular? It comes back again that I really love doing it and that I have fun. I hear a lot that people enjoy watching me because I actually smile while performing. Please describe your fitness regime. I try to mix it up a lot. I go to the gym, I like running or I do boot camps. I started doing springboard diving, so that’s a totally new challenge for me, but I love it! And then there is the gogo dancing itself. It’s great cardio, and the next day I eat what ever I wanna eat. Were you nervous the first time you danced?

What’s your favorite body part? On your body? On other men? I guess it’s what people usually like best about me: my ass. A nicely defined and big chest on guys tends to drive me crazy. What music gets you really pumping? Well-produced or remixed European House music. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough places here in San Francisco that play that sort of music. Who’s your favorite dancer? One of Kylie Minogue’s big dancers, Marco da Silva comes to mind, immediately. He is a great dancer,

there’s still more ahead of you.” Next week, the unrivaled Martha Wash brings her grace – and a lush band of keyboards, guitar, bass and drums – to the intimate Feinstein’s, and will perform a mix of classics and new songs from her latest album. As our interview wrapped, Martha Wash expressed a gratitude and humility rare for an artist of her accomplishment and caliber. “I’m just appreciative of the support through all these many years,” she said, “and I’m looking forward to coming home and doing a good show. I hope people like it.” In her song, I’m Not Coming Down, Ms. Wash sings from a place that she has earned. “I didn’t know I could soar above the clouds, but now that I do I’m not coming down.” And as only a woman with a voice so powerful could do, she lifts us up, too.t Martha Wash at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. Oct. 23 & 24, 8pm. $35-50. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663.1063 www.ticketweb.com Joshua Klipp is a writer and bandleader for the swing/blues band, the Klipptones. www.klipptones.com.

and knows how to move. I think he is only a DJ nowadays. I was actually lucky enough to gogo dance when he was spinning at Beatbox once. You were excellent at managing the Deviant stage at this year’s Folsom Street Fair. How did you get the gig? It was really by coincidence. I share the same taste in music with Demetri Moshoyannis (Executive Director at Folsom Street Events). About a month before Folsom Street Fair, he randomly asked me if I’d be interested. It sounded like a great opportunity despite the fact that it meant that I couldn’t gogo dance at the fair. Where do you perform regularly? I dance the most at Beatbox and the Powerhouse. I’ve no firm schedule, though. It really depends on the party and if I’m available. One place you can pretty much catch me every time is Trannyshack. Follow Simon at https://twitter.com/simpalSF

Simon (with hair) gets ready to spank at Pledge at the now-closed Rebel.

<< On the Tab

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 16-22, 2014

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

October 16 23

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

Magnus Hastings

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

Thu 16 Jackie Beat @ Verdi Club

t’s near enough to Halloween that you should be picking out your possible costumes, and of course Christmas decorations will follow close behind. But this week, be here now as current nightlife fun asks for your presence, not yet presents.

Thu 16

Magic Parlor @ Chancellor Hotel

Beats Reality @ Trax

Whimsical Belle Epoque-style sketch and magic show that also includes historical San Francisco stories, is now in its third year; hosted by Walt Anthony; optional pre-show light dinner and desserts. $40. Special 3rd anniversary show Oct. 4; special gala Oct. 11 and Halloween party on Oct. 31. Thu-Sat 8pm. 433 Powell St. www.SFMagicParlor.com

Resident DJs Jim Hopkins and Justime welcome guest DJs and play groovy tunes. Weekly, 9pm-2am. 1437 Haight St. 864-4213.

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

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

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn blond hunk Christopher Daniels hosts the interactive event in the strip joint's cruisy downstairs arcade. $10. 9pm (Daniels performs onstage Oct. 18 & 19). 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio The monthly comedy show this time features Maureen Langan, Betsy Salkind, Yayne Abeba, Eloisa Braco, Stefani Silverman, Nick Leonard and host Lisa Geduldig. Proceeds benefit Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent, Inc. $7-$50. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.elriosf.com

La Femme @ Beaux Weekly ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. Oct. 16: a Rocky Horror Monster Show! $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux 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

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

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

New weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

The annual country-western twostepping line-dancing celebration returns, with dance events at the Holiday Inn (1500 Van Ness Ave.), the Regency Ballroom (1300 Van Ness Ave.) and Sundance Saloon (550 Barneveld Ave.) Oct. 16's kickoff dance (500 Barneveld) is $12. 6:30pm-11pm. Other events $12-$50. Thru Oct. 19. www.stompede.org

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

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

Tony DeSare @ Feinstein’s

Nightlife events at the museum take on different themes. $20-$35. 6pm8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoung.famsf.org

DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland's premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Hardbox @ Powerhouse DJs Gehno Aviance and Guy Ruben, gogo studs, MMA and capioera demos, and prizes. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland The Oakland nightclub continues its 22nd-year anniversary with Hip Hop, Top 40, and Latin music, gogo dancers and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $6 afterward. Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm-8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

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

Castro Gear Show @ Knobs Exhibition of male fetish and kink apparel from gay-owned and operated retailers/ 6:30pm-8pm. 432 Castro St. http://on.fb.me/1BPwZad

Club Rimshot @ Bench and Bar, Oakland Get groovin' at the weekly hip hop and R&B night. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 510 17th St. www.bench-and-bar.com

Dragula @ Eagle Tavern The LA-based ghoulish glam night returns, with The Boulet Brothers, Heklina and Peaches Christ, with a Disney-themed night of drag camp (Grace Towers, Sister Roma, Saint Peter D'Vil), gogo hotties, and salatious fun. $300 prize in the drag pageant! $5. 10pm-2am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Kink Salon @ Powerhouse Haus of Starfish and Beth Bicoastal's open mic, with performances, sexy fun, and DJ Dutchboy. 2pm-5pm. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.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

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

Fri 17 Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Cabaret Comico @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret's two-night minifest of witty musical songs, with Candace Forest, Paul Frantz, Diane Merlino, Nancy Schimmel, and Bobby Weinapple, Beth Wilmurt. Also Oct. 18 with Marilyn Cooney, Bill Cooper, Barry Lloyd, Lauren Mayer, Darlene Popovic, and Ray Renati. $10-$25. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club

Thu 16

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Tony DeSare @ Feinstein's at the Nikko

Porn blond hunk performs live sex shows onstage with the beary daddy at 8pm & 10pm. Also Oct. 19. $25. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

The LA drag performer with a biting wit performs bawdy song parodies, video flashbacks and more. $22.50$32.50. 8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. 861-9199. www.verdiclub.net

Sundance Stompede @ Various Venues

Christopher Daniels, Drew Sebastian @ Nob Hill Theatre

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland

Jackie Beat @ Verdi Club

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

Friday Night @ de Young Museum

Bill Weaver

AB f eON THE T –

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

Goth vs. Industrial night, with several DJs playing genre tunes. Wear an old school goth or industrial T-shirt for a chance to win Skinny Puppy and Placebo tickets. $5-$8. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.sfcatclub.com

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

Sat 18 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Beatpig @ Powerhouse Juanita MORE!, Walter Gomez host the saucy stylish monthly event at the cruisy SoMa bar. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

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

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

Big Gay Grape Stomp @ Peju Winery, Rutherford Out in the Vineyard's annual grape-stomping and Harvest Party includes lunch, wine-tasting and grape-stomping. $99-$1000 (6-guest cabana). 8466 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford. (800) 446-7358. www.outinthevineyard.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge Celebrate eleven years of the weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. $8-$15. 9pm-3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF.com www.DNAlounge.com

Thu 16 Sundance Stampede

Sing-Along Saturdays @ Martuni's Join Joe Wicht for the weekly night of top 40 rock and pop sing-alongs. 9pm-1am. 4 Valencia St.

Storm Large @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The gorgeous vocalist (also an author, actor and musician), known for her guest-vocalist shows with Pink Martuni, performs her cabaret show with her band, Le Bonheur. $35-$50. 7pm. Also Oct. 19. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.stormlarge.com

Treasure Island Music Festival @ Treasure Island The annual big outdoor music weekend includes performances by Outkast, Massive Attack, TV on the Radio, Janelle Monae, St. Lucia, Banks and many more bands. $89-$175. (parking $40-$70; shuttle buses to and from Bill Graham Civic Auditorium). Also Oct. 19. www.treasureislandfestival.com

Sun 19 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

Beer Bust @ SF Mix The popular Castro bar hosts its weekly softball team beer bust fundraiser. 3pm-7pm. 4086 18th St. 431-8616. www.sfmixbar.com

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

On the Tab>>

October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Brunch @ Hi Tops

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room

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

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

Brunch Sundays @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Martuni's

Daytime Realness @ El Rio Heklina, Stanley Frank and DJ Carnita, with guest DJs Steve Fabus and Sergio Fedasz includes acts by Ethel Merman, Au Jus, Jenna Talia, Sue Casa and others, in a benefit in honor of Arturo Galster. $6-$8. 2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.hardfrench.com www.ElRioSF.com

Tue 21 Scott Capurro @ Funny Tuesdays

Disco Daddy @ The Eagle DJ Bus Station John's monthly groovy retro post-beer-bust dance night returns. $5. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

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

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

Katya Presents @ Martuni's Katya Smirnoff-Skyy (in between shows at New Conservatory Theatre's Die, Mommy, Die!) shares an evening of songs, story and cocktails, with Norman Vane. $11. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

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

Salsa Sundays @ El Rio Salsa dancing for LGBT folks and friends, with live merengue and cumbia bands; tapas and donations that support local causes. 2nd & 4th Sundays. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

BJ's @ Powerhouse OurTownSF.org fundraiser includes Jell-O shots, a perky booty contest; dress in sports gear, jock straps, or freeballing loose-fitting shorts; hosted by Michael Brandon, with DJ Gehno Aviance. 9pm-12am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

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

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

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thestarryplough.com

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

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops

Trivia Night @ Harvey's

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. Oct. 21: Scott Capurro. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

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

Hell in the Armory @ SF Armory

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

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

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room

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

Piano Bar @ Beaux

Underwear Night @ 440

Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

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

Showdown @ Folsom Foundry

Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Tue 21

Mon 20

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sat 18

Treasure Island Music Festival

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's

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

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

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

Alt/metal rock band performs. Joseph Arthur opens. $35. 8pm. 1805 Geary Blvd. 346-6000. www.thefillmore.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's

Academy of Friends Beneficiaries Party @ Bubble Lounge

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

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

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

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

Wed 22

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

The Oscar party nonprofit announces their new beneficiaries and 2015 gala theme. $20. 6pm-8:30pm. 714 Montgomery St. 995-9890. www.AcademyofFriends.org

Kink.com presents an adults-only Halloween-themed haunted house tour in their basement, Thru Nov. 1. $45. Various times. 1800 Mission St. www.HellintheArmory.com

Name That Beat @ Toad Hall

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

A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBTinclusive theatre company's music and variety show, includes raffles and tickets to their upcoming shows. No cover. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org

Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com The casts of local and visiting musicals often pop in to perform at the popular Castro bar's musical theatre night. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pmclosing. 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Weekly game night for board and electronic gamers at the warehouse multi-purpose nightclub. 21+. 6pm12am. 1425 Folsom St. www.showdownesports.com

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

Afghan Whigs @ The Fillmore

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

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

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 Enjoy the classic drag show with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. No cover. 9:30-11:30pm. 133 Turk St. 441-2922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Good Times @ Bench and Bar, Oakland

Sony Holland @ Level III

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

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

Wrangler Wednesday @ Rainbow Cattle Company, Guerneville The Russian River bar's country music night attracts cowboys and those who like to ride 'em. 8pm-1am. 16220 Main St., Guerneville. (707) 869-0206. www.queersteer.com

Olga T and Shugga Shay's weekly queer women and men's R&B hip hop and soul night. No cover. 8pm-2am. 510 17th St. www. bench-and-bar.com

Kat Edmonson @ Great American Music Hall The unique vocalist with a classic retro style performs with Benjamin Winter and The Make Believe. $20-$45 (with dinner). 8pm. 859 O'Farrell St. 885-0750. www.slimspresents. com

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

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

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox Weekly Latin partner dance night. 8pm-1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www.rainbowskate.net www.facebook.com/rainbowskating/

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Thu 23 Hollie Cook @ Leo’s Music Club

Thu 23 Bay Area Young Positives Party @ Center SF Miz Eva Sensitiva hosts a night of drag, drinks and fun, with Kylie Minono, Bebe Sweetbriar and other acts. $30-$35. 7pm-10pm. 548 Fillmore St. www.baypositives.org

Hollie Cook @ Leo's Music Club, Oakland The UK singer, formerly of The Slits, performs music from her second solo album. Latin Dub Stars also perform. $10-$12. 9pm. 5447 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.holliecook.com www.clubleos.com

Martha Wash @ Feinstein's at the Nikko The vocal legend makes her debut at the intimate nightclub, performing pop R&B and dance classics. $35-$50. 8pm. Also Oct. 24. Also Oct. 24. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 16-22, 2014

Ms. SF Leather and a Leather Icon by Race Bannon

There are few institutions as long-standing and high profile for the leatherwomen of the San Francisco Bay Area as the Ms. San Francisco Leather contest (www.mssfleather.org). On Saturday, October 4, the new Ms. SF Leather was chosen. This year, in order to make the bulk of the year in which the titleholder serves match the title name, the winner will be known as Ms. SF Leather 2015. The contest was well done and everyone in attendance seemed to have a good time. At the end of the evening the winner was announced and it was Little Bad Daddy. Also running for the title was Sailor who did a superb job in the competition as well, but when the votes were tallied it was Little Bad Daddy who donned the sash. I asked the winner why she ran for the title. “I ran for Ms. SF Leather for both myself and my community,” she said. “I want to learn to master myself in everything I do. Being a public representative of my community provides an imperative to grow, and resources with which to do that. What a wonderful opportunity! I am grateful for so much community support and happy to have won. The leather community is worldwide. Reaching other leatherfolk in other places, so we can learn from each other, is important to me, as is being reachable by others.” The contest was started by Audrey Joseph in 1987. The contest continued until 1995. In 1996 a new but similar contest, Ms. Golden Gate Leather, was created and it produced titleholders for 19961998. The Ms. SF Leather contest started again in 1999, but was shortlived and the contest sat dormant for ten years. In 2009 Liza Sibley and her slave, Jody, stepped up to produce the contest again and they remain the producers today. As the creator and first producer of the contest, I asked Audrey Joseph how the contest came to be. She said, “The first real year was 1986. I think someone tried it at the Eagle in the early ‘80s, but nothing really came of it. A girl named Bobbie Wilkes won that one. Ms. SF Leather began in earnest in 1986 and our first winner was Shadow Morton. A group of us got together with the assistance of Chuck Renslow to form International Ms. Leather (www.imsl.org) and the format for the first one was identical to International Mr. Leather (www. imrl.com), which meant we needed local contests from which to send contestants. So being in San Francisco we decided to have the local contest. It was like a kick-off event for International Ms. Leather.” People sometimes question the value of leather contests. So I asked the outgoing Ms. SF Leather 2013, Val Langmuir, what value she sees such contests having for the overall local leather community. “I believe that the overall leather community is made up of many different sub-communities, and that these smaller communities benefit from cross-pollination, if you will,” said Langmuir. “For example, as the women’s titleholder, it was my job to get out and about. I spent more time with men, and I learned about the Mr. Friendly campaign, and I learned a huge amount more about PrEP than I did before. I was able to educate women about these issues, and I think that is tremendously valuable. On the other side of the

same coin, it’s nice to see ‘visiting dignitaries’ from other towns at our local events. We look good in our leathers and costumes, why not!, and it’s nice to look at each other and take pictures. As for the contests themselves, I think they are a great excuse to get out of the house, get dressed up, and see our friends old and new – and be entertained. I think a well-produced contest is a great evening’s entertainment for a very small cost.” As the current producers of the contest, I asked Liza Sibley and her slave, Jody, how they view the current position that

the women’s leather community has within the overall SF Bay Area leather community. They said, “There are many components to the SF Bay Area leather community – gay leathermen, leatherdykes, heterosexual leathermen and leatherwomen, queer leatherfolk and others who are kinksters or fetishists or gearheads. The women’s leather community is a subset of this greater leather community. We are sad to say that it is often viewed by gay leathermen as not a part of the greater community. But, on the other hand, there are many who understand that although members of the various subgroups may not want to have sex with each other, we are not all that different from each other.”

Rich Stadtmiller

Val Langmuir, Ms. SF Leather 2013 (left) and the newly sashed Ms. SF Leather 2015, Little Bad Daddy (right).

Rich Stadtmiller

Ms. SF Leather Mistresses of Ceremonies, Miranda (left) and Miss Bethie Bee (right), having some kinky fun on stage.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Let me add to what Liza and Jody said. I cover a lot of leather and kink events. We San Francisco Bay Area kinksters are lucky that the various genders, orientations and factions seem to get along pretty darn well together. We typically honor our differences as well as our commonalities. That’s one of the great things about our local leather and kink scene. Sure, we could sometimes do better at understanding each other. I agree with what Liza and Jody said in that some gay leathermen do shun leatherwomen, and that’s unfortunate, but I think a lot of folks here do embrace the commonalities while giving each faction the space they need also, and we have it better here than in many places I visit around the country. Another unique event took place recently that is of interest to the leather and kink folk of the Bay Area. On October 3, I attended the opening reception for the Peter Berlin: A Solo Exhibition of Photographs art show that is currently displayed at Magnet (www.magnetsf.org) for the month of October. Old-time leathermen such as myself will remember Peter Berlin as the iconic erotic image that many gay men looked to as the epitome of fully embracing one’s kinky leather self. I attend most of the art opening receptions at Magnet and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one as packed as this one. The show is a collection of selfportraits by Berlin. He created thousands of such self-portraits on film, when the whole process of film photography required time and skill that we today take for granted with instant digital photography. Peter spent hours preparing for each shoot - setting up the camera, creating the outfits, developing the negatives and printing the photos himself. Steven Gibson, Executive Director of Magnet, said this about the show. “Magnet wanted to feature the photography of Peter Berlin to celebrate the way he owned his sexuality, specifically his very public expression of gay male desire, lust even. Peter is an icon. By showing his work at Magnet, we are able to share it with a generation of men

October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Race Bannon

Steven Gibson, Executive Director of Magnet, stands in front of an image of leather icon, Peter Berlin, for Magnet’s monthly art show.

who never got to experience the Polk and Castro in that era.” Mark Garrett, one of the show’s curators, said, “Peter Berlin’s street visibility and self-portraiture documented a period of sexually expressive freedom of the early 1970’s. He became an unforgettable and visible presence in multiple gay Meccas, and helped to reinforced a new sexually confident identity for gay men. This show represents a very small but important window into

his influence and offers a larger discussion about sex and sexuality for younger generations to come.” For those who might want to hear from the artist himself, Peter Berlin discusses his life and works in person at Magnet on Saturday, October 18, at 7:00 p.m.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through the contact page on his www.bannon.com site.

Leather Events, October 17-31, 2014 Fri 17

Wed 22

Bay Area boys of Leather: Boy Friday @ SF Eagle

Leathermen’s Discussion Group @ Mr. S Dungeon

Join the Bay Area boys of Leather for Boy Friday, their monthly cocktail social. 398 12th St., 7pm. www.bayareaboysofleather.org

Kane, “Drummer,” and DeBlase - Rick Storer, Leather Archives & Museum. This program will examine three pillars of San Francisco’s leather culture of yesterday: Jim Kane, Drummer magazine and Tony DeBlase. 385A 8th St., 7:30pm. www.sfldg.org

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

Fri 17 – Sun 19 Mr. Bolt Leather 2015 Competition Weekend @ The Bolt Be the next Mr. Bolt or come out & see who will. 2560 Boxwood St., Sacramento. www.sacbolt.com

Mon 20 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

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

Fri 24 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members. 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Sat 25 The 15 Association Men’s Play Party @ SF Citadel A men’s BDSM play party. 181 Eddy St., 8pm. www.the15sf.org

Leather Archives & Museum Beer Bust @ SF Eagle Fundraiser for the Leather Archives & Museum. 398 12th St., 3pm. www.sf-eagle.com

Mr. Daddy’s Barbershop Leather 2015 @ 440 Castro Leather title contest to represent Daddy’s Barbershop, 440 Castro St., 3pm. www.daddysbarbershop.com

Mon 27 Ride Mondays @ Eros A motorcycle rider and leathermen night at Eros, bring your helmet, AMA card, MC club card or club colors and get $3 off entry or massage. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Fri 31 Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members. 4058 18th St., 9:30pm. www.castrocountryclub.org

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • October 16-22, 2014

Beaux bonin’ by John F. Karr

t was at a streaming site that I sampled some steamy guys having steamier sex in the movie, Sans Limite (Without Limits), by Jean-David Cadinot. Checking it out at TLA, I found that it had just been released. I was excited that there was a brand new movie from the fabled director, and I bought one, pronto, so I could

write it up. I opened it quick when it came, and all eager to pop with it, popped it into my DVD player. And was immediately confused—the copyright date that scrolled across the screen read 2001. Well, chalk this one up to my very bad memory. Sans Limite couldn’t possibly have been new this year, as Jean-David Cadinot died in 2008. Digging around a bit, I found the movie had indeed been

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made in 2000. Yet writing about it could still be another Karrnal public service, since I thought it was so hot. The key word there is “thought.” Upon finally viewing it whole, I found there were qualifying issues to Sans Limite that turned down its heat. Cadinot, who was born in 1944 and died of a heart attack at the age of 64 in 2008, was famed for a unique brand of sexuality. Very working-class French, it was, all mecs and garçons (sounds better in French, but those are tough guys and young lads). He made features, not loops, and he liked them plotted. His films were gritty and realistic, and between 1978 and 2008, he made at least 70 of them. After his death, his company was run by an associate who had composed music for his films, and who had been managing the company since 2002. In 2013, the company passed into new hands, and it was the date of their re-issue that TLA had posted, which made me think the movie was new. Well, it was new to me.

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Jean-Daniel Cadinot

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Jean-Daniel Cadinot’s Sans Limite

Also new to me, and exciting, were the 14 young guys of the cast. I can’t tell you exactly what the minimal plot has them doing in the movie, as it’s in French and lacks subtitles. Something about everybody who comes and goes from an apartment building, I think. The guys are mostly slender (thought taut), mostly smooth (there’s one furry guy, whose treasure trail is tasty), and mostly uncut (there’s at least one cut guy among them). And they have all the goods a pornstar oughta have. If there are cheekbones for days, then the cocks must be for weeks. A couple of good ‘n thicks, and a whole mess of mighty long. I appreciate the intense focus the guys have on each other when making out. It turns up the heat. There’s an emphasis on anal play—lots of multi-digit probing, lots of accomplished fucking featuring long, long dicks and welcoming holes. It’s all pretty tasty. I was glad to make the acquaintance of them all; a very suave dark haired dude with coal black eyes, a couple of adorable, blushing cheeked twinks, a guy of husky menace on a motorcycle, a slender (but not scrawny) guy who’s breathtakingly ripped, a svelte lad with blond tipped hair and a black rubber cock ring that clenches to the quick, and, most of all, the movie’s star, a fine looking grease monkey. That would be Greg Vincente, a compact, wiry guy. He’s a twin for Connor Kline, but a little older and a little grizzled. He’s an aggres-

Roman Nerac, one of the delicious twinks who enliven Sans Limite.

sive fucker, who uses every inch of his long cock in his long, long strokes. He’s also a voracious bottom. Thankfully, he plies both sides of that street in a handful of scenes (with hammer handle up a buddy’s butt in one), and after watching them, you’ll wonder why he wasn’t scooped up by some rough-housing company like Bulldog or Raging Stallion. This seems to be his only movie, but it’s only 14 years old. He’d be in his mid-30’s prime about now. Sans Limite made me feel my desire to see him was sans limite. The 100-minute feature has 12 scenes. Brevity may work for wit, but it’s bad news for porn. “People come and go so quickly around here,” said Alice. The first scenes are four and six minutes, the following ten are a mere seven or eight minutes. Thankfully, a pair of truly hot ‘n nasty three-ways clock in at around 10 minutes, or do they seem better because they’re a couple minutes longer? At least they’re long enough so you can get your bearings. Still, I’d have been grateful for more of Greg in a fevered, Cazzolike leather scene. So, it turns out that Sans Limite is a really good movie that’s not so good after all. Well, forewarned is four-armed, or something like that. You won’t regret making the acquaintance of Mr. Vicente and his co-stars, and you’ll enjoy reacquainting yourself with the slutty Cadinot brand of sexuality, even if you have to do it on the run.t

Greg Vicente goes in for a kiss, in Sans Limite.

Greg Vicente in a fevered threeway in Sans Limite.

edgeonethenet.com Greg Vicente (right) gettin’ pounded in Sans Limite.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

BARchive: Name Games The politics of drag by Michael Flanagan

member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence creates a stir because of her name and there is an attempt to keep her from using it. It sounds like something grabbed from recent headlines, but if you’re familiar with San Francisco history, you’ve heard it all before. Because I’m not talking about Sister Roma and Facebook, I’m talking about Sister Boom Boom, Quentin Kopp and a law to make people use their real names on the San Francisco election ballot.

to use running for office to draw attention to himself when he ran for supervisor as an art project in 1967. But there are three candidates who are more directly related to Sister Boom Boom’s run for office. The first of these candidates was also the first to use costumes and/or gender blurring as part of his campaign. He ran under two names, Jesus Christ Satan and Crown Prince Arcadia. Jesus Christ Satan (born Robert Swallow) ran for supervisor in 1973 and in the voter’s pamphlet listed his occupation as Androgynous Human Being. In

Jesus Christ Satan in a Tenderloin Times feature.

San Francisco history is replete with parody candidates and those whose views seem beyond the common dialogue, but who challenge and entertain nonetheless. They follow a lineage of city characters that go all the way back to Emperor Norton, who entertained the city enough to draw around 30,000 people to his funeral. The beat artist Bruce Connor was probably the first

discussing his qualifications for office, he said he held elected office as president of a hospital ward at Napa State Hospital. One of his political stands was that government had been bought by organized crime and did not represent the people so (as with many fringe candidates) some of his positions made sense. He got 4,968 votes (about a third of what Harvey Milk got that year). In December 1974 he was featured in a series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle during his trial for hitting a policeman with a tambourine when the officer attempted to arrest him at the Polk Street Fair for smoking marijuana and disturbing the peace. He remained in the city for years after this and was frequently seen around Castro Street. During the 1977 supervisorial election (in which Harvey Milk was elected) there was a candidacy which was a more direct ancestor of Sister Boom Boom’s campaign – Silvana Nova’s candidacy for supervisor. This was Sister Boom Boom’s infamous an agitprop campaign “Surrender Diane” campaign poster which questioned gen-

Rick Gerharter

Jack Fertig (aka Sister Boom Boom) at a Castro Plaza protest.

Milk often spoke about der politics and attitudes of other and is still watching San gay candidates. Francisco would not be As Nova told me via email, “This led to believe that a drag was also the time of the clone look, queen running for office and one of the candidates who finalis what the gay political ly threw his cowboy hat into the ring movement has come to.” was pictured on a hillside looking When Boom Boom down over the Castro.” His slogan won 22,816 votes, there was, ‘At last, someone to vote for.’ were letters in the paAnd so, at a pre-Halloween party, per suggesting the votes the poster of Nova as a candidate could have benefited which was the response was develother more serious canoped: AT LAST SOME THING TO didates. VOTE FOR.’ Four months after the The posters were wildly popular election in March 1983, (and were remembered by many, Quentin Kopp, the superincluding me). But it wasn’t a true visor for the district west political campaign, as Nova said. of Twin Peaks, put forth a “The Nova for Supervisor ‘cammeasure to require candipaign’ was simply an anarchist, Dada dates to use legal names. gesture to counter all of the different Ever the enemy of fun, kinds of madness/oppression/poliSupervisor Kopp was tics swirling around us,” she said. As quoted in The Chronicle an undeclared candidacy, any votes as saying that the voters for Nova weren’t counted. were tired of “fun and Jello Biafra’s 1979 candidacy games” and names that for mayor is the other candidacy “mock the electoral pro- Silvana Nova for Supervisor poster which was pointed to by those who cess.” Supervisor Harry wanted to make only “real” names Chronicle came from voters who Britt suggested that proeligible for the ballot. Jello’s platindicated that they were well aware test candidates were necessary and form included banning automoof who they were voting for and that, “Jello Biafra and Sister Boom biles, legalizing squatting in unocthe paper itself said in an editorial Boom are a way of saying no to the cupied buildings, auctioning off all that it would be difficult to believe entire list.” high city government positions and that nearly 23,000 people had been Supervisor Kopp’s measure carcleaning up Market Street by reduped. ried the day and was signed into quiring businessmen to wear clown In retrospect, it’s not hard to see law. But the measure did not pass suits. what the motivation might have without dissent. Many letters to The He also suggested that the police been to stop protest candidates, should be required to particularly Sister Boom Boom, as run for office in the from Jesus Christ Satan through neighborhoods they Jello Biafra, the number of votes for patrol and that tenthe protest candidate in each race sion in the city could was increasing. And the example of be eased by erecting a persistent protest candidate from statues of Dan White across the Golden Gate may have throughout town, had some influence as well. which the Parks DeSally Stanford, a San Francisco partment could then madame, was born Mabel Busby use to raise money and had considerable experience at by selling eggs, stones changing her name, as she had been and tomatoes which arrested using the names Marcia people could throw Rapp and Marsh Kenna. She ran at the statues. Jello for Sausalito’s city council in 1962, came in at fourth and in subsequent years. In 1970 place in the mayor’s she gave an interview with The race with 6,591 votes. Chronicle where she said, “I’ve run Sister Boom Boom six times, but sinners never give up.” (aka Jack Fertig) had On her next run for office, she won. initially planned on And she continued to win, becomannouncing his caning Mayor in 1976 and remaining in didacy on the first day office until her death. of Weedstock in San Regardless of the motivation, Francisco on July 3, Kopp’s legislation did not stop peo1982, but had to delay ple with “funny” names from runthat when the police ning for office. Starchild (who leinterrupted the sound gally changed his name) has run for from the stage. He supervisor repeatedly and “Chickhad given an interen” John Rinaldi ran for mayor in view with Konstantin Jello Biafra onstage with the 2007 under his legal name. Berlandt in the Bay Dead Kennedys in the late 1970s. But there is another thing to Area Reporter the keep in mind. Fringe previous week from candidates often move Dennis Peron’s apartment (Peron the political dialogue would go on to run for Governor forward. When Sister in 1998 and get more than 65,000 Boom Boom attempted votes). to announce his canAmong the issues which Sister didacy at Weedstock, Boom Boom advocated were the medical marijuana was distribution of free Muni passes not even on the horiwith food stamps, the elimination zon. Issues of immigraof the vice squad, and retraining tion and corruption, meter maids as Muni drivers. Before which were addressed his candidacy he had been involved by more than one in an anti-INS protest with the Sisof these candidates, ters. As Boom Boom mentioned remain of concern. in the interview, The Sisters were So the next time a not involved in his campaign (they businessman tells you couldn’t be as they were a non-profwhich name he wants it organization). But the candidacy you to use, remind him brought the Sisters to the attention that there was once a of many people at a crucial time. candidate in San FranA few weeks before he declared his cisco who suggested that candidacy, the Sisters had released businessmen should their Play Fair pamphlet, the first dress as clowns, and that safe sex brochure in response to perhaps it is time to reAIDS. visit that idea.t Many involved in gay politics at the time that were not happy with The author would like Sister Boom Boom’s candidacy. to thank Daniel NicoWayne Friday, the political columletta, Gerard Koskovnist for the B.A.R., wrote, “I’m not ich and Silvana Nova A Jello Biafra mayoral campaign amused. I would hope that the gay for their assistance. fundraiser poster teenager from Iowa that Harvey

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October 16-22, 2014, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by Steven Underhill

g for him. October 11. Actor Jonathan Groff san on e Caf The at ty par y hda birt 60th brities in attendance. his Gay activist Cleve Jones was feted at ya Smirnoff-Skyy were among the cele Kat and ck Bla tin Dus ce Lan t, San Van Juanita More, Armistead Maupin, Gus

Downtown at the Fairm ont included speeches by Se Hotel, the Human Rights Campaign’s gala fun dr nator Nancy Pelosi and former SF 49ers quarter aiser last week back Steve Young.

See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter

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